My Top Five Favorite Pins From Pinterest

I’ve had a love affair going with Pinterest for a while now.  After using 2 of my all time favorite pins to make my lunch today, I thought I should share them with you.  If you aren’t on Pinterest yet, do it now.  If you are, come follow my pins here.  Leave your Pinterest name in the comments section and I’ll follow you back.  If there is a pin that you absolutely love AND have actually used, please leave a link in the comments section as well, so we can all get in on that action.  Check out my top five pins that I’ve actually USED successfully below.  I’m not using the pictures from the owners’ posts because that feels a bit shady.  The first link goes directly to the original post so you can pin from there, and the second link goes to that site’s homepage.
Let’s count ’em down.

#5 Cheap and Easy Balloon Garlands from A Girl and A Boy
I used this little trick for The Bear’s 1st birthday that I still haven’t posted about.  It was in May.  Hopefully I’ll get around to it before he turns 2.  Basically you blow up a bunch of balloons and thread a string through the ends, then hang that string up in a garland like fashion.  So cool, so cheap.  Bear LOVED it.  I loved that it was easy and festive and cheap.

#4 Avocado Chicken Salad from Becoming Betty
I never would have though to add avocado to my chicken salad even though I love both things with my whole heart.  Homegirl is a genius.  I will say it still tastes fine without the green onion and cilantro, because I had neither of those things on hand when I made it today for lunch.

#3 Giant Photo Prints for Cheap from Sugar Bee Crafts
You take a jpg of a photo to an office store and ask for an engineer print in black and white.  They give you a 3×4 foot print of your photo.  You pay them $3-6 and feel like a genius, take that sucker home, and mount it on the surface of your choice.  I made one of these for my living room and you can see the results here.  I love it and it only cost about $5.  You can read Sugar Bee Craft’s second effort (mounting on plywood instead of foam board) here.  This is such a great, cheap way to get a big impact.

#2 Free Printable Customized Monograms from For Chic’s Sake
Like any good southern girl, I love a monogram.  For Chic’s Sake offers free printables you can customize with your colors and initials.  I printed one off for our room, one for Bear’s, and will do one for Mini Bear as soon as we decide on a name.  Super cute and free, you can’t beat that with a stick.

#1 Use your Kitchen Aid Mixer to Shred Chicken from Simply Healthy Family
This has absolutely changed my life, seriously.  I told my mama about it, and it changed her life, too.  The post isn’t even about that, it’s about making BBQ chicken sandwiches.  I use this all the time.  I used it today for lunch while making the aforementioned Avocado Chicken Salad.  I just boil my chicken breasts and then toss them in the mixer.  Genius.    

I would love to hear about your favorite pins.  Tell me about them in the comments section or over email.