Random Musings

Apple verdict: In the name of public health, I decided not to eat it. Instead, I brought it home for the neighborhood squirrels.

At the office: I gave one of my big bosses a hard time about his resistance to post an entry on the organization's staff blog. "Tina! Do you think you'll live long enough to see me blog?!" This coming from a person that still carries around one of those personal calendar books in his back pocket despite having a Blackberry. I give him a hard time about that too. Anyway, he does have a point. I'll give up. At least I know I can give him some sass without risking my job.

A Powerful Mind: I had two moments today where I thought of something, and it actually ended up happening. a) I thought to myself "I really want some meeting leftover pizza" and then right as I was leaving the office kitchen, someone brought some in from their meeting. Sausage and peppers. Yep, I'll take that. b) On my way back from spin class, I thought "I would really like to come home to an Etsy sale." And I did! I sold an origami elephant valentine. :)

Food: I made another batch of butter chicken tonight. Yum yum!

Trying to go to bed earlier this evening so that I can hopefully wake up early and leave the office early to go for a run. The weather is supposed to be super nice tomorrow.

Bugaboo Creek

At the office story #1: one of my co-workers gave me the breakfast snack packs (muffin, apple, water, granola bar) that her hotel gave her (she's in town for a meeting). I was really excited because I didn't really pack a significant lunch. Free food. Yep, sign me up. The apple in the pack was a little funny. The apple butt was a little fuzzy, but I don't think it was mold because I was able to wipe it right up. I'm debating whether to just toss the whole thing in the trash tomorrow or just cut that part off. (Oh yes, my life is super exciting. Be jealous.)

At the office story #2: I've been trying to schedule a meeting for the past week using the Meeting Wizard website. However, with so many schedules to consider, I haven't been able to identify a date/time that works the best for the majority of folks. I think my frustration was coming across on the phone when I was on a conference call with a workgroup. "Tina, as frustrating as this might be, can you imagine how difficult this was when we didn't have those meeting scheduling websites?" (pause). "No, I have no idea what you're talking about. This is all I know." I could tell the others on the phone were smiling. "Ohhhh, that's right. You're sooo young."

Family: To celebrate my cousin's birthday, we went to Bugaboo Creek for dinner. I had a huge salad with chicken. It was one of those salads where I kept eating it for a good 15 minutes, but didn't feel like I put a dent in it at all! At least there are leftovers for dinner tomorrow. The waitress carded me. BAH HA HA. I did so good not eating any of the desserts at dinner, only to come home and eat the remaining gummy bears I bought the other day. Sigh. Oh well. Tomorrow's another day to do it right.

Baby Shower Card

I went to return the movie that I watched last night with my friends (Rio: it was cute and funny, but it wasn't something that I'd buy to watch over and over again) and Just Dance 3 at the local Redbox and I picked up The Black Eyed Peas Experience for Wii. I was a little skeptical because there were mixed review, and I had to agree with some of the negative feedback. Don't get me wrong, I love BEP music, but the graphics of the video game left much to be desired.

I decided to skip out on spin class this morning under the condition that I would go for a run this afternoon. I was able to crank out 4 miles as the sun was going down. It seems like we're getting more daylight these days, which is nice.

I was asked to make a baby shower card for a co-worker. She's expecting a baby boy in March. I hope she can hang on that long. She kinda looks like she's ready to pop! I love how there are different dimensional elements to this card: buttons, rubber duckies, and baker's twine. Glossy Accents definitely helped me out in adhering the chipboard letters and buttons. Because this card will be passed around at the office, I can't risk anything falling off.
Card Specs:
Paper: American Crafts- Botanique
Punches: EK Success Postage Stamp border punch, EK Success (rubber ducky)
Other: We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss in Lemonade
Stickers: Basic Grey Dark Chocolate Chip Chipboard alphabet stickers

Off to watch some Real Housewives. :)

Run, Eat, Dance

The weather was so nice today that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go for a run this afternoon. It looks like my pace improved a little bit from last time. :)

Earlier tonight, I invited Meg, Robyn, Beth and her friend Emily over to the house for some pizza, junk food, and Wii Dancing. Of course, we had a lot of fun acting silly. It's SO nice to have my own place so that I can have get-togethers like this.

