Sunday, January 31, 2010

Stacked Butterfly Thanks Card

I've seen stacked butterflies used on various cards and wanted to give it a try. Perhaps I went a little overboard (six vellum butterflies makes for a top-heavy card), but I'm okay with that. I also hand-stitched the tail swirls with embroidery floss and that turned out pretty well.

IMG_3011_PinkOrangeStackedButterfly
IMG_3014_StackedButterflyCloseUp

I made/finished three Thank You-themed cards yesterday, which says to me that I should get more sentiment stamps besides Thank You ones.



Three more weeks of class! I'm so close to being done and super excited!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Five Weeks of School Left

I had the urge to craft it up traditional-style about how I have 5 weeks of class left, but I decided that doing a digital layout was going to produce results faster than waiting to develop photos.

5 Weeks Digital Layout Small

I'm not wild about the white journaling on a relatively busy background, but I haven't decided how to tweak it yet.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Bike Ride

After breakfast this morning with Greg's family, Greg and I went on a bike ride around Laveen. We took a route that ended up being 9.45 miles, after which I was pretty impressed with myself and I wasn't even that tired! But then, I get pretty impressed with myself doing any physical activity that is more strenuous than walking to the mailbox and back (note: we live on the corner lot next to the mailboxes).

IMG_0715_GPSWatchBikeRide

We were about a mile from home when I ate it (seems like that happens often?). And by "ate it," I mean I literally ended up with dirt in my mouth after I took a spill trying to avoid some tree branches. Mmmm . . . gritty. Usually my main concern when I fall is my face, because I'd hate to have to show up at work with boo-boos on my face. Unfortunately, my face wasn't completely unscathed, but it's not really noticeable. Excellent!



Mako got a package from her mom in Japan this week that included some winter clothes and . . . Japanese goodies! Mostly snacks, but also a couple of handkerchiefs that Greg is a fan of, a little tapestry, and a little umbrella. I just had some of the chewy grape and peach candies and they were yummy.

IMG_3006_JapaneseGoodies

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Pink Paper Flowers

Last card exchange, I was on the ball and finished my cards early. This card exchange, there are about 3 weeks left and I just started on my cards last weekend. I've worked on paper flowers so far, which turned out cute, but were a little labor intensive:

IMG_2987_PinkGoldPaperFlowers

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of the card . . .

Monday, January 11, 2010

Powder Mountain

For our winter ski trip with my dad and brother this year, we went to Powder Mountain in Utah. We stayed in a ski in/ski out condo on the mountain, which made it easy to get on (and return from) the slopes every day.

On our last day of skiing, Greg and I went down the slopes 23 times. Yay for getting the most out of my lift ticket! It's the most I've ever done in a single day and about three times as many as I did the first day. I also had a little mishap while on a "surface lift":

CIMG0005 Ski Pole Picture Resized

On our way to Powder Mountain, we stopped for a few hours at Bryce Canyon.

IMG_0424_BryceCanyonSign
IMG_0464_BryceCanyon

The mountains in Utah were really picturesque, especially the day after it snowed and all the tree branches were covered in white. Also, it was cold enough to see actual snowflakes!

IMG_0578_SunBehindWhiteTrees
IMG_0584_WhiteTrees

We also went into town (Ogden) and walked around historic 25th Street. The train station was legit. I like cool historic buildings.

IMG_0570_Rotated

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Monarchical Frame Thank You Card

Was inspired by this card to make:

IMG_2978_MonarchicalFrameCard

But that was before the thought of school started to weigh down on me again after a reprieve during winter break. Classes start up again next week and there's lots of stuff due. I've been going crazy over a tax case study that I tried to figure out, but instead thought to myself, Oh man. I don't know what the crap I'm doing. Sigh.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Name Banner

I was scrolling through my starred items in Google Reader when this banner challenge on the Cards blog inspired me to make a name banner for the exchange student staying with us this semester:

IMG_2970_MakoBanner

Pretty cute. I think I'll recycle the idea for other occasions where banners are appropriate (such as babies).

On New Year's day, we went over to my mom's house for a dinner of cold noodle (literally, cold noodles with carrots, cucumber, fried egg, ham, and a garlic sesame sauce) and potstickers. It was delish.

IMG_0639_ColdNoodle
IMG_0644_Potstickers

I think I took my mom's cooking for granted when I was younger and lived at her house. Now that I'm on my own (and I don't cook as well and often as she does), it's yummy when we have dinner at her house.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Year of the Tiger

We are hosting a Japanese exchange student for the semester! She's a high school junior.

IMG_0641_PictureWithMako

By the looks of this picture, we appear to be around the same age. It's possible that she even looks older than me. Heh!

Today, we found this note and origami cranes in front of my craft room:

IMG_2961_OrigamiCranes1
IMG_2964_OrigamiCranes2
IMG_2968_OrigamiCranes3

Neat! We put the origami cranes in our display case. :)

Blog Design by Get Polished | © 2018 shirley shirley bo birley blog