WOYWW 470 Chaos!

Well, here we are back again after another week has flown by.

Old Windows Laptop RIP

Yesterday my elderly HP Pavilion laptop’s hard drive died. I’d been expecting something of the kind for a while because lately it’s been incredibly sluggish and also it tended to get rather hot. The same happened to my small one (same brand only smaller) and I wasted money to be told that there was no point repairing it because the motherboard was too old and overheating. So I decided simply to ditch the big one and probably won’t replace it, but make do with my newer large HP laptop. The old one was unusual in having two hard drives and I’d used the second one for all the stuff that was on the old failed small laptop. I have removed this and have ordered an enclosure for it so that I can continue to use it. I am not fazed by what has happened because all my data is backed up.

Since we moved here I’ve had an expensive dust-gatherer in the form of an old NAS drive that unfortunately won’t work with the Sky router. It had 2 hard drives, 1 TB each, and while I was at it yesterday I removed these and have ordered enclosures for them also. I shall use one for backups of all my data and probably the other one as a second backup. Something I’ve been planning to do for years!

Before deciding the old laptop wasn’t rescueable, I tried repairing it with my emergency start-up discs but the thing was kaput. I had to get loads of stuff down to find them and this is the chaos in my office a a result.

I’ve decided not to put anything back until I’ve been through it all and chucked out a lot of rubbish.

Studio Chaos

Further chaos reigns throughout my studio too.

No change on my desk this week apart from perhaps a slightly thicker layer of dust – no time or energy to do any art. Still working on the second heart ornament and the box for my mini-album. The stack of paper in front of the cutting machine was part of a birthday present from a friend – lots of goodies in there!

Things are no better the other side of the room. At least I shall soon be able to put all my wools away.

Knitting

I have at last finished the second pair of socks for the homeless that I started last year. I am hoping someone at church will be able to pass them on now Socktober and Toevember are a distant memory – this project had to go into abeyance when our lives went pear-shaped in November when my hubby broke his leg and all that has happened since.

At least one of my UFOs is now finished.

They still look knobbly and uneven because they need to be blocked.

I’ve just got to sort out my knitting bag and then I can put the wools away.

Kitties

The kitties are going out in the garden on a daily basis now. We think Lily had a fright the other day because she was suddenly terrified to go out and had to be taken out in my hubby’s arms and she’d dash back in again. She’s growing in confidence a bit more now, though. As for Ruby, she simply loves it out there and it’s a job to get her to come in – she spends her time mooching about looking at things, chasing flies, smelling the flowers…

I managed to get this shot of them both through the bedroom window this morning – unfortunately didn’t have time to open the window first so there’s a bit of reflection.

Ruby in the laundry basket:

Their latest favourite place is my hubby’s office chair.

Here’s my hubby having breakfast in the garden the other day. The kitties are out there somewhere with him!

My Birthday Present to Myself

When we went to Knightshayes on my birthday, we both fell in love with a metal astrolabe-style sundial so we bought it.

My hubby has made a pedestal for it from an upturned terracotta planter and the pedestal of a broken concrete urn! He is going to paint the whole pedestal with a sand-and-cement wash to make it uniform. Rather smart, don’t you think?

Shoshi Limps into the 21st Century at Last

I have finally given in and decided that I can’t live without a mobile phone. I have put it off for ages except for briefly last year when I was given an old Android smartphone which I couldn’t get on with. If I was going to get one at all it would have to be an iPhone but I wasn’t going to spend silly money at Apple’s prices. Yesterday I found some brilliant reconditioned ones on Ebay and have got one at a very good price – OK, it’s a SE so not the latest but I’m not fussed about that. I have also discovered a SIM only deal by a network called Smarty which is incredibly cheap and which will suit me perfectly well. I shan’t be using the phone that much but now that I am getting out and about on my own a bit more on the buggy I thought I should really have one so I can contact my hubby if necessary, and I’m fed up with all those organisations that assume everyone has mobiles and you can’t secure your account etc. without one.

So that’s my week. Everything but art, except for the knitting!