Unfortunately, I don’t like clutter, so I tend to recycle my magazines filled with all of my inspirations and end up making the same-old pasta and jarred sauce in my dull, under-decorated apartment.

Pinterest has become the perfect solution to my problems! Now I can look at photos, read recipes, and get craft ideas and “pin” them to my boards in an organized, easy way. I have shortened my list of bookmarks, which was previously so long that it was painful to sort through it to find the right link. Now, I have a place to store my inspirations, and I have slowly begun incorporating new ideas into my life and surroundings.

Here are the top five reasons why I’m loving Pinterest:

1. I can keep track of stuff I like - I can make different boards for different things, for example, a board for recipes, a board for home decor ideas, a board for DIY and crafts, etc. I can categorize the things that I love so that when I want to go back to them later, I know exactly where they are.

2. It’s SUPER easy to use - There’s a button that you can add to your browser’s favorites bar that makes it as simple as one click to pin something to your Pinterest boards. I added it all of my web browsers so that no matter what I’m doing, I can capture things. Plus, the button automatically links the image back to the original source. It’s a breeze to re-pin things that your friends have pinned, leave comments on pins, and follow pinners you really like.

3. I can steal borrow inspiration from friends – I can follow my friends’ pins and see the types of things that they like. I get a lot of really good ideas from other people, and Pinterest facilitates this borrowing. Also– you can get some great birthday gift ideas for your friends based on what they’re pinning.

4. I can get magazine content without the subscription price – A lot of companies are now using Pinterest to share their content. For example, I follow posts from Better Homes and Gardens. I used to subscribe to the magazine simply to look at the photos. Now, I have access to a lot of the content online without buying a subscription and killing trees.

5. I save money by pinning things I like rather than buying everything that catches my eye - I love to spend money, but I don’t always have a lot of it to spend. With Pinterest, I can pin all of the things that I like, decide on a few things that I absolutely need, and make smarter purchasing decisions.

Get inspired! Try out Pinterest and follow my Pinterest pins/boards.

There are so many food blogs, baking how to’s, and recipe repositories online that “I don’t know how” is no longer an excuse.

My favorite websites are ones that have written instructions accompanied by photos of each step. That way you can see whether your work-in-progress looks the way it should look before you get too far into the project. It’s a genius idea that makes me, an amateur baker-wannabe, look like a pro.

My mom bakes a lot. When I was growing up, I used to love helping her in the kitchen while she made delicious treats. My house was always a popular hang-out spot because my mom would usually whip up something sweet for my friends and I to eat.

Now that I no longer live at home, I am determined to entice my friends into hanging out at my apartment with tasty desserts. Problem is, I don’t have my mom’s experience or expertise. In lieu of calling my mother several times a week for recipe advice, which I’m sure she would probably love, I have turned to the vast resources available online.

So, no, I didn't make these chick cake pops . . . yet. They're on my to-bake list

Last year, I decided I wanted to tackle the cake pop. A cake pop is a mixture of cake and frosting rolled into a ball, placed on a lollipop stick, dipped in chocolate, and then decorated. They’re so delicious and so cute, but the task of actually making them seemed a little daunting.

I started perusing the plethora of websites that detail the process. I read detailed instructions and recipes outlining the steps to make the pops, and looked through readers’ comments describing their trials and tribulations and tricks and tips that accompanied the recipes.

I looked through photo galleries of various ways to decorate the cake pops. I watched instructional videos of how to dip the cake pops in the chocolate to have an even, smooth coating. Seriously, I think the only way I could have been better prepared was if Bakerella, the queen of cake pops, came and gave me a private lesson at my apartment.

I’m happy to report, my cake pops came out looking like they were from a professional bakery!

Now, you will never find me in the kitchen without my computer. Even if I’m making something simple like baked chicken, I search for tips and recommendations to make it more tender and flavorful.

I regularly check several of my favorite food blogs for ideas to spice up my meals and make new exciting treats for my friends. Now I’m just waiting for a future technological innovation that will enable my computer to do the baking for me!

Need some motivation to bake? Remember, you get to lick the spatula!

What’s your favorite food-related website? Have you used online resources to learn new cooking or baking techniques?

This weekend, I hung out with 4 of my best friends from high school. We updated eachother on life after college. We met my friend’s dog, Lionel, and I introduced them all to my brand-new, 12 week-old puppy. We all got a chance to see what the others see when they look out their apartment windows every day.

Did I mention that we all live in different US states?

We had a five-person, five-state, virtual hangout. It was so special to not only hear my friends’ voices, but also to see their faces and body language. We turned our webcams toward our windows to see the places we each call home through each other’s eyes. Even though we were in Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, California, and Oregon, we felt truly connected and reunited like we were sitting in my family room back home.

I’m notorious for going months without talking to my friends. It’s not that I don’t like them or don’t want to talk to them, it’s just hard! Hard to find a mutually convenient time, hard to hear and understand what people are saying over the phone, hard to stay focused when you’re surrounded by distractions.

It’s not feasible– financially or time wise– for us to all get together in person in a mutually agreeable location on a regular basis. We don’t all go home for school breaks and holidays anymore. We are recent college grads with new responsibilities. Group video chatting is a really cool way to reconnect without hurting our bank accounts with plane tickets and travel expenses.

I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the video and audio. My friends looked and sounded exactly how I remember them. I could clearly see the new World Trade Center building going up from my friend’s Brooklyn window when he gave us a webcam tour of his apartment.

Would I prefer to see them face to face and play Scrabble in our local coffee shop for hours like we used to do so often? Of course! With so many cool online capabilities available for free, we’ll definitely be  adding new things to our virtual hangouts. Maybe next time, we can play a group game of online Scrabble and drink coffee from our new favorite shops while we catch each other up on the new exciting developments in our lives. We are already in the process of planning our next group video chat, hopefully bringing in a few more friends from Rhode Island, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Mexico!

Have you had success using virtual tools to keep in touch with old friends?

States represented (L-R)- Oregon, California, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts