My Favourite Articles and Links This Week
How to consciously improve your friendships.
10 bad habits that are costing you money.
Our obsession with performance data is killing our performance.
This is brilliant- scarves (and exercise!) for everyone!
Our phones are addictive, absolutely. Here’s how Google is trying to make smartphones less addictive, how Apple is trying to do the same thing with their smartphones, and even Instagram is rolling out a time management tool.
My Favourite Pins This Week
Do you ever make rice bowls at home? I love rice, And a bowl of something as comforting as this- lots of veggies beautifully seasoned and cooked, over brown rice- is so satisfying in so many ways. Hearty, delicious, cheap – can’t ask for much more from a meal! Pinterest link is here, and the full recipe can be found here.
And after a healthy meal, maybe have some double chocolate raspberry brownies? I recently became obsessed with raspberries in baked goods- fresh fruit means it’s sort of healthy, right? Excellent, then I’m having seconds. Pinterest link is here, and the recipe is right over here.
I love this pretty plant hanger, and the world of macrame isn’t going away any time soon- this is summer, and just right for a pretty new plant. Pinterest link is here, full directions and DIY can be found here.
If I ever see pink lawn flamingos for a really good price, I’m going to buy them ALL and do this ring toss game! Outdoor summer games are always so much fun, for grown ups and kids. Pinterest link is here, and the DIY is right over here.
Anyone else find Pinterest’s new algorithm is disappointing? It feels like every time I pin something, pinterest then proceeds to show me more of almost the exact same thing- so pinning the flamingo ring toss game yielded more flamingo ring toss game DIYs in my feed. Same goes for the raspberry brownies- then I was flooded with more raspberry brownie recipes. I’d prefer to see complimentary rather than identical pins- you know, if someone else has pinned that, maybe show me the other things they pinned in that category as well? I know, I’m having a grumble about Pinterest, but I just find it so much less inspiring than I used to. Anyone else feeling that way lately? And if not, how are you finding your awesome pins these days?
Mmm, those brownies look good. We’re in need of a treat at work so if I have time I’ll make some to take in for my team on Monday.
I’m so glad you mentioned Pinterest, I find it so annoying and frustrating these days that I don’t really use it that much, whereas I used to use it all the time. As well as the almost identical pins there are so many ads now. I’m almost tempted to go “old fashioned” and start downloading everything I want to save to Word docs, or printing pictures and putting them in a scrap book. At least I’d enjoy flicking through that.
I am frustrated with a lot of social media programs. Pintrest is really annoying with that. Similar issues with Instagram and Facebook. Everything is so interconnected and woven. I enjoy using the programs to stay connected but at the same time seeing the adds and suggestions all the time is crazy why can’t we select what we want to see. Stop “fixing” it.
Rice bowls are great. I do like ones with quinoa as well.
I immediately posted the bicycle scarf on FB. Genius! And flamingos…
Glad to read that others are as frustrated with Pinterest as I am. I now click on the “following” tab, to avoid getting more of the same of what I just pinned. With the old system, it seems like I just let duplicates go by without pinning, and then my feed would stop with Pete and Repeat Pins. I loved Pinterest as a way of holding on to things I wanted to visit again, but recently, I’ve used it more to check my boards, since I’m not getting new ideas coming through. It also seems like the already-pinned alert isn’t as active so I get way more duplicates on my boards. Hopefully the Pinterest Powers That Be will be watching for feedback.
I am not too active on Pinterest and I almost never find my pins there, I usually pin to my boards when I see something interesting/inspiring on the web. But what you are saying makes perfect sense, it doesn’t really help to have dozens of identical pins to the existing ones.
Thank you for the links! Hope you are going to have a wonderful weekend!
Had to laugh at the flamingos. There was a desperate parent behind that game. When the flamingos winter over in your yard, up to their pink plastic precious parts in snow, you can knit them a sweater. Yes there are patterns in Ravelry.lol. Waiting for that blog post.lol.
I had come across raspberries in brownies just yesterday. Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Even with your favourite box mix it works. And of course, everyone thinks it’s all homemade since there’s fresh fruit involved. FTW.
I had the most beautiful conversation last week with a friend about friendship and how it is a living thing requiring attention and nurturing. She and I are copacetic on this and enjoy a very rich friendship as a result despite her recently moving to another state and time zone. In the digital age, friends can be many, but true friendship like any relationship, personal or business, requires participation, gratitude and nurturing. This conversation continued on knitnite when we all piled into a friends luxury camper parked in her front yard and snacked and knitted our way past midnight!! We all left feeling as if we were on a getaway and had some heartfelt and honest conversation…like good friends should and do.