Siri Tip - Targeted Reminders

Here is a cool Siri tip I just ran across and wanted to share.
Siri is good for adding a quick reminder to do something, or get something or, oh, I don't know, remember something ☺

Aaanyway, that's all well and good, if you cram everything into your reminders list. I happen to have multiple lists, like the Reminders list, a Home tasks list, a Packing list for travel, a Car Maintenance list, a Home Maintenance list...you get the idea--list overload. I have a slight organizational problem, but let's not get into that now.

So I could never quite figure out how to have Siri add reminders to a specific list. I tried several different ways to phrase my request only to have Siri get my request but not the destination. Here's an example:

Me: Remind me to create a blog post about reminders and save it to my NKMphotos List.
Siri: Here's your request:
 "Remind me to create a blog post about reminders and save it to my NKMphotos List"
Shall I add it now?
Me: Never mind (if I say yes here it will just go to my default Reminder list--NOT what I wanted)

I tried several variations of this, but basically got nowhere. I ended up arguing with Siri and then she would give smart-allecky answers... Well, let's just say it got pretty heated. I'm totally kidding here, of course.

So, I did what anyone would do when they need to find out stuff: Google IT! - Duh! I found several answers that pretty much describe the same method. I tried it and it worked (woohoo). The trick is to do it as a two step process. Here's how: 

Me: "Remind me to create a blog post about adding reminders to lists."
Siri: "Ok, here's your reminder. (it will show the reminder test) Shall I create it?"
Me: "Put it on my NKMphotos list"
Siri: "Ok, I can add this to your 'NKMphotos' list in Reminders. Shall I create it?", and the reminder is displayed again.
Me: "Yes"
Siri: "Ok, I've added it."

Check your list and...wait for it...Yesss...it's there! Problem solved.

If you have any similar 'DUH' tips, I'd love to hear them, so why not share it in the Comments?

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DIY Sofa Table - Ikea Style

Well, it's been quite some time since my last blog post. So, to start off the new year, I am determined  (not using the R-word here) to make more frequent posts. Not that I didn't have anything to share--it's just so much easier to use other Social Networking methods, like Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, and my new favorite, Flipboard.
During one of my recent trips to Pinterest I saw a great idea for a DIY sofa table using aged boards repurposed from other furniture. I forgot to pint it or even like it, so I don't have the exact pin anymore (grrr), but if you do a search on DIY sofa tables, you'll come up with a ton of great ideas. But, since I didn't have any old furniture to repurpose, I came up with something else using--wait for it--repurposed Ikea shelving!

After measuring the walls and deciding how wide I wanted the shelves, I waited patiently (well, maybe not so patiently) for our next trip to Ikea.

...Insert Jeopardy Music here...

I love these shelves, since you can cut them to size and the brackets will hide the cuts. Once I had the shelves up on the wall, I added a shelf vertically on each side, with one end-bracket on the bottom and a small angle bracket at the top.

And that's all there is to it--tadaa, instant sofa table. OK, maybe not instant. It did take a few hours to do because, you know

a. moving the corner-sofa (with pull-out bed) off the wall to make room to work was a bit cumbersome

b. measuring everything three times because I was not going to go driving a couple of hours back to Ikea to get more shelves, and

c. Umm, I can't work quite as fast as I used to (no wisecracks about age, please)


I decided not to try to figure out how to do the corner, partly because I didn't want to make a big project out of it. So I left about a foot from the corners free and added a nice large vase and added some decorative flora.

 

Now, the hard part is figuring our what to put on it...

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What the Font?

Last week Adobe released all new versions of their software, among them Photoshop and InDesign. I only recently got into InDesign when I had to create a demo iPad app for a mobile project at work. I loved how I could pick up just the relevant functions I needed from watching many of the how-to videos available at the Adobe TV and Lynda.com sites. Now that the project at work is finished, I can go back and learn everything I can form the beginning--and that's where I ran into a big problem. InDesign CC would crash on startup--every time. The splash screen would come up and sometimes the menu bar, but then--BAM, crash!
Apparently I wasn't the only one having this problem; I found a long thread on this in the Adobe Support Forum. Most people were able to resolve the issue, which seems to point back to certain Fonts as the offender, by removing fonts and adding them back in. Here's what worked for me:

• Create a temporary folder on your desktop (or wherever you choose). I named mine Temp Fonts
• Create another folder and call it bad fonts
• Move all fonts from your system fonts folder to Temp Fonts
• on a Mac that's [harddrive]>Users>[your username]>Library>Fonts
• on a PC  that's C:\windows\fonts 
• Move small groups of fonts back to the system fonts folder 
• Start InDesign
• If it comes up without crashing, close it and
• Copy another group of fonts
• Repeat
• If InDesign crashes, move the group back to the temp folder and try a smaller group 
• Move any bad fonts to the Bad Fonts folder
• TaDaa--that's it

I know it's a bit tedious and annoying, especially since all the fonts seemed to work fine in CS6, but at least this will get you back to a working program instead of waiting for a fix from Adobe, which of course we'll still want, right? Sooner would be nice, though.

