PINTEREST, AND THE WONDROUS WAYS IT CAN WORK FOR YOU

Have any of you stumbled across Pinterest yet?  I tried to ignore it for several months (as I have been ignoring Twitter for several years now) but when I realized that it was bringing people to my blog, even though I had never once been to the website, and didn't have a clue how it worked, well, I had to go check it out, didn't I?  Imagine how flabbergasted I was to discover that Pinterest had been custom-created just for me!

You see, I am a very visual person.  When I cook, I want recipes with mouthwatering photos attached.  Each time we got transferred, I'd spend weeks pouring through magazines first, tearing out anything that tickled my fancy, until I had assembled an inspiration notebook with a theme, a color scheme, and lots of fun ideas for our next house.  When I worked as a garden designer and a visual merchandiser, I always had an inspiration board hanging on the wall above my desk or drawing table.  When I was brainstorming ideas for my Cantina Garden, I assembled the collage you see above.  I left my mind completely open, and just started pulling images together. When I was done, I knew that the garden had to be fun and funky, with lots of lurid color, striking plants, delicious things to eat, and one-of-a-kind creations.

Unfortunately, in addition to being a very visual person, I am also a very forgetful person.  The "internets" are a veritable wonderland of inspiring images and ideas -- everything from books to read and movies to see, to recipes to save and things to make -- but the problem for me has always been keeping track of the ones I might want to use later, or even finding my way back to one I spotted just moments ago!  But, what if you had a special button on your computer, and every time you stumbled across a great recipe or plant or decorating idea, all you had to do was click that magic button, and whatever it was that you wanted to remember would automatically get pinned up on one of your special inspiration boards -- the ones that cover the walls in your special inspiration room!  That would be awesome, no?  Well, with Pinterest, you can make it so!

Know what I've got in my inspiration room over at Pinterest?  Color! Lots and lots of color!  And a special bulletin board for each of the things I am passionate about.  There are boards for Hill Country Style, for the Cantina Garden, for Bohemian-Hippy-Cowgirl Fashion, for Eats & Treats, for Crafty Things and Creative Reuse, for Books & Movies, for things that drive me Color-Mad, for...well, there's no limit to what I may pin, for I can keep adding new boards whenever I am inspired to!  And, you know what?  If this was all that Pinterest did -- if it was merely a simple way to save and keep track of things you've seen on-line, it would be downright wonderful.  But it's soooo much more than that.

Remember, I started off by saying that Pinterest brought people to my blog before I even knew what it was?  How was that possible? It's possible because Pinterest combines this image-saving magic with social-networking capabilities.  I got new blog visitors because someone out there saw one of my funny little To-Do lists, liked it, and decided to pin it to one of her bulletin boards.  Since all images grabbed by this magic "Pin It" button come with a link back to the place they were found, everyone who sees it on her board can follow it back to its source, and that's the thing.  Over at Pinterest, you don't just sit there admiring your own boards and pins (although, I am seriously fond of doing that), you also get to see what lots of others are pinning too, and they get to see yours.  You can even re-pin stuff from their boards to yours, or "like" their pins, or leave comments. Best of all, if you discover people who like a lot of the same kinds of things as you, you can follow some or all of their boards, and vice-versa!

Now, I'm still a total greenhorn when it comes to all of this, but even I can see that there are ways to "work it", especially if you have something to promote -- say,  design or photography skills, a small craft business or etsy shop, or perhaps, maybe even a blog?  For example, on my Cantina Garden board, I don't just post pictures of things I might want to add some day.  I've also posted some pictures of how it came into being (such as the collage above), and a few pictures of plants and things that are already there -- pictures from my blog.  Yesterday afternoon I "pinned" this photo of pink Muhly grass to my Cantina Garden board -- a photo which was posted on my blog a year or two ago.  Within an hour or two I had received several email notices from Pinterest reporting that 15 or 20 people had already re-pinned that image to their own boards.  Furthermore, when I checked my blog stats later that evening, I found that Pinterest had brought more people to my blog that day (probably through following this little photo back to its source) than either google or facebook!  Amazing, no?