I want to share the Pinterest-related tech tip I figured out this weekend, so first let me tell you why I like Pinterest. In case you’re not sold yet. Really? You’re not on Pinterest yet? <wink/>

A few friends mentioned Pinterest late in summer 2011 (thanks Erin and Martha), but after taking a quick look I didn’t understand why I would want an account. It looked like a bunch of ads for stuff that didn’t interest me. Then I started planning Patrick’s second birthday party, and I fell in love with the ability to collect my ideas from various blogs and stores to view them as an image board. Pinterest let me store all my ideas about party favors, decorations, and the food in one place online, accessible from my phone or laptop. Besides “pinning” my own ideas to my board, I loved searching Pinterest to find other people who already grouped the best-of-the-best truck party ideas on their own boards. I didn’t like that it was public and could lead to “party spoilers”, but I loved how the theme of his construction-truck party was coming together. Guess I’m not alone… this board has 192 other followers:

My Pinterest board for Patrick's Construction-truck birthday party

Since November I’ve expanded my Pinterest world to include boards for real food recipes, children’s book lists, DIY kid crafts and activities (maybe my favorite thing to find via Pinterest), DIY home decor, dessert recipes and planning the decor for Patrick’s space-themed toddler bedroom.

Another reason I like Pinterest is to follow the interests of my friends. I see a stream of items they post, and I get a sense of what’s important to them right now. I can re-pin their ideas or go back to their boards later to see their pins, grouped together by topic, in their boards. Because Pinterest is public, I can also follow people I don’t know. I’ve come across other moms with similar interests and decided to follow them to enjoy their good ideas.

A peek at the great ideas from people I follow on Pinterest

My complaints about Pinterest are only in regards to the technical implementation: the site can be slow, the iPhone app used to be broken, and some of the features of the site need to provide more feedback to the user. I’m sure they’ll iron out these issues as they progress and improve.

In case you still don’t get it, take a look at a category that interests you on Pinterest.com or read the Pinterest wikipedia article.

Most of my boards don’t have a lot of items pinned. That’s partly because I’ve been limited in what I can pin because I’m usually browsing from my iPhone or iPad. I could “re-pin” someone’s pinned idea, but I couldn’t pin my own ideas. Until I figured it out this weekend. Look for the tech tip in my next post…