The Big Switch!

I am finally on UNIFI thanks to B who at long last took charge of our Internet situation at home by getting the whole switch from Streamyx to UNIFI done on his own accord so good job!

The whole process was pretty jiffy and installation was done as scheduled with no muss, no fuss. The representative who came to install my system was well-versed with her product and I got all my questions answered.

UNIFI at home

The real test for me however would be to get my fax connected to the new number that came with UNIFI. I had recently purchased a new Officejet printer from HP using the latest HP voucher codes. Thank goodness for Discount Codes I secured online, which allowed me to obtain my new printer and Save Money at the same time too! By the way, I got one of those all-in-one Officejet printers, which allows me to scan, copy, fax, call and I wasn’t sure how to get it connected to the new number.  

My HP Officejet

I know, that’s what the manual is for but I’ve misplaced the manual somewhere inside my messy home-office so until I can find it, I am now fax-less at the moment. Next plan, look for a solution online!

Other than that, I am having no issues with UNIFI. There is a definite difference in speed, especially when it comes to downloads and I no longer have to wait for videos to buffer prior to loading. Oh yes, I also get to enjoy Hypp TV and so far everything is running smoothly, which is great and such a welcome change from the headaches I used to get with Streamyx.

Having said that, I was actually a little sad to say goodbye to Streamyx but that’s just the sentimental fool in me having been a loyal customer for 10 years or so. Farewell for real Streamyx and Welcome UNIFI!

 

MARIUCA LOVES

LADY JAVA

Getting My Groove Back

In keeping with my "out with the old, in with the new" shopping motto this year, I am planning a major office makeover! I've had it with my old office furniture and I am dead set on replacing my 5-year old bookcases with new ones. I need a new office chair too and the huge stack of boxes and old magazines strewn carelessly underneath my table will have to go as well. I am done with "collecting" magazines as they always end up collecting dust after a while. Not to mention the space they occupy in my small-sized home office.

Why the sudden cleaning frenzy? Well, I've been a little demotivated both online and offline actually. I need to get my blogging and working groove back. As one who spends a lot of time writing and posting online, inspiration is what drives me to churn out my copies and translations. And lately, I find it hard to stay focused online due to lack of motivation. After talking it over with B, we've decided my home-office needs a little sprucing to help inspire my blogging and working ways once more!

Buying new things always cheers me up and when it comes to office furniture and Office Supplies, I favour products that boast quality and pleasing to the eye at the same time. Sturdy storage boxes, colourful notepads and pens, funny looking staplers and animal-shaped message boards are my kinda thing so I'm definitely looking forward to buying new office supplies tomorrow! I need to get my mojo back this month and this I will get by shopping for new office stuff and supplies.

How about you? How do you get your working/blogging groove back?

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ZUL
BLUEDREAMER
GG

Too Busy to Clean!

My home-office resembles a pig sty right now and I kid you not! This is unusual for the usually neat and organized me but lately, I've been too caught up with work to do much cleaning. My L-shaped desk is totally cluttered with papers and dictionaries, my bookcase is in shambles and office furniture like my L-shaped desk and shelves definitely need a little wiping and dusting!

The mini fridge inside my office is also bare. There is no Diet Coke inside or Nescafe Black Roast and definitely no Low-Fat Starbucks Frappuccino because I've not been grocery shopping for almost a week thanks to my hectic work schedule.

When you work from home like me, your schedule is almost always erratic. Last month for instance, work was a little slow, which saw me spending more time blogging. This month however, work started pouring in and I've been juggling both work and blog at the same time. It is not easy and that's why I've missed out on several days of EC dropping!

Having said that, I can't and I shan't complain about my piling workload simply because work is work. Plus, I am saving up to buy new office furniture so I need all the freelance jobs I can get to accommodate my new buys. My office chair is already in a sorry state and one of my filing cabinets can no longer close so those items would have to be replaced.

More importantly, I am saving up for a scanner and an air-conditioner too. The AC would be the biggest buy but since both B and I spend a lot of time inside the office, we both think it would make an excellent purchase. Weather-wise, the heat has been intolerable as of late and a cool AC is what I need to complete my cosy office ambiance. And if I can make even more money this month, I might even throw in new office lights for good measure. Wish me luck; it's back to work now!

