30 ROCKS!

Just like I knew it would ;)

Alright - now that I've got that out of the way, I figured since my crafting time has been desperately lacking, I should probably at least post and let you, my fabulous friends, know how much your friendship means to me and how truly unnecessary but completely appreciated your birthday wishes and gifts were!

First and foremost, I was spoiled! Holy bananas, was I spoiled. MrP arranged a bit of a decoy so that I might lost my cool a little, but his wits proved to be no match for mine. I was up on Sunday morning to get ready for my 10K run with my run club and he got up and brought me a boxed gift that contained the beautiful black lululemon jacket I'd said I was going to get myself....oh In Stride jacket, how lovely you fit. I then headed out for my run with my trusty protein powder & water ready to be drank once I finished so I could then treat myself to my favorite Starbucks drink that I've had to all but cut out with my new dietary limitations - a black tea lemonade. The run was a bit of a faster pace than our usual speed, but I finished and enjoyed my shake, then Starbucks.

Once home, I noticed a bike covered with blankets beside MrP's car in the garage - but I could tell it was not a road bike. Once showered, he blindfolded me and walked me to the garage. I think the video is too large otherwise I'd post (he recorded my reaction, hoping it would be....let's say...."colorful") I pulled off the blankets and it was this....

If this is what your bike looks like, then it's a beauty, but it was NOT what I asked begged for. This, my friends, is a touring bike. Or, in MrP's case, a $269 Walmart decoy bike. I liked the green, but that's about it. This in no way resembled the speedster road bike I had envisioned, but alas, I am too smart for MrP! As much as I'm a snob with certain things, he is undoubtedly a bike snob...so I knew there was NO way he would 'let' me ride a Raleigh. As he said once he was bored with my lack of reaction, "Well we all know there's no way I'd let you ride a Walmart bike...your real gift is on the patio" and when I went back out, I saw the reason I'd been blindfolded to get to the garage.

HELLO GORGEOUS! Now that's something I can get some speed on. And I did - after getting fitted for it and practicing with the clip in pedals. I could post the video of my epic first fall, too, but then you'd see the complete spectacle I made of myself for the neighbors to mock while I unclipped one side, then for whatever reason, shifted my weight to the other and proceeded to take a side nosedive into the pavement of the sidewalk. Yep - it was special!

Anyways, after I dusted off my bruised ego (and buttocks), we went out for a quick loop around the big neighborhood block (4K), then changed and out for supper at a local wine bar & bistro that has Sunday night movies. The King's Speech was the highlight of our visit, as the food wasn't all it was cracked up to be. No wait - the highlight of our visit was MrP's final surprise, which wasn't a birthday gift per se, but he thought it might be the best way to present it - at a wine bar, drinking a California wine. We're heading back to San Francisco in October to celebrate our five year anniversary! WOOHOO!

Alright....now that I've bored you to tears, grab a kleenex and finish up this rubbish... ;)

You, my friends, also spoiled me. Along with tons of well wishes from my fabulous buddies, I received fabulous stamps and my most favorite chocolates! It seems you all know me too well. Marissa shipped over a gift certificate for some Vervey goodness (that I can't believe hasn't already been blown, but my excuse is the crazy week I've been having), Maureen gifted the set I'd attempted to order through her, who's shipping was the bane of her existence for quite a while. I love a woman who's impatience for shipping delays is surpassed only by her love of the product (and the super talent she showcases that product with!). Andrea, another PTI using superhero of mine, offered to pick me up any PTI stamp set (oh the choices!) and yesterday I received from my super thoughtful friend from Parma, Ohio, Karin, sent me another of my PTI wish list sets along with two of my favorite chocolate bars that are only available in the US...oh almond joy, you are the most delicious bites of chocolate, coconut and almond ever invented!

And here's the worst part, my computer at work is a P.O.S. For whatever reason, it's blocking my attempts to visit all of my favorite bloggers, so I've been relegated to doing it at home. I will make it over for some blog visiting soon!

We are hosting an open house this weekend to celebrate and after that, I hope to get into my craft area, plus use the new Kobo eReader my mom picked up for me and the fabulous cooking gear from superstar friend on her way to her second half marathon this weekend!

See - I really was spoiled and I blame all of you for enabling me to act like a princess for a day week  month. =) Thanks for letting me share.

Let's Celebrate Easter!

While I am aware of the spiritual significance of Easter, I am not much of a church goer. That said, I can definitely get behind any holiday that increases the amount of chocolate in my household! The challenge over at the Sisterhood of Crafters this week is hosted by me...and sponsored by some of my favorite peeps - the super sweeties at AmberInk! I had the chance to meet up with the incredibly artistic Amber while I was in NY and let's just say, MrP and I loved her the moment we met. I was a TorchBearer in August of 2010, nominated by my good friend Karin and I love Amber's stamps, but I've just been the worst TorchBearer and haven't used these stamps nearly as much as I should (I blame it on my very poor ability to color and lack of the most awesome coloring utensils ever invented - copics). That said, when I was thinking of what I wanted to do for my challenge, I baked up an idea...literally!

