Crying at the Office

I cried at the office today.

Don't worry. It wasn't in front of my boss or about anything bad.

It was when I watched the clip that's related to this Good Morning America story about a single mother who worked 3 jobs to support her 5 children and a nephew. It seems like she is a person with a big heart and put everyone before herself. It was really heartwarming to see that she was recognized by her efforts, not only by her children, but also by the people she works with. What a great way to kickoff Mother's Day weekend! :)

::tear::

Anyhoo. For tonight's card, I wandered over to clean&simple (it's becoming a Friday night tradition) and really liked the sketch (Fall-To Layout #89) and the example card they did. The button flowers are super cute. I had been wanting to incorporate a big flower stamp in my cards for a while now, one I hadn't used before from my Ebay auction win a few months back, and thought this'd be the perfect opportunity. I thought the yellow was light enough that I could stamp the sentiment without having it fade in the background.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Yellow Citrus, Charcoal, Rouge
Stamp: Fiskars- Put on Your Party Hat (sentiment) , Fiskars- Just Between Friends (pink flowers), K.I. Memories- Logo Sushi (yellow flowers)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Foam Adhesive: Making Memories

One-Layer Card, Continued

For today's card, I wanted to continue the one-layer theme from yesterday. I reached for my stash of Inkadinkado stamps and picked out 3 that I could stamp repeatedly in a row. I had to make sure that the sentiment was small enough to fit in the space that would originally be for a dot image, and fortunately, there were a few to choose from in the set.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green, Prussian Blue, Rouge, Charcoal
Stamp: Inkadinkado- all
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Who else is excited that tomorrow's Friday? :D

One-Layer Wednesday #3

No spin class tonight, but since it was nice outside, I went for a run...after a quick nap, heh. Running must work different muscles than spinning because my abs and inner thighs were burning tonight. This is in contrast to when I spin and my thighs scream. Hmm. Ok, that's enough about anatomy for tonight.

Since graduation season is quickly approaching, I decided to start making origami dress cards congratulating graduates. We'll see how they do in the shop. For tonight's card, I went to Simplicity by Lateblossom for her One-Layer Wednesday card challenge focusing on punctuation. The one-layer part is already a challenge for me, and then I had to dig around in my stamp stash for something punctuation related. I ended up picking out some brackets. I took some scrap paper and created a mask with rounded corners. I stamped the floral border stamp, added the faux stitching, and then stamped the elements within the white space. I finished off the card by rounding the corners. I'm so glad that I bought that Corner Chomper!


Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Prussian Blue, Blackberry, Rouge
Stamp: Fiskars- Thank You (brackets), Fiskars- Just Between Friends (flowers), K.I. Memories- Crazy Love (heart), K.I. Memories- Modern Alpha (U)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Holy cow. Tomorrow's Thursday! Anyone else's week going by quickly?

Surprise in the Garden

I wanted to make a quick and easy card before dinner tonight because I knew that I had stuff to do after spin class (phone call with a friend and The Hills/The City on TV) and I didn't want to be up later than I had to to make a card. I challenged myself to make a one-layer card. I wanted to make sure to make the card really colorful since I wasn't planning to use any sort of embellishments. What? No rhinestones? Yes, shocking. I also did something that might make some people cringe: I cut the sentiment stamp so that it'd be on two lines instead of one. Meh, I guess I could always line the sentiment back up for another card. No biggie. Cutting the stamps allows for more flexibility in how you want images to look. When the card was done, I was pleased that it was rather gender neutral.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Tangerine, Prussian Blue, Warm Green, Yellow Cadmium, Chestnut Roan
Stamp: Fiskars- Birthday (dots, sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Ginger was taking a nap on the dining room table, so I moved her to the sun room because Mom was setting the table for dinner. She looked so fluffy, warm, and cute as she basked in the sunshine. Also, Mom randomly found a robin's egg in the garden today. Do you think it'll hatch? What would we even do with a baby robin?!
I found out at spin class that Jeff is not teaching TH night spin class anymore. :( Not sure what's up with that. I haven't been to a TH class in a while, so I'm curious to see who's teaching now. Janice (the Tuesday class instructor) complimented on the new pink top that I bought over the weekend. Having new cute workout clothes IS motivation to go to the gym. :)

I wanted to follow up on the health tidbit I mentioned a few days ago about throwing away makeup that I hadn't used in a while. I came across this nifty cheat sheet on BellaSugar. I guess if you throw some stuff away, it'll give you an excuse to buy new stuff, right? :D

Scrappy Monday

Yeah, so the non-soreness from yesterday's run was definitely short lived as I found out this morning when I woke up. The stiffness made tonight's 1-hour spin class more difficult than usual, but I managed. Yay. I was amused that this other girl and I bonded over not getting "our" bikes tonight. She asked me what my name was as we were leaving and said that she'd save me my bike if she got there before me next week. Oh, cool. That was a nice unexpected offer. I shall do the same.

