When life gives you a lemon. . . (Destash-Along Project #4)

For over a year now I have been dealing with a lemon of a car. I won't bore you with all of the details, but let's just say my car has been in and out of the shop for seven different problems in a 12 month span, all related to a faulty electrical system. So, I classify my car as a lemon. My car dealership thinks differently, though the manufacturer just issued a huge recall on several of their cars. And, I just found out that the major issue for the recall might be related to the electrical system. Duh!

Unfortunately, I will be heading to arbitration in the next few weeks and then possibly to court. I have never sued or have ever thought of suing anyone before this, but now I am on the verge of retaining an attorney and suing my car company. It is such a shame that companies no longer take pride in their work. Where are the old days when "the customer is always right"? Now, it is all about legal departments and law suits.

So, I might be a little scatterbrained for the next few weeks. I am really not sure what this entire process is going to entail and how it is going to affect me (I already have a twitching eye and a stiff neck), but I vow to keep my #1 New Year's resolution of staying positive.

To take away a little of the pressure, I have made myself a little crocheted lemon car.

This little lemon will serve as a reminder for me to not take this situation too seriously. Life is good and, hopefully, very soon my lemon will be nothing but a distant memory!

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My little lemon car used 100% of my stash. I have so much of this yellow yarn that I might have to make several dozen of these little lemons!

I am working on a Jan/Feb photo compilation of completed destash-along projects. If you have finished any, please add your pics to the Flickr group or send me a link to your post with your finished project. I'll grab your picture from your blog.

2 down (#58 & #98), 100 to go!

A few months ago my car (yes, the car from H.E. double hockey sticks) broke my iPod. It didn't totally destroy it, but made it so it would only work for about 30 minutes and then shut itself off because it thought the battery was dead. Unfortunately, since I had one of the very first iPod models there was no way for me to have it fixed. So I kept it, listening to it sporadically and trying to hold on to it as long as I could. Last week, it officially died! RIP little iPod. :(

I found out that trading in an old iPod model gets you a 10% discount. So, I made an appointment with the Apple Store. I had no idea you could make an appointment online, but boy am I glad I did. My appointment was at 10:00 on Saturday, and the store was already a zoo when I got there at 9:45. There were at least 50 people in there.

When I went in, there was my Apple associate, Elizabeth, waiting for me. She showed me everything I could possibly want to know about the iPod Touch, iPod Nano, and Classic iPod.

After much (and I mean much) deliberating, (it was a lot harder decision than I thought) I decided on the iPod Touch. The reason: it is a little mini computer/video game/movie player/radio. And because I am such a freak for music, I had to get the 32GB because the 8GB didn't have enough space for my large and bizarre music collection.

So, here it is. My brand new iPod Touch.

I am not the greatest when it comes to taking care of CDs and DVDs, as all of my CDs and DVDs have scratches on them. I didn't want my new toy to get ruined after a few days, so before Christmas (yes, before I got the iPod) I bought the hot pink iPod sleeve at Marshalls for under $5.00. Not only will I be able to locate my iPod from a mile away (and possibly in the dark), but it is dressed up in '80s pink neon!

Oh yeah. We got the beat!

I've had several friends say that they've been thinking of getting an iPod Touch, so I thought I'd put together my list of good things and not so good things about my new toy. Now, this is all relative to my old, dinosaur of an iPod. Maybe the new iPods have this too, but it is all new to me. Here we go:

Good Things:

1. There is a speaker in the headphone jack, so when the headphones are not plugged in you can still listen to music.
2. The loading time is super fast. My old iPod took 24 hours to load all of my songs. This iPod took 30 minutes.
3. So many free apps to choose from. Some of my favorites: Lose it (tracks your daily calories and fitness), 2Do (an awesome todo list), TuneWiki (hooks up with radio stations), BudgetTool (lets you set up a monthly and yearly budget), Bible (has the entire Bible, plus lets you set up reading lists), and many more I am sure I haven't found yet.
4. Hooks you up to the internet as long as you are somewhere with wireless access. There are also apps for Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr.
5. Has a place for you to store photos.
6. You can look at the screen both horizontally and vertically.

Bad Things:

1. You have to have the iPod plugged into your computer (and has to be turned on) in order for it to recharge the battery.
2. The music shuffle is a little difficult to figure out. I hope I'll get it soon.
3. Not loading all of my album cover art. I'm working on that too!

As you can see the good outweighs the bad, and the bad things really aren't that bad. I am very happy that I chose the Touch over the Classic.

I am still very nervous about hooking it up to my car, so I won't be carrying it around much. But when I do, I want to make a felt case for when I have it in my purse, so I'll be working on that soon. I found a great tutorial from one of my blog followers!

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Two of my 101 in 1001 Days items were marked off this week: "Buy an iPod Touch" and "Organize iPod". Thanks to this purchase, I also started on #46 (choose 5 books of the Bible and study them). My first book is Psalms.

I will also be adding $10.00 into my savings account when I get my paycheck on the 15th!

Groundhog Day (Destash-Along Project #3)

I had to pop in today and share with you my groundhog that I crocheted for the Groundhog-Along, which is being hosted by PlanetJune.

I've always wanted to travel to Punxsutawney to visit the infamous Punxsutawney Phil, but I never have. So, my little Amigurumi groundhog will have to do.

BTW, I dug into my stash for this little guy by using Vanna's Choice yarn (taupe), 2 safety eyes, and polyfil. Woo Hoo!

A little paper goodie

I had a great time reading everyone's blogs and found a ton of patterns and tutorials that have been added to my to-do list. If there were only more hours in the day. . .

This is the first blogging friends project I completed. I just wish this picture had come out better and brighter, because this banner is the cutest thing ever. Plus, it matches my pink kitchen perfectly!

I found the free download on Tricia-Rennea Art. Tricia has a ton of totally cute and completely free downloads for you to enjoy.

This little project was super simple. I just downloaded the pattern, cut out the 5 triangles, bent the top of the paper over and taped it, ran a piece of twine through each triangle, and tied each end to my curtain rod. Piece of cake!

Thanks for the adorable paper craft, Tricia!

Snow Day!

I am enjoying a snow day today thanks to the huge snowstorm that hit the Carolinas this past weekend. We received 7-1/2 inches of snow, which is a lot for us!

Since Saturday, the kids have been sledding down the golf course. But as of yesterday, they are also sledding down the street in front of my house. The noise of the sleds sliding down the snow & ice is totally freaking out the cats. I don't think they slept at all yesterday afternoon. Poor girls.

But it is really pretty!