Acer C720 Chromebook Review

A couple of weeks ago I invested in a Chromebook. We have two laptops, mine is pretty much kaput, and full to bursting with work stuff. It's also missing a space bar thanks to the toddler. The husband's laptop was running very slowly, the battery has gone so it has to remain plugged in and it is missing quite a lot of keys (toddlers like to break everything). I was hesitant about buying yet another laptop, for the keys to be ripped off and for it to be on it's last legs within a couple of years. 

I needed a laptop as I struggle with the small screens on phones when trying to navigate crochet patterns. The size of the iPad screen is ok, but I'm doing a lot of typing for my blog, business and writing crochet patterns so really need a proper keyboard. It's also full of Peppa Pig games and videos for the kids, so not a lot of storage space left. 

I had come across Chromebooks but written them off as husband told me it's just a browser. But then, that's all I do....browse! Well, not just browse, I use browser based software too. I have found that since ditching my iPhone for an android powered HTC phone, my digital life has been taken over by Google. They now look after my email, my photos, my documents, my music, my blog... And all for free too. Hmm, maybe a Google based laptop wouldn't be such a bad idea. 

So, I bit the bullet and parted with £199, with the warning from my husband not to expect much.

It arrived a few days later, the box ever so slightly bashed but the packaging was just a plastic packing bag, no padding whatsoever. It was well packaged inside so no damage caused. I unpacked and checked all components were present and correct. There was a quick start guide which I dutifully followed. Basically, plug it in, switch it on and follow the on screen instructions.

After logging on to the network, it asked for my Google log in ID and password, gave me a quick tour and we were good to go! I went straight to the Chrome store, to get those all important apps, Facebook and Twitter. Turns out, they are basically just a bookmark. Clicking the Facebook button simply takes you to the Facebook page. Ditto Twitter. So it truly is browser based. 

I've had a couple of weeks to play with it now and I'm actually very impressed. For what I use it for it's perfect.

• It's very quick to start up, ~ 7 seconds apparently, although I usually just shut the lid and reopening it boots it up instantly. 
• The battery life is impressive. I've only charged it three times in the last 12 days. 
• My husband and daughter have since added their Google IDs to it so we can just log on as ourselves and not have to search through all the browser tabs to find what we were last looking at. 
• It's almost impossible to get a fingernail under the keys, so hopefully the toddler won't ping them off! I say almost, I can't rule out that the toddler won't destroy it yet.
• It comes with 100Gb of Google drive storage, free for two years. This is fab because I can always access things that are on my phone and vice versa. 
• It's always up to date. 
• The build quality on this model is excellent. It's thin and light but feels robust. There are two USB ports, a HDMI port, an SD slot and a headphone port. 

A couple of issues I've had..

• The wifi has randomly dropped out once or twice. This has been remedied by that old solution, switch it off and on again.
• There isn't a caps lock but alt + the magnifying glass button puts caps lock on.
• I can't find a delete button. There is a backspace which deletes but this means putting the cursor after the thing you want to delete. I expect the delete key involves some kind of multiple button combo that I am yet to find. 

That's it. I am really pleased with it and even the husband is. 

If you have any comments or questions, are a fellow Chromebook convert or just want to say hello, please leave me a comment below.

Operation Move House: part 2

The Estate Agent's came to visit the other day but it turned out it was just to deliver the sales pitch and value our house. So, all that tidying <sob>! Anyway, the massive tidy up wasn't in vain as they are coming TODAY to take the photos. It's getting real now! Just hope the sun will come out to make it look all bright and light.

We went to view a property the other day. From looking at it on rightmove, I had all but fallen in love with it. The thing that really sells this house to me is the location. It's right next to the park, on the bus route for #1 child's secondary school, close to the town centre and to rail links which the husband could use for work. It's near to where other friends live and it's a nice area.

The problem is, the house itself isn't perfect. I wasn't expecting perfection but there were a few issues:

• Loft room was quite pokey. I had expected something more substantial and the stairs up to it were narrowish, with head bumping potential. This would probably be our daughter's room. 
• Access to the kitchen was a bit weird. There was a large hallway but to get to the kitchen you had to go through the living room. It was accessible from the back door though.
• Some of the wallpaper was a bit peely. Just a crap papering job? Or damp? 
• The garden was big but would need a lot of work. I can't see my children playing in it because it would probably be dangerous.
• No dishwasher.

