Works-for-Me Wednesday: Folding like a pro!

When I first started blogging, I came across a YouTube video of a Japanese t-shirt folding method. I couldn't understand a word of it, but after repeated viewings some of my kids and I mastered the technique and in our enthusiasm even taught it to others. When cold weather arrived we discovered that this method doesn't work well for long sleeves (at least it didn't for us) and we quit using it. My sixteen-year-old son and I just realized that we'd forgotten it, and thus began the technorati search which lead to the following helpful and delightful video, in which a cute kid explains the Japanese method and more--all in English!



If after watching the above video you are motivated to build your own t-shirt folding "machine," watch this:

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Help for Hanger Horns

Don't you hate it when you put on a shirt and you've got hanger horns, those unsightly lumps on your shoulders where the hanger has stretched out the fabric? Here's a quick fix: squirt them down with a wrinkle release product, then smooth out the lump. It works best if you're actually wearing the shirt when you do this.

For more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Strikethrough Text

I've never done this before, but I'm going to post something from the archives. I originally published this in October and it still gets lots of hits from Google searches, so I figure this is something people want to learn how to do. So without further ado...

Strikethrough Text

Do you really like love it when you see that strikethrough text effect, you just don't know how to do it? Now you can! Just enclose the word or words you want to strike through between the following tags:

<strike>like</strike> gives you like
or
<s>like</s> will also give you like

Those brackets are on your keyboard under the letter "L." Just don't forget to include the / on the end tag; that lets your browser know to stop this effect, or else it will just keep striking through everything you write.

To my knowledge, this will not work when leaving comments (I haven't tried it in the new Beta, so who knows?). Have fun, go forth, and strike away!

For more Works-for-Me Wednesday ideas, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Hot Air Styler and Dryer

Can you say, doesn't follow directions well? Since I obviously missed the theme of today's WFMW, I was going to shelve it until next week, but I don't see the option to delete it from Shannon's linky, so here it is...



First of all, I am really excited that Wednesday has rolled around and I actually remember my WFMW idea (from two weekends ago - I couldn't remember what it was last Wednesday). The Revlon hot air styler and dryer pictured is one of the greatest inventions I have ever tried for fixing your hair. The girl who cuts my hair uses one, and told me I could pick one up at Target, which I did immediately, although mine is silver instead of this funky purple.

For years I used a hair dryer and a round brush to fix my hair. This is like a round brush with a built-in dryer and two barrel sizes. There is one thing I need to tell you though, or you will not like it: Do not think of this as a hair dryer, but instead as the ultimate round brush. Get your hair almost completely dry (or even completely dry) before you use it. If you use it on wet hair it will take forever.

It takes a little getting used to, but then it makes fixing your hair a snap!

Visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer for more WFMW tips!

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Popcorn and Cereal Night!

Cooking supper every night for nine people gets a little overwhelming at times. Since we always have a big lunch on Sunday and I'm exhausted by the end of the day, we have declared Sunday evenings to be "Popcorn and Cereal Night." I don't have to cook, and the kids think it's the greatest thing ever!

Go visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer for more Works-for-Me Wednesday ideas!

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Crescent-Wrapped Gouda with Red Pepper Jelly

For the Christmas edition of Works-for-Me Wednesday, I thought I would share a simple yet elegant appetizer for all of those holiday get-togethers.

Crescent-Wrapped Gouda with Red Pepper Jelly

1 (7-oz.) round of Gouda cheese
1 (8-oz.) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
1 egg, beaten
fancy crackers
red pepper jelly

Heat oven to 350˚. Cut cheese round in half to form 2 circles; remove wax.

Separate dough into 4 rectangles; firmly press perforations to seal. Press each into a 6x6-inch rectangle. Place 2 rectangles, 3 inches apart, on ungreased cookie sheet. Place 1 cheese circle on center of each rectangle (from experience, I would take a knife and "break-up" the cheese; it will heat through better). If desired, use canape cutter or paring knife to cut 2 to 3 small decorative shapes from the corners of each remaining rectangle; set shapes aside. Place 1 remaining rectangle on top of each cheese round. Press dough around cheese to seal; curl bottom edges over top edges, gently stretching dough to form a ring of dough around cheese, sealing completely. Place decorative shapes on top of each pastry. Brush with beaten egg.

Bake at 350˚ for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes before serving. Place on a decorative plate or platter, surrounded by fancy crackers and topped with red pepper jelly. 8 servings.

Technically, you could omit the red pepper jelly. To me, however, it is the highlight. Once we were invited to a Christmas party where I brought this appetizer. I didn't have any red pepper jelly and asked my husband to please pick some up on his way there from work. He ended up being very late because he had so much trouble finding a store that stocked it. He finally found it at Publix. Our hostess later gave me 3 jars as a Christmas gift. I will be making this on Friday night; if I remember, I'll take a picture and update the post with it.

For more Christmas Works-for-Me Wednesday ideas, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Can Storage Rack

Several years ago, I acquired this handy can rack which takes up almost no space and holds a ton of canned goods. It currently has 82 cans on it, and it isn't full. My hubby mounted it for me behind the door of my laundry room, where it is easily accessible but out of sight. Just think of how much room those cans would take up on pantry shelves! Plus, all of the cans are visible, not buried behind each other. I've had mine a long time, but I assume you could find one at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer for more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips!

