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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Colorblock Nail Art

Inspired by this DIY nail art post on Today.com, I decided to try it out myself.  One trick that I found useful was to stick the tape on the back of my hand several times so that it wasn't so sticky and therefore would be difficult to take off the nail.  I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Brisk Blue, Quick Jeanious, and Fuchsia Flare and Wet 'N Wild's I Need a Refresh-mint.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Getting My Money Back, Mac and Cheese, and an Elephant Card

MyEyeDr Experience: I went in a few weeks ago to get my eyes checked.  It turns out that they were dry and irritated.  Taking the privacy screen off my computer at work did wonders and the dryness has definitely subsided.  I got my insurance statement in the mail and I noticed that the copay cost was $15.  I paid $50 for the appointment.  I was so confused.  Originally my sister Julie and I were going to go see the new Transformers movie but decided against it because of its poor reviews.  She wanted to get Potbelly sandwiches for lunch and I went to the MyEyeDr office to see if they could clarify what happened.  It turns out that they incorrectly charged me and I'll be getting my $35 back.  Whew!

Recipe #5 of 2014: A few days ago, I downloaded the Kindle app on my phone and borrowed a couple of books from the library to read through the app.  One of then was an Ina Garten cookbook.  I saw a mac and cheese recipe that I wanted to try so that's what I did today.  Julie and I went to get ingredients after getting sandwiches for lunch.  Wow, there was so much cheese in the recipe, but it was totally worth it.  I had to substitute the Gruyere for a more affordable Swiss cheese, but that's okay...the dish was delicious! 
Julie's Card: One of Julie's friends recently got her Master's and she wanted to send her a congratulatory card.  I made the elephant and Julie used some of my patterned paper and stamps to create the card below.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Empties #4

Whoo hoo. More stuff that I can toss out!  The only thing that I really liked from this bunch are the makeup remover, which I already repurchased (in a bigger bottle, in fact!).  I'm tired of the Dove body wash since it's one that I've used many times in the past.  The face wash was meh and smelled kinda weird, so I won't be repurchasing that.  Also, I don't think the plastic exfoliater beads are good for the environment so that's another reason I will not be repurchasing it.  The face moisturizer have been staples in skin care routine and I'm ready to try something new.  The toothpaste did whiten my teeth, but it was a very gradual/subtle thing.  I have another tube of it that I just started working through, but after that I'm probably going to try something new.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

New Hairstyle

Using one of the new elastic headbands that I got last weekend, I tried a new hairstyle that I've been meaning to try on myself.  Julie was good test subject a few months ago.  I wore it to work this morning and I wasn't confident that the headband was staying in place so it only lasted a few hours before I took it out and put it in a ponytail. 

I still need a little practice practice practice.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Fall-To Layout #299 and Coastal.com Order

I heard about this online glasses company (Coastal.com) a while back from alittleaboutalot on YouTube. They have a great deal where you can get your first pair free.  I've been looking to get another set of glasses because the ones that I got at the eye doctor, I'm just meh about. I was a little skeptical.  Free?  Really?  Yep, I only paid for shipping and insurance, which was about $16 total.  I bit the bullet last WED and ordered a pair. They showed up today and I'm a fan!

If you're interested in getting a pair of new glasses, here's my referral link.
Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #299. I made this card last night to send to my friend Page.  Sounds like she's been having a busy summer, based on her Facebook.
 
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, Dark Peony, Blackberry, French Blue, Yellow Citrus, Warm Green
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), Inkadinkado- Nature
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Three-a-Day

I did the 8:30 AM and the 9:30 AM spin class this morning.

And because I've been slacking on my weight training, I decided to do a 1-hour Jillian Michaels workout DVD after dinner (No More Trouble Zones).

I'm feeling like a beast, bah ha.

On my way home from the gym, I went to another Target to cash in on the $5 off $15 purchase of personal products.  I'm almost out of my Dove body wash and my Olay moisturizer so this was great timing.  I spent what felt like 10 minutes in the body wash aisle just smelling stuff.  Is that weird?  Everything smelled so good!  I'm excited to try out the BB cream too and I was lucky that it was on clearance (50%).

