Keep It Pinteresting

If you haven’t already discovered the website Pinterest I highly suggest hopping on the bandwagon ASAP!

I tend to spend a great deal of my free time surfing this site and by free time I mean sitting at home on the couch, in a waiting room, in line for coffee, while returning emails, even sometimes while I’m working out. It’s become a regular craving for me!

WHAT is Pinterest? Here is their explanation: "Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. To get started, request an invite."

WHY am I rambling about this? Well, I recently bought a house here in my hometown of Louisville, KY, and let me tell you that it has been one of the most challenging, liberating, fun, scary, long and artistic projects that I have taken on since being at FIDM. What am I getting at here? Well, almost 99% of my inspiration has come from Pinterest. It is truly an excellent source for anyone decorating a home.

Here’s how it works: You take images from other websites and pin them (save them) to the boards that you create on your Pinterest page. You can also re-pin ideas to your own boards from other people that are on Pinterest. It’s that simple and makes for and easy sharing of ideas and inspiration from all sorts of places you'd never expect!

If you’d like to check out my ideas for decorating, have a look at my Pinterest page and the board titled For the Home.  Lately I’ve been into textures, bold statement pieces and warm colors.

Two other boards well worth looking at are Mane Event (filled with amazing, easy and effortless hairstyles that I often try out) and YUM! You can gauge the latter for yourself but I’ll tell you I’ve made almost half of the goodies on that page and they are tasty!

Here's a link to Amanda's Pinterest page and don't forget to check out my recent 20 Question Tuesday on usaswimming.org. You might like #19! Swim Like A Mom!

-By guest blogger Caroline Stilwell Burckle

5 Things I Love on a Lazy Sunday

1)  Influence by Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen - Okay, so I've been given many amazing birthday gifts but one I have yet to grow out of is the book Influence. Yes, if you only look at the cover, it can be mistaken for a silly little girl book filled with frou-frou pictures from Mary Kate and Ashley’s childhood but turn a few pages and you’ll realize they’re now an extremely bright minded dynamic twenty-something entrepreneurial duo. The book is an amazing collection of pictures and interviews of people who have inspired them in their design/fashion/personal life, from Diane von Fürstenberg to Alexander McQueen, and proof the girls lead an eclectic life. Mary Kate and Ashley's passions are nothing short of contagious. What I take from it: they never do what is expected. They do and create what they love, stay out of the crazy limelight and don't let what others think dictate who they are and what they love.

2)  houzz.com is a website my Aunt Wendy (an interior design genius) forwarded to me recently. I just bought a house in my hometown of Louisville, KY, and let's just say that this website has seen consecutive hours of usage by lil' ol' me. The site allows you to put together digital idea books from beautiful and amazing homes all over the world (I'm obsessed with Mediterranean style homes) in any way you want; by color, room, theme, location, etc. What I take from it: it's ADDICTING!

3)  weheartit.com is a site filled with fun photography/creative photos for any age ( it caters more to adolescent girls, but hey, to each their own). I often save my favorites and use them for fun backgrounds on my phone, computer, and iPad.

4)  Twilight: Breaking Dawn Soundtrack - Don't knock it till you try it. - ps #TeamJacob.

5)  Two Moms in the Raw make bars you can get from most any health food store (or sold individually at Starbucks now)! They’re healthy, delicious, ADDICTING, and the perfect fiber-filled, good-fat snack to sustain energy that you need throughout your Sunday!

Sunday Quote: "I am who I am, that is that. I am who I am thank God, I am". - Guru Singh

-By guest blogger Caroline Stilwell Burckle

If you have any questions please ask in the comment section below and remember this is only an opinion. When making any changes to your diet you are doing so at your own risk and should have prior approval from your physician!