I am going to let you all in on a little secret that I am doing to do for Christmas this year. See the picture on the left? Those are stamps. I made them over at PictureItPostage and will be affixing them to all my Christmas cards this year. Tell me that isn’t the cutest thing you have ever seen?  There are just so many uses for these stamps.  You can do what I did and put them on Christmas cards.  However, I can see them being used for baby announcements, engagements, holidays and graduations.  You can’t make an invitation more customized and personal than this.  Plus, you don’t see stamps like this too often.  That makes it unique, and people will love it!  You will be the talk of everyone you send these too!

How hard is it to make these?  It is not hard at all.  PictureItPostage allows you to either create these stamps on their site or you can download a program, and you can create them on your desktop.  You can customize the background color and what color the text is on them too!  It literally took me about 10 minute to completely put this together.  Shipping took no time at all.  I am 100% satisfied with this company and would highly recommend you use them also.

Also, they are having a “Get Real” Photo contest that starts October 31st. They want to see the best of the worst when it comes to photos.  They want you to send them your worst pictures that you really don’t want to see the light of day. How do you enter?  On October 31, head over to PictureItPostage and upload your photo. Beginning November 21, all visitors to the “Get Real” contest website will have a chance to vote for their favorite photos.  The winners will be announced December 8.  What can you win?  They are giving away two Canon Digital SLR Camera and five PictureItPostage coupon codes good for 100 customized photo stamps. The ten first prize winners will each receive one PictureItPostage coupon code good for one pack of customized postage stamps.  We all have horrible pictures — now have them work for you!

Make sure you check out PictureItPostage!

Are you needing a really good spot remover for your house?  If so, you have to check out Spot Shot.  There are several reasons why I absolutely love this stuff.  First, it is non-toxic.  It safe for your children to be around (granted, they can’t be drinking it or anything).  As long as you use it as directed, it is safe for both kids and pets.  It is biodegradable and environmentally friendly also.  This product was not tested on animals.  It is safe for most carpets and rugs too (though it is not recommended for wool carpeting).  Spot Shot also is an instant carpet odor eliminator also.  It neutralizes odors and leaves a clean scent behind in its place.

Now, I could take a piece of carpet, dump some stuff on it (like chocolate and such) and show you how well this product works on that.  However, everybody does that.  Plus, most stains can be removed if you deal with them right away.  Instead, I decided to first try this product on my basement stairs.  This is white carpet.  This is also exactly how it looked when we moved in, so I have no idea at all what this stain actually is.  However, I do know that I have tried other cleaners on it to no avail.

Spot Shot is quite easy to use.  You spray the area and then blot or rub gently with a damp cloth.  Seriously, it does not get any easier than this!  For me, the results were amazing.  It took out the stains even better than I expected.  As you can see from the photo on the left, the stains are gone, and my basement smells nice too.  If you have any stubborn stains in your carpet, you have to try this stuff!

I know you all have been waiting for this (I know, it has been like waiting for all your blackheads to go away when we were like teenagers.  Never thought it would happen, yet it did)!  I finally have a winner chosen for this awesome giveaway Sony allowed me to do.  I have to thank all people who entered!  This has been one of my best giveaways I have ever done.  I do apologize that it has taken me about an hour to tally all the extra entries that you all did.  So — without further ado, the winner is:

#34 is Julie from Julie’s Journal!  I will be contacting her shortly!

Yes, you heard it right.  I am completely jealous of all of you, since I only got one of these to borrow!  The Sony Digital Photo Frame is worth about $249.99, so this is a giveaway you want enter!

Let me tell you a little bit about this frame.  It is a 9-inch digital photo frame with 800×480 resolution and 15:9 aspect ratio LCD screen.  It has 512MB of internal memory with optional image resizing to maximize the internal memory.  It also includes HDMI output for viewing photos in high definition on an HDTV.  You are able to auto correct images with features such as red-eye correction.  It also offers nine slide show styles and clock and calendar modes.  Now, I know that all sounds difficult to figure out what to do.  However, I was able to do this all without reading the manual!  This digital picture frame is even BlueTooth ready!  You can also run the pictures off several different kinds of memory cards:  Memory Stick media and Memory Stick PRO Duo media, SD, MMC, CF, Microdrive, and xD Picture cards. I seriously could not believe how crisp these pictures are.  I am seriously sad that I have to venture over to Fed Ex on Monday and send mine back.

Now, I know you don’t want to read about how much fun we had playing testing this out for you, my readers, so . . . . what do you have to do to get one of these in your house?

1.  Leave a comment on this post.  Check out Sony’s site and tell me what feature you think you would like best on this frame.  One comment please and let me know everything you did on that comment.  If you don’t list a feature, you are not eligible to win.
2. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
3. Vote for this post on other social media sites. One extra entry for each social media site you vote for this on.  (I’ll be adding some links to make this especially easy for you to vote — Digg, Propeller, Mixx, Kirtsy, Entreview, Reddit, Blogging Zoom)
4.  Twitter about this contest.  Please leave me your Twitter name in your comment.

For 5 additional entries,

1.  Blog about this on your blog.  Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2.  Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3.  Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed

This contest will run from now till August 24th at 8 PM CST.  It is for US residents only.  Good luck!

This Sony DSLR camera is my first “real” camera. This is definitely not a point and shoot camera. However, this another camera that you don’t need to read the book to figure out how to use it.  You also don’t have to contact a few mortgage lenders to be able to afford it either!  You will find that the majority of my pictures on Lisa Cooking are done with this camera.  My inlaws also took it to Hawaii with them on their vacation.

Some of the highlights of this camera include 10.2-megapixel Super HAD CCD which gives you clear, sharp photos, Live Preview of your subject, Tiltable 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD Plus screen, Continuous shooting while viewing, Smart teleconverter 2x zoom, Expanded ISO sensitivity, Super SteadyShot in-camera image stabilization, Bionz image processor, 1200-zone evaluative metering, Dynamic Range Optimizer, Anti-Dust technology, Auto Pop-up flash, Eye-Start autofocus system, 9-point center cross AF sensor, Scene Selection modes: Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sports, Sunset and Night Portrait/Night View situations, Creative Style Settings including Standard, Vivid, Portrait, Landscape, Night View, Sunset, B&W and Adobe RGB modes, Index and Slide Show Display, High-resolution thumbnails for PhotoTV HD viewing, Function Guide Display On-screen menus are intuitive and easy to use, Stamina Battery Power, and High-capacity media options.

In plain English, you’ll take some of the best pictures of your life with this DSLR camera.  The picture to the left here was taken the same day I got the camera.  If I could figure out how to use the DSLR in one day, anybody can use this camera!