Todd the pastry chef

Todd has been quite the prolific baker yesterday and today. He's on the "Celebration Committee" at work, which means when people have birthdays and work anniversaries, he has to decorate their office with banners, streamers, candies, and balloons. Also, for the past two months, he's been in charge of the monthly birthday celebrations. In June he bought a huge amount of different varieties of fresh fruits, and ice cream, and toppings. It took him a good two hours just to chop up all the fruits! Then this month, he decided to home-bake some goods. So last night he made 2 loaves of fresh homemade banana bread. This morning he made fresh homemade apple cinnamon cake, and homemade mocha pudding. He brought it all to work.. well, he did leave a little at home for me. :-) I SO admire him for his enthusiasm and effort!

Earlier this week I took a half day off to hang out with my good friend Meera. She's 5 months pregnant and in need of a serious back massage. So we hit Spa Urban Retreat again. She got a massage and I got a facial. I really enjoyed my facial, even though it didn't have any long-lasting effects. It felt good at the time though. Then Meera came over to our house and we hung out.

On Wednesday we brought dinner over to our friends Barbara and Mike's house. Barbara has just finished 6 months of treatments for breast cancer and will be having surgery soon. I've been praying for her, but hadn't had a chance to visit her until now. We brought BBQ chicken sandwiches, salad, fresh corn, and Haggen Das ice cream bars over. We had a great time sharing and eating. Their kids have grown so big too!

I realized that I have a few more layouts that I haven't posted here, so here they are.


This one to celebrate our 10th anniversary three years ago. Papers by Katie Pertiet. Photo/mat die-cut by Rhonna Farrer. Flower brushes to create floral border by Rhonna Farrer as well.


This one from our 2003 trip to Kauai. Light orange, green, and purple papers by Gina Cabrera. Hibiscus paper from Oscraps collab kit "Bikinis & Boardshorts". Layout template by Pattie Knox. Font is Times New Roman.


This one from May, the day before Mother's Day when we went to Ross Hills to visit my mom's grave. I asked Todd to take some candid shots of me just being there and being "in the moment", not posing. I had forgotten about these photos until yesterday. Background papers by Kim Hill. Green swirl photo mat and green flower stamp by Gina Cabrera. Vintage stacked frames by Katie Pertiet. Fonts are Angelina and Times New Roman.


Blue background paper by Heather Ann Melzer. Photo cluster by Nancy Comelab. Everything else from "Express Yourself" kit by Ronna Penner.

Filipino food

For lunch today I decided to try some Filipino food at this restaurant that opened down the street. It's called Betchay's Pancit Lumpia & Grill. I had the BBQ chicken plate with rice and veggies, and 3 lumpias. I liked it. The guy working there also gave me tastes of Chicken Adobo and a beef with veggies in peanut sauce dish. They were good but I wanted more vegetables than what was in those dishes. I noticed that alot of the pre-made dishes there lacked vegetables!

I've been buying lots of digi-scrapping stuff. I think I can't turn away from any digi-kits that has a BEACH or SURF theme! Look at all this stuff I have now...

"Beach Cottage" by Ashley Olson at The Digi Shoppe

"Boy Board Shorts" by Ashley Olson at The Digi Shoppe

"Surfer Dude" by Paislee Press at Oscraps.com

"Bikinis & Board Shorts" collaborative kit at Oscraps.com

"Winter Surf" by Kellie Mize at Designer Digitals

"Surfer Dude" by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals

"Surfer Betty" by Gina Cabrera at Digital Design Essentials

"Surf's Up" by Kim Hill at CGEssentials

Sigh. I just can't get enough of "surf" papers I guess. I really like all the colors, and I especially dig the hibiscus flowers, I can't get enough of them.