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Target Haul

I didn't see any good yard sale listings today, so I went to Target instead. Of course, I hit the clearance shelf in the beauty section. I have been on the hunt for the NYX butter glosses on clearance that other people have posted sitings about. I found a basket of them with a bunch of nail polishes. Clearly, it was my lucky day. I took a picture of the basket and Julie thought I bought everything that was in the picture on the left. No no, that's what I had to pick from. Geeze, I'm not that nuts! I came home with 4 lip glosses (I justified this because I had thrown away some Estee Launder free gift with purchase lipsticks that I got from my aunt years ago. They were just not good colors for me), a set of headbands (clearance + 10% off Cartwheel app) and some face wash that was on sale. Not a bad haul! I'm proud of myself for not buying any of the nail polish.
I bought these two bags of popcorn at Safeway on my way home from my parents' house last night. I had heard from folks on YouTube raving about it. Now I know why. I feel less guilty about eating a whole bag since there don't have as many calories as chips do. The caramel/cheddar bag didn't last long. I brought the other bag to my parents' house when I went over today to eat dinner. I decided to give my curling iron a whirl this morning. I need to break it out more...I think once during the work week would be a good goal. I didn't buy it for it to sit in a drawer after all! When I went to check the mail today, I saw a notice from the police. UGH, I got zapped by one of the speed cameras on July 4, coming home from volunteering at the race. Rats! Gotta go cough up $40 now. My bad. :(

Friday, July 18, 2014

It's the Little Things that Count

On an unrelated note, I had lost one of the nosepads to my sunglasses the other day, but then when I was in the car this morning when I went to spin class, I found it at the bottom of my purse.  YAY!  I really like those sunglasses, so I was not really looking forward to replacing them, but now I don't have to! 

I decided to try a new nail polish that I got last summer, but didn't use yet because I was waiting for warmer weather.  This is 2 coats of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri in Man-go Team!.  Wow, it's quite bright!  It'll probably make a reappearance around Halloween.

I went to my parents' house earlier tonight for my weekly in-person check-in.  I was going to get some body wash from the "stock-pile" but the only ones that were available were the ones that I'm currently using.  I was telling Julie that the one that's in my shower and the soap that's on the bathroom counter are getting close to being done and that I was excited to be trying something new.

Julie goes...o_0 "It's soap."

She doesn't understand.

Clearly.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

RJ Goes to the Vet (Again)

A few weeks ago, RJ went to the vet for a regular check up.  The vet told me that he had some tarter and recommended that he come back for a dental appointment.  They also gave me an estimate for how much the appointment might be and a $100 coupon if I made the appointment within 6 weeks.

I bit the bullet and made his dental appointment for today.  Because he was fasting, he didn't get any breakfast, so I was already feeling guilty about that.  Then I felt more guilty because he wailed all the way to the vet's office.  Sigh, sorry, boo boo.

Around 4 PM, I got a call at the office and the vet said that his appointment was straightforward and no extractions were needed.  What a relief!  I zipped over to the office to pick him up.  He had a hot pink bandage around his arm where the IV was put in.  I was instructed to take off the bandage 30 minutes after we got home.

We get in the car and if RJ could talk, he would be saying "Aw, hell no.  This is coming off now!" and he starts using his teeth to rip it off his arm. Since the car was running, all I could do was say "Nonono, stop.  Stopppp.  RJ!" all the way home.  Oh well.  At least he wasn't actively bleeding.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Watching a Train Wreck

The office was live streaming the congressional hearing with the CDC director regarding the recent anthrax gaffe.  Wow, what a bad day to be the guy in the hot seat.  There were two panels today, and I could barely make it through the first one.  It was tough to watch.  I felt bad that he had to be held responsible for other people's carelessness.  But on the other hand, CDC hires the top scientists to make sure that we are protected. This oversight could have gone a lot more badly.  What if this is the tip of the iceberg?  That's a scary thought.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Ebay Update

The Vera Bradley jewelry box that I bought at a yard sale for $4 sold todayfor $14.99.  Not bad! :)

I also sold 5 bottles of Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue (original formula). YouTube folks and the beauty blogosphere has been in an uproar lately because the new formula of this nail polish is a totally different color and consistency.  I knew that folks would be wanting to find the original formula, so I went to RiteAid and found several bottles of the original one to see how much I could flip them for.  $2.99 * 5 bottles= $14.95.  Sold on July 10 for $31.00. 
I also sold a DVD that I watched once and was meh about it: Horton Hears a Who!. Sold on July 10 for $1.99.

At the office: Around 3 PM today, I walked by one of my co-workers and was like "I need a nap".  Instead of the usual "me too" response that I get from other folks, she responded with "Let's go do some stairs.  That'll wake you up." 

We're on the 7th floor!

Oh my thighs...

