Pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest?


I like to think of it as the lazy girl's guide to the best of blogs, shopping, DIY projects, home decor ideas, recipes, and so much more. When you sign up (request an invite first) you get a "pin it" button on your favorites bar and anytime you find a photo of something you love online you "pin" that photo to your profile and choose a category for it. Then you have all of your "pin boards" full of great ideas with sources attached. It's sort of like an online version of a binder full of magazine clip outs, but without the hassle of sorting through pages and trying to remember where you found them.


The best part of pinterest is that you share your boards with friends and follow their boards as well. So you don't have to do all that web surfing yourself! You can simply sit back and watch the pins go up and then "repin" anything that you like. 


The ideas, crafts, DIY projects, recipes, gifts, decor ideas and clothing/accessories for kids are endless. I have already found so many great summer camp projects and snacks for Smart Sprouts. Here is a glimpse of the Smart Sprouts pin board:

This is a Smart Sprouts board through my personal account. I'm waiting on my invite for a Smart Sprouts account where I can create boards for crafts, research, snacks, decor and more all about kids. 


Here are a couple of my most recent and favorite finds:

Superglue pennies to the bottom of shoes for homemade tap shoes!

When I saw this 'pin' I had to 'repin' and when I clicked on the source I found this amazing list of New Uses for Old Things, Kids Edition from Real Simple.


This a great example of how 'pins' lead to finding more great ideas on the web that I would never find myself. Now I know that baking soda and WD-40 both work for cleaning crayon off of walls, a pillow case can be turned into an adorable art smock, and that cupcake liners can double as popsicle stick drip-catchers.


And this is an adorable idea for an Eric Carle themed lunch box:
(Although it might only happen on the first day of school but on any normal day it looks a little ambitious...)

This may seem like the ultimate online time waster (and yes, at first you will spend WAY too much time on it). But, I like to think that pinterest actually cuts down on the time I might spend flipping through magazines, blog surfing and googling things likes recipes only to be disappointed. Pinterest brings together the best of the web and allows you to not only save these ideas in an organized way but gives an easy way to track back to the actual recipe/DIY instructions/store/website etc. 


Ready, set, pin!


Thanks for reading,
Ann