On my way

here.

Hopefully I will see a bunch of you there.

Have a great week!
gretchen

Star sightings

I will admit that when I signed up for the Country Music 1/2 Marathon in Nashville I secretly hoped to run into some famous people.

{pun intended}

I hear that lots of country music people are runners!
{well maybe not "lots" but several!}

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And look who I found first!
It is the Social Queen of Samford!

{aka Brooke Elder my college roommate}

Seriously, this girl knew everybody at school and we barely made it to our corral in time today for her stopping to talk to 1/2 of Nashville.

But we did make it finally and then Brooke rocked her first 1/2 marathon!

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Look!
It's Dane from The Biggest Loser!

When I asked if I could take his picture he said, "If you can keep up."

{and since my legs were fresher than his because I only ran 1/2 has far as he did I most certainly kept up to get a picture}
He was nice enough to give me a wave as I yelled, "I love The Biggest Loser! You look awesome! You are doing great!"
{and then he probably turned to his wife and rolled his eyes}

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Ooooh then look who I found:
The World's Cutest Running Couple!
{aka Brittney and Scott Smith}{my heros who did the whole marathon!}
Brittney was even nice enough to take a picture in midstride with this adoring fan!
All this running and celebrity sighting has worn me out!
Good night!
gretchen

My Little Shoebox + Hambly = Love

This month the My Little Shoebox team got a special treat.

We got to work with Hambly along with our usual My Little Shoebox stuff.

How fun that was!

I had the Turtles and Trees line from My Little Shoebox as well as overlays, rub-ons, and stickers from Hambly to play with.

Want to see what I made??!

You know I had a fun time making these little sushis.
And Lee had just as much fun making fun of me and how clever I thought I was being.

Supplies: Hambly (green overlay, white rub-on), My Little Shoebox (patterned papers, chipboard letters, ribbon, photo corner)

I love how you can use the Hambly overlays to create your own "patterned paper" to match whatever you are working on.

This is a silver tiny circle overlay over black cardstock with the white butterfly overlay on top of that.
And the My Little Shoebox papers and die cut corners are a great compliment!

Supplies: Hambly (tiny circles & butterfly overlays), My Little Shoebox (patterned papers, chipboard letters, photo corners)

I can't get enough of this butterfly overlay!
I think I used every last bit of it except for the big butterfly & I am saving it for something else special!

Supplies: Hambly (butterfly overlay), My Little Shoebox (patterned papers, chipboard letters, ribbon)

This month for our My Little Shoebox design team projects we were to focus on the chipboard alphas & transparencies on our layouts.
Well, I love chipboard so that was easy!
Supplies: My Little Shoebox (patterned paper, ribbon, chipboard letters), Hambly (white rub-ons)

I cut 2 corners off the sheet of chipboard alphas to make the photo corners for this layout.
And I attached the transparencies here with brads to add a bit of color and, well, because I needed some brads on the layout {duh!}.

Supplies: My Little Shoebox (patterned paper, transparencies, chipboard letters)

And a fun card to finish it off!

Supplies: My Little Shoebox (patterned paper, die cut, chipboard letters)

{Don't forget about the My Little Shoebox design team call that ends May 15th. Don't let it sneak up on you! Learn more details here.}

Thanks for looking!

Happy Wednesday!
gretchen

Card making fool

I feel like that is what I have been this weekend!

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I made this card for Shannon Tidwell's challenge last week over on the KI blog.

Her challenge is to scrap a card for a friend and then send it to them.

Fun challenge!

Supplies are all KI Memories: Friends paper pack, Friends scripty words epoxy stickers, Girl ribbon, and Bloom brads

Also check out this post on the KI blog and make sure to leave a comment about what you love about spring for a chance to win a prize.

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I am also putting the finishing touches on the 6 cards that are part of my class at the Scrap Etc event.
{yeah, yeah the event is in 2 weeks and I am not quite finished with my class BUT I am oh so close!}

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And I made a card for the MMM blog based on one of the Becky Fleck sketches from the May/June issue of Memory Makers.
{I will post that one later this week}
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See? Card making fool!!

Hope your weekend has been a good one!
gretchen

Ode to grandfathers

{conversation last night}

Me: Going to Target. Need anything?
Lee (in the middle of a game of football on the XBox live complete with dorky headset & yelling at whoever he is playing against): I thought you said you went to Target at lunch.

Me: I did. But we need toilet paper.

Lee: So you are going all the way to Target for toilet paper?

Me: Yep. See you after the game.

And on the way to Target {which is "all the way" about 10 minutes away from the house but there are 2 grocery stores and a Dollar General less than 5 minutes away}, I had an epiphany.

I love Target the way my grandfather loved grocery stores.

My Big Daddy was always going to the grocery store.

He would go multiple times during the day, most of the time for just 1-2 items.

I never really understood it...until now.

There is just something about Target that makes it worth the "long" trip for a single item.

{goodness knows I never leave with just 1 item however}

I would must rather spend my time & money in a clean, spacious, organized Target than Wal-Mart {or that Dollar General 5 minutes away) anyday.

And I am sure my Big Daddy felt the same way about his grocery stores.

You know what Big Daddy's favorite purchase was at the grocery store?

Toilet paper

He always kept the house well stocked with the fluffiest kind.

He would not have thought it weird that I made a trip all the way to Target for some Cottonelle.

OK so maybe all this was not an "epiphany" but it made me think of my Big Daddy and miss him a little bit.

Since I am reminiscing, here is a layout I did a couple of years ago about him.

Supplies: Patterned paper, die cuts (Cosmo Cricket), Chipboard (Heidi Swapp), Ink (Ranger), Brads, bookplate (Junkitz)

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And speaking of grandfathers, my layout in the May/June issue of Memory Makers is about my grandfather on my dad's side of the family.

He is Daddy Bill.

{I have always thought my grandfathers had cool names}

Daddy Bill is responsible for all the tennis-playing that goes on on the Misner side of the family.

And that is David in the pictures with him.

David is the same brother from the previous post who is now back in the South.

Supplies: Patterned paper (Basic Grey, My Mind's Eye), Chipboard stars (Heidi Swapp), Chipboard alphas (Basic Grey), Brads (KI Memories)

Ah, memories!

Happy Friday!
{I just thought of something else I need from Target: mascara!}
gretchen

He's baaaaack!

Look who I found migrating back down south.
I am pretty sure he missed grits, Milo's tea, churches on every corner, mild winters, and his sister.

YAY!

Now this was a good Monday.
:)

gretchen

Gentlemen, start your engines!!

Actually today it should have gone like this: Gentlemen and ladies, put on your running shoes!!

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I did the inaugural Talladega 21000 (aka 1/2 marathon) this morning.

13.1 miles around the superspeedway and surrounding areas...how could I resist!?!!

So decked out in my Dale Jr. t-shirt and new black skirt just for the occasion, I embarked on my Nascar running experience.

We started on the track, ran down pit road, went around turns 1 & 2, then went out and above the track to run around turns 3 & 4.

{looking down at those turns from above them was crazy cool!}

Then we ran out behind the track and around the grounds for a few miles.

We came back to the track about mile 8-9, ran through the infield, through the grandstands/under all the towers, and ran above turns 1 & 2.

The final 2.5 miles was 1 lap around the track.

And that was good stuff!

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Look at me trying to catch this guy at the end!
I had stuck with this guy for about 7 miles and then he took off, leaving me in his dust.
I tried to keep up but totally ran out of steam at about mile 8.

I think he ran out of steam about mile 12 because I could see him ahead of me and I was gaining on him!
Please note that I am crossing the finish line before him.
I am pretty sure he hated me.

My goal was under 2 hours and I was so, so close!

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After the race it was picture-taking-around-the-cool-track time!

I was amazed at the steepness of the turns.

I mean, I knew they were steep.
I have witnessed my fair share of Talladega races.

But I guess until you see it for real, you don't really comprehend it.

This is as far as I could walk up the track at turn 1.
I just slid down if I went any farther.

I don't know how the cars don't topple over!

{I guess going 180 mph helps a little}

And these pictures don't really even do it justice!

And now I am going to go nurse the 2 large blisters I have on the arches of my feet.

Happy Saturday!

gretchen

It is 33 degrees outside

So I am cuddling up in the warm house and staying out of this crazy cold weather in Alabama in April.

Craziness.

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I have been cutting and punching and kitting like crazy to get ready for the Scrap Etc event at the end of the month.

I am getting excited!

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I added this layout to the KI Gallery this week.

It is for Celeste Smith's blog challenge to scraplift a layout in the KI Gallery.

I chose to scraplift this layout by Rhonday Bonifay.

I turned my layout into a 2-pager but I kept my design similar to Rhonda's.

Also I really wanted to use the cute chipboard buttons and border stickers like she did.

Supplies: all KI Memories

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I got the May CK today.

I always look at 3 articles first:

1) Ali's article,

2) Elizabeth's "Ask Lizzy" column,

& 3) the Becky Higgins sketch.

Ah, the Becky Higgins sketch.

{one of these days...one of these days...CK will publish one of my BH sketch submissions}

Uh, no need for me to hold on to this layout anymore since it will obviously not be in the May issue.

:)

Supplies: Patterned paper (KI Memories & Basic Grey), Chipboard alphas (American Crafts), Chipboard embellishments (KI Memories), Brads (KI Memories), Tiny alpha stickers (Making Memories)
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Anywhooo.

That's all I've got.
Have a lovely evening!

gretchen

Oh! and did you see this??

Makes me want to try out digital again!

Check it out here.

Another BAH HUMBUG post

Here I am complaining again that it is Sunday night and I have to go to work in the morning.
I would not be complaining if I had not had such a good weekend.

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Got my Lee back from Vegas where he had been all week for a work conference.
{how convenient...Vegas!}
Watched Twilight again with Katie and Virginia.

And again with Lee the following night because I wanted his expert opinion on this vampire movie.

{but sadly I still have not read the books}

Had brunch with my friend Lindsay who is living in Atlanta now.
Worked on kitting more stuff for my class at the Scrap Etc event.

Gathered up door prizes to give away during that class.

{and here are a couple more sneak peeks for my class}

More from me later.
Right now I am going to enjoy what is left of my weekend.
Happy Monday!
gretchen