Friday's Freebie...

For those of you who have not read the Left Behind series, the first book titled simply Left Behind is available free from Amazon for your kindle.  If you don't have a Kindle you can download the Kindle app to your iPad, iPod, phone or computer for free.  This freebie is the full 490 page book which is normally $14.99.

Have a great Friday!

C.Q.



 

2011 in Review...

Java over a Never Growing old is taking today off for New Years so I thought I would share some of my favorite posts with you from 2011.

In January I went with a friend of mine to Minneapolis so she could have some medical tests run and found some great information on hotel shopping that I passes along in Hotel Happiness, I also found a new blogger friend Meg Hart and her great book Housecat Confidential, a view of life from a cats perspective, that I posted in my Sunday's media madness.  If you get a chance you can check out Meg's new blog at Hart Stories, she is a terrific writer and I highly recommend her book and her blog.

In February I started getting a little antsy to play in my garden and a friend sent me some info on hay bale gardening that I passed along because it is easy and inexpensive and a great way to have a garden quick in an area that may not have an easy place to plant stuff.  You can check that out at Hey! Hay! Hay! Garden the easy way...

March brought two awards that I received, one for the Cherry on Top award and one for the Incredibly Sweet blog award, both required me to share some information about me which was fun, with the Cherry on Top one I also shared a favorite picture of my grandmother.

In April I shared a great recipe for my favorite Easter treat, Hot Cross Buns together with a little history on them.  I also started doing posts called Saturday Sojourn that were a lot of fun for me and included tips on saving while traveling.  One of my favorites was the one I did for Saint Paul, MN since we were heading there ourselves for a short vacation. 

May brought the release of a book from a series that I love by Jess Loury so I was able to do a little review of the book Octoberfest to share with my readers, May also marks Memorial Day and I was able to thank our armed services folks and post two great old pictures of my grandfather and my dad looking very dapper in their uniforms from WWII.

In June I had two great guest bloggers while I was on vacation for my 25th anniversary, the first was Alexis from from Simply Beautiful Veg.  and her great post on ways to organize, including a great pocketed organizer project you can make yourself.  My other guest poster was Nina from The Adventures ArtsyNina.  She did a wonderful post on making a Pallet Kitchen Cookbook Shelf, a very cool and extremely inexpensive project.

In July I stopped doing the Saturday Sojourn's and replaced them with Silly Saturday, my first one I loved because it emphasises simplicity.  I also love this time of year when all the fruits and veggies are getting ripe and took the opportunity to share a wonderful no bake blueberry cheesecake for everyone.

August was a great month for my Media Madness section for me, I found a couple of great apps, Uno and Conde Nast Traveller Magazine, that I love and use all the time.  The other was for the book The Help, which was wonderful and I would recommend to anyone looking for a good read.

September was a moth of highs and lows, the low being the sadness that came with the 9/11 memorial ceremonies I watched that day, the high was going on vacation to Chicago with two of my best girl friends and being able to share a bit of what we did and how we saved a ton of cash along the way.

The October posts were where two of my favorites are, one is one of my many favorite pictures, this one was of a small grey tree frog in our backyard that I used on the Thursday's picture perfect deal, the other was one of my favorite Silly Saturday's featuring a great photo shopped scene.

November was all about sharing my favorite things, including a list of movies, a great app called Flipboard and a recipe I always make for Rosy Fruit Salad, a wonderful frozen concoction that is from the 1950s.

December was all about relaxing and getting ready for the holidays and vacation, but in between that I was able to post one of my favorite ever pictures of my dog Tucker loving the first snowfall from last year.  Java also posted a wonderful Meet Me On Monday with 15 questions to tide us over until after New Year's, and being a good bit Irish, I couldn't end the year without and Irish Christmas Blessing to all my readers.

Thank you to all my readers for reading last year, I am looking forward to 2012!

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

I enjoy browsing the app store on iTunes for new fun stuff and was really in luck the other day when I came across Flipboard.  Currently it is for the iPad but the iPhone version will be launching very soon and is worth the wait.  I must have been under a rock because it was named one of Times top 50 innovations of the year in 2010.  (Figures I am a year behind.)  So what does it do?  I allows you to create your own digital magazine which includes articles of interest to you, full or partial newspapers like USA Today, FaceBook, Twitter, Tumbler, Flicker as well as many full magazines like The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Oprah and tons more.  It puts just what you want all in one place, laid you the way you want them.  So you get all this greatness rolled into one place what what could be better?  The price.  Its free.  This is my "go to" app before bed at night to catch up on things I may have missed during the day, a little fun, a little news, a little social media, all mixed together, the only think I don't like about this app is that I didn't find it last year!

