11 hours till flight time

And so much still to do! I am flying out tonight on the red eye flight to NYC. Still have to get several things done before I go, including packing. And the excitement is getting to me. It is making me move slower not faster though. I am anxiously counting down the hours while thinking of all I need to do. I am taking a Karen Foster's chipboard mini book/album with 20 pages in it, so that I can journal and collect things as the week goes along. Because I want to remember as much as I can and I know that the week is going to fly by. I better get going, cause the clock is ticking. :) New York City here I come!

Musings

Finished working 4 night shifts, got off yesterday am. While running around doing errands yesterday am I pulled a muscle in my right upper shoulder radiating up into my neck. I took some Advil thinking it would go away. It didn't really help take the spasm away. It dulled the pain but it still is in spasm. I have tried all sorts of things all evening and into today: heating pad, Tylenol 3, Naprosyn, methanol hot pad, more Advil. It has been making things very uncomfortable night didn't sleep well, and then today it has been bugging me. I should have gone to the store for some muscle relaxants, but didn't even feel like doing that. Yuck. I don't even realize what I did to make it spasm. Too bad it didn't actually happen at work. WCB anyone? I also decided I needed a masseuse.

Glad I am not working for a while again. Technically I am off till April 9th. Because on Saturday I fly out to New York City. I hope my spasm settles down.

Supposed to be meeting Cindy and Andy on Friday morning to work on our cute cupcake aprons. So excited. The fabric is adorable. I am even excited about the thread. I am so excited to sew my cupcake apron!!

Dream

I had a dream about my new SU Polka Dots & Paisley set. I dreamed I went to the store and found 3 shirts with the paisley stamped on it. One of them also had the happy stamped on it! Then I dreamed of the ways that I could get the "find joy in the little things" quote onto the sleeve and back of the shirt. It was a nice dream.

Perfect layout

This layout was done last weekend on Sunday. It was an exciting weekend in which my sister surprised me by coming up with my cousin to help me celebrate my birthday. So they arrived in Seattle late Thursday and drove up on Friday. I met them at Montana's for a later lunch, not knowing who was going to be there. It was such a treat to discover them in the booth waiting for me. We enjoyed lunch, I even had the embarrassing moose antler's birthday singing and dessert. We stopped by Precious Memories scrap booking store as they had both come with a scrap booking agenda. They both came ready work on their wedding albums.

We then came straight back to my place where they declared my place the best scrap booking store ever. I disagree, but humoured them anyway. We got little done on Friday night, but spent all Saturday scrapping away. It was great. Sunday we went to a late lunch and then to Starbuck's and then came back to scrap the night away. Early Monday they drove back down to Seattle to the airport. It was a great weekend. My sister got her album complete, and my cousin got over half of hers done. We also got 3 Jane Austen movies watched: Sense and Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, and Persuasion. My sister and I love P&P. It is our all time favourite, and my cousin agreed that it was great. I personally love Persuasion almost as much as P&P. My sister and cousin couldn't quite get into it. I think they just need to watch it again and again and again, then they will love it too! :)

It took me a while to get my project going. My sister gave me two stamps sets for my birthday, Stampin Up's Happy Harmony and Polka Dots & Paisley!!! So exciting!! I have been drooling over the Polka Dots & Paisley set and I was so excited to get it!! She also brought up the two new SU punches: Round Tab Punch and Spiral Punch. I punched my little heart out. I even joked with her about what would happen if I broke those punches by punching too much!! By the end of the weekend she actually left the punches with me! Whoo hoo!

My sister who's a Stampin Up Demo also brought the new SU Spring Mini Designers paper: Notations and Au Chocolat. She left portions of each package with me! She is too generous!!

Needless to say it took me forever to come up with a project. Too many ideas and too hard to narrow it down. Plus it was strange because both my sister and my cousin brought their ideas already planned out. Too much pressure for me to be creative. Finally we got out the April issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine and my sister and we decided to follow their article "Easy Patterns". My layout isn't exactly like the article, but it got me going into a direction. Which is what I needed.

Birthday rak card

This is another Splitcoast Stampers Rak forum card that I got from Bonnie for my birthday. Thank you so much.

The coloured images are almost shimmery! I love it!!

birthday rak card

I joined the Spiltcoast stampers RAK forum earlier in March. And behold less than a week later I had a birthday card in my mailbox from Roseanne. Thank you so much!

My favourite thing about this card is her use of the punch in the corners as part of the ribbon holding. It looks so cute. So going to have to get this SU Notched Corner punch and try this out.

Sarah's contest winners are up

Go check out Sarah's blog to see the winners of her Red Card Contest. There are some really beautiful cards there!!!

I can't believe I forgot to tell you...

Well, it's like this...I have been working in a part time position and picking up extra shifts for the past 4 3/4 years. It has been okay. Not great, but not bad. The schedule is flexible, but not consistent. I have applied in the past for full-time lines but never had enough senority to get the position. About 2 weeks ago I applied for a full-time line that was posted. I found out on my birthday that I got it!! So, not only did I turn 30, but I also became a full-time employee. Goodbye flexible summer schedule, hello full-time benefits!! Whoo hoo!!

