On the bright side

Memphis lost in overtime. Sooo close to winning in regulation. Poor Memphis. And no Wii money for me.

On the bright side, I started my taxes. I'm not sure how much further I have to go but I got through income and charity donations. I'm aiming to finish tonight.

Also, I can share a variation of my sweet and easy favors:



As you probably know by now, I'm a Dymo addict and have tons of old-school Dymo stuff. So I was psyched when Jamie and Michelle discovered the joys of Dymo. So I shared some Dymo love: I sent them a few rolls in vintage colors (purple, orange, yellow, gold, and my fave, avocado) last week.

Glad they're enjoying them!

Hope everyone can stay on the bright side this week--

Time to get it in gear

Argh--still did not do my taxes yet! Yeesh, I'm like a kid in school, procrastinating on this onerous task when I should just DO IT. Pathetic.

Okay. Baby steps. Tonight, I vow to at least install TurboTax.

On the Yay-me side, I did exercise yesterday and I plan to do it again tonight.

Happy Monday all!

Feeling lucky?

Can you share some with me?

I went to play Bingo (yes, B-I-N-G-O) with some friends down at Viejas Casino. I came soooo close to winning a game--my last number was coming up but someone called Bingo before the number was called.

Also, I'm in a March Madness pool. I had bet on UCLA vs. Kansas for the championship with UCLA to win, but it's Kansas vs. Memphis. Oddly enough, as no one picked Memphis to win the championship, if Memphis wins, I win the pool. Crazy, right?

Well I need some crazy luck. Go Memphis!

Time to exercise

I took this gym class the other day. I hadn’t exercised in ages but I like this particular class because it’s easy to follow, a good workout, and the music is catchy. There was a substitute instructor this time who, if I didn’t know any better, was auditioning to some invisible surveillance camera proving she’s tough enough for the job. God, she was a sadist. High on energy and endorphins, low on sense and sympathy.

The class is usually simple but she added complicated moves to work us harder, which made the workout pretty miserable. She'd urge, Come on, keep pushing! We want to lose our love handles! while pointing to her bony ribs.

And it wasn’t just me feeling it. The women who work out in the front who could practically be substitute instructors themselves were grimacing in irritation at the new stuff the substitute was throwing in. I know, I was muttering telepathically to them, I want to punch her too.

After what felt like forever curling some barbell, she giggles, oh, I’m sorry I lost count! Thankfully my exhaustion prevented me from hurling the barbell like a javelin at her to stop her unexhausted chirping.

Anyhoo, I made it through without killing her or myself. I'm sure she was real proud of herself for running such a tough class--she probably treated herself to some ice water and sliced apples.

Man, I’m just too out of shape.

Hey it's April 3rd!

Happy Birthday Heidi!

(Posh and Becks wish you the best!)

(Oh, and Daniel Craig, too.)

(And I think Viggo Mortensen wrote a poem about you.)

April Fool

There's a reality show on the TVLand channel called "High School Reunion" where a group of folks from the same high school (now in their forties) live in a house together. The tag line is "It's high school all over again!"

Who would sign up for that?

Sweet and Easy - No Fooling

My first tutorial! Something sweet...

I put some jelly beans (from the awesome post-Easter sales) in a ziplock sandwich bag. The snack bags that are a third the height would be better but I haven't seen those around lately. Squeeze out the air and zip the bag close.

Then take some pattern paper cut to the width of the bag by twice the height of the final cover height. Was that worded in a very confusing way? If so, I think the pix might help. Here I used some Creative Memories Storybox papers, which are precut like photo mats: 4 1/2" x 6 1/2". These are perfect for this project. I used a border punch (alternatively I've used decorative scissors, like scallop cut) along the edges after folding in half, lengthwise.

Then I folded down the top of the bag, so it would fit under the decorative cover.

Then I stapled the cover fairly close to center--I try to staple through the zipper portion of the bag for extra stability. If you want, you can staple a couple of times on the ziplock bag (again along the zipper portion) before stapling the cover on.

I printed labels using Word (and WordArt for the circular printing). My current fave fonts: Circus Ornate ("sweet") and Loki Cola ("you rule") from dafont.com. I printed two different ones for both sides of the cover.

Then I placed the labels over the staple (in the front and back).

Wha la! Check out these sweet sweets!

I made a basket of these for a fundraiser thank you gift. I've also done a version of these for my sister-in-law's wedding as wedding favors. You could make your own die-cuts (for example, die cut hearts or other themed shapes) or other embellishments instead of labels but printing out labels really makes the process quicker when you're making over ten of these.

So, next time you're looking to make sweet and easy (especially on the wallet) favors or gifts, try making a set of these!