CHECK OUT OUR KAUAI TRIP

I'm currently playing catch up....On the weekend of Oct 20th, my family went to Kauai for a surprise birthday party. It was a very last minute decision on our end, but a choice that I'm very happy we made. I rarely see my relatives, and some of them, I just met on this trip. Check out some of the pictures:
This was Kody's first airplane ride. He really enjoyed it and felt being above the clouds were "GREAT"!! For those of you who aren't familiar with Kauai, check out this mountain that's located in Wailua...it's called the "Sleeping Giant". I tried to take a clear picture so you can see the forehead, the eye brow hairs (hehe), even some eyelashes (which are couple of trees) the nose, mouth, and its chin. Can you see it? My 2 boys had a hard time. I can see it, can you?
Here's Skylar & Kody standing on the back side of the Wailua Marina Restaurant. I'm not sure if you can see the peacock in the background. Boy, there's a lot of chickens and their chicks running around in Kauai. For those of you who visit the Wailua Marina Restaurant, you just gotta gotta gotta try their stuffed chicken, or stuffed pork chops. It's "DA BEST" HMMMM..GOOD... I just heard about the prawns stuffed with crabs. Doesn't that sound good? Okay, I need to stop now, because I'm getting hungry. So any of you that head out to Kauai...check out the Wailua Marina Restaurant.

Here's a picture of my family. I'm standing next to my father, and then there's my brother Dean and my niece, Joydean. Oh yeah, and of course, there's Larry, Skylar & Kody to the left of the picture. I think this is the first family picture I have with my dad, but it's still not complete with my brother's family. Oh well, that is something that must go on a "DO TO" and GET COMPLETED" type of list.

Here's a picture of Skylar & Kody with cousin Zion. They had so much fun and we were all on the same flight back to Honolulu. We were all very tired but very happy we were able to be a part of this fun occasion.

IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!

Geez Louise!!! I love reading & looking at everyone's blog and creations, and I tell myself how I'll keep up. Well, guess what!!! I "white" LIED. Boy, I give all of you who are able to post daily, every other day or 3 times a week, A LOT OF CREDIT!!! HOW do you do it?

I've been tagged about 3 1/2 weeks ago by Rhonda to list 7 facts about myself: (before I go on, I must tell all you to check out Rhonda's blogspot. It's totally awesome!!)

1. Like Rhonda, I love the color purple. (What, my blogspot is pink? I know, I know...when I initially set up my site, I looked for a purple background, but couldn't find a premade one that I liked....so I will change it, once I have more time to play with it).

2. I am definitely a PACK RACK. I've been meaning to "clean out" my family room, and organize that room to be my children's study as well as my stamping area. My dilemma is that I don't know what to "throw away", I want to keep everything. One day, I'll just "grab everything" and close my eyes. You know the saying, if you didn't use it the past 6 months, then you don't need it. Well, that's what "Mission Organization" on HGTV keeps saying (haha)

3. One of my favorite things to eat, that not too many people care for is "Natto". For those of you who are not familiar with what this is, it's fermented soy beans. It has a "stinky" smell and is very gooey, but I just love it with rice. Some days I'll just eat natto with rice and I'm happy.

4. I love music. I enjoy singing (can't say everyone loves hearing me). When I feel down at times, I'll go to my piano and just "attempt" to play some of my old "music pieces" that I sooo hated practicing when I was younger, much younger :). Some days, I'll grab our ukulele and have my older son "pick" some songs on his ukelele, while I strum the chords on mine. We're very rusty, but no matter what.....music is nice; and lastly, I have the privilege of listening to the choir my older son is in, practice Christmas music every Mondays & Wednesdays. There's days, they give me "chicken skin".

5. I am "claustrophobic". This all came about in 1976. I was at a convention in New York, when several of us got "STUCK"..."IN BETWEEN FLOORS" with just the inner door of the elevator opened for what felt like 3 hours (I think it was actually 20 minutes). I remember just seeing a whole bunch of wires. This was all during the time the movie "Earthquake" was popular and there was a scene where the people were stuck in the elevator when the earthquake hit. The elevator dropped to the bottom, splatting their "blood" all over. Does anyone remember this movie??? Okay, I could not help but think this was going to happen to us, and I literally went "beserk" Can you imagine the other persons who were in the elevator with me? POOR THINGS!!!. When the service people finally got it open, they needed to assist all of us out of there, because, like I said, we were "IN BETWEEN FLOORS". The service personnel asked the elder couple to start first, but they insisted I go first...HMMMM...I wonder why..... Since that incident, I can't stay in enclosed areas for too long, or you'll see "little sweat buds" on my face, then you'll see me start fidgeting....then...figure out what's next......

