Look at designer Kenneth Brown's new place in Hollywood, CA. Oh how I would love a loft. Check out those windows and the beautiful floor. Brick, lots of huge windows, loft... can't ask for much more then that. Can't wait to see how it turns out!

Did you know? Did you know? Did you know?... that if your computer crashes but your harddrive is still working you can, yourself retrieve the data off the harddrive? Did you know that you can actually take this harddrive out of the computer and make it into an external harddrive that you can use as back-up, or to carry around your photos and stuff? Did you know this? I didn't, but now I do and I am loving this!

We have two laptops that have died recently (the motherboards). This was confirmed by techies who do this sort of stuff for a living. These same techies however didn't inform me of the above. It wasn't until my dh asked one of his clients about retrieving data off one of these laptops did this little bit of information come out. I was concerned that we wouldn't be able to see the data because the video portion of this laptop wasn't working. The screen would go black and not come back up. How in the world would we get the data? When I spoke with him I mentioned my concern. He said he could pull the harddrive out of the laptop and install it in a device he has that when connected to another computer it shows up as an external drive. We then could just copy the data we need from the device onto the new computer. Awesome!

But then I began thinking... if he can do this why couldn't I? Was this something only those in the biz could do? I would really like to have the ability to recover the data we needed as we needed it instead of having to make sure our initial visit together I copied everything at that time. I began googling and found this. Bingo. I immediately ran to Best Buy (couldn't wait for an internet purchase at a cheaper price point) and got this. This morning I turned on my fireplace, got out my tools and began disassembling my old crashed Gateway laptop. I found the harddrive, popped it in the enclosure case and plugged it in my kids desktop and it worked! The computer immediately recognized it as a new external drive, and there the files were. YEAH! The process was sooooo easy. It actually took me longer to gather the tools, unscrew all the screws and to locate the harddrive (I've never been inside a laptop before). I am definately on my way back to BestBuy to buy another one for the other laptop. The best thing is I'm doing it myself, I'm doing my version of recycling (going green you know) and I now have two more devices to work as additional drives for anything I need.

My dad is thrilled, he wasn't aware of this either. And from the information found at that website, you can do the same thing from harddrives from desktops. The only difference is the size of enclosure you need; 2.5" for laptop harddrives and 3.5" for desktop harddrives.

I'm so happy!

My latest project - our Christmas tree! Decided to forgo the traditional Christmas Tree skirt this year and I LOVE the result:

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Lyon's family. May peace be with them as they go through this difficult time. I've been following this family's difficult journey since I was made aware of their blog via a link from Ali. My heart goes out to them this holiday season and on.

Have a great day!

Fall is my season. Fall is my color choice. My house lends itself well to this season. Realizing this as I'm trying to get ready for Thanksgiving - which has not been an easy task. Something always gets in the way of my plans. Today, Alex was sick - again. His diabetes trying to kick his..., and it almost got him. This is the second time in recent months that he has been sick. The doctors and I believe his insulin pump is to blame, which is why we are in the works for a new one. I've said it before but we were soooo close to going to the hospital. This time it took until 5:00 pm to get him under control and we had to bypass his insulin pump and do shots. Shots. We haven't done shots since he was diagnosed four years ago. After a brief freak out session in the other room, I composed myself and went in to just "get it done". And, we did just that. I worked all day with the doctors office (every two hours calling in) to get him under control and his diabetes wasn't cooperating. Then, 5:00 pm hit and all of a sudden, his numbers were normal and he only had trace ketones. He goes from large to trace like that! So odd. Still doesn't make sense to me. So what does he do at 5:30? Run out the door to play hockey that's what (with doctors approval and strict observation on our part). Diabetes (type 1) is unpredicable and every changing. It was a stressful day for mom, to say the least, and it totally threw off my entire schedule. As a result, I just got back from the grocery store (11:00 pm). Actually, it's not bad shopping this late.