30 + 2 days

I survived my big birthday. Thanks for all of your encouraging words. I had a good day. I spent the morning, lunch, and early afternoon with Cindy. We made it to a quilt store, a scrap booking store, lunch, and a stamping store. Cindy bought really cute fabric at the quilt store. We also saw this super cute cupcake apron that was adorable. Unfortunately they were all sold out of the fabric. Bummer. It is on order, and supposed to arrive early next week. So I have this feeling I will be back there to pick it up.

I got a gorgeous bouquet of flowers for my birthday, totally made my day!

Woke up this morning with a cold. Cough, sore throat, headache, stuffy sinus. Yuck. I have been taking it easy today to try and get rid of it quickly. I did accomplish my huge laundry pile and got my house all nice and clean. No crafting today. Another day perhaps.

Last Day of my Twenties

Today is the last day of my twenties. Tomorrow is the big 3-0. I am sure I will be fine next week. But these past few weeks I have had a hard time saying goodbye to my twenties. The decade has flown by. I have accomplished a lot in it, but not everything that I thought I would. I guess that just means it gets bumped to the next decade's list, eh? I am still single, but I have a degree, a job, a life of my own. I am accountable to only myself and I am proud of the things that I have done so far in my life. I still have some things to adjust to as I leave my twenties. Things that will be resolved hopefully in the days, months, and years to come.

Today I spent the day with my good friend from university. We went shopping, had lunch, and went for a walk along the river. We talked about getting a tattoo or piercing today, but decided that it isn't really necessary for me to have either of those things today. Sure it is the end of my twenties, but maybe tomorrow I will wake up and not want a tattoo or piercing for my thirties. :) It was a good day even if nothing dramatic happened. Just a day spent renewing our friendship. Just a day preparing for the future.

The shopping trip included a new pair of black boots. They are for a trip I am getting ready to go on in early April. I am meeting my dad in New York City. I haven't been to NYC yet, and this is my birthday present this year. I am excited!! We are going to go for baseball's opening week. We are hoping to see the Yankees play. We are also planning on going to see the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. We have always wanted to go to it, and we want to see baseball games in all of the stadiums. We have been to a few stadiums over the years, but want to make it to Yankee Stadium before the new one is built. So this is the year to try.

So goodbye twenties. It was nice knowing you. You brought me a lot over the years. Hopefully I will be better off because of you.

How Kind of You Card

Stamps- Wordsworth clear set called I'm So Glad. The paper is SU and also from my stash. The ribbon is from Michaels. The eyelet is SU. I used Nancy's technique with my corner rounder to get the scalloped edge. Thanks for the inspiration and instructions!

I love you better than Hollywood

My card that I made for Sarah's contest. All the info for the contest is located on her blog.

Stamps are Wordsworth- the couple, and the sayings are all part of the clear set Love. Wordsworth has been one of my favourite stamp companies for about 10 years, and I am forever adding more of them to my collection. I love them, I love them, I love them. Amuse- skinny oval bl sm stamp.

Cardstock- SU Real Red, Basic Black, Creamy Caramel. The white cs is from my stash. The eyelets are Making Memories. The ribbon came as is from my valentine's gift wrap from my mom. She said I needed to make a card from it. :)

Ink- SU- Classic- Basic Black, Cool Caribbean, Craft- Creamy Caramel. The SU watercolor crayons were used for the couple, Tempting Turquoise and Always Artichoke. The flowers I used watercolor crayons, but didn't like them, so I covered them in red glitter glue. :)

So very Happy layout

12x12

Mostly scrap lifted from SU catalog page 151. I don't have Finest Flourishes but found this Stamper's Anonymous stamp that I thought would work nicely. It is stamped to cover the left hand corner. It is in Craft Whisper White ink. In the SU catalog they used acrylic paint.

Cardstock - Bazzill ivory with vertical pin-stripes, unsure of exact name. SU-Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Whisper White (to mount the photo on).

Ribbon- Michael's and SU.

Stamps- SU- So Very and It's a Date.

Stamper's Anonymous called Baroque and is in the Jim Holtz collection.

Ink- SU classic- Chocolate Chip, Cool Caribbean, Whisper White (craft).

Pen- Staedtler pens- triplus fineliner in brown. Love these pens! They rock my world.

BYOC card

Cindy gave me my birthday gift early. It was the SU sellabration set Delight in Life in a cute small leather round box. She gave it to me at BYOC, also known as Craft and Chat at Sarah's church last Friday. We had a good time. I took my time and mounted my new stamps and punched a bunch of corners, which you will see above on my layout. Then finally I decided to make a card. I included some Heidi Swapp Jewels in the center of the flowers. The rest is all SU.

My Carpet Color Combo Challenge

This is my carpet in my living room. It is from the 70's. It isn't so bad! And no it's not shag!!

Anybody up for a color combo challenge with it?

Let me know.