My nominations for "Brillante Weblog"

This was harder than I thought, I have so many different sites I love to visit. Or that I'm addicted too. I'm going to try my best to give some awards to folks that might've not received them in the past.

1. Bec - I live vicariously through you. I love the way you write, makes me feel like I'm actually participating. I'm so proud of you for all your accomplishments. Anyone that reads her site will get completely hooked.

2. Kristi - Another marathon runner like Rebecca. She inspires me. She doesn't update her site much, but her current stories are wonderful. Her marathon stories are hilarious.

3. Mel - Because you were my partner in crime at the 3Day. If you want to read our 60 mile adventure, she has it.

Now onto my stampin friends.

4. Gabby - Another spicy stampin Latina. :o) Her web blog is fun, fun. I love the stamp sets she uses.

5. Charmaine - Inspiration at it's best. Very clean and beautiful cards. I honestly think I need to see her blog once a day. It's like my Happy pill.

6. Melanie - You have to check out her ideas on the Little T set she created. Love it!! If you haven't purchased the set, you should.

and Finally...

7. Taylor - Cute, fun, colorful, tasteful. Love all her cards. She's an amazing stamper. She takes the icing off the cupcake :o)

The rules, if you want to play:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

CONGRATS CHICAS!!!!

Thanks Sandi.

I've been nominated for the "Brillante Weblog". What an honor to get a premio, thank you Sandi Brown for nominating me, it was totally unexpected. I always think no one is really reading, then I get this wonderful award. I can't wait to choose my lucky 7 bloggers. Will be posting soon.

I've finally got around to stampin'. I had stamped and watercolored this image some time ago. I really enjoy the simplicity of this stamp set, you can use it for just about any occasion. I only wish I had this very old stamp set by stampin up. But I guess I can always stamp more images if needed. The pattern paper shown is from CTMH.

Hope you all had a wonderful Tuesday!!

Showered with gifts.

My sister Marisol made me this wonderful believe card. Isn't it precious. Inside the card the both stated how proud they were and it just bought massive tears to my eyes. They got me a pink plastic carry tote for scrapbooking, a 6x6 pink album, pink glitter, pink embelishments, pink glittered stickers, a pink candle and pink ribbons. They also got me a gift certificate for a full body massage, which I've already used.. IT Was WONDERFUL and the best gift of all was the fluffy house slippers I stuffed my feet in after the walk. My friend Jennifer got me a dozen pink roses and lasted almost 2 weeks they smelled wonderful and looked beautiful and she got me some fluffy soxs which I used when I got home. The I got to work and my friend Linda got me lotion for my feet and some foot soaking salt and fluffy soxs. IT WAS THE BEST!!! Thank you to all for the wonderful gifts.

3 Day Card Care Package

Alright.. Onto stamping, no more foot pictures.. PROMISE!! Sorry if you were disgusted. I wrote in my previous blog about some wonderful cards that my BFF Belinda made for me. Each card had a special message and instructions on when I needed to open them.. The first card she made me was the priceless card and that I opened on Friday before the walk started.









The second card I opened on Friday night after all the wonderul blisters appeared and boy did I need a pick me up card. This believe card was just what I needed.









Card number 3, Hang in There!!! I opened this card on Saturday night. Each night I was exhausted and right after dinner the first thing that I would think about was opening up Belinda's card and seeing her message that evening. Just one more day that's all I kept telling myself. Just 20 more miles and I'll be home.






So here is the final card that I opened on my way
home, the "Cheer's Card". I had to open it almost
immediately, I was in the car and just needed to
see the final message. Because I did it! "BLISTER'S DON'T NEED CHEMO" and that my friends got me through each day.

Special thank you to Belinda for being a great friend.

3rd and final Day.

