Friday, May 28, 2010

FWF From Starbucks

Thank goodness for Starbucks, that's all I have to say! Hip Hop and blog posts...I'm getting 'em done.

It's Friday and that means it's time for Friends with Flair! Check out the Unity blog for a full list of FWF hop participants. As always, somebody is hiding the blinkie. Wonder who it is this week!

Did you guys SEE the new Donna Downey releases?? Oh. My. Word!!! DDG. They're fabulous! I need them. All of them. What to do, what to do...

While I dither, the easy thing to do is to love the Unity I have and make a card, right? And since it's my favourite challenge, it's Etsy Inspired! EIC89's shop is Made by Michelle Brusegaard, and as soon as I saw the shop, I knew exactly what I was going to do. Now, I know these dish towels technically have flowers printed on them, but they reminded me soooo much of the lollipop tree stamp, I just had to go there.

The lollipop tree stamp is from the April '09 KOTM Fresh Beginnings and the sentiment is from the first store KOTM (Aug '09) 100% Happy.
Wishing you all a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Softpencil Customer Blog Hop - Christmas Style



Hey there Peeps! Welcome to the Softpencil Customer Blog Hop! If you've come from Lisa's awesome blog, you're in the right spot. If not, head over to the beginning at Softpencil to get started.

Still posting from Starbucks, but only until the first of July. We're moving into a new house and I can hardly wait! We still can't get anywhere with Comcast, so instead of waiting until the spousal unit retires next spring, we're moving off the military post now. We'll get DSL as soon as we move into the new place. I can hardly wait, even though I truly hate to move. Packing and unpacking. UGH!

I truly loved being on the DT for Softpencil, so when I found out that there was going to be a customer blog hop, you can bet I was going to sign up for that! Elizabeth's designs are so super sweet and a lot of fun to colour. Since they're digital, you can print them out in whatever size you need for your project. I love the versatility!

Don't laugh too hard at the image I chose. I'm trying to work on Christmas a little at a time throughout the year so that I'm not scrambling at the last minute in December, like I usually end up doing. So Michu came out to play in Santa's bag.
I used the sketch challenge from Oh, Alice! I've missed playing along, but I think I've worked out a really good system for challenges and blog posts now. We'll see how well it works over the next week or so. The big question? Can I still embroider at the same time. Hmm....

Hop on over to Ileana's blog next and see what she has to share today!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Wandering FWF

Good morning Unity Peeps! It's time for Friends With Flair and I'm in a much better mood today. Sometimes venting helps, so many thanks for listening to our rant about Comcast. Yes, I'm back at Starbucks so I can blog this morning, but I'm getting my coffee fix (or rather, I will in a sec - the line is really long this early and I'm later than I wanted to be.)

I pulled out some new Ippity and an old Unity background to make my card for this week. It's sort of EtsyInspired(EIC88) - if you stretch it a bit. My inspiration was this book...and I had a hard time coming up with anything, so the best I could do was find a quote from a book. I guess I should've made a bookmark. I don't know why that didn't occur to me until just now.

Deets:
Stamps: Unity - Worn Grid,{Ippity} - Delightful Little Things
Cardstock: SU
DP: Basic Grey
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink - Vintage Photo & Antique Linen
Etc: clear embossing powder, twine

Check out the full list of Friends With Flair blog hop participants on the Unity Blog. As usual, someone has the blinkie. Find it, and you could win some Unity stamps!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Comcast Took Our Internet Away

Yes, you read that right. Comcast took our internet away. We still aren't exactly sure what we did. They say we used some ungodly amount of bandwidth in February. They called us with a warning in March, and said that if we did it again, we would lose our connection. For a year.

Well, first of all, we didn't know there was a bandwidth limit. Did you? You know all of those fabulous commercials touting all you can do with XFINITY? You know...streaming video, online gaming...yeah, well, there is a limit of 250 gigabytes per month. According to Comcast, we used over 850gb in the month of February. How this is possible is beyond our ken. So when they called in mid-March, we were shocked. Appalled. And said, okay, how do we keep that from happening again?

They suggested a new router, password protected. We did that. It took a few days (and two different routers) to find one that worked - ie, we could get it properly protected and still allow the computers in the house to talk to each other and access the internet. Well, close enough. They won't talk to each other anymore, but at least they can access the net. With the first new router, they couldn't even do that.

