The woman is at the heart of the home. Let us pray that we women realize the reason for our existence: to love and be loved and through this love become instruments of peace in the world. ~ Mother Teresa
I found this quote over on Betty Beguiles. She's going to the Behold Conference too, and she is the reason why I now own a Clarisonic and Kiehl's Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate.
I also recently read this post from Modern Mrs. Darcy, which led me to buy The No Brainer Wardrobe ebook, which led me to clean out my closet with Susan as my buddy.
Well, the time I had allotted got whittled away, so maybe I just cleaned up my closet, not a total cleansing. I did come away with two bags of shoes and clothes to donate, though. Plus, I found that missing part of the vacuum cleaner.
Now, according The No Brainer Wardrobe ebook, the author recommends Pinterest. It's actually a very small part of the 82 page ebook.
So, I've been giving some thought to Pinterest. Several of my FB friends use it. But I have some serious reservations:
I love to shop, too much. I love it too much and I shop too much.
I try practice my own version of Chastity of the Eyes by throwing out all catalogs as soon as I remove any coupons, and unsubscribing from all store emails. (I said I try. I didn't say I'm always successful.) My theory is that if I need something, that is the time to look for it. I can read about sales and look up online coupon codes then.
I fear that Pinterest is just a big gluttonous load of homes and clothes that I will covet and never have, creating general unhappiness with my life, which I like pretty much the way it is. Though I would like to re-do the upstairs bathroom.
I think I have a definitive understanding of my "style" and "colors" and I don't need to be wasting more time on the interweb.
I just went back up to the top of this post to add an image of Mother Teresa, and noticed how happy she is! She obviously never used Kiehl's Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate (or if she did, I just got ripped off).
So can Pinterest help a woman be "an instrument of peace in the world?"
Well, if not the world, than at least "at the heart of the home?"
Perhaps. What do you think?
OK- I love you but I think you have missed the point of pintrest. It is a paperless bulletin board. That is all. What ever you want to focus on, you can use pintrest to keep you organized. I have "boards" with lots of schooling ideas. It has saved my tons of $$$$ and kept by bookcases less crowded. I just went to a lecture at the DMA and all of the instructors notes and resources are on pinterest. I loved taking home a link and not a stack of papers to sort, lose and throw away.
ReplyDeletePin coupons, recipes, feast day ideas or whatever you want. But, please check it out for yourself than make your conclusion.
I never knew about schooling ideas or instructor's notes or coupons or feast days. That's why I asked. All I've ever seen are outfits and pottery barn type room images and recipes.
DeleteI didn't mean to convey that I have come to any conclusion. Just being honest about my personal issues and why I'm hesitant to put myself in a place that might feed all of my bad habits.
I'm honestly asking if Pinterest can help a woman be the heart of the home.
If you do decide to go for it, here is the link to the DMA talk.
Deletehttp://pinterest.com/artathome/.
I really do think, used with the right mindset and focus, it can be a great tool. Let me know if you join, so I can follow along :)
I think all of your reservations are valid, and all of Rose's points are valid as well.
ReplyDeleteI keep track of recipes on pinterest, have found lots of links to timesaving tips etc., but I try and stay away from the fashion boards (although usually they are runway type things that I wouldn't be running out to buy anyway), I also have some room ideas pinned that are for "someday."
You can control what you see on Pinterest (and who you follow has a lot to do with it) What if I emailed you my account info so you coud check it out without joining
I second both of the above. I put off joining Pinterest for a long time because I know I get sucked into the vast wasteland of internet time. But I loved the idea of pinning instead of bookmarking....so I tried it.
ReplyDeleteIt sucked. Me. In. And many a day I went to look for a pin to actually use a tutorial I marked, and spent an hour looking at stuff my friends pinned. So, you have to go in with a very specific plan for yourself to avoid the suckage. Going along with Anne's thought, I would suggest that you follow very few people and make sure you land on your own pin board instead of the browsing feed.
As far as how to use it well - it is better than bookmarking, especially if you are very visual. You can organize it however you like, which is nice. I'm a bit neurotic and worry that tutorials or articles that are very important to me could be removed in the future, so those things I still save to my hard drive. You are at the mercy of the internet to keep those links alive, or your pin dies.
Something that worked extremely well lest summer was to use it as a travel planner. We went up, thru, and down michigan-UP-Wisconsin with several stops along the way. As I found great things to so and see online, I pinned those ideas to my boards labeled with the city. Then, as we went along on our vacation, I could log on from the hotels for details of the next stop. Or even better, as we were driving along, pulled things up on my iphone which then had links with phone numbers, maps etc.
People joke that pinterest is trying to make them fat, buy new wardrobes, and hate their homes....but if you go into it with a plan you can avoid the bad and actually use it as a tool.
Yes! Pinterest has been a great tool for me. It doesn't come with any of the angst that political discussions et al. on other social networks sometimes create. You can decide exactly what you want it for. I have made my own cleaning supplies and designed 3 bedrooms in our home thanks to Pinterest. I've found projects for my kids to do and links to resources for homeschooling and delicious recipes, too. Gardening tips, housekeeping tips, snow-day boredom busters. It's all there! Some people choose to pin photos of shirtless male celebrities etc, but I just don't follow those folks. And I pin a lot of things that I find myself on the internet rather than just repinning what others have found.
ReplyDeleteI can go days without even looking at it and then when I need some inspiration or I have a few minutes after all my must-do computer stuff is done, I hop on there. As with anything, there are ways to use it to be productive and ways to use it to avoid productivity. As much as I like to joke about it being a time-suck, it really hasn't been since my first couple of days on and has really made up for any wasted time with its helpfulness. And no...I don't work for them :)
It's like most things online... it's not good, it's not bad, it's morally neutral. It's how you use it. There are some people who use it as a means of daydreaming of all the things they will never have or the way things will never look in their house and I would think that would breed too much discontent. It's the same as those catalogs and magazines you so rightly throw out... the equivalent of mommy p*rn. But it can also be used as a way to organize project tutorials like Dwija mentioned. This sweet lady has even started a link up to encourage people to actually DO what they pin. It can be used to categorize recipes. It really is just a visual bookmark folder. Some people bookmark really weird stuff. But you can make it work for you the way you want it too.
ReplyDeleteI love Pinterest! It's so great for visual people like me who need to SEE pictures and images. Before Pinterest I bookmarked a bunch of crafts, etc. that I meant to come back to later but because it's on my browser list as a bunch of words it takes more work for me to find what it is I had bookmarked. You don't have to follow any of the home or fashion boards if you like. Like you I'm trying to practice chastity of the eyes and I get too envious of what's out there if I don't watch what I expose myself to. When following people you don't have to follow all their boards either -- just pick the ones that work for you. Lastly, I limit the time I spend on it, because it is quite addictive and if I'm not careful I'd be there for hours at a time!
ReplyDeleteI haven't done pinterest yet... all the home decor stuff makes me feel like a loser. I think "Peace" is going to mean different things for different people. Some people might not be able to use pinterest b/c it is going to cause them to be jealous, feel like they never measure up. Others might use it and it brings more peace to them....allows them to feather their nest in a way that it truly is a "bright and cheerful home." Everyone's different. At this juncture, pinterest is not going to bring me any peace at all. But it might be useful this summer when I might be a single parent and need ideas to do fun stuff with the kids.
ReplyDeleteI love pinterest for the many inspiring religious images and scripture verses. I like to repin them and know that they are being shared through cyberspace to all who follow my pins. Most follow me for my photography and art boards, but then they get a dose of scripture and pro-life messages as well. I try to do as our Pope has asked us, - to use social media to spread the Gospel!
ReplyDelete