I love Pinterest! Pinterest has taught me how to recycle everyday trash into useful items. Pinterest has taught me how to improve my garden for less. Pinterest has also introduced me to many great blogs that I may not have found otherwise.

What is Pinterest?

If you've never heard of Pinterest, it is an online bulletin board system where you can save pictures of things you love and share them with others. For more information on Pinterest and how to sign up, check out my article To Pin Or Not To Pin - What Is Pinterest And Why Should You Use It?

You can find information about anything on Pinterest. Perhaps it has to do with the people that I follow, but the topics that I see most are home decorating ideas, gardening tips, how to make your own cleaning products, tons of recipes, arts and crafts ideas, and a lot of do it yourself (DIY) projects.

What I've learned from Pinterest

Pinterest has opened my eyes to upcycling, which is recycling items you would normally put into your recycling bin and using them for other useful things. As someone who is expanding her garden, I was intrigued by a pin with the idea of using gallon milk cartons as mini greenhouses to begin my seeds. And because of the design of the milk carton, you are able to keep the cartons outside, even in the coldest weather, without threat of damage to the seeds. Brilliant!

I saw an awesome tutorial through Pinterest about making your own solar lanterns. I read the tutorial on the attached blog and decided to try it myself, but on a cheaper scale. I went to my local Dollar Store and purchased a garden stake with a solar light attached as well as a glass sugar jar (the kind you would see at your local restaurant). I unscrewed the solar light from the top of the stake and placed it in the bottom of the sugar jar. I am using this solar lantern as a night light in my daughters room. The tutorial was much more complex than this, but since I needed to remove the solar light each morning and place it on the window sill to charge up for the next night's use, I preferred making it this way. Total cost of a non-electric using nightlight - $2.

I learned through a Pinterest link to another blog that using vinegar on weeds kills them. It also kills everything else, so use this with caution. I purchase a gallon of white vinegar and a new spray bottle for $3 and will use it this weekend to spray all the grass and weeds growing in the cracks of my driveway and sidewalks. Much cheaper and environmentally friendly that Round-Up.

I also saw a pin about regrowing romaine lettuce from the "stubs". So after using up my lettuce, I placed my stub in some water and sure enough it regrew! I took a can that previous held kidney beans and painted it and used it as a planter for my newly growing lettuce. Four weeks later, I am ready to harvest my lettuce. The size is not nearly as big as what I get in the store, but I read it only regrows to about half the size it originally was. It certainly is enough for a few sandwiches! Two great Pinterest ideas combined into one fabulous activity that my children loved!

Have you made anything from your discoveries on Pinterest? Share your accomplishments here!