Do you prefer hardcopy or e-books?

26AUG12
A cursory peek at my new followers on Pinterest tells me I piqued the “pinterest” of many of you. That’s wonderful! I think this is a great website for quickly and easily finding images of items which reflect your style. I love that I can search images and, instantly, I have hundreds upon hundreds of images to peruse; google has already done the work for me!
I have always enjoyed research. I used to love spending time in the library looking for resources for my research papers, feeling like Indian Jones when I was able to unearth references I was sure no one else had cited in all the years of term papers written at Lenoir-Rhyne College (now a University, but old habits . . .). In fact, I enjoyed research so much I had thought of becoming an attorney, but after receiving my BA in History, I took the track of paralegal instead. Upon landing my first job as a paralegal, it didn’t take long for me to realize there was a lot more to lawyering than research—umm, no thanks. Researching product for home décor is a lot more fun, so here I am.
Do you remember my suggestion of keeping a notebook for your home decorating ideas? Well, it occurred to me that Pinterest is probably the “notebook” for the next generation; perhaps for this generation. While I do enjoy it and think that it is nifty, it will never replace my idea book. Just like an e-reader will never replace my need to hold a book on my lap and flip through its pages.

I think that is why one of my favorite publications is a quarterly about blogging. Yup—a magazine about blogs! It’s called Artful Blogging. Like all Stampington & Company publications, it is produced on a beautiful, matte paper (love the feel of the paper). The content is submitted by bloggers and simply provides some insight into how they approach their blogs, but it is gorgeous! They also furnish photos, which are often the best part of many blogs. I like it because I feel like I spend my entire day in front of a computer screen. I need tactile interactions with more than my keyboard and mouse!

Another of their publications is Where Women Cook, which shares stories and images of the kitchens—some commercial, but most are the household variety—of the women who elevate the simple act of meal preparation to an artful level, either as a domestic goddess or a professional chef. What you find as you flip the pages of this publication are real kitchens—kitchens which are truly used and abused. You can tell these kitchens are not kitchens designed to impress your bunko group—they are real, hard-working kitchens whish have evolved with the talents and needs of the chefs or families that use them. You see kitchens decked-out in the finest, most desirable professional series equipment, as well as kitchens fitted with a basic four-burner, electric stove and crock pot on the counter. As an added bonus, the articles usually include several recipes.

Another reason to love these magazines is their minimal advertising. There are no “made to look like articles” advertisements about kitchen appliances or the latest sleep aid on the market. And, unlike most websites and many blogs, there are no pop-ups which you have click on the precision-pin-point-spot to close, lest you open another window to learn more about why you should refinance your house now. Stampington & Company publications are intended to inspire and that they do. After reading them, I am motivated to do stuff—to make something or to reorganize my craft area.
So, yes, I love perusing the Pinterest site for images and ideas, but nothing beats the feel of a good decorating book or magazine. I much prefer being able to flip the pages to the “sliding” of images across a screen.
You can pick-up many of the Stampington & Company publications here at Hodgepodge, but they are also available at book stores and the magazine racks of many supermarkets.