All hooked up, the spousal unit found a bandwidth monitoring program. He also found a place on Comcast's site that listed what they said we were using. By the time he found that, it was in to April. On April 25, their records showed that we had used 600g in March, and 242 for the first 25 days in April. The first full month with the new router, and we were under their arbitrary limit. We did some calculations, and figured out that whatever was going on, we were already over that 250 mark by the time they called us in March.

On April 26, I was participating in Unity's 2nd Anniversary. In the middle of a chat, our internet service was cut off. After speaking with Comcast, I was informed that we had violated the terms of service and we would be unable to regain service for an entire year. The spousal unit was told the same thing.

The next day, he tried calling them again and asked to speak with a supervisor. He was told he could not speak with a supervisor because "if we let customers speak with supervisors, then supervisors would spend their whole days doing nothing but speaking to customers." Seriously? You've got to be kidding me.

Now, you may be wondering why we didn't just suck it up and go with Verizon FIOS. Well, you see, we live on a military installation and Comcast has an exclusive contract to provide broadband service to Fort Meade. They're the only game in town. With 5 children and the 2 of us, some of us taking online college courses, dial-up is not an option (although we did actually try it. Nothing loads.)

I am posting this from what has become my usual seat at the Starbucks about 4 miles down the street. I'm singularly unhappy.

The woman who is working with base housing and "communications" also tried to talk to Comcast. She got no further than we did. She did inform us that Comcast's exclusive contract is up for review "soon" and that she was flabbergasted (her actual word) that Comcast would treat one of their customers that way. I tend to wonder if there are others on Ft. Meade who have been treated the same way and if it will impact Comcast's contract with the Fort. If so, they could lose the contract, which could cost them thousands of dollars, if not millions.

Karma's a bitch.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Taylored Expressions - Blast From the Past

Hey everyone! Nope, still no real internet. I'm posting from Starbucks again. Thank goodness for Starbucks! And coffee!! Don't know what I'd do without them. When I get all hooked up again, I'll tell you guys the "wonderful" story of Comcast and how much they suck.

Anyway, today is Taylored Expressions' Blast From the Past Blog Hop - and I almost forgot about it!! Fortunately, I was up here at Starbucks yesterday and caught the email about it, so here I am, thumb drive in hand, posting away. By the way, I am a serious dweeb. I read "8am" go live. I have been in such a hurry with my internet time that I didn't read closely - and missed "Pacific time." Anyone else hearing Homer Simpson saying "Doh!" in their heads?

I, of course, also forgot about the sketch, and since I can't check email at home, I hope you will all forgive me for that. I'll probably make another card this evening - just for fun. But checking out the other participants, I'm seeing some uber cute cards using it, so I'm definitely going to have to hop to it!

I CASE'd a card by Melanie Muenchinger that was in the May Cardmaker magazine. I finally got to ink up Berries & Cherries, which I think is just about the sweetest set. C'mon, strawberries and chocolate in the same set? How can you not like that?? Throw in a little bit of Basic Grey's Nook & Pantry dp and voila! Une carte de voeux.


Check out the rest of the hop...and enjoy!

Friday, May 07, 2010

Etsy Inspired Friends with Flair

Another quickish post for me. I still don't have net access at home, so I'm back at Starbucks! I'm actually typing the beginning of this at Panera on Thursday night, but I won't have the photos of my project ready until morning, so....welcome to Unity's Friday Friends with Flair!!

Chatting on Hip Hop has been a challenge for me the past 2 weeks, but it's still fun and I'm sure enjoying the projects I've gotten to see.

I'm using the sketch from CPS#165. It's really cute! And of course, Etsy Inspired #86. The shop is Isabell's Umbrella and I went with these darling little cupcake cards as my inspiration. Add in kraft, violet, and light green from {color chef challenge #49} and you've got my card! Well, of course, Unity stamps, too!! The sentiment is from Mix Up of Cuteness and the image is from the August KOTM "Following My Heart..."

Little secret...that ribbon was blue to begin with. Hurray for Copic markers!

Check out the Unity Blog to see a full list of Hip Hop participants. Someone is hiding the blinkie - find it and you could win some random Unity stamps!!