6. I love dogs!!! I didn't have a dog for the longest time, but in March, my husband agreed that we could have this puppy, who is part lab, siberian husky, and pit bull. He's so cute and lovable. His name is "Biggie".... if you saw him now, you'd know how he got that name. He's still very friendly and lovable, but he definitely is big. I've seen his siblings, and most of them aren't close to his size. I thought he would be an indoor dog, but he's "currently" outside. I'm hoping to re-train him so he can be inside at night. Just not telling my husband my plan. Not yet anyway.

7. My family (my husband, 2 sons, myself, and my step daughter) are all left handed. We don't ever have problems in a restaurant deciding who's sitting next to who, because we won't be bumping elbows. So any right handers are considered "minority" in our household. (Neat-o, huh?!)

Well, that's all folks!!! Hope you enjoy reading this. Now, I'd like to tag, Angel, Michelle, and Robyn. ALL of them have "Great" sites...so check it out!!!

FUN, FUN, FUN!!!!

I received my TAC order and I just love this "babysteps" stamp set. I think it's so cute. I just had to try it out as soon as I got home. I couldn't find my aqua brush. So, I decided to try and use my SU stampin pastels. I've had the pastels for a long time, but rarely used it. I got the blender pen and rubbed it on the chalk and colored away. I used the "Staz ON" black to stamp the image. I really had fun coloring the image. I stamped the "Congratulations" and obviously, it's off, but overall, I still like the way it came out. This one is for a girlfriend of mine who gave birth a while ago to a healthy baby boy.
For this card, I tried coloring in the image using the swab (stick) that comes with the stampin pastel set. Then, I used the blender pen, and rubbed it on the chalk and outlined the image. I like the effect it gave. In this picture, it looks really light, but I'm really happy with the way it came out. This one is for my cousin Glenn and his wife Yvette. Yvette recently gave birth to their son. He'll be one lucky fellow, cuz he has 2 older sisters that will surely take care of him.
This was TAC's September special stamp. I don't have any Bella stamps, so although a little smaller, I think "Lilly Ann" is "purty" too...Don't you? I'm obviously not a good photographer, so my color looks "orangy" when in fact it turned out "quite" bright. Lots of pink shades. I sponged "chocolate chip". Then, I decided to add the brown ribbon. I feel like there's still something missing but I still enjoyed coloring in and making this card. This is for a belated birthday.

With all of the cards, I've used SU designer paper, CS & the ticket punch. This was fun for me. I know I'll be using these stamp sets a lot more.

I'VE BEEN TAGGED!!

I've been tagged by by Teri. Here's how it works :

The NAME GAME. The name of the game is to list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life, for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use the name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your middle name and game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged and to read your blog.

The truth is I have a difficult time writing about myself. So, I asked several people to put an adjective next to each letter that explains me. You know...this actually turned out to be a lot of fun!!! Believe me, I treated them really nice, so they would be nice to me (HAHAHA)!!! See the results:

H- Hilarious, happy, hopeful, heartful, (too) honest
I - Insane (i guess I wasn't really nice to this person), Intuitive, inspirational
S - Sassy (huh...don't know what she's talking about), silly, sociable, selfless, sensitive
A - Abnormal (OK...she definitely made a mistake..hehe), Analytical, Approachable, Ambitious
E - Easy...target (yeah, I'm always getting picked on), enjoys life, entertaining, easy (she meant..easy going, easy to get along with..)

Goodie..goodie..now it's my turn to tag...(since I'm not sure on first names, I'll tag by blog names:

H- Hawaiian Angels
I - Ink Something
S - Stampin Inspirations
A - Angelosity
E - Everyday Celebrations

Check out their blogs...It's really awesome. I must say, this was fun!! Thanks Teri and thanks to all of you that helped me out on this one :)
Hope it was as much fun for you as it was for me!!!

WHAT's TAKING SOOO LONG????

I guess I should've said wait until next week instead of tomorrow. My tomorrow sure did last a really long time. Here's my cousin Joy, with all of the goodies. It sure looks like the pants will fit her fine. In addition, I know she'll create some wonderful pages for her ADORABLE daughter Ashlyn.

I had another picture, but seem to be having a problem posting. As soon as I can clear my connection, I'll post another picture.

Finally, BOY (Girl) it took me a while for this one....EBAY anyone???

I've had this simply scrappin kit for over a year. I got this for my cousin who had an adorable girl. Of course, baby Ashlyn already celebrated her first birthday. My cousin is very creative and I'm sure she'll make some wonderful pages with this kit. This is a retired kit, but still very cute.

Meanwhile, I used this love note card to create a little card to go with the simply scrapping kit. It's just something really small & simple.


I'm sure a lot of you ebayers out there will be able to relate to this situation that I'm about to tell you . When scoping out some of the items I wanted, I came across this cool blue ROXY pants. It came with tags, and had the logo on the bottom of the left leg. I decided to go for it. All the details looked right and I thought, hey...I'll try to win this pants...so when it got to closing, I was determined to win it but not go over the $$$ amount I was willing to pay. Well, I was able to win it for a $teal....I was overjoyed. The pants was new, and it looked really nice. As I looked closely at all of the information, after winning the bid, I realized...OMG....it's a junior, not a misses....BUT, there was still a chance I could fit it. When I received it in the mail, I opened it like any child opening a gift, with a big smile. The pants was really nice, looked like I could fit it..okay...so far so good....let me try it on......WELL, it was slightly snug....well, a little more than slightly....it was...picture the visual of this....it looked like an old fart, trying to squeeze into her younger clothes, and trying to look "hip"....okay...this just wasn't right. Now, I couldn't find someone I knew that would fit it. I knew people who were either smaller or bigger. When I ran into my cousin at a baby shower last week, same cousin that I've waited soooooo long to give the scrapbook kit to, I realized...hey...Joy (who's the proud mother of Ashlyn) or her sister Renee would fit it perfectly. So, I made mention to them and told them that my mother will take it to another family get together we have tomorrow and they can decide who will take it. I'm curious who'll take it....Oh well....we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out.....

50 Christmas Card class

Today, I had my 50 Christmas Card class. Teri created these cards and shared it with her downlines. Thank you Teri. The cards were created using SU's Winter Bright Scrapbook Kit, along with some of their stamps and supplies. With this class, each person had the following supplies: Winter Bright Simply Scrappin Kit, Whisper White Card Stock, Snail Adhesive, Whisper White Med Envelope (40), and the Wild Wasabi Double Stiched Ribbon. Although all of these added to slightly over what the class cost, I enjoyed doing it. I threw in the additional 10 envelopes, and the eyelets, brads, glitter, cord, and other "blings". All extra remaining, was for them so they can either create more cards, or create couple scrapbook pages. There was enough white cardstock to create a lot more cards.

Here's a photo of what each person received.
I precut the supplies for them. There were only 2 in attendance, plus myself. So I only needed to prep 3 supply kits. :)
Here's my friend Tami with my younger son, Kody, who needed to be included, showing off 2 of the cards they made. Sorry, I thought this picture was clear at the time I took it, but I guess my bifocals on my glasses is not correct any more. Boy, what age does to you. Here's cousin Cyd, showing off 2 of her cards as well. If I'm not mistaken, this picture is a little clearer, right???? For anyone wondering, what in the world is in the background, it's Kody's creation of himself. It is the same height as he is, and I know a lot of work went into this, so I taped it to our cabinet. He's proud that it's on display. You're just seeing the bottom half.
Now, at any of the classes, moreso because this one was all day, we needed snacks. So my husband Larry, prepared chips with the 3 layer dip (purchased from Safeway). We also had malasadas (thanks Cyd). Larry, later made sandwiches for everyone. They were able to order it to their style (that was nice). Of course, here's Kody, getting first gibs at snacks because we're too busy trying to finish all of the cards.

I'll let everyone know now.... 'cuz in the future, you'll take notice, Larry does a lot of the food things...it's like that here in our household. He loves to cook, so he does all the cooking. That works out fine for me because I really don't like to cook. If I did cook, we wouldn't need to lose weight (tehehe).

After creating all of the cards, here's a snapshot of what is remaining from the supplies everyone was able to take home.

Below is a snapshot of all the cards made.

Below's a view of each individual card that was made. It was 2 sets of 25 cards = 50 cards. Some of the cards were slightly different from the other.

Overall, that was a fun, and exhausting day. As a whole, I really love SU's simply scrappin kits. It's great to make scrapbook pages as well as cards. Everything coordinates well with each other. It just makes it a whole lot "simpler".