A Productive Day Off

Whoo hoo for a long weekend.  For a day off, I had a productive morning (notice that I say morning because this afternoon consisted of a nice nap).  All before noon, I was able to go to the ATM, the gas station, CVS to buy a new top coat because my OPI is too goopy to use, Kaiser Permanente to get my old medical records just to have them on file (the lady didn't even charge me!), the post office to send off card orders and old textbooks, the library to drop off donations, and my parents' house to say hi and raid the fruit bowl.

When I got home, I finished my card class prep and took a well deserved nap.  Days off are super nice. :D

Teaching my first card making class tomorrow...super excited! 

Song of the day: "Time Bomb"- All Time Low.  Heard it at spin.

A Card-Filled Sunday

Today started out with an Etsy order from Norway.

Anyway, after spin class this morning, I met up with my friend Jessie for lunch to catch up and talk about an upcoming card-making class that I'm doing with some of her students.  Some of these young ladies don't have the best relationships with their mothers and with Mother's Day rolling around, Jessie thought these homemade cards with heartfelt messages would be a good way to help nurture these relationships.

After lunch, I got a Facebook message from a girl that I used to work with.  I actually made her bridesmaids cards about a year ago.  This time she asked for 6 Mother's Day cards.  Repeat customers are awesome :)

TE Sketch Challenge #157

Donation time: Today's been kinda a blah day. I spent most of the day in donation mode- going to Goodwill to drop off my TV/VCR combo and some puzzles and then going through my closet to find more clothes to donate (then I can fill it back up with new stuff, right?) and boxing up some old textbooks that I no longer need (organic chemistry, what's that?). I've had that TV/VCR combo since sophomore year of college, but in the last few years I haven't been using it, so I'm hoping that someone will find some use for it.

RJ: At some point this afternoon, I fell asleep on the couch. When I woke, I found RJ sleeping on my pillow. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? Oh well, I guess that's just business as usual for this household.

Card: Here's the card for today. I decided to stop by Taylored Expressions for their sketch challenge (#157). The navy cardstock and yellow patterned paper were already laying around near my paper trimmer. I thought the red would be a good contrasting color, so I added a few strips of it. I was fortunate to find an American Crafts paper flower embellishment that would match the yellow that I already used. I didn't feel like stamping anything other than the sentiment.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Paper: American Crafts- A La Carte
Stamp: Savvy Stamps (sentiment)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Floral Doily Motifs, Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Other: American Crafts Delights (Party Favor), We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss in Slate

Recipe #7 of 2012

Family/ food: This past week, both Mom and Dad called separately to check on me. "We haven't heard from you in a while, just wanted to make sure you were okay." Oook. I guess a visit to the house is long overdue, so I stopped by after going to spin class this morning. It was a good thing that I did because my aunt and uncle were going to get some lunch (Peruvian chicken) to share. While we were waiting for them to come back from the restaurant, I showed Mom some recently pictures that I posted on my blog. She pointed at the Blogger profile picture of me from when I got my hair cut in March. "Who's that?" Uh, me. "Really? I didn't recognize you! You never wear your hair like that." Ha ha. The lunch was fabulous. The chicken was nicely seasoned and moist on the inside. We also got a bunch of side dishes: coleslaw, potato salad, Caesar salad, and rice/beans. My favorite of those was the rice and beans.

Recipe #7 of 2012: My sister has been raving about this new recipe that she tried- chocolate zucchini bread. Of course, I had to try it too. It was so good: moist on the inside, slightly crunchy crust on the outside.

Card class: I'm teaching my very first origami card making class next week. It's a small class (probably 11-12 students), but hey, everyone has to start somewhere, right? I worked on the class prep while I waited for the chocolate zucchini bread to cool down from coming out of the oven.
Good stories from the Internet:

• A lesson in understanding that you can't always get what you want
• A story about dealing with deployment
• A plug for snail mail
• A joke about movies based on Nicholas Sparks books

A Huggy Card

Food: The grocery store was having a sale on ice cream over the weekend, so I picked up a pint of Milky Way ice cream to try it out.  I only ate the first layer so far and am tempted to throw the rest out.  I don't think I've ever had that reaction to ice cream.  That's how much I don't like it.  I should have read the label more carefully.  Chocolate malt ice cream is NOT the same as chocolate ice cream.  My bad.


Card: The card today started with the rub-on sentiment, and the trick was to find all the other card elements that would match the colors in the rub-on.  Fortunately, I had things within reach that I could use.

Card Specs:
Ink: Stampin' Up in Cherry Cobbler
Markers: Stampin' Up in Cherry Cobbler
Paper: Recollections- Blue Gingham, American Crafts- Peachy Keen
Stamp: Stampin' Up
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Brads: Recollections- Silver Circles
Flowers: Prima, Recollections

I'm taking a few days off work and won't be back in the office until Wednesday.  What am I going to do with all that free time?!!  My boss told me that I will not be working on my days off.  Ha ha.  She knows me well.

Yellow Rose Card

At the office: There were some lunchtime presentations today at the office, and to encourage (read: bribe) us to come, the meeting organizers ordered pizza.  What was even better was that they bought 50 individual salads.  There was so much food leftover that I ended up bringing an extra salad home, but no pizza (hello, self control).

Card: Here's today's card.  My black embossing powder, Distress Inks, and Aqua Painter have been getting quite a workout recently.  It's such an easy way to color images (and cheaper than say, Copic markers, although I'm sure they are really cool to use).  Like I need a new thing to be addicted to. The rose background stamp that I got from the yard sale last week is $15 new, and I got it for $4 used.  Mwah ha ha ha.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint.
Stamp: Peddler's Pack Stampworks- Rose Background

Office Prayer Card

We received some sad news at the office recently, and in an effort to show some support, I was asked to create a card that could be distributed for messages and signatures. I thought that gender neutral cards were hard to make, but with sympathy/prayer cards, that's a whole new level, especially when you personally know what's going on. It's tough to know what to do in these situations, but I'm hoping this card will lift some hearts during this difficult time.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo, Tattered Rose, Peeled Paint. Stampin' Up- So Saffron
Paper: American Crafts- Peachy Keen, My Mind's Eye- Stella & Rose
Stamp: Stampin' Up- Stipple Hydrangea, Inkadinkado- Nature
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Song of the day: "Payphone"- Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa