See Ya Later, Roommate

Ugh, today was a sad day for me. It was my teammate/office roommate's last day at the office. Even though I had known this day was coming for a few months, it sucks to have the office to myself. I've been at my job for almost 3 years and have always had an office roommate, so to have the place to myself seems kinda lonely now. Sigh, I guess that's life. :(

One-Layer Wednesday #60

Today was another early day in the office. I owed the survey manager something yesterday, but then I got distracted with a hotel contract and some voicemails that by the end of the day, my brain was hitting a stopping point. I decided that it'd be best to get a fresh start in the morning and complete the deliverable so it'd be waiting for her when she got in. And with the early start, I got to leave early too. Everyone wins. :)

This week's One-Layer Wednesday (#60) challenge focused on doing quick layers of ink with "no masking, no sponging, no embellishments of any kind." I thought the best way to do to some layering was to get a full-coverage background stamp. My trusty music score stamp was standing by for the job. I chose to use my flower stamp again and grounded the image with some grass to make the scene look more realistic. I topped the card off with a newish sentiment stamp and some leaves.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peeled Paint, Antique Linen
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment, flowers), Stampendous (music score), K.I. Memories- Garden (grass, leaf)

Tuesday Trigger: Moxie Fab Inspiration from Stamp It! Cards

I've been trying to track down one of the people that I work with in Colorado for about 3 weeks now. I knew he was out of the country and then I knew he got back home, so I waited a little bit before I started nagging again. Then, today, I got an email and phone call from him, in response to one I sent him yesterday.

"Tina, I'm in X, Maryland. How far is it from your office?"

Uh, like 30 minutes. (pause) You wanna stop by before you fly home?

"Yeah, I don't have anything to do until 2 PM, so I was going to take a cab to your headquarters, if you have some time."

Ok, sure. See you in a few. I look down at my flip flops and toe nails painted with green nail polish while we disconnected. Uh oh. Ok, well, I wasn't really dressed appropriately to have to meet anyone important, but I figured that he'd excuse the informality since we've been working together for a while. So, anyway, he stopped by the office as scheduled and we chatted in the conference room for 2 hours (!). There was much to catch him up on since he missed out on the Annual Meeting in Omaha earlier this month.

Janice the spin instructor caught me zoning out this evening in class. "Tina! Are you working hard?!" Uh, no. Okokok. I'll turn up the resistance and go faster. Gotta get my head in the game.

Here's my take on this week's Tuesday Trigger from Moxie Fab World. The challenge was to get inspiration from a card featured in a recent issue of Stamp It! Cards. I wanted to incorporate the lace, flowers, and starburst found in the Trigger photo into my own card. The starbursts ended up on the vase that I cut out. The flowers sticking out of the vase were stickers that I got for my birthday this year, and I added the die cut one on the bottom for balance. To ground the vase so that it didn't look like it was floating in space, I used a blender marker to transfer some brown ink to the cardstock. I put the lace behind the flowers for a subtle touch. Now that I look at two pictures side-by-side, I don't think I stuck to the Trigger photo as much as I usually do...
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peeled Paint.
Stamps: Inkadinkado- Round Frames, Fiskars- Winter Wonderland
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Die: Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals
Sticker: Sandylion- Heart Flowers
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Patterned Paper to the Rescue!

Dad asked me to make a card to send to my cousin, congratulating her on her new baby girl. After watching a 2-hour episode of the Bachelorette (go JP!), I didn't have a lot of time to think about the card's design, so I started out with a card that had a layout similar to yesterday's. I turned the card so that it'd be a landscape card and put the sentiment on the larger panel. I was stumped as to what to use as embellishments for the lower right corner and I was looking around to see what I had out already. The flowers on the packaging of the American Crafts City Park paper caught my eye. Ah hah! I can cut out the flowers in the patterned paper and glue them down. Smaller flowers can be layered on top of larger ones for dimension. The card doesn't exactly scream "baby" to me, but I think the congratulatory message gets across.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Stamps: Studio G- Hello Friend
Paper: American Crafts- City Park
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb
Other: Royal Blue American Crafts Stamp Marker

CPS #224

I went to two yard sales today and came back with good stuff for very cheap prices. I was in search of durable storage solutions for my future craft space. I'm replacing anything cardboard/flimsy with plastic or glass containers. At the yard sale that I went to this morning before spin class, I found this set of 4 half pint preserving jars that I'm planning to put buttons/embellishments (pictured) for $1 total. After spin, I went to a yard sale, where I found 2 plastic containers (not pictured). They are already in the dishwasher for cleaning. I'm not sure what I'm going to put in them yet.
The instructor that teaches the second class on Saturdays is going to replace the instructor for Thursday nights. I'm excited about that because I like her more anyway.

It's been quite a foody Sunday. I am trying to gear up for the week ahead so that I'm not struggling to come up with ideas for lunch or dinner. I've tried all these recipes before because I like sticking to the winners. However, when I move to the new place in 2 weeks (!), I will try to branch out.

