Another Best Wishes Card

RJ: After the third try, I have successfully given him his antibiotics tonight, yay! I left him on his own downstairs last night, instead of carrying him upstairs to my room. He came up on his own and hopped on the bed about 10 minutes later. I guess he doesn't stay mad for long (thankfully).

Food: Hmm, what to do with some very ripe bananas? Chocolate chip banana muffins, of course! I followed this recipe from Allrecipes.com. This took care of two things at once: I now have breakfast that I can eat in the morning (I ate all my bagels and English muffins) and now I don't have to feel bad about letting the bananas get really brown. I like my bananas on the neon green side. On another foody note, we had chocolate cake at the office today to say goodbye to one of the administrative assistants. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the cheaper cake from Safeway that we got on Tuesday more than I enjoyed the fancier chocolate cake from Whole Foods that we had today.

Card: I've been asked to make another card for a girl that's leaving my organization next week. She's pursuing her photography interests. We've had some good artsy-related conversations...I'll miss having those. I decided to go with an emboss resist technique today, similar to this card that I made on Sunday.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Barn Door,Wild Honey, Peeled Paint
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox
Stamps: Hero Arts Cling Stencil Flower, Studio G Ditto (sentiment, butterfly)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Punch: Fiskars Threading Waters border punch
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Pearl: Recollections

RJ Goes to the Vet

RJ: Welcome to pet ownership. Sigh. I took RJ to the vet today for his mandatory post-animal shelter visit, and he came home with an e-collar to make sure that he didn't lick his surgical site from his neutering procedure and some antibiotics to help him get over his cold. The sneezing has gotten so bad that some of the cat bogies are a little bloody. WTH?! I feel so bad for the poor guy. He's probably thinking "Maybe I should go back to the animal shelter. This is really no fun." It'll be better once you get better, I promise. I even bought home treats for him on the way home from work because I was feeling guilty. While the vet appointment was no fun for RJ, the vet was super nice. I wouldn't mind having her as my doctor, but then again I'm not a cat.

Etsy: I worked on folding some origami dresses for an Etsy custom invitation order. I'm waiting for some nice cardstock that I ordered to come in the mail, so this was a good activity to do while I wait. When it comes in, all I have to do is print out the text and assemble. My goal is to ship the 45 invitations by Saturday. ::fingers crossed::
At the office: I went to my coworker's happy hour after work today. It was at a pool hall. I chatted away with my coworkers and didn't play any pool. I even drank beer (Bud Light), which is quite the rarity. I would have gotten a mixed drink, but I already spent some fun money today on some FroYo. I needed it after the vet appointment to make me feel better. Hello, emotional eating. Anyway, it's going to be weird to not have him at the office. Now my department is me, my boss and my boss's boss. Talk about itty bitty.

Another Office Goodbye

Today, I went out to lunch with some of my co-workers to say goodbye to one of my teammates. His official last day is tomorrow, but since my boss was in town, we did the group lunch today. There were so many things on the menu that I wanted to try, but I ended up with the grilled chicken salad (romaine, monterey jack cheese, black beans, avocado, crispy tortilla, ancho chili dressing). The dressing had a little kick to it which was a welcome diversion from my usual go-to thousand island salad dressing.

I had about 30 minutes to do some work after my lunch before I had to go get the cake that I ordered. When I went to order it yesterday, the options were half-sheet (feeds 36 people) or whole sheet cake (feeds 60 people). I'm glad that I went with the half-sheet even though 40 people RSVPed. We had only one row of cake left at the end of the event. I'm glad we didn't have more because I would have been tempted to take a lot of leftovers home!

Because of the cake consumption, I ended up going to Janice's spin class tonight. I guess everything evened out.

I went to my parents' house after the gym and as I was driving, I noticed that there was a car behind me that looked similar to theirs. As I got close to the house, I realized that it was them! Ah ha. This would explain why no one picked up the house phone.

I got a request for another "best wishes" card for a girl at the office. It's sad to see quite a few people leaving recently, but at least it's encouraging that there are jobs out there and people are hiring. Here's what I came up with.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, Dark Peony, Pink Pastel, Warm Green
Stamps: Studio G Ditto (sentiment), Inkadinkado- Nature
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly
Paper: American Crafts- City Park, American Crafts- Letterbox
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Sunflower Yellow

A Close Call

Hurricane Irene: I got totally lucky with Hurricane Irene. I didn't lose power at all. Well, actually, I did, but I didn't notice it. I only knew that I lost electricity because the microwave and oven clocks were blinking this morning. There were a few downed power lines and non-functioning traffic lights and large tree limbs in the street, but I didn't see anyone's house or car get wrecked because of the storm. Whew!

Yard sale finds: I went to a moving sale this morning and finally found an end table, yay! The lady was asking for $25, but I had some other miscellaneous things that I wanted (surge protector, extension cord, and plastic desk organizer). She ended up giving me a deal and let me have all the items for $25 total. I already put it in my room with the lamp that I bought a few weeks ago. Now the lamp has a place to sit on, instead of being stored in my closet. I also don't have to worry about stepping on my glasses or cell phone, I have a place to put them too! The desk organizer was a welcomed upgrade from the basket that I used to put random stuff in. Now my desk has a semblance of order. Next goal: trying to find some artwork to liven the walls of this place up!

