Saturday, May 11, 2013

The Pinality of it is...



Recipes you tell yourself you'll make. Beautiful shoes that will kill your feet, manicured fingertips that look like the ocean at sunset and will last two days tops at your house, arrangements of flea market pictures you'll never find above your kitchen stove -- you'll even stare up at the ceiling at night, wondering how you can ask your husband for a second honeymoon just so you can wear that layered chiffon wedding dress you just saw.

Welcome to the world of Pinterest, where we lose our minds and foolishly tell ourselves we can do things like cut our own bangs or bling our own jeans. Our eyes say me likee, but our effort says not in this lifetime. Pinterest is like a magazine full of only things you like, not a glossy paper one full of occassional seductive items -- nope, pinterest is something you can stay up until l3 o'clock clicking through and seeing what other people find appealing. It's better than going through their real life medicine cabinets because you know in an instant what they're really about.

I tried Pinterest months and months ago, but just as I said above, it became all too quickly obvious that the world would know what I was truly like -- so I got rid of everything I had up there. Because the everything I had up there was all 10 Ways To Beat Depression, and 15 Ways To Cook Chicken in Twenty Minutes. Also lots of shoes that my bunioned feet will say no to and clothes, coats, hairdos, inspirational quotes, crafty things that will never materialize -- all responsible for too many nights of Pinsomnia.

What was I thinking during that Pinterest phase? Pinterest makes me crave bacon wrapped anything in the middle of the night and has me convinced I look good in sleeveless breezy summer dresses that go waaaaaaay above the knee. A soft blue skimmer, really? After a week of 1 a.m. bacon wrapped meatloaf snacking??

It just didn't happen for me and Pinterest, though it isn't totally out of my life, I still haunt the site because it is eye candy, but I now enter that Pinterworld with the appropriate mindset -- that of Pinality.

Pinality -- the true reality of your pinteresting ways, in your world. First of all, you won't do, wear, buy, make any of the things you've pinned on your Pinterest board -- like saving every single paper towel cardboard tube and plastic cups so you can cobble together makeshift iPod docking stations for your kids.

Or spraying  brown sugar and water mix in your hair to give yourself caramel highlights.

And second of all, the pinality of it is, it'll just make you wake up with ants in your hair and bacon crumbles in the corners of your mouth.


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photo credit: Bunches and Bits {Karina} via photopin cc

35 comments:

  1. Never got into it. Didn't need anything else to keep me tied to the computer, looking at things I'd never buy, do, or be able to make look like the photos.

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  2. have never pinned....but i will take some bacon wrapped anything...hahaha....happy saturday

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  3. I have nearly 5,000 Pins.
    Help.

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    1. If I was as masterful as you with PInterest, I'd do it...

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  4. I refuse to wander onto pinterest by myself, as I am afraid I will not come out (even if I leave a trail of fresh baked focaccia crumbs that I find the recipe for to guide me back). No, I don't want to see what fabulous food item was forgotten from my daughter's tea party, or which activity would have completed my son's dinosaur party. I want to hold on to that possibility that I was a birthday party throwing mastermind! (I already know I am not wearing chic enough clothes with good enough hair eating healthy enough meals, so no pin pricks to remind me are necessary there either). I do like to see what other people pin when it's posted on facebook, but I pretend that the rest of the piniverse does not exist! Just get the chiffon and wear it around (kind of surprised it isn't what you donned for LTYM!) ;)

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    1. REAL LIFE, pinterest is such a dream world. I love looking,b ut the TIME. And the defeat filled moments of reminders, screaming "THIS IS NOT YOU AND NEVER WILL BE YOU... "

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  5. I felt stupid pinning things on Pinterest and then would never refer back to them. But, I'm also a person who hates Facebook and doesn't Twitter.
    Also, I can't swim, am claustrophobic and don't like red velvet cake.

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    1. NO! Not the red velvet cake!

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    2. Well, Susan who is Twisted, I am a closet claustrophobic (ha), I loves the red velvet cake (but so not going to Pinterest for a recipe) and I can't swim. There. I said it (how come when I read you writing it it's fine but when I read myself writing it I feel like I'm perpetuating black sterotypes? I should explore that.) ANYWAY. I joined Pinterst back when you needed an invitation. I left after two weeks. I figure I can't do everything and for me, it was just another unnecessary time suck...except it had really pretty things.

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  6. You are wise to the seductive ways of Pinterest. I stay away completely. Those with my kind of attention span can scarcely afford...what was I saying?

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  7. I've never understood the appeal of Pinterest and, after reading this, am so very glad I never went down that road.

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    1. Oh, CHERYL, you would LOVE the visual of it, but it goes on forever and forever...and time disappears.

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  8. I hardly ever use it. My problem was I tried to make it really me. Can you imagine the time consuming insanity of trying to find the boots you actually own and love but bought two years ago? I found them! Then it was like, big freakin deal : )

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    1. It's fun to look at, feeds the nosey in me... xo

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  9. It had honestly NEVER occurred to me until now that Pinterest allows people to peek into who you really are (or maybe who want to be?).

