Online Dating Woes and Family Dinner

Message from Match:

How are you? Would you like to share a meal with me, an old, ulgy, poor man this weekend in D.C. area?

Uhhh, is this a joke?  WTH?!  First of all, you're 55 years old (way too old for me!).  Second of all, I wouldn't want to go out with anyone that thought of themselves as "old, ugly, poor"!

Family Dinner: I went over to my aunt/uncle's house for dinner.  My cousin from Taiwan is in town so it was a good excuse to get together.

After dinner dessert adult drinks.  I've decided that I'm not a fan of the chocolate + alcohol combination.  I'm okay with one or the other, but not together.  Check out the 17% by volume.  Wow!

These were the little cups that drank the chocolate liquor out of.  So cute...however, the faces were a little creepy at first.

March of Dimes Walk

For the second year in a row, I went to the March of Dimes walk with my co-workers.  Instead of Nationals Park like last year, the walk took place in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  I carpooled with a co-worker, her husband and her toddler.  It was a nice day for a walk...not too sunny or cold.  The walk was 3 miles, 3 loops around the pond.  In the pond, there was a family of geese with a gaggle of gosslings.  So cute!

I was able to meet Jennifer's husband (finally, after 4.5 years..) and her adorable daughter, Caitlin.  Her husband made a funny comment as we were walking to the garage, "Enjoy your single child-free life while you can!"  Oh, yes.  I celebrated my single life by taking a nap on the couch and making Mother's Day cards for my first summer craft fair on May 11!

Cherry Blossom Mother's Day Card

Yard sale womp: I guess not every weekend can be a lucky yard sale weekend.  I probably went to about 10 today, and didn't find anything that I liked.  I did see the old school game "Connect Four" for what looked like 25 cents, but a dad snatched up when I walked by the second time around.  I also saw a kettlebell that some guy was offering for $3.  I would have picked it up if it was more than 5 pounds.  Wah.  Anyway, I saw the same co-worker that I saw last weekend too.  She found some books and medieval figurines for her son.  She said that if I ever needed a partner-in-crime in the yard sale game to let her know.  Who knew that people would actually be interested in yard saling with me?!  Ha ha.

Food: I tried out a new place to eat called Boloco with Beth.  She's been there, but I hadn't.  I tried the spicy BLT which was yummy.  I was a little nervous that the dressing would be too spicy, but it was just the right amount of kick.

Card:  I can't believe that Mother's Day is right around the corner!  The approaching holiday is what inspired me to do this card.  I also wanted to crack into some sheets of rub-ons that I got a while back at a yard sale.  The plastic of the rub-ons allowed me to do some watercolor resist with the Tim Holtz ink pads.

Card Specs: 
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird.  Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Tattered Rose, Mustard Seed
Stamps: My Sentiments Exactly!
Rub-On: Jenni Bowlin Transferware Flowers-Black and Bird & Branch
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Liquid Pearl in Buttercup, Rouge.  Staedtler Triplus Fineliner

Happy Hour

Let the record show that I did got to Happy Hour tonight. 

You're shocked, I know.  This never ever never ever happens. 

However, a little change in my schedule now and then wouldn't hurt right?  My boss is in town and I figured this would be a good way to spend time with her outside of the office. Plus, cheap drinks and food are definitely a bonus.  I got an appletini and shared some chicken tenders with a co-worker.  The alcohol made me feel really sleepy so I stuck to just one. 

Yay for being social...and not a hermit.  I'll go to spin tomorrow.  If I go TH and FRI, I can say that I went to 4 classes this week, which is pretty good.

Speaking of spin, a co-worker asked me if I was going to the staff breakfast on FRI.  Um, no, I'm going to spin class. My boss hears me.  "Is that during work hours?"  Oh crap.  Was I not supposed to say that?  She starts laughing.  Ok, whew.  I think she knows that I go to spin on FRI.  I mean it's on my calendar.  Everyone at the office can see that.  Based on our touch-base conversation earlier today, she didn't have anything negative to say about my performance, so I guess we're good. 

Well, she did say that I need to slow down when I talk on the phone on conference calls.  "You sound like you just want to get your piece over it."  Well, yes!  I guess I just shouldn't make it so obvious that I want it to be over.

