Happy New Year Everyone!

30 more minutes and we will be ringing in the New Year!

Our house has dwindled down to 2 guests and we are watching "I am Legend" I have cleaned up the dishes packed up the food cleaned up the kids crafts and games they have played.. I find time to sit at my computer and reflect...

2007 is a year that has been different than any other, then again what 2 years are the same or 2 days for that matter..

A year where the loss of loved ones lessened just a little but doesn't mean we have forgotten. A year with wonderful surprises. A year of new accomplishments for my daughters, my husband and myself. There have been disappointments but that along with failure is something you must encounter and conquer in life.

I turned 30 this year actually about 3 weeks ago, age really is a number.. I have found that I like Tennis (how awesome is that?). I celebrated the beginning of the end of this year with some great people, we played Guitar Heroes 2 and had awesome food, Gumbo, Tri-tip, 3 layer dip, rice, pasta, hot wings, deviled eggs and some awesome spinach dip with bread.

Goodbye 2007, goodbye to what was accomplished what wasn't accomplished and things that never mattered, you know those little nit picky things. Hello to 2008 and going into with zero expectations and just a wanting of Happiness and Health..

No New Years Resolution that I will never hold myself to which is ultimately setting myself up for failure... nope just the hope,wish and want for happiness and health.. Easy?

Nothing is ever easy and anything important should take some amount of effort...

Farewell 2007... 23 minutes and counting...

Hugs to all of my Cyber Friends and my wonderful family!

Happy Cricuting, Creating and Living!

new years eve

Altered

An Altered Composition Book

All supplies were from Leaving Prints except for the ornament stickers

This book is for a swap that I am in, some Christmasssy items as well as the candy bouquet and some scrapbooking things will go in a box and be mailed to this person.. I hope you enjoy it.. I am not telling who will receive it..

Happy Creating!

A Special Gift

This gift is a surprise for someone in a swap that I have coordinated... I hope you emjoy it! Yummy! Starbucks!

Our Christmas Tree

Yes I know Christmas has passed.. but I never got around to posting a picture of our Tree.. 2 years ago we bought an artifical tree, because the Trees we are given to choose from here in Japan are just horrible quality...Dry Dry Dry... So 2 years ago after Christmas we purchased this large artifical tree with lights and fiber optics already on it..

The tree is really pretty and besides the lights we get the wonderful color changes from the fiber optics.. Now there is nothing wrong with an artifical tree but it just isn't Christmas without pine needles and the smell of a Christmas Tree. However we do the best with what we have... and this is what we have...

Glitter & Flowers

This card I made as part of a gift for a swap that I participated in..

The paper is from my stash I am not sure who the maker is..
The flowers are Primas the French Can Can Collection
they are adhered to the card front with foam adhesive to give them a pop

Another simple simple card... but I love the colors

Happy Creating!

Christmas Card....

I found this wonderfully embossed blue with white polka dotted paper in my paper stash.... and decided it would make a wonderful Christmas Card...



I used a DCWV premade card
The ribbon was a bulk purchase I made from a Blogger blue with white polka dots
the white CS used is from Stampin Up
The stamp sentiment is also from Stampin Up from the Circle of Friends Set
Ink used was CTMH Indian Corn Blue
I also used the Stampin Up 1 1/4" circle punch



I cut the front of the card on my paper trimmer to 3 1/2 by 5 and used dotto adhesive to secure it to the DCWV Card stock.. I inked my SU stamp and stamped the image on the white Cs then punched the image out with the SU punch. I used a foam adhesive to secure the circle to the front of the card to give it a dimensional look.. Cut and tied the ribbon around the card. Voila!

A beautifully simple card

Happy Creating!

My Latest Addiction is

a virtual pet... LOL

My daughters received from "Santa" Tamagotchi Connections... when they opened them up and started playing with them I was not at all interested... but as the day progressed and they kept asking me questions (Santa forget to leave directions) I found myself searching online for information on these "pets"

This Tamagotchi thing is apparently BIG or was BIG and is coming back again... I found loads of information and helped my daughters earn points and found the virtual Tama Town online for them so they could learn other things.. I then had to help them input codes..

What is a Tamagotchi?

Tamagotchi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tamagotchi (たまごっち) is a handheld digital pet created in 1996 by Aki Maita and sold by Bandai. The Tamagotchi is housed in a small and simple egg-shaped computer. Three buttons (A, B, and C) allow the user to select and perform an activity, including:
Feeding the Tamagotchi a piece of food or a snack.
Playing games with the Tamagotchi.
Cleaning up a Tamagotchi's waste.
Checking its age, discipline, hunger, weight, happiness and other stat levels.

