Catching Up With a Friend and Her Family

Almost two weeks ago, my family and I had dinner with a good friend and her family.  We have not seen all of them in so long that it was nice to be able to enjoy a nice dinner together and catch up on things.  As a little surprise to her and her family I made them these tags

and give them each some gifts.  I forgot to take a picture of the gifts that we gave to the kids, but here the one that we gave to her.

Here is a picture of my friend and I

along with some of the food that we ordered.  My hubby and I shared a sampler platter and seared ahi salad.  Both of them are super good.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a blessed and crafty rest of your week!

Cards Using the Coloring Blocking Technique and My Weekend

I hope that all of you had a wonderful weekend and of course had some time to craft.  :)  I had a very fun filled one.  I will briefly share about it towards the end of this post.  First, I would like to share with you some cards and RAKs.  How many of you out there have tried the coloring blocking technique?  It was fun to make and receive a card using the technique last month for the tea swap last month.  I had to Google the technique before making my card to make sure that I am doing the right technique.  I made this card for Miyuki using a set called For All Things from Stampin Up.

 Since she is one of my friends my favorite green tea  (She btw likes green tea too.) and a stamp.

Miyuki made this cool card for me

and sent me some fun extra goodies with two tea bags.

On Friday my kids had off from school so my hubby and I took them to Disneyland.  Can you believe that we were there for 12 fun hours?  I didn't really feel tired until we got to the car.  During the time of year Disneyland is set up with lots of Fall decorations.  I always love their decorations.

Beside amazing Fall decorations, the main characters are wearing their Fall costumes.  (I call them Fall costumes since my family and I do not celebrate Halloween.).  We took pictures with lots of the characters, but here is one of the ones that I took.

On Saturday we had dinner with some good friends.  I will share our time together with them in my post for next week.  This afternoon after church we went to a pumpkin patch.  This was our first time going to this pumpkin patch.  It's in a park.  It was lots of fun seeing all the pumpkins,

going on a hayride, going on a train, taking some fun pictures together, and going in a maze. After spending a few hours at the pumpkin patch we were ready for a nice, big dinner.  We had dinner at the Elephant Bar Restaurant.  I ordered a BBQ salmon salad that came with pickle cucumbers, red and orange peppers, bean spouts, mango chunks, and slices of orange.

and my hubby ordered a macadamian nut crusted mahi mahi with veggies and fried rice.

Both of our meals were good, but I think his was better.  Our son ordered ribs and our daughter ordered mac and cheese.  The best part of our meal was the dessert. Our kids' meals came with ice cream in a super cute shell.  It was not only cute but very ono.

Thanks for sticking around for my entire post.  I hope that you enjoyed what I shared today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Thinking of You Cards

Happy October everyone!  I hope that everyone is doing well. Even though it's Fall the weather in SoCal definitely does not feel any cooler.  It cooled down over the weekend, but it's hot again this week.  I am thankful though that it's not as scorching hot as a few weeks ago.  Recently there have been lots of people that I know that need prayer due to an illness or a love one passing away.  To let them know that I am praying for them I made them a card.  Here are the two cards that I made. Due to time, I made several of the same cards.

I hope and pray that God used my cards, my message in them, and most importantly my prayers to make this time in their lives a little easier.  To end this post on a happier note, I am going to post a picture of some thing very yummy.  I had a craving for a shurashi bowl last week so my hubby ordered take out for me from one of our favorite Japanese restaurant.

He ordered a regular shurashi bowl, but they gave him a deluxe by accident.  He got the deluxe for the price of a regular one. :)

Fun Cards With Copics

I hope that everyone is having a good week so far.  Mine has not been too bad.  :)  Today I will be sharing with you the tea swap cards from last month.  I was once again paired up with a friend.  This time I was paired up with Fran, the person that organizes the swap every month.  The optional theme was to make a card that has some sort of coloring with Copics, color pencils, etc.  I was so excited when I saw this theme because I love coloring.  I find it very relaxing.  :)  This is the card that I made for Fran along with a matching tea bag holder.

Here is close up picture of the card.

The stamp is from Alota Rubber Stamps and the embossing folder is from SU (I chose to use the embossing folder so that the background can resemble a bee hive.)  I was not completely happy with the card after I put it together so I decided to make a bow using a bow die from My Favorite Things.  I think the bow adds the perfect finishing touch to my card.  What do you think? This is the super cute card and matching tea bag holder that Fran made for me. I love them both!

Each month I always have lots of fun participating in the tea swap, but this month I found it even more fun since the optional theme is some thing that I really enjoy and of course because I was paired up with one of my friends.  I hope that you enjoyed what I shared today.  Have a wonderful and crafty rest of the week!

A Beautiful Anniversary Party

Over the weekend, my hubby and I had the honor of celebrating the 10th Anniversary of two friends. On their invitation they asked that their guests not give them any presents.  I honored their request, but made them a special card.

I was a little stumped with making the anniversary card.  I don't think I have ever made an anniversary card for anyone except my hubby.  I did some research online and was able to come up with the above card without CASing anyone's work beside the two hearts.    The banquet was beautiful and have the most amazing food.

Their cake was beautiful too.

Best of all I got to see two of my friends from grad school.

Before leaving the celebration my hubby and I took a picture with the special couple

and took a picture together.

For those who live in SoCal try to stay cool.  It's been unbearably hot!!!!!!!!  I sure hope that it cools down soon.  Thanks for stopping by!

Thoughtful and Generous RAKs

It is always fun receiving "happy mail" rather than bills and junk mail.  I don't know about all of you, but when I get the mail I always look through everything to see if I received any "happy mail" before I look to see what else was received.  Recently I received "happy mail" from Robyn,

Karen,

and Gail (Inside the watermelon decorated box and envelope are Jambo gift cards and a box of green tea pocky sticks.  She put the stamp set in the decorated cello bag.

Beside receiving "happy mail" my friend Susanna surprised with an ono RAK

She put the goodies in a bag (in my favorite color) that she tied with super cute ribbon and attached a loom bracelet that she made using loom bands that are in my favorite colors.

Here is a close up picture of the loom bracelet.

I think it's pretty fancy.  One day I need to figure out how to make fancy ones like this.  I am a beginner when it comes to loom bracelets. A big hug and mahalo to Robyn, Karen, Susannna, and Gail for thinking of me and for surprising me with such thoughtful gifts.  I love them all!  Before ending today, I wanted to share a picture of my new pet.  :)

When I was shopping at Downtown Disney I could not resist and had to purchase Rocket the Raccoon from "Guardians of the Galaxy."  Isn't he cute? If you have not seen the movie yet, I strongly encourage you to watch it.  I am not usually into superhero movies, but I loved this one.  It has a variety of scenes full of humor, action, and sentimental parts.  Thank for dropping by to check out what I have to share.

A Card With a Speech Bubble and Other Fun Craft Creations

Happy September!  I hope that all of you had a relaxing  Labor Day weekend.  Today I would like to share the cards from July's tea swap.  My friend Fran is always coming up with fun optional themes for our tea swap cards each month.  The optional theme for July was to make a card with a "speech bubble" on it.  I sure had fun making the card.  My favorite part was coloring with my Copics.  I find coloring very relaxing.

Since my swap partner was my good friend Gail I sent her a few extra goodies.  One of the goodies was the magnet above.  When I saw the magnet at the store I couldn't pass up getting it since it's so cute and matches so well with the card that I made.  I also sent her

Here is the fun items that Gail made for me

along with these goodies that she included.

Gail and I both love Asian stuff.  I think it's so cool that both of us decided to make each other items with an Asian theme.  Thanks Gail for making July's tea swap extra fun.  Before ending this post I wanted to share a picture that my hubby and I took with the writer and inspirational speaker Christopher Yuen.

We had the privilege of listening him share his testimony two weeks ago at church.  It was such a blessing to hear how God has worked in his life. He was once gay and through the example that his parents were to Him help lead him back to God.   I hope that you liked I had to share today. I hope that you have a good rest of your week and have some time to craft.