Yummy!

This week I have several Christmas parties to go to. And yes, I have to make something for each one. This morning, I noticed that my FAVORITE fonts website (Kevin & Amanda) had a new recipe posted. It looks ...to die for...



So, here is the picture.

















And here is the recipe: http://picky-palate.com/2009/09/24/the-mother-load-layered-cookie-bars/

Picky Palate is now another one of my favorite blogs. Boy! Do they have some awesome recipes!

Please let me know if you make this. Looks great, but a little time consuming. I wonder if it would make up with already prepared cookie dough? I'm gonna try it!!! :)

Gingerbread House

Gingerbread house - the mess = http://www.highlightskids.com/Magazine/Dec05/h1magazineFlashObjects/h11205DecemberArtist.asp

Fun for all ages! I could sit for hours designing a digital gingerbread house! Crazy huh? I once bought candies, icing, cookies, and all of the supplies to make a real gingerbread house... after hours of designing....I think it was too heavy. It collapsed! Although the real thing is fun, this website sure is a lot neater and inexpensive! :)

I hope you are having a wonderful December. It is my FAV time of year!!!! :)

Elf Yourself!

Every year when it gets cold outside, I look forward to a fun website http://www.elfyourself.com/. ((Also, http://sendables.jibjab.com/ is super fun!)) Load in family pictures, and watch yourself dance around like a crazy elf. The website used to be FREE, but this year I noticed that there is a $4.99 charge for the video. I didn't buy the video, but I did enjoy looking at my family as elves! :)

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love every minute of December. The cold weather, furry sweaters, fireplaces, good food, family, hot cocoa..... I could go on and on! But, I most mention that Christmas is all about Christ, not Santa. People tend to leave this part OUT lately. Years ago I put my life in Christ's hands, and He has changed my life. If you do not know Him, the invitation is open for you to know Him personally. So, whether you celebrate the birth of Christ or another winter holiday, I hope you have a great Holiday season.

Love, Kimberly

Fun Keyboards!

Anything bright and colorful, I like! This is not the most professional keyboard, but it sure is fun for home use! :) I wish I could buy BLACK stickers for some of my students that do not know their keys....that way they wouldn't be able to LOOK while they were typing! The glow-in-the-dark stickers are cool for those of you who work late at night. Also, there are laptop skins available. Explore the website, and see all of the keyboard options.....http://funkeyboards.com/ PS....I love the zebra print!

I TYPE faster!!!! :)

For all of you Facebook users, you must try Typing Maniac! Typing Maniac is a very challenging game that will help you build your speed and accuracy in typing. Compete against your Facebook "friends". I am super addicted!! Try it out!! :)

Splashup.com

If you want to edit photos, but simply cannot afford to buy Adobe Photoshop, try http://www.splashup.com/. The website isFREE, and you can edit images online with this easy, powerful tool. Splashup can also be integrated with Facebook, Photobucket, and other online applications. You can use layers, brushes, text, color editing, cropping, etc...

I am in HEAVEN!!!!

This morning, a co-worker shared her love for fonts with me. She saw an invitation that I created, and she said "I love that Scriptina font!"..... I immediately knew she was my best friend! haha :) Not too often can I find someone to chat about FONTS with!

So, she told me about her favorite free fonts website: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/ ....and I thought I died and went to heaven! Especially when I saw a button that said "Download ALL". So, in 2 seconds, I downloaded 363 beautiful, funky, sweet, and unique handwritten fonts. Ahhhh....love this site!!! Please go download some fonts for yourself!!! I have already got my next project in mind.

File Manager

https://www.getdropbox.com/

A friend told me about Dropbox this morning. I downloaded it, and it looks pretty spiffy! :)

After downloading it to your computer, it created a "folder" called Dropbox to my C: drive. Here I can save a backup of my files, that can be accessed from any computer! wow! Instead of using a jump drive, back and forth between computers, I can access all of my files through this one website. You get 2 GB of free space, and as you refer people to the website, they build your space. There are plenty of tutorials that take you step-by-step through the process. Try it out!

