How far would you drive?

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So, I’m spending most of this month in Missouri. And for the most part it’s not been bad. When I arrived last week the temps were in the single digits and low-teens but quickly warmed up to the mid-50′s. It’s been a little chilly in the mornings, but not completely horrible. There was about 18 inches of snow on the ground when I got here.

As of today, and the nice high temperature of 70 degrees, there is very little snow on the ground except the piles where they moved all the snow from the roadways! It’s insane.

My coworker left today, so I’m on my own for a few days until Jill (friend extraordinaire, puppy nanny, and coworker) comes in on Sunday and helps out next week! The job itself is going really well, and I’ve been thrilled about it. The only bad part is that they smoke IN the place of work! So not good. Not only am I not a smoker, but I’m also allergic to it as well – and I have asthma. Luckily it hasn’t been bothering me too bad health-wise (other than some random coughing and eye watering)! However, I hate that all my clothes smell like smoke, and worst of all, I can’t seem to get it out of my hair. What’s up with that??? I even went and bought some good shampoo, and shampoo twice each time and let it sit for several minutes before rinsing. If anyone has a good solution for getting that smell out of hair – feel free to pass them along!

So, back to the original topic of this blog post. How far would you drive? Today I asked myself that question when I got wanting a Starbucks real bad. For those that know me, I’m not a coffee drinker – but I do love my Chai Tea (Iced Venti thank-you-very-much). When I’m home, I’ll have one every other day or so. If there was one in the town I was working in, I would likely have one for breakfast every morning! But the last few towns I’ve been in haven’t had one close at all. The closest one to the town I’m working and staying in is about 25 miles away. After pretty consistently having a headache since I’ve been here (from the smoke) I decided that I was going to find the Starbucks tonight after work.

As I was drinking my yummy Iced Chai on my drive back I had to laugh at myself when I realized that I just drove 50 miles round trip for a $4.25 20 ounce drink. I wouldn’t drive half that distance to do something actually healthy for myself I realized. Heck, there’s a mini-gym in the hotel 3 doors down from my room, not more than 20 feet, and I haven’t been in there one time this trip! I even brought the clothes with me to do it. I just haven’t.

So, how far would I drive to be healthy? The answer should be as far as I need to. And I realized tonight, that the answer has never been that. I’ll drive 50 miles for a Starbucks, but won’t walk 20 feet for my health. There’s something inherently wrong with that picture, and something that I need to fix.

How far would you drive??

And now, on a lighter note. I asked one of my BFFs if she had read my last post. She proceded to tell me that when she was going through her blogs mine seemed a bit wordy with very little (actually NONE) pictures so she marked it to read later when she had more time. So, just for her, here are some pictures!

I got this picture on the second to last night in Iowa as I was driving back to the B&B we were staying at. The sunset looking crazy beautiful, and while the picture doesn’t do it justice, you get the idea.

A few miles up the highway from the Hotel in Missouri right off the main highway is this store! OMG! This store was so cool. We stopped and went through it last Sunday, and I swear we spent an hour in there. It’s just a little tourist trap type store, and it has every knick knack, toy and trinket you could think of! It was great fun!

And finally, I need to give Benny his due! I took this picture of him on the couch the last time I was home! He will sleep in the most crazy looking positions he can find! So adorable!

Feeling fatigued?

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I finally got off my butt the last time I was home and scheduled all my Doctor appointments that I hadn’t had in awhile – Dentist, Eye and Physical. Fun, fun.

I don’t go to the Dentist until next month, or the Eye Dr until later this month, but I did manage to re-establish with my Family Dr and RN that I was with when I lived in B’ham before, so that was good.

Everything looked good, and of course she wanted to get a blood draw. I had my blood drawn Tuesday morning of this last week figuring I wouldn’t hear back from them for several days. Imagine my surprise when I got a call while I was in the Seattle airport Wednesday morning waiting to fly to Missouri!

She told me that everything looked great, except one thing. I figured she would say something about cholesterol, I mean come on, let’s be honest. But nope, that was just fine. My triglyceride level was a little high, but that was likely just due to eating too much processed food (ugh). Nope – my thyroid tsh level was showing on the high side, still in the normal range, but high. That was a concern because when I was filling out my family history for them the previous week at my physical I had written down that my Mom had thyroid issues.

