Brea 8K

Here we are at our second race of 12 races in 2012. This is the Brea 8K. Why 8K? No one seems to know, but the good news is that we all PR'd! The Brea 8K has been run for 21 years and benefits the Brea School District. I got the lunch group from Panasonic involved in this one. We registered as Team Panasonic. Even the kids are part of the team. There were two others who were supposed to come... I'm sorry that they couldn't make it.

I even got everyone matching shirts. Okay no one wants to run in a polo shirt, but it makes for a good picture, lol!

Team Panasonic came in 14th out of 81 teams! Yahoo, go us! We would have posted even better, but for some reason they used the top 4 gun times instead of chip times to calculate the team score. We started at least a minute from the starting line.

Like I said... everyone PR'd. Here are the stats...

Chris did a really good job, especially since he hasn't been running. He was our first team scorer. By the time the rest of us got in, he'd already been around the FREE food court once and had a grocery bag full of free food and goodies.



I finished in the top 10% of my age group, that's pretty much where I always finish. 8K is an unusual distance. I didn't want to go out at a 5K pace and not be able to finish, so I went at a 10K pace, but had too much energy at the end. I was the 4th scorer for our team.



This was Cheryl's first BIG competitive race. She was actually in front of me at the 1 mile mark. I passed her at the water station around mile 2. Jim took this picture of Cheryl just before the finish line. Look at that smile! Do you think she was having a good time?




I think that a good time was had by ALL! The race was very competitive, yet no one was pushing or being mean... The Brea 8K might have to be our annual tradition!

A new challenge card

I really love card challenges! They get me thinking of new ideas, new designs, and new ways to use the supplies I already have.

Here is my card:

I started out with a sketch challenge on Scrappin' Mojo.
I CASE'd this cute card from split coast stampers. The card was done with die-cuts, but the cute Ippity "Now & Always" stamp collection made a perfect BIG flower for this card. The elegant looking sentiment is from the PTI Signature Greetings Stamp Set.

Don't you just love that sparkly button? I got that idea from PTI Make it Monday

Thanks for stopping by!

Book Tutorial

Some of you might remember this little "She Art" that I did of the two girls.

Well, I sure hoped the girls liked it because I turned that She Art into a book. One for each of them!

Here's how it's done...
1) Take a digital photo of the She Art canvas (or you could scan it);

2) Resize the image in Photoshop to fit the cover of the sketch books

3) Print them out on plain printer paper.

4) Cover the sketch book with two coats of white gesso.

5) Add a coat of paint to match the background of the She Art printout. Notice that it's not necessary to paint the middle of the front cover.

6) Cut around the printed she art cover design

7) Adhere the cutout design to the book cover using modge podge

8) Use other colors of paint around the edge of the printout to blend it into the painted cover.
9) Add rub-ons and stamps.

10) Continue the painted design around the spine and back of the book.
11) Cover everything with a thin coat of modge podge to protect it.

12) Attach a ribbon bookmark to the top of the spine.

That's it! That's all you need to do to make a fun gift book!
Thanks for stopping by!

Good President's Morning!

It's kit club day! The brains behind the group is Beth. Every month the members take turn putting together a little kit for the other members to play with each month. We create a project using at least two of the items and share on our blogs. This month it was Mara's turn to send the kit. I know Mara from a scrapping MB that we were on together a long time ago. That site isn't in business anymore, but we still managed to keep in touch through our blogs and our love of running. We almost met once at the Surf City Half-Marathon in Huntington Beach. We must have been within 50 yards of each other, but there were thousands and thousands of people between us, lol!

Here is the February kit from Mara. Look at all the BRIGHT colors! This is sure to cheer up the ladies in snow country...

I had only one card planned, but my plan kept growing and growing. Here is all I had left when I finished playing with all the goodies!

And here is what I created with the kit:

This first card is the one that popped into my mind when I saw the kit. I needed to use all the beautiful colors to create a bright and colorful card. The stamped tree is from Unity.

Mara included some adorable stamped images from PSA Essentials. I knew that I wanted to create a card using one of them as a focal point.

Mara also sent some die cut tags. I'm a BIG fan of tags and happily proceeded to add another one of those cute PSA stamps to a gift tag. The stamp on this one is from PTI.

