Walmart Photo Printing Kiosk

Wow, Karla has fallen in LOVE with those things! 

If you're not familiar with them, it's and instant gratification item that's absolutely AWESOME and very well put together!  You can load your media onto the kiosk via just about any data card, CD or even scan them in.  You can even transfer them from your phone via bluetooth, or hook your camera up to it with the USB cable!  Once your pics are on the machine, you can print individual photos, add borders, create collages...  *sigh*

Needless to say, we've spent quite a bit of money there and have several new photo collages around the house.  It's a very, very cool toy and the results are just gorgeous.  Once you pick what you want, it prints your claim ticket and all you have to do is go to the photo printer and scan your claim ticket in 3-4 minutes and there are your pictures!  And the price is extremely reasonable for what you get.  $0.28 for a single 4x6 print.  You pay that even if you add a border. 

This is not to trump up Walmart.  Personally, I avoid shopping there if I can.  But this is a deal that we just can't pass up.

Photo Management

I received in our email an article from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads.  The article is here and is titled, "Pixel Perfect".

It has a lot of advice on how to maintain and manage your photo files of your jewelry pieces.  Or of any photos you take with the plan of using them in different media.  I intend to implement this today, if I have time to take some photos.  (I really need to!)

In our case, we may be small and unknown now, but someday we'll have a design worthy of appearing in a magazine or such, and we'll need to have high quality images for printing.  Or, we'll want to make our own printed newsletter.  In that case, we'll need high quality images for the printed version and lower ones for an online version. 

Up until now, I've only been keeping the photos that we use to put on Etsy.  And they are only a 1000px square; Sadly inadequate for any kind of physical printed format.

I hope someone finds this article useful, as I did. 

Dark Shimmers

"A flash in the Dark.  A glimmer of color in the gray night.  A bright glimpse of light, flashes... then disappears.  Dark Shimmers.  Appearing on a throat near you!"

There's my movie trailer for this latest piece that I've called "Dark Shimmers".  The stone is really dark, but has beautiful shimmers of green and blue with maybe a hint of red streaks.  The pearls brighten it up, but don't overpower the beauty of the pendant.

This one was a true collaboration.  We both contributed to the design and the work to get it done.  It's very satisfying to complete a piece like this, especially when it's so loved by the person who commissioned it.  Here's a photos of the completed piece:

Spices

My spaghetti is one of our favorite meals.  I learned how to make the sauce from my mother and Karla really liked it, especially after I made some little changes to it, to fit the flavor I wanted it to have.

But, today, it was not to be.  The stars aligned against me; the gods weren't smiling down.  Apparently, they were sneezing.

I went to throw some cumin into the sauce, but instead, grabbed the pumpkin pie spice.  I was rushing, as I got a late start and wanted to have it done before our little boy woke up from his nap, so when I popped the lid and started to shake it in, I thought, "Wow, that cumin is really brown."  But I paid my conscience no attention.  Then, after I added the basil and started to stir a bit more, I started to realize that it smelled funny.  I started wafting the steam to my face and trying to figure out what the matter was.  Then, I got a hint of cinnamon.  Cinnamon!  From my sauce! 

Immediately, I knew something was wrong and grabbed the spice containers from the bar behind me.  Sure enough, the one I thought was cumin wasn't.  I thought I could cover it up with extra cumin and basil and garlic powder, but after shaking some more in and letting it cook for a couple minutes, I realized that there was no help for it.  Let me tell you, a mix of basil, cumin and garlic with pumpkin pie spice is not appetizing.  At all.

I already had put the pasta in the water, so I saved lunch by whipping up a white sauce and grilling some chicken.  So, we still had pasta.  It was just white, instead of red.

2010 - The Best Year Yet!

Here's to 2010!  The best year you'll have yet!  Don't believe me? Go out there and make it the best year you'll ever have!  We sincerely hope that you'll set goals and bust your butt working towards those goals.  We hope that you make changes for the better.  We hope that you make it a point to smile every day.  We hope that you search for truth and joy.  We wish you all these things and more.

And, we hope you wish them back to us!

What's our goal?  We're setting a goal to have 1 online sale a week!  Thinking reasonably, I realize that we probably won't get that, but as long as it averages out to 1 per week at the end of the year, and we bust our butts every week working for that sale, we'll have accomplished a great thing. 

Karla and I started our New Year with laughs!  After our little one went to sleep and we did all the things we normally do to get the house cleaned and ready to start the next day, we decided to rent and watch a movie.  I ran across the street in pj's and flipflops (man was it cold!) and we rented "The Proposal".  Oh my goodness, the movie is extremely funny!  It has lots of humor and a nice, romantic story.  I'd give it 8 stars at least (out of 10) and I imagine Karla would give it more.  It was quite a nice way to bring in the New Year.

So, Happy New Year, to your family from ours!  May this year be the Best Ever!