Cupcakes and Cards

During my visit to Cake Love last night, I picked up 2 red velvet and 2 Cynthia's Sin cupcakes (think of it as a Snickers bar in cupcake form...they were doing a deal on them. $2/cupcake instead of the usual $3.25). I ate one of the red velvet ones before going to be last night. OMG, yummmm.Because Tuesday's spin instructor Janice is also teaching on Sundays now, I went to her 9:45 AM class and sweated buckets. It was a great way to start the morning! And since there's a tentative plan to have a girls beach trip over Memorial Day, I feel inclined to kick my workouts up a notch so I went for a 4.85 mile run around the neighborhood while jamming to Britney Spears and Lady Gaga. Currently debating doing the Pike's Peek 10K in April to prep for the Capitol Hill Classic 10K in May...

I made this chicken dish for lunches this week. The Board of Directors is supposed to be meeting at the office this week, and the staff was invited to eat with them on Tuesday. Seeing people I haven't seen in a while AND a free meal...yep, count me in!

My Wee Memories challenge #47 entry was selected as a Honorable Hoot this week, yay!

Today's card was inspired by the card that Kristina Werner created for Finally Friday March 18, 2011. I liked how she was able to incorporate several different pieces of patterned paper into one card. Instead of making it all yellow, I used several papers from the American Crafts City Park collection because I knew that they would already jive together. I originally had a white/green button next to the sentiment, but I didn't like how that panel would be mostly white, so I replaced the button with a flower sticker. Ah, much better.

Card Specs:
Paper: American Crafts- City Park
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker
Stickers: American Crafts Chipboard Thickers in Darling (white), Sandylion- Flower Power
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb

Song of the day: "Born This Way"- Lady Gaga.

Full Moon

I love my gym. They do such a great job with combining health promotion and community building. When the earthquake happened in Japan last week, I wondered if the gym was going to hold a charity spin class to raise money for the relief effort similar to what they did for the Haitian earthquake last year, and sure enough, when I went to spin class this morning, there was an orange sign on the door announcing the 2-hour charity spin class next Saturday. Yep, I'll be there! As a side note, I'm happy that Janice will be teaching on Sundays now. I'm thinking that enough people gave bad reviews to the original instructor, so they kicked her out.

Tonight, I went out for Mexican food with Meg and Robyn to celebrate Meg's birthday. I got a strawberry daiquiri and a chicken taco salad. Funny things that happened...

• I complimented Robyn on her nail polish. "Tina, you gave it to me for Christmas..." Oh. Heh.
• Robyn got Meg a medium size bag of pretzel M&Ms. She must have been thinking on the same wavelength because I got Meg a bag of those too! This was not coordinated beforehand.
• After a visit to Cake Love to get some cupcakes as dessert, we sat outside on a bench. We chatted and people watched. Some funny dogs walked by. One in particular, a pekingese, made a point to check me out.
  

Did anyone catch the full moon tonight? It was super bright. I took a picture of it through the sun room. The picture turned out kinda Halloween-y with the tree branches in the frame.

Song of the day: "Till The World Ends"- Britney Spears. This would be a good running song...I need to get it on my mp3 player.

Blogger's Day of Silence

I have some family in Japan. Thankfully, they are safe. However, as you've seen in the recent news, others have not been so fortunate.

Someone out there could use your help...every little bit can make a difference. Please keep those suffering in your thoughts and prayers.

www.forjapanwithlove.com

Wee Memories Challenge #47

This Facebook wall post from last night just goes to show that you never know who's watching. One of my childhood friends was driving around the neighborhood (she's relocated to the West Coast, but I guess she's in town visiting family or something...) and saw me running yesterday. Out of all the people that I thought would see me, she's not the first one that comes to mind. So funny.I finally got around to working on my take on this week's Wee Memories Challenge (#47). It focuses on green and spring. I went with a stamp set that I hadn't used before even though it came with this eBay win a while back. I decided to go with a flower and watering can garden theme. I thought the sentiment totally matched with the heart-centered flowers.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Prussian Blue, Warm Green, Warm Red, Maroon, Yellow Ochre, Blackbird, Ice Blue
Stamps: Fiskars- Friendship Garden (flowers, stems, large flower pot, sentiment), American Crafts- Dear Lizzy- Warbler (cloud), K.I. Memories- Garden (small flower pot, grass, sun, water drops, watering can)
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb
Stickers: EK Success- Hearts
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Victoria)

One-Layer Wednesday #45

At my new office digs today, some state convention people brought food for us! Free food? Yes, please. I think their idea was that they'd shower the meetings coordinator (he's on my side of the street) with free food, hoping that it'd convince him to hold meetings where they are, particularly our Annual Meeting. Do they realize that he just sets up the meetings, but he doesn't really make the big decision on where it's held? Shh, don't tell them. We like the free food. Today's menu was 2 platters of sandwiches, a platter of desserts and a platter of fruit. Feed me and I'll be one happy camper.