Now, when I saw she had thyroid issues let me be clear. It was not happy times right before she figured out that she had thyroid issues. I think we all thought she was going a wee bit crazy, including her. (I love you Mom!!!) So when they told me that my thyroid levels were reading high I wasn’t pleased, and I of course immediately called her and threw blame squarely where it belonged!! LOL She of course tried to spread the blame to her Mom and my Dad’s Mom – because apparently they both had thyroid issues as well. So basically, I’m in a no win situation. Thanks family! :p

I have to go back in 8 weeks and have my levels checked again and meet with my family Doc when those come back in.

I was finally feeling pretty good about that doctor appointment, when I get a call from the Nurse again on Thursday with MORE results from my bloodwork. Apparently one test takes a bit longer than the rest to return. That test would be for D3. My D3 levels came back QUITE low. I think she said 14.1, where normal is 40-70. So, for the next 8 weeks I have to go on high dose replacement therapy (50,000 international units 2x per week) and then have my blood tested again and meet with my family Doc. Deja vu anyone?!?!?

I’ve spent the last 2 days trying to get a prescription filled locally – not an easy task. And of course the pharmacy here doesn’t actually carry D3 because they don’t have the issue here like we do in the Pacific Northwest, so they have to order it in. It’ll be in on Monday – but not ONE pill of 50,000 IU, FIVE pills of 10,000 IU. *sigh*

When I look each of these issues up, both of course have several symptoms, and they share quite a few in fact. The one that stood out was FATIGUE.

Mom has been telling me for weeks that I needed to go to the Doctor because she was worried about me. When I asked her why, her answer was because every time I talked to her I would say how tired I was. I chalked it up to never being home and having poor sleep habits.

Moral of the story? Always listen to your Mother. She’s probably right. Damn.

Cross Stitch Update

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It’s been a few days.

I’ve found that when I’m at home on a break from work I tend to hibernate. And that’s not a bad thing! I like being at home. It’s nice. I got together with some girlfriends one night and we just worked on whatever we wanted – I worked on scrapbooking. I’m really close to being done with my Hawai’i 2008 scrapbook and I’d like to finish it hopefully the next time I’m home. I’ll post some of those pictures when I get home again – I didn’t take pictures of my completed pages.

I did finally deliver my Grandmother’s Christmas presant to her last week when I was off. I hadn’t seen her since Christmas and headed over to Quincy and Tri-Cities for a couple of days last week.

I stitched and framed this for her:

She quite enjoyed it, which is nice.

I’ve moved on to a new stitching project. This one isn’t a gift for my Grandmother, but a gift for someone else. Here’s a peak at how far I’ve come on it:

This is the outside border and finished it will be around 13 inches square! I’ve commissioned my Dad to make a frame for it, so hopefully it’ll all be done LONG before Christmas! :)

I’m spending these days in Missouri, while it technically isn’t snowing right now, it’s cold as all heck (around 0 degrees last night). Luckily it’s supposed to warm up by Saturday and be in the 40′s and 50′s for hopefully the duration of my stay! Plus it’s going to be sunny, and apparently I could use the Vitamin D. More on that later though!

One last picture to share tonight, and then I’m off to bed. Last week when I was dropping into Sunland, I saw this beautiful eagle sitting on the ledge above the river! It might be a bit blurry since I took it on my cell phone at full zoom.

Crying over spilled milk!

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Yes, truly crying over spilled milk.

When I was in Iowa I got a call about halfway through my trip from Mom stating that the inside of my car smelled horrid. I had left my car at their house while I was gone and they had moved it.

Thinking back, I realized that when I was home after Christmas and picked up some groceries, the milk gallon was tipped over when I got home. I didn’t realize it, but some milk must have leaked out, and thankfully it couldn’t have been a lot – but even so, it was more than enough.

My Dad, bless his kind soul, scrubbed out the back floorboards of my car – it had started to mold and mildew. Awesome. He used hot water and oxy clean and then wet-vac’ed up what he could. Then he added a really great vanilla pine tree to the mix. While I’m sure that all his hard work made the situation much better than it was, it was still not good.

