Orders and Goodies From My Annual Stamp Party

A little more than a month ago I had my annual Stampin Up stamp party. I had the orders sent to my friend, (the demonstrator that did my party) house.  Here are the two big boxes that arrived.

Here's a peak of all the fun stamps, accessories, papers, etc. that my friends ordered.

Here's are the fun items unpacked.  What a fun mess!  :)

I earned lots of freebies and items for 50% off thanks to the orders that my friend's placed.

When my friend that demoed for my party dropped the orders off that she so graciously helped me sort, she gave me a SU bag that she got at the convention

as well as a cute purse that is made using a die that will be available to purchase from SU next month.

Inside the purse was a super cute purse hook.

My friend gave each person a handmade and written card that she included with each order.

As a "thank you" gift, I purchased trident gum and decorated the shell of the case to include with each order.

I received my new goodies for about 3 weeks now, but have not had a chance to play with any of them yet.  I have only taken little peaks at them.  I hope to have a chance to play with them this weekend.  Have a  weekend everyone!

What An Honor

I think my MOJO has gone on vacation.  I am not sure where it went though.  If you happen to see "it" please let me know.  Well, my good friend Karen told me that she awarded me with another blog award. What perfect timing to encourage my MOJO to come home.  I hope that the award does the trick.  :)  Here the award that Karen gave to me.

Thank you from the bottom of my Karen for thinking of me and for awarding me with another one.  You are making my "head" too big with all these awards.  It means so much to me to receive this award from you.  Thanks for continuing to be such a blessing and an inspiration to me.  When you have a chance please be sure to check out Karen's blog at  http://haveascraphappyday.blogspot.com.  Her talent in paper crafting never ceases to amaze me.  I am sure that will be amazed  too.

Along with posting that I received this award, and thanking the person that gave it to me, I am supposed to share 10 random facts about myself.  Let see... what did I share with you previously when I was asked to share some facts about myself?  
1) I thank the Lord each day for giving me the strength and energy to live each day to the best of my abilities and for helping me be where I am today in my life.   
2) I like and purchase stamps, paper, and accessories from many companies, but my very favorite company is Stampin Up.  Demonstrators and friends tell me that I should be a demo for the company, but at this time in my life I don't think it would be wise.  Hopefully when I retire I will have the opportunity to sign up.
3) My favorite color is purple- all shades of it.
4) I love eating Hawaiian food.  My favorites include haupia, hamburger steak, lomi lomi, loco moco, malasadas, and chili rice.
5) When I was two years old there was a tiny hole in my grandparents couch.  I of course poked at it so the whole was bigger.  I not only made the whole bigger, but started eating the cotton thinking that it was cotton candy.
6) When I was little I liked to cut the hair of my Barbie dolls.  I was sad to find ou that their hair does not grow back. 
7) My source of liquid is generally water.  (I do drink ice coffee or coffee once a week and drink tea some times.)  This has been going on for about 7 1/2 years.  About a year and a half ago I started drinking club soda and a year ago flavored water.  I took a sip of soda awhile ago at a wedding and it's just too sweet for me. I am not sure how I drank at least one soda a day.
8) I love punch art.  I have a collection of them in a book and in a folder on my hard drive.  Hopefully one day I will be able to incorporate them into my cards.  
9) People often ask me how I have time to craft when I work, have two kids, have chores and paper work to work on at home.  My favorite time to craft is between 10 pm and 2:30 am.  My MOJO seems to be run stronger at those hours. 
10.) I have a huge collection of Copic markers.  I don't color with them much at home.  I have used them the most when I attend my monthly Copic classes.  My friends and I always tease each other about paying to go to class each month so we can practice coloring. 
                         
The last task to do for winning the award to recognize 7 bloggers to receive this award.  I'd like to recognize the following awesome bloggers (in no particular order) with the Kreativ Blogger Award because all of you  inspire me with your gift of paper crafting.   Please hop onto their blogs and see how talented and creative they are.
1)  http://haveascraphappyday.blogspot.com (Karen, I nominated you again.  You deserve it!)
2)  http://creationbyshirl.blogspot.com
3)  http://strwberizncream-cyndi.blogspot.com
4)  http://lifeofagirliegirl.blogspot.com
5)  http://ekboutique.blogspot.com
6)  http://miyukibeautifulsnow.blogspot.com
7)  http://stampsandscrapbooks.typepad.com/


Now that you have received this award, you can participate by doing the following:

1) Link back to the person who gave it to you.