I could not pass up a nice sunny day, so I went for a run after work today. I started out thinking I'd do 3 miles, but as the run went on, I was actually feeling pretty good (instead of sluggish) so I went for my usual 4.85 miles around the neighborhood with my newish shoes. I need to work up to 6ish miles so that I'll be prepared for the 10K in May (eek...). Hello, daylight, thanks for hanging out longer.

Do you know what hex signs are? I didn't, but I educated myself after seeing that this week's One-Layer Wednesday (#45) is inspired by them. My new circle die came in really handy because I don't think I could stamp everything evenly without some sort of template. I die cut a circle out of some scrap paper. This served 2 purposes: I traced the circle on the card front and then did a test layout on the scrap piece of paper. That way, I would know how things would fit on the card front when I was satisfied with how the elements were going to fit together. I decided to go with hearts, leaves, and bird images because those seemed to be common in hex signs I found online during my "research." I love how these hex layouts are so versatile. Just by changing the elements in the collage, you can change the feel/season/purpose of the card. For example, you could do something with snowflakes for holiday cards.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Prussian Blue, Warm Green, Warm Red, Rose Coral, Yellow Ochre, Charcoal
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large
Stamps: Fiskars- Friendship Garden (heart), Autumn Leaves- Build-a-Flower (leaf, hex center), American Crafts- Dear Lizzy- Warbler (bird), K.I. Memories- It's a Girl (dots), The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

How freakin' stinkin' cute are these plushie bunny Peeps (via Kristina Werner)?! Hee-larious.

Tuesday Trigger: Button, Button

I didn't make it very long in my new office before I went back to the main building to get some work done. I knew I had to pick up some faxes and turn some documents in, so I camped out in my old office the hour before it was time to go home, and people walked by and stopped by to comment. "Tina, is that really you? Was it that bad across the street?" Hardy-har-har. We got meeting leftovers in my new digs, so hey, can't complain!

While walking to the 8K race last Sunday, I saw a couple that go to my spin class. I caught up with the husband after class tonight and asked how his race went. I think he wanted to do better, but apparently, his wife placed in her age range. She's very athletic, so I wasn't super shocked. Good for her!

This wasn't the card I thought I'd have at the end of tonight's crafty session, but I'm happy with it. I didn't have many ideas of my own when I saw the trigger picture. I liked the buttons, but I think I was challenged by the color scheme. I do better with brighter colors. Anyway, I used this opportunity to use the other Nestabilities set that I got on Sunday...this time a circle one. I used the smallest circle for the flower, stamped a background stamp on it and put a button in the center to go along with this week's Tuesday Trigger: Button, Button. I thought I was done when I put the ribbon on the bottom of the card and adhered everything to the card base, but something wasn't right. I didn't like how the card looked too...serious (?), so I added some cute bee stickers that were from a set that Julie gave me for my birthday. Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Dark Brown, Warm Green. StazOn in Teal Blue.
Paper: American Crafts- City Park
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large
Stamp: K.I. Memories- Patterns, Fiskars- Friendship Gardens (leaves, flower pot), Autumn Leaves- Build-a-Flower (line), Inkadinkado (sentiment)
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker
Button: Bucket White from Michaels
Sticker: EK Success- Animals
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb

Moving Day

Today started out with a "WOMP" (as my friend Jenny would say) moment. I've been delaying (read: hoping that the leadership at work would conveniently forget) my move to the office across the street. But the move happened today because when I got to the office this morning, my computer, screen and phone were all gone! My office roommate Jennifer told me that the IT guys had been in there earlier, packing stuff up and moving it across the street. It was much more quiet across the street. Morgan (new office roommate and fellow mover) and I hatched a plan...maybe if we're the rowdy pair, they'll kick us out and make us go back to the main building. At least I have a window now, and I can tell what the weather is without having to IM anyone.

By the way, did you know that today was National Napping Day? Yeah, I didn't either. Instead of celebrating it with a nap, I went to spin class. I dunno if it was the packed room or the workout, but I was sweating buckets by the end of class! It's probably a combination of both.

I wanted to make sure that I had something to bring in for lunch this week, so I hopped over to Budget Bytes after spin class and made her broccoli shells 'n cheese. I think I put too much onion in it and not enough broccoli, but still a pretty yummy dish! I was able to use the last of the milk in the fridge and an open package of cheese.

A.C. Moore was having a great sale yesterday: you could get 20% off merchandise if purchased between 6-9 PM (including sale items). Since I was already out looking for yellow paper for a potential custom order (I didn't find any yellow paper that would work, unless the lady wanted SpongeBob Squarepants on her wedding cards...), I wandered over to the Nestabilities section since they were 40% off. I figured that with the remaining amount I had on a birthday gift card and the great sale, I could justify buying the two sets of dies and a package of bling for my fabric flowers. I was excited to use one of the dies for tonight's card. I wanted to use some of the g.c.d. Studios paper I had, a sticker of some sort that my cousin got me from Taiwan a few months ago, and a sentiment stamp that I hadn't used in a while. Here's what I came up with. The rose stickers are so pretty and I love how the paper has a little bit of texture to it without me having to alter it.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Paper: g.c.d. Studios- Chianti Collection, Peekaboo (red)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Stamp: Studio G (sentiment)
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker