A Beautiful Day in the Ozarks

It was a beautiful day today in the Ozarks. Curtis spent most of his day working in the yard. I worked on some things inside and then we did a little shopping. It was a great day for being outside. After we finished with our "work", we headed to Meador Park to play tennis. We had the entire court to ourselves, so we didn't have to worry about interfering with another game. Since neither of us had played tennis in SEVERAL years, we had quite a few stray balls. We'll have to work on that so we can stay on our own court! It was fun, regardless of how badly we played.

Feeling Older Than I Should Be...

I really thought yesterday would be the most painful day after my "incidents" on Tuesday. Today, however, is MUCH worse. I have quite a bit of bruising and feel like I've been run over by a train. The weather is supposed to be absolutely beautiful this weekend, though, so I'm hoping to "jump back in the saddle" on Saturday. I will not be wearing knee pads, elbow pads, or shoulder pads as suggested by my loyal friends and co-workers. Hopefully, I've learned my lesson... At least, enough to be a reminder on future rides.

I haven't had a chance to work on any cards or scrapbooking in the last several days, so I apologize for not having anything to share. I will be serving as "Camp Counselor" at "Camp Scrap" on Friday night from 5 pm until sometime after midnight on Friday, April 20th, at our church. Hopefully, I'll have time to work on something there and will have pictures to share on Saturday. TTFN!

I Spoke Too Soon...

Apparently, I've been bragging a little too much about not crashing the new bike yet. I intended on riding about 25 miles tonight, but only logged 14. Within the first two miles I had a small mishap. Ok... maybe you could call it a wreck. In any case, it scuffed my left knee up pretty bad. I endured the stinging and refused to look at it, afraid of what I might see. If you know me very well at all, you know that the mere sight of blood (anyone's blood) can make me pass out. About another mile down the road, I'll be darned if I didn't wipe out again. That time, I took a good beating to my right elbow. I did see some blood that time, but some other riders distracted me by striking up a conversation about how they'll NEVER use clipless pedals because they spend more time getting up and dusting themselves off than they do riding. As bad as I'm hurting right now and as sore as I'll be tomorrow morning, I'm not giving up my clipless pedals. The increased efficiency on the bike, as opposed to traditional pedals, is just incredible.

The Maiden Voyage

It's been a great day today. After church, Curt and I went out for some fine Chinese cuisine. We came home after lunch and made the maiden voyage on the new Giant. We rode about 15 miles and I left Curtis in the dust!! WOO-HOO!! It is amazing how much difference there is between bikes and I don't know how I ever made it as far as I did on the old mountain bike. I was afraid that I'd crash and burn at least once with the new cycling shoes, but I really didn't have any problems. I'm looking forward to riding a lot more and, hopefully, training for the MS150 this year. After our bike ride, we made a trip to Lowe's to pick up some things so we could finish some projects around the house. We had new carpet installed several months ago and haven't been able to open the door that goes out onto the patio since then. The pile of the new carpet was MUCH higher than that of the old and the door wouldn't clear it. Since it's been so cold and nasty out, anyway, we haven't really missed being able to use the back door. It was really nice today, though, and we started thinking about cooking out and using the patio more. We installed a fairly high threshhold and ended up cutting about 3/4 of an inch off of the bottom of the door. It opens and closes perfectly now.

One of our other purchases today was a new circular saw. We didn't own one yet and I think that's going to work best for cutting a hole in the bathroom wall. We are having our faucets replaced in the tub in the large bathroom in a couple of weeks (Thank you, in advance, Tony) and there isn't an access door to the plumbing. SO... I'm going to cut a hole in the wall and install the panel. I hope it's as easy as I think it will be.

I started working on another card today, but didn't get finished so I'll post that later. I hope you all had a splendiferous day! TTFN!!

Gone Fishing...

Not really! ...But I have been making some fishy cards!! This "Best Fishes" card was made using the "Very Punny" stamp set from Stampin' Up! I also used Brilliant Blue cardstock, a classic black ink pad, and watercolor pencils. The patterned paper is from Paper Pizazz and is appropriately named "bubbles".


