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In the pink (well, mostly)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I'm baaaack! I cannot believe it has taken me over an entire week to get everything technologically reassembled but it has been quite the adventure, let me tell you. Sometimes, even when you are careful you can get got - and boy did I ever. Check out my lovely error message to the left. *rolls eyes* "This should never happen", Ha. Yeah, tell me about it. Seems Firefox had some sort of a hiccup and Trend Micro was scrambling over some heinous new Rootkit virus (and leave it to me to get the latest and greatest there *sigh*). Managed to not only sneak past my antivirus protection, it also disabled the antivirus software without shutting it down; it still appeared to be working fine right there in my taskbar. Put the word out to fellow nasties (the Guard Online Virus winning in the "Most Obnoxious" category) and they were all partying hardy on my hard drive. Grr. Two days going back and forth with Trend Micro's tech support and the final answer was "you have to do a system restore". Now, system restore is supposed (key word there) to let you go back to a specific time; as in say, a month or two or three before your computer was infected. You are not supposed to lose any files that were saved prior to that point. Uh-huh. So you say...
Well color me paranoid, but I asked DH for a portable hard drive just in case (happy birthday, Merry Christmas, yadda yadda to me) ;oP Office Depot had this nice little Western Digital drive - that is only slightly larger than my cell phone - on sale for $89.95 that holds a TB (and holy cow!). Pretty nifty little gizmo, isn't it? I spent the large part of a day manually copying more than 20,000 files; 23,421 to be precise. You should never use the automated system backup when a virus is present as it will backup the virus right along with everything else on your hard drive. The portable drive turned out to be a good call, as Windows never even bothered to ask me to what point I wished to restore my system; it just wiped everything out and sent me clear back to the original factory settings. Do you know how many updates there were to Windows between 2006 and now? I'll give you a hint: it was more than 200 plus two ginormous service packs. That took another two days of updating and rebooting (and geez whatta pain!) I am [I think/I hope] in the clear and back up and running, although I have an awful lot left to do. I'll give a big thumbs up to Malwarebytes who was able to actually tell me I had a Rootkit virus about a nanosecond before the virus shut it down. Great shareware program, if you're interested in running a free scan click here.
As I'm sure you've noticed, I have turned the blog pink for this month. I'm happy to say that this is a whole lot earlier than last year when I spent what seemed like half the month trying to figure out how to change the header ;o) I'll add that the new format is definitely easier to navigate (note:  No bad words were uttered in the updating of this header. *laugh* I'm also happy to say that I am going to try <--operative word there) to have two giveaways this month. The first will be a couple of hand made (by moi) pink ribbon items that you can keep for yourself or share with a friend (or family ;o) This crocheted angel is still on my pinning board and missing the pink ribbon, but here 'tis:
I will be poking around in my stash to see what other little goodies I can find to tuck in there and let you know when I do the next post. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment. Preferably something nice; like how much you missed my smart mouth regular post last week (ha). That's all; it's been complicated enough around here recently ;o) Giveaway will run through Saturday, October 22nd and the winner will be announced in next weekend's post (Sunday).
My craft table is now 90% complete, and 100% useable - WOO! I have one last series of shelves for the front and we could really use a coat of paint, but other than that I am done (and thank goodness!) Want to see?
I added a shelf along the back that ran the entire length of the counter top to accommodate my scrap booking cubes. I had to make it slightly raised to allow for the counter top's thickness. Even though the table will be 3 feet deep, the cubes would have eaten up 14 inches, and I'm a space hog (I wanted every square inch I could get for my creative benders *grin*).
While I still have to put on another coat of paint (this is primer), I didn't bother to paint the top as it won't show. Below picture is where we are right now; I just have that last set of shelves to install (by the arrow).  The wire rack intruding rudely into the photo on the left will ultimately go in the Epic Farms room (when we finally have one ;o)
I love those organizer cubes! I've been buying about one a year for the past few years (when they went on sale for half price after Christmas) and had just enough to go the distance - yay! 
One last thing. Ann, Ann are you listening? This is [for the record] completely your fault *laugh* for being such a crafty bad influence... I just couldn't stand it anymore, so for the first project on my craft table I made a Maze Book. Click here to visit Ann's post (but don't forget to come back!)
Some great two sided paper let me resolve a pet peeve - how to tell the back [L] from the front [R] - without detracting from the charm of the book :o) A friend who was having a pretty tough week was also having a birthday, so I thought this might lift her spirits a little. She loves sunrises and sunsets (and those of you who've been here for a bit know how addicted I am to those sky shots *grin*) so I thought I'd use a few of them to try and brighten her day:
Some relevant quotes typed in a fancy font, yellow and orange reversible paper to match my sunny theme (I'm just a teensy bit OCD ;o) then put it all together and...TaDaaaa! What do you think?
Gosh that was kind of a lot; sorry. It has been awhile though, and what's a chatterbox to do after all? *laugh* Have a blessed week everyone - I missed you!


