Is it Coffee yet?

Actually I don’t drink coffee!  I love the smell of it brewing and I love coffee ice cream and coffee milk shakes but I never took a liking to a hot cup of coffee.  I chose for years to get my caffeine by filling my body with ounces and ounces of Diet Pepsi instead!   Last month I made a commitment to eat more healthy, work out on a regular basis, and give up my beloved Diet Pepsi.  Today it’s two weeks that I’ve gone without a sip of soda.  Those who know me best are in shock that I could go even an hour without a DP let alone FOURTEEN DAY!  It hasn’t been easy but I am determined!  Last Friday night we went out to dinner with a group of friends.  I actually sat at a bar and ordered water and then I drank a pitch of water all by myself at dinner!  I’m doing it!  I feel so much better and I’ve lost over ten pounds!

Anyhow – even though I never drank coffee I signed up for a coffee themed ATC swap over at the Shack.  This was the only coffee related image I had.  The image is from Lizzie Anne and the sentiment is from Hanna Stamps.  I used SU Chocolate Brown ink.  The white base is water coloring paper and the rest of the paper, the pearls, and ribbon are from my stash.  I outlined the steam and the coffee cup with a Sakura gel pen.

I am pretty much caught up on my swap commitments.  I have my Secret Sister swap for April and May and the monthly card swap that I host through December.  I’m holding off on signing up for any more swaps (I think) for a few months as we’ll be on vacation in May and then it’s boating season and time to kick my 3-Day training up a notch!  This is a tough fundraising year with the economy and having to buy a plane ticket to fly to Dallas but I’d do it!  (I hope anyway)!

TGIF – any plans for this weekend?

Happy Spring

I made this card for my monthy card swap. March's theme was Spring or Easter. I used the 'Bet Bling set from My Favorite Things. The card base and ink are from Stampin Up. The Hello sentiment and the white card stock are from Papertrey Ink and the patterned paper is from K & Company. The bling was from my stash. I used a Martha Stewart punch for the bottom edge of the card.

I am so ready for spring! The weather here is warm (50's) and sunny one day and cold, damp, and rainy the next. I've been doing great with my commitment to eat better, exercise, and get in shape for this years 3-Day Walk. I joined Curves and am doing Weight Watchers online. This Thursday is my third weigh in - I'm hoping for a good one! I do feel much better and can feel the inches melting away and I do understand that muscle weighs more than fat so I won't be real discouraged if the scale doesn't more too much. I can feel it in my clothes and that is actually keeping me motivated!

I am looking for ideas for fundraisers for this year's walk. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Have a great day.

You’re so sweet!

I’m plugging away at those swaps!  Here is another ATC that I did for a swap over at the Stamp Shack.  I used K. & Company patterned papers.  The image and sentiment are from Gina K. and stamped in Palette Noir.  I stamped the image on water color paper and then colored with my Copic markers.  I highlighted the image with some Stickles, embellished with some bling from my stash and … poof one more ATC done-zo!

I have one more ATC to finish up – just need to add some ribbon – maybe.  Tonight I will finish up my recipe card swap, my Aloha monthly card, my secret sister package, and my April monthly card swap.  Whew!  Is this an aggressive to-do list for tonight or what!  I think I can do it though!

I’m bummed that I didn’t have time to enter the MFT Idol contest.  You really should check it out and cast your vote for your favorite project today.  (It was tough as they are all awesome)!

On a personal note – it’s been pretty busy around here.  I’ve begun my training for this year’s 3-Day Walk for Breast Cancer (which will be in Dallas in November).  That means that I have to walk a minimum of three miles four times per week.  As the weeks draw closer I will be increasing my distance.  Today is my DH’s ‘Chili Cookoff’ at work.  We spent last night cooking up 15 pounds of his award winning (he won last year) Sweet & Sassy chili.  He even had a guest appearance on our local TV station’s cooking show last August.  The winner gets to chose where the money raised is donated.   Last year the winnings exceeded $400.00, which DH chose to donate to my 3-Day Walk fund.  We’re hoping he wins again this year as this donation makes a huge dent in the $2300.00 I need to raise in order to participate. 

As if cooking chili wasn’t enough to do I made a crockpot full of corned beef, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes before work yesterday and dropped it off at Evan’s house.  He is certainly the one carrying on our Irish heritage!  (With a maiden name like Kelly I am thrilled he’s as in love will anything Irish as I am)!  He was pleasantly surprised after work last night when he walked in to the yummy dinner already for him. 

I’m also on day six of doing Weight Watchers online.  I would like to drop 20 lbs. before we head to Florida in May.  Tomorrow is my first weigh-in and I’m hoping it’s a good one!

Sorry to ramble.  I guess I’d better get to work!

Birthday Wishes

I’m still plugging away at those swaps I mentioned a few days ago!  For this swap I had to create six four by four card fronts with a men’s theme.  I decided to use my card front to create a birthday card for a good friend of ours who's birthday is later in the month.  Years ago he owned a gorgeous red Mustang and even though I know this is a far cry from that hot set of wheels this was the best image I could come up with!

