Organizing

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It’s official…I am in LOVE.

05/23/2010 in Organizing, PSAs, Technology by Lauren | 4 comments

It’s true!  I am in LOVE with my iPhone. I know for sure because I have those tell-tale “in love” feelings: I’m so happy when I’m holding it, the first day I brought it home I spent about 3 hours bonding with it, I think about it when it’s not directly in front of me, and I genuinely feel that it wants to make me happy. I just want to shout it from the rooftops…

I LOVE MY MOBILE DEVICE!

Boop.

The best part is? I find more to love about my iPhone every day. (I think this love is going to last!)

It’s true…change is hard, and my ‘berry had been good to me.  Mostly, I was VERY nervous to say goodbye to BBIM. I’ll be honest, I DO miss BBIM…but while it will always hold a special place in my heart, when I think about all I have gained from the iPhone, I’m happy to reserve BBIM as a fond memory.

I have had this phone for a mere 8 days and there are about 5 zillion things that I LOVE about it.  If I were going to tell you about ALL of them, well, I just couldn’t…there are too many. So I’m going to hit the high points.

1.    It organizes your voicemails. All of your voicemails are listed in the order in which they were received, showing the time and length of each vm, and you can listen in whichever order you choose.   BRILLIANT!

Also, once you delete them, they stay in a deleted folder for a while in case you were too quick on the draw and deleted one you need.

2.   It keeps your text conversations running. If you need to reference a text conversation with anyone from anytime, they will forever be recorded in your text history with that person.  Unlike the BlackBerry where you have a million little strings to reference.

3.   It’s pretty.
4.    It’s an iPod! I loaded a TON of music onto it and I can play it anywhere I can play my iPod and it has some pretty decent speakers for impromptu dance parties!

5.    THE APPS! Ok here are SOME of my favorites SO FAR (by the way, these are all FREE apps):

Scoutmob – Ok so I HEART the ScoutMob app. Not only does it eliminate the need to acquire the deals daily in CASE you may want to use them, but they are all RIGHT THERE, organized in your phone either by, as they put it, “newest, most popular, nearby, and hurry-you-fool-it’s-about-to-expire.” All you do is show your phone and BOOM – discount. I just can’t tell if the deals are my favorite part or the “curiosities” tab telling me random facts about my favorite city in the world (Atlanta, duh.)  or the camera with the built-in mustache. (four ‘staches to choose from!  I chose “The Van Skeevy” for G):Four Square – It’s just so much easier to check in with the iPhone app than it was with the BlackBerry one.  And it’s cuter.  It does NOT, however, help me to remember to check in.

AroundMe – Wherever you are, find the nearest bank, bar, gas station, hospital, hotel, movie theatre, restaurant, supermarket, theatre and taxi with this app.  Phenom.

TweetDeck – I use TweetDeck on my desktop for the distribution of all my up-to-the-minute, so fast-breaking-you-need-to-know-right-now updates (such as “So excited about patio cocktails” -@LaurenKAtlanta 05/04/10 at 4:43pm)  and to keep track of all of yours.  Now I have it on my iPhone! Sweet!

Shazam – If you’re ever in a store or a car or wherever and you hear a song you absolutely love and MUST HEAR AGAIN, yet have no idea who it is…you just click Shazam and it tells you who’s a-playin’ and you can purchase it right then and there for iTunes and have it in your hot little hand in seconds.

White Noise – Totally turns your phone into a sound machine!  The settings are: Beach Waves Crashing, Crickets Chirping, Thunder Storm, Oscillating Fan, Extreme Rain Pouring, Grandfather Clock (creepy.  Hello, Edgar Allen Poe?), Chimes Chiming, Train Ride, Airplane Travel, and White Noise.  It even has a timer that will fade the sounds out as you drift into slumber!

Other apps to try (more to come, I’m sure!): Google Mobile, Lose It!, SpendingLite, Pandora, UrbanSpoon, CheapGas, ShopSavvy, iThesaurus, New York Times

There was even a Camp Dance iPhone app! (too bad I was tardy to the iPhone party…)

Oh, and don’t forget the previously blogged about Carb Tracker App!

(and, as always, PLEASE leave comments with your app/general iPhone suggestions!)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go spend some more time with my phone. iLove my iPhone.

xx, iL

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I’m about to change your life.

01/06/2010 in Deals + Steals, Organizing, Where we're Shopping by Lauren | 6 comments

So…remember my refrigerator?

empty fridge

Not my actual fridge (mine at least has vodka in the freezer)

Yeah. Well, my closet is the exact opposite. In fact, up until just recently it didn’t look much better than this:

NOT my actual closet. (mine is 90% black clothes)

NOT my actual closet. (mine is 90% black clothes)

Listen, as far as I’m concerned it’s an entire closet FULL of “nothing to wear” but I’m unwilling (and unable) to rid myself of some of these pieces. I’m super picky and trust me, each article of clothing represents countless hours of debate.

