I read about this cool new program last year, but I just rediscovered – and finally installed – this free tool to find missing photos on your laptop! And had a fun afternoon reliving memories!

Lostphotosapp.com is a free software program you can download to your pc or laptop, and search for all those treasured family and friend photos that have been lost in your email for YEARS!

And yes, Lost Photos  can then share your found photos on Facebook and Twitter!
Using Lost Photos is easy:

1. download the free app
2. enter your email address and password
3. Lost Photos will search your Inbox and Sent emails
4. watch as Lost Photo finds each photo
5. share, organize or save your photos
6. repeat for all your email addresses

Lost Photos works with dozens of email providers and promises it does not save or share your account information.

Lost Photos is a great tool for

• scrapbookers
• travelers
• family genealogists
• moms
• bloggers
• and anyone who likes to look at photos!

Lost Photos found literally hundreds of photos on my laptop… some I had no desire to ever see, then or now, and lots of images and GIF files that were attached to my emails. Lost Photos does offer some filters that can exclude some images, but I ran the whole lot out of curiosity. My stats:

91 minutes

over 14,000 emails (it deleted the running count to say finished)

947 photos

And I have 6 more email accounts…

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I was shopping on Lincoln Road Mall in South Beach yesterday, and wandered into one of my favorite little gift shops, the Pink Palm. I always find something there, but not yesterday. As I waited at the register for my friends to pay, a small plastic box caught my eye: EAR CAP Bling Cap.

What?

So I picked up the box: a little crystal ball dust protector that pops into the earbuds jack. What does it do? Absolutely NOTHING. Except look cute and blingy in my iPhone

Done and doner!

My white iPhone now has some gorgeous cobalt blue bling. $6.95 plus tax.

It makes me happy!

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Browsing at Walgreens, hidden in the Easter candy aisle, I came across Rabbit TV.

According to the packaging, for $9.99 I can purchase this USB stick smaller than a pack of gum and get 5,000 TV channels on my computer. I’ll happily spend $9.99 at Starbucks for a chai tea latte and a feta, spinach and egg wrap, but for 5000 channels wrapped in plastic? No way. So I snapped a photo and decided to go home and Google Rabbit TV.

According to their website, Rabbit TV gives you free access to over 5000 TV and 9000 radio internet stations. But then goes on to say Rabbit TV has an annual fee of $10/year: so not exactly Free (the word Free in large red letters is displayed prominently on the website).  The site also says channels include:

• ESPN
• HGTV
• Disney
• MTV
• Food Network
• Cartoon Network
• SciFi
• Discovery Channel
• National Geographic

Hmm… all those networks have websites where I can already watch full episodes of some of their TV shows, and I’ve been listening to internet radio since the 90s when we lived in Paris and AOL radio offered live radio channels… in English.

So I kept googling for user reviews. In summary, for a $10 USB stick purchase plus $10 annual feed Rabbit TV appears to consolidate already free online TV programs into a single site. Convenient, yes. Worth $20? No.

I’m heading to Starbucks for breakfast…

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I was making my morning smoothie, and when I grabbed a fresh mango from the fruit bowl, it looked sort of yellow: whoops, it’s a papaya, not a mango. I love fresh papaya, but I’ve never bought a papaya… until now. It was shaped like a mango, so I decided to used my mango cutter to cut open the papaya, and was surprised to see so many little black seeds!

I was ready to throw the seeds away, but suddenly I thought of kiwis: we don’t throw kiwi seeds away, we eat them as part of the fruit. So I googled: “can you eat papaya seeds?”

