Spring has Sprung, My Mother Fell, My Computer Crashed, and HP can go to . . .

. . . okay, I’ve calmed down a bit since the last email HP sent me Friday night.

A bit.

Tomorrow I have to go to a Geek Shop and have my precious baby laptop fixed. Which makes me very, very unhappy.

All because we bought a simple plug-n-play printer. An HP printer. And now, not only does the printer not work, neither do any of my USB ports on my laptop, which means my external mouse does not work, which means I have to use the laptop mouse.

Which means I am very, very unhappy.

Want to hear the whole story? Including the part about my mom, falling and spraining her ankle? I promise you there’s an easy-peasy spring candle tutorial at the end of all this mess!

Okay, join me and go grab your own handful of jelly beans and we’ll get started. You can have the black ones. And the green ones.

And, not jelly bellies. Real, honest-to-goodness, classic jelly beans.

(Yes, I have a problem ‘round this time every year.)

So last Friday we decided to buy a printer. Simple, right? Yeah, or so I thought.

I haven’t taken the time to count how many printers I’ve connected in my 31 years working with computers, but let’s just say, I’ve done a few. So this should have been no big deal.

Should have been.

But no. It wasn’t. And after following HP’s tech support’s advice, I now have no functioning USB ports. Which means no mouse.

Do you remember the first time you ever used a mouse and how awkward it felt? That’s how I feel back on the laptop keypad mouse. I can’t do a dang thing – except type.

It’s like I was transported back in time 15 years.

I decided to return the HP printer Saturday on the way to get my hair done. And I did. I was maybe 15 minutes later getting home than I planned. In that 15 minute window {windows? again?} my mother – the Aries Ram – the one who’s recuperating from chemo, decided she needed something right that moment from the kitchen. She lost her footing and fell. And sprained her ankle.

I didn’t notice it when I got home. She had it relatively propped up and told me what happened. I took one look at it and knew it was not good. It took me almost 9 months to recuperate from my own sprained ankle last year.

Ice, ibuprofen, ace bandage, prop the pillows, grab the cane that I still have to use occasionally. And deal with the fact that, while I’m grateful Mom is okay and it wasn’t worse, there are still a lot more things on my plate now.

This morning I made Mom promise to stay still while I ran to the thrift store (and Walmart!). We have the most awesome thrift store in this little podunk town for some reason.

First on the list -

- an aircast. $3!

Oh, I’m not letting her walk too much yet. I made that mistake myself and prolonged the healing for months. But the aircast will give her stability and keep the ankle immobilized for a week or two.

(Even though she swears she’s “FINE” – that is, while she’s laying down with her foot elevated.)

Long story, well, even longer – I found a bunch of great deals at the thrift store. Which prompted a Walmart trip. Which prompted all kinds of projects for Spring.

And since I didn’t feel like battling the keyboard mouse, I stayed off the computer for the 2nd day and started 5 or 6 projects.

None of which are even close to being completed. Except the candles.

I’ll warn you ahead – almost all of these upcoming projects are in turquoise, my go-to color for spring & summer.

I found this cool ‘lace’ paper on my Turquoise Hunt in the scrapbook section. I immediately thought of wrapping some plain candles and adding some color to the fireplace.

We had these ‘dryer sheet’ candles up over the mantel.

See that cut-out arch with the outlet in the middle? Any ideas of what to put there? We’ve done greenery, big pinecones, all kinds of things. Let me know what you think, ‘kay?

Since the dryer sheets were glued on to the other white candles, I scrounged around for these guys.

Battery operated. With a timer.

All I did was flip the paper over, mark where I wanted to cut it, and clip along the lines.

Just like everything else the past few days, it didn’t go as planned. The little curlicues were popping up all over as I curved the paper lace.

I tried a glue gun instead of tape, but the glue wouldn’t hold on the ‘fake’ candles. So, back to the double-stick tape and I just added more to all the places that popped up.

The tape holds well, but is still really easy to remove from the plastic. So when Fall comes, I’ll be able to remove it completely.

If you’re using a regular wax candle, I’d try a glue gun. Or, if you have extra candles and don’t care if the decoration is permanent, just go ahead and Mod Podge your paper on.

I love the pop of color over the dark fireplace.

I just have to figure out what to do with the mantel. After I finish the other projects, ha!

Do you have a go-to color for Spring/Summer? A color that just says “fresh” to you? How do you bring it in to your home?

A final note: thanks so much for letting me spill my guts about the day-to-day stuff that can overwhelm me. Sometimes I think if it weren’t for my blog, and you guys, I’d lose what’s left of my mind!