and the kids had a blast dying eggs this week….

And so that… turned into this…

So fun!

My most favorite packaging this year is 100% for sure the Francie Pants Packaging! I am so so happy with the way it turned out. This was my first stab at packaging design, and working together with Ciaran and Patrick from Francie Pants, we totally nailed it. I keep a box on my desk and look at it from time to time. Reminds me that hard work really pays off.

Check it out!

So fun!

-S

This one had to be a combined post for me. This year has been a whirlwind. Lucy (aka #8) arrived in June. Since then it has been non stop. I had to unexpectedly backburner a few things as Lucy was sick over the summer. Some face-time with the hospital was necessary and that forced me to postpone a few huge personal projects in order to work on other freelance stuff. Paying customers come first!

Peace came for me knowing that Lucy would be OK eventually… knowing all the other kids and my hubs were healthy.

The challenge, I’ve yet to overcome, it will have to wait until the new year. In the new year, I WILL finish those personal projects. Great thing will be happening around here… just wait and see.

-S

I have to pick just one??? I have 3 blogs that I have recently added to Google Reader and I truly look forward to new post each week.

Gwen Bell

Design Mom

IS•LY

Happy Reading!

-S

Blogher for sure! I met so many cool people there and just had a great time. It was especially nice to meet a couple of my own customers.. Whitney from Mommies With Style and Ciaran. I was there simply to network, etc. Being a designer, I thought this would be a great networking event. I had Lucy 4 weeks prior, so naturally she was with me. My mom and my other daughter joined me for the trip as well! So fun. Oh and um hello.. the best party.. Social Luxe
!

October 31st.. trick or treating of course… My kids all decided to dress up as Lord of the Rings characters. Only my oldest has seen the movie thus far. He and my 2nd oldest have read the books and of course told and retold the story to the younger kids. So fun to see them hatch this little plan to dress up as a group!

My LOTR crew:

I can’t think of a favorite article. I have lots of boring articles that I have bookmarked and reference from time to time… mostly design stuff and freelance stuff. My favorite reads lately have been from my kids. With school in full swing, there are plenty of papers being written around this homeschooling house.

A few weeks ago, my 3rd grader wrote a report on Koala Bears. I actually learned quite a bit. And it was fun helping her formulate interesting sentences. Today, my 7th grader wrote a 4 paragraph reflection of “A Christmas Carol” and what he thought about each visit to Scrooge. It was very neat to see how he described each visit. My 5th grader… he also wrote a report this week. He is probably my most creative writer in the house (so far.) His report was about the Revolutionary War. And, while I don’t remember specifically what he was talking about in the last paragraph, I do remember his last sentence… “What’s up with that?” That’s how he ended it. With my red pen in hand, I *almost* corrected him and said HELLO??? you can’t end a report like that. But, I didn’t… because, it was kind of cool.. and, he’s only in 5th grade. He made it personal… that made me smile.

-S

In an effort to start blogging more, I have decided to take on Gwen Bell’s Best of 2009 Blog Challenge.

First, before I start, let me tell you what little I know about Gwen. She is
A M A Z I N G. Seriously, google this lady.. she’s a rockstar, no doubt about it. I have never met Gwen in person. I saw her at Blogher ’09, but never got around to meeting her. Since then, I had the pleasure of working on a small project with her and she is just awesome! And get this.. her hubby is 1 of 7… I think she thinks I am somewhat normal. (hehe) Seriously though, Gwen is a total inspiration.

Soooooo… my best trip of 2009? Well, we don’t travel much at all (ya know, the 8 kid thing). I had a blast with my mom and my 2 girls in Chicago this past summer. The whole fam travelled to DC over Easter this past year as well. I visited NYC (for the first time!) last November, but that was in ’08.

I think that my best trip of 2009 was in June… the 23rd to be exact. It was slightly unplanned, meaning that this trip was not supposed to take place until July, but due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to travel a bit early. It all worked out for the best though. Where did I go you ask? I went to the hospital, and 2 days later came home with Lucy.

Yes, that was for sure the best trip of 2009!

Thanks Gwen for challenging us! This will be fun.

