I have always loved bulletin boards.  As a kid, I would pin up pictures of my favorite movie stars, pictures of my boyfriend (now my hubby), cards and memorabilia.  At my last job (children’s director at my church), I had a huge cork board where I pinned up craft projects I did with the kids, cards from kids, a huge thermometer where we tracked the money we raised to buy a cow for a village in Africa, pictures of the kids and lots of memories.  Imagine my delight when Pinterest came along and now I could carry my love for all things ‘bulletin boards’ over into the virtual world.

In my constant search for crafts of all kinds, I would often find ideas, print them out, file them in sheet protectors and store them away in 3-ring folders.  Before that I would pour through magazines, cutting out articles and tutorials and glue-sticking them to card stock, which then went into the sheet protectors and 3-ring binders.  This takes up an enormous amount of space.

Pinterest is brilliant.  Not only does Pinterest allow me to ‘pin’ the ideas I find to virtual boards, it let’s me make as many boards as I want and it lets me follow my friends to see what’s on their boards.  They can also follow me, by the way, which is really sort of cool.  It is a strangely gratifying feeling when you see that 95 other people pinned that cable scarf tutorial.  Makes you kind of feel like you’ve discovered something really cool and 95 other people agree with you.  Not really, but it’s a good feeling :-).

Now I know that the pins on Pinterest do not come from Pinterest.  They come from the creative minds of bloggers  and designers all over the web and these folks need to be properly credited for their work.  The phrase, “I found it on Pinterest”, is quickly becoming part of our culture, but we need to remember Pinterest is only the starting point.  These pins lead us to the sites of incredibly creative people who have much to teach us.

To that end, I am embarking on what I’m calling ‘Pinterest365’, an adventure to work on one Pin from my Pinterest boards every day for the next year.  Most of the pins I choose will be completed in one day, but some will stretch over, but I will share the completed projects.  I often say to myself, “you should spend as much time doing the things on your boards as you do just pinning.”  I have over 6,000 pins on my 59 boards, so 365 seems like a drop in the bucket.

I will be publishing my Pinterest365 posts at the end of each day.  I love the creative process and am excited about digging into these tutorials and ideas.

“Ellie and I are ready anytime you need to take a break from this new thing you’re doing.  You know I’m happiest when I’m catching a tennis ball and Ellie’s happiest when she’s watching me catch a tennis ball, right?  And we know you want us to be happy, so it’s a win-win for everyone.”