Just like Oprah....let me share a few of my "Favorite Things"

I started this post over a month ago, but I had so much going on that I wanted to save this for a slow time, when I didn’t have anything else going on to post about…..well, shocking to even myself…it’s been 3 days since my last post…so YAY…I get to post this now!

So, a few times every year Oprah has one of her “Favorite Things” episodes. You know the one. She tells the audience about her obsession with some new face cream that she loves, and then screams “And everyone gets one!!!!” – and then the audience goes absolutely bonkers!

Well, Laura has been invited to a “Favorite Things” party a few weeks back, and so we’d been talking about our own favorite things. Now, I don’t have the ability to type “And everyone gets it!” and deliver to all of you, but I wanted to go ahead and share some of the things I cannot live without!

MY CAMERA(S)

The only real question that you should ask when looking to get a new camera is “Which Canon should I get?”. I have owned 6 different Canon cameras, two of which I use right now, and they are by far the best made out there. There is so much that you can do with your point and shoot camera….that if you haven’t played around with all the buttons on there, then you are missing out!! I love when I can share these tricks with fellow Canon users, and inspire them to play!

Favorite tip for Moms – find the Continuous shooting feature on your point and shoot camera. This will allow you to take multiple pictures by keeping the shutter button down – making it that much easier to get that cute moment, since the kiddos tend to move a lot faster than the camera! This will work best if you’re in a well lit environment – it’s not as fast if you have the flash turned on.

If you run into me, and you are using a Canon – ask me to show you a few new tricks!


MY PHONE

Hi. My name is Annemarie and I am an iPhone addict. There isn’t much else to say about that….BUT…..you know me, of course I have a few things that I want to point out. I never thought that I’d want my phone to be anything other than just a phone….I have my camera to be a camera, my computer to be a computer….my phone should be a phone. Well, I thought that until I welcomed this little blessing into my life! I never used my iPod before, but I love that I have music at my fingertips wherever I am. Just this weekend I went grocery shopping while listening to music….it made the mundane task of shopping for shampoo, razors, toothpaste, etc…..actually enjoyable. The cool thing too, is that if you happen to get a phone call, you already have in your headphones, and you can easily answer.

With as much as I travel, I love to use the Weather feature to know the climate of the cities I’ll be visiting soon. I load my favorite pictures onto my phone, so at any time that I’m telling a story, and need to bring up a picture, it’s at my fingertips. I can access my Google Calendar at a moment’s notice….I can update and follow friends on Twitter without any hassle…..and OH, all the games – Scrabble, Morocco, Soduku, Pop Quiz – all incase I reach a new level of boredom. Oh…and Maps – I’ll never be lost again (HA!).

MICROSOFT IMAGE RESIZER FOR WINDOWS XP

How many of you have wondered what is going on with your network after your computer is running slow, only to realize that it’s due to an email that is trying to download. One of your friends or family members has just sent you some of their favorite pictures from the weekend…..straight from the computer…..which were straight from the camera….the full sized files! Don’t lie….you’ve all had this happen, and at one point, have all been on the sending end of this scenario too!!

I have the answer. It’s quick, it’s free and it’s simple. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx and download this tool to instantly resize your photos from 3+MB to email ready KBs in seconds.

Once it’s installed, after you’ve located the files in your folders, right click on your photos, choose Resize Picture, then pick either small, medium, or large. The program will put a resized duplicate in the same folder that is sized appropriately for emailing. No more 15MB emails to friends and family – woohoo!! Your recipients will be much happier!

You might also consider using this tool to resize your images for your blogs. There isn’t a real need to upload the entire size file, and they’ll load faster too for your readers!


GOOGLE and SOME of its GLORIOUSNESS…

Google Desktop

It’s Google…for your computer! Let’s say that you want to find that email that references your favorite recipe for King Ranch Chicken, but you can’t remember where you put it. Well, Google Desktop will index, and then search, all your files on your system. So, click Ctrl twice, put in your search criteria, and it’ll find the files, emails, etc, on your computer that match your request. Pretty cool!! This is great for work if you have a lot of folders in Outlook. It’ll find the email, and then give you the option to open that email in Outlook, or view all the messages that have the same subject line. Try it out – it’s a free download – gotta love Google!!


RSS Reader

If you read a lot of blogs, then you NEED this! It’s essentially an “Inbox” for all the blogs you read. Go to Google.com and choose Reader. You’ll pop in the website address for the ones that you stalk, I mean, read, and it’ll automatically tell you when there are new entries – so you don’t have to check the actual pages each and every day.


Blogger

Well, duh. But, I have to tell you, I love blogging. It’s almost therapeutic. I actually started this blog about a year and a half ago, but I only told like two people – Corey and Lora – and never knew what to write. When I decided to start it up again this year, I still wasn’t sure if I had anything that I’d find to talk about….but, once you start, you’ll probably not stop. It’s rather addicting, and hey, it’s a good way to keep up on your own life – or it is for me anyways. For those of you that have family and friends that live out of town, and are constantly wondering what you and the kids are up to these days – well, try it out. You might find it fun! To start a blog, go to www.blogger.com and get started today. Be sure to let me know so I can add you to my RSS Reader.

That’s all for now. I’m constantly finding new things that I love, and now can’t live without. I’m one of those people that tells everyone about the new tricks and gadgets that I find, so thought that I’d share with a broader audience.

I’d love to hear from you. Are these things that you find useful? What are some of your favorite things…..that Oprah might have overlooked?