KittyKatKards

Fall-To Layout #177

2012-02-10T23:00:00.001-05:00

Hooray, Friday. 'Nough said.

At the office: I found out that my former officemate is having twin girls! Her husband is going to be very out numbered. Even their dog is female. Ha ha.

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #177. I was determined to use one of the cupcakes that came in a set that I got from my birthday last year. Mmm, cupcakes.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Nana's Kitchen, Chatterbox
Stamps: Savvy Stamps (sentiment)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Floral Doily Motifs, Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large
Buttons: from Tuesday Morning
Other: We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss in Referee
Stickers: Jolee's Boutique- Cupcakes

Good Karma

2012-02-09T21:53:00.003-05:00

At the office: I didn't really pack a lunch today because I was banking on getting some lunch meeting leftovers. That was until I found out as I was going up the elevator that they had all been taken. Noooooo! I wandered into the kitchen anyway, as if I was the last scavenger to the party and there was nothing left. Wah.

BUT...

Then a coworker stopped me in the kitchen and said "Hey, Tina, I've been meaning to give you some money for the cards that you left out a few weeks ago. I thought you were going to leave a tip jar next to the box, but there was nothing there." Eeeh. Yeah. I mean, I thought about it, but I felt kinda funny about doing that and figured if I was hesitating, it probably wasn't a good idea. Anyway, he handed me some money and it was exactly what I needed to get a sandwich at Subway. What perfect timing! I mean, that was amazing! He didn't have to give me money because I WANTED people to take the cards that I had left in the kitchen. And he had no idea that I was looking for lunch. It was a reminder to me that what goes around comes around. I think it's true: if you do good things, good things will come back to you. :)

Book: I put The Help on hold in order to read The Hunger Games. There was some discussion about it at the brunch last Saturday so, of course, I wanna know what everyone's talking about!

Spin: The last time I went to spin was on Sunday. I missed 2 classes this week and even though I had the sniffles, I really felt compelled to go. And I'm glad that I did. Hello, exercise endorphins. How I've missed you.

One-Layer Wednesday #78

2012-02-08T21:56:00.001-05:00

At the office: "Tina, have you been making lots of anniversary cards lately?" the policy director stops me in the hallway. Uh, yes? "Good, because I got one in the mail recently." Ha ha.

Snail mail surprise: I snail mailed a letter to my friend Suzie on Monday, but then I realized later that night that I had forgotten to put a stamp on the envelope. Ugh. Interestingly enough, I received a text message from her today with a picture of the snail mail! Somehow the postal system missed it. Whew! Someone was cutting me some slack. Thank you!

A Snoopy valentine was waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home from Jessie. You'd have to have a heart of stone to not smile at Snoopy.

Card: Here's my take on One-Layer Wednesday #78: Circles, Circles Everywhere, where we were challenged to create a card that had at least 5 circles. I decided to use this opportunity to create a card to go with the gift that I'm giving at my co-worker's baby shower on Saturday.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Ocean, French Blue, Charcoal
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Jungle (monkey), Fiskars- Baby (sentiments), Autumn Leaves- Build-a-Flower (circle)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Surprise Snail Mail

2012-02-07T22:04:00.004-05:00

RJ: I was woken up this morning by a strange whirling sound. At first, I thought it was my printer going crazy, but I guess that just goes to show how my brain just doesn't function at 5:45 AM. The printer isn't even on, dummy. Hello. I went downstairs and almost tripped over RJ, and then I found the source of the strange noise. The automatic feeder was having trouble turning because the weight that I have on it was positioned incorrectly and was preventing it from turning. The motor was grinding and RJ was freaked out. Mommmmm! I want to eat, but the noise is scary. Yeah, ok. It's fixed. Chow down. I'm going back to bed.

At the office: I missed out on my co-worker's baby shower yesterday because I was home sick. I was so bummed because I wanted to see her reaction to the card that I made and everyone signed. I stopped by her desk today to catch up with her, and she said that she really liked the card. Mission Accomplished. I also heard from 3 separate people that the cake was awesome. Wah.

Snail mail: I was happy to find some snail mail in my mailbox when I got home today (junk mail doesn't count). One was a thank you card from Laura (glad you like the orchid!) and another was a birthday card.

From the office. (The big boss sends out birthday cards for staff.)

One that I made!

Can you read what it says at the bottom? It says, "P.S. nice card!"

Ha ha ha!

Fall-To Layout #176

2012-02-06T20:35:00.000-05:00

RJ: I was NOT a happy kitty mommy this morning. RJ found his way back to the top of the refrigerator and knocked off his old food bowl, resulting in it shattering on the kitchen tile and making a very loud noise at 5 AM. I rushed downstairs to check on the situation and yep, it was quite a mess. So, here I am, 5 AM, feeling like #$*& and breaking out the vacuum to clean up the mess so that neither one of us gets hurt. I went back to bed to try to get some restful sleep, only to have my sore throat feel worse when the alarm went off this morning. Hello, sick day.

"At the office": Except you can only sleep for so long, right? So instead of being in front of the TV the whole day to get some actual rest, I got sucked into email and conference calls. I even got an email from my boss, asking me why I was working. Because I clearly have a unhealthy, self-imposed habit of blurring the lines between work life and personal life. I hope I feel well enough to go to the office tomorrow. Being cooped up in the house isn't really all that fun either.

Card: Here's my take on this week's Fall-To Layout (#176). My goal was to use these paper cranes that Robyn gave me for Christmas. They came attached at the beak and feet so I had to cut them out so that they could stand individually. I added some texture to the black panel by heat embossing a Hero Arts background stamp (sadly, it's not very clear in the picture). I stamped the letters individually on a piece of white cardstock and used a circle punch to punch them out and stuck them on the card using foam adhesive.

I also added one of the anniversary cards that I made for an office order.

Card Specs (for crane card):
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red
Stamps: Hero Arts- Cling Classic Fabric Design (background), Studio G
Paper: g.c.d. Studios- Chianti Collection
Punch: Recollections, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch

Bad Kitty

2012-02-05T20:30:00.004-05:00

RJ: I went downstairs to get ready for spin class this morning and RJ was no where in sight. This usually means that he's up to no good. I made a first pass around the main floor and didn't see him and knew that he wasn't upstairs because I was just there. I decided to go back into the kitchen and turn on the light. The rascal was sitting on top of the refrigerator, attempting to break into his kibble bag. When the lights went on, he had an "Oh, #$%@!" expression on his face. Luckily, I caught him before he made it all the way through. The kibble bag is now safely in tucked away in the cabinet.

Spin class: I decided to take a bike in the back row this morning. This cute guy ended up taking the bike next to me. Janice asked if there were any new spinners in the room and he raised his hand and she helped him get set up. After hearing their conversation, I found out that he was Italian. Ooo, interesting. Toward the end of class, I asked what he thought of the class. He said that he usually runs, but he wanted to try something different. I thought to myself, "Hmm...I know someone else that loves to run and loves Italy as well (Meg), maybe I should introduce them sometime. Ha ha." Hopefully he comes back!

Family: I went to my cousin's house for dinner tonight. My uncle cooked up a wonderful feast: noodles, chicken drumsticks, salmon, soup, etc. We finished it off with strawberries and custard. How can anyone watch their weight in this family?! Everyone knows how to cook good food, and we always get together to eat it!

A Social Saturday

2012-02-04T23:45:00.000-05:00

I was very social today (a rarity...). I had not one, but TWO events today!! :) I went to Laura's house for a MPH girls get-together. Laura, thank you for hosting and for the yummy food. Your house is beautiful! The menu was blueberry almond French toast bake, fruit salad, spinach salad, granola and yogurt, veggie pupusas, white chocolate dessert, and mimosas. Life would seriously be more fun if calories didn't count. But I had fun tasting a little bit of everything. I hope there's a bike for me at spin class tomorrow.

Then in the evening, I went to a friend (in the black shirt in the picture below) from high school's "Dip and Play" party in Baltimore, where we were encouraged to bring a food that requires dipping it into something. There was a variety of treats to eat: chips/dip, chocolate/fruit, Oreos, salsa, etc. My contribution was vegetables and hummus. We played Apples to Apples, SmartAss, and Family Feud. I didn't know any of her friends, but thankfully another girl that I went to high school with (in the gray shirt in the picture below) came to the party. I haven't seen her in 10 years, but we had a lot to catch up on. The thing that I love about potlucks is that you can usually bring your leftovers home. I'll be set for fruit salad and veggies (healthy snacks) for work this week! Woot!

Nail polish: I wanted to try an image that wouldn't cover the whole nail, and I chose a butterfly. Red: Ulta in Ruby Slipper. White: Revlon in White on White. Bundle Monster plate #222.

Busy Bee Friday

2012-02-03T21:51:00.004-05:00

Attend morning 1- hour spin class, check.
Go to lunch with friends, check.
Work on an anniversary card order from the office, check.
Go to dinner with the family, check.
Cut up fruit for a graduate school get-together tomorrow, check. (Look how colorful it is!)
Do nails, check. (will post picture tomorrow)

It's been a busy day. The end.

A Card Confusion

2012-02-02T23:17:00.002-05:00

So, a few months ago, I was asked by the Human Resources department at work to create some birthday and anniversary cards so that they can send to the staff at the appropriate time. I made some floral cards that were intended for women and then some origami shirt and necktie cards intended for the men. I found today that they need some more anniversary cards so they placed an order for 10 cards (yay!) and also that some of the origami shirt and necktie cards were sent to female staff members. The HR lady showed me what cards were remaining in the box that I gave them a few months ago, and many of the origami shirt cards were still there. I think I said something along the lines of "Yeah, those are the cards that I made for the guys." The lady looked at my wide eyed. "What?...Did you give those to women?!" She said yes because some of the neckties were made with warmer colors (red, pink, etc.).

Errrrr. Sigh.

I guess in the end, what it boils down to is once the cards leave my hands, they are someone else's responsibility. It's not a reflection of me or my work if a female staff person is confused or doesn't like the anniversary card she gets because it's more on the masculine side.

Target Run

2012-02-01T21:50:00.005-05:00

Baby shower gift: My goal tonight was to get a baby shower gift for my co-worker. I debated ordering stuff from the Target registry, but ran into the problem of having to order at least $50 worth of stuff and I didn't want to pad the shopping cart with unnecessary stuff in order to get the free shipping. Especially when Target is right down the road. I decided to forgo the registry and buy her baby a cute blanket/rattle set. The baby will outgrow clothes, but the blanket will probably last a while. I went to my parents' house to say hi to Dad (he came home last night from a 3 week vacation in Taiwan) and to see if Mom had a gift box and wrapping paper. She grabbed a Macy's box and Coach tissue paper. Ok, so all the stuff doesn't match, but it's the thought that counts, right?

New workout video game: While I was at Target, I decided to get the Gold's Gym Dance Workout video game for the Wii console. It was a treat for myself because I want to add a little variety to my workouts. After 30 minutes, I did actually work up a sweat. I hope that's from genuine exertion and not because it's telling me I'm out of shape.

Random Musings

2012-01-31T22:14:00.002-05:00

Apple verdict: In the name of public health, I decided not to eat it. Instead, I brought it home for the neighborhood squirrels.

At the office: I gave one of my big bosses a hard time about his resistance to post an entry on the organization's staff blog. "Tina! Do you think you'll live long enough to see me blog?!" This coming from a person that still carries around one of those personal calendar books in his back pocket despite having a Blackberry. I give him a hard time about that too. Anyway, he does have a point. I'll give up. At least I know I can give him some sass without risking my job.

A Powerful Mind: I had two moments today where I thought of something, and it actually ended up happening. a) I thought to myself "I really want some meeting leftover pizza" and then right as I was leaving the office kitchen, someone brought some in from their meeting. Sausage and peppers. Yep, I'll take that. b) On my way back from spin class, I thought "I would really like to come home to an Etsy sale." And I did! I sold an origami elephant valentine. :)

Food: I made another batch of butter chicken tonight. Yum yum!

Trying to go to bed earlier this evening so that I can hopefully wake up early and leave the office early to go for a run. The weather is supposed to be super nice tomorrow.

Bugaboo Creek

2012-01-30T21:24:00.000-05:00

At the office story #1: one of my co-workers gave me the breakfast snack packs (muffin, apple, water, granola bar) that her hotel gave her (she's in town for a meeting). I was really excited because I didn't really pack a significant lunch. Free food. Yep, sign me up. The apple in the pack was a little funny. The apple butt was a little fuzzy, but I don't think it was mold because I was able to wipe it right up. I'm debating whether to just toss the whole thing in the trash tomorrow or just cut that part off. (Oh yes, my life is super exciting. Be jealous.)

At the office story #2: I've been trying to schedule a meeting for the past week using the Meeting Wizard website. However, with so many schedules to consider, I haven't been able to identify a date/time that works the best for the majority of folks. I think my frustration was coming across on the phone when I was on a conference call with a workgroup. "Tina, as frustrating as this might be, can you imagine how difficult this was when we didn't have those meeting scheduling websites?" (pause). "No, I have no idea what you're talking about. This is all I know." I could tell the others on the phone were smiling. "Ohhhh, that's right. You're sooo young."

Family: To celebrate my cousin's birthday, we went to Bugaboo Creek for dinner. I had a huge salad with chicken. It was one of those salads where I kept eating it for a good 15 minutes, but didn't feel like I put a dent in it at all! At least there are leftovers for dinner tomorrow. The waitress carded me. BAH HA HA. I did so good not eating any of the desserts at dinner, only to come home and eat the remaining gummy bears I bought the other day. Sigh. Oh well. Tomorrow's another day to do it right.

Baby Shower Card

2012-01-29T20:16:00.000-05:00

I went to return the movie that I watched last night with my friends (Rio: it was cute and funny, but it wasn't something that I'd buy to watch over and over again) and Just Dance 3 at the local Redbox and I picked up The Black Eyed Peas Experience for Wii. I was a little skeptical because there were mixed review, and I had to agree with some of the negative feedback. Don't get me wrong, I love BEP music, but the graphics of the video game left much to be desired.

I decided to skip out on spin class this morning under the condition that I would go for a run this afternoon. I was able to crank out 4 miles as the sun was going down. It seems like we're getting more daylight these days, which is nice.

I was asked to make a baby shower card for a co-worker. She's expecting a baby boy in March. I hope she can hang on that long. She kinda looks like she's ready to pop! I love how there are different dimensional elements to this card: buttons, rubber duckies, and baker's twine. Glossy Accents definitely helped me out in adhering the chipboard letters and buttons. Because this card will be passed around at the office, I can't risk anything falling off.

Card Specs:
Paper: American Crafts- Botanique
Punches: EK Success Postage Stamp border punch, EK Success (rubber ducky)
Other: We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss in Lemonade
Stickers: Basic Grey Dark Chocolate Chip Chipboard alphabet stickers

Off to watch some Real Housewives. :)

Run, Eat, Dance

2012-01-28T23:59:00.000-05:00

The weather was so nice today that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go for a run this afternoon. It looks like my pace improved a little bit from last time. :)

Earlier tonight, I invited Meg, Robyn, Beth and her friend Emily over to the house for some pizza, junk food, and Wii Dancing. Of course, we had a lot of fun acting silly. It's SO nice to have my own place so that I can have get-togethers like this.

AllScrapbookSteals Update

2012-01-27T22:29:00.003-05:00

Last night, I decided to make a last ditch effort to contact AllScrapbookSteals to see if they'd be willing to refund some of the shipping cost from my order that I placed a few weeks ago. I forwarded the email that I sent on Monday regarding this issue to the email address that sent the "your order was shipped" email, and someone responded by the time I checked email this morning. They apologized for the delay in response, as the customer service email that was listed on the site was not working.

