Time With Fran and Her Family and Our Gifts to Each Other

I can't believe that a week has already gone by since  my good friend Fran, her two sons, and her sister and her family were visiting.  She is a pro at doing origami.  When I see the outfits that she folds for her cards it blows me away.  I thought it would be fun to surprise her with an origami themed gift.  I made a card with two girls on it and watched a YouTube video to get some ideas of how to fold their kimonos.  This is how the card turned out.

The girls are on the cards are  Fran and I.  I also decorated a box

and put origami paper in it. I also included a smaller sized origami paper.

These goodies were given to Fran's kids to enjoy

and for her sister's family.

I made a tag card for her sister's family.

Fran surprised my family and I with all these yummy goodies, coloring books, and craft items

and her sister and her family gave us all these goodies.

As they were visiting my family and I got to see them twice.   We spent some time with them at California Adventure

and had dinner with them the evening before they flew home. 

We took them to one of our favorite restaurants- Clearmen's North Woods Inn.  (All of them were so generous and paid for dinner that night and the night before.)  Prior to having dinner together a fellow tea swapper and one of my good friends Carol dropped by to meet Fran and to say "thank you" for organizing the swap.  Both of them had a good time chatting.  Thanks again Carol for taking time to drop by.

It was so nice to see Fran, her two boys, and her sister and her family.  It was almost a year ago that we all saw each other.  We hit if off as if there was no lapse of time.  My family and I are very grateful for the time we were able to spend with all of them and look forward to seeing all of them again one day soon.  Thanks for stopping by!




 

Father's Day

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Father's Day yesterday honoring your dad and significant males in your life.  It is always bittersweet celebrating Father's Day for my family and I because my hubby's dad is no longer with us.  We are comforted in knowing that he is no longer suffering and is with God now.  It also brings us great comfort knowing that one day we will be reunited with him. In my family we give gifts to my kids' dad, grandfather, godfathers, uncles, and special "uncles" in their lives.  This is the tag that I made to attach the gift bag.

For Father's Day we honored my dad and BIL's a week early.  We had a BBQ at my sister and BIL's house.  My two BILs BBQed lamb and apricots.  We also had chicken feet, salad, and dessert.  (Sorry to gross some of you out with mentioning that we had chicken feet as part of our meal.) After dinner we took some pictures together.  Here is a picture of my sisters and I with our dad.

We all had a fun time celebrating together until my nephew came down with cold. It was so sad seeing his eyes get all watery.  He got very cranky too.  My hubby and I went out to get him some medication at a local drug store. While my hubby was getting the medication, I stopped by the Papyrus greeting card aisle.  I took some pictures of the cards that I like to get ideas when I am stumped with what to make for a card. A lady stopped and asked me why I am taking pictures of the cards. I explained to her why I was taking pictures and she told me that the cards I make must make people very happy. She asked me about how I make the cards and said that she hopes people appreciate the time that I put into making them. Before we went our separate ways we introduced ourselves to each other. I also thanked her for what she said to me and let her know that what she said made me very happy. My interaction with the nice lady helped remind me how blest I am to have the hobby of card making and am so grateful for how God has used it to minister to others and help me meet new people. Sorry for the slight detour with some extra time of sharing.  Okay now onto more Father's Day festivities. Yesterday my kids and I took my hubby out to dinner at one of our favorite Hawaiian Restaurants- Back Home in La Haina.  Our favorites are their HI nachos and  bacon fried rice and fried chicken.  Hawaiian style nachos and fried chicken tastes much better than the regular ones.

After dinner we went to pick up dessert at 85 Degrees.  Have a wonderful week and stay cool (especially if you live on the Mainland).  Until next time!

Farewell Gifts, Thank You Gifts, and a Cute Party

The past few weeks have been super busy with work.  This is why I have not been blogging.  I thank the Lord for giving me strength to get through the past few weeks and for the time I have off from work for a bit.  I always look forward to the break from work, but this year I did not really want it to end because I knew that it meant that I had to say "good-bye" to some friends 2 of which are my good friends. Two of the friends are retiring and one friend is going to be working at a different location. Each of them are going to missed so much and will always have a special place in my heart.  I made each friend a little some thing.  I made two tags to attached to two gifts. This is tag that I made Patty.

I made a similar tag for Deb.

I made frames and a tag for Rita and Mary.  I ordered pictures to put in the frames of us together.

Besides making tags and gifts for friends that I had to say farewell to I also made goodies for other co-workers just to say "thanks" for a great year.  I adhered the circles that I punched out to mint chocolate patties. I made 42 pairs of goodies.  My head was spinning a bit after making all of them.

These are for my co-workers that love coffee.

I decorated glass cups and put mint candy in them.

I put the cups into these bags.  I stamped "Thanks for all you do" on cs and put it on front of the bags.  What I stamped on the front of the cs can be used as a magnet.

Before I end this post I wanted to share with you some pictures of the 10th Anniversary Party that I went to for Japan LA.  Check out some of their super cute products. 

They had a special Kawaii Art Show.

These are the fun and cute products that I purchased. 

Thanks for your patience in waiting for me to update my post and for stopping by today.