No, not saving money.
Saving files ~ on the computer.
Last week, I finally got a day to focus on writing the instructions for my new pattern out of Central Park by Kate Spain. 6 hours - with no kids. My little morning kindergartner was at school for a few hours and then straight to a friends house. I sat down at my computer at 9 a.m and was making some really good headway until I looked at the clock at 2:56 p.m. and realized that I was going to be late in getting my daughter to gymnastics at 3! I rushed off to get her there and when we got home I immediately started doing some dishes.
While I was at the kitchen sink, I wondered what my little kiddos were up to. It was a bit quiet so I figured they were probably on the computer playing games. For a second, I worried about my instructions, but didn't think too much about it because my kids are pretty good not to close my documents and tabs (my older one knows to just minimize them and I guess I figured I had probably saved it anyways.)
Well. That was a bad mistake.
My little one had closed my document and apparently told the computer not to "save" it. And guess what? I had not saved any of what I had done that morning! Not one single ounce! I tried shutting down the computer to see if it would show up in "recovered documents" and searched everywhere for some sort of updated version of my instructions, but, to no avail! All that work ~ down the drain.
I wanted to cry (but couldn't because I was suppose to teach a class on my Candy Hearts quilt about 30 minutes after I found out that the file had been lost.) So for the last few days I've been mourning that loss. I had to regroup and get a "second wind". Tonight I started again and made some good headway. I'm hitting "save" every 5 minutes now. It'll probably be about a week before the pattern is ready, but I'm really excited to show you. I hope you like it. And, I've got a little giveaway planned for it.
This is a little picture I found on the Internet. Reminds me a little of the pattern. You'll just have to wait to see my pictures though...coming soon.
I probably would have thrown up-I do stuff like that!
ReplyDeleteI have just finished "Candy Hearts" quilt! It is in washing machine and I am waiting for the final result. I love the whole process of making it.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for the pattern!
Have a great weekend,
Jana in Prague, Czech Republic
Ouch! That had to hurt a bit. You sound like you're taking it from a live and learn perspective!
ReplyDeleteOh...that is horrible......but...like you said, just regroup.
ReplyDeleteOOOOOOOOOoohh no!! Horrors.. We go thru life teaching our children lessons.. sometimes they teach us.. (save, save, save). Won't have to learn that lesson more than once.. OUCH.
ReplyDeleteMost programs now have an 'auto save' feature. You may have to turn it on but it will save it for you every five minutes. ;)
ReplyDeleteOh, no! How awful! I know I learned the hard way too that you must save, save, save. But it's still hard to remember to save frequently when you are writing a long document. I feel for you.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm so sorry that happened... I'm sure it just knocked the breath out of you. However, you've got the right attitude... and you CAN recreate it.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing your pattern... the photo of the green leaves is beautiful!
The good news is - your second document will be of higher quality than the first one.
ReplyDeleteAh Yes. Computer Science 101 -- even though they taught us the little save secret I think we all learn it the hard way. I sure did. Sorry it had to happen to you! ;-( (But, now I can't wait for your next post!)
ReplyDeleteOh Amber...I would have been sick. My greatest fear with my computer is loosing all my pictures, luckily my husband backs things up on disk for me. Whew!
ReplyDeleteThere is the option of saving the file automatically, if you need any help with setting that up, please let me know and I can walk you through it. :o)
Big hugs, Trish
Sometimes, no matter how smart we think we are, we have to learn the hard way. Sorry this happened to you, but glad you were able to regroup and get it done...using the save function this time.
ReplyDeleteWill be watching for your new pattern reveal.
You have accomplished so much in the short time I have been following.
Oh my gosh Ambs! My heart aches for you! Happy to hear though that you were able to get the ball rolling again! Also, I am SOOOOO happy for you and proud of you in your quilt designing journey. What an awesome accomplishment! xoxo
ReplyDeleteHi, Amber...I just became a follower! Love your blog...sorry about your computer woes!! I have suffered from similar situations.....very frustrating! Enjoy the day!
ReplyDeleteOh no, that was awful! I don't know which program you are working with, but with Word you can make the settings so that it will make a backup every 5 minutes... We have separate PC accounts for each family member and they are not allowed to use ours....
ReplyDeleteCan relate to that, it only happens one time, you hope. There are programms that automaticly save whatever you're doing every few minutes (you can tell the programm how often).but kids are fast learners, so maybe next time they'll save it for you.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear what happened, I've had it happen in Photoshop when I was working on a large file and forgot to save....then the program crashed. Glad to see you now have it written and saved.
ReplyDelete