Crazy Happenings in the Neighborhood

I was watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion tonight and I could hear something going outside.  I didn't think much of it until the voices got louder.  The lady next door (we'll call her E) yelled out "Get out of my house!  I don't care!  Get out of my house!"  I could hear a man's voice walking away and cursing and saying something about how he's helped this family before.  I could hear someone else say "I don't want to get involved."  Once it was quiet, I peeked my head outside and saw the newbie neighbor, Tracy (she lives two houses down) with her phone out.  I asked what was going on and she walked over.  Based on what she said and what I heard earlier, I was able to piece together what happened: when I came back from CVS earlier this evening, I saw E and asked her what had happened to the elderly neighbor (we'll call her J) because I hadn't seen her or her dog in a while.  E explained that the elderly neighbor around the corner has gone to live with a family member because she's been falling a lot lately and hasn't been in good health.  Some of her family came to move some of her furniture earlier, but some of it was left outside, and E planned to move it into her house.  Flash forward a few hours later, when the screaming started happening outside.  I guess another neighbor wanted this furniture.  I guess there was some confusion of who should get the furniture.  Tracy said that if the yelling continued, she was going to call the police.  I was tempted to do it too, but before I could peek outside, it had gone quiet.  While we were talking, the guy that had been screaming walked by and apologized for the yelling and dropped a pile of wood at the neighbor's house.  Maybe it used to be a drawer?  I was so confused.

Really, guys, really?  This is yard sale season, so I'm sure that you could find a dresser for a reasonable price without the drama.  And for a man to yell at a woman like that (well, to yell at anyone like that, but especially a woman) was totally out of line.

In other news, a nearby townhouse was on the market for only a day.  I saw the sign go up on TH saying that there was going to be an Open House today, but when Robyn came over, she said that there was an Under Contract sign up already.  Aw, man.  I was so ready to see it, but good for them though!  It'll be interesting to see who moves in.  Hopefully, they are nice and not crazy/loud.

Yard Sale Finds and Dumplings

Yard sale finds:  I set off early today to check out some yard sales, and of course, I came home with quite a few goodies.  The next neighborhood down had quite a few families that wanted to sell their unwanted items.  I lost count of how many sales I went to because some yard sales were so close together.  I probably went to 10?  I ran into my co-worker at one of the sales.  I hope she found some goodies.  She complimented me on my pink pullover, "Tina, pink is your color.  You look good in pink."  I had to laugh on the inside because there was a time where I stayed away from pink.  FYI, total spent today: $12.

The yard sale price of this puzzle was $4, but I got it for $3. I thought it would be a good challenge.

Mouse= $1. I have been looking for a mouse to put in my office laptop bag.  The pocket one that I had previously died on me.  I'm going to keep this one in my home office, and put the original home office mouse in my office laptop bag.

Set of 4 Garfield mugs = $2.  I kept one of the canoe ones since it's a duplicate, and I'm going to see if I can sell the remaining 3 on Etsy or Ebay for a profit since these are vintage (1978).  These are old school, from McDonalds.

I got all these cards for $6.  All except the teapots is a set, so I kept the kitty cards for myself (they look like Ginger) and 1 of each of the square cards, and I'm giving the rest to a friend for her birthday.

Etsy Shop: I spent the afternoon working on listing items in my Etsy shop. I dug around my craft supply closet, and I found things that I had duplicates of or in retrospect, didn't really like as much as I thought.  Hopefully, they can find a new home where someone will use them.

Dumplings, Week 3: Robyn came over tonight for dinner.  I made her work for her dinner by wrapping some dumplings up with me.  Yum, yum!  

Sigh of Relief

Weird dream: This morning was so disorienting.  I had this dream last night (or rather, early this morning), that I was told that I had some papers that I needed to turn in for my Spanish class, but I couldn't find them and it wasn't even clear what I needed to turn in in the first place!  I'm not even in school anymore.  What the heck?

Boston: When I finally got out of the initial fog of waking up, I reached for my phone to check for any updates regarding the search for the Boston marathon bombing suspects.  So much had happened over night.  Something happened at MIT.  There was some gunshots.  Watertown was in lock down.  I was pretty much glued to the TV all afternoon, or at least it was within hearing range.  I didn't know whether to cheer or cry when I saw that the suspect had been apprehended alive.  What happened this week is so sad, but hopefully with this guy brought to justice, that'll help everyone move on and heal.

Productivity: I was definitely more productive today than yesterday.  I went to spin class in the morning, followed by some grocery shopping.  Then I made some meatloaf and set up my closet on Poshmark.  They don't charge for listing so I figured it's worth a try.  I bought a value pack of ground beef at Giant, and I was able to use 2 pounds of it today...one pound for the meatloaf and one for some spaghetti sauce.  The last pound will be used for the dumpling filling.  My friend Robyn's going to come over to help me make them.

