Pinstrosity 2017 News (and a video!)

Hello!! Miracle of miracles...we're here! 

It's been forever! We ended up taking an unexpected hiatus, and we're here to explain it all, so we thought we'd do something a little different. Today you get to see us in all our adorable awkwardness. 

Oh boy. We recorded a video for you all with some crazy news. We're awkward, we're real, and we say um more than we meant to...but we felt like you deserved to hear this straight from the horses mouth. And now we're apparently horses.

Links you might be interested in: 

Emilee's Instagram

Marquette's Instagram 

Marquette's new site

Today is bittersweet for us for sure. We can't tell you how much we have loved this adventure with you all. It is very much a part of who we are now. The things we learned and experienced, and the friends that we made are invaluable. Thank you for following along two crazy ladies as we discovered Pinterest, projects, and really as we discovered who we are. You have been amazing. This has been such a big part of our lives, and we have loved having you here with us in our Pinstrosity community! We hope you'll follow us along in our new adventures.

Lots of Love,
Em and Marquette, the Pinstrositeers

New Commenting Platform Trial

With the changes that Blogger made recently that made it harder for non-Google account users to follow and interact on the blog, we decided to try out a different commenting platform that we've read and heard great things about! Enter Disqus! 

The comment section now looks like this: 

You can sign up for a Disqus account, or (if you don't want another account to remember or keep track of) we have allowed "guests" to comment. We'll leave this option open as long as we aren't inundated with Spam! 

To comment as a guest click "Join the discussion..." and then click "Name". You will then see the screen above and you can click the "I'd rather post as a guest" box.

This should help open it up to more than just Google Users, we hope! We'll see how this goes!

Let us know what you think! Easier? More obnoxious? 'Bout the same? We'd love to make this as user friendly to as many of you as we can! 

If you follow our blog through a non-Google account, you need to read this announcement!!

We got this from The Google People via the Google Buzz:

"Over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs."

"As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count."

"We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow."

"We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers." So, we hope this does improve things...we're a little skeptical, but of course don't have any say in it. We'd love to keep you all around and we enjoy your comments. This community is fun!! So, if you have a non-Google account but want to still be able to comment on the blog and officially follow it, you might want to head over and get a google account set up!

The New Pinstrosity

Pinstrosipeeps!

We've missed you all! We are so excited to be back here with you. It has been a long and hard Pinstrosity break. Do you ever love something so much that you can't possibly imagine your life without it, and yet at the same time have no ounce of oomph left in you to make that thing a daily reality? That's what happened to us.

We have taken a step back (and for that we thank you for your patience), we have reevaluated what we want from Pinstrosity, where we are going and how we will do this, and we can honestly say that we are really excited about our new adventure. Things will be different, but rest assured that it's still just goofy ole' us. In fact as this is being typed up one of us is sitting here typing with bedhead and they haven't brushed their teeth yet, and the other just is in pj's eating a popsicle for breakfast. See? We're not scary. We’re not high maintenance. We’re just two DIY obsessed BFF's who live normal lives and moonlight as witty superhero bloggers.

This new blog is a lot of things for us. It's an outlet for our creative juices, an escape from our 9-5's, a place to experiment and try new things, and at times a place to discover who we are (because we've decided in our vast experience of twenty-something years that who you are is always evolving). We've found when looking for such place it would be so easy to look for a hole between two people in which to insert yourself (i.e. between the lazy college grad who watches too much TV and eats copious amounts of hot Cheetos and the uber professional blogster who lives and breathes the blog world and aims to make it big via the interwebs). That path seems easy, and at the same time is just like a puzzle piece in the wrong box. It just doesn't fit. If you can't find a spot fit perfectly for your unique you-ness, then you'll just have to carve one out yourself.

This is our carved out little hole. We don't quite fit in line with everybody else, and guess what? That is more than ok, that is awesome. We are here carving out our own spot in the world.  I have a feeling that there are more of us out there “carving” than we like to lead on. So break out the chisels peeps! We are back and our new spot looks phenomenal.

Let’s do this!

So, you're probably wondering what the "new" Pinstrosity is going to be. What are we changing? What are we keeping the same? What's going on?

Let us walk you through! We're a DIY/Pinterest "Fail" (we're not super fond of that term, but that's a whole 'nother post later on)/Life Lessons blog. Sure, it's a weird combination, but it works!

