Happy Birthday Sweet 16! (and a crafty share)

Happy Birthday to my niece!

All the kids are getting big so fast! Look out everyone! She'll be driving now before you know it... Notice the Happy Birthday hat? We have now passed it down to the next generation of birthday kids. Cheryl has been dying to get that hat out of the house... now I can't make her wear it on her birthday anymore.

Here are a few photos of today's SWEET celebration...

Cheers, Chris!

"The cake is a lie"? I don't really understand this one... can someone explain it to me?

Now, this I understand! CAKE~

... and PRESENTS!!!

Speaking of presents... We picked up a couple of video games for the birthday girl, and I made a cute birthday box to put them in. I used the PTI Game On Stamp set...

... and I altered the Timeless Templates Captured Card Case so that they would fit in there perfectly!

Add a cute tag from the PTI Birthday Tags collection, and it's a go!

Hugs to the Birthday Girl! Make a Wish!!!

Friday Ramblings...

I've been so busy at work these last couple of weeks that I haven't blogged for a while...

I think I need one of these workout tanks from Another Mother Runner to wear during my lunchtime workouts. Depending on how hard boot camp is (walking lunges are KILLERS) workout is not the easiest part of the day, but as long as I keep beating most of the guys, cocky bravado reigns supreme.

I usually run 4-6 miles on M, W, F; go to a 40 minute lunchtime boot camp on T, TH; and do a long run with Cheryl and Jena at least one day on the weekend. The other weekend day is my rest day... ahhhh.... resting is definitely the easiest part of my day, hahaha!

Speaking of boot camp... We had a guest instructor and he videoed our Panasonic group. In the video, he told me that I was doing a good job twice, so I must have been doing a really GOOD JOB!

Cross Fit Forest Panasonic Video

Exercise isn't necessarily the easiest part of my day, though certain days it works wonders at changing my outlook. It has become the most non-negotiable part of my day... as in, if I don't go out at lunchtime and work off some of this frustration, someone is going to get hurt this afternoon! If the choice is between "working through lunch and maybe staying late" or "working out and lunch and then definitely staying late," I take door #2 every time!

As I ramble on here, I find I have no real purpose to this post. I'll leave this rambling post with a couple of photos from our last race.

Chris doesn't even look like he's breathing hard!

Make it Monday - Tissue Paper Texture!

Here is my card for PTI Make it Monday!

I cut out a cloud image, attached to blue cardstock and covered the whole thing with white tissue. I thought it would lend a softer image to the background cloud.

The PTI products I used in this card:
For the Graduate stamp set
Everyday Button Bits stamp set
Cloud 1 & 2 Die Collection

We have lots of graduations this month, so stay tuned for more graduation cards!

On a totally unrelated side note... Does anyone know where I can get curtains like this?

Look at my BIG girl!

Was it only 7 months ago we brought home a scared little puppy from the pound? Look at the BIG HAPPY girl we have now!

Happy Birthday, Cookie!

Another new layout for me! This is another one for Chris's birthday... And the HUGE cookie that he got from his friend Thalita.

I followed the May Mojo Challenge at Scrapping Mojo. This really isn't my style... I prefer my photos to take most of the room on my layouts, but I'm okay with how this one came out; even though that blank area in the upper left really BUGS me!

I used my die cutter A LOT on this layout! Add some Stickle sparkle, and it makes great cute embellies.

I'm going to end off with a BIG-NOSE picture of Jena! We've been trying to get a BIG-NOSE picture of our girl, like the one Chris took of BJ. BUT, everytime we try to put the camera in Jena's face she tries to lick it. Well, here she is after our 7 mile run... FINALLY, so tired that we got the picture. Not as good the one of BJ, but we'll keep trying...

Thanks for stopping by!

Frisbee Dog!

Jena was never really a tennis ball kind of dog. She'd chase it a few times, but would stop bringing the ball back. She's better with a soccer ball, but when she brings it back, she won't let it go. We found Jena's "go fetch" toy of choice! FRISBEE!!!

Look at her GO! This is a soft fabric Frisbee and she can even catch it!


What a BIG DOG she's getting to be!!!

Awww... well, she's still not too big to CUDDLE! Jena must have her cuddle time...

Laguna Hills Half Marathon

I usually wait until I get race pictures before I post times, but I'm super excited! I ran a 1:52! That's 5 minutes faster than my fastest half-marathon time! This was a very hilly course, but it was a perfect day for running (not too hot and not too windy). I still only came in 4th place in my age group... yes, first loser again!

Jena and Jim came down to see us off. Jena really loves to go running, and was very bummed that she wasn't running with us.

And we're off! Chris didn't do as badly as he thought (he hasn't been running for 2 weeks). Once track season ended, he joined scuba. Anyway, he finished somewhere in the mid 1:40's.

