Nailed It!

Until two years ago women everywhere who aspired to be Suzy Homemaker or the Craft Queen could feel reasonably good about themselves. Martha Stewart was the only real public source of perfection to compare ourselves to and subsequently feel like a failure. But it was easy enough to convince ourselves that Martha is freak of nature, with unlimited funds, capable of doing things unimaginable to us mere mortals. 

Along came Pinterest.... 

At first glance it was the most amazing social network service ever. Millions of women across the world began pinning wildly as creativity and inspiration abounded at previously unheard of levels. 

We pinned and pinned - our inspiration and confidence building with each passing day that we found ourselves awake until the wee hours gathering ideas. At times we were even giddy with excitement at the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps, Martha wasn't so special after all. 

And then we started attempting... 

This week was my 4-year-old grandson's year end party for his preschool class. Parents, Grandparents and siblings were invited to join the activities and participate in a potluck style lunch. Xander's mom signed up to bring a veggie tray. But I, Granny, was far more adventurous. I have a Pinterest account! 

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes would be sure to thrill the kids and impress the adults. I'd seen pictures on Pinterest, so I knew how impressive they would be.  

The four-year-old wasn't so impressed when Granny substituted coconut oil because she didn't have the vegetable oil called for in the Betty Crocker cake mix recipe. 

And after the fact, all I can say is, "Thank God I took pictures along the way so I can blame the four-year-old for the less than stellar outcome."

We used mini cones for the mini mouths we would be feeding.

Nailed it! Don't ya think?

We may have overfilled them with too runny batter. 

 A little Betty Crocker whipped frosting and sprinkles and candy and voila! Specimens of perfection.

 I went the theory that candies and sprinkles will make anything edible to a preschooler.

And the theory was proved correct when there were no leftovers to bring home after the party.

Okay, I may have had to force feed the 14-month-old to get rid of the last one. 

I'm starting to think that Pinterest is actually a curse, worse than Martha, sent to deflate confidence and squash creative boldness for fear of failure.

However, on the flip side, comedy and laughter are good for the soul. And without Pinterest we would never have gotten access to hundreds of NAILED IT! sites. And if you have never failed a Pinterest attempt you really don't get the same tears-down-the-face-stomach-sore-face-hurting kind of laughter and satisfaction from failure.