Pinterest as Education

Words cannot express how much I love www.pinterest.com.  I'm constantly looking to it for inspiration and ways to keep myself busy in my downtime.  It is an endless source of creativity and innovation, encouraging crafty people to "go green" by doing it yourself.

It is through Pinterest that I learned to knit, make inverse peppermint patties, and find diets and exercises that have worked for others.  I find fun ways to repurpose furniture, frames, mason jars, and tea tins.  Make your own wreaths, put together outfits and add links to the stores where the items can be purchased, plan your future wedding, or learn to tie every kind of necktie.  But who finds these ideas?  Whose job is it to pass on 'pinteresting' tidbits of information?  The User's.  I can learn these things from friends, or people on the other side of the country currently turning an old end table into a pet bed, or an old frame into a chalkboard.

And that's not all. You can learn other individuals' remedies for colds, blackheads, dull hair, gas guzzling cars, and PMS; recipes for salted caramel shortbread cookies, sweet potato avocado burgers, or sun dried tomato & basil stuffed chicken.  Hungry, yet?  What about spicy shrimp marinara with feta cheese, or 64 different kinds of christmas cookies?

This OH-so-delicious recipe for bruschetta chicken inspired me to create my own.  Next time, instead of tomatoes and basil, I have decided to use artichoke hearts and spinach on grilled chicken with another kind of vinaigrette.  Pinterest not only makes recipes like this available, but encourages you to modify them, create your own, and pass it on.

I have several boards on my own page, ranging from pictures of exotic animals, products and stores I love, places I'd like to go, and clothing I like.  But I re-pin more items than anything else on my DIY board.  Slowly, I have begun to work my way through these projects, and I am forever adding to it.  Some work, some don't.

I have made beer bottles into glass cups, mugs into chalkboards, and acne masks from honey, nutmeg and milk.  What didn't go well at first included the inverted peppermint patties (which were too gooey to mold into the balls pictured), shaving with baby oil (not a close enough shave), and peanut butter & Oreo filled brownies (too thick inside.)  However, failures are still educational, as you can manipulate failed recipes into works of art.

Most of the posts come from the same sites.  Clothing usually comes from www.modcloth.com, diets vary from http://laurenconrad.com/blog/post/shape-up-my-7-days-to-skinny-jeans-plan to www.fitsugar.com.  People can reference blogs from www.tumblr.com, www.blogspot.com, and www.blogger.com among many, many others.  In fact, it is from Pinterest that I have been introduced to other DIY blogs with some great, cheap ideas.