I mentioned on Facebook the other day that last year was a lot of talk and not as much action as I’d like. Since I am nothing if not a woman of her word, I decided to get on that saddle and get shit started right away this year.

So, instead of prolonging things and waiting it out, I decided it was best to get my Epic Mom Fail of the Year out of the way before we even got five days of 2015 under our belts. Go big or go home, right guys? Because #YOLO!

Somehow, through a combination of a giant misunderstanding and gross negligence on my part (this is one of those times when my husband breaks out his favorite nickname for me: NegliJenny. Yeah. Hilarious.), I managed to order tickets for Disney Princesses and Heroes on Ice while thinking I purchased Frozen on Ice tickets. I know this doesn’t sound epic. It might even sound borderline silly. But you are not the parent of my kids and you did not witness their crushing disappointment.

Let’s back up.

My husband had to work yesterday, which meant I had the ladies all to myself all day. I was both excited and leery about this. I knew we could either have a great day or an I’m bored, I’m bored, I’m bored! combined with I’m just going to throw as many tantrums as I can kind of day.

I totally lucked out.

Aside from a minor nap-related meltdown, we had a great day. We made a doll from a kit Samantha got for Christmas last year (more on that partial fail later this week), we did Sam’s reading bingo homework, colored, and went to Barnes and Noble to read some books and split a Rice Krispy treat at the cafe.

When we got home, Sam decided she wanted to write a story for daddy (the absolutely hilarious title page will be in my Instagram post this week). I was feeling so warm and fuzzy after a great day with my girls, so I decided to break out the camera and take some photos of my lovelies.

Cue parenting fail.

I took a few shots of my little writer hard at work. She was really into her story (which was about a seriously gassy panda).

Yes, that is Ellie’s shoe on the table which is probably the first clue that I’m not paying as much attention to her as I should be. No judging.

Once Samantha started getting huffy and puffy about me taking pictures of her, I turned the lens to the baby bean.

Ms. One Shoe’s attention was split evenly between whatever show was on (my guess is Jake and the Neverland Pirates since she regularly demands it) and the toy in her hand.

I was so smitten by my seemingly angelic babies, I made Sam stop writing so I could take pictures of us (we don’t have nearly enough of those).

Hmmmm. Notice that faint discoloration around Ellie’s mouth in that bottom shot? I didn’t. I was in my little La-La Land and paying no attention to whatever Ellie was doing while sitting in my lap.

It was only after I saw this picture that I said What the heck is on Ellie’s mouth? I looked down at her, realizing she had been very quiet. It became immediately apparent why she was so quiet. You can’t really do a lot of talking while sucking on an ink pad!

She had taken a stamp out of her sister’s pencil case and had been sucking on the little ink pad the entire time I was taking pictures. No ink was left. None. It was all in her mouth.

Parenting fail.

Have you had any moments like this lately? It doesn’t have to be a parenting fail, but a moment when you thought everything was going smooth and life was good only to realize you weren’t really paying attention to what was actually happening. Please share and make me feel better about myself 😉

Bloggers are always showing you their beyond perfect crafty creations, but you rarely see any missteps. And you know there are missteps.

I happen to think that you can learn just as much from my DIY failures as you can from my successes, so I thought I’d chronicle one of my recent mishaps.

Have you seen the seriously adorable hanging yarn balls that are all over Pinterest (the picture at left is just one of seemingly endless examples)?

I thought a couple of pink ones would be absolutely perfect for the “About to Pop” baby shower I threw for my sister.

Since I had all of the supplies on hand anyway, I figured I’d give it a whirl. First, I gathered my supplies.

I collected a balloon, scissors, yarn, Mod Podge and a sponge brush and was ready for action (or so I thought). Since I knew it would get messy, I laid out some newspaper– although I’m not really sure why. The table I was using is already full of crafting war wounds. I’m hoping to tackle that in a future DIY, but I digress!

I took my (blown up) balloon and smeared Mod Podge all over it. Next I started wrapping my yarn all over it. As I was doing this, I started to wonder if I should have checked out some tutorial beforehand. Would there be enough Mod Podge to make the yarn good and stiff? What about the layer of Mod Podge on the balloon? How would that work?

I had a feeling I knew how it was going to work out, but I charged ahead anyway. Next time, I’ll look around for some tutorials or go with my gut instead of wasting time on something I was pretty sure wouldn’t turn out right.

When I was satisfied with the amount of yarn on the balloon, I tried to put another layer of Mod Podge on top (mostly because I was concerned the yarn wasn’t saturated enough).

I left it to dry over night and was greeted with this when I popped the balloon in the morning:

FAIL. Of course, my first layer of Mod Podge made a little skin underneath the yarn.

So what did I learn from this blonde moment?

If something seems wrong, it probably is.

Take a step back from whatever you’re doing and try to think about it from a different angle. If that doesn’t work, look for help from others. I hopped back on Pinterest and quickly saw that other people soaked their yarn in a mixture of water and glue (and sometimes corn starch). That makes much more sense, since you want the yarn to get good and stiff so that it keeps the shape of the balloon once you pop it.

Next time I go with my gut.