Welcome to November. What happened to the other 10 months of this past year?
I've never really been the type to get mushy at Thanksgiving, but I have had many reminders lately of how lucky and fortunate I am about various things and aspects of my life. So why not dedicate my month to sharing a few of those things with you. I am going to try, every day, to blog about one thing that I am thankful for. I'll keep it short and parsimonious, and where applicable, will accompany a little story about why or what prompted this.
So, on with day #1.
Today I am thankful for my good health. I take for granted the fact that my legs are straight and strong and that I can not only walk, but run, bicycle, and dance. I can run around the house chasing the kitties, go for a hike up a mountain, or barrel down one using the force of my two legs on bike pedals. My heart pumps and my lungs heave, and everything functions as it should, making it possible to do the things I love.
A dear friend of mine found herself in a situation this past week where her body did not function as it should. As a result, she is in the hospital undergoing treatment. It was an exciting moment for her when she realized that she could move her foot, when she hadn't been able to do so for several days. This friend is a fellow dancer and shopper, and I know that her legs are crucial to allowing her to do the things that she loves. It's a shock to think about her in her current state and realize that it could have happened to anyone, at any time.
Today I think about my legs, and my health, and dedicate this post to Alissa in hopes that she continues to improve and grow stronger in the coming weeks.
Stuff I Do
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Make it Monday #33 - Frosted Images
Hidey-ho, folks! Just popping in for a quickie today to show you my take on this week's Make It Monday challenge from the gals over at PapertreyInk. To make frosted images, Lisa taught to stamp your image first in a colored ink, then quickly stamping on top of that with white ink, and using your finger or a sponge dauber to blend the colors together giving it a foggy look.
My image didn't want to blend very well; perhaps my dark blue ink dried too quickly. I wasn't able to get a lot of the color to rub out, so I stuck my finger back, in the white and tried to blend it a little better. You can see that it definitely looks frosted, but not very well fogged.
I added some large crystal glitter for a winter wonderland look, and voila!
Cheers!
My image didn't want to blend very well; perhaps my dark blue ink dried too quickly. I wasn't able to get a lot of the color to rub out, so I stuck my finger back, in the white and tried to blend it a little better. You can see that it definitely looks frosted, but not very well fogged.
I added some large crystal glitter for a winter wonderland look, and voila!
It's a bit tough to see the dark blue layer of the card base when photographed against the blue walls of my kitchen!
And a close up:
Cheers!
Monday, August 29, 2011
PTI Make It Monday #30: Colored Pencils
As chance should have it, no work on Monday! So instead, I had the chance to hang out in my craft room with the kitties all morning making cards. *Sigh*
I decided to participate in this week's Make It Monday challenge: colored pencils. I am usually quite averse to anything that requires coloring (or hand cutting), but decided to give it a go anyway.
Here's Nichole's blurb about the challenge:
"Everybody is crazy over Copic markers, but we're kickin' it old school today with a video on colored pencils. Let Jennifer show you how inexpensive, blendable, and impressive projects can be using this coloring medium."
And here's my card. Note: I used the colored pencils on a colored card stock base, so I had some of the melon berry color peeking through. I used a combination of three colors; pink, coral and maroon to get my rose effect. What do you think?
I decided to participate in this week's Make It Monday challenge: colored pencils. I am usually quite averse to anything that requires coloring (or hand cutting), but decided to give it a go anyway.
Here's Nichole's blurb about the challenge:
"Everybody is crazy over Copic markers, but we're kickin' it old school today with a video on colored pencils. Let Jennifer show you how inexpensive, blendable, and impressive projects can be using this coloring medium."
And here's my card. Note: I used the colored pencils on a colored card stock base, so I had some of the melon berry color peeking through. I used a combination of three colors; pink, coral and maroon to get my rose effect. What do you think?
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Kellogg, ID Biking Adventures
And now, some fun videos from my Darling Husband.
The first is a time-lapse video of our trail ride from Black Rock to Harrison to the bridge over Lake Coeur d'Alene and then back to harrison. Be sure to play this in 720 HD for the full effect. Such a beautiful ride!
This is a video of me falling down, in high resulution.
Cheers!
The first is a time-lapse video of our trail ride from Black Rock to Harrison to the bridge over Lake Coeur d'Alene and then back to harrison. Be sure to play this in 720 HD for the full effect. Such a beautiful ride!
This is a video of me falling down, in high resulution.
Cheers!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
New Cards
Hi-ya! Here are a few of the cards that I've been working on this week. Some are same-old, same-old, some are a new style Let me know what ya think!
Playing with chocolate brown and Hawaiian shores colors together.
Hawaiian Shores & Royal Velvet
Leafy Vines die! "It's a RAINBOW!" - For Mom
New damask designed patterned paper run through the sewing machine for a quilt-like look.
Without the stitching.
Simple.
The patterned paper on this is left-overs from Misty's Birthday Calendar. I covered the binder with this and coordinating yellow satin ribbon at the seams. Looked amazing.
The picture here was the inspiration for Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop this past week. While I didn't finish my card in time to enter it into the blog hop itself, I still really liked the card that I came up with. I used both the colors & the window as inspiration for my design. I have orange, white, kraft, aqua and light green. Whaddya think?
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
This and That
Welcome to summertime in the NW. It lasted about 3 days, and now we're back into Fall. Maybe next year summer will last a full week?
Blerg.
This past weekend, temperatures broke 80 degrees, which we haven't seen in these parts since last August or September. Really. Saturday I spent the day hunched over doing some much needed yard work. I weeded my garden along the street, moved some poorly-situated plants from last year, and bought 8 bags of bark mulch. What a difference that makes! Wow, it looks and smells fantastic out there, now!
