Howdy all, I can hardly believe it is already August. Where has the Summer gone? Considering that we did not have consistently warm weather until almost mid-June here in upstate NY it just feels too soon for Fall to be on the horizon. But I do love Fall. I love the crispness in the air, the crackling leaves, the early nightfall and the big sweaters that feel warm and familiar. But anyhow, we still have a bit more Summer to look forward to and that includes The Great NY State Fair that starts in about 2 weeks. I don’t know about you, but our family loves fairs and the NY State Fair does not disappoint. So, tomorrow I am off to purchase discount tickets since you save 40% by buying early and kids under 14 get in free and free is my favorite price.
I have recently decided to implement some changes on the blog and I think it will make for better blog reading. I also recently changed the design since I lost my blogging mojo for the past few months. I am in the process of filling in a lot of missing posts that I have not had time to post and I also want to start writing a little more and including more of my favorite hobbies including; typography, printables and crafts and general items that I find online that make life a little easier and prettier. Frequently I find something neat online and say to myself “wow, that’s really cool” and I always think about mentioning it but I tend to forget so I am going to do my best with following through and blogging more consistently. Of course that includes blogging more about Sofia and Samantha too. They are growing up so fast and I want this blog to be an online journal for them so when they get older they can read about their day-to-day lives when they were young. It’s time to get the ball rolling on what I have found that’s fabulous and free on the web recently.
Blogtrottr is an awesome and free rss reader that will email you blog updates in realtime or any other time-frame that you choose. Just sign up for the blogs that you would like to receive updates from and that’s it. I find it especially helpful for blogs that I frequently read that do not have a subscribe button or rss feed I can subscribe to.
Lose It! – This app for Droid and iPhone is finally making weight loss achievable for me. I started using it 3 days ago and I am already down 4 lbs. It is a free app that will help you to figure out how long it will take to lose the weight you need to lose and the time frame. It gives you a daily recommendation for your caloric intake. You can also input all the food you consume for the day and it will tell you how many calories you have left for the day. Also, it has a section where you can enter your exercise and it will calculate how many more calories you can consume due to exercising. It is so simple and yet so genius. You also have a graph that tracks your progress and you will receive virtual medals when you lose weight. It really has kept me motivated. Lose It! also has a website you can access here. The Droid app is available here and the iPhone/iPad app is available here.
Have you checked out Pandora? It’s free internet radio with very few advertisements and you create your radio station. You add the artists that you like and Pandora will play them and other similar artists based on your music selections. I used to have Sirius and decided to cancel it due to the free aspect of Pandora. You get 40 hours of music free each month and if you get close to exceeding that limit, Pandora will have a message come up that tells you that you are close to your limit for the month and if you decide you would like to continue listening it costs only $0.99 for the rest of the month or they have a subscription plan. I have found that the free 40 hours per month plan has worked great for me and only a few times have I exceeded the limit and the $0.99 for the rest of the month was a very cheap price to pay.
The Wedding Chicks is an awesome site for DIY wedding invitations, stationery and wedding inspiration. I also find that a lot of their designs can be used for other purposes. For example, Posh Paperie’s nautical monogram above can be designed and printed for a multitude of things. The Wedding Chicks even has a step-by-step generator to help you design your cards and stationery. Be sure to check out their other free printables as well.
The How Does She blog has lots of great family and craft ideas including this awesome printable courtesy of Chickabug. If you go to How Does She Do It and sign up for email updates, you will be able to have access to this printable and a lot more. The printable includes first day of school signs for Pre-K through 12. I can’t wait to start the school year off with the girls holding these on their first day of Kindergarten.
Here are a few free fonts that have recently caught my fancy. Here are the links to download GalileoFLF, Yanone Kaffeesatz, Linden Hill, Lobster 2 & Typo Slab Serif.
