Galentine's Day Cards 2017

February marked that time of year again! Galentine's Day was (unofficially) officially the day before Valentine's Day, when friends celebrated female friendship (& hopefully got brunch). 

Inspired by the "Parks & Rec" holiday, my friends & I try to exchange hugs & Galentines in the month of February. This year, I decided to cut up a floral tissue box that I'd been moved to save.

Voila! Floral accents for my cards:

I glued the flower emblems to the front of my card stock cards, wrote in my captions & message, & then trimmed the edges to be more even.

Then I put the cards between protective cardboard & added professional weights (coasters & glue bottle) on top, to flatten the cards while the glue finished drying.

The finished cards:

For the inscription on the back of my cards, this year I though that the "Parks & Rec" Pawnee Goddesses' Pledge (the show's answer to the Girl Scouts) would be both entertaining & inspiring. 

A couple Galentines that I got from friends:

Hope you had a nice day (or week) with friends, wherever you were!

To check out previous years' Galentines, see my 2016 Space-Themed Patchwork Cards or 2015 Initials Cards, as well as my friend's Mixed Media Cards.

"What's Galentine's Day? Oh, it's only the best day of the year! Every February 13th, my lady friends and I...just come and kick it breakfast-style.  Ladies celebrating ladies. It's like Lilith Fair...minus the angst...plus frittatas." --Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation

Leaves & Rain = California Fall/Winter

I've been seeing a lot of leaves (& a few flowers) on my recent walks...

It's been in the forties at night, and the mid-sixties during the day, with a few days of rain each week lately (giving the mountains a nice dusting of snow). We even got hail! Seems like Southern California can't quite decide which season it wants to be in right now...

Happy New Year

Hannukah & Christmas & New Year's Eve Mash-Up

This year, Hannukah overlapped with both Christmas & New Year's, so I attended hybrid dinner parties on those evenings. There was a lot of delicious food (including homemade matzo ball soup, latkes, & applesauce). 

And, of course, the candle lighting:

There was also this somewhat alarming light-up spinning dreidel:

All in all, the two parties have made nice, social bookends for the holiday week--and a fun change to routine.

Happy New Year's Eve...

December in Review

And somehow, here we are at the end of December, already...

This month, I visited a friend at the USC Game Innovation Lab, & got to wander around while wearing a Hololens. Very cool!

While there, I got to use a snazzy mug that came with a custom-fit cozy (jealous...):

A coworker gave me this fun Christmas card that holds cookies, which I thought was very creative:

I experimented with making a mug brownie (verdict: not bad, as long as you include mini chocolate chips):

It was chilly, so I've also started crocheting a blanket while I re-watch some of my favorite Sci Fi & cooking videos. It keeps my lap warm, & helps me feel like I'm being creative again (& as a bonus: it's using up most of my random leftover skeins of yarn from other projects...)

Hope you enjoy the last week of December...

Thanksgiving 2016 (Embroidery)

I've spent the last two Thanksgivings with a couple friends & their relatives. My friend's mom has this nice tradition of inviting guests to sign the Thanksgiving/Fall tablecloth. Then she embroiders the names onto the tablecloth. What a cool tradition...

I also thought this transcribed note was funny (the food WAS good!):

Walking (Small Steps)

I feel like it has been very hard to concentrate on (& define) my personal goals lately. And I struggle to be consistent with things I need or want to do in my personal life.

But there is one thing that I have been doing consistently since February: I have been walking a little bit every day.

Sometimes I only walk about 1/2 a mile at work. Some days I walk around my neighborhood and use my phone to take photos for my Instagram account or hack an Ingress portal or catch a Pokemon. Other days I just walk and listen to music and pretend I am in a music video. On rare occasions, I will leave my phone at home and just enjoy the breezes and the flowers along my route. Occasionally a friend or two will join me.

I have found that tracking an approximate distance walked each day, & writing that down on a steadily growing paper log, gives me a small but valuable sense of accomplishment. Maybe I didn't get to "X" and "Y," and maybe I only walked 1 mile, and yes, it would probably be better if I could get myself to walk a little farther...but I did get outside, I got some fresh air and a little sunshine, and if I was lucky I met a cat. And I added another day to my current walking streak.

I think it has really helped me to have a small goal. It doesn't matter how far I walk, as long as I get outside, even if only for a few blocks. If I want to add a couple more blocks for an extra half mile (or an extra Pokestop): Great!  If my feet hurt and I just turn around at the half mile mark: Still Good! I only went outside because I had cabin fever? Still counts!

It seemed like such a big deal to hit 100 days of walking in a row. And then suddenly I realized that I was about to reach 200 days, and I hadn't even noticed I had gotten that far...

Today will be 220!