Mmmmm yeah, probably!
And why am I being so cocky about it?
Because I love techie geeky gadget stuff, AND when I can cross it over into one of my other hobbies, that's a bonus!
I've already shown my online spreadsheet of what's been seeded, planted, potted up, etc so far. In fact, it's had quite a few updates lately - have you seen it? Here's a compacted view of it - you just need to scroll left and right, up and down to see all of it.
Now what's REALLY cool is how I can take that spreadsheet (here's a screenshot of part of it):
Export it to my computer (or I could've just being using Excel locally, but...naaaaah...I love the portability of Google Docs!), and then open it up in this new little application I got that came with some new hardware, and then do some filtering and layout...
Annnnnd then....well, here, see for yourself!
How jealous are you now!? ;-)
Now that's just my first testing of exporting my spreadsheet data to the Brother PT-2700 P-Touch labeling system
, and I think it turned out pretty good. While those labels you see it spitting out were technically a test run, I WILL be using them on my recycled window blinds that I'm cutting up. (And when I run out of those, Sharon says she has some for me, and when I run out of that I figure I'll go back to cutting up plastic fast food cups or yogurt/sour cream containers!)Seriously, this is pretty damn cool! So cool I think I'm gonna have to bump up this posting so you get two postings in one day!
PS: If you decide to get something like this, be smart about it! I guess the system I got lists for about $99 - with occasional sales on Amazon. I procrastinated too long while deciding if I was really worth it or not, if it would really help out with my garden stuff, etc, and MISSED a sale where it was down to $70. A couple days later when I went back to finally make my purchase, it was up to $86. DAMMIT! But then I searched again for the item on Amazon, checked with the NON-Featured Merchant list (so I clicked on the "45 new from $54.99" link, and then scrolled down past the Featured Merchants - one of which is selling it for $110 with $9 shipping! WTH!? It lists for $99!), and found one selling it for $55 - PLUS I didn't have to pay shipping! Seriously good savings!
8 comments:
Wow, you are really organized! I haven't started my garden yet, but my herbs have started to grow back and my fruit trees are blooming.
For <$20 I bought a pack of 1000 plastic garden spikes from International Green House - and write the item in UV safe marker.
I'm very interested in seeing how the printed labels hold up to UV (if it's a form of thermal paper - it might not last) and the weather (will rain make them peel before the season is over)?
After a season - you better post the outcome - you might have a convert...
Bluebird Meadow Farms
Sara - I'm trying something different this year, and hopefully I'll stick with it. Because I'm putting in so many plants to build up the beds, and I don't have the best memory, I want to mark what's going in where (and in some cases, even what I paid for the items), so that I can HOPEFULLY go back later and see just what's where, what worked, which varieties I've planted, what were really good deals, etc...
I'm jealous of your fruit trees! The Asian pears I planted are only JUST starting to show signs of buds...and I don't figure they'll be fruiting (assuming they survive) for a couple years yet.
Andy - SUPPOSEDLY these labels are supposed to be pretty damn tough. Here's the info on the laminated labels:
http://www.brother-usa.com/Ptouch/WhatIsIt/Science.aspx
Oh Jeph. Your Crazy has reached an all-time high. I love it very much.
I saw an online tutorial for using old horizontal blinds for garden labels, but I'm recycling something else. Tutorial to come, I'm sure.
Love Google Docs!
WANT! I had heard/read that Brother label-makers waste label stock with a lot of empty space at the ends of labels, but that didn't appear to be true at all in the video. Must depend on the model.
You knew I'd be jealous!
Finny - Cool! Looking forward to the tutorial! Wait, are you going to knit them? I'm guessing those won't stand up straight in the garden, plus they'll probably shrink over time?
Dave - GOOD CALL! What really got me started on this was Brett's old P-Touch label machine, and yes, that sucker wastes A LOT of tape (like maybe a half inch on either side of the text!?).
But this new one actually gives you "padding" (there goes my HTML/CSS geekiness) options - so you can set the amount of space between the text and the cut line. Now maybe I'm just being very narrow minded, but I can't see why you'd really want a lot of extra space on the sides - it's just wasted!
So yeah, you could see from that video that it can be set to trim nice and close. I wish that that was either the default, OR I could save it to always work that way. Maybe I can - I haven't finished reading the manual yet (it's more fun to just play with it than read a manual!).
What's also cool is it's supposed to save up to 99 labels that you've typed in. Haven't figured that one out yet. Plus, heck, if I'm spitting out the data from the computer, I can just save it that way.
It will take you a looooong time to run out of blinds from me - I'm giving you two sets from two double windows, so they are big and long! just like you like them ;)
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