Pinned to the Wall

Ah, doing what's right. Sometimes it is just so hard to do, and this is one of those times. It is with much regret that we announce that we will not be doing another Pinning It Down. Over the past few days it has come to our attention that many pinners are growing more and more concerned about the legality of Pinterest and choosing to delete their Pinterest accounts. This includes a number of the people who have participated with us in the past.

Amidst a flurry of emails and a phone call, we too have tried to decide what the most ethical course of action should be in dealing with Pinterest, especially in the context of Pinning It Down. Here is what we have decided:

• Pinning It Down will cease to exist in its current form effective immediately.
• We now have a poll in both of our sidebars asking our readers if there is an interest for a weekly link-up to continue that gives bloggers the opportunity to make, do, cook and share something they have been inspired by online. Please vote only on one blog -- Everyday Snapshots or Amongst Lovely Things. Results from both locations will be combined. The polls will close Monday, March 12.
• If the interest is there (and we hope it is!), we will open a new weekly link-up the Tuesday after Easter, April 10, with a nifty new name, logo, and guidelines. One guideline will be that links to the tutorial, recipe, or idea that inspired you must be to the original blog or website, not to Pinterest. This does two things. It insures that proper credit is given back to the original blogger who created the idea, and it allows people who are not Pinterest members to participate in the link-up.
• One of the things we will be doing over the remaining weeks of Lent is rechecking each of the original Pinning It Down thumbnail images to make sure that the images are indeed the property of the person who posted them. If your thumbnail image is not your own, it will be changed to one of yours from your post or it will be removed. We feel we must do this to protect ourselves from possibly having copyrighted material on our blogs.

As for me, I am not sure that such drastic measures as shutting down my Pinterest account and deleting my boards need to be taken at this time. I have seen evidence that Pinterest is reworking its terms of use to address concerns. I also think that these posts are actually some of the most even-handed assessments of the situation that I have found in my research:

• Pinterest and Copyright: What I'm Doing
• Avoiding Copyright Pitfalls on Pinterest
• A Word of Caution for Pinterest Users

So here is what I plan to do:

• For the remainder of Lent I will be reviewing my Pinterest boards. If an item is at all questionable in copyright, pinned from Etsy, or does not link back to an original blog post, I will be deleting it.
• I will no longer repin without first checking pins to make sure they link to an original item that is a tutorial, recipe or displays a Pin It button somewhere on the blog.

Pinterest is a fantastic tool for creating visual lists and bookmarks and there are many bloggers who actually do want you to pin their work to share with others. I know I am one. I also want those pins to link back to my blog and not simply some dead link on Pinterest. There will always be some users who abuse the system. The problem with the nature of Pinterest is that it is so easy to be caught up in that abuse by simply clicking a button. Slow pinning -- taking time to make sure something will be useful and valuable, checking links, and verifying the author's intent to participate -- for me is the best way to insure that my Pinterest use is ethical and legal.

Don't forget to vote in the poll- we look forward to hearing from you!
Sarah & Pam

Pin It Down at Pam's

Just a quick message to let you know that I'm taking a babymoon break from Pinning it Down this week. If you're here looking for the link-up, head over to Pam's! :)

And here's a gratuitous photo of newborn baby feet.

Posy's feet are rather scrumptious, yes?

Pinning it Down {7} Carnation Experiment

Welcome to Pinning it Down Tuesday! Do you find yourself pinning projects to Pinterest, but rarely getting around to doing them? Do you need a bit of encouragement to make some of those projects come to life? Join Pam and me every Tuesday for the Pinning it Down link-up, where we're making a Pinterest project happen in our homes every week.

Oh yes. I'm hosting, which means that I still haven't had that baby. I (ahem) don't really want to talk about it, so let's just get on with our business, shall we?

I've seen this experiment on Dawn's blog several times over the years, and have always meant to give it a try. Ah, those good intentions. It took Pinterest and our Pinning it Down link-up to get me to actually DO it.

Basically, the idea is to put a bit of food coloring and some water in jars and let the white carnations drink up the dye. The blooms change color, thereby giving us a little glimpse into plant structure.

The experiment didn't work quite how I thought it would. Only about half the colors seeped into the blooms at all. I wonder if I should have used smaller carnations? Or if I should have gotten them closer to bud stage, instead of already fully bloomed?

(Goofy girl alert)

Where are the "after" pictures, you ask? The ones where I show you what actually happened?

I never took any.

It's the baby's fault- she's stolen my brain.