• Chocolate chip sour cream muffins for breakfast. I've made these muffins just a few days ago, but then my little cousin came by and I gave him 6 (half of the batch). Sharing is good.
  
• Tuna pasta salad (I added tomatoes)
• Creamy taco mac

Here's my take on CPS #224. I really wanted to use some g.c.d. Studios that I bought earlier this year. I planned to use some patterned paper on the top large panel and then have colored cardstock on the bottom. I thought that using the bright blue ribbon would be a good way to separate the two. For the stamps, fortunately, I had the right shades of blue and red for the flowers so that everything coordinated.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Lipstick Red, Blue Lagoon, Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China.
Paper: g.c.d. Studios- Chianti Collection
Stamps: Fiskars- Petals From Scratch (all)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Other: Black American Crafts Stamp Marker

Fall-To Layout #146

Kitty update: I think she's gotten over the trauma of going to the vet yesterday as evidenced by her appetite comeback and sleeping upstairs instead of a dark corner in the basement. Crisis averted.

I stopped by a few few yard sales in the area this morning on the way to spin class. I didn't find anything worth buying, so I ended up at the gym 30 minutes early. I saw one of my gym buddies who had a baby about 6 months ago. The baby was adorable (chubby chubby cheeks) and had grown so much since the last time I saw her. Awww.

The rest of my day was spent doing house stuff (scrubbing down the bathroom and doing laundry) and then making origami dress cards for my craft show inventory. Even though craft show season is months away, I don't want to be panicking and thinking that I don't have enough cards or enough variety to sell. I'm really liking the sentiment stamps that I bought last week. I like the look they give in comparison to just printing sentiments on cardstock using my printer. I also caught up on some Paperclipping Roundtable episodes while I was being crafty.

Confession: I totally annihilated the pint of ice cream I bought yesterday. Ben and Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. Please don't judge me. ::hangs head:: However, it was totally freakin' stickin' worth it.

Here's my take on this week's Fall-To Layout (#146). I started out with a kraft piece of cardstock that I already had laying around. Then I used a border paper punch on some strips of white cardstock that were leftover from this afternoon's card making session. I knew I wanted to using my new birthday stamp, and I thought it'd be nicely paired with some music notes...you know like the "happy birthday" song and all that jazz. Pearls were added on for an elegant finishing touch. Ta da! Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China.
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), Stampendous (music score)
Paper: American Crafts- City Park, American Crafts- Dear Lizzy
Punch: Fiskars Threading Waters border punch, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Carla Craft sakura punch
Flowers: Prima
Die: Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals, Cuttlebug- Flowers
Brad: Recollections- Pearl Brads
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl
Other: Black American Crafts Stamp Marker

Staff Breakfast + New Etsy Purchase

I managed to get to the office around 7:45 AM today. This is a rare occurrence. I was able to shave off some time because a) I didn't have to eat breakfast because we were getting breakfast at work and b) I didn't care too much about my appearance because it's casual Friday. The normal early birds were like "Tina, you're here way too early." Yeah, but the earlier I get to the office, the sooner I can leave to start my weekend. There is a reason for the madness.

The staff breakfast that I helped organize was a success today, woot! The menu was French toast, eggs, turkey bacon, sausage, and regular bacon (lots o' meat!), 4 kinds of juice (I took home 2 cartons that were halfway full), grapes, and bananas. I think everyone found the meal filling...I even had some for lunch.

One of the IT guys brought his daughter to work. We were all laughing about how an 8-year-old girl has a cellphone. She insisted that she used it to call her sister, and yes, she knows how to text. My boss's boss welcomed everyone to the breakfast, and in the middle of it, the girl's cell phone text message indicator went off. And everyone laughed and laughed. I don't think it would have been as funny if it was an employee's phone.

There was definitely enough food for people to have breakfast for lunch. Bored? No, I'm not bored. While I was full after breakfast, after I checked survey data for 3 hours with the survey manager, I was feeling hungry again. My boss's boss walks by as I was going to the kitchen to throw away my paper plate, "Tina, I thought you were fulllll," imitating my comment earlier in the morning. "Ummm, I had to use a lot of brain power and energy." "Oh, I fully understand now. Thinking requires calorie consumption."

Being able to leave early allowed me to go grocery shopping and get that out of the way before the weekend started. Yay. Before I left, I went back to the main building to get the juice and I went to visit the admin assistant. He was sitting at his computer, eating some frozen yogurt from a place nearby that just opened. "WHAT ARE YOU EATING?!" He looked really guilty. "Oh, uh, I thought you went home. You were offline!" ::grumble:: Whatever. I ate too much today anyway.

When I got home, the two earring sets that I purchased off Etsy seller SoundsofSilver were waiting for me! One pair was a tiny silver studs and then other were silver studs with a slight dent (she called them pebbles). I am so appreciative of prompt sellers. The earrings arrived perfectly packaged and as described.

Ginger went to the vet today and got a clean bill of health. Except now she doesn't want to eat and is hiding downstairs. What gives?! Maybe she just had a tough day. I guess I'd be irked if I was hauled off to the doctor involuntarily.