Super Bowl Update

I love the color combo from today's Splitcoast Inspiration Challenge. For my card I used the bottoms of OBP Cupcake Row for my flower pots. I used my new Fiskars Threading Water border punch that I ordered from Paper Garden Projects. The store is run Cathrine from the OBP Design Team. Great selection, great service.

Stamps: justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet Cupcake Row and Happy Birthday With Sprinkles on Top

Patterned papers: justjohanna Limited Edition Ladies Dancing Bright Kit

Flowers and Ribbon: Fabric Store

Bookplate: JoAnn's

I'm still playing with Daisy D's Wonderland stuff. I made this card using the double sided Wonderland papers designed by the talented Stephanie Dosreis. I paper pieced the petals of, you guessed it, justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet's Flora Hugabundous.

A little about my day today; I did 4 presentations at my niece's career day at school. I tried to convince 80 first graders that my job is cooler than a firefighter, policeman or nurse. I resorted to dancing and giving away cool mesh bags with the YMCA logo. I think my plan worked. :)

****Note: Puck's is no longer in business.

Pucks, Pucks, Pucks. What can I say? The food is great, and so is the ambiance (beautiful dining room at the Indianapolis Art Museum overlooking the fountain), but the service blows. Hard. We went last week and have been many times since being back in Indy. The food has almost always been excellent, while the service has ranged from mediocre to really crappy (as it was this last time).

Because the service problems started from the get-go, that is where I will start. I will tell you about the food next. We walked in, about 2 minutes late for our reservation. There was no hostess there and a large party ahead of us. We all waited. The hostess came back, told us she would seat them and be right back for us. About 10-15 minutes later (!!) she came back and seated us. At a table with only half the necessary flatware and no bread plates. Granted they were pretty busy, but it bordered on ridiculous. The waitress was nice but very distracted and slow. Our meal took forever. Later, I saw why the hostess wasn't at the front. She was bussing tables and pouring water and bringing menus (which by the way, for dinner, we were given one dinner menu and one lunch menu). It makes one wonder if they are struggling with help or business and were not expecting a crowd. But you have to have bussers.

As for the food, I am amazed that with the service issues they have, they continue to put out such an excellent product. Although I have noticed that the menu used to change a lot more than it does now. Which is a bummer because parsnips are really more of a fall/winter kinda thing I think. Where's my spring veg? But if you are having a lot of service problems, and who knows what turnover in the kitchen, it is probably easiest to keep up the quality with routine.

On to the food specifically. I had the frisee salad with a poached egg, bacon and sherry vinaigrette. I have had it in the past, and as usual, it did not disappoint. Excellently prepared and executed. Hubby had the tuna tartare which I had the last time I was there (and I had some this time off his plate as well). The quality is really good, but to me, it was heavy on spiciness and could've used some lemon or something. Next, I had the halibut done Shanghai style with rice. It was good. The fish was cooked very well, but it was quite spicy. I can handle a fair amount of spiciness, but this started to take away from the other flavors the closer you got to the end of the meal. Normally, my experience with Shanghai style is a sort of mix between the spiciness of the red chilies and a sort of sourness from the ginger and rice wine. This was mostly just hot, with a hint of the other flavors, but still quite good.

Hubby then had a blue cheese encrusted filet, as the mains weren't really up his alley this night. (Listen up Broad Ripple Steakhouse, this is how you do a blue cheese encruseted steak--with blue cheese! Not breadcrumbs.). He was quite happy.

Anyway, it was a very frustrating meal because the food is up there in the Indy scene, but the service was so bad, it made it hard to want to go back. I hope they fix these problems, because not everyone has 3 hours to spend at a weeknight dinner. And I want to go back, I really do.

Puck's at the IMA
4000 Michigan Road
Indy, 46208
955-2315
http://www.wolfgangpuck.com/

This is another card that I made using justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet's June Newsletter Sketch for my layout. Love that black with light blue polka dot paper? Actually, it was the backing to some Making Memories embellishments that Kim gave me. It was too cute not to recycle.

Stamps: OBP Flora Hugabundous
Prima Leaves
Ribbon from Stash
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink

As of today, justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet is two years old. It's a pretty exciting time too: New images, new website look, new wiki, new Design Team, becoming a Splitcoast Member Company and lots more fun things planned for our future. Anyways, Happy Birthday!

Stamps: OBP Frosting Only, Happy Birthday with sprinkles on top. Paper: Basic Grey. I made the bottom detail with my new Fiskars Threading Water Punch. Chipboard 2 with Cotton Candy Stickles.

Guess what company is the newest SCS member company. It's Odd Bird Planet (formerly known as justjohanna.) The announcement was made this afternoon and already we've received the warmest welcome from all the SCS members. Check into the new Odd Bird Planet SCS Forum for some fun updates.

And, speaking of SCS, I made a card for the SCS Featured Stamper Challenge today. I cased a beautiful card from Maren.

I followed Maren's layout and color scheme but used some different patterned papers from Bo Bunny (big polka dots), unknown scrap (green polka dots)and the Paper Source (red check) and I used one of the strawberries from justjohanna's Odd Bird Planet "Strawberry Row" and "Lacy Circle Medium."

The tan textured cardstock and the red ribbon is from my stash. I cut the ribbon in half lengthwise to make it the width I wanted.