Bella Carta

Favorite Five - celebrating things that are FREE!

Here's my Friday favorite five - a salute to FREE things (esp. for papercrafters).    Yeah - I realize its Saturday, I'm just running a bit behind, I truly could use 48 hours in each and every day - not just 24!

Just as a little reminder: Remember to practice "safe downloads".  I recommend that you save any file you are downloading to a special folder - I use one on the desktop especially just for downloads.  Then, before opening or installing, run your anti-virus software to scan it.    I believe all these sites to free of anything malicious, but it can happen quickly.  Once your virus scan has run, feel free to move those files to your wherever you normally keep your files.

1) GIMP!   Yep, funny name - FREE program!  This is a graphics package available for free on the internet that will do most things.  I use this to crop, rotate, size, place my border, watermark, etc on the pics I use for my blog.  If youre a Photoshop user, there is also a FREE download called Gimp Shop that replicates photoshop.  Just google "gimp".

2) New digital paper from Gina K....  FLoral Frenzy

3) Templates for 3D projects over at  Papertrey Ink ... two free and several inexpensive PDF's for purchase

4)digital scrapbooking kits - these are some I've been enjoying from Kathy Goldstein (known as kizgold in the Twilight Tuesday forums) she also joins us for Twilight Tuesday challenges and does some amazing scrap pages! Poke around her blog, she's got several free downloads as well as some reasonably priced kits!

5) If you are a Photoshop user .... there are all kinds of GREAT add ons "action kits" for streamling some of the multi-step photo effects assembled by Pioneer Woman ... all kinds of great effects including the "70s" and "eye pop".

Here's kit 1 and Here's kit 2   <----- two different links

Enjoy!

.

Favorite Five Friday (week of Jan 30, 2009)

I'm still a bit frazzled from my trip this week, I could stand to get a good night's sleep and really "re-charge" my batteries (so to speak!).

Here are my fav's for this week

1) Podcasts!  Holy cow, what rock have I been living under?  I just figured out how to get podcasts from i-tunes.  These probably "saved" my sanity on my roadtrip.  Some of my fav's so far - Imprint (a twi based podcast) and This I Believe from NPR (by the same folks who wrote the books I mentioned two weeks ago).  And if I haven't said it before, I {heart} my ipod.  I have like 200 podcasts downloaded, and some great stuff on HBO specials.

2) Feel that Fire - Dierks Bentley.  What is it about country music? Geesh, before you judge me - I never in my life thought I'd like country music, and now well - I can't always get away from it. I'm really not sure what the draw is.

(this is available as a single, the album is due out soon)

3) Have I mentioned Sookie Stackhouse?  I just finished book #1 and moving onto book 2!

4) Generation Kill - both the HBO series and the book by Evan Wright.  Marines and Alexander Skaarsgard!

5) If you're looking for a great non-fiction read, I recommend: Galileo's Daughter:  A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love.  Amazon's review says this:

Everyone knows that Galileo Galilei dropped cannonballs off the leaning tower of Pisa, developed the first reliable telescope, and was convicted by the Inquisition for holding a heretical belief--that the earth revolved around the sun. But did you know he had a daughter? In Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel (author of the bestselling Longitude) tells the story of the famous scientist and his illegitimate daughter, Sister Maria Celeste. Sobel bases her book on 124 surviving letters to the scientist from the nun, whom Galileo described as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and tenderly attached to me." Their loving correspondence revealed much about their world: the agonies of the bubonic plague, the hardships of monastic life, even Galileo's occasional forgetfulness.

Enjoy!

Friday Favorite Five - week of 1/17/09

My favs for this week:

1) The guy in the "left seat" (the pilot)  - Capt. Chesley Sullenberger.   I don't think there is anything I can say about him that hasn't been written about what he did - the amazing, incredible, heroic and CALM manner in which he was able to land a disabled jet safely, my admiration extends to  the crew he worked with and all the folks who responded (like the boat ferries that raced over to pull people from the icy water) and saved lives.

2) Andrew Wyeth - who passed away today at the age of 91.  An iconic American artist, who's work was once ridiculed by an art critic as "a flat tire".    Two of my favorite pieces:  Master's Bedroom and Around the Corner.

   

 

3) If you need an uplifting read .... "This I Believe" books I and II. Personal philosophies from remarkable people

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In the 1950s, the Edward R. Murrow–hosted radio program This I Believe prompted Americans to briefly explain their most cherished beliefs, be they religious or purely pragmatic. Since the program's 2005 renaissance as a weekly NPR segment, Allison (the host) and Gediman (the executive producer) have collected some of the best essays from This I Believe then and now. "Your personal credo" is what Allison calls it in the book's introduction, noting that today's program is distinguished from the 1950s version in soliciting submissions from ordinary Americans from all walks of life. These make up some of the book's most powerful and memorable moments, from the surgeon whose illiterate mother changed his early life with faith and a library card to the English professor whose poetry helped him process a traumatic childhood event. And in one of the book's most unusual essays, a Burmese immigrant confides that he believes in feeding monkeys on his birthday because a Buddhist monk once prophesied that if he followed this ritual, his family would prosper. There are luminaries here, too, including Gloria Steinem, Warren Christopher, Helen Keller, Isabel Allende, Eleanor Roosevelt, John Updike and (most surprisingly, considering the book's more liberal bent) Newt Gingrich. This feast of ruminations is a treat for any reader. (Oct.)

4) Caramels!  Gosh I love caramels, especially these French caramels "Fleur de Sel":

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19662217

They also make Earl Grey infused caramels (that sounds divine, doesn't it!  But it could be *just me* - I love bergamot!).  AND I'm not the only "chocolate and cayenne pepper" lunatic - they make a "Mayan Chocolate Caramel" with chocolate and cayenne! 

