Baby Buds - A Product Review

From time to time you'll see opportunities on Pinterest looking for people and/or blogs to review products.  I've never volunteered to test a product before so I decided to try one!  The company is called Baby Buds.  They make baby toys using naturally sustainable, eco-friendly fabrics, including certified organic cottons and natural silks.

We received Mogo the Monkey that has a teething handle attached.  As their website said, they used minimal packaging.  The product itself was very nice.  The fabric was soft and it appeared to be well made.

I gave it to my 9 month old, Julianna to test out.  She seemed to like it because it kept her attention for a bit.  She of course put it right in her mouth, like everything else, so I was happy that it was an organic item.

Here is a video of Julianna's product test, enjoy!  Baby Buds' products can be purchased at some Target stores and I'd recommend them if you have a baby gift to buy.  Baby Buds toys get a PIN for their quality and organic makeup!  

Toddlers are Like Little Drunk People

This week's post isn't going to be about any projects I did but rather about a hilarious blog post I found on Pinterest that any parent of a toddler (or former toddler, or some college kids) can relate to.  It was called 20 Ways Toddlers are Like Dealing with a Drunk Person.  I loved this post.  I've dealt with my share of drunk people, and have been one myself during my college years, so after spending a weekend a lone with my kids, I couldn't help but reflect on this post and laugh!

From Motherhood on the Rocks, here is her original post:

After writing about how living with children is like living in a frat house, I got to thinking…taking care of a toddler is, in many ways, like dealing with a drunk person. The emotional highs and lows, uncoordinated movements and lack of volume control, not to mention the fact that you are on suicide watch 24/7 with them, are just a few of the many reasons that toddlers resemble drunk people. By the way, I totally want this glass.

Following are 20 more ways that taking care of a toddler is like dealing with a drunk person. What would you add to this list?

1. No personal boundaries
2. Falls over A LOT. Gets up, yells “I OK!” and keeps going
3. Poor decision making skills
4. Spontaneous vomiting
5. Speaks gibberish
6. Gets belligerent if you take away their beer [insert favorite toy here]
7. Cries for no apparent reason
8. Streaking (see #3)
9. Philosophical conversations with inanimate objects
10. Short attention span
11. Argumentative
12. Poor short term memory
13. Zero inhibitions
14. Loses everything
15. Will pass out anywhere
16. One track mind
17. Demanding
18. Getting them undressed (or redressed) is like wrestling an alligator
19. Runs into things that haven’t moved…ever
20. One volume setting – LOUD!

Hilarious right? With the exception of #15, my 3 1/2 year old goes through each and every one of these within a half hour these days.  Sometimes I legitimately think he's crazy.  Take Saturday for example.  We went to the park.  He gets kicked in the face by an older kid, gets a shiner, cries for two minutes, I say "do you want to leave", he says "no I'm fine", wipes his tears and is back playing with the kid who kicked him, climbing up the SIDE of the playground that was not meant for climbing.  Numbers 2, 3, 10, 12 and 13 within two minutes time.  He takes numbers 16, 17, 19 and 20 to a whole new level everyday.  

So what's the point of this post?  As tough as being a Toddler Mom is, a post like this can really help you find a bright spot in your daily struggles and remind you that other people are dealing with the same crap you are.  Today I am exhausted and looking like I've been through a war, because I basically have; but I wouldn't have it any other way.  Similar to a fun drunk person, he is so hilarious and makes me laugh like no one else can.  

Pinterest isn't just for projects.  You can find inspiration in other areas of life and this post shows that.  Motherhood on the Rock's post gets a total PIN from me.  She was open, honest and real about what it is like to deal with a toddler sometimes.  So the next time your little person starts acting crazy, just think of this list and laugh your way through the craziness! 

 

P.S. - A special thank you goes out to my favorite Toddler who provided the content and inspiration for this post...the one and only, Mr. Gio.  