I included a picture of RJ below a) to fill up that picture space in the table and b) I think it's amusing.
Card: My aunt and cousin from Taiwan came to check out the new place today for the first time. They were big fans, yay! For tonight's card, I wanted to make a thank you card to give them for their generosity. I used my new Hero Arts Cling flower stamp that I bought at Archiver's. I decided to use it in the same way that I used it at a Jennifer McGuire class that I took last year, with white embossing powder and Distress Inks and cutting out petals for leaves.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Barn Door, Tattered Rose, Peeled Paint
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox
Stamps: Hero Arts Cling Stencil Flower
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stickers: Basic Grey
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl, Recollections

Yard Sale Score

I went to two yard sales today (they were still being held despite Hurricane Irene approaching) and scored at one. I got these containers, 5 for $1, yay! At first, I wasn't going to get them, but then I thought they'd be the perfect size to store crafty things. For example, right now, my polymer clay is stored in a nice Pyrex glass container that should really be used for left overs. I only put them in there because I didn't have anything else. Now the clay has been moved to one of the white containers and the Pyrex is washing in the dishwasher. I could also store embossing powder in them- just pour the whole bottle into the container with a spoon for easy clean up (or no clean up at all). The search for the nightstand continues. We'll see what tomorrow brings, weather permitting.

Fall-To Layout #155

RJ update: I freed him from the confinements of my office and let him have free reign of the townhouse. Well, there's not much of it, so therefore, there's not so much for him to be overwhelmed with. He spent most of the day on the smaller couch, sleeping belly up. Mom came to visit after her doctor's appointment and she seemed to like RJ. Whew/hooray!At the "office": Today was the first Friday in a while that I've worked from home, and I actually got a lot of stuf done. Unfortunately, with the "working from home on Fridays" that means that I'll miss the "last Friday of the month free staff breakfasts." There was one today...womp.

Grocery shopping: I went to Safeway this afternoon to take a break from my computer and it was like a zoo there! All the bottled water was gone because of the approaching Hurricane Irene. The sheer volume of food that people were purchasing, you'd think that they were expecting to be stranded for weeks. I noticed that some people purchased raw meat like ground beef. Maybe if you cook it right away, that'd be fine. But if the power went out, that meat would not be good anymore. Anyway, we'll probably be doing the same thing in about 4-5 months when it starts snowing. Great, can't wait.

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #155. I wanted to use some of the polymer clay flowers that I made a few weeks ago. Once I picked out which flowers I wanted, it was easy to pick out the papers. I thought using purple ribbon would be too matchy-matchy, so I decided to use a contrasting turquoise ribbon instead.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Stamp: K&Company- AB Lotus Greeting Stamps (sentiment)
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost, American Crafts- Letterbox
Clay: Premo Sculpey Clay in Fuchsia, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Purple
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

I have my eye on a few yard sales this weekend. I hope Hurricane Irene doesn't come by until the afternoon so I have the morning to continue searching for a nightstand.

Meet RJ the Cat

So, here's the scoop.

I've been thinking about getting my own kitty for a very long time. Even before getting the new place, I was already thinking, "Well, when I move into my new place, I can get my own kitty." I love Ginger, but I would have to make a specific trip to my parents' house to go see her. If I got my own kitty, I could have a kitty around 24/7.

I saw on the humane society's website that they were having a black cat special this month. They were going to waive all adoption fees for solid black cats over 6 months. I went to the humane society last Sunday to find a black kitty but the one that I had my eye on, the staff there was concerned that it was semi-feral. Eek. Yeah, sorry, no thanks. Then I spotted this black and white cat. He had been at the animal shelter for over a month, but looked healthy and friendly. Ding ding. I waited for a visit with him so I could hold him and see how he would react, and he was very chill about it. Mmmyep, you're coming home with me.

I completed some paperwork on Sunday, had some interviews with the adoption staff, paid my fees yesterday, and the final step was the humane society sending him to the vet this morning to get neutered. I was able to pick him up after work. He was a trooper in the car. Maybe he's already used to being in a cage.

Anyway, here are his stats. Male. Black and white domestic shorthair. 11 pounds (he's very solid...not like Ginger, who feels very squishy). The humane society said that he was approximately 4 years old. Since he was a stray, I think it's difficult to identify how old he is. Very cuddly. Not very meow-y, but does purr a lot. He likes to head-butt, which is something that Ginger or the other family cat Oliver, who passed away a few years ago, didn't do. He seems to like hanging out under the craft desk and on the chair that I have at my craft desk.

I have him staying in my office for the next day or two so that he doesn't get too overwhelmed.

Oh, and his name. Well, RJ doesn't stand for anything. It's the name of the raccoon that's in the comic strip and movie Over the Hedge. The cat has a mask, similar to the raccoon having one.
Talk about a summer of changes! :)