iPhone

Posted on | June 22, 2011 | 207 Comments

This is a tutorial on how to install the Pinterest “Pin It” bookmarklet on your iPad (iPhone/Pod) Safari web browser.

What is Pinterest? It’s an organizational tool that lets you share all the pretty findings with all Pinterest members (who follows you). It’s really fun and I use mine to gather ideas for my current and future home decorating needs, travel ideas, color combos, things I want to buy for myself or the family, etc. Very fun and if not careful can take up a lot of your precious time!

The last few months I haven’t been pinning much. Long story but basically I’ve been without a laptop and when I do sit in front of a computer (desktop) it has been to either grade, learn/research, edit pics and blog. Just not comfy sitting on this chair of mine. A few weeks ago I picked up a new toy and between the apps and me messing around with the iPad I found that I can do this: Pinning directly from Safari on to Pinterest. No apps needed. I like this better than using the app (the app doesn’t let me pin new things). Because of this I’ve been regularly pinning again.

So how do you do it? Well first, if you have any sort of iDevice (iPod, iPhone or iPad) with Safari installed and JavaScript enabled (you go into your Safari Settings to check this and to turn it on/off — you NEED this ON) you can do this little trick. If you are on a different operating system this method should work IF the browser supports JavaScript and has a regular browser bookmarking feature (not the one that shows up on another page). I learned this method from Read it Later‘s how to install a bookmarklet tutorial. After successfully adding the bookmarklet my little brain went: Ooooh, if I can do this for Read it Later I should be able to do it for all other bookmarklet. After some Googling I found Pinterest’s blog and yup, they said you can.

Solo Travel Tips

Posted on | June 10, 2011 | 2 Comments

What a day!! We played, we relaxed (probably too much), we ate and now it’s just me, myself and I. I need to do some grading but I thought I’d write this post first. This post is for moms, women or even single gals who for some reason cannot travel with a (male) companion.

I go places myself or with the girls because one it’s the way I am and two it’s because if I wait around for hubby I’ll be staying home quite a bit (and I’d go mad). It’s not that he can’t take a day off or vacation time but when you’re in the military things just come up at the last minute and plans need to always be flexible. Despite the unpredictability’s of this type of field, I believe that a partner shouldn’t be restricted to that unpredictable schedule.

Traveling doesn’t always have to be far off places. We go to many places near us, here and when we were in Missouri. It is though always more intimidating when the travel requires hours of travel time and a foreign language.

Early Childhood Education

Posted on | April 15, 2011 | 4 Comments

First of all I’m no early child hood education expert. While my educational background was in child psychology and education I was never trained or have ever worked with little children. But, after having two of my own I must have done something right because I’ve had a few moms ask me for advice on how to help their little ones learn. I owe a few people some long emails about this and since I’ve been an email slacker lately I am just going to post here. Since I am an educator at heart I hope that this little post of mine can help or inspire other parents to work with their children, even if it’s just a few minutes a day.

Before I continue, keep in mind that all children were not born equally. My methods might not work for every little person and his/her parent(s). Also, I’ve been blessed with two healthy and intelligent kids. I didn’t have to beat them with a cane or bribe them with a lot of chocolates for them to do what they did.

Tip: Stickies Off

Posted on | November 14, 2010 | 5 Comments

Very glad we’re not in Missouri because if we were I’d be sleeping outside. Hubby would have kicked me out because I’d keep asking: “Is it tornadic? Is it tornadic? Is it tornadic?” each time I hear the wind blow while he’s fast asleep. He’d be extra annoyed if it’s on a weekday because he has to be up by 5:30 a.m. while I won’t come to bed until 11p/midnight. It’s been very windy in our part of the world and I am not freaking out! Due to the wind, our area’s been like the card above, created using Clear and Simple’s Happy Fall. Every morning there seems to be fresh spread of leaves on the ground waiting to be raked.