The pet will get toothaches and other illnesses you must administer medicine, they go to school/work, the more you play the better off they are.. They can die... You can start over...

There are cheat codes for items as well as points...

I am now hooked on Tamagotchi I went and purchased myself one and spent the first 2 days yelling at the thing to poop so I could potty train it and wouldn't you know it every time I wasn't looking the darn thing would poo... Ughghg LOL.... My girls are very excited that I am into Tamagotchi and that we can all help eachother with our Tamas and they can not wait until we are old enough to connect our Tamas so we can visit eachother.. (we can only think of this as being the reason why we can not do it right now, as we are too young)..

Of course the girls are also mad at me because their tamas are boys and mine is a girl... poor things

This is what Caitlin and my Tamas looked like as a Toddler a Kuchitamatchi

Here is what mine currently looks like and is considered a teen (i think) - Ura Young Memetchi

Here is Caitlins, she also has a flying one he is a Kometchi

Merry Christmas Eve ... Everyone

Great Business Opp. for me

When I left my job as the Supervisor of the Navy Lodge a year ago. We were in the middle of a transition, old Manager moving new Manager coming in.. The New Manager Ms. Ana seemed very nice but the first day I met her I found out my brother in law passed away and my family and I packed up immediately and flew to Louisiana... When I returned a month later still not over my grief I started working the day I got off of the plane, later I realized what a mistake it was not to take time for myself... A month after my return I put in my resignation and 3 months after she had become the new Manager she lost 2 front desk employees and her Supervisor...

Even with that rocky start we have become good friends, her daughter is the same age as my daughter they have become best friends.. She is really great she can come to me and talk to me about work and I understand, I can give her insight into the way things were run and what rooms have what problems...

Since leaving the Navy Lodge I went home sans husband and kids to visit my family, I started candy wrapping, crafting, stamping, Noahs Ark Stuffable Friend and making Candy Bouquets as well as being a Girl Scout Leader..

I made a candy bouquet for a Cricut Board member who was involved in a swap that in the end she did not receive anything... While I was making this bouquet the Girl Scout Leader from last year that I replaced called and asked me to make her a bouquet that she can have as a center piece for her Christmas Dinner Table....

I being the procrastinator and ever so busy individual waited until the 21st to work on the bouquets... I had been out several times looking for inexpensive baskets to put the bouquet in but i did not find one... Until.... I went to re rent a video game where there also happens to be a florist and saw this gold vase....and some berries (plastic filler stuff) so I purchased various items and went home with an idea in my head...

I am very pleased with the results and I have realized that the more bouquets I make the better looking they get..LOL practice makes perfect..

Anyways why was I talking about my old manager? Oh yes, her birthday party was the 22nd and the old Leaders daughter is also friends with both of our daughters actually for the longest time they were like the 3 amigos.. so I agreed to drop off her bouquet at the party.. Ms. Ana saw the bouquet and said that those would be wonderful items to sell at the Lodge and she would also like me to come up with some other ideas that she can use that has Navy Lodge in it.. sooo I have a great business opportunity in front of me and I am scared as hell... I don't want to fail and yet I am drawing blank with other things to come up with (as of right now anyways)...At the same time I am super excited that she believes in me enough and is willing to help me out..

Creative Stocking Gifts.. Girl Scouts

Today is the Awards Ceremony for my Junior Girl Scout Troop. This is the first awards ceremony I have done or been to as last year they just had a very casual end of the year Ceremony..
I have put together 15 Junior Stockings and 4 adult helper stockings.. Busy Busy Busy I filled stockings that I purchased from Oriental trading with the following:

A Christmas themed Goodie Bag filled with their patches they have earned so far

A bag of reindeer chow (it is made the same way puppy chow is) (reindeer image from PC Crafter)

Chocolate spoons

Snowman Soup Cones

DVD with a Photoshow of all of the Troop Pictures this year

A Scrapbook Cover Page that I made.. So we can start on our Scrapbooks as a Troop (They all received a chipboard album from etcetera at the Investiture Ceremony from me in October)

Candy Canes with tags on them with different messages (Stampin Up Stamp and Red Ink)

Bubbles and a Christmas Tattoo

My Birthday

Well today is my birthday... yeah!