I attempted some vinca (periwinkle) removal, but when the roots started coming up with 8+ inches of bark and soil attached, I decided that I would tackle this project bit by bit.
On Sunday Clint and I went to Duthie Hill Park for some mountain biking. Being sore from the previous days' workload, I wasn't super into it. I wanted to go for a road ride, but changed my mind to appease my darling husband. I struggled. I was tired, achy, and it was bloody hot outside! I sweat, and it never evaporated. I just kept sweating and sweating. It felt good, but it was really gross.
After a rocky (literally and emotionally) run on Step it Up, we parked ourselves in the clearing to play around a bit. I rode the skinnies (successfully, I might add) and played around on the drops. I landed, perfectly, the 2nd drop, twice! OK, so Clint rides off all 5 like they're nothing, but for me, landing the 2nd was a big step! I mean, it's like 10 inches! (That's what he said...?)
So now we're back into the work week and life is moving on. Today we have the appliance repair man fixing our dryer. After almost 2 hours tumbling the other night, we opened the door to find a lump of wet clothes flopping around. Poop. After checking the venting, we decided it wasn't something we could fix. In comes the repair man, who found $10.33 and 10C Canadian, and $220 later, our dryer works like new. Great! Now I can start wearing good clothes to work again. :-)
I have been making cards here and there lately, but with Bear's needs, and working until 4:00 instead of 3:30 lately, I'm not finding the time that I wish I had for this. I have Fridays off now, which is nice. I made several cards last Friday, most of which I like, too. But yesterday I wanted to participate in Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop, but didn't have enough time to complete my card and get it posted to participate and possible be a random winner. Bummer. But my card will be super cute when it's done!
We started eating according to the Paleo Blueprint a couple of weeks ago. The basic idea behind this lifestyle is that if we eat the way people ate 10,000 years ago, then our bodies will be better equipped to process the foods instead of storing it for fat. According to this guy's book, agriculture developed much faster than the human body, so that today, agriculture, and therefore the way that people eat, has outpaced evolution, which is partly why people these days are so fat, respectively. By taking our diets back 10,000 years, we are eating only what our bodies can handle, and what our bodies need. No grains, no corn, no starches. Just hunting-gathering types of sustenance. So if it can be hunted or gathered, I can eat it. I can gather cupcakes, right? I mean...
So lots of meat, fish, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, berries. We try to eat little that has been processed, like hot dogs. Sure, they're beef, but not exactly in its purest form, you know? So far I've lost 8 lbs, but our cheat day of burger & fries & 2 beers but me up a few, so net loss is only 5. But we're getting there. This feels like a lifestyle change that has some longevity for us. Mush easier than Atkins, mostly because of the fruit. And hey, if it comes straight from the Earth, chances are it's pretty good for you.
Blerg.
This past weekend, temperatures broke 80 degrees, which we haven't seen in these parts since last August or September. Really. Saturday I spent the day hunched over doing some much needed yard work. I weeded my garden along the street, moved some poorly-situated plants from last year, and bought 8 bags of bark mulch. What a difference that makes! Wow, it looks and smells fantastic out there, now!
I attempted some vinca (periwinkle) removal, but when the roots started coming up with 8+ inches of bark and soil attached, I decided that I would tackle this project bit by bit.
On Sunday Clint and I went to Duthie Hill Park for some mountain biking. Being sore from the previous days' workload, I wasn't super into it. I wanted to go for a road ride, but changed my mind to appease my darling husband. I struggled. I was tired, achy, and it was bloody hot outside! I sweat, and it never evaporated. I just kept sweating and sweating. It felt good, but it was really gross.
After a rocky (literally and emotionally) run on Step it Up, we parked ourselves in the clearing to play around a bit. I rode the skinnies (successfully, I might add) and played around on the drops. I landed, perfectly, the 2nd drop, twice! OK, so Clint rides off all 5 like they're nothing, but for me, landing the 2nd was a big step! I mean, it's like 10 inches! (That's what he said...?)
So now we're back into the work week and life is moving on. Today we have the appliance repair man fixing our dryer. After almost 2 hours tumbling the other night, we opened the door to find a lump of wet clothes flopping around. Poop. After checking the venting, we decided it wasn't something we could fix. In comes the repair man, who found $10.33 and 10C Canadian, and $220 later, our dryer works like new. Great! Now I can start wearing good clothes to work again. :-)
I have been making cards here and there lately, but with Bear's needs, and working until 4:00 instead of 3:30 lately, I'm not finding the time that I wish I had for this. I have Fridays off now, which is nice. I made several cards last Friday, most of which I like, too. But yesterday I wanted to participate in Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop, but didn't have enough time to complete my card and get it posted to participate and possible be a random winner. Bummer. But my card will be super cute when it's done!
We started eating according to the Paleo Blueprint a couple of weeks ago. The basic idea behind this lifestyle is that if we eat the way people ate 10,000 years ago, then our bodies will be better equipped to process the foods instead of storing it for fat. According to this guy's book, agriculture developed much faster than the human body, so that today, agriculture, and therefore the way that people eat, has outpaced evolution, which is partly why people these days are so fat, respectively. By taking our diets back 10,000 years, we are eating only what our bodies can handle, and what our bodies need. No grains, no corn, no starches. Just hunting-gathering types of sustenance. So if it can be hunted or gathered, I can eat it. I can gather cupcakes, right? I mean...
So lots of meat, fish, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, berries. We try to eat little that has been processed, like hot dogs. Sure, they're beef, but not exactly in its purest form, you know? So far I've lost 8 lbs, but our cheat day of burger & fries & 2 beers but me up a few, so net loss is only 5. But we're getting there. This feels like a lifestyle change that has some longevity for us. Mush easier than Atkins, mostly because of the fruit. And hey, if it comes straight from the Earth, chances are it's pretty good for you.
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