The Pinterest Hooplah

Okay, so until two weeks ago, I had never visited the Pinterest website.  Many of my friends used it, but I didn't understand what all the hooplah was about.  Not to mention, since I had to add Twitter to the ever growing list of ridiculousness I have to manage if I wanted to publish my book, I could not imagine navigating one more emerging website. 

However..........once I returned from the SheSpeaks! conference I realized that it might be a useful tool for the web designers developing my new website for the fall.  Well, I had no idea.  Are you a pinner?  How freakin' addictive is that?  You get to say what you like, with no repercussions, you can delete it if you change your mind, and you get to see loads of crazy stuff. 

If you're like me, then you could have a variety of bizarre interests.  You like historic European architecture?  Pin the cool stuff you love and have visited!  You like big statement necklaces?  Make a fashion board and find your favs!  Are you interested in family friendly recipes?  Start a list and stop printing out all those sheets of paper that inevitably find themselves in the bathroom or washing machine! 

So as part of a link up with the awesome girls over at Squee who just released Pinterpretation, and are also helping me develop my brand and website, I'm listing the top five things I've learned about myself in the mere two weeks I've been a Pinterest-er:

1.  I like color.  I always think I like whites and low key understated things in decorating and design, but when Squee had me make a color board solely from gut reactions I found what I really like are POPS of color!

2.  I like couches in restaurants.  I know that sounds bizarre, but I was pinning restaurant design as part of my Squee exercise too and found I really love lush upholstery in restaurants.  Plus, color (again!) in a restaurant can be pretty fabulous. 

3.  As much as I love color, I also LOVE white.  Especially at Christmas.  I know I have kids and I have to do colored bulbs and mismatched decor for a few years, but I can not wait to get back to the white (and gold) decorations of Christmases past.  I love all white. 

4.  I miss two things: planning weddings and traveling abroad.  Inevitably stuff I pin that I love has to do with travel (which I used to do more of) and weddings (which I planned on and off even before I got married).  I wonder if I can talk Bray into a getting remarried in Venice for our 10th anniversary and then I could do both (when I suggested getting remarried for our 5th so I could wear another wedding dress, he said the only way you're wearing another wedding dress is if you marry another man, so I'm not optimistic)!

5.  Most surprisingly, I really like design.  I like the process.  Selecting color.  Choosing styles.  Mixing patterns.  Hence the addictive nature of Pinterest for me.  I give myself a 15 minute window to browse around or I would never get anything else done. 

So here's a word of warning, if you're not pinning yet, it's addictive if you start!  But if you are pinning, you should really check out Pinterpretation and see what you're really saying about yourself!