They did refund me the money that was owed to me, but I'm not sure I'll be a return customer. If they knew the customer service email wasn't working, I don't understand why they would continue to have it on the site. Who knows how many other people have used it to try to contact them, only to not get a response? It doesn't really sound too professional to me.

Ok, switching topics.

I had a bad mommy moment today. I was clipping RJ's nails today, and I clipped one too close and it started bleeding. OH @#$%! I quickly Googled a solution and found that putting flour on the nail would help stop the bleeding. Whew, it worked! I was definitely more affected by the whole thing because RJ didn't seem to express any signs of distress. On the other hand, I felt really guilty. I'm glad that at least one of us is resilient. :P

A Crabby Birthday Card

2012-01-26T23:05:00.002-05:00

I received a text message from my friend Robyn last night, requesting a Maryland blue crab card with the sentiment "Wishing you a crabby birthday." Ha ha, how cute! I pulled out some blue origami paper and used these instructions to fold the blue crab. I added some "sand" and a paper punched cupcake give the card some context (in case it wasn't clear that it was a blue crab) and match the sentiment.

I went to dinner with my friend from grad school (Jessie). It was really good to catch up with her at Panera because it's been quite a while since I've seen her in person. Seeing her and going to spin class was a great way to end the work day. I needed the energy boost. The slew of conference calls and meetings was starting to get really draining.

Temptress

2012-01-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

Shopping update: I emailed AllScrapbookSteals on Monday to see if they would be willing to refund me some of the shipping cost because there was a few dollars difference between what I paid and what the postage actually cost for a recent haul. They have not replied to my email yet. I want to hold them to the shipping policy that's on their website.

We have tried to be as exact as possible and will never deliberately charge more that the actual cost of shipping. We do pay close attention to the shipping costs when orders come through and will, on occasion make adjustments (to your favor) if we think the pkg can be shipping a better, cheaper or more efficient way. If this change is significant in terms of cost or time, we will contact you before we make any such changes.

How long should I be waiting for a response from them before I can be legitimately disgruntled?

Nail polish: This is the final nail polish color that I haven't tried from this December haul. I'm not sure if it really goes with my skin tone, but the pink is pretty. Base coat: Revlon in Temptress (#169) (2 coats). Black: OPI Black Onyx. Bundle Monster plate #222.

Tuesday Trigger: Winter Blossoms

2012-01-24T22:11:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've worked on a Tuesday Trigger challenge, so that was my task for tonight. The inspiration picture looks like it's got some paper pom-poms that you can hang from the ceiling, so I decided to create my own by layering some die cut flowers and stringing them with some baker's twine.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo
Stamp: Studio G
Pearl: Recollections
Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals
Other: We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss in Cream Soda, Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

AllScrapbookSteals Order

2012-01-23T22:46:00.000-05:00

At the office: Having the two-hour delay was a nice way to start the week. I was able to hang out in my jammies and catch the Today Show before heading off to the office. The roads were actually alright today, but I can understand the Feds wanting to be on the safe side.

One of my co-workers took me out to lunch today (my choice was PotBelly) as a thank you for the cards that I bring into the office and let people pick from. It feels nice to be appreciated. :)

Mail: Today I received my order from AllScrapbookSteals.com. While I like the prices, I felt that the shipping cost and the time it took for the order to get to me will make me hesitate in ordering from them again. The flat shipping cost was $6.99 but on the mailing label, the shipping cost was really only $2.77. I think that's a significant difference so I'm thinking about emailing their customer service about that. As for the shipping time, I ordered these items on 1/12 and I received the order today, 1/23. Meh, not really impressed. I will say that I received all the items I ordered and the package was not damaged during the shipping process.

Here's the card that I made with some of the supplies that I bought. I love the bird die set, I knew I just had to one in tonight's card. It might be difficult to see in the picture, but I gave the birds silver pearl eyes. They would have been rhinestone eyes, but I don't have gems that tiny.

Card Specs:
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stickers: American Crafts Foam Thickers in Wonder
Die: QuicKutz- Birds
Other: Liquid Pearl in Silver Pearl, We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss in Referee

CPS #252

2012-01-22T21:10:00.000-05:00

Spin class: Spin class this morning was another full 25 person class. I dunno if this is still the New Year's Resolution's crowd, but I think it's great. Maybe if there's enough interest and demand, the management will consider adding another class during the weekend. It'd be wonderful to have options.

Family: After spin class, I had to get the house straightened up a little and clean up the ice from the sidewalk because my uncle and aunt were bringing my cousin (visiting from California) over to my new place and meet RJ the cat. My cousin's not one to be overly expressive with his expressions (unlike dramatic me), but it looked like I got quiet approval from him. Yay. :) RJ was happy to meet new people and make new friends.

Card: Here's my take on CPS #252. I wanted to use some of the Stella and Rose paper that I bought back in the fall. I thought that the yellow paper would be a good contrast to the red cardstock. The panel that goes across the card gave me the most pause. Do I use a border punch and punch cardstock to go across there or adhere some ribbon or patterned paper? I ended up using some rhinestones to add some sparkle and dimension to the card.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal and Warm Green. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Barn Door.
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), Fiskars- Friendship Garden (leaf)
Paper: American Crafts- Botanique, My Mind's Eye- Stella and Rose
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Clay: Sculpy Clay in Red, Premo Sculpey Clay in Cadmium Yellow Hue

Huh. Meg texted me earlier to let me know that the Federal Government has a delayed opening tomorrow. I guess we're in for some freezing rain tonight. Lovely.

Lunar New Year Celebration and Fall-To Layout #174

2012-01-21T22:49:00.000-05:00

Lunar New Year: I went over to my uncle's house to celebrate the Lunar New Year with my family. The star of the dinner was a sticky rice stuffed duck, which makes an appearance every year. Everything at dinner was so good that I definitely went back for seconds. Needless to say, I'll be going to spin class tomorrow morning. A family friend's kid was totally flirting with my cousin Emily (the picture doesn't really show it, but he was).

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #174. When I saw the sketch, I knew exactly which sentiment stamp I wanted to use. It's one of the few sentiment stamps that's oriented vertically instead of horizontally. From there, I chose a green Recollections card and stamped the Hero Arts background stamp with Versamark. I thought the ink would be enough to create a tone-on-tone effect, but it was too subtle that you almost couldn't see it. Fortunately, I had my clear embossing powder on hand to make the dots stand out a little more. Then I worked on cutting down the yellow patterned paper and ribbon piece together and adhering the card. The finishing touches were rounding the top right corner and adhering the dimensional sticker. I'm thankful that the yellows matched very nicely.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Stamp: Hero Arts- Time to Enjoy, Hero Arts- Cling Dots (background)
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, EK Success Postage Stamp border punch
Stickers: Jolee's Boutique- Cream Buds

Great Deals on a Snowy Friday

2012-01-20T23:16:00.004-05:00

Hooray, it's Friday! Most of the day was spent doing regular Friday stuff like going to a 9:30 AM spin class and working from home. After being cooped up at the house all day, I decided to venture out to CVS, armed with my coupons. Last week, I bought a bunch of stuff for the house, and since my total came to over $30 of these items, I got a $10 CVS cash card as the weekly ad said that I would. Tonight, I bought 2 bags of gummies, 2 bags of Dove chocolate, and 2 packages of batteries and the grand total came out to $2.65. Mwah ha ha. What a steal. I love coupons.

I then ventured out to the nearby Blockbuster that's closing in February. They reduced their prices again to $6.99 for pre-viewed DVDs. I was on the hunt for Thor and Captain America, but it looks like other customers beat me to it. Instead, I walked away with Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Mission Impossible 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 1. At least one of those movies will keep me occupied for part of tomorrow since it's snowing outside right now and the icy stuff is expected later on. Oh goodie. :P RJ's already found a new place to settle in- my college hoodie.

CPS #251

2012-01-19T22:10:00.000-05:00

Crazy happenings: When I was in line at the post office this afternoon, the guy in front of me was telling the post office lady that he was denied a New Year's kiss and how all there are no good girls out there. The good girls that are out there end up corrupted anyway. Yikes. Ok. He turned around and looked at me. If I found him attractive, I would have cracked a joke or something. However, that was not the case and I pretended to be interested in something on the wall and on the floor. Just anything to make me seem preoccupied and avoid the awkward conversation transpiring.

Card: For today's card I wanted to do something for CPS Sketch #251. All the supplies used in this card are things that I haven't used in a while: the Basic Grey stamp tea stamp set, the paper pack from DCWV, Versamark, embossing powder, and my clay flowers.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ocean
Stamps: Basic Grey- Cup of Tea
Punch: Martha Stewart Doily Lace border punch
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Nana's Kitchen
Clay: Sculpy Clay in Blue Pearl
Other: Red Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Hello, Day-Glo!

2012-01-18T21:17:00.000-05:00

Nail polish: Time to try another new color from this haul. This time, it's a Sally Hansen Insta-Dry in Peachy Breeze. You can tell from the bottle that this color is bright, but wow. Hello, day-glo. I think it's bordering on obnoxiously bright, but hey, it's a fun color. Who cares?

Card: For the card today, I started out with a piece of Botanique patterned paper that I had already cut up as well as a scrap piece of green cardstock. I also had a little red heart punched out from some Valentine's Day cards I was working on for my Etsy shop. I punched out two more for the white piece of cardstock that was going to go in the middle of the card. A sentiment and the punch outs just wasn't going to cut it for this card, so I grabbed a roll of washi tape I got for Christmas to put behind the hearts and drew in some faux stitching and ta da!

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Stamp: Studio G
Paper: American Crafts- Botanique
Punch: Recollections
Washi Tape: The Container Store
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

New Food Monday

2012-01-16T20:48:00.000-05:00

Hmm...3-day weekend, what to do? Oh, I know. Cook and bake, of course! I was so productive this morning- making a batch of baked oatmeal and doing one load of laundry, all before 9 AM! After getting dressed, I headed out to do some grocery shopping so that I could do some more cooking this afternoon.

While having an NCIS marathon on in the background, I made some butter chicken and lemon poppy seed muffins. I didn't have any rice to go along with the butter chicken, so I improvised with some pasta. I was a little unsure of how it'd taste because of all the unfamiliar spices that went into the dish, but it came out wonderfully. I tossed a container of mushrooms to add more vegetables to the dish. As for the muffins, they were so very buttery and yummy. I think these count as Recipe #2 and 3 (out of 25) for my New Year's Resolutions.

Fall-To Layout #173

2012-01-15T22:55:00.001-05:00

The Great Clean-Up continued: Selling back some CDs and VHS's did not prove to be as profitable as I thought it was going to be. I guess I was a little naive walking into the store, thinking I would have enough money to score some nail polish at Ulta afterwards. I did get a used DVD copy of Casino Royale and some change back. Oh well. At least that stuff is out of the house. It does no good to keep in a box, which also takes up space. I foresee going back to the store to sell back some more stuff over the next couple of days. Maybe I can sell the Disney VHS's that are hanging out in my parents' basement. I can't see myself watching them anytime soon.

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #173. I revisited my stash of American Crafts Botanique goodies. I gravitated to a very pretty rub-on and then went from there. I used the B side of a sheet of brown patterned paper to match the dark pink sentiment and used some green patterned paper to contrast the yellow and pink. To make sure that the rub-on went on straight, I used a T-square ruler and some washi tape to hold the rub-on temporarily to the card base. I think it's kinda cool that I didn't use any ink or stamps for this card.

Card Specs:
Paper: American Crafts- Botanique
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Rub-Ons: American Crafts Botanique Paper Pieces
Pearl: Recollections
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner

Goals for tomorrow: grocery shopping and finding some frames from Michaels.

Song of the day: "Hello Hurricane"- Switchfoot. Heard it at spin class this morning. There was actually a full class today (25 people), which I was kinda surprised about. I hadn't reserved my spot, so I was happy to get a seat anywhere.

Rolled Paper CARDS Magazine Challenge

2012-01-14T21:42:00.000-05:00

Cleaning up: I went over to my parents' house this afternoon and got sucked into the Great Clean-Up. Dad's out of town for a few weeks, and Mom decided that this would be an opportune time to clean up the basement and reorganize. Some of my boxes were in the corner, and they were calling my name so I went through some of them. At the end of it all, there were three piles of stuff: recycle, trash, and donate/resell. I had to laugh when I found some of my graduate school course work. Well, I already got my diploma so there's no use for it anymore ::dump in recycle pile::

I went to the library on the way home to drop off some books for donation. The librarian was so happy to see the pile of books I left on the counter. As I was walking out, she said to the other lady at the counter, "Tina used to work here as a page..." Yep, and you were my first boss.

Hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?

The clean-up continued when I got home, where I started going through my CDs and VHS's, because, I really don't use them anymore. I found a place near work that says they'll buy used stuff. We'll see how that goes tomorrow. I'll be happy if I can spend it on nail polish on clearance at Ulta, which is conveniently nearby.

Card: Here's my take on this week's CARDS Magazine challenge where we were challenged to make a card with rolled paper. I decided to create a sun with rolled paper and use that as the focal point of my card. I took scraps of patterned paper to create with rays of the sun. The sentiment was actually printed from my computer and punched out. I thankfully had some cloud patterned paper to go along with the sky theme. I thought the sun looked kinda lonely by itself so I added some bird friends.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ocean
Stamps: Inkadinkado (birds)
Paper: Recollections
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch), EK Success Scalloped Circle punch (2 inch)
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner

Not-So-Normal Manicure

2012-01-13T22:36:00.000-05:00

Spinning: For a brief moment today, I thought I was going to go for a run this morning, instead of going to the gym for spin class. However, I took a look outside my window and saw the wind blowing around. Mmmyeahno. The gym it is.

Movie: I watched the movie 17 Again tonight on DVD (borrowed it from the library). It was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Zac Efron would be a lot cuter if he had better hair. His hair looks a lot better in the trailer for The Lucky One. I really liked the book, so I hope the movie people don't ruin it.

Snail mail surprise: Mom said that I received some mail at the house. Uh, what? I wasn't really expecting any mail. That's really weird. "It says there's stamps inside." Ok, double weird. I definitely would have remembered ordering supplies. thinkthinkthink. Oh, wait. This must have been the prize I won from Jennifer's page, Styles Ink. Yep, it was. It's a Stampin' Up set called So Many Scallops.

Nails: I decided to try a not-so-normal manicure today. I usually go for the bright colors, but today's manicure is very different in that it's more subdued, as in not bright at all. I like it thought. I like how even though the nail polish is sheer, it doesn't dry streaky. This is Essie in Walk Down the Aisle (3 coats). It kinda looks like a French manicure, just without the fuss.

Sewing Fail

2012-01-12T21:19:00.002-05:00

My friend Steph just recently came back from a trip to Taiwan. She sent me an email saying that I should be expecting some snail mail with some gifts from her trip. I got the mail today and found a pretty bookmark and a fun crafty postcard. There was some fabric attached to the postcard where you could create a bee. I learned in doing this project that my skills are more in cardmaking and not sewing. I think I at least get an A for effort.

One-Layer Wednesday #74

2012-01-11T19:37:00.000-05:00

Food: I made chicken marsala tonight, and it was very yummy. I decided to use chicken tenders and instead of chicken breasts to cut down on the portion sizes. I also used portabella mushrooms instead of white mushrooms because that's what was on sale at the grocery store last week.

Card: I decided to do the One-Layer Wednesday #74: Red and Pink challenge tonight. I think the theme this week is a) creating my own background by using one stamp and b) use the same Me & My Big Ideas stamp set that I bought not too long ago.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Rouge
Stamps: Me & My Big Ideas- Sassy Icons (flourish), Fiskars- Sentiments
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Pearl: Recollections

A Floral Hello Card

2012-01-10T21:47:00.000-05:00

At the office: One of my co-workers bought 5 of my cards today. Yay, I can do some shopping this weekend! ;)

Spin class: I sat down on my bike tonight at spin class, and Nancy (Thursday night's instructor) turned around. She paused as if she was thinking of what she was going to say. "I ate half a pumpkin pie in two days!!!" I burst out laughing because it sounded like she felt she was in a confessional. Awww, it's okay. Even spin instructors have weak moments. I asked her if it was worth it. "YES!" Ok, then I guess that's all that matters. The fact that you came to class doesn't hurt either.