We had a good weekend this past weekend. On Friday night Todd and I went to Indian food and Passage To India in Rancho Bernardo. It was yummy and we also had garlic naan bread, our favorite. Then we came home and watched the movie "The Illusionist" with Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, and Paul Giamatti. I liked the movie, it was very artistically shot and the plot was very interesting. If you haven't seen it check it out. Saturday morning we went running along the coast in Cardiff and Encinitas. We ran extra long this time, past Swami's north and all the south to Yogi's Bar & Grill. I felt good running while watching surfers down below the cliffs. Afterwards we went to Seaside Market and got cherry almond scone and raspberry almond bar for breakfast. It was very yummy! On Sunday we went to the brunch buffet at Cozymel's at UTC. We went to get fajitas, but discovered they have a Sunday brunch buffet there. It was delicious. Lot of choices (omelette bar, potatos with chorizo, eggs benedict, shrimp cocktail, ceviche, taco bar, fajitas, grilled fish, lots of desserts) for only $15 each. Then we went to Bodies The Exhibition at UTC. It was very interesting, but certainly not for the squimish.

Whistle while I work

{Credits: blue background paper by Heather Ann Melzer; red paper by Holly McCaig; scallop paper template, swirl border, and flower brushes by Rhonna Farrer; blooming flowers by Ann Langpap. Fonts are AmalieScriptSSK and Angelina.}

I discovered Yahoo's Launch internet radio today. Listening to it streamed over the internet while I work. Singing along to soft pop. They even have some preset stations for "At Work", like "Film Scores", "Quiet Storm", "The Coffeehouse", "Chill Out", "Lite Office Music", etc. I like it, even if listening to "soft pop" makes me sound like an old folgy.

One more

Credits: Summer Fun kit by Heather Ann Melzer

Just wanted to share one more layouts today. Things are going well. Being productive both at work and at home with my creative stuff. Got my lab results back from the doctor, and everything is a-okay with my glucose and cholesterol. Yay!

Last Saturday we went running at Cardiff with Sally. The three of us ran at our own paces for about 30 minutes, then had brunch at Beach City Cafe, our favorite. It was fun to get out to the coast again and run. Then at night we went to AJ & Meera's house for a home fellowship reunion potluck. Todd made homemade dark chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. It was delicious! We enjoyed seeing Linda & Don, Pat & Harold, Anna & Hai, and of course AJ & Meera. The guys had a ping pong tournament. They also attempted to put up the badminton net on the backyard grass but got wet instead when the automatic sprinklers went on.

Yesterday Todd and I and Sally went to Miramar Lake after work. They rollerbladed while I ran 5 miles in 52 minutes. Pretty enjoyable out there right before sunset. Afterwards we went to Chile Peppers for dinner.

I am on a roll

Since I'm on a roll, I'm posting another layout done today. I used Heather Ann Melzer's "Art of Play" kit. Photo effects are from Virtual Photographer.

The best free tool ever!

I found a free plugin for Photoshop called Virtual Photographer. I am so blown away that these are FREE! With one click of a button, you can process your digital photos in so many different ways (literally hundreds) that would have taken a long time to do. Here are some samples I did. You can download at the link above.

Collages class

I started my Photoshop Elements Collages & Composites class this week. I learned to make one photo collage, multiphoto collage, and learned to blend one photo with another photo. It was fun! Here are some of my stuff:


This is a one photo collage I made by selecting different parts of the photo and copying it into separate layers, adding borders and drop shadows.



This was the untouched photo of the Kilauea Lighthouse on Kauai, Hawaii. We were there in Nov 2003.



A photo of some clouds on water.



Lighthouse photo blended with the cloud photo. Pretty cool eh?

Scrappin' mojo is back!

{Credits: background solid paper by Holly McCaig; flower brush by
Jason Gaylor at Design Fruit; middle spirograph circles by me}

I feel like my scrappin' mojo is back! I haven't felt too creative in the last month, but the last few days I've done a bunch of digital layouts. I even made some layout templates for myself. I done good! ;-) The above is just some art that I call "Science and Nature". I'm still working on the photo book for our next door neighbors Fred & Annie. I've made 10 pages so far and I'm planning for it to be around 20 pages or so. Halfway there!

