Great Customer Service........

I have been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks now but keep forgetting.  I ordered business cards and stickers for Appleby Lane through Vista Print.  Our daughter had the Appleby Lane logo made through someone for me, and I wanted to use the logo on both the cards and stickers.

To cut a long story short when I recieved my order everything was way too small.  I could barely read it with my glasses on and using a magnifying glass!!  So I called them and admitted that this was my mistake and asked what I should do.  Without hesitating they said no problem they would reprint everything bigger and send it back to me no charge.

So Vista Print will be getting all my business from now on.  Have you used Vista Print?

I love the look of my business cards, simple but effective I think:

The one thing though I do forget and that is too check my Appleby Lane yahoo account...........just going to do that now...LOL

Smart phones, emails and texting.......

(image credit)

It seems I am not as hip and happening as I thought I was.  Are hip and happening cool words you use nowadays?  Who knows???

When we went to Britain we took dh's Apple IPad.  I never touch the thing as I prefer my laptop.  I did however want to check my emails so logged into GMail and attempted to access my account.  To cut a VERY LONG and VERY FRUSTRATING story short, "they" (who ever they are) thought I was trying to hack into my account.  I attempted in my sleep deprived state to answer 7 million questions but gave it up as a bad job.

When I got home, not only did I have to reset my email account, it also screwed up my KOBO and my cell phone.  In my cell phone's case I had to take it to the store to sort it out as neither me nor dh (who is smart when it comes to smart phones) could fix the problem of me receiving and sending emails with my phone.  It took the guy a few minutes of pressing this button and that to get everything working.  It turned out I had two icons for the same gmail account, so double emails were coming in and filling up the space on my phone.  

The guy did show me how to do a couple of things and told me to come back if I had anymore questions.  Honestly though, it all went over my head.

Which comes to texting.  I text how I write an email; basically long hand.  The only "text word" I have down pat is LOL.  The rest is like a foreign language to me.  I also used to always add my name to the end of a text, just like you do in a letter.  That was until ds pointed out everyone knows it's from you so don't put your name on it?  So when I send a text it is usually at least two messages long.  

Dh finally MADE me set up a voice mail on my cell phone.  As I have pointed out to him I am always forgetting to turn my phone on or charge the battery, so having a voice mail seems pointless to me; but he insisted.  I don't even know my cell phone number; who does?

I never hear the bloody phone anyway unless I have the volume turned right up, and then it tweets like a bird which confuses everyone.  If I could I would get rid of the phone, but as I am totally useless when it comes to doing anything with the car, at least if I happen to break down when I am out, I can call someone; assuming I managed to remember to charge the battery on the phone or even turn it on???  

I have 18 months still left on my phone contract and then I HAVE to get an Apple I Phone as dh has one and is familiar with everything on it.  Me, well I couldn't care less one way or another. 

 How about you?

House and cottage of the week, plus other stuff..

This week's house/condo of the week is just plain awful.  I can normally find something I like about a place, but honestly this condo is just plain awful, right down to the way it is all decorated, and it has just had $300,000 spent on it........where?  I guess if you want to be downtown it has the convenience factor but otherwise, I wouldn't give you $100,000 for it, never mind 1 million!!!


The cottage of the week, well there wasn't one, they did an "office space," instead.  I personally would find it hard to work in a space like that, as it is too "pretty."  Also that space is way too tidy for any real work to get done, don't you think.  Then in the summer how much work would you get done with a deck just outside the door?

***Deal Alert*** If you are in Canada and happen to be passing Canadian Tire they have a KitchenAid 2-quart saucepan on sale for $8.89, should be $39.99, it is worth every penny.  I have one and it is a great size to have in the house.  It's on sale from Friday through to Sunday and there is also a scratch and win  the same days, where you can win  a McCain frozen cake, or a $5 money off coupon, or a $5,000 gift card for Canadian Tire.  I would be happy to win the $5 off card.  I will be popping in as cling wrap, aluminum foil, magic eraser's and a few other things are all on sale for 89 cents each.  Plus it's 10 x the bonus points for gas with the coupon this week as well at the Canadian Tire gas bar.

We went to the market again on Thursday and walked away with 12 bags of rolls for the freezer.  More leeks, carrots, parsnips and broccoli.  Also 7 white pine trees and we bought a gorgeous turn of the century chest of drawers with a mirror on the top from the antique market.  I will take a photo when we get it cleaned up.  Dh said as soon as I saw it my face just lit up, and he knew I wanted it.  Also the guy that owned the booth happened to be there and knocked $35 off of it, so that was nice of him.

As far as I know I have emailed everyone who requested the crockpot recipe book.  If I have missed you please let me know?  I am hoping to get caught up with everyones blogs over the weekend.  It's been a very busy week again around here.

Where are the blueberries?

I got this in an email and found it quite interesting:

We all know that real blueberries are full of antioxidents but look at what several BIG food companies are doing to make for huge profits.  Quite the video.

Isn’t this something? Nothing but disregard and greed!   Who would have thought Kelloggs or Betty Crocker products deceiving? Watch for yourself , they are killing us little by little. Here is the link and please watch it and send it to your friends.    http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=7EC06D27B1A945BE85E7DA8483025962

 

Seems like I have full blown allergies now, as I am ready to pull off my nose and my eyes are watering, so I am persevering with the Benadryll.  I don't have to drive today, so I can dope myself up with it.  I swear this living in the country will be the death of me!!!

 

Got some helpers coming over today to pick raspberries, so we should get a lot picked.  I also want to get more jam made, so that should keep me out of mischief.  I picked up another 6 dozen jam jars, so that makes 10 dozen, which should in theory be enough..............

The story behind the 26,000 emails.........

Back in July of 2009 I set up a Gmail account, where I have been sending and receiving emails.  Unbeknown to me although I have been deleting them from my inbox etc, I hadn't been deleting them from the server, and that is where I am trying to delete them from.  So in two years I have sent and have received over 26,000 emails........


30 years today me and dh went out on our first date.  I would think we went to the pub, can't really remember anything else about it.  It is also one of my niece's birthday's today she is 15 years of age, just seems like yesterday when she was born.  Time is certainly flying by fast.

I have just read the book, "Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me, A memoir of sorts," by Ian Morgan Cron

 “When I first discovered the grainy picture in my mother’s desk—me as a towheaded two year old sitting in what I remember was a salmon-orange-stained lifeboat—I was overwhelmed by the feeling that the boy in the boat was not waving and laughing at the person snapping the photo as much as he was frantically trying to get the attention of the man I am today. The boy was beckoning me to join him on a voyage through the harrowing straits of memory. He was gambling that if we survived the passage, we might discover an ocean where the past would become the wind at our back rather than a driving gale to the nose of our boat. This book is the record of that voyage.”

Reading the excerpt of the book, I must admit I didn't know what to expect exactly, but the title intrigued me so I thought I would give it a go.  Will admit to it being slow going at first but once you get into it you will be pleasantly surprised. 

You go through an array of emotions, from laughing out loud at the funny stories he tells you, to being sad and angry at the way his alcoholic father treats the author.  He also takes you through the ups and downs of his love/hate relationship with the church and God.

Its well worth the read and not overly hard.

Stars out of 5: 3.5 it wasn't the best book out there but a pretty interesting read, which will make you appreciate what you have in life.

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. 

Available at your favourite bookseller from Thomas Nelson". 

Google & my gmail..........

"Imagine the sinking feeling of logging in to your Gmail account and finding it empty. That’s what happened to 0.02% of Gmail users yesterday, and we’re very sorry. The good news is that email was never lost and we’ve restored access for many of those affected. Though it may take longer than we originally expected, we're making good progress and things should be back to normal for everyone soon"

That is part of the message on the Gmail blog, here is the rest of the message

Well that's what happened to my account and is still happening to my email account.  I haven't had access to my main email account which happens to be a Gmail account since Sunday.  Yesterday I got a message that my blog had been deleted. 

Obviously they re-instated my blog last night again.  All I could think of was how much work I had put into this blog and poof it was all gone.........so you can imagine my relief when I found it back online.

Now for them to fix my email account.  I had hoped it would be back up and running this morning but not yet.  So fingers toes and everything else crossed that normal service will resume shortly.

The sad thing in all of this, is how much I rely on the flipping computer.......for those of you who regularly contact me through email (Cheryl) keep checking in here for updates.  I am also on Facebook just search for me through my name.

Odds and ends for Thursday........

I spent nearly all Wednesday morning on the telephone, sorting out bits and bobs.

Registered the washer and dryer for the extended warranty.  Spoke with the most polite, happy and sickly sweet woman there, I mean she was so polite and happy it was scary by the end of the conversation...LOL

Found a plumber to come and stick his camera down my sewage pipe!!!  I'll explain more on that when it happens, which should be one day next week...........I will be parting with $250 for the pleasure!!!