Just wanted to give an update on me.. Friday the 7th I had a girl scout sleepover with 11 girls, though I did not do much sleeping.. the floor (without an air mattress or sleeping bag) is not very comfortable for an oldie like me (HA!)... So Saturday my dear hubby lets me sleep when i get home because he has to go to his squadron for the children's Christmas party as he is Santa... I call him at 2pm because i am hungry and he has not been home, he says he is spending time with the girls and tells me to get some sleep.. at this point I am like wow! he is being really great... My friend calls whose house we are suppose to be eating dinner at that night and asks to talk to my husband (a little weird( I give her his cell number,.. Finally I fall asleep.. My hubby wakes me up and tells me we have 30 minutes to get to my friends house for dinner.. I go into this whole thing with why did he wait so long to wake me and such... I get this feeling something is going on but I think nothing of it.. he tells me the girls are at Mc Donalds (they don't like Thai food and my friend invited us for dinner which is always delicious Thai food, she is Thai) so it is starting to rain I ask him if they rode their bikes he said yes I ask him to go to McDonalds so we can see if they are there... He pulls in and I ask him to throw away the cup that is in the cup holder... HEY that's a Burger King cup.... He says "So" w (well burger king is 30 minutes away and the place where I told him I wanted a certain ring for my birthday) I start getting excited maybe he got me the ring maybe I am having a party

I tell myself to calm down its probably not that and I am expecting way too much...

The kids are not there so we go to our friends house and he parks in a peculiar place (away from the party room) so I start thinking again maybe I am having a party and he doesn't want to park near the party room...

no he wouldn't do that... so we go into the elevator to the 5th floor and I walk in saying hi and start taking off my shoes (as it is customary to do) and people start popping out with balloons saying Surprise!

(It's a good thing I went with my gut and dressed up and put make up on instead of grubby jeans and a tshirt, I was thinking)

to make a longer story short I did get a piece of jewelry not the ring I wanted but a wonderful piece of jewelry that I will treasure forever and ever.. I can't believe my hubby did that for me ...

After the Meal

No... sitting about for us... I forgot to mention in the earlier post that Santa Clause was at the Galley handing out shaped balloons.. The youngest requested a flower and the oldest a sword.. do you know what happened? The flower also turned into a sword and on our way to the car a sword fight ensued..

Thanksgiving -- Turkey Day!

Turkey Day! Turkey Day! Turkey Day!

What does a mother of 2 whose husband is deployed do on a Holiday (Thanksgiving) when all her family is in another Country because she supports her husband and moved to Japan do?

Well I eat Turkey of course, however my house is not wafting with the aromatic smells of Turkey, Baking Bread or even Pumpkin Pies.. No, not my house there is also no sports to be watched or even a Turkey being fried by my DH..

For me this year it is all of us bundling up as it is already a very chilly November {with hopes of snow in our minds} we bundle up and go out to the car. Where are we going on Thanksgiving? Despite my daughters request to have McDonalds (blech).. we arrive at The Far East Cafe otherwise known as the Galley, (245pm yeah we are early) it opens at 300pm and there is already a line (shoot)..

We wait for 30 minutes to finally reach the counter and pay our $6.05 each for the meal we are about to receive, I scurry my youngest one off to find us a table, my oldest and I stand in line for Turkey, Ham, Stuffing, Peas, Corn and Gravy... We don't get all of it of course... then we walk to the salad bar and fruit area where they have cranberry sauce and then pass the soup one of which seems to be clam chowder (I never checked the other), around the corner and what do they put in my way? The dessert table... All these decadent cakes and pies, I pick up a slice of pecan pie and drizzle on some chocolate sauce... at the other end of the dessert table is the bread and low and behold cookies cookies and more cookies but also fruitcake and banana nut bread, chocolate mousse and something unidentifiable by me.. So as I am seeking out my youngest I see that she has chosen a little booth in front of the free for all drink machines that include sodas, frozen drinks, different specialty coffees and my favorite and a must have as the area where we are sitting is getting a draft from the long line of people still progressing inside to dine...Hot Chocolate... Yummy..

So we settle in to eat I divide my plate with my youngest since she kept the table secure for us, and we proceed to eat our Thanksgiving Dinner that is absolutely delicious.. The band is playing several people get up and sing with the band and I think today is not bad at all.. granted my girls are on an overload of sugar and freezing.... after an hour of chatting and letting the oldest go back for a second helping of mashed potatoes, the dining area is crowded once again and we relinquish our seating to a group of Single Sailors sadly standing with their trays at the drink machine waiting for a table opening so they can eat.. Happy turkey Day!

Veterans Day

In honor of Veterans the Girl Scouts along with members of the Community and the Boy Scouts participated in a Ceremony at 900am on Monday.

