Proof is in the Pin (better late than never!)

I’m blogging from my laptop! In my last blog just a few hours ago (2012 Christmas Card) I explained that my laptop had been dead for over two weeks. I ended up calling tech support after I wrote the blog because my husband’s desktop was seriously bugging the ever loving snot out of me when I wrote it.

Want to know what tech support had me do to fix my computer? First of all, the problem was that my laptop was dead. Wouldn’t charge, turn on, nothing. It was like the charger wasn’t working at all. But the light on the charger was on, so the charger was receiving power. Stephen even went to the store and bought me a new charger, but it didn’t fix the problem.

Tech support had me remove the battery from the laptop, then, withOUT the charging cable hooked up to it, hold down the power button for about a minute. She said that this would release any static electricity that was built up in the computer. Then I plugged it back in to the charging able and BAM. My computer fired up automatically.

I’ve NEVER heard of that before and neither had Stephen. And we’re both fairly savvy with computers.

Regardless, my baby is back and working like new and I am SO glad because I seriously felt like I was missing my right arm without my laptop working.  I didn’t get to write up a “Proof is in the Pin” blog last week because I seriously couldn’t deal with the desktop. But now I’m linking up with just a few hours to go. Better late than never!

Here are my pins for the past month:

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Pin #1: Lemon Cookies – delicious. like a lemon bar… but in a cookie form. my husband and I both LOVED these. and they were super easy to make and it was all ingredients I normally have on hand. If you’re a fan of lemon, you will LOVE these.

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Pin #2: Free Christmas Fonts – I downloaded a few of these fonts. “Cinnamon Cake” was used on the back side of our Christmas Card this year. (See previous post.) I’m sure I will use more of them in the future! I LOVE downloading new fonts. (I confessed my love of fonts to Stephen and he laughed at me and called me a nerd.)

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Pin #3: Crockpot Hot Chocolate – I made this for Bunco last week. It was good, just really sweet. (Um, hello can of sweetened condensed milk and an entire bag of milk chocolate chips.) I liked it (of course, add vanilla or peppermint mocha coffee creamer to it) but I would only make it for big groups because Stephen’s not a fan of hot chocolate and I would gain about a thousand pounds if I drank this every time I had a hot chocolate craving. I don’t even want to THINK about how many calories were in it. Yowza.

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Pin #4: Tomato Cage Christmas Trees – I’ve loved these trees since I first saw (pinned) them. BUT, there’s no real “tutorial.” I really just work so much better with tutorials! I went to Walmart sometime in November and bought the supplies to make them – tomato cage and garland. I had plenty of extra lights at my house. When I went to choose the garland, there were several different options. I chose the cheapest, which was 50 feet of garland for like 12 bucks. When I pulled everything out to start making the tree, I realized that the cheap garland I had gotten wasn’t going to work, because it didn’t have any wire in it. I got the type of garland that you would put around your Christmas tree as decoration. (I hope this is making sense. I should have taken pictures!) Anyway, I couldn’t use it because when I wrapped it around the tomato cage, it wouldn’t go in a circle because there was no wire in it.

My Tree!♥

My point is this: buy the more expensive garland. It has wire in it and you can shape it the way you need to so that your trees are shaped like circle and not triangles. I paid $4 for a 12-foot section of garland at Walmart. I have a 53” tomato cage (I think) and I used 5 sections of garland and honestly could have used one more. I ended up making three trips to the store to get everything I needed for this tree and it ended up costing me about 25 dollars without the lights (I used 3 strands) or deco mesh. I LOVE this and would love to make more! These would work well outside or inside and I think it would be cute to put ornaments on it and use it in kids rooms… anywhere, really!

My Walmart is already out of the garland I used on this tree which is disappointing because I was hoping to buy the stuff on sale after Christmas. I may keep an eye out for it at discount/wholesale stores throughout the year.

Anyway, I’m glad I was finally able to get this blog up and I am hoping to get on the ball with blogging now that the school semester is over and things have calmed down a bit here!