Shoe Fail

I bought some heel inserts yesterday to prevent my feet from slipping out of these cute pair of heels that I have.  I wore the heel inserts for probably 2 hours today before I realized that I had wasted $7 on them.  I went back to DSW near my work this afternoon to see if it'd be possible to get my money back if I brought my receipt tomorrow.  The lady was like "Ok, just this one time..."  What?  Are you keeping track?  ::eye roll:: I decided to try another DSW that's close to my gym, and it was almost like the sales clerk knew what my problem was.  "Oh, yeah. I know they don't work because I tried them myself."  She gave me my money back without making a stink about it.  Yay for understanding customer service.

FYI, the heel inserts that I bought that didn't work are from the brand Apara.

Future Vacation Plans

At the office: I was talking to one of my coworkers the other day and she stops me in mid-sentence.  "Lemme see you nails!"  They were a grey/purple-ish color (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri).  She smiles and hold out her hand.  She had the exact same shade on.  :)

Future Vacation Plans: (cue music: "I'm So Excited"- the Pointer Sisters).  Several of my friends and I are turning 30 soon...either later this year or early next year so Meg and two of her running friends had a grand ol' plan to go on a cruise to celebrate.  There will be 6 of us total on this trip.  Last night, I committed to the trip by booking my 4-night cruise to the Bahamas in March.  I am SOOO looking forward to this because a) yay, vacation, b) I get to hang out with my friends, and c) I've never gone on a cruise before.  Whoo hoo!

At the Parents' House:  This was the cost of tuition when I was a freshman in college.  I found this card in some of my stuff at my parents' house...it's laughable and depressing at the same time.  In other news, Ginger found a new basket to sleep in.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Yard Sale Finds: I was so excited to go to the Annual "Attic in the Street" event this year.  It's basically a block long yard sale that happens in a neighborhood that near my parents' house.  I came away with 3 pieces of artwork and a decorative tile piece.

Funny story #1: I walked by the guy that had the floral pieces and asked him how much the artwork was.  He said $10.  I said thanks and continued to walk around to see what the other tables had.  I walked by the artwork again and asked him if he'd cut me a deal if I bought two pieces.  "$25."  What?!  How is that a deal?  I reminded him that he told me that each one was $10 a few minutes ago.  I guess he was confused as to which two pieces I was looking to buy.  He settled on $15.  SOLD!

Funny story #2: I was eyeing a red beaded necklace.  I even picked it up to take a closer look and knew that I made a mistake when I put it down because the lady next to me bought it for $4!  Ugh, the downfalls of second guessing yourself!

Girl time: I went to Alexandria with Meg and Robyn to help Robyn do some bridesmaid dress shopping.  Gee, wasn't that a humbling experience!  Since they didn't have dresses in Robyn's size, I was the stand-in.  Even though I can usually do a size 10 or 12, the dresses at the store definitely ran small because there was no way I could fit in a 10 and a 12 was tight in some areas.  The store attendants weren't really all that great, but at least Robyn was able to get her measurements and she can get the dress somewhere else.  We ended up getting Italian food at a nearby restaurant (check out my thing of ice tea, wow!) and then hanging out at Robyn's place for the rest of the afternoon...until dinner time, when we went to get BBQ.  This place redeemed themselves, since last time, they ran out of pork!  The GW Parkway northbound was closed, so I had to find another way home and at one point, the traffic was SO bad.  When I got closer, I noticed that it was because of a car accident. A huge black SVU was totally smashed and pointing in the wrong direction and there was glass everywhere.  Yikes.

Fall-To Layout #212

Sick: Ugh, not a good week health wise.  Been feeling a little under the weather lately with a cold.  It's times like these that I'm very thankful that my boss is understanding (she's getting over a cold as well) and the organization has the technology to allow us to work from home easily. 

Shopping: Unfortunately, with being sick, all my crafting mojo has gone out the window.  I didn't feel like working on my craft show inventory or any cards for the sake of creativity.  However, today, we're back to normal.  I even went to Michaels after work today to see what kind of 12 x 12 paper packs they had since they were on sale for $11.99.  While some other goodies were on sale (stamps, ink pads, open stock paper, dies), I came away with 2 huge paper packs - Recollections Bright and Basic and Recollections Mosaic Memories (this paper looks like My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose- and a thing of kraft cardstock.  The Recollections paper works really well for folding origami dresses.  My goal was to find a Bright and Basic back so I dug through the shelves.  The first time around, I came up with nothing.  I even gave up and walking around to the other stacks, but then I came back and physically got on the floor to have easier access to the bottom shelf.  Success!  I must have gotten the last stack!  I noticed that there was a Recollections Christmas stack, but I didn't feel like I HAD to have it.  I had some extra money on my gift card and my total for the three items came out to $22.00 even.  Funny, huh?