Language Classes

I have always wanted to learn a foreign language, but didn't have much sucess with Spanish in high school! :) My daughter is in 2nd grade, and has been learning Spanish for 3 years now! And as you all know, the Hispanic poplulation is the fastest growing. It is imperative that we learn some type of foreign language in order to be sucessful communicators! Here, you can find free online language classes: Free Online Language classes

I am thinking Hebrew would be fun....hmm, or maybe Chinese! I do have quite a few Chinese friends that I could communicate with. :)

Great Website!!

Well school started three weeks ago, and it has been crazy busy! But I did want to take a minute to tell you about the website, Family Watch Dog. http://www.familywatchdog.us/Default.asp With so much on the news about child abductions, I wanted you to be aware of what is going on in your community! There are 8 child rapists in my community, and it is odd to look at the map and see how they like to migrate around the schools/parks! You can even look at pictures on this website of each offender...what a great website! Just a little statistic....The typical sexual predator will assault 117 times before being caught. WOW! Please be aware.

Personalized Stamps!

I am loving these personalized stamps!! What a great idea for a birthday, or Christmas present! I think I may put them on my Christmas cards this year! They even have collegiate stamps for all of you football fans! Upload your family photo for a personalized stamp that is as unique as your family! http://photo.stamps.com/Store/

The stamps are about $18.99 for 20 stamps in case you are wondering... I would use them only for special occasions! ha :)

Picasa!

Google offers a wonderful program called Picasa, which allows you to manage your photos. It helps me find images that I saved years ago! I also love it because you can do simple editing, and create AWESOME desktop backgrounds. I just created a mosaic of my family, friends, and funky random images for my background. (see below) Again, this is another FREE program!! http://picasa.google.com/

School is just right around the corner..... YAY!!! :)

Photo Fun!

Free website once again to make your pictures FUN without buying PrIcEy software!

Go to http://www.befunky.com/ to try it out!

Summer is here!

Summer is here, and I hope it is a wonderful one for you! I will be extremely busy this summer with my comps at USM, and a summer project that I am working on. You will probably not see much of me, if any, on my blog. See you in the fall! :)

Linkedin.com

http://www.linkedin.com/ -- This is a neat website that I stumbled upon today. It looks like a great networking website that could possibly lead to a job. Unlike Facebook and MySpace, this website is strickly professional.

Talk to a Stranger

http://omegle.com/ is a website that allows you to talk to a random stranger. Pretty cool if you have something on your mind, or are bored. Try it out. I just went to the website and chatted with a girl from Asia. You do not have to share personal information, or create an account.

Wix free webpage design

If you want to create your own website and have it hosted online without having to purchase your own domain name, try http://www.wix.com/. I created a free account today and played with it a little while, and it seems pretty cool. You can send your page to friends or embed your link to facebook, myspace, etc...

Leave a comment if you try it and let me know what you think!

Happy Manual Typewriter Day! (4/30/1808)

FREE Mother's Day card!!!

Come here to make a free Mother's Day card: http://www.scrapblog.com/ The cards are beautiful, and are printed on professional-quality paper. VERY NICE! I made one for my mother, and included photos of me and my daughter. Only pay $1.00 for shipping the card. Can't beat this deal! Joining scrapblog, is free and easy to use!

TinyURL.com

Sometimes URLs can be very, very long. Sometimes you want a short link. Use http://www.tinyurl.com/ to make your long links....short! :)

Did You Know Video.

This video is awesome. Please click the link below, and take the time to watch it. It is a real eye-opener! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXx1_6T09jM

The video reminds me of a quote by Alvin Toffler, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." We are living in exponential times, and change comes every day. Some change is good, some is bad. Do not be afraid of new technology! :)

Love, Love, Love IT!!!!

I stumbled across a website yesterday that is absolutely fantastic. I spent WAY too much time reading posts by the pioneer woman!! Please visit this site for great photography and Photoshop hints and tricks. Also, if you love to cook, you have GOT to check out her recipes. There is much, much, more on the website. I hope you will check it out! http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/

Free PDF software!