New Nails: During a lull in the news broadcast tonight, I decided to do my nails again.  I went with white again, this time with Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in White On (2 coats).  I didn't really see a difference between this polish and OPI's Alpine Snow, so maybe I won't get a bottle of the OPI one since this cheaper version does the trick just as well.

Fall-To Layout #236

Lazy day: I didn't do much on my day off today.  Well, nothing exciting anyway.  I drove around to Target, Old Navy, TJMaxx, Ross, and eventually the Asian supermarket.  I walked away with some new Thickers  (Flakey in red and woodgrain, Fellow and Serenade), a new stamp set, and some groceries. Blah, boring.  I came home, ate lunch, took a nap on the couch, and woke up in time to go to spin class.  Blah, more boring stuff.

Fall-To Layout #236: The neighbors that live across the street from my parents have moved to a new place.  It feels bittersweet because it's sad to see such a nice family move away, but I am happy that they were able to find a bigger and better place to accommodate everyone.  When I was making this card and trying to pick a rub-on to use, I decided to send this card to them and chose the Congratulations one.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Stamps: Hero Arts- Envelope Pattern
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Bloom & Grow
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large, Lifestyle Crafts- Nesting Lace Circles
Stickers: Basic Grey Bloomers- Pyrus collection
Rub-On: Stampin' Up- Chit Chat (sentiment)
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Song of the Day: "Tonight I'm Getting Over You" - Carly Rae Jepsen

Hello Card

At the office: It was a such a nice day outside today!  I went to get some fresh air and of course, do some window shopping at my favorite nearby stores: New York and Company, Ulta, Marshalls, and CVS.  The only place that I bought stuff at was Marshalls (4 sets of Thickers for $1.49 each: Stroll, Notarized, Memo and Zebra).  Apparently several of my co-workers wanted to get out of the office too because I saw one of them at Ulta and 2 at CVS.  I was eyeing some of the Milani stuff on sale but decided against it.  One of my co-workers complimented me on my make-up.  I politely said thank you, but I was laughing on the inside because my daily make up routine takes very little effort: a quick swipe of eyeshadow/eyeliner/mascara/blush, and some sort of lip product.  No concealer or foundation today.  Maybe that Freeman stuff that I've been using lately and the sun that I got this past weekend have been helping my complexion.

She mentioned that she wanted someone to teach her how to do liquid eye liner.  I recommended YouTube since you can learn all sorts of stuff on YouTube.  While wandering around the hair product aisle, she picked a Loreal product up that I had a coupon for, so I dug out my coupon organizer to get it.  My other co-worker was like "Where did you get all those coupons?!  Look at how they are all organized!"  Oh, come on, is this supposed to be a surprise?  If there's a good deal out there, I will find it!

While I didn't go to the gym tonight, lifting the 40 lb containers of kitty litter was quite the workout!

Target: Speaking of good deals, I found a good one at Target tonight.  40 lb. kitty litter was $15 each.  If you buy 2, you get a $5 Target gift card.  Plus I had a $2 off coupon.  This translates to getting $30 of kitty litter for $23.  Bah ha.  I figured I'd go with the two boxes of litter since it's not like RJ won't be using it all.  40 lb goes a long way for one kitty.  I put some in his box when I got home and he immediately went to bathroom, like he was giving his stamp of approval or something.

Card: I wanted to use some of the Thickers that I got today, so I went with the Stroll ones.  I cut strips of a paper pack that I hadn't used in a while and was already out.  I adhered the strips down and put the chipboard letters on top of them.  Then I added the faux stitching and paper flowers.  

Card Specs:
Paper: Making Memories- Chloe's Closet
Stickers: American Crafts Thickers- Stroll
Flowers: Recollections

I'm taking TH and FRI off this week.  4 day weekend, woot!

Changes at the Gym

The new spin bikes from Keiser are here!  I knew they were coming, but I didn't realize that they would be here so soon.  I think they will take some time to get adjusted to since the seat settings are a little different.  I do like that there's a digital display that shows your RPM, watts, kCal, time elapsed, etc.  Those are nice features to have so you know how much you're improving over time.

The two guys in class were chatting away and giving commentary all throughout class.  I gave one of them the stink eye because I find their conversations so annoying.  I debated saying something, but what exactly do you say?  I don't want to embarrass them in class because I wouldn't want someone to do that to me, but OMG, SHUT UP!  If you're chatting, you obviously aren't working hard enough!  I know they work as teachers, so it baffles me that they think it's okay to talk all through class.  Maybe they don't think that spin class is a real class, but no one else is talking.  Can't you take a hint?