There was a Flag Ceremony, singing of the Japanese National Anthem and the US National Anthem, CO of the Base gave a speech, Prayer, a moment of silence, the reading of Old Glory, a Veteran gave a speech, the Girl Scouts & boy Scouts led the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of God Bless America..

Here are pictures of my 2 girls on our way to the Ceremony..

ATC Card

I am involved in an ATC (artist trading card) swap and this months theme was "Circus"





When I think of Circus at least the other day when I was thinking about what I would do for this swap. I thought these things, bubbles, pink elephants, dumbo, and feather..





The only thing I did not incorporate into this ATC card was the bubbles. I do like how it turned out, very simple but cute IMO.


Thanks for looking

Elephant was cut on CTMH Cardstock with my Cricut using the ZooBalloo Cartridge at 1 3/4"
Stamp is All Boy from the Clear Stamps that sell for 1.00 at Michaels (Thanks Again Blane)
Feather from a package of feathers purchased from Joanns

candy bouquet

Happy Halloween!!

Have a Happy Haunting Halloween and when you see all of those witches, ghosts, goblins say BOO! Here are my 2 vampires...

Troop Board

I used my Cricut and Coluzzle to Decorate our Troop Board. Junior Troop 73 was cut using the Cricut. Our Paper Dolls version of ourselves was also using the Cricut. The purses which holds our Kaper Chart information were made using the coluzzle purse template and DCWV Old World Stack paper.. The paper dolls and Junior Troop Letters were paper from a local japanese store. The flowers at the bottom are primas and though you can not see it on the right side stamped are the words friendship and smile alternating all down the right side from top to bottom.

Flat Stanley wanted to visit with our troop so he stayed on our Troop board during the meeting..

Sweet Potato Digging

My Junior Girl Scout Troop went Sweet Potato Digging and met with their Sister Troop to have Soumen.. The Japanese Troop were great hostesses meeting us at the train station, walking us to the location and preparing lunch for us. They prepared Soumen which to me is cold ramen but they had this piece of hollowed out cut in half bamboo on racks at an angle and then a water hosed attached to the upmost part so water was running down through the bamboo.


So what did we do? Well they took the cooked noodles we grabbed our chopsticks and sent the noodles down the river of water in the bamboo and we tried to pull our noodles for our lunch from this little bamboo river.. The girls really enjoyed it.

For Sale

3 Cricut Cartridges that I have only used once. $35.00 each not including shipping
These cartridges can be used in the Cricut & the Cricut Expression
I have way too much stuff that I do not use and it is time to clean out the old craft room to make room for the new stuff that I want.

Mini Monograms - Click the link to view cartridge information
Image of the back of the Cartridge Box
PDF File

ZooBalloo - Click the link to view cartridge information
Back of Cartridge
PDF File of Cartridge Handbook

Printing 101 - Click the link to view cartridge information
Back of Cartridge
PDF File of Cartridge Handbook

The Mom.. A Must See

Birthdays Birthdays Birthdays

Although my daughters Birthdays are officially in August, since Daddy was gone on Deployment we waited to have a Birthday Party until he came home. So September 28th and 29th we celebrated Amanda's 10th Birthday and Caitlin's 8th Birthday.

Amanda's Theme was Hollywood Premiere

I printed her invitations off of the computer to resemble a concert ticket with a stub to tear off, I used a sewing needle to perforate the ticket (it was really killing my fingers) Dresses I purchased from a store on Ebay were available, they were Prom & Cocktail dresses the girls had fun dressing up and singing Karaoke and we watched 2 movies

Caitlin's invitations were made using my Sizzix Die for the dresses on the front of the invite and each invitation had 2 little bling on the corner of the invite, on the inside I used stamps for the You're Invited Time Date Place, etc.. and hand wrote all of the information

Caitlin had a Tea Party/Dress up Party. I have 2 tea sets I purchased while here in Japan and we used those tea sets for the party. The dresses and Caitlin's Princess & Barbie dress up clothes were available for her and her friends to play with also and we watched a movie called Arthur & The Invisibles and some of her friends sang Karaoke
Goodie Bags/Boxes were decorated by using my Cricut. Caitlin had hot pink goodie bags which I used my Celebrations cart and cut out a cupcake at 5" and used a glue dot to adhere to the front of the bag

Amanda had a Chinese takeout box for her goodie bag and I cut out cupcakes at 3', party hat at 3" embossed it with my cuttlebug a present and a Many Thanks or Thank You cut out square All of the cuts were made with my Cricut and using the Celebrations Cart