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LADY JAVA
TEKKAUS
ELAI

New Rug and New Phone!

The initial plan today was to indulge my shopping mood with a little rug shopping at IKEA. It's been ages since I've had my Swedish meatballs at IKEA and I am also in dire need of a new rug for my office so why not kill two birds with one stone right?

The pink rug that I am currently using in my home-office doesn't really look like a rug any more. It used to be pale pink but now it's almost a dirty shade of fuchsia! Thanks to my cats who loves scratching at my rugs and puking out their fur balls there too, my once pretty pink rug is now in terrible condition.

Yes, I can always send it for cleaning but I'd prefer to buy a new rug for my office. The pink one wasn't that expensive anyway. I purposely bought a cheap but decent rug because I know my cats would make the new rug their hangout. True enough, the rug is now all scratchy and worn out and spotting several stains too so a new rug for my home office it will be!

I also need a new colour theme for my office and I no longer want a pink girly theme there. Instead I am aiming for something more refreshing and cooling to the eye, starting with pretty green braided rugs. I probably won't be able to find the same exact one at IKEA but something similar in size and shape would be perfect!



For more variety of braided rugs, do give Plush Rugs a visit. Offering hundreds of fantastic designs of every type of rug imaginable, you will be spoiled for choice just like me! Whether it's Area Rugs, Red Area Rugs, Hand Carved Area Rugs, Sisal Area Rugs, Outdoor Area Rugs, Octagon Area Rugs, Radici USA Area Rugs or Saudi Arabian Area Rugs, this store has it all and MORE!

So that was the initial plan for this Sunday; a little rug shopping to beautify my home office followed by a nice relaxing lunch of meatballs. All that's changed however after my BFF LJ enticed me with her new mobile phone.

After discussing it with her at length on Twitter, I am now totally enticed to get a new phone as well. I can't sleep, I can't eat and I can't focus. All I want to do is will the sun to peek so I can hurry down to the store and check out my new phone first..and the rug later!

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MONICA
LADY JAVA
ELAI

The Weird Room

My home-office is the weirdest room in the house! Mind you, it is also the most comfy and most lived-in room but it's also the place where light bulbs burst into pieces more often than not and the only room in our condo where I can hardly receive phone reception.

I noticed this since the first day we moved in here actually but I thought it was just my cell phone that was acting up. But as the days progressed, I noticed that all my visitors who visit me inside my home office will complain of the same thing and that getting reception there is almost impossible. Sometimes the phone won't even ring at all and it's only when I bring it outside the home office that I'd be able to hear a soft ring on my phone, signalling a missed call on my cell phone.

My phone works perfectly fine if it's outside of my office but whenever I'm inside with my phone, it just doesn't ring and the signal sign is extremely weak. Things have gotten so bad that I'm considering a Cell Phone Booster to solve this mysterious plight.

Cell Phone Boosters comprise wireless repeaters and inline cell phone boosters or amplifiers, which help extend cellular service in poor coverage areas by amplifying both transmit and receive signals. Using a cell signal booster amplifier reduces problems with dropped calls and signal fades whilst enhancing your service range, voice quality and access.

It sounds like the perfect solution for my home-office and I am going to spend a little more time learning more about this product tonight. We had gone grocery shopping earlier and by the time I got back, I was totally exhausted. I slept the whole afternoon and just only got up. Having my first coffee of the day now; all ready to start my day!

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LADY JAVA
ANE
FOONG

In Recovery

B is recovering from his recent hospital stay nicely. It's a slow and steady process but every day he gets stronger and feels well enough to check his emails online now. Of course he would be comfortably positioned inside the room and I'd bring his MacBook to him.

Right now, my hubby is still confined to our room and still does not hang out anywhere outside the room. We are trying to keep his wound clean and hygienic and that means staying away from our fluffy cats for a while. The bedroom is the only place, which is cat and fur-free so that's where he's been spending most of his time.

In my attempt to cheer him up about being stuck in just one room until he gets better, I told B that we'd get him a new chair with some Rocking Chair Cushions for his work-station. I might even throw in an Ottoman chair or two so he can rest his feet on it while at his PC. He's currently using my hand-me-down black chair, which though still works and swivels just fine, does not seem fit for sick B now that he's miserable and bored from being restricted to just bed-rest all day long.

