By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Pinterest is a free service unique to the Internet: it allows users to create virtual scrapbooks to share with others. These collections of “pinned” photographs are organized into various topics, from runway fashions to fancy wedding cakes.
But it does have a less-than-glittery side, as do other forms of social media. Like Facebook, Pinterest “provides a snapshot,” according to Lisa Messer, one of many Pinterest users in Clarksville. She gets craft ideas from Pinterest, but thinks it should be used as a tool rather than to make the user feel inferior to the domestic goddesses among us.
“Some days are Martha Stewart,” Messer says. “But more often than not, some days are going to be you in your ratty PJs ordering pizza and just trying to keep your family sane, fed and mostly clean.”
A fan of three years, Messer has used Pinterest to find children’s activities and wedding planning tips. She loves it.
“I can sometimes spend hours on end searching for ideas and inspiration for things to make my life both easier and more craftastic,” she says.
Messer insists that her sister-in-law’s baby shower, which she hosted, would have been “way less cute and tons more expensive” if she hadn’t found free printable items and decorating tips on Pinterest.
There are cons, though.
Messer says, “As a mom, sometimes it makes you too competitive or can lead to a sense of never doing enough. Sure, one mom may make her kids gluten-free valentines from scratch, but it doesn’t necessarily offer a realistic view of parenting. Some days I’m sure she feeds them chicken nuggets and fries just like the rest of us.”
Pinterest serves as a “virtual cork board” for user Tabitha Tackett.
“Mostly I pin for inspiration, to remind myself of things to try, and to have a visual reference for my projects,” Tackett says. “I love it because there’s no cutting out magazine pages, pictures or articles. I just pin it and it’s organized in one place.”
Her only con to Pinterest is that she can spend so much time gathering ideas for a project that she doesn’t have time to do the actual project. She also points out the mirage of perfection.
She says, “The thing that is most important to remember about Pinterest is that you have to have realistic expectations of a project, the time involved and – for goodness’ sakes – know that perfection is not reality.”
Melissa Sims, a mom and cake decorator, uses Pinterest to find baking and cooking ideas. For her 5-year-old daughter’s upcoming birthday, she typed the phrase “My Little Pony cakes” into Pinterest’s search engine to get ideas.
Sims also created a board for her daughter called “Abbi Snack Meals” that includes recipes for homemade, healthy graham crackers.
But, she says, “Sometimes the recipes don’t work.”
Pinterest doesn’t vet the recipes, as would a traditional website or magazine, and Sims once used a lasagna recipe where the ingredient measurements were incorrect. So she advises reading recipes carefully before making a dish.
This leads to another category: Pinterest “fails.” This category displays many lofty projects that fell to earth with a bang in less capable hands.
Sims says, “If you look at Pinterest fails there are some funny ones, like the hedgehog cake.”
Ah, the hedgehog cake. It went from the original – a charming woodland creature frosted in chocolate – to a fang-baring creature that would make toddlers tremble.
Which brings us to another point about Pinterest: it’s best to bring humor to the site.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.