Try this method and see if it works for you. If you still can't get it to start without crashing, keep checking the Adobe Support Forums to see what others have tried.
My bad fonts turned out to be these two:

• Impact Label Reversed.ttf and 
• Ithornât.ttf

If this worked for you, please share the offending font names in the comments.

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My first ikea hack

I'm always drooling over those fabulous Organizer Systems you see on sites like Pottery Barn. Of course, I'm sure that when you add all the daily homework papers and school notices and junk mail you need to go through, even those spaces will lose some of their perfect look, right? Ok, maybe not, but I just can't see shelling out several hundred dollars for this stuff. Just think  what kind of camera goodies you can get for that kind of dough!
So, being the cheap thrifty person that I am, I came up with a nifty little hack that works great for our little kitchen corner. Hey, my own little ikea hack! I love that site; if you don't know it and love ikea, go check it out. Ok, so here it is. No wait, I want to point out that the pictures were taken with my iPhone (not my Nikon) while working, so they're not the greatest, but you should get the idea. Ok, so here goes:


I started out with two FJÄLLSTA picture frames ($14.99 each) and one KVISSLE Wall Magazine Rack ($14.99). I used the black frames to match my whiteboard calendar I already had (I think I bought that at Walmart for around $10).
Then I took two of the racks and used needle-nosed pliers to pry off the little tab at the top. 
Since I'm not using the racks as intended (meaning interlocking all of them to make one big rack), I need the hole for a small screw to attach to the picture frame. Make sure the screw is short enough not to go through the frame!

The holes are pretty close to the top, so it shouldn't be too hard to attach them. I used a really long cross-tip drill-bit (a long screwdriver will do as well).

That's really all there is to it. You could leave the frames as-is and attach them to your wall. 
I used a current school picture for each of the kiddos and put the frame back together. That way everyone knows which frame is their's. (Note, thanks to hubby for being my hand model)

I found that the hardest thing about the whole project was getting it attached to the wall. 

And here it is--all finished. Bring on the paper piles :D

Oh, the magnetic board on the left is the SPONTAN, also from ikea for $12.99.  Well, that's my little ikea hack project. I hope you found it useful. If you did, feel free to leave some comment <3.

 Please 

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Back to School - Yay!

So, I was spending some time on Pinterest--okay, A LOT of time! It's hard to just look around a bit, because it's so darn fun and you always find something interesting, fun, cute and stuff you think must have, that I usually end up spending hours pinning and re-pinning. If you haven't tried it, go check it out. It's great.
Anyway, one of the pins that caught my eye was about organizing school papers. Wait, what? I NEED that, like, NOW!  So, off I went--following that pin to a wonderful blog called iHeartOrganizing, where I promptly spent several hours looking around and ending up planning all sorts of projects to organize my house.
Ok, back to the article on Organizing School Paperwork; it's a neat way to file all those papers you're constantly looking for (hmmm, which pile did I put that in?) and the article is sooo well written and also has great pictures to show the process. And, if that wasn't enough, you can download the templates for the Labels and cover sheet.
I couldn't find any of the nice file boxes locally and was too impatient to order them online and wait for them. BUT, I did find 1/2 boxes at Office Max which are super cute and don't look like filing/storage boxes at all. Take a look, what do you think?

I scanned in all the school pictures for both my kids, a task I had planned to do anyway, so now I had a good reason to move that up on my To-Do List. I downloaded the template and opened  it up in Photoshop. Since I had seven pictures to process, I decided to place the first image as a Smart Object on a new layer and then clip the layer to the template (background) and mask out everything but the picture. After printing the first sheet, preparing for the next one is easy. You just right-click the picture layer (the Smart Object), select Replace Contents and pick the next picture when prompted. You may need to adjust your Layer Mask a bit and you'll need to change the Teacher's name and school info as needed.