AllScrapbookSteals Update

Last night, I decided to make a last ditch effort to contact AllScrapbookSteals to see if they'd be willing to refund some of the shipping cost from my order that I placed a few weeks ago. I forwarded the email that I sent on Monday regarding this issue to the email address that sent the "your order was shipped" email, and someone responded by the time I checked email this morning. They apologized for the delay in response, as the customer service email that was listed on the site was not working.

They did refund me the money that was owed to me, but I'm not sure I'll be a return customer. If they knew the customer service email wasn't working, I don't understand why they would continue to have it on the site. Who knows how many other people have used it to try to contact them, only to not get a response? It doesn't really sound too professional to me.

Ok, switching topics.

I had a bad mommy moment today. I was clipping RJ's nails today, and I clipped one too close and it started bleeding. OH @#$%! I quickly Googled a solution and found that putting flour on the nail would help stop the bleeding. Whew, it worked! I was definitely more affected by the whole thing because RJ didn't seem to express any signs of distress. On the other hand, I felt really guilty. I'm glad that at least one of us is resilient. :P

A Crabby Birthday Card

I received a text message from my friend Robyn last night, requesting a Maryland blue crab card with the sentiment "Wishing you a crabby birthday." Ha ha, how cute! I pulled out some blue origami paper and used these instructions to fold the blue crab. I added some "sand" and a paper punched cupcake give the card some context (in case it wasn't clear that it was a blue crab) and match the sentiment.

I went to dinner with my friend from grad school (Jessie). It was really good to catch up with her at Panera because it's been quite a while since I've seen her in person. Seeing her and going to spin class was a great way to end the work day. I needed the energy boost. The slew of conference calls and meetings was starting to get really draining.

Temptress

Shopping update: I emailed AllScrapbookSteals on Monday to see if they would be willing to refund me some of the shipping cost because there was a few dollars difference between what I paid and what the postage actually cost for a recent haul. They have not replied to my email yet. I want to hold them to the shipping policy that's on their website.

We have tried to be as exact as possible and will never deliberately charge more that the actual cost of shipping. We do pay close attention to the shipping costs when orders come through and will, on occasion make adjustments (to your favor) if we think the pkg can be shipping a better, cheaper or more efficient way. If this change is significant in terms of cost or time, we will contact you before we make any such changes.

How long should I be waiting for a response from them before I can be legitimately disgruntled?

Nail polish: This is the final nail polish color that I haven't tried from this December haul. I'm not sure if it really goes with my skin tone, but the pink is pretty. Base coat: Revlon in Temptress (#169) (2 coats). Black: OPI Black Onyx. Bundle Monster plate #222.

Tuesday Trigger: Winter Blossoms

It's been a while since I've worked on a Tuesday Trigger challenge, so that was my task for tonight. The inspiration picture looks like it's got some paper pom-poms that you can hang from the ceiling, so I decided to create my own by layering some die cut flowers and stringing them with some baker's twine.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo
Stamp: Studio G
Pearl: Recollections
Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals
Other: We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss in Cream Soda, Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

AllScrapbookSteals Order

At the office: Having the two-hour delay was a nice way to start the week. I was able to hang out in my jammies and catch the Today Show before heading off to the office. The roads were actually alright today, but I can understand the Feds wanting to be on the safe side.

One of my co-workers took me out to lunch today (my choice was PotBelly) as a thank you for the cards that I bring into the office and let people pick from. It feels nice to be appreciated. :)

Mail: Today I received my order from AllScrapbookSteals.com. While I like the prices, I felt that the shipping cost and the time it took for the order to get to me will make me hesitate in ordering from them again. The flat shipping cost was $6.99 but on the mailing label, the shipping cost was really only $2.77. I think that's a significant difference so I'm thinking about emailing their customer service about that. As for the shipping time, I ordered these items on 1/12 and I received the order today, 1/23. Meh, not really impressed. I will say that I received all the items I ordered and the package was not damaged during the shipping process.

Here's the card that I made with some of the supplies that I bought. I love the bird die set, I knew I just had to one in tonight's card. It might be difficult to see in the picture, but I gave the birds silver pearl eyes. They would have been rhinestone eyes, but I don't have gems that tiny.
Card Specs:
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stickers: American Crafts Foam Thickers in Wonder
Die: QuicKutz- Birds
Other: Liquid Pearl in Silver Pearl, We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss in Referee

CPS #252

Spin class: Spin class this morning was another full 25 person class. I dunno if this is still the New Year's Resolution's crowd, but I think it's great. Maybe if there's enough interest and demand, the management will consider adding another class during the weekend. It'd be wonderful to have options.

