To the Depths of Despair and Back Again

To be honest, I didn't lose ALL my pictures, just all of them from the last two years...no biggie right?

Yeah...

I was a stressed out, bawling, mascara everywhere mess.  Not a pretty picture.

I reformat every once in a while, and I KNOW what I need to copy onto my external hard drive.  I did, in fact, begin copying everything, but my computer glitched in the middle (which is why we were reformatting in the first place).  I recopied every other folder, but for some reason, missed my pictures folder!  Gah!  It had copied up through mid 2010 before it got messed up.

In despair, I whined on Facebook, hoping that someone would know a way to fix it.   Someone said to call PC Laptops--a computer repair store in our area.  I wasn't hopeful--I knew they could pull files of of damaged drives, but could they find files I had erased on purpose?  They said probably not--and it was a $50 deposit, plus nearly $500 if they managed to retrieve files.

Uggggh.  The frivolous part of me teamed up with the sentimental part and tried to tell the frugal part that these pictures and memories were worth every penny.  But the logical part stepped in and reminded everyone that there wasn't much hope they would find anything anyways...

Thankfully, my knight in shining armor stepped up to the plate and started searching for data recovery programs. He found Recuva.  There was a free version, which I didn't have much hope in, but the paid version was only about $25--a price that made my frugal self AND my sentimental self dance for joy.  But first, I would try the free version, to see if it could find any files and give me hope.

Mom likes her roses recycled--with a side of ink, please.

It is a gift that's delicious AND practical: after she eats the candy, Mom has something cute to write with.  And these flowers will not die!  Hooray!  Plus, theoretically, it SHOULD make a pen easier to find--though mine are being used as Harry Potter wands as we speak...

I have most of this stuff lying around my house--I bought the pens, because I get a kick out of having the pen actually write in the color of the flower... (little known fact, I'm a pen fanatic--as a child, I'd blow my allowance on Gelly Roll Pens at the craft store)  but you can use any pen, as long as it will write!

Look for floral tape at any craft store with a floral section.  It's quite inexpensive, and one roll will last a good while.

You can use any kind of tape--I just couldn't find my cheap masking tape at the time we took this photo!

The skewer can be anything long and stick-like.  You could use your pen if they have a smooth shaft (mine don't).

I am using a recycled salsa jar because I love the shape.  Plus, I have a million in my craft room and the hubs won't let me save any more unless I use some of the stash!

Use double sided paper (not cardstock).  Most of my stash IS cardstock, so I ended up printing my own using digital scrapbook paper (I used paper from Zoe Pearn's "Birthday Girl" kit--pretty much my favorite in the world).  Think how cute book pages, newspapers, or magazines would be!  Really, I don't know why I don't just make flowers all day long--I'm that excited about it.

Then I cut this shape out using my Silhouette.  But never fear if you don't have one!  You can still make this project!!  There's a tutorial here that shows you how to make a template for these flowers using a coffee can.  There's a tutorial here that has a simpler one--which will make your roses turn out differently, but they are very cute and easy too!