NASA’s Spectacular Video looking at the Earth   Set to "Walking in the Air" by Howard Blake, the video pieces together and speeds up some of NASA's most gorgeous time-lapse photography from the International Space Station as shot by the Expedition 30 crew.   Watch as the ISS passes over the Aurora Borealis above Hudson Bay, lightning storms in Africa, a comet's glowing tail and city lights shining from a dark Earth.   04/24/2012

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is located in Ithaca, New York. 80 feet above Cornell University’s athletic field, is a Red-Tailed Hawks nest. The university installed a live feed in 2012 to get a close-up view of this couple. Big Red, age 9, is the female and Ezra, age 7, is the male. Big Red laid 3 eggs in March 2012; an incubation period of 28-32 days. The 1st one hatched on April 23, 2012 at 1:53 p.m EST. Today the 2nd one is almost fully hatched and there is a pip coming from the 3rd egg. Big Red does leave the nest once in a while but Ezra typically brings her prey such as voles, squirrels, sparrows, and pigeons every couple of hours so she can feed herself and the hatchlings. Go to this wonderful site, the Red-Tailed Hawk live cam and view the nest of this majestic pair. Also ther... 04/24/2012

  Don’t Even Think About Stopping Here   I had been working on real estate matters for several days straight so I did not get home in time to fill the bird feeders. Finally Saturday morning I filled them up and this Finch was so funny as he sat on one of the feeders for the longest time and would not let any other bird land on it.   His expression was priceless….Back off!   These pictures were taken in Loma Linda, CA by Kristin Hamilton.   If you are looking for a professional agent, I am just a click away. Google me at Kristin Hamilton-Real Estate Agent. Homeowners and Buyers both will find my services top notch and successful. Call me to sell your home. I am waiting for your call!     04/24/2012

  This weekend I spent my days observing Earth Day 2012. First I went to Lowe's Home Improvement Center and bought an Apricot Tree, Cement Building Blocks and some flowers.   Went home and started my project. Here are some pictures of it.   This is the area where I added the planter and tree. Here is the finished planter with blocks, tree, and flowers. I think it came out pretty nice and it balanced off the side yard. I did this for $60 total. I got a 10% coupon off Lowe's Realtor Benefits too. Added some new flowers to the current planter to freshen it up. Planted a few more new plants to brighten up the yard. Later I cleaned out my closets and took some items to the Good Will for donation.   Went to the recycler near my house and dropped off cans, bottles, and glass.   Dropped off pai... 04/23/2012

  Look who is under my Trees!   Do you like Garden Gnomes? I have two in my backyard and I think they are so cute. Gnomes have been around for a long time. Gnomes first seem to appear in the 16th century and the  Greek definition means “Earth Dweller”.   Here is the one I bought last spring. He spends his days under my plum tree and surrounded by flowers.   This little guy is only about 3 inches tall and he stands below my Saga Palm. Of course he is hard to see, but he is always there watching over the palm.   This is Earth Day 2012 weekend so make sure you are recycling, planting, donating to an environmental cause, picking up trash in the community or thinking of ways to go “Green”. Just do something to help make our world a better place.   These pictures were taken in Redlands, CA by... 04/22/2012

HOW TO SELL YOUR HOUSE IN REDLANDS CALIFORNIA – REDLANDS CA REALTORS   Q: What goes into a successful home or property sale in Redlands, California? A home sale can be simple, difficult or unsuccessful depending on the property, seller or agent. Careful consideration must be given when venturing into the competitive Redlands CA real estate market. A successful sale consists of a compelling listing, effective exposure and competent negotiations and completion. When a Redlands home is listed, it should first be analyzed and objectively compared to recent comparable sales and other competitive listings in the area, also known as a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis). Then the seller, under the advice of their savvy Realtor, should carefully digest and consider the CMA. Every detail must be e... 04/20/2012

Redlands California Short Sale Real Estate Agents - Redlands CA Short Sale REALTORS - Redlands Short Sale --------------- Call Us Now: 1 (888) 9-LIST-IT --------------- Many homeowners in Redlands California are having trouble paying their mortgage every month. Many houses and homes are worth considerably less than the mortgage owed. Some homes are worth less than half of the mortgaged amount! You may be behind in your house payment, or maybe not yet, but don't let your house foreclose! A more prudent solution is to short sale that Redlands CA house. But first you need to hire the #1 Redlands Short Sale Agents to help you with your difficult situation, and we offer our real estate services to you for free! We make our commission from the bank's proceeds. We are experienced Redlands shor... 04/14/2012