This next card was made using the "Doodle This" stamp set from Stampin' Up! I heat embossed it with gold detail embossing powder and then colored the flowers and the yellow and blue paper with Twinkling H2O's (they're just sparkly watercolors).

Warning!! If you're female, you may want to stop reading here. Otherwise you might see one of these two cards in the near future!! I used the "Looks Like Spring" stamp set on this card. The background of the card is So Saffron cardstock. I used So Saffron and Almost Amethyst classic ink pads to make the argyle paper and matted it against Almost Amethyst cardstock. The flower is stamped on Whisper White cardstock with Almost Amethyst classic ink and then cut out by hand. The center of the flower is colored with So Saffron classic ink and then I added some glitter just because I love sparkly things. The M's in MOM came from a set of Stampabilities stamps that I've had for over a year and never used. The flower was stamped on Whisper White cardstock and punched out using the Spring Bouquet punch from Stampin' Up! I attached the small flower with a So Saffron brad and then matted the whole word on Almost Amethyst cardstock. The ribbon was purchased at Hobby Lobby.

Finally... This last card is made using Basic Black cardstock and the "Doodle That" and the "All Year Cheer II" stamp sets from SU! I stamped the little swirly stamp using Almost Amethyst classic ink on Almost Amethyst cardstock and then used a white gel pen to accent the swirlies. I used pastels (chalks) on the flower and the 1 1/4 inch and 1 3/8 inch circle punches on the front of the card. The ribbon was purchased at Hobby Lobby.

I really did accomplish something other than making cards today. I purchased the new ride seen in the previous post, started knocking a hole in our bathroom wall (building an access panel so we can get to the plumbing in the tub), cooked dinner, had a nice phone conversation with Mom, and watched a movie. Whew!! I'm going to bed!! TTFN!

Good News & Bad News

Ok.... the good news first! I went bicycle shopping and am now the proud owner of a Giant OCR1W and a new pair of riding shoes. The shoes will definitely take some getting used to. I'm sure I'll kiss the pavement a few times before I adjust to clipping and unclipping them from the pedals. The bad news... we're still getting a light mixture of rain and frozen precip, so I won't be doing any riding today. I think tomorrow is supposed to be much more dry and warm, so I'm looking forward to that.

Spring or Winter?

Can it really be April 14th in the midwest? I woke up to a mixture of rain and snow this morning... a day I had planned to go bicycle shopping. I suppose I can still go shopping, but this weather sort of takes the fun out of having a new bicycle!! It looks like it may just be a lazy day for me around the house. It's not like there's nothing to do around here, though. Actually, I LOVE these kinds of days... hanging around in lounge pants and a t-shirt that's too big with a rubber stamp and some ink at one side and a cup of coffee at the other. OH... and there will be some music playing in the background and a dog and two cats at my feet. Actually, the cats (Smith & Wesson) will be ON the table at which I'm attempting to work. Well, I'm off to do something fun! Hope you all enjoy your day! TTFN!

A Sad Day at Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

Mr. Jack Henry, the founder of Jack Henry & Associates, passed away today at the age of 71. I have been employed by Jack Henry & Associates since January 2003 and am proud to be able to say that. It is an awesome company to work for and Jack Henry was an incredible man. His story can be read at http://www.jackhenry.com/overview/history/ . Mr. Henry had been in the hospital since March 31st and I had good intentions of creating and sending a "get well" card to him. Unfortunately, it's too late to do that. Instead, I came home from work today and made a sympathy card for his wife and family. This card was made using the Stampin' Up! "Heartfelt Thanks" stamp set and classic ink in Bravo Burgundy and Always Artichoke. Cardstocks used were Very Vanilla, Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke, and So Saffron. The ribbon is a sheer ribbon in burgundy that I purchased at Hobby Lobby last year. The "With Sympathy" stamp is not part of the "Heartfelt Thanks" set, but is from a company called Rubber Cottage. Ta-Ta for now (TTFN)!