When I picked my car up from their house on Saturday, you can imagine the awesome smell that greeted me! I honestly think the vanilla tree made the whole thing worse. I tossed that thing quickly. And the worst part of the whole thing is that after you sat in the car for a couple of minutes you actually couldn’t smell it anymore – which makes me think that I must smell like sour milk when I step out of it!!!

Anyway, so yesterday I took my car to a Detail Shop. He shampoo’ed the entire back seat floorboards. He also put an enzyme odor killer on it. At this point, the smell doesn’t hit you over the head when you open the door, but it’s definitely still there. After I got back from the shop I took Clorox wipes down and wiped every hard surface and leather surface in my car down. Also cleaned all the glass. My car is C.L.E.A.N. on the inside – and it would smell clean too if it weren’t for the sour milk smell.

Tonight I purchased two packages of Fridge/Freezer Baking Soda and put those in the back seat floorboards, and also bought a Renuzit Odor Killer thing. At this point, there isn’t much more that I can do – other than wait the smell out I guess, or trade the damn thing in on a new clean car (don’t think the thought didn’t cross my mind LOL). In the meantime, I’m literally crying over spilled milk and I would highly encourage everyone to make sure they N.E.V.E.R. spill milk in any form in your car and leave it.

That’s your PSA for the day! Good evening!

Linky Thursday (Health Related)

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Note: I started writing this post last Wednesday with the intention of posting it Thursday. Well, with work, packing to come home, traveling and getting settled back at home, I just finished it tonight, so the time continuity of this post might seem a bit out of whack!

So, I’ve posted my favorite “fun” links, so now onto my favorite Health related links.

For anyone who has known me for a long time, I’m a perpetual Weight Watcher. I have my times where I have great success, and of course there are the time where I’m not so successful. I’m not sure why there’s a difference other than to say that at some times I’m just more motivated than others.

At this moment in time, I’m somewhere in the middle of motivated and not motivated. On the first day of this year I was actually 30 lbs lighter than I was at the same time last year. And that is definitely a good thing. Most of that weight was lost in the last few months of the year. As things started to change towards the last part of the year I became happier with things and it just was easy.

In December I made a concentrated effort to eat healthier on the road – and was rewarded with a 5-6 lbs weight loss to round out the year. So, I’ve proved that I CAN do it while traveling and staying in hotel rooms. I just have to choose to do so. And that is the hardest part of being motivated to lose weight. This month I’m not doing so well. Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m staying at a B&B this month and so breakfast is made for me each and every morning. While I haven’t necessarily been eating poorly, I’ve certainly been eating too much. My clothes aren’t tight though, so I’m fairly confident that I’ve not gained weight – which is always a plus.

I’m setting specific goals for February. I’ll be on the road a total of 18 days in February – I need to make good choices and track my food. The Points Plus program that Weight Watchers came out with at the end of November is actually a huge plus to someone like me who travels. It easily allows me to eat on the road but still fall into a good eating plan. And I know when I follow their guidelines that I lose weight. It’s a win-win!

The other real thing I need to work on is getting rid of POP in my diet. Last year I went almost 6 months from the beginning of the year before I had a drink of a pop! And while I haven’t gone back to my old drinking habits where pop is concerned, I’m drinking way more than I should. So, my goal for February is cut out the pop completely again. I KNOW I can do it, just need to do it. The funny thing is, once I’m actually drinking the pop, I don’t really want it. That should tell me something right there!

So, on to some of my favorite Health Related Blogs and Sites!

Of course, there’s always Weight Watchers. They really are the best program out there! They do their best to teach you portion control and how to eat in the real world!

My new favorite Blog to follow is Results Not Typical”. Melissa actually shared this blog with me not too long ago! Now, I’ll warn you, she’s not for any light-hearted blog readers! There is definitely a lot of swearing involved in her posts, some too-much-information posts shared, and a lot of WTFery as she likes to put it! Enjoy at your own risk for sure, but she’s HI-larious! She losing weight her way, and sharing her story with everyone!

Of course, I can’t leave out Melissa! She’s following Weight Watchers as well and is a Warrior! I love her, and of course she’s one of my best friends in the whole world … so I might be biased! ;) (I know she was ribbing me about leaving her out of last post, but she was simply being impatient!!!).

