My Favorite Things

Several times today, I have found myself thinking about products that I absolutely love. Some of them are just personal favorites and others are things that I just can't imagine how anyone could live without them. So, in an attempt to post something not entirely kid or photography related (they'll still sneak in) I thought I'd post about some of my favorite things. Here they go, in no particular order:

1) Tropicana Orange Juice. There is just no substitute. In my attempts to save money I've tried everything from the store brand all the way up. Nothing is the same. Florida Natural comes in second, but it's really not all that close. Simply Orange is pretty good too, but not the same. I love my Tropicana. No pulp, though. The orange or blue containers.

2) OxiClean in all of it's various forms. The best, though is OxiClean Laundry Stain Remover Spray. That stuff works wonders. Grape juice, blood, it gets it all. I don't know what I did before I discovered it. Yes I do. I had lots of clothes with stains and so did Rory.

3) Laminate floors. Maybe I wouldn't love them so much if I didn't have kids or a dog, but seriously, laminate makes my life easier--on a daily basis.

4) My DVR. I'm not really sure how I watched TV before. Did I?

5) Noiseware. Yes, this is a photography thing, BUT it's something that ANYONE can use on their pictures. Everyone has taken pictures that are grainy b/c it was too dark--you love the picture, but the grainy-ness sucks. This stuff fixes that. And it's super easy to use. Seriously, you open your picture, click twice, then save. Oh, and it's FREE. This is a 100% crop (really freakin' zoomed in) of a pic I took that was really noisy (grainy). I'll spare you the details as to why it was noisy, but lets just say it is the one thing that I can't stand about my camera.

Here's the before (sorry it's dark - it's straight out of the camera):

Two clicks, then the after:

LOVE IT! Here's the link in case you are interested. http://noiseware-community-edition.en.softonic.com/ It really is worth the download, even if you just take pictures for fun.

**Edit: DIRECTIONS: (Because apparently saying click twice was misleading, I suppose I should have said WHERE to click...) Click on the drop down menu next to the word DEFAULT and pick one of the choices that best describes your picture. If it's really noisy, click full suppression. Once you've made your choice, click GO. And it's done. Save it if you like it. **

6) http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/ So many freebies. Such good stuff.

7) Rainbow flip-flops. Boo cold weather. I miss my rainbows.

That's all for this installment. I'm sure I'll think of more, but these are just the ones that struck me today. What are your favorite things?