Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A Rant


So I used to have a feature phone (Samsung Rouge) I bought two years ago.


Touch screen, slide out keyboard. It was the best! Long story short it got water damage and no longer worked. As a replacement, I am using LG env one of my awesome co-workers let me have for free. No touch screen but at least has a QWERTY keyboard.
Anyway getting close to having my free upgrade but there are no feature phones like my old Samsung except for those by LG. I hate LG phones. They are crap! All the feature phones are being replaced by smartphones. But here is the kicker, you have to get a $30 data plan to purchase a smartphone. The $10 data plan that I had is only for features phones. It's a conspiracy! Oh and I can't find a decent used Samsung Rogue either for the price Verizon offers for new phones.
Sorry for ranting but I felt the needed it today. LOL.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Holiday Decorating

I've been having fun making some seasonal decorations to put up on my shelves in the kitchen. It's been a great distraction and something I like to do.

My mother-in-law let me borrow her Cricut and I was able to cut some vinyl letters out. I want one now except I want the Silhouette electronic cutter (hint, hint for next Christmas Barry) cause' I've got skills, computer graphic skills.

Also, I got this wonderful an idea from a former classmate's blog (http://thoughtsinvinyl.blogspot.com) to use both sides of the wooden blocks so as to save storage space when the time comes.

Anyway, here is what I did...

I used a power handheld reciprocating saw (image me doing the Tim the Tool-man Taylor grunt here) and made five blocks out of a 2x4 of pine. We have lots of scraps from when we framed our basement.

After sanding, I painted the sides, top, and the edges of the front and back with black craft paint. Then I used mod-podge to stick the scrapbook paper onto the blocks and then applied my vinyl. So on one side it says LOVE and when March comes I can flip it to say LUCKY.



I also made a decoration for Easter/Spring. Barry already had a 2x4 he had cut to be a 2x2. So I used the saw again and cut out one block for the HAPPY and then I cut a 2x4 to go underneath. After the cutting, sanding, painting, mod-podge, and vinyl application here is how it turned out. I must say it turned out really cute!