-S

I would like to tell you about my dear friend Rebecca. She is a freshman in high school, and such an amazing young lady. Last year, when she was in 8th grade, she sent out an email with this awesome idea… she had an amazing plan to help out some local girls in South Dakota get a very special gift for Christmas. Rebecca was going to collect money to buy American Girl Dolls for these girls. Well, Rebecca not only touched the hearts of those girls, she also touched the heart of my oldest daughter. Hannah was 7 at the time and immediately upon hearing about Rebecca’s plan, Hannah asked if she could give away one of her American Girl dolls. It was so fabulous to see my daughter inspired by Rebecca.

This year… even after moving to a different state, Rebecca is at it again! Here’s her email:

Hi Everyone!
Just like last year I am going to be collecting money to buy American Girl Dolls for some of the poorer girls of Colorado! But before I get ahead of myself, I need to tell all of the new people what this is! American Girls for American girls is a program I created last year after I saw a video of some Christian missionaries giving a doll to a little girl for Christmas. The little girl was so happy that she began to cry and couldn’t speak. The thought occurred to me that I have been so blessed to be able to have some of the most beautiful dolls, called American Girl dolls. I decided that poor girls who could not afford these dolls deserved them even more than I did. So, about three weeks before Christmas, last year, I asked for donations and contributed my own money to be able to buy American Girl dolls for the Native American girls on a reservation in South Dakota. For such short notice last year, I still collected and saved enough money to buy three dolls; plus two good friends of mine each donated a doll, totaling five dolls! 
 
About a week after Christmas, one of my friends and I went out to the Indian reservation and met with five young girls. We brought cookies and punch and, after talking with them for a little while, we gave each of the girls their gift. The looks on their faces when they saw what was inside was to die for! The most talkative girl said to me, “I’m going to keep her on top of the refrigerator so my cousin doesn’t color on her face!” It was so cute! 
 
In Denver, Colorado, there are Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s sisters) that care for the sick and homeless people of the city. According to my mom, they have a women’s shelter and some of the women have children. I thought this would be a perfect place to deliver these much needed gifts. If we have extra dolls, we are hoping to be able to take some the Children’s Hospital and deliver them to the less fortunate girls who are in the hospital during Christmas.
 
If you would like to be a part of this, I would be so grateful. Imagine if we were able to double the amount and make ten little girls’ Christmas a little brighter! Any amount will help.
   
Thanks to everybody who donated last year and to all of you who have never done this but are willing to help! This project means so much to me and to all of those young girls that we help!
 
Thanks for all your support! God Bless!
Rebecca

Rebecca’s idea is just so amazing! We will for sure be donating again this year! And, I thought I might post to my blog to see if anyone else would like to help contribute to this amazing cause! I will be sure to post pictures from this year when Rebecca delivers the dolls!

If you would like to donate, please click the button below!

Here are a couple of pictures from last year:

Once upon a time… perhaps I should restart.. this is certainly *not* a fairy tale. You see.. there was a time when I thought Apple was the B O M B. Their laptops were sexy, their sales associates were friendly, and the geniuses were.. well.. geniuses. My first mac was a 15″ powerbook. It was just amazing. I still have it and it still runs flawlessly. After I got that powerbook 4 yrs ago, I went to the Apple store here in Columbus to ask about upgrading my ram. One of the geniuses took his time and explained everything to me. He was awesome. He gave me his card and said if I every had any trouble, just give him a call.. Fabulousness. About 7 months later, while traveling through Minnesota, the piece on my powerbook that the power charger plugs into died. Understand that I am a freelancer, and even one day without my computer is not a good scene. I called the Apple store in the Mall of America and made an appt with a genius. They were fab.. took my computer and said it would be ready when I was passing back through 4 days later. So I went on to enjoy my brother’s wedding and 4 days later I called the guys at the Apple store and let them know I was an hour or so out. Unfortunately, my powerbook was not yet fixed. I understood as it was 4th of July weekend, but as I was only passing through, I was going to have to pick up the laptop and get it fixed when I returned home. Not even 2 minutes passed by and an Genius called me back and said he will have my laptop fixed by the time I arrive. What more could a girl ask for? A+ top notch customer service. After dealing with Dell for so many years, I was AMAZED and completely satisfied. Blown away even. So much so that I would rave about Apple and how they ‘got it right’ in the customer service department to anyone and everyone. They nailed customer service.  Life was good.