Yes, I'm blaming an innocent baby. She's late, see, and I'm not very happy about it- so I can blame her for whatever I want. That's how it works. (And then, when she's born and I'm so taken up with kissing all over her cuteness that I pretty much ignore this blog completely, we can blame her for that too!) :)

Are you ready to play along? Here's how our link-up works:
1. Choose a project from one of your Pinterest pinboards and make it happen. Blog a little about it. Remember, it doesn't have to be elaborate- we just want to see what you've been up to!

2. Make sure you link back here somewhere in your post so others can find us and play along. Feel free to grab our Pinning it Down graphic if you'd like to add it to your post. Also, don't forget proper pinning etiquette and try to include a link back the original idea whenever possible. We want to be sure that cool idea credit is given to the proper person.

3. Link up below. Make sure you're sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address. You can add your link all the way through Friday, so if you haven't gotten a chance to work on any of your pins yet this week, you're not too late.

Pinning It Down {6} Valentine Fun

This is the sixth edition of Pinning It Down and Pam's hosting, so make sure you stop over, link up, and check out all the week's submissions.

First up: a simple tissue paper heart decoration. The girls each made a heart and then we taped them together back-to-back to make a 3D hanging. It turned out cute!

Wait a second. What's that heart hanging from? Is that a...a....a chandelier? A clean and sparkly chandelier? Could it be???

Oh my, yes. And how bee-yooooo-tiful that clean chandelier is, too! Not a speck of dust to be seen. ;) (A nesting pregnant lady is not be contended with. I wanted to clean that chandelier so badly I couldn't see straight. So I did. I refuse to tell you how I ended up retrieving the glass, though. My husband reads here, and I might get in a wee bit of trouble if I admit to climbing on the table in all of my very-pregnant-glory.)

(Oops. Too late.)

Be still my nesting pregnant heart. I could stare at that dust-free light fixture all day.

(I should probably tell you that I went on to clean every other light fixture on the main floor of the house, but then you might think I'm crazy, so I'll keep that part to myself.)

(Oops. -sigh-  I never was very good at keeping secrets.)

What were we talking about? Oh right- pins! Okay, so I also pinned a valentine candy math activity. This was one of those things that I thought was a splendid idea. My kids? Very under-impressed. I think they can tell when I'm trying to entertain them into learning. They'd probably prefer to eat candy while doing a regular math page rather than doing a math-page-dressed-up-as-fun-just-because-it-entails-candy. They can smell edu-tainment a mile away, and they are never impressed by it.

Anyway, they played along, mostly because I was cajoling them by saying things like, "But this is for Pinning it Down! You've got to do it so I have something to blog about!" You see that I have my priorities in order.

We also tried our hand at these Raspberry Swirl Gluten-Free Valentine Cupcakes. The batter was so runny, Prim and I had our doubts that they would turn out- but they did! Tulip decorated them, and they were scrumptious.

And finally, remember that love message board I made Andy for my first Pinning It Down project? I decided they would make lovely Valentine's Day gifts for the kids, too. I can put them on their dressers and leave them a little note every so often.

I thrifted each of these frames and got the scrapbook paper on sale, so it ended up being a cheap cheap cheap gift.

Make sure you check out what everyone else is pinning down this week!

Pinning it Down {5} Avocado Chicken Salad

Welcome to Pinning it Down Tuesday! Do you find yourself pinning projects to Pinterest, but rarely getting around to doing them? Do you need a bit of encouragement to make some of those projects come to life? Join Pam and me every Tuesday for the Pinning it Down link-up, where we're making a Pinterest project happen in our homes every week.

I'm not supposed to be Pinning this week- I'm supposed to be in labor! (Okay, not really- I'm only 38 weeks. But I want my baby! And I'm just not very patient when it comes to snuggly perfect little newborn babies).

I pinned this recipe for Avocado Chicken Salad two weeks ago and I've already made it three times. It's good. Very good. (Make sure you add lots of lime juice, and don't skimp on the green onions or avocados, either.) It makes a great lunch, and I'm betting it'll be on our summer dinner menu as well. It's naturally gluten- and dairy-free, which is always a bonus. Yum!

Are you ready to play along? Here's how our link-up works:

1. Choose a project from one of your Pinterest pinboards and make it happen. Blog a little about it. Remember, it doesn't have to be elaborate- we just want to see what you've been up to!

2. Make sure you link back here somewhere in your post so others can find us and play along. Feel free to grab our Pinning it Down graphic if you'd like to add it to your post. Also, don't forget proper pinning etiquette and try to include a link back the original idea whenever possible. We want to be sure that cool idea credit is given to the proper person.

3. Link up below. Make sure you're sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address. You can add your link all the way through Friday, so if you haven't gotten a chance to work on any of your pins yet this week, you're not too late.

Pinning it Down {4} Maternity Photos

We're Pinning it Down at Pam's today, so make sure you head over to play along!