So I checked out several online stores and found the best bargains at Custom Cushions. As the leading supplier of pretty rocking chair cushions, ottoman cushions, kitchen chair cushions and chaise cushions, this site allows shoppers to create and customize your own cushions to your preference and colour choice. Simply make use of the very user-friendly Cushion Designer customization system to start designing and creating the most beautiful cushions for your chairs at home.

A new year calls for something new inside my home office and I think I'll start with a brand new office chair. The white one I got from IKEA is still sturdy but since it's white, it looks rather old and dusty right now. Plus, the cushion is all scratchy since Phoebe loves distracting me while I work by incessantly meowing underneath my table and scratching my office chair!

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LADY JAVA
MONICA
DAVID

Inspire Me

Simple Stencil just gave me a great idea on how to spruce up my home office! I'm in a decorating mood lately and I want to start with the room I spend the most time in. First and foremost I want to paint the walls of my office a whole new colour. I am still struggling with colour choice so I am moving on to other possible decorating ideas I find inspiring like this really cool one from Simple Stencil.

What is Simple Stencil you ask? Well, basically they are self adhesive decorative vinyl wall lettering and designs that you can use to decorate any part of your home! Simply rub on the letters to form a favourite inspirational quote or saying on walls, mirrors, windows or any other smooth surfaces to enjoy a unique and trendy decorative piece for your home sweet home!

Transfers are easy to apply and they are removable so if ever I change my mind, I could easily remove them later on. This sounds perfect for my mini makeover and I am definitely keen to try this out for my home-office. I love inspirational quotes and Simple Stencil provides you with a huge Inspirational catalogue containing hundreds of ideas, phrases and quotes to get you started. Something like this would do nicely to inspire my freelancing way towards becoming rich and famous one day!

Thanks for reading peeps and have a wonderful weekend. Don't forget to keep your dreams alive too!

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LADY JAVA
MONICA
ANNA

Design Your Own Rug! *

Have you ever imagined designing your own high-quality rugs; customised to your desire and fancy? Well now you can with Rug Couture, a premier luxury custom rug company with over 20 years experience in designing and customising the perfect rug for your home.

I was much impressed with the hundreds of rug designs available at Rug Couture and you'll be too. From funky contemporary patterns to plain traditional designs, you will definitely find one (or maybe two!) rug design that will definitely suit any home, big or small.
At Rug Couture, you will enjoy the liberty of choosing a rug and customising it to your preferred colour combination and size. Have fun choosing from 10,000 colours to add to your custom palette where you can mix and match your favourite shades to come up with your unique rug design. Once you're totally happy with your creation, your custom rug will be then hand made by a team of skilled craftsmen in approximately 6 weeks; a long but very worthwhile wait to finally own the beautiful custom rug you've always wanted!

I had a lot of fun designing my own rug with my current favourite colours pink and lime green. What a lovely combination and after seeing the finished creation; I'd really like to have this one here for my home-office. What say you?

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MONICA
LADYJAVA
AYIE

Curtains or Blinds?

I'll be doing some late night shopping later! Do you remember my last visit to IKEA? Well the main purpose, aside from buying a new lamp was to redeem my credit card points for IKEA cash vouchers. As usual, I was Miss Last Minute; arriving for redemption at the very last day. I did go home with RM70 worth of IKEA vouchers though, which I've been saving for something that I really need and tonight's the night for me to do some shopping!

Mariuca needs new curtains for her home-office, yes she does! I have three different pairs right now but I'm looking for something new that will help rejuvenate my creativity as a copywriter so I'd be able to churn out copy after copy. New curtains will also inspire me to blog and most importantly, they will do wonders to add more cheer to my already inviting home-office!

So I did a little online window shopping first. It's always good to have an idea of what you want to buy by surfing the net. We've always had curtains at home and a nice change of scenery with brand new Mini Blinds could be just as pretty. Especially the lime green blinds in this picture. I'm already imagining me hard at work on my desk with the sunny disposition of my charming new blinds adding energy and comfort to my office.

Curtains or blinds; which one is more enticing right now? I am still undecided for now so perhaps some Swedish meatballs for dinner will help me decide. And since I'm supposed to be on a diet, I'll just have the Kid's meatball plate and mineral water okay?

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TURN-U-OFF
MY SWEET ESCAPE
RAMBLINGS OF THE PHAT