My Latest Pinterest

Someone help me, I can't stop pinning.

For those of you who haven't discovered Pinterest, a dangerously addictive social media community for the artsy, allow me to give you some background on this little gem.

As described on its site...
"Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes."

Basically, people can upload pictures of all of their favorite things for the world to check out.  If you are a Pinterest member, you can view these images, and as you find images that you like, you can "re-pin" them, or save them to your own little inspiration board.  You can organize your inspiration boards so you have visual collections of all your favorite things.

You can browse other people's boards, leave comments on images, follow other pinners and tweet your obsessions.  You can discover a new recipe, color combo, inspirational quote or adorable pair of shoes  every 4 seconds.  Once you sign up, you'll spend hours pinning random awesome pictures, and you'll love every minute.  I know I have.

Some learning takeaways from this social media community:

• It feels like a new site every 10 minutes because of the rate images upload.  It's incredibly dynamic, contributing to the sites addictiveness.
• Users are introduced to more websites and images that they will love because the images are linked to their original sites.  It's kinda like discovering new artist on Pandora.  When you find a photo you're obsessed with, you can follow its link and often find a whole new blog to stalk.  There's an awesome feeling of discovery when using the site.
• It's easy to use, easy to search and easy to find people who like what you like.
• You can define your own style by viewing other people's.  There's a sense of individuality, even though you're in a community where everyone is doing the same thing.  
• Warning:  In order to pin, you have to join Pinterest by "Requesting an Invite."  I was invited to join 5 days after requesting an invitation a couple of months ago.  I'm not exactly sure why Pinterest does this, but it may be to generate a stronger feeling of unity between members.

Here's one of my recent Pins from my "Recipes I Can't Wait to Try Board."  (I know it's not a complex one, but doesn't it look delicious?!)  Thanks, Stacy Berg for pinning!

and here's what a Recipe Board would look like:

 

And how cute of an idea are these Necktie Cuff Bracelets?  Thanks, Little Pretties Cara Veeder for pinning!

I'd love to show you more of my finds, but I've got to keep pinning.  Feel free to come check out my boards at http://pinterest.com/cjinspired/pins/ .