I got this Blog from Melissa … surprise, surprise. She’s turned me on to most the Health related Blogs I like to follow. This is a Recipe Blog where she actually “lightens up” the recipes she likes to make them Weight Watchers friendly! Her blog is Point-Less Meals. If you’re looking for new recipes, check it out!

The last Site I’m going to mention tonight is one that you’ll either love or hate most likely. But man, he speaks truth. All the time. I love it. His name is Tony, and he’s been blogging for quite awhile and at one point had lost over 200 lbs. He’s back up a big, but started losing weight again at the beginning of the year. He’s The Anti-Jared, and this is one of my favorite blog posts I’ve read in awhile.

In it, Tony talks about January 1st not being the end-all-be-all of days to make a Change in your life. And he’s right. I’m always looking for the next Monday. Today is never good enough. So, tomorrow is my New Years (it just happens to be a Monday, but that’s ok). January 31st. When I got home yesterday I knew that I would get on the scale this morning. I was up a couple of pounds from when I left. Not the end of the world by any means, and considering how I ate while I was gone, not surprising in the least.

Here are some goals that I’m setting for myself over the course of the next 29 Days – this will take me through February:

  • Record what I eat.
  • Make better choices when traveling.
  • Pre-plan meals for when I am home.
  • Exercise, even on the road.
  • No eating out at home!!! This is a big one!

So, those are the goals for the next 29 days! I’ll keep you posted on how they’re going at least once a week!

Linky Tuesday (Craft Related)

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So, because I made this big proclaimation in the middle of a road-trip to Blog more, I find that I don’t have a lot of crafty things to Blog about! I’ll be home on this Saturday though, and will stock up on said crafty items to post while I’m out of town!

That being said, I decided to share some of my favorite crafty links instead today!

For those that don’t know, not only do I make cards and scrapbook (in theory anyway), I also like to cross stitch (again, in theory!!). I’ve actually decided that more than anything I’m a collector of the aforementioned crafts and their supplies. Moving in September was a real eye-opener to my addiction spending habits.

As I packed to move I made several trips to the Goodwill. I think there are about 5 Goodwills throughout the state of Washington that were benefactors of my moving. The hardest part of the purging process for me was my craft supplies. You just never know when you might want to use something!

The last part of the organizing in my new apartment that needs to be done is the 2nd Bedroom – which is strictly a craft room. I’ve started boxes – stuff that I for sure want to keep but don’t need instant access to, those will go into the storage that I’m renting on a monthly basis thank-you-very-much! Then I’ve started a box of “stuff” that I just don’t need at all, and likely never did, and that stuff will go to Goodwill. Then there’s the other box – in that box is the stuff I hate to get rid of, but I know that I’ll never use it. But that’s also the box that has the stuff in it that I’ve spend the most money on. *sigh* I’m going to need to make a decision on that stuff … some of it I might throw up in the Garage Sale section (mostly wood mounted stamps and that type of stuff), and some of it I might do a Blog Giveaway on or something. I’m not sure yet! Stay tuned on that!

All that being said, here are my favorite craft sights, stores and Blogs!

Little House Needleworks – LHN is by far my favorite cross stitch designer out there! I love just about everything they do! In 2010 she did a monthly Ornament – and she’s doing it again this year! Guess who collected them all last year? And who will collect them again this year! It’s a sad, sad addiction!

Needlecraft Corner – Most of the cross stitch stuff I get, I order online! This is my favorite shop! She is quick and efficient. And she sends the previously mentioned Monthly Ornaments to you in a kit! It’s so easy!

Close to my Heart – A big old Duh! I know! It’s ok, you can groan now! But they always have been, and likely always will be my favorite card and scrapbooking supplies!

Fabulously Artsy – Tresa is a CTMH Consultant. She does a some beautiful artwork, and she also does a weekly TV Show online that you can watch either Live or through Archives!

Freedom in Creating – Michelle does the most amazing cards. And she shows you every stop in order to create the effect that she’s going for. She almost always uses a brayer! She offers classes where she travels around. One of these days I’ll make it to one when she’s in Washington.

Fresh & Fun – Beate does some gorgeous cards, I always love looking at her cards.

Confessions of a Ribbon Addict – Jody is another that does really great cards!

And finally, this is one of my new favorite Blogs – Crafty Storage – There are always great storage and organizational tips and tricks for crafters on this Blog! I highly recommend you follow this one!

