Love of the Day - Pinterest

Ah, Pinterest; the shiny repository of the (not-at-all-) secret hopes and aesthetically pleasing dreams of so many.

I have to confess that when I first heard of Pinterest I was furious.  Furious and somewhat sniffy, since, back in 2006 when I was just getting to grips with the brave new world of MySpace/Facebook, I came up with a fabulous idea.  What if there was some kind of site where people could have a page where they display all the stuff they liked? Pictures of things, and lists, and music thingys - all that? 'It could be called TasteMaker!!' I excitedly pitched to my completely disinterested boyfriend of the time.  Alas, however, for I knew nothing about website creation and was distracted by a passing danish pastry so the idea slipped back into the nothingness that was my brain back then (also now).

Perhaps understandable then, that I was slightly annoyed when I discovered a bunch of people had quite clearly stolen my idea and named it 'Pinterest', PFF! and proceeded to deny them the gift of my patronage for ages after it became obvious that I would love it?  In March last year, however, I decided to switch off my Facebook account and find some other 'more creative, inspirational' form of social networking/wasting my life away staring at the internet.  And oh the wonders that I discovered there.  The lovely pictures, the pretty pretty pictures of loveliness! The beautiful scenery, amazing artwork, ingenious craft, the sumptuous dishes, the cosy homes, the exquisite-looking humans! All suffused with light and joy and the promise of better things to come...

Here I am, squatting in a stranger's house, masquerading as some kind of waitressing cat-slave, in the suburbs of February-sodden Glasgow and it's fine, IT'S ALL FINE! Because I have Pinterest.  In particular my 'Beat the Winter Blues' pinboard, filled with pictures of bright, happy things, sunny places and orange:

Armed with Pinterest, I will make it through - make it through until the warmer weather comes, make it through until I find out I HAVE got PhD funding and make it through until I suddenly discover I am able to cook elaborate and delicious foods, sew complicated quilt designs and achieve insane amounts of yoga/trapeze flexibility, all with no effort whatsoever.

Yes.