Pinterest PSA

Listen, I have so much to tell all both of you that read this blog. Or that read it back when there was actually, you know, content.  But first, please allow me to rant for a sec because ugh.

I love Pinterest. It’s like, my mecca.  But I’m seeing some disturbing trends and I’d like to provide a Pinterest PSA/Best Practices.  (Because I’m a damn expert, that’s why.)   

1. Verify the content.  Don’t pin shit that’s not real. Don’t pin a picture of, like, a crocheted afghan “pattern” or picture of a really great meal and the clickthrough link is….. an image on Tumblr.  That’s dumb and mean and annoying and smack-worthy.

2. Again, verify the content.  Don’t pin things that you haven’t checked first.  Like, you find a cool tutorial and you don’t pin the link to the *actual* tutorial.  You pin a site that has a link to another site that has a link to another site that has the original tutorial.  Give link creds where they’re due.  Don’t give those spammy bullshit sites stolen traffic so they can slap ads on their crappy Wordpress site and monetize someone else’s content.  It’s gross.

3. If you see a pin you like, REPIN it from the original pinner (after you’ve done your work on #s 1 & 2 to vet that content first #AmIRite).  Don’t go to the site and pin it from scratch like you just discovered it.  Rude.  And don’t act like you don’t do it, I’ve watched you.  So quit it.

4. When you pin or repin something, for the love of all things crafty, update the description.  Please.  Pretty please.  That’s why there’s, like, a description field there.  In front of your face.  So you can remove the other person’s info/reminders/thoughts/default text and add your own, or correct typos (like the correct use of your vs. you’re).

Okay? Okay. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.  Love you, mean it.  Happy (better) pinning.

xo

Leggings from hell

My kids are crazy. Even when there’s snow on the ground, they will fight me (literally) to wear a skirt or dress outside to play, or go to school, or whatever. If they had their way, they’d burn their pants and never wear another pair again. I don’t know *where* this behavior comes from, but there it is. Nutballs, I tell you.

They do have tights that they can wear, but they aren’t nearly warm enough. Since I am tired of listening to them cry themselves hysterical every day, I decided we could compromise with leggings. I saw the Lil Blue Boo pattern, and decided to order some knits and give it a go.

Okay, so first — the pattern doesn’t give you full leggings. It gives you capris. You have to know the length and extend the pattern out to make full leggings. I don’t know about everyone else, but that really annoyed me. I think if it would’ve said that it was a capri legging pattern to start with it wouldn’t have bothered me so much, but it didn’t. So.

Next, I made them up and even though I checked the stretch of the knit, it obviously wasn’t stretchy *enough* so the seams popped on each pair I made them. Twice. Color me enraged.

There was no saving those, so I threw them in the trash and re-read the instructions to see if there was something that I missed. Well, of course there was. If you (ahem) read the words, she clearly tells you that if the knit isn’t stretchy enough to go up a size. I was so disappointed with the whole thing that I had to walk away from the project for a day or three.

When I calmed down they still needed leggings, and I still needed to make them. So I redrew the leg and did it again. This time they seem to be holding up much, much better, although in the middle of the last pair my sewing machine stopped functioning. I believe the universe is probably telling me that these leggings hate me and wish I would die.

I had to finish these bad boys on Phoebe’s beginner machine. Note: I have no idea why it’s a beginner machine. That thing is such a piece of crap that if you didn’t know how to sew and tried using that thing, it would make you hate sewing forever. I almost hate sewing when I have to use it. I can’t wait to take mine in to be fixed.

Anyway, to make a long story even longer, I made them each a black pair of leggings. It took 75 years, and killed my sewing machine. Not to be swayed, however, I had some super-stretchy grey knit in my stash and used it to make each one more pair. 2 pair each, 4 pair total. Suck on that, universe.

All in all, once everything was all sorted out, it was about 10 seconds to make a pair from start to finish. I would like to make more, but we’ll see. This project really kicked my ass, and reminded me why I hate sewing with knits.

The end.

You want to what now?

OMG.  So.  Next door to us is a vacant lot.  It’s small — smaller than a regular plot.  There’s all kinds of weird-ass issues with the property lines for our house, and for awhile everyone in the neighborhood thought that this little vacant plot belonged to us.  Sadly, no. It’s maybe big enough for a good-sized garden and a playset, so I WISH we owned it.

It turns out some older lady owned it, and didn’t want to sell.  Why would you hang on to a half-ass plot of land surrounded by other houses?  A plot that’s too small for you to do anything with?  Beats me.  It was vacant for 3 years before we moved in, and it remains empty to this day (we’ve lived here for almost 4 years).  So for at least 7 years, if not longer, that sad little sorry piece of land has just been sitting there.

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West Virginia, I'd like to invite you to pull your head out of your ass

As I’m sure many of you know, we’re having a home birth this time around.  Part of the home birth experience is, evidently, to get a “home birth kit” from the local health office that has Very Important Paperwork (read: 800,000 pamphlets from 1970 about not eating lead).  At the top of this pile of Very Important Paperwork: a letter from the state, that says (and I quote):

The Office of Maternal, Child and Family Health does not encourage home birth.

I don’t know, maybe it’s hormones, maybe it’s the bullshit I’ve been putting up with from incompetent idiots in various public service offices the last few days, but here we go, WV.  I’m giving you the big, fat, finger, you ridiculously backwards state.  I didn’t ask you if you encouraged home birth or not, so shove it.  Why don’t you reduce the number of (ridiculous) pamphlets you’re sending out, save yourself a few dollars, and hire employees that have more than cotton candy for brains.

Clearly, I need to move.