Family: After spin class, I had to get the house straightened up a little and clean up the ice from the sidewalk because my uncle and aunt were bringing my cousin (visiting from California) over to my new place and meet RJ the cat. My cousin's not one to be overly expressive with his expressions (unlike dramatic me), but it looked like I got quiet approval from him. Yay. :) RJ was happy to meet new people and make new friends.

Card: Here's my take on CPS #252. I wanted to use some of the Stella and Rose paper that I bought back in the fall. I thought that the yellow paper would be a good contrast to the red cardstock. The panel that goes across the card gave me the most pause. Do I use a border punch and punch cardstock to go across there or adhere some ribbon or patterned paper? I ended up using some rhinestones to add some sparkle and dimension to the card.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal and Warm Green. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Barn Door.
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), Fiskars- Friendship Garden (leaf)
Paper: American Crafts- Botanique, My Mind's Eye- Stella and Rose
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
Clay: Sculpy Clay in Red, Premo Sculpey Clay in Cadmium Yellow Hue

Huh. Meg texted me earlier to let me know that the Federal Government has a delayed opening tomorrow. I guess we're in for some freezing rain tonight. Lovely.

Lunar New Year Celebration and Fall-To Layout #174

Lunar New Year: I went over to my uncle's house to celebrate the Lunar New Year with my family. The star of the dinner was a sticky rice stuffed duck, which makes an appearance every year. Everything at dinner was so good that I definitely went back for seconds. Needless to say, I'll be going to spin class tomorrow morning. A family friend's kid was totally flirting with my cousin Emily (the picture doesn't really show it, but he was).
Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #174. When I saw the sketch, I knew exactly which sentiment stamp I wanted to use. It's one of the few sentiment stamps that's oriented vertically instead of horizontally. From there, I chose a green Recollections card and stamped the Hero Arts background stamp with Versamark. I thought the ink would be enough to create a tone-on-tone effect, but it was too subtle that you almost couldn't see it. Fortunately, I had my clear embossing powder on hand to make the dots stand out a little more. Then I worked on cutting down the yellow patterned paper and ribbon piece together and adhering the card. The finishing touches were rounding the top right corner and adhering the dimensional sticker. I'm thankful that the yellows matched very nicely.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Stamp: Hero Arts- Time to Enjoy, Hero Arts- Cling Dots (background)
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, EK Success Postage Stamp border punch
Stickers: Jolee's Boutique- Cream Buds

Great Deals on a Snowy Friday

Hooray, it's Friday! Most of the day was spent doing regular Friday stuff like going to a 9:30 AM spin class and working from home. After being cooped up at the house all day, I decided to venture out to CVS, armed with my coupons. Last week, I bought a bunch of stuff for the house, and since my total came to over $30 of these items, I got a $10 CVS cash card as the weekly ad said that I would. Tonight, I bought 2 bags of gummies, 2 bags of Dove chocolate, and 2 packages of batteries and the grand total came out to $2.65. Mwah ha ha. What a steal. I love coupons.

I then ventured out to the nearby Blockbuster that's closing in February. They reduced their prices again to $6.99 for pre-viewed DVDs. I was on the hunt for Thor and Captain America, but it looks like other customers beat me to it. Instead, I walked away with Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Mission Impossible 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 1. At least one of those movies will keep me occupied for part of tomorrow since it's snowing outside right now and the icy stuff is expected later on. Oh goodie. :P RJ's already found a new place to settle in- my college hoodie.

CPS #251

Crazy happenings: When I was in line at the post office this afternoon, the guy in front of me was telling the post office lady that he was denied a New Year's kiss and how all there are no good girls out there. The good girls that are out there end up corrupted anyway. Yikes. Ok. He turned around and looked at me. If I found him attractive, I would have cracked a joke or something. However, that was not the case and I pretended to be interested in something on the wall and on the floor. Just anything to make me seem preoccupied and avoid the awkward conversation transpiring.

Card: For today's card I wanted to do something for CPS Sketch #251. All the supplies used in this card are things that I haven't used in a while: the Basic Grey stamp tea stamp set, the paper pack from DCWV, Versamark, embossing powder, and my clay flowers.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ocean
Stamps: Basic Grey- Cup of Tea
Punch: Martha Stewart Doily Lace border punch
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Nana's Kitchen
Clay: Sculpy Clay in Blue Pearl
Other: Red Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Hello, Day-Glo!

