Decorations and Party Favors

I hope that this post is finding everyone doing well.  Today I will be sharing pictures of the decorations and party favors that I made for my daughter's b-day that was last Saturday.  Although the place that booked the party at already had decorations as part of the package I still wanted to make some things to add my personal touch to the party.  The theme of the party was "Descendents."  I was hoping to be able to get some of the decorations from the party store and personalize it a bit, but there were not any at the stores.  I was very surprised since the theme is so popular.  I ended up printing pictures that I found online.  Here are the front of the centerpieces

and the back of them.

I decorated buckets and put some of my daughter's favorite things in it for the party favors.  In this picture are also the flowers that I made using my punches. I attached the flowers onto lollipops.

Here is a close up picture of the flowers.

On the buckets I attached a tag that I made with the "Descendents" symbol on it along with a message from Kylie that says "Thanks for being a MALnificent friend."  Her favorite character is Mal.

For the food we served pizza and the 4 main characters favorite snacks. 

For the cupcake toppers I punched out circles and attached them to toothpicks.

Here is one picture with everything set up at the party.

Although it took me 8 hours to make the decorations and party favors, it was all worth it.  When my daughter saw everything her expression was priceless and will be remembered and treasured forever. My daughter and 6 of her friends had a blast eating, playing games, and painting.  Each of them got to paint a cupcake.  Here is the one that my daughter painted.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I have to share today.  I hope that all of you are having a good weekend so far.  For those of you who have Martin Luther King Junior's B-day off tomorrow like I do I hope that you will have some time to craft. 

My Memorable Weekend

I hope that this post is finding all of you doing well as this weekend is coming to an end.  I hope that all of you had a nice, fun, and relaxing one.  Mine was very nice and memorable with it starting with me prepping for my daughter's b-day party (Her party was on Saturday.  Stay tune for pictures in my next post.) on Friday all day and ending it with going with a friend Cathy visiting from New York at Disneyland. (She has been to California two other times but has never been to Disneyland.  She has been anxiously waiting to experience a magical time.)  Before heading to Disneyland from her hotel my family and I surprised her with two of our favorite snacks from Disneyland.  (I made a bow that matches with the sticker on the package.)

She surprised me with some fun crafting items.

We were hoping to take her to Carnations to enjoy a fried chicken dinner. Instead we went to
because the line was too long at Carnations.  The food there was very good too.  Here are Cathy and I with the 60th Anniversary chocolate berry cake.

Cathy wanted to watch the 60th Anniversary parade

and the fireworks so that is exactly what we did after dinner. 

She loved watching both of them.  My family and I have watched them many times but were still loved watching them.  Before leaving Disneyland we went on some rides

and took a few more pictures.  It's always so much fun visiting with Cathy.  Before ending this post I wanted to share some thing that I watched today that brought me to tears.  (Yes we went to Disneyland/California Adventure after only a day break.) It was the Aladdin Stage show at California Adventure that got me emotional since it was the last time that it will be showing.

The show is always very well done and my family along with many fans will miss it dearly.  My family were so thankful to be able to make it in to watch the show after 2.5 hours waiting in the stand by line. Check out the huge crowd of people waiting. 

Thanks for stopping by today to see what I have to share.  Have a blessed week everyone!

A Gift Card Holder and My Time in SD and at Knotts

Happy New Year to you and your family!  I have not done any crafting in the past two weeks.  I have been having too much fun in San Diego (My family and I went there a day after Christmas and were there for 4 days.) and at Knott's Berry Farm.  The last crafty item that I made was a gift card holder for a friend at church that will be going up north for nursing school.  A bunch of us from church chipped in to give her an Amazon gift card.  I volunteered to make a gift card holder for her. 

Here is the present open.  I hid the brad under the bow so that the top of the present can open and close.

Before ending this post here are a few pictures of our trip to SD.  We have been there many times but this time was one of our favorites.  We went hiking (The hike reminded of us being in Hawaii with the majority of the trial overlooking the ocean.),

visited Cabrillo National Monument,

visited a war memorial,

 

visited Heritage Park (It is an area that has various beautiful Victorian houses.),

visited the SD Mission,

and climbed up to a lighthouse.

Of course we ate some ono food. 

