At least once a week lately on Facebook, I see a question that is something like this: “Everyone is telling me I should do Pinterest. I just signed up and I don’t get it. Can someone help?”

For those of you who are in this camp, this blog is for you. In a nutshell, Pinterest is an online bulletin board. It allows you to do two things–one is to remember specific websites you have found with a visual cue so you can go back to them. The other is to see things that people or friends are “pinning” to get ideas for your own life.

Let’s deal with this practically. You know your friend–sure you do–the one who you would hate if she weren’t your friend? She’s the one who always has the best ideas, who makes everything look super cute, who throws best parties, whose food tastes incredible or whose house looks like it’s decorated out of a magazine. Okay, so we’re on the same page, right?

Now imagine that you could tap into her brain and the brains of thousands of people like her so that you could have those ideas too. Welcome to Pinterest! With Pinterest, you are able to view these ideas from other people and then pin them to your own board to keep for future reference. In this case, stealing is not only acceptable–it’s encouraged.

Since joining Pinterest, I’ve made my own laundry detergent and photographed all of my holiday cards so that the beautiful pictures my friends sent me pop up when they call my cell phone. I’ve learned to plant my seeds in toilet paper cardboard rolls so I can plant them directly into the ground without having to pull them out of their little plastic containers. Virtually every day I get another idea that I never would have come up with myself and which I can put to use.

That’s your quick introduction to Pinterest. You’re hooked now, aren’t you?