Am Crying...

**This is my second post of the day. Please scroll down for my first one.**



Did I ever tell you that I cry easily?

I do.

Why, during the months leading up to our wedding, I was a mess. Just crying at the drop of a hat.

We had the routine guidance and counseling meetings with our priest, and I'd cry at almost every meeting. Father Luke would ask why I chose my DH as my partner, I would cry. Then it was how would religion help your marriage, and I'd cry. And then, it was what is the best lesson you could give your future children, and I'd bawl!!

Then, it came time for my bachelorette and bridal shower. Again, when I made my thank you speeches, my friends and fam would whisper under their breaths "here it comes." And no matter how I tried to suppress those tears, my voice would quiver from the start, my throat would choke up, and the dam would just burst.

I got better and then I got pregnant. And still I cry easily.

Today, the UPS man dropped off a package at my door. I smiled when I saw who it was from.

Sunghee had agreed to my request of allowing me to print pictures of her carnival creations. My baby will have his first birthday in June and his theme is a circus. I just love Sunghee's projects and I thought her pics would be great on the walls.

And then she said she'd send the creations themselves to me. Isn't that SO sweet? Really, really NICE! She wouldn't let me pay for them; she even said no to shipping. OMG, I love her!!!!

So when I opened the package and saw these, I started tearing....


Not only did Sunghee send me her beloved Carnival creations for the TGF Royal Battle (which I think we should've won by the way :)), she sent me so much more!!! She sent me the International Ink tank. And this, I love this pagoda and hot air balloon! There are others, but I haven't really touched them since the baby is right here.

How lucky am I to have such great friends in the stamping world?

And I've always admired Sunghee's awesome talent. But she is just the most generous and funny person!! And you should see these up close! They are all so much cuter in person! LOVE THEM!

I will take pics when they're up at the party! Thank you soo much, Sunghee! My question for the rest of you folks is what do you think I should do as a thank you gift? (Haha, SG, I'm not 'paying' you, I'm giving you a gift back!).

And I believe Sunghee will be opening up a shop soon. She already has a Wine Box template for sale here. Thanks again, chica! You don't know how much this all meant to me!!

This made up for the kind of 'crying' I had earlier:



First I was laughing because he's using my Copics as a sword. Kinda looks like He-Man.



And then I look again and he's figured out how to open them!!! DAAAAAAAAAAAAANGGGGIITTTTT!!! I found several ink stains on the crib. Oh well, my own fault.

Ok, I'm off to play with my new goodies. And tear up some more.






P.S. I forgot to tell you about my card. Used Maisy Ketto for the stamp (stamped on kraft-like paper). CS is from Bazzill. Brads are from Dear Lizzy. Fabric is from Torendi.

Women of Inspiration

***I'll have a card post later on today. Hope you still read this (long) post. It's very inspirational.***

I have to be honest.

Sometimes, I don't like it when there's a big group of women together.

I mean, I'm a nurse. In my field, most of us are female. There are times when there is too much gossiping and drama going on.

But most of the time, nothing is stronger and more inspirational than a union of women.

I mean, who doesn't look forward to a girls' night out? Nothing beats a girlfriend's advice. And sometimes, all you want to hear is the latest gossip, right? It takes you away from your own problems.

And then at work, although I complain, I wouldn't trade my female co-workers for anything. We are the definition of team work and empathy, of diligence and critical thinking.

So for my post today, I wanted to write about these two inspirational women.

The first is Linda Burnasakorn.

Her story tugs at my heart strings and makes me tear each time I read about it. She is so brave to share her story. It is tragic in the beginning but inspiring to hear how she is persevering.

You don't have to be in the medical field like I am to know that our healthcare system is among the worst in all of the developed countries. Linda and her family are left with overwhelming debt due to her bout with sickness.

Cocoa Daisy is a scrapbooking kit club and Linda was an employee there. They are hosting a special raffle to help Linda and her family. You could win anything from rub-ons to a scrapbooking destination to Greece --- where you'd be in the companies of Ali Edwards and Jenni Bowlin.

I do not know Linda personally, but I hope you find her inspiring as well.

The second woman is April of Secondsister Suaviloquy. She is an awesome writer and her quirky posts always make me smile. I only know her from blogland but she sounds like a wonderful mother and wife. I admire women who are not ashamed to YELL at the top of their lungs that they would do anything for their family.

