» 2010 » April Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

Wowee Woo Themes

April 9, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

It’s spring. As is my *usual* custom, I’m in the process of organizing my blog themes, weeding out extraneous stuff, and going with a new look for many of them. I purchased a few themes from Woo Themes last year (Fresh News and Busy Bee), and have been very impressed with the quality. Moreover, when I have a problem or a question on customizing the theme, Woo Themes has a support forum. I’m just really impressed– the guys there seem to go the second mile. I don’t want my themes to be too redundant, but I haven’t found a better theme than Fresh News and I can’t stop using it!

Anyway, I love Woo Themes. The themes are very pricey but they are worth it. Kudos to the Woo Themes team.

Posted in templates, websites. Tags: themes, Wordpress. Comments Off »

Great Gardening Tips and Products

April 7, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of MyOrganicGardeningBlog.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

I once knew nothing about gardening. Yes! It’s true! But now, it’s one of my favorite hobbies. We’ve been in the process of building our property from a vast wasteland of weeds and ugly turf into a Victorian garden of flower beds, vegetable gardens, and herb gardens. It’s a long process, seeing we only have 4-5 months of growing season for the year here in Upstate New York. Plus, I had no idea what I was doing, early on. I discovered, to my chagrin, that some of my small shrubs are too close to the house or to each other in the beds. So while I am building new beds, I also have to correct the errors of the old ones.

I rely heavily on the Internet for gardening ideas and advice. And here’s a great site for organic gardening, too. It’s done by the folks who make the SaferBrand organic gardening and pest control products. I am getting “into” organic gardening (natural gardening– no genetically-modified anything, and only natural products for pest control). I hope to grow more and more produce in the near future. As a matter of fact, we are going to enlarge the garden next year, looks like.

If you are into gardening, you should definitely take a look at the organic gardening website. There are helpful articles for the new and experienced gardener. I liked this one, written by Julie Fryer: “Yard Debris is Not Garbage! Make it into New Soil by Composting.” And this article by Kay King, “Easy and Affordable Mini-Greenhouse,” is a quick how-to on how to make a small greenhouse! There are many other such tips you will find helpful. Plus, there’s a handy coupon code for SaferBrand products: get 20% off anything on the site with this code: SBSSMOGB . You can follow them on Twitter, too (I do) for tips and articles.

Don’t wander around helplessly in your empty, ugly yard any more! The Internet can help! Check out the organic gardening website– you will love it!

Posted in deals, Internet. Comments Off »

Home Improvement Tips

April 7, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

I’m pretty impressed with this site: DIYNetwork. I’ve been staying up very late, watching videos on how to repair plumbing, do electrical wiring, and more. Really cool stuff! I like DIY Network because they have VIDEOS. No boring books for me! lol. Well, I like books well enough, but when it comes to having to wire an outlet or install a window, nothing beats a video.

‘Tis the season. If you want to watch some videos and get great ideas on how to do stuff, it’s a good site. The videos are a little too brief for me (I wish they were more detailed) but they are good. Nice one!

Posted in educational programs, Internet. Comments Off »

Winners of the iLasik Contest

April 2, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Incendia Health. All opinions are 100% mine.

A few months ago, I mentioned a very nice contest called the “You Gotta See This” iLASIK Video Contest. It was by Abbott Medical Optics Inc. (AMO), a Lasik vision correction company. The prizes were spectacular. Entrants had to create videos showing how Lasik laser surgery had changed their lives. The Grand Prize was for $5000!

The winners have been announced. The winner of the $5000 Grand Prize is Alex, and you can see his winning video here– he made a music video. The other video winners *look* good (pun intended!), too! I love some of the creative titles: Contacts Stink, Orbs of Perfection, Foggy Riding, and others. They are very creative videos, too. We cracked up over the “iLASIK Would Make Surfing More Enjoyable” video, lol! And Robbo got First Prize, which was an HDTV package valued at $2500. Sweet. Here is the video, lol.

Submit entry

Contest details

Sheesh, I wish I had entered! I love video contests!

Well congrats to the winners! You can *see* the winners and their videos at the iLASIK Video Contest website, where you can learn more about the benefits of laser surgery, how the surgery is done, safety questions, and more; and you can also register to get eye care products and updates.

Posted in blogs, Internet. Tags: contests, health, videos, websites. 1 Comment »

Open Source (Free) Software for Mac Users

April 2, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

I’m a PC-user and a Mac-user. And I’m a cheapskate and I like free software.

I am always hearing news about this-or-that program for PC users, but Mac users are somewhat left out in the cold. So I did some intensive searching and discovered a site that lists some excellent Mac software. Best of all, most of the stuff is free! It’s Open Source Mac. Of the programs that I have tried (and love) are these:

Adium for instant messaging
Bean a word-processor
XPad a superb, simple word-processor (my favorite)
Audacity for editing music and sounds
Xee an image browser
Freemind for making notes, etc
Stellarium a very cool interactive celestial map
Pixelmator a photo-editing program– but it’s not free. There’s a nice trial version, but the full version costs $60

I can’t say I am crazy about Adium, just because the duck mascot is a little too toyish and childish. But it works well.

Hey you Mac users, got any other suggestions? I use a G4 processor, so that limits my choices a lot. GIMP and OpenOffice look great, but they require Intel processors. Bummer.

Posted in computers, free programs. Tags: Apple, Mac, MacIntosh, software. Comments Off »

Looking for an Apartment? Try the Web!

April 1, 2010 — Mrs. Mecomber

Here’s some excellent news for you apartment hunters out there: check out the web for your new pad! I wish that this was available for me during all those apartment-hunting years when I was younger. It would have saved me a lot of inconvenience and time. Back then, we relied on classified ads or word of mouth to try to find a place. And if a landlord didn’t place an ad or didn’t get “mouths,” he had a difficult time finding tenants. Yes, it was SUCH a rough, cruel world back then, people! lol

Anyway, thanks to the web, you can find Luxury Apartments anywhere, all over the country, at the Luxury Apartment Shop. The website is excellent– I’ve been there a few times, checking out places for friends (plus, I like to keep tabs on the local real estate and apartment market in my state). Everything is at your fingertips and is very well organized. Search by city, state, or zip code, and get pages of results. Most listings have photos, detailed descriptions, a list of amenities, geographic location and address, contact information, and even floor plans (which I found fascinating). It’s excellent! And it’s totally free to search! There are listings for major cities and even small towns. I think it’s a very convenient way to find and compare listings in the country; they even have comprehensive Las Vegas Luxury Apartments listings, and a fancy New Lux Score®. Landlords, this is a great way to get your luxury rental unit listed, too. See the website for listings and more details.