Pinterest.  Every once in a while I enjoy going on the site and checking out all the new pins.  So many amazing craft and recipe ideas.  The problem is, I’m not crafty nor do I enjoy to cook …at all!  So I look, admiring all the beautiful creations, knowing it will never be me.  I pin sometimes too, thinking just maybe I can actually create it.  I get sucked in by the pictures, everything looks so beautiful and, well, easy.

Then I actually make the item that I have pinned.  The result: Pinterest fail!  Why?  Because I still am not crafty and I still do not enjoy to cook! 

But, this year for my daughter’s annual cookie party guess where my cookie recipes came from?  Yep, Pinterest!

For the past three years I have held a cookie making party each December for my daughter and her friends.  We do it at my parent’s house because they have a huge island in the middle of their kitchen that all the girls can fit around.

The first year I held the party the girls were in 2nd grade.  It was pretty much chaos!  I had pre-made the dough so all they had to do was cut with cookie cutters and decorate.  By the end of the party there was frosting and sprinkles everywhere.  Each cookie looked like someone had squeezed an entire tube of frosting on it; probably because they had!  Girls were running everywhere and my daughter had decided that all of her friends needed a guided tour of my parent’s bathroom!  Still, fun was had by all (except maybe my father who found frosting in crevices for days after the party)!

This year the girls were in 4th and 5th grade.  They were old enough, I decided, to make their own cookies.  This is where Pinterest came into play.  I found a cute and, hopefully, easy reindeer cookie recipe and a box set of melted snowman cookies that you could buy; both on Pinterest.  These would be the cookies that the girls would make themselves.  I also made sugar cookie dough as in past years because, of course, decorating is always the best part!

The girls did a great job making the cookies!  I divided them into three groups and they were able to quickly make the dough and get it in the oven.  Having three different types of cookies meant that there was always something to do while other cookies were in the oven or cooling.  It was nonstop and busy. The reindeer cookies turned out really cute!  Pinterest perfect?  No, but what is?  The melted snowmen were my favorite and actually turned out very similar to the pictures on the box.  Everyone had a great time decorating the snowmen with little paint brushes.  And, of course, the good old-fashioned sugar cookies were a hit as always.  The girls have become so much more creative and neater over the years.  Okay, so there were still a few cookies piled high with globs of frosting, but I also saw a number of really cute creations.

Being in 4th and 5th grade, the girls are really into journals, so I gave each girl a journal and pen as a gift at the end of the party.  In each journal I had glued a copy of the reindeer cookie recipe.  They really liked them!

Using Pinterest was a success!  Probably because I wasn’t the one attempting to recreate the recipes.  I’m pretty sure, though, that next year’s cookie party will be brought to you by Pinterest as well!

Have you had any success (or fails) with recreating what you find on Pinterest?