Hope you all have had a great weekend.

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

Recently I have added some new apps to my iPad so it is ready to take on vacation.  Surprisingly my favorite way to pass time now is playing UNO.  Gameloft has a great app for only .99 cents and it allows you to play against another person or play the AI in a single game or in tournament mode.  In the tournament mode there are a variety of rules to play through and win, standard rules, penalty rules where you can play a draw 2 on a draw 2 and so on until the last player standing has to pick up a bunch of cards, the 7-0 rules which require you to change hands with a player of your choice when you play a 7 and all cards go one person left or right, depending on the direction of play, when a 0 is played, and jump in rules which is just that, when you have the same card, both color and number as the card played you can jump in and play it.  All these variations make the game a ton of fun and can be hugely entertaining for kids or adults.  You can find the game on iTunes or at the Gameloft site.

The other app I found came to me in an email from Conde Nast Traveler Magazine, I currently subscribe to and love their magazine, now it is available to me on my iPad for free as part of that subscription.  You will need to enter your magazine subscription number which should be on your mailing label.  Some subscribers are having issues logging in, I had no problem however.  I was more than willing to download this app and wait for the fix if I needed to, its one of the magazines I look forward to being delivered!

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

C.Q.


http://www.shibleysmiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/SundayButton.jpg

Meet February...

Hello to you all, I would like you to meet February. February is known for romance, chocolates, National Black History Month and the big game, but did you know February is also….

AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month: AMD stands for age-related macular degeneration; a disease that affects part of the back of the eye called the macula, and can cause the center part of your vision to become blurry or wavy.  Prevent Blindness America has a great short quiz to find out if you are at risk. Coastal Contacts is offering a coupon code for 15% off your entire order, just enter code RMNFEB15 at checkout, they also have free shipping on orders over $38.00.

Deaf History Month:  Miracle-Ear has locations nation wide and a printable coupon for a free hearing test, however the actual hearing aids can be very costly.  Hearing aids are available at low or no cost to people that qualify though.  You will need a doctor's diagnosis is necessary to qualify for hearing aid assistance, plus they are great sources of information on the products and services available to you.  Another option is to contact the hearing aid manufacturers directly, like drug companies, many of them will help with the cost, especially for families of children.

Bake for Family Fun Month : How about every one's original favorite, Original Nestle Toll House Cookies?  These would be great for the game this weekend too. Here are some coupons to help you out:

$1.00 off any Arrowhead Flour
$0.50 off two .Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
$1.00 off on any 8 oz. or 16 oz. Organic Valley Butter
$0.50 off Imperial Sugar Extra Fine Granulated Pure Cane Sugar
$0.50 off Imperial Sugar Light Brown, Dark Brown, or Powdered Sugar
$0.75 off Organic Valley Eggs
Or you could save the mixing and get $0.75 off Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough

National Hot Breakfast Month:  Save $1.00 at Target on Multi pack Quaker Instant Oatmeal, or you can get a buy two get one free coupon from Better Oats Oatmeal, just find them on Facebook and then go to the promotions tab and click the like button to get your coupon.  More into Cream of Wheat?  No problem, get $1.00 off Malt-O-Meal When You Buy 2 Malt-O-Meal® Cereals 12.5 oz or larger.

National Pie Month and Sweet Potato Month:  In honor of these I found a wonderful Sweet Potato Pie Recipe from Paul Dean for you.  Did you know that despite a physical similarity and a frequent confusion with their names, yams and sweet potatoes are not even distantly related. They are in two different botanical families. Yams are actually related to grasses and lilies!

National Bird Feeding Month: Petco is having their Bird Feeder sale with 15% or more off, plus they have free shipping on all orders over $60.00.  Wonder whats coming to your feeder?  WhatBird.com has an incredible app for $29.99.  Although that may seem a little high take into account that you can carry this with you easily and you can hear the actual bird's call, something no guide book can do for you.  Once you have identified your bird you can check it off either on the app or you can download and print a free state by state check list, especially nice of you are going bird watching on vacation.

