Fall-To Layout #234

Happy Easter!: I went to spin class this morning, and Janice the instructor gave me some bunny ears.  While Easter is not a holiday that I celebrate (unless you count eating Easter candy), I appreciated the gesture.  :)  I didn't wear it during class because it'd be flopping around and I didn't want to get it all sweaty.

Fall-To Layout #234: I got some new chipboard pieces from Michaels yesterday from the Studio18 brand ($1.50 for 20 pieces + 30% off coupon), and I was inspired to use one of the pieces in this card today.  I took a card base that I was going to use for one of the office cards and repurposed it for this card.  The kraft embossed piece coordinated well with the frame.  I filled in the space around the sentiment with some yellow liquid pearl to match the patterned paper that I used.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Stamp:  Hero Arts- You and Me
Paper: American Crafts - Botanique
Embossing folder: Basic Grey- Dots Set #2
Chipboard: Studio18 from Michaels
Other: Liquid Pearl in Buttercup, ribbon from Michaels

Recipe #4 of 2013: After spin class today, I went grocery shopping and bought some chicken and mushrooms that were on sale.  I had initial thoughts of making chicken marsala, I decided to branch out and make some lemon chicken with a mushroom sauce.  I was inspired by this recipe, but I made some modifications.  I used a skillet instead of baking.  I added some garlic to the mushroom sauce.  I marinated the chicken with lemon and olive oil for about 1.5 hours before cooking.  It was super easy and quick and yummy!

Zzzzzzzzzzz. I won't lie, I took a long nap today too.  The weather was rainy outside, and I didn't have to be anywhere.

Easter Decorating at Meg's

I went over to Meg's place tonight and hung out with Meg and Robyn and celebrated Meg's birthday for the 2nd time.  This time with presents.  Her birthday was while we were on the cruise, but I didn't want her to lug her present around during the trip.  I went with a hot pink picture frame and a $25 gift certificate to Shutterfly since I know that she loves making those photo books.  I did it strategically so that she could make a book out of the cruise pictures.

We got carry out from the Burger Joint, and I went with the veggie one.  On the cruise, I read a book called Food Rules and the basic premise of the book was "Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants."  That stuck with me so this past week, I ate mostly salads, fruit, yogurt and nuts.  I did stray a little bit though- the trail mix did have some chocolate in it, the cheesecake at Mom's birthday, and the leftovers at the office did include chicken.  Anyway, the veggie burger was really good and so were the sweet potato fries.

We reminisced about the trip and at the office antics that happened this past week.  Meg talked about having to get communion bread for church, which resulted in Robyn and me asking lots of questions about the bread since neither one of us goes to church.  Then the conversation veered into Easter.  Robyn asked Meg if she was going to decorate for Easter and I can't remember what she said in response, but somehow it got to Meg taking out her box of Easter decorations from the closet and the 3 of us on the floor and unboxing everything.  There were quite a few lambs, chicks, and rabbits after all that unboxing.  "I don't have that many Easter decorations."-Meg.  Mmmhm.  Well, that's true, in comparison to her Christmas decorations.  My favorite would have to be the large squirrel next to Robyn's feet.

No More Snow, Please?

Snow's in the forecast again. ::wail:: We're under some sort of winter weather advisory. I don't think it'll be a big deal, but the Executive Director thought it was a big enough deal to postpone a field trip to Delaware on FRIDAY. I've been plowing through my work this week so that I wouldn't feel guilty going on this field trip, but oh well. Better safe than sorry.

I kinda wish there was spin class tonight. I've been eating too much candy today. Darn you, CVS, for having good candy on sale. I just couldn't resist. Valentine's Day and Easter are not good holidays to have back-to-back because there's always good candy/chocolate around. I just can't get enough of those Starburst Gummies.

On to today's card. I had no idea what kind I wanted to make tonight. I dug through the stamps from my crafty loot purchase last month and came across some egg clear stamps that I hadn't used yet. I already had an Easter stamp on my desk. Bingo. I initially was going to put the popped out eggs on the left side of the card, but I felt that there would still be too much white space in the left area. Thinkthinkthinkthink (Winnie the Pooh style. You know, when he taps his hand on his head and furrows his brow?) I looked around my desk for some ideas. I saw the origami butterfly that I made a while back and hadn't found a use for it yet. With some stitching lines, I thought the butterfly filled up that space nicely.

I guess my crafty lesson from today is to use stamps/supplies that I hadn't before during the times I'm stumped on what to make.

Card Specs:
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black, Colorbox chalk ink in Blue Lagoon, Lavender, Yellow Citrus, Orchid Pastel
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment, eggs)
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Bloom and Grow
Foam Adhesive: Making Memories
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch

Song of the day: "Live Like You Were Dying"- Kris Allen.

