carefully curated vol.4

A little while ago (okay maybe a long while ago) I introduced a feature here sharing a way that I pin more intentionally.  For me, pinterest became an overwhelming collection of things I wanted to bring into my life (decor, recipes, diys), but never actually did.  It was an ugly clustered mess that left me wanting to delete my account, because let's be honest- I don't have time to make my own anthropologie inspired pillows while staining our deck, with a new recipe in the oven and some amazing home hair treatment all up on my head.  I mean, do you?

Instead I decided to put pinterest to work in a way that made sense to me.  An archive of beautiful images, inspiration and ideas that influenced my life rather than made it seem like it wasn't enough.  Having a folder with decor inspiration actually helps me more than a folder full of home project step-by-steps.  I guess for me there's just something about pretty pictures and a calm cohesive look that doesn't make me feel like I'm not doing it all.  I don't need to "thank pinterest" for a coat rack I just made on my own, or the dinner on our table tonight, I don't need to constantly check back for ideas on outfits or projects for a rainy day.  That might work for some (& cheers to you!), but instead I carefully curate my interests- for me its a lot less pressure, and a lot more fun!

Here are a few tips to clean up your boards:

• organize your boards and name them in a way that makes sense to you, freshen up the board covers to give your profile an updated look.

• go through your boards and delete old pins that aren't relevant to your life anymore.  your style and taste has probably changed since you first started using pinterest, get rid of things that don't interest you anymore.

• be picky about what you pin*.  this might sound snobby, but to create beautiful collections you need beautiful images.  if you want to pin a recipe or diy that is of poor quality or has ugly text slapped all over it, that kind of puts a kink in that plan- visit the link of what you want to pin and there is probably an image without all the messy stuff that you can pin instead.  *or pin the not so pretty images into a secret folder

• clean up who you follow.  if your tastes have changed over time than maybe who you follow has too.  weed out boards or pinners that just don't interest you anymore, then find someone who has an awesome account and check out who they follow for some new inspiration.

Each week I'll share a few pins that I'm really feeling, like this moody end of summer board.  The heat wave is back in the Pacific Northwest and it has me wanting beachy hair, days off and green all around me.  So... how do you pin?

Check out previous versions of Carefully Curated here.