Fall-To Layout #234

Happy Easter!: I went to spin class this morning, and Janice the instructor gave me some bunny ears.  While Easter is not a holiday that I celebrate (unless you count eating Easter candy), I appreciated the gesture.  :)  I didn't wear it during class because it'd be flopping around and I didn't want to get it all sweaty.

Fall-To Layout #234: I got some new chipboard pieces from Michaels yesterday from the Studio18 brand ($1.50 for 20 pieces + 30% off coupon), and I was inspired to use one of the pieces in this card today.  I took a card base that I was going to use for one of the office cards and repurposed it for this card.  The kraft embossed piece coordinated well with the frame.  I filled in the space around the sentiment with some yellow liquid pearl to match the patterned paper that I used.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Stamp:  Hero Arts- You and Me
Paper: American Crafts - Botanique
Embossing folder: Basic Grey- Dots Set #2
Chipboard: Studio18 from Michaels
Other: Liquid Pearl in Buttercup, ribbon from Michaels

Recipe #4 of 2013: After spin class today, I went grocery shopping and bought some chicken and mushrooms that were on sale.  I had initial thoughts of making chicken marsala, I decided to branch out and make some lemon chicken with a mushroom sauce.  I was inspired by this recipe, but I made some modifications.  I used a skillet instead of baking.  I added some garlic to the mushroom sauce.  I marinated the chicken with lemon and olive oil for about 1.5 hours before cooking.  It was super easy and quick and yummy!

Zzzzzzzzzzz. I won't lie, I took a long nap today too.  The weather was rainy outside, and I didn't have to be anywhere.

Saturday Shopping Deals

Yard sale/Goodwill Finds: My yard sale find today was a meow frame for $0.50 cents. This was good timing because I used my 50 free prints offer on Shutterfly last night and ordered some prints, some of them being RJ.  Shocking, I know.

Later on this afternoon, I went to Goodwill and found a few good deals. I can't believe someone would donate a perfectly good 24 oz. Tervis tumbler. I got it for $0.56 and it retails for $15 (!).  This might become my office water glass.  It'll be more environmentally friendly since I've been using the paper ones.  I am wary of using the office kitchen items given our recent mouse scare.  Anyway, that's the best deal that I've gotten in a while!! I also got a large basket ($2.96) to put in my linen closet to keep my extra toiletries contained. With the basket, I don't have to worry that they will fall all over the place. I got a frame for $0.96 to use for something work-related.

Bam, organized!

More Shopping: I was very lucky at Ulta today. Their Freeman face masks were Buy 1, Get 1 free and I had $1 off coupon for a full size product. I have the lemon/mint clay mask, which I've been using recently and love!  I ended up getting the cucumber peel-off one and the Dead Sea Minerals and Sea Salts one, and even the cashier was surprised how good of a deal I got. "It's like getting it for free!!" she says as she's giving me my change. Mmmhm, you got it.  The coupon was attached to a trial size of the cucumber one...what a great marketing idea!

Mirrors exist for a reason: I wondered why the librarian gave me a funny look today. I later realized in the car that it was because I had chocolate on my face from when I went to my parents' house earlier and ate a piece of chocolate almond bark.  Oops.  

New Running Shoes

At the office: My office mate informed me around lunch time that people were setting up food downstairs in the lobby.  Whoa, what?  That's exciting!  Not long after that, we got emails saying something about a "spring fling."  We all jumped out of our seats to get to the elevator.  Other colleagues beat us to it and were already waiting for the elevator when we got there.  We were greeted with colorful leis (I got a pink one) and lots of food: burgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, chips, popcorn, sodas, and cookies.  I got a veggie burger and a thing of cookies (that I ended up giving away to some friends in the other building).  Another non-food related thing that I got was a hula hoop, which I tried when I got home.  It has beads inside that made noise, so RJ zoomed under the table.  I can't say that I'm the best hula hooper, but practice makes perfect!

New Running Shoes: With the weather warming up slightly this week, I thought it'd be a great time to get my running legs back in gear.  The first step is to get some new running shoes.  The last time I got new running shoes was back in 2011, and the Mizunos are so comfortable that yes, I used them for running, but lately, they are my go-to sneakers.  I went to DSW after spin class tonight, armed with a $10 off coupon.  They had a larger selection of Mizunos but none of them were "support" running shoes, which I need because my feet are rather flat than arched.  I went with my friend Meg's brand, which is Brooks.  I looked up which ones would be support shoes on my phone and saw that DSW had one of them in two colors: yellow/grey or white/periwinkle (Ravenna 3).  I went with the yellow/grey.

Recipe #3 of 2013: I was inspired by this recipe for Guiltless Banana Ice Cream. I took the 7 frozen bananas, chunky peanut butter, and some chocolate chips and ran everything in the food processor.  I was a little skeptical before, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was so yummy!  Now I have something to satisfy my sweet tooth without feeling guilty later. 

