Pinterest versus Real Life: A Dinner Party Gone Wrong (or Right!)

We've been loving mint lately. We wear it, we eat it, we drink it...we live it. So it seemed like a perfect idea to create a lovely mint and burlap tablescape to go with our chevron table runner. This tablescape idea turned into an all out end-of-the-week party plan.

We spent hours planning and prepping, from chopping veggies to dying fabric to sewing napkins to match. Our menu was glorious: refreshing mojitos, mint and melon salad, light skewers of local veggies and chicken. And for dessert, homemade mint brownie sundaes! (This party sounds amazing, right??? We thought so!)

We envisioned hanging lights, candles, flowers in a picturesque outdoor scene. Something like this:

Okay, in reality, we expected something more like this:

And in actuality, we got this:

Sure, it's not that bad. But come on...did you see that first picture? Because we did. And no amount of mojitos would make our table look like that. As much as we wanted and planned for the Pinterest-perfect picture, life happened! We've had a city-wide power outage, two-year-old tantrums, husbands working late, crazy hot and humid weather, busy days, sleepless nights, and more.

But we didn't give up. We skewered those veggies, muddled those mint leaves, and ended up enjoying a great dinner together inside (with the tantrum-throwing two-year-old), which is what we really needed, anyway.

We even managed to get a few good pictures, even though the flash wasn't working...

And even though the paper straws disintegrated in two minutes...

And even though our too-small plates looked terribly sad and lonely with their single floating skewers...

And even though our "home-made" brownies came from a box mixed with applesauce because there was no vegetable oil and we had to lose the sundae part altogether for the lack of chocolate sauce and then Steph dropped her entire dessert on the carpet (right next to where the baby's diaper had not held up when needed)...

And even though the lens often only captures what we wish we could be...

This is real life, and we made it through dinner laughing all the way, proving that real life is way better than Pinterest.

photo taken at 12:26 am...when we finally finished this blog post!

Happy Friday, friends! Hope you have a wonderful weekend enjoying real life with the people you love!

Candace & Stephanie