Our Family Yearbook

As many of you know from my posts, I love doing projects with photos.  I take a lot of pictures and love to display them.  One thing I am bad about is printing them!  Recently when we lost all our photos from our computer, I quickly learned the importance of one, a better backup system and two, printing my photos just in case!

My inspiration for this project came from eighteen25.

The original pinner really went above and beyond what I wanted to do.  If you click through and visit her post, she talks about her process and describes the book in pretty significant detail.  She also shows sample pages.  She made hers like an actual yearbook would be.  Some pages have a lot of copy on them, others are just photos.  Her version is about 100 + pages and she uses Photoshop to design her pages, them uploads them to the site she has print the book.  It looks great!

But for me...I'm not not that Photoshop savvy and I don't think I would even have enough photos to fill up 100 pages so I kept it simple.  I used Walgreens.com to do my book.  They have templates and you can pick the size of your book.  I did an 8" x 8" hard cover.

Most of my photos were already loaded on the site because that is where I print my photos from so I used what was already there and uploaded the others I had.  From there I just plugged my photos into the template trying to go in order throughout the year. I added some text here and there.  Here's my end result:

Cover

Page Spread

Page Spread

Overall I ended up with 26 pages and spent $25 with shipping after a coupon.  If I had to do it over again, I would probably have gotten a larger size maybe 8.5 x 11 but for $25, I was happy with the quality and finished product over all.  This project gets a PIN!

If you have any questions about how I put this together or ordering from Walgreens, please don't hesitate to contact me at jcalero1015@yahoo.com.  

DIY Spring Wreath

Although it doesn't feel like Spring here in good old Buffalo, New York, I was cruising Pinterest and got inspired by this Spring wreath!

Originally found at the Piccadilly Peddler

Since my front door has been empty since my Easter decorations came down, I got to work on making one.  Here's the supplies I bought: a wreath, felt in various colors, yarn, a wood letter with our initial and some straight pins.  From my supply cabinet I used my glue gun, some gems and burlap I had left over from another project.

I followed the directions of the original Pinner and also went online to find some other felt flower tutorials so I could get a variety of flowers made.  Here's the start of my flower pile.  

I wrapped the wreath in the burlap and attached it with pins.  

From there I made the rest of the flowers and attached them with pins.  I used the yarn to attach our initial and hot glue to add the gems to the flowers.  I sacrificed a reusable shopping bag and cut off the handle to use as a hanger.  Here's my finished product:

I'm really happy with the way it came out.  It was pretty easy to do even though I had never made the felt flowers before.  I spent around $20 for all the supplies.  Given how easy this was and the cost, this gets a PIN!  

Dinner Inspired by Pinterest

For those you that saw my Facebook post yesterday, I had a lot of Pinterest projects going on.  3 Pinterest recipes in the works and a project!  One item I was making needed to sit over night so I haven't completed that recipe but I did finish the Pineapple Chicken and the Broccoli bites.  I don't usually do full posts on the recipes I try but this one needed to be shared.

Ok, first of all I learned a very important lesson.  In fact that lesson jumped up and smacked me in the face. I've learned that perhaps the reason I am not a good cook is because I am never fully prepared and I rarely read the directions until I am ready to start cooking!  No matter how much I try I always start cooking and realize I don't have an ingredient.  It happened yesterday.

So let's start with the Pineapple Chicken.  Here's the original pin.

Originally found at Undressed Skeleton

Looks delicious right?  I thought so too.  So if you look at the pin itself, whom ever pinned it before me had put cooking instructions in the description and said it was a crock pot recipe.  I bought all the supplies based on the recipe in the description.  But, I didn't even do that correctly because my husband started putting it together and realized we had like two drops of soy sauce left!  So we had to substitute with Worcestershire which I know didn't help my situation.    