A favorite part of her blog is her 'cast of characters.' You all know I like lists. Well, April listed her fam members by their nicknames and personalities on the right sidebar. I ADORE IT! I may have to do something similar :).

But what I love most (aside from her suaviloquy, meaning the sweetness of speech) is her craftiness. Her home-made jewelry are so beautiful, and I'm an avid fan at her Etsy boutique. She has this tutorial on a lovely rick rack Mother's Day pin (her picture of it is below).



She told her readers that we could pass it on. Thought it was too pretty not to share. Enjoy everyone!

*hugs*

Gummy Smile

Hello people!

My mommy did another lay-out of me when i was almost 7 months old.

The picture is from our trip to Disneyland, and you may notice it's a similar picture from yesterday's post.

Except I'm smiling really BIG here. My mommy said she loves my gummy smile!

Anyway, I have to go soon. But she wanted me to say hi to everyone and to thank you for visiting!

She said she used lots of Love Elsie, Sassafras, and Imaginisce. Oh, and the hearts were really from the butterfly stamps at TGF. But there's no way I was going to let her use butterflies on my page, no way! The border around my pic is from TGF too.

Ok, we really gotta go! Peace out, everyone!

Love,
Mattie

P.S. I was supposed to put links here, but I forgot how and I don't really want to! Haha!

My Cute Little Sweetcheeks.

Good afternoon, dear followers, visitors, and curious peeps alike!

It's a really, REALLY late post. But hey, better late than never right?

I'm in a chipper mood because I've added yet another page to the little squirt's album. This pic is from our Disneyland trip. I just love his facial expression here.

It was before bedtime, and he's giving me a slight smile of contentment. He's reaching for his new favorite toy, Mickey. I LOVE this pic. It's actually the first of a group of pictures from this night... so you may see similar ones in the future.

Supplies are from American Crafts (CS, brads), Mustard Moon (graph PP), April Taylored Expressions KI kit (buttons, other strips of PP, ribbon), Basic Grey (tags), Cosmo Cricket (stickers).

Ok, have a great evening!

Things To Do.

Things To Do Today (X's mean done!):

1. Class for work. X

2. Shop for birthday outfit for a photo session. X



3. Shop for nieces. My favorite local children's store closed :(. Found cute gifts at this store. X



4. Post office to mail out blog candy & get stamps. Aren't these art stamps lovely? I should save some! X



5. Get lunch (wild mushroom & grilled chicken pizza with whole wheat crust). Yumm-O! X

6. Make invitation for Mattie's party.

7. Work on favors.

8. Start on upcoming projects.

As you can see, I still have lots to do! So I'll make this post quick. Did a super-simple card. Coloring and embellies are minimal. I left my buttons naked.

Supplies are from Taylored Expressions' April Key Ingredients Kit (CS, PP, buttons), Sassafras (stickers), Two Scoops Rice Designs (stamps, sentiment).

I got my Sassafras stickers from Torendi. And one of my cards with those stickers is featured on their blog. Yay! :)

Peace Out! So excited for Glee tonight!

WINNERS!!!!

**this is my second post for today. please go here for the first post***

FOLKS, ARE YOU REAAAADDDY???

For my blog candy, I went to a free number generator ...

And the winner is ....... *DRUM ROLL PLEASE*****

# 20!!!!!!!

Lisa said...
Happy Birthday and thanks for the chance to win!!

Lisa, please email me your address! I'll mail the goodies at the beginning of this week!

Thanks, everyone, for playing along and greeting me birthday wishes!

--------------------------------------------------------------

For the Royal Battle at TGF, we are at the final round! Thanks so much for supporting International Ink these past five weeks!



These beautiful creations were done by Sheena. Sheena has worked on these for the past three plus days, has gotten sick, and has taken time off from work! Luckily, she's got such a supportive hubby (and teammates, of course!).

And don't ya just wanna say WOW WOW WOW?! These boxes have drawers on all four sides! The drawer pulls have flowers or baseballs! On Ian's 'field,' there is grass and a glove charm, even its own advertisement that says "GO TEAM!" And do you see that Sheena has even made a Batter Anya ATC in one of the drawers? She's done such an amazing job!

Then you look at the girly box and WHOA!!!! It's a ballet studio.. complete with a MIRROR and a BAR!!! There are even towels!! And oooh-la-la, a handsome partner (Prince Ian) to boot! Sheena is also very detailed. You may not be able to see it here, but in the reflection of the mirror, Anya's back is complete and colored!

