I have so much going on at the moment.
First of all, the kids spilled water on my digital camera while I was at the store. I came back to finish taking shots for a review I was finishing up and discovered it sitting in a pool of water on the counter! It worked briefly, then the screen got fuzzy, then it flickered, and then it went off. I could no longer get it to stay on. Bummer. I looked it up on the internet, and it basically said when you damage the electronic parts of the camera with water, it's toast. Blech! I had to finish up my review photos using my cell phone and email the pics to myself. That worked out okay, but obviously, my cell phone doesn't take as quality photos as my digital camera. A further complication is that I also do mystery shopping, and I had to borrow my neighbor friend's camera to take the photos for that (can't use cell phone for that).
So obviously, replacing my camera ASAP was a must-do. The upside was that I had been wanting to upgrade to more megapixels anyway, but couldn't justify it when my camera was working just fine, so this was my chance. I wanted to stick with a Fuji Finepix, my favorite. Low and behold, I got an email from 1SaleADay and saw they had a Fuji Finepix JX580 for a mere $65! That was $20 cheaper than Amazon's price, and it included free shipping. In addition, it was 16 MP, and my older Fuji was just 10 MP, so that was a major improvement in picture quality. Hooray! I ordered it right away. There was a delay in delivery because of the Veteran's Day holiday (insert crying), but it is set for delivery today (keeping fingers crossed). It'll be just in time, too, because I have another mystery shop tonight that requires photos! UPS turned it over to USPS, so I hope there are no further delays. I'll have to get it charged right away so I can use it tonight. I can't wait!
I have spent more time learning the basics of Adobe Photoshop Elements recently, and I used it extensively on my recent review of Activity Bags in order to create photo collages of the experiments we did. It turned out pretty cool! I definitely intend to use it more. I really like adding personal photos in my reviews. I think it helps sell the products by giving a clearer picture (pun intended) of just what the product is and how we've used it.
Secondly, I now have a giant 30-yard dumpster sitting in my driveway. It was delivered yesterday morning. We should have it for about a month. Our plan is to methodically work our way through the house and rid ourselves of excess furniture, toys, and general junk. We're also going to clean out the attic, shed, and pull up our dilapidated decks out back. Our back doors are in bad disrepair, so we're chucking those and replacing them with nice French doors, as well. I'm so excited! This house is so cluttered, and the house is in need of some repairs, for sure. Having the dumpster is inspiring...seeing the rooms begin to clear out creates a real motivation to keep tossing more and more! The kids simply have too much stuff, and it's impossible to keep the house neat and orderly.
Last night, hubby started on the recreation room. We tossed the sofa, chair, side table, and coffee table, plus the corner entertainment center. The point of that was to open up the room more and make it less of a place for the kids to sit and leave their junk laying around. It's a huge room (540 sq. ft.) that is a converted 2-car garage. It will be much more useable as a place to engage in lots of activities with more open space. We're making our giant craft table a center focal point so you can sit there and work on just about anything with clear table space and still watch tv. But with no comfy furniture to lounge on, it won't just be a place to congregate and lay around making a mess. It will be a great place to exercise and that sort of thing. We already have a treadmill back there, and now we can put it against the wall out of the way but where it can be used at any time. Last night, we decided we'll also move the Wii into that room so we can get all that stuff out of the living room. The kids are always hogging the main tv to play on the Wii, so that arrangement will work out better.
It was raining yesterday, but that did not deter my husband from clearning that stuff out. He says he has a plan for each day to make the progress he wants to make in that room. Honestly, tha rec room is so full of junk that we could spend a couple of weeks just going through that one room!
I told some friends I'm shooting for the "just moved in" look. I can't wait!
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