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6202014&order=&section_id=&page=1

5) This sweet little face:  my kitten Wednesday!  

She's close to five pounds now (and five months old) and she's starting to regain that fuller rounder face like she had as a kitten.  She goes Monday to get "fixed" - not that there's anything "broken" with her!   Here she is in my kitchen the other night, playing with Oliver.   I have a bunch more of those I'll try to post over the weekend. 

Friday Favorite five! Week of Jan 9, 2009

1.  Watergate Salad!  Yummmm!  This is an easy mix of one package pistachio pudding, one tub (small) of cool whip, one can of pineapple tidbits in juice (crushed pineapple) - make sure you get the one in juice not syrup!, two cups of mini marshmallows, and you can sprinkle on crushed pecans or walnuts.

2. My favorite perfumes are from Italy Carthusia I Profumi di Capri, if you're in Italy - I highly recommend checking them out - but you can also buy these within the US.  My fav is: Mediterraneo

http://www.carthusia.it/CarthusiaWeb/cmd/ShowCategoryCATGROUP_ID=1084&CATALOG_ID=1111&LEVEL=0

 

 3.   My next fav is from the US by the Thymes Limited:  Eucalyptus (and no, it doesn't smell like a cough drop!).  Although I'm a fan of lots of their products, all their scents are fab!

http://www.thymes.com/

4.  Big Stone Gap series from Adriana Trigiani.  I read Return to Big Stone Gap (the fourth book) over Christmas and it was as wonderful as the rest of the series!   I believe they will start production this spring on a Big Stone Gap movie.

5.  Out of Africa - available on DVD!   Gosh, I can't believe this movie came out in 1985!  I think I've probably seen it 100 times and never grow tired of Meryl Streep as Baroness Karen Blixen while writing under the pseudonym of Isak Dinesen.

There is an incredible line in the movie Karen (at one point says to Denys - Robert Redford):

"When the gods want to punish you, they answer your prayers."

Favorite Five Fridays (for this week!)

Ugghh ... I'm running about a day behind! I was exhausted after work yesterday and just didn't feel good.  I went to bed early and today I'm stuffed up and feeling carpy. 

Here are my favs for this week - I think these are all fabulous!

1) Docker's Metro pants.  I buy mine in the capri length which come right above my ankle (that way I don't have to get them shortened!).  These are super comfy and have a satiny polished cotton finish so they're a bit more dressy than khakis.   You can get these also in a full pant (in short, average and tall lengths) too!  Dockers also says these have built in "stain defender" stain blocker in  them, how cool is that!  No wonder mine stay so clean!

2) Out of Africa - the movie from Isaac Dinesen's wonderful novel.  I think I could watch this movie over and over again, its one of my favorite movies to watch! I think Meryl Streep is

3) Speaking of movies, this indie movie is incredible! Everything is Iluminated, based on the novel* by Johnathon Safran Foer.  My favorite scene is probably where they arrive at the place they were searching for (I won't give this part away if you haven't seen it) and the field is covered in sunflowers.   Amazone describes the movie this way:

Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, "Everything is Illuminated" tells the story of a young man's quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather in a small Ukrainian town that was wiped off the map by the Nazi invasion. What starts out as a journey to piece together one family's story under absurd circumstances turns into a meaningful journey with a powerful series of revelations -- the importance of remembrance, the perilous nature of secrets, the legacy of the Holocaust, and the meaning of friendship.

*I have not read the book yet ....

4) One more movie for today ... I watch this movie over and over again, shot in Italy's gorgeous tuscan countryside - Stealing Beauty is a visual feast for the eyes!  The soundtack is great, too!

5) Big Cat Coffee company - this is my *absolute* favorite source for K CUps for my Keurig!  They have incredible prices and top notch customer service!  If you've never ordered from them - email me and I'll be happy to send you a coupon code good for a free box with your first order. 

http://www.bigcatcoffees.com/

Fab Friday Favorite Five

I didn't want to let the day finish before I posted my Friday Favorite Five list ... these are things I think are just fabulous:

1. My Keurig!  Reallly, if there is ONE product that has revolutionized my life in the past year - this is it!!!   I can count on one hand the number of times I've gone to a coffee shop to buy coffee since I've bought this!   I have the B60, the Special Edition featured below - it the mid range model.  And they've just come out with a mini edition.  If you've seen*any* of my posts on Splitcoast, you know how much I love mine!

 2.  Felting - this is an addictive art where WOOL is my color palette and medium!   In Florida I find not alot of people are familiar with wool, but I love to needle felt.   Really, scrunching wool fibers with a needle is VERY therapeutic, think voodoo dll therapeutic!

Here's a great reference guide to get you started!

3.  Ryan Shupe and his Rubber Band (RS & RB) - I saw these guys in Salt Lake City and was amazed!  Such energy and great music!  Its always in my car CD and iPod. 

4.  I love to read ....  HBO has made several of my favorites into a series.  I'm usually such a book geek that I not only read the book, I then will often purchase the audiobook and listen to it be read.  I particularly love to hear the author narrate, I find it wonderful insight into the book.  The first season of True Blood recently wrapped, bringing the "Sookie Stackhouse" {southern vampire} series to life.  I guess that gives me time (before season 2 starts) to read the whole series!

5.  The *perfect* gift for almost everyone on your list (with a handmade card, of course!).  Amazon gives you three different options (in all prices ranges), you can email the gift certificate electronically to your recipient (for immediate gift giving), you can purchase it and print it out at home to personally deliver, or you can have an actual personalized gift card sent to the recipients (or your address).  I keep a few of these on hand at the holidays (in small dominations) for quick giving for those "surprise" situations.