Surprise Snail Mail

RJ: I was woken up this morning by a strange whirling sound. At first, I thought it was my printer going crazy, but I guess that just goes to show how my brain just doesn't function at 5:45 AM. The printer isn't even on, dummy. Hello. I went downstairs and almost tripped over RJ, and then I found the source of the strange noise. The automatic feeder was having trouble turning because the weight that I have on it was positioned incorrectly and was preventing it from turning. The motor was grinding and RJ was freaked out. Mommmmm! I want to eat, but the noise is scary. Yeah, ok. It's fixed. Chow down. I'm going back to bed.

At the office: I missed out on my co-worker's baby shower yesterday because I was home sick. I was so bummed because I wanted to see her reaction to the card that I made and everyone signed. I stopped by her desk today to catch up with her, and she said that she really liked the card. Mission Accomplished. I also heard from 3 separate people that the cake was awesome. Wah.

Snail mail: I was happy to find some snail mail in my mailbox when I got home today (junk mail doesn't count). One was a thank you card from Laura (glad you like the orchid!) and another was a birthday card.

From the office. (The big boss sends out birthday cards for staff.)

One that I made!

Can you read what it says at the bottom? It says, "P.S. nice card!"

Ha ha ha!

Fall-To Layout #176

RJ: I was NOT a happy kitty mommy this morning. RJ found his way back to the top of the refrigerator and knocked off his old food bowl, resulting in it shattering on the kitchen tile and making a very loud noise at 5 AM. I rushed downstairs to check on the situation and yep, it was quite a mess. So, here I am, 5 AM, feeling like #$*& and breaking out the vacuum to clean up the mess so that neither one of us gets hurt. I went back to bed to try to get some restful sleep, only to have my sore throat feel worse when the alarm went off this morning. Hello, sick day.

"At the office": Except you can only sleep for so long, right? So instead of being in front of the TV the whole day to get some actual rest, I got sucked into email and conference calls. I even got an email from my boss, asking me why I was working. Because I clearly have a unhealthy, self-imposed habit of blurring the lines between work life and personal life. I hope I feel well enough to go to the office tomorrow. Being cooped up in the house isn't really all that fun either.

Card: Here's my take on this week's Fall-To Layout (#176). My goal was to use these paper cranes that Robyn gave me for Christmas. They came attached at the beak and feet so I had to cut them out so that they could stand individually. I added some texture to the black panel by heat embossing a Hero Arts background stamp (sadly, it's not very clear in the picture). I stamped the letters individually on a piece of white cardstock and used a circle punch to punch them out and stuck them on the card using foam adhesive.

I also added one of the anniversary cards that I made for an office order.

Card Specs (for crane card):
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red
Stamps: Hero Arts- Cling Classic Fabric Design (background), Studio G
Paper: g.c.d. Studios- Chianti Collection
Punch: Recollections, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch

Bad Kitty

RJ: I went downstairs to get ready for spin class this morning and RJ was no where in sight. This usually means that he's up to no good. I made a first pass around the main floor and didn't see him and knew that he wasn't upstairs because I was just there. I decided to go back into the kitchen and turn on the light. The rascal was sitting on top of the refrigerator, attempting to break into his kibble bag. When the lights went on, he had an "Oh, #$%@!" expression on his face. Luckily, I caught him before he made it all the way through. The kibble bag is now safely in tucked away in the cabinet.

Spin class: I decided to take a bike in the back row this morning. This cute guy ended up taking the bike next to me. Janice asked if there were any new spinners in the room and he raised his hand and she helped him get set up. After hearing their conversation, I found out that he was Italian. Ooo, interesting. Toward the end of class, I asked what he thought of the class. He said that he usually runs, but he wanted to try something different. I thought to myself, "Hmm...I know someone else that loves to run and loves Italy as well (Meg), maybe I should introduce them sometime. Ha ha." Hopefully he comes back!

