How (and Why) to Use Pinterest

So I have a new hobby lately...
Pinterest.com

Of course I'd heard about pinning from a few people before I bothered to look into it and see what it was about.  When I finally did, it was love at first pin.

Here's the scoop for those of you who are clueless!  (No offense...)
Pinterest is an on-line bulletin board for everything you see around the web, that you want to keep track of.

See a recipe you want to try?  Pin it to your "Recipes that will surely make me fat" pin board.
See a book you want to read?  Pin it to you "Books I'll never get around to reading" pin board.
Holiday ideas?
Decorating?
Photos?
Crafts?

Pretty much anything with a photo or movie can be "pinned".
When you open your own account, it starts you out with a few popular "Boards", but they are easily changed/added to/deleted.

One of my personal favorite ways to use Pinterest is for pottery.

For the last few years, whenever I saw a cool pot on-line (I read a lot of pottery blogs) I would copy and paste or download the picture onto my desktop.  After awhile, the desktop would get cluttered, so I'd drag them all into a "pottery ideas" file.  Sometimes I'd organize the photos, sometimes not.
Occasionally, I'd go into that folder, print out the pictures, and put them in a spiral note book I keep in my pottery back pack.

Now, if I see something I like, I pin it to "Pottery Love" and call it good.  I can reference it from the Internet any old time.  And Doug LOVES the lack of urns on his desktop.

This also works well for holiday ideas, craft projects, or party plans.
I've seen many a young (or not so young) girl use Pinterest to plan her wedding (either real or imagined).

While I became a fan of Pinterest sheerly to control my pottery pictures, as you might imagine, that is NOT the most popular use.

A few other trends I've noticed:
Crafts Project how-to's or step-by-illustrated-step instructions.
Nails.  For example, mani/pedi ideas and/or "how-to's" --  Also hairstyle and "smokey eye" tutorials.
Different Font collections and/or Subway Art
Tattoos  (Filed under "If I ever have the guts!" or "Ink")
Photography
Travel Destinations
Home Decor
(I used it to pin ideas for our new office decor)

Another great thing about Pinterest is that you can search other peoples boards, collaborate on boards, "follow" others, and be followed.  So if one person pins something absolutely amazingly adorable like a picture of their  brand new bull dog puppy, you can re-pin it to your "Like, SO cute I'm gonna DIE" board and all your followers will see it and repin it to their boards.

My cousin recently told me Instagram was sorta like Facebook only not lame.
Pinterest is sorta like Instagram only for everyone--even non-photographers.

So now ya know!

And for those who already knew...
What are you pinning these days?
Have you found any good recipes that you've actually tried?
What's the most common "pin" you've seen lately?
Let's discuss!


HAPPY PINNING!
P.S.  My pinterest name is Emily Dub and my user name is "emlovesart"--in case you're interested in finding new pottery ideas!!!
:)