Over the last year, that fairy tale has ended. Apple’s focus has shifted to iphone customers and ipod customers. Hey, I love iPhone’s.. wish I had one… but you have to remember your roots, ya know?  Each time I visit the Apple store these days, I feel so rushed. It’s funny and sad just the same, when I visit the Apple Store to buy, I am accosted by 20 different employees asking if I need help.  When I come in the store with a computer in hand, heading for the Genius Bar, the friendliness goes out the window. (at the Easton Towne Center Apple Store anyway.) Let’s shift now to present week… the reason I am writing this post. I have valuable information for mac owners, and, I have valuable information for Apple.

This week my 1 yr, 1 mo old 17″ macbook pro went into sleep mode. Normal right? yep. However, the battery died while in sleep mode. Problem. When I tried to ‘wake’ my macbook pro, it would not wake properly. The keyboard lit up.. I could hear it running… but no screen. I tried anything and everything. Hard resets, resetting PRAM, etc. No screen. So I closed the lid, made an appt with the Genius Bar for the next morning and called it a night. When I woke up, I tried one more hard reset and miraculously, the screen fired up. P-H-E-W! I canceled my appt and went on about my day. The next morning, I opened my lid and again, no screen. Nothing. I tried all day doing the same things I had done the day before. Nothing helped. I screen shared into the 17″ macbook pro from a 15″ macbook pro and checked out the graphics card info. It was incorrect and I knew it. Just in case, I took a screen shot.

So, I made another appt with the Genius Bar.

I took my computer in and met Mr. Genius in his ‘not all heroes wear a cape’ t-shirt.. he’s expecting his first child, a girl… seemed like a nice guy. I explained all that had happened to my macbook pro, and all that I had done to troubleshoot, etc. The genius ran a diagnostic test on my poor macbook pro and said my graphics card is dead, yes, DEAD, and since I am 1 month out of warranty, you’re screwed and it will be $1200 to fix. Oh, but hey, there are a couple of local repair shops that might fix it for a little less. Ok huh?? That’s all? Seriously? The genius did not even have his hands on my computer for more than 2 minutes. He didn’t even screen share in to look around. He just ran the diagnostic test adn poof.. sorry.. buh-bye, next customer. I was rushed out of there. The best part was where he said “Sorry, kids these days” as if to imply that it was one of my children that caused some issue with my computer which caused the gfx card to die. ARE YOU SERIOUS??

That’s weak sauce Apple. And here’s why. I spent the 3 days following loading up a new machine with all my data so I can actually work, AND investigating this issue. I found several posts on the internet where people were having the same issue. Here’s one. So, I decided to take the 4gb of ram out of my 17″ macbook pro so I could use it on the 15″ temp macbook pro and slipped 2gb of ram into the 17″. I had the install disks in the 17″ in an attempt to fix it, so I fired it up one last time so I could eject the disk. Much to my surprise, the screen fired up just fine. It was like nothing had happened. Immediately, I checked the graphics card and it listed the correct one this time around…