I could stop here and call this project finished, but I wanted to be able to quickly know which binder is which, so I used the template for the folders and changed the dimensions to make it narrow to fit the spine for the binder. I also removed all information except for the name and--voila--individually marked Binder Spines!


I saved the Photoshop file for the Spine-sheet as a template and would like to share it, but I will contact iHeartOrganizing first to ask if she would mind--it was her original template after all. :D

So, that's it--on to the next project.

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Giveaway: Win Digital Scrapbooking Software

The nice people at MyMemories.com sent me a copy of their super easy Digital Scrapbooking Software to review and a great opportunity to pass along some sweet offers.
Years ago, like many, I used to do Paper Scrapbooking, but with two kids and two sets of grabby-fingers, keeping track of all my supplies during the short nap times, not to mention removing all sharp objects from view, was becoming waaay too much work.



Enter Digital Scrapbooking!! Having all your stuff on your computer is wonderful and if you have a laptop, you can even take it with you--how great is that! You may have seen some of my Digital Layouts I've done over the years here on my blog or in my flickr stream. Some of them are pretty detailed and took layers upon layers to complete. I started out with Photoshop Elements and eventually moved on to the full version Photoshop.
Lately, I like to spend more time taking pictures and making them look their best, which means I spend a lot of time in Lightroom and Photoshop; so anything that can save me time and make it easy to put my pictures in digital layouts is great news for me.
I'll be doing more detailed testing of MyMemories Suite in the coming weeks so check back often, but just after watching a short youtube video to get started, here is a Layout I put together in almost no time at all:



Not bad, right? This was just a quick-n-easy one. You can do so much more, like your own custom layouts, adding music, narration and video to your pages. The program comes with a pile of layout templates, background papers, embellishments, word art and, of course, you can get more supplies at the store--even freebies from some of your favorite designers (hello Vera Lim--love her)! The output options include printing, export to jpeg (this is good for saving individual pages for the web), even calendars. You can create Interactive Albums and save your creations as DVD movies. I can't wait to see what else I can do with it. Come back and check my Reviews Page for more updates.

With My Memories Suite you can even create and share professionally printed and bound calendars, send greeting cards to all your friends, make posters or trading cards for your son's soccer team, post a movie of your scrapbook on your Facebook page-all with the click of a button. If you are serious about creating the ultimate scrapbook that preserves and shares your memories with a serious amount of "wow" factor, then My Memories Suite is the one-stop solution for you.

Now, here is some great news for you.

ENTER TO WIN FREE DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING SOFTWARE

Here's what you can win:

• Enter to win a free copy of MyMemories Suite 2.

How To Enter:

• Comment. To qualify, go to the MyMemories website, check out the gallery and store and then come back here and leave a comment. Tell me about your favorite digital paper pack or layout and what software you currently use for DigiScrapping.
• Like NKM photos: Like my Facebook Page. I have free stuff there too, like textures you can use for layouts.

For Extra Entries:

• Like MyMemories on Facebook
• Follow NKM photos on Twitter
• Follow MyMemories on Twitter

Here is the Fine print:

• The Giveaway starts on Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011. The winner will be selected via random.org on the evening of Sunday, August 28th, 2011 Tuesday, September 6th, 2011.
• Be sure to add a comment for each one of the extra entries to increase your chances of winning. One entry per 'extra' please.
• This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.

But wait, there's more (sorry, couldn't resist)

If you don't win the whole package, here's a Coupon Code (STMMMS72992) for $10 off the purchase of MyMemories Suite, as well as $10 off at the store. Feel free to share the code with friends.

How's that for a fabulous deal?

Good luck everyone ☺

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My very Professional (not!) photo shoot and final picture How-To

I haven't had much opportunity to use the new tripod, so yesterday I decided to use the potted Campanula Get Mee's (ok, I didn't know this, I read the label) I picked up at the store last week and take some close-ups.

I love this texture tutorial at the Flypaper Textures site and wanted to see if I can get similar results using my own textures. Well, I didn't really have any of my own textures yet; I just started creating my own and the few I have were more of the darker/grungy variety, so they wouldn't work for this light, dreamy type of look.

Well, not to worry, being the Packrat that I am, which, in photography, translates into my having a hard time rejecting and deleting any bad or blurry shots without thinking "hmmm, if I just use this corner of the picture, I can get some cool background/texture, etc. which I can then use for something else", I had just that--some really nice, dreamy, blurry, colorful parts of otherwise less than optimal (i.e. crappy) shots.
This is what the finished picture looks like.

If you'd like to know how I did it, read on:

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