Monday, July 14, 2014

Homeowner Woes

There's been a tiny leak in one of the pipes in my utility closet.  Someone was scheduled to come on July 3 but because of the heat, their schedules were jammed up (the guy didn't even call me to let me know that he wasn't going to show up. Well, no business for him!).  I went with another company who came in today around 10 AM and fixed the leak in about 30 minutes.  Unfortunately, he had to cut into the drywall ceiling to access the pipe that he needed, so now I have a square hole in my ceiling.  Blah.  I'm in the process of figuring out it I can get this issue paid for by the warranty company, but if not, no biggie.  I'll just consider this a homeowner challenge.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Two-a-Day

I was feeling really motivated this morning to get my butt moving so I decided to do the 8:30 AM and the 9:30 AM spin classes this morning.  It felt good to get a hard workout in by 10:30 AM.  The HR director was in class and I saw her again when I went to Target. 

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Yard Sale Haul

I went to 2 yards sales this morning, but only had luck with one.  I found 3 Disney DVDs at a family moving sale and they gave me a kitty stamp that I wanted for free.  I went up to the dad of the family and asked him how much for the lot.  Before he could say anything, his daughter stepped in (maybe 5-6 years old?).  "$2 per movie."  I went back to my car to get some money and the daughter was there to take the money, "I'm running the children's stuff."  Aw, cute.
What wasn't cute was this mom that swatted my hand away when I reached into a box of DVDs earlier.  Physically swatted my hand away.  Geeze, okay, you're taking the whole box.  I didn't know.  Sorry.

The yard sale was near the gym, so I cranked out 3.25 miles on the treadmill and was feeling pretty accomplished.  Surili has been killing it on the Fitbit lately (I think it's because she's been at a conference for work...which usually translates to lots of walking between sessions), so I felt compelled to catch up.  I met my 10,000 step goal around lunchtime, so woot!

Friday, July 11, 2014

Mmm, Cake!

Even though I work from home on Fridays, I decided to get some errands done and also swing by the office around 2 PM for a co-worker's good-bye party.  Word on the street is that he's heading off to the CIA.  His boss got 3 cakes for everyone to share: carrot, strawberry shortcake, and chocolate bavarian cream.  This coworker was one of the silent diligent types that worked in the background, so I was amused when someone suggested that he say something. "Well, you all know I'm a man of few words (we all laughed because we know it's true...), but I do have experience with speeches.  I was the best man at my brother's wedding and apparently I killed my speech."  Hm, interesting.  I would have never known since he's so soft spoken.  I had a slice of the chocolate bavarian cream cake, picked up a reimbursement check from my mailbox, and then headed home.
Around dinnertime, I headed over to my parents' house to check in.  Dad had a good report from the doctor's and he celebrated by buying a bunch of junk food.  Tsk tsk.  I saw ice cream and bread in the fridge.  I helped out by taking some home with me, but not too much.  Julie and I went for a walk around the neighborhood so that I could meet my 10,000 step goal for the day.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

The Price of Peace of Mind

I don't know what's been up with my eyes lately, but after a full day at the office in front of a computer, they start to feel sore and get red. I purchased some Visine, thinking that it would help, but then I started to wonder if something else was wrong. I scheduled an appointment with an eye doctor and after a 10 minute appointment, he told me that there wasn't anything going on with my eyes except to say that they are somewhat dry and to get some artificial tears to use when necessary. Oh, whew, ok. No biggie. When I went to pay for my visit, the guy was like "Ok, it'll be $50." Fifteen?? "No, $50." Ugh, I guess that's the price of peace of mind.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Nutella Bread and Sharks

The HR lady gave me some Nutella cake (bread?) that she made last night.  There were 3 slices and I gave one away to a coworker.  Sharing is caring!
Julie came over to share the shark costume that she made for work. Poor RJ.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

An Email from HR

I got the following email from HR this morning:
Hi Tina- I finally got all the baking supplies squared away in our new kitchen. I am going to do some baking this week (purchasing some more ingredients this evening). Since you are always bringing in goodies for the office I wanted to repay the favor. Let me know what treats you like.
 
Aw, how nice!! P.S. Today is my 3 year anniversary of buying my own place :D

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Yard Sale Finds

There weren't that many yard sale listings to comb through this morning, and in fact, I only went to one today.  They had some vintage toys and DVDs in their listing which caught my eye, but I ended up getting one DVD for reselling ($2) and one book for myself ($1).

On the way home, I swung by CVS to browse the makeup aisle (didn't buy anything) and pick up some peanut butter M&Ms (on sale, 2/$5 with $1.00 off coupon and $1.50 Extra Care Bucks).  Bwah ha ha.

