O, Christmas Tree

I made it through 2 spin classes this morning.  I wish I was able to take a picture of the bike monitor as documentation, but the bike I was on during the first class was making this noise and it got progressively louder as the class went on.  The instructor pointed it out, "Tina, is that you?  You're like the percussion to the music.  Don't worry, no one will know but me."  Well, not really because you just announced it to the whole class.  It was making the same noise on Thursday night, so I should have known it probably wouldn't go away magically.  By the time I realized that the noise was back, all the bikes in the class were taken this morning.  Anyway, when the class was over, I wiped it down and moved to the bike right next to it.

After the gym, I did a little grocery shopping, went home to clean up and then I went to Target to get some Christmas presents.  I took advantage of the Starbucks buy 3, get a $5 Target gift card deal as well as came armed with a coupon.  Mwah ha ha.  The cashier complimented me on my money saving skills and my Target bag to put my purchases in.  I think there's also some Starbucks e-gift card that I can get with proof of purchase of 3 Starbucks items.  Hmmm.

Earlier tonight, I went over to my parents' house to put up the Christmas tree. :)

Office Order, Done!

It rained all day long today, so I basically stayed in my craft room and worked on a 28-card order for the office.  My goal was to at least get through half of the order today and then do the rest tomorrow.  When I got to the halfway mark, it was still raining, so I kept going, and then before I knew it, I was done! :)

Hooray, I'm free! I made my way to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ulta, my parents' house and then another Target.  I normally don't like to drive in the rain and in the dark, but I needed to get outside!

• 1st Target: Bought holiday Ziploc bags to put holiday cookies to give away (used 2 coupons and Cartwheel) and hair ties.
• Bed Bath and Beyond: Returned part of an online order
• Ulta: Bought a 4 mini-Body Shop lotion set for a friend's Christmas present.  Normally $12, but with coupons and point redemption, I bought for $4.24.
• Parents' house: Clipped coupons, caught up with Julie (even though I saw her yesterday) and raided the fridge
• 2nd Target: Bought a Maybelline Creamy Matte lipstick in Divine Wine (I've heard lots of good things about this formula so I wanted to see what the fuss was about, used $1 coupon) and some tights (30% Cartwheel coupon).  I'll be back tomorrow to take advantage of the deals for next week for Christmas present shopping.

Workweek Hustle

I won this week's Fitbit Workweek Hustle against Surili. :)

My sister Julie came over after work so we could exchange the cards that I made for her for chocolate, specifically a box of Raisinets, Milk Duds and Riesens.  Payment accepted!

Card Order

My sister Julie wanted me to make a stationery set for a friend's Christmas gift, so she picked out some cards that I had previously made and posted on my blog so that I'd have something to refer to.  I had to make some minor changes because of what I had in supply, but I made it work.

I told her I accepted payment in chocolate and ice cream.  Unless it's for something big, I feel kinda weird taking money as payment from family.

Meeting leftovers for today were Eggspectations (waffles) and Italian food from Mama Lucia.  It's going to be weird to have to remember to pack lunch next week, but at least I don't have to dress up (read: business casual).  Yay, back to jeans!  I ate so much pasta and chicken marsala, I'm glad that I was about to snag a bike at spin class tonight.

New Chromecast

One of the Black Friday-ish items that I bought on a whim on Monday was a Chromecast.  Best Buy had it on sale for $22.99 (2% Ebates cash back and free in-store pick up).  I watch a lot of YouTube so it's nice to be able watch the videos on a larger screen with better resolution than I could if I was watching it through my Wii.  I also thought it was a great deal because I checked the price today and it went back up to $35.00.  Suh-weet! :)

Meeting leftovers today were Eggspectations for breakfast and Chipotle for lunch. Wheee!

Another nice thing that happened today was that the policy director came by my desk (which is very unusual as we only run into each other in the kitchen or in the hallway) to tell me that he got a nice card from the office and it's on his mantel now.  Ah ha, he got one of the cards that I made for Human Resources to send to staff on their birthday and anniversary.  I don't know how well known it is at the office that I'm the one that make those cards, so it's nice to hear nice feedback.

Ulta Haul and Office Order

Hooray, my Ulta order came today!  I was surprised to see that the perfume samples that came with the order were of ones that I already ordered.  It would have been nice to try something else, but at least I know I like these.  As for the serving set, I know I'll at least use the "fancy" plate to put cookies on at the office or something.

Speaking of the office, we're having meetings all week. I got breakfast and lunch leftovers today. Eggspectations and Lebanese Taverna, respectively.

I also got a card order from the office, 28 anniversary cards.  Here's the sample that I made.  Hopefully I don't have to make any modifications to it and I can get cranking on it over the weekend for my Monday deadline.  It's sorta similar to this card because I used another stamp in the same set, but I thought I'd jazz this up with some gold embossing powder.

Card Specs: 
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Prussian Blue
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Detail Gold
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Paper: Chatterbox
Stamp: Hero Arts- Everyday Sayings, Stampin' Up- Definitely Decorative Ferns
Other: Black Ultra Fine Point Sharpie

Other Duties as Assigned

My boss asked me if I could take down her fall window stickers and put her winter ones since she wasn't coming back to the office until January (she's based on Colorado), so that's what I did this morning.  So instead of leaves, now her windows are decorated with winter cupcakes and snowmen.  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Surili challenged me to a Fitbit "Workweek Hustle" this week. Last time, she had a bum knee so I felt like I had an unfair advantage. She didn't say anything about being injured this time so here we go! I was able to get a bike today at spin class, and I'm glad that I got there 10 minutes early because it was a packed class. One person tried to get the last remaining bike and a lady came in from the back of the room and yelled, "No, my bike!" I looked at the lady next to me and she had the same "WTH?!" expression on her face. Sheesh, I don't get why that lady was so mean to the other lady. I overheard her talking to someone else after class saying that she's been having difficulty getting a bike lately.  Yes, I understand that's frustrating, but wow, come on, it's not that deep.