Before I start: I want to say Amazon.com is not at fault for what happened. They have amazing customer service and I still very much support buying directly from Amazon.com. (Also, this is a very long winded blog!)

PART ONE:

My 3 year old Dell Inspiron died November 1st... the hard drive decided to go. So that night I got on the internet (on my husband's computer), and researched laptops so I could get one fast but with the specs I wanted. I finally settled on a secondary seller on Amazon- called Eagle Direct Tech. They have 408, 4.8 out of 5 star reviews. So I placed an order for the below laptop:


We got up Saturday morning early, so we could get to the Best Buy in Philadelphia when it opened. I don't think I've ever been to a store before it opened. lol. There were other people waiting around outside for it to open. I felt like it was Christmas or something. :-p Thank goodness. THEY DID have 3 of the Sony Vaio flip 15 in stock! Even though it ended up costing me $700 MORE (including $100 just in tax... thanks Philadelphia for your 8% tax). Sigh. But... I wanted a laptop fast.

I was finally emailed a prepaid shipping label to send the incorrect laptop back to Eagle Direct Tech. It will be getting dropped off at Fed Ex on Wednesday. And  when I'm refunded my $668... at least half of the Sony Vaio will be paid off... thank goodness for my Citibank credit card... (6% APR!)

The Sony Vaio Flip 15A is a powerhouse laptop. It has a 1.80 Core i7-4500u processor, 8GB of RAM, 1 Terabyte hard drive. It also has two video cards. An Intel HD 4400 intergrated graphics and a Nividia GeForce 2GB video card. The screen itself is also touch screen and It folds down to convert to a "tablet"... but I'm not messing with that anytime soon. I don't want to break it!

Only weird thing is... there's no CD/DVD drive. Yeah... I know newer laptops are starting to phase them out, because everything is becoming cloud based. It doesn't bother me too much though, none of my programs run from the disc. And the only time I ever used my disc drive on the old laptop was to watch a DVD rarely or burn a CD for the car. We have an external CD/DVD drive so I can use that when I need to.

Also it has Windows 8.1. (I updated the OS last night from 8.) After playing around with Windows 8 this weekend... it isn't too bad or too different. The "start menu" is definitely weird. But you can still view all your programs. You just customize what programs are pinned to the start menu. I will be back to posting nail blogs again soon! I spent yesterday getting all my programs installed.

Oh and the touch screen is so cool! I was playing The Sims 3 last night and my husband asked if the touch screen worked with games... and it does! I could select things in game by touching the screen! And do my games ever run fast now! No more lagging, whoo hoo!


Here are my thoughts on Eagle Direct Tech, on Amazon.com:
  
1. I had to email them far too many times, twice for a tracking number and two more times to get a prepaid return mailing slip. They get back to their customers very slowly.

2. I paid $18 for expedited shipping through Fed Ex. It took 4-5 days to arrive, when it should have only taken 2-3 days because the item was not shipped right away by the store.

3. They either "sent me the wrong model"  like they said in their reply email. Or, they sent me that laptop thinking I would never notice the specs were different from what I ordered.

4. The laptop looked like a display model to me, not brand new as described. It wasn't packed very well in the box, no bubble wrap etc. It had a scratch on the lid.

Conclusion: BUYER BEWARE! I do not reccomend shopping from Eagle Direct Tech on Amazon.com.

So this weekend has been a big bust. Friday morning I woke up sick with a head cold, throbbing headache with a stabbing pain in my eye. Sore throat, stuffed up nose. Then my laptop decides to die. It's a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 1545. It's been giving me a fatal hard drive error for about a year... and I just always thought, "Oh well, if that happens I'll do a PC restore to factory settings."... nope. Didn't work. The part of the hard drive PC restore is on... yeah that's the corrupted spot... blah. so pissed.


I wanted to get a new laptop next year when the car was paid off, ($3,000 left!). Not this year, when my Kindle Fire HDX 8.9" has already been pre-ordered... (I've upgraded every year since the original Kindle Fire came out in 2010, I always resell last years model on eBay). But anyhow... thank God I backed up all my files on my external hard drive last weekend. The only thing I am kicking myself about is that I forgot to back up the countless custom fonts I've downloaded over the years... one of which I was using for my watermark... and I forget the name now... arrgh.

