We're off...

...to....

Dynamo and 4 other guys are riding 100 miles tomorrow beginning at 7 a.m. in Copperhill, Tennessee. Please say a prayer for all of them.

I'll be reporting the results on Monday! Have a great weekend!

Sending Wedding Congrats

I wanted the card that accompanied my cousin's gift to be lovey dovey, unique, and kinda shiny! I love using hearts and my gold gel pen! Those Unibal gel pens from Stampin' Up! are awesome!!

And, I had to use some of that lovely red glitter paper! No, it's not just for Valentine's Day!

I used chocolate chip cardstock along with old olive cardstock and ink. The designer paper is from JBS Mercantile.

Happy Thursday!

Greenin' Up

Finally, the yard is green! The trees are green! And...it's getting pretty again!

I thought I'd share a few photos from our yard! All of the irises are blooming. Along with the rhododendrun and columbine.

The daisies are blooming too...

There's a little head forming on the broccoli...

Of course when the ham saw I was taking pics she had to get in on the action...

This pose is the best, though...

And, of course, Kermit had to sneak in a pic too! Bikes are everywhere around here you know?!?!

Saturday Road Ride

On Saturday we decided to go for a little road ride at the Petersburg National Battlefield. It was National Park Week so the fees were waived. This we didn't know until we pulled up to the entrance and the lady waved us on. What a nice surprise!

The morning air was chilly, but of course I quickly warmed up.

I took out the Soma Smoothie cross bike for a spin. Dynamo rode Kermit. I was so excited to get to ride Smoothie since he had only ever been ridden inside on the trainer. We did well together. I like him much better than the Jamis cross bike we had. The reason is because the Smoothie has flat bars instead of "horns." Yes, that's my technical term for drop bars!

The Park road is so nice. Not many cars and a really big lane for bikers, runners, and walkers! It's a safe place to road ride. The speed limit is slow and it's one way for cars.

We saw quite a few horseback riders!

Lots of road and hills.

And, if you got so ambitious you could stop and read all of the signs about the history. I'd really like to do that sometime.

It's really nice to have this park closeby. Even though it's not a long road (a little over 3 miles out/6 ish miles out and back) it is still good for training.

We did about 18 miles. Dynamo said I was getting soft on him. Only 18 he said?! I guess I better step it up huh?!

The park has other off road trails that we checked out before, but we were road focused on this ride. We'll be back to check out the other trails another day.

Anyways...it was a lovely ride. We went and ate lunch at Demolition Coffee in Petersburg afterwards, which is a favorite of mine.

Peeps in the grass

These were the Easter treats that I sent with Dynamo to share with his co-workers. I call them Peeps in the Grass!

I made cupcakes, placed edible Easter grass on the top and used a little frosting as "glue" to attach the Peep to the top. They all fit so nicely in my cupcake/cake taker! Mine has little grooves to hold them in place so they don't shift in transit.

Here's a closer look...

I didn't particularly like the taste of the grass, but it was a must for the look I was going for! Peeps need grass!

And, here the girls are heading off to the office to be gobbled up...

Eggtastic Mailing

I got this idea from AmberLee at Giverslog to mail Easter eggs! So, I hunted all over town for big eggs. All I found were these at KMart. I didn't like the fact that they had a clear top because I wanted the inside to be a secret, but big eggs aren't very easy to find so you take what you can get!

I stuffed them with candy, a peep, and a note. Next, I added postage and took them over to the sweet lady at the post office across the street from my office. She usually cringes when I come in. She says I challenge her with these crazy mailings!

She laughed when I set the bag on the counter and said, "I need to mail some eggs." She said, "You can't mail real eggs." I said, "No, these eggs (handing them to her)." She laughed and said, "I want to see if they make it to their destination. You better let me know!"

So, hopefully they will arrive in one piece to everyone!

Monday ride report

Dynamo and I had off on Monday after a weekend full of wedding festivities so that he could get his long training ride in (7 hours), and I could get some things caught up around the house.

He began his ride first thing on Monday morning, and I joined him as he was finishing up his last leg. I rode with him for about 15 miles of his journey.

The forest was so lush and green...very noticable from the last time we were there the week before. It's so amazing to be able to see the changes in the forest weekly. Since we ride year round we notice a lot of those changes that otherwise wouldn't be seen.

MUTT and I got to spend more time together. Yes, we have decided to name my new Spot MUTT. He's a mutt because he is a cross between a Rocker and Longboard. Now, I'd like to come up with a word for each of the four letters of the word so that it's an acronym. Got any ideas?

He's a really good climber. I've been so pleased with him. It was a great purchase. Spot really is feeling neglected!

I do think I'm going to have to shorten his stem though. I'd like to bring my handlebars in just slightly towards me. This will help with pulling up and going over obstacles. Remember that getting the bike to fit just right is all about little tweaks here and there.

Well, the forest wasn't the only thing lively on Monday. So were the snakes. Dynamo saw two on his own (1 black snake and 1 brown/red one) and then we saw one (black) when we were together. And, they were FAST let me tell you! Normally they are a little slow, but April and May are frisky months (if you know what I mean).