And as an added bonus, some of my other favorite Blogs that aren’t really craft related:

If you are a Kindle owner, or any other e-Reader really, you really should be reading Books on the Knob. She lists free books almost daily. And while it’s geared primiarly for the Kindle, she has started collecting for all e-Reader formats! It’s a great site!

Another great e-Reader site, and I think she does primarily cater to Kindle readers, is Pixel of Ink. She does free books as well, and a lot are duplicates of the previous site, however she also does a ton of Bargain type priced books as well. While you’ll find a lot of duplication between these two sites, it’s nice to keep an eye on both them!

And then of course there’s always Post Secret. I always look forward to Saturday night for the new Sunday secrets to be posted. Some are silly, some are serious, some make you cry, but a lot of times you walk away realizing that there are a lot of people who share a lot of the same secrets that you yourself hold!

The Catalog Living blog is hilarious to follow! They post all kind of funny catalog pictures with their own little running commentary!

And my biggest guilty pleasure when it comes to Blog reading … People of Wal Mart. I know, don’t judge!

Alright, that’s all I got for today I think! In the next couple of days I’ll post about my favorite Health related links! :)

Meme Monday

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My friend Melissa sent an email today with this Meme, and I figured I’d do it, but Blog it instead! See – living up to my posting more “promise”.

Three names I go by: Tracy, Tracylynn, Trace

Three places I have lived: Covington, Ellensburg, Richland (all in Washington)

Three places I have worked: L & R Burger Stop (Quincy), DSHS (Ellensburg), CWU Dining Services (Ellensburg)

Three places I have been: Grand Cayman, Italy, Spain

Three people who email me regularly: Melissa, Jill, Mom

Three things I love to eat: Mac & Cheese, French Fries, Cheese

Three things I am looking foward to: Being home each month, Spring (warmer weather!!!), Moving out of the apartment and into a Condo!

Catching Up!

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Wow! It’s been awhile. Nine months to be almost exact. Time flies when you’re … busy! There’s been a lot of change in that time.

The biggest change being that I moved back to Bellingham and went back to work for the company I worked for before. I had become increasingly unhappy with where I was at, and a great opportunity opened itself up to me! Needless to say, I jumped. For now I’m traveling again. It’s been a lot of fun, and other than the fact that I miss my dogs when I’m gone, it’s been a great move for me.

It took me until December to feel like I was actually settled into my apartment, and even now, I still have some organizing and cleaning to do – but I’m much closer than I was at the end of September. I made the mistake decision to move into a 3rd floor apartment, so after the move I was less than motivated to actually unpack. In the next year or two I’ll start looking for a house, or more likely a condo of some sorts. I’ve been really happy being back in Bellingham, and honestly didn’t realize how much I liked it until I moved back!

So, here’s a photo catch up of my last 3-4 months! Enjoy!

My first trip was to West Palm Beach, Florida. This was the view from my hotel balcony at Sunset.

From there I moved on to North Carolina for a week, but alas, I have no pictures of this portion of my trip! I flew from there into NYC and drove North into Connecticut for a week. It was beautiful up there. This is the view from my hotel. It’s a great picture of all the color that was going on while I was there!

On my way home from this first road trip that lasted 3 weeks, I flew home through NYC. I actually DROVE in Queens, as I was flying out of La Guardia. I was quite proud of myself. I was bummed that I didn’t get a chance to go to NYC, as that is one thing I’ve never done, but I did get this crazy picture of the sun setting over what I’m almost positive is Lower Manhattan (from afar of course).

November found me in Mississippi all month (with a short break that allowed me to fly home for a certain Annual Scrapbook Retreat of course). I was so looking forward to Mississippi. I knew that the weather would be a little warmer, and for the most part it was! For this trip I flew into NOLA and allowed my GPS to route me the 2 hours or so North into Mississippi. I was a little shocked to see it take me through what can only be described as the middle of nowhere. But along the route there was this beautiful little church that I had to stop and take a picture of. This picture doesn’t even come close to doing it justice, but I just had to take it anyway!

