"Tina, you'll be on real vacation, right? Like, not checking your work email?" - my boss, on our 1-on-1 call today.
Yep, no work email or work conference calls for the next couple of days! This is monumental! I haven't had a vacation like this in 3 years.
P.S. On the home hunting front, I put in an offer for the townhome that I saw yesterday. Send good vibes this way, please! :)
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
A New Adventure Into Geekdom
My Windows XP operating system was on its last leg today. UGH. Oh well. Time to learn something new. I could a) wait until my cousin was home to see if he could lend me an XP CD or b) I could install Ubuntu per my sister's recommendation. It's a Linux-based operating system. I was a little unsure about it, but my sister sings its praises and since I just need a computer that does basic things (print, edit photos, play music, word process, etc.), I wasn't tied to Windows. But, I did want a computer that worked. Within an hour, I got Ubuntu on my computer and at least Firefox on it is working...otherwise I wouldn't be able to type up this blog post. Who knows, I might be a convert.
In other news, I went with my realtor this afternoon to check out the townhome I've been eyeing for the past week. It was so lovely that I asked my parents to come check it out this evening and they were fans too. Dad's quite the skeptical person, so for him to give his approval right off the bat was a huge relief! I'm currently resisting the urge to tell the realtor tonight that I want to put in an offer. This is a house, not a pair of earrings that I want to buy impulsively. I'll sleep on it tonight and then contact the realtor in the morning. Holy cow.
I was asked to make a bridal congratulations card for a girl at the office. I guess it's more of a multi-purpose card because she's getting married, she's
going to medical school, AND she's leaving the organization in about a week. I guess "Congratulations" sums up what we want to say, right? I wish I knew her better because then I could incorporate her wedding colors into the card. I guess my go-to cheerful color scheme of red, green and yellow will have to do. I was really stumped as to how to make the card less flat, but not too bulky. Fortunately, I had some buttons from Michaels sitting on my desk. With a few glue dots, I liked the card a whole lot more! Eek, please excuse the picture quality. The card was too big to fit in my light box.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, Warm Red, Warm Green, Yellow Ochre
Paper: American Crafts- Abode, A La Carte
Stamps: Fiskars- Sentiments, Fiskars- Petals From Scratch
Buttons: Bucket White, Red from Michaels
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
In other news, I went with my realtor this afternoon to check out the townhome I've been eyeing for the past week. It was so lovely that I asked my parents to come check it out this evening and they were fans too. Dad's quite the skeptical person, so for him to give his approval right off the bat was a huge relief! I'm currently resisting the urge to tell the realtor tonight that I want to put in an offer. This is a house, not a pair of earrings that I want to buy impulsively. I'll sleep on it tonight and then contact the realtor in the morning. Holy cow.
I was asked to make a bridal congratulations card for a girl at the office. I guess it's more of a multi-purpose card because she's getting married, she's
going to medical school, AND she's leaving the organization in about a week. I guess "Congratulations" sums up what we want to say, right? I wish I knew her better because then I could incorporate her wedding colors into the card. I guess my go-to cheerful color scheme of red, green and yellow will have to do. I was really stumped as to how to make the card less flat, but not too bulky. Fortunately, I had some buttons from Michaels sitting on my desk. With a few glue dots, I liked the card a whole lot more! Eek, please excuse the picture quality. The card was too big to fit in my light box.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, Warm Red, Warm Green, Yellow Ochre
Paper: American Crafts- Abode, A La Carte
Stamps: Fiskars- Sentiments, Fiskars- Petals From Scratch
Buttons: Bucket White, Red from Michaels
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Monday, May 23, 2011
Fall-To Layout #141
::cell phone alarm goes off:: So. Freakin'. Annoying. How dare it go off when I told it to!
Wait, what day is it? Is it Wednesday? Is it time for vacation?
Crap. No. Yesterday was Sunday, which makes today Monday. ::whine::
Does that ever happen to you? Surely, I can't be the only person.
Ok, enough with the gloom and doom.
Good thing that happened today: my hello card was selected as a "Hoolala" on the Wee Memories blog for Challenge #56.
Funny thing that happened today: I was in a meeting where the HR director was attending too. She sits next to me and looks at my nails: "Tina, whoa, yellow??" Mmmyeah, well, I guess the yellow is tough to miss. And then we started talking about crackle nail polish.
Happy thing that I'm looking forward tomorrow: my realtor and I are checking out a townhouse tomorrow around lunchtime. This will be the first property I've seen with her, and I hope it's as nice in person as it is in the pictures. ::fingers crossed::
Onto today's card. It's probably the fastest one I've done in a while. I already had the sketch (Fall-To Layout #141) and color scheme that I wanted to use (red, yellow and green...yep, a repeat from yesterday. Hey, I stick with the winners). During my shopping excursion yesterday, I stopped by A.C. Moore. I saw in the insert that they were having a 50% off sale on their clear stamps. Gimme gimme! I limited myself to 1 set, which was a mix of circular frames and sentiments. I used one of the sentiments for today's card. Ta da!