Family: I went to my cousin's house for dinner tonight. My uncle cooked up a wonderful feast: noodles, chicken drumsticks, salmon, soup, etc. We finished it off with strawberries and custard. How can anyone watch their weight in this family?! Everyone knows how to cook good food, and we always get together to eat it!

A Social Saturday

I was very social today (a rarity...). I had not one, but TWO events today!! :) I went to Laura's house for a MPH girls get-together. Laura, thank you for hosting and for the yummy food. Your house is beautiful! The menu was blueberry almond French toast bake, fruit salad, spinach salad, granola and yogurt, veggie pupusas, white chocolate dessert, and mimosas. Life would seriously be more fun if calories didn't count. But I had fun tasting a little bit of everything. I hope there's a bike for me at spin class tomorrow.

Then in the evening, I went to a friend (in the black shirt in the picture below) from high school's "Dip and Play" party in Baltimore, where we were encouraged to bring a food that requires dipping it into something. There was a variety of treats to eat: chips/dip, chocolate/fruit, Oreos, salsa, etc. My contribution was vegetables and hummus. We played Apples to Apples, SmartAss, and Family Feud. I didn't know any of her friends, but thankfully another girl that I went to high school with (in the gray shirt in the picture below) came to the party. I haven't seen her in 10 years, but we had a lot to catch up on. The thing that I love about potlucks is that you can usually bring your leftovers home. I'll be set for fruit salad and veggies (healthy snacks) for work this week! Woot!

Nail polish: I wanted to try an image that wouldn't cover the whole nail, and I chose a butterfly. Red: Ulta in Ruby Slipper. White: Revlon in White on White. Bundle Monster plate #222.

Busy Bee Friday

Attend morning 1- hour spin class, check.
Go to lunch with friends, check.
Work on an anniversary card order from the office, check.
Go to dinner with the family, check.
Cut up fruit for a graduate school get-together tomorrow, check. (Look how colorful it is!)
Do nails, check. (will post picture tomorrow)

It's been a busy day. The end.

A Card Confusion

So, a few months ago, I was asked by the Human Resources department at work to create some birthday and anniversary cards so that they can send to the staff at the appropriate time. I made some floral cards that were intended for women and then some origami shirt and necktie cards intended for the men. I found today that they need some more anniversary cards so they placed an order for 10 cards (yay!) and also that some of the origami shirt and necktie cards were sent to female staff members. The HR lady showed me what cards were remaining in the box that I gave them a few months ago, and many of the origami shirt cards were still there. I think I said something along the lines of "Yeah, those are the cards that I made for the guys." The lady looked at my wide eyed. "What?...Did you give those to women?!" She said yes because some of the neckties were made with warmer colors (red, pink, etc.).

Errrrr. Sigh.

I guess in the end, what it boils down to is once the cards leave my hands, they are someone else's responsibility. It's not a reflection of me or my work if a female staff person is confused or doesn't like the anniversary card she gets because it's more on the masculine side.

Target Run

Baby shower gift: My goal tonight was to get a baby shower gift for my co-worker. I debated ordering stuff from the Target registry, but ran into the problem of having to order at least $50 worth of stuff and I didn't want to pad the shopping cart with unnecessary stuff in order to get the free shipping. Especially when Target is right down the road. I decided to forgo the registry and buy her baby a cute blanket/rattle set. The baby will outgrow clothes, but the blanket will probably last a while. I went to my parents' house to say hi to Dad (he came home last night from a 3 week vacation in Taiwan) and to see if Mom had a gift box and wrapping paper. She grabbed a Macy's box and Coach tissue paper. Ok, so all the stuff doesn't match, but it's the thought that counts, right?

New workout video game: While I was at Target, I decided to get the Gold's Gym Dance Workout video game for the Wii console. It was a treat for myself because I want to add a little variety to my workouts. After 30 minutes, I did actually work up a sweat. I hope that's from genuine exertion and not because it's telling me I'm out of shape.