Things I liked:

• The rooms were big. Lots of space for our family and for parties!
• There was a downstairs loo and shower room. Big bonus. Means I don't have to keep upstairs tidy for in case guests need to use the bathroom.
• The master bedroom was huge, with a dressing room kind of area which could be made into an en suite in the future.
• The other two first floor bedrooms were both a good size, meaning no need for any toys to be downstairs.
• The bathroom was nice and new.
• The kitchen was modern with a gas hob and lots of cupboard space.
• There was a big utility room for me to hide the ironing, sort washing etc. 
• The floors were all wooden (well, laminate). This would hopefully help mine and #1 child's asthma, and wouldn't need to be replaced fairly soon, like carpets would (unless they were brand new). 
• THE LOCATION - this is the biggie for me, I love where it is. 

It has really helped writing this out. I think I could deal with the issues, just don't know if the hubby can.

If you want to know which property I'm on about, drop me a message and I'll send you a link. 

Operation Move House: part 1

Tomorrow, we are having our house photographed to be put up for sale.

It's with a heavy heart that we are (hopefully) moving on from this house. We moved in on 30th June 2005, just over four weeks before our second child, our first son, was born. I spent those four weeks, manically trying to get the house how I wanted it before he arrived. It took a lot longer than that though, and there are still things we never quite got around to doing!

When we moved here, we had a litter of teeny kittens, that were only a few days old! Moving our cat, Millie, and her babies was a delicate operation. She had nested in a box full of towels so we had to move that box, complete with four kittens, and Millie to our new house without stressing them out! We were held up for a number of hours but finally got moved in by the evening. Millie and her kittens were put safely in a bedroom. The next few weeks were fun, seeing them grow and become braver and very mischievous. We kept one of them and the other three went to homes of various friends. The last one was collected the day before child #2 was born! 

So, within a few days, all but one of the kittens left us, and our new baby came home to our new house. We celebrated our first Christmas here, with a baby, a toddler and two cats. We began the tradition of buying real Christmas trees in this house as we had a bit more room. That has become a real occasion, and Christmas tree buying day is an event in itself!

A few months after that, we brought a cocker spaniel puppy to join our home! As if life wasn't mental enough. She did all the usual puppy naughtiness but settled down eventually to be a loving, devoted, family dog. She's 8 this week and still as crazy as ever, although she sleeps a bit more these days.

The first year in our home was pretty manic, but it really doesn't feel like almost nine years since we moved in. We have since brought home two more beautiful baby boys, so have definitely outgrown this house. I think we all have mixed feelings about moving, sadness at leaving the home that is full of so many memories, excitement at the prospect of moving to a bigger house where our family can grow up and we can have a bit more storage space!

I just really hope it sells quickly as I'm not sure how long we can keep it this tidy for!

Crochet confusion part 2: worsted yarn

It feels odd referring to the stuff I have called "wool" all my life, as "yarn". The Americans are right though, it is yarn. Wool is defined as a fibre obtained from the coats of animals. Yarn is the term to describe a continuous length of interlocked fibres. So the pedant in me insists that I now call it yarn. 

When I started crocheting, I had a plentiful supply of yarn left over from my knitting days, but it wasn't the yarn they were recommending on patterns. Most patterns called for a "worsted weight yarn". Say what? I had no idea. Turns out that worsted weight is approximately equivalent to our aran weight. That is, unless the pattern is asking for light worsted or heavy worsted...they are totally different! (double knitting and chunky to us in the UK).

Why can't these things be the same the world over? Why can't we all use the same terms to describe our yarns? Why can't we all decide to just call the crochet hooks their actual size ie a 5mm hook (as is UK convention), rather than a "H" hook (US!)? Why is our single crochet a US double crochet?!

Sorry, back to yarn. 

So, I spent the first few months using aran weight yarn, not convinced it was the right stuff, but my items worked up ok so I was happy.

I was browsing the Wool Warehouse site, looking for some cotton yarns to make lighter hats, more suited to spring and ordered lots of balls of gorgeousness like this one...

Can you imagine my excitement when I spotted this on the label!

Finally I could feel confident that I was using the correct yarn. I hadn't used cotton before so thought I'd do a couple of little projects to try out the pretty new additions to my stash. 

I used the solid colours (Drops Paris) to make a cover for my phone using a pattern from Moogly. I lost some stitches along the way so it is far from perfect but it was good for getting used to using an inelastic fibre. I might even make a matching one for my laptop. 

 I loved working with the Lily Sugar n Cream Ombres to make this little hat. Gorgeous colours, perfect for spring days.

