Scrapbook Saturday #13 – my QP! ;) [plus Windows Live Hotmail news]

Having been at home all day, I had all the time to scrap a brand new layout – but I didn’t. I’ve completely forgotten about Scrapbook Saturday – and I find that ironic really. In previous weeks, mainly the ones where I couldn’t find time to squeeze in a layout or two, SS would be foremost in my mind when Friday night rolls in. Now – it just completely escaped me.

Perhaps it was the fact that I’ve been sneezing all day. Or that my nose is completely red from all the pinching and rubbing and wiping it has endured in the past 15 hours or so. Maybe even the annoying feeling I’ve got just above my throat. Whatever it is that’s caused this slight memory gap – I hate it!

So I am cheating with my 13th SS post. I’d love to direct you to my 200th post for the download link to the QuickPage freebie that I’ve posted to celebrate my blog’s milestone. 😉 I hope you find use for it!

I’ve got WL Hotmail news after the jump 😉

Windows Live Hotmail

If you are a Hotmail/MSN subscriber and check your mail through your web browser, then you are probably familiar with this page:

This week, the much anticipated (at least I did) update to Windows Live Hotmail have been rolled out to thousands of Hotmail/MSN/Live.com email users. You can’t imagine how much of my time is spent looking at a WL Hotmail window – checking my four very active Inboxes (plus three others that I check maybe once a week). Windows Live Mail was in Beta testing for I don’t know how long, but I know that I opted in to the new look from back in late 2004 or 2005. 

There were times when Windows Live would load longer than Classic Hotmail, but time has seen tremendous improvements to that. I just love the look and feel of Windows Live! To be honest, I can’t recall how the old Hotmail looks like – just that it was blue and had no preview pane.

I have been using Google Chrome since a week or two of it’s release but found that my WLH was not compatible with it – not anymore! With the live release, it seems that the compatibility issue has also been fixed (okay, I am not sure if all works without any hitches, but at least it looks like it already does).

So the latest version improved upon the previous one – it is even brighter than before, haha, with a predominantly white background. It matches Window Live Messenger 9 BETA a lot too (I changed the scene here to match the one on my Live Mail just to show you, haha):

 

Though you can’t use your own photos for the scene on WLHotmail like you can on Messenger, you do have a few themes to choose from:

And then of course you can choose to have the Preview pane to the right of the email list, or below it, or turn it off even. I prefer the Right one the way I have setup Outlook in the office.

Anyway, so how do you find the new Windows Live Hotmail? For more news, you can check out the Windows Live Wire blog.

 

Christmas Shopping

Have you started? I haven’t. I only know what I want for myself, haha 🙂

Seriously, I haven’t even made this year’s list. With my move to a totally new team, I don’t know who I’d want to spread Christmas cheer to. 

Alfred wants to start holiday shopping next weekend. I usually love doing that, but I’m just not sure about this time. Weird.

Oh, but there’s a contest that gives shopaholics a way to earn shopping money! If you have a shopping secret that you’re dying to come clean about – well, here’s a great opportunity to do so. This video will explain it all:

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If you do enter the contest, please enter me, http://verabear.net, as the referrer (if there’s a way to do so) so I can have a chance to win too. Lol! 😉 

So what are you waiting for? Upload your shopping confessions and enter to win!

Okay, this has made me a little excited about holiday shopping after all! 😉