In the past few months, nice ladies from Texas and Michigan have written on their blogs about "pinning" -- Pinterest. I've decided to weigh in on the subject because I'm not sure they gave you the whole truth -- the plain, unvarnished, "can we talk" truth about this pinning-thing.
If your New Year's Resolutions for 2012 have led you to take a Vow of Nicety, then I'll bid you good day and I'll hope to see you soon. But if you're in a mood to release a tiny bit of your inner snarkiness, read on.
Pinterest is a lot of fun. As a quilter, you can be inspired and left speechless.
From the Quilts board of Rocky Colavito.
From quilts to fabric, embroidery projects to crochet -- which, by the way, is hugely popular judging by the number of crochet-related pins and boards -- if somebody on the Internet makes [fill in the blank] and posts a picture of that [fill in the blank] somewhere/anywhere online, it's going to wind up on Pinterest.
Quotes! Everybody loves them and they're easily found and in many different forms.
From the Words for Camp Sloanie board by Pat Sloan. Artwork from The Wheatfield by Katie Daisy - on Etsy.
By the way, some of the best quotes aren't necessarily inspirational... though I might still deem this one motivational.
Searching for "sassy quotes" boards can be an enjoyable pasttime, especially if you've had one of "those" days.
Do you like to cook and save recipes? It's almost like Food Gawker -- a one-stop "shop" for recipes and food blogs.
Ironically, it seems as though some of the best food-related boards are done by people who also pin lots and lots of workout pictures.
I also think that a lot of people pin pictures of food that looks good without ever reading the recipe. I want to read the recipe before I pin something -- and on a couple of occasions, I've deleted pins for things I actually made that tasted awful. Some things look fabulous but if you read that the cupcakes pictured above were made with rice flour, carob and tofu, would you save the recipe? (Don't worry, they're made with the real stuff, the good stuff.)
If you're looking for direction and inspiration for your home -- more importantly, for your maybe-someday dream studio, then sit down, get a cup of coffee and get ready to call a contractor.
And maybe you should turn off the phone because "eye candy" is meant to be enjoyed. Slowly.
From Dream Studio by Melissa. Photo of studio from/by Kelly Lautenbach.
The same is true if you like to shop for make-up / shoes / handbags / clothes / jewelry / accessories.
That's the upside. But has anyone mentioned that Pinterest can also be a giant, gaping black hole of time spent doing not a whole lot? You think you're going to spend 15 minutes... okay, maybe 30. It will be fun, you'll scout out some recipes... get a little inspiration... maybe even find something cool and wonderful. Two hours later you've pinned nothing but you've bookmarked twenty-three craft projects, printed out sixteen recipes -- not one of which can you make because you're lacking important ingredients -- spent $150.00 on Etsy and checked flights to Prague, Santorini and Beijing on Kayak. Or maybe that's just me.
At its best, Pinterest is a giant magazine that you can customize to contain just the things you like. And the things your friends like. And the things that total strangers like -- total strangers with really cool taste.
It is the biggest, best, coolest bulletin board you never knew you always wanted. And it's filled with great recipes, awesome blogs and more nifty ideas than you have time to process, let alone actually do.
At its worst... it is a business and people use it to advertise, sometimes to advertise themselves. While most everybody gets into it to create "personal pin boards" of stuff they like, there is no question that it is also a growing part of social media -- the promotional part of it. Many designers -- interior, lifestyle, personal style -- with blogs as their business, or part of their business are on Pinterest, and much of what they pin comes from their own blog and/or business. If you click a picture to get more information about a product, you'll find yourself on their blog where you were just tallied as a hit for their traffic numbers, thereby increasing their advertising revenue and so on. Some are good about linking the picture back to the specific post with the information you were trying to find but many just link back to the main blog address, meaning that you have to go hunting for whatever it was you wanted to find.
But again, if they show a product that you're looking for, you'll be able to find it. And that's always a good thing.
But be warned, it can get a little competitive. I'm not saying that there's a contest to see who has the most pins, boards or followers, or to see who has the best board names -- though really, Monica wins that one in Secretariat-like fashion -- I mean something else entirely. I think I could be involved in an altercation should I ever manage to find one of these...
Pretty cool, huh? I re-pinned this from someone/somewhere and added my own tag, and then when it was repinned by someone else, they wrote that I would have to fight them for it. Yikes! I'm a little worried because Rocky has a bat.
Just so you know, vintage sewing machines are big on Pinterest... actually, vintage anything is big. Huge.
A nice lady in Florida pinned this picture of a vintage Rolex today and I can honestly say that I would fight her for it. Then again, she does know someone whose got a bat...
So in the almost-a-year that I've been on Pinterest, I'm still not a very prolific pinner. But I am being inspired by what I see though I do seem to keep getting side-tracked into reading recipes and the instructions for craft and do-it-yourself projects. And I seem to wind up on Etsy a lot. But its been fun and I'm really looking forward to my wool arriving.
Since I saw this on Tara's Wool board, do you think I can send her the bill?
P.S. I didn't buy this exact bundle of wool. It sold back in December. I bought something else... but I think I'm still going to blame it on Tara.