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Paper: American Crafts- Abode
Stamp: Inkadinkado- Round Frames
Punch: Fiskars Apron Lace border punch
Brad: American Crafts, Large Brads- Cherry
Flowers: Prima
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Wait, what day is it? Is it Wednesday? Is it time for vacation?
Crap. No. Yesterday was Sunday, which makes today Monday. ::whine::
Does that ever happen to you? Surely, I can't be the only person.
Ok, enough with the gloom and doom.
Good thing that happened today: my hello card was selected as a "Hoolala" on the Wee Memories blog for Challenge #56.
Funny thing that happened today: I was in a meeting where the HR director was attending too. She sits next to me and looks at my nails: "Tina, whoa, yellow??" Mmmyeah, well, I guess the yellow is tough to miss. And then we started talking about crackle nail polish.
Happy thing that I'm looking forward tomorrow: my realtor and I are checking out a townhouse tomorrow around lunchtime. This will be the first property I've seen with her, and I hope it's as nice in person as it is in the pictures. ::fingers crossed::
Onto today's card. It's probably the fastest one I've done in a while. I already had the sketch (Fall-To Layout #141) and color scheme that I wanted to use (red, yellow and green...yep, a repeat from yesterday. Hey, I stick with the winners). During my shopping excursion yesterday, I stopped by A.C. Moore. I saw in the insert that they were having a 50% off sale on their clear stamps. Gimme gimme! I limited myself to 1 set, which was a mix of circular frames and sentiments. I used one of the sentiments for today's card. Ta da!
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Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Paper: American Crafts- Abode
Stamp: Inkadinkado- Round Frames
Punch: Fiskars Apron Lace border punch
Brad: American Crafts, Large Brads- Cherry
Flowers: Prima
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Sunday, May 22, 2011
CPS #219
The amazing thing about technology is that it helps you be a part of events when you can't be there in person. I had intentions of going to my sister's graduation today, but with the 3 hour drive there and the 3 hour drive back and having to be in the office tomorrow, it would have been a really tiring day. Fortunately, the graduation ceremony was being broadcasted live on the internet, so I was able to enjoy the ceremony in my jammies.
The commencement speaker, Erik Weihenmayer, talked about facing adversity and going into the storms the life throws at us, instead of running away from them. I especially liked the analogy that he used to compare great people to alchemists.
You know, they can take the lead that life piles on top of them and they'll figure out a way to transform it into gold.
With an alchemist, they don't just do the traditional things that you hear about. They don't just deal well with adversity, they don't avoid it, they don't even overcome it as you hear so often.
These alchemists have figured out how to do something radically different. They've figured out how to seize hold of that storm of adversity that seems to swirl around us to harness its energy and use that energy to propel themselves forward to places that they never would have gone to in any other way.
With an alchemist you can throw them in the midst of a fierce competitive, uncertain environment, you can strip away their resources, you can throw roadblocks in front of them, and they'll still find a way to win. And I'd argue that they don't find a way to win despite adversity, they find a way to win because of it. I think if we want to learn, if we want to grow, if we want to strengthen great teams around us, if we want to innovate, if we want to create a whole new paradigm that the world follows, I think the way we harness those challenges in our lives is our greatest advantage.
Imagine while the world is digging in its heels and focused on surviving, you're out there using the energy behind this momentous occasion to drive forward, to make ground, to make an impact.
That's a pretty good quote, right? He also joked in the beginning of the ceremony that it seemed like people were more interested in his seeing eye dog than him. It is difficult to miss the dog, as he was a giant German shepherd.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green, Blackbird, Warm Red, Yellow Ochre.
Stamps: Fiskars- Friendship Garden (flowers), Fiskars- Petals From Scratch (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Threading Waters border punch
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost, Nana's Kitchen
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker
At Target today, I bought a new bottle of nail polish on a whim and did my nails after dinner tonight. Yep, they are yellow. Yep, I'm going to wear them to work tomorrow. Neener neener. Sally Hansen in Lightening. Can you tell that I'm ready for summer?
The commencement speaker, Erik Weihenmayer, talked about facing adversity and going into the storms the life throws at us, instead of running away from them. I especially liked the analogy that he used to compare great people to alchemists.
You know, they can take the lead that life piles on top of them and they'll figure out a way to transform it into gold.
