This Week on Pinterest

Pinterest and I have a very strange relationship. We have an on again off again relationship. I run away for a while, forgetting it exists, and then come back when something reminds me of it. I pin-binge. I run away again. And, from there, the cycle continues. Currently Pinterest and I are “on again.” The person to blame: Liz Bug.

(Normally I call my lifelong friend Laura by her name or “Mushroom,” a nickname coined for her ages and ages ago; however, just the other day my brain was spurting out random nicknames for her all over the place. As if it had a mind of its own! That little bugger. Lizzyloo was another one thrown about, but today we stick with Liz Bug. -- She’s going to kill me for this --)

Spring has finally come to New England; it has been a slow coming, but warmly welcomed after a harsh, bitter-cold, snow-filled winter. Everyone, it seems, is bitten by the Spring Cleaning bug. (What is it about the newness, rebirth and rejuvenation of spring that makes us all want to be reborn ourselves?) My mother and I are itching to clear clutter and reorganize. Friends and family are clearing out, preparing for summer yard-sales or future Goodwill trips. My friends and I are feeling restless, a desire to change up our lives.  And Liz Bug? Well, Liz Bug wants to redecorate her room. She has been planning  designs on Pinterest.

This past week was my “Spring Vacation.” (Note the quotation marks. It was less vacation and more leisurely homework time.) During a surprisingly free afternoon, I spent a few hours at her house.  It was a much needed break from a hectic homework week. Spending a few hours visiting a dear friend and her family was just the ticket. Laughter abound, lying on her carpet as the sun streamed in her window, and going on adventures with she and her sister (who I am also blessed to call 'friend') – the fun was endless. (Beautiful days such as these make going back to 'hitting the books' incredibly difficult.)

While I lay in the warm sun on her carpeted floor, like a cat sprawled out in her favorite sunlit spot, my Liz Bug sorted through her drawers, dresser, stationary and closet. We were surrounded with the old parts of her life, making room for the new. (In some cases this consisted of her giving me her old stuff…one man’s trash is another’s treasure!) She showed me the pins of all of her plans. We talked about her options.

…For a while now, I’ve been feeling stuck. Other than my mother and one or two others, you are the first to know this. (Sharing is caring!) I feel like I’m standing, a stick in the mud, as life rushes past. My mind is intellectually growing, my courses change; but otherwise, I feel unfulfilled, unchanged. There is no growth. Sure, I watch Super Soul Sunday, I meditate, I grow spiritually. But I want to grow in other areas of my life. Right now, I feel very stagnant.

Love these so much

As I stare down at these beautiful vintage-filter photographs Liz Bug took, pictures she gave to me instead of throwing away, I realize my love for vintage things. What is it that I love? I ask myself. It is a loaded question. As I ask it, I realize that my answers come only in whispers. Either I find myself unsure of what I love when asked on the spot, or I find myself only liking what I have liked for years. My rooms are decorated in such a way that depicts my very eclectic nature – anything from antiques to Star Wars and Harry Potter.  That is who I am. Ecletic. Yet, while so much of myself is in my space, I feel as if my space reflects me very little. The space is my teenage years. It isn’t now. Yes, most of my loves are the same…but they have also changed and expanded. I love Harry Potter, But I also love these vintage-filter photographs and the idea of them hanging across a clothesline in my room.

And so here enters Pinterest. I began pinning what I love.

A Holistic Health professor of mine once had us make a “Living in Your Truth” list. Mine got lost in the travel moving between school and home, but I am now thinking it is time to redo it. It is simply a list of truths – from your hair color, to your loves, to what makes you happy and uncomfortable, and to your absolutely nots. You keep the list on you. This list reminds you to never compromise your truth and to live what you love. Similarly, a mentor of mine had me create a vision board a while ago, but I never finished it. A vision board is a way to clearly envision what you desire out of your future. It’s a way of getting visually clear about what you’re aiming for. I always put my own roadblocks in the way from completing my vision board; whether it is time, materials, lack of desire, uncertainty in what I want portrayed – anything. I never completed the vision board because I never let it be completed. No more! This vision board – completed – is on the top of my To Do list.

Pinterest is helping that.

My Pinterest boards are becoming holding spots for my loves, my future goals, and my future projects. Some of these will end up on my vision board while others will stay where they are. Wherever they end up – printed and in front of my desk or in a webspace I can visit often – I am enjoying the adventure of the hunt.

Here are some boards I have been working on:
- Home
Craft room designs. DIY artistically stained furniture. Antique type writers. Home storage.

Saving ideas that I can use in my future home and where I am current, is fun. I work my creative muscle, deciding what design-style I prefer. I get to learn what I do – or do not – like.

- Wanderlust
This album is filled with the beauty of the world. The places I would love to visit someday.

My heart and soul cannot wait to travel. I have only tasted the freedom and excitement of travel a handful of times – most of them close to home. No taste has been enough to quench my thirst, my hunger for visiting and engaging in the world. There is so much beauty out there, so many sights to see and places to visit. How can I ever possibly stay in one place my whole life, without ever seeing the world, too?

For graduation, the leader of our Young Adults Against Dating Abuse group gave me and the other graduating senior our own copy of “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Seuss. I find that fitting.

- DIY Garden
This summer my family and I plan to have a large garden. Ever since I learned how to garden, I have had a green thumb. It’s an addiction, really. But our small raised bed gardens are never enough. We’ve spent years saying we want more room.

Finally, we’re going to get it.

My mother and I are also going to make a fairy garden. Looking up sweet, simple, homemade ways to decorate makes it feel like summer is right around the corner. One of my recent finds, and a personal favorite, is a little painted rock caterpillar.

Other albums I have been working on include…
- Art (among my recent finds for this album, my favorite is the art journal idea. Whenever I travel, I want to make a travel-inspired art journal, with my thoughts, pictures, tickets – anything and everything. It is such a creative, unique, beautiful, fun way to keep memories.)
- Scrapbooking (head’s up scrapbookers: Pinterest has super cute ideas. I look forward to using these in my scrapbooking over the summer!)
- Crafting (Christmas and birthday gifts galore.)
- Nails (consisting of nail polish)
- Wedding photography ideas (preparation for the wedding I am shooting in May)

Pinterest boards of what you love. Vision boards. Truth lists. These are tools to recenter, to get clear about what you want so that you can charge forth into life, taking it by the hand. They may not be the answer but they are a way toward it. Baby steps.

Making changes is my goal for this year. Trying new things each month was an item on my New Year’s Goal-list. That isn’t stopping now; it is only getting better.
What do you do when you're feeling stuck?