*SIGH* THIS ALWAYS MAKES ME SMILE...

I thought about this today because I'm trying to work on (or have an idea of) a "polaroid picture" inspired project/card. I Don't know if it will work out yet, but plan on posting it when I get around to doing it.

We have "closet system" people coming this week to give us an estimate, which means we have to clean out some things...so we've been busy, busy!

MONDAY LOVE

the BEST twilight-y (etsy) things ever...

cupcake decorating kit from skylers party

 twilight inspired sequin trim kit from hydrangea hippo

cute apple charm from kawaii kitty land

amazing hand painted shoes from bbee shoes

scrapbook art kit from a little dash of this and that

twilight inspired trim set from laurl's shop

super cute edward card from marcia's workshop

"be safe" and other fabulous twilight inspired hand carved stamps from dragonfly curls

sorry if you're not a twilight fan.  I've found that you either are, or you're not.  I guess it's safe to say I am. ha!

REPURPOSE THOSE CLOTHING TAGS

I've been collecting clothing tags for awhile-- some of them are just too cute to throw away.  I really wanted to document all of my favorite television shows right now because there are so many!!  So...I made a little "shows I love" mini book using a bunch of clothing tags.  the great thing about them, is that they come with a ready made hole to attach your book ring to.

this was so much fun to make, especially since I tried to make it a point to use only left over scraps--it was a challenge!  and okay, so twilight is NOT a television show...but it goes with the "vampire" theme, and I LOVE IT!

and here are a few "juno" ATCs I made for a recent ATC swap:

in other news...em jay had her very first "time out" this afternoon (it worked!).  she was just not listening and getting into EVERYTHING.  most of the time she's a very good girl--and so funny and cute.  but man, sometimes I feel like a failed mother.  I think to myself "what am I doing wrong, here..."  am I giving her too much attention, not enough, is she getting spoiled, is she becoming much too strong-minded...and yikes, is she learning all that from me?!?!?  all those things go through my mind.  Is it just a toddler thing?  Or maybe I'm having too high expectations and being unrealistic, and I'm expecting her to be "good" ALL the time.  I don't know, parenting is HARD!

here's my little toddler tonight with her signature goofy smile...

SUMMER OF LOVE ONLINE CLASS

I had fun using the vintage book cover, though being a book lover--it HURT to rip it apart.  It's hard to find beautiful old books at thrift stores here in Hawaii, but I was able to find an old ledger book in this pretty green color.

look familiar?  I used the same idea for a collage I did for my sister--I just enlarged the photo.  I still want to add a few stamped words somewhere to make it look messier...it looks too "plain", I think..

*EDITED: here's the finished cover with added distressing...

and this is what "summer love" looks like...

have a great day!!!

INSPIRATION THURSDAY

FAIRS, CARNIVALS, CIRCUS

1. Fair Play, 2. Moscow Circus, 3. My Grandfather as a child, 4. take a ride..., 5. dom, 6. Fly, 7. Untitled, 8. Vintage Merry-go-Round, 9. fun fair (explored)

WEEKEND RECAP

what a busy, busy weekend.

em and I got to do our leisurely walk on friday, and our ritual of sitting on the hill counting cars that pass.

my sister arrived from seattle on friday, so we spent a quiet night at home hanging out, and eating yummy korean food.  em was so happy to see her. after the initial shock--she did a little dance.

saturday was my father-in-law's surprise kanreki party.  he thought we were having a small father's day lunch at willows and was definitely surprised to see all of his family gathered--especially my husband's brother, wife, and kids (em's cousins) who flew in from maui.  marc's parents live in maui too, and see them often--so the fact that it was kept a secret that they were also flying into oahu was a huge surprise.  em enjoyed all the little waterfalls at the restaurant...

after the party we went SHOPPING at ala moana center.  I bought a few things from american apparel, and more japanese washi tape from shirokiya.

on sunday, em and I went to gymboree in the morning. marc played cards with his dad, and bothers saturday night, so he slept in town instead of driving back home.  so em didn't get to spend father's day with daddy.  but when he got home--we got ready to go to sesame street live!!!

the look on her face when they first came on to the stage was priceless.  completely shocked--she blinked three times.  then she was a little scared (she wanted to sit on daddy's lap).  after a few songs though, she started dancing and pointing and naming all the characters...by the end--she wanted to stand up and watch so she could get closer.  it was a hit. thank goodness--I was afraid she would freak out.

now I need another weekend after the weekend!!!! phew.

WINNER, WINNER!!!!

I wrote out all the entries...mixed them up...put them in this jar...mixed again...

then em jay did the honors...and...

the winner is LACEY (from http://lacey-land.blogspot.com/)!!!!-- comment # 30.  Lacey, email me at hellokittygirl808@gmail.com with your mailing address.  CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

I'll hopefully have another one of these sometimes this year.  And I'll be back later (after work) with some photos from the weekend.

JOURNAL PAGES...

Sad to see the "Tell Your Story Class" ending.  It's been so much fun, I really hope to see a sequel to this course.  I still have a few more pages to go--I'm so behind.

I also signed up for a few more classes to keep me going, and creating...One of them is an e-workshop called "A Journal of Interest" from the ever-inspiring Paper Bella Studio.  It's very different from "Tell Your Story"-- a little more challenging because it's a new "style" for me.

Here's my first page:

I'm also registered for the "Summer of Love" class by Kara Haupt.  It starts on Monday and also sounds like a challenge for me.  Can't wait to start.

And as if I don't have enough to do already...I'm also participating in the 30 day journal challenge!