For years I have been telling students how to create .pdf documents using CutePDF Writer. I just noticed that I didn't have the link up for my students.

http://www.cutepdf.com/ will allow you to make .pdf documents from any document, for free! A .pdf document is great because it cannot be edited. Also, your downloaded fonts STICK, and can be viewed on any computer....which I LOVE! :)

I would suggest making your resume a .pdf file before sending it to potential employers. Your formatting, fonts, and layout will stay how you like it. Also, anyone worldwide can view a .pdf file for free if they have a Adobe PDF reader. The PDF reader is free also, and most computers come with it installed when you purchase them! If you don't have the Adobe reader you can get it here: http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Graphics

Places to find graphics online:

http://www.istockphoto.com/ (incredible pictures if you are willing to pay).

http://www.sxc.hu/

http://www.flickr.com/ (shoot the owners a message and most of the time people are cool with you using their stuff as long as you don't sell it. Just make sure to ask).

http://www.vecteezy.com/ (sometimes you have to wade through a lot of skulls and junk to find something useful).

http://www.imageafter.com/

http://www.freeiconsweb.com/index.html (icons)

http://dezignus.com/

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Watch FREE movies and T.V!

Visit http://www.hulu.com/ to watch free movies and television. You can watch anything...from Sponge Bob to the nightly news! With free websites like this, who needs satellite or cable television anymore?? :)

Comment and let me know what you think!

Graphic Editing -- FREE!!

I know most of you love Photoshop CS3, but simply cannot afford to buy it. Here are a few links to free graphic editing programs that will do basically the same thing as Photoshop!

Photoshop Express: https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html

Photoscape: http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php (a little confusing to learn, but contains great tools. You can find instructional tutorials on http://www.youtube.com/)

Picasa by Google: http://picasa.google.com/

I hope you will spend some time editing photos. It is quite addictive.

Very Cool Website!

My new favorite website is http://www.etsy.com/ where you can find very unique things that are homemade. Some of the prices are incredibly LOW! Find a stress ball, a laptop decal, a mouse pad, or a wrist rest for your office. I love searching the children's clothes and jewlery. I have a feeling that once you look at the site, you will be hooked!!

I love the laptop decal and sleep mask (see pictures). They are perfect gifts for a busy college student (or teacher....hint!) :)

Scrapbooking Made Easy!

I am soooooo addicted to a free scrapbook program online at http://www.scrapblogs.com/. My friend and colleague, Delana Foster, showed me an awesome scrapbook that she created for her Delta Epsilon Chi student association. I can’t believe how you can choose backgrounds, stickers, etc… and it is all free. When you are finished with your personalized scrapbook, you can order it for $35 or you can turn it into a blog that friends can view online. This is an unreal price, considering how much you would spend at a hobby store to buy and put together a scrapbook yourself. Try it out!

Free file conversion!

Do you ever need files converted into a different format? My daughter got an .mp3 player for Christmas, and I didn't realize that it wouldn't play .mp4 files! So, needless to say, my Christmas was spend converting files.

I hope you will find this website useful. http://www.youconvertit.com/convertfiles.aspx

Sorry it has been so long....

With the holidays, I did not have much time to update my blog. Sorry! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

Dave Ramsey, is one of my new favorite people. You can visit his website at http://www.daveramsey.com/. He is helping me become debt-free, and hopefully a millionaire one day! :) As I was listening to him on the radio the other day, he mentioned GOAL SETTING. I have summarized what he said on the radio below...

I encourage you to set clear, measurable goals for the new year. One key component to goal setting, is WRITING them on paper.

Set goals for your life in the following areas:

• Career (school?)
• Financial
• Spiritual (want to read the Bible all the way through?)
• Physical (don't just say "lose weight". Come up with a specific amount, and a specific time frame)
• Intellectual (do you want to read more books? The average millionaire reads 1 book a month)
• Family (want to spend more family time? family time does not include watching TV)
• Social

One thing Dave always says is "Failure is not permanent." So, whatever is going on in your life, or whatever has been thrown your way....keep a positive attitude and set goals to improve your life.