After finally making it home from Mississippi the weekend before Thanksgiving (don’t even ask me how many hours and airport delays I had that day), I had about 10 days at home for the Holiday. My original plans were to go over the Mountains and spend a couple of days with my parents and Grandma, however, I had gotten sick in Mississippi and still wasn’t feeling all that well, and on top of that, the weather over the Mountains wasn’t that great. Putting both those factors together led me to the decision to stay in Bellingham for the Holiday, and my great friend Jill was more than Welcoming for the Day. (Jill also is my “dog nanny” while I’m gone – she truly goes above and beyond for me). When I woke up Thanksgiving morning to drive over to Jill’s to spend the day with her and her Family, this is what greeted me:

It snowed several inches that day and was truly beautiful! But that night there came a chinook and it was almost all gone Friday morning!! Crazy weather!!

For December, I had two trips to look forward to. For work, I spent 16 days in Ontario, Canada. It was cold, and snowed all but one day the entire time I was there. This was an interesting trip though, as the Dealership personel were primarily Menonite. They were all great people and made for a very fun Install. I’ll actually be going back for a Follow Up visit in March, and I can only hope for better weather – though they told me not to hold my breath on that one!!! I’m posting two pictures from this trip – the first being the town “motto” that is posted when you come into town from all four directions. It made me giggle every time. Mostly because I take it to the worst possible meaning in my head, but hey, that’s me! The second picture is still a very viable way of transportation for a lot of the people who live up there. It’s almost like being in a completely different world!

When I came home from Ontario I had two days at home and then turned around and left again! This time it was VACATION. Several months ago, and for reasons that weren’t/aren’t valid anymore, Mom decided that Kevin, Laura, Me, Dad and her were going to spend Christmas in Key West! After spending 16 days in very cold and snowy weather I was looking forward to spending time in WARM weather. Mom booked us a Condo on the North East corner of the Island. We had a great time. The weather was between 70-75 degrees daily, and was just beautiful. We ended up renting bikes for the entire week we were there. It was a great mode of transportation! I didn’t know if I would be able to make it or not, but I did, and it was FUN! We rode all over that Island several times. I figured I rode anywhere from 40-50 miles that week on the bike!

This first picture was taken on my cell phone! It’s probably my most favorite picture that I took the whole week I was there! The second picture was taken one evening while I was watching the sun set! I also got complimented on my “ink” by a cute jogger-boy that night! :)

So, once I came home from Key West I had two more weeks at home before I would have to leave. I ended up doing some more cleaning, organizing and actually hung pictures up on the wall! It was great, and I actually look forward to going back to my apartment now!

I am currently in the great state of Iowa. Such a fine State. If you enjoy single digit temps (I’m talking HIGHS people, not as LOWS) and snow on an almost daily basis. It’s awesome. This picture was taken on my way to work earlier this week; I’m sure there was a lower tempurature than this, since this picture was taken at 8am in the morning, but luckily, -8 is the lowest temp I’ve seen so far since I’ve been here!

That brings us up to current-time. The only other news to share is that one the first day of this road trip I got a call from my dog-nanny (haha, love it) and she told me that Jack needed surgery – like, the next day. It turned out he had bladder stones and they were causing him problems. This isn’t a very good picture, but it’s one I pulled off my cell phone that makes me laugh. I got some lip gloss that is in the shape of an egg (EOS brand) – so it’s basically round. Well, it’s about the same size and color as Jack’s precious, precious ball. He saw it laying on the side table and thought it was his ball, so he just grabbed it and layed right down with it! So funny! Love that dog. I was pretty upset that I couldn’t deal with the surgery in person, but thankfully I have such a great friend in Jill who takes care of me while I’m gone. The surgery turned out well, and Jack is doing great. I can’t wait to get home and see my boys! I miss them lots!

That’s about it – that’s all I got folks. If you’re reading this from my Blog itself, you’ll notice that I put up a new theme. I like it – it’s pretty, got some pink in it, but not overly so of course! Also, about the falling snow – it’s snowing here people. The snow is staying on the Blog until I go somewhere where it’s not snowing. That’s just all there is to that! :P

As far as updating my Blog, I’m going to try and be better about it. I’m going to use it as a way to chronicle my travels, post some artwork, and probably talk about my health/fitness some as well. January 1st of this year saw me 30 lbs lighter than I was at the same time last year – so that has me motivated to work a little harder and get some bigger/better results! Idealy, I’d like to post 3-4 times a week, each time on a different topics – one day travel, one day craftiness, one day weight/health, and then some random something for the 4th post! We’ll see … baby steps!

