Fall-To Layout #144

With the work meeting behind me, the yellow nail polish has made a comeback!

Earlier this evening, I went to a concert that Robyn was playing in. It was really cute to see the children dancing to the music. They got some moves!

Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #144. I was asked to make a good-bye card for a fellow staff person who is leaving at the end of the month. I didn't have any "Best Wishes" stamps that were the size I needed so I created my own using a set of alphabet stamps. I also used some stickers that my cousin gave me from Taiwan. I love how they already come with a pop dot underneath to add a little dimension.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Stamps: American Crafts- Rue (alphabet)
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost
Punch: Fiskars Threading Waters border punch
Brad: Recollections- Silver Circles
Flowers: Prima
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Omaha, Day 4, 5, and 6

Ahhh, it's good to be back. Looks like the heat followed me back to DC...or perhaps it never left. Anyway, I think the Annual Meeting was a success. On my way home, I heard many of the members say how they enjoyed the meeting and hearing that feedback definitely makes all the preparation and work during the event well worth the effort. Onward to Seattle next year! Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative. ::fingers crossed::

When I was getting my tag printed for my poster tube, the gentleman at the counter...excuse me, the jerk at the counter (I would have used a stronger word to describe him, but I'll refrain from using any profanity), was totally causing a scene. He was making this HUGE stink about how a fire had prevented him from making his flight on time. The airline counter wouldn't let him board the plane because he was too late and they would not make any exceptions. He would have to get on another flight and of course, the airline wasn't being fast enough with getting his new ticket booked. He was cursing up a storm, and while that sounds bad already, there was a child next to him. What a poor example of how one should act in those types of stressful situations! I wanted to give the lady at the counter a hug because it's obviously not HER fault that the guy missed his flight. He must have left his manners at home or something.

I finally went to the BBQ place near the convention center called The Old Mattress Factory and got a pulled pork sandwich twice for dinner while I was in Omaha. Yum. The restaurant had a lobster tank in the corner where, for $2, you could use the mechanical claw to grab your lobster. I guess if you pick one up, the restaurant would boil it for you.

Omaha, Day 1, 2, and 3

Greetings from Omaha! Let's jump right into stories...(there will be no cardmaking until probably Friday, so the next couple of entries will be more of a journaling of my time in Omaha. Feel free to follow along!)

First off, I'm not one of those chatty people that you sit next to on the plane. I'm one of those types that falls right asleep and then if I wake up, I just pretend that I'm asleep to avoid awkward conversation. And yes, perhaps that sounds anti-social. Anyway, I sat next to a young man, and we had both passed out for the majority of the flight. We both woke up with 30 minutes left in the flight, and he made some comment about how it was cold on the plane. "What brings you to Omaha?" "Work. What about you?" "I'm visiting family. I just graduated, and I'm going off to basic training soon, so I wanted to spend as much time with them as I could." Oh, this is interesting. We ended up talking about basic training and the lack of options in terms of a social life in Omaha. The lesson here is that not all conversations with strangers on planes are awkward.

When I got to the hotel, I wandered outside to find something to eat. I ended up wandering around Omaha and getting some lasagna at an Italian place. I was so sweaty by the time I got back to the hotel. I made a game plan to walk straight into the hotel, trying to avoid any eye contact with anyone so that they would not have to see me in such a gross condition. "HI TINA!" ::waves me over:: Oh great. Thankfully it was a co-worker and not a member. Otherwise, I would have been super embarrassed.

I was in an all-day meeting on Saturday, which was productive, and then today was the official start of the conference. I spent most of the time at the registration desk, a good spot to be when you want to see a lot of the members. The day was not without its embarrassing moments.

• I had a bottle of water at the registration desk. I hear "That's not being very green." We try to encourage people to use water bottles instead of bottles of water. I looked around to see who the voice was referring to. "You, Tina." Oh, heh. Erg.
• At the closing reception, I got caught with my mouth full and my hands foody. "Ohh, you're the guy that I met in New Hampshire. Hi, how are you? I'd shake your hand but..." "That's ok, Tina."
  
• After the closing session, I went to get a drink with a co-worker and then I went up to the Hilton Honors suite to get some snacks. I came back with 2 cookies, a ginger ale, and a bottle of water. I got back in the elevator and sure enough, another member saw me with my hands full of food. He looked like he was going to the gym. I tried to make a joke, "Wow, you're dedicated!" And then we both laughed.

Food report:
I haven't had much of the meat that Omaha is known for, but I'm determined to get some pulled pork at a BBQ place that people have been raving about. The meeting food so far has been good. At yesterday's reception, I had some macaroni and cheese that was good, as well as some risotto. Tonight's reception food was even better: mini cheeseburgers, veggies and hummus, crab ragoon, and pot stickers. Yum! The drink that I had at the end of the day was a James and the Giant Peach martini. I asked the bartender about a cherry limeade drink, but she made a face and told me that it was no good. I appreciated her candor.

Wee Memories Challenge #58

I took the day off of work to get some "new home" stuff taken care of.

• Met with mortgage guy in the morning to sign paperwork. I was very impressed with his wall of handwritten thank you cards he received from clients.
  
• Attended the home inspection, which went well. The inspector had been to some crummy looking houses lately so I'm sure he was relieved to find a place in good condition. Shorter report to write, I guess.
• Received the HOA documents for review that I can review on the plane tomorrow
  

When he got home from work today, Dad announced that tomorrow was going to be his last day at work. Hello, retirement! I hope he wasn't joking around because I already announced the news on Facebook.

Here's my card entry for Wee Memories Challenge #58: Pinterest/Etsy Inspired- "find something on either of them that inspires you and use that inspiration for your creation!" I kinda cheated on this one because I had already started the card before I found something that inspired me. I knew I wanted to have a punched border at the bottom of the card, so that's what I did first. Then I did a search for "black doily" on Pinterest and found this cake with a black doily-looking thing with a pink flower. So I incorporated some black doily-looking things (yay for using a new stamp set) and pink in the card. The card still looked very heavy on the black side so I offset it by adding some faux stitching and white accents on the circles.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Stamps: K&Company- AB Lotus Floral Stamps, Inkadinkado- Round Frames (sentiment, circle)
Paper: Martha Stewart
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Martha Stewart Doily Lace border punch
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large
Brad: Recollections- Silver Circles
Flowers: Prima
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Now for some Real Housewives of NYC. :)

Tuesday Trigger: Classically Modern

Funny conversation at the office...

Co-worker asks, "Tina, how old are you?" "28." ::looks shocked:: "LIES!"

...oook, I guess I'll take that as a compliment?

Same co-worker in the same conversation. "Tina, how long have you been looking for a place?" "Well, the one that I put an offer in was the first and only place that I saw with my realtor." ::looks shocked:: "You're crazy!"

Well, I guess some people could say that, but maybe I just knew exactly what I was looking for, found it, and didn't want the opportunity to pass me by.

Other office news: my abstract was accepted into a national conference. Woot. I'm happy that the conference this year is in DC (last year it was in Denver), so less distance to travel. Double woot. My boss's abstract was accepted too, so it's been a good day for the both of us.

Today's card: here's my take on this week's Tuesday Trigger (Classically Modern). Wow, how pretty! I tried to incorporate the color scheme (blue, white, and a little pink and green) into the card as well as some texture that's seen in the white bedspread. It feels kinda unnatural to me to have a card that's mostly white, but at least that's in line with the trigger photo. I also wanted to use some supplies/techniques that I hadn't used in a while: heat embossing, dry embossing and Prima flowers. Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Prussian Blue
Stamps: K&Company- AB Lotus Floral Stamps (large flower), Hero Arts- Thinking of You Messages (sentiment), Fiskars- Petals From Scratch (small flower)
Paper: American Crafts Specialty Paper in Pearl (blue)
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots)
Brad: Recollections- Silver Circles
Flowers: Prima
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Fall-To Layout #142

Funny story from yesterday: when I got off at my Metro stop, I thought I saw someone that I knew from undergrad. I wanted to make sure it was him before I said anything, so I walked up next to him to confirm. Yep, it was him. "Are you ___?" "Uh, yeah. Oh, HEY!! How are you??" Oh, good. I guess I haven't changed either. Even though the DC area is flooded with people, sometimes I think it's a small world after all (cue Disney World music...).

Reverting back to office mode wasn't too hard today. I need to have my head in the game because I'm doing house related things on Thursday (meeting with mortgage guy in the morning and then doing the house inspection in the afternoon) and then heading out again on Friday for work. There is no room in the next 2 weeks to play space cadet.

Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #142. I was thinking of sending a card to my friend Page, and since her favorite color is yellow, I figured that was a good place to start. The house paper caught my eye and reminded me of her because she's going to be a new home owner this summer as well. Meg gave me some flower stickers for my birthday this year, so I added it for some dimension. Crafty supplies = the gift that keeps on giving.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo
Paper: American Crafts- Abode, Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost
Stamps: Studio G
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Stickers: Sandylion- Flower Power
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Sunflower Yellow
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Home Hunting Update + St. Simons Island Vacation Recap

Hello out there! Yep, I made it back from vacation safely. A beach trip with friends was just what I needed. I'll get to the recap and pictures in a little bit, but I wanted to update y'all on the offer that I put on the townhouse last week. When Robyn and I were driving across the bridge to St. Simons Island (Meg hopped into the car with Page so she wouldn't have to drive by herself), the real estate agent called to let me know that the seller accepted the offer! YAY! Next stop: a home inspection. I thought the timing of the call with the bridge was very metaphorical...you know, like crossing over to a new life and all that jazz. Perhaps I'll be able to meet the "leaving the nest" New Year's Resolution after all.

The four of us stayed at Page's family's condo, and the place was so nice. Everyone got their own bed, and the property had easy access to the pool and the beach. The weather was sunny the whole time.

The vacation pretty much consisted of going to the beach/pool, watching movies and eating...a lot.

Food report: There was a lot of chocolate (we consumed 4 bags of M&Ms: peanut butter, pretzel, almond, and peanut), cookies (oh, Oreos, how I've missed you), and seafood consumed these past few days. During 3 out of 4 dinners, I had some sort of crab cake. Errr...calories don't count on vacation, right?

Movie report: We gave the local Red Box a workout during this trip. We watched The Green Hornet (fell asleep during it), The King's Speech (hadn't seen it before, good movie), Tangled (saw it in the theater, loved it), and Despicable Me (saw it on the airplane before, meh) on DVD. We also ventured to the movie theater yesterday and saw Thor, which was pretty good.

Book report: While I was at the beach, I read and finished the book Commencement. It was one of the books that I bought for $1 at a used book sale. I thought it was funny how the book paralleled the beach trip in that the book was about 4 friends that met in college and the four of us (Robyn, Page, Meg, and me) become friends in college as well. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it, even though I skipped over some sections because they made me feel uncomfortable.

Funny story from the trip: Meg (and Robyn?) brought two shells back to the condo after a trip to the beach. We thought that they were uninhabited, but were seriously mistaken when we saw the shells crawling away a few hours later. Screaming ensued. Crabs were returned to the ocean.

Here are some pictures from the trip.Off to unpack, get some laundry done, and accept the fact that I will have to go to the office tomorrow instead of soaking up some sun on the beach. Hope you all had a lovely Memorial Day! :)