Pinterest Obsession

Are you familiar with Pinterest?  If not you should be!  I was told about Pinterest by my youngest daughter.  My first question to her…What does that name even mean?  It’s actually really simple – it’s a place where you “pin” your “interest”. Get it?  Pin + interest = Pinterest.  Genius!

The pins are visual bookmarks for things you find on Pinterest or elsewhere on the Internet.  Each user creates boards to collect their pins by theme or topic.  Boards can be “followed” by other users and continually added to.  You can even make a private board that other users can’t see unless you allow them to.  I haven’t tried the private board yet but think I might soon as this could be a great place to pin some research ideas for a project I’m working on.

I initially created boards for recipes I found that looked like something I might want to try or for recipes I wanted to share with others.  My board quickly filled up to the point where I needed several different recipe boards.  The awesome thing about having my recipe boards is they create a virtual cookbook that is awesome when I am drawing a blank on something to make for dinner or needing a tasty party treat.  Each pin links back to the site where the actual recipe is located making it a snap to get the information.  And the fact that my pin is a visual image of the recipe makes it even easier to make a decision.

Seeing how much I loved to pin recipes I expanded to holidays (I have about 10 different Halloween boards), crafts, TV and Movie interests, and we can’t forget about the Eye Candy board.  I even made a board while planning for our recent trip to Washington, DC to include some of the things I wanted to see or sites to return to while actually on the trip.  And it is an awesome place for “virtual hoarding”.  I can pin all the things I want to and they aren’t taking up any room in my real world – that is until I actually buy or make the item.  As of this post I have 130 different boards containing 7,589 pins.  I think maybe I have a Pinterest obsession.  J

While I am only pinning things that interest me it’s always a thrill when someone starts following one (or all) of my boards and especially when they re-pin something I have pinned.  It’s nice to know that someone else is interested in the same things I am – especially particular fandoms (hello Supernatural, Sherlock and The Walking Dead!).  And there is always a good joke to be found or a good motivational quote to pick me up.

Earlier this week I received a message from Pinterest letting me know that one my boards had been picked to be one of the recommended boards for new Pinners to follow when they first sign up.  I don’t know which board it was but I think it’s awesome that Pinterest chose any of them to showcase at all.  It was almost like getting a reward for doing something I already enjoyed doing.

If you haven’t tried Pinterest yet check it out: www.pinterest.com.

You can find my boards at: www.pinterest.com/melaniemalone.

Happy Pinning!