I just realized while typing out the title of this post that there's SOOO many acronyms with blogging!! And then I sat there for about 15 seconds thinking of how I could make the title more reader friendly... and as you can tell, I couldn't! Good thing I didn't waste more than 15 seconds! Just the extra 45 seconds typing about it.... Anywhoo I'm very excited for another day off tomorrow! It makes the 6 day stretch I did last week not so bad. And double bonus because it's the long weekend so my 4 day weekend started already! It'll be a crazy busy weekend though because we've got our monthly girlfriends gathering tomorrow night. Then on Saturday we need to go pick up our race kits and have supper at my parent's house for the end of the Lunar year. Then Sunday is the dreaded Hypothermic half marathon!!! I'm so so nervous but it's do or die time now. No more time to train so I'm just gonna aim to finish! I talked to the dietitian at our health center because she's running it also and I got great tips from her and our dental hygienist who works with the Running Room doing their walking training programs. I never even thought that I'd need to have a snack throughout the run. Who would've thought? I sure as heck never did! They both agreed that I should stick with something that I know agrees with my stomach. Jamie was going to get me some of those power gel things just because my blood sugars tend to crash easily but I guess everyone's sugar crashes when you're running 21km! DUH!!! Nursing knowledge totally didn't help me there huh? So instead of the power gels, I'll follow their advice. The walker really likes Fig Newtons because they're small, lightweight, and are high in sugar and carbohydrates. The runner just munches on dried cranberries. People just have to figure out what works for their bodies and I did try cranberries yesterday but I found I had a really hard time running, chewing and swallowing without choking. Since I wasn't swallowing properly, I got bits of berries stuck in my throat and even had a lot of burping and burped up gross cranberry once! YUCK! So I think I'll carry some dried cranberries just in case but I'll just eat the Fig Newtons during our walk breaks so Jamie doesn't need to the the Heimlich on me! They both also advised me to load up on water and stay over-hydrated. I peed about every 1 1/2 hours today! Reminded me of all the preggo ladies we have at work! After our run yesterday, I did some good stretching and drank a big tall glass of soy milk right when we got in. Today I'm feeling pretty good. Definitely would say I'm sore, maybe just a smidge tight.
Ok onto the card for today. I wanted to make a card before bed and remembered that Sketch For You To Try (SFYTT) is offering an awesome prize for this month's sketches. I also wanted to have a color challenge and Megan is starting up her own color challenge called Picture Perfect Creations Color Challenge. It's definitely hard starting up a challenge blog so I'm doing my part in trying to help a fellow blogger out. Also helped that she used colors that I love (kraft kraft kraft!!). I always have a hard time using that many circles on a card but I think it worked out. I was humming and ha-ing between what sizes of circles, how many layers, what colors should the layers be etc etc. Then in my attempt to punch out a smaller circle from the bigger circle, I ended up with a lop-sided ring and got the idea to put all the circles asymmetrically. I thought the middle circle was missing something so I decided to try some Liquid Pearls that I had sitting there for months and months. It definitely takes some finesse and skill to use, both of which I don't have at past midnight or any other time of day. I saw on Jennifer McGuire's blog a tip with using the pearls. Something along the lines of turning it over and flicking it so it sorta gives the pearls a bit more of a 3-D look. I tried and I think I may not have used enough of the liquid because it didn't look that great. And with so many dots, I couldn't for the life of me get all the "pearls" to be the same size. When I tried to fix it, it just made things worse so I quit while I was still slightly ahead. Time for bed!! Gotta call for a haircut appt in the morning! G'nite and YAY FOR THE WEEKEND!!
Last little bit of personal stuff to share. I got off at 8 tonite and Jamie always has dinner ready for me when I get home. He was ambitious today and cooked "Cod Three Ways" as he called it. He made a version of fish and chips, cod ceviche and pan fried cod with salad. He even made homemade tartar sauce! Took him about an hour. We both wonder how in the heck do those chefs on TV shows like Chopped and Top Chef do it in 30 minutes! We tiny home cooks will never know!
Card Ingredients
All items Stampin’ Up unless indicated.
Stamps:Happy Together
Ink: So Saffron
Paper: Bermuda Bay, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Kraft
Embellishments: 5/8" So Saffron grosgrain ribbon, silver brads, Liquid Pearls (Ranger)
Tools: Big Shot, Textured Plates #4, 1 3/4", 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circle punch, paper piercer and mat
I attempted to do an emboss resist technique where I stamped the Pumpkin Pie card stock with Night of Navy with the Fine Flourish stamp. Then I stamped the damask (is that what it's called?) image from Friends 24-7 and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I sponged Brilliant Blue all over the card stock and wiped off any ink that was on the embossed image. Now some may think that I cheated and used brown pastels on the tree branch but I actually mixed some Brilliant Blue and Pumpkin Pie together. Alright, it's super late and I need to catch some ZzzzZ's! Hopefully I can participate in this week's Stampin' Royalty challenge before the deadline is up! G'nite! 
Woot woot! I think this may be the first time or one of the very few times that I've combined 3 challenges in one!! I'm super super hooked onto SPCC. It's the only challenge that I try really hard to do every week. 
And if you haven't already checked out Sketch For You To Try, go now!! The prize is amazing so that's definitely been a good incentive to incorporate Jen's gorgeous sketches into my crafting. Her sketches have always been super clean and easy to use. Sometimes sketch challenges are a little too wild for me and I have a hard time making really busy cards. The last challenge i was able to incorporate into this card is Stamping Royalty's challenge #7. I was hoping to take part in Stamping Royalty's challenges since they first started but I'm pretty lazy. This week the challenge was to make a masculine card and that's a definite challenge for me. I don't think I've ever made a masculine card! I want to use the excuse of me not owning any masculine stamps but who am I kidding?? I don't need a masculine stamp to make a manly card! 
Ok onto the card for today. I wanted to make a card before bed and remembered that Sketch For You To Try (SFYTT) is offering an awesome prize for this month's sketches. I also wanted to have a color challenge and Megan is starting up her own color challenge called Picture Perfect Creations Color Challenge. It's definitely hard starting up a challenge blog so I'm doing my part in trying to help a fellow blogger out. Also helped that she used colors that I love (kraft kraft kraft!!). I always have a hard time using that many circles on a card but I think it worked out. I was humming and ha-ing between what sizes of circles, how many layers, what colors should the layers be etc etc. Then in my attempt to punch out a smaller circle from the bigger circle, I ended up with a lop-sided ring and got the idea to put all the circles asymmetrically. I thought the middle circle was missing something so I decided to try some Liquid Pearls that I had sitting there for months and months. It definitely takes some finesse and skill to use, both of which I don't have at past midnight or any other time of day. I saw on Jennifer McGuire's blog a tip with using the pearls. Something along the lines of turning it over and flicking it so it sorta gives the pearls a bit more of a 3-D look. I tried and I think I may not have used enough of the liquid because it didn't look that great. And with so many dots, I couldn't for the life of me get all the "pearls" to be the same size. When I tried to fix it, it just made things worse so I quit while I was still slightly ahead. Time for bed!! Gotta call for a haircut appt in the morning! G'nite and YAY FOR THE WEEKEND!! 