 

One of my more useful pinboards is the one I call Photography Inspiration. This is where I bookmark articles and tutorials that I'd like to read as well as photos that inspire me. I've seen a lot of couple maternity poses lately, so this last weekend I dragged Andy out into the winter chill to see if we could snap some of our own.

The first problem, of course, is that we didn't have a professional photographer to bring along with us. No worries! My oldest daughter is a wonder-child. :) I set the camera up on a tripod, composed the shot as best I could, and put her on shutter-clicking duty. I was mostly happy with our results. I did make a few mental notes (like: don't stop down so low! your photos are blurry!) and I think I could do a better job setting up the camera next time.

The second problem is that I don't look pregnant enough in these photos. I like to look HUGE, you know, so I wish I had picked a different color top. Who wants a slimming dark color when they're 9 months pregnant? Not me, thank you! ;)

Oh, right. We did get a little carried away. Sometimes we have a hard time taking ourselves seriously.

And it totally looks like he's taking me down in this last one, but I promise you he didn't. I, however, think this is the best picture of my bump out of the whole lot of them. And the view of Andy ain't so bad, either. ;)

If we can keep this baby in the oven for another week or so, I may just have to dig up more maternity poses and talk Andy into taking some more shots. It was really fun!

Pinning it Down {3} Winter Trees

Welcome to our third Pinning it Down Tuesday! Do you find yourself pinning projects to Pinterest, but rarely getting around to doing them? Do you need a bit of encouragement to make some of those projects come to life? Join Pam and me every Tuesday for the Pinning it Down link-up, where we're making a Pinterest project happen in our homes every week.

This week, the kids and I broke out the masking tape and watercolors to make winter trees from the Frugal Family Fun blog. It's been awhile since I've planned an art activity for the kids. They do their own art projects, but mama-led projects are one of those things that dropped off the priority list this pregnancy.

On Saturday afternoon I was feeling a bit worn out. Gah! I thought, I haven't even decided on a Pinning it Down project for this week! I scanned my pin boards, saw this craft and thought- not too messy, not too much work. I explained the project to the kids and then read aloud while they worked. It was such a sweet and peaceful way to spend a Saturday evening.

We all enjoyed the evening enormously, and now I have pretty artwork on display in the dining room to remind me that I'm not always the Laziest Pregnant Woman on the Planet. Often, perhaps. But not always. ;)

First, we used ripped up masking tape strips on heavy watercolor paper to form bare winter trees. We pushed the tape down really well.

We briefly discussed warm and cool colors, but mostly I just gave the kids each a tray of watercolors and let 'em at it. I encouraged them to paint all the way to the edges of their paper.

After the pictures dried completely, we carefully peeled off the tape. I was surprised at how easily it came off.

They came out well! The kids love having something to do with their hands while I read aloud.

Are you ready to play along? Here's how our link-up works:
1. Choose a project from one of your Pinterest pinboards and make it happen. Blog a little about it. Remember, it doesn't have to be elaborate- we just want to see what you've been up to!

2. Make sure you link back here somewhere in your post so others can find us and play along. Feel free to grab our Pinning it Down graphic if you'd like to add it to your post. Also, don't forget proper pinning etiquette and try to include a link back the original idea whenever possible. We want to be sure that cool idea credit is given to the proper person.

3. Link up below. Make sure you're sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address. You can add your link all the way through Friday, so if you haven't gotten a chance to work on any of your pins yet this week, you're not too late.

Pinning it Down {2} Compassion Bags

We're playing at Pam's today- so make sure you head over and let us know what Pinterest projects you've been Pinning Down.

***

The kids and I are studying the virtue of Compassion as part of the character education program we're using. Knowing that I wanted to integrate a hands-on project early into our learning, I remembered the Blessing Bags I pinned a couple of months ago.

The two main components of compassion are 1) sharing in the suffering of another, and 2) showing mercy. To meet this first goal of sharing the suffering of others, we discussed the folks we see so often by the side of the roadway, holding up signs and asking for money. We talked about what it would feel like not to have a warm, dry house or a hot dinner- not to have a bed or a car or even a regular bath. We talked about how such people may feel lonely or unloved, and how many of them want for the most basic needs that we take for granted.

Then we began considering how we could show mercy. We brainstormed a list of items to put in bags we could hand out to those we see by the roadways. We took a trip to the store to buy a variety of snacks and personal items, and got to work putting together what we are calling Compassion Bags.

The girls added simple handwritten messages to slip into each bag, and we loaded the bags into a box that we'll keep in our car. Next time we see someone holding up a sign asking for money or help, we won't just drive by. Instead, we'll unroll the window and hand them a little bit of compassion.