How To Resize a Picture in Windows 7

Back in the day I used to have an image resizer, when I upgraded to Windows 7 I thought I'd lost it, but thankfully I found another one! I know a few people who are running out of storage room on their blogs because they have uploaded too many pictures. I know some people who get super, super frustrated and don't post often because it takes years for their photos to upload. This post will teach you to cut your upload time in half and make life a million times easier. I will suggest though, that when you are uploading your photos to a printing site or for archiving that you upload the original photo so your image quality is not messed with, if you do, you might see that obnoxious warning sign that your resolution is too low.

Anyway, to resize your photos, go to this site and follow the instructions on how to down load this amazing little application:

Windows Resizer for Windows 7

I can not guarantee that it does not have a virus, but I can tell you that my virus scanner checked it out and gave me the OK, and I have used it for months without any issues. I am not sure what operating system you had, but I have the 64 bit so that's what I downloaded.  If you try one and it doesn't work, go with the other one. Once it has downloaded and installed on your computer, this is how you use it.

Right click on the photo you want to resize. When the grey menu bar comes up, select "Resize Pictures." Notice it says pictures? Yes. You can select multiple photos and resize them all at once. To do so, click on the first photo you want resized. Then, when you see another photo you want resized, hold CTRL down and then click the next photo. You can select as many photos as you want. Then right click and select "Resize Pictures" from the grey menu.

A new window will pop up and you will see several options for picture sizes.  Choose what will best be suited for your needs.  For blogger, I usually choose small or medium.  For email, I choose large.  Now, the good news is that the file name is going to stay the same, you will not lose the original photo.  It will save a new photo and add the size you chose in parentheses.

You can see here the original photo, and the resized photo next to it.  I would suggest resizing your pictures and then trying to upload them.  It makes it much easier to find the right photos-all you have to do is look for the resized (small) name!

You are welcome :)

How to Get Wax out of Cloth Fabric

If you are like me, at some point in your life you have spilled wax on something. Once you let it cool you can scrape the wax off, but there seems to always be a grease spot. This simple tip will help you get it all out. Or at least enough that the 18month old niece won't notice :) It's a little trick passed down from my Mom, who learned it from the little old lady who cleaned the priest's robes. I'm sharing it with you because I love you.

This is pretty easy. Just pull a Scentsy night light out of the socket before turning it off and letting the wax cool.. while holding someone's precious blanky.

Let the wax cool while you grab the iron, some paper (brown paper bag is best, but work with what you have!). Turn the iron on the cotton setting. Put the paper over the area that has wax, and start ironing! You will see the paper getting greasy very fast, keep shifting it to a clean section of paper. Eventually you will see less and less greasy spots on the paper. It's that simple!

How To Make a Binky Clip

I had a super cute binky clip for Tristan. I loved it. Unfortunately we left it at a tiny restaurant in Sterling City this last December. I was super bummed.

One night in pure parental desperation we came up with a pretty ghetto version of the original clip-only without the clip. We had to button it into his pajamas. So annoying, but easier than finding his binky for him in the dark at 2am. Since most of the time he only sees his binky in the crib, I have been forgetting to order one until bedtime rolls around. Then it's late and I forget. I finally remembered this afternoon and went online to order a new one. As I was looking at the picture of the one I was about to buy, I thought, "I can make that myself." And, I wouldn't have to wait 2 weeks for delivery.

So I did. In fact, I made two of them in about five minutes. I grabbed the hot glue gun, some ribbon from the craft drawer, "mitten clips" I had bought in Target's $1 section, two hair ties and got to work. First I decided how long I wanted the length of the ribbon to be, remembering to add in the length of the hair tie. I doubled the ribbon length, looped the hair tie in the middle and then glued the ribbon together. Since I had doubled the ribbon, I went then went ahead and finished completely gluing the ribbon together. Then, I put the end of the ribbon through the mitten clip, glued that in place... found a binky, looped the hair tie through the handle and VOILA!!! Done! Each clip cost less than a dollar to make and I didn't have to wait two weeks for delivery.

I realize that Target no longer has the $1 mitten clips this time of year, but you can find those kinds of clips at Hobby Lobby and other craft stores. You're welcome :)

Christmas Crafts

Thanks to Pinterest, I did a few extra things this season that I might not have done had I not stolen the idea from someone else. I love Pinterest.

CUTE CHRISTMAS PICTURES OF THE BABY

First, I stole this cute idea of taking a picture of your baby playing with Christmas lights. Ah-dorable. Of course, the first go at it didn't turn out like I wanted, so I did them again. Thats where the darling pictures of him in his Santa outfit came from.