I decided to click all the way through to the original site and learned that this was not intended to be a crock pot recipe at all!  But I was already knee deep so I decided to go with it.  Here's the end result:

Hahaha disaster!  It was basically pineapple flavored pulled chicken, similar to pulled pork.  I put it over some rice and it was actually ok but the moral of this story is read ALL the direction on your pin projects, double check that you have all the ingredients and don't trust what people put in the description, go back to the original pinner!  So you're probably thinking I am going to give this a PASS but I'm not.  I don't think that would be fair since I didn't follow directions well.  I'm giving this one a DO-OVER.  I'll follow up when I have time to try this one again.

More successful last night was the Broccoli Bites. 

Originally found at Recipes by Photo

I followed the instructions exactly as suggested, I just added a little more cheese.  It called for  1 1/2 cups and a bags as 2 cups so I figured why not, who doesn't like more cheese?  And the whole bag went in!  They came out exactly as the picture and tasted pretty good!  The only thing I would suggest when making these is to cut your broccoli up a bit.  I was lazy and just dumped a whole bag of florets in the bowl.  It worked but some of the bigger pieces were hard to work with.  Other than that, this one gets a PIN!  

If you know someone who enjoys Pinterest recipes, please share this post, they'll appreciate my struggles with this one!

2013 Ultimate Blog Party Post - Welcome

Welcome 2013 UBP visitors!  I'm so glad you stopped to check out Pin or Pass!

Pin or Pass was created a few months ago when I got the Pinterest bug...bad.  I started doing project after project.  Some failed and some came out great.   I thought wow there has to be other Pinners out there that have tried these things, I wish someone would have told me what a waste this would be and so, Pin or Pass was born.

I hope you enjoy my blog and will follow it. I'd love to hear your feedback on my projects.  Also, my blog is new and I'm trying to encourage followers, so if you like what you see, please share it with your friends.  Here's a few things you should know about me:

1.  I'm a perfectionist.  I want all my DIY projects to look like they came from a store or that they were handmade by someone highly skilled :-)
2.  I'm honest, casual, a bit sarcastic and dramatic at times.
3.  I love being a Mom, a lot of my posts are geared toward kid stuff and my home.
4.  I love anything chocolate.
5.  I'm not a good cook.

Poke around, check out my posts and I hope to see you again soon!

- Jenn

DIY Wall Art - You Are My Sunshine

It's been a while but I am back!  The Easter holiday had me busy, busy!  With Spring on the way, hopefully, I thought it would be a good time to share a project I did with my son last year at this time.  Since he was a baby, I have sang "You Are My Sunshine" to him.  My Grandma sang it to me and I've always loved the song, so when I came across this DIY wall art idea, I had to do it.  

Originally found at The Polka Dot Pavilion's Facebook Page

This was another project that was done before Pin or Pass so I don't have any before photos, but I went to the craft store and got a blank canvas and paint in royal blue, red and yellow.  I had coupons and everything was on sale so I probably spent around $10.  

I wanted this to be a project my son and I did together so I let him take his hands, dip them in the royal blue paint and smear it all over the canvas to create the background.  I let it dry for several hours, then I dipped my hands in yellow pant and made hand prints in a circle.  Then he dipped his hands in the yellow and I helped him fill in the areas I missed with his hand prints.  From there, I took a medium sized paint brush and wrote You Are My Sunshine on the picture.

Here's our end result:

It's cute but I am a bit of a perfectionist.  I like DIY projects that don't LOOK like DIY projects.  I should have used a lighter color for the background and I would have gotten a little more meticulous in terms of the background application, maybe adding in a little white as well.  I also would have done the letters differently, I'm not sure how but I feel like mine look a little sloppy.  

Like I said, overall I think the picture is ok and he had fun making it so that is worth it alone but if I had to do it over again, I would do a lot differently and I'm still not sure it would have come out to the point where I'd be really happy with it.  This pin gets a PASS from me but only because I'm nutty and like things to look a certain way!  

What do you think about this one?  PIN or PASS?