We relaxed for one day after coming back from SD.  Then went to Knott's Berry Farm on New Year's Day.

It was lots of fun seeing the Peanuts characters, going on rides, and eating their famous fried chicken.  Their steamed cabbage is very good too.  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a blessed 2016!

Christmas, Christmas, and More About Christmas My Favorite Holiday

I hope that you and your family had a memorable time celebrating Christmas yesterday.  We spent most of the day at home hanging out, relaxing, and opening gifts.  Here is a picture of my hubby and in front of our tree.

In the evening we had a nice time at one of my cousin's house where there were 20+ family members gathered together there. It's always fun getting together with everyone and catching up on things.  Today my family and I went after Christmas shopping at two of our/my favorite stores- the Disney Store and Ann Taylor.  We all found some good deals.  If you went after Christmas shopping today I hope that you also found some good deals.  :)  Well today I wanted to share one of my favorite gifts that I received from my hubby and my kids (I can't wait to do some coloring with my new Zip Clean Color Real Brush Pens.)

 

and the handmade cards,

 

a calendar that I received,

along with gifts made from the card club that I belong to.  (Not only are the ladies talented card makers but also very talented in the kitchen.)

This is what I made for them.

I have one more week off before I go back to work.  I look forward to spending time with my family and just relaxing.  Thanks for stopping by!

Some More Tags and Time with Friends

I am officially off for 2 weeks from work.  I am so grateful for the time off to relax, have some quality time with family and friends, and hopefully get to do some crafting.  Today I am going to share the tags that I made for our Christmas gifts (I made the mangers with tooth picks.  I have had tooth picks flying away when I was cutting them.) and

some bows that I made using a punch to decoration some containers of chocolate.  I love my bow dies and punches.  I think they are always so much fun to use and adds the finishing touch to any project, box, etc.

Before I end I wanted to share some pictures with you of two get togethers that I had with good friends.  Last week I went out to dinner with my friend Carol.  We enjoyed some ono sushi.

Yesterday I went for high tea with my friend Esther.  We went to T-Neer.

It is always nice getting together with friends, having a sweet time of fellowship, and during this time of year celebrating Jesus's Birthday together.  Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Tags and Decorations

Slowly tasks for Christmas are getting done.  Our Christmas cards with our newsletter in it are finally getting mailed today.  I am in the process of making gift tags for our gifts.  Since my family and I usually use gift bags to put our gifts in to make the gift a little more personalized I make gift tags for them.  Stay tune for a picture of them soon.  After my kids get out of school today we will be decorating our Christmas tree.  Today I will be sharing with you the tags that I made for the tea swap that I participated in last month.  I was fortunate enough to get to be paired up with my good friend Fran.  I purposely decided to make the tags pictured below because each of them have a special religious meaning. 

Here's a brief description of what each of them mean.

wreath: The evergreen in making wreaths symbolizes growth and everlasting life. The holly branches used to make the wreaths often have thorns which represent the thorn on Jesus' crown when he was crucified. The bright red holly berries symbolize Jesus' blood that was shed for us.

candy cane: The white part of the candy symbolizes the Virgin Birth and sinless nature of Jesus.  The hardness of the candy was used to symbolize the Solid Rock, the Foundation of the Church and firmness of the promises of God.  It is shaped like the letter "J" to represent the precious name of Jesus and also represents the staff of the "Good Shepherd" that Jesus is to each of use who saves the lost sheep in this world. The red stripes represent the blood shed by Jesus on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

Christmas tree: Jesus is the a Christian's tree of life. Through Him we have hope for everlasting life.  Even though our earthly season must come to an end, we will live through the grace of Jesus in Heaven.

I included a box of yummy macaroons with the tea bags that I sent to her.

This is the awesome creation that Fran made for me.  The tags are made out of acrylic.  She used rub ons to decorate each one.  What a great idea to put the tags in an accordion book.

These are the onolicious cookies and teas that she included.

Before I end I'd like to share a some of the decorations that I have up so far at my house.  This is my mini Disney themed tree.  It was my daughter's fabulous idea to put Tsum Tsums under the tree.

Here is our fireplace

and our front porch.

I started collecting nutcrackers a few years ago.  This is the most recent one that I purchased.  I couldn't resist getting it.

Thanks for taking time out of your schedule to look at what I have to share today.