Card: For tonight's card, I started with a piece of dark red card base that I messed up on last week for another card. One side of the card base was stamped wrong so I had to recycle it, but the back piece was still usable. I did a little tone-on-tone stamping for a subtle background. Then I used my new favorite border punch and adhered the two blue pieces with some yellow patterned paper to the cardstock. I wanted to use some Thickers for the sentiment and some pearls for added dimension. After all that, I thought the card was still missing something. I debated on stamping something and using white embossing powder, but I was too far along with the card to risk not having that image come out perfectly. I decided to use some white rub-ons that I bought last week. Usually rub-ons are not my friend, but they came out perfectly this time. Whew!

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red
Paper: American Crafts- Abode
Stamps: Me & My Big Ideas- Sassy Icons (flower)
Punch: EK Success Postage Stamp border punch
Rub-on: American Crafts, Mini Marks, Accents, Book Three (dots)
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl
Stickers: American Crafts Foam Thickers in Wonder

First Snow of 2012

2012-01-09T22:31:00.000-05:00

Wow, talk about a case of the Mondays. I didn't wake up feeling 100% and sat in bed to figure out what my options were. I wasn't really feeling the idea of being at work, feeling yucky. I didn't like the idea of calling in sick because I had 3 conference calls that I had to be on (1 that I had to facilitate). I definitely didn't want to bail on them and push them onto someone else's plate. I figured that the best option was to work from home. I was a little sad that I missed out on breakfast meeting leftovers, but who needs the extra calories, right? Not me, that's for sure. Thank goodness for ibuprofen, technology, and a nice understanding boss.

I got an IM from an co-worker who was at the office. "It's snowing!" I didn't event realise it until I got her message. It wasn't sticking to the streets, which was great because I could still go to tonight's spin class. However, there was nice dusting on my car and on the grass. It was really pretty to see it fall outside my window.

RJ was keeping me warm while I was watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills tonight. I don't think he finds them nearly as entertaining as I do.

2011 Movie Stubs Scrapbooked

2012-01-08T20:14:00.001-05:00

Last night, I went out to dinner at Guajillo Grill with Meg and Robyn. I got the chicken burrito and it was very yummy. The portion size was like whoa, so I ended up taking half of it home. We then spent a few hours just chatting at Meg's place, just catching up from the holidays and work and other random things.

Metro totally sucked last night. :P

My inner thighs were definitely feeling it this morning when I got out of bed. It was a nice reminder that I went for a run yesterday. I mustered the energy to get my butt to the gym and go to Janice's spin class.

Afterward, I met up with Beth at Noodles & Co. We then went to the local Blockbuster that's closing. I went there last week only to find crappy "deals," and their prices hadn't really decreased since then. Many DVDs had been lowered to $10 (from $12.99?), but that still wasn't enough to convince me that it was a deal. There was still a lot of merchandise left in the store, so I imagine they will continue to lower the prices as the closing date approaches.

Scrapbook page: I was going through my purse the other day, throwing away old receipts and de-clutterizing it and found all of my movie stubs from all the flicks that I saw in 2011. I dunno why I chose a floral paper. Flowers aren't usually related to movies, but I liked the paper so that's what I went with. With each stub, I wrote a little comment about the particular movie.

Page Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Paper: American Crafts- A La Carte
Stamps: K.I. Memories- Cool Dude (arrows)
Punch: EK Success Postage Stamp border punch
Brad: American Crafts, Large Brads- Evergreen
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Foliage
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner

3 flowers, 2 butterflies, and 1 bird CARDS Magazine Challenge

2012-01-07T15:20:00.001-05:00

Running: Seeing as the St. Patrick's Day 8K is in approximately 3 months, I thought it'd be a good idea to get my legs in gear. My last run was in September, which is horrible to say, but after that race, I thought I just needed a break from running. I wasn't really feeling it. But nothing motivates you like a little pressure, right? I downloaded the iMapMyRun+ app onto my iPhone and went for a run. The feature that I like most about it is the voice feedback, where it'll tell you at a certain interval what your running stats are (I set it for every 0.5 miles). I had thought about getting a Garmin watch a few months ago, but I'm glad that I didn't because this app does what I need for $1.99. I felt surprisingly pretty good after the run. I wasn't sure that I would because of the hiatus, but I guess I found my running legs faster than I thought.

Food: I cooked up some falafel for lunch today. Yum yum. I think this counts as Recipe #1 (out of 25) for my New Year's Resolutions. I followed this recipe (minus the cilantro). I like the little kick the cayenne pepper gives. I was happy to see that 2 cans of chick peas produces quite a few patties. I buried the falafel patty in a pita pocket under some romaine lettuce and a drizzle of thousand island dressing.

Etsy: I got my first order of Valentine's Day off of my Etsy store. I love this time of year! Valentine's Day is definitely my season.

Card: I decided partake in this week's CARDS Magazine challenge: making a card that has 3 flowers, 2 butterflies, and 1 bird. My first thought was to make a Christmas tree out of these elements, but since the holiday season has passed, I make a cupcake instead.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal, Warm Red, Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire.
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), Fiskars- Friendship Garden (flower), Inkadinkado- Nature (butterfly), Inkadinkado (bird)

Fall-To Layout #172

2012-01-06T21:08:00.000-05:00

RJ: I heard some noise downstairs last night, and I had a gut feeling that the kitty was up to no good. I went downstairs to the kitchen and found that he had knocked down the half-full can of cat food onto the ground and was in the process of chomping it up. I grabbed a paper towel and started to pick up the mess. He gave me a look that said "What? Wait, why are you cleaning it up?! I was okay with eating it off the ground! Nonono, don't clean it up! I was going to eat that!"

Spin class: I went to spin class this morning and at the end of class, Janice (TU night spin instructor) turned around and said, "Oh, Tina. We missed you on Tuesday." Yeah...well, I fell asleep. I felt really bad missing class. I'll be sure to go to her class on Sunday. :(

Card: In tackling Fall-To Layout #172, my goal was to use one of the red card bases that I messed up on last night. While I messed up on one side, I could still use the other side for a project. I cut off the side that was messed up and ran the other side through my Cuttlebug to get the red label below. I also wanted to use some stickers that I found in some of the stuff that I moved over from my parents' house. The ladybug was so cute, so I had to pick it out to use on today's card.

Card Specs:
Cardbase: Recollections
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China
Stamps: Hero Arts- Cling Classic Fabric Design (background), Studio G (sentiment)
Punch: EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Floral Doily Motifs, Labels 8

Food: I'm attempting to make falafel tonight. I have the mixture in the fridge to sit and let the flavors jive together. My plan is to cook them up on a skillet later tonight. I hope to have a picture of my successful culinary adventure tomorrow. I also made a batch of hummus using this technique that allows for a smoother version, similar to the kind that you see at the grocery store. My food processor definitely got a work out tonight.

Yep, I like chick peas. Can't you tell?

Love You Card

2012-01-05T22:57:00.002-05:00

At the office: I completed another project for the Big Boss today, and I didn't really hear from him until the end of the day and I saw him through the glass window of the office that I was camping out in. I was on a conference call, so I had the door closed. He draws a square with his fingers and mouthed "Thank you." I had made some slides for him. Ha ha.

We had our January all staff meeting. A few months ago, I nominated one of my co-workers with a staff award for going above and beyond. He has helped me with some presentation posters that I used for some conferences, and even if no one really looked at my poster in depth, at least it looked very professional and my co-worker was really easy to work with. I liked that non-senior staff members can nominate other staff members for this award, not just senior staff. I heard some of the new people walk by later, saying that it was a good staff meeting. I think we made a good first impression, and I think it's equally important to show people how much we appreciate them when they perform well. :)

The IT guys at work were nice enough to download iTunes to my work computer this morning. I was so happy to be able to download some music to my new iPhone and jam out to Kelly Clarkson at the gym after spin class.

Books: I started The Help a few nights ago. I hope to crunch through a bunch of it this weekend.

Card: OMG, I had intended to make a simple one-layer card, but getting to the final product took forever! How ironic, right? Well, I first started with one of the red cards that came in the Recollections pack that I got on Monday. I stamped the large swirly stamp from the calligraphy set with Versamark and then use white embossing powder on it. Well, the embossing powder was sticking in places that I didn't want it to stick, despite running a dryer sheet prior to stamping. I tried that a few times, and I wasn't satisfied with any of them. Then I switched to a white card base with brown ink. I think because it's a large image, it's sometimes tough to get a clean image. The left side might be darker than the right or some part of the image might not stamp at all. UGH. However, after the fifth try tonight, I came up with something I was happy with.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Warm Red
Stamps: Martha Stewart- Calligraphy Stamp Set, The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment)
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner, Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Nails: I gave my nails a rest for a few days, so now it's time to try another color that I bought but haven't used yet. This shade of green reminds me of Elphaba from Wicked. Base coat: China Glaze in Starboard (2 coats). White: Revlon in White on White. Bundle Monster plate #222.

New iPhone Cover

2012-01-04T22:19:00.000-05:00

Bad news: I was up very late last night trying to a) update my Ubuntu operating system and b) trying to get iTunes set up. I was able to get item a done, but not item b. I continued to work on item b when I got home from the gym earlier tonight, and I guess it was just not in the cards for me. I'll have to get iTunes set up on my work computer. Or maybe I need to invest in a new computer that doesn't run into as many compatibility problems. Rawr.

Good news: I turned in an assignment that the Big Boss gave me. I think he was happy with the end result. Whoo hoo, gold star for me! ;)

I was kinda mad at myself for not making it to Janice's spin class last night because of falling asleep on the couch. To make it up, I made myself go to the gym after work today. 30 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes on the stair master (climbed 80 flights of stairs!), and then a cool down on the treadmill. Yay!

I also took a break from work today to get a case for my iPhone. I went to the Verizon Wireless store and while the guy that helped me was super nice, I wasn't willing to pay $50 for a case. "I'm only saying this because you're female, but we have some pink cases up there." Ha ha. Well, I would have gotten one if you had more reasonable prices. Sorry, dude. I ended picking one up at a random kiosk for $7. It'll do for now. Guess what, it's pink. I know, how shocking.

Phone Upgrade!

2012-01-03T23:59:00.001-05:00

Phone upgrade: I'm not one to care too much of the latest and greatest of anything, whether it be technology or crafty things. However, I have been wanting an iPhone for quite a while now. Ever since my cousin got one, I've been eyeing it. Now that I have some extra money in my pocket from my promotion, I decided to treat myself to get one of my own. I've been using my cousin's old iPhone as an iTouch since he's upgraded his 3GS phone to the 4S version, so I'm already quite used to it. I decided on the iPhone 4 because it was cheaper and I wasn't willing to spend $200 on a phone, but still, even though this isn't the latest and greatest, I'm really happy with this upgrade. Can you believe it? This is my first smartphone.

Yep, I feel like I'm officially cool. :)

Nail polish: Glitter nail polish is only cool until you have to take it off. It takes forever. Tink-Her-Bell came off tonight because it was chipping off in big pieces. I kinda followed this BellaSugar guide to removing glitter nail polish.

Haul and Holiday Card 2011 Scrapbook Page

2012-01-02T16:10:00.000-05:00

TV: I was watching The Today Show this morning while eating breakfast, and they were doing a segment about how to make some extra money this year. One of the tips the lady suggested was "Start an online store." She listed off Ebay, Amazon, and Etsy as ideas. Sure, you can start an online store, but maintaining it? That takes almost as much time as a full time job with all the creating, picture taking, picture editing, listing, etc. you have to do. And with the supplies you have to buy and fees you have to pay, it takes a while before you actually make money from your store. They should have elaborated on that part as not to give people the wrong impression. Also, just because you make stuff doesn't necessarily mean it'll sell.

Good customer service: Bed, Bath, & Beyond rocks. The air mattress that I bought in October developed a leak and they let me return it and give me my money back. Yay!

Shopping: I was able to score some really good deals on Christmas crafty items today from Michaels, Marshalls, and TJMaxx. Aside from crafty items, I was also successful in buying some new work out clothes. This'll help me not have to do workout clothes laundry so frequently.Blockbuster: On my way home from my morning shopping spree, I went to Blockbuster to see what their pre-viewed movie selection was like. As I approached the store, I saw big "We're Moving!" signs. I got really excited because I thought that meant that I could find some good deals on DVDs. Mmmyeahno. That was not the case. Some previewed movies were $10 or $12. I was not impressed. I picked out a bunch that I wanted (6 DVDs and 1 Wii game) and went up to the desk to see if they'd give me a deal, but alas, they didn't, so I left them at the counter and went home. I thought that they'd be more desperate to get rid of the merchandise. Maybe I'll have to go back closer to the closing date in February.

Scrapbook page: As I did for the Christmas cards I received in 2010 and the birthday cards I received in 2011, I decided to keep the cards that I received this past holiday season and make a scrapbook envelope page of them.

Page Specs:
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China. StazOn in Jet Black
Paper: American Crafts- Merrymint
Stamp: Inkadinkado- Snowflakes (snowflakes), The Paper Company Studio- Christmas Expressions (sentiment)
Punch: EK Success Postage Stamp border punch
Brad: Recollections- Silver Circles
Stickers: American Crafts Dear Lizzy Christmas Glitter Chipboard Thickers in Sparkling, Martha Stewart adhesive borders

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-01T23:41:00.004-05:00

(Warning: Super long blog post. Scroll down for the card that I made today.)

Happy New Year, folks! Hope everyone had a good time last night celebrating! I invited Robyn, Maria, and Beth over to hang out with me and Julie. I ordered pizza and Julie helped me arrange some cheese/cracker and veggie platters. I was happy that I was able to use some of the serving platters that I got at the housewarming party that my family attended. After watching Crazy, Stupid, Love (which was pretty good. I haven't decided if I want to get a copy of the DVD for myself), we played a few hours of Just Dance 2, which was super fun (and funny). RJ was very excited to make new friends. He went so far as to sleep with Robyn on the couch last night.

One semi-embarrassing thing from last night was that I didn't have a corkscrew to open that Robyn nicely brought over. "Tina! You went to WNL. How can you not have a corkscrew?!" I also didn't have a bottle opener, but Julie, being the resourceful person that she is used a flathead screwdriver to open the sparkling apple cider. Whew, saved by the engineer. Fortunately, I found an extra corkscrew at my parents' house earlier tonight.

Book: I finished up Nicholas Sparks's book Best of Me a few days ago. I thought it was good, but wasn't fully awesome.

Nail polish: This glitter nail polish is not working out for me. Many of the tips have chipped off and my right pinky finger is half gone. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Spin class: I started 2012 on a good note by going to an hour spin class taught by Janice. She had advertised over the past few weeks that she was going to give a lottery ticket to anyone that came to class. True to her word, she gave each person a scratch off lottery ticket. I didn't win anything in my first ticket, but because the class wasn't full, some people got to try again. I ended up winning $2 on the second ticket. :)

Time for New Year's Resolutions. Let's revisit the ones that I posed last year and see how I did.

2011 Resolutions

~~Repeats from last year: Keep up with my blog and Etsy shop every day through promotion, posting, or listing. Track my financial spending better by keeping receipts and entering data into MS Excel.~~ I definitely didn't give it my all in accomplishing this resolution. I feel like I was better at keeping up with the Etsy shop in the first half of the year than in the second.
~~Reach 625 Etsy sales by January 1, 2012. I'm currently at 485 sales.~~ Check.
~~Complete a 8K in March 2011 without walking. I did this race in 2008, and my time was 54:22.~~ Check.
Complete a 10K in April 2011 without walking. I also did this race in 2008, and my time was 75:55. It was a huge challenge for me because I hadn't trained very well for this race, and my knee was in a lot of pain during the last mile of the race. I want to do better this year. Check.
~~Continue to go to spin class, run more, and incorporate weigh lifting into workouts more often.~~ Spin class: check. Run more: I did better in the first 6 months of the year. Weight training: meh, not so much. I did get a resistance band so that definitely helped some.
~~Leave the nest. This is going to be tough as I have never lived by myself before. I guess it's time to grow up a little.~~ BIG CHECK. ::victory dance::
Teach a class on origami. Hopefully this'll help me with my fear of public speaking. Didn't even attempt.
~~Increase my professional contributions at work and work towards a promotion.~~ BIG CHECK. ::victory dance::

Other highlights from the year...

I did one more race than I thought I was going to. (Kensington 8K)
I supported my friends at some big events. Jenny: wedding reception. Laura: wedding. Meg: Marine Corps Marathon. Robyn: Light the Night walk.
I took a vacation to the beach with my friends.
I adopted a kitty.

2012 Resolutions to complete by January 1, 2013.

Read 20 books that I've never read before.
Complete all the races that I did in 2011 and beat my times.
- St. Patrick's Day 8K: 52:43. Meg and I already registered, so that's a good first step. Now it's just a matter of finding my running legs.
- Capitol Hill Classic 10K: 66:14
- Kensington 8K: 51:35
Use 25 brand new recipes that do not use a crock pot and is not a casserole. 5 of those dishes have to include some sort of seafood.
Reach 785 sales on Etsy.
Lose at least 10 pounds by April 30 and spend the rest of the year maintaining that weight.

Card: Here's a picture of all the crafty things that I received for Christmas. Of course, it would make sense that I would use these goodies for a card, right? I have been reluctant to get the Tim Holtz ink blending tool and using makeup sponges instead. I found that the makeup sponges, whatever material they are made of is not as durable as the foam used for the blending tool. The makeup sponges would break apart pretty quickly and the little bits would get all over my project, creating dots of ink where I didn't want them. This was a good investment. Sometimes you can't substitute for the real thing.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China.
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment, balloon), Martha Stewart- Patterns
Punch: Fiskars Large Cloud punch
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots)
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner, embroidery floss

Song of the day: "Higher and Higher"- Jackie Wilson. Heard it at spin class this morning and it put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

In closing...
It's been fun taking some time today to reflect on what all happened in 2011. It also makes me feel truly blessed and thankful for what I have in my life. It's going to be tough to top 2011 (seeing as it's not like I can get another promotion or buy another house), but I will have a fabulous time trying to outdo it.

Hello, Cool Phone

2011-12-30T23:37:00.000-05:00

Shopping: Hooray for a four day weekend! I went to spin class this morning and felt great leaving. Afterwards, Julie and I went to the Verizon kiosk at the mall. I've been wanting an iPhone for a while, but didn't feel comfortable shelling out the $30 data plan until I got my promotion. Since my promotion is effective January 1st, I figured this would be a good time to get it. I was debating on getting a Silhouette cutting machine as a post-promotion treat to myself, but I've survived this long without it, I'll survive a while longer. I debated between the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, and the differences between the two wasn't enough to convince me to spend an extra $100 for the newest version. I was impressed that the iPhone shipped a few hours after I left the kiosk. Hooray for good customer service. Buh-bye, clunky old phone. Hello, future cool phone.

Nails: After a few days of bare nails, I decided to try on another new nail polish color. This one is a glitter polish, and while I foresee it being a pain to take off in a few days, the color is pretty so it'll be worth the hassle. This color is Ulta in Tink-Her-Bell (after 3 coats). It came in an Ulta Quake Nail Polish duo set with a black crackle polish. In the future, I might put this over a base coat of another color.

RJ's Twin

2011-12-29T22:34:00.000-05:00

From what I heard from people at the office, today's movie selection was Backdraft. I didn't see it though because I was enjoying my teleworking day in my pajamas.

When I went to my parents' house last night, I picked up 2 boxes of my old stuff and went through them today. I found this black and white stuffed cat that I got as a present back in college. I was very amused because it looked very similar to RJ.

I was going to do a scrapbook page of all my movie stubs from this year, but that project will have to wait until later. Julie came over today, and we made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to bring to the neighbors. And now we're being lazy, watching episodes of Big Bang Theory.

Whoo hoo, four day weekend ahead!

The end.

Movies at the Office, Day #2

2011-12-28T23:21:00.000-05:00

Cookie success: I gave away all the cookies that I baked yesterday! I brought some to the office and left with an empty container and then the few extra that I had at home, I took them to my parents' house. This afternoon, I was camped out in one of the offices that has a large window in it. I had the door closed because I was on a conference call, but I saw the big boss walk by. He paused at the window, pointed at me and then the cookie, as if to ask me if I brought the cookies in. I finally got what he was trying to say while trying to also pay attention to the conference call and nodded my head. He then gave me a "sooo good" expression. Ha ha. Spreading cheer with cookies, yep, that's what I do.

At the office: Today's movie selection at the office was Fletch. I came into the movie about a third into it because I was on a conference call with my boss. I had no idea what was going on half the time, but at least being in the conference room with my co-workers was better than sitting in my office. I decided to move my teleworking day to tomorrow since the office is closed on Friday, my usual teleworking day. Of course, I'll be missing the last movie day at the office, but I'll enjoy working at home in my pajamas instead.

I also heard from a co-worker about some baby news, and I'm SO excited for her! :) I was so ready to blab the news to my boss so that she would be in the know, but I stopped myself as this is not my news to tell.

Shopping: Armed with some coupons, Julie and I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and Michaels tonight. My goal at BBB was to get a scale to put in my bathroom (used my 20% off coupon!). I'm not really too happy with myself with recent bouts of overeating, and I figured a way to get my weight situation under control is to hold myself accountable with the numbers on the scale because it's an objective way of tracking my progress. Losing 10 pounds will put me back in the "Healthy" BMI category, so that's my current goal. According to FitSugar, the best time to weigh yourself is in the morning, so the official weigh in will be tomorrow.

At Michaels, we got some frames and mats to use on some prints that I got from trafalgarssquare. I also got an EK Success postage stamp border punch on clearance. They already had Valentine's Day stuff out. Craziness.

Card: I had a piece of green cardstock that I had left over from when I was die cutting leaves for this card. I figured that since the piece was big enough, I could use the negative in another card, as not to waste any crafty supplies. I die cut another set of leaves and covered the space with some American Crafts patterned paper to add some visual interest. Then I used the other spool of washi tape that I got for Christmas. I thought about stamping a sentiment, but then I thought some Thicker alphabet stickers would give the card a little more pop and texture.

Card Specs:
Paper: American Crafts- City Park
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Foliage
Stickers: American Crafts Fabric Thickers in Patchwork
Washi Tape: from Container Store
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Movies at the Office, Day #1

2011-12-27T22:16:00.000-05:00

Today started off kinda rough because I got into bed last night around 11 PM to start Nicholas Sparks' latest book Best of Me, and I got so into it that I didn't put it down until 12:30 AM. This resulted in me struggling to get out of bed. Fortunately, because of the casual dress code this week, I didn't really have to put so much thought into what I was wearing. As long as it was clean, I was outta there. I went so far as to forgo the make up because, really, who's gonna care?

The a/v technology in the conference room was a little wonky today. By popular vote, we decided to watch the movie Fletch, but for some reason, the music in the movie was working but the dialogue track wasn't. We tried the Inglorious Bastards DVD to see if the same thing would happen, and it did. Finally, we tried my Toy Story 3 DVD (ha ha, I win) and you could hear enough dialogue to figure out what was going on. The IT guy came into fix the a/v settings so I'm hoping that it'll all be good for tomorrow's movie watching session.

I promised to bake some cookies to bring into the office tomorrow, so I baked some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. There was no space for the last cookie, but I plopped it on the cookie sheet anyway. It turned into a square cookie. Guess which ones are going to my family tomorrow? Heh.

An Experiment With Washi Tape

2011-12-26T22:59:00.001-05:00

Spin class: I had a long conversation (20 minutes?) with Anna the spin instructor after spin class today. She asked me how my Christmas was (I told her I hung out with family) and then the conversation went to my family background and Taiwan and work and school and her son's decision on where to go to college. I've been going to her class for almost 3 years, and this was the longest conversation that I've had with her. It's not that I don't want to talk to her, but usually there are other people in the class that strike up a conversation with her right after class starts. Because there weren't that many people in the class today, this was a good opportunity to chat. :)

Card: My cousin got me two rolls of washi tape for Christmas, so I decided this would be a perfect opportunity to try them out. I've never worked with washi tape before so I did some Google research to get some ideas before I got started. I had some die cuts on my desk that I was going to use for another card, but then didn't, so I wanted to make sure that I used those too. I'm not sure if I get why washi tape was all the rage this year in the crafting world, but I am happy to have a new embellishment option to use in my crafty stash.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Paper: American Crafts- City Park
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4, Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large
Washi Tape: from Container Store
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

I'm bringing my Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, and The Blind Side DVDs to the office tomorrow so that we have something to pick from when we begin our movie-in-the-conference-room tradition. I'm curious to see if anyone else is going to bring in something from their collection.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T23:59:00.003-05:00

Christmas was pretty uneventful since I celebrated with my family yesterday. Julie came over last night to watch some movies that I got from the nearby Redbox: Source Code and The Adjustment Bureau. I thought both movies were good, but not to the extent where I felt like I had to run out and get the DVDs.

RJ definitely got some cuddles during the movie watching.

It's definitely going to be difficult to go to the office on Tuesday, but I am thankful for this little break.

Merry Christmas Eve!

2011-12-24T23:35:00.000-05:00

Hello out there! If you are celebrating Christmas, I hope you are having a merry one so far!

On Thursday night, I went to ZooLights with Meg, Robyn, and Beth (a girl that we all met at the charity dog washing event a month ago). The weather was rather mild, so it was pleasant to walk around in.

Yesterday, I went to spin class in the morning, went to the library to check out some books to read during the holiday (The Help, the new Nicholas Sparks book, and some James Patterson books) then spent some time at my parents' house so that I could hang out with Julie, who's home from school. Well, I guess not much hanging out happened because I ended up taking a really long nap instead.

Today, Julie and I went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which was pretty good. It was action packed, so much so that there were parts in the movie where I could feel my body tense up from all the suspense. And, of course, Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner were nice to look at. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Mr. Renner in the Avengers movie coming out in 2012. We came back to my place where Julie made some use of my craft supplies and made some of her own holiday cards (see picture below). I got my fill of NCIS reruns as she was being crafty upstairs.

Tonight, we had a big family dinner at a Chinese restaurant and then came back to my parents' house to open gifts and eat custard for dessert. I think it's safe to say that everyone had a Merry Christmas :) Ginger was happy to personally check out all the gifts before we unwrapped them. Mom was happy to get a new mixer (because I took hers when I moved out). Julie and I got each other Threadless t-shirts. I also got her some prints from trafalgarssquare.

Culinary Success

2011-12-21T22:09:00.001-05:00

Nail stuff: I got a comment recently to do a tutorial on how I do my nail stamp art. Since I don't have a very good camera to show the details and I don't have a good handle on my video editing software, I thought it'd be best to refer folks to existing nail stamp art tutorials. I learned how to do it through Kristina Werner in this blog post. Yeah, I mean, this whole nail stamp art might take a little bit of time, effort, and practice, but to me, all that is totally worth it.

Culinary success: I went over to my parents' house tonight to drop off presents to put under the tree as well as some chicken marsala (I did it on my own this time, without my sister's help!) that I made earlier today. Dad immediately opened the plastic container and dug in and said that it was pretty good. Yay! Mom complimented me on my red/white nails.

Snail mail: I saw a Christmas card for me posted on my parents' refrigerator. It was from a former supervisor (he gave me my first job out of undergrad). Inside, he wrote "Are you still at home? Call me!" Ha ha, no, I finally left the nest! Even though I sent him a Christmas card, detailing all the major events this year, I think I'll give him a call tomorrow morning.

Card: Almost everything about this card is out of the ordinary. a) new sentiment stamp, b) haven't used those swirl stamps in a while, c) almost never use the color purple in my cards, d) I think this is the first time I've used this particular stamp pad.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal, Sour Apple
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), Me & My Big Ideas- Sassy Icons (flourishes)
Brad: Making Memories Brad Value Pack- Chelsea's Place collection
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Flowers: Prima
Other: American Crafts Stamp Marker in Violet

New Red and White Manicure

2011-12-20T22:05:00.000-05:00

Spin class: I spread some more holiday chocolate cheer after spin class tonight. I was able to give away the last two packages because both Janice and Nancy (TH night instructor) were in class tonight- Janice was teaching and Nancy took the bike in front of me. There weren't many people in class today (maybe it's because of the holiday season?), and I felt badly for them because they have to maintain a 10 person class, otherwise they risk getting the class canceled. At least I'm there to do my part and be present.

RJ: Continues to make my life interesting. Last night, I saw him very amused with something in the corner of my bedroom. I went to investigate. It was a bra. Lovely. ::eye roll::

Nail Polish: I wanted to try another nail polish color from the haul a few weeks ago and a new Bundle Monster image plate. The white isn't as opaque as I would have liked but I think that look is hard to achieve. Maybe at some point I need to invest in some of that Konad special polish. Base coat: Revlon in All Fired Up. White: Revlon in White on White.

A Bright and Merry Card

2011-12-19T23:05:00.001-05:00

At the office: I had a new homeowner form that I had to fill out, but wanted to get some advice before I clicked the submit button. I went down the hall to my boss's boss's office. He was finishing up a conversation with another co-worker. "So, what can I do for you?" me- "Well, uh, this isn't work related..." and then I proceeded to launch it what the form was about and how I needed a grown up's advice. I felt really silly the second I finished that sentence. I've done quite a lot of growing up this year, but somehow I still don't feel like a grown up. Fortunately, he has a sense of humor and told me that I was in the wrong office, but he helped me anyway.

Spin class: I gave Anna a bag of chocolates as an end-of-the-year thank you gift after class was over tonight. She smiled, "Let me give you a sloppy hug. Happy Christmas." She's from England.

Bummer of the day: I went by my parents' house after going to the gym. Mom says, "I have bad news for you." My heart sunk a little. Did someone die? Is someone sick? "You got zapped by the speed camera again. In the same place as the last one." #$%@! Both times, it was in the same area as the craft show that I did earlier this month. I'm never going by there again. Ever. UGH! I guess I really need to control my "need for speed." (10 points if you can identify the movie reference)

Family: Today's Mom and Dad's wedding anniversary. Dad got Mom 30 pieces of Godiva white chocolate. Of course, I convinced Mom to open the box and share. 30 pieces is a lot to consume on your own, right? That's why you have family...so you can share! Mom liked the card that I made for Dad to give her. Yay.

2012 Race?: I got an email about the 2012 St. Patrick's Day 8K and its discounted race entry fee of $25 through the end of the year. Maybe this is a sign that I need to get back on my running legs.

Card: I'm not quite done yet with making all my Christmas cards. I think I'll send this one to my boss tomorrow. The white band was originally blue, but then I didn't think there would be enough contrast between the blue and kraft cardstocks. Thankfully, I was able to remove the blue cardstock without having to create a whole new card base.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Deep Green
Stamps: SEI- Winter Song (fern), Studio G (sentiment)
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Countdown to Christmas
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

A Ribbon and Brad Thank You Card

2011-12-18T20:45:00.001-05:00

Nothing exciting to report from today. Went to spin class this morning and then went grocery shopping in the afternoon and then camped out on my couch for the rest of the evening. A blanket + a warm kitty = a cozy nap.

I also got a bunch of holiday things done today in the form of writing Christmas cards, wrapping up presents, and preparing packages for mailing tomorrow. I hope to be able to get to the post office right when it opens so that I'm not in a huge line.

Best thing about going to the office tomorrow? We get to do casual Friday wear from now until the end of the year. While I don't mind dressing up for work, I like being able to pick out a random t-shirt and shlep off to work. Last week, I asked the big boss if we could continue the "watching movies at the office the week between Christmas and New Year's" tradition and he said yes. Yep, he rocks.

Nails: I took off the forest green nail polish I was rocking all week so that I could try this Ulta Quake Duo set that I got 50% off yesterday. I think it's their attempt at a crackle polish. The right hand crackled more than the left for some reason. The base coat polish is called Ruby Slipper (so festive and pretty!). Ulta has similar duo sets: black crackle + gold polish (gave this to Robyn for her birthday this year), black crackle + pink polish (have this, need to try it out), silver crackle + green polish (have this, will keep it as a present to give away at some point).

Card: Here's my card for today. I had intentions of making a flat card so that I could have it on hand for when I need to mail a thank you card, but these fabric brads that I bought a while ago caught my eye instead.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal and Yellow Ochre
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment, heart)
Brad: American Crafts, Large Brads- Dandelion, Recollections- Rhinestone Brads, Tapestry by C.R. Gibson- Ruby Lemonade.

Song of the day: "What Christmas Means to Me"- Stevie Wonder. I was boogie-ing to this song in the car on the way to the grocery store. Sure, I probably looked silly, but I was in such a good mood that I don't really mind if people saw me.

New Year CARDS Magazine Challenge

2011-12-17T23:59:00.001-05:00

Yard sale find: I went to a moving sale today and found these two storage units that would be perfect to put on top of my craft table. I've been looking for something to put my full size chalk inks in, where they would be easily accessible and visible. The lady originally said $12 for both, but I convinced her to bring it down to $10 for the both of them. They were a little dinged up, but that's okay with me. With a few swipes of a Lysol wipe, they were ready for my office. The lady had some animal print memo boards for sale as well. I had them in my hand, but at the last minute, put them back because I didn't think they'd go well with my yellow office.

Food: I tried this new baked oatmeal recipe tonight (baked peanut butter apple oatmeal), and yep, it's yummy.

RJ: I caught RJ in the closet again. He showed no shame.

Random thought: I'm glad that the Christmas season only come around once a year. Driving around with all the shoppers and extra cars around is really nerve wracking.

Card: Here's my take on this week's CARDS Magazine challenge featuring New Year cards. I decided to make a cone hat with confetti flying around. I originally was going to have confetti flying out of a cone, but then it didn't look right. Fortunately, I was able to turn the yellow triangle into a hat!

Card Specs:
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Countdown to Christmas
Punch: Recollections
Stickers: Basic Grey Micro Mono Stickers from the Basics collection
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Fall-To Layout #171

2011-12-16T23:08:00.001-05:00

At the office: I am so proud of myself.

I guess the awesomeness of the accomplishment depends on who you are, but for me, it's BIG.

What did I do?

I was actually SOCIAL tonight!

Ha ha. I know. That's kinda lame, but for my usual hermit self, going to an office happy hour was a nice change of pace and whaddiya know, I actually had fun and I had a beer! Us gaggle of girls gossiped for about 1.5 hours before I said good night, went to Potbelly, picked up a roast beef sandwich, and headed home. I also went to a 1-hour spin class this morning (and last night), so I'm feeling like I've done a good job of burning off all the cookies I ate yesterday at the cookie exchange. Along with all the cookies that were available, a partner sent us a huge box of popcorn (caramel, chocolate, peanut butter, etc.).

After the happy hour, I came home and noticed that RJ was not at the door and not on the couch. I went upstairs expecting to see him on my pillow, but instead, found him in my closet, sleeping on top of a sweatshirt. Lovely.

Bummer of the day: I got some mail saying that I got zapped by the speed camera. There goes $40 down the drain. Sigh.

Card: Dad asked me to make a card for Mom for their 30th wedding anniversary, which is Monday. Since Mom's got a green thumb and loves to garden, I thought that a flower would be a great focal point for the card. I folded an origami rose from paper that I got for Christmas last year, die cut some leaves and found the appropriate stamps and letter/number stickers for the sentiment.

Card Specs:
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Nana's Kitchen
Stamps: Fiskars- Romance (sentiment)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Foliage
Stickers: American Crafts Dear Lizzy Christmas Glitter Chipboard Thickers in Sparkling
Other: American Crafts Stamp Marker in Black

Bad Chew Toys and Cookies

2011-12-14T22:19:00.000-05:00

RJ: Has been a little terror lately. I saw him chewing on my coat Monday night when I was watching tv. I told him to scoot. Then yesterday, before I went to work, I went to get my coat and noticed that the gem in the center of my fabric flower pin was gone! Oh. No. So that's what was keeping his attention the other night. I frantically looked around for the gem. Thankfully I found it on the carpet. Otherwise, this might have resulted in an emergency trip to the vet. Hopefully adding some Glossy Accents will do the trick. :P

Food: These Rolo cookies will be the star of tomorrow's office cookie exchange. Just sayin'.

CPS #248

2011-12-12T22:00:00.000-05:00

Eye appointment: I have one pair of contacts left, so I made an appointment with the eye doctor for this morning. Thank goodness for insurance, that's all I gotta say when I went up to the counter to pay my bill. The surprise at the end of the appointment was that I got a free pair of sunglasses for the wall. I'm not sure if they were doing that with every customer, but that was totally unexpected, but cool. I picked out ones with plastic white frames (I have sensitive skin and some metals make me itch). Very retro.

Spin class: It was a good workout, as usual. However, there was an added bonus of a cute guy in the class. ;) Maybe I'll get the guts to talk to him. Ha ha.

I dunno what my deal is. I mean, if I have to talk to someone at work or for work, I have no problem approaching them. However, I can't seem to channel that part of me when I'm trying to talk to people socially. :P

Nail polish: Currently rocking OPI's Cuckoo For This Color. Plain. No image. I hadn't given this bottle of nail polish any love this year. The last time I wore it was last December.

Card: Here's my take on CPS #278. I dug out a set of brads that I hadn't used in a while to put in the center of some paper flowers. I felt like I needed to take a break from the Christmas-themed cards.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost
Stamps: Savvy Stamps (sentiment)
Punches: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Brad: K.I. Memories- Enchanting Epoxy Brads, Recollections- Silver Circles
Flowers: Prima, Recollections
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Fall-To Layout #170

2011-12-11T20:09:00.011-05:00

Reunion: Tonight, I went out to dinner (Copper Canyon Grill) with a girl I went to high school. It's been 10 years since I've seen her so there was a lot to catch up on. She had gone to the 10 year reunion a few weeks ago, so she updated me one some of the people she saw there. It was very nice to reconnect.

Feeling fashionable: I was walking around DSW waiting for my friend from high school, and a little girl in a stroller commented on the yellow soles of the shoes I was wearing. "They're cool!!" I laughed and said thank you. Good thing I'm fashionable in the eyes of a 3 year old. While I was walking around outside, a woman stopped me to ask where I had gotten the pullover I was wearing (Old Navy) because she had bought sneakers for a relative (niece, granddaughter, daughter? Can't remember) and I guess the color of the pullover matched the sneakers so she wanted to know where she could get it.

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #170. I went for a flower theme on this card with Christmas colors, using buttons as the flowers and die cutting leaves from a recent Nestabilities acquisition. I used some green chalk ink on the edges of the leaves for a distressed look, but I think it came out a lot more subtle than I would have liked it to. Next time, I'm going all out with some Distress ink instead for a little more pop.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Foliage
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Craft Show #2

2011-12-11T08:21:00.000-05:00

I am totally flabbergasted about how different today's craft show was from last week's craft show.

There were definitely fewer vendors at today's craft show, and we were spread between the front and back of the high school building. This was my third year in a row doing this show, and in previous years, there were definitely more vendors.
There were fewer shoppers at the craft show. I'm wondering if the attendance of vendors and shoppers was because of the change of date or people going Christmas shopping elsewhere.
I made more money at this 1-day craft show than at the 2-day craft show last weekend! People were more willing to buy more cards to get the discount, and no one made a stink about my prices. There was an older lady that came by and bought 4 cards and 8 fabric flower pins. She said that her husband had asked her to get some presents for the ladies in his book club, so I offered the fabric flower pins at a discount if she bought multiple ones. I wasn't about to let a sale walk away!
I think it also helped that Robyn split the table with me to sell her catnip mice. If I had to make up the table fee on my own, this would have been a different story, so I'm glad that we decided to share. The table was big enough that we each had enough room to show off our items. Also, it was nice to have the company.

I had some visitors come to this craft fair: Mom/Dad brought snacks, a co-worker came by to say hi, and Meg came by at the end to help us pack up and go to dinner. The original plan was to get Mexican food, but the restaurant hadn't opened up yet for dinner so we got Red, Hot & Blue instead, which I was totally fine with.

Today ends my 2011 craft show season. Thankfully, it ended on a profitable note ;)

Trying Out Bundle Monster Image Plates

2011-12-08T23:59:00.010-05:00

I have been really enjoying experimenting with the Konad image plate that I got a while back. My only issue with Konad is that the image plates are a little on the expensive side. I went back to Amazon.com to check out any knock-off brands that would have the same value, but at a cheaper price. I read the reviews for this Bundle Monster 25 pack of image plates and decided to give them a try. From what I understand, this set is better than the first one that they have on the market, so I'm glad they listened to customer feedback to make some improvements. Each Konad plate is about $7. The Bundle Monster pack was $21.99 ($0.88 per image plate).

My French manicure from the weekend was looking a little beat up, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try out one of the nail polishes that I bought recently and a Bundle Monster image plate, specifically one that had the fans. I didn't notice any difference between my Konad plate and the Bundle Monster plate, but I'm not sure if that's the case across the board yet because I've only tried one image so far. If I run into any problems, I'll be sure to report on them. Pale blue: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Blue-Away. Dark Blue: China Glaze in Little Drummer Boy. Bundle Monster plate #215 .

On another note, I need to find a better top coat. I currently use the OPI one, but I find that it sometimes smudges the image on my nail. Maybe I'm putting it on too thick? Does anyone out there have any recommendations? I've heard that the Seche Vite one is good, but it has one of those warnings on the packaging.

Tuesday Trigger: Deck the Halls

2011-12-07T22:26:00.000-05:00

Friends: I met up with my former boss for dinner tonight to catch up. It's been about a year since the last time we had dinner together, so it was nice to hear how she's doing (and, of course, gossip about people at work, heh.)

Random act of kindness/weather: It has been raining pretty steadily the past two days and the rain has made the earthworms come out. When I was walking around outside today between buildings, I noticed a crowd of people looking at something on the ground. As I got closer, I found out that they were all looking at an earthworm that had crawled out of the ground. One of the ladies was in the process of picking it up to "rescue it."

Card: Here's my take on this week's Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger Challenge. The paper already has a little glitter on it, but I used my finger to spread some silver glitter glue on the green ornaments to make them

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Nana's Kitchen, My Mind's Eye- Countdown to Christmas
Punch: EK Success Photo Tags Large
Stamp: Studio G (sentiment)
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Good News and Fall-To Layout #169

2011-12-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

At the office/goals: I am able to cross off another thing off my goals for 2011 list- I got a promotion! It was officially announced at the all-staff meeting this afternoon and will be effective 1/1/2012. This has been over a year in the making. Given the recent staff and budget cuts, I wasn't sure if this was going to be possible, but somehow everything lined up and the necessary people who needed to sign off on this advancement said yes. I am very lucky to have my boss, because she could have easily found another way to move around the program money. She chose to give me the promotion, and that's going to really make a difference next year.

I actually found out about this news a few weeks ago. I printed the official email and went by my parents' house before going to the gym to tack it on the family refrigerator. It had a similar feeling to posting a good report card or good test score.

As predicted, Dad thinks the extra money should go to retirement. What a typical parental thing to say. I can think of funner things to spend money on. Like some crafty goodies or hey, even a kitty buddy for RJ. There's an idea! ;)

Card: I'm glad to be back to making cards for the blog. The card production for last week's craft show kinda exhausted me, and I felt like my mood for creativity was just not there and I didn't want to force it. With that said, I decided to tackle Fall-To Layout #169 tonight. I wanted the tree to stand out against the card, so I took out some of my green buttons and arranged the buttons into a tree shape.

Card Specs:
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Countdown to Christmas
Stickers: Basic Grey Micro Mono Stickers from the Basics collection
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Floral Doily Motifs

Song of the day: "Faster"- Matt Nathanson. I heard it at spin class a few weeks ago...and I forgot the lyrics so I couldn't find it when I got home. Nancy played it again tonight, and I repeated a line in the song in my head over and over until I got home so that I could Google it.

Craft Show #1, Day 2

2011-12-04T19:50:00.001-05:00

Craft show: Today was better than yesterday in that I was able to cover my table fee AND make a little extra money. Cristina, my friend from grad school, came by to visit my booth and her purchase helped put me in the black (as opposed to red). There were some new vendors today, to take the spots that Saturday-only vendors occupied. The treasure box lady that had the booth next to me was replaced by a woman who sold these beautiful colorful wreaths. I wish I made more money today because I would have definitely bought a wreath and some of the photography that was being sold. The grandma that bought 15 tags from me yesterday made another appearance. She was sporting the necklace that she purchased from another vendor and showed off yesterday. She was a cute lady.

I'm so glad that I stayed for the whole time because there was a lady that came by at the very last minute and bought 6 cards from me. Patience pays off I guess.

Books: Just so that I would have something to keep me occupied at the craft show, I brought The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. I started it yesterday and finished it today, with about an hour left of the craft show. It was something that was already sitting on my bookshelf. I had read it before when I borrowed it from the library so I knew that it would be a good quick read.

RJ: One of my goals tonight was to wash my bedsheets because of all the cat hair that's accumulated over the course of two weeks. RJ obviously didn't mind taking a break on my bed, even though it was sans bedsheets. I honestly can't let the guy out of my sight. What a little terror.

Craft Show #1, Day 1

2011-12-02T22:42:00.002-05:00

Craft show: I had my first one of the season today. I got many customers that said "Ohmigosh, that's so cute (::touch cards, pins, tags::)" and then walk off. Such a tease! However, there were some very nice customers. This one grandma almost cleaned out my origami ornaments, an item I don't get much business on usually. She wanted one origami shirt or dress ornament for each of her grandchildren, and since she took 15 ornaments, I'm assuming she has 15 grandchildren.

Nail polish: The crackle nail polish from Thanksgiving came off yesterday. I decided to do my first DIY French Manicure, using Kristina Werner's tutorial on YouTube as a reference. Tip of nails: Essie in Walk Down the Aisle (3 coats). Over top: OPI in Sweet Heart. I think it's a subtle French manicure, not like the ones you see on acrylic nails. Not too long after this picture was taken, the manicure got messed up because some parts were still not completely dry, so I took it all off. The 3 coats of the while tips might have had something to do with it. WAH.

Nail polish, take #2: I went out to dinner with a girl that I met at the dog wash event a few weeks ago and then afterwards, I went to Ulta with a coupon to check out nail polish on clearance. I cashed in on the Buy 2 Revlon, Get 1 Free deal and some clearance Sally Hansen Insta-Dri nail polish (5 bottles total). With the coupon, my total was $6.86. Mwah ha ha. I tried the French manicure again. Hopefully this'll stick this time around. I'm absolutely shocked that my right hand turned out better in tonight's manicure. Usually it's the left hand because I'm a righty. Tip of nails: Revlon in White On White (2 coats). Over top: OPI in Sweet Heart.

Craft Show Eve

2011-12-02T18:59:00.006-05:00

Ahhh, a day off! :) I was able to go to the DMV Express to get my address updated on my driver's license. I dunno why it's called the DMV Express. I was there for like an hour! How is that Express? :P

Mystery solved #1: I found out who the mystery chocolate came from at the office. Since I knew who the sender was, I felt that it was safe enough to eat.

Mystery solved #2: I ran into my neighbor this afternoon and she said that she noticed that I had fixed the handle on my trashcan. The bungy cord that used to be there because of some random act of kindness somehow fell off, so I had to replace it with some string. She said that she was the one that put the bungy cord on my trashcan, but we were both disappointed that it mysteriously disappeared.

Here's my craft show inventory. Look at all the cards! I hope that by the end of next Saturday, most of the inventory will be gone, which would translate to profit! ::fingers crossed::

Unrelated Ramblings

2011-11-30T21:11:00.001-05:00

Goals: I was able to cross off another item on my list of things I wanted to accomplish in 2011- "Reach 625 Etsy sales by January 1, 2012." This morning, a woman from Israel bought 6 of my origami cards, which brought my total number of Etsy sales to 626. (check, woot!) I'm already thinking about what to put on my list of things to accomplish on 2012. A part of me is a little apprehensive because, as I'm looking at my 2011 list, I'm going to be able to cross off most of the things on my list. I know that I'll have to step it up a notch in 2012 to really challenge myself.

Interesting links: 10 Things 90s Kids Will Have To Explain To Their Children. I think the one that I can identify with the most is #7. ::shudders at the thought::

Important message about equality, human rights, and family that another one of my friends posted on Facebook. I thought the student in the video was very articulate, and I hope his message had an impact on his audience.

Good customer service report: About a month ago, I bought an Aerobed. With this purchase would come a $10 gift card to Bed, Bath and Beyond. I got an email saying that the card had been mailed, but it's been a month and I haven't received it. I contacted customer service yesterday to tell them my problem. After some research, they found that the address they had on file for me was incorrect. I got an email today, notifying me that the new gift card has been reissued. ::applause::

At the office: At a meeting today, we were talking about stuff we had to do. I mentioned "well, cookies around here definitely speed things up." A director replied, "No, Tina. YOUR cookies speed things up around here." I think a part of teamwork is to find what motivates people. If the "carrot" is cookies, I make sure that I'm on those people's good sides.

Family: My cousin recently upgraded his iPhone, and he was nice enough to let me have the old one to use as an iTouch. I have never had an Apple product before (I know that's kinda shocking in this day and age), so this was a new adventure to me. I love it! I'm able to do so many things from this little handheld thing and not have to turn on my computer- email (both personal and work), monitor my Etsy shop, Twitter, facebook, IM, etc. I have finally caught up with the world! Here are two pictures that I took with it. Julie and I were talking about hummus, which is why tahini was brought up.

Food Surprises

2011-11-29T21:28:00.000-05:00

Surprise #1: When I got to the office this morning, I saw that there were 2 pieces of chocolate on my desk, near my monitor. However, there was no note. I had no idea where the candy came from! Tips: when you give surprise gifts to people, leave a note so that a) the recipient can properly thank you and b) so that the receiver can actually eat the gift, if it's edible. As tempting as the chocolate was, I didn't think it was safe to eat it unless I knew who it came from, even though both pieces were wrapped.

Surprise #2: I opened up a container of hummus that I bought last night at the grocery store and there was a clump of mold in it! Gross. I went back to the grocery store before spin class and was able to exchange it, even though I didn't have my receipt.

Spinning: During class today, Janice was like, "I noticed that some of you have been losing weight. What is your secret?? Did you not have pie? Tinaaaa???" There must have been something wrong with her eye sight. I'm still burning off all the food that I ate that one meal!

With all this talk about exercise and trying to get food consumption under control, I asked the HR director if we were going to have a cookie exchange this year at the office. Why do I torture/sabotage myself?! UGH!

My card making mojo has sorta taken a vacation. Maybe I'm in a creative funk. I hope it comes back after the craft shows this weekend.

A List Summary of Today

2011-11-26T22:33:00.004-05:00

Good things that happened today:

I woke up to an Etsy sale after a 2 week drought.
I didn't have to wait in line at all at the grocery store. For once, I picked the right line.
My sister came over to help me make chicken marsala so that I could try a new recipe and have some thing to eat for dinner this week.
Because the USPS guy stopped by, I was able to cross off 2 names on my Christmas gift-giving list.
I ate dinner with my family and watched several episodes of Big Bang Theory and laughed. A lot.

Semi-bad things that happened today:

I dreamt that I was pregnant last night. I have no idea where that came from. That was not a welcomed dream. Therefore, I didn't get a good night's rest.
I witnessed some bad manners from a grown man at the grocery store. He snapped at me because I got in his way in the vegetable section. Oh, dude, I can snap just as hard as you can, but I choose not to, mkay?
I went all the way to the DMV to get the address changed on my driver's license, only to find that the office was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Sometimes, you just gotta take the good with the bad. And the good definitely outweighed the bad today. No complaints here!

Fall-To Layout #168

2011-11-25T21:57:00.000-05:00

Spinning: I was so lucky this morning at spin class. I made sure to call the gym this morning to secure my seat in the class, but was put on the waiting list. Being that today was the day after Thanksgiving, of course there would be a lot of people that would be there to work off all the goodies they ate the night before, myself included. I was number 2 on the waiting list, but was able to get a seat, whew! Working out on the cardio machines would have have been the same.

Food: Since my parents' house was on the way home, I stopped by there to eat some Thanksgiving leftovers (mainly a slice of apple pie that I didn't have room for last night). Oh well. At least I worked out, right?

Shopping: I didn't go out for any Black Friday because the crowds and parking lot traffic kinda freak me out. I'm sure there will be other similar deals after Black Friday. I did manage to cross off a person on my gift giving list, so that's success to me!

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #168. The center piece gave me an opportunity to try out some new dies, and I love how the circle fits perfectly into the red piece. The finished size of this card is 3.25 square.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ocean, French Blue, Warm Red
Stamps: Studio G (all)
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Countdown to Christmas
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large, Floral Doily Motifs

My goal tomorrow is to go to the DMV and get my address changed on my driver's license. That shouldn't take too long, right? ::fingers crossed::

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T23:59:00.000-05:00

Hope that those who are celebrating Thanksgiving today had a wonderful holiday! :)

My parents are hosting Thanksgiving this year, but the meal was actually cooked in 3 separate houses: Mom/Dad's house, my cousin's house, and my house. It's really convenient when your family lives close by! My contributions this year were a green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, and stuffed mushrooms. Yum!

My cousin brought over some of her nail polishes so that we could do our nails. I decided on OPI on Collins Ave. as my base coat and then OPI black shatter as the crackle top coat.

Pre-Thanksgiving Baking

2011-11-23T22:21:00.000-05:00

Taking the day off today = best idea ever. I got to sleep in, go to the grocery store to pick up some last minute baking ingredients without having to deal with a long line, and got to spend some time with my sister making desserts for tomorrow: apple pie and blueberry cheesecake. Baking, in and of itself, is already enjoyable as it is, but then you tack on a NCIS marathon...that makes it even better!

Here are some pictures from our baking extravaganza.

Wee Memories Challenge #77

2011-11-21T23:15:00.001-05:00

Wheee! Short work week! I'm working today and tomorrow and then off the rest of the week to goof off, eat a whole bunch, and have fun with my family.

Here's my take on Wee Memories Challenge #77: woodland creatures. I decided to fold an origami owl and make him flying through a cloud filled sky. The Fiskars cloud punch would have really come in handy for this card, but I managed by cutting out some clouds freehand.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ocean, Warm Red
Paper: Recollections
Stamp: Inkadinkado (birds)
Stickers: Lily Bee Design- Picket Fence Collection - 12 x 12 Cardstock Stickers
Punch: Fiskars Upper Crest border punch
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

CPS #245

2011-11-20T22:59:00.000-05:00

Spin class: Upon my request, Janice put in some Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas in the music mix. When "Bad Romance" came up, she shouted into her microphone, "This song came by request. The person that requested it better give me all she's got. Come on, Tina!" Puff, puff, puff, ok ok ok. I should have sat closer to the fan today. It was a sweaty workout. When I was grabbing another towel after the workout was over, I saw a former spin buddy with her daughter who's about a year old. The last time I saw her she was in a carrier, but today she was standing up, holding onto her mom's leg for support. So adorable!

Shopping: After spin class this morning, I officially started my Christmas shopping. Of course, I couldn't resist getting some stuff for myself. Heh. Armed with my coupons, I made my craft store rounds as well as made a trip to Petsmart, Ulta, and the grocery store. There was new shipment of kitties for adoption at Petsmart. I mean, so fresh that there were 3 carriers of them, still in the shopping cart, and the delivery guy was doing the paperwork. I wanted to tell him, that I could take one and then he doesn't have to do the paperwork on the kitty. Because, really, who actually wants to do paperwork?

Nails: At Ulta, I found this mint green color of nail polish on clearance. Of course, I had to try it on right away. Base coat: Ulta in Mint Condition. Black: OPI Black Onyx. Konad plate #57.

Baking: I tried out a new recipe today- caramel stuffed apple cider cookies. They were pretty good, but getting them off the foil lining the cookie sheets was a little difficult because the caramel gets goopy in the oven and sorta sticks to the foil. It requires some patience to wait for the cookies to cool down a little before transferring them to a plate or wire rack. While I like these, these Rolo cookies are still my favorite caramel stuffed cookie. Although the Rolos don't really last long enough to make it into a cookie.

Card: Here's my take on CPS #245. Today's card has a mix of oldies and newbies. The oldies are the Prima flowers and the rhinestone brad that I put in the center. The newbies being the Nestabilities Foliage die set that I got to cut out the leaves and the sentiment stamp. I got both of those today. The patterned paper that I used at the bottom was from this recent yard sale. I'm glad that I found some use for it because orange isn't my usual go-to color.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, Olive Pastel
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment)
Paper: Chatterbox Tangerine Eyelet
Flowers: Prima
Brad: Recollections- Rhinestone Brads
Clay: Sculpy Clay in Just Orange
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Foliage
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Charity Dog Wash

2011-11-19T21:30:00.000-05:00

Today, Meg, Robyn and I participated in a charity dog wash. People could bring in their dogs and get them washed and then take a picture with Santa. Even though I have RJ the cat, I actually really like dogs too. I just find that there's a lot more responsibility associated with them. So this was a great opportunity to hang out with a variety of dogs, but at the end of the day, they all go back to their respective owners. I was surprised and happy that many dogs came by today. We had a few labrador retrievers, a boxer, a dachshund (his tail was wagging so much that it blurred in the picture below), beagles, basset hound mix, German shepherds, etc. I think my favorite dog was a bulldog that was getting washed by his owner before the event started. He was so mellow...and BIG. One of the volunteers that I met actually lives near my office, so I hope we can hang out more in the future. It was fun to go out and be social and meet new people, but also help the community. :)

Fall-To Layout #167

2011-11-18T21:01:00.001-05:00

Grocery shopping: I have to say, I was absolutely shocked that the grocery store wasn't already a zoo this evening when I went to pick up unhealthy amounts of butter, sugar, and flour to prep for the upcoming holiday baking season. I guess most people don't really want to spend time at the grocery store at the end of the busy work week, but since today was a teleworking day, I was okay with getting out of the house. RJ wanted to help in putting my groceries, but was only successful in getting in the way. I once shut him in one of these cabinets before by accident. Clearly, he hasn't really learned his lesson.

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #167. I had to adjust the banner in the sketch a little, but over all, I love how the card is cute, without the bulk of extraneous embellishments.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ocean, Warm Red, French Blue
Stamps: Studio G (ornament, sentiment)
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Countdown to Christmas
Punch: Fiskars Square squeeze punch
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Tuesday Trigger: Fall is in the Bag

2011-11-15T22:04:00.002-05:00

At the office: Whoo hoo, staff meeting today! Ok, ok. Let's be honest. I'm whoo-hooing because of the free lunch (Qdoba), but I thought it was a very productive meeting, seeing as I was able to get some answers to questions I had and found ways to put my 2 cents into the discussion.

Card: Here's my take on this week's Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger challenge. I did something that I rarely do in my cards, which is include my own handwriting. I guess I don't think it's as nice as other card markers' handwriting, but at least it's legible. That's more than I can say for the notes I write for myself at work. I sacrifice aesthetics for speed. The pattern on the purse reminded me of a tree stamp that I had, so that was my starting point for this card. Then I added other fall-y elements to the card, ta da!

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ocean, Tangerine, Chestnut Roan, Yellow Ochre. VersaMagic chalk ink in Cloud White.
Stamps: Studio G (tree), Inkadinkado- Tree Clear Stamp Set (leaf)
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Countdown to Christmas
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Stickers: Basic Grey Micro Mono Stickers from the Basics collection
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Blue Nails, Part 2

2011-11-13T23:04:00.001-05:00

Lessons learned:

Drinking coffee at 4 PM will still affect you when it's time to go to bed. Don't do that again.
If there's anything that I could use right now, it would be Dumbledore's Pensieve. I had weird dreams last night, and they bothered me all day. I dunno if they were the result of the coffee or my subconscious running out of control. If there was a way to put all those thoughts somewhere else, I wouldn't be so distracted.

Moving on...

Food: I decided to try another baked oatmeal recipe last night. The baked pumpkin pie oatmeal recipe has been a great breakfast the past few weeks, but I had some apples that my parents had picked a few weeks ago and I hadn't been eating them. I figured putting them into an oatmeal dish would be a great way to use them. I tried this baked apple cinnamon raisin oatmeal and it's quite yummy!

Nails: I decided to continue with the blue nail polish theme this week and go with the other bottle that I got on clearance last week- China Glaze in Aqua Baby.

Card: Here's today's card. I wanted to get some more use out of the build-your-own-tree stamp set that I got last week.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Yellow Cadmium, Blush Rose, Warm Red, Ocean, Olive Pastel
Stamps: Inkadinkado- Tree Clear Stamp Set (tree branches, birdhouse, leaves, grass), Inkadinkado (flying bird), Studio G (sentiment)

Song of the day: "Happy"- Leona Lewis.

CPS #244

2011-11-13T19:27:00.000-05:00

Random observation: the "Hot Chocolate" mug that I got from my trip to Hershey Park has held everything else but hot chocolate- water, tea, and coffee.

Book: Currently reading Eight Keys, my friend Suzie's second book.

Card: Here's my take on CPS #244. I wanted to use up some strips of green and red cardstock, and paper weaving seemed like the way to go.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Other: American Crafts Stamp Marker in Red

Happy Birthday, Robyn!

2011-11-12T23:59:00.001-05:00

Tonight, Robyn, Meg, Robyn's sister, Robyn's sister's boyfriend, and I went to celebrate Robyn's birthday, complete with dinner at Hops and bowling. The waiter was very nice and asked if it was Robyn's birthday when we told him we wanted to split the check 3 ways. He came back with a mini brownie with whipped cream and a candle for her to make a wish with.

After dinner we headed to the bowling alley, where we played 2 games. I didn't break 100 in either game, but I still had a lot of fun. I hadn't been bowling (Wii bowling doesn't count) since probably undergrad, so I'm going to cut myself some slack.

Fall-To Layout #166

2011-11-11T23:45:00.000-05:00

Spin class: Have you ever gone to a spin class with no lights, no fans, and no music?

Oh, yes. It can be done.

How do I know?

Because that's what happened this morning. I got to the gym and I noticed that many of the lights were off. The front desk guy said that some of the power was off so he wasn't going to be able to scan me in. The spin room was dark as well, but there were some people already sitting on their bikes, waiting for class to start. I was a little worried that class would be canceled, but Anna made it work. People were definitely a lot more chattier, telling dirty jokes and sharing travel stories to pass the time. It kinda makes me thankful for when we do have electricity. I got my workout in, that's all that matters. :)

Family: My cousins were going to bring their mom over to the house this afternoon. She's leaving to go back to Taiwan this weekend and hadn't had a chance to come by and see my new place until now. Like my other relatives, she gave the place rave reviews. RJ was very polite to the guests. I feel like he's on his best behavior when there are visitor, but sometimes acts like a little terror when it's just the two of us at home. Sigh. Anyway, with the guests coming over, it gave me an excuse to clean the house today. Clean house = happy Tina.

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #166. I'm glad this gave me an opportunity to use my Sizzix tag die. It's been a while since I used it. All cardstock and paper used in this card, except for the card base, was from my scrap pile.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, Maroon
Paper: Me & My Big Ideas- Sugarplum, K.I. Memories- Holiday Fun
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment, ornament), American Crafts- Dear Lizzy- Warbler (squiggly line),
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Die: Sizzix- Tags, Scallop Combo #2 (tag)
Ribbon: Sweet Petites from A.C. Moore

P.S. Happy Veterans Day!

Unexpected Craft Fair Development

2011-11-10T22:20:00.001-05:00

I am so bummed! I got a message today from the craft show organizer that the craft show that Robyn and I were going to be in on Saturday has been postponed. She didn't specify a reason, just said that it was beyond her control (ooook). Talk about telling us at the very last minute! I was kinda hoping to make some money this weekend, but oh well, at least there's more time to make more cards and load up on my Etsy shop.

I tried a new recipe for my slow cooker: chicken stroganoff. I made a few changes to the recipe by not using as much cream cheese and adding carrots, spinach, and green peas to it.

I'm all card-ed out tonight (as I made 20 origami Christmas tree cards this afternoon), so I'm going to camp out on the couch and watch Private Practice instead. Here's a picture of RJ for the time being.

Wooden CARDS Magazine Challenge

2011-11-09T23:01:00.001-05:00

Crazy happenings: I had two heart-stopping moments today. They happened back to back so maybe that could be considered a mini heart attack. Sigh.

1. I was on the couch, watching last night's NCIS episode, minding my own business when I heard a wack wack wack wack sound. I turn around and my neighbor's grandkid was hitting my roses outside with a stick! o_0 Wth?! I first opened the door and looked at him to see if that would make him stop, but he basically looked at me and kept hitting the plants! UGH! I pushed the door open again and told him to "please stop hitting my roses." His grandmother, who had been too busy with her own garden said sorry and stopped him. I used to think the kid was cute, but obviously that was premature. ::scowl::

2. Since I was focusing on the boy, I didn't realize that RJ sneaked outside onto the concrete step. I scooped him up and put him back inside. When I took a nap this afternoon, I dreamt that RJ got outside again and got lost. Good thing the kitty is microchipped.

Crafty tip: I finally broke down and bought some baseball card sleeves from Staples in an effort to better organize my $1 stamps. Having them free in my toolbox made it tough to see which ones I had. My Studio G Ditto and Inkadinkado stamps didn't fit in the sleeves, but at least I have the majority of my $1 stamps organized.

Spinning: one of the ladies from spin class was subbing a class at one of the new fancy gyms in the area. I was really impressed with the quality and quantity of equipment at the new facility. The bikes had displays so you knew how fast you were going as well as how many calories you were burning. The facility was definitely well kept. I did notice that there weren't many people there, but that was an optical illusion since everyone was spread out. Even though the regular gym doesn't have all the fancy stuff, I will remain loyal because of the spin instructors and the people that come to class. There were some cute boys at tonight's class...maybe there'd be a way for them to attend the classes at my gym instead. ;)

Card: I decided to tackle this week's CARDS magazine card challenge, which challenged us to make cards with wood. I don't have any wood embellishments, so I had to stretch this a little by using woodgrain paper and a tree stamp set. I found the stamp set at Marshalls the other day in search of a birthday present for Robyn. It's kinda like a build-a-tree stamp set. For $3.99, I thought it was good price, since I could make the tree spring-y or fall-y. I also used a scrap piece of cardstock that this tag was cut from.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Deep Green, Yellow Ochre, Blush Rose
Stamps: Inkadinkado- Tree Clear Stamp Set
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Paper: Recollections
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker
Stickers: Lily Bee Design- Happily Lost Collection - 12 x 12 Cardstock Stickers

The Lost Set of Stamps

2011-11-08T21:40:00.005-05:00

I have been looking for a set of Hero Arts sentiment stamps for days now. I look in my craft room closet, my craft room shelves, my craft room table and it's not there. I even went to my parents' house to see if I might have left it behind. No luck there either. I went through my craft space again and then decided to go out on a limb and look through some boxes in my bedroom closet. I opened one of the boxes that was supposed to be empty, and there it was!

All is well with the world now. Cease freaking out.

RJ was sleeping on my crafty chair so craftiness will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm actually taking WED and TH off work (we also get FRI off for Veterans Day). There will be lots of time for craftiness the next few days! :)

Blue Nails

2011-11-07T22:52:00.001-05:00

Hello, blog post #600! :)

RJ: I don't think anyone told RJ about the concept of Daylight Savings Time. He walked over to the automatic feeder yesterday around 3 PM expecting the feeder to turn. I guess his internal clock was still on 4 PM. Sorry, buddy.

On another RJ point, I dunno why I bother washing my sheets. I tossed them in the washer last night because I could probably build a fur coat from all the hair on them. And of course, it's all magically came back over night. I try not to think about where those paws have been. Sigh. I guess I have a hard time setting boundaries with him. Hopefully, if I have human children, I will be better about laying down the law.

Shopping: I took a break at lunch time to look for a birthday present for Robyn. I went into Ulta and found some things for her and of course, I tossed a few things on clearance for myself, specifically 2 shades of blue nail polish. I feel very Katy Perry-ish. And, heck, yes, I'm wearing this to work tomorrow. I'm currently wearing China Glaze in Blue Iguana. The other shade of blue is Aqua Baby.

At the office: I got the news today that the young lady that we interviewed a few weeks ago for the new position has accepted our offer. She'll start in early December and will probably be my new office roommate. This should be interesting.

(pause)

Gosh, that sounds like I'm unfriendly or something. I guess I've just gotten used to having the space to myself. And the other desk, I still consider as Morgan's desk even though he no longer works for the organization, but I have a hard time thinking that that seat's going to be someone else's. Maybe I have some territorial tendencies. Or that I'm apprehensive about change. Nope, it's definitely both. Heh.

A.C. Moore Haul and Fall-To Layout #165

2011-11-05T23:01:00.001-04:00

Crafty haul: My "$10 off your entire purchase over $25, including sale and regular priced items" coupon from A.C. Moore served me very well today.

Yard sale: I didn't have any luck this morning. I was looking to get a clear desk organizer to put on top of my craft table, but the lady wanted $4 for it and I was only willing to pay $3, so I walked away. I think that's the first time in a long time that someone wasn't willing to negotiate with me. Oh well, you can't win all the time. You win, lady. Good luck.

Card: With all the fun stuff that I bought earlier today, it would only make sense that I started using them tonight, right? So, that's what I did! I decided to make a card for Fall-To Layout #165 using some of the stamps that I bought today, and for $1 stamps (well, really, they were 60 cents each), they made good impressions with the ink. You can definitely create cute cards on a budget (at least, I'd like to think so). I couldn't think of what to do about the largest snowflake in the sketch so I took out some of the ribbon that I bought today and tied a bow. I stamped snowflakes on the red cardstock with red ink for a tone-on-tone effect, but I don't think that you can tell in the photo.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal, Warm Red, Ice Jade
Stamp: Studio G (sentiment, large snowflakes), Fiskars- Winter Wonderland (small snowflake)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl

Friday Yard Sale Luck

2011-11-04T21:59:00.002-04:00

Yard sale: I went to a yard sale this afternoon and found 5 packs of Chatterbox scrapbooking paper (each pack had about 20 sheets of the same piece of paper) and a resistance band...everything for $2! I was so shocked to hear what the guy wanted for these items because the paper's at least $.50 per sheet and then the resistance band was originally $14.99 (it had a sticker on it). Woot!

RJ's new kitty friend: No, no. I didn't go to the humane society again and snatch up another kitty. RJ's new kitty friend is one that roams the neighborhood. I'm not sure who he belongs to because he doesn't wear a collar. The kitty is also very very shy, so I can't get close to it without it running away. :( I'm friendly, I promise! RJ was trying to communicate with this individual through the storm door, but alas, no such luck.

One-Layer Wednesday #71

2011-11-02T22:11:00.001-04:00

Metro story: I forgot to mention that yesterday, when I was on the Metro, this one lady sitting across from me opened a bottle of nail polish and was touching up her nails. I was just waiting for the train to jolt, causing the bottle to tip over. Thankfully, nothing happened, but it could have easily gone the other way.

Too much candy: I got to the office today and there was 2 huge things of candy in the kitchen. ARGH! Oh, the temptation! To add to the insanity, we got free pizza during a working meeting that I was in. Yep, I paid dearly for my consumption of sugary delights at the gym this afternoon, while I watched Keeping Up With the Kardashians. While I find the 72-day marriage of Kim Kardashian incredibly sad and puzzling, her television show is very entertaining.

Random act of kindness: This story isn't about a RAK that I did, but one that I was on the receiving end of. When I got home from work today, I noticed that my recycling bin and trashcan were not where I put them out this morning for trash pick-up. What the heck?! I walked up to my house and I noticed that someone not only put them near my place, but put a bungee cord where the trashcan handle should be. I inherited a trashcan without a handle to grab onto, so maneuvering it around has been difficult but doable. I wish I knew who did that nice thing for me so that I could thank them.

RJ: RJ was a very naughty kitty tonight. He must have been spooked by something when I picked him up and he squirmed big time to get away and in the process, scratched me in two places on my arm. UGH. Picture is below. Do not scroll down too far in the post if you are squeamish about blood. I made a mad dash for the medicine cabinet for some anti-bacterial ointment, which would explain why the scratch is a little shiny in the picture. Oh well. That's not the first kitty war wound I've gotten, and it definitely won't be the last.

Card: Here's my take on One-Layer Wednesday Challenge #71: Tags. I wanted to make mine holiday related so that I can include it with one of my gifts to someone this holiday season. I was going to use a Sizzix die to die cut my tag shape, but then I remembered that I had some Nestabilities label dies that would work just as well for tags. I cut out the largest shape and the second largest shape so that I could do some masking. I used removable adhesive to stick the smaller label on the larger label, and then I used a red ink pad to add ink to the edges of the larger die. Then I took the negative of the second largest die cut, used removable adhesive, and stamped the die cut with the music score image so that it was on the inside, but not on the edges. Then I heat embossed a bird on the inside and added some pearls as a finishing touch. I normally despise glitter because it gets on everything, but I figured I could make an exception every so often.

**Ok, last chance to turn back before looking at the kitty war wound.**

Tag Specs:
Embossing powder: Stamp-n Stuff Embossing Tinsel in Green
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Warm Red
Stamp: SEI- Winter Song (bird), Stampendous (music score)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl

That darn cat. Sigh.

Tuesday Trigger: Beads & Baubles

2011-11-01T22:59:00.000-04:00

It was much easier to maneuver around the conference today since I didn't have to lug my poster tube around. I spent most of the day going to sessions and trolling the exhibit hall for free candy. I figured I got all the free non-food goodies yesterday. I didn't want to carry it home either.

One of my former co-workers who was at the conference asked me if the dress I was wearing was the one that I got the deal from Target. Why, yes, it is! (She had seen me post it on Facebook). Another co-worker bragged that she got the blouse she was wearing for $5 at Kohl's. These are my kind of people! We talk about all the awesome deals we get. I could never hang out with that Dana lady from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills who was talking about her $25,000 sunglasses and her Valentino outfit. ::eye roll::

Here's my take on this week's Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger challenge - Beads & Baubles. I decided to make my own background by using 3 floral stamps and then a label stamp with a sentiment inside. I was inspired by the colors of the image and wanted to tie in the pearls by adding them as embellishments to my card. The stamp image didn't stamp as cleanly as I would have liked, but at second glance, I think it goes well with the vintage feel of the card.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Yellow Ochre, Orchid Pastel. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), American Crafts- Herbs (yellow and tan flowers), Autumn Leaves- Build-a-Flower (pink flower), Martha Stewart- Clear Label Stamps (label)
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Sunflower Yellow

APHA, Day 1

2011-10-31T20:37:00.001-04:00

Today didn't start off the way I wanted to, but the day got progressively better as it went on.

I got a 4 AM wake up call from RJ, complete with bouncing on the bed, licking my hair, sticking his wet nose in my face, and messing with the dirty clothes bin. It got so bad that I shut him out of the bedroom, but then he proceeded to scratch at the door and carpet right outside the door and yowl. ARGH! I think I forced myself to fall back asleep because the next thing I knew, the cell phone alarm went off at 7:30. The automatic feeder went off at 5:45 AM, so I wasn't in a hurry to check on the him. I heard some crinkling noises downstairs as I was getting dressed for the day and didn't think much of it. I went downstairs to pack up and go to the Metro and I saw that the little terror had chewed a small hole through my plastic snack bag and sneaked a few nibbles of my oatmeal cookie. RAWR!

The world must be in balance today because while the Metro rides yesterday were a pain, the ones getting to the Convention Center today for the American Public Health Association conference today were smooth sailing. I didn't have to wait for trains very long and I got seats both trips. You'd think that with such a large conference, you wouldn't know anyone there, but in fact, I ran into many people from my previous job, former co-workers from my current job, and professors from graduate school. I went to a session this afternoon on work place wellness programs and one place did a Biggest Loser-like competition. The individual that lost the most percentage of body weight would win $500! The before and after pictures of the winner were rather dramatic.

The other thing I like about this conference is the freebies that exhibitors give out. Check out my loot below! 1 water bottle, 1 container for hot drinks, hand sanitizer, pens, tiny flashlights, a letter opener, and stress relievers. One thing that wasn't for free, but I had to buy because it was so cute was a "I heart guts!" stationary pack. I'll have to use it when I send my next letter to Suzie. I was surprised to see so much candy at a public health conference, but I guess everyone was in the Halloween spirit. I even saw a few people wearing costumes. One guy had fake spiders attached to his shirt and pants. It reminded me of that scene at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark when the person has all the tarantulas on his back. Gross. One of my co-workers told me that some kid came up to him and asked him to guess which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle he was. My co-worker guessed correctly and the kid was reportedly sooo happy.

This is my first Halloween at the new place, and while I didn't get many trick-or-treaters, I had enough where they took all but 5 pieces of candy (Almond Joy and Mounds), which I'm saving for myself. :) Even though RJ was acting crazy last night, he didn't try to make a dash for the door when the kids came for candy. I guess it all evens out at the end of the day.

Marine Corps Marathon 2011

2011-10-30T20:32:00.000-04:00

The day has arrived for my friend Meg to run in her second Marine Corps Marathon. My other friend Robyn and I went over to Meg's place where Team Meg members (Meg's parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, cousin and aunt) all had a big pasta dinner to wish her good luck in her race today. Meg's niece was especially cute. At first she was shy around me and Robyn, but quickly warmed up to us when Robyn started to read her a stack of books. In a Maisy book, I wanted to see how she would react to some of my trick questions. For example, I would point to a penguin and ask "What noise does a penguin make?" Her answer was "Waddle, waddle, waddle," complete with her doing a waddling motion. Freakin' stinkin' cute. Robyn and I camped out in the living room area for the evening and watched Big Bang Theory, while Meg went to bed early to get ready for the big day.

It was a very early and chilly start to the day today. I have to say that I'm glad that the race wasn't yesterday because there was legitimate snow going on. And with the wet snow on the ground, it made today's walk to the team tent very muddy. I'm glad that I decided to make a last minute switch-a-roo with my shoes- taking an older pair instead of my nice white running ones. Robyn and I walked with Meg to the start line and then parted ways so that the two of us could meet up with the rest of Team Meg.

There were some interesting things that happened as we were waiting for the race to start. We saw some cool parachuters and special Marine aircrafts flying by. The wheelchair races started first and one guy crashed his bike not too long after he started. It was really scary to see all the other bikers turning to avoid hitting him. Some Marines rushed over to right his bike and off he went. We were able to catch Meg a few points during the race. She wore a shirt that said Meg on it, so it was easy to spot her. With the race so close to Halloween, we also saw many costumes: the devil, Batman, a shark, several butterflies, and Thing 1/Thing 2.

Meg's goal was to get a time below 4 hours, but we found out later on that she took a spill at Mile 7 while probably slowed her down just a tad. Her knee was badly scraped and I'm sure the impact jolted her. But, at least it's all bandaged up, courtesy of the First Aid tent, and she completed the race and we are all so proud of her! Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Fall-To Layout #164

2011-10-29T14:21:00.000-04:00

I decided to make some cookies for the Team Meg dinner tonight. I decided on oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and branch out from the usual peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Maybe then I can pretend that they are healthier because I put oats in them. I used this recipe, and they were yummy. I already had a few for quality assurance purposes. I did cut down the sugars to 3/4 cup each, but other than that, I followed the recipe.

I continued working on my inventory of fabric flowers for the holiday crafty show season. I was running low on gems to put in the center, so I experimented with putting large buttons instead and they still look cute!

Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #164. I wasn't so sure about the paper pieces that came in my ScrapbookSteals.com order, but I love them as an embellishment for this card.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ocean, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen
Stamps: Hero Arts- Cling Classic Fabric Design (background), Studio G (sentiment), American Crafts- Majestic
Embellishment: American Crafts Botanique Paper Pieces
Other: American Crafts Stamp Marker in Red

Meg's running in the Marine Corp Marathon tomorrow! Pictures to follow :)

One-Layer Wednesday #70

2011-10-28T23:21:00.003-04:00

Yep, I gave in.

Gave into what, you ask? The Halloween candy? Oh, pish, I did that a long time ago.

I gave into turning on the heat in the house. Blah. I was hoping I could make it to next week to turn it on, but alas, it's just gotten uncomfortable in the house. Meh, I'll pay the money for the heat so that I can be comfortable in my own house.

Oh, yeah, and there's snow in the forecast. Before Halloween. Yep, I know, it's nuts. I hope this doesn't impact the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday. That would really be unfortunate for Meg since she's running and for the rest of us that are cheering.

Crafty review: In the spirit of efficiency, I bought a rotary cutter to cut the fabric for my kanzashi fabric flower pins. Since I got a 30% off coupon in my email inbox the other day, I figured I could justify the cost. I ended up picking up an OLFA 28mm roatary cutter. I was looking for a Fiskars one since I was familiar with the brand, but they didn't have any at the fabric store that I went to. It works just fine and it definitely sped my fabric cutting process. I wanted to add these fabric flower pins to the inventory that I'm going to be selling this holiday season. I think it's a good idea to offer a variety. Even if one doesn't want to buy a card, perhaps they could be persuaded to buy a pin to accent their winter coat.

RJ: Another purchase that I made today was an automatic feeder. I don't want to keep depending on my parents to feed RJ when I'm gone overnight. I put some food in there already, and the cat promptly wanted to break in. I couldn't be mad at him since I'd probably do the same thing. I put one of my hand weights on the lid to keep it secure overnight. I will be both horrified and amused if he manages to get food out of there by tomorrow morning. Maybe this'll help with the 5:45 AM "I'M HUNGRY" wake up calls.

Card: Here's my take on this week's One-Layer Wednesday challenge #70: using only red and white. I grabbed two different shades of red chalk ink. I wanted the sentiment and accent butterflies to stand out against the flowers, so the darker red really helped with that.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Maroon
Stamps: American Crafts- Herbs (all)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

No Sentiment Card CARDS Magazine Challenge

2011-10-27T22:42:00.007-04:00

At the office: We had an Oktoberfest event at work today, complete with beer, bratwurst, sauerkraut, German chocolate cake, cheese and crackers. While many of my colleagues enjoyed the beer and brats, I was very content with my cheese, crackers and cake.

Card: This week's CARDS Magazine challenge focuses on cards without sentiments. Ooo, this one was a toughy for me since I very rarely make a card that doesn't have a specific purpose in mind. I decided to try out the Cosmo Crickets Glubers that I got from ScrapbookSteals.com. They are like giant glue dots, and while they are very sticky, I still used my glue gun to make sure that the fabric flowers didn't unravel.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green
Stamps: Hero Arts- Cling Dots (background)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Rub-ons: American Crafts Rose Accents
Buttons: From Tuesday Morning and Michaels
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

2011-10-26T21:56:00.002-04:00

I actually made an effort to go to the gym today to work out on the cardio machines and not for spin class. I can't remember the last time I did that. I just love spin class THAT much. However, they don't have one on WED evenings and I was feeling very guilty about all the Halloween candy I ate recently. I was going to go with a co-worker, but he flaked on me. I still went, woot.

An empty fridge is a sad one, which also makes for a sad Tina. I went grocery shopping tonight after going to the gym and stocked up on some vegetables. When I came home, I made a batch of baked pumpkin pie oatmeal. I wanted to try to make something for breakfast that wasn't a muffin, so I thought this was a great healthy alternative. Nom nom nom.

Fashion Forward

2011-10-25T22:05:00.001-04:00

The dress that I bought from Target over Columbus Day is still getting compliments and I still laugh on the inside on how much of a bargain was.

Anna the spin instructor shared with us on Monday night that she was taking the exam to become an American citizen today (she's British). And tonight, Janice announced that she passed the exam. Yay for her!

It's been a while since I've done my nails so I did them tonight with some Konad stamping. I went with a dark grey with dark red images. I started with the fishnet patterned, but then I thought that the leopard print would showcase the red nail polish more. So all the nails don't match...no biggie! Red: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Cinna-Snap. Grey: Wet 'N Wild Black Diamonds. Konad plate #57.

Fall CARDS Magazine Challenge

2011-10-24T22:49:00.000-04:00

Making new friends...or not: I brought RJ over to my parents' house last night. Mom and Dad were going to visit my sister for the night, so they asked me to take care of Ginger. I brought RJ over with me as an experiment to see how Ginger would react. I was a little surprised when she hissed at him and ran away. Sigh. Not quite the warm reception I was hoping for. I kept him in the guest room with water and a litter box, so he was settled. Eventually, Ginger stopped avoiding me, and even slept at the foot of my old bed last night. Oh well. I can't blame her. I wouldn't be keen on having strangers come stay at my house either. Perhaps this will be a gradual process. I'd like to get to a point where I can just let him run around my parents' house and Ginger would just ignore the youngster.

Online shopping: I had a very nice surprise at my doorstep this afternoon when I got home from work. It was my order from CreateforLess.com. They were having a clearance sale on Colorbox chalk ink, so of course, I couldn't pass it up. My French Blue, Olive Pastel and Deep Green inks in the Queue had gone dry so I figured this would be a good time to get a larger ink pad for each one of them. I threw in the Ocean one because I thought it'd be pretty color. I'm really impressed with the shipping too (ordered TH, received MON). It's definitely an online store that I'd purchase from again. Price information: $3.69 for each of the full size ink pads, $2.39 for the mini one. Shipping= $4.95. Total= 18.41. Card: I decided to try out this week's CARDS Magazine challenge of a fall-themed cards. Since I only have one fall themed stamp set, it was easy to figure out which stamp set I was going to use today. I decided on using a pumpkin stamp and doing some paper piecing and heat embossing. I stamped the image on the white cardstock first with Deep Green chalk ink and then stamped it again on watercolor paper with Versamark. I heat embossed the second image with black embossing powder and then colored in the pumpkins with an Aqua Painter. I assembled the card with the other cardstock pieces, but it still looked really flat. I dug through the bucket of buttons I bought in yard sale I went to on Saturday and found 3 orange buttons! Perfect, hooray!! :)

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Deep Green. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo, Wild Honey.
Stamps: Inkadinkado- Autumn Foliage (all)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Threading Waters border punch
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots)
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Saturday Yard Sale Finds and Apple Dumplings

2011-10-22T22:38:00.000-04:00

Yard sale finds: I could not believe my good luck on today's yard sale excursion. I've been meaning to get a file cabinet for my office so that I could organize my paper files. They been cramped in an accordion folder. Meh, I suppose that's functional, but I was thinking that if I got a file cabinet, then I could use it to store some of my crafty things like they do at the Two Peas warehouse. At one yard sale, the guy had one for $10 but it was way to big for my Civic and too heavy for me to carry anyway. I was a little bummed, but then I found another one at a yard sale for $10. It was a little smaller and had 2 drawers less than the first one that I saw, but I figured it's better than nothing. The lady cut me a deal by giving 3 DVDs I wanted for free. At another yard sale, I found some hanging folders and a bucket of buttons and I paid $3 for everything. Honestly, it's laughable how much of a good deal you can get on used items. There's no freakin' way I'd want to pay for any of these things full price anyway. I feel like if you're also friendly (SMILE!) and willing to work with the seller, they'll be more likely to cut you a deal. I am so pleased with the way my office closet is looking. :D

Foody adventure: My parents went apple picking yesterday with my uncle. And now about 20 apples (maybe more?) are sitting in my refrigerator. While I can eat them plain, I think apples would be more interesting in dessert form, don't you? I decided on Country Apple Dumplings because I had the supplies on hand already. I ate two to make sure that they tasted yummy and yep, they do. I'll have to share with my family so I don't end up eating the rest!

Fall-To Layout #163

2011-10-21T23:59:00.001-04:00

Ahhh, teleworking day.

Good news: I got a lot of work done today and I helped my boss finish a report that we've been working on for a while.

Bad news: I definitely eat a lot more when I'm working from home. When I'm at the office, the only food that I have available is what I bring from home, but then when I'm at home, there's so much more food around within reach. Sigh. I even caved and opened the third bag of Halloween candy that I bought recently. Ugh, I just couldn't help myself. I'll try not to buy more candy until later next week.

Those scientists that worked on getting seedless watermelons...why can't they work on making vegetables taste like chocolate? Wouldn't that be a more practical project to work on?

Family: My parents and uncle that's visiting from Taiwan went apple picking today and dropped by to share some of the apples. This is my uncle's first time checking out the house. He finished the tour and said "Well, there's definitely room in here for another person. You can get married now." o_0 Uhhhhhh, what? I wasn't offended by his comment, just surprised and amused.

House update: Speaking of the new place, what I like about it is that there are already some holes in the walls where the previous owners had poke in to hang their artwork. I consider them suggestions for where I can hang my stuff. Tonight, I hung up the $2 framed artwork that I found at a yard sale last week and also a frame collage that Meg gave me as a graduation present from undergrad.

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #163. I debated between an embossed background and using a background stamp. I went with a background stamp, since I used an embossing folder yesterday. I wanted the image to add texture to the card, but I didn't want it to be the focus, so I went with a Distress Ink instead of a chalk ink. I wanted the card to be a little on the masculine side so I chose some cooler colors. I think I'm on a button kick.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), Hero Arts- Cling Classic Fabric Design (background)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Apron Lace border punch
Button: From Tuesday Morning
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Butterfly Card

2011-10-20T22:47:00.007-04:00

I had the intention of participating in a sketch challenge tonight, but I got further along and realized that it just wasn't going to work because I didn't account for some extra space that was needed for one of the elements. Instead of doing a landscape card, it turned out to be a portrait card. I used my new Aqua Painter to color in the butterfly with the Blackbird, Chipped Sapphire, and Broken China inks. Next time, I'll use some watercolor paper so that the paper doesn't warp so much. Good thing I was able to unwarp the white cardstock piece by zapping it with a heat gun.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird and Chestnut Roan. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire, Broken China. StazOn in Jet Black.
Stamps: K&Company- AB Lotus Greeting Stamps (sentiment), American Crafts- Herbs (smaller butterfly), Stampin' Up- Stipple Butterfly
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots)
Button: From Tuesday Morning

One-Layer Wednesday #69

2011-10-19T21:36:00.002-04:00

Monday night spin class story: I forgot to tell this story from Monday's spin class. One of the ladies that took the bike two seats away from me was singgging during class. I found this amusing. The music was blasting, so you couldn't hear her that much. At the end of class, the guy that had the bike in front of her turned around and asked "So, were you the one that was singing?" She smiled and looked maybe embarrassed..."What? Did I motivate you?" I had to laugh on the inside. I think he, too, was amused with her singing.

At the office: We had the first interview today for a new position at work. I appreciated that she did her research on the organization before coming in and seemed personable. While I liked her, I dunno if I really like the idea of having a new office roommate. I've had 2 already and was totally fine with them, but now I've gotten used to having the space to myself. Do I really gotta share?

Card: The One-Layer Wednesday challenge this week (#69) focused on stripes. I did a lot of masking in this card to a) create the label shape and b) the stripes. Post-It notes were my friend in this project. I added the gems as a finishing touch to make sure that the butterflies didn't get lost in the stripes.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ice Blue, French Blue, Orchid Pastel, Lavender, Rose Pastel, Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peeled Paint.
Stamps: Me & My Big Ideas- Sassy Icons (flourish), Studio G (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Chevron CARDS Magazine Challenge

2011-10-18T22:53:00.000-04:00

I posted my calendar cards on my personal Facebook and actually got a request for the Hedwig January card from a girl that I went to middle and high school with. Woot.

Janice the spin instructor gave out some very smart advice on Halloween candy.
a. If you've already bought Halloween candy, keep the bags sealed. Do not open them.
b. Buy candy you hate.

Too bad I already failed at both of the above...major FAIL. I bought a bag of Twix, Milky Way, and Snickers, and the only one that's still sealed is the Snickers bag. Not because I don't like Snickers, but just because I'm trying to pretend that I have some self control.

Oh, but did you notice that I did go to spin class? Heh. See? I do have balance in my life. I also skipped out on coworker goodbye cake because the party was happening during a conference call. I dunno if I would have eaten much of it anyway because it wasn't chocolate cake, but some vanilla strawberry cake. Meh, not as exciting.

The CARDS Magazine challenge this week was to incorporate a chevron pattern into the card. Uh oh. After looking through several paper packs that I had, I couldn't find a single piece of paper that had this pattern on it. Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but I figured I could make my own chevron pattern by cutting up pieces of paper and adhering them together to create the pattern. Then I had a major debate on which color of Thickers I should use. I started out with brown and then I went to green and then I went back to brown and stuck with it. Tough decisions...

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Stamps: Hero Arts- Cling Dots (background)
Paper: American Crafts- Metropolitan
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Recollections mini heart punch
Stickers: American Crafts Felt Thickers in Playroom
Button: From Tuesday Morning
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Co-worker Request: Calendar Cards

2011-10-17T23:40:00.003-04:00

I finished the set of calendar cards this morning before work so that I could give them to my co-worker. Yep, I'm THAT dedicated. I tried to do a video tonight with a picture slideshow and voiceover, but that was just taking too much time so I'm giving up for now. Sleep is too important. Fortunately, I found this nifty tool on Picasa where you can create collages, so I figured that'd do the trick. You'll have to click on the image below to see the detail.While I was trying to figure out the video situation, I had a potato soup going on in the crock pot and nothing says comfort food like the smell of bacon and onions in the air.

Song of the day: "Without You"- David Guetta ft. Usher. Heard it at spin class tonight.