organizing my pinterest account

It's no secret that I have a real obsession with Pinterest. As a designer, it has become one of most valued resources - a constant source of inspiration, an important part of client communication and a main attractor to the blog. Since joining, I have done my best to keep my boards organized and not have too few or too many boards floating out there. Recently, however, I was noticing that things were getting a little overloaded and not as user friendly as I would have liked. So I took some time and did some re-sorting. In alphabetical order...

Blog|A Pin A Day: A remnant from the roughly year long series that I have since discontinued.

Blog|The Place Home: A repository for the images associated with blog posts.

Design|Details: All pins related to finish carpentry, joinery and material detailing. This is one of my favorite boards as I just love the craftsmanship and ingenuity that is expressed in some of the images. Plus its where you will find my image collection of dutch doors...

10" x 42" Live Edge Cedar Bench by Quarter Twenty

Design|Fireplaces: Another favorite as fireplaces represent that beautiful balance of function and aesthetics. 

Design|Garden: One of my most pin to boards and one that is probably in need of subdividing. This boards includes everything related to outdoor spaces, gardening and landscape design.

Design|Intervention: A board dedicated to large scale and experiential art. Some amazing images of land art that I find awe inspiring. 

stone piece by Andy Goldsworthy

Design|Kids: A board for kiddo spaces and products. 

Design|Private: Exterior images of well designed homes - traditional, modern, historic and more. 

Design|Products: A sort of mix match of images including graphic design and branding as well as just cool business ideas. 

clipnest by root design office

Design|Public: A collection of exterior and interior public spaces - restaurants, shops, multi-family housing units, barns, factories etc.

Design|Representation: A selection of amazing artists' works. 

Design|Quilts: This is one of my new boards as I decided this obsession needed its own space in my collection.

Design|Stairs: I love stairs for the same reason I love fireplaces - form and function. 

Home|Accessorize: An old board that I subdivided - this large collection now includes textiles, rugs, homewares, hardware and styling. 

Home|Bathrooms: Currently 100 pins of this highly used space.

Home|Bedrooms: A new board dedicated to one of my favorite rooms in a house. 

bedroom via House & Home

Home|Finishes: This board includes images of materials (largely flooring), paint and wallpaper. 

Home|Furniture: My go to resource for beautiful pieces - lots of rattan, walnut, brass, linen, leather...

Home|Holidays: This collection should probably just be called Home|Christmas.

Home|Interiors: Basically images of inspiring interior spaces that aren't bathrooms, kitchens or bedrooms. 

Home|Kitchens: A new board dedicated entirely to this design beast of a room. 

Home|Lighting: Another newbie full of form and function - lots here as I am not a big fan of overhead can lighting.

plaster lamps by Jacques Grange for Yves Saint Laurent via 1st Dibs

Living|Seasonally: An inspiration board for summer, fall, winter and spring.

The rest of the boards on my page are related to style and beauty, clients and just a few other random things. If curious follow me and if you aren't already on Pinterest you can sign up for an account here.

searching for gardening blogs

The thing that perhaps intrigues me the most about gardening is its limitless potential for learning. With each plant, season, space and combination of the three comes new discoveries. I love the idea of being a constant student and gathering bits of knowledge with each growing season. However, this fluctuating and unending nature of learning can also be paralyzing in knowing how, when or where to start. And being that I am a researcher, I am always looking for resources to aid me along the way. I have a few books that I have started to reference and I am constantly asking advice from more experienced gardeners but what I would really love to find is a go to gardening blog or blogs to provide daily or weekly bits of information.

My ideal gardening blog would be visually appealing - I need those pretty pictures to inspire me, concise - too much info all at once overwhelms me, include content on edible gardening as well as growing flowers, promote/follow sustainable practices and if I am really dreaming be located in a similar growing climate as St. Louis - no avocados or citrus in my garden. I have just started my search but one gardening blog I plan on adding to my blogroll is Garden Betty.

Started in September 2010, Garden Betty is the blog of Linda Ly. She blogs about growing and making food, creating her cookbook, raising backyard chickens, her off the grid home in Mexico and other outdoor adventures. What attracted me most to Garden Betty was not only its visual appeal but its organization - helpful headings and an easy to use archive. I also am pretty interested in getting her cookbook, The CSA Cookbook, which focuses on using the often discarded parts of plants and vegetables.

Any readers have some good gardening blogs to follow?

Have a good Monday everyone!

McGrath II

McGrath II is my newest design resource find. Voted as one of the best design blogs of 2015 by Domino Magazine, McGrath II is run by mother daughter duo Suzanne and Lauren. The two, which also operate their own interiors business and have written a book, blog about all things design related and seem to have a format that is somewhat similar to THE PLACE HOME.

*from the design portfolio of McGrath II

All the posts are archived into easily navigable sections such as Artist Spotlight, Decorating, and Styling and include such posts as The Best Light Blue Paint Colors, Arne Jacobsen , Back to Back Sofas, 6 Tips to Enhance An Entryway and so much more. 

Another cool feature of their blog is their resource section where they present a curated list of their favorite stores. There is honestly so much to check out with this blog that I feel like I could spend an inordinate amount of time on their site. And perhaps the best thing about McGrath II, is how easy and pleasant it is to use - well designed, interesting content and good taste. So check it out!