Nail polish: Time to try another new color from this haul. This time, it's a Sally Hansen Insta-Dry in Peachy Breeze. You can tell from the bottle that this color is bright, but wow. Hello, day-glo. I think it's bordering on obnoxiously bright, but hey, it's a fun color. Who cares?

Card: For the card today, I started out with a piece of Botanique patterned paper that I had already cut up as well as a scrap piece of green cardstock. I also had a little red heart punched out from some Valentine's Day cards I was working on for my Etsy shop. I punched out two more for the white piece of cardstock that was going to go in the middle of the card. A sentiment and the punch outs just wasn't going to cut it for this card, so I grabbed a roll of washi tape I got for Christmas to put behind the hearts and drew in some faux stitching and ta da! Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Stamp: Studio G
Paper: American Crafts- Botanique
Punch: Recollections
Washi Tape: The Container Store
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

New Food Monday

Hmm...3-day weekend, what to do? Oh, I know. Cook and bake, of course! I was so productive this morning- making a batch of baked oatmeal and doing one load of laundry, all before 9 AM! After getting dressed, I headed out to do some grocery shopping so that I could do some more cooking this afternoon.

While having an NCIS marathon on in the background, I made some butter chicken and lemon poppy seed muffins. I didn't have any rice to go along with the butter chicken, so I improvised with some pasta. I was a little unsure of how it'd taste because of all the unfamiliar spices that went into the dish, but it came out wonderfully. I tossed a container of mushrooms to add more vegetables to the dish. As for the muffins, they were so very buttery and yummy. I think these count as Recipe #2 and 3 (out of 25) for my New Year's Resolutions.

Fall-To Layout #173

The Great Clean-Up continued: Selling back some CDs and VHS's did not prove to be as profitable as I thought it was going to be. I guess I was a little naive walking into the store, thinking I would have enough money to score some nail polish at Ulta afterwards. I did get a used DVD copy of Casino Royale and some change back. Oh well. At least that stuff is out of the house. It does no good to keep in a box, which also takes up space. I foresee going back to the store to sell back some more stuff over the next couple of days. Maybe I can sell the Disney VHS's that are hanging out in my parents' basement. I can't see myself watching them anytime soon.

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #173. I revisited my stash of American Crafts Botanique goodies. I gravitated to a very pretty rub-on and then went from there. I used the B side of a sheet of brown patterned paper to match the dark pink sentiment and used some green patterned paper to contrast the yellow and pink. To make sure that the rub-on went on straight, I used a T-square ruler and some washi tape to hold the rub-on temporarily to the card base. I think it's kinda cool that I didn't use any ink or stamps for this card.
Card Specs:
Paper: American Crafts- Botanique
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Rub-Ons: American Crafts Botanique
Pearl: Recollections
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner

Goals for tomorrow: grocery shopping and finding some frames from Michaels.

Song of the day: "Hello Hurricane"- Switchfoot. Heard it at spin class this morning. There was actually a full class today (25 people), which I was kinda surprised about. I hadn't reserved my spot, so I was happy to get a seat anywhere.

Rolled Paper CARDS Magazine Challenge

Cleaning up: I went over to my parents' house this afternoon and got sucked into the Great Clean-Up. Dad's out of town for a few weeks, and Mom decided that this would be an opportune time to clean up the basement and reorganize. Some of my boxes were in the corner, and they were calling my name so I went through some of them. At the end of it all, there were three piles of stuff: recycle, trash, and donate/resell. I had to laugh when I found some of my graduate school course work. Well, I already got my diploma so there's no use for it anymore ::dump in recycle pile::

I went to the library on the way home to drop off some books for donation. The librarian was so happy to see the pile of books I left on the counter. As I was walking out, she said to the other lady at the counter, "Tina used to work here as a page..." Yep, and you were my first boss.

Hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?

The clean-up continued when I got home, where I started going through my CDs and VHS's, because, I really don't use them anymore. I found a place near work that says they'll buy used stuff. We'll see how that goes tomorrow. I'll be happy if I can spend it on nail polish on clearance at Ulta, which is conveniently nearby.

Card: Here's my take on this week's CARDS Magazine challenge where we were challenged to make a card with rolled paper. I decided to create a sun with rolled paper and use that as the focal point of my card. I took scraps of patterned paper to create with rays of the sun. The sentiment was actually printed from my computer and punched out. I thankfully had some cloud patterned paper to go along with the sky theme. I thought the sun looked kinda lonely by itself so I added some bird friends.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ocean
Stamps: Inkadinkado (birds)
Paper: Recollections
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch), EK Success Scalloped Circle punch (2 inch)
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner

Not-So-Normal Manicure

Spinning: For a brief moment today, I thought I was going to go for a run this morning, instead of going to the gym for spin class. However, I took a look outside my window and saw the wind blowing around. Mmmyeahno. The gym it is.

Movie: I watched the movie 17 Again tonight on DVD (borrowed it from the library). It was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Zac Efron would be a lot cuter if he had better hair. His hair looks a lot better in the trailer for The Lucky One. I really liked the book, so I hope the movie people don't ruin it.

Snail mail surprise: Mom said that I received some mail at the house. Uh, what? I wasn't really expecting any mail. That's really weird. "It says there's stamps inside." Ok, double weird. I definitely would have remembered ordering supplies. thinkthinkthink. Oh, wait. This must have been the prize I won from Jennifer's page, Styles Ink. Yep, it was. It's a Stampin' Up set called So Many Scallops.

Nails: I decided to try a not-so-normal manicure today. I usually go for the bright colors, but today's manicure is very different in that it's more subdued, as in not bright at all. I like it thought. I like how even though the nail polish is sheer, it doesn't dry streaky. This is Essie in Walk Down the Aisle (3 coats). It kinda looks like a French manicure, just without the fuss.

Sewing Fail

My friend Steph just recently came back from a trip to Taiwan. She sent me an email saying that I should be expecting some snail mail with some gifts from her trip. I got the mail today and found a pretty bookmark and a fun crafty postcard. There was some fabric attached to the postcard where you could create a bee. I learned in doing this project that my skills are more in cardmaking and not sewing. I think I at least get an A for effort.

One-Layer Wednesday #74

Food: I made chicken marsala tonight, and it was very yummy. I decided to use chicken tenders and instead of chicken breasts to cut down on the portion sizes. I also used portabella mushrooms instead of white mushrooms because that's what was on sale at the grocery store last week.

Card: I decided to do the One-Layer Wednesday #74: Red and Pink challenge tonight. I think the theme this week is a) creating my own background by using one stamp and b) use the same Me & My Big Ideas stamp set that I bought not too long ago.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Rouge
Stamps: Me & My Big Ideas- Sassy Icons (flourish), Fiskars- Sentiments
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Pearl: Recollections

A Floral Hello Card

At the office: One of my co-workers bought 5 of my cards today. Yay, I can do some shopping this weekend! ;)

Spin class: I sat down on my bike tonight at spin class, and Nancy (Thursday night's instructor) turned around. She paused as if she was thinking of what she was going to say. "I ate half a pumpkin pie in two days!!!" I burst out laughing because it sounded like she felt she was in a confessional. Awww, it's okay. Even spin instructors have weak moments. I asked her if it was worth it. "YES!" Ok, then I guess that's all that matters. The fact that you came to class doesn't hurt either.

Card: For tonight's card, I started with a piece of dark red card base that I messed up on last week for another card. One side of the card base was stamped wrong so I had to recycle it, but the back piece was still usable. I did a little tone-on-tone stamping for a subtle background. Then I used my new favorite border punch and adhered the two blue pieces with some yellow patterned paper to the cardstock. I wanted to use some Thickers for the sentiment and some pearls for added dimension. After all that, I thought the card was still missing something. I debated on stamping something and using white embossing powder, but I was too far along with the card to risk not having that image come out perfectly. I decided to use some white rub-ons that I bought last week. Usually rub-ons are not my friend, but they came out perfectly this time. Whew!

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red
Paper: American Crafts- Abode
Stamps: Me & My Big Ideas- Sassy Icons (flower)
Punch: EK Success Postage Stamp border punch
Rub-on: American Crafts, Mini Marks, Accents, Book Three
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl
Stickers: American Crafts Foam Thickers in Wonder

First Snow of 2012

Wow, talk about a case of the Mondays. I didn't wake up feeling 100% and sat in bed to figure out what my options were. I wasn't really feeling the idea of being at work, feeling yucky. I didn't like the idea of calling in sick because I had 3 conference calls that I had to be on (1 that I had to facilitate). I definitely didn't want to bail on them and push them onto someone else's plate. I figured that the best option was to work from home. I was a little sad that I missed out on breakfast meeting leftovers, but who needs the extra calories, right? Not me, that's for sure. Thank goodness for ibuprofen, technology, and a nice understanding boss.

