P”interesting” and FUN!

So, it has been so long since I have blogged that I had to reset up account information, etc.! It is just like I am starting all over again, so please don’t judge my poor blog layout, etc.

I attended my first ever “Pinterest Party” last night that a friend of mine co-hosted with one of her friends that I did not know.  Now, I am quite social from behind my computer, but have to admit that I had some social anxiety about going to this event! I’m really glad I did though!

My friend Julie, Kordick and I are thinking about co-hosting one of these events after the holidays and some of you were asking what it was all about.  I’m sure you have all heard of Pinterest by now.  A party is just a gathering where you bring items of your “theme” a food and/or DIY project that you created after finding on Pinterest.  Everyone can then get good ideas, try out activities and food, vote for their favorites, and have fun! I took lots of photos too. 

I received an invite in the mail that had 6 categories on it, but they were all covered up.  Instructions were to choose just one of them and that was your “theme”.  My theme was frost.  Oh…..and you were to bring your items if they were a success or an EPIC fail!  So…..here was what I did.  First of all……the main thing I learned is to NOT by Krylon spray paint!  I didn’t know this BEFORE doing my projects, but I do now!  I bought “frosted glass” spray paint for my projects.  I had trouble finding this anywhere, but finally found some at Hobby Lobby (only by Krylon). 

The “pretty much a success” was these vases.  I bought vases at Wal-Mart, put rubber bands all over them in random fashion and then sprayed with the frosted glass spray paint.  When I removed the rubber bands, this is how they looked!

Also, I found a pin that showed some mirror tiles as wall hangings where they used a Cricut machine to make “stensils” on contact paper and then they put them on the mirror and used frosted glass spray paint and removed the contact paper.  I don’t have a machine, so I used ELECTRICAL TAPE!!!! This is what I came up with!

This was my EPIC fail because the paint would not spray without leaking and dripping liquid all over the tiles causing blobs.  I think it would have looked nice had I had paint that was more worth the $8 I spent on it!

Then, at the last minute, I decided to print out a photo that I had on my computer that I had taken last year of some cool frost at our place.  I like looking at photography boards on Pinterest! This is the photo.

I did not take a food project as I thought it was either/or, but others did both.  Ooops!

When we got there, people were setting out their items with cards explaining their theme and their creation.  She had the supplies to make these little card holders, so Angie Walsh and I made these with a hot glue gun and candy canes!

She had laptops sitting around so people could use them to look up/show pins, etc.  The funniest thing of the night HAD to be……the other hostess had just had surgery to remove benign tumors from her uterus.  Well, she had bought some picture frames over a year ago and had them hanging on the wall in her bedroom (with the random photos that just came in them at the store).  She took one down and framed a photo of her uterus that was removed and put back in the frame to hang on the wall and see if her husband noticed!  I found this quite funny!

We then ate food (some of which the hostesses supplied and some of which the guests brought).  We were given 5 M&M’s to “cast our vote” for our favorite creations.  Those that won received gifts which were other items to create Pinterest goodies! Here are some other cool things that were there….but not ALL of them!

This was my favorite!  It took me a LONG time and me finally asking where they found it to realize she MADE this out of a PICKLE JAR!!!!! Isn’t that COOL!?!?!? (She got 2 of my M&M votes!)

Also….she had the COOLEST paper snowflakes I had ever seen hanging all over the place.  She learned how to make them on Pinterest and even showed others how to do it, although I didn’t really follow her creative awesomeness on this one!

My favorite quote of the night had to be, “I know…..it makes me look way cooler than I really am!”

It was a fun night and a great idea for a “reason” for the ladies to get together, be creative and have a lot of laughs.

So, if I successfully get this to post on Facebook for others to see and you think you might be interested in attending a Pinterest Party if we do decide to have one in a month or two, let me know!

How We Became A Family…

 

Mike and I have now been married for 12 years and marriage is HARD!  It often times seems that things just cannot go our way.  This February, I have been trying to think back to what made my husband and I fall in love.  I tend to talk a lot about my family, mainly the kids, but I bet you probably don’t know the story of how Mike and I ended up together! 

We both graduated from Boone High School in 1991, but we each dated other people.  I kind of thought he was my cousin because his mom, Lila Carpenter had married my cousin, Bill Carpenter. Therefore, Mike was often times at our family reunions! We didn’t put it all together until the summer of 1998!  He had been in the Navy and served in Desert Shield.  He lived in Washington for a while and had moved back home.  We each had our own little starter house in Boone. 

On 4/17/99, Mike proposed. It is kind of a funny story.  We went to Cosi Cucina in Des Moines for dinner.  This is where we had gone on our first real date.  He was acting very suspicious and had just bought a new truck that day. (He still has this truck!)  We were celebrating my 26th birthday.  He told me not to scream and make a scene.  Then, he passed a small jewelry box under the table.  I was VERY nervous!  When I opened it, there was a pair of tiny diamond earrings in the box.  I graciously told him I liked them and closed the box.  He then told me to put them on.  I said “Not in a restaurant!”.  He kept insisting.  When I turned over the earrings, they had a $4.00 price tag on them from Wal-Mart.  There was a velvet bag underneath with the ring in it.  I kept looking at it under the table.  Then, he WHISPERED, “Amy, will you marry me?”.  I said yes and immediately told the waitress.  She brought us a dessert and we asked her to take our picture. 

That seems like SUCH a long time ago!  We were married on 11/27/99 and moved into our first home on UNION St.  How cute is that?  We had both of our kids there and moved to Grandma and Grandpa Carlson’s farm in the spring of 2009.

That is how we got to where we are today!