Finally, After 12 Years

A week ago a friend (Cathy) and I finally met each in person after knowing each other for 12 years.  It is always lots of fun chatting with her online and on the phone and e-mailing each other, but of course it was much more fun getting to talk to her face to face.  We had a grand old time having dinner together at Claimjumpers and

had a blast chatting for 2 and a half hours.  It didn't feel like it was our first time meeting at all.  Here's a picture of what we ordered (besides their super scrumptious onion rings).

Before dinner I gave Cathy a gift- a box of chocolates and a handmade flower.

Here is a close up picture of the flower.

After dropping Cathy off at her hotel she gave me three bags of goodies that she received from the Craft and Hobby Show that she attended while she was visiting.

I was amazed at all the awesome items that were in the bags.  As I sorted through the bags I put items into two piles- items that I like and would find them useful now and items that I like, but won't find useful at this time.  The items in the second pile I decided to give to friends that would find them useful.  I would love to keep them, but don't think it would be wise to start other hobbies.    Here are the items that I kept that are my favorites.

Before giving each other a big hug and saying "good-bye" Cathy and I took one more picture together.

It has been such a blessing having Cathy as a friend for the past 12 years and I am truly grateful that we were able to meet last week.

Visiting With Brenda and Her Daughter

I hope that everyone is having a fun and crafty month so far.  Mine has been lots of fun.  My current project is making decorations, party favors, etc. for my daughter's Monster High B-day party.  Stay tune for pictures of everything.  I have also been working on finishing "thank you" cards for my Christmas gifts.  Yes, I'm a bit slow in getting them done.  Other than my projects I have been having fun spending time with friends that are visiting SoCal.  Last weekend my family and I had the pleasure of having lunch with my friend Brenda and her daughter at Rainforest Cafe.

We thought it would nice to have lunch with them at the Rainforest Cafe since it's such a fun restaurant.  The entire restaurant is decorated as a rainforest with vines, trees, animals, butterflies, etc.  Every half an hour their is a thunder storm and the animals come to life.  Here is a picture of one of the animals.

Of course the time that Brenda and I had to together would not totally be complete without surprising each other with a fun gift.  This is what I gave to her.

Her favorite color is purple (just like mine) so I thought it would be fun to give her a gift with a "purple" theme to it.  Unfortunately I was not able to find a tablet that has purple in it. This is ono, fun, and fabulous gift that she gave to me.

I am always amazed at Brenda comes up with.  Here is a close up of two of the pages of the calendar.

Pretty awesome, yeah.  My family and I had a wonderful time visiting with Brenda and her daughter and appreciate them for taking time during their vacation to spend some time with us.  We hope that they had a fab time here and look forward to seeing them again one day soon.

My Time Off and a Beautiful Bow

Having too much fun and not enough rest finally caught up to me last Monday.  I was out of commission until Thursday.  I was a bit sad to have to spend the last half of my time off from work in bed, but I am thankful that I the chance to rest to recover without needing to take time off from work.  The fun that I had prior to getting sick included going after Christmas shopping at some of my favorite stores- The Loft, JoAnns and Hobby Lobby. (I coundn't resist taking a picture with this sign.)

Here are a few of the embossing folders that I purchased from Hobby Lobby.  

That is sure a dangerous store.  Next time I go there I should only bring cash because it has such a huge selection of crafty stuff..  LOL!  I also got to hang out with family and friends and enjoying some ono food, (My kids like to eat dim sum so we had that almost 3 days in a row.  Even after eating it 3 days in a row they still didn't get sick of it.  Here is a picture if three of my favorite desserts- snow mountain (it's a bun with a light crusted fronting on top and filled with red bean), sesame balls, and red bean jello.))

and visiting an exhibit called "Chill" where everything is made out of ice.  It was super fun, but freezing.  I don't think I have ever worn so much clothes or been so cold in my life.

In terms of crafting, I didn't do any  in the past two weeks besides making Christmas tags.  I was hoping to do play with some of my new craft items last week until I caught a bug.  Hopefully I'll get to play with some of them soon.  :)  The last project that I worked on before making Christmas tags was making a bow using my new bow die from Stampin Up.

I attached it to a box that I purchased.  I was pretty proud with how my turned out. I liked it so much that I actually wanted to keep it.  I didn't keep it though since my intention of making it was to give to a friend for her b-day.  Thanks for stopping by to see what I have to share today.