I Like To Look At Pretty Things
Posted: Monday 07 November, 2011
Erica Whiteman
When I was younger, I liked to tear pages out of magazines for inspiration from fashion magazines, food magazines and especially design magazines. The downside of this was I had a mountain of papers that I didn’t really get to look at properly. I also liked to pin images, scraps of fabric, ribbon or paper with interesting colours and textures to a bulletin board. Collecting bits like these wasn’t really handy for someone who moved around a lot – but I still liked to look at pretty things.
Fast-forward to the age of the Internet… There are a lot of social networks popping up for various interests like crafts, cooking, blogging or even photography. One in particular that struck my fancy was Pinterest - a sort of scrapbooking for the digital age.
Pinterest is a visual pinboard for collecting and sharing online content. If you see something on the web that you like, whether a pair of boots, the latest ‘It’ bag or a really cool sofa, you can ‘pin’ it to a virtual pin board which friends and followers can see. Additionally, if a friend or follower is also a fan of those pair of boots, the latest ‘It’ bag or that really cool sofa, they can re-pin it to their pinboards. This social networking site is all about discovering and sharing things found around the web.
Pinboards can be categorised into sections such as ‘Products I Love’, ‘Favourite Places’ for travel inspiration, ‘Books I Love’ and ‘My Style Pinboard’ . Users can also created bespoke pinboards, for instance I have created one called ‘Baking Board’ where I collect recipes, inspiring food photos and fun kitchen equipment. And like Twitter, you can follow other users accounts or even specific pinboards depending on your interest. Pinterest also sends out a weekly round up highlighting some of the latest finds and updates to the Pinterest blog.
The only downside to Pinterest is that you can lose track of time browsing through the many amazing and inspiring pinboards – in addition to the website, the Pinterest app is also available for smartphones.
Follow me, if you’re on Pinterest and happy pinning!
