It's Been Awhile

I know, I know.....it has been a few weeks since I have posted anything! I have just been out of my crafting mood and I haven't had much else to talk about.

I am not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow because I know that over the course of the next 3 days I will give the 50 flu shots that we got in yesterday at the pharmacy and I know that I will have at least 50 more people wanting them after the last one is gone. I don't mind giving the shots, but when it also has to be done along with all of the other normal duties, it gets to be very overwhelming! It also becomes an issue when I don't have any one else there with me - like on Saturday afternoon my tech will leave around 3 or 4 and then it will be just me there by myself for the last 2 hours - hopefully everyone else will be consumed with Halloween and trick-or-treating to be worried about coming into Rite Aid to get a flu shot?!

On another note, we did get a new kitten, Gracie! She is not very cooperative with the camera, but this was the best shot I could get for now!

Also, I did make my niece a birthday card for her 2nd birthday:

I can't believe that she is already two! My sister is now swimming in princess/pink stuff. I didn't get any pictures from the party because I was kind of stuck in a corner and I couldn't really get out to take pictures :(

That's it for now - I am going to go put together a stand for our DVDs that just arrived from UPS so maybe I will post pictures of it soon!

The giraffes on this card are from a stamp set that I super cheap at Target on clearance for a whole $2.62! I didn't have any stamps for kids so I thought this one would be a great start! It's called Mindy's zoo by Autumn Leaves - so cute!

Most of the other stuff is from my stash - the chipboard letters are from Hobby Lobby and the buttons are from Basic Grey's OBSCURE buttons.

A Few Random Things

I decided instead of posting lots of different posts, that I would post just once about lots of different stuff at once:

1. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

During my time in pharmacy school, I belonged to a pharmaceutical fraternity, Kappa Epsilon, and our national platform is BCAM!

2. I had a small accident yesterday :o( I went to spend a fun-filled day celebrating a friend of mines' birthday party at Rock Island State Park. Several years ago, I had to have surgery on my ankle due to a small birth defect having to do with the way my bones formed in my ankle. Anyway, one of the downsides of the surgery is that I am not very stable on uneven surfaces any longer because I have limited movement in my ankle.

Just after I twisted my ankle on an uneven rock stair, my friend Sam comes around the corner behind me and says, "Brandy, do you think your ankle will be able to handle this with it being so wet?" ---- Funny you should ask since I just twisted my ankle and felt something pop! I went back up to the picnic tables and sat and worked a Sudoku puzzle while the rest of the group went down and did some hiking. As soon as I twisted it, I was in an extreme amount of pain and I immediately felt a "burning" sensation so I knew the swelling was setting in immediately.

Anyway, here is my ankle last night when I got home! It is very sore and I am really not looking forward to going to work Wednesday and Thursday since all I do is stand on my feet for 12 hours a day! Let's pray that another day of rest tomorrow will do it some good and it will be better by then!??! It's not looking good at this moment - I am still in a lot of pain, but can walk on it and move it, so I know it's not broken - just sprained or strained, but it's still not comfortable!

3. We have discovered a fun movie to watch over and over again recently - Fired Up! It's about 2 high school football players who decide to go to cheer camp instead of football camp so that they can chase after girls - It's a pretty funny movie and we have watched it twice already!

4. I am in love with Netflix! Juan and I love to watch movies and what better way to rent movies than to have them sent right to your mailbox? I was sceptical at first, but I love it!

5. There are only 10 months left on my contract at Rite Aid and then we will be moving to PA to be closer to my husband's children. After spending a week up there a few months ago, we realized that we really need to be a part of their lives. I will miss my friends and family here in TN, but I know that those kids need their dad (and their mom) so we are making the move north!

