I Love Pinterest

I love Pinterest. I really do. Not because I'm trying to find a way to  use it make more online connections and 'drive traffic,' but because it's fun. And I see a serious benefit to my work. 

The fun part is collecting without clutter in my physical space. The fun part is googling for images I've decided to collect.  The fun part is creating a board for something whimsical, like....armadillos. 

Kansas City Kidney Foundation Armadillo Races
the text says on Pennsylvania Avenue in Historic Westport
Signed W. Wiley 83
 [sent to me by Deb Brandt, who makes fabulous hand-dyed roving for wondrous spinning and felting]

Oh yes, it's a time-chomper, so I view Pinterest time as I regard time spent watching video or playing a game: another way to relax, not a way to spend the day.

The useful part (and something I haven't yet done in a serious way) is to use Pinterest to create specific mood or vision boards, a place to gather an inspiring variety of visuals, colors, textures around theme. I do have a board for nature pictures that inspire, and a board for moths, even one for leaf skeletons.

If you do use Pinterest to explore personal visions, it's important to remember that it's public space. If you're worried about anyone stealing your ideas, or learning more about you, I'll say it again: remember that it's public space.

I've discovered that just putting a picture on my "want" board, takes away a great deal of the want for the actual thing.  This is a really useful discovery for someone who has many of the tendencies of a hoarder - the emotional investment in objects that requires one to keep them.  I've seen often enough the advice to take pictures of things you are finding hard to let go, and always thought that wouldn't help.  But now, after experiencing the satisfying effect of keeping just a picture of something I want, I can see how it might work with objects one already has and needs to release.

I love that when you click on the pictures, you connect to the source of the pictures. You can create boards for sites you want to remember, patterns you want to try, recipes.

Finally, I love how easy it is.  You can put a little Pin It icon in your toolbar and pin things as you run across them online, and move on - you don't have to go into a fullblown Pinterest Session.

You can view all your pins (they are arranged in chronological order, with the earliest ones at the bottom of the page) or see all your boards with the last nine Pins showing. Click on a board to see all the Pins on that Board.

All my pins.

All my Boards.

I like that you can rearrange the order of the Boards. I don't like it that you can't rearrange the order of Pins on each Board - they stay in the order pinned with the earliest at the bottom.

You can re-Pin from other's Boards.  I love that there's a kind of provenance established, showing who you re-pinned from, and retaining the original source link.
You can follow other Pinners - all their Boards or just a particular Board. Others can follow you.

Now that I've professed my love for Pinterest, I'll state, too, that it's a honeymoon right now. I suspect that eventually things will change, evolve, as profit comes into the picture. And we'll start hearing how awful it is that Pinterest is doing this or that. That seems to be the way things go online. For now, though, I'm enjoying it and I'm all about the now.

Go on, join ( I think there's still a little wait time like Ravelry at first)  and start Pinning and enjoy it while it lasts!