Basically, after reading 5 different sites, I discovered that yes, papaya seeds are edible:

• papaya seeds have a peppery taste, and are often substituted for black pepper
• many cultures used papayas seeds as a natural contraceptive and to kill internal parasites
• papaya seeds are considered a health food, and are a treatment for liver cirrhosis, salmonella and staph infections, and digestive ailments

So, instead of sending them down the disposal, I added about 1/3 of the papaya seeds (the sites caution against using too much) to my smoothie, and blended:

• the color wasn’t appealing: in addition to little black flecks the smoothie took on a grayish tone
• the flavor was too peppery: I had to add a little honey and lime to finish the smoothie

Next time? The seeds go down the disposal, I don’t like a peppery taste to my morning fruit smoothie.

moi tip:

I will be using that mango slicer to cut open my papaya again: most of the seeds did stay in the center, and it halved my papaya very evenly.

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I don’t even understand what it does, but lately I’m obsessed with the Belkin WeMo. I see it on TV, I read about in online, and now its coming up in conversations.

Apparently the Belkin WeMo easily converts your home to a smart house: it let’s me automate and control my electronics from anywhere. ANYWHERE. I have never left the iron on ( in fact, I no longer iron). But, with the Belkin WeMo if I thought I forgot to switch off my iron, I could use the WeMo to shut it off. From the airport. Or a car. Or Europe: anywhere I can get a signal for my iPhone or iPad. You simply plug the Belkin WeMo into an outlet, download the free app to your smart phone, and you’re ready to automate.

So you see why I’ve become obsessed: the possibilities for problem solving are endless. My problem: I can’t think of any ways I’d actually use it.

So I went to the Belkin WeMo website and they understand my dilemna. They came up with a video that gives me lots of practical ideas on how to use the WeMo:

• if Mignette jumps up on the bed, I can use WeMo (and a camera) to tell her to get down. Of course, Mignette can jump on the bed anytime she wants. It’s Mignette’s house.
• I can turn on a light from across the room. Of course, I didn’t buy The Clapper and that would have let me turn on a light from across the room.
• WeMo can interact with social media and send me a text when someone opens my front door. No one ever opens my front door except me or my husband, so still not convinced.
• WeMo can turn my iPhone into a baby monitor. Except there are no babies at my house.

So you understand my dilemna: I’m obsessed with cool gadgets, I’m obsessed with my iPhone, and I’m obsessed with cool gadgets for my iPhone.

I really want a WeMo, I just can’t figure out how it would change my life… can you?

The Belkin WeMo is available at Best Buy, Apple, and Amazon for less than $100.

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My favorite crêpe restaurant in Delray Beach has sadly closed, so looks like I’ll be making crêpes to celebrate Chandeleur at home. Thanks to Pinterest, I found a new crêpe recipe to try by delia creates:

Lemon Strawberry Crêpe Cake

February 2 is the French holiday La Chandeleur, a Catholic feast honoring the Virgin Mary. Tradition says that the Pope offered crêpes to pilgrims who came to honor Mary. And the French have been eating them ever since.

Crêpes are a very large thin pancake with all types of fillings and rolled (like a sausage) or folded (like a blini) or stacked (like a cake) for serving. Crêpes are a popular dish through out France. Sweet crêpes (crêpes sucrées) made with wheat flour are filled with fruits, preserves, or moi favorite nutella, and are served as a dessert or snack (not typically breakfast); and savory crêpes (crêpes salées ) are made with buckwheat and filled with vegetables, cheese, meats, seafood or eggs: sort of pizza-style!

But this year, I’ll be making a breakfast crêpe cake with lemon cream cheese filling between the layers, and garnished with fresh Florida strawberries. And if I’m super lazy, I may just buy a package of ready-made crêpes at Whole Foods, and just assemble!

Voila! Bon Appetit!

 moi tip:

Lemon strawberry crêpe cake would make a great breakfast or dessert for Valentines Day! If you need more crepe tips and info on buying ready-made crepes, I talked about that last year.

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Always on the look-out for anything and everything French, we tried out a French spot in Boca Raton, Bakery of France.

croissant aux amandes: superb
Croque-Monsieur: delicious
Salade au chèvre chaud: perfection

Hard to find in a hidden strip mall, Bakery of France is worth the effort. A small interior cafe, we ate outside on the patio, sheltered by plants and a brick surround that minimized nearby traffic.

But the highlight of our visit: nutella cappuccino.

As a well-documented nutella-holic, why haven’t I made this at home? We make cappuccinos at home nearly every day, and there’s usually a jar of nutella in the cabinet ready for toast or crepes or pretzels sticks. National Nutella Day is Feb 5. Have a nutella cappuccino to celebrate!

Nutella Cappuccino Recipe

1 cappuccino
1 spoonful of nutella

Twirl, and serve!

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Every day is hot tea day chez moi: I start every morning with a chai tea latte, made with Tazo chai tea concentrate and skim milk. I often have a 2nd chai tea latte at Starbucks: tall, extra hot, extra shot, extra water with a straw, or iced.

For my at home morning chai I shop around for the best price on the Tazo chai tea concentrate. Sometimes I buy it at my Starbucks store, but at $5 per carton its not a good price. Luckily, I can also buy Tazo chai concentrate:

• at Target, usually $3.75 per carton. Target has good sales, and I can sometimes buy it for $3 per carton.
• at Costco, usually 3 cartons for $7.50 – but they’re frequently out of stock, and my local Chicago store doesn’t stock it so I have to go to the burbs. Luckily, my SoFlo Costco does stock it.
• at Whole Foods, usually $5 per carton. Again, not a good price but convenient if I’m already there.

WalMart sells Tazo chai concentrate in bulk online, but doesn’t stock it in the store. But I keep asking. Amazon also sells Tazo chai concentrate. Delivery has benefits…

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There was a clear trend for our Christmas holidays this year: Pinterest.

I introduced niece Rachel to Pinterest this Fall, and showed her all the cool stuff you can find pinned there, like this glittered Starbucks cup. Score: Rachel made me a blinged-out Starbucks cup for Christmas!

• Christmas Eve sister inlaw Lizzie served a new spaghetti casserole recipe she found on Pinterest.

• My daughter Angela wanted to know how I knew she wanted an Øster blender: she’d pinned it!

• Best friend Stacey made wine cork Christmas trees: from a browse on Pinterest.

• I tried a new spinach and Parmesan appetizer I saw on Pinterest.

• Another sister inlaw was wearing a scarf from a pattern on Pinterest.

• I was asked several times in December for my hot spiced wine recipe: it’s pinned on my She’s Shopping Now board!

I follow boards of some of my favorite stores and online sale sites to quickly find deals and ideas for gifts and promotions.

Even though I spend my work day entrenched in the world of social media, I’m surprised how quickly Pinterest – and pinning – have become everyday verbs for enthusiasts of all ages. Pinning is easy to understand, and has become a daily practice for everyone from students to business people to crafters to teachers to designers to politicians to sports fans: in short, just about everyone!

Now I need to figure out how to pin from all the digital magazines I subscribe to with my iPad!

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Every year right after Thanksgiving I tape the 2 hour Rick Steves’ European Christmas on PBS Channel 11 in Chicago.

Throughout the holidays when I’m working, baking, cleaning or involved with other activities that don’t involved actually watching TV, I like to play and replay the show on my TV.

With Rick, I celebrate Christmas in

• Paris and Burgundy, France
• Oslo, Norway
• Bath, England
• Rome, Italy
• Austria
• Switzerland
• German cities of Nürnberg, Salzburg, and Obendorf

I’ve visited all these cities during the Christmas holidays, and I enjoy revisiting these souvenirs of my earlier travels.

Of course I could just buy the DVD: but I prefer to DVR it during Channel 11′s Winter Pledge Drive, so I can support public television while enjoying one of my annual holiday traditions. Its an easy way to remind me to give, and what’s wrong with enjoying while I’m giving!

Rick Steves’ European Christmas: it makes me happy!

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