I guess when you're out there for 63 miles (Go Dynamo!) you should expect to see more than the normal amount of critters. After all, it is their environment. They were a little shocked to encounter people on a Monday during the day! I'm sure they were thinking that us bikers should be working :)

And, Dynamo finally got my lenses to stop fogging up! I'm a hot head and can't always use glasses because they fog up like crazy. We bought some anti-fog stuff and it worked great! Finally, no more mud and dust and rocks in my eyes! Best $4 ever spent!

So, until next week! Hopefully we can get in another ride over the weekend and I'll have more to report next Monday on the mountain biking topic! Stay cool and watch out for the critters! 

Spring is Blossoming Promotion Ends Soon!

Now's the time to take a sneak peak at some of the beautiful items coming up in the next Stampin' UP! Idea Book and Catalog (to be released July 2011). Have you seen the great promotion going on until April 30th?

Here are the details:

•Spend $20* on any Stampin' Up! products and become eligible to purchase both the Four Frames Set and Paisley Petals Designer Series Paper. OR

•Host a $350* workshop and get the Four Frames Set and Paisley Petals Designer Series Paper for FREE!

*Net sales before tax and shipping

A special wedding

Over the weekend we went to Kent Island, Maryland, for my cousin's wedding! It was a wonderful event, and even though Saturday was rainy, it shined inside for the bride and groom.

The whole family was together. This is a photo of the Morris family...

Here are my two other two cousins with my 91 year old Grams...

And, here are a couple of photos of Dynamo and I...

To respect my cousin's privacy, I'm not going to share any photos of the rest of the wedding until she's seen them, but I just wanted you to know that I'm not M.I.A. Just been driving and preparing for the big event!!

Lindsey Marie was a beautiful bride. It was a beautiful weekend. And, we're so blessed to have a new addition to the family.

Mountain Bike Monday - a tad bit late...

Sorry to be reporting on our weekend ride a day late! With the weather being so lovely and it staying light outside much longer, we've been taking advantage and doing some things in the yard, so I've not gotten to blogging on time.

On Sunday we set out for our ride mid-day, with the plan of me beginning the ride with Dynamo and then leaving him to finish the rest of his training ride. He was planning a total of 5 hours riding, but not me. I decided to ride for a couple of hours on the front end of his ride and then head to the grocery store and home to cut the grass!

It was my first ride on my new Spot. Yes, I got another Spot bike. It was somewhat accidental that this happened. But, to make it a quick explanation... When we were working on fixing my original Spot's issues, we happened to ask is they had another frame with paragon dropouts in my size. Well, they did.

He is not really a Rocker, and not a Longboard (that's my other one), because he was a custom frame. It was a frame made for some guy who changed his mind. It had all of the cable guides we needed and happened to be my size, so we took advantage of the great opportunity to purchase him from the company. We set this bike up as a 1 x 9. This means 1 gear in the front and 9 in the back. The plan was that this would be my alternate bike to my single speed Spot. Since the first Spot fit me so well, it just made sense to get another one. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Remember...it can be really hard to find a 29er that fits someone with my height/measurements.

The best thing about this Spot is that he's Made in the USA. Right in Colorado! He's steel like the other one, but he was made here. That's awesome!

So, here he is...

Sorry I didn't get a picture of me riding him, but we were so distracted by the beautiful weather. It just slipped our minds!

He's a beautiful addition to the family. His color is officially Italian Vespa Scooter Blue, and he is so pretty! I think it's the best blue ever! I was hoping for pink, but this turned out to be fabulous!

He got a couple of rides on our gravel road over the past week before hitting the trails. We took lots of parts, well...most all of the parts off of the other Spot to build this guy up. So, let's just say that my original Spot is stripped down waiting for us to put him back together. In time we'll get him put back together. I know he feels neglected. I know I've been cheating on him. But, let me tell you...this new guy flies!!!!

So, on his true inaugural ride we did 20 miles of mostly fire road and a little single track at Poco. He did great! I think the simplicity of the 1 x 9 setup is going to work well for me. I think the gearing is setup well for my skill level and I can't wait to try him out some more. Spot bikes rock!

I have to give many thank yous to Dynamo for ALL of his research and hard work to build this guy up for me. It took lots of effort on his part. I've learned a lot throughout this process.

It was a great ride on a beautiful day!!!

Some birthday stitching

I decided that I wanted to do something a little different for my friend's birthday card. I wanted to practice my random stitching along with some collage. Here was the result...

I really love the black, purple, and red together. I already had pink thread on my machine, so I went with that. The card is a tri-fold, so I only decorated the front top flap.

This was a great way to use up fabric scraps. I had fun putting it together and layering it all while not knowing what the final product would look like. The pic below is what it looks like opened up!

I hope she likes it! I'm pretty pleased.

My Japanese Crocheted Flower

So, I saw these beautiful flowers online and really wanted to learn to make them. Thanks to this tutorial by Elizabeth Cat, which was awesome, I was able to learn the technique. The other smaller flowers were not from the same tutorial. I didn't like those nearly as much as the big, bold flowers!

I think my plan is to use them with the scarves I'm working on! More on that later! Check out my Flickr photostream for more flower photos!

Scrappin' Moments

I needed to catch up on my February pics from the Quilt Show Momma and I attended along with another family moment I wanted to remember with my cousin. Here was the result...