Hens' Den Pink Paislee Soiree Layout

This month I got to work with Pink Paislee's Soiree line. The bright colors and party theme were perfect for this baby shower layout. Four of our friends had babies last year so that meant a lot of parties!

In this layout I used Pink Paislee Soiree's Music and Diamond double-sided pattered papers as my background. Then I cut out circles, tags, and pendents with Pink Paislee Soiree's Collage, Diamond, Floral, Music, Trellis, and Words double-sided patterned papers, layering them with my photos and mementos. To create a dimensional banner, I cut out circles from Pink Paislee Soiree's Floral double-sided patterned paper, and folded each circle in half. I wanted to make the layout pop so I matted everything with Bazzill Basic's midnight cardstock. Then I added Pink Paislee Soiree's Dimensional Stickers. I misted Maya Road's Organza Primrose with a teal mist to coordinate with the papers. Then I created a handmade flower with Maya Road's White Satin Pleated Ribbon. I cut out a circle the size of my desired flower and covered the circle with double-sided tape. I took the ribbon and placed one edge in the middle of the circle, wrapping the ribbon around the center until I got to the edge of my circle. I cut off the end and viola -- a lovely flower. Finally, I added these flowers to my layout along with Teresa Collins' Blingage Ty's Stars to create an embellishment cluster.

March Crafting

I have a couple more projects to share with you this month. This layout is of last Christmas with my family using My Mind's Eye's sketch and Lost & Found Christmas and Lush lines.

I also created this card using My Mind's Eye's card sketch and Lost & Found 2 Sunshine and Lush lines.

March Newsletter

The Hens' Den has their newsletter up! Check out all of the new products and projects:

My "Bloom and Grow" layout of our garden last summer featuring Basic Grey's Picadilly line is published in the newsletter.

BIOS Update

Before this year, I had never heard of BIOS and had no idea what it was. I also routinely accepted all updates that looked legit that popped up on my computer. Now I have a new rule: do not install BIOS updates. I still don't know exactly what BIOS is, but it seems to be the essence of a computer, so don't mess with it!

A few weeks ago, I got a Toshiba notification that there were updates available so I just clicked install without thinking much of it. The BIOS update that Toshiba notified me of was complicated and at one point it seemed to freeze up. Not knowing what else to do, I shut down my computer and went to bed. When I tried to turn on my computer the next day, nothing happened. The only thing that seemed to be working were the indicator lights on the front of the screen. After some troubleshooting with tech support, we got the computer fan to turn on as well, but that was it. Ultimately, I had to send my computer in.

I poked around the internet and learned that BIOS updates are prone to problems and are only advisable if you are a computer wiz or if your computer doesn't work anyway and the update is supposed to address the problem. If the BIOS update fails, your computer becomes an expensive paperweight.

Luckily, my computer was still under warranty so this was all free, but other internet posters were not so lucky. I just got my computer back, and it is working fine. According to the repair summary, they were able to complete a "crisis BIOS recovery" back to the prior BIOS version. Ah, technology!