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Friday, May 25, 2012

100 Running Song Playlist Ideas Thanks to Pinterest


Another piece of trivia about me. I love to run.

Although I've tried to be a hardcore runner that can run without music, I've found that I just run better with motivation. To me, music is my motivation.

I love a good playlist. With the right songs I feel like I can run over mountain tops, and through a forrest. With the wrong music, I feel as though I have no motivation to run and get distracted trying to find the right song to get me moving.

Thanks to a Pinterest pin today I came across a pin for 100 Running Songs.

This seems like perfect timing. I just finished a 5k and 10k run last weekend. I'm ready to plan training for a half marathon. I really want to revamp my playlist, and it looks like this list is just the way to get me started.

After reading through all of her suggestions, I want to add a few of my favorites to a smaller list. Here are some of my favorite running songs, not on Kayla's list.

  • We Are Young - Fun.
  • Rumour Has It - Adele
  • Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) - Kelly Clarkson
  • Grenade - Bruno Mars
  • Americano - Lady Gaga
  • Hold It Against Me - Britney Spears
  • On the Floor - Jennifer Lopez
  • Glad You Came - The Wanted
  • Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
  • Lose Yourself - 8 Mile - Eminem
  • When Will I Be Loved? - Linda Ronstadt
  • Set Fire to the Rain - Adele
  • Fighter - Christina Aguilera
  • Moves Like Jagger - Maroon 5
  • Firework - Katy Perry
  • Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People
I hope between the two lists you can find your perfect running playlist.

My favorite running quote as of late is: "I believe in redefining my impossible." - Nike

Thursday, May 24, 2012

12 Uses for Recycled Baby Wipe Containers


Before I jump into the meat of this blog post, I will give you a little background on myself. I'm a mother of 3 children under the age of 4. I'm constantly surrounded by baby everything, and have been for the last 4 years. Anytime someone can come up with a genius way to reuse something I used for my children I have to take a moment to praise them.

One day on Pinterest I found the above picture that stopped me in my tracks. The pin was described as "12 Uses for Recycled Baby Wipe Containers". All I could think is... finally! Finally someone has come up with a few creative ways to use containers that the rest of us have thrown for years. I have a little creativity and have used baby wipe containers for basic storage for crayons, markers, or Barbie clothing but having even more ideas for this basic container seemed like a dream.

Not only was I able to find out 12 very interesting uses for baby wipe containers from the pin, but I was also able to discover a blogging website that I had never heard of before. Until the baby wipe pin, Tip Junkie meant nothing to me. Now Tip Junkie is a starting place for me to search for new ideas.

This situation is a great example of how Pinterest opened up my eyes to an idea for uses of the baby wipe container, while also pointing me to a resource of the blog. I now have so much more knowledge on both subjects thanks to Pinterest.

PS. Pinterest does not pay me to blog about their site. I'm in no way affiliated with them, but would love to be someday. :)

Reasons Why Pinterest is An Addicting Website

Warning:

Pinterest is an addicting website. I have found myself spending hours upon hours browsing through different boards. The ideas are literally never-ending. I start by thinking I will look up a few recipes, and suddenly I have a whole redecoration plan in place for my living room.

Although these reasons may sound negative, I really find that Pinterest is a creative outlet for me. I find myself creatively coming up with new projects, new ideas, new solutions to common problems, or even just daydreaming of future possibilities.

With all that said, here are some of the reasons why Pinterest can be addicting.

1.      It is never-ending – You can start off looking at a pin related to one subject, and suddenly by clicking a few different pins you are thinking about a completely different subject and looking at a board from someone you have never met.

Knowing my workplace was hosting a potluck, one day I searched my recipe board for good potluck ideas. Just after clicking a few times I ended up on a pair of shoes. Not because I made a mistake in my searching, but because my mind switched gears and got distracted in the process of looking for recipes. I commonly lose track of what it was I was originally looking for on Pinterest, because my motives always change once I open the website.


2.      Idea Sharing at Its Finest – I love good tips and tricks. Who doesn’t want to save time making something that is typically hard, easy? Pinterest is full of very creative and clever people that have created pins for the most interesting things. The other day I pinned a recipe for making my own home foaming soap for a soap dispenser at a fraction of the price of the specialty stores; I learned the secret ingredients of a well-known salad dressing for an Italian restaurant; and I found out how I could make banana bread using a boxed cake mix.