1. We'll start with the obvious. The blog look/design. We wanted something different from what we had before.

There was so much white, and we got tired of red. We chose those to mimic the Pinterest colors and font but we decided it was time to make this blog ours and to incorporate us into it...not just Pinterest. We wanted color. We wanted fun. We wanted a header that wasn't a perspective drawing trainwreck.

And so when we decided to rebrand/relaunch, we knew we needed help from someone who's much much better at this than we are. Enter Llisel Richins! She's a graphic design graduate and is fabulous. Everything she touches turns to the cutest gold you've ever seen. She comes from a talented family!

She was fabulous to work with. We didn't know exactly what we wanted, so we created a Pinterest board with blog aspects we liked and sent it over. She pulled the ideas into cohesion, was so sweet when we changed our mind about dots, and did a beautiful job.

2. Pinstrosity/Pinterest Fail Submissions
This we will keep! This is where we started, this is why you all came here in the first place. It would be stupid (and BORING!!) to get rid of that. We still want to see your Pinterest project submissions! This has become somewhat of a community or a support group for people who's lives aren't Pinterest perfect. But...that's okay! Life isn't supposed to be Pinterest perfect!

3. Speaking of...our new "motto". Pinstrosity is no longer just about the "Pinterest Projects Gone Wild". It's about life! And you know what? Life isn't Pinterest perfect, and neither are we! It's okay to be human. It's okay if your house doesn't look like Pinterest built it. It's okay if your kids go to school not with the Pinterest designed lunches, but with PB&J's on pancakes because you realized after breakfast that you're out of bread and pancakes just have to do. It's okay to have a bad hair day. It's okay to repeat Day 3 of the exercise regime you pinned for 2 weeks in a row because you keep skipping a day (or week). It's okay to not compete with what you see on Social Media. Because that isn't real life. Pinterest is there to inspire, not conspire against you.

4. Jumping off the new motto, is where the rest of the blog will come in. We are expanding from just Pinstrosities and Pinterest projects to a wider scope on life. We want to share more of our lives with you. Not because we have super amazing and exciting lives. We have pretty normal everyday lives. But in reality, that's most of us! And it's okay! We want to share what we're learning, recipes we love (found on Pinterest or in our Grandmother's recipe box), apartment living, Pinterest projects we try, and just general life. Our real lives. Our usually not Pinterest Perfect lives. We love Pinterest, but we don't aspire to be Pinterest. That's just not who we are, and we're okay with that.

We're so glad you're here with us and we can't wait to start showing you more of our life, more Pinstrosity submissions, and more of our awesomeness   weirdness ...whatever we are.

- Marquette and Emilee

Catch the Re-Launch!

Want to be sure you catch the re-launch of Pinstrosity when it comes time? Enter your email address above (where it says "Follow By Email") and we'll send you an email when the blog is brought back to life!

Summer Rebranding

As I'm sure you've noticed...Pinstrosity has been a little thin and scarce lately. Few posts, little time given to it, not much going on. We have run out of Pinstrosity steam. Again. Pinterest is still popular, but it's not the frenzied craze it once was. Pinterest Fails aren't novel any more. It's all just kinda ho hum. Add that to the fact that Emilee and Marquette are both working like crazy to pack up their homes in Silver City, NM and move on to the next adventure (one to Arizona, the other to Utah). There truly is not brain power to devote to Pinstrosity. But...we are talking ideas and plans in the bits of spare time we get together.

What are we scheming? We're looking at rebranding. Pinterest use has changed. The interest in blogs has changed. We've changed. We're ready to stir up the pot a little. (update in response to some questions we've had: We will keep all the previous posts and comments, and the Pinterest Fail aspect of the blog will continue. There will just be a new...spin on things, a new approach.) But first...we've got to make sure we know where we've packed our pots...and spoons, and hope they all get to our new homes intact. 

We're excited for our new life adventures, including the new direction for Pinstrosity in the Fall. We're hoping to be able to pop in every now and again on the blog during the summer, so if you have some epic Pinstrosities through your summer fun, send them our way!

Catch you all later! 

The Monthly Pinstrosity Challenge: October 2014

It's here! The very first Monthly Pinstrosity Challenge! 

We mentioned this idea in our announcement post last week, and we've been excited to get this launched. As Emilee mentioned earlier in her post today, October ends up being Pumpkin Everything Month. Everywhere you go here in the US you see pumpkin in every food, new ways to carve pumpkins, and pumpkin crafts. We decided to just roll with that and make that the theme of this Monthly Pinstrosity Challenge (we've got to come up with a shorter more zippy name).

