I DID IT!!!

So today I want to share with you one of my proudest accomplishments to date. I ran my first ever 5k on Saturday morning. Here this is me running..... and this is me crossing the finish line...what you don't see the picture...really...that's because THERE ISN'T one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRR!!!! Okay, complaining first. DH...well...lets just say...not a "techy" guy. He's more of the manly hunter, gatherer type. I'm sure there are more just like me out there, with the husband that doesn't have anything to do with any of the camera equipment, VCR's, DVD's, i pods, etc. It's fine most of the time, it just means that rarely am I in a picture, because I'm the one always taking the picture, and if I am chances are it's blurry or my head is missing. I just wanted to picture to document this personal milestone, so I gave one of the 3 digital cameras we have to my 8 year old (totally "techy by the way). I left the rechargable batteries charging with instructions to DH to grab them before they left and put them in the camera, then Joey would be able to take pictures and even run the movie mode. (Sad, that I counted on the son for this, anyway...) Well, of course, that didn't happen, but I had a back up plan. I had given DH the small little digital camera that just runs on an internal memory and charges with a USB cable, just in case. And he did take pictures-but then left the camera on in his JEEP while he went fishing in the afternoon and if the camera loses power it wipes out the pictures.
So, lets just imagine this:
Okay picture a 5' 10" woman, long brown hair, running her guts out to the finish...okay, that was the chick that won. Now let's picture me, about 15 minutes after that insane woman crossed the line... 5'5", huffin' and a puffin', pink baseball cap on, face beat red and sweaty, i POD in ears for motivation, convincing herself internally to not give up and get there. Okay that was me.
Truly, if you are runner and you are reading this, your thinking, what's the big deal? True, very true. But huge for me. I had always been athletic, but never a runner. I ran because it was part of my training for volleyball (yes, I was a POWERHOUSE at 5'5"-STOP LAUGHING!), and various other sports, but I never considered myself a runner. But, I like many other women, fell into the mommy phase of life and put on 25 pounds, and forgot about myself for a few years. Well, I'm back and trying to figure out how I fit into this world at just shy of 35 years of life. So I started running. I found this great place called the Running Room, that offered a LEARN TO RUN class, and 10 weeks later-a 5K completed. No, I didn't run the whole thing, but I finished. And truth be told, looking up at the last 20 yards and seeing DH and my two boys cheering for me was truly priceless, I did win in my book. And in DH's defense he left me flowers and a note saying how proud he was of me on my car seat after the race. Tears in my eyes thinking about it (totally not his style by the way-that was huge for him!) Thanks for sticking with this entry and reading the whole thing.
BOSTON MARATHON here I come!!! (((((laughing HYSTERICALLY)))))))

Folded place card

I spent yesterday perfecting this project for you guys. If you could only see all the abandoned versions of this project. I originally got a card in a swap last year using this fold, and I always thought it would look so cute modified down to a place card for the holidays. Well I finally got around to doing it. So here we go!Start with a piece of paper that is 5 1/2"x 3".
On the long side you will score at 1 1/2" and 2 1/2", and 1 1/2" on the short side. In my picture a used a pen to highlight the scores. Now you need to make two diagonal scores in the one inch strip in the middle. (I don't know how to explain those in words, you need to look at the picture.)
Now loosen up all your scores by folding them. Fold your diagonal folds so make a mountain fold.
I hope I can explain this right, I'm a visual learner so I tried to make pictures to accommodate those of you like me. You will take those mountain folds and push the peak up toward the front of the paper.
This is just another view of the same thing. It is just the side view to help you see what you should be doing. After this you should fold the front squares back to form your place card.
This is the place card finished for a Thanksgiving theme.
Here I opened it up just a little bit so you could see the "Gratitude" stamp from Define you Life.
Here is just a top view so you can see how it will sit when it is opened. A neat little dimensional project. I embossed my leaf with clear embossing powder to give it a little dimension too. I hope you could follow the directions. It really is an easy project, you just have to do those folds once and say "oh I get it". Let me know if you make one!!!

