once upon a time…
First of all – I have had ZERO, no, less than zero interest in www.pinterest.com since hearing about it. I think the problem was – the way I was seeing it in use had me thinking it was not at all what it really was. It sounded like some kind of time/soul sucking home decor nightmare I wanted nothing to do with. Lots of weird, hipster, modern, and not for me stuff is what I was thinking.
a few weeks ago…
I’ve been majorly frustrated with my inspiration journals. I don’t want to print every cute idea I see on-line – and even if I did most often imgs are too tiny to really print well so the idea is lost. OR I put into my “favorites” folder and then I can’t remember why I’ve got links/where they are. I’ve been posting a lot of inspiration on my BPC on-line class message boards and it’s been frustrating to me that I have to go through so much to save the inspiration I want to use in future/share at some future date…
Then a friend mentioned pinterest. I snarled. gagged. Told her what I really thought.
Then she explained it better than I’ve ever had it explained! Think of it as an inspiration journal, a file-folder filled with the things you want to remember. Recipes, party ideas, crafting ideas, tutorials, household stuff, fashion, things you want to buy when you’ve got the budget… ANYTHING you want to be able to pull up in a flash. A place to save favorite blog posts and ideas that would otherwise get lost.
ok, so I don’t have to look at drift wood carvings or diapers made from hemp? oh…..
I signed up. Um, but apparently you can’t just sign up, and it took a week (maybe 2?) before I got an email saying “ok, you can be a member now”.
7am PST today…
You have to use facebook or twitter to sign up (which basically pulls your profile photo + suggests people you know) – that’s ok I guess. Then you’re off. You can make “pin boards” and name them whatever you like. Make their contents as vague or specific as you want.
You can keep editing/adding/changing. I love that. I also love that you can make notations when you pin something. Sorta like sticking a post-it or drawing an arrow & adding a note when you’re working with an inspiration journal.
above you see the start of my “color” board.
You can also choose to follow people’s boards which basically means on the home page you’ll see when/what they add. You could follow ALL their boards – or just some. I’m finding most of the time I only want to follow some because of the way/focus I’m planning on using this.
(above are some of Stephanie Howell’s boards that I’m following)
Here’s my home page right now…
When you go to the home page – you’ll see a live-feed of what YOU and the people you’re following are adding and loving… you can “re-pin” onto your own board(s), choose to ‘love’ something, or leave a comment. Here you see me re-pinning something I found on the JBS (Jenni Bowlin) page…
But you could also IGNORE that entirely and just be an island. do/add your own things and look at nothing else. Truly use it as an inspiration file folder…
That’s what really got me – the fabulous blogs I read? Websites I surf? All you do is add the “pin it” button to your favorites and then you can pin anything. anywhere. anytime. A window will pop up where you leave your note, select a board you’re putting it on, and click pin.
Recipes. Books. Color. Party ideas. holidays. fashion. shopping wish-list. photography inspiration. tutorials. DIY. crafty goodness. Seriously – SO MUCH I get inspired by and want to save – and now it’s easy and instant.
So easy. so sweet. AND it’s going to save me crazy amounts of time. I spend SO MUCH TIME searching for “that thing I saw that one time a year or two ago…” and when uninspired I think it’ll be a great place to refresh and renew my creative self.
So now I ask – are you on pinterest? How do you use it? Who are your favorites to follow? Link me up so I can check you out too! Not on there but have questions? Ask away!
you can find me here: http://pinterest.com/mayflaum
Dude! I LOVE it!!! You can totally get lost in it, but it is SOOO inspirational!! Here’s me: http://pinterest.com/rebecca_lovell/ Happy pinning!
Funny…I just finally got my “ok you’re on pinterest” email this morning, too. And I already followed you a couple hours ago. I’m trying to use it to pin scrapbook layouts I see that I might want to scraplift someday. It’s more efficient than keeping magazines or cutting pictures out of the magazines to put in a notebook that I never end up looking at again. Digitial is so much better.
