First Friday Giveaway! Win a Canvas Print from Easy Canvas Prints

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

Not too many months ago, my office was my home, and my absolute favorite thing to do all day was to stare out the window at the rooftops. Not particularly good for productivity. It was such a relief to move out and into our office space (part one, two), but I was sure going to miss those rooftops.

To commemorate that view, I ordered a canvas print of a photograph from Easy Canvas Prints.

I have to say it’s awesome. Super easy to order, and the color is vibrant. I chose to have the photo stretched on the sides of the canvas and it looks great.

Did we mention that Father's Day is coming up? It would be a great gift for a dad with a sentimental nature. One time I gave my dad some magnets of some photos that I had taken over the years that I thought he'd like. He gave them back a few years later.

Easy Canvas Prints is so awesome, they offered to let me give away a free 8×10″ print!

Enter Now with blog code: JENNIFER2012.  Please note that you need to live in the US, and they don’t ship free prints to Hawaii or Alaska so if you live there you’re out of luck. Poop.

We’ll accept entries until 5pm next Friday, June 6th.  I get to pick the winner!  I’m going to draw a name out of a hat!  I might even put a rabbit in there too mix things up. Continue Reading

Stuff We Love: Guest Posts & SignNow.com

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

Today is a red letter day here at JenniferHeller.com.  We have our first GUEST POST!!!

Our guest post today is courtesy of Heather G. who supplied the following avatar:

Is that a cat playing guitar?  A gopher?  A chipmunk?  Whatever it is, it’s shiny and cute and lovable, just like I know Heather G. is in person (since we’re, you know, friends in real life).

And without further ado, here’s our guest post:

Stuff Heather G. Loves: SignNow.com

Since I have a job that gives me mediocre health insurance, I have made every sort of appointment possible. I’ve had moles removed, my sensitive areas swabbed, eyes checked, teeth cleaned and prescriptions filled. One of the most annoying parts of being a “new patient” is that the paperwork is freaking endless. In the spirit of time management, many of these offices provide New Patient Forms on their websites so I can leisurely tell them when my last menstrual period was or if I allergic to any medications and bring the forms with me on my first visit. It’s a lot of paperwork and once I hand it over to Beth at the front desk, I forget about it and move on with my life. Then I discovered SignNow.com—the website that makes signing documents ridiculously simple and even stores them for me, FOR FREE!. Here’s how it works:

  1. Upload any document
  2. Go to www.signnow.com
  3. Enter your signature (you can draw it or type it—it’s all binding and 100% legal thanks to the e-sign act of 2000. You can even upload your pen and ink signature and keep it there.)

They ask for no registration, no account, nada. Just upload and sign. And get this—when you are done (It takes about 15 seconds), they email you a copy of your document in pdf and you can choose to download it. Organizational and environmental me is in love.  Just think about the possibilities for freelancers, renters, petitions, oh I could go on and on. I love a good product and this one is sweet.

P.S. I can’t wait to tell you about my $58 hair conditioner. Worth every penny.

Thanks Heather G! That sounds like one hell of a time / headache / paper saver.

What do you love?  Tell me about it!  Send guest posts / rants / raves/ questions to fanmail@jenniferheller.com.  Or bitch@jenniferheller.com… whatever mood you’re in is okay by me. Continue Reading

I Love Boomerang for Gmail

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

I’m a Gmail addict.  Google Apps too.

We rely on Google Apps over at Artsy Geek — it’s fantastic for collaborating, chatting and — best of all — searching. I cannot imagine having to search for something in Outlook with the sheer number of emails that go through our inboxes every day.

A few weeks ago my great friend Becca introduced us to Boomerang for Gmail. You know how good a scoop of vanilla ice cream is when topped with hot fudge?? It’s pretty good without it, but AWESOME with it.

Boomerang is hot fudge for Gmail.

Instead of the piles and piles of starred images making my priority inbox utterly inbox, I can schedule them to pop back up in my inbox at a later date. Whether it’s four hours later, three days later or Monday morning at 9am, that image will be back in my inbox when I want to deal with it. Or want to force myself to deal with it.

Boomerang for GmailIt’s really handy when you work with people who don’t always deliver when they say they’re going to.* “I’ll have it for you on Tuesday,” they’ll say. “Yeah right!” I think. And then I schedule the message to pop back up on Tuesday evening so I can send a reminder email. And I can specify that there’s no need to pop up if someone responds (in case they actually do come through!). BRILLIANT.