I got an IM from an co-worker who was at the office. "It's snowing!" I didn't event realise it until I got her message. It wasn't sticking to the streets, which was great because I could still go to tonight's spin class. However, there was nice dusting on my car and on the grass. It was really pretty to see it fall outside my window.

RJ was keeping me warm while I was watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills tonight. I don't think he finds them nearly as entertaining as I do.

2011 Movie Stubs Scrapbooked

Last night, I went out to dinner at Guajillo Grill with Meg and Robyn. I got the chicken burrito and it was very yummy. The portion size was like whoa, so I ended up taking half of it home. We then spent a few hours just chatting at Meg's place, just catching up from the holidays and work and other random things.

Metro totally sucked last night. :P

My inner thighs were definitely feeling it this morning when I got out of bed. It was a nice reminder that I went for a run yesterday. I mustered the energy to get my butt to the gym and go to Janice's spin class.

Afterward, I met up with Beth at Noodles & Co. We then went to the local Blockbuster that's closing. I went there last week only to find crappy "deals," and their prices hadn't really decreased since then. Many DVDs had been lowered to $10 (from $12.99?), but that still wasn't enough to convince me that it was a deal. There was still a lot of merchandise left in the store, so I imagine they will continue to lower the prices as the closing date approaches.

Scrapbook page: I was going through my purse the other day, throwing away old receipts and de-clutterizing it and found all of my movie stubs from all the flicks that I saw in 2011. I dunno why I chose a floral paper. Flowers aren't usually related to movies, but I liked the paper so that's what I went with. With each stub, I wrote a little comment about the particular movie.

Page Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Paper: American Crafts- A La Carte
Stamps: K.I. Memories- Cool Dude (arrows)
Punch: EK Success Postage Stamp border punch
Brad: American Crafts, Large Brads- Evergreen
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Foliage
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner

3 flowers, 2 butterflies, and 1 bird CARDS Magazine Challenge

Running: Seeing as the St. Patrick's Day 8K is in approximately 3 months, I thought it'd be a good idea to get my legs in gear. My last run was in September, which is horrible to say, but after that race, I thought I just needed a break from running. I wasn't really feeling it. But nothing motivates you like a little pressure, right? I downloaded the iMapMyRun+ app onto my iPhone and went for a run. The feature that I like most about it is the voice feedback, where it'll tell you at a certain interval what your running stats are (I set it for every 0.5 miles). I had thought about getting a Garmin watch a few months ago, but I'm glad that I didn't because this app does what I need for $1.99. I felt surprisingly pretty good after the run. I wasn't sure that I would because of the hiatus, but I guess I found my running legs faster than I thought.

Food: I cooked up some falafel for lunch today. Yum yum. I think this counts as Recipe #1 (out of 25) for my New Year's Resolutions. I followed this recipe (minus the cilantro). I like the little kick the cayenne pepper gives. I was happy to see that 2 cans of chick peas produces quite a few patties. I buried the falafel patty in a pita pocket under some romaine lettuce and a drizzle of thousand island dressing.

Etsy: I got my first order of Valentine's Day off of my Etsy store. I love this time of year! Valentine's Day is definitely my season.
Card: I decided partake in this week's CARDS Magazine challenge: making a card that has 3 flowers, 2 butterflies, and 1 bird. My first thought was to make a Christmas tree out of these elements, but since the holiday season has passed, I make a cupcake instead.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal, Warm Red, Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire.
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), Fiskars- Friendship Garden (flower), Inkadinkado- Nature (butterfly), Inkadinkado (bird)

Fall-To Layout #172

RJ: I heard some noise downstairs last night, and I had a gut feeling that the kitty was up to no good. I went downstairs to the kitchen and found that he had knocked down the half-full can of cat food onto the ground and was in the process of chomping it up. I grabbed a paper towel and started to pick up the mess. He gave me a look that said "What? Wait, why are you cleaning it up?! I was okay with eating it off the ground! Nonono, don't clean it up! I was going to eat that!"