Suzie's Visit, Day 3 + New Nails

Last day with Suzie: Today was definitely a lot more low key than yesterday with the parade and cherry blossom activities.  We went to the Asian supermarket because she wanted to get some miso soup packets and Michaels so she could have some nice paper to answer fan mail with.  While I saw a lot of paper that I liked at Michaels, I exerted some self control and didn't buy any.  Suzie was able to use my coupon.  After lunch, we had some quiet time.  I had fallen asleep on the couch while watching tv, but that seemed to work out okay since Suzie spent that time answering fan mail and emails.  We got Indian food for dinner and chatted the night away until it was bed time.  I'm taking her to the subway super early in the morning! 

New Nails: I borrowed OPI's Alpine Snow from Suzie and painted 2 coats on my nails.  I love it!  I might have to get my own bottle!

Suzie's Visit, Day 2

Lesson learned: good weather + Cherry Blossom Festival Parade + Cherry Blossom Festival = insane crowds in DC!  At least it was a fun day!

The parade was awesome!  I hadn't been before, so I wasn't sure what to expect from the crowds, but the site recommended that we get there an hour early to scope out a good spot.  I was a little skeptical, but went along with that plan anyway.  I'm so glad that we did because the crowd initially wasn't that bad at all, but eventually, all the curb space was taken up.

The parade was fun!  There were a few marching bands (I was surprised how many were from outside the area), several cowboys and cowgirls, floats, character balloons, and clowns (eek...).  There was a huge group of tap dancers (probably 150 people?) that did a dance for probably every 1.5 blocks...it was cool to see them all coordinated.

 

This tri-cycle guy was the coolest...he was riding with 3 wheels on top of each other.  It looked very unsafe, one reason being that he wasn't wearing a helmet.  I appreciated the skills though!

After the 3-hour-ish parade, we went to Potbelly for lunch. Getting there was a little difficult because the streets were blocked off for the Japanese Street Festival.  We were able to find the end of the festival and cross the street.  Potbelly was a little crowded, so we decided to eat our sandwiches and salads outside in the nice weather. 

We wanted to do some paddleboating after lunch, so we started walking towards the Tidal Basin.  It seemed like everyone and their brother was in DC and walking around the cherry blossoms.  This was definitely a good weekend for DC tourism, that's for sure.  Unfortunately, the line for paddleboating was very long, so we ended up sitting by the cherry blossoms and soaked in some sun and people watched. 

It was getting close to dinner time so we decided to Metro to Meg's place, get some popsicles/ice cream along the way, help her re-wrap all of her Easter decorations, order pizza, and chat for a few more hours until we were all yawning at the table.  There were some people outside the Metro station handing out free cat treats and hummus.  I didn't take either one, but my friends did.  The Sabra guy was like "Open your bag and tell me when to say stop!" as he piles in the single serving cups of hummus into Robyn's bag.

Today was a long day (7:45 AM to 10:30 PM) with lots of walking...I'm pooped!

Suzie's Visit, Day 1

My friend from undergrad, Suzie, is here visiting, hooray!  She had a conference in Baltimore and since she was "in the neighborhood," she decided to come stay with me for a few days after.  I know that she loves dumplings, so we made dumplings for dinner tonight.  The wrapping process definitely goes a lot faster with four hands, instead of my two.

She was also admiring my nail polish collection in the bathroom.  Her DIY French manicure was chipping a little, so she decided to remove it and put on new polish.  Her new manicure reminds me of jelly beans.

We watched Over the Hedge after dinner and eventually turned to House Hunters on TV.  The buyer was a guy with his 4 friends, and I made a comment about how weird that sounded to me.  Suzie, who was working on her computer, started laughing and laughing and laughing.  "I know him!"  o_0  What?  Yeah, he's the boyfriend of a friend!  Small world!

New Nails

Purple is not a color that I gravitate to very often, but I think this purple polish is beautiful!  This is Wet 'N Wild Megalast's On a Trip (2 coats).

Free Cone Day!

Ice cream: Whoo hoo, today was Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's!  I went with some of my co-workers and got a scoop of Candy Bar Pie: "Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Fudge Flakes, Chocolate Nougat & Sweet & Salty Pretzel Swirls."  Doesn't that sound awesome?!  I had to eat it quickly because it was rather warm outside.  This is what was left when I got back to my desk.  Happy happy day!

