CPS #277

At the office: My former officemate Jennifer came to the office today to visit, with her new baby Caitlin in tow. It was pretty wild to see Caitlin in person, since before, it's just been pictures. I had just gotten used to the idea of Jennifer being pregnant and *poof* she has a real baby now! She went on maternity leave in March, so it's been quite a while since I've seen her but she looked great. I can't wait for her to come back to work in a few weeks. I get the sense that she can't wait either because she mentioned something about missing conversations with grown-ups.

Card: Here's my take on CPS #277. I loved the little fabric flower that I used in yesterday's card, so I decided to use another one from a different set.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Stamp: Hero Arts- Everyday Sayings
Paper: Chatterbox, American Crafts- Letterbox
Floral sticker: Basic Grey Bloomers- Pyrus collection
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

CPS #276

I'm a little behind in my card sketch challenges, so here's my take on CPS #276. I was going to use the "congrats!" panel of this card for another card, but I decided to save it for another time because the colors didn't match well. However, I thought the yellow would be a great compliment to the brown and red. The fabric flower was tacked on at the end for some visual interest and feminine touch. I'm really liking the EK Success punch that I bought last Friday. It punched through the yellow cardstock like butter. The alphabet stamps were also a nice investment because a) I love that font and b) you can definitely create your own sentiments with the set. Love it.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Stamp: Pebbles- Floral Lane ABC Stamps
Paper: American Crafts- Peachy Keen, My Mind's Eye- All Spice, g.c.d. Studios- Chianti Collection
Punch: EK Success- Lattice Chain border punch
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Floral sticker: Basic Grey Bloomers- Hopscotch collection

My Mind's Eye Paper Packs at TJMaxx

Shopping: On a whim, I went to TJMaxx after spin class this morning (by the way, Janice's substitute Sheila always plays a mix that has a theme to it and you have to guess what the theme is. Today's theme was the Olympics, gold, silver, being "unbelievable" UNH!). I wanted see what their craft punch situation was and much to my surprise, there weren't that many punches, but I did find a few My Mind's Eye 6 x 6 paper pads that I liked. I started out with 6 in my hand, but then I put away two of them because a) I didn't want to be greedy and b) they weren't really my style...Everyday Flair wasn't bright enough and A Happy Heart was too orange-y. If you're curious as to which paper pads I got, you'll have to enlarge the image below by clicking on it. I also came away with a new hairbrush because the rubber tips of mind have come off and the unprotected bristles really irritate my scalp and a Martha Stewart punch all of the page punch called Diamond Rings Pattern. I haven't used on of these before, but since it was $4 (full regular price $21.99), I figured it was worth a try.

Card: For tonight's card, I wanted to use my new Martha Stewart punch. I felt like it took a little more pressure to get it to punch, but once I got the hang of it, it was easy peasy.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Charcoal
Stamp: Hero Arts Envelope Pattern, Studio G (sentiment)
Punch: Diamond Rings Pattern Punch All Over the Page

Fall-To Layout #202

Lazy Saturday: I definitely took advantage of my lazy Saturday to do some laundry,read my book, and catch up on sleep. I went out with my family tonight to celebrate my uncle's and cousin's August birthdays.

Card: For today's card, I decided to try out one of my new punches, the lattice chain one. I love it! I'm glad that I have one of those glue pens since the design is on the intricate side. Regular liquid glue would have probably made a big mess.
Card Specs:
Ink: Stampin' Up in Certainly Celery. Colorbox chalk ink in Yellow Citrus, Charcoal, Dark Peony
Stamp: Hero Arts- Designer Wood Grain, Hero Arts- Everyday Sayings, Inkadinkado- Nature (butterfly), American Crafts- Boutonniere (flower)
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox
Punch: EK Success- Lattice Chain border punch
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Sunflower Yellow

All this Olympic coverage on TV makes me feel like a total couch potato. :P

Fabulous Friday

Haircut: Unfortunately, I was not able to go to my FRI morning spin class because I switched my usual work-from-home day from FRI to MON this week. My boss was going to be in the office today so I wanted to make sure that I was available in case she had any last minute things to talk about before heading to the airport in the afternoon. She didn't, but that's okay. I was able to get a bunch of things crossed off my to-do list. Once she left, I went to Hair Cuttery to get a haircut. I saw a sign for $16 haircuts in the window a few days ago and made a mental note to investigate further. Even though I loved the haircut that I got back in March, it's just too expensive. The haircut, shampoo, blow dry and generous tip all together doesn't even come up to the cost of the actual haircut that I got at the March salon! I walked away feeling victorious that I got a haircut AND I saved some money. The haircut is probably a little shorter than I'd like, but that's the great thing about hair...it grows back!

Shopping: The Hair Cuttery is in the same mall as the Marshalls so I went in to look for the punches that people have been showing off in their recent haul videos. There was quite a collection! You should have seen me climb the shelves to get to them since they were on the very top rack. I tried to find a step stool so I wouldn't look like a 5-year-old misbehaving, but no luck there. After a few tries and risking my life, I got 3 EK Success punches. They had some Martha Stewart ones, but a) I liked the EK Success ones more and b) they are easier to store. Each was $3.99 ($15-$18 regular price)! The 3 that I got were Parisian, Retro Flower, and Lattice Chain.

::evil laugh::

Dinner and family time: After work, I went to Panera to meet up with Jessie, my friend from grad school. We had a 2-hour girl talk, and then I went to my parents' house since I hadn't been there since Monday. What? No one was home! I then went to check out my cousin's house. Again, no one was home! I went to my uncle/aunt's house...yay, they were home watching Brian Williams's news broadcast. I stayed there for about an hour and went back to check if anyone was home at my parents' house or my cousin's house. I could see through the window that my aunt/uncle visiting from Taiwan (my cousin's parents) were home so I rang the doorbell and hung out with them for about an hour until it was time to check on my parents' house one more time. Third time's the charm! It's a good thing that we all live close together. Otherwise this running around would not have been possible.

A Food-y Reward

At the office: I checked my phone for work emails before I left the house this morning and found one from my boss. It was a request to type up two documents. The originals were scanned PDFs so they couldn't be easily copied and pasted into a new MS Word document. Fortunately, I recently installed MS Word to my new computer a few days ago, so I decided to do this assignment at home before heading to the office. I finished the request in about 10 minutes, uploaded them to the SharePoint site and sent her an email with the link.

I got the following email later on in the morning, while she was taking a break from her meeting: "You are so good to me. We will call you first for lunch leftovers." I think one of the keys to a good manager is knowing how to best motivate and reward your staff. I was a happy camper this afternoon, writing up my article and eating meeting leftovers.

Card: I wanted to use a Pebbles stamp set that I bought a while back, but hadn't used yet. The cake image caught my eye. I wish it was more versatile in that it could be used for any type of cake, such as wedding AND birthday, but the flower makes it look more wedding-y. That's okay though. I went in the wedding card direction because of it.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal, Rose Coral. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox
Stamps: American Crafts- Studio G, Pebbles- Crazy in Love
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Travel Fail

"I’m not sure if you were aware of this, but liaisons aren’t traveling for this meeting, only senior staff and chairs." - Membership Manager

o_0 What?

Um, no, you're right. I wasn't aware that I wasn't going to St. Paul, MN next month.

Apparently, there was a break in communication. :P

I'm not too brokenhearted about it. I would be if I was going to Minneapolis because that'd mean that I couldn't go to the Mall of America which also means that I couldn't go to Archiver's.

Hello, priorities.