has it really been 4 months?

i guess it has. oh my! time sure does fly by, doesn't it? i thought i'd pop in and wish everyone a very merry CHRISTmas. it's been a busy last 3 or 4 months for me...craft fair season. i sometimes wonder if it's worth all the craziness and late nights preparing for the fairs, and after some pondering, i always decide that it is. so much fun. here's a picture of my spot at the 35th annual hickam craft fair which was held at hickam air force base.

i will try to post more often (does anyone out there actually read my blog?) in the future. if all goes well, my plan is to craft full time next year, and do more fairs and maybe even sell my stuff on etsy. i'll have to see what God has planned for me, and go from there. two more days until Jesus' birthday. yay! just in case i don't check back in before the end of the year, be safe and have a blessed new year.

happy birthday baby girl!

we're celebrating mele's birthday today. we actually aren't sure when she was born, so we had to guess based on what her vet thought based on her baby teeth, her teething, and when she started loosing her baby teeth. when we brought her home at the beginning of january, she was a skinny, stinky, scruffy little girl weighing in at 15 lbs., and now 7-1/2 months later, she is not skinny, not usually stinky, still scruffy and is almost as big as her brother.

i have one card to share with you today. i made it for a dear friend of mine who gave it to her niece for her birthday. i had so much fun making it, and i love the way it turned out. i hope the young lady that received it liked it too!

well, summer's almost over, and hasn't it been a strange one? the weather has been so weird. hot some of the time, rainy off and on, sometimes cool at night. i can't remember ever having a summer like this one. the times, they are a changin'. i'm so glad you came by to visit. blessings!

back to normal

well, things are pretty much back to normal around here now that lily is back on maui. she spent most of july with us, and as tiring as it is to have a 5 year old around 24/7, we really enjoyed having her here. i took lily back to maui last weekend, and had a very relaxing time with the kids and grandkids and granddogs. 

i was able to spend some time in my craft room this week, working on special orders, and today i got to have lunch with some special ladies at the cheesecake factory. everything i ate was so good! i can't wait to go back.

i haven't been able to post for  awhile, so i thought i'd share a couple of cards i made a short time ago. the first one was made with october afternoon papers from their "fly a kite" and "thrift shop" lines and hero arts stamps, all of which i got at pineapple cove. i absolutely love all the vintagey, retro stuff that's on the market these days. so much fun to work with.

this next card was made with papers and embellies from the "le chateau" collection by kaisercraft. i liked this line so much that i bought the paper pad, clear stamp set, rub-ons, die-cuts and the metal keys. and of course, they're all from pineapple cove, my favorite craft store.

and because i know you're all sitting at the edge of your seats waiting for the latest doggie update . . . you know you are . . . tell the truth now. i took henry and mele to the vet's for their semi-annual check-ups yesterday (i don't even go to the doc's for semi-annual check-ups), and they both got rave reviews. henry's weighing in at 62 lbs., and the little girl who i thought was going to be my lap dog weighed in at 45 lbs! she's my "clifford". good food and lots of love made her grow and grow! well i guess that's it for now. enjoy the rest of your weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

it's been quite awhile

...since i've posted. i guess i've been kinda busy. my uncle john and auntie vicki came over from california to visit for a week, and it's always fun for me when they're here. they were here to celebrate another uncle's 90th birthday. wow! it was really nice to see a bunch of our family, to reminisce and catch up, see new babies. i hope it's not too long before we all get together again.

then mandy and the kids came to visit for a week and that was fun, and in the midst of that, sarah came to visit for a couple of days (it was actually only a day and a half, much too short). we all went out to kailua to visit more family that was visiting from the mainland, and that, too, was a lot of fun. so now, everyone has left, except lily, who will be staying with us until the end of the month. taking care of a little one 24/7 is very tiring...i guess that's why we have kids when we're young!

i haven't been getting in as much crafting time as i'd like, but i've been able to squeeze in time here and there to complete a few cards for friends. here's a couple of them. hope you like them.

our church will once again be hosting our annual "how to walk" conference on july 24 from 8 am 'til 3 pm. it is always such a blessing to be there and to be taught by so many bible believing christians. as always, the conference is absolutely free, just like God's gift to us, salvation thru Jesus Christ.