Anyway. Until I am able to afford an enormous, digitally enhanced closet (a la Cher in Clueless) I had to come up with a solution. And here it is!

VELVET. HANGERS.

VELVET. HANGERS.

Here’s the Q+DD: I got them because we use them at the theatre (for our 9342391 costume changes). The main benefit I saw is that they are ultra skinny, so you can cram so much more into your closet just by switching the hangers out.

But that’s not all: the velvet texture keeps your slinky little tops in place…instead of slipping off onto the closet floor, where a lot of mine had permanently taken up residence. ALSO – the rounded corners prevent “hanger peaks” (as my sister and I like to call the lovely little teepees some hangers will produce in the corners of starched shirts.)

Just get them. 10 of these bad boys will set you back about 8 bucks at Bed Bath and Beyond (click here) and you can use the bazillion 20% off coupons you have in your junk drawer OR: a set of 50 are about $15 at Costco.

(I may or may not have just thrown out 5 empty boxes...)

(I may or may not have just thrown out 5 empty boxes...)

You. Are. Welcome.

xx, L

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How to…Start a Dinner Club

07/01/2009 in Entertaining, Organizing, Parties by Lindsay | 3 comments

I am sure I am not alone in finding myself with an increasingly packed work schedule, which oftentimes puts a strain on my social life.  As we mature in our careers (and are pulled in a thousand different directions), it becomes even more important for us to make time for ourselves.  For me, setting aside time to spend with my girlfriends can be difficult to schedule, but is critical to my overall social satisfaction and stress relief.  About a year and a half ago, Dana and I started a monthly dinner club and it has been going strong ever since.  Prior to forming our club, I had been part of numerous book clubs, wine clubs and dinner groups that ultimately failed - mostly due to a lack of structure.  However, our dinner club has been successful because of the following five steps we took seriously from the get-go.

1 – Establishing Structure: Establishing a dinner club structure is an important step toward success.  We have roughly six to eight consistent members in our dinner club.  Once a month, someone volunteers to cook for the group and invites attendees to bring over a bottle of wine.  We rotate each month, and members are likely to only cook for the group once or twice a year.  In other dinner clubs, the host prepares the main course and a few sides, and then delegates other sides, dessert and beverages to attendees.  However, we think our structure works the best because the burden to cook is fairly infrequent – which has resulted in consistent, high attendance.
 
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2 - Selecting a Day: We decided that Tuesday would be the best day for our dinner club since our members are less likely to have plans toward the beginning of the week than they are at the end of it.  I suggest discussing member’s schedules and polling them as to their most convenient day to meet each month. It’s okay to be flexible on the day of the week, too.  Sometimes Wednesdays work better for our group –  and no one minds if we temporarily move the day for a month or two.  Additionally, we named our dinner club after the day it occurs to help members remember it.  Our Evites are for the “Third Tuesday Dinner Club,” which brings me to…
 
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3 – Invitations and Communication: It’s important to have a structured e-mail invitation so that dinner club members have all the information they need about the month’s club, including time, location, directions and information regarding the meal.  Our dinner club uses Evite to communicate with members.  Additionally, I think it’s important to set certain rules about cancellations.  For example, our club frowns upon canceling the day of the dinner club unless it’s an emergency.  We hate for the host to overspend and end up with a bunch of food left over, so it’s a good idea to set certain rules like this early on.
 
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4 – Perpetuating Momentum: I think most dinner clubs die because they lose momentum.  In hopes of avoiding a similar fate, we send out the Evite for the following month’s dinner club very shortly after the current month’s occurred so members can mark it on their calendars as soon as possible.  Everyone appreciates advance planning!
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5 – Diversity and Creativity: Dana and I wanted our dinner club to be a vehicle to merge our groups of friends.  Our club is composed of a diverse group of girls from a range of backgrounds - which keeps conversation interesting and meals unique.  We communicate about our meals prior to the dinner club so we can be sensitive to food allergies or aversions, as well as help to generate attendee interest in the meal.  Members of our dinner club have cooked Jamaican food, Indian, Columbian, Mexican (tacos and tortilla soup), Italian (lasagna and ziti parmesan), kosher for Passover, create-your-own-salad, handmade ravioli, organic dinners with food purchased from the DeKalb Farmer’s Market and we’ve grilled out (turkey burgers and hobo packs).
 
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All the members of our club look forward to our monthly meals.  We hope that these five steps will help you to form a successful dinner club of your own!

 
xx, L
 

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