[Note: Because I am horribly long-winded, this WFMW post is ridiculously long. If you want the short version, here it is: You can recover deleted photos from your camera card with programs like this one. If you want the long version, read on.]

It was a quiet Tuesday evening. My husband was out of town and the boys were in bed. My plan was to check my email one last time and then head upstairs to read and fall asleep early. In my Inbox was a coupon from Snapfish for one of their photo collages. Oh, that looks like a neat idea, I thought. Maybe I should make a Christmas collage of the boys.

I clicked open my Pictures folder to see which photos I’d want to use. And then, my stomach dropped.

I had pictures up through December 15th, 2007. And then I had pictures starting January 19th, 2008. Nothing in between.

Nothing.

I was sick. How could I lose an entire month of pictures? And why, oh why, did it have to be Christmas pictures? I was a horrible mother — how could I do this? The pictures of L. eagerly tearing the paper off gifts: gone. The pictures of C. playing the piano for family: gone. The pictures from Christmas Eve at my in-laws and Christmas Day with my family: gone, gone, gone.

It took about 2.3 seconds to figure out what had happened. My laptop had died right before Christmas, and I got my Mac in mid-January. Naturally, I had continued taking pictures during that time period, and downloaded them to our desktop. But here’s the thing: I had created a new “Katrina profile” on the desktop and loaded them on there. When I got my new Mac, I deleted that profile. I thought I’d transferred everything I needed to the new laptop, but clearly I hadn’t. I hadn’t transferred a single picture from between December 15th and January 19th.

I hopped on the Internet, searching desperately for software that could help me recover something — anything! And I stumbled on Recover My Photos. It looked like a risk-free option: You download a trial version and have it search your memory card/device. If it finds photos to recover, only then do you pay for a license to enable the software to restore those pictures.

I downloaded it. I put my camera’s memory card into a slot on our printer, and I set the program to run a “deep scan.” To be honest, I had very little hope. It had been almost 2 months since Christmas and I’d taken well over 200 photos in that time.

The way these types of programs work is: When you delete photos from your digital camera’s memory card, it doesn’t actually delete the photos themselves, just any references to them. In other words, the data is still there, but your camera or other device doesn’t “see” it. The data is only permanently gone when the camera writes over that same area with new photos. I had taken so many pictures that I was sure the Christmas pictures were gone for good.

The scan took a long time… over an hour (it’s a fairly large memory card). While it scanned, I played around on the computer.

And then — lo and behold — I found the pictures on the desktop. They were buried about five levels down in an obscure folder labeled “Other pics.” Apparently, at some point I had backed up the pictures from my “Katrina profile” into the other, permanent profile on the computer. I have no memory of doing so, but in a fit of responsibility, I must have.

There they were — Christmas memories recorded, smiles, gifts, decorations, family. Ahhh… I could breathe again.

Then I saw that the program’s scan was done. Recover My Photos had found 286 recoverable pictures on my camera card — including a bunch of Christmas pictures. I couldn’t believe it! Thankfully, I didn’t need it now, but I was very happy to see that it was possible to find photos believed to be long gone.

I hope you never need to use Recover My Photos or similar software, but if you ever do anything silly like I thought I had done, it’s nice to know these kinds of programs exist and that they really work.

Don’t forget to visit Shannon for more WFMW tips.

Oh, wait — what’s that, Mom? You want to see one of the pictures? Okay, here you go.

While I haven’t been a consistent participant in Works-for-Me Wednesday (the well of unique and helpful ideas has run dry, I’m afraid), I couldn’t resist today’s topic.

Ah…online shopping. One of my favorite necessities hobbies activities. I really and truly do not like “going shopping” — as in, heading to the mall, dealing with crowds, etc. — but sitting in my recliner, clicking mouse buttons, and then having necessities and little luxuries arrive at my front door? That, my friends, is a wonderful thing.

So while I’m sure that most, if not all, of the places I mention below have already been mentioned by other WFMW participants, I’m going to share them with you anyway.

My favorite online shopping sites:

Amazon — Is there anyone who doesn’t shop at Amazon.com? First, there’s the books. Those, and their prices, were enough to make me a fan of Amazon. But I’ve also been known to buy toys, protein bars, my husband’s bicycle-riding recovery complex stuff, and video games from Amazon.