3.      Online Shopping for Everyone! – Don’t even get me started on the amount of clothing or shoes you can find on Pinterest to adore. I thought I could live without a board dedicated just to shoes. I was sooooo wrong! I started a separate board just dedicated to cute shoes. I even considered having multiple shoe boards based on different occasions, but decided to stick to one for the moment. I also have a wardrobe board that contains pins to some of my favorite outfits, accessories, or any other wardrobe item.  If you want to open a whole new wardrobe world on Pinterest, try visiting Polyvore. This website can be used to create your own outfit to pin on Pinterest. Polyvore is a whole other level of wardrobe addiction I will try to explain in its own blog post.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Things I've Made from Pinterest Ideas

Today I decided to spend time blogging about something that is near and dear to my heart. I wanted to spend some time talking about how I've been inspired by Pinterest. I'm a mother of 3 under the age of 4. Free time is hard to come by, but there are so many cute ideas on Pinterest for crafting that I cannot help but try a few projects.

When I have time to pin new ideas on my boards, I become so enthusiastic about the possibilities. I want to make the things I see. I want to try to bring my own creativity to the idea. I want to make it better, and make it my own.

I have not only pinned ideas, but I have carried them out and made several different things based on my Pinterest pins. Isn't the idea that we can try to make some of the things we see? Or, try a recipe we didn't know existed before?

Under my profile I created a board specifically dedicated to things I have made from Pinterest pins. The board is called My Creations.


My mind didn't stop with crafting. I have made several recipes; some good and some bad. I have found myself deleting a pin when I make a recipe that doesn't work.



I have made my own board that is made up of Products that I Love. As I come across new ones, I add them to my board. Not only is my board great for me to see, but other people have commented on liking some of the products or having other favorites that I was not aware of.

Pinterest gives you so many possibilities. I love how creative I can be. Don't miss your opportunity.





Thursday, May 17, 2012

Why Should I Follow Someone on Pinterest?


After a friend of mine introduced me to Pinterest it took me a little while to get going on my Pinterest account. One of the reasons why was because I hit a mental block. I had an account, but had no idea what to do with it. I didn’t know what type of boards I wanted to create, so I couldn’t pin. I needed a start.

One of the first boards I created for myself was a board called “Recipes I MUST Try”. I knew that I had found a few different recipes that I wanted to pin, so it seemed like creating a board to contain these recipes would be a good start. As I started finding recipes that I pinned to my recipe board, I found that I had similar taste in recipes to a few different people. It occurred to me that I should start following their recipe board. That way, when they post new recipes they want to try I can see what they are and repin the recipes to my recipe board.


It worked like a charm. Moments after I started following several recipe boards, I noticed that my home page on Pinterest was full of recipes pinned by the boards I was following. I loved the instant access I had to see new recipes, and not have to do the work of finding them for myself.
Another great perk to following another Pinterest member is that you can see everything they pin if you have common interests. I had several coworkers that had similar interests as me, or siblings I wanted to follow. Rather than deciding each individual board I wanted to follow. I decided to follow each of their accounts. This means that I was following everything they pinned, rather than just an individual board.


TIP: Although it is much easier to Follow All on an individual, you may quickly find out that you don’t have a lot of similar interests. If your interest for their boards is isolated, click the Follow button for each individual board rather than following all of their Pinterest boards.



Saturday, May 12, 2012

Find Your Friends on Pinterest

To get started using Pinterest, I have found that finding your friends is a good way to start. I love seeing what my friends pin, and most likely they like some of the same things that I do. After I found some of my friends on Pinterest I discovered common interests we had that I didn't even realize.

Here are a few easy steps to follow to being your friend search.
  1. Login to your Pinterest account.
  2. In the upper right hand corner of Pinterest you should see your account name with a drop down arrow. Hover your mouse over this panel to display the options, and then click Find Friends.
  3. You can decide how you want to find your friends. One of the easiest ways to quickly locate friends is to use Facebook as long as you have a Facebook account, but you can also use email, Gmail, or Yahoo. If you have a Facebook account, click the Find Friends from Facebook button.
  4. Pinterest is wonderful at displaying a list of your friends that have current Pinterest accounts as well as those friends that do not. If you see a friend that you want to follow on Pinterest, click the Follow button. If you see a friend that is not currently on Pinterest, you can click the Invite button to send them a Pinterest invitation.
  5. Want to follow all your friends, simply click the Follow All button. Just like that you are now following all of your friends on Pinterest.

Remember that after you find a friend with similar interests you can start "Following" the friend.

Tip:  If you start following a friend that does not seem to have similar interests to yourself, you can "Unfollow" the friend.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

What is a Pin on Pinterest?


Now that we’ve explored the idea of creating our own virtual bulletin board (pin board), we can start thinking about how we can use a technique called “pinning” in the Pinterest world. When you think of a bulletin board, there are several times that you will want to pin things to your board. If our board was related to Thanksgiving we may want to pin a few recipes, decoration ideas, menus, or anything else that would seem related to our idea of the board revolving around the concept of Thanksgiving.

Before you begin pinning you need to create your own boards. I have given a few different ideas on the concept of boards and where to start in a previous blog explaining What is aboard?  