National Care About Your Indoor Air Month: Receive $10.00 back by mail with the purchase of any Filtrete Room Air Purifier by 3M.  Just Mail in the rebate form along with the original UPC code from the package and the original cash register receipt dated between March 15, 2010 and March 31, 2011, submissions must be received by April 30, 2011, one per household.

Festival of Camellias Month: If you want to start getting info on your summer flower garden, check out this beautiful flowering shrub.  You can purchase a wide variety of Camellias for your garden from the Camellia Forest Nursery.  The  Burpee Seed Company has the Pink Champagne variety only but you can use coupon code take10 at check out for 10% off your total order.

Chocolate Lover's Month: Somehow this was not a surprise.  Godiva has some beautiful Valentines chocolates this month as well as a few great coupon codes.  Note all of these codes expire on February 8th so act quick.  Coupon code LOVE will get you $10.00 off your order of $60.00 or more, HUGS will get you free shipping on your order of $60.00 or more and HEARTS will get you upgraded guaranteed Valentine's Day delivery on your order of $75.00 or more.  Remember to check out Godiva's free Rewards Club as well, its a nice little program that gets you a free piece of chocolate each month as well as free shipping on all your on line orders and some other very nice perks.

I hope you have all enjoyed meeting February, I have enjoyed sharing the introduction.

Have a great weekend everyone!


C.Q.


 

Sunday's media madness...

This holiday season why not let your iPod and Smart Phones make your shopping a little easier?  There are some really great cool apps available that can help get your shopping done in short order so you have more time to relax and bake those cookies for the office cookie exchange.

First lets start with know how much you can spend, you can use Mint to help you with a budget, its available for free download to both the Android and iPhone, if you don't want that information on your portable device they are also available on Yahoo.com.  When you have your budget set you can stretch it using application such as Coupon Shurpa, it offers coupons to over 5,000 stores from your home computer, or download the free app and it will send coupons to over a hundred stores directly to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Need directions or store information?  One of the best apps available is YPMoble, this is not the Yellow Pages of your childhood, now it is super charged with a search feature, driving directions, web links, reviews and a way to save your contacts or favorites lists. YPMoble is free and available for your iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Android, Palm and Blackberry.  Now that you have made it to the mall and parked in the sea of cars, will you ever find your car again?  You will if you download Carr Matey, this app is available for the Android and will help you find a place to park, let you enter parking garage information,and remind you when your meter is set to expire.

Well you made it, look out shoppers your off to the races!  But which direction do you need to go?  With Mall Maps Mobile you can find your way around almost any mall with ease, its great for finding new places that have just opened or when you are traveling and shopping an area you are unfamiliar with. This free download is available in the iTunes store for the iPod, iPad, and iPhone.  Now that you have found your favorite store are you getting the best deal on your purchase? Used to be you had to run all over town to find out, now you can just use an app like Shop Savvy 4 by using the camera on your iPhone or Android camera to scan the bar code and compare prices with other stores and on line.

Ahhhh, almost done but where did you put all those reward membership cards?  With an application like CardStar you can keep all that information together in one spot.  With an ever growing list of merchants that are supported as well as the ability to add your own this is one of the easiest and most beneficial apps available, epically since its free and available for the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android, Blackberry and Windows phone.  All you do is find the card info and show your phone to the cashier, no more extra plastic cards to carry around.

I hope you all have a rewarding shopping experience this holiday season!

C.Q.

Sunday's media madness...

Recently I was at the Mall of America and boy was it confusing!  Unfortunately I left my iPod in the hotel room, if I had remembered it it would have been much easier to navigate.  I have an app I downloaded for free called Mall Maps Mobile and it has come in handy more than once.  If you are going on a vacation and plan on doing some shopping its a great app.  On the iPod it can't use the "you are here" function but you can usually find where you are pretty easily, with the iPhone version of the app you can use this function and it will make getting to where you want to go that much quicker, there is also a version for the iPad.  V.B. & Smith has a list of the malls the app supports so you can check it out before you download it to you devise.

Another free app that is handy to have is Open Table, this application allows you to make reservations for your favorite restaurant right from your iPod, iPad or iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Nokia, Palm WebOS and Windows phone, just make your selection from all the choices and download, it couldn't be easier.  Best of all the app has restaurants at up to 14,000 Open Table-enabled restaurants in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom and the list is always growing. You can search for places to dine based on location, name, cuisine, price or reservation time.  Open Table offers points for making reservations through them as well, so when you have enough points built up you can get a dining check to be used at any of the restaurants that use Open Table.  Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch?  Check the web site for more information on their dining rewards program.