(i apologize if i'm scaring you by how hyper i am... am wired from drinking diet coke!)

So please! If you see all the hard work my teammate has done and if you like all the details she added to this project, vote for us on the blog.

Voting is only for today (24 hours after the final projects are up). You only have one vote, and the poll is on the TGF blog.

I believe that my team has a REALLY good chance of winning. My teammates and I have worked diligently and hard. I am not saying that the other teams deserve it any less. But I believe we have been very creative and unique with our projects. I hope you agree!

And thank you sooo much for all of those who have voted and supported us! Go all the way, International Ink!!!

XO,

Thanks for the Company!

Happy Sunday, everyone! I'll be posting later on to tell you who won my blog candy. I'll also post my team's (International Ink) entry for the final round of the TGF Royal Battle.

But first, my card is for the Oh Alice! Queen of Tarts Challenge. The goal is to incorporate food in your card.

What I like about the Elaine Cox Alice series from Sweet Pea is that it forces me to think outside the box as far as coloring. I'm learning a lot from coloring the background and I'm quite enjoying it. Time to get more Copics, haha!

Speaking of...I was up late last night (actually, this morning) till 2:00 am buying stamps!! I just had to look at my favorite blogs on Google Reader and saw some stamps that I liked -- thanks to 'enabler' BFF, Jo, and my new friend & TGF teammate, Sheena. I went a bit overboard though and may have bought *ahem*...like a lot! *sighs* Stamping diet? What stamping diet?

In other news, I am so excited about new and upcoming things! I can't talk about them right now but I will soon!

Supplies for the card include the April Key Ingredients kit from Taylored Expressions (CS, PP, buttons, ribbon). The border and journaling stickers are from Sassafras.

Enjoy your day!



PS. I don't remember Humpty Dumpty being in Alice in Wonderland (?). LOL~!

Banners & Party Planning...

I've been wanting to put a watermark on my pictures for this blog for awhile now. Actually, I want to do it for most of my pictures online too (like Facebook!).

Thanks so much, Sheena, for showing me such a simple and easy way of doing it. I'm going to play around with it a bit over the next few weeks until I find one that I really like. I'm also going to be changing around my header as well.

Today's card features another one of Taylored Expressions' a la carte stamps. I just love the size of this one! I used the cardstock, PP, buttons, and ribbon from TE's April Key Ingredients kit. And then aside from the buttons, my favorite part is the banner sticker from Sassafras.

You may have noticed that banners are the trend right now. Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing pics of my future projects -- one of them being making a banner for my son's 1st bday party.

During this post, I talked about doing a Peter Pan theme. But I watched the movie and I think it'll be more appropriate when he's older so that he could enjoy dressing up like a lost boy with his friends and walking the plank...LOL!

So i went with my second option and am doing a vintage circus. I really like the ideas here!! I've been scouring Etsy and I've been buying like crazy. I plan on making invitations (making one and doing copies), favors, and some of the decorations.



Have been experimenting since TGF doesn't have a male Circus Ian. Here's a rough alteration of Oliver & Circus Anya as Mattie. I may do it with Daddy Ian's head instead.... closer to his hair.

I'm also excited because Sunghee said I could print out her carnival pictures for our TGF Royal Battle Entry # 4. If you haven't seen them, you should check out her blog as they are AMAZING! Thank you everyone for the votes!

Sunghee has also graciously offered to help me if I decide to make her ferris wheel and merry-go-around. I would LOVE to learn how to do all that and I think the party people would just be in AWE. But I don't think I'm up to her talent level (yet :)), and plus I'm scared I'd be stretching myself out. Thanks anyway chica!

I've got about 9 more days of vacation left so I'm planning to get busy! Oh, and next weekend, we'll be taking similar pics of outfits like this:

source

GENIUS!!! AAAACCCK!!! OMG...I'd love to dress up like a circus master myself! Hehehe!

OMG, I think I've shared enough links, don't you think? :)

Have a great weekend!






P.S. You've got until midnight Pacific Standard time tonight to enter my blog candy giveaway for a chance to win this:



Notice that circus PP at the top? I have 9 others for the party :).