2)  Share 10 random facts about yourself.
3)  Pass on the award onto 7 other people.
4)  Follow the person that gave you this award.


I hope that all of you will have an extra crafty day!  Big hugs!

Secret Sister Swap for this Month

Surprisingly I felt okay this morning even though I had such a busy weekend.  I did feel pretty tired when I got home from work.  After dinner I took a little snooze.  Now I feel much better and is ready to do some crafting.  Before I do that, I would to share with you what I sent to my for my secret sister this month.  I had lots of fun making  Theresa a card with a St. Patrick's Day theme and sending her a RAK with the same theme.

This is what my secret sister Linda sent to me.

Thanks again  Linda for such a super cute card with so much detail and for the cute stickers.  I hope that you enjoyed what I had to share today.  Happy crafting!

My Weekend

I hope that everyone had a good weekend.  I had a very busy, but wonderful one.  This is a pretty long post so you may want to grab some coffee or your favorite drink while you read. It started off  yesterday by going with 25 members of my family to pay respects to my maternal and paternal grandparents as well as my mom's grandfather.  We get together to do this annually.  It's always a bittersweet day for me.  It's nice seeing my parents, sisters, BILs, aunts, uncles, and cousins, but on the other had I am sad too because I miss my grandparents.  Knowing that I will one day see them in heaven helps a bit.  What also helps is that when we visit the grave sites my aunt always leads us in a prayer.   After the grave site visits we had diem sum for lunch- my kids favorite.  :)  Then my hubby and I had a special treat, our kids asked if they could spend the rest of the day with my parents.  That is exactly what they did.  It was fun to run errands together and get to take a nap without being interrupted.  Today the two of us went to an Asian craft fair.  We usually leave the house by 6:30 am to get tickets so that we can get into the fair at a decent time. (They only let 50 or so people in at a time due to fire regulations.)  Last year we ended up being number one hundred and some thing even though we got there early.  I was a bit nervous today about what number we will be getting since we left the house at 7:30 am.  My hubby and I were very surprised at what numbers we received.

We were so happy to not have to wait in line.  It was the first time that we just handed them our tickets and walk through the door to start shopping.  Both of us had fun looking at all the booths, but of course I had more fun.  Here I am at the booth of one of my favorite stamp stores from Oahu- TAJ.

I purchased lots of fun items and even some items on sale.  Here are the crafty and cute items that I purchased.

I just could not pass up purchasing this bag.  Yes, another bag.  My hubby said that this is my early b-day gift.

Then we were off to have lunch at one of our favorite Hawaiian restaurants- Back in Lahaina.

We felt like we were eating our lunch in beautiful Maui with different murals of the beautiful island.

I ordered the Lieanto plate which includes bacon fried rice, spam, and eggs.

My hubby ordered the Luau Platter.

For dessert we had our favorite-haupia cheesecake.

BTW, I am posting the pictures of what we ate just for you Shirl.  :)
Here I am waiting to catch a train.  :)

Then I was off to take an Asian craft class.  Here I am with one of my friends.

After class I went straight home because I was exhausted.  It feels so nice to finally be home. The first thing I did was lie down.  Hopefully I won't be too tired to go to work tomorrow.  I guess I better take it easy for the rest of the evening.  Maybe playing with my new items will need to wait.  :( Thanks for stopping by and for taking time to read and look at such a long post.

My Long Friday

What a long day... I am so happy that the weekend is tomorrow so I can sleep in a bit.  I have a busy weekend ahead so it's going to be good for me to get some extra zzzzzzzzz.  Well, today started at 6:00 am which is much earlier than usual.  I met a friend at her house at 6:30am so that we could carpool to a conference for work.  The conference had a lot of good information, but it was 5 hours long- way too long to be taking notes and soaking in information. I made it home by 4:45 pm, grabbed a quick bite, and headed down to church for cub scouts.  After the cub scout meeting, my kids and hubby went to run some errands while I stayed for a "Woman's Ministry" card making session.

