So now either you do to much or not enough? I’m so over the anti Pinterest mom post I mean really who comes up with this shit? If you can’t hang I get it just tap out gracefully not full of hate and 100% jealousy.

This is for you, fellow Pinterest Mom. Because you know what? I like you. And I like you, because I am you. Yes, I confess: I’m a Pinterest Mom and I’m proud of it. Not only do I pin but I also do that shit.

Oh, you don’t want to cut up grapes for your one year old? Well guess what I do because I don’t want to try and master the Heimlich remover Everytime we visit the farmers market and get real it takes maybe 32 seconds. And let me be clear the whole cutting up the food thing started wayyyyy before Pinterest my dad did it for me and my sisters and he’s 71 years old.

And mommy wars really is that a thing now? How and why well the answer to that is we (as moms) allow it… the only mom that is in a “mommy” war is one that allows it. I have never allowed another mom to make me feel more or less than. I know what I enjoy and I know what my kids enjoy and I like to think that I’m good @ both and if I’m not well it’s okay.

God forbid if you want to have a themed birthday party now a days that’s considered “showboating” I mean why don’t we grab some paper sacks from the local grocery store and toss in old socks as party favors yea that’s fun the kids would love that! Or you could be like me and enjoy throwing a party ever every year and no it doesn’t cost as much as a car payment it just takes a bit of pre planning you know not like 4 nights before your child grows a year older.

Yes I’m that matchy matchy mom that loves to have tons of goodies @ her child’s party. Yes the awesome party favors the one’s that live on etsy for special order and the cute little food shaped like diamonds or dogs whatever theme you have going on that year.

But guess what? I don’t do it for show and I don’t do it to make other moms feel inadequate. Heck, I don’t even do it for my kids’ benefit. Oh, no. I do it because I like to!!

I live in a small town and everyone knows everyone and somehow we’re all connected through Facebook there is only one high and middle school so yea we grow up together and apparently the new thing is to think it’s cool to throw on stale yoga pants to take your kids to school the 1st day by all means don’t wake up 30 minutes early to put on makeup and a cute shirt. After all it’s just walking your child in to the teacher that will be with them more than you are! Throw up a peace sign as you leave your child at school let them know you don’t give a shit! I mean this years teacher gift I gave the teacher caused a small town war on Facebook!

The toddler years are fun at my house we enjoy pulling out the glue gun and pink ribbons for the Valentine box and yes we may even make cute ones to give to friends don’t be mad at me because you were to busy and you sent your child to school with a zip lock bag and new kids on the block Valentines if that’s what you do I’m 100% cool with that! I don’t bash you online saying omg so and so’s mom sent a 90’s boy band Valentines to her child’s class we just have a mutual understanding that you were busy and I planned ahead!

After reading the 20th post on Facebook that painted all of us  “show off/trying too hard/faking it” type. I don’t care if you want to see it, but that’s okay because we didn’t post that picture on Instagram for you. It was for US. Yes, us.

Now don’t get me wrong I feel like I have mastered tons of things in the mommy world and when it may seem like I’m “showboating” etc… just remember there are ton’s of things I also REALLY suck at! I’ll let you in on those secrets below.

1. I hate having shoes on yes I know as an adult this is a problem! but in return my kids now also hate it so sometimes we pull up to target and not one child has shoes on.
2. About 98% of the time I always cave in when they want more than one popsicle.
3. Putting up clean clothes is a HUGE issue for me I hate it!!! so yes sometimes we are digging matching socks from a pile… A very large pile!
4. I like to have a few beers by the pool so yes my kids know about “adult” drinks.
5. Sometimes my kid has a lunch box full of JUNK!

And I  could keep the list going forever but it’s okay I do more of what I love and enjoy every minute!

This is not to bash mom’s that don’t love being crafty, can’t afford it or have zero time with a demanding job. This is to say hey some mom’s enjoy doing the extra little things and that’s okay to! It seems like these days everyone is worried about what others are doing and thinking and to an extent that is normal. But when it comes to me and mine I do what make me happy and right now that’s being a crafty mom! Inspired by Pinterest.

If you have a different sort of fun with your family, do it. Post videos of your entire family singing together on YouTube. Go right ahead. And I promise to not feel inadequate because of it.

 We all know Pinterest loves long images, right? Right. So, how do you create long images without distorting them? Make a collage, of course! I’m going to show you how to do just that, using PicMonkey. Don’t be intimidated: even with no design experience, you’ll be a collage making pro in no time.

1.

Choose the post you’re going to work on. Save all images from that post, then head over to PicMonkey. I chose my Margarita Lime Tequila Cookies.

2. Choose “collage”, then select the images you just saved. To select more than one image at a time, hold down CTRL (or CMD on a Mac).

3. On the left hand side, you’ll see collage options. Click “Pinter-esty”.

4. Then, click on the little paint palette. Drag the “spacing” bar to where the images aren’t going to be so far apart from each other. Leave the background white. This creates a more sleek look.

5. Adjust the boxes as you see fit, using the tool the arrow is pointing to in the image above. Sometimes this takes a little while: you’ll need to see which images look good next to each other, which images you really want to use, and which ones you don’t need.

6. To edit individual images in your collage, click the “edit” button (pops up on hover). You can use basic edits, use effects, or click “open image in editor”.

7. Once you’ve finished editing the image, click “back to collage”.

Here, you can see the edited image in the collage. This is a newer feature on PicMonkey, so I’m super excited about it! You’ll need to have the “Royale” subscription to access many of these features. It’s just a few bucks each month, so it’s definitely worth it.

8. Once your collage looks how you want it to, you’re ready to add text. Save it by adding the file name, leaving it as .JPG, and clicking “Sean” so it’s the highest quality. Save using your keywords. “Margarita Lime Cookies” or something similar is the phrase I’d use to save mine.

Note: I’m having you save a copy of the collage how it is now, just in case you hate the text you save or for whatever other reason. It’s always good to have the original. If for some reason you don’t have the original, and you don’t like the text you save it with, just use a rectangular overlay (white) to cover the text up and start over.

Now, onto editing the text.

You probably already know how to do this, but just in case, I wanted to show you real quick anyway! The arrow on the left points to the text. Simply click “add text” and choose the font you’d like. The arrow on the right points to the text itself. Drag the ends of the box to the edges of the image, and click “center”. This ensures your text isn’t just centered in the text box – it’ll be centered over the width of the entire image.

Once you’ve chosen your text, make sure you use the color picker to match the colors up! You can also use “fade”, “size”, and other options to make your collage text perfect. The BIG arrows above point to the color picker, where it’s pointing and then up top it shows the result. It made our font match the lime. The SMALL arrows show how you can choose to fade the text, and increase or decrease the size of the text.

And, here’s the final product! We use long collages on Pinterest because they take up more “real estate”, meaning they stay on the page longer while people are scrolling. This increases the chances of a pin, like, and/or click. Using collages in ALL of your posts will increase the chance by quite a bit, which will in turn increase your Pinterest traffic.

Hope this was very easy for you !!! Thanks so much for coming by this has helped me so much!