"Making" up for lost time

Hi ladies!!!! Well I finally found some time to stamp last Friday. Unfortunately we seem to be having a baby boom at work and the weekend was CRAZY!!! I went to work at 2am on Saturday morning and didn't get back home until 8:15pm. Luckily it settled down and I just had to do a regular shift on Sunday. Anyway, I have 5 cards to share with you, I'm trying to make up some lost posting time!!!First (and second) are cards using Beate's weekend challenge layout. I don't even remember the last time I actually sat down and did a challenge. I used Paper Trey Beautiful Blooms set that was released last month. Those sets from Paper Trey are so much fun to work with.
Second is another of the same layout from Beate, but I used Paper Trey's Believe set for this one. I don't know that the picture does my sparkly tree justice, but the tree was embossed with black powder, then I watercolored it with my watercolor crayons, and then added red glitter and heat set again. It's really pretty in person.
Here is the Santa from the Believe set. I went for a non traditional Santa here. His "outfit" is cut out of Wintergreen designer paper from Stampin' Up. I watercolored in Sage Shadow around him but the picture didn't pick that up to great.
This is my first My Favorite Things set that I have ever bought, and can I just say, "oh, great, ANOTHER place to spend my money." I think they captured the spirit of the breast cancer fight so beautifully with these images. I went away from the traditional pink with this one and went with Groovy Guava as a main color. I really like how it turned out!
At last but not least, this was supposed to look like snapshots of different women all in a row. I think I'm happy with how it turned out. This Think Pink set is really fun!
Take care, I think I'm headed back to my "studio".

Wanted!--Time to Stamp!

Can you believe it???? I finally-after all this time, get to my blog, and I can't upload a picture. I haven't surfed this morning but I'm assuming this is everyone's problem as I got a box that said they are working on fixing it!
Well, yes I am okay, Nick and I were on vacation to Vegas-our first vacation without kids since our honeymoon. We celebrated our 10 year anniversary last month and this is part of our present to each other. We had a great time, and I came home with $450 in winnings-can you say "NEW STAMPS?" I'm going to have a couple of days to myself on Thursday and Friday and I plan to make some new stuff.
Clearly October has been a rough posting month for me, don't forget about me, I'll be back with vigor soon!!!

It's all personal

Well girls, it's all personal stuff today, so if you don't like fluff, check back tomorrow. First of all thanks to Flossie who helped me change my background color, I'm still working on template thing.

Next, make sure you stop and see Corie and leave her a comment on going Pink for October, she will donate a dollar for every comment she receives (up to $100)to the Susan G. Komen foundation.

Here's some pictures from a few weeks ago when my sister and I drove BMW's to raise money for the Susan G. Komen foundation.
True, it was tough job, but somebody has to do it.
It was a gorgeous day, and you can't get better than this as a way to donate!
Next are my hummingbirds, which have been so much fun to have around this summer.
As they start to get ready to head south all they do is feed and fight. It was crazy in the back yard some days. This little female did take some breaks and rest on my deck.
They get VERY territorial and I happened to be lucky enough to catch this male dive bombing this female.
And last, but not least is my little Ozzie. If you've been following my blog, you know I got him in April at 9 weeks old. He is a Shih Tzu, and was in desperate need of a haircut. We started calling him cousin IT. Well, this is him before....
And this is him after. Doesn't that picture just crack you up??? It does me. Thankfully he doesn't have the underbite all the time. Took a little bit to adjust to the "new" dog again. My son got off the bus and said, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO OZZIE????"
Thanks for stopping. Wow, it's been some crazy weeks!

I'm Back!

Hey girls, can you believe it's been 12 days since I last posted? I can't!!! The duties of wife, mother, labor and delivery nurse, took over I guess. Doesn't it suck when real life gets in the way of stamping? Well, I'm hoping to get to my stamping room today, but in the mean time, her are some of my favorite cards from my card class last week. I'm also trying to figure out how to download my own custom template so I can have a pink website for October. (You have NO IDEA how huge this will be if I can do it. I help small humans come out of vagina's---way on the opposite side of the technology spectum. I tried reading the one blogger help topic on doing, let's just say--- HUH???) Hope you are all well!!!