I started with the new Hide bunny from the Bunny Love line, dropped her into Photoshop CS3 (yes, for this purpose, I'm calling her Heidi and deciding she's a girl) and flipped her, then printed her out. Covered with a sheet of wax paper, I went over the image in piping gel.

Bring in the swiss chocolate cake (very roughly iced)

And transfer the gel onto the cake

(note: if you whip you're 'crumbcoat' of icing into a fluffy mess like I did, you may need to freeze the cake a bit in order to avoid repeating this step....like I did have heard people have done. Just saying.)

Go over Heidi's outline in a darker icing

Add stars to fill in(then realize your outline is too light and redo with darker color)

Finish re-outlining

(like a chump)

Finish tail in white and nose in pink

Add border and mini eggs

Please for the love of all that is tasty - get the Cadbury mini eggs - not the awful immitation Hershey Eggies.

Try your hand at adding Color Mist

Not bad for a first attempt. It's fun to play with!

Add "grass" in the form of green leaf icing and throw on some hiding eggs

Add a border

and skip the "Hoppy Easter sentiment because your my printing may wreck the cake

And finally, from this cute reversed version of Heidi

You get this tasty cake!

Or what I assume will be tasty.
I'm sending it with MrP to work so I don't eat the whole darn cute thing.

Now get over to the Sisterhood of Crafters blog for your chance at winning some AmberInk goodies! I'll be making the winners post on Tuesday, April 26th so you'll have until noon on Sunday, April 24th (my 30th birthday, thank you very much!) to get your entries in.
To view the most awesome design team map, check out what Amber did here!
And see if you can find me...

Jumping

Well with every intention of posting a card this morning, instead I'm posting last night's events!

Just wanted to test to see if this works.

 If it does, this was Zeus and I - and as usual, despite my worst efforts, he jumped everything like a superstar.

Busy little Viva

Well this is the infamous "Do you like it?" *pause before answer* card =) MrP thinks it's too busy for his preference. What do you think? Background too much? Be honest! I'm giving it to them anyways because it matches the wrapping paper I used for the gifts, but it is a little busy for me, too (although I'll never admit that to MrP lest he expect me to stop harassing him about his brutal honesty).

My cousin is due in May, so I'm hoping to get some more use out of this awesome set that I just adore! Next up will be the elephant, I think. This time around, I went with the monkey because one of the gifts is a canvas bin with a monkey on it. Too cute!

Tonight I've got my riding lesson with Zeus and tomorrow, week four of my half marathon clinic. It's going well - but we'll start getting into our Sunday longer distances soon and I hope I don't crater!

What have you been up to this spring? Do you have any upcoming plans for vacation? I told MrP I'd be happy flying out to NYC for my five days off at my birthday but Westjet doesn't fly to Newark until May 1st, so we'll have an open house style party on the 30th to celebrate with friends. Can't wait! I'm still hoping to get in on the Okanagan Half Marathon as an excuse to get back to Kelowna in October...we shall see =) As it's our five year anniversary then, our usual trip would be to Banff for a non-vacation year.

Anyways, I'm hoping to play with this sketch again - as well as the latest sketch. Viva La Verve, baby!

A Little Last Minute Mojo!

Today, I had the goal of completing the Mojo 185 sketch and at least one Viva La Verve Challenge after my 9K run with my running group. I actually did it, too! LOL Mind you, MrP thinks is too busy for his preference, so I plan to redo the VLV card but I'll post it tomorrow anyways and give it a retry. It is pretty busy (and I appreciate his honesty).

Anyways, onto the Mojo sketch, which as always is a beauty. I just picked up a martha Stewart edge puncher so I had to give it a go (as well as some ribbon that was on sale at Michael's last week and my latest SU! stamp purchase from my enabler friend Chelsey)

The sentiment is from Verve's Birthday Bash - one of my go to birthday sets.

The color combo I went with was a modification of a SCS challenge - I used Pink Pirouette, Purely Pomegranate, Basic Gray and Whisper White. I've never been much of a pink fan, but I've always loved the combination of pink & grey.

I haven't been around much lately with the crazy busy life that I lead (and all the shopping I've been doing, restocking my wardrobe for my big 3-0 in two weeks), but I hope you're all well and I will be getting a little more active on the blog...I had far too much fun making cards today - and I'm hosting Wednesday's Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge with some Easter fun!