Best Blog Friend

The blog world is so popular now. I'm so glad that I'm getting to meet fun gals from all over the world! A while ago, I got this Best Blog Friend from Corie and just totally forgot about posting it! Sorry, Corie girl! Of course, a couple days ago, I got this also from Corinne (aka Roxy). You guys are definately Best Blog Friends!! I love you both. I'm sure you all are not strangers to Corie and Corinne's blogs...they are fabulous! If you want inspiration, you gotta check them out! Since this post is long overdue, I want to say that all of you are my best blog friends. Lots of you already were awarded with this cute blogger friend...Thank you to all of you who are supporters of my journal! Hugs!

I'm so honored!

This past Friday, our Department had our 2007 Annual Incentive & Service Awards Ceremony. I was lucky to be nominated employee of the year. Although I was not the recipient of the award, it was an honor for my co-workers to nominate me. Thank you!! Talk about a double delight day. At the same ceremony, I was awarded a certificate for 10 years of service. Here's a picture of me with our Director and Deputy Director. A funny note, not sure if you can see the name on the certificate, but it's not my name. what????!!!! The guy that was supposed to be called before me didn't show up, so I guess the program went on and they mistakenly gave me the wrong certificate. I received my very own certificate after the ceremony.

First Tag class - boy!, I'm exhausted!!

Well, this Sunday was my first 50 Christmas tag class. If any of you are planning to do a class like this, keep the projects simple. My problem is that I create the project, love what I just made and then when it comes time to cut the pieces for kit - eeks! Always have to thank Wini for assisting me on cutting and assembling. This round, also have t thank my family for helping me put all the ribbons in the appropriate bag. Mom and Dad cut all of the hundreds of ribbons for me while I went to work. I had a regular Santa workshop going! This was one of the simpler tags. I wanted something simple to make yet classy. I love this Naughty or Nice stamp set from the Holiday mini catalog. Since I didn't want everyone spending tons of time coloring Santa, I chose to just stamp him in black and then I used dazzling diamonds on his moustache and the ball from his hat. Added a bling (non SU one) in the middle of the bow. The ribbons are SU's 5/8" Old Olive grosgrain ribbon and the 1/4" Bravo Burgandy grosgrain ribbon. We used the ticket punch on all corners and that's it! The other thing that I stressed myself about these making tags is ordering the correct amount of product. I LOVE ribbon and I love to have them nice, long, love the bows to be just perfect. Well, using some of these ribbons can get costly when making the kits, (I made 30 kits) and so I ended up ordering rolls and rolls of ribbons!! We made 5 of this tag and each of these ribbons were 12".
And here's the holder that we made - it can hold 10 tags (one of each tag that we made). Here we used 30" of the Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon for each kit...yikes!! I also used some Hodge Podge hardware, Dashing DS papers (my fave!), Well worn alphabet set for the word TAGS and jingle bells tied on with the gold elastic cord. I couldn't find any more of the assorted colored bells since I bought this container last Christmas, so for the class, I changed it to gold bells and it turned out just as nice! This holder has a 1/2" gusset in the middle to accommodate the bulkiness of the tags. Will post more tags in the days to follow...still have one more class this Sunday!! P.S. I was so stressed out trying to set up that I totally forgot to take pics of the class in session. Stay tuned for pics from the next class!!

A surprise from Allison!

Yipee! Check out the surprise I got in the mail! A card from Allison. I love this Bella! This is a criss cross card turned in a different direction. Too bad you can't really see the glitter on the striped portion of the card, very blingy (is that a word??) Anyway, I love it! Thank you so much, Allison! I don't think there's anyone that doesn't know about Allison's wonderful blog called "Stampin' When I Can" - here, you get the latest scoops on everything!! A wealth of information for bloggers!

50 Christmas Tags! All in one class!

Once I started working on Christmas cards I couldn't stop! So, this month, our class will be 50 tags!! We will be making 50 tags (5 of each tag, there's one that we're only making 3) and an adorable folder to hold 10 tags in, just perfect to give as a gift. Do the tags NOW so you can give it EARLY! You'll want your recepient to use these cute tags!! If you are interested in attending this class, I still have spots available! Email me for more details!! I will be holding two sessions - both Sundays. September 23 and 30 from 1:00 p.m. at my home. Please join me!

September RAK from Risa aka Malieta

I love it!! Thank you, Risa aka Malieta for the cute card and matching tag! The monkey is adorable and the colors are so fabulous! Check out Risa's blog too!

If you like receiving monthly RAK's, join the JT's monthly aloha RAK club through Jen's Pieces of Me blog.