My 3 Biggest Upsets in the MLS that Make Agents Look Unprofessional   Typos are my #1 upset: My absolute number one upset is searching listings in the MLS and seeing misspelled words. I am a member of CRMLS and we have a spell check but I remember when we did not. I used to copy it onto Word and do my own “Spell Check” to make sure I had no horrible typos.    Just now, I did a random search in the MLS and went through 30 listings and came up with 9 misspelled words in the “Description” section. Everyone eventually sees it since the MLS listings are driven to hundreds of other web sites. I have listed some examples I found below. Almost one third of the listings I went through had typos!   ·       HOUSE INCLUDES LARGE INCLOSED SCREENED IN PATIO   ·       Nice for students or fist time h... 04/12/2012

  Cotton Balls or Cotton Candy?   This morning in Redlands, CA, we had a quick storm and then it cleared up about as fast as it came in.   The clouds were so fluffy and I couldn’t decide if they looked like cotton balls or cotton candy?   While driving I was doing the ink blot test. I was seeing shapes in the clouds; there’s a duck, big crescent moon and there’s a big scoop of ice cream.   For fear of hitting something, I stopped watching the clouds. But I did pull over three times within a few hours and took pictures.    So what do you think? Cotton Balls or Cotton Candy? This is my favorite with the sun shining from the back. Looks like a map. Oops, not supposed to be looking while driving.   These pictures were taken in Redlands, CA by Kristin Hamilton.   If you are looking for a pro... 04/11/2012

Redlands Dog Park is a Fun Place to Play! This project took 11 years but  this spectacular dog park opened in June of 2011 and I am sure the City of Redlands will benefit from this new park.  Hundreds of proud dog owners brought their pets to the grand opening. Since then, I have taken my dogs there many times and it is all full of dogs and their owners having fun. The park is located on the Northwest corner of Ford Park (Redlands Blvd. and Ford Street, Exit Interstate 10 and go South)  City of Redlands Parks.    Bring your dogs to this park and enjoy spending time with man’s best friend!   These pictures were taken in Redlands CA by Kristin Hamilton.   If you are looking for a professional agent, I am just a click away. Google me at Kristin Hamilton-Real Estate. Homeowners and Buyers b... 04/10/2012

 ©Send a Care Package to Someone Special©   Do you know someone who is away from you? Is your family member away at school or in the military? Someone in your community away for a sabbatical? If your answer is yes, then maybe it would be nice to send a care package.   My daughter is on the East Coast going to school so I try to send her a package once a month. I just put a few goodies in the box and send it to her. She is always surprised and happy. We all like to get mail and packages so what a thrill to get something tasty, sundries, or even a pair of socks.   Yesterday morning, I went to my daughter’s favorite local bakery called Martha Green’s Eatery. Some of you might remember I did a localism post last week as this is a fantastic café and bakery. Yum Yum; Lemon, Orange, Strawberry... 04/06/2012

Redlands California Short Sale Real Estate Agents - Redlands CA Short Sale REALTORS - Redlands Short Sale --------------- Call Us Now: 1 (888) 9-LIST-IT --------------- Many homeowners in Redlands California are having trouble paying their mortgage every month. Many houses and homes are worth considerably less than the mortgage owed. Some homes are worth less than half of the mortgaged amount! You may be behind in your house payment, or maybe not yet, but don't let your house foreclose! A more prudent solution is to short sale that Redlands CA house. But first you need to hire the #1 Redlands Short Sale Agents to help you with your difficult situation, and we offer our real estate services to you for free! We make our commission from the bank's proceeds. We are experienced Redlands shor... 04/05/2012

  Look Who’s Swimming in the Pond? The city of Redlands, CA is a lovely city and is very progressive. There is a lot of building going on in the North end near the mall and many of the groves have been plowed for development. Recently we have had a lot of rain and much to my surprise, a new pond has appeared off to the edge of the road near an old citrus grove. Here I found two adorable ducks and they were so nice to stop and let me take their picture. These pictures were taken in Redlands, CA by Kristin Hamilton. All pictures are copyrighted ©.   If you are looking for a professional agent, I am just a click away. Google me at Kristin Hamilton-Real Estate. Homeowners and Buyers both will find my services top notch and successful. 04/03/2012

  2 Good Editing Sites and they are FREE. As most of you know, PICNIK is closing on April 19th so we have to find an alternative. If you are still looking for a fairly simple and free site, I have found a couple.   I have begun using iPiccy and it is a good substitute. It does not include all the stickers and is limited on the framing choices but still it is quite efficient.   1.     iPiccy   2.     Photofunia   Here is a copy of my screen print while I am editing my photo in iPiccy.                 Here is the finished photo and I must admit there are many finishing effects to play with. The site is looks pretty good.   My second choice is Photofunia. I took the same picture and did a couple of effects to see what is available there.   I found quite a few others after I Googled “free p... 04/02/2012