Today I also want to share a little tip. A few weeks, or might be a month, back Ashley from Embellish Magazine asked how to remove adhesive from scissors. If you use your scissors to cut dimensionals for example you know what I’m talking about. Goop of dried adhesive stuck to the scissors which make the scissors practically useless for anything else. In the past I’ve used Goo Gone or the sort because we always had some and they remove everything it seems. But, when we moved the movers wouldn’t pack our Goo and now I’m Goo-less. When Ash asked that question I remembered that I had a pair of scissors that needed cleaning and so I went searching and found something near by that did the job as well: Stamp cleaners!

I have two. One is a Stampin’ Up! Mist one and the other is a Clear and Simple one. They both work as well and the glue comes off quite easily. I just sprayed some one, let it sit for a minute, and I just used a paper towel or my fingers. Then there’s something on the spray that’d make the scissors a bit silky and it’ll help the adhesive not stick to the scissors – at least for a day or two. Give it a try. If you’re a stamper you’re most likely to have a stamp cleaner!

Have a great one. By the time this post I am hoping to be en-route to IKEA! Laters!!

Some Favorite Things

Posted on | September 22, 2010 | 13 Comments

First most recent favorite thing: Potato and leek soup. I found it on AllRecipes and of course I had to tweak it just a bit:

2 good size garlic cloves chopped
2 shallots sliced
1 tsp white pepper

I also didn’t have any American bacon (pork belly and more fatty) so I used 250g (about half a pound) British bacon (from the back cut of pork which is less fatty) and I added a tbs of butter. But if you use American bacon I’d not use the extra butter.

In terms of cooking. I let the potato boil with the broth (I used cubes) as the original recipe directed but for the other portion I sauteed the bacon first for about 4-5 minutes (English bacon doesn’t get crispy), then I added the butter, garlic and shallots, and then gradually the leak until the leek was soft. I think this took 5-10 minutes. Then I dumped everything into the pot of potato and broth. Last was the cream and pepper. I let it mix for around 5 minutes.

Here’s a garlic tip. When chopping garlic use your knife to cut the rough edge off. Then put the flat side of your knife on the garlic and smash the knife (or push down hard if you’re the stronger than me) with your hand (careful not to cut yourself!). The wider the knife the better (I chop with a chef’s knife). After it’s smash just pull the rest of the skin off and use your knife to chop the already crushed garlic a bit more so that it’s finer (unless you love chunky garlic). Here’s a video that does more less of what I usually do. My friend in college taught me how to chop this way. Before this I had to painfully remove the skin first and then chop.

Oh, on the cream, hubby got double heavy cream and the recipe only requires heavy cream. I don’t know if this made a difference but goodness, the soup was DIVINE!!! Wish I took a photo of it. We were too hungry {::SMILES}.

Second most favorite thing: Baby Signing Time. Not only is this Jovie’s most favorite video series they are also teaching her how to communicate with us. While she’s getting there in speaking she’s still mostly babbling so signing has helped us quite a bit! Here’s a little sampling of the video:

If you have little ones I seriously recommend teaching them how to sign. It’s also suppose to increase their IQs too and speech. While M loves My Baby Can Talk for her first signing video (she went to Signing Time later on) Jovie doesn’t care of that much and prefers the Signing Time series. They’re both excellent though and I highly recommend them. M spoke early, at 14-mo, but she knew how to use 2-3 words in a sentence right away. Jovie, while just going bok bok (book) or mo mo (more) she can already sign using 1-2 signs at a time. On average kids don’t start putting words together until at least 18-mo. The only downside is that at 14/15-mo-old she’s already very demanding. She’d wake up asking milk, cereal AND ice cream. In the middle of the day she’ll sign bus which basically means she’d like to ride the bus that goes to Cambridge. She always tells me when there’s an airplane nearby and when she wants water or a bath. Jovie’s hand never stops talking that’s for sure!!

Third favorite thing: Just living here in the UK with the family. Life is wonderful and I’ve never been happier!!

Card info:

I made this card some months back for the Embellish call but never formally submitted it although I did email it to Ash. I dunno, after looking at it I didn’t feel like it was pub worthy. The theme was using buttons creatively and I don’t think my button usage was very creative. There’s nothing new there don’t ya think? So here it is. For the card I used Practicing Creativity’s stamps. The punch was Martha Stewart’s and the twine I got from Etsy, Annie42.