All I Really Needed to Know in Life I Learned On....Pinterest

This summer I got sucked into the internet phenomenon that is Pinterest.  This online "pin board" is a way to find and organize web sites that contain information you want or need.  You can "follow" other people's pins and then re-pin those pins onto your own boards.

It's really absorbing, as is most of the Internet.  One can go through Pinterest pins for hours without noticing the time go by.  I have found great recipes, DIY projects, tutorials for fixing things, teaching ideas, and much more in my hours of Pinteresting.  I have pinned significantly more web sites and projects than I probably will have the time to ever try, but I have tried several of the things I've pinned with mostly success.

I even started a Pinterest club at my school for our Activity Period Club time.  I have over 30 girls who bring in supplies to make treats or other projects they found on Pinterest.  We've had all kinds of fun making glitter t-shirts, doing nail art techniques, and of course making yummy treats.

In my months of Pinteresting, I have learned several things.

1. Regular blue Dawn dishwashing soap, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and vinegar are miracle products.  There isn't anything on the face of this earth that you can't clean or improve with one of these (or a mixture of them).   Thank goodness all of these are so inexpensive.  I stock up on baking soda, especially.  Jillee (One Good Thing by Jillee) is the queen of home cleaning tips with these products.  Here she talks about Hydrogen Peroxide Magic.
2.  People love the flavors of pumpkin pie and s'mores.  Even in the middle of July, Pinners were pinning recipes that involved these flavors.  I brought in this S'mores Dip to my Pinterest club and the only illustration I can think of to describe the reaction of those girls was that they looked like piranhas around a piece of meat.
3. Nail art is cool.  Impossible to do on your own (I tried a couple of them), but cool.
4. If you can't find a tutorial to DIY something, you can't DIY.
5. Reusing and recycling are definitely possible, especially if you have a lot of old t-shirts.  There are so many things you can do to "upcycle" or recycle t-shirts beyond cutting them up into rags.  Quilts, headbands, tote bags, you name it.  Face it, all of us have so many t-shirts that we will never be able to wear them out.  Jillee has some links to stuff you can do with old t-shirts to make them useful.  This has led to a problem...saving things like old jars, paper towel tubes, plastic containers and more, "just in case" you could find something to do with them.
6. You can find a slow cooker version of almost any recipe, even bread.  Slow cookers are the miracle appliance in the kitchen, evidently.

I'm sure there are more lessons I could explain, but these are the best.  If you haven't been sucked into the internet black hole that is Pinterest, find someone to invite you.