Ok folks, it’s almost midnight here, and I’m ready to go to sleep! I sat here for 2 hours and wrote this up – while watching The Other Guys (HI-larious by the way; go watch it!!!). Have a great rest of the weekend, and I’ll leave you with this quote:

When the world says, “Give up,”
Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.”
~Author Unknown

Heart 2 Heart Ribbon Challenge

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I’m getting in under the gun again on the deadline but I’ve been having problems getting my picture transferred over to my computer. I need a new card reader I guess! Grr …

Anyway, this weeks Heart 2 Heart Challenge was a ribbon challenge. The challenge was to use at least 2 different ribbons on your card.

I managed to use 3. In my card I used ribbon has my background “paper”. Then I added a little piece of green ribbon behind the clear CTMH button. The paper flower is also CTMH and the stamped image is from the CTMH Treasures set!

Enjoy!

Heart 2 Heart Sketch Challenge

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This week the Challenge over at H2H is Let’s Get Sketchy….

I followed it generally pretty close!

My official entry is this one:

The only thing about it that’s not CTMH is the kraft card base.
CTMH Cranberry CS
CTMH Cranberry Grosgrain Ribbon
CTMH Cupcake Sprinkles Stamp Set
CTMH Red Sparkles
CTMH Patterned Paper (very old, and very retired)

But I was on a roll and was really liking the monochromatic look of this card so kept making different versions of the same card:

Enjoy!

H2H Challenge: 1/2/3 Challenge

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Making it under the wire again for the newest Heart to Heart Challenge this week!

It’s a 1/2/3 Challenge – in this case 1 stamped image, 2 patterned papers and 3 embellishments!

Here’s my entry (supplies to follow picture) – Enjoy!

Everything is CTMH!

Sasparilla Papers
Cocoa Grosgrain Ribbon
Pewter Foundry Frames
Twilight fabric covered brad
Twilight Ink
Legendary Moments stamp set

Heart 2 Heart Challenge

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Hi everyone … it’s been awhile, a long while, since I posted artwork!

But I came across this new CTMH Blog yesterday and was inspired to make a card! I have a lot of stuff to actually post, I just don’t have pictures of it all yet! Oops! So, I’ll start here.

This new blog is called Heart 2 Heart Challenges. You should definitely check it out! :)

This is my submission for the current challenge (just getting in under the 7pm PST/10pm EST deadline buzzer).

I made the background piece out of Chocolate and did the faux croc leather technique. I also used the CTMH stamp set Treasures and CTMH bling. The other colors are Sunflower and Sweet Leaf – the only non-CTMH piece is the wide ribbon!

Enjoy!

Ghirardelli Square

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Friday, our last full day in San Fran, we decided to walk down to Ghirardelli Square which is only a block from where we are staying, and then buy an all-day Muni pass andd go see some of the sights that we hadn’t seen yet.

Ghiradelli_Sign

They had another beautiful tree put up – they are all over this city!!

Ghiradelli_Square_Xmas_Tree

We then grabbed a bite to eat and walked over to the Cable Carn Turn Around (one block away) and grabbed our Muni Pass. You can ride the cable car for $5 one way, or buy an all day Muni for $11 which allows you to ride all of the transportation systems for the day that you buy them. It’s pretty cool really.

We got off the Cable Car just a few blocks up Hyde (a few very steep blocks though) at Lombard street.

This is the view of a Cable car coming UP Hyde stree towards Lombard. You can even see Alcatraz in the background!

Cable_Car_Hyde_Street_Alcatraz

And here are a couple of pictures of Lombard street – one from the top, and the other from the bottom (we walked down it).

Lombard_Street

Lombard_Street2

When we were done snapping pics at Lombard we walked a few blocks down to Starbucks … yes … the same ‘Bucks that was closed on us the night before! LOL The Barista there was pretty cute though – she asked us our favorite animal. The gal in front of me told me to say Giraffe – so I did! This is what I got on my Venti Iced Chai!

chaidrink

After that we hopped on the Powell-Mason Cable Car line (we had always rode the Powell-Hyde one to this point and thought we were now going to have ridden BOTH lines that San Fran had – much to our dismay we found out later that there is actually a THIRD cable car line that we didn’t know about until it was too late!! D’oh!!)