This morning I had a follow-up visit with my doctor's nurse practitioner at Sharp. I told her that I was doing well with the medication at 10 mg, so I didn't go up to the 20 mg dosage. She said that's great because you wanna take the least amount of medication that's effective. They still want to keep me on the medication for a while. They also want me to go back in 3 months and see how I'm doing. They also took my blood for fasting glucose and lipid (cholesterol) tests. Glucose because they took a non-fasting test last time and it came back kind of high. I don't have a family history of diabetes, I'm thin, and I exercise. So, just another test to make sure I don't have pre-diabetes. I hadn't had my cholesterol checked in 6 years, so I guess it's about time.

I really like the processes and the people at Sharp Rees-Stealy in RB. They are really customer-focused there! You hear the horror stories of not being treated like a person when you go to the doctor/hospital, or having to wait a long time to see anyone. I'm so pleased with the services there. When I went to urgent care, I waited maybe 5 minutes and I was seen! I've never had to wait long to see the doctor there either. Also, they just treat you so pleasantly there. The nurses are super-friendly and smile all the time. My doctor is attentive and answers questions, jokes, makes sure I understand everything. My nurse practitioner today went over everything with me, and made sure all my questions were answered. They actually treat you like a person and take time to listen to you. What a difference! The past two years I've had some pretty terrible experiences with doctors, from when Todd was ill for a few months, and when my mom had cancer. Those doctors were really bad. They had no bedside manner and treated you like a number instead of a person. They added to the stress of already being sick. Sharp is definitely doing something right!

Another happy thing is that the NEW ROAD by my house opened! It goes into Rancho Bernardo now, so I can get to work in 10 minutes via local streets! I've been waiting for this for over a year. The project had been delayed for several times, months at a time. FINALLY it's open! While I'm on the subject of roads being open... yet another happy thing is they've finally opened up Miramar Lake ALL the way around the 5 miles! It had been closed with a fence at the 4 mile mark ever since 9/11. Finally Scripps Ranch secured some funding to build a fence around the actual water reservoir, and now it's open all the way around again. So happy. I think I'll try to run the 5 miles sometime when it's not hot.

Guess what else cool is going on? Todd & I are having our photo session with Tara Whitney on Sunday! I can't wait, it should be fun, and I can't wait to see the photos. Go to her website and look at the general style she's done.

Dodgers vs Angels

{Credits: Thao Cosgrove "Hana" papers; Scrap Simple template "Fancy Folds"(ScrapGirls.com); Times New Roman, Ballpark Weiner, and Arial fonts.}

Two weeks ago we took my dad to Dodger Stadium to see the Dodgers vs the Angels. It was for Father's Day and he had never been to a major league baseball game before. We had fun even though it was hot because our seats were in the sun. We kept waiting for the shade to come down to our row, but to no avail. We brought Subway sandwiches with us, and we each had a big bottle of water as well. The traffic getting there and back was horrible, as it always is in LA. But after the game we got to go to our favorite Chinese restaurant Canaan in Rowland Heights. It was a fun day with Dad.

Deals & Steals

Todd & I went shopping yesterday at North County Fair Mall and I got some really sweet deals! Aeropostale was having a huge 50% off already on-sale prices. So I got these for SO cheap! I don't know how they do it, but it seems at these prices it doesn't even cover the fabric and materials to make them. The original prices on all these were $39.50!





I didn't do too much this weekend. On Friday night we had fast-food Chinese at Dragon, then walked around Carmel Mountain to some stores like Ross, Circuit City, Barnes & Noble, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Last night we watched the Will Farrell movie "Taladaga Nights". It was pretty funny, if you're in the mood for stupid jokes and slapsticky comedy.

I signed up for another online class for Photoshop Elements, this time to make collages. It starts in a week, should be fun.