I love Picnik.com, it’s a free photo editing site that is for the short term memory people like me that have a hard time remembering steps in Photoshop and of course I’m really too cheap to pay for software. I  typically use Picnik to do a photo edit or to make a badge for the blog and I find it easy to use for making a clever photo collage.

But as they say, all good things must come to an end…..

Picnik recently announced the closing of the site with this….Take heed! The ants have invaded. Picnik will be closing April 19, 2012

Dang! That sucks but I do try to find the linking in every dark cloud. Good news for now is that they are offering all of their premium services from now until the end of the site for FREE! Yep! So my recommendation is if you have blog buttons or badges you want to make, do it now! It’s actually pretty darn easy and I have found some tutorials for you!

Want to make a header or button for your blog? I found this easy tutorial here: fosteringacreativelife.com/2012/01/14/how-to-create-a-blog-button-or-header-in-picnik/

Want to make a “grab my button” badge for your blog and put it on your sidebar? Kimberly shares an easy tutorial here: www.allaboutkimberly.com/grab-my-button

Want to make a photo collage? It’s easy, here is a tutorial video: www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/Making-A-Photo-Collage-In-Picnik

Take advantage of this while you can!

SO what happens after April 19th? Picnik was purchased by Google and now Google+ will offer a “Creative Kit”, not sure what that means but hopefully they will offer a comparison to the site with the Google + integration.  You can read all about the Picnik shut down here: www.picnik.com/

There are many alternatives to Picnik but only handful of them compare. Here are some alternatives I have personally researched and compared to Picnik:

• Pixlr: I recommend the express version found here: pixlr.com/express/, loads fast, uploads quickly and is easy to use with some cool effects. I did not need to register but they do offer a “premium” service for $4.95 a month or if you sign up for the yearly service it’s only around $2 a month.
• BeFunky: If you are looking for the fun artistic effects including graphic shapes, effects, frames etc that Picnik offered, try out www.befunky.com/create/#/home it seems to be user friendly and you do not need to register for an account.
• Photoshop Express: I had no idea that Photoshop offers a free online version anyone can use with 2 GB of storage. You can sign up for an account here: www.photoshop.com/tools/overview. It’s not too comparable as far as the easy to use artistics that Picnik offered but they do offer a nice photo editing system.

These are just a few I’ve tried. I’m sharing some articles that others have written where they have also tried out some sites and they share their opinions:

• mashable.com/2012/01/24/alternatives-to-picnik/
• betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2012/01/8-free-photo-editing-sites-alternatives.html

So keep on Picniking until you can’t Picnik anymore with all of the free premium services and hopefully you can find a site that works for you to use in the future!

(Sure not the most glamorous pic of me but it’s me about to tackle cleaning in the empty house)

One of my last posts talked about our moving adventures. Well, I am happy to say we are all moved out of the old house. Of course that doesn’t mean we are all moved in and in fact the house seems to be a chaos of never ending boxes but it’s coming a long! I wanted to do a few moving posts since that is been the realm of my existence for the last few weeks.

One thing I don’t think I thought about while planning this move would be about how much an empty house would need cleaning once we got all of our items out of it. Well, it needed quite a bit. It was those 10 years of dust bunnies that were hiding in the oddest places, the crayon marks on the wall where we put the couch to ensure no one would see those crayon marks and the mystery items where I wondered what on earth the kids had spilled in that spot. I rarely buy commercial cleaners, I usually make them myself and wanted to share a few of those with you here along with the ones I do buy.

• Citric Acid
  
  You can find this in the spice section of your store, just take the citric acid and add a few teaspoons to a spray bottle of warm water. If you have some shower scum built up what I do is take a cut lemon, pour a little bit of this on top of the cut lemon to make a coarse cleaning surface and then scrub the shower/tub/tiles with the lemon and citric acid. It’s super citric scrubbing power! 
• Dishsoap in Spray Bottle
  I read this somewhere in a magazine and it really works. Just take about a teaspoon of dish soap and fill a spray bottle with that and warm water and it cleans anything, even windows and mirrors!
• Dishwasher Detergent Powder
  I actually learned this from watching that show How Clean is Your House on the BBC. Take a tablespoon of powder dishwasher detergent (generic is fine) and add it to a large bowl of warm water. Use this to clean screens, fingerprints off of walls and other tough spots to clean.
• Vinegar
  It’s nature’s wonder cleaner, I mean you could really use it for anything! Built up soap scum, tarnish, mirrors etc. Keep a spray bottle of this around, it will conquer a lot! I found a great list of what it could do made by the New Home Maker here www.thenewhomemaker.com/vinegar
  

•  Green Works Natural and Dilutable Cleaner in a spray bottle
  

So about a year ago, Smart and Final had clearanced my favorite dilutable cleaner out and I thought they were just discontinuing it at their store so I bought like 10 bottles because they were under a buck. Well I went to go find it again and went to the website and am having trouble finding it. Hopefully I can find it again because I really love this. I use it on my floors and pour capful into a spray bottle with warm water. It is the perfect cleaner because it doesn’t have fumes (like that nasty ammonia smell) or harsh chemicals. A bottle of this will last a long time!