Food: I made a batch of chicken marsala this afternoon.  I redeemed myself because the last time I made it, OMG, the chicken was so dry.  Yuck.

Card: Here's my non-craft show inventory related card.  I broke into a My Mind's Eye 6 x 6 paper pad...it's the last one of the four that I bought at TJMaxx recently that I hadn't opened yet.  I used Fall-To Layout #212 as a reference.
Card Specs: 
Ink: Stampin' Up- Early Espresso
Stamp: Stampin' Up- Elementary Elegance (sentiment)
Paper: My Mind's Eye Honey Cake
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner
Stickers: Basic Grey Micro Mono Stickers
Floral stickers: Basic Grey Bloomers- Pyrus collection
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

2012 Craft Show #1

Today was my first craft show of the season.  I wasn't sure if I was even going to do one this year because vendor fees are so expensive and it takes me forever to just break even.  However, this opportunity popped up unexpectedly when a lady contacted me through Etsy.  She was looking for vendors for a school family event celebrating the St. John the Baptist School's 50th Anniversary Celebration.  The fee was going to be $75 or 10% of what I made to help defray the cost of the family events.  Oh, 10%, perfect.  That's an awesome deal. 

This was quite an impressive event: 3 horses were available for horseback riding, clown, 2 caricaturists, 3 food trucks (bbq, snowcones, cupcakes), face painting, rock climbing wall, bouncy castle, games, etc.  There weren't many vendors, but the crafts that were showcases were cool: magnet boards, hairbows, doll clothes that were replicas of the school's uniform, illuminated initial art (like in the bible), and jewelry.

Funny story #1: Several people asked me if I was a parent at the school.  Um, no, I'm not a parent.  After I thought about it, the question made sense since this event was being held at a school.

Funny story #2: A little boy with a $20 in his hand came up to me and bought a card. I was a little hesitant in selling him something because hello, where did you get that money?  "Do you know who you're going to give the card to?" "No, I just like buying stuff." Hah, honest answer.  I was putting away his money and writing a note to myself and when I looked up, he was back.  "My mom wants another one of those cards."  I points at a lady across the way.  Ah, his mom was the magnet board vendor.

I ended up making about $150 after handing in my vendor fee.  Not too bad for sitting at my table for 3 hours.  Some of the things that I thought wouldn't sell actually sold, so that was a pleasant surprise.  I was thankful that the weather held up, whew!

My night ended with Meg and Robyn coming over for girl time with pizza and The Avengers.

Blast From the Past

Physical (part 2): I got my blood test results back from the doctor today. Mostly good, but she informed me that my blood sugar was a little high and I need more vitamin D in my diet. WAIL. Ugh, this is NOT the season to not be able to eat sugary things. Hello, Halloween? She also told me to limit the white flour and white sugar. But those are staples in anything that tastes good! I guess I won't be able to enjoy the fruits of my baking adventures as much. Sigh.

Family: I went over to my cousin's house today. My other cousin (his sister) is visiting from Taiwan for a week and she brought a package specifically for my mom. Mom opened it up and it was a huge collection of photos. Here's one of them. Mom is the girl in the very front. It's a little funny that Julie, my sister, looks like Mom back in the day.

New Computer, Yay!

Sears finale (for real, this time): I got my $599 check for the UV mold prevention light that I had uninstalled last week.  They told me that it'd take a month and it only took 1.5 weeks.  Wow.  Too bad they showed their good customer service at the end of this whole ordeal!

Physical: I went in for a physical today because it's been a while since I've had one.  I was naive to think that I'd get out of there within 30 minutes.  I was really there for 2 hours, and the majority of that time I was waiting and waiting.  Fortunately, I had my iPhone with me so that I could check work email and text. I got a clean bill of health from the doctor, and I'm hoping that the blood work says the same thing.  A funny moment from the appointment was when the physician's assistant was weighing me and she slowly moved the marking over.  I saved her some time and told her that the marker needed to be closer to the 150 lb mark because I had weighed myself earlier that morning.  She laughed.  Hey, it's just a number.  I work out.  Whatever.

Candy attack: I wonder what the people that take out the office trash think when they see all the candy I've been eating the past few days.  At least it's not bags of Halloween candy.  Ugh.

New toy: I decided that since I got my money back for the light, I could revisit the thought of getting a new computer.  I bought one in July, but had to return it because the internal webcam died on me a short time after I bought it.  I decided to go with this Dell 17 inch laptop.  I had a bad experience with Dell a few years back, but have decided to go back to them because my office uses Dell and so does my sister...Dell has not let them down so far.