So....

Now, what exactly are we asking you to do?

1. Browse through your Pinterest boards, and then your sister's Pinterest boards, and then your high school BFF's Pinterest boards, and then your cat's previous owner's Pinterest boards, and then even the Official Pinstrosity Challenge Pinterest Board (we'll be adding ideas to it all the time) and find pumpkin pins that inspire you. They can be food, decor, costumes, aprons, painting color schemes, etc.
2. Once you've found some pins on Pinterest that inspire you, build on that inspiration! Whip up that pumpkin fudge. Sew that pumpkin apron. Paint those pumpkin blocks. Carve that jack-o-lantern. You can follow the pin instructions to a T, or you can just work off your inspiration and go for a Pin Spin.
3. Take a picture of the outcome. We want to see the Pin Wins, Pin Spins, and Pinstrosities!
4. Email us your pictures, the link to the project you were inspired by, and any bit of the story you want to tell. You have until 8:00 AM (MST) on November 1st to send us your pumpkin project.
5. Saturday, November 1st we will do a Round Up post and show you the projects we were sent in. If we have too many for one post, we'll do multiple Show and Tell Saturday posts!
6. All projects submitted as part of the challenge need to have been completed in October 2014. No submitting projects you did last year as part of the challenge. The point of this challenge is to get you to actually use Pinterest to inspire your life!

As we see how this method works and learn first hand the logistics of this challenge project, we may have to tweak things (such as submission methods, or when we post up Show and Tell Saturday posts, or so forth), but for now we'll start with the above instructions and see how those work out! We hope you all join in and enjoy this with us.

Are the instructions clear as Pumpkin Pie? Good. Go Forth and Pumpkin!

Scrapin' off the Burned Edges

Hello!
We have a treat for you today: a co-authored post! We have a few things to announce and thought it would be best to do so together!

First off, we love this blog.
We have put many hours, thoughts, project time, meeting time, writing time, and our blood, sweat, and tears into this blog for the last 2-ish years. At times we're sure you have noticed that we aren't as "on top of it" with our posts as we would like to be. Even though we generally have a reason for those lapses, and we usually apologize, the truth of the matter is that this is life! It's messy and schedules don't always work like you hope they do. We have had illness strike, new jobs, children, schooling, loved ones pass, vacations, day-to-day stuff, and anything else come up without warning. Quite often these things are more important than anything else in our lives right then and those are our priorities. We are totally ok with that though, because this blog is our hobby. We don't have any sponsors to answer to,and we don't make money off of this. We simply run this blog because we enjoy it. But lately, we haven't been enjoying it like we used to. We feel kinda like GCT Level 3 Burned Toast.

Writing a post most days for the last two years has become too much for us as of lately. In many ways we feel burnt out and that the quality of our posts has lowered.  After stalking reading other blogs we love we've come to realize that we don't have to post every day to have a stellar blog. What we do need is to have stellar content.

So, we've come up with some ideas that will hopefully help rejuvenate the blog and help us scrape off the burned layer of toast and get down to the good again.

What are our ideas? Glad you asked, because we are excited to tell you!

1. The New Schedule.
We will no longer be posting daily. Don't panic though!! We will still be blogging and trying out projects (especially trying out the projects from the awesome submissions you all send us), and then reporting back to you. Now each week though you will get Rachel's Sunday Surprise post, a Pinstrosity Hump Day post on Wednesday, and a Show and Tell Saturday once a month (more on that in a minute). We're sure sometimes we may have a post we just can't wait to share that we might post on the odd Friday or Monday, but for now Wednesday's and Sunday's will be our main post days. We're going for quality over quantity here. You guys are great, and you deserve some awesome posts.

2. Monthly Challenges.
Don't worry, we will not be asking you to dump a bucket of ice water on you head. What will we be asking you to do? Well, we love seeing your projects, and we love to hear about the things you were inspired to do by something you saw on Pinterest. We know that sometimes all it takes is just a small nudge to get working on things you have pinned on Pinterest. So we are instituting Pinstrosity Challenges. Once a month we'll have a new theme. One time it might be a color. Another time it may be a holiday. Sometimes it might be related to a specific room in a typical house. Whatever it is though, we invite all of you to find some inspiration off of Pinterest and do a project that relates to the themes. It can be food, clothing, a DIY craft project, a party, anything. Here's how it will work. We will post up new challenges on the first day of each month at 8 AM (MST). You will have all month long to complete a project that fits the theme and email us a with the results (Pin Win or Pinstrosity). The cut off time for getting projects in is 11:59 PM (again, MST) on the last day of the month. The following Monday or Saturday (whichever is closer depending on where the last day of the month falls) we'll do a Show and Tell Saturday post with the pictures you send in of your challenge projects. Clear as congealed Mod Podge? I hope that made sense. We'll give out more details with this first challenge on October 1st.

The point of this? To get you all testing pins and letting go of your Pinterest fear, and to add some interaction with all of us! Are you with us?

(via)

Good! We're excited to have you aboard!


3. Future Posts
We have a good list going of posts, and series of posts, that we want to do. They range from tutorials, to videos of us testing out iffy pins, to holiday related shenanigans. We want this to be fun for you and for us. As said above, we've gotten a little burned out, so we figure it's time to shake things up!

We're excited about shaking things up, scraping off the burned edges, and getting fully back into this awesome community and project we truly do love. We hope you all continue to read along and submit your Pinstrosities to us and share in the fun of Pinterest.

Spread Joy

Yesterday a dear friend passed away after a 3 year battle with cancer. Growing up she was my second mom. She has a daughter 2 years older than me, a daughter my age, and then a child the same age as each of the rest of my siblings (6 kids in each family). Our families did church, 4-H, summer camps, camping trips, chicken pox, sledding, school basketball, etc all together. Her passing was peaceful, and we are all so glad she is not in pain anymore, but our hearts are broken. I'm sad for me, but my heart aches for her husband, her kids, her grandkids, her mom, and her sister.

 My best friend, her mom, and I on my best friend's wedding day. 

My "2nd  Mom", myself, and my Mother on my wedding day. 

I am currently getting things situated here so I can get packed and ready to make the drive up (2-3 days depending on how the little guys handle it) and will be gone for most of this next week. I do not have posts ready for this coming week, and I know I won't have time during the week to write; I'm sorry I'm not more ahead of the game.

So what is your assignment for this week while I'm gone? Hug a friend, hug your mom, hug your friend's mom, and do something to spread joy. Take a plate of Pinterest inspired cookies to a neighbor. Leave a cute wreath on someone's door. Make a sack lunch to give to a homeless person. Snuggle with your cat on the couch and write a letter to your brother. Just do something to spread joy. That is the message for this week. Joy.

(P.S. If you feel like helping out an amazing family you don't even know,Crystal's brother-in-law started up a gofundme collection to help pay for funeral and medical expenses.)

Finals Zombie

Hello all, it's that time of year.I have become a finals zombie.

It's pre-dead week here and I already feel dead haha I haven't posted anything since last week, and I will be hard pressed to post this week too, but I will see what I can do. I also haven't done any creative-ness to share, unless you count 5 10+ page papers as creating?? Although I am sure you don't want to read 15+ pages about Gender Ideologies in Sports lol

I assure you though, Marquette and Rachel are still here and I will be back soon! Thanks for being patient and just so you all know we only have to do this for one more semester! Yay!

Thanks for being understanding and I will see you all soon!

 



Mix It Up Monday-Use It Up!

Happy Monday all!! Hope everyone had a fun, long, and refreshing weekend!

 

Welcome to Monday!!

 

 

For today's Mix It Up Monday we have a fun announcement!

 

We are giving you all a heads up for a segment we are doing called "Use It Up".

 

 For this project we will ONLY use supplies we ALREADY have in our possession for all of our projects from now until the week of April 6th 2014.

 

 In other words, if you would like to join us in our "Use It Up" month we will be only using the supplies we already own for all of our projects until Saturday April 5th at 11:59 PM (mountain standard time). 

We will be finding pins for supplies we already have, and when they are finished we will write about some of the fun things we made during that time and be featuring them for an entire week starting  Aril 6th.

We would like to invite all of our readers to join us!

 

We like this segment because it has a few fun things going on:

-We get to use stuff we have that may have been hiding in a closet for months.

-We don't spend money on supplies for a whole month.

-This project makes us think critically and get super creative

-This can sometimes get you out of a crafting slump.

-And it is just something fun and different!!

- And if you have an AMAZING project that you are just dying to do, this isn't forever...just one month.

 

We are giving you all the heads up now so you can pin, plan, execute, and then submit your work to us! These DO NOT HAVE TO BE PINSTROSITIES!! These can be Pin Wins, Pin Spins, Pinvestigations or anything in between...Use It Up week is a place to share what we were able to create using only things we had laying around the house. ANYTHING you have is fair game. We will be accepting "Use It Up" week submissions from now until April 5th at 11:59 PM, please title your submission e-mail with "Use It Up".

 

So join in, Use It Up and have fun!! We are looking forward to your submissions! If you have a "Use It Up" to submit you can go here to get all of the details on how to submit something to us! It's super easy and we LOVE hearing from you all!!

 

Happy Crafting!!

 

 

 



Saturday Announcements

Nothing too fun on the blog today. With school in full force (mid-terms :/ ) it has been hard for me to craft, BUT I have pinned some fun things I am hoping to get to work on in the next week or so. Hopefully I will have a Show-and-Tell Saturday for you when I post on Saturday again in two weeks!

 

Today Marquette and I are having an official Pinstrosity meeting, and are wishing Rachel was here with us :(. We have some fun business ventures, new ideas, new posts and new team photos to discuss today!! Should be a good day!

 

Also, we need your submissions!!!

Send them in pinners!

The good, the bad, the ugly, the horrifying, the unexpectedly great, the Pin Spin, the strange, the amazing!!

We are ALWAYS in need of submissions, but lately our e-mail hasn't been as full as we are hoping for, so get pinning and get trying ladies!

Send your Pinstrosities to pinstrosity@gmail.com we would like your first name, the link to where the original pin came from, your Pinstrosity pictures, and a story (super detailed, or to the point, either way works for us).

 

Thank you!! 

 

We hope everyone has a great weekend and we will be back in full force Monday!

 

 

 



Day of Epicness

What do the numbers 2, 20, 500, and 19 Million have to do with each other? They are all important numbers for today! Why?

Today, February 20th, 2014 is our 2nd Blogiversary! Yea! 

Today is our 500th post.

In the past 24 hours we hit 19,000,000 page views! 

It's an epic convergence, on a Throwback Thursday nonetheless, that we're pretty stoked about. So to celebrate, we thought we'd give you some of our favorite moments of Pinstrosity history, our take on life, and $1000 bucks each. Okay, maybe not $1000...we wish though because you all are awesome and truly have made Pinstrosity what it is.

Marquette's favorite moments. This is hard to narrow in on! I have loved doing this blog for the past 2 years. I have learned so much about blogging, about content, about awesome tips and tricks to getting projects right, and about myself. It's been quite the journey.

I've been thinking and thinking about what I wanted to post here. I thought at first about making a movie akin to the Facebook movies we all posted not too long ago, but that just didn't pull together...I got sidetracked by butterbeer, every flavor beans, and old books (more on that in Saturday's post)..perhaps that'll be making an appearance later on the blog. I thought about making a video of me talking about my favorites...but that sounded boring; I wouldn't watch me talking. I thought about writing a song...but I don't write music. Interpretive dance? No one wants to see my uncoordinated 3-month-postartum flub dance, bahahaha. Rent a plane and spell out Pinstrosity in the sky with the exhaust? That would be awesome, but sadly no one here is willing to let me take off with their plane. No sense of adventure, I tell you.

So, by default you get one of my extremely well written and sophisticated poems.

Roses are red,
(Because that's how poems start),
Here are Pinstrosity moments
That have tickled my heart:

Shaving cream is handy,
It cleans and it paints!
But we find it's best used
Without any restraint.

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2013/10/shaving-cream-paintedpumpkins.html

Babies are ugly,
Just kidding! I josh.
But some sure aren't happy,
When posed in a squash:

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2013/09/autumn-is-coming.html

  We 'bout peed our pants,
And nearly broke into hives,
When Pinstrosity was featured
By KSL's Studio 5!

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2013/01/our-big-announcement.html

Pinstrosity began,
As a fun personal trip.
We had no idea
People would think it's so hip!

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/07/100th-post-for-1000000-views.html

 I laughed 'till I cried,
(and perhaps I did shake)
When Kathy sent in
Her Olympic theme cake:

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2014/02/hump-day-you-are-so-brave-to-bring-that.html

A new Pinstrositeer!
Can you believe?!
We can't wait for you to see
What she has up her sleeve!