    I, myself, am such an underachiever I thought Pinterest would only make me feel even worse. So I have studiously avoided it - although *studiously* sounds like a lot of effort. Maybe I *lazily* avoid it.

    Either way, looking inside other people's virtual medicine cabinet does sound appealing - :-)

    Plus, bacon-wrapped meatloaf at 13 o' clock.

    Yum.

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  10. Pinterest does not appeal at all. But these made me laugh:
    http://www.buzzfeed.com/newu1085/17-pinterest-fails-654m

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  11. I have 15,000 pins. I have no idea what you would make of it. I thoroughly enjoy it. I refer back to my boards frequently. It is my brain dump and a source of inspiration. I do not spend much time on there. It is a pin and dash for me. I have blogs and books to READ and pictures to color.

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  12. Well my comment disappeared. Again then - I have 15,000 pins. I do not know what you would make of it. It is my brain dump and inspiration. I refer back to it frequently. I do not spend much time on there, it is a pin and dash sort of thing. I have blogs to READ and pictures to color! Some like it, some don't.

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  13. It's possible that I spend time on Pinterest mainly because my wife hates. Hates. HATES it.

    Not that I spend a lot of time. Just enough to let her know that I COULD spend more, but I don't. But I could...so don't push me...

    Mostly, though, I pin pictures of Tiny Houses and art by Andy Goldsworthy. But Facebook, that's still my biggest suck...

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    1. I love looking at Pinterest, but I had to stop after I was on it one night until 3 a.m.!!!

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  14. Same here. I thought I was finally buckling when I set up an account - everyone said it is soooo addicting - but after a few pins I literally forgot I even had an account (am reminded only with the occasional email update from Pinterest). As you know I am already trying to declutter my mind and life - no need to add virtual clutter that I can't escape from!

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    1. It's so fun to look at, Cecilia. It's like the prettiest way to spend a few down time moments... xo

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  15. My comments just won't post! I have 15,000 pins. I do not know what you would make of that. I use it as a brain dump and inspiration. I refer to it frequently. I do not spend a great deal of time on it. Pin and dash. Some like it, some don't.

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  16. Sorry if you get duplicate comments from me.

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    Replies
    1. Oh, princess, I have to come catch up. You make me laugh. xo

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  17. Hahahahahaha.

    I pinned all the lovely crafty projects that I thought would prove I'm engaged in my home and my family and...homemade playdough and twinkle lights everywhere.

    Tried two pins and hated them both. Clever photography covers a lot of flaws. So now my pinality is that most of those images pinned are 1)shilling something for a company, 2)not going to turn out that way for me, 3)no substitute for going to the beach or on a hike with my little monkeys, who won't tolerate either my pinning or my making of pinned ideas.

    So. Haven't been on in months and don't feel bad. Or didn't, until I heard this awesome bit about highlights with brown sugar...

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  18. I've pinned Only where I want to be, not where I am.... I believe it;s a wish list. Happy happy Mums day! We got a yummy dinner from El Rey! No cooking, just YUMM!!! I hope you had a wonderful day as well, Dear Empress! :)

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  19. This is so true!!!
    Pinterest makes me feel like I'm sub human because I don't walk around with my hair blowing in a light gust of wind while wearing the latest fashion and having the mona lisa on my finger nails while carrying a tray of cupcakes made from scratch.
    Sigh.
    I do like the humor section.

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  20. I never got into Pinterest. I look at it the way I look at Facebook, just another way to waste time and then at the end of the year realize those things you were going to do this year just never happened.

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  21. I echo your sentiiments. I found Pinterest very early when it first came out. I fell in love with it and got away from it as fast as I possibly could. I knew what a time suck it would be and between Twitter and Instagram, I have no more available time for social media. Sometimes I have trouble finding time for those. I knew Pinterest was right up my alley, all the pretty pictures, putting them in their place, planning what I will someday make, buy or do. Knowing it will probably only end up as a virtual encyclopdia of everything I'm lacking and will never do. Sigh. Once again your post hit the nail on the head. Pinality FTW.

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  22. This post made me laugh. You are so right! My friends have tried to snag me into the pinterest web, but to no avail.

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  23. Yes to all of this. But gah! It's an addiction I can't seem to stop. I LOVE PINNING!!!

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  24. It is ironic you now shun Pinterest, because you were the one who turned me on to it (via a tweet).

    In the beginning I visited often, although I never had my own account because that would require me to figure out how to pin, and I didn't have time for that. I looked for yummy recipes, often shouted at the stupid manicure photos people put up, and got made fun of by my family because I pronounce Pinterest as Pin-interest (see your Dennis Rodman post).

    Haven't visited in forever.

    Don't even know why I'm bothering you with this stupid comment, maybe accept to say: You're right and You're not alone!!

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