Talked with dd future mother-in-law..........known her and her dh for the past ten years and we get on really well.

Sent numerous emails and made a couple more phone calls, by that time it was 12 noon.

In the afternoon I had to snow plow the driveway, not because we had a pile of snow only a couple of inches, but as it was blowing a gale force the drifts were terrible on the driveway.

We went out when dh got home and one place we called into was Home Depot.  Would you believe they had all their lawn tractors out.  Had to laugh at that as we are still in the throws of winter, infact we have two snow storms coming our way over the next week.  So I don't think Home Depot has talked to Mother Nature about winter being over with!!

What did I do on my day off.........

Well after having a lie-in and not getting up until 10am.  I sat and had a relaxing cup of tea, with home made whole grain bread, with hand churned butter and some of my homemade raspberry jam, while flicking through a couple of those "gossip magazines."  I then had a shower and headed to the spa, where I spent the next three hours having a massage, a facial and a pedicure; having a small break in between treatments for a light spa lunch, of baby greens and a poached chicken breast, and chocolate mousse with fresh berries for afters with a soothing cup of green tea to finish with............ 

Hang on, that's my dream day....in reality, I was up before 6am, thank you Molly for that!!   By 10am I had cleaned the bathrooms, washed and hung out two loads of laundry.  Made numerous telephone calls, submitted the recipe book to the publishers.  Sent a few emails, cleaned our bedroom and "captured" all the dust bunnies living in there!! 

By lunch time I had ironed both loads of laundry, sorted out the raspberries from the night before; made a batch of fabric softener, recipe is here.  Tidied up in the family room.  After lunch I went to my quilt club meeting, and picked up this month's pattern which is a Bear Paw Pattern  I also picked up a Christmas panel for a small wall hanging:

This is a close up shot of part of it.

I get a free fat quarter every month from this club, and for the past couple of months I have been getting this ladybug material.  What would you suggest as a contrast material to go with it?

When I got back in I made fish cakes from the leftover mashed potatoes.  I made enough for two meals so froze the rest.  Here is a recipe for them from a prior post, the are so easy to make I would never dream of buying them.

I prepared a garden salad enough for both Tuesday and Wednesday nights supper.  So that all I have to do when I get in from work on Wednesday is pop the stuffed baked potatoes in the microwave for 10 minutes and pop into the toaster oven to crisp up the outside, probably 20 minutes; and pull out the salad and within 30 minutes, supper will be on the table.

I didn't get everything done like I wanted to, but achieved the main things I wanted to get done......

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that......

Well it only took me five months, but I finally got some pictures hung up around the house on Monday. Not all of them, but enough to make a little difference in the house.

Dh got the last basement window sealed up, so fingers crossed that stops the mice from getting in the house. I haven't caught a mouse since last Friday, would love to think that's it, but honestly I know better!!!! Still inundated with cluster flies; I figured we would be so over those by now, but no such luck.

While dh was outside doing the last window, I had Molly out having a good run around. Luckily her nose gets her in such a frenzy, that she wears herself out. So a good 45 minutes of running around the raspberry bushes and the trees, was great exercise for her. I just watched her, as I don't want her heading towards the road. Her allergies are no better; she started her scratching and chewing her paws at 2am, and she had me up at 4am Monday morning. I made her go back to sleep and ended up not getting up to close to 7am.

I am still hobbling around. My knee though does feel as though it is getting better, slowly but surely. It's still taking me a lot longer to do things; and I don't know what the scoop is but ever since I have hurt my knee, everything I need is down the basement stairs. I seem to spend half my life struggling to get up and down the stairs.............

Oh and finally, I don't have an email address that everyone can access via my blog. If you want to talk to me privately, just leave me your email address in a comment, with DO NOT PUBLISH in large letters, and I will send you an email. I moderate all my comments, so comments do not publish right away.

The reason I am telling you all this is that someone was asking why I don't have email access via my blog. I choose not to, as I am terrible at checking my emails, other than my main email address. I do have the usual hotmail, yahoo accounts, but I never check them.........no idea why I have them...LOL I obviously don't want my main email address on my blog, as there are some strange and unusual people out there, that have nothing else better to do but leave weird and nasty comments!!

Email issue......

just a quick post, for those of you who know me personally..........ds set up my email account and for some reason I can't send emails, but I can receive them. So until dh gets time to have a look for me to see what's wrong I can't email anyone. If you want to send me an email, use the gmail address that I gave you, as the other one is not going to be valid.......

Gill