Our newest family member

Today, we made a visit to the Hawaiian Humane Society and look what we found! We looked at all of the cats in the cat house and was so close in adopting brothers - Danny & Shadow. Then, we found out that they are were indoor cats - boo hoo! Nolan was heart broken! We were almost ready to leave when he saw her looking out of the window. We went back into the cat house and found out that she was "street smart" meaning that she was a stray and an outdoor cat. Only 15 minutes more til closing! We were able to adopt this cute kitty. We even got a huge cage for a great deal to keep her safe at night. Grandpa said we could keep her in my work room til she gets used to our home. The ride home was quiet and once home, she adjusted quickly (so far, anyway!)

She already found my chair and used it as a scratching post! Aaahhh! We named her *Mochiko*. She's recovering from her spaying surgery which she had only 6 days ago. What a sweetheart she is!

I love celebrating birthdays!

Birthdays are special and I love to make special cards for special friends. My friend's daughter, Naho, turned 22 and I see her every now and then on the bus. This gal is one busy bee. She works two jobs (First Hawaiian Bank and Shirokiya at Ala Moana Center)and goes to school on top of that! Great to be young again! I made this card using some wonderful cardstock I got from my friend Faye T. (Thanks Faye!!!, I love it!!) Stamp sets are Moose You and Eat Cake. Mega scallop circle punch and super jumbo circle punch, light blue gingham ribbon. As her gift, I included a GC for a manicure at Paul Brown's Salon. Happy 22nd Naho!

I feel like a Princess!

Check out the crown on this card and the **bling**...such a the cute RAK I got from Jodie! She's one of Jen's angels and the co-blogger with Mo at Jus' Scrap! Check out her TAC blog Hawaiian Angels to see her creations and to find out how one fab mom handles twins! Yes, Jodie has twins! Girl, after reading your blog, now I know that I couldn't handle twins and I am thankful I only have one child. He's a hand-full himself even at 12.

I just love this card! You know that us girls love the **bling**. I'd like to think that I'm someone's Queen or princess, maybe a Queen "B" - haha! Thanks for thinking of me and making me feel special!

Do you like Make & Takes?

Hey all, Cheryl M. will be at A Place in Time in Kailua tomorrow (Saturday) September 15 from 10 AM to 12 noon doing a make & take with the Sizzix snowflake dies. The cost of the make & take is $5.00 for the projects. Be sure to stop by to say hello and check her out.

I'm so sad

I'm having a hard time getting to my blog these days for various reasons. I guess as the holidays get close, it'll be even worse! But I just wanted to get this off of my chest because I know that there are so many of my dear friends and family that read my blog to keep themselves up-to-date with not only my projects, but with the daily happenings. Anyway, not to drag on and on about this, but I wanted to share my sadness so that I could start feeling better sooner.

Yesterday (Thursday) while waiting for the bus to go to work, my girlfriend asked me if that was my kitty that got hit and was lying on the side of the highway. OMG! dad and I were in denial at first but then he just had to go across the highway to make sure we were wrong. Unfortunately, he confirmed that Midori had been hit and she was gone. I think the initial news just shocked me and I did not cry. Dad brought her back home to give her a place to rest. Of course, we couldn't tell Nolan. He would be devastated before he went to school! (He found out after school and went to the garden to cry). It didn't hit me until I went to work and saw all of the photos on my desk and the pics on my screen saver. The tears filled my eyes. I had to call my sisters to tell them the sad news so that they could tell the girls (my nieces) who loved Midori so much. Yes, she was an outdoor cat but she never went by the busy highway. we will never know what made her go so close to the road. Thanks for letting me vent. For any of you pet owners out there, I know you feel my pain.

Alice picks a title and a winner!

Boy, I'm glad that I wasn't the one who had to pick a title and the winner of this blog candy.
Poor Alice, she felt the pressure because all of your titles were fabulous! But, we could only select one and the winner is
CHERYL KVD! Congrats Cheryl! Please email me with your mailing address so I can send you the goodies.
Thank you all for the wonderful titles and for playing! I will post the final page when I'm done. Oh, if you all ever want a copy of the titles that were submitted, I'll be happy to email them to you. I've been working on my 50 Christmas tag class - OMG, I loved the way the tags turned out! Thanks to Wini, who keeps me on my toes, we were able to create 10 tag designs for our 50 tag class. Demos meet this Saturday and customers the last 2 Sundays this month! Sneak peek soon!

Who's got a sweet tooth?

Here's the goodies that you will win for playing! This candy includes SU's ribbon keeper, three (3) bottles of pearl ex powders and a stack of 6X6 SU designer papers (I kind of counted and it was more that 60 sheets!) Wowee!! Thank you to all of you who have already made your suggestion(s) for my title for the scrapbook layout of Emiko. Sorry, but I've decided that since there are just too many great suggestions coming in that I decided that I will have Alice select a title on Monday, September 10th. I'll post the lucky winner that night! So, instead of the deadline being tomorrow (Friday), I've extended the deadline til Sunday, September 9th! I will print up all of the suggested titles and show them to Alice on Monday morning.

