my apothecary jar i wanted to use was too small for the bunting and Harper wanted one for her room and she loves dinosaurs. a trip to the dollar store, some painting and arranging later, the dinosaur terra/aquarium was born and sitting on her shelf. Harper said it looks like an aquarium/fish bowl and since it’s not alive, we are calling it both. because you do what a three year tells you.

besides, a fish is the last thing i need around here. plastic dinosaurs live foreverrrrr!

bonus – this fulfills two of my must-do-soon crafts: terrarium and painted plastic animals. unfortunately, it only made me want to paint more plastic animals and create more terrariums.

i bought the moss and dinos at the dollar store, the paints i already had (but were less than 2 bucks a pop) and i picked up the fish bowl at goodwill for a dollar. Chelsey’s printout was free (if only printer ink was!) so in the realm of cheap crafts? ::insert YOU ARE HERE arrow:: in hindsight, the only thing i’d do differently is splurge (heh) on the moss and buy it at Michaels. the dollar store moss isn’t very green.

do any of you own a real live terrarium? give it to me straight – are they easy to maintain? or should i stick to neon and gold children’s figurines in a bowl – which oddly i’d be ok with?

you’re on Pinterest, right? well if you’re not (and all that means is you still have use of your free time and are better at turning down crack than i am) here is the jist: instead of bookmarking that DIY project, recipe, cute photo or bag you want to remind someone about come your birthday, you simply pin it to one of your boards (make as many as you want! name them whatever!) using a button on your toolbar. it will link the pin directly to the site you found it on so when you go back to it later you can simply click and head back to that recipe or whatever. boom.

maybe you have some extra time (or maybe you don’t but you have a problem ok?) and you want to just browse other people’s pins. you can search or just go through the people that you follow (it’s kinda like twitter in that you can follow people and their boards/pins) and re-pin whatever tickles your fancy. it’s pretty much genius.

the problem i’ve ran into is my own follow through. i pin things with gusto and fully intend to make them, cook them, or buy them later but rarely do. but that is kind of the beauty of it – at least all those undone things aren’t gumming up my bookmarks. and when i do get a wild hair, my pins are there for me.

one thing i did almost immediately after pinning was make a revolving art wall for Harper’s many creations. i had quite a few frames sitting around that i had thrifted so i hit up home depot for a small thing of gray paint and went to town.

now that H has started preschool, i’m gonna need about 3 or 4 more frames to add to the collage, so i’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for some more fun ones on my thrifting adventures. just nail in clips so you can change out the art as fast as they create it!

another pin i just adored was this one on capturing the first day of school. how cute to do this every year and have the progression. you could put the date, the teachers name, or a number of other fun facts on the paper, or use a chalkboard, etc. my handwriting is lacking, so i had Harper hold up a blank sheet of paper and used photoshop for the text. framer!

dude. i know.

i’ve actually planned two meals this week around pins (this one for pork tenderloin, this one for fried zucchini and this one for chicken taco crockpot chili). of course this only dents my food board, but hey at least i’m finally doing something will some of them.

oh, and if you need some cheering up, check out my favorite board here. magic!

so i’m a pinner. Pinny McPinsalot. Pinneson Jones. Pinly Pinnerama.

ok, you get it. i have a problem. carry on.

look at these adorable little pants made from a pillowcase. the crazy thing? i have this exact pillowcase! it’s currently on Harper’s pillow but now i want to make it into pants for her.  via jane’s apron

i need to try this herb crusted salmon. i hope it tastes as good as it looks. via martha stewart

do i even need words? this is incredible. must find time and talent to make. via prudent baby

i love all the ponytail alternatives i’ve been seeing around the web! this one is perfect. via hair romance

um this? this is magic. the end. via kellydbrown on etsy

i’m getting my first haircut in almost a year tonight! and boy do i need one. these are the two photos i’m taking with me – the one on the left for the cut and the one of jessica biel for color. send happy ombre wishes my way! via pinterest

other goodies to peep:

want to understand html or css better? check out this collaboration from Jessica Hische and Russ Maschmeyer.

this video from Mama Kat cracked me up.

Harper was showing off her vintage style this week over at Hart + Sew!

WANT this jewelry organizer.

this blog is flipping amazeballs.

this post Danielle did about “blog-petition” is spot on. a must read!

and finally, if you have a shop and are interested in sponsoring the PNW Bloggers Meetup in any way, head over to Chelseys’ blog for details!

have a great weekend!