Cable_Car_Turnaround

We rode all the way to the end of this line and got off at Powell street. Then we walked over and caught the #21 Bus and headed out. We were making our way to Alamo Square and the Painted Ladies.
They look just like all the pictures you ever see of them. It didn’t take us long to get our pictures and head back!

Alamo_Square_Painted_Ladies

At this point we made our way back to our Hotel and spent the night hanging our, packing and cleaning up. Generally just getting ready to go! I’m sad that our vaca is over – it always goes way too fast!

Golden Gate Bridge & Alcatraz

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Yesterday (Thursday) our good friend Kelly came into the city and we were able to visit and hang out with her for the day! Hooray! We realized it had been over 5 years since we’d seen her. Way too long!

Anyway, since the weather was beautiful we decided to head to the Golden Gate Bridge and walk it. It was sooo beautiful. It was a little breazy and frankly if I got too close to the edge I got a little queezy, but it was still good to do. We actually didn’t make it all the way across. We got about 3/4 of the way and had to turn around – Melissa forgot her coat at the hotel and was frozen. So back we went. From start to finish the bridge is 1.7 miles long and we figure we did a total of about 2.8 or so of those miles (there and back). So we were close.

ggbridge_postcard

ggbridge_tracy

PC171114

After the Bridge we hung out for a bit and then headed down to In N Out for lunch. Man that place is good!

Then we went our seperate ways – Kel back home and Melissa and I walked down to Pier 33 to catch the Alcatraz Clipper for our night Tour of the famous prison.

This picture was taken on the Ferry on the way out to the Island:
alcatraz_ferry_island2

The Welcome Sign – Historical Note – For those that didn’t know (I didn’t) Alcatraz was occupied by American Indians starting in 1969 (6 years after the Prison was closed). They occupied the Island for 19 months before being escorted off by the Military. They were protesting the Governments practive of reclaiming Reservations. That’s why you see the red paint behind the Welcome sign.
alcatraz_dock_sign

The Guard Tower:
alcatraz_guard_tower

The Cell House from down below:
alcatraz_cellhouse2

Here’s a Cell – they measured about 5×7 or so:
alcatraz_cells

Someone said this at one point – and it’s all over the Island:
alcatraz_rules_quote

Here’s a picture of downtown from the Island after dark:
alcatraz_downtown_view2

Overall, yesterday was a great and very busy day!!! We ended up walking back to our Hotel after the Cruise because we had grand plans at stopping by the Starbucks to get a hot drink (we were quite cold by the end of the night). Much to our chagrin they had just closed. Grrr … there’s gotta be an app for that right?!?!?!!! LOL

We headed to bed early – with over 19,000 steps taken for the day. Needless to say, sleep was most welcome!

California Academy of Sciences

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Yesterday (Tuesday) was a lay-low type of day. We slept in and then headed over to Alameda/Oakland to take in Needle in a Haystack. It’s the “local” stitching shop up in this neck of the woods and Melissa definitely wanted to stop by. It was a fairly large store – the biggest cross stitching/needle work store I’ve ever been in for sure. I picked up a few things, including the following two charts – but this stop was really Melissa’s weakness.

pirateship

snowman

Today we had big plans. We were first going to head over to the California Academy of Sciences, then head over to the Golden Gate Bridge and walk across it. Imagine are dismay when we woke up to rain/mist. But we headed out anyway. We started with the CAofS – which includes among other things an Aquarium, an actual living Rainforest and Planetarium.

There were a ton of great pictures taken, but here are a few:

pinkstarfish

rainforest

turtle

When we left there we decided to head to the Bridge, even if it was still crummy weather. We figured if nothing else we should be able to get some pictures taken today. Well, we hadn’t really intended on CROSSING the bridge, as there is a $6 return toll to get back, but somehow the exit was missed and over we went. So we stopped at the viewing point on the other side and took some pictures. The fog was still low, but it made for a cool picture – unfortuatnely we coudn’t see much else!

ggbridge

Tomorrow we’re hanging out with our good friend Kelly!! We can’t wait!