Spin class: I went to spin class this morning and at the end of class, Janice (TU night spin instructor) turned around and said, "Oh, Tina. We missed you on Tuesday." Yeah...well, I fell asleep. I felt really bad missing class. I'll be sure to go to her class on Sunday. :(

Card: In tackling Fall-To Layout #172, my goal was to use one of the red card bases that I messed up on last night. While I messed up on one side, I could still use the other side for a project. I cut off the side that was messed up and ran the other side through my Cuttlebug to get the red label below. I also wanted to use some stickers that I found in some of the stuff that I moved over from my parents' house. The ladybug was so cute, so I had to pick it out to use on today's card.
Card Specs:
Cardbase: Recollections
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China
Stamps: Hero Arts- Cling Classic Fabric Design (background), Studio G (sentiment)
Punch: EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Floral Doily Motifs, Labels 8

Food: I'm attempting to make falafel tonight. I have the mixture in the fridge to sit and let the flavors jive together. My plan is to cook them up on a skillet later tonight. I hope to have a picture of my successful culinary adventure tomorrow. I also made a batch of hummus using this technique that allows for a smoother version, similar to the kind that you see at the grocery store. My food processor definitely got a work out tonight.

Yep, I like chick peas. Can't you tell?

Love You Card

At the office: I completed another project for the Big Boss today, and I didn't really hear from him until the end of the day and I saw him through the glass window of the office that I was camping out in. I was on a conference call, so I had the door closed. He draws a square with his fingers and mouthed "Thank you." I had made some slides for him. Ha ha.

We had our January all staff meeting. A few months ago, I nominated one of my co-workers with a staff award for going above and beyond. He has helped me with some presentation posters that I used for some conferences, and even if no one really looked at my poster in depth, at least it looked very professional and my co-worker was really easy to work with. I liked that non-senior staff members can nominate other staff members for this award, not just senior staff. I heard some of the new people walk by later, saying that it was a good staff meeting. I think we made a good first impression, and I think it's equally important to show people how much we appreciate them when they perform well. :)

The IT guys at work were nice enough to download iTunes to my work computer this morning. I was so happy to be able to download some music to my new iPhone and jam out to Kelly Clarkson at the gym after spin class.

Books: I started The Help a few nights ago. I hope to crunch through a bunch of it this weekend.

Card: OMG, I had intended to make a simple one-layer card, but getting to the final product took forever! How ironic, right? Well, I first started with one of the red cards that came in the Recollections pack that I got on Monday. I stamped the large swirly stamp from the calligraphy set with Versamark and then use white embossing powder on it. Well, the embossing powder was sticking in places that I didn't want it to stick, despite running a dryer sheet prior to stamping. I tried that a few times, and I wasn't satisfied with any of them. Then I switched to a white card base with brown ink. I think because it's a large image, it's sometimes tough to get a clean image. The left side might be darker than the right or some part of the image might not stamp at all. UGH. However, after the fifth try tonight, I came up with something I was happy with.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Warm Red
Stamps: Martha Stewart- Calligraphy Stamp Set, The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment)
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner, Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Nails: I gave my nails a rest for a few days, so now it's time to try another color that I bought but haven't used yet. This shade of green reminds me of Elphaba from Wicked. Base coat: China Glaze in Starboard (2 coats). White: Revlon in White on White. Bundle Monster plate #222.

New iPhone Cover

Bad news: I was up very late last night trying to a) update my Ubuntu operating system and b) trying to get iTunes set up. I was able to get item a done, but not item b. I continued to work on item b when I got home from the gym earlier tonight, and I guess it was just not in the cards for me. I'll have to get iTunes set up on my work computer. Or maybe I need to invest in a new computer that doesn't run into as many compatibility problems. Rawr.

Good news: I turned in an assignment that the Big Boss gave me. I think he was happy with the end result. Whoo hoo, gold star for me! ;)

I was kinda mad at myself for not making it to Janice's spin class last night because of falling asleep on the couch. To make it up, I made myself go to the gym after work today. 30 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes on the stair master (climbed 80 flights of stairs!), and then a cool down on the treadmill. Yay!

I also took a break from work today to get a case for my iPhone. I went to the Verizon Wireless store and while the guy that helped me was super nice, I wasn't willing to pay $50 for a case. "I'm only saying this because you're female, but we have some pink cases up there." Ha ha. Well, I would have gotten one if you had more reasonable prices. Sorry, dude. I ended picking one up at a random kiosk for $7. It'll do for now. Guess what, it's pink. I know, how shocking.