We woke up at 4:00a.m. in hopes to get going by 5:00a.m. We needed to take down our tent and repack it, they (3Day) donate the tents to the Girl Scouts. So we made it down to breakfast about 5:30a.m. and onto the loading buses that got us down by Lake Michigan. All I kept thinking was I only have 20 miles to go and tomorrow I can sleep in as much as I wanted too. Today Melissa was having a hard time, we kept pushing eachother to finish. I pretty much ignored the pain, because I knew that it would be over. No more waking up to do 20 miles. Thank goodness. The volunteers along the street were just wonderful people, every stop we made Mel would hug all the people. I'm a hugger, but I just couldn't do it. I was pooped. About 2 miles from lunch I got my "Comadre" and boy was that unexpected, I was so upset, first the blisters and now this. Oh geez. At lunch time I was going to see the medics, but the line was so long I decided just to forget it. This is when all the fun stuff starts. I became delirious.. well actually we both did. We started playing mind games and started power walking with like 10 miles to go :o) Melissa was screaming all the way down Michigan avenue asking for High Fives and I was chanting and making everyone cheer.. LOL... Did I say we were DELIRIOUS!!! Well let me tell you, you can't imagine how bad it got. I was leaving all the girls behind, by the time we got to the "Cheesecake Factory" at the watertower. I was like faster than all the skinny chicks, they couldn't even keep up. I just wanted to finish and I just needed to go faster and faster. If you've seen the Olympics, I was one of those Speed Walkers, yes ME!! My BFF Jennifer surprised me on Michigan and like Jackson, I couldn't stop screaming with excitement, but I also couldn't stop walking . We rested at our last and final pit stop with only 1 mile to go. I didn't want to sit because my blisters were killing me, I just wanted to keep going, but I decided to sit for a minute and that was my worst mistake. I could hardly get up. After that I think I started walking like a turtle, nice and slow. We finally made it to the finish line and there were ton of people cheering us on. I had my name on my shirt and people were screaming "Good job, Cyndi", I couldn't stop crying. It was definitely the best and worst experience of my life. I might do it again :o)

Mari, Izzy, Jennifer and my son Louie were all there for me at the end. With the final walk I heard my sister call my name and I started screaming hers but I couldn't see her and in the sea of all these people I saw my son and he was like my sun on a cloudy day. The closing ceremonies were beautiful, very emotional and inspirational. We all took off our shoes in respect to all the women and men lost to breast cancer.

The picture you see adjacent are of my feet. Swollen, bruised and blistered. You really can't see a good picture. But I had 6 toes... my pinkie had an attachement. I would show you that picture, but it's pretty disgusting.

I hope that one day, there's a cure so that all of our children or theirs would live in a world without breast cancer.

Thank you to all my donors!!!

Day 2

Day 2 started off to a rocky start. That morning I woke up I still had tons of blisters on my heals so I made the mistake and stopped at the medical tent that morning to have them looked at and they stated they needed to lance them. Well that was not good, because the blister was on the lower part of my heal. The medical team asked me to take the bus to the next stop and I refused to do it. Partially because I'm stubborn and the other cuz' I was not giving up. So we went out about a quarter of a mile and I was feeling pretty bad and saw another girl walking back so I decided to walk back with her. I was walking on my tiptoe because I couldn't plant my feet. I was crying all the way back because I felt defeated. So I took a little ride on the bus and met Melissa a few miles down the road. Waiting for the soreness of my heals to go away. I was not giving up that easy. That afternoon we took a little more stops then normal, taking off my shoes and stretching. I had steam come out of my shoe at one point. I was craking up. Melissa was also having a hard time that afternoon, her hips were bothering her and her blisters too, so it took us alot longer to get back. The last couple of miles were on gravel. WHO does that to women that have blisters. That was the longest 2 miles of my LIFE!!! The picture above are from a medical crew that would drive around all day with really loud 80's music, it was so much fun, I think the music would motivate us and keep us going. Getting back to camp was great. We ate first, I finally got a little of my appetite back, then we took a shower and went back to the medical tents to get more blisters lanced. And then went to the main tent were they had a DJ, Mel got on stage and was jacking everyone up... it was great. Yes we had the energy to continue to dance. I was on the ground level and the CHA, CHA slide started to Mel stook on top of the stage the entire time and I taught some girls how to do the slide, it was fun. After we danced a song or two, we went to look at the mail box and I had mail from Melissa's mom and sister. It was the best!! They are so sweet. Also my friend Belinda made me a card package, I had a personal greeting card for each day, I'll share as soon as I take the photos of the cards. I loved reading her messages at night, kept me going.

3 Day Completed!!

What an event. An inspirational, emotionaly event. There are just so many good people in this world. Today is Wednesday and I finally have the strength to talk about the 3 day. I really, really enjoyed it. But I didn't enjoy the blisters during and after the walk. I'm still pretty swollen.. FACE, FEET, LEGS.. You name it. But it's nothing compared to a possible world without breast cancer. 6 MILLION dollars was raised this weekend, can you believe that. The whole experience was wonderful. The crew was amazing, always happy and willing to give you a helping hand.

Day 1 Friday: Woke up at 3:00a.m. we needed to arrive at Northbrook, IL by 5:30a.m. My sister, mom and SIL dropped me off. It was really organized, there were trucks lined up taking your bags. There was probably about 2,500 walkers. The guest speaker was very motivational, I cried the whole entire time. We were (Melissa and I) so excited to start the walk. People were lined up high five'ing us. My sister, mom and SIL met us at the first cheering station and I was so excited to see them. They made us signs. My mom made a cute sign that said, "The Boobies thank you", she had all sorts of women stopping and taking pictures with her and her sign. They also appeared at our second cheering station and boy did I need them at that time, I was so happy to see them, my sister was so proud of me.... I wish I had them at every corner :o) After many hours we arrived at camp. We had to pick up our gear (luggage and tent), we had to put up our 2 dome pink tents, thank gosh we found a nice young man helping because I couldn't walk, my feet were full of blisters and swollen. After our stuff was in our tent we went to dinner, I felt like I was going to pass out. I drank alot of water and gatorade, but I don't think I drank enough. I went to the medical tent but they needed me to shower before they worked on my legs. So I showered in these little showers, no privacy!! :oS

Hitched a ride from a crew member to the medical tent and had my blisters worked on. That was pretty much the end of my evening.

Chicago Breast Cancer 3Day

No card today, just finalizing everything for the Breast Cancer 3Day walk. The day has finally arrived!! Registration is Friday at 5:30a.m. in Northbrook IL, which is a little hike for me (1.5hrs). I haven't had much time to pack. I know I always talk about not having time. But it's just a busy time for me right now.

I'm really, really excited about the walk and very nervous but I've been training, so let's hope that it's payed off.

You can visit my personal website page here and you can also visit the Supporter Guide there will be a live webcam between the hours of 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm on Friday and Saturday during the event..

It's three days of none stop walking. A good friend of mine Melissa is doing the walk with me and our team name is "Chicas 4 Tetas", we've raised a whooping $6,741.07 is that unbelieveable or what. THANK YOU!! to all of you who have donated and made a difference in someone's life.

This is our first 3day, so any, any advice on blisters or walking is much appreciated.

Hip-hippo-ray!

Hello everyone. Today I got to work at 6:15a.m. and left at 5:30p.m., what a day, I could've stay a lot longer, but I was getting a little slap happy. Another long day tomorrow. I'm not really complaining, I actually LOVE my job. And I love, love being challenged every single day. I just don't like not having enough time to stamp, or spend with my son. Sometimes, I wish I was a teacher and had the summers off, but to handle a classroom full of children all day, hmmm that's a challenge. I love kids, but I don't have the patience when they are so many. I give teachers all the praise in the world. THANK YOU!! for doing an excellent job.

So onto card making. I made this card for Selena, she turned 5 a couple of days ago. The inside of the card says "It's your Birthday"!

Hope she had a wonderful birthday.

I couldn't make it to Belinda's house this evening to actually stamp, I had to work a couple of hours today. I did stop by her house to stamp a few images on cardstock, before coming home. Belinda has "A LOT" of stamps, I wish I had half of what she had. But I just can't afford it being a single mom. :o) If I won the lottery, I would buy everything.

I created a few cards knowing the girls had fun today stamping and creating. I thought I'd post them here, so they can see that I was thinking of them, I just couldn't make it. I also got alot of watercoloring done on images that I had stamped. Here's a close up of the images. The stamps sets used were from an old Stampin' Up set and the little old ladies are from Diamond Stamps.

Here is a close up of the cards I created. The card on the left was stamped using CTMH "With love" set, which was June's SOTM; the flowers were glittered with art institute glitter. The card on the right was stamped with My Favorite Things mini set "By the Seashore". This card was my favorite card for the day.

Here is a close up of the final 2 cards I made this evening. The first on the left is from Stamping Bella she is your "Cosmobella", the olives are from Bugawumps set "Olive you". The card on the right is not a stamped image, it's just cut out cardstock and I also used a CB folder for the embossing.

I've been busy tonight :o)

I'm really excited about tomorrow, I'm going down to Chicago to watch a soccer match between Spain(Barcelona) and Mexico(Chivas) I love both teams, they are fantastic. But my heart is and will always be with LAS CHIVAS!! Hope we have wonderful weather.

Simple, yet elegant.

I was challenged by a friend to create a black, red and white card with polka dots. And this is what I came up with. I do hope that I did her idea justice. It's a very simply yet elegant card. Love CB embossing folders, they make your card "POP". I also added a glaze to the rose petals, but you really can't see the effect on here, even if click on the image, it just appears dark.

Today I'm going over to my friend Belinda's house for a creative day. She's my very good friend and my Stampin' Up demonstrator. Can't wait to hang with all the girls and be creative. I'll have to take some photos on what we all come up with. The Lake County Fair in going on this weekend. Rick Springfield and The Plain White T's are coming down to the fair grounds. I missed the Plain White T's yesterday. I just couldn't believe they were here. They also had pig racing yesterday :o) and Izzy's pig won. Congrats Izzy. poink, poink.