With an alchemist, they don't just do the traditional things that you hear about. They don't just deal well with adversity, they don't avoid it, they don't even overcome it as you hear so often.
These alchemists have figured out how to do something radically different. They've figured out how to seize hold of that storm of adversity that seems to swirl around us to harness its energy and use that energy to propel themselves forward to places that they never would have gone to in any other way.
With an alchemist you can throw them in the midst of a fierce competitive, uncertain environment, you can strip away their resources, you can throw roadblocks in front of them, and they'll still find a way to win. And I'd argue that they don't find a way to win despite adversity, they find a way to win because of it. I think if we want to learn, if we want to grow, if we want to strengthen great teams around us, if we want to innovate, if we want to create a whole new paradigm that the world follows, I think the way we harness those challenges in our lives is our greatest advantage.
Imagine while the world is digging in its heels and focused on surviving, you're out there using the energy behind this momentous occasion to drive forward, to make ground, to make an impact.
That's a pretty good quote, right? He also joked in the beginning of the ceremony that it seemed like people were more interested in his seeing eye dog than him. It is difficult to miss the dog, as he was a giant German shepherd.
I was earlier out in the crowd and somebody said, "That's the most amazing dog I've ever seen, man's best friend, what a noble creature." Then I was walking up the aisle and I think I heard him say, "Oh, by the way, that's our speaker, he climbed Mount Everest blind."
I'm used to taking a back seat to the dog.
While I was listening to the names being called out, I tackled CPS #219. I wanted to finally break into my DCWV Nana's Kitchen stack that I bought a few weeks ago. I loved the green paper, so I started with that and built the card from there. I decided to pair the green with yellow and red (yes, like a traffic light). I didn't have an oval die to match the sketch, but I did have a Nestabilities die that was a similar shape and hadn't gotten a ton of use recently. I love the bright colors and cheerfulness of the card and the extra dimension and sparkle of the gems. |  |
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green, Blackbird, Warm Red, Yellow Ochre.
Stamps: Fiskars- Friendship Garden (flowers), Fiskars- Petals From Scratch (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Threading Waters border punch
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost, Nana's Kitchen
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker
At Target today, I bought a new bottle of nail polish on a whim and did my nails after dinner tonight. Yep, they are yellow. Yep, I'm going to wear them to work tomorrow. Neener neener. Sally Hansen in Lightening. Can you tell that I'm ready for summer?
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Laura's Wedding + Reception
I have to say that driving a newer car is a lot more fun than an older car. I don't get to have that opportunity very often. Dad let me borrow his car today and I felt like I was zooming on the highway. Today, I headed to Baltimore for my friend Laura's wedding (::wave::), which was, of course, totally fabulous...in true Laura style. I parked the car at the hotel where the reception was going to be held and then took a shuttle bus to the church. I actually sat next to the mother of the groom on the bus, but didn't realize it until later on. I finally introduced myself to her when I entered the church. "Hi, I'm Tina (I paused to see if she'd recognize me...and realized that she didn't. I rushed to find some sort of context) ummm, I made some of the thank you cards?" "OHHHHH, hiiii!" Hey, if my claim to fame is the cards that I make, I'm down with that.
After the ceremony, we all headed back to the hotel for the cocktail hour and reception. The hotel was right along the Inner Harbor, so the view was so pretty. The appetizers were amazing: beef wrapped in bacon (who can go wrong with bacon?), cheese + crackers, quesadillas, and my favorite...some sort of crab cake ball. I ate like 3 or 4. Mmmyeah, I have no shame whatsoever. We kept an eye on the server lady that was passing them around and waved her over several times so that we could take another one. I also had an apple martini, yum! For dinner, I picked the chicken platter. I wonder if the chicken was purposely served in the shape of a heart. How appropriate for wedding reception food. By the time the slice of wedding cake arrived at the end of the night, I only took a few bites because I had absolutely no room...yeah, like you thought that was possible!
Random thing that almost happened: there was a lady at the wedding that had on the same dress that I WAS going to wear. How funny would that have been?!
Congratulations, Laura and Nate! The wedding was awesome! Thank you for letting me be a part of your special day! :D
After the ceremony, we all headed back to the hotel for the cocktail hour and reception. The hotel was right along the Inner Harbor, so the view was so pretty. The appetizers were amazing: beef wrapped in bacon (who can go wrong with bacon?), cheese + crackers, quesadillas, and my favorite...some sort of crab cake ball. I ate like 3 or 4. Mmmyeah, I have no shame whatsoever. We kept an eye on the server lady that was passing them around and waved her over several times so that we could take another one. I also had an apple martini, yum! For dinner, I picked the chicken platter. I wonder if the chicken was purposely served in the shape of a heart. How appropriate for wedding reception food. By the time the slice of wedding cake arrived at the end of the night, I only took a few bites because I had absolutely no room...yeah, like you thought that was possible!