ORNAMENT BOOK

Then I stole the idea to make an ornament book for the ornaments that have a story. I'm waiting til I take the tree down to finish that one, but I am pretty excited.

CHRISTMAS WRAPPING PAPER

Then I collected a bunch of paper bags and butcher paper to wrap presents in. I saw a bazillion "brown paper packages" themes and fell in love. I wrapped everyone's presents in brown paper, tied them with string, and glued a photo instead of a tag. The kids LOVED it-especially the little ones who can read yet. They found their presents in a heartbeat. Totally bummed that I didn't take a picture of how cute they all looked together. I also got cuter with the last few and wrapped the string different.

MERRY CHRISTMAS BANNER

I fell in love with the picture of the couple holding the Merry Christmas banner. I wanted to do it too, but as always I ran out of time. Next time I would print out a template and not free hand the letters, but hey you do what you gotta do. This still took an hour to make, but for what it was I liked it.

SNOWMAN HANDPRINT ORNAMENT

We did the snowman ornament craft with all the kids at the treehouse... they turned out ridiculously cute and the kids loved drawing scarves and hats on their snowmen. I used gel pens because they are easier for kids to work with than paint. And cleaner.... but the ink will smudge off. So when they were done I sprayed them with acrylic sealer and everything stayed put. The ornament hooks are super cute-I bought them at Target last year when they were 75% off. And the ribbon came from the Target $1 section. You should see the ornament I did with Chunky's stinkin cute little paws, too. That is adorable.

MAGIC REINDEER FOOD

Growing up we always looked at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. Oakridge had the best lights, and Santa always sat in the corner of his yard in his big, yellow Jeep loaded with presents. You got to sit on his lap and give him your last minute wish list, and he gave you a candy cane and a bag of reindeer food. His poem was super cute-something about giving to the reindeer because they worked so hard. One year his Jeep wasn't there and we were pretty bummed. Found out later he had passed away. As an adult I've truly grown to appreciate the love that man had for the season as he sat out every Christmas Eve, year after year, handing out candy canes to starry eyed kids. I looked online for a poem like the one he sent out - but never found one close so I did my own. For the jars I spray painted the lids on a few of the millions of empty baby food jars that plague our house, threw on some ribbon, and added ingredients I already had on hand that wouldn't litter the enviroment. I'm nice like that. I used oatmeal, chocolate sprinkles, red and green sugar sprinkles, gold sprinkles, and peppermint sprinkles. I wrote my poem to match what I had put in the jars:

Magic Reindeer Food

As Santa brings a gift to you

Remember his reindeer, so strong and true.

Leave a surprise for them on your lawn

So they can soar from dusk til dawn.

Bits of chocolate give them smarts,

Red crystal sprinkles warm their hearts.

Glitter of gold gives a sparkle to their eye,

Green sugar sparkles give strength as they fly.

White sprinkles make the sleigh feel light

And oatmeal keeps their tummies full all night.

It was like magic. We sprinkled it on the lawn Christmas Eve, and as we gathered in the loft to read the Christmas Story and The Night Before Christmas, deer came and munched on the food.

Take a break from reading and look how freaking cute this kid is. Seriously. So cute.

HOW I HUNG MY CHRISTMAS CARDS

I didn't see this on Pinterest, but close enough. Originally I wanted to take a picture frame, run some twine across and then hang it on the wall. When the cards were gone then I could reuse it for other photos. By the time mid-December rolled around I ran out of room for the picture frame idea. My Mom used to hang her cards in the entry way-she had three large doorways with crown molding that she hung invisible thread from and the cards made a cute drape. I don't have doorways... but I did have the twine frpm the Christmas presents, so I just bought clothespins and did this. I didn't tack the twine to the wall-I like to avoid adding extra holes if at all possible. This worked out well because I ended up having to add extra rows to the windows and it was super easy. Love it.

Well, as Jeff would say, "That's pinteresting." Those were a few of the things I did this year, thanks to inspiration from that nifty little website. I'm so excited for next year!

No Butter Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies are my favorite-and I wished I would have paid attention to the recipe I used this one time that made them absolutely delicious. Sadly-I can't remember where I got it from. I guess I'll have to keep trying every recipe out there until I find it. Darn. Anyway, I tried this one last night-it's slightly similar to The Pioneer Woman's, but I don't think they're as crumbly or crisp. I don't like crisp cookies. I let the nieces help-which explains the width and height difference in the cookies-but they turned out surprisingly good despite all the different sizes. Thanks to Tiffany for taking a picture of these after I left!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Sift together:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp double-acting baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon or 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (I did cinnamon)

Combine:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Add to this mixture and beat well after each addition:

• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla (I always add a smidgen more... but that's me)

Add the flour mixture all at once and beat well. Shape the dough into 1/2 inch balls. Dip the balls in granulated sugar, or flatten them. Bake about 10 minutes on a lightly greased cookie sheet-do not let the edges brown!

My Poor Dog Ripped the Pads off His Foot

Why would he do that? I don't know. But, he did. He was chasing after his friend on the tennis courts, turned too quick and ripped the little pad off his foot. I took this picture almost a week later. It looked worse than it might have been, but it was so sad. He limped that whole night, and licked it for two days straight. You could tell it was really sensitive. Not sure what to do, I went to my most trusted source of advice: Facebook. After polling my friends, these were the suggestions I got on how to care for his widdle foot:

• Clip the dead skin and do one, or all of the following:
• Apply neosporin, then tape it so he doesn't lick the medicine off
• Dry the pads out with rubbing alcohol (especially if you want to keep running with him)
• Dip it in BRAGGS brand apple cider vinegar a couple times a day

I'm happy to say that with a little TLC and some good advice, it only took Mr. Wigglebum a couple days to feel good as new.

Well, almost as good as new.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Mmmm. This was our stove top at about 7:30 tonight. Jeff got some crazy idea to make sweet and sour chicken.

So we stir fried some green peppers, onions and threw in some frozen pineapple. Then dumped about an entire bottle of sweet and sour on it.

Cut up some chicken, threw it in some egg yolk/water/soy sauce breading....

And fried them up to a healthy, golden brown.

All the while some yummy white rice cooked in the back. We ate so much I thought we were going to pop. Gosh it was so good. For dessert I had a bowl of warm rice with milk and brown sugar, which has been a favorite since I was a kid. I always make extra rice for that reason. Mmmmm hmmm that was good stuff.

Blogging Tips

Sometimes I have a love/hate relationship with blogging. Some days I love it. Some weeks I am too busy to post about anything I've done, and sometimes I just don't have the heart to care about typing. If I am not interested, why would anyone else be? Anyway, as much fun as I have had with blogging, I should really have a better blog, with a better header/banner (The picture of Jeff and I in the pumpkin patch), etc. But, I'd rather do something that doesn't involve sitting on the computer all day. Unless of course, it's someone else's blog. Then I thoroughly enjoy playing on it and helping them vamp it up. Don't even ask how many blogs I've helped people start :)

Anyway, I thought that maybe I could share some of the little tips I've learned that maybe other people haven't discovered yet. Especially ones that make my life easier, or more fun. Or tips that I've had a lot of people ask me about. So, when I get a chance, expect some little tutorials. But nothing huge-as I am not a professional! And give me feedback if it's helpful or not-then I don't have to waste your time and mine :)

Chex Mix Taco Salad

For those of you who coupon, you probably ended up with 30 bags of Chex Mix (or more) from the last big Kroger's sale. What do you do with all that Chex Mix!? Well, apparently you can make Taco Salad from it. And just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. I learned that last August in Utah. My friend and I went to this "Mexican" restaraunt (more like Mexi-can't). I about died laughing when my salad came out. It had gold fish, beets, cheese feet things, pretzels, cheese nip things, Chex, and a whole slew of things that don't belong on a Taco Salad. I thought they were joking.

But they weren't, they were dead serious. This was their Taco Salad. And there wasn't enough Ranch dressing in the world to help it. Well, bless their hearts for trying. The cheese nips that were still fresh weren't half bad. I'll give them an "A" for effort. And then go to Wendy's.

Slow Cooker Squirrel

Ingredients 1 onion, cut into chunks 2 cups baby carrots 4 large potatoes, cut into small chunks 1 large green bell pepper, cut into chunks 2 cloves garlic 4 cubes chicken bouillon salt and pepper to taste 3 squirrels - skinned, gutted, and cut into pieces

(Hmm, 2 will have to work for now) water to cover 2 tablespoons flour

Directions

Place the onion, carrots, potatoes, bell pepper, garlic, chicken bouillon, salt, and pepper in a slow cooker. Lay the squirrel meat on top of the vegetable mixture. Pour enough water over the mixture to cover completely. Cover and cook on HIGH 6 hours. Stir the flour into the mixture and cook another 2 hours.

Comment from AllRecipes.Com:

"We made this last weekend and I must say it is the easiest and tastiest squirrel dish we have had in a fortnight. We used the frozen guys we had down stairs in the ice chest that my boy Delmar shot when he was at his pappies last month. I recon we should use fresh critter next time. Ma loves this one very much and we are going to make it for the annual Stokes family reunion. "