That said…I can’t figure out yet how to get it to pin an entire blog post. It only seems to want to do pictures. But then, I really only had an hour to play with it this morning while baby was napping. Once the Wiggles are over and I can get her to nap again…I’ll play some more!
Isn’t it ADDICTING?? I love it. See you out there — I am going to add you to my boards to follow.
pinterest is so awesome-glad you are enjoying it! I am definitely addicted! Here’s me: http://pinterest/rkokes Have fun!
When I’ve got something that is “more than the picture” I’m pinning the image, then in the description I add a link to the specific page and a note – like “video tutorial too” or “recipe for this included” or whatever it might be so I know that it’s not just a pretty picture.
I received my ok a couple of weeks ago, but it is now lost somewhere in my emails that have not been deleted. Now that I know that you can save layouts and other inspiration, I just may search my emails. Thanks for the tips.
Yes! You could save absolutely anything from an image in a gallery to a recipe to a blog post… if it’s on the internet basically, you can pin it.
I see some people with layout boards divided into categories so when they want to lift they’ll have “single page”, “vacation”, etc. ideas. Love that!
Me? I’m not planning on saving many layouts, but it’s nice to think of how specific you can get.
I will have to look you up. I don’t follow anyone yet. I use it as my guilty pleasure hub. I put everything I want to buy on it just in case I want to treat myself one day. It helps me remember where I saw it. I add scrap things furniture and clothes mostly.
Thanks for the review. I think this confirms that I don’t need pinterest because I’m doing all my collecting in Evernote. It doesn’t have the social/following aspect of course, but I think that does have the most time suck potential, and I have Twitter for that.
Okay, sounds really good but I am so afraid its going to be a big time hog. I don’t twitter or facebook for that reason! Can you make it private so its just for yourself or can anyone see your page?
hmm…i will have to come back and read this post again when I am not so tired; still not interested
Ha Ha! Oh you are in trouble now May! I LOVE Pinterest 🙂 The other night I needed a major stress relief (balancing the budget!) and wine or chocolate weren’t an option…so I layed down and just relaxed while I scrolled through the most beautiful pictures 🙂 Look me up, I’m on there!
Well, I don’t twitter or facebook or have a blog…but what I do have is a file on my desktop with all my favorite blogs and inspiration pages…and all I have to do is double click and I’m there….no matter how old the web page is. And I can name a file on this page anything I want and find it instantly….the end result is the same I think.
The thing that I love is that I don’t have to add the link on my own becuase it is automatically done for you in the top right if you open of the pin. 🙂
http://www.pinterest.com/liveteachcreate
I just started using it last week. I plan to use it exactly as you described. I found myself with bunches of bookmarks that were not sorted or descriptive, or dozens of tabs open on my browser because I wanted to hang on to something for a bit, or folders on my computer with ideas, files etc. None of that was working for me. With pinterest, I can sort ideas, tutorials, recipes into bulletin boards. It is visual, but no clutter! I could see it being a big time suck, if I let it, so I am (so far) just using it for stuff I find on blogs I already read or find in my usual searching, and trying not to get sucked in. BUT it is tempting to start following people. (I have your oreo cupcake recipe pinned!) I used Facebook to sign up, but then I “disconnected” the account. Jennifer Raymond, if you want to see my stuff. I need to organize my board better, but i am still new to it, so figuring out what works for me.
so funny I joined. but I never have used, let’s say I didn’t understand it. Now that you have explained it, it sounds so great. This is excatly what I need for all those stupid little jpegs sitting on my desktop that I eventually put in a folder and then never remember!
I don’t believe you can make it private… but I also don’t know why you’d really want to. It’s just posting links to other people’s sites/pics/etc… so you don’t have to put up personal info. You can take off your picture, have no personal info, and have an obscure user name. that would make it more “anonymous” at least.
I might have to look into it after reading that – thanks!
I’ve just joined up this week too – soooooooo loving it! I’ve just been in and ‘followed’ you! 🙂 (hmm…it does seems just a little stalker-ish to ‘follow’ everyone)