My name is Jordan and I'm a Pinner...

Yes, you heard it right. I'm now addicted to Pinterest!  I kept avoiding it, no solid reason, just lots of little ones like not having the time for something else, not wanting to jump on the 'band wagon,' I'm not crafty so there wouldn't be anything for me on there, and on and on.  I finally caved when I got a invite via Facebook.  Just a couple weeks later and I'm totally and completely hooked!  If you don't know what Pinterst is, a brief run down is here (they explain it better than I ever could!)

I'm not typically a person that can look at a cookbook or read a recipe and decide if I would like that dish or what it would taste like. But with Pinterest, most of the time you get photos, other peoples opinions, descriptions, etc. And of course the more you see it pinned, I'm guessing the better it will be! ha  So I decided to give a few new recipes a try. Plus, Jeff really wants to add some different stuff to our menu rotation so this has been perfect!  So far, I have made crock pot pulled pork, sliced baked potatoes, toasted ravioli, cupcakes in a cone, and white chicken enchiladas.  They have all been so good! I would add them all into my menu rotation. Success!! I have quite a few more desserts and things to fix over the next couple weeks.  So excited! (and I'm rarely excited about new food like this!)   If you want to see what I've got cooking, check out my "Yummy Things" board.  Here are some photos of things I've made (I'm not a food blogger so I was not diligent on taking photos of the process, final product, etc)

White Chicken Enchiladas. They were soupier than I think they were supposed to be, but still tasty!

Pulled Pork in the crock pot - cooked with Diet Pepsi!

Pulled Pork Sandwich and our sliced potatoes - very good.

Charlotte's Birthday Cupcakes baked in a cone! Just like I remembered as a kid :)

And no photo of the ravioli. We did add some pizza sauce to dip them in and that made them even better.

I also get to dream about my future house!  Knowing that the home we are in is not a permanent one, and that we'll be moving again within the year, it seems to make this more exciting.  I know there is no way I am going to do most of the stuff I am pinning, but it may inspire me for some decorating of my own in the next place!   We would also love to build a home sometime years and years down the road, so I can already start some research, right!? ;)  Check out  my "Home Ideas" Board. There are also tons of tips and tricks that I can start doing now or save for my future home(s) on my "Smart Thinking" Board!  Anything from a easy way to hang frames, how to best store produce, or great organization tips.  I always find great ideas in magazines, but you never get to remember them.  Now I can pin them and know I can come back to them later.  Genius :)   I haven't done anything from these boards yet, but I'm planning on it!  This is my latest project that mom and I did, while I didn't get it from Pinterest, it is artsy so I thought I'd throw it in here:

All the shadows make it look crooked... or maybe it is crooked :(

I have a board, "Pins for Charlotte" that has, guess what? Stuff for Charlotte! Activities, room ideas, party ideas, etc.  I have done 3 of these so far - which is huge for this non-crafter! and have 3-4 on my to-do list for the next week or two.  Again, Pinterest is great for organizing all those great ideas and knowing where to go on a rainy day to find something to keep us entertained!  I think it'll help me be a better mom, ha!   Here are some of the great things we've done so far: A balloon curtain and butterfly art during her birthday party, and today crayon art!

The girls had so much fun running through the balloon curtain during the party!  It lasted much longer than I thought it would too :)

Our craft during the party was a butterfly made out of their footprints!  I'm realizing now that I should have done the feet the other way to make it look more like butterfly wings... oops! :)

We glued crayons to a canvas and melted them with a blow dryer!

Finished product! Definitely like the reds more - the blues turned too blackish. Still, fun art for the playroom!

So there you go. My latest obsession!  If you want a Pinterest invite, just let me know!

Autumn Crafts

This post is going to make me look a lot more crafty then I actually am :)  The crafts are either made at the library's story time or ideas I pulled off some websites, but I thought it would be fun to share the crafts that Charlotte and I have done.  On a side note, it's funny how its story time for toddlers but the mommas end up doing most of the work!

Our first craft at our new story time was about falling leaves, so it was a pretty simple project of glueing leaf cut outs on a piece of paper.  But, it was C's first time to use the glue stick on her own, so she had fun.  And it's a pretty on the fridge!



For Halloween we made a spider at the library.  It was really easy, just a small plate turned upside down and colored black (or in C's case any color) and then we accordion-ed 8 black strips of paper to be the legs.  Top it off with some googly eyes and you have a spooky spider!



We made a pumpkin during the library's trick or treat event.  It looked like a pretty simple idea - glueing the strips together at the bottom, then pulling them all up to the top and glueing them together at the top.  Slap on some leaves and you've got a pumpkin!  Somehow this mom screwed it up and our pumpkin turned out totally lopsided!  Oh well... it's cute, right??



This past weekend Jeff's parents came down to Huntsville to see the new house and visit C of course!  Charlotte loved having them here, and we talked about the next time we were gonna see them - at Thanksgiving.  Well, for a 2 year old, we deal in the matter of "tomorrow" not 2 weeks from now.  So we made a paper chain to count down the days until Thanksgiving!  I've been trying to explain that we only tear off one ring a day just like we only take 1 vitamin a day (weird analogy, but she understands it!)  Then we count the rings and talk about how it's that many days until we get to go to Granna and Grandad's house.

Anyway, I got out my scrapbooking scissors that are somewhat child proof and cut out cool patterns.  So Charlotte got to do some cutting for the first time and loved it.  Of course she burned out pretty quick and I finished the cutting.  Charlotte got to help with the stapler, but we ran out of staples, so we resorted to glue!  It was a fun little project to do.



Today we had a turkey craft day!  We traced Charlotte's hands and feet to make a special turkey for daddy to decorate his office at work. She usually loves having her hands and feet traced so this was the perfect craft for us!  The brown turkey is actually made of her two feet traced (without defined toes) and laid on top of each other, spreading them out just a bit at the bottom.  Jeff thinks it looks more like a potato, but oh well!  Charlotte loved being able to do all the glueing and putting the eyes on.  She was super excited to show daddy when he got home.



We also had to have a turkey to put on the fridge, so we made a Thankful Turkey.  On each of the turkey's feathers we wrote a name of someone we were thankful for - Daddy, Mommy, Granna, Grandad, Nan, and G.  (sorry to everyone else, we had limited leaves!) I think he is a pretty cute turkey!  This is something I hope we can do every year to remember what we are thankful for.



That wraps up our Autumn crafts!  If you have any cute winter or Christmas ideas, send them my way!  I want to be more proactive on doing arts and crafts with Charlotte a couple times a week, especially things she can do more on her own and less that mom has to do!   Happy Fall everyone :)