I have been attending the meetings for this month and it has been such a blessing. Tonight was no different. Initially tonight it was tough (since I was so tired) to attend the meeting, but once I got there I was fine.  I thank the Lord for the opportunity to make a  fun card, look into the Bible for a brief lesson, and to be able to share and pray with sisters in the Lord at my table.  Each week God has spoken to me in a very special way through the brief lessons that have made a huge difference in my life.  I am especially grateful for this.  Thanks for dropping by today to see what I have to share.  I will try to stop in this weekend some time to post about my busy weekend.  If I don't I will be sure to share about it next week.

Some More New Friends

I am sorry, but I don't have anything crafty to post today.  I do however have some thing super cute to share.  My daughter and I were extremely  happy to receive "happy mail" from "Build a Bear." We received our newest edition of Hello Kitty that we ordered a week ago.

I just could not pass up purchasing one for both of us since she is in our favorite color.  My hubby and I were going to surprise my daughter with it for Easter, but she came in right when we were ordering it. She of course saw the Hello Kitty on the computer screen and asked if she could have one for her "b-day."  That is what she says when she wants some thing new even though her b-day already past.  The list of items that she wants is getting bigger and bigger by the minute. She sounds a lot like me. LOL!  :)  

Tea Swap For This Month

I hope that everyone is having a  crafty week so far.  I have not crafted at all this week until this morning.  I hope to have some more time to craft today and a lot more time to do some more before the week ends. Today I would like to share with you what I made for my tea swap partner, Bernadette, this month.

This is the card that she made for me.

Thanks again Bernadette for the card for the tea bags.  I especially enjoyed the pumpkin spice one.

Having Dinner With a Blogging Sister/Swap Partner

I hope that this post is finding everyone doing well.  I am a bit tired today from doing lots of paperwork over the weekend for work and making "thank you"  favors for my friends that attended my stamping  workshop to include with their orders. Making the favors were fun to make initially, but after the first 10 or so I was getting tired.  I made 30 of them.  LOL!  Well, today I had a chance to meet a blogging sister and my swap partner from  February's Secret Sister swap, Kathy.  It was a pleasure having dinner together at a local Hawaiian restaurant.  We enjoyed chatting with each other about our passion of crafting and of course enjoyed our ono meals.  Before leaving to go our separate ways we took a picture together.

Here is picture of the RAK that I made for Kathy.

Here is a close up view of it.

The flower is a die from Stampin Up and I embossed the pink portions of the box using the swiss dots embossing folder.  Inside the box I gave her a variety of chocolates.  We are both thankful to have met each other and look forward to KIT.  We are also glad that we don't live too far from each other unlike all the other blogging sisters and swap partners that we have had.  

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Even though I am not Irish I made several cards for my swaps this month in honor of the holiday.  I've never made this many cards for St. Patrick's Day all at once, but it was lots of fun.  As soon as I sat down to make one, my MOJO took off.  I could not keep up with it.  LOL!  Here are 3 of the 5 cards that I came up with.

I will share the other two some time next week or as soon as I get my swaps in the mail.  Tonight we are having corn beef and cabbage for dinner.  I love having this once a year on St. Patrick's Day.  It's super yummy! Have a ...

Thanks for stopping by!

A Surprise For Me

My super creative, generous, and dear friend Shirl gave me another award.  I was so surprised that she chose me as one of the people to receive the                
   

award.  Big hugs Shirl for thinking of me and for this special honor.  Receiving this award is the perfect way to help me end my week and to hopefully inspire me to do lots of crafting.  :)  Be sure to check out Shirl's blog at creationbyShirl.blogspot.com

Here are the rules and guidelines for this award:

~Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.

~Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy if you can figure out how to do it.

~Next, select up to 16 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)

~Nominate those bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you should include a link to their site for others to see how versatile they really are.

~Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself."

The following are the 16 versatile bloggers that I follow or have recently discovered: ( I  think they are all awesome, creative, and a blessing to look at. Please don't be disappointed if you are not on my list below.  It definitely does not mean that you and your blog are not awesome, creative, and a blessing to look it.)

1. Kris:  klusivekreations.blogspot.com
2. Karen:  haveascraphappyday.blogspot.com
3. Jill: jill031070.blogspot.com
4. Jen: expressivelyme.blogspot.com
5. Fran: littlepaperstudio.blogspot.com
6. Kathy: ekboutique.blogspot.com
7. ManLe: pineapplecove.blogspot.com
8. Chiaki: stampingpro.com
9. Elena: bearsaurus-craftroom.haven.blogspot.com
10. Laura: bytkg.blogspot.com
11.Cheryl: pinkydots.blogspot.com
12.Angie: mychicnscratch.com
13.Linda: inkstampandscrap.com
14.Mary: stampinpretty.com
15.Debi: craftybuzz.blogspot.com
16.Linda: yamstamps.com                

7 things about myself

*My first love is God and His people.