• Mr Clean Magic Eraser (AKA the miracle worker)

You will never go wrong with these. If you have used them, then you know how much they help when kids are around. From finger prints to crayons, this thing cleans like no body’s business! I love these when there are tricky spots that normal cleaners and sponges can’t get! It also saves your muscles because something that would normally be a tough job is easy peasy with these! I’ll be honest, I have bought the generic versions to save a couple bucks and those work just as well! I think my favorite is the Target Up and Up brand!

• Steam Cleaner
  
  I love having a steam cleaner where I can steam tough sticky spots like when I am cleaning the fridge or grout. I used to have a Shark hand held cleaner and loved it but it stopped working. So I went a more frugal route and bought the Dirt Devil on Amazon.com  and do love it so far! My only complaint is that if you have a large job, it does take a break to re-heat up of about 30 seconds steam, 30 seconds heat up. It does come with a nozzle for hard to reach jobs.

  What do you use to clean your house?

My smartphone is one of my best friends, always there when I need it and has so much to offer. One of the reasons I love my phone is because of the apps I can download in the marketplace. I have found many apps that help me save money on the go. The apps below are all free and downloadable in the iPhone or Android market.

Imagine me, standing in my closet on a Sunday morning evaluating what to wear that day. As I stood there, I start thinking why do I have so many clothes? When I start to look at everything, I start to hear voices in my head. Hold on, not crazy voices. I literally thought, what if Stacy and Clinton from the show What Not To Wear were standing with me. What would THEY have to say about my closet? What if my BFFs were also standing in my closet, what would they have to say about my clothes? I have no idea why, I also flash in my head to the show Hoarders, good Lord I look almost like an organized clothing hoarder!

I’m pretty sure I am not a hoarder but I am not sure why I have had so many clothes in my closet. As I start to go rummage through my closet, I start to evaluate the clothing piece by piece.

Ahh yes, my “I love the 60′s” dress area with my collection of retro dresses. Clearly they were part of a phase of who I was at one time, probably a year ago. But now? Not so much. I grab the 5 dresses and put them in a pile. Clearly, I have a dress obsession and I start to stumble upon dresses that include dressy for church and Maxi for comfort. While I loved them then, I do not love them now, so into the pile they go.

As I continue down to the end, I am on fire. In my head, I have a checklist I go over for every piece of clothing:

• Do I LOVE this?
• When did I last wear this?
• When will I wear this again?
• Does this reflect what my style is today?
• What would my BFF say about this outfit on me?
• Do I already own something similar?
• Is it a good fit?
• Is there a condition to this piece of clothing (such as do I have to wear something over it, how often would I wear that outfit etc)?

An hour later, I am down 45! 45 pieces of clothing are gone, all bagged up and ready to go to Goodwill! Also, I can donate all the extra hangers to Goodwill as well! It felt good to skim down my closet, I no longer have to stand there and rummage through so much clothing. It felt good to get rid of clothing that doesn’t reflect my style today and of course also donating to Goodwill is a great feeling too!

When is the last time you did a good purge on your closet?

Today I am sharing with you the top ways I saved money in the month of April:

**Produce Matching ~ By taking ads of all the stores that I get ads for in my mailbox to my Walmart Neighborhood market, I save at least $100 every month on produce. You can price match other items too as long as it is a dollar amount and not a percentage or BOGO sale. You can even use the price matching on the Organic section.

**Coloring My Own Hair ~ Is a woman supposed to admit she does this? Well I am, by coloring my own hair and yes, out of a “boxed kit”, I easily save at least $50 every month.

**Cutting the cords with the Cable ~ Last month I posted about letting go of Cable and watching TV free online. While I do hook up my computer to the TV once in a while, I primarily just watch a show on the computer when I have a chance. While this has saved me $75 a month, I found out this saved me even more. Last month was a full month of us running our AC and I thought for sure when I opened up my electric bill it was going to be the highest it’s been in about 6 months. I about fell on the floor when I opened it, my cable bill had gone down by $20. The only thing I can figure we had been doing different is not having our TV on. I really didn’t think it used that much energy, though I am still in disbelief that my AC unit is cheaper to run then my cablebox and TV.

**Using Daily Deal Sites: I have compiled a basic list of what the daily deal sites are here: www.supersavingsense.com/p/daily-deal-sites.html. This past month I have bought movie tickets, skating admission passes and bowling passes. With 4 kids, doing fun stuff can get pricey and this surely helps when I can buy tickets at a great discount!

**Forgoing the gym mebership ~ We used to belong to the YMCA and we had to nix that bill. Really, there are a lot of ways to get a workout on! I have a pair of weights I bought at Goodwill, I take my dog on walks/jogs (sell she walks me), playing Wii dance/sports games, hiking etc. This saves us $75 a month.