Woodworking woes? Oh, say it isn't so!

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!

But first things first:

PLEASE don't forget about the giveaway! I've figured out GoodSearch (and it's powered by Yahoo so it's a "regular" search engine - hooray!) To enter the giveaway this week - or just help us out - join us on GoodSearch. If you entered last week, doing this means you'll have your name in the hat two times (yay). Simply select Epic Farms as your charity and download the toolbar or the plug in (it adds GoodSearch to your existing search box if you don't want another toolbar). Be sure to set GoodSearch as your default search engine, and voila! you are helping us out every time you search the internet. GoodSearch donates a penny to us with each search you make, and you can follow our progress. You can even track your own progress and see how much money you've raised for us (pretty cool, eh?) We're up to a whopping .84c right now. Obviously we could use quite a bit of help. *laugh* And if you shop online, there are tons of coupons for all kinds of stores through GoodShop (same site).
Even better? When you shop through GoodShop and have Epic Farms selected as your charity, the store will make a donation to us too. Hot diggity dog! Is that awesome or what?!? This is a numbers thing, so please ask everyone you can to use the search engine under Epic Farms. As you can see on their page, the big well-known charities are raking in thousands in donations. But even just 100 people searching for us generates around $700 in donations a year. To an itty-bitty charity like Epic Farms, that's HUGE. Boo-yeah. Plus, it's a great way to enable people that can't afford to donate to help a good cause. Should I say that about us [good cause] or is that tacky? 
Well anyway, it's a piece of cake (a nice, big frosty one ;o) Yum.

I'm just sure that I will be glad to have my office done and monster craft table completed to use for all my creative benders. As a matter of fact, I know I will. But right now I am tired of wood, of flooring, and paint. Definitely the paint. Painting stinks (literally). I opted to paint outside on our "almost patio", which is probably why we got some rain (hooray!). *laugh* Had I known that was all it would take, I would have found something to paint outside weeks ago. Because I'm building in sections and pieces, I ended up having to number all of them so I could keep them straight. Here are just a few I laid out on the table to paint (didn't I tell you I could complicate anything? ;o)

The back piece is the only really long piece (below). I thought it might be prudent to have some serious support on the back side since my scrapbooking cubes will be back there (and they are pretty heavy). The black on the bottom (above) is felt; I am SO not messing up that brand new floor!

DD used the router on the 2x4's for me (between that and the paint, I hope to cut down on the cheesiness factor - like the word "stud" which is stamped all over everywhere ;o) Whaddaya expect on a poverty stricken budget, right? I guess these are the ones that were not worthy of becoming Christmas trees (says DFIR in the little triangle, which I assume means "Douglas Fir"). Weird. We have, as you can see from the photo below, made a spectacular mess. I am distinctly UNexcited about cleaning this up... particularly since I seem to have misplaced the doggone dustpan. *sigh*

I'm getting there...but it's taking FOREVER. Swept up all the stupid sawdust with a broom and piece of cardboard; not the way to go. Had dust wafting everywhere and sneezed my head off. Oy. I've figured out that I am currently on Phase IX* [9] of my Monster Craft Table project. Here's the rundown:

Phase I: A great big home made craft table. This is going to be SO awesome; I can't wait to get started! *bounce*bounce*bounce*

Phase II: Hmm. Okay, this is a little harder than I thought. Why doesn't everything fit right on the plans?? Nuts. I need to get some more wood.

Phase III: Ai!! My checkbook! How can cheap lumber be so expensive?? Okay, okay, I just know this will all be worth it in the end. *whimper*

Phase IV: Mid-project clean up. I had it, I know I had it...where the heck did it go?? There's sawdust everywhere and I can't find the screws I dropped all over the floor - whatta mess! Where's that doggone dustpan? Raspberries. Found it... right after I finished cleaning it up by hand. ARRGH!

Phase V: Start marking and/or assembling section pieces. This was NOT supposed to be this much of a pain in the patootie. *scowling*

Phase VI: Why did I ever start this?? Remind me to NEVER do this again.

Phase VII: I hate painting. Now I need more paint. Who knew that particleboard could suck down an entire pint of primer for two measly shelves?? Geez! *bangs head on partially completed table*

Phase VIII: Changed name from Monster Craft Table to Project from Hades. Personal remarks withheld due to "G" Rating on blog. *snarl*

I am here-->*Phase IX: Painting, painting, painting. I hate painting. Not enough hours in the day. Hallooo...what's with the stupid brush? Have you never heard of spray paint you ninny? Why do I not think of these things until AFTER?!? *slaps forehead*

Phase X: Lug remaining pieces into the office/craft room for assembly. Hit all walls enroute with long back piece. Drop on toe. Stomp around to locate craft supplies stashed and stacked all over the house to put them in their [finally finished] new home. Solemnly swear NEVER to do this again. Ever. Idiot.

Phase XI: Admire finished project <--apologize for swearing (using the "P" word).  Renew vow to never do this again (better yet, recite as litany). Shake head at massive self-inflicted stupidity. Post photos to blog as proof that the nightmare is finally OVER. :oP

Well, that's where I've stopped work this morning; painting. Not to worry, there LOTS more left to do...Meh. Thanks so much for visiting, and have a very blessed week.
And don't forget to enter the giveaway - or just join us on GoodSearch - we really need your help!