The last time I posted was 6th April!!! That is such a long time ago....you were probably wondering if I had dropped off the face of the earth after 7 weeks with no blog entries!!!
We have had such a disasterous time here. Not really, because actually everyone is well and happy and my beautiful children are just great and we haven't had any great tragedies to deal with, but it feels like I have had a tragedy anyway.
A bit of background....I run (actually maybe it should say ran) a dollshouse business here in New Zealand...., not my Etsy shop. I didn't really mention it much because I wanted to keep it separate from my blog, however like many dollshouse folk, I poured a huge amount of time and energy into setting it up - I ran it from home via a website. So....this is what has been happening with that: First the recession hit and that didn't do it much good, then my show displays were all at my mother-in-law's house when it burnt down so I lost those. (She is having a new house built and is ok but the displays are history.) Then someone hacked my website and destroyed it - one day the whole website was just gone! I have had a new one semi-built but I don't like the way it looks and also haven't had time to enter the about one thousand products back in. Which brings me to my recent misadventure...
...our computer fried itself about six weeks ago. It took with it all my business accounts, family and business photographs, basically everything, and I do A LOT on the computer! There's a lesson in backing things up for you. Please learn from our mistake!! We had to send the hard drive off to the men in the white coats and the computer had to be rebuilt.....got it back empty....no photo editing software, no email programme, NOTHING. We eventually recovered some things off the fried hard-drive.....our family photos of when the kiddies were little are all there, so that is good. My accounts are recovered up to Jan this year so that is a relief....I'll have to re-enter everything since then all over again.
Anyway, sorry to have to tell you all this - it's a bit boring to read!
But there are some things we haven't recovered, the absolute worst from my point of view is all the images I have collected over the last 18 months or so for my shabby chic miniatures.....everything is totally gone! All my images of plates, all my book covers I made, all my pictures that I used to make miniature framed pictures... just everything! I have to start all over again! So that sucks! Big time!What amazes me, is how much it has completely thrown me! Even once we got the computer back, I just didn't know where to start trying to get started again. That's why I haven't been blogging - we've had the computer back for the last few weeks but I was so upset about it all that I didn't even want to have to tell you what had happened. And of course now that I have, I feel better.
So, let's look on the bright side....some of the plate images I had I have been able to re-find, and I can start collecting new images. I have now got a replacement photo editing programme that I can get to know how to use hopefully. I tried downloading a free one and look what it did!!! The photo at the top of this blog post is the result, but I saved it anyway because I kind of like the freaky 1960s hippy look....however that is NOT what I want all my photos to look like!
While all this was going on, I reached 400 followers. I don't deserve them, because I haven't been blogging for so long, but to those of you who are still reading, I have plans for a giveaway coming up to celebrate 400 followers and surviving my computer crash, so keep watching this space. Also, I received a lovely little gift from Mercedes for Easter, which brightened up my glumness...I'll show you photos next time.
Thanks for still reading my blog!
25 comments:
Oh my goodness, what a horrid time you have had! Your poor mother in law as well. :(
I'm pleased to see you back anyway. :)
My goodness! I'm sorry to hear all that has happened, but glad to hear that no one was hurt in your mother-in-laws house fire. I would have never imagined you were going through such things. Here I am thinking that you were simply just busy with the kiddies and work! =/ I hope you can get your shops up and running soon enough. =)
Dear Carolyn, thank you for being the wonderful person you are, capable of sharing your feelings, even in difficult times.
First of all, I am truly sorry for the series of mishaps that have happened to you but I'm sure you know to come out better than before, because if you did it once, you can do it again!
Take heart: you're talented and you've friends who believe in you.
For now, I am sending you a big hug and affectionate ...
Flora
wowsers what a time you have had...good that everyone is ok though as people are irreplaceable....good luck in your new venture...onwards and upwards....bigger and better and welcome back!!! :D Linda x
Dear Carolyn, the thing that you came and told us the whole story shows that you are very stong person, and you can find the ideas to do the wonderful miniatureworld of yours again!
I am so sorry for all what has happened and at first I was almost wordles. But then I realised that you are so talented that you are able to do what you just want, maybe it just takes time. With hugs Kikka
It sounds like you've had quite a time of it. As said before - you can come back bigger, better and full of enthusiasm.
This seems to be quite a bad year for a lot of people one way or another.
