Happy Veteran's Day!

I don't have anything crafty to share today.  I have some thing even better- a picture of a plaque in honor of my grandpa. 

We have freedom today because of great heroes like Grandpa/Great Grandpa Fong. Thank you Grandpa/Great Grandpa Fong for your service and to all those that have served and continue to serve our county. God bless them and their families.

Hard Work and Fun Weekends

It was another busy week work and I continue to thank the Lord each day for strength to get through the day.  Although it has been super busy at work and a bit stressful at times, God has reminded me through the different kids that I work with on my caseload why I stay doing the job that I do.  I thank the Lord for each of the kids that God has provided me to work with and for the difference they have made in my life and for helping me make a difference in there's too.  Besides being busy at work I have been busy having some fun too.  Last weekend before going to Hello Kitty's 41st b-day party at a local Sanrio store I made a Hello Kitty thank you card for the owner of the store for always being so nice to my daughter and I. 

It was lots of fun playing games at the event,

winning fun prizes (My son played games for me to help me earn some cool Sanrio prizes and my daughter had fun earning her own prizes.),

and of course meeting Hello Kitty.

This week on Friday a good friend and I went to Tokidoki's 10th Anniversary party.  The party was amazing and so much fun.  We got to play games, go shopping, and meet some of our favorite characters.

We had so much fun yesterday that we went back again today.  To make a long story short we spoke to the person in charge of the event and asked about how to volunteer for the event.  She asked if we wanted to come back tomorrow to help and we said "yes."  My good friend, myself and my daughter got to volunteer for 10.5 hours at the event.  It was tiring but so much fun.  My friend and I are now pros at putting on temporary tattoos.

Beside volunteering we got a free lunch, got free tickets to play games to win prizes, meet the characters, and most importantly meet the designer of Tokidoki.  (I feel so blest to have gotten to meet him twice this year.)  He drew 3 sketches for my daughter and I and signed the coloring book that I purchased.

The past two weeks at work have been super busy, but my weekends have been one of the most memorable and fun ones.  I find it funny that it's always lots of fun going to different events but I have a much harder time bouncing back after each one.  I guess that's a sign that I am getting old.  LOL!  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Mail, Onolicious Food, Good Friends, and Crafting

Happy First Day of November everyone!  I am so happy that it's the weekend.  I made it through a stressful week in one piece last week by God's grace and with Him providing people in my life to come along side to encourage and pray for me.  He allowed happy mail (an order from the Disney Store, an order from The Greeting Farm, and two cards with RAKs.) to arrive this week too which helped make things a bit brighter.  Here a picture of one of the RAKs and a card that I received.

To help end the week on a happy note I spent some time with friends.  Getting to hang out with a good friend on Friday for lunch

and good friends for dinner was the perfect way to help me end my week praising God for giving me strength to get through the week. 

Here is a picture of the food my friend Esther and I enjoyed for lunch (We had a poke stack for our appetizer.  For lunch we shared an ahi steak sandwich and a chicken kale salad.)

and what my family enjoyed and I had for dinner with our friends Lorraine and John. 

Before I end this post I am going to share what I made for Esther and the RAK that I surprised her with.  For those of you that know me you know that I like to coordinate the card and RAK that I give.

I also made and Lorraine and John some thing, but I will share that with you in a later post.  This is what Esther gave to me and surprised me with. 

I really like the Christian bracelet that she gave to me, the cute pumpkin that opens up, and the super cute pumpkin.  Despite it being a stressful week last week I thank God for how He has used it to teach me to rely on Him more.  I also thank Him for the blessing of good friends and the hobby of crafting to help me along.  Thanks for stopping by!

Tea + Copic Markers + A Friend = A Fun Afternoon

Happy Saturday everyone!  I hope that all of you are having a wonderful weekend so far.  I spent most of my day so far doing paper work to prepare for my meetings for work next week. For the rest of the day I hope to do some crafting, watch some good TV shows on Lifetime and Ion, and spend some time with my family.  Before I started with some crafting I wanted to share with you my time with a friend yesterday.  We enjoyed some passion fruit tea from Half and Half (with passion fruit and lychee pieces on the bottom)

and colored with our Copic markers.  She is just recently started coloring with Copic markers so she asked me for some tips.  I of course am not a pro with the markers, but I did my best to show her some tips that I have found helpful.  I stamped some images from some of my favorite companies for us to color.

As you can see we did not get to color too much.  At least we got to have a good time of fellowship together, organized her makers, and colored a bit. Don't you think my friend did a pretty good job with coloring her first two images?  I surprised her with a stamp Greeting Farm so that she could ink it up and practice coloring some more when she gets home.

I wrapped the stamp in a piece of CS and stamped two coffee cups on it.  I stamped coffee beans in the background. 

(It was fun coloring them on Thursday evening.  After not crafting all week it felt nice to do some crafting.)  I made put two coffee cups on  it because not only do my friend and I enjoy tea, but we like coffee too.  She surprised me with an ono watermelon pie. 