I came home to work on listing some old DVDs from my collection that I didn't want anymore as well as a lot of 5 bottles of Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue.  I know people will be on the hunt for it because that formula is discontinued and the new formula is a) not even the same color despite the company keeping the name and b) is not opaque as the original version, from what I've heard in the YouTube world.  I sold a 3 bottle lot of Mellow Yellow, Pacific Blue and Coral Reef earlier last week, which made me think that people are on the hunt.

I knew I needed to go to the gym, so in order to motivate myself to go (aka putting a carrot in front of me), I told myself that I could go to Riteaid and Ulta to browse and get some items that were on sale.  I also went armed with coupons so that helped too.  From Riteaid, I got a new Maybelline Color Tattoo in Barely Branded (I was hoping to see a display of their new stuff, but no luck there), 40% off.  From Ulta, I got a Loreal Infallible eyeshadow in Gilded Envy (40% off sale + $1 off coupon), NYX butter gloss in Angel Food Cake (40% off) and a Revlon nail polish in Rain Forest (on clearance for $1.99 + $1 off coupon).  I also had a 20% off coupon from the Ulta insert.  Tee hee.

Between Riteaid and Ulta, I went to the gym and ran/walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes.

Earlier this evening, I someone placed a bid on the lot of 5 Sally Hansen nail polishes that I listed earlier today.  o_0  The listing isn't ending for another 5 days! Wow, ok, cool!

Friday, July 4, 2014

Happy 4th of July!

Nail Art: To get into the patriotic spirit, I did some nail art stamping last night.  I was already wearing white nails, so all I had to do was do the art.  My nails ended up getting a little jacked up over night, which was totally my fault because I did the nail art over a top coat and didn't do top coat over the nail art to seal it in.  I ended up taking it off and starting over later on today.  I did navy blue on my pinky, then white on my ring and middle finger, and then red on my remaining fingers on one hand and then did silver stamping with the floral image in this picture.  That version turned out much better.

Volunteer Activity #5 of 2014: I woke up around 5:15 this morning so that I could get to volunteer check-in at the Autism Speaks 5K race.  It was a little rainy when I got there to hand out volunteer t-shirts, but by the time I had to go to my spot on the course to cheer folks on and make sure they were going the right way, the rain had moved on.  Whew!

I have to say that it felt awkward to cheer these runners on by myself, but after I saw the cheerful reactions, I was like "Ok, it's working."  I actually saw one of my co-workers in the race.  I didn't know he was going to be running in it, so that was kinda cool.  Once the last walking came up the hill, some volunteers picked me up to take me back to the finish line where my car was.  Their truck wasn't able to get all the way there, so I walked the last quarter mile, and that was fine with me because I wanted to get my Fitbit steps in.  At the finish line, I saw this guy that I went to elementary/middle/high school with.  He was there with his wife and children.  "This is Tina.  I went to school with her since I was...2."  Ok, that might have been an exaggeration, but close enough.  We talked about what we had been doing lately and who we had seen.  I told him that my parents were still in the area and he said that he knew that.  "Yeah, I know, they live across the street from Jose (another person that I went to elementary/middle/high school with)."  Oh, huh, I guess word gets around.  Some of us went away to college only to come back and live in the same neighborhood that we grew up in.

Happy 4th!: For dinner, I went to my parents' house because they were going to be grilling steaks.  My aunt brought potato salad.  My friend Robyn, her sister and brother-in-law brought broccoli salad to share.  Meg was going to DC to see the fireworks, so she couldn't make it to dinner.  Dad also grilled vegetables, and I rounded out the meal with the blueberry cheesecake I made last night for dessert.  Whew, I'm stuffed!  Happy birthday, America!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Pre-July 4th Preparation

I took the day off today so that I could wait for a fix-it guy to come by to fix a tiny leak in the utility room.  I was hoping that he was going to come between 12 and 1, but then when 3 PM rolled around, I had a sinking feeling that he wasn't going to show up. I called them up and sure enough, they were apparently swamped today with other appointments.  Ok, that's fine, but couldn't you have let me know?  Would you have just let me hang there not knowing if I didn't call?  Grr.

Another unfortunate thing that happened today was that we got hit with a bunch of thunderstorms.  I lost power, but fortunately, my parents had power so I went over there to eat dinner and make the cheesecake (my contribution to the dinner) for the BBQ tomorrow.
Mom made the blueberry topping that would go wit this cheesecake.  Can't wait to chow down!

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

An Etsy Custom Order

I got a custom order from an Etsy customer today.  She wanted a personalized wedding card with a bride and groom penguin to send to her grandson and his fiance.  I hope the new happy couple like the card!