This is our second half-marathon in May, so we have run a FULL marathon in May! We even have a medal to prove it!



EDITED:------------------------------------------------
Official results: Me
Overall: 343 out of 1414
Women: 88 out of 708
F 50-54: 4 out of 69
Age/Grade: 66.90% Place: 101
Finish: 1:52:52 Pace: 8:37
Tag Time: 1:52:52
Gun Time: 1:53:23

Offical results: Chris
Overall: 253 out of 1414
Men: 193 out of 706
M 13-18: 16 out of 40
Age/Grade: 57.13% Place: 427
Finish: 1:47:31 Pace: 8:13
Tag Time: 1:47:31
Gun Time: 1:48:02

Diaper Cake...

A couple ladies at work are putting on an impromptu baby shower for one of the other ladies. They contacted me on Friday and asked if I would bring decorations. I said I would bring a diaper cake centerpiece. I've always wanted to make one of these! Chris said that he would help me. We downloaded directions from the web, and they said we needed 54 diapers. I went down to the store and bought a package of 56.

The first disaster was that the diapers were BLUE printed fabric! Min is having a GIRL!!! When did diapers turn blue?!!! The last time I used diapers they were white and plastic. So the color scheme has changed... the cake will be blue and pink (with emphasis on PINK).

Second disaster is that 56 diapers is not near enough! We decided to use a paper towel core to fill out cake. This worked GREAT because it holds all the layers together! It's going to be a lot easier getting this to work than I thought.

The height of the paper towel roll dictated a 3 tier cake. Chris rolled most of the diapers, twice! I won't bore you with the reason why we did it twice... just call it a problem with indecision.

The bottom layer has 34 rolled diapers, the middle layer has 14 rolled diapers, the top layer has 4 flat diapers wrapped around the top of the paper towel roll. That left me 4 diapers left over that we just stuffed in the top.

The first decoration we needed was something for the top. I got a pink/green toy that is connected to a carrier handle... I guess it would be called a mobile?

I think it looks GREAT! Now I need something to bring in more pink. Time to breakout the scrapping supplies!

This paper from Basic Grey is just the thing. I didn't have enough paper, but this paper happens to be available as a digital download from BG! I printed off 6 strips of paper to cover the layers.

Add some pink ribbon, tie on a few teething rings and pacifiers, add some pink silk flowers to cover up the blue diapers AND TA DA!!! A pretty diaper cake centerpiece!

Of course, it wouldn't be complete without a matching card for the mama-to-be! (made with more BG paper and a cute stamp from Unity Stamp Co).

Oh one more thing... as I was looking at the diaper cakes, I couldn't find where anyone listed how big it would be! Our diaper cake came out 16" tall, and the base is 12" across.

Thanks for joining us on this diaper cake journey. My only regret? I didn't get a picture of Chris rolling baby diapers, lol!

The tail of the dog door continues...

Jena has to work on her aim a little... instead of going through the dog door, she went straight through the screen door!
What a klutz!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

I made this cute card for my mom and dad's 53rd anniversary...

I used the Mat Stack 1 Collection and a saying from the Fillable Frames #4 set.

The flowers are cut for me by my friend BethieJ. The colors were perfect for the Crate Paper Brook collection. I altered the flowers slightly by cutting a hole in the center, running a gather stitch around it, and pulling it tight. It gives the flower more dimension. I used this method on the blue and gold felt flowers.

The small green flower is one I made from ribbon. Here's how it's done.

Take a length a ribbon: #petals x (ribbon_width x 2) + a tiny bit more. So for the flower below, I used 1" ribbon and it has 6 petals... so 12.25" of ribbon.

Mark the ribbon every (2 x ribbon_width). So, for me that's every 2". Run a gather stitch along one edge, over to the other edge every time you reach a mark, and on both ends of the ribbon.

When you pull the gather stitch, the flower starts to form.

I'm going to use this cutie with these scraps of paper. Won't that make a striking card?

Thanks for stopping by!

More on the door...

I'm sure that everyone is dying to know all about the dog door... No? Well, maybe not, lol! Here is the XL sized dog door. It took a lot of calling and coaxing and finally sausage in marinara sauce to get Jena through the door. Something that we didn't think about is that not only is the door wider (definitely wide enough for Jena-girl), but the rise on the bottom of the door is higher. Jena's legs are too short to climb over the lip from the outside. Chris had a great idea and grabbed the bicycle ramp that papa made for him... it now makes a GREAT doggie ramp! After shoving Jena through a hole a few times, she is now comfortable enough to go through on her own.

It was a traumatic day! Jena is exhausted!

On a side note, I definitely recommend El Toro Carpet and Tile Cleaners! Too bad it isn't a sunny day. The cleaners came at 8am this morning, and the carpets are still damp this evening, but they look GREAT!