Before ending this post I wanted to share the second event that God has used recently to speak to my heart.  Three weeks ago my family and I went to an event at a local church that was put on by a Compassions International.  It is a Christian organization that helps children around that world that live in poverty.  They set up different rooms that resembled the life of two children.

It was very sad for us to see how these children lived.  It really touched our hearts to see how God used the organization to give them hope and help them to grow up into a young man and woman that loves God.

God used the event to touch our lives so much that we decided to sponsor a child that lives in Indonesia.  We  pray that God will use our money, gifts, and letters to make a difference in her life and most importantly help her to experience God's love.  Thanks for stopping by to see what I have to share.  Have a blessed weekend!

Paper Cupcakes From the Heart and a Movie That Touched My Heart

I hope that this post is finding you doing well.  What craft projects have all of you been working on?  I have not done any crafting for the past two weeks.  When I am home I have been cleaning the house, doing paperwork, or am just too tired to do anything.  I finally got around to working on a card for swap yesterday.  It felt good to get my creative juices flowing again.  :)  I will share with you what I made for my swap after I mail it.  Today I am going to share with you a card and cupcake that I made for a friend last month for her b-day.  She bakes the most fab and beautiful cakes and cupcakes so I thought it would fun to surprise her with cupcake that I quilled and a cupcake themed card. Here are some of the different steps that I did to make the cupcake. (Each part of the cupcake starts off as a stripes of paper that I quill into a circle.  After I form the flat circle I move the strips around to create a bowl shape for the bottom and the top of the cupcake. For the flower I quilled smaller circles and squeezed them carefully to form little tear drops.)

After I made the cupcake I put it in a plastic shaped cupcake. 

Here is the card that I made for her.

My friend was very surprised and loved what I made for her.  Before I end I wanted to share a few pictures of what I have been up to.  God has used several opportunities recently that really touch my heart.  One happened yesterday.  After an ono time of enjoying some poke from a local restaurant called PokeStuf

my hubby and I went to go watch a movie called War Room.

The movie is one of the best movies that we had ever watched.  We had a good time laughing and crying together but best of all God used the movie to speak to our hearts to remind us what a powerful weapon prayer is.  My hubby and I highly recommend that everyone watch this movie.  We pray that God will use the movie to continue to transform the lives of everyone that watches it. Thanks for dropping by to see what I have to share.  If you have a chance please leave me a comment so I know that you stopped by.  Have a blessed weekend! 
 

September's Secret Sister Swap

I always look forward to receiving my swaps in the mail every month. Last month Jenny Kato was my Secret Sister.  She made me an awesome journal for my family and I to record our blessings and thanksgivings in (All the pages, washi tape, and tabs coordinated with each other.)

and sent me some beautiful bling and

Along with the journal and RAK she wrote me a message in a super cute card  that really touched my heart. 

She mentioned to me that this was her very first swap.  I am glad that I was able to be the very first person that she was paired with.  Of course I like receiving crafty handmade gifts and RAK, but what I enjoy the most are the messages that come with the packages.  I always like to include a special message when I send out my swaps.  I was Secret Sister to Jayne Converse.  I made her this card

and sent her a RAK.

I sent her a little extra because she has always been very thoughtful and generous in sending me gifts.  I also sent her a little extra to say "thanks" for keeping in touch with me and for her prayers and encouragement.  Thanks again Jenny for being such an awesome Secret Sister to me.  I hope that we can keep in touch.  Jayne, I am glad that my package made it safely to you.  I hope that we can continue to keep in touch.  Big hugs to both of you!  Happy crafting to both of you and all of you out there that have taken time to read this post. 

Delivering Our Tea Swaps In Person

My friend Carol and I were paired up to be tea swap partners last month.  Instead of mailing each other a card and two tea bags we decided to meet up for dinner to give each other our goodies.  We had sushi together at Yes Sushi, one of my favorite Japanese restaurants.  While we were waiting for our meal to be served we gave each other the cards that we made, some tea, and some extra RAKs.  This is the super cute card, embossing envelope (She also gave me two stamped images of the front of the card.),

and the generous RAK that she gave to me.

She said that the mice on the cards represent my family and I.  :)  I just love how the card inside has a Bible verse and the cup does too.  Here is my card for her and one of the RAKs that I gave to her.  It's funny that both of used the acorns from one of the new SU sets. 

This my RAKs to her.

She listed on her profile what she likes/loves.  She wrote that she likes Hello Kitty, flowers, and the ocean.  She also wrote that she loves God. I thought it would be fun to surprise her with a gifts in each category. Here are Carol and I enjoying our ono meal.

Last but not least is all the food that we ordered. 

It is such blessing having Carol as a friend and having a chance to hang out together once in awhile. It was especially fun being tea swap partners last month.  Have a great weekend everyone!