Friday, January 27, 2012

Very Pinteresting

You are all familiar with the Innovation/Adoption Curve, right?

Wait...no? You're not a giant loser that still remembers charts from your college marketing classes? Good news...I am! Let me refresh your memory:
See that grey chunk on the right? That's me. Well, at least when it comes to technology. I manage to weasel myself into the early majority, or even an early adopter (I hesitate to call myself an innovator...) in a lot of things, like fashion, decorating trends...nail polish!...But for some reason I've always been slow to jump on the new technology bandwagon. More accurately, I wait until the bandwagon is barreling towards me, and I pretty much have no choice but to climb aboard or get flattened. I held on to the flip phone until the bitter end (which was still before Dustin gave it up), I resisted Facebook for years, and genuinely debated returning a new xbox 360 (with Kinect!) because "we already have a nintendo!"

But my most recent hold out- and subsequent cave in- is Pinterest.

For those of you not familiar with Pinterest. Thank you. You've made this laggard feel slightly better about herself. (seriously, all my friends are on it, and two have even blogged about it already.) Basically, it's an online space where you can "organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web." Rather than dealing with webpage bookmarks (which inevitably get all mixed up, or lost on multiple computers), or trying to save images to your desktop (which makes it hard to impossible to recall the original sources), Pinterest gives you a spot to save everything, keeps it organized, and embeds the links so you can remember where you found things.

It's a great site, but I was hesitant to embrace it for a while, mostly because I wasn't sure I wanted all my business on online "front street" (yes, this coming from someone who publishes a blog...I see the irony). Finding and compiling inspiration is a big part of my job, and the thought of all my work and ideas being common knowledge kind of freaked me out. (For what it's worth, this is actually a pretty common Pinterest complaint. No one likes everyone knowing where all their ideas come from. I'm all for sharing, but it'd be nice to keep a few things private, lest all our parties, homes, closets and dinner tables start to look identical.) But eventually the convenience factor outweighed my desire for creative secrecy, and I gave in.

Since then, I've been a pinnin' fool, and I now have 48 boards and 609 pins. Here's a snapshot of some of my stuff...

My (p)interests span a pretty wide range, but my main foci (yep. foci. told you I was a nerd.) are party ideas, recipes, home decor inspiration, and some photography tutorials. I pretty much pin anything that catches my eye, but I do try to narrow it to ideas that I might actually try one day. No, I'm not going to be able to recreate every picture I pin (nor should I...) but one of my Pinterest Pet Peeves is people who pin all day long, but you know never bother to actually do any of those projects. Maybe there are people out there who just like to collect pretty pictures, but I want my boards to have a purpose. Some ideas I'll rip off directly (no shame...that's what it's for!) some I'll use as a jumping off point for similar projects, but for the most part, everything I pin has a fighting chance of actually coming to life...my life.

So with all my spare time (ha!) I've been trying to make good on my Pin Promises, and turn some of my inspiration into reality. I've done a few crafts, and taken a whole lot of photos, but my most notable pinterest success stories are in the kitchen. Rather than clipping recipes, filing them away (or letting them pile up) and forgetting to do anything with them, I'm using pinterest to motivate me to follow through on my culinary dreams.

To help inspire you...here are a few things I've tried so far:

Potato Soup
I've finally fallen in love with crockpot cooking (I'm really behind the times on that one!) And love a good "dump everything in the pot" type recipe. This one turned out great (so good that we just started eating it, and forgot to take pictures...). And just to show I went the extra mile to make it my own- here are my modifications: I did two cans of cream of chicken soup (10oz each), and added 4 strips of bacon (I cooked it in the microwave first and then chopped and added to the crockpot). The recipe doesn't say how much cheese, but it's just used for a topping when you serve so you can do whatever feels right. I topped it with the cheese, sour cream, and chopped scallions, and served it with salad and sourdough bread. Yum.

Link
Pulled Pork

This is probably a lot of people's go-to meal, but I had never tried it. This photo convinced me it was easy enough to try...4 ingredients? Can do! I used Coke Zero instead of diet pepsi. (because of course I did!) and doubled the recipe. (not really on purpose...that's just the size of pork butt that was available. heehee...pork butt.)

Here's mine, simmering away....Delish.


Baked Apples

And in non-crockpot news, I gave this sweet treat a try, for an Apps and Zerts party in my honor (if you do nothing else, please click on that link. I don't even watch Parks and Rec, and that clip still kills me.)


Again, I got a little caught up in the process and forgot to take a photo of the final product, but they weren't half bad. I used pie crust instead of puff pastry (because apparently my reading comprehension isn't what it used to be) and sprinkled sugar and cinnamon on top before baking, because, well...that sounded delicious. I had to cook them much longer than the recipe said, but that might have been due to my substitution of pretty much the only ingredient it calls for. If you attempt this one, may I suggest investing in an apple corer (de-corer?). I've heard it's faster...and maybe safer...than my steak knife solution. Equipment and ingredient challenges aside, they turned out great.


(And just to illustrate my Pinterest Point [no, I don't know why I've taken to capitalizing things into formal categories. I think it's the alliteration. Too Tempting!] about too much sharing, the aforementioned Apps and Zerts party nearly ended in a Pinterest Pitfall, when a friend brought an app that I was thisclose to making. We discussed how one of us had pinned it from the other, but we don't remember who's Pinterest Property it was, so we agreed to touch base before future parties, to avoid overlap. Crisis averted!)

So if you haven't already gotten your Pin on...get going, you laggards! And if you need a kick start- you can follow me. I'm not promising it'll always be pretty, but it at least be Pinteresting. (Pinterest Pun. Perfect.)

5 comments :

  1. This post was crucial for our non-overlapping plans...I had no idea you had so many board. For some reason, even though I was following you, I wasn't following most of your stuff. That has now changed...welcome to my world crazy amount of boards...you are now officially going to blow my Pinterest up. I LOVE it!

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  2. I think it speaks volumes about my bad attitude that because one can't just "sign up and get on pinterest" but instead signs up and then waits for the invitation to join...I refuse to accept.

    I signed up. I waited (several days) and after the powers that be at Pinterest checked my credentials, I finally got the longed for "invitation."

    I'm sure someday I'll get on there, but I do fear I won't really do most of what I pin so its probably safer for me to stay away. I'm not crafty. I can't decorate. I NEVER know what to wear..etc...so I'd probably be a Pinterest Loser.

    So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

    To have an ounce of your creativity (and actual follow-through)!

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  3. Meg....I'm ready! Now that you're not keeping shower secrets from me, I'm following your every move. (and your sisters, and your mom!)

    Happy...We need to get together so I can give you a pep talk about your coolness. You are not a loser- pinterest related or otherwise!!

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  4. next time? try doing pulled beef. even better :)

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  5. All I can say is FINALLY!!! and all i do it pin, and pinnin' aint easy. Okay, enough. Love you!

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