CAS Christmas Week {Day 5}

Happy July 4th to all of my American friends.  I hope you have a wonderful day planned with your family to celebrate America's independence.  

Today I have two very similar cards for you today....both for the Dynamic Duos challenge this week.  Can you tell I love my Lil Inker Snowflake dies...I think they are absolutely fabulous and simply make the card.  

Here's my question for you today...what's your all time favorite Christmas set and/or dies?

 

I'm irritated...

 with myself.  My blog title might be a bit strange, but I am very irritated with myself.  And I'm writing about it to hold myself accountable.  The first weekend in May for the last six years, I have participated in an event at Cincinnati's Flying Pig Marathon.  It started with my first ever 5K, then a 10K, then the marathon relay, my first half marathon, another relay and my second half marathon.  But this year, I didn't do anything.  I'm so frustrated with myself.  To give perspective, up until six years ago, I had never run anything in my life and really would not consider myself a regular exerciser.  I had changed that habit up until the last six months.  I told myself I didn't have time to run the half marathon.  It is a huge commitment and there are reasons I made that decision, but I'm posting today to hold myself to not making that choice again.  I've gain about 6 pounds since the beginning of the year and I'd really like to be about 16 pounds lighter than I am today.  So to hold myself accountable, I'm changing my habits today:

• I have to run at least three times per week.  I started today with a walk/run of 2.3 miles (after loading the MapMyRun app onto my phone) at a pace of 12.02 min/mile.  Not fast, but I ran more than I did the last few times I was out there...steady progress is my goal.
• I have to drink a ton more water and a lot less diet coke. I'm sitting here with my water now.
• I have to eat more protein and a ton less carbs.

Soon...I'm going to set a goal.  Not sure which race I'm going to run in, but I will come up with a goal.  To hold myself more accountable I'm going to post on my Friday posts how much I've run for the week.   And if you've made it through my rant :), I'm sharing two cards with you today.   

When I saw the MUSE card last week, I wanted to play with the yellow/blue color combo, but I ran out of time.  Then I saw the current Dynamic Duos color combo and decided to play along.  I tried to add blue buttons/gems to the card below, but I liked it without the blue.  This card is going to my co-worker who just had her knee replaced.

But I stilled wanted to make a card with the color combo...so I pulled out my new PTI set to play along!  And I noticed that I used Pool Party instead of Baja Breeze...woops!

Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!   And thanks always for listening!

Super Fun Birthday {and Marcel's thoughts on baseball attire}

Oh la la...I love Regal Rose.  It is one of my all time favorite Stampin' Up colors.  This was an easy card, but I love the contrast of the gorgeous Hero Arts background stamp.  I'm thinking I'm going to need to mass produce thank you notes using this fabulous color combo.  Thanks Dynamic Duos!

Completely unrelated to my card, but my little man continues to crack me up.  Here's our latest conversation on baseball:

"Mommy, my favorite color is golden.  Golden is almost yellow, but it's not yellow.  It's golden.  I would really like golden cleats, but daddy says I should get something that matches my uniform like blue or black."  

Love that little guy...can you imagine a 7 year old wearing golden cleats?  I think that would be hilarious, but we'll be sticking with the dark blue or black!  

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy Tuesday my friends.  On Sunday, I had a couple of hours while the boys played outside to make cards for a variety of challenges.   So you'll be seeing challenge cards on the blog for the rest of the week!  I was happy to create just for the sake of creating and pick/choose challenges. Today's card is for Dynamic Duos and CASE this Sketch.   Rather than sticking with a completely green palette for my St. Patrick's Day card, I decided to add in the blue for the card base.  If you look closely too, you'll see that my neglected but very loved PTI linen impression plate was used to add a bit of texture to the white panel.  Hope you like it and that your week is zooming along.

I'm off to Jacksonville for three days of work early this morning...

Basketball, Show Choir and A Thank You Card!

We had a super busy, but absolutely fabulous weekend.  Our great friends, Sara and Andrew, came to visit with their girls.  Sara and I met through blogging and I'll tell you what every time we get together we have an even better time than the last.  I'll be back with a full post on our visit tomorrow (I want to get my Project Life pages ready to post!)...so before I post about our visit together I have a few other things to share!

Collin's first year of basketball finished up this weekend.  He had a great time!  It was tournament week and they made it to the finals yesterday. He was so excited!  They didn't win but truly had a fabulous season and it is wonderful to see each of the boys improve.  Pat was the assistant coach and loved every minute of it!

Ryan had another show choir competition this weekend.  This time it was local so it was easier to get to and from and the boys got to come too.  I didn't take these pictures below but I thought I'd share them as I think they are fabulous!  They came in 2nd and won for best choreography, best band and best crew!  I'm so proud of them!

 

And if you've made it this far...here's a CAS card for this week's Dynamic Duo challenge. Thanks for sticking around and I hope your week gets off to a great start!

 

 

Around Our House...

It's been a bit since I've shared what's happening around our house so I thought I'd stop and share a bit.

• Our biggest news is that Pat is officially back to work after 11 years of being at home. He started yesterday as a real estate appraiser.  It's a great job with lots of flexibility...part time and perfect for our schedule.
• The other exciting news is that Ryan got his temporary driver's license last weekend so he's taking driver's ed and he has gotten behind the wheel for a couple short trips in our neighborhood.   He's also very busy with baseball workouts for spring baseball and of course,  show choir.
• Jonathon has been in science club after school for a few weeks now and is loving every minute of it.   And here is at his choir concert this week.  There is nothing better to me than hearing children sing.

• Collin has been working extra hard in school and was so proud when he came home with the "Star Student" award for November.   I loved seeing the smile on his face.  And...he's started playing basketball for the first time this week.  Pat is the assistant coach (that's what happens when you sign up late!), but really he loves it.
• Marcel is busy being the little brother getting carted to and from to his brother's activities.   And although he asks for his own room on occasion, there's nothing sweeter than this picture of Collin and Marcel sleeping together on Monday night.

• And me... our family and work keep me very busy, but as you know I'm managing to keep up with crafting.  It is my relaxation and I wouldn't trade it.  Life isn't always perfect so I'm finding myself praying quite a bit for peace and happiness for many. 

So that's what's happening around our home?  What about you?  I hope during this holiday season that you are finding time for yourself and your family.

And before I sign off...two cards...because as I said...I'm making time for my crafting!

First one is for the awesome Retro Sketch.

And the second is for the current Dynamic Duo...my first time playing along with this challenge using Karen Baker's new stamps!