Add Beauty to Your Backyard!

The Yellow Finch is one of my favorite bird. The first time I saw one I thought someones pet yellow canary had gotten loose. I started searching immediately to find out about these beautiful birds and found out they were Yellow Finches. There are also Purple Finches, but the yellow ones are so stunning.

They are so easy to attract since they are very common in our area. All you have to do is purchase a Finch feeder and we recommend the cheap ones under $10.00. For some reason, we found they weren't attracted to the expensive feeders. Feeding them is also easy, just purchase some Thistle seed at the same store that you purchase the Finch Feeder.

We have two Finch feeders, at times every perch is filled with a Finch. These birds are stunning! I love watching them from the pool and my office window.

Wall Sconces ~ A Cool Lighting Solution!

Wall sconces are a very unique way to add lighting to almost any room. First of all, installing a wall sconce conserves space. There are times when you may not want to use the space on an end table, night stand or maybe you don't want to add another item on your floor.

I love unique lighting it can add as much interest to the space as a piece of art. These nickel finish sconces pictured above are from Global Views. We found these when we were at High Point Furniture Market and fell in love with them.

Are You Cool Enough?

Adding a ceiling fan to a room can reduce energy costs by up to 40% for each room. When I read an article on tips about saving energy costs, I was surprised about how much a ceiling fan could impact an electric bill.

When air is moving you always feel cooler. We had already installed a fan in our downstairs office; the track lighting heated the room so much especially in July, August & September. After we read the article, we decided to add a ceiling fan to our small media room and we were thrilled with the results. It seemed that we were on a roll so we added another one in our master bath. Our master bath is large, however, as we were getting ready in the mornings it seemed to be extra warm.

Each room that we added a ceiling fan made a huge difference in how cool the room feels! We are now cool an happy and the cost was very inexpensive.

Building a New House?

If you are building a house or if you know anyone that is make sure to pass this tip along to them. After the house is framed, take your digital camera or video camera and take shots of each room especially of the window area. This is great information to have before window treatments are installed.

Another thing to consider, would to add extra wood around the window area to ensure ample support for window treatments. Or, say you are going to add a pot rack to the ceiling in the kitchen, have the builder add additional wood to give the proper support for heavy pans. Maybe you are not going to use traditional towel racks and instead use knobs or hooks to hold towels; add extra wood for additional support.

iPhone ~ It's amazing!

Jerry and I went to the Apple store last weekend and purchased an iPhone for both of us. Jerry got a black one and I got a white one. Love that we can distinguish between the two phones. Why did we both get the same phone? My thought was with two people learning the same phone the learning curve would be much less. I have been researching this phone for over a year and we were already AT&T customers and we were eligible for the upgrade price of $299. Yes, you know I had to have the best one; the one with the largest harddrive (32GB.) It's like having a mini computer.

We purchased the iPhone with lots of space. Right now, I'm in the process of adding lots of photos. First, I created a folder called iPhone photos with sub-folders see above screenshot. The Contact Images folder contains cropped headshots of my contacts. Now when a person calls me on my cell their photo appears. I even got a few headshots from Facebook. Did I say I love this!! Notice, I also have a Dandelion Portfolio folder. Now Jerry and I have our entire portfolio everywhere we go. I created these folders then gave Jerry a copy of them and now without any work on his part he has the same folder. LOVE THIS SHARING THING! In iTunes all you do is click on the Photos tab and select the folder you want your phone to always sync with.

The iPhone also doubles as my iPod. That comes under Jerry's duties. He handles all mp3s I handle the photos. We also added a mosquito repellent app; not sure it this works yet!

What I loved about the iPhone is all the apps that are available. I know other phones have apps but iPhone seems to have the most at this time. Of course, I added Bank of America since I had been seeing them advertise there app when I am doing my online banking for sometime now.

Here is a few of our favorite apps:

http://www.chefslittlehelper.com/ is an app where you can enter your favorite family recipes. Your whole family can have access to them via this website. The website version is available and free to everyone. The iPhone app is .99 cents. What I love about this app is your recipes are always with you. Say you're at the grocery if you decide to make a dish and can't remember the ingredients, just open this app. Now that I have added several of my recipes, Jerry can purchase the app and add those same recipes to his cookbook without any work on his part. It even has a grocery list function. Special Note: all recipes are viewable to everyone; so you can add any one's recipe that is listed to your iPhone app. To find the recipes I have added click the search button then click on the Users tab and type Debbie Green. I have added my meatloaf recipe, my mom's famous spaghetti & meatballs recipe and Jerry's grandmother's sugar cookie recipe. Check them out. I will be adding my Fried Apple recipe soon! I know you guys from up North have never heard of them. They are "to-die-for."

http://www.grocerygadgets.com/ is another app Jerry and I love. This app is $4.99 and both of us had to purchase it. Jerry did the research on what we wanted in a "shopping list" type app. Our requirements were it needed to have the website version as well as the iPhone app, it had to be syncable to both of us. In other words, we wanted one list for both of us. I could add items to the list and his would automatically be updated. And sure enough this one did all that. We tried it out today and Jerry was off to the store with his iPhone in hand. As you check off an item it goes to the bottom of the list. We also created a weekly grocery list that contains all the items we purchase on a regular basis.

White Noise Lite (added this app from iTunes) Jerry and I have to have noise to sleep and especially when I travel. I can't sleep at all if it's dead quite. This app is so cool. Some of the sounds include crickets, extreme rain, grandfather clock, chimes, white noise, thunder storms, oscillating fan & more and of course you can set the time to repeat for up to 24 hours. How can sleep that long?? We are using the lite version which is free!!

Around Me (added this app from iTunes) On the iPhone click on the app to view a list of banks, bars, coffee, gas stations, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, theaters, too many more to list. Click on the desired category to view results. This app is Free.

http://www.keeperapp.com/ I am always needing a password. I have a physical one on my desk, but there are many times I need a password when I am away from my office. This is the perfect solution for me. It is totally secure it has a Military-Grade encryption (128-bit AES). I can even export these to share with Jerry. This app is free.