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2014/01/rachel-new-min-strositeer.html

Em's pretty awesome,
You have to admit!
I love her fun style,
Her puns, and her wit!

These 2 years have been great!
I'm looking forward to more,
It'll be fun to see
What "fate" has in store!

-Marquette, the epic poetess ;)



 Em here and I have 5 of my favorite Pinstrosities!! These made the list because they made me giggle, inspired me, or made me unexpectedly happy with the results!! Without further ado:

Em's 5 Favorite Pinstrosities
(In no particular order)

5. Up-In-Flames Burger
Rachel sent us this pin that had me and my dad (he's a pretty tough nut to crack) rolling on the floor. Don't trust the picture alone, there is a lot going on behind all this! Go read this Pinstrosity! Rachel, you rock!!

Before...

After...

4. My House is a Pinstrosity
In this post Marquette tells the all too familiar tale of why life isn't Pinterest perfect, and how (drum roll please)...THAT'S OK!!

Pinterest Expectation...

                

http://www.marthastewart.com/308036/how-to-keep-matching-sheets-together-in?xsc=eml_org_2011_02_03

Reality...

3. The Wise Owl Says, Just Go Buy A Cake

This one is mine (hangs head and laughs), still embarrasses me, still makes me laugh uncontrollably.

Pinterest Expectation

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/cakes-cupcakes/theme-cupcakes/night-owls-cupcakes-984215/

The Pinstrosity

2. Tin Foil Curls, Myth Foiled, Or Fantastic

This one that I tested out with a friend gives us an unexpected result...

The Original

http://zszywka.pl/p/cudowne-loczki-807333.html

The Pin-Win!

1. A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

...and this post has two!

      http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7285oFycs1r6gzyuo1_1280.jpg

There you have it! Em's 5 favorites! In all honesty they change and morph as we post more material, and sometimes I go back and forget some of the fun ones. So for now, here they are!

We are so grateful for the opportunity we have to run this awesome blog, as Marquette said none of this would possible without our faithful readers! We feel like you all are our Bloggin' Family!! Thanks for helping us get so far and continue to do what we love!!

H.U.M.P. Day Announcement

It's H.U.M.P. Day!!

We are shaking it up a bit this week and will not have a regular post today,

BUT ...

Tune in tomorrow for a

POST OF EPIC PROPORTIONS!!!!!!!!!!

*(Cue epic music)*

Seriously this post is a BIG one...don't miss out and we will see you back here tomorrow!!!

-Emilee, Marquette, and Rachel!



Rachel: The New Min-strositeer

Greetings!

I'm Rachel, the newest contributing writer for Pinstrosity! I bet you are wondering what force of nature brought us together today; that force is Marquette. I've known Marquette for five years, which I only just realized as I typed this. Where does the time go?! Marquette and I were brought together by the joys of Latin 101 at the U of A, and the rest is silly, adventure-filled history. During our email pen-paling, Marquette approached me about joining on the Pinstrosity Team. Good news, we have finally made it official! I am delighted. Marquette and Emilee, thank you, thank you, thank you!

I feel that it's only right for me let you in on a little secret; one that Marquette and Emilee may have been unaware of when they asked me jump on this blogging boat. The secret is this: I have a very limited range of crafting talent. What does that mean for you, dear Pinstosity readers? The likeliness that several GCT 4's and 5's will be coming your way is high. I've gotta start a list of projects for destroying... I mean creating. Ha! 

My lack of Marquette and Emilee level talent is what lead me to coined the term "min-strositeer". Think of me a combination of a minion and a Pinstrositeer. Maybe we'll go with Pinstrosit-ita instead? Do you like that better?

You'll soon learn this about me: I love lists. I mean, I absolutely adore them. I have apps on my phone, notepads in my purse, and of course, the grand list in my brain. As a result, I think perhaps the best way for me to introduce myself is in a list. Are you ready?

About Me (in no particular order):

• I turned twenty-five in 2013. I'm officially a "grown-up". Contrary to the sentiments of many other twenty-somethings, I am really enjoying it. 
• I'm the girlfriend of wonderful man (Rob), the mother to two cat-kids (Carly and Stella), and the only daughter to two fabulous parents.
• If I picked five adjectives for myself, they would be: sarcastic, stubborn, silly, exacting, and pleasantly unexpected.
• I'm great at making people laugh, finding items on clearance, and buying too much of things that I love.
• I'm really bad at calm, courteous driving, keeping my laughter quiet and contained, and following directions.
• In my professional life, I'm a technical writer. 
• In my personal life, I'm the intermittent blogger over at OperationRachel, amateur bird-watcher and fossil hunter, cell phone photographer, and a well-intentioned adventure-haver.