I'm thankful I have my Kindle Fire HD, but a tablet still isn't the same as a full functioning PC. I can't upload any of the nail photos on my Sony Camera and I don't have Paintshop Pro to edit. I can't play Sims 3 and unwind on the weekend. Blah. I did order a new laptop on Saturday. I got another Dell (I am partial to Dell, this is the first one to die on me... my husband's that he inherited from me is 6 years old and still kicking). Dell's website didn't have any to ship until end of November that met my specs... and I can't wait that long!!! So I got one new on Amazon with Windows 7 (None of that Windows 8 mess for me), and that had enough space to store my large resolution photos and that would run the Sims 3. It was still less than what I paid for our previous two laptops... but I did not think I would have to put out $600... I had to take some money from our savings to pay for it. And with expedited shipping it sure better be here mid week! New one is a Dell Inspiron 14R. (No Macs for me... sorry I'm a bit anti Apple).

So... I am blogging from my Kindle Fire HD. I will have better photos of this polish when I'm up & running on a PC again. But for now here is a cell phone video & photo. (Compliments of my Galaxy S3). Black Cat Lacquer had a Halloween sale with 25% off. I grabbed Poison Apple. It's a gorgeous red scattered holo thermal polish. It's bright red when warm, and dark red when cold. My nails are long enough that the tips do stay dark red for a gradient effect. But for the video & photo I used hot/cold water to show it off more.





I also pre-ordered 3 of the new colors from I Love Nail Polish. I got Birefringence with Holo, Sweet Serenade, Washing Ashore. They were $1 off during pre-order and you get a limited edition full size polish, exclusive to the pre-order.

Last but not least... I about fell over the other night when I saw Emily De Molly Cosmic Forces IN STOCK on Llarowe! I have been wanting this elusive polish from the Aussie indie maker for long, I didn't think I'd ever get it. (And I sure wasn't going to pay $30 on eBay!). 



But... I am now going on a no buy. I have bought more polish in October than I did the the whole year! I have enough pretties to play with... so I am going on a no buy until Jan 31st... longer if I can hold out! I have plenty of polish to swatch and blog about and stamp with. So there will still be lot's of blogging. :-)

✯ PR Sample ✯

This was provided for review in my Influentser Rose Vox Box.

I received this Kiss Nail Polish Gradation kit in my Influenster voxbox. You get three metallic colors with step by step directions to create a gradient look. There are four different kits available in different colors. The kit I received is called: Film Noir.

Step 2 says to paint up to a certain line on your nails, but I used a makeup sponge instead and dabbed the polish on. I needed two coats for step 1 and just one coat each for step 2 and 3. (Plus Seche Vite topcoat). I really like the colors I received. They make nice Holiday or New Year's Eve colors.


You can find Kiss Polish for sale at: CVS, Walgreens, Target, Rite Aid, Kmart, Walmart, etc.

I won my very first nail polish giveaway a few weeks ago! I won the Cult Nails Fall 2013 collection from Imperfectly Painted blog. I've been reading Imperfectly Painted since 2011. I started to really get into nail polish back in December 2010, after a back injury that left me on bed rest for a full week. I had nothing better to do but look at nail polish blogs and paint my own nails, and search for pretty polish on eBay, lol. These are my very first Cult Nails polishes.

 

A few weeks ago Cherry Culture had a sale. 20% off your order and free shipping over $40. This was the first time I ordered from Cherry Culture. I picked up an extra birthday gift for my mom and ordered myself 4 of the L.A. Girl Ombre Kits for $5.99 each. You get 5 mini polishes in each kit.

I'll have swatches of these soon. I have a bad slice on my thumb right now. I'm waiting for it to heal, so I can show all 5 colors on my nails when I take photos.






This last one wasn't from Cherry Culture. My husband & I went to Wegman's Grocery last night for a splurge shopping trip and I got these two Badger Balm products down the organic aisle. I got Lime Rocket lip balm & I also decided to get the cuticle care to carry in my purse. It smells like oranges & rosemary. (Mandarin oil is one of the ingredients).

This morning we had to take Violet, "Baby Rat" to the vet to be put to sleep. She had a tumor growing near her bladder/rectum area for quite a few months already. It was an inoperable tumor. It was getting larger and ended up getting a scab on it last week- which got infected and turned into an abscess that ruptured this weekend. I feel so bad for waiting, I should have had it done last week... Baby Rat went peacefully at the vet, she was a fighter and her heart kept beating for awhile... I pet her until she passed away.

When we brought her home at the beginning of August 2011 she was just a tiny thing. She was so small she still had an umbilical scab... which ended up getting infected but healed eventually. We named her Violet, but we always called her Baby Rat. She was very spunky and adventurous. And even up to her last days never acted like she was in any pain, though she was slowing down. She would have been 3 years old this coming July. ♥