…©..The Beauty of Black & White Photography..©…... I think black and white photography is so fascinating. Black, White and Grey are considered neutral colors which surprised me. But Black and White have the most contrast when put together and make a bold and dramatic statement. Is black a color? Is white a color? After reading many articles and many different opinions, the general consenus is that white is a color and black is not a color. Black is what you see with the absence of light. OK, this was news to me. But the more I read about this, I find the opposite opinions by scientists. OK, I guess the answer has to do with whoever is publishing their opinion. I will stay neutral on this.    Since I have been taking a lot of photos I thought I would pass on a few tips I have found.   I... 03/31/2012

Looking for a Good Coffee Shop....Try Café Royal in Redlands   Redlands has at least 10 coffee shops but Café Royale is probably my favorite. They have large tables, sidewalk tables, a new menu with sandwiches, salads, soups, crepes, breakfasts, and tasty treats like cupcakes and pastries. Plus they have delicious lattes (my favorite) and a variety of coffees and teas.   Plus there is always parking nearby, inside restrooms and the cafe is always colorful and bright.   Stop in and give them a try. Café Royale, 101 Cajon Street, Redlands, CA 92373.             Find Café Royale on Facebook.           These pictures taken in Redlands, CA. If you are looking for a professional agent, I am just a click away. Google me at Kristin Hamilton-Real Estate. Homeowners and Buyers both will find my s... 03/28/2012

It's funny how fast news travels.  My recent designation as an Internet Marketing Specialist was printed in the newspaper this past weekend, only I did not know it.  Not that I don't value the printed word, it's just that like most post-Baby-Boomers, I read my news online.  I was tickled pink to see a "congrats on the article" post on my facebook timeline yesterday.  Fortunately, seeing that it was Monday, one of my incredible affiliates brought me a copy of the printed version.  I tell you, having a close network of resources in real estate is invaluable (Thanks again, Jim!).  So here is the post about my IMSD = Internet Marketing Specialist Designation:   Christina Hood Makes the News!         Now, if you would like to know more about how I can help you sell your property using my mag... 03/28/2012

Happy Easter Wordle Easter is one of my favorite themes and since April 8th is only 10 days from now. These wordles can be pasted onto other documents, printed for cards or sent as emails.     I used the same words for all three of my wordles but as you can see, they are all completely different. I have included the simple instructions below if you want to make your own.  Here are my three Wednesday Wordles and I think they came out very nice and colorful. I edited them in Picknik to added frames, titled them, and added my signature and each one took less than 5 minutes. So what do you think? 1.     I just typed a bunch of text; “HAPPY~EASTER” Bunnies Cadbury~Eggs Chocolate baskets “Easter~Egg~Hunt” “EASTER~BUNNY” Chicks Easter~Outfit “Decorating~Eggs” Easter~Sunday Bonnets Hats New~Sh... 03/28/2012

Marshmallow Clouds after the Storm   Last night we had a horrific storm and this morning it had moved out but the clouds looked so beautiful in the San Bernardino Mountains. The mountains reminded me of a mound of chocolate ice cream with whipped cream on top.   This photo needs no introduction. Something about a huge American flag flying in the breeze. This picture taken in downtown Redlands, CA. This picture was taken outside my office window. The sky looked like cotton candy with the birds chirping on the treetops. This made me very happy!   These pictures taken in San Bernardino County, CA. If you are looking for a professional agent, I am just a click away. Google me at Kristin Hamilton-Real Estate. Homeowners and Buyers both will find my services top notch and successful.     03/26/2012

Have You Been to Martha Green’s lately?   Have you been to Martha Green's Eatery and Bakery located at 107 E. Citrus Avenue in Redlands, CA? If you have not, make sure you stop by soon. It is "the place" to take a special friend to celebrate or just to go grab a quick bite to eat. I especially love the breakfast menu myself. When my daughter comes to visit, I always ask her where she wants to go for breakfast or lunch and guess what she says.....where else Mom but Martha Green's!   Martha Green's Eatery is one of the most popular places to have breakfast, lunch, schedule a tea, book the cafe for a special event,or stop in for a quick bite in the bakery section. I forgot to mention that in the back, they have a cake department where you can order specialty cakes for events or pick one of... 03/26/2012