Humpback Whales

whales are my favorite animals. humpback whales to be exact.

i think my fascination with whales started when i watched a nature show about a man wanting to swim with them. i remember him saying that they were magical and beautiful. and now, it's become my dream too. i can just imagine how it would be like in the vast wide pit of the ocean, being in the same space as this huge creature. she would sing her serene songs, and i would feel a bit scared and peaceful at the same time.

it's on my bucket list even though i only swim well enough to survive on the beach or the pool (& would probably drown!). nonetheless, it's still a big fantasy of mine.

did you know that humpback whales nurse their calves for almost a year? i just found that out yesterday. So ironic that it was Earth Day. this makes me like them even more as this is a big goal of mine (less than two months away!).

and have you all seen this movie? it's a great one and very touching! i believe that keisha castle-hughes won an award for her role that year.

during our honeymoon in maui two years ago, we saw this beautiful sight from a helicopter ride.



even if they looked so tiny from up above, it was still breathtaking! i loved seeing them and thought of them as a family!

so back to the card for today... i knew that when i saw this stamp at taylored expressions, i had to have it! i used punched-out kol laj papers, love elsie stickers, buttons, martha stewart twine, and dear lizzy (american crafts) ribbon.

so TAG! you're it! i've talked about a couple of items on my bucket list today and yesterday. how about you - what's on yours?

XO,





p.s. i plan to get a tattoo of a whale in the future. anybody know of any good pictures out there? i'd like one that is a cross between a cartoon and the real thing. not so cutes-y, not too realistic.

It's my Birthday and I'll Party if I Want To.....

****THERE'S STILL TIME TO WIN MY BIRTHDAY BLOG CANDY. GO HERE AND COMMENT. IF YOU CAN, PLS POST THE PICTURE ON YOUR BLOG. YOU HAVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT OF THE 25TH!*****



Good Thursday morning everyone! Such a great day... I'm listening to my new downloaded music from Glee's Madonna episode. The baby and I are rockin' right now :). He he!

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes!! Below are some of my favorite photos from my celebration(s). But first, let's talk about my card for today.

It features one of the Sweet November fairies at ATS created by the lovely Amy Young. Speaking of creating stamps, I added another to my bucket list. Someday, I would love to have my own line of stamps :). But first things first, gotta get on a Design team ;)..wish me luck!

Anyway, when I started seeing the Kioshi line of Basic Grey, I fell in love. I especially adored what Camille did with it! I mixed some kol laj strips and added some bling and Prima flower and voila! I'm not too happy with how her hair ended up. Kept messing up with the blending so it got darker and darker. But I do like the texture on her skirt!

So my birthday was yesterday and I've been having lots of fun the last few days.

Here's Matthew checking his google reader....buwahahahaha!

A present from my DH... don't you just loved the 'whimsical' wrapping paper (aka newspaper)? Aww, men!! Sweet though! I got a camcorder! I think the gift was also for him....but don't mind at all! :)

I have a new niece -- Alyssa! She was born the day before my birthday. What a lovely present!

Some goodies from Baskin Robbins:

Breakfast with my BFF, Jo, who's also Mattie's Ninang (Godmother). You might ask why I put MK's hair in a ponytail... there's a Filipino superstition that we can't cut the baby's hair till they turn one for good luck! I put it up because it's getting so long! He keeps getting mistaken for a girl though :(.


Mattie and his favorite cousin, Alexander.

This is what happens when I leave my hubby to dress the lil one.

My sis with her Godson.

Somy yummy food from my bday dinner. Such great sliders above!

This one served plantains with guacamole --- so good!

Ahi tuna -- the best I've tasted!

A group pic with my best girlfriends. Love them!

Enjoy your day!

Happy Birthday, Tanya!

Good Tuesday morning to y'all! Happy birthday to my new friend in blogland, Tanya! Tanya is my teammate in the TGF Royal Battle. Thank you all for your support! We're hoping to move on to Round 5!

Made a card using the gatefold technique. It was a lot of fun! The above pic is when the card is partially open. The pic below is when it's fully closed (had to use my candles to hold it :)).



Here's a pic of the inside:



Used my new Chef Jules stamp from In Style. I must say that although I love my favorite stamps -- Anya -- I REALLY love coloring in the big eyes of these Anime ones. So adorable!

For the PP, I used Doodlebug Design Inc and Junkitz. The sticker inside is Love Elsie and the sentiment is hand-written.

toodles,




P.S. Have a great birthday, Tanya!

2nd Year Anniversary

Two years ago today, I married my best friend. I still remember every moment of that day... every pitter-patter of my heart, every romantic word said, every heartfelt congratulations. Here's to 60 more years, babe! I love you!

And there's still time for a chance to win my blog candy. Go to this post!