Birthday Cards

     It's March 2012 already! Gee, where did the time go? March is the start of spring and the month where there are a lot of birthdays in my family. LOL! ;) Here’s a fact that I find pretty interesting…a guy I dated in HS; his mother’s birthday is the same as my mom’s birthday.  Also, the guy I dated in college…guess what? YES, his mom’s birthday is the same as my mother’s.  Now, my husband’s mother’s birthday is the same exact day!  No joke!  Ain’t that funny? My mother and mother-in-law's birthday are celebrated on the same day! What a coincidence and convenience! 

     Anyway, I started making some birthday cards for next week’s birthday babies. I’m a paper hoarder and I finally broke the seal of these paper pads.  Can you feel my pain?  LOL.  The first card, I used one of my favorite color combos; blue and green.  The DP and butterfly stickers are from Abriana by K&C Company.  Sentiment stamp is from Hero Arts. 

     The second card is another favorite color combo, green and pink.  Yes, I love the color green!  The DP is one of the paper pads, Garden Party by Imaginisce, I’ve been waiting a while to use and it’s perfect for the stamped image I used.  I absolutely adore all of the Sister Stamps and here I inked up darling Yoshimi using my Copic pens.  Sentiment stamp is also from Hero Arts. 

     The final card was inspired by the talented Maria and the wording was a free digital image from her.   I had it stashed on my pc.  I love how she made the ‘Happy Birthday’ as part of the flower.  The beautiful flower and leaves are from Prima Flowers. Oh, and if you look closely, the white cardstock is textured using 'Goosebumps' from Tsukineko.  I just wish I used a 'resist' technique and then I would've been really satisfied with this card.  Okay, now that I look back at my 3 cards, I’d have to say that these color combos are my top favorites. LOL! 

Thank you for your time with me on my blog.   To all my Facebook family & friends, mahalo for all the comments, inquiries, and especially the reminders! :)  To my blogging friends...Thank you for being enablers and inspirers...I love it!!! Have a good weekend, everybody!!!

The naked earth is warm with Spring,
And with green grass and bursting trees
Leans to the sun's kiss glorying,
And quivers in the sunny breeze.
~Julian Grenfell

Wedding Invite

     Hello, Blogland. It's been awhile. How are all of you? I have to catch up and read all of my favorite blogs and then some. First of all, thank you to SweetLand Paper Treats for the Liebster Blog award. I'm grateful that you've picked me as one of your 5 choices.

    Anyway, it has been crazy hectic, but I did manage to squeeze some crafting time when my cousin on Kauai asked for me to make her wedding invitation. I was honored and pressured at the same time. I had 1 week to have them completed and sent out to her, so I had to recruit my sister, niece, and mother to help me assemble the invitations. The planning took longer than the assembly process. LOL. My mom, sister, and niece are great help when I have big projects to be done. Thank you, family!!  The bride and groom were ecstatic and cried tears of joy when they received the invitations. Congrats to the newlyweds. Happy married life to you guys and wishing you all the wealth and prosperity throughout your life; don't fight! :)

     My cousin chose the red anthurium for her flowers and the colors she used in her wedding was red, yellow, white, and black.  With little time, I decided to do a simple wedding invitation.  I used black cardstock and rounded one side.  Red satin ribbon was used to accent the outside of the invitation.  The monogram, picture, and invite wording are all computer generated by yours truly and I sent them to Impress for printing.  (sorry for the bad images.  I left my memory card for my camera in a friend's laptop.) The girls down at Impress are awesome.  I hand cut the monogram, invite, and picture and used Heiko tape to secure it to the cardstock, as well as the ribbon and monogram.  To keep the invite closed, I used a Velcro Closure.  Voila! Done!J

     My lil' brother is serving in Afghanistan and right now he is wanting to have a video conference with me through Skype.  Thank you for visiting.  I hope to be posting more soon….stay tuned.  

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” - Corinthians

My First Chayote/Pipinola Experience

     Yesterday, I found a new love. Lol! I fell in love with what I think is a vegetabe and will probably be experimenting with different recipes using chayote, aka pipinola (in Hawaii), vegetable pear, pear squash, or choko.  I have an enough supply to last me all week so this experiment should be fun. :)  

     Grandma Toni's back yard is where I first met the chayote plant.  I walked thru Grandma's garden with my sister and her in-laws and we ended up picking a fruit off of some kind of vine. I didn't know then what it was so I asked Aunty, "What is this and what is it for?" She laughed at me and said, "This is pipinola." Ack! That name sounds so familiar!  My sister only laughed at me because I've seen it countless times before, but I guess I never paid much attention to it.  Aunty went on explaining how they prepare the pipinola in soups, stir fries, salads and DESSERTS.  FOOD always gets my attention and I listened well and took some notes. I learned that not only the fruit of the plant is used, but the root, shoots, and leaves as well are prepared in many food dishes. Chayote belongs to the gourd family and is used raw or cooked. 

     When dinner time came, I seen Aunty plating a greenish salad made with the chayote/pipinola shoots and leaves and it of remined me of the warabi salad, which I don't eat, so I passed...then.  It wasn't until I watched my little 2 year old nephew devour the salad that I got really brave and decided to taste the salad for myself.  Mmmm, my taste buds did their happy dance.  And that was it!  I got really excited and asked Grandma if she could share her recipe with me.  She recited her recipe and even packed me a bowl of her salad and a bag full of the chayote we picked off the vines.

     Tonight, I made some Chicken Pipinola Soup for dinner, (prepared the same way as "chicken papaya" soup is made), and ate some leftover salad from Grandma.  My taste buds did their happy dance again. Lol!  Aunty said she made a pie using the chayote.  She explained it was like an apple pie. Yummers so I'm on it! Chayote pie is on the menu for tomorrow night. Maybe!  I just have to find a recipe for that. Lol!

