Pinterest - A Beginner's Guide

My love of the blogosphere and blogging is surpassed only by my love for Pinterest. Pinterest is a sensation to me that is perhaps my favorite past time at the moment. It is creative and stylized. It is also an exceptional social networking platform!  It fills my obsession for stuff that is pretty, funny, quirky, clever, unusual or just plain cool. But I have heard from several folks that it can be difficult to maneuver around the site.

So how about a wee tutorial?

1. Go to www.pinterest.com
2. Request an invite
1. You'll receive an invitation in your inbox in a day or two.
3. Then you will set up your account.
1. You can set up your account with your email
2. Twitter 
3. or Facebook
1. You will choose a display name
2. And tell pinners a little bit about yourself.
4. You will be prompted to create some pin boards
1. Pinterest gives you five suggestions but you can change the names and add boards.
2. For instance, I have 28 boards (and more than 1000 pins)!
5. My boards are such:
1. Basic Coolness: Sometimes I have a hard time cataloging something...then I put it here.
2. Dream Home: I pin pics here of homes and parts of homes that inspire me.
3. Home Libraries: I love this board. I'm a book whore so I guess it's understandable.
4. Mirrors: This is the beauty of pinterest. I can pin whatever I want. I've made an entire board devoted to nothing but mirrors. I'm a Libra - we like twins and mirrors - something to do with balance.
5. Gorgeous Gowns: I'm all girl; I love a pretty dress.
6. The Table: I have a great love for entertaining. My mother creates a sumptuous table and the design of a table is an underestimated detail of a gathering.
7. Mirth: (And one day part of the title for La Bottine) I pin anything here that makes me feel light hearted or puts a smile on my face. That's what Mirth is - gaiety or jollity especially when accompanied by laughter. 
8. Gastronomy: Cooking, food, eating, cuisine, you know!
9. Wedding Love: Where I can pin things from La Bottine and collect pretty wedding things.
10. Crafting, Handmade and DIY: You know!
6. The final directive is to seek things you love. In the search box if love kitties, type kitties. If you like graphic design, type design and so on. And if you have any questions, you can ask me anything!!!

Happy Pinning!

Other Pinterest resources: Savitri Wilder, You Tube, If You Ask Me and The Daily Digi (where I got my images here).

Time for New Critters - My First Music Mix

 As we cartwheel into 2012, I think a good old fashioned mix tape is in order. I'm sure you are querying about it's title but a critter need not be a sweet little hamster. Some critters can be the likes of new shoes, a new paint set or a new love. I hope you enjoy these songs...I do!

Photo Credit

Time for New Critters

1. Velvet Elvis -Alex Winston
2. Party Talk - Craft Spells
3. Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club
4. Original Sin - Geographer 
5. Help I'm Alive - Metric
6. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out - Dum Dum Girls
7. Punching In a Dream - Naked and Famous
8. 11th Dimension - Julian Casablancas
9. Believer - Goldfrapp
10. Ghost Inside - Broken Bells

All I Want for Christmas

Hi All!

I hope your Christmas was great! I can say that for myself it was great. So warn and wonderful to be around family.

I want to show you some pictures here of my Christmas table. I made the centerpiece with persimmons and pine and used a wee winter sleigh as the skeleton. The table cloth was thrifted and when I found it I almost peed. It is such a treasure...Vintage - Linen - Festive - Organic!!! I used salt and pepper cellars in addition to the vintage shakers also thrifted!

My Christmas Menu was, if I must say, the greatest meal I have ever made.  I suppose I should add recipes but for now I'd like to keep my recipes breasted.

I've also included a photo of the tree. And the earrings are hand made by Anna. I've also included a photo of Happy Goat Caramels. A treat that was gifted to Anna  - little gamey but unusual and interesting.

The menu was:

Pot Roast
Maple Roasted Winter Vegetable
Sausage, Mushroom and Apple Dressing with Apples and Sultanas
Challah Bread (not mine)
Scandinavian Almond Cake with Cranberry Compote
Persimmon Pudding