I guess that's it for now.....Have a good rest of the week!

everything but the Kitchen Sink challenge

I had SOOOO much fun making this card for the new "everything but the Kitchen Sink challenge"!!!!! This is a new challenge started by a few friends of mine, so I knew I was going to participate from the moment that I read their news! I was just waiting on the recipient to get her card first before posting it - because I know that she reads my blog and I didn't want to spoil the surprise! Click on the picture below and it will take you to Courtney's blog and the other entries for this challenge:For this month the challenge was to take something from your mail and incorporate it into a card or scrapbook page. Here is some of the mail that I used:

The card I made was for my sister, Carol, who uses coupons like a mad woman and can get stuff for next to nothing most of the time! I had some coupons that I wanted to send her for diapers, but I also had some coupons for other stuff that I knew I would not be using, so I sent those along as well.

The first thing I saw after I read about the challenge on Courtney's blog was a coupon book from Kroger and I immediately thought about a coupon themed card but I wasn't sure how it was going to work out completely.

Then I got the cellophane pocket idea from another one of the challenge creators, Winter. I decided that I would find small images of of some of the products I was sending in coupon form and tuck them into the little pocket. I took those images, glued them to some card stock and cut them out again and stuck them in their cellophane pocket home.

I cut the "exclusive coupons" wording from the front of the Kroger coupon booklet and put it all on top of some striped paper from Cherry Hill's October Afternoon collection. I then found a scrap of blue paper and punched a scalloped border for the edge of the card. This card was really tiny - it was only about 4X3 inches.

It seemed like it was missing something so....The last thing that I did was I stamped a "To you from me" sentiment from American Craft's. I cut that out, punched a hole in it, and tied some ribbon in it and stuck it in the little cellophane pocket as well.

Here is the finished product with the coupons inserted and ready to go!

My sister called me today to let me know that she got the card and that she thought it was really cute! I must admit that it reminded me of doing a project like you would do in elementary school, but I absolutely LOVED it - it was almost therapeutic after a long 12 hour day of work! I sat down JUST to come up with the idea and I ended up staying up until almost 1AM working on the darn thing AND I had to get up for work the next morning (thank goodness the next day was a Saturday and I didn't have to be there until 9 instead of our normal 8)!

Even though it does remind me of something I would have made in elementary school, it is still probably one of my favorite cards that I have made so far! I hated parting with it, but I am glad it brought a smile to someone else's face today!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #17

I decided I needed some inspiration to come up with a birthday card for a sweet friend of mine. I thought that the colors from Dawn's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge (click on the picture above to go directly to the page that provides links to more wonderful cards) would make a great birthday card - the aqua and red make the colors so bright and "cheery!"

The middle present there and the "Happy Birthday" are applied with dimensional adhesive so they "pop-out" a little from the card. I LOVE the ribbon that I used on this card - lacy and feminine! I am not completely happy with the way that the card turned out, but that might be because it's a little late and I'm tired!

Exciting news in my life right now - I am actually not working like a mad woman this week! Yay! I worked last Sunday unexpectedly because the other pharmacist's dad at my store ended up going to the ER and she wanted to go be with him...but she offered to repay me by working my Sunday for me (this NEVER happens to me)!!!

So I have Sun, Mon, and Tues off this week as well as my normal 3 day weekend of Fri, Sat, and Sun! YAY!

Sunday I am going to spend the day with a very precious family to me who are home from their missionary lives in Honduras for a few months. I'm not sure what Monday and Tuesday have in store for me just yet. Then on Friday I am going to be able to spend some time with 3 other amazing women whom I have known for a very long time - I can't wait! I hope that you all get some kind of exciting and fun news this week as well!

Supplies for this card:
Cardstock: Kraft, aqua, and white colored
Ink: Lipstick Red and Blue Lagoon from Colorbox
Ribbon: Chocolate Brown Lace Ribbon from Jo-Ann's
Stamps: Happy Birthday 01 and Stripped Present from Stampabilities
Punch: A Scalloped edge punch that I found on Clearance at Target for about $3 - not sure of brand or what it's called exactly (I threw the packaging away already)