Now some mixed media madness! LOL! All those bright colors went together so well that I created a paint blend background with all the brightest papers and paint. I used the cute buttons, brads, and bling that Mara sent as the center of the flowers. The sentiment on this one is another stamp from Unity.

BUT I'm not DONE! Mara introduced me to baker's twine, and she sent three colors of the twine in the kit. I've also developed a love of baker's twine. I may never go back to ribbon! Here is a card I made for a challenge at Scrappin' Mojo. I used the baker's twine for the kit to wrap around the bottom of the card. It adds a perfect touch!

Lastly, here is another challenge card from Scrappin' Mojo that I made this weekend. Mara sent a lot of bling with her kit that I used on the center of all these little flowers. It's the perfect sparkly touch to an otherwise dreary looking card.

That's it for this month's kit... I think... I do have one more stamped image left. I'm saving it and the rest of the goodies for a rainy day (hmmm.. from the looks of those clouds that might be today, hahaha).

If you'd like to see what the rest of the group did with the kit, head on over to their blogs. Be sure to tell them I sent you ;oD

Mara
Mary
Beth

Have a GREAT holiday Monday, everyone!!!

Puppy and Plumbing

We completely missed Jena's birthday yesterday. Yep, the puppy is now 2yrs old! We had a good excuse... a pipe burst under the slab in the master bathroom. I noticed one of the tiles in the bathroom was warmer than the others. The following evening, 6 tiles in the bathroom were warmer than the others. We shut the hot water off and the next day I called the plumber. So, after 2 full 50+ hour weeks, I'm dealing with plumbers and insurance AND still trying to finish my software release by the 7pm deadline. Whew! I'm sure glad those two weeks are over with!

Anyway on to Jena-girl's birthday post! Jena has really gotten to be part of the family. She thinks she's just another one of the kids.

She even helps me with folding the laundry.

I must say that she's a sweetie, and she puts up with a lot...

We love you Big Girl!

A Herd of Holiday Happenings

I've been a negligent blogger. I missed posting about a few special happenings in the last few weeks. Firstly, the bulbs that I got for Christmas are blooming! I know that's not a big event, but we must find joy wherever we can... {grin}

And speaking of flowers... Happy Valentine's Day everyone! My wonderful hubby of 27 years, gave me TWO bunches of tulips. He said that he couldn't decide which ones to get me, so he got them both.

Here are the pretty pink ones. Oh, also notice the new pictures that I put up in the entry way.

I think these are my favorites... the white ones! They are so big and beautiful!

I also missed mentioning the birthday of my best-est friend, Mary. Happy Birthday, Mary! I hope you enjoyed your day!

I make Mary a new rolodex card on her birthday every year. This is the card for this year. LOOK! It's us in She Art style, lol!

It was also my niece's 10th birthday. I can't believe that the youngest of the cousins is now 10! They are all in double-digits now!

It was also my brother's and SIL's birthday. My brother is the youngest of the cousins of my generation, and he just turned 50yrs! Now I'm feeling old {sigh}. BUT I still had some people at his party convinced that I was the younger sibling... Take that, Randy!

Saving the best for last... It was Jim's 60th birthday! Happy Birthday, Honey. You're not getting older, your getting better!

That was an "all over the place" post. Thanks for stopping by!
I hope that everyone has a wonderful "Day of LOVE"!

Typography 101

I'm taking a typography class with Chris's friend, Thalita. It's an on online class. She's in Costa Rica, I'm in the US... isn't the internet a GREAT thing? It makes the world so much smaller.

I've always been interested in typography. I tried to take a class at the local community college, but it's always full. When I found this class taught by Cathy Z, I signed up! The first week she gave us 10 tips for creating and placing type. This week we are supposed to use what we learned and create a scrapbook layout.

Here is my homework assignment. It's a layout of Cheryl's birthday:

Here is my challenge assignment... a layout from the Disneyland 5K:

Look! TWO layouts this year! I've already doubled the number of layouts that I finished last year! YAHOO!

Disneyland 5K - take two

Here are a few more photos from the Disneyland 5K.

If Cheryl was one step more forward, this would have been a picture of all three of us:

There's my girl!

And look! I have proof that I beat Chris! I need to bask in the glory now, because I know it will never happen again, hahaha!

That's all for the Disneyland 5K... now we are looking forward to the Brea 8K!