Spin: I had to balance out the ice cream with a spin class today.  The news at the gym is that we're getting new bikes in the next few weeks.  Woot!

Monday, Monday

Weather: It was freakin' 80 degrees today!  How the heck did that happen?  I feel like we went from winter to summer and totally forgot spring.

Weird dreams: I've been having weird dreams at night lately, so between that and RJ being a pain at 3 AM, I haven't been getting restful sleep.  For example, I dreamt last night that our office phone system Lync wasn't working and I was struggling to call into a conference call that I needed to be on.  I was super late and was stressing about that.  I never made it to the call because I woke up.  I was feeling so frazzled and frustrated this morning, so I decided that it'd be a good idea to stay home and focus on crossing off a bunch of things off my to-do list.

Card: Here's a card that I made last night using a new stamp that I got from Michaels.  I went to Michaels last week and found out when I got home that I got a stamp that I already had, ugh!  I went back yesterday to return it and found new stamps to buy.  They were in the clearance section because they were considered Easter stamps...45 cents each.  Yay, good deal!

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in French Blue, Dark Peony
Paper: American Crafts- Peachy Keen
Stamp: CraftSmart (bird/floral), Fiskars- Friendship Garden (heart)
Rub-On: Stampin' Up- Chit Chat (sentiment)
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Fall-To Layout #235

Fall-To Layout #235: This card probably took about 5 minutes total because everything I used was some sort of scrap, even the sentiment flag (which was leftover from a recent office order).
Card Specs: 
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Pumpkin Spice, Yellow Citrus, French Blue, Charcoal
Paper: Chatterbox, My Mind's Eye- Fly A Kite
Stamps: Fiskars- Put on Your Party Hat (present, confetti), The Paper Company Studio- Cupcakes (sentiment), Stampin' Up- Fox & Friends

Other stuff from today:

I got some udon from the local Asian supermarket the other day...yum!

The weather was very lovely today, so I went for a run...with my new running shoes.

Yard Sale and Thrift Store Finds

Weekend mission: My goal this weekend was to decorate my bedroom, per my 2013 New Year's Resolutions.  I recently put up a wall decal, but most of that wall was still blank as is the wall that faces my bed.  Time to change that around!  I cashed in on the 50 free prints from signing up with Shutterfly and printed a bunch of vacation/friends/family/cats/floral photos.  The prints arrived on Thursday, and I set off this morning in search of picture frames.

Yard sale #1: I almost didn't go to it because I went to the wrong place!  The first house that I went to had stuff outside and a moving truck with movers.  I asked one of the moving people if there was a yard sale at that location because that's what it said on Craigslist.  He looked really confused.  "Nah, we're just moving these guys."  Hm, that's weird, ok, whatever.  I realized after I got back in my car and drove about a block that the yard sale was actually down the street.  The guy (I'm not sure if he was cold or cranky, but he didn't crack one smile the whole time I was there...) had a bunch of picture frames for $5.  Oh, no way I'm going to pay $5 for each frame!  But, wait, he has so many nice ones...hmmm.  I plastered a saccharine sweet smile of my face and asked if I could get a deal if I bought more than one.  I walked away with 4 frames (one of them was not even opened) for $10...they are the 4 on the couch seats. 

Yard sale #2: This was an estate sale.  The house smelled kinda old and dingy so I didn't want to stay too long.  They had a whole lot of plates/dishes/kitchen stuff that I wasn't looking for anyway.  The framed irises caught my eyes when I stepped into the house, and after walking around a little bit, that was the only thing that I walked away with...for $2.  It's now hanging up in my living room.

Yard sale #3: I found another large frame for $2.  It's the one that's next to the framed irises.

Yard sale loot, before.

Thank you, Shutterfly.

Wall facing bed, before.

Wall facing bed, after.  I bought the framed flowers at yard sale last year, but didn't want to put them up until I had some other things to put up on that wall.

Completed bedroom wall

Family visit and thrift store shopping: After I got all my yard sale loot, I went to my parents' house to share the dumplings that I made last night.  Mom gave me an A+ rating.  After that stop, I went to the mall to walk around, but didn't find anything that I thought was worth buying.  My next stop was a giant thrift store that was next to the Asian supermarket that I went to last night.  When I went last night, it was too late to go in so I made a mental note to go back.  When I went back today, I found a cute bright blue jacket for $5.99, but I didn't buy it immediately.  I decided to think about it while going to the Asian supermarket to pick some more dumpling wrappers to use for later next week.  On the way back to the car, I went back into the thrift store and got the jacket.  The bright blue and the price were hard to resist.