all kinds of stuffs

yeah, i know, it's been awhile since i've posted anything new. i was busy as a bee getting ready for a craft fair that was on may 7th. since then, i've been making cards for friends. i have started taking orders for my cards, so if you'd like to place an order, get in touch with me. i am really happy with the way this card turned out. i absolutely love graphic 45 paper, so retro. i was asked to make a birthday card for a woman who likes fashionista stuff. well that's exactly what the paper with the ladies is called. the background paper and the tag are from a collection called domestic goddess. the black button was from my mom's button box. it was still attached to the card it came on, which my mom bought probably 35 years ago. a whole card of pretty buttons only cost 29 cents back then. i couldn't resist using a piece of the button card as a part of my embellishment. i hope the birthday girl likes it as much as i do.

i was fortunate enough to have lunch with joni, teri & naomi last friday to celebrate teri's birthday. we went to spicy ahi out in pearl city. it was my first time there, and i will definitely be going back. i had a spicy ahi vegetable bowl, and it was so good that i have been thinking about it daily since then. yes, eating is a very important part of my life.

my goddaughter, ashley, graduated from the university of hawaii on saturday, so on sunday we attended a brunch in her honor. it was at mac 24/7 in the prince kuhio hotel on kuhio ave. i had eggs benedict royale and it was really yummy. i'm so proud of ash...she already has a job! she has been interning at an insurance company, and they asked her to stay on as an employee. sweet!

thanks for visiting and "listening" to all my ramblings. have a great week, and may you be blessed. better yet, may you be a blessing!

i "made art" today

i have recently bought several artsy "cards" magazines that have been extremely inspiring. in one of them i read an article hi-lighting a paper artist that i admire, wendy vecchi, and she used the term "making art", which i thought was very appropriate to what i try to achieve when i create cards. i hadn't been able to play in my craft room at all until last week, and it's been so good to be back. when i don't craft for a period of time, it takes me awhile to get back into the swing of things, compounded this time by the fact that my room has been re-arranged, and i don't always know where my stuff is. anyway, enough of my rambling . . . so, this is what i made, and i am quite pleased with the way it turned out. what do you think?

when i went to maui last month, sarah and jen and i had a crafty day and i was able to make a birthday card to take to a one year old's party, and this set of thank you cards.

it seems like everyone is making these adorable flowers, so i thought i'd take a stab at it, and they are so cute and easy to make (they're kinda hard on the fingers, though). now i just have to create something to stick them on.

just 2 pics of the "kids" today . . . aren't they the cutest doggies you've ever seen!

i'm so glad you stopped by. blessings!

why do i have a blog . . .

. . . if it takes me soooo long to do a new post? i've realized once again, that i'm pretty boring. besides my crafting and the dogs, and now the house renovation, nothing too exciting happens around here. but i like boring because it means no drama, and that's a good thing. ever since we started the renovation, i haven't done any crafting except for one day a few weeks ago when i spent time with my friend manle at her store, pineapple cove. we had such a nice time chatting and snacking, and i was able to make a birthday card for my granddaughter, jasmine.

well you didn't think you were gonna get away without looking at pictures of the dogs, did you? look how big mele is getting! when we got her, she weighed in at 15 lbs., and now she is about 27 lbs. or so. henry is somewhere between 65 and 70 lbs, but mele looks almost as big as him in the picture. she's kinda tall. someone told me she looks like a wheaton terrier, so we looked up wheatons online, and she does have some of the characteristics of a soft coated wheaton (i think that's what it's called). the other pictures are just the 2 of them being cute . . . notice the dress that jackie and mahina got for the little girl!

well that's all i have today . . . oh! i almost forgot the main reason that i posted today . . . i learned how to weed whack this morning! i did the back doggie yard! aren't you impressed? see you soon, maybe, and know that Jesus loves you soooo much! be blessed!

new floor and new puppy

just a fast post today to share a few pics of the new flooring, mele, our new puppy, and henry. there's a couple of different views of the living room and the dogs, and me and the "kids" relaxing on the family bed. we are so blessed!