RWOP: Pins to the Left, Pins to the Right

Crack open a fresh Diet Coke, ladies and gents. I've got lots of Real Women of Pinterest-ing to share this week.

First, some quickies ...
The popular pin about using a cupcake liner as a drip shield for popsicles proved ingenious. Little Bit easily consumes four popsicles a week. It's his favorite afternoon snack. Year round. Typically, he requests that I swaddle his popsicle stick with a paper towel. The swaddle never stays put, and my checking of Facebook and Pinterest is often interrupted for re-swaddling duty. But looky now -- the cupcake liner does the trick and looks cute to boot. Less waste as well. If only I could find the pin about not wearing one's lunch on one's shirt (pink for Valentine's Day, of course).
The semi-popular pin from a few months back that suggested using large dollar store chip clips as playing card holders = at least one thumb down. Bub and I tested out our chip clip card holders during a game of Sight Word Go Fish with our customized sight word playing cards. I was able to maneuver my cards within the grasp of the chip clip, but finesse was required. When Bub opened his chip clip to add, subtract, or shift a card ... all the cards fell out. Every single time. Maybe when he gets a little older or more dextrous.

In the photo below, Bub is thinking, "Wow. My mom is amazing. Not only did she obtain these dollar store chip clips, but look how easily she organizes and maneuvers her cards. When I grow up, I want to be just like her."
I have my dear friend E... to thank for the idea (one of her first pins) of using toothpicks and marshmallows for construction. Read all about her toothpick architects here. My boys enjoyed eating and building for about fifteen minutes, maybe twelve. I'll take it.
Is that Diet Coke still cold? I'm just getting warmed up. I had every intention of trying that pin where you photograph your child holding his/her hand out and then print the photos and attach a sucker to that hand. My sister LAP apparently nailed it with those, but since she hasn't sent me the proof we'll just have to take her word for it.

Little Bit and Sweet P had store-bought Valentines with a little photo (printed on full-sheet labels) stuck on the back.
Bub's Valentine is self-explanatory, despite the crappy photography. Note to self: start such projects before 6 p.m. on February 13th so that you can take decent photos in natural light instead of overly yellow ones because you don't know how to use your camera.

Printed Bub's photo on sticker paper and attached to pieces of cardstock (four cards per page).
Also photographed his "your friend" and cut it out and affixed it. He then signed his own name on each card. I thought they were cute!
[Side note: I saw a blog post and also several tweets with some snide comments and eye rolling about homemade valentines. I just want to go on record as saying that some people (like myself and my Bub) enjoy doing that kind of stuff. Really.]

Last and BEST of this week's Real Women of Pinterest post, I have a seasonal project from my friend Sue. We lived next door to each other freshman year of college and stayed up late each night, eating pizza nachos and talking about all the craft projects we hoped to accomplish over the weekend while the other girls were out drinking.

A Chicagoland native, Sue spent years in Texas and now lives in New Orleans, where she recently finished taking the Louisiana bar exam. She's ready to join the Mardi Gras festivities now that the exam is over. I've included her explanation (italicized) and some photos of her awesome final product.

Well, here it is. My first (and likely only) completed Pinterest project. OK, not really completed if you look at my front door, as I need two wreaths. But, the second one will have to wait until after we attend our next parade on Friday. I used an absurd amount of beads on this. Glad I can restock for free, and have little helpers to grab up everything I need.

I started at this site.

But of course, every craft store in the New Orleans area is out of that wire wreath ring (I was told many times that they are on a boat from China.). So white styrofoam had to do. You can see the white peek through a little (shows up more in photo than in daylight), but I have low standards when it comes to seasonal crafty things, so I just rolled with it. I still wrapped the foam ring with floral wire, which I only needed to get started. Once I attached one strand for that bottom layer (the green/purple), I could lock the next strand to the previous. That worked better than I thought. The top layer is three strands (gold, purple, green) braided, with one strand attached to the next, for what seemed like eternity. Used a little hot glue for a few places that looked insecure, added the little masks and draped the beads over top. I'm happy with how it turned out, but too bad its a little late (Mardi Gras is less than a week away, and most people have had their doors/mailboxes decorated since mid-January). At least I'm ready for next year!

Thanks for inspiring me to become a Real Woman on Pinterest!

Thank YOU for sharing and for reminding us all of a key to keeping it real and enjoying Pinterest-ing: just roll with it. Also, how about we pause to admire how completely gorgeous Sue's front door is. Even without the Mardi Gras wreath, I'd pin that door.

If you've been inspired by Pinterest, link up your posts below or send me pics of your Pinterest creation -- mep AT nottobrag DOT net.

Also, please pause to admire this button that my friend Christina made for this RWOP endeavor.
Visit this post of hers if you want the code to get your own RWOP button.