1800diapers — My sister-in-law clued me in to this website, and I’ve been a fan ever since. Not only do they deliver diapers and wipes to your door, but they also sell formula. It was so nice to never have to “run out for formula” when L. was little. The UPS man dropped off cases of the stuff on a semi-regular basis.

Land’s End — I am a “petite,” and there is little I dread more than going to the mall to try to find pants that actually fit. I get most of my khakis and an occasional pair of jeans from Land’s End. Plus — they often have comfy fleece items and hoodies, the type of items that make up the vast majority of my wardrobe. Also: their overstocks section is great. I’ve gotten many a good deal on clothes for the kids, polo shirts for Chad, and even towels.

Old Navy — I love Old Navy for kids’ clothes. They have fantastic sales and ship super-quickly.

Sephora — Being a fairly recent convert to Bare Minerals makeup, I’m also a recent convert to Sephora. Sure, I can go to our mall to get makeup, but Sephora’s prices are identical, and they often have shipping deals and sales, so I pick them over the mall almost every time.

Zappos — Particularly for workout shoes. Fast shipping. FREE shipping. Easy return policy. Huge selection.

Levenger — Oh, I almost forgot Levenger! Not a bargain-basement place by any means, but if you love pens, paper, journals, reading tools, writing tools, etc., Levenger just might appeal to you. I usually only place one or two orders from Levenger/year — a little splurge to feed my reading and writing habits. But seeing that Levenger box arrive is always a highlight.

Ebates — Not an online store, but something that makes online shopping a little sweeter. When you sign up for Ebates, you can get “cash back” when you shop at many online stores. I used to be a regular Ebater, but then forgot about it. My friend Jennifer blogged about Ebates not too long ago and now I’m a faithful participant again. Whether it’s a download from iTunes, a pair of khakis from Land’s End or a photo order from Snapfish, a portion of my total goes into my Ebates account and I get a disbursement every quarter. So I can do more online shopping, of course.

By now, you might have the idea that I shop more online than in brick & mortar stores. You’d be right.

Visit Rocks in My Dryer to see where other people spend their online dollars.

I really don’t like spiders. And I especially don’t like them in my house. My husband tells me that a spider or two is a good thing, since they eat any other bugs that might try to live with us, but I disagree. No bug in my home can be accurately labeled a “good” thing.

Earlier this fall, I was lamenting to a friend that our basement seems to be a general hang-out for spiders of all kinds. I get out the shop-vac, suck them all into oblivion…or I take the bug-zapping spray and attack them one by one…and a few days later, a new spider family has moved in. It drives me nuts.

This wonderful friend shared with me a little “home remedy” that she had read in the newspaper. It goes something like this:

To keep spiders out of your house, set a bale of hay or straw outside your home, not right next to an entrance, but not too far away either…maybe along the side of your house. Spiders eying up your house will instead gladly view the bale as Spider Condo Extraordinaire, and will over-winter in it, cozy and warm, leaving your house free for, well, humans.

I was a bit skeptical. But willing to give it a try.

I picked up a small bale of straw at the local farm market and set it next to our lamp post, along with a fake scarecrow and few small pumpkins, as fall decoration. I didn’t inspect it or think much at all about it, but I recently realized that in the several weeks since I did that, I hadn’t seen a single spider in our house. Not one. Odd for this time of year, when small animals of all kinds are fleeing from the dropping temperatures.

Coincidence?

Well, yesterday, I was taking down the outdoor fall decorations, before the pumpkins decided to rot and stink up the front yard. I picked up the bale of straw, to move it around to the side of the house, near the garage door. You’ll never guess what fell off the bottom when I picked it up.

Okay, you guessed. Spiders. A whole bunch of them. They quickly scattered, understandably devastated that their apartment building had been lifted right off of them. I tried to explain that it wasn’t really a disaster, just a relocation plan. They weren’t impressed.

But I’m hoping they’ll find their way over to the straw bale once again, and not even think twice about our nice warm cold, hard basement.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have found no scientific evidence to back up this theory. It’s simply a suggestion given to me by a caring friend. But if it continues to work as it has so far, you can be sure that I’ll be investing in a bale of straw (or two…or three) each and every year. Only because I care about the spiders and want them to have a nice place to live. As long as that place isn’t my house.

Visit Shannon’s for more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips.