How often you have come across a great article in a magazine and wanted to save it? Too often! I know a many of you have your own system. From cutting and pasting into a journal or putting them in clear plastic holders in a binder. Hey, whatever works right?

Me, I’m too lazy to cut them out so for the longest time the magazines have just piled up. Yet I must do something – quickly, before A&E’s Hoarder’s come knocking on my door but how? I don’t want to cut them and I don’t want to physically store the cutouts because let’s face it that’s just shifting or downsizing the problem a little bit. I still need to find storage for the binders etc and oh so important, computers have really spoiled me I can’t search them! Don’t know about you, but this momma isn’t growing younger. She’s doing good if she can remember what day of the week it is some weeks.

Enter Evernote – not sure if I’ve written about it here before but oh how I love this tool. You can clip literally EVERYTHING on the web, take photos, record an audio note, even drag PDF’s and scan stuff into notebooks. You can also create lists. Use it to store snippets of information from store or restaurant hours to ideas for blog posts to receipts to research notes for that fab and upcoming book you’re writing.

So… here’s the thing. You can take a picture of anything like a magazine on your phone and upload it directly to Evernote. Evernote will try to recognize the text in the picture which means it can search images too. Works with the stuff you scan as well. How sweet is that?

With all that being said, I started to scan a bunch of magazines. But it was soon obvious the normal method of scanning and adding the images to Evernote was too time consuming. That’s not going to work. There’s got to be an easier way and happy to say I found it! Thanks to the other smart users of Evernote as well. From their blog, I found you there is an ‘automatic add’ feature in Evernote (desktop). To lay it all out, this is what I did to make sure every magazine item I scan will automatically get picked up into Evernote.

1. I was fortunate that my scanner, a Brother Multifunction machine allows me to set up custom scanning profiles. This means, I can set a special folder to save the images to every time a scan is performed using that profile.
2. Once I had that done, I went into Evernote >> Tools >> Account Properties >> File Import tab



3. From here, I click Add, select the browser I want Evernote to import files from then click OK. I can then check the Subfolder box to ensure any images saved inside the sub-folder of that folder also gets imported. Finally, select the default notebook to save the image to.
4. That’s it! Now every time a scanned image is added into the folder, it will also be loaded into Evernote. My only wish is I could assign tags in addition to notebook for finer control but for now I won’t complain because it has eliminated a very big problem for me. You can also do the same thing for receipts, invoices, bills etc.

Oh and if you’re the type who prefers to outsource this stuff. You might want to check out Pixily or Shoeboxed. They will scan stuff directly into Evernote for you. Not sure if they do magazines though.

The ultimate dinner tool would be one who would plan and cook dinners for me Sadly, that’s not possible yet so I’ll settle for anything that makes dinner planning easier and saves money. I’ve not been a fan of online menu or recipe boxes. For some reason, they just haven’t stuck with me. Maybe because I don’t have a computer in the kitchen or dining area and I do not like the idea of putting a laptop in the kitchen where spills and messes are apt to happen. Besides, our kitchen is kinda cramped. I need as much counter space as I need already. No space for one.

So, when I found out about Dinner Tool, I wasn’t all that thrilled and ignored it for a while. Later, after checking it out, I realized it’s more of a menu planner than a recipe box. Now that I can get used to but what’s even more intriguing to me is, it finds printable coupons and links to them right in the recipe. Which means I can plan next week’s menu and save at the same time.

I already do this on my own to a certain extent. Having an automated method instead of manual matching is definitely a bonus. Oh and in case you’re wondering, Dinner tool is a free service.

So, maybe you are planning a family bash but how do you co-ordinate our schedules? Uncle Jim is not available third weekend of August, cousin Sara is away in Australia and won’t be home till next week and you have your own family activities.

Why don’t you try WhichWeekend? Enter your email address and event you are planning. It will create a page you can e-mail to everyone. They just add their name and select the dates they are available/not available. Very interesting and super simple. You won’t run into confusing instructions here.

I am seeing a trend of more and more moms joining Facebook. What started out a college kid’s handout has become a place for just about anyone. From business professionals to stay at home moms. What are we all there for? Well, connections of course. Facebook allows you to connect with friends old and new, in real life and online that you’ve never met “face to face”.

Facebook allows you to find all those people you hope to connect with all in one place and then to share your life or whatever part of it you feel comfortable. That’s right, Facebook allows you to “control” what you share with others. You can share as little or as much as you would like. It’s privacy controls are quite nice if you ask me. They allow me to make some new friends on Facebook without sharing too much. Then, they also allow me to keep in touch with friends and relatives near and far and share more with them such as photos of my kids.

So, if you’re a mom who hasn’t made the leap yet, what are you waiting for connect with some other moms, or some old friends today via Facebook.