INC International Concepts jacket, $5.99.

Homemade Dumplings

Matchy-matchy: I went to the office for a meeting today.  It lasted probably 10 minutes.  We're efficient that way.  I had to laugh that my shirt matched my nail polish.

Recipe #5 of 2013: My friend from undergrad Suzie is coming next week.  I was trying to think of activities we could do while she's here.  One of the ideas that I came up with was making homemade dumplings.  The thing is that I've always made them at my parents' house.  Instead of inconveniencing Mom, I decided that it's time to learn how to make them on my own.  Hello, Google.  I followed this recipe for the filling (who the heck has the time and patience to make their own dumpling wrappers??) and went to the Asian supermarket to get the supplies.  While watching X-Men: First Class (I borrowed it from the library...and it's due tomorrow), I cranked out about 50 dumplings.  I ate 8 for a taste testing, and they were pretty good!

New Nails

Nails: This is Wet 'N Wild's I Need a Refresh-Mint (2 coats).  I used this color in my previous manicure, but then covered it up with some nail art, so I couldn't fully appreciate the pretty robin's egg blue (Tiffany?) color.  This is a really good enough dupe for China Glaze's For Audrey or Essie's Turquoise and Caicos; $1.50 vs. $8, yep...I love a good deal!

Song of the day: "Light 'Em Up"- Fall Out Boy

One-Layer Wednesday #134

At the office: AHHHHHH!  I hear this from the kitchen this morning, and I knew instantly what had happened.  I slowly creep out into the hallway and the institutional research director, clearly shaken up, says "There's a mouse in the dishwasher!"  What is this, Groundhog's Day?  This is not the first time this has happened.  I hope that the exterminator that they sent this afternoon was able to remedy the situation.

RJ: The cat has been a terror at night lately.  He sleeps quite peacefully between 12 and 3 AM and then I think he feels rested enough to want to play and romp around or find something to chew on.  The whole situation reminds me of the book Go the F*** to Sleep.  I don't like kicking him out of my bed or bedroom, but I've been doing that the past few nights just so that I can get some peaceful sleep.  I hear bonk bonk bonk at the door.  I'm thinking he's using his paw or his head to try to get in, but doesn't really understand that those tactics are not going to work.  He eventually gives up and when I open the door in the morning, he's right outside waiting for me.  He got his revenge this morning by sleeping on my pillow while I was at work.  Usually, I cover my bed before going to work, but I was in rush this morning.  Jerk.

One-Layer Wednesday #134:  It's been quite a while since I've done a one layered card, but when I saw the challenge this afternoon, an idea came to me when I was at spin class tonight.  This is not to say that I wasn't paying attention during class or didn't get a good workout because I was very sweaty afterwards!

Here's the challenge:

We all know that 3 is the magic number in design and architecture. So our challenge for this week is to use as many threesomes as you can. A threesome can be any group of 3 things - you could stamp 3 of the same image, use 3 different stamps or colours - wherever your imagination takes you!

I bought this Hero Arts lamp stamps on clearance a few months ago, so I decided to stamp the 3 lamps in 3 different colors. The lamps and the sentiment stamp go together perfectly, don't you think? 

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Yellow Citrus, Ocean
Stamps: Hero Arts- Decorative Lamps, Studio G (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner

Office Computer Raffle

After being at my place of employment for almost 5 years, I FINALLY won a computer from the office computer raffle!  We haven't done one recently, but every so often, the office raffles off old laptops when people upgrade to new ones (June 2010 and December 2010). 

I think I'll give this computer to my mom since hers is kinda limping along...

Office Goodies and New Nails

At the office: I got an email at the office this morning about treats in the kitchen.  The phrase "red velvet" totally sold me.  My coworker's uncle is a dessert chef, and he had an engagement party over the weekend and my coworker brought some leftovers.  I took two squares of the red velvet cake. :D

Breakfast of champions...obviously.

New Nails: Last night, I was trying to do Konad stamping on the tips of my fingers with my Pink Blink manicure, but I messed up and decided to start fresh with new colors.  I will say that using a base coat and the Seche Vite top coat really made a difference in reducing wear and chippage on the tips.  Anyway, this is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Mint Sprint (2 coats) and Wet N Wild's Megalast in I Need A Refresh-Mint (1 coat, ring finger) and Bundle Monster plate #224.  I was hoping that the Seche Vite top coat wouldn't smear the nail art stamping, but it kinda did on some of my nails.  Oh well. From far away, you can't really tell.