* I like working with children.

* My favorite place away from home is Hawaii.

* I love making cards and 3D items to brighten the day of others.

* I really like Hello Kitty and have met her 5 times. (Does this count as 2 things?)

* I enjoy watching police drama shows on TV.

* I love collecting lots of items:  crafting items, purses, shoes, bracelets, Hello Kitty items, Precious Moment dolls and figurines, VIP Bears, and cute Asian and Hawaiian items.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Be sure to check out the above 16 blogs if do not already follow them.  

Anything Goes Swap for February

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Are you all set to start another week? My family and I had a nice weekend together especially with the SoCal weather being so beautiful.  We especially had a good time with meeting with some friends for lunch and for dinner on Sunday.  Yes, we ate plenty of good food to last for awhile.  For the next week or so it's only eating salads for me.  LOL!  Today I would like to share with you what I received for my "Anything Goes" swap from last month.  This is what Jayne made for me and sent to me for the Valentine's Day theme.

This is the heart shaped card that I made for her using one of my Spellbinder dies and the sizzlit heart die from Stampin Up. 

I did not realized how many Spellbinders I had until I used this die. I need to start using them more often.  Actually there a lots of stamps, accessories, and dies that I need to use more often.  LOL!  

What's better than crafting... some yummy food.

I hope that everyone is having a good weekend.  I'm sorry, but I don't have anything crafty to post today, but I do have some pictures of some yummy food.  My son's school got out of school early on Friday so we thought it would be fun for the 4 of us to go out for lunch together.  We all love Japanese food so we went to a local restaurant Japanese restaurant.  My hubby and daughter shared some chicken teriyaki and a double order of tempura.

I ordered mix sushi, tempura, and yellowtail rolls.

My son ordered chicken teriyaki, tempura, and Calif. rolls. (Sorry I did not take a picture of the Calif. rolls.)

For dessert we ordered our favorite- fried tempura ice cream.

For those of you who have never tried fried tempura ice cream, it's pancake fried in tempura and filled with ice cream.  It't super ono!  Here is how is looks inside.

Have I gotten your mouth to water yet and crave some for Japanese food?  :) My family and I had a good time having lunch together since we rarely go out to lunch together on a weekday.  I hope that all of you will have a fun, crafty and yummy weekend.  :)

A Date and Some RAKs

Happy Wednesday!  Today my hubby and I spent the day at Disneyland just the two of us.

Even though we have gone there so many times over the past year with our passes this is only our second time going there together with just the two of us.  Hopefully we will get to go one more time on a "date" before they expire at the end of this month.  Today I would like to share with you what I have received as some very thoughtful RAK.  This is from Shirl.  Thanks again for surprising me with such fun items. I especially like the little cards.  I can't wait ink up the super cute stamp set.  :)

This is from Sherri.  Thanks again Sherri for taking time to me such a cute board especially since it's in one of my favorite theme.

This is RAK is from Jill.  The box that she made for me is just too cute and the cookies she made using the Stampin Up cookie cutters fit perfectly in the box. I could not believe that the cookies made it to me in once piece even though they were not mailed in a heavy duty box or a bubble envelope.

I thank the Lord each day for the all of you and for the friendship that He has blest us with.  I hope that everyone is having a good week so far.  Happy crafting/stamping and God bless!

Secret Sister Swap for February

I hope that everyone had a good weekend.  Mine was very relaxing for a change so I was very happy.  Even though my family and I did not have any plans besides just two small events, unfortunately I did not do much crafting.  :(  I did get to check out different blogs that I left comments on.  All of you continue to amaze me with all your creative ideas.  Thanks for being an inspiration to me.  Today, I would like to share with you what I made and sent to my secret sister, Kathy, last month.

This is what my secret sister sent and made for me. I love all the detail that she put into making my the card.

Here's the inside of the card with the flowers that she sent to me.  The flowers are perfect for me since they are purple, my favorite color.  :)

If anyone is interested in join the secret sister swap leave me a comment and I can give you the information to sign up.  It's a great way to meet new friends that are very creative.  Thanks for stopping by!