Here are a few things I've been working on for Thanksgiving. I'm having an impossible time finding a table runner for our 8' dining room table. I don't have time to make one from scratch so I decided to semi-make one. I found at Tuesday Mornings some really great place mats that I'm going to hold together by some fancy ribbon I picked up at Walmart this evening. Here's a picture of it (although the color of the ribbon is a bit off):

And, here's a picture of the table setting (work in progress). I've been struggling with what type of center piece I want for this table. I finally decided on Hurricane lamps. I chose four with a cranberry candle. I used nuts as the filling around the candle. I love doing this and can't wait to keep filling it up with different goodies as the seasons change. I picked up the Hurricane lamps at Pier One. Here's a close-up of the Hurricane lamp. Notice the cut little acorn salt and pepper shakers. Got those at JCPenneys Home Store for only $6.00. Love a bargin!

Thinking I should have angled the camera the other way for the first shot. Oh well, still learning.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving. Having some of John's family over, my best friend, her sister and boyfriend and another great friend who is coming in from out of town. Keeping our fingers crossed the weather doesn't go crazy because I would love to crank up the firepit as soon as it gets dark out.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Cathy |

Completed a Senior photo shoot session today at Babler State Park. It was a lot of fun! I still have a lot to learn about photography but with the resources we have available to us today it's not too difficult to fix a photo. The original photo colors were a bit blah so I tried tweaking them using Photoshop Elements and some purchased plug-ins. I think they turned out much more interesting. Here are a few of the shots:

Thanksgiving for 7-12 people at our home. Beginning to prepare my list and get things in order for the big day. I'm beginning to feel better and will take things easy best I can so I don't go backwards and get sick again. Here's a start to my To Do's:

• Order 20 lb fresh turkey. Check.
• Find Mashed Potatoe Bake recipe online. Check.
• Dig out my favorite stuffing recipe. Check.
• Decide if I'm going with canned cranberries (tradition) or try a new cranberry recipe. Decided to go off the board and follow a new recipe. Check (sorry can't find it online).
• Decide if I'm going to go with the traditional Green Bean Casserole or venture out and try a new one. Decided to try a new one. Check.
• Decide what dessert(s) I will serve. Pending.
• Order bread from Panera Bread Company. Pending.
• Plan for table decorations. Pending.
• Get games and puzzles ready. Pending.
• Determine if I need to run out and get some coordinating serving dishes. Pending (and likely! Yeah for me!).
• Plan cooking schedule and delegating job schedule. Pending.
• Decide how I'm going to cook the turkey this year. Pending - have decided though against using the turkey fryer. I think a 20 lb turkey is too big for that way, although a bit sad about that. Last time we did it, I loved it!

I really enjoy Thanksgiving and I'm weird but I totally prefer doing the whole thing by myself. This year I'm getting smart and am preparing recipes I can make ahead of time (up to two days prior for a couple of them). Oh no, just got a call, maybe two more people. Might need to add a couple more side dishes. Fun!

I'm still under the weather. Coughing now with a tad bit of wheezing. Going back to the dr today and when I begin feeling better will post more. Didn't do a lot this weekend due to my condition. Getting tired of this stuff. A week is long enough already! Yuck!

EDITED: I now have Bronchitis, completely unrelated to the other two infections I had earlier in the week. We have now switched anitibiotics. Keep your fingers crossed this one works and nothing else pops up. I think it's time for my immune system to be rebooted.

Ok, so I have a problem with my nose. I have a pretty ugly staph infection but from what I understand it's not that bad staph infection where my nose is going to fall off. (At this point I wouldn't be opposed to that). I got this after being sick the end of last week. It's horrible and definately far from pretty. Today, while I was working, Oscar was sitting next to me I swear staring directly at my nose. I told him, "You looking at my nose? You looking? Stop-it. Not nice. Stop-it". Keeping his body in the same position he turned his head away as if to say, "I'm not looking. Nope, nooootttt looking..." Then, after a perfect pause, only his eyes turn back to me (not his head or his body) and again stared directly at my nose. I swear he was saying, "Ok, I'm looking and by the way, that is way worse then my butt!"

And, speaking of Oscar, Oprah is having Tyson the Skateboarding Bulldog on today. Check it out. We are making Oscar watch too.