CGFDG was working tonight. I walked gingerly down the stairs after class to walk on the treadmill for a little bit before going home. We made eye contact, and I felt like I should say something. "Man, my legs are so sore," I blurted out. And then I immediately thought "Ok, doofus. Who cares? Can you please not say the first thing that comes to mind?" and mentally rolled my eyes at myself. He looked sympathetic and told me to feel better when I was leaving the gym. :P

For my random act of kindness in a while, I brought some cards to the office that I wasn't planning to use and came home with an empty box. :)

I wanted to use some scraps for my card tonight, specifically ribbon and white card stock scraps, as well as a cupcake stamp I hadn't used yet. I cut a little bit off the bottom portion of the front of the card and replaced it with some purple cardstock I used a border punch on. This added some interest to the bottom of the card because it wasn't the usual straight white edge. The card originally had black satin ribbon tied in a knot, but then I couldn't cut it right and it was too dark against the purple. Luckily, I had some scrap purple ribbon to replace it. There wasn't enough to tie it in a knot so I wrapped it around and adhered a button. I resisted the urge to fill the white space on the top, and this was the finished product.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackberry
Punches: Fiskars apron lace border punch, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stamps: Fiskars- Thank You (sentiment), Studio G (cupcake)
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Bloom & Grow
Buttons: Favorite Findings in Pink

Song of the day: "Not Myself Tonight"- Christina Aguilera. Well, the music video is rather racy, but I think the song's catchy.

Lazy Sunday

This morning started off on a productive note, but then after noon, it took a sharp nose dive. I ended up going to the gym to workout, but on the ArcTrainer instead of going spin class. Cute front desk guy was working today (yay). After I came home, I ate some breakfast and did some laundry (clean clothes, yay).

This afternoon's potluck needed to be rescheduled because one of the girls wasn't feeling 100% (Jenny, hope you are feeling better!). I guess it's pasta salad for lunch/dinner for a few days, and I'm totally okay with that. I had no idea what to do for the rest of the afternoon, so I took a really long nap. I hadn't intended on sleeping that long, but since I didn't have any other responsibilities to take care of, meh, no big deal.

In the spirit of getting my ba-dunk-a-dunk away from the computer, I told myself that I couldn't watch kwerner's new crafty giveaway video until I went for a run. It might not be the biggest motivator for most people, but it was for me. So I went for a 2-mile lap around the neighborhood. Mind you, I haven't been running since last summer (but only because I've replaced running with spin class). No joke. I thought it'd be tougher to finish without walking and I was nervous that my knees would start hurting, which was the reason for not running since last summer. I think the workouts in spin class have made my legs stronger, so I wasn't struggling too much at the end. The run was also an excuse to wear one of the cute workout tops I bought yesterday. I bought them for a reason, right?

For today's card, I was going to follow a sketch over at 365 cards, but decided to do my own thing. I really wanted to use some more of my Prima flowers, so I came up with the card on the left. For the card on the right, I wanted to use some rub-ons, something that I don't use on a regular basis. Check out those awesome knot tying skills. It only took me like 10 times to get it just right, ha ha. I wanted to put something in that green space, but decided against it because I think it'd be forcing it...resulting in possible clutter.

Card Specs (Hug):
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackberry
Punches: Fiskars scalloped sentiment border punch, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Flowers: Prima
Stamps: Heidi Grace- Alphas, Reagan's Closet (letters, heart)
Button: Favorite Findings in Ocean
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Bloom & Grow (teal), Die Cuts With a View (yellow)
Thread: DMC- ecru

Card Specs (Make Me Smile):
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Punches: Fiskars scalloped sentiment border punch, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stamps: Clear Art Stamps, Clearly Defined- Happy Spring (sentiment)
Rub-on: American Crafts, Mini Marks, Accents, Book Three (large flower), Book Two (small flowers)
Foam Adhesive: Making Memories

Health tidbit: one thing that I forgot to mention in yesterday's post was that I spent some time cleaning out my makeup cubby and threw away items that I hadn't used in a while. I was inspired by a clip that I saw on The Today Show about old makeup. Gah! Gross.

Stimulating the Economy

This morning started with going to spin class (yay). I dunno if I'll go to spin class tomorrow morning because I noticed that the instructor that's teaching tomorrow isn't someone that I'm a huge fan of. However, I'd like to get a workout in because of a MPH girls potluck tomorrow afternoon. I foresee lots of eating and chatting. My contribution is some pasta salad (see photo). I was going to make a casserole, but couldn't think of anything that would be a good compliment to the pizza that's going to be served.

After spin class, I spent most of the afternoon stimulating the economy aka shopping, but nothing that involved going to a craft store (shocking, I know). I got new shoes for work (to replace the ones where the heel is complete worn down to the nail), new hoop earrings (to replace ones that I broke a while ago) and moisture-wicking workout clothes (because working out with cotton t-shirts is uncomfortable). I resisted the urge to buy a discounted scrapbook paper pack and bubble tea. ::pats self on the back::

Observations during my afternoon:

• Little girl at DSW- "Ooo, Mommy. I LOOVE these sandals." Ah, I see a future shoe addict. Welcome to the dark side.
• A woman at Macy's was trying on pierced ear earrings. I thought it was unsanitary and very briefly thought of saying something to her, but I thought that it was possible that she bought those earrings and if she didn't, if someone bought the earrings, she should clean those earrings before wearing anyway, right?

Not feeling particularly crafty tonight...maybe I'll put a movie on or read Harry Potter 7.