     Until next time...A BIG shout out to my Followers and readers: THANK YOU for stopping by and taking the time to read my blog and to my Facebook friends: a big MAHALO to all who have subscribed by email and left a comment on my link posted on FB. BIG <<<<HUGS>>>> to you all. Take care.

The belly rules the mind.  ~Spanish Proverb

Graduation Favors

     Eek, graduation is coming soon and I haven't started making any leis yet. O_o  I wish I could press the pause button on the remote of life just so I can finish some leis. Yup, that ain't gonna happen. Lol!  
     Anyway, my niece and nephew on Kauai, my home island, is graduating from my alumni this May 2012. Gee, the years flew by really fast.  I remember the first day my niece and nephew came home from the hospital. *tear* Now they're all grown up and graduating from high school.  Then off to college they go.  Ack, which reminds me...my son is a freshmen in high school! I just got a tugging feeling in my tummy just thinking about my only baby leaving the nest.  Okay, FOCUS!  Back to the subject. Lol!  So, my wonderful sisters decided to combine their graduation parties and left me to do the invitations, decorations, centerpieces, and favors.  All the fun stuff are in my hands...so pictured above is one of the party favors I'm throwing as an idea.   (I'm really sorry about the quality of my pictures. I have to charge my battery for my camera! Lol!)  I found those cute little containers at the Hilo Ben Franklin Craft Store and decided to try and make a graduation favor out of it.  I cut 2 each 2-1/2" square piece of cardstock and a 1" strip.  I used craft thread from my stash to make the tassel and the message circle stamp is made from Hero Arts.  The container is for decorative use only so instead of filling it with loose candy, I have two chocolate nuggets sitting in there just for the photo. Lol! I'm eating one as I type this blog out. Hee hee.  I hope my sisters like this idea, if not, I'll keep thinking, trying, and crafting...until next time...
Thank you for stopping by my blog.  I appreciate all your kind comments on previous posts.  <3

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.
The Rolling Stones

Camping down South Point

     Where did the weekend go?  It went by so fast.  This past weekend, my family and I, along with some friends went on a camping trip down South Point near the Ka'alu'alu Bay area.  South Point is the southernmost point on the Big Island of Hawaii as well as the United States. The drive down to the beach is a very rough drive and a 4x4 vehicle is recommended for these roads.  I love the view of the wind farm, (1st picture), because it's my sign for me to get ready for the fun ride down to the beach.  You turn off the paved road onto a rough road through pastures, passing 3 gates.  When passing through the gates, someone have to get out of the vehicle and open the gate, then close it...because of the cattle that roam the pastures.  Sometimes, a bull and cow is near the gate so you need to keep a watchful eye on them. Lol!  Right after the pastures, you end up in a "forest" of keawe trees which creeps me because I know there are cane spiders in there. Eww...I like to roll my window up and scream thru the trees!!!  As you come out of the trees, you hit the lava area and head on to your desired spot on the beach.  Ah, at last...the ocean.  When we arrived at our camp site it was low tide, (2nd picture), and it was getting hot. The last picture was taken before sun down in front of the camp fire and the tide was getting high.  

     It was a beautiful weekend with family and friends.  We laughed, went fishing, night torching, ate good food, and had a blast together. We came home with plenty fish in our coolers.  I can't wait until our next camping trip.  How was your weekend?  Thank you for visiting my blog.  Until next time....take care.

It’s fun to get together and have something good to eat at least once a day. That’s what human life is all about — enjoying things. ~ Julia Child

    

Star Album

     Hello, Blogland!  I'm finally done with my star album for my mother-in-law who lives in the mainland.  She's been asking me to send recent pictures for far too long...LOL! Christmas came and went by so fast that it seemed like not enough time to finish all my craft projects. This album was suppose to be one of her gifts. LOL!  But,  I'm moving along with my projects and finishing them. This star album measures 4x6 and the designer cardstock paper, My Mind's Eye, was one of my Christmas gifts. I printed my photos and titles on heavy cardstock and kept it really simple.  The pictures I used are really nice photos and I didn't want to distract them.  I have a page for DH, myself, my son, our dog named HONU, and a family photo with a quote, "The love of a family is life's greatest blessing."  I made several star albums awhile back and it was 7 points instead of 5 points. It's really fun to make these star albums!
Mahalo for visiting my blog and I hope you come back soon.  I can see the weekend coming closer...are you ready for it??? 

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Recycle Notebooks

   Whew! It's been so crazy busy for me nowadays.  I am in desperate need of an ALL DAY crafting, reading, and relaxation only. Lol!  Besides my full time job, I am with Mary Kay Cosmetics and DoTerra Essential Oils and between meetings, conference calls, chores, DH, and teenage son, ...I try to squeeze some time to craft.  Anywho, I am sending my orders out for MK and I try to add a personal gift of mines to my customers.  I look for something easy but useful to make for my customers. At Hilo Ben Franklin Crafts Store, I found that those recycle notebooks are back on the shelf!!! I could not resist buying an entire bunch of them...and different ones too! The first picture is a few of the notebooks that I bought.  I couldn't wait to go home and do my thang!! Heehee..so the second picture is the outcome of it. The designer paper was gifted and I don't know the name of the company.  The monogram was designed by yours truly, printed out on white cardstock, and punched out with a 1 inch circle punch. Easy, cheesy, peasy! Voila! I'm done.

     Thank you for visiting and spending some time on my blog. 

Live well...Laugh often...Love much