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Strikethrough Text

Do you really like love it when you see that strikethrough text effect, you just don't know how to do it? Now you can! Just enclose the word or words you want to strike through between the following tags:

<strike>like</strike> gives you like
or
<s>like</s> will also give you like

Those brackets are on your keyboard under the letter "L." Just don't forget to include the / on the end tag; that lets your browser know to stop this effect, or else it will just keep striking through everything you write.

To my knowledge, this will not work when leaving comments. Have fun, go forth, and strike away!

For more Works-for-Me Wednesday ideas, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

WFMW Corona Ointment

I want to tell you about a fabulous first aid product that our family has used for several years: Corona Ointment. If you look at the picture above, you may notice that the Corona ad has a horse, as opposed to say, a child. That's because Corona is marketed for horses, animals, small cattle, and pets. I know I have compared Lily to a dog, and I stick by that - she has carried a leash around for most of the day and we've had to take the jar of dog treats away from her - but this is a great product for cuts, burns, and to prevent scarring on people, too.

Years ago, one of our boys had a facial injury and I was concerned about scarring. A doctor in Texas told me (via email) to try Corona. It contains 50% pharmaceutical grade lanolin, plus antiseptics commonly used in human skin care products. The lanolin keeps the injury moist (it slowly melts into the skin), helps it to heal, and prevents the drying and pulling that contribute to scarring. Corona is great for burn treatment. It also works really well for severly chapped hands in the winter; just coat your hands and knuckles at bedtime, and they'll be better in the morning.

My husband and my oldest son were in the doctor's office last week. When she was telling them that they would need to get a particular ointment, my husband and son both said, "Corona?" She was surprised that they were familiar with it. Both doctors who have recommended it to us have land and horses of their own. Maybe they discovered, from experience, that it works well for people, too. You will probably have to go to a feed or equestrian supply store to find Corona.

Corona Ointment works for me! For other great Works-for-Me Wednesday ideas, go visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

Works-for-Me-Wednesday (Google's Picasa)

This is my public service announcement for bloggers wanting an easy way to upload photos to your blogger blog for most situations. Download Picasa, a free program from Google. I absolutely love the interface, which allows me to see all of the pictures on my computer, separated by folder, and easily drag and drop photos between folders. I choose where on my computer I want it to search for pictures, and each time I open Picasa, it imports any new pictures that I've added to those folders. It also has basic photo editing features, like crop, red-eye reduction, and a handy little button called "I'm Feeling Lucky" which is just an overall photo fixer-upper (that's the technical term, of course). You can also experiment with your photos using black & white and sepia conversion features. You can even download a version of Picasa which enables web albums.

All of this is great, but for bloggers, here's the real kicker: Click on up to four photos, which you can save in your "tray" at the bottom of the screen, and then click the "Blog This" button. Enter your blogger account settings (only once, then it will remember them) and a blogger "create new post" box will pop up, with your pictures loaded, just waiting for you to blog away! I have my digital camera set for high resolution settings, which means I have large files which might not load quickly for slower internet connections. Personally, if I have to wait too long for a picture to load, I keep moving along my merry way (I know - short attention span). Picasa resizes them for me, so I don't have to worry about resizing before uploading. There are also buttons for choosing to send your photos by email, instant message, or burn to CD/DVD.


Picasa isn't perfect. You are limited to four photos, which isn't always enough. There isn't a "back" button when you're typing your post, in case you want to switch your photos. The "add image" button is not merely disabled but actually missing on the "create new post" screen, so you can't add any other images from the internet or from your computer (if you're trying to sneak around that four photo limit). And last, but not least, you only have the option to "publish" or "discard," but not "save as draft," which is what I need right now since I'm really on the ball and typing my WFMW on Monday! What I do in that situation is hit "publish," then quickly run over to my blogger dashboard and nab it by choosing "edit post," and then "save as draft."

For this particular post, I opened Picasa, selected the WFMW logo saved on my computer, clicked "Blog This," and then typed away. After I publish it, I'll save it as a draft to post on Wednesday. I'll also go in and add the Picasa logo and "Blog This" icons from Picasa's website. Usually it isn't nearly so complicated; I just select my four photos and blog away. Maybe Google/Picasa will address these issues in the future and it will be an even better product. Regardless, it's free, easy to use, and suits my needs for the vast majority of posts which include pictures. Oh, and I like that groovy little swirl at the end of the post...

I wasn't expecting that one!

I was quite surprised to receive a comment on my blog about my Works-for-Me-Wednesday post concerning Splash Shopper from none other than Splash Data themselves! How incredibly cool (and unexpected) is that?

Works-for-me-Wednesday (Splash Shopper)

I got the idea to post this Works-for-me-Wednesday from this other WFMW post. Bryan got me a Palm Pilot for Christmas in 2004. One of the first things I got excited about was using it for my grocery list. At first I kept a grocery list on the notepad, but then I found this amazing program, Splash Shopper. I not only use it for my grocery list, but Christmas shopping lists, curriculum buying lists, even our McDonald's list (do you know how hard it can be to remember what this many people want to order?). It is very easy for me to grab my Palm out of the diaper bag and add an item to my grocery list whenever I think of something. Here is a screen shot:


Splash Shopper also has a desktop program. That is very handy when I'm making curriculum shopping lists before homeschool conferences, because I can sync the information between my computer and Palm when I'm finished; then I'm ready to go. Splash Data has several different Splash programs, which usually can be purchased in money-saving bundles if you need more than one. Splash Shopper really works for me!