 The red & black card base is SU card stock.  The white is PTI.  I stamped the image with Palette Noir and colored it with my Copic markers.  The ribbon and brads are from my stash.  I ran the white card stock through my Cuttlebug and trimmed the card edge with a Martha Stewart punch. The image is an old STP stamp I’ve had for years and the sentiment (stamped with Palette Noir) is from PTI.

Today I’m starting to clean up my stamp room.  It’s not a weekend project – it will take much longer than that but I’m plugging away at it.  I do have a few more swaps to finish up later today but I really need to get at least one section of the room organized!

What are you up to today?

Still in the Game …

Check out this James House video!  My friend, Lesa Sverid, who is kicking breast cancer in the ASS, is featured in the video.  Lesa is a fellow stamper who I met through the Stamp Shack and who I was very fortunate to meet in real life last June at the West Springfield, MA stamp show. 

Lesa is such an awesome person.  In addition to fighting her own battle against this terrible disease Lesa has started a wonderful cause called Little Life Preservers.  She sends handmade cards of encouragement to other women battling this horrible monster. 

As most of you know I participate in the 60 mile 3-Day Walk for Breast Cancer.  This year, our 4th year participating, our team will be walking in Dallas in November.  Once again I will be walking in honor of Lesa.  I am just starting to plan my 2009 fundraising events and getting my training program off the ground.  I will be documenting my progress here as I get going.

Do you have a cause that you support?  I’d love to hear about it and how you show your support.

ATC’s

I signed up for several ATC swaps over at the Stamp Shack.  Here are two that I recently finished.  I have a few more to finish tonight – (OK – I have two more ATC swaps, a 4 x 4 card front swap, a recipe card swap, and a regular card swap to finish) -  what a relief it will be to get caught up! 

Creating ATC’s is a lot of fun as they are small and take less time than making a bunch of cards for a swap.  I have decided, however, that once I finish my outstanding ATC swaps I’m going to try not signing up for any more – at least TRY I said :)!  They are cute and I enjoy seeing what all of my Shack friends come up with but I think I would rather have a finished card or a card front than an ATC.  Just my opinion – for today anyway.  We all know tomorrow is a new day and I could sign up for six more ATC swaps – right! 

ATC # 1 is for a Winter Wonderland swap.  I used one of my  favorite MFT sets, did a little paper piecing, colored with Copics, and added some stickles.

ATC #2 is for a Pretty in Pink themed swap.  For this swap I inked up a Pink Cat Studio set, colored with Copics & Sakura gel pen, added some flowers and bling.

Do you participate in swaps?  If so, what type are your favorite? 

BUSTED!

So – what does a six month old Golden Retriever puppy do for entertainment when his masters are at work?!?!?!

 

I work from home when I’m not on the road and we let Henri roam around the house with Bentley when we’re not here or I’m working in my basement office.  I guess Henri was a little bored a few days ago and Bentley wasn’t interested in playing.  This mess is what I found when I came up from my office for lunch!  Henri had gotten into the linen closet and chewed four rolls of toilet paper.  He was able to get the newspaper from the kitchen bar and drag it upstairs.  He also found a book from one of Katie’s classes last semester. 

The top picture is how I found Mischief (I mean Henri) in the hallway when I came upstairs.  He immediately ran into our bedroom to show me the rest of the disaster!

Good thing I love him!

Yay – we have a new computer!

It feels good to be back online on a regular basis.  The hard part for me right now is realizing that we’ve lost all of our pictures, files, etc.  Our old computer is at the PC Doctor and I am crossing my fingers that he will at least be able to retrieve our pictures.  Lesson learned – BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER ON A REGULAR BASIS!  I know we will be!

I’m trying out this new blog writer that (hopefully) will upload to my current blog.  It sure seems a lot easier to create new posts this way. 

I’m hoping to have some new projects to post tonight.  I received some new MFT toys last week and need to ink them up for the MFT Release party tonight.  I have a shopping list going – actually I want ALL of the new releases!  Hope to see you there.

I am Sick! Our computer crashed this afternoon!

I knew it was going to happen - I just knew it! I was planning to back up our main home computer this past weekend but I got side tracked. I traveled for work today and when I got home I logged onto my email, got dinner going, and all of a sudden a loud, horrible noise started coming from the family room. Initially we thought it was the wood stove fan but nope - it was our computer! I think I am actually beyond sick - I don't even want to think about all of the pictures, emails, blog favorites, etc. that have been lost. I will admit we've had the computer since November of 2001 and we've been lucky that it has lasted this long but still ...

If anyone has any suggestions on how to retrieve files please let me know. Also, if anyone has any suggestions on what we should be considering for a new desk top I'm all ears. Our computer was a Gateway. I'm not much of a techie but we paid a lot of $$ for it in 2001 and it had all the bells, whistles, and memory of that time.

If you are reading this and a regular - please post a message or email me so that I have your contact info. Thanks.

I know this picture has nothing to do with this post but I'm using my laptop tonight and my 3-Day Walk pictures are just about all that I have saved here! This is my best friend Lisa and I at the end of the Michigan 3-Day this past September. I need to get my butt in gear to get ready for this year's walk in Dallas :)

Sorry to rant - I just needed vent.