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Congratulations, Laura and Nate! The wedding was awesome! Thank you for letting me be a part of your special day! :D
Friday, May 20, 2011
"It's a Boy!" Card
Happy Friday, everyone! Hope your week is ending on a good note!
Let's see...what have I been up to...
Well, yesterday, we had a surprise baby shower at work. The lady is having a baby girl and we celebrated with presents and lots of pies (strawberry rhubarb, blueberry, key lime and something I didn't recognize). I had 2 small helpings of the blueberry and key lime ones.
Right after the baby shower, one of the managers asked me to make a card to send around for another coworker that's having a baby boy, so that's what I worked on tonight. I have been
looking for an opportunity to use the airplane stamp and cloud paper, and here was my chance! I started out with a green plane, but I didn't think it stood out against the teal sky so I switched to red. Red can be for boys, too, right? I didn't want the card to have too much dimension because it was going to be passed around the office and I didn't want things to get banged up. I'm so glad that I had enough chipboard letter stickers for the sentiment so that the card wasn't TOO flat. Hello, happy medium.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Blackbird, Charcoal, Warm Red, Blue Iris, Yellow Ochre.
Paper: American Crafts- City Park, Merrymint, Abode.
Stamps: Martha Stewart- Toy Transportation (plane), K.I. Memories- It's a Girl (baby bottle), Fiskars- Baby (onesies)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch
Stickers: American Crafts Chipboard Thickers in Darling (white)
Off to my friend Laura's wedding tomorrow, hooray! :)
P.S. My card was linked in today's Moxie Fab World post...it was the pink card I made last week (I'm the last link).
Let's see...what have I been up to...
Well, yesterday, we had a surprise baby shower at work. The lady is having a baby girl and we celebrated with presents and lots of pies (strawberry rhubarb, blueberry, key lime and something I didn't recognize). I had 2 small helpings of the blueberry and key lime ones.
Right after the baby shower, one of the managers asked me to make a card to send around for another coworker that's having a baby boy, so that's what I worked on tonight. I have been
looking for an opportunity to use the airplane stamp and cloud paper, and here was my chance! I started out with a green plane, but I didn't think it stood out against the teal sky so I switched to red. Red can be for boys, too, right? I didn't want the card to have too much dimension because it was going to be passed around the office and I didn't want things to get banged up. I'm so glad that I had enough chipboard letter stickers for the sentiment so that the card wasn't TOO flat. Hello, happy medium.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Blackbird, Charcoal, Warm Red, Blue Iris, Yellow Ochre.
Paper: American Crafts- City Park, Merrymint, Abode.
Stamps: Martha Stewart- Toy Transportation (plane), K.I. Memories- It's a Girl (baby bottle), Fiskars- Baby (onesies)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch
Stickers: American Crafts Chipboard Thickers in Darling (white)
Off to my friend Laura's wedding tomorrow, hooray! :)
P.S. My card was linked in today's Moxie Fab World post...it was the pink card I made last week (I'm the last link).
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Kansas, Day 3
A colleague, my boss and I were able to sleep in today since the airport was close by. I got a text for my sister, informing me that my cousin had brought over some cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes this morning. I had made a big stink about Mom eating half of my red velvet cupcake from Baked & Wired over the weekend. My cousin must have heard about it. Nom nom nom. I pretty much slept the whole flight home...yay. I was a little worried about feeling restless because I was sitting in a row with a family that included a toddler. Fortunately, I zonked out so I didn't hear anything.
I forgot to mention this yesterday...in my breakout group, the facilitator asked us all to introduce ourselves and say a fun fact (my fun fact was about my card making hobby), but some of the other people had cooler things to share. Within our group, we had...
Anyhoo, here's to sleeping in my own bed tonight, even though it's got a cat's worth of cat hair on it and is dramatically smaller than the king sized bed that I slept in last night at the hotel. Here are some pictures from today...cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes and Ginger hanging out in Dad's gym bag.
I forgot to mention this yesterday...in my breakout group, the facilitator asked us all to introduce ourselves and say a fun fact (my fun fact was about my card making hobby), but some of the other people had cooler things to share. Within our group, we had...
- A quilter
- A older lady that did triathlons
- A veterinarian that spayed and neutered animals during his free time
- A genealogist
- A fly fisherwoman
Anyhoo, here's to sleeping in my own bed tonight, even though it's got a cat's worth of cat hair on it and is dramatically smaller than the king sized bed that I slept in last night at the hotel. Here are some pictures from today...cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes and Ginger hanging out in Dad's gym bag.
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