Sweet card from my friend

Look at this cute card I got from my blog pal, Corinne! I bought the recipe book kit from her and can't wait to put it together! Check out the recipe book and other great projects on her blog. Click here to see all of her fabulous ideas. I just love her projects!

The 25th Anniversary Okinawan Festival

Nolan and I spent our Saturday at Kapiolani Park where there was a celebration going on. The 25th Okinawan Festival. I bought some scrip from Aunty Pearl so we could go and get some yummy food! It was such a blistery hot day, it made me even more sleepy than I already was. Lack of sleep from having too much fun at Wini's house the night before :) We caught the shuttle bus from Kapiolani Community College and it was perfect! No driving around in circles to find parking in Waikiki!! The first tent that we stopped off in had many displays of Okinawa and the history of the battle of Okinawa. There, we were asked if we wanted to fold paper cranes to send to the Peace Museum. Of course we did. Since I finished making my crane before Nolan, a lady who was standing next to me asked me to show her how to fold it. The way I make my cranes is different. Eric showed me a **secret** when folding the cranes. You pre-fold all of the lines and when it's time for that awkward tucking and folding, it falls right into place! Well, I ended up demoing this technique to a bunch of other ladies because it was starting to crowd. One gal even asked if I was working there. We moved on to the arts and crafts tent where this lady was doing Japanese writing on placques. Nolan wanted one to hang in his room, so we had her write out his middle name "Tadashi". She wrote it so fast and it was beautiful! Since the character for Tadashi was so small, she asked him to select another word, so he selected "Long Life". Here's a pic of the placque being made.
We also saw a bunch of Bonsai trees on display. They are so perfectly made. So much time and patience put into creating one of these. I know I'm not ready to do one, no patience! Maybe after I retire huh!








After all of that, of course, we were hungry, so we went to check out all of the food booths! We had to buy andagi (donuts). We even tried the andoggie...it was a hotdog on a stick. Actually, only half of the hot dog. It was yummy! We bought the special okinawan plate lunch (Champaru) to bring home to Eric to have for dinner. He said it was good. The shaved ice looked so inviting, but one look at the line and we said, never mind...next time! It was such a fun and relaxing day for us. For those of you who don't live here, it is such a blessing to be able to live in this wonderful "melting pot" where so many cultures come together.

Suggestions for a scrapbook layout & blog candy!

Calling all scrapbooking blog sisters! I am in need of some help! I'm making a scrapbook page for my co-worker, Alice of her cutie pie grand daughter, Emiko. After I make the page, I'm going to be putting it in a shadow box frame (love those!) It was Alice's birthday last week and this is my gift to her. Here's where I need the help. I'm looking for the perfect title for this page and my mind is drawing blank...I'm also tying this in to my contest to win some blog candy for my 5K hits! So ladies, send me a comment with your suggestion on a perfect title for this page. I'm gathering up some yummy candy, which I'll post later cuz I'm ready to leave for work now. I'll be closing this contest on Friday, September 7th so hurry!
P.S. Thank you to all of you who subscribe, visit and comment on my blog. I've made so many friendships near and far through this blog!

Playing with my new stamps

I keep seeing this stamp on so many cards so I had to buy this set called All Holidays. I guess this is like a replacement to the All Year Cheer sets. I just love this stamp in particular, don't you?
I'm trying to use up my 6X6 papers from the sampler pack and also the velvet ribbon. I used my Swirl cuttlebug embossing folder on chocolate chip and decided to add some silver brads because I thought that area was a bit empty. Had fun with this card. I'm working on a bunch of Thank You cards which you will see here when I'm done making then and writing my thank you's!
I was just thinking that I usually don't have time during the week to post, so I'm like a weekend blogger - haha! Hope you all have a great week! I know mine will be busy especially since we had a holiday today.

Lunar Eclipse

How many of you stayed up late to see that Lunar Eclipse last week?? I went to bed a little earlier and then woke up at around 11:30 to check it out. Of course, it was such a cloudy evening that we barely saw anything! It's a good thing that Nolan's teacher, Dr. Hughes, caught it on his awesome camera. He offered the photos to the students if they bought their flash drives to school. Here are the awesome photos!

Even though the photos that we took weren't as awesome as the ones that Dr. Hughes took, it definately was an experience, especially for Nolan. He was so excited that he bought out his telescope too! Eric layed his sleeping back out on the sidewalk right under our picture window. It was so cool and peaceful too! The sound of the ocean made me want to go right back to sleep!

Birthday RAKs!

Isn't this such a sweet card?? This card was made by Irene. Thanks Irene, I love it!

This clever card and bag ensemble was made by my pal, Jackie. I love the way the swirls from the Baroque Motifs set stamped on the kraft gift bag and the acetate for the card look. Pink Craft ink. Love this! Thanks also for the sweet pink Tupperware too!!













Sending special thanks to my GF Sandy for the generous gift certificate to get a manicure and a pedicure! You know how I love to be pampered!! Thank you ladies!! You're turning me into a spoiled brat! I love receiving beautiful cards!!

aah - here's the wonderful projects!

I've been eyeing up this card ever since Wini showed it to me. I think she CASE'd it from a great blog called Stamper Camper's Corner. This talented artist's name is Mary Brown and she has some wonderful ideas. Check out her blog. The stamped image is from a stamp set called and it's a level 2 hostess set. I actually didn't even give it a second thought when I was selecting level 2 sets - no reason, just that it didn't appeal to me til now! Also used are the flowers punched out from the Three for You punch box. The grosgrain ribbon was dyed using the Groovy Guava ink refill - so pretty!! Thanks Wini, for doing all of that extra work so that we can make this special card! I love it!
Here's another card that uses the Three for You punch box. This is a tri-fold card and that cute butterfly from the Garden Whimsy stamp set. Don't you just love the colors?? Although it took a while to make this card because of all the details, it is well worth it. Wini stamped and punched out all of the flowers for us! I love this women and of course, the card!

Here's that pop up card that we found over at Dawn's blog - Dawn's Stamping Thoughts. I love the reaction I get when people open up this card! Thank you Dawn for sharing this tutorial with all of us!

These two cards that used last year's level one hostess scrapbook kit called Friends and Flowers. I loved it so much, I kept ordering it, so now, I have a secret stash of these babies. Hmm, maybe I'll have to break them open in October. Thinking of throwing an Anniversary party for my being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for five years! Sounds like a good idea! We'll see if there's enough time to do projects!

Now these next great projects are all courtesy from our angel, Jen. She did a TAC demo for us. She brought these three projects for us to make! Thanks sister!

I'm still not used to that "gorgeous" bathing beauty we used for that Joy fold card - haha! Jen said it reminds her of her grandma. I'd like to see grandma!!

One of my favorite holidays is Halloween, so I totally loved this tag! This was one of the projects Jen did at her open house, except I wasn't able to attend because I was working at the Made in Hawaii show. So, thanks for duplicating this cute tag!! I love it!

I love the background on this cute zebra card. We used the cuttlebug embossing folder and then a sanding block. Because the cardstock has a white core, when you sand it, the white shows through. How cool is that? Love the color combo!

Here's Jen doing the demo for us. She is always so entertaining! If you guys think you've got entertainment over the blogs, wait til you meet Jen in person! You are in for a treat! For you island girls, if you haven't been to a TAC demonstration or party, give Jen a call to schedule one. She'd love to do a party for you. The hostess rewards are pretty cool too. I'm glad that she shared with us!

Well, I made it home at about 1:00 AM, tired, but so happy with my beautiful projects, a full tummy, filled with lots of girl talk too! I didn't do so well waking up "early" (7:00 AM) to leave for Nolan's soccer game. Of course, he still cannot play, but we went to support his team members. Thanks for reading this long post!

Girl's Night Out!

Having a girl's night out was a fabulous idea! It was so long overdue for all of us because we barely have any spare time to squeeze in a little girlfriend outing. We got together on Friday night at Wini's house - a belated bday celebration for me. Wow! I don't remember having a bday party cuz it's been too long. We had a wonderful dinner of garlic chicken, pork ribs, look fun noodles, char siu pork, caesar salad and California pan sushi - Yummy!! Thank you ladies for the delicious food!! Oh, and ice cream anyone?? It's been so hot here lately, ice cream was just the perfect touch after our meal. We actually made chocolate sundaes with toppings - more yummy!!

Jen wrote our names on these cute glasses Wini bought - unfortunately, they all washed off.

We had our group picture taken by Wini's son, Kevin (thanks Kevin!).

Here's Joyce doing one of her card projects (more on the awesome projects in the next post).

Sandy and Jackie pose for me (actually, I made them pose - thanks, ladies!)

And also had Barbara stop to smile for me too!




Last, but of course, not least, here's Irene, waiting to consume the yummy dessert!
Thank you ladies, I had a wonderful time! I couldn't have wished for a more fun birthday party...good friends, good food, good projects...*sigh* - I am a lucky girl!!