New Nails

Puzzling Puzzle: Meg gave me a puzzle for my birthday, but after completing it, I realized that I was missing a piece.  I contacted the puzzle company to send me a new puzzle, per their 100% satisfaction guarantee.  There was a box waiting for me at the door when I came home from work.  I was so confused since I hadn't bought anything online, and then when I opened the package, I saw that it was my new puzzle.  The thing was that they sent me a 550 piece puzzle, but the one that I got for my birthday was a 1000 piece one.  BLAH.  I guess it wasn't meant to be.

New Nails: I decided to take off my spring flower nail polish and go with a new color that I bought over the weekend.  This is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Pink Blink (2 coats).

During my trip to Ulta today, I hit the nail care jackpot.  I got the Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat on clearance for $5.99 and Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coat on sale for $5.99 (regular price $9.95)...plus, I had a $3.50 off a $10 purchase coupon.  :D  Anyway, I have never used a base coat, but I'm hoping that this one will help with the staining when I use more pigmented colors.  As for the top coat, I've heard so many good things about Seche Vite, such as its shininess and quick drying time.  Yep, after trying it out tonight, I can say that both those things are true. Maybe I should have jumped on the Seche Vite bandwagon a long time ago.  Can you tell that I'm ready for spring?

Spinning: Word on the street is that the Wednesday night spin instructor stopped coming to class.  That totally boggles my mind.  You didn't even have the decency to just quit?  I don't get it.  Anyway, SUN morning/TH night Nancy has taken over his classes, so I went tonight.  ::pats self on the back::  From what I heard about the slacker instructor, I didn't think that I would like his class so I never went.  I'm glad that at least for the time being, WED night spin class is an option for me now since the dude's gone.  I also like that the WED class starts at 6 so I get out 30 minutes earlier (the other night classes that I go to start at 6:30, which is fine too).  When I left, it was still light out...yay!

Office Kitchen Guest

At the office: I come back from a walk outside (ok ok, to CVS and DSW) and my office mate says that I missed the commotion in the kitchen.  "Oh, was it because of the edible arrangements in there?  I saw the email."  Our office always gets excited when there's free yummy food.  "No.  There was a mouse in the dishwasher."

!!

"Was it alive?"

"Yes."

Yuck.  The building maintenance people were here to fix the problem.  By fixing, I mean running the dishwasher.  I guess they are hoping to drown it?  I'm not sure how they'd get the dead mouse out.  I won't be using any office silverware or plate for a while.  That's for sure.

Hair Dyeing: My mission at CVS was to buy some hair dye.  I got a box from Revlon in black, and I had a coupon too.  ~$3 and an hour later, buh-bye gray hairs.  :)

Snowing in Spring

Mother Nature clearly didn't get the memo about how it's spring, which means we should be having spring time weather.  Instead, we were greeted this morning with a bunch of snow!  I sent a telework request to my boss in the morning and went outside to shovel the snow on the walkway.  Whew, what a workout, since the snow was on the wet and heavy side.  My lower back was definitely feeling it afterwards. Good thing my neighbor was outside to help me. 

Around lunch time it was still snowing! Ok, can we have spring NOW?

New Pink Polish

Recipe #2 of 2013: Instead of going to spin this morning (Janice the spin instructor is in Madrid anyway, so I didn't feel a strong urge to go), I did some cooking.  Ground beef was on sale at Safeway, so I picked up a package of 93% yesterday.  I was inspired to make some of the meatloaf that Meg made me for my birthday potluck.  The recipe was very similar to the Pioneer Woman's recipe.  I used 2% milk instead of whole, wheat bread instead of white and no parsley.  This is the first time that I've made meatloaf and I think it turned out pretty good.  I shared half of it with my cousin and my parents, so I might have to go back to Safeway for more beef so that I can make this again soon.  I also made some string beans as a vegetable.  I'm pretty much set for dinner for a few days!  I also made some dal nirvana to bring over to my parents.

Shopping: This past weekend I've acquired 5 new nail polishes (4 colors and 1 new top coat).  Heh.  That's what happens when CVS and Target has deals on them!  On Saturday, I got the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat since my Sally Hansen Mega Shine one got too goopy to use and Flashy Fuchsia.  My Revlon white nail polish doesn't have a smooth application for the whole nail, so I'll reserve it for my French manicures.  As a substitute, I bought a Sally Hansen one called "White On." We'll see how it fairs.  Target had it for $1.99, so it's not like it's a huge investment.  Target had the Insta-Dri polishes for $3.83 so I picked up 2 of them: Pink Blink and Fuchsia Flare.  Just when I think that I have pretty much every color under the sun, I can always find more...or at least an excuse to buy another color. Tee hee.

L to R: Sally Hansen, XtremeWear- White On, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Flashy Fuchsia, Pink Blink and Fuchsia Flare

RJ wanted to cuddle tonight while watching Real Housewives of Atlanta.