I hope you are all having a fantastic weekend!

C.Q.

Finding quality and savings at the farmers' market...

Today I went to the local farmers' market to get a few things to make soup with and I was struck with how much of a good thing there was in out area, we have an abundance of local growers with the freshest produce available every Saturday morning.  This got me to thinking, there are a few things about farmers markets that folks tend to take for granted.  First is that everything is fresh picked that day.  In fact, some things are picked through out the week and held for market, so just like the grocery store its important to check for freshness, also some growers don't care if the birds have pecked at their peppers or the slugs have slimmed the squash, so be sure to check for the overall quality as well.  When you are looking for the freshness of an items there are simple things to look for, beets, carrots, celery root and radishes should be sold with the top on, then you will know how fresh they are, if the greens are wilted they were not picked that day.  I found a really nice fruit and vegetable buying guide from the University of Tennessee that you can download and print out for future reference.  There is also a great app available at iTunes for $2.99 called Harvest, you can also watch the demo movie and get more information about the application at the developers site, I really like this app because it also gives you information on the pesticide levels in your produce.

The other thing a lot of folks assume is that buying at the farmers' market means its organic, as a matter of fact this is not the case at all.  Each state has requirements to be certified organic and in most cases if the vendor stall doesn't have the certification certificate then they are not organic. 

I am usually overwhelmed but the amount of great stuff and tend to over buy if I don't go with a plan, so here are some tips to help you save money when you go,  first and foremost, treat it just like going to the grocery store, make a list of the things you need.  Today I made home made Gazpacho so I knew I needed tomatoes, garlic, corn, onion, cucumber and leek, once I had those items then I could use the remaining cash I had for other goodies.  That brings me to the second thing, have a budget.  Most vendors are not equipped to take checks or credit cards so bring a set amount of cash and when its gone its time to go home.  Once you get to the market check out all the vendor stalls before you buy, remember, not all vendors have the same variety of goods or the same quality.  The final cardinal rule is to get there early, our market opens at 7:00am and if you get there at 8:00am things are pretty well picked over, also be prepared for a crowd, folks that frequent the farmers' markets know the early risers get the best stuff.  If you aren't sure if you have a local farmers market near you the USDA has a web page that allows you to do a search.

Once you get your produce home be sure to store it in the right areas, corn (wrapped in a wet paper bag placed inside a plastic bag), and peas are best in the front area of the fridge.  Artichokes, asparagus (after trimming the ends and placing upright in shallow cool water, then covering with plastic), beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chiles, cucumbers, eggplant, fresh herbs, green beans, leafy greens, leeks, lettuce (after washing and drying, rolling loosely in a clean kitchen towel inside an unzipped zip-lock bag), mushrooms, peppers, radishes, scallions, summer squash, turnips and zucchini are best in the crisper drawer.  Tomatoes are best placed upside down on the counter or on a plate.  Garlic, onions, potatoes, shallots, sweet potatoes and winter squash are best in the pantry, closet or basement (where it's both dark and cool).

Do you have any wonderful summer recipes using your garden's harvest or good stuff form the farmers market?  I would love to hear about them.

Have a wonderful weekend.

C.Q.

Free eBooks and a valuable lesson

Recently I had two things happen, one good and one not so much, both of these events prompted today's blog topic. At the beginning of the month I was finally able to purchase my iPod Touch, this got me thinking about one of my friends daughters who was over during the summer and was reading a book on hers. I did a little research and found that you can download a very nice free eReader at the iTunes store called Stanza, its put out by Lexcycle. I preferred this one because you have to pay extra for the dictionary in a couple of the other ones. When you want to download a book it is very easy and very quick, just tap on the get books button and you have your choice of either traditional book stores or free books. In the free books category you can choose from quite a few different places to find books, one of the best is Project Gutenberg. My choices for my first books were Walden, Great Expectations (a childhood favorite) and a book called Wit'ch Fire by James Clemens.

I also have an original first generation Amazon Kindle, not as fancy and tricked out as my friend Bernie's new one, and I have a few friends now that have Barns and Noble's Nooks (which have color) and Sony readers. If you are thinking about getting one of these devises they are wonderful but it can be confusing to know what will work for you, Wikipedia has a great page comparing all the different models out there so you can make the best choice for you're needs. All of these ereaders will download free books, its just a matter of knowing where to find them. The Project Gutenberg library supports many different formats and will work with almost any ereader. If you have a Kindle then you can check Amazon directly for free books that work with their ereader. The Baen Free Library has a wide selection of Science Fiction available for many ereaders. Another great site for downloads is Manybooks, they have a wide variety of books to choose from and there is a little something for everyone and download to most ereaders. If any of you are trying to learn another language (I am trying to learn French) then one of the best ways to stay immersed is to read a classic in another language, I just downloaded "Le avventure d'Alice nel paese delle meraviglie", we know it as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and although it is a children's classic, because I know the story, it will help me with the French words and sentence structure. If you like romance books Harlequin offers a small selection free ebooks downloadable in PDF format on the computer or directly to Stanza on your Blackberry, iPhone or iPod. One of the other wonderful sites I found was Bartleby, you can search for almost anything in any number of different ways. This site has a lot of neat stuff so be sure to take your time here.

On to the second occurrence that was not so good but did teach me a very good lesson. I enjoy the books (both series) by Laurell K. Hamilton and she recently just released her most recent in the Anita Blake series. It was set to be in stores last Tuesday but when I went to Barns and Noble it had not been on their trucks delivery. They took my name and assured me it would be in on Wednesday. Sure enough; Wednesday morning I had my confirmation email, the book was in come and get it, so like one of Pavlov's salivating dogs off I went. Because I had a gift certificate I decided to browse a little in the music section and picked up a copy of the Mamma Mia soundtrack I had been wanting, usually I would check the prices before I buy something but what the heck, I had a gift certificate. Because things tend to stick in my brain I later thought I would compare the price of my new CD to the prices at Amazon and Deep Discount just to make sure I got a good deal, or at least an average one, so I pulled up the Barns and Noble web site and looked up the CD and was VERY surprised to see that the price on line was LOWER (by almost $5.00) than the price in the store, OK, now a little irritated I decided to see about the book, and sure enough, that was less on line as well ($3.00). I called to check with the store and they KNOW about this problem, she offered to take the items back and re-order them using BN.com, but I had already put the CD in my iPod. Just the simple act of checking the on line price of a store against the in store price can save you a chunk of cash, so remember to call the store to get a price before you head out, you may be better off staying home and shopping in your nightgown.

Have a great weekend everyone!

C.Q.

Abundantly free apps...

Last week a close friend got an iPod Touch for her birthday, my husband, knowing how badly I had been wanting one finally gave the OK to use all the Ones I had saved all year to go get one. I opted for the 64G iPod Touch because I love all the applications that are out there and wanted to be able to make my grocery list and play any game I want if I get stuck waiting in the car or a waiting room. I knew there were a lot of apps but really, I was ill prepared for the actual vastness of how many there are!

In doing some research I found a wonderful site called TouchMyApps that has been so very helpful! I went though their lists of free apps and was stunned at the great offerings. One of my all time favorites is CardStar. I had mentioned this in a prior blog, you can put in all your reward card info and not have to carry all the cards around with you anymore, I was so excited that this was the first app I downloaded. My 2nd recommendation would be YPmobil, you can set the Yellow pages to your area and there is so much more in this app than just name, address and phone number! Along with all that you get local events with detailed information, browsing by category, a white board for your up coming plans and notes as well as being able to save your favorite places, there are even review of places that you select and an email function to send the info to a friend.

For shopping information both Walmart and Target have apps available. I downloaded Targets app which shows their weekly ad, clearance and registries. There is also a built in gift finder, store locater and a search feature. The thing I really enjoy about this app is being able to go into the weekly ad categories and narrow it down to all the items that are offering a gift card with purchase.

If you love games there are a lot of free games as well. There are the card games Uno and Black Jack as well as a multi level game called Dungeon Quest.

Today I am going to be looking at my TV apps, there is one for Direct TV which I have as well as one for TV Guide. I also found one for the Internet Movie Database, a site I use all the time.

Hope this gives you some ideas on what is available and actually useful for free apps and inspires you to spend some time looking at the fun stuff that is out there, the iPods and iPhones cost enough, you shouldn't have to shell out the big bucks for the apps too.

Have a great week everyone!!

C.Q.