P.S. if you haven't already, you still have until 12am (Hawaii Time) to enter the GIVEAWAY!!!! just scroll down for the post!

GIVEAWAY TIME

 NOW CLOSED.

scroll down for newer posts...I'll be keeping this one at the top all week.

 Giveaway of Things I Love:

Most of the stuff was bought during my trip to San Francisco, some are from my personal collection of cute things...

INCLUDED: loyal army coin purse, shipping tape, mushroom sticky notes, japanese washi tape set, another set of washi tape (not shown here), mushroom cupcake topper, russian doll cell charm, set of notebooks stamped with my hand-carved stamps,  russian doll greeting card, owl rubber stamp, set of mini pens, multi color pen, sarasa 0.4 pen, gnome toy, and a few other surprises too!

To Enter:

Leave your name in the comment section of this post by Saturday June 19th (midnight Hawaii time).  Winner will be announced by Monday June 20th.  Winner will be picked at random.  One entry per person. have fun!!

INSPIRATION THURSDAY

feathers:

1. June journal pages, 2. Dreamcatcher illustration, 3. A Day in the Life, 4. Feather 1, 5. leaves, 6. Untitled, 7. Untitled, 8. Untitled, 9. feather stamp

HAPPY TO BE HOME...

We're starting to get back into the routine of things...one of them being our late afternoon walks.  We usually try to walk around 5:30 or 6:00 depending on when I get home from work.  Since Em is still not back to herself, I decided to take her on her first walk since returning home to give her some fresh air, and keep her from getting fussy.  She was still a little groggy from her nap, but as you can see from the photos it was a good idea.  She was so happy, and it was nice to sit on our hill and just be.

Then we went home, ate dinner, and waited for daddy to get home from a BBQ we were supposed to go to.  I decided to skip, to let Em rest another day.  And me too, since it's back to work tomorrow-- such a short vacation, but I did get to take a nap today!  My first nap in...I don't know. AGES! I'm so not a nap person (unlike the daddy. ha!) so I know I must have been tired.

Speaking of daddy.  Em wanted me to buy her a set of sea animals from the California Academy of Sciences gift shop, because she insisted that this is her daddy...

She even "feeds" him saying, "daddy eat too!"  The funny thing is, I'm not sure she has ever seen Marc in his dive gear before. He's always in regular clothes when he gets home from diving.  I'm thinking she just associates anything fish or ocean related to him. very cute.

MONDAY LOVE

I love being inspired:

Head over to Color Me Katie to see the "Tourist Lane"... Such a funny, and brilliant idea!

And, The Yellow Envelope Project recognizes our everyday heroes...find out how to bring sunshine to a special someone's day.

Do you believe that kindness can change the world? So does Melissa of Operation Nice.  Full of inspiration.

And I love these inspiring photos...

(source: of infinite worth)

(source: we heart it)

(source: petalthrow)

Have an inspired week!

SAN FRANCISCO HIGHLIGHTS: PART 2

day three:

boudin chowder bowl for breakfast, and alcatraz day.  and even though it was the fourth time to alcatraz for marc and I (first for his parents), it still amazed me and brought tears to my eyes.  it's really such a beautiful place despite it's history.

em loved the ferry ride!

inside the prison...

 

outside the prison...

we had lunch at scoma's, I totally recommend the crab cakes and crab ravioli.  I normally don't eat crab or lobster, but yum-o.  poor marc is allergic to crab, lobster, and scallops so he settled for pasta with mussels.

we browsed ghiradelli square and in one of the galleries we discovered a wonderful new, and young artist by the name of adriana tomatis.  I was surprised that a touristy place like this, would have such great quality shops...like crown and crumpet-- lots of mushroom, and gnome goodies...and helper's bazaar--a non-profit thrift store with tons of old crafting supplies, vintage sunglasses, books, etc.

here's a photo of crown and crumpet from the ghiradelli square website.

day four: we explored just a small part of golden gate park--we thought marc's parents would enjoy the tea garden, de young, and the california academy of sciences...

after the park we walked down to haight street for shopping.  marc and his parents ate at cha cha cha (dari j...you recommended this to us years ago and we love it!) while I shopped.

notice the vintage deer S & P shakers I found from loved to death (a taxidermy and collectibles store).  those little guys will probably have a photoshoot soon.

day five: our last day to explore...we chose mission.  marc was dying to try la taqueria--we had tacos and burritos.  there were some wonderful shops in the area like: currents, little otsu, curiosity shoppe, paxton gate (another strange and interesting, and actually beautiful taxidermy shop), 826 valencia (a pirate store), and encantada--a mexican folk art shop.  the owner was fabulous--she asked if we needed help which led marc to asking about salsa and chiles--she gave us all her secrets--we loved her...I'll take some photos of the folk art pieces I bought later on...

I also shopped at urban outfitters and ate cupcakes from cako everday...we tried almost every flavor!

it was an exhausting but FUN trip.  I can say though, that taking a 2 year old on a trip to san francsico is waaay different from taking a 1 year old!  em was great on the plane ride there, on best behavior for the first 3 days...but toward the last two--oh boy. fussy, fussy.  and she topped off the last night with a major meltdown. she was so tired she screamed and threw a tantrum because she couldn't figure out what she wanted to do--sit on papa's lap or daddy's...we put her to bed and survived the equally fussy plane ride home.  I don't blame her--we kept her out all day into the night and most of time in her stroller.  poor little thing.  now we're trying to get her readjusted.  she was so happy to be home though and her face lit up when she saw her grandpa pull up at the airport.  it was fun...but nice to be home.

and here's a little collage I made for my sister before the trip...