I’m such a good sister (and why I hate computers)
Hello to anyone who may still be reading my blog! September sure was a sparse month for posts, but it was for a completely legitimate reason (the second part of the post title).
My computer is, at the moment, dead. It saddens me greatly since I only bought it just over a year ago, and it only reinforces my hatred for computers…specifically laptops that are not a Mac.
Just as a bit of back story (does anyone really care about the back story? It’s too bad if you don’t, because I’m a talker and giving back stories is just how I roll) the first laptop that I owned I bought back in 2004 right before I moved out of the nest (mom and dad’s house) to go away to college. It was expensive back in those days to buy a laptop, it came in at around $1500 with taxes and a stylish leather carrying case. It was necessary though, seeing as I would be doing lots of studying and essay writing and absolutely NO partying whatsoever (please note the sarcastic tone I have as I type out those words haha). The make was a Compaq, and I didn’t know anything about computers at the time, but after only 2 years it was infested with viruses and was dead to me and it was at that time that a friend told me that particular brand was not the best. I’m not slamming Compaq here, just stating what I was told.
So off I went to purchase a new computer, since at 21 years old MSN Messenger was pretty much my life and Facebook was really starting to take off with college kids. I chose to get a desktop, which although not as convenient as a laptop, lasted me 5 years!! It was an Acer, and was quite affordable at the time I do believe (probably $600??) so it served me well up until last summer. It too had become virus riddled and was so slow and would constantly crash on me. I was fed up. So I went out to get a new laptop, thinking it would be ever so convenient for me and laptops are pretty much dirt cheap these days (perhaps I should have recognized that as foreshadowing of the impending disastrous fate of poor said laptop?). I got it for well under $400, including taxes, and I was quite happy with my purchase…up until about 3 weeks ago.
I had gone away for a week for work and brought the laptop with me, and it worked great all week. The day we were leaving, I was playing around on it while waiting for the airport shuttle and it was being really slow. I decided to just shut it off so that I was ready to go. I’d also like to add that I kept it with me as carry-on during the flight there and back so it definitely didn’t get tossed around in a cargo hold or anything. Fast forward to the next day when I’m home and turn it on to use: there were horrible clicking noises as soon as it turned on and an error screen popped up stating there was some type of disk read error. GAH!!! I know nothing about the technical, code related aspect of computers so I shipped it off to my sister’s fiancé who is well versed in all things computer. The next night I got the horrible, horrible news: my hard drive is fried. My only option is to have it replaced or buy a new computer, and since I never bothered to back anything up on an external hard drive, everything on there is lost forever. There’s nothing massively important on it, but I had started spreadsheets for wedding stuff and had ALL of the pictures of all of my projects in categorized files, as well as all of the photos from our anniversary/engagement trip. Thankfully all of that stuff is online somewhere so I can get copies, but what a MAJOR BUMMER.
Anyway, that’s my looooooong explanation as to why I only had 2 posts in the month of September. I’m working on figuring out a solution, so hopefully things will be back to normal soon. This isn’t a source of income for me or anything, but it is a creative outlet and I’ve realized the last few weeks how much I’ve missed being able to post about my little creative endeavours.
I do however have a room transformation to share today. I got an iPhone last week (finally, hooray!) so I took the pictures on that.
My sister and her fiancé moved into a new apartment last week and last night I went over and helped her paint the living room and decorate and accessorize it. We started at 6pm and finished at 11pm, so in only 5 hours we completely changed the look and feel of their main living space. Here is what the living room looked like when we were getting started:
Standard builder beige and oh-so-oatmeal-bland. After 5 hours of hard work (and some great sister bonding!) we had transformed the space into this:
Can you believe the difference!?! It really helped that they have some nice furniture, art work and accessories to work with. We were both really impressed at how it all came together and my sister LOVES it now, which is what we were aiming for :)
I also took an after shot (no before unfortunately) of a little area to the side of the main living space that she and her fiancé have dubbed the “coffee nook”. They have an entire wall of huge windows with an amazing view that this spot looks over, so I think it will be their space to sit and enjoy coffee in the mornings:
Aren’t those chairs fantastic? She got them at HomeSense, and it’s hard to see in this picture but they have a great nail head trim all along the bottom of the seats. That table was a flea market find that our mom picked up and had our grandma refinish. It’s such a rustic piece, and I love the way it looks next to those glam chairs. I’ll post more pictures of their place as it gets spruced up.
So, there’s my post on why I’m such a good sister (5 hours of painting, arranging furniture and hanging pictures is not the easiest of tasks) and why I hate computers. Thank you to anyone who is still around and reading, and I promise that I will be better at posting in October. I have a few little projects and updates to share and I’m sure Christmas will be here before we know it and I will FOR SURE have lots of stuff to post about then!!
Building This Nest 