The cotton works up beautifully, giving a really polished finish to items. It is more expensive than acrylic yarns and less forgiving when it comes to sizing, but I think I will be buying a lot more cotton, worsted yarn in the future. 

Crochet confusion

When I started crocheting, I soon realised that Americans were into crochet in a much bigger way than Brits. Or maybe it's just because there are more of them so all the instructional videos were from the USA. This caused me and my crocheting buddies some confusion. Turns out US and UK crochet terms don't actually mean the same thing. But both countries use the same terms, oh maaaaan. For anyone else who is confused, here is a handy conversion table...

Most patterns I have come across on the web, use US terms. UK pattern books are the only place I have seen UK terms used. Even UK designers on the web tend to use US terms.

For anyone who is starting out, This useful graphic turned up on my Facebook feed this morning, courtesy of Oombawka design crochet...

Many people have asked me to teach them to crochet, but the truth is I just used YouTube videos when I was initially learning to crochet, mainly this series. I still regularly use the videos to check I am doing the correct thing or if I come across a new stitch. I would love to run crochet lessons but I'm still considering the logistics. Ask me to teach some Chemistry, fine. Crochet? Where do I start?! 

So, until then, just get yourself a 5mm hook (aluminium), a ball of aran weight yarn in a light shade and settle down with the YouTube videos. 

WARNING: CROCHET IS ADDICTIVE.

Teachers' strike

Today, my second child is off school. His teacher is striking. No other teachers in that school are striking though which has made that particular class very unpopular, and #1 child was pretty furious at the injustice of it all!

I'm in a funny situation, as a teacher who is a member of the NUT, I would absolutely be joining the strike action today if I wasn't on maternity leave. I fully support #2's teacher in his decision to strike and I hope that it will make an impression on Mr Gove et al.

However, I feel guilty that I am pleased my eldest child's teacher ISN'T striking. She is in year 6, the most important year of her school life so far, and is a few weeks away from taking her SATs. While I don't agree with the way 10 and 11 year olds are put under such pressure in order to meet targets, I am well aware that her results will influence her secondary education. For that reason alone, this school day is really precious to her. She knows she has to grasp every learning opportunity.

Is this hypocritical? Probably. But, as a parent, it has made me appreciate what teachers do even more. I'm sure parents across the country with children who are in critical years of their education feel the same, as well as the parents who are inconvenienced by having to find childcare for the day or take annual leave.

How will it affect the people who govern our country though? Yes, they'll see we're not happy (although I'm sure they are well aware) but it's doubtful they will personally feel the effects. It all seems a bit futile now. I only started my teaching career five years ago, but it has been peppered with strike action, suffered major upheaval at the hands of Gove and the constant threat of Ofsted has affected everyone, children included.

I don't know what the future holds for the teaching profession, but I certainly can't see things changing soon. This makes me feel sad, not only for schools and their staff, but most of all for the children, the "learners", who will suffer the effects far more than we can realise now.

As for those striking, it's a pretty good bet that many will spend the day trying to make a dent in their "to do" list.

From knitter to hooker...

I have been a knitter ever since my lovely Mam taught me when I was about seven. I remember making knitted dolls as gifts when I was a teenager. I even had to make a replacement for my friend's toddler cousin as he was devastated at losing the original!

However, as an adult, I always struggled with completing items. I managed to make ONE mitten for my precious first born. Parenting fail indeed. I didn't do much knitting until a few years later when I was expecting #3. I managed to make a blanket AND a cardigan before he was born!

(We won't discuss the lack of buttons on the cardi...)

I made this hat when he was a few months old and got a good way through the matching jumper. I still have a beautiful fair isle tank top in my knitting bag. By the time I finished it (although the loose ends STILL need to be weaved in, two years later!), it didn't fit over his head! *sob*

So, knitting. I enjoy it, but it takes me so long and for some reason, I only have a 40% completion rate.

Fast forward a couple of years...I was very heavily pregnant, it was the middle of August and I couldn't move much. So I thought I'd give crochet a go. Again. I had tried it a year or so before but struggled. Probably because I only had a 2.5mm hook which is very, very tiny and probably meant for elves or something. I watched a few YouTube videos, bought some more hooks and gave it a go. And it just clicked! I was hooked ;-)

The first item I made was a simple headband, followed by a baby hat, then I started on the novelty hats. The rest, as they say, is history.

My first project

Excuse the creepy doll...

A week later I completed this!

I have a lovely friend who knits for me now!