11 comments:

  1. I hate it when the computer goes awry! But I am glad you got everything figured out. That's good that you got an external hard drive. A very wise investment indeed

    And look at you crafting away! Good for you!

    Hope you are having a wonderful October Jen!
    xo Catherine

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  2. What fun! What a wonderful craft table! I want one too :) I love your crafty "maze book" and your beautiful angel! Totally awesome! Glad you got the external hard drive...very good idea ;)

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  3. I am so glad you have the internet mess straightened out. I can imagine how awful that is. It just happens. Two weeks ago I found out one of my email addresses wasn't working for NO APPARENT REASON. Your craft table fantastic - you are so talented!

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  4. That little book is so pretty and I bet cheered your friend immensely. What a charming and thoughtful gift.

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  5. Color me jealous. My 'craft' room is in boxes, out of boxes, in piles, sliding across the floor, under boxes, on top of boxes, behind boxes all down in the basement. At some point, when we decide what to do about the floor then we'll officially unpack and I'll have my crafty area again. But for now.... when I need something, I move piles, look in, around and under boxes, take what I need, leaving a bigger mess behind. Oh well!
    Your angel is darling and your craft table and set-up is just perfect!

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  6. HEY! Why do I get blamed for everything? :) Your maze book came out a"mazingly" great. Love it. I like the idea of making the back look different from the front too. Love the craft table, looks very organized. Now I need to get something like that in my craft room

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  7. Catherine: It's amazing how far off kilter it can knock your life, isn't it? I'm having a terrific October [she says as she grins sassily through gritted teeth...*giggle*] Building character; that's the ticket.
    Colleen: Well, I do have some plans you're welcome to borrow. *laugh* Glad you liked the angel and the book (me too ;o)
    Fisher: My dad had one of his go emails to kaflooey (er, that's a technical term). Something to do with his ISP I think; drove him nuts. And thanks for the compliment *blush* (too broke to go buy one is what I am - haha).

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  8. Sorry you got a computer virus! I got one a couple of years ago, and we got a portable external hard drive after that, too!

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  9. Grace: Thank you; I was kind of tickled at the way it turned out (and now I want one ;o)
    Dreaming: Methinks you would probably appreciate the sight of my living room then (because WOW - at the piles of "stuff"). I am fairly sure I will be sorting and sifting until the next millennium. *grin* Thank you for the lovely compliments!
    Ann: Because you are such an inspirational instigator, that's why (bwah-ha-ha-ha ;o) I am absolutely loving the table - you gotta get one!
    Daisy: A portable drive was on my "wish list" for a long time and [just as you discovered] it suddenly became a #1 priority (yeesh :oP

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  10. As always I'm amazed by how much you manage to get done.

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  11. Clancy: Amazing what a hefty dose of pigheadedness *COUGH*COUGH*COUGH* EXcuse me; determination can accomplish, isn't it?
    Hee.

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