Happy Presidents Day

Ahhh, gotta love federal holidays. :) It's going to be weird going to the office tomorrow since I haven't been there in over a week due to the snowy weather. It'll be nice to get back to "normal."

Today, my goal was to make an origami flower Easter card to post in my Etsy shop (left) and also make a card with scraps and supplies that I hadn't used before (right). I planned to use the green/yellow part of the card for another project, but it didn't work out so I put it aside to use later on. The supplies that I hadn't used before were the bunny and sentiment stamps and the ribbon. The bunny image is supposed to be 4 bunnies, but they wouldn't all fit at the top of the card, so I cut out the guy on the right and added him towards the sentiment with some foam adhesive. I was tempted to use some buttons in that middle pink panel but decided that it might be overdoing it.
Card Specs (bunny):
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Stamps: Studio G (bunnies and sentiment)
Punch: Fiskars Twist & Flip 2-in-1 corner punch, Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Ribbon: From Michaels
Paper: KI Memories- Celebrate Life
Foam Adhesive: Making Memories

I went to spin class this evening, and man, I felt like I wasn't going to make it. It took forever to get through the class! I overheard one of the ladies in the class say something similar in the locker room afterwards, so I don't feel as bad saying that it was a tough class to get through. On a side note, I have no idea what happened to "cute gym front desk guy." He hasn't been there in a while. I hope he didn't quit!

Ok, time for Jack Bauer and 24. Later, peeps!

Son of Snowmageddon in Full Force

OMG, I dunno if today's snow storm was worse than the one on Saturday. That storm was bad because of the snow accumulation, but today's storm was a double whammy. We got several inches of snow tacked onto the snow that fell during the previous weekend AND the wind was whooshing around like crazy! It made me nervous to watch the Rock Creek Park trees sway back and forth in the distance. The wind was so bad that the county put a stop to the plows because of the dangerous driving conditions. The Feds are closed again tomorrow for the fourth day in a row, which means more cardmaking time for me! :)

Anyhoo, picture time. The picture with Ginger needs a caption that says "Stoopid hoomin." Ha ha. She left the room shortly after. Shocker. Check out how much snow is on top of my cousin's tea house. It's insane! Here's what I worked on today. Easter is coming up, so I moved my Etsy Valentine's Day related items to the Clearance section to make way for Easter goodies, i.e. the origami rabbit Easter card. A custom order came through tonight and this is what the buyer requested: "I was hoping for a card that has a glass of lemonade on the front maybe with a lemon wedge and then across the bottom is says "Lemonade Kisses" with small lips next to it." The finished product is on the right, based on this card sketch.
It's been quite a productive day today. As much as I am a homebody, I'm going to be really happy to be able to go to the gym or something tomorrow or Friday.

Whoo hoo, reached 101 blog followers tonight! Thanks, peeps! :D

Snowpocalypse #2 in Full Force

Greetings from suburban MD, where we're buried underneath 21-22 inches of snow! No joke. For some places up north (i.e. NY, Boston), perhaps that's normal winter weather. However, for this area, it's historical. The snow was so bad that there was no postal service in this area today. I had to put a notice in my Etsy shop announcement saying that shipment of orders would have to wait until I felt it was safe to venture out to the post office. Hopefully buyers will be understanding.

Snow Pictures

There wasn't much we could to today other than stay at the house. There was no where to go because the streets hadn't been plowed, and the cars were still under a lot of snow. I spent the day helping Dad shovel a little, napping, yakking up a storm on the phone, and eventually making some cards.

Here's the card for today. I decided to try a new stamping technique called emboss resist that I saw on Nicole Heady's blog tonight. It took me a couple of tries to get the card just right. I don't think it was the technique that was particularly difficult, but getting the right intensity of color wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. I went from a dark pink to a medium pink and finally settled for a light pink. The embossed image is difficult to see in the picture on the left, so the picture on the right shows a close-up. I also used Mom's fabric scissors to cut the ribbon. Man, those babies are sharp! What a difference they made compared to the scissors that I used before.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear and white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: StazOn in Timber Brown, Ink It Up! in Pink
Stamps: Hot Off the Press- Delicate Patterns (script), SEI- Moravia (flower), The Paper Company Studio- Whimsy Greetings (sentiment)
Punches: Fiskars Twist & Flip 2-in-1 corner punch, Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Foam Adhesive: Making Memories
I also decided to start preparing for the next major holiday (Easter) with this new origami panda card. He (I suppose it could be a she) was very popular with Valentine's Day.
Song of the day: "According to You"- Orianthi. Repeat from yesterday.