I’ve been pretty stoked on it. Today I had an unpleasant surprise though. It turns out that it’s a premium service!! They lured me in, got me hooked, and now want to charge me a monthly fee for it!!

Suddenly the hot fudge seems more like crack cocaine.

I wandered around my house hmm-ing and huh-ing over this when I plunked down my credit card and subscribed. It’s a deduction, for one. And it’s one hell of a brain space saver. People should get paid for what they do well, and those folks over at Boomerang are rocking my world. Thanks guys!

Try Boomerang for Your Gmail. You’re going to love it!**

Post image courtesy of cookingfoodie.blogspot.com
*I know, I know. Don’t deal with people who don’t deliver when they say they’re going to. I’m working on it.
**Full disclosure: If you click that link and sign up I get entered into some sort of wheely spin contest.  Wheeeeee!! Continue Reading

$5 Lego Stop Motion

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

Our new roommate (we found one! and he’s awesome) alerted me to what has to be the BEST WEBSITE EVER, fiverr.com.

At fiverr.com you can pay a mere $5 and get all sorts of amazing stuff…a British young lady will videotape herself shouting your message in a banana suit, an aging hippie will sing your message and play the accordion, a terrifying dude in a green suit will dance with your message on his chest.  That last one is pretty weird.  I don’t recommend that.

And they do stuff beyond making awesome videos.  I even saw someone who will design two logos for your company for $5.  That’s just plain ridiculous.

The first $5 I plunked down was for this video as a present for my father, the Great Arno.

LOVE IT!  What an affordable gift that he’ll treasure forever!  Or for the day.  But it’s the thought that counts, right?

WTF Crate and Barrel? Sweater vases?

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

This has to be the best product I’ve seen in a long time.  Vases that look like they were cable knit.  Finally, a vase that captures the holiday spirit!

I can just picture my sweetie bringing me some flowers in the depths of winter.  Though they are speckled with snow, the flowers glow with warmth wrapped in this ceramic sweater vase!

Wait, something’s missing here.

 

Now that’s a complete outfit.

WTF?? A Pop Up Greeting Cards Collectors’ Club?

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

My mom got my dad one of those pop up greeting cards for his birthday today.

Now you remember these cards right?  They’re thick and square, and you open them up and a whole world pops up.  It’s like a pop up children’s book only it’s a greeting card.  Obviously.

The one my mom got for my dad featured a 3-dimensional grill and the title “Happy Birthday Grillmaster”.  My dad was reasonably impressed which is a pretty good reaction from my dad.

The card came with an awesome ad for their Collectors’ Club.

I remember being very enamored with these cards as a kid and I’m sure I wasn’t alone.  But would I really want to collect them all?

Up With Paper (really? you named your company that??) certainly thinks I would.  They offer a monthly club where for only $22.00 a month plus $4.00 shipping and handling a month — wait…what does that make it…um…hold on a second…okay got it — so for only $26 a month — I can be delivered four (4!!!) different pop-up greeting cards each month!

Oh my god.  My life is complete!

But wait, there’s more.

Card designs range from traditional to funky, including all types of art, characters and s ending occasions.

Oh thank goodness, finally there is a way for me to celebrate all of those “s ending occasions”! Of which I can’t think of a single one.*

And finally I can fill those shelves that have been sitting vacant and gathering dust waiting for the collection of a lifetime.

For those of you who would like to join this club and are offended by my heavily sarcastic tone, I’m sure you can do so at the Up With Paper website. Oh no, I just checked their website and you can’t. It seems that this idea only warranted a paper ad. Well, that’s the first good judgment I’ve noticed from them.

*Omg. I was just rereading this post for the THIRD time before publishing it and I realized that’s a typo. It’s supposed to be “sending occasions.” Now who’s the fool? Me for taking so long to realize that? Or them for having such a perplexing typo and club to begin with? I need your help. Weigh in in the comments.

Best Copy Ever

Posted on by Jennifer Heller

Weeks ago I mentioned how much I love the selection of office supplies over at Poppin.com and about how I was going to buy myself a new tape dispenser.  Well, I finally broke down and decided to get one today, and as I was perusing their other products to make sure I didn’t miss anything awesome, I stumbled on this fantastic copy.

Black Retro Ballpoint Pens

Perfect for writing on paper at your desk.

What more is there to say?

Get yours here.