Let’s say that you created the following boards:

When I find recipes that I want to remember or keep in mind for future planning, I can pin them to my board for recipes. When I find shoes that I love, I may want to pin them to my shoes board.

A pin is similar to bookmarking the idea (pinning) to your own bulletin board. To pin an item to your board you can either upload your own picture or content directly through Pinterest, you can browse the internet and create your own pin from a website, or you can repin content that you find on Pinterest that you want to add to your board.

Your pin is simply an idea that you have placed on your pin board.

In the following example, a sample of my quotes board is pictured. Each of the quotes that you see in this picture is known as a "pin". Each of the quotes I have pinned to my board called quotes.



Wednesday, May 9, 2012

What is a Pinterest Board?

It may be hard to envision the full potential of the Pinterest site at first glance. When you click on a Pinterest member you can see their pin boards. The first question you may ask yourself is what is a Pinterest board (pin board)?

I like to think very simply. When I think about a pin boad I see a bulletin board in my mind. On my bulletin board I will use my board for one general theme. I may be creating a bulletin board for my daughter's birthday, or ideas on how to redecorate my bedroom. After you've decided the subject of your pinboard, you can start pinning pictures, website links, information, or anything else that makes sense to help you with your board.

Let's use an example of Thanksgiving. I'm hosting Thanksgiving at my house and want to get ideas on how I can make Thanksgiving special. I start by creating a board for Thanksgiving. Then I start searching Pinterest, or other websites for Thanksgiving ideas. When I find recipes, decorations, information, or anything else that makes sense for me I start pinning the ideas on my Thanksgiving board.

My bulletin board (pin board) essentially becomes an idea board for me. I can easily see all of the ideas for Thanksgiving so I can use the board as my Thanksgiving inspiration. I could even create a pin board that is exclusively ideas for my Thanksgiving menu.


In the above image I have created several different boards. One of my boards is title "Thanksgiving Ideas". When I click on the board, my pins appear.



To see the detail of a specific pin, I can click on the pin and just see that pin's information.









Create a Pinterest Account

So what is all the hype about Pinterest? Good question. The best way to get started taking advantage of what Pinterest has to offer is to create your own Pinterest account.

Create a Pinterest Account

1. Open the Pinterest website at www.Pinterest.com in your browser.

2. Click Request an Invite.

3. Enter your email address to request a Pinterest invitation, and then click Request Invitation.

4. Right after submitting my request, I received a confirmation email that stated the following:

    "Thanks for requesting an invite. We'll be sure to send one soon."

5. After you receive your invite, you can continue to create the rest of your Pinterest account so you can get started pinning.

Introductions

I will never forget the day I was first introduced to Pinterest. A coworker casually brought up the website and I had no idea what she was talking about. I asked her to explain, and she had one heck of a time trying to come up with an explanation. Although she had trouble trying to conceptualize the site for me, she was passionate beyond belief. She LOVED the website. She said that I would love the website, and warned me that spending time on Pinterest could be addicting.

Later that evening, I decided to find out for myself what all the hype was about. How could a website be so wonderful? Could I really be addicted to another website? I really had my doubts.

My first stroke of confusion was signing up for an account. Pinterest is not the most clear about how to create a new account. They use language that revolves around getting an invitation. At first glance, I thought I had to be a special VIP to get an exclusive invitation. After further investigation I found that I could send my email address an invitation to join the website. A few moments later I received my email, and the rest is history.

After I created my new Pinterest account, linked it to my Facebook account, and then customized a few things about my profile I was suddenly at a loss. How do I start using Pinterest? What do I do with it? I really didn’t think Pinterest was going to be confusing, but I was suddenly nervous about setting things up wrong. I didn’t want to make a mistake or do something wrong. Little did I know that there is no way you can mess up. There are no wrong answers, and everything you create on Pinterest is customized to your tastes and preferences.

I decided to start off slowly. I created a board called “Recipes to Try”. I thought it was pretty safe to start a board for recipes I would find, and really want to give an honest test drive. After creating the board, I started to pin different recipes I came across.

It literally only took me creating that first board to get the hang of Pinterest. I suddenly had idea after idea flood my head. I wanted to create a board for home decorating, my love of nail polish, workout inspiration, clothing styles, cute shoes, and the list went on and on. Before I knew it I had several different boards with many different ideas. I was hooked!

Since my discovery of Pinterest my life has been filled with dreams and ambition. I can easily envision what I would like my bedroom to look like. I can figure out the next recipe I want to try, or I can even purchase clothing to complete my wardrobe. My life has been enriched by Pinterest.

My blog is dedicated to opening your mind by using Pinterest. I will dabble in tips and tricks I use for Pinterest, demonstrate projects I have completed, and give you a glimpse into my dreams and ambitions.