Jazz Under The Stars

Last Sunday 8/24 we went to the Ira Liss Big Band Jazz Machine concert at the Bernardo Winery.  This is our 3rd year attending it, and it’s easily one of the best hidden gems in San Diego.  Todd loves this big band and wishes they played more than once a year!  We got there a few minutes before the start time of 6:30 and got our seats in the back.

Todd got us each a glass of wine from the winery.  A riesling and a moscato rose.  So good and sparkly!

As day turned into night, the music filled our ears while the lights made it so magical.  Since this is our 3rd year attending, it has definitely become an end-of-summer tradition that we look forward to every year. 

On Monday 8/25 I took the day off work to just hang out and catch up on life.  I’m thankful that I have enough vacation days at work to do this occasionally.  I did my usual P90X3 workout that morning, but was itching to run, so I ran afterwards!  I just ran in my neighborhood and it was hot, but I survived the hilly three miles.

For lunch, I rewarded myself with a tasty lobster roll at Bites of Boston.  So yummy! 

Then I went to Target and shopped for some household necessities.  I had a fun and relaxing day.

We’ve been cooking at home quite a bit and eating healthier meals.  This is one of the example meals we’ve been eating.  Broccoli and tofu stir-fry with wild rice.

So the big day finally arrived after nine months of waiting!  Yes, I’m talking about the start of College Football yesterday.  Waking up to ESPN’s College Gameday and watching it in bed together is our favorite! 

The Buckeyes played Navy and beat them, even though the first half was touch and go.  Final score:  Buckeyes 34, Navy 17.  Next up is VA Tech next week and we’re having a little party at our house! 

And if you’re a Big 10 football fan and a Game of Thrones fan, you HAVE TO see this awesome video!

 

A couple of funny Noodle captures.  This one he settled himself into a box on Todd’s desk.  Can you find him?  Ha ha.

I put this one up on Instagram and captioned it:  “Oh hey, hello! My name is Noodle and I love to hang out and snuggle with my humans. And waving to strangers.”

A couple of scrapbooking things… Last weekend I finally put labels on my loose patterned paper organization.

The “Vellum & Foil” category is new.  I love it!  These are lipless Display Dynamics trays.  They fit 12x12 papers and everything fits inside my IKEA Expedit cubbies.  Very convenient.  I got them from Scrapbook.com a couple of years ago.  You used to be able to get them on Amazon too, although right now they are out of stock.

And I’ve been working on 12x12 scrapbook pages again!  Feels great to make full scrapbook pages again, after doing Project Life exclusively for about 4 months.  Here’s a sneak peek at a page that I did for an upcoming guest design team gig.

Very excited about Labor Day tomorrow, and NOT laboring, ha!  I always plan to get way too much done, and then get stressed out when I can’t do it all.  Here’s hoping for a productive yet relaxing today and tomorrow!  (Is there such a thing?)

One Little Bird | Pocket Page Team

I’m so happy to announce that I am a part of my friend Peppermint’s One Little Bird Pocket Page Team!  You can see the full announcement on the One Little Bird blog, and learn more about Donya, Maria, Jennifer, and Stephanie.  I’m so honored to be apart of this fantastic group of awesome scrapbookers that I admire.  I will be the team coordinator, plus I will share my pocket pages using One Little Bird products on my blog and occasionally on the OLB blog.  Every Tuesday our team will be showing our pocket pages on the One Little Bird blog, so be sure to check it out!  :)

Soak Up The Sun

Last Sunday 8/17 we went down to Sleep Train Amphitheater to see Sheryl Crow and Rascal Flatts in concert.  We arrived just as Sheryl Crow was starting.

It was a big crowd there!  There were lots of cowboy hats & boots.  Since I was just cleaning out my closet a couple of weeks ago, I told Todd I wished that I had worn my cowboy hat & boots too!  Oh well.

Sheryl looked and sounded as good as ever.  This is probably the third time we’ve seen her.

The crowd went wild and sang along to “Soak Up The Sun”.  This IS San Diego, after all!

A very nice lady took our photo for us.

Sheryl Crow Set List:

• All I Wanna Do
• Real Gone
• Can’t Cry Anymore
• Give It To Me
• Best of Times
• Strong Enough
• Redemption Day
• If It Makes You Happy
• Soak Up The Sun
• Everyday Is a Winding Road

We ended up leaving after Sheryl Crow, because we were really there to see her show, even though she was the opener for Rascal Flatts.  We had to work the next day after all.  And we got our tickets for $20, so we felt we already got our money’s worth!  It was a fun night!

This week I worked on picking photos, making collages, and printing them out for my July Project Life.  July included our big road trip to Sonoma, Napa, and Santa Barbara.  So I made a Photoshop template to help me summarize some of our trip details.  I printed them out on 8.5x11 photo paper and they look really cool!  I haven’t decided whether I’m going to put some embellishment on them and slip them into 8.5x11 page protectors, or if I’m going to add them to 12x12 cardstock to make a page.

Some of the rest of the photos from our July trip.  I decided on 3” square photos so I could use the October Afternoon 16-up 3” squares page protector. 

Yesterday I worked on printing out the rest of my July photos and now they are all in pockets and ready to finish my July Project Life!

Todd made this grilled salmon with roasted corn relish dish this week.  It was SO good!  I chowed down, lol.

On Wednesday 8/20 we had dinner at The Kebab Shop after work.

And then went to the lake for a sunset walk.  We’re trying to savor summer before the daylight gets short again and we can’t go for walks after work anymore.

Yesterday was Todd’s company’s annual summer picnic.  We went and I got to meet some of his work friends, which was fun. 