Which also happens to be one that has been recalled by Apple HERE due to this EXACT issue. HI ho hI ho.. off to the Apple store I go. Apple clearly says that they will replace these defective graphics cards even if you are out of warranty. Well, this time around the genius is girl. She seems nice enough. I gave her my print offs of my gfx card screen shots from the screen share and then from when the screen was working. I gave her a print off of the forums post on Apples site where people were experiencing the EXACT same issue and I gave her my print off of the article noting the recall. She didn’t look at a single one. She just took my laptop and started running a diagnostic on it. (sighs) She proceeds to tell me that my graphics card is 100% A OK! It looks great and does not need to be replaced. HUH? Of course I protested because this is the same graphics card that was D.E.A.D 3 days before. She said she was sure the diagnostic test came back with the gfx card being fine 3 days before. (umm, don’t they log notes from previous convos??) So, Apple, please explain how a graphics card can miraculously come back to life. I mean seriously, what a load of crap. Tell me how I should believe anything Apple says at this point. I asked her to explain how the computer could read 2 different graphic cards. Her response… are you ready? Wait for it.. it’s epic… “I don’t know.” She asked another genius about it and he said that it was b/c I was screen sharing in with a macbook, and the GMA X3100 gfx card is used in those, and that’s why it’s showing up. WRONGO Mr. Genius. I was screen sharing using ANOTHER Macbook Pro that uses the SAME EXACT gfx card as the 17″. AND when I screen share in now while the display is working, it shows the correct gfx card. More weak sauce. Ms. Genius says ‘well, we can replace it if you want, but you will have to pay the $1200.’ I think I laughed at this point. So, Ms. Genius sent me on my way and called the next customer in line. An ipod/iphone reset no doubt.

The only consistent information that I have gotten from the Apple Geniuses in the last 4 days is that whatever the problem is, it will cost me $1200 to fix. Which begs the question, what ARE the requirements for becoming an Apple Genius these days? And the *real* geniuses.. the ones from my powerbook days… the ones who c a r e d, are you not pissed?? Seriously. The day Apple’s support started to suck is the day I stopped caring. You have to understand, I love my mac. I love working on it. But customer service is so important to me. If I can’t depend on Apple to give me correct information and fix my computer… how can I buy from them again?

The facts:

There is an issue with my screen not lighting up, as in “No video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on”

My computer is a 17″ Macbook Pro manufactured between approximately May 2007 and September 2008 (purchased in Sept ’08)

My Macbook Pro uses the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT Graphics card

Clearly there is a problem here related to the graphics card and Apple even admits the issue on their site. But, the Geniuses at the Apple Store in Columbus OH cannot come to this conclusion some how. (they can’t even come to the SAME conclusion in the first place) The fact that they did not bust their ass for me… try their best to figure out the issue is a problem for me. Why/ because they used to. They used to bust their ass for me. Is it wrong that I still expect that? I don’t think so. Sadly, if this is how it will be, I may have to go back to PCs. GASP. I know, right? So, yeah, I am only one single person in the sea of Apple customers. But in my opinion, that’s how you become successful and stay succesful, you care about that one single person.

For anyone experiencing this same problem, here is what I did to get my mac working.  I have no idea if it will help you… and i am very worried that it will happen again.  But, the Apple Genius(es) made it clear that I am SOL and would have to pay $1200 to replace the graphics card.

• I reset the PRAM.  Instructions HERE.
• I tried several hard resets by holding the power button down until it shut down
• I screen shared in from another mac and ran updates, etc.  Screen share enhancement instructions HERE. made it easy to find the mac with no screen since i could not check the IP.
• I ran applejack.  I am not sure if this helped b/c I could not see the screen, but i ran the auto restart.. so it would run through all the scripts and then restart.
• I took out the memory, and replaced it with memory from another macbook pro.  (right after this is when the screen fired up)  I have since put the old memory back in and it works fine.

I really wish that Apple would step up and do the right thing here, but somehow I am reminded of the Dell Dude circa 2002.  Should I have bought a Dell?  My husband would say yes. LOL.  I still love my macs, just not their customer service/support.  And a quick google search shows I am not the only one realizing that Apple’s support has just taken a nose dive as of late.  I spend $2900 on a laptop, and I would expect it to live longer than 1 yr 1 mo. Seriously.

***UPDATE***
I must say, I am thrilled to announce that Apple has come through. Specifically the amazing lead tech Michael Barrett at my Apple store here in Columbus. Basically, when I started using the computer again, it screen died _again_. So instead of wasting my time and going to the store AGAIN, I decided to call first. I asked to speak to a manager and was transferred to Michael. I gave him the very shortest possible version of the story, and told him that I didn’t want to come into the store unless they were going to actually help me out. So he said no problem… pulled up my history, and agreed that there was an issue. He said bring it in, we’ll replace the graphics card at no charge. AND, amazingly they did. Special thanks to Michael (who will probably never even read this. LOL.) I am loading all my data back on now.