Fred Flare

Today my friend Erika, with whom I take accounting and stats, told me about a delicious site, FredFlare.com. I only had a few minutes before class, but right off the bat found this super mega-awesome ice cream cone lamp that I think is making it's way onto my Christmas list. I don't know where it will go in my house, but it's just the sort of thing I love. Browse the store to find oodles of items from cupcake flavored floss to a light-up Christmas tree made from a computer motherboard to temporary mustache tattoos.

Search for "cupcakes" to see an amazing selection of cupcake items including a kitchen timer, beanie, band aids, ear buds, and Christmas ornaments.

For Locals--Estate Sale this weekend!

For everyone nearby, there is an estate sale this weekend at 4316 South Elmview
Springfield, MO 65804 running Thursday through Saturday from 8 AM till 3 PM. As usual, this is a cash only sale, but they will hold items for 30 minutes so you can go grab some cashola. Check out pictures, get a map, and see a description of many of the items here.

Additionally, there are two others sales this weekend in Kansas City and Carthage.

The one in Carthage has oodles of things I love to buy from estate sales. I'm talking retro, vintage pieces of furniture, shoes, jewelry, clothing. I think I'll send my mother and see if she can find any steals!

On the estatesales.net homepage you can also sign up to receive email notifications [like I do] about upcoming sales in our area.

*A note about estate sales. I only post sales that are done by professional companies. I know I may miss some that are posted on craiglist or in the newspaper, but I have found that while there may be legitimate estate sales most of those not done by a company are honestly mostly garage sales. People include the phrase "estate sale" because it attracts people to the sale, even if it shouldn't really be listed as such. I've gotten up early and been disappointed to find a few tables of items on someone's lawn instead of the whole house of goods I was expecting to find.

New to Photoshop?

Not everyone learns how to use design programs like Photoshop in school. I'm even an advertising major and I wasn't required to take even a single class on this very handy tool. Photoshop is useful for everyone, for making neat flyers, desiging a holiday card, or altering your own photos. Photoshop Elements is a less expensive option, but with much more limited features. Photoshop is expensive [I think my student version was nearly $200], but if you've taken the leap to buy it and are now sitting in front of a big grey screen with lots of little grey boxes wondering what to do, I have help!

Photoshop Essentials is just that, the essentials to learning how to use Photoshop. The directions are written in plain English with pictures. There are tutorials on the very basics [with no underlying tone of judgment toward your lack of Photoshop skillz] and more advanced photo editing. Trust me, these are very clear to follow, totally free, and there to look up again when you can't remember how to do that cool thing you did yesterday. Start with Layers.

IceFlowStudios via youtube has dozens of videos showing you just how to add dazzling effects to photos like a snowy landscape, applying makeup, and whitening a smile. You can follow right along with the video and see actual screen shots of where and what to click. The narrator makes it easy to understand why you're doing whatever it is you're doing and adds tips to help you extend the skills you're learning outside of that particular tutorial.

The more you work in Photoshop, the more comfortable you'll become using shortcuts. These are the same shortcuts you might use in Word to copy [Ctrl+C] but are customizable. There are shorcuts already in place when you buy Photoshop, and knowing them is going to make it easier on you. Download a cheat sheet of them here for all versions up to CS4 for Window or Mac.

Tip for Saving $$$

I have a lot of crafting supplies, and a staple of those is plain, white card stock. I use it for all sorts of projects from card making to decorating to present wrapping. Save yourself some money and buy it in a large pack from an office supply store instead of the smaller 50 or so packs at craft stores. Instead of paying around 25 cents a sheet, you'll pay six.

Catalog Living

I'm a fan of people being practical about design. I've often flipped through Martha Stewart Living and the like thinking, "Whose house actually looks like that?" The answer. No one. Those pictures are staged for beautiful photos, not necessarily for everyday life. My aunt Julia turned me onto a blog, Catalog Living, which makes the same point in a lighthearted and entertaining way.