Siento mucho lo que te ha pasado,animo y a seguir adelante,tus trabajos son maravillosos y estoy deseando verlos.Muchos besos desde España.MªLuisa.
Oh my goodness what a terrible time you have had and your mother-in-law loosing her home...glad everyone is safe...they say everything comes in 3's ....so that is it Done Dusted the only way is UP ...Sandie x
Que fuerte! Ahora poco a poco y todo volvera a ser igual o mejor ;)
How frustrating! Glad to see you back.
I like the picture at the top. I thought you were going with a totally different look with your minis!
What a nightmare! It must be devastating to have so many things happened to you. So frustrating!
Well, as you say if the family is well, it's the best thing.
Bon courage!
Geneviève
Carolyn, WOW.........you have had a lot to deal with. One blow after another. I am so happy that you have your positive attitude and things will turn around again! I have some copies of plates I could send to you. AT least it is just material things that have gone bonkers and not family!! Keep positive!! Things will turn for the better now!
Carolyn, I`m sorry for all the trouble you and your family have had. But I am happy to hear everyone is well. Glad to see you here again.
Mona
That is indeed a lot of misfortune, Carolyn, I am so sorry for you! Are you going to rebuild the web shop too? I wish you all the luck with refinding and rebuilding.
hi dear Carolyn , wow , you poor thing , how devastating that must be for you , and for your mother in law , she probably feels really bad for you too.I hope you will find the courage and most of all patience to build it all up again .
lots of love and an encouraging hug from Frederica
Chin up!! When you think you've hit rock bottom, there's only one way to go: onward & upward.
big hugs K
I'm so sorry you've had to go through that!! I myself have had TWO crashes this year, but have been lucky enough that most of what I had was able to be saved--I didn't have ANYTHING backed up before then! My external harddrive (which WAS my backup) crashed and I lost things I didn't have on my laptop, and then, less than a month later, my laptop harddrive crashed! I have had my laptop back for a month with the new harddrive and I still feel lost. My graphic software is gone, and hard copy is missing, and I am just lost without it! And everything I have set up--just the way I like it--is gone. It's difficult to motivate yourself to start over when you don't know where to start.
I'm glad you're back, though. I discovered your blog during your absence and have fallen in love with your miniature plates. I hope you're able to build back up to what you had before--and go beyond!
So sorry for your losses. May everything improve from here. And I'm so excited about your upcoming giveaway--yay! I have one going on right now too--vintage Victorian miniatures on my blog (www.plushpussycat.com)--maybe you can win something for a little treat after all the disasters. :-)
Que rabia! seguro que poco a poco recuperas tu gran colección de imagenes y te haces con los programas adecuados para seguir mostrandonos tus maravillosos trabajos. Un beso enorme, y si necesitas algo no dudes en pedirlo.
OMG, what an incredible sequel of unfortunates events..if you aw them in a movie you'd say "they are exagerating !" best wishes and good luck from now on, I suppose you already had bad luck enough to last you a life time.Have a nice day, Rosanna
So very sorry to hear of all the disasters! I would hate to lose the photos of my children and bought an external hard drive which I store all my treasures on, also gave all three of my children CDs of each year of all the photos so even if the house burned down there are other copies! Think of it as a fresh start and you will probably do everything even better this time. Best wishes to you. Gill x
I am so sorry to read about your computor, Carolyn...
Please send me an e-mail so I can send some nice pictures of Greengate plates and other pictures that you can use. I´ve got a lot of pics in my computor! I am going to make an secutity copy now, thats for sure....
Here is my e-mail:
lenajangren@hotmail.com
Es una pena todo lo que has perdido, pero con tiempo y paciencia volverás a tener todo en su sitio. Animo y besos. Felicidades por los 400 seguidores y los mereces de sobras. Y muchos más! Ponte las pilas! Tus trabajos son perfectos. Besos desde Barcelona
Oh my how horrid this is ....I know from my own experience of a computer virus that took every thing with it ....but some times starting fresh is a good thing think of all those wonderful plates and labels you will find on the net all new and fresh ...but this time at the end of your day you will do like me and back it up ...lol ...I'm glad you got the photos of your children back ...and in the end they are memories you can't replace ....sending a smile to brighten your day glass half full not empty ...you have your lovely family around you and in the end that's all that really matters the rest will sort its self it truly will ...back to making dolls now Jane 😊
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