They had a carnival theme.  I think it was more fun for the kids than adults.

This picture doesn’t do it justice.  That tent was ginormous!

Unfortunately, the food wasn’t that great.  I ate some of this and left the rest behind.  If I’m going to eat unhealthy things, they better taste delicious!  This food lacked flavor.

I got to tour Todd’s office.  These toys were on the shelf above his desk. 

Yesterday we spent all day cleaning.  We rented a Rug Doctor and steam-cleaned our carpet.  I also took photos of all the giveaway items that I decided I’m no longer keeping in my closet after my big closet purge.  I take photos of everything I give away to charity so that at tax time I can itemize for deductions.

This seemed to be the only photo I took of Noodle this week!  But oh he looked so content sleeping sideways on his perch.

And I’ve got three weeks of P90X3 workouts done!  My Daily Mile workout chart is looking great!  I haven’t worked out this much in a long time. 

Paper Issues Creative Team

I’m so pleased to announce that I’ve joined the Paper Issues Team!  Paper Issues is an online scrapbook store that carries all the latest and greatest scrapbooking and papercrafting products!  I’m so honored and excited to be a part of the team.  Each month I will create projects for their “issues” and also projects using the products in the store.  You can read the blog post announcement about me joining the team here.  I’m very excited to join these creative ladies in making stuff and having fun!

You will want to follow the Paper Issues blog, because all the team projects will be posted on there.  Plus, every two weeks we have a new “issue” in which there’s a scrapbook challenge.  You can link your layout up and be eligible to win great prizes! 

There’s more!  I don’t know about you, but I love fresh new scrapbooking supplies!  They inspire me to create more, whether it’s scrapbook pages, Project Life, cards, or other crafty projects.  If you love having some of the latest and greatest products, you can shop at Paper Issues and save 20% EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. by using my code LISTGIRL!  Seriously?  Yup.  It’s like I’m your paper dealer, ha!  You always get a 20% discount by using my code, LISTGIRL.  If there’s one thing I love as much as new scrapbooking products is getting them at a discount!  Woohoo!

So take a look at the store and see if you find anything you like!  One really cool thing to check out is the monthly Swag Bag!  It’s an embellishment kit full of little fun things!  This is the August Swag Bag.

It is normally $9.99, but with my 20% off code LISTGIRL, you can get it for only $7.99!  How awesome is that!  Plus, everything else you purchase will be 20% off also.  I just love the gold, navy, aqua, and pinks in this month’s Swag Bag!

I’m excited to get started making projects for Paper Issues!  :)

Summer Fun

My favorite part of summer is the fact that there’s still lots of daylight after work, so we can go out and do fun things.  I’m not sure if you know this, but since San Diego is pretty far south in the US, and also due to where we are in the time zone, we only get sunlight until 8:30pm on our longest days in the summer.  Now the sun is setting around 7:30.  In December (after daylight savings adjusts back to regular time), we actually get totally dark at 4:30pm, before I even leave work!

On Monday (8/11) evening we took advantage of the daylight after work and went to the annual Phil’s BBQ Day at the San Diego Padres, benefitting Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Diego County.

We always love to support Big Brothers Big Sisters.  After my freshman year in college, I spent a whole summer as a camp counselor at Camp Oty’Okwa in the Hocking Hills in Southern Ohio.  Camp Oty’Okwa is only one of two camps in the US operated by Big Brother Big Sister.  After we got married and bought our house, Todd volunteered to be a Big Brother.  He got matched with his Little Brother Aaron in 1995.  Aaron was only nine years old back then.   Yea, he’s 28 now!  Todd had the pleasure of visiting Aaron in Denver back in 2012.  Taller than Todd!

 

Anyways, back to Monday.  We walked across the bridge from the parking garage to Petco Park.  I always love this view!

A rather big crowd showed up.  For $25, you get a Phil’s BBQ dinner + a ticket to the Padres game.

Ribs, chicken, potato salad, and cole slaw.

The San Diego Chicken showed up!

The Ryan Hiller Band performed.  Funky music!

The new San Diego Library in the background.

After the BBQ dinner, we went into Petco Park for the Padres vs Rockies game.

We got a soft serve ice cream, but the middle was hollow!  Boo!

We were surrounded by empty seats, so we put our feet up and enjoyed the game.

Leaving the park…

So glad we were able to make it to this year’s Phil’s BBQ Padres game again!

On Wednesday (8/13) we went to dinner at Chile Peppers and stopped by Miramar Lake for an evening walk.  Facing west.

Facing east.

After that, we went to Costco to buy more cherries!  I’ll be sad when cherry season ends.

Friday night we went to dinner at Sab-E-Lee. 

Todd tried the Nahm Tok and loved it.

I had green curry with shrimp.

We noticed that a Rita’s Italian Ice & Frozen Custard opened, so we went and checked it out.  We shared a chocolate-vanilla twist custard.  It was yummy!

Yesterday morning we did our P90X3 The Warrior workout, then we went to the beach for workout #2. 

I hadn’t run in a couple of months, due to doing the 30 Day Shred and P90X3 programs.  It was 80 degrees out and felt pretty hot, but I powered through and ran 3 miles. 

And then promptly inhaled our lunch at El Nopalito.  Because I did back-to-back workouts, and this was super-yummy.

I did SEVEN workouts this week!  Six P90X3 workouts + a run.  Today is my rest day, thank goodness.

Found Noodle enjoying the papasan chair again.  He looked so content!

Noodle enjoying some catdad-time.

Noodle on the right side of my desk one night this week when I was paying bills.

Happy Sunday!  I have something exciting to announce mid-week!