Too funny. Ok, I'm working all day today and while I'm waiting for stuff to load I keep bouncing back and forth checking out Bloglines to see what blogs I subscribe to have recently been updated. It's becoming a bad habit I'm afraid but I regress... Donna Downey (a scrapbooker and artist) was having 5 give-aways today and I thought it would be fun to participate (seeing as I've never done this sort of thing before). After all I love free things and how hard could this be? The deal was every hour, on the hour, she would post it was time for the give-away and the 36th person to post a comment would win. As simple as that! Ok, I will periodically check and participate by making a comment, and maybe I'll be a lucky winner.

So, I go back to work and after a bit I remember this is going on. I check and all of a sudden I have missed 3 of the give-aways. What? What has happened? Then I realize, there must be a delay since I'm accessing her blog through Bloglines. Normally this isn't an issue, however, when time is this important I need to be directly on her page! I check the clock and realize it's only 7 minutes before the next give-away. Ha. I'm so ontop of this now! I pull up her site, refresh. wait. refresh. wait. work. refresh. work. refresh. wait. refresh. wait. refresh. Ah Ha, it's there. The new posting with 0 comments. I decided to go ahead and post a comment as a test comment because posting this early surely I'm going to be commenter 3 or something like that. I put my quick comment, press post and all of a sudden I'm like commenter 50ish. What the ________???? I look back at all the times and there are a ton at 3:01. Everyone is doing what I'm doing.

Ok, so obviously I didn't win. Bummer. I then begin to think, how many people are just hanging out waiting for her posts? Insane. No wonder her dh is working with her now. I'd love to have a business where people are just hanging out, waiting for my next word. You go girl! I mean, I know free products are a draw but seriously that's amazing! Ok, only 42 more minutes to go until the last round. What do you think my odds are?

Last post I said I would fu with photos - here they are. This has been put together based on need, not a lot of thought has gone into it. All the stuff on the walls and in the shelves were just in the room on the floor - getting in my way. I finally had to break down and hang things up so I could walk in the room and get shelves to try to be better organized.

Turning out to be a geometric room isn't it?

Have to say I have a whole new appreciation for photographers who photograph rooms. It's not easy to do. My photos never turn out to look like what I see when I look at the room.

Ok, feeling better - not 100% but much better. Having some residual issues from being sick (which I will spare you the details) but that didn't stop me from working on a Sunday project while the boys were gone for 3 hours today at skating school. I completed my version of an inspiration board - well in my case an inspiration wall. I turned one entire wall in "my room" into a cork board. Unfortunately, I haven't taken pictures yet because I'm still cleaning it up. I also added a couple bookcases in there and hung up some stuff on the other wall. I do not have drapes in there yet but have picked out the fabric I will be using, which matches my inspiration wall perfectly. It will all make sense once I can attach some photos.

Also, was able to attend church this morning. Since we are new, we don't know anyone yet, so that made it really easy to attend and leave without worrying about talking with anyone when not looking my best. It was a great service but very sad. When we left dh asked Alex if mom was crying the entire time. He said, "Of course!" (We didn't sit by each other). It was about troubles in life and how we deal with them. They told the story of a young boy in our community who was a top ice hockey player and was in a simple car accident on the way to school (in carpool) and he was the only one injured. So much so he is still in a coma five months later. They go to this church and the boys father got up on stage and talked to everyone. It was amazing, so sad but so much hope.

Resting now, getting ready for a day of work tomorrow. Have some phones to get installed at the office and some work that needs to get done that I wasn't able to get to last week due to fil in hospital and then my being sick. Here's to a productive week to all!

I've got the flu - so I suspect. Have had it for a couple days now and can tell (fingers crossed) I'm in the getting better phase now - thankfully! Yesterday was the worse of it; full body aches, chills, fever, runny nose, stopped nose, sore throat, cough... About 3:30pm yesterday my fever broke and I started to feel better. Today I'm taking it easy, I'm still in bed but much more alert. Chad is sick too, Alex and dh have been missing in action. It's not good if they get sick so I'm glad they've been keeping busy and staying away. My boys and I did get the flu shot the other day but it appears I got it a little too late. I haven't been sick this bad in about five years. Here's to no more flu symptoms!