Would you like a face to go with the list? Let's see what I can dig up!

Tucson, AZ. Photo Credit: Kelly at CalamityKelly

My Top 5 Favorite Pins from 2013: Mix It Up Monday:

Now that we've done the introduction, let's jump right into Pinstrosity's Mix It Up Monday! In the spirit of the new year, here are my five favorite pins from 2013.

#1. Louis C.K. parenting win. As a comedian I really, really enjoy Louis C.K. (I highly recommend him if you enjoy R-rated, intelligent humor). His show isn't my favorite, but when I saw these stills, I wanted to hug him. I enthusiastically agree. The world is beautiful and amazing. Get out  there and check it out!

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyscnifnft1qfs14mo1_1280.jpg

#2. Grammar jokes are forever a win in my book. Combine one with Grumpy Cat and, zohmahgoodness, it doesn't get better.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/f5/0e/70/f50e70f0f46caadf720c41d10abb0b20.jpg

#3. Phteven. Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, the first image of this next one could stand alone and would still be funny. But, the addition of the second photo literally rendered me immobile with laughter when I first saw it. I was crying and gasping for air. So, here you go:

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b9/e6/e7/b9e6e70b792e1feef50f02722aef3dfb.jpg

#4. True Love. When I found this pin, I felt happy, triumphant tears stinging the back of my eyes. This is perfection. I hope it really happened.

http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/funny-pictures/funny-picture-dump-of-the-day-55-pics-3/

#5. Bob Ross. Need I say more?

http://themetapicture.com/well-said-bob-well-said/

All right loyal readers, how did I do? This week, I'll start working on a few projects for you. In the mean time, I can't wait to read about what you have been up to and get to know all of you better.

Again, a big, big, BIG thank you to Marquette and Emilee for inviting me to join the Pinstrosity cause! It's going to be awesome, I can feel it! 

xox,

Rachel, The Min-strositeer

Bust A Move in 2014!

Pinstrosipeeps!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/167656457/2014-banner-gold-glitter-new-years-eve

Welcome to 2014!

 We are back and ready to rock this awesome new year!

We appreciate your patience with us as we dealt with new babies, school, holidays, family time, and each with various stomach bugs over the break ( lovely right?). This time has been well spent hanging out with family and friends and brain storming ideas for the new year!

 As Marquette announced via our Facebook, we had our first Pinstrosity meeting of the year yesterday and we have so many fun things for you guys this year!! I can hardly contain my excitement! Ahh! Exclamation points everywhere! You get an exclamation point! You get an exclamation point!  You get an exclamation point!

We will be introducing an awesome new addition to the Pinstrosity Team this year, Rachel! We will give you all a chance to get to know her and we are really excited for her to join our Pinstrosity family.

We will have various themed weeks this year, (last year we did Mug Week among other fun themes here and there). We have some fun contests lined up, and some new features to get YOU the readers involved. We are really excited for all the fun stuff we have planned for this year and we know you all are going to love it!

We would like to remind you all that we are a blog that relies on reader submissions. We NEED you guys! So if any of you have any awful/awesome pins from the holiday season that you would like to share with us, please send them in!! We love pictures AND stories of your projects!

Send submissions to : pinstrosity@gmail.com

We would also like to remind you that we love your feedback! Is there anything you guys want to see this year? Perhaps a certain type of post you would like to see more of?! Sound off in the comments! Shoot us an e-mail! Hit us up on our Facebook! We love your input!!

And last but not least, as you saw in the title "Bust A Move in 2014"...

What does this mean?!

This is our unofficial theme for the year, BAM!

Bust A Move in the craft room, Bust A Move in the kitchen, Bust A Move in your garden, Bust A Move on the dance floor, Bust A Move in your car shamelessly belting it out to J.T., just Bust A Move, maybe even a little one, everyday!

 Why? Because you can!

Why? Because you WANT to!

Why? Because you are awesome and that's what awesome people do!

This year is FULL of awesome opportunities. Opportunities to succeed, to grow, to fail, to try, to learn, to laugh, and to have the best year ever!!

There you have it Pinstrosipeeps, Bust A Move this year!!

Love,