cleaning and homemade ice cream :)

We've been enjoying our break over here. I think we are off to the pool this morning. I've been cleaning, and scrapping. And yesterday the kids and I had fun making homemade ice cream. I helped Emma with hers, and several times she would say "this is so fun!" :) I think we'll be doing that again.

And today's card. I usesd the same lacey flowers as last time, this time with some pinks. I really like the "birthday" die cut. It's from Papertrey, just like all the products I used to make this card.

Thanks for stopping by today!! I hope you have a super day :)

summer break...

has begun. Tomio's time off from work has officially started :) Not sure what our plans are yet, but I like to take things easy :) I think the kids want to go swimming.We'll see :)

Hoping to have some time to make cards...like this one :)

I used some new-to-me stamps on this one. I like the way the lacey flowers look in tone on tone in the background. I thought the tone on tone butterfly wenr well :)

Thanks for stopping by!! We are off to church. The bigs are already there since they had a sleepover there last night. It was way too quiet here this morning with just Miss Emma here!! Hope you have a great day :)

August is here.

I can't believe that it is August already!! Wow. I am happy though, because the hottest days of summer are supposed to be in July. That means we are done with the hottest days :) Not to mention that our wedding anniversary is in August--that's definitely an added bonus :)

Not only have a gotten a few cards made this past week, I actually got them photographed too. yay:)

I really liked how this one turned out. I kind of had Leah in mind when I made it. I loved coloring in butterflies with copics:) These pretty ones are from Stampin' Up!

Thanks for stopping by today!! Hope you are staying cool :)

More stamping ：）

I've had a little more stamping time this past week. Leah had a golf tournament, which means we had a couple of days off from school. No school = more stamping time for me :) And the kids are always glad to have couple of days off too.

Anyway, here's a card. Pretty much just kraft and white. Really love these wildflower stamps. So easy to use. And butterflies always make everything prettier :)

Thanks for stopping by today!! Hope you are staying cool :)

Different.

Before we moved to Kumamoto, (as I have mentioned before) I had no license and no car. But I do now. Things were different right from the start--I took the kids to the new doctors I found by myself, did the shopping by myself. And when I say "by myself", I mean me with four kids in tow :) But gradually, things have gotten even more different. Tomio will take Leah to golf while I take the boys to karate. I drove up and met Tomio and Leah at a restaurant after they got back from a round of golf. And then today, we actually drove to church in two separate cars, since they were going to golf and I had a meeting after church. It's all good stuff, of course. But like I said, different. Especially for someone who was really pretty much unable to go anywhere "by myself." Things are good here. We've been here about 9 months, and things are good :)

Ok---here's a card for today.

I'm really liking the black and kraft. I added some clear embossing at the bottom for interest.
All stamps and cardstock are from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by!! Are you ready for Monday?? I don't think I am....

sorry...

I'm sort of apologizing to myself too. I really do enjoy posting on my blog, even if there aren't that many people reading it :)  It started it for fun, and it really is fun for me. So, even though I am just so busy lately, I decided to keep trying my best to keep it up. My personal goal is 3 times a week, but I will be happy with two...

 Things have just been so busy lately. We started our new school, and as each kid moves up, it takes more or at least different involvement from me. Plus with the boys' karate classes and Leah's golf... and this week I spent a lot of time at the dermatologist and the orthodontist. Things are good, just really full.

Tomio even did get my air conditioner put in:) yay!! It works super well now. But I have barely had any time to use it. I did actually get in a little stamping time before the kids' swimming classes today though. Nothing spectacular, but a I had fun playing.

And here is a card from a little bit ago.

simple. Trying stamping on the diagonal which seems to be super trendy right now. Pretty fun :)

Thanks SO much for stopping by today!! I hope to be around a lot more.

yay :)

We have been having "electrical problems the past few weeks. That is, the power would go off  almost everyday. Every time I thought I figured out the "triggers," something else would set it off.it was rather frustrating to say the least. But it has been fixed--yay!! The air conditioner in the upstairs bedroom, but as long as we can cool the rest of the house and do things like, well, cook, then I am happy:)

Here's today's card.

simple. This is actually the same set I used on the last card I shared. This time it's a very CAS one layer card.

Thanks for stopping by again today! The bigs are at karate and golf with Daddy again today, so it's just me and Miss Emma tonight. I'm off to spend some time with my not-so-little girl :)

busy....

Wow, I've been so busy lately, that I have barely had any time to stamp at all. Really hoping I can set aside some specific "fun time" once I get a routine down. BUT, we did get my air conditioner last week :) Well, technically it hasn't arrived yet, but it is paid for and on its way. YAY! I'm excited.

Okay, so a quick card before I put Miss Emma to bed. All the bigs are at golf and karate right now, it is just the two of us here.

I was just kind of playing around when I made this card. This was actually the one stamp in this set I thought I would never use. But I kind of wanted to try it, and I liked the idea of making a rainbow with it. Once I decided what I wanted to do, it was pretty quick. The stamps are from Papertrey and the inks are from Papertrey and Jenni Bowlin.

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you have a great day! I am really glad the weekend is here :)

still hot here.

Every now and then it'll seem like we're going to have a cooler day or two. But even if the temperature itself goes down a little, then the humidity just goes up even more and it doesn't feel any cooler at all. There's also supposed to be a typhoon coming in tomorrow. Good thing I like staying home :)

Anyway, here's  a card for today. (And in case you were wondering, it is a from a couple weeks ago, because my stamping room is still not cool...) I really simple one layer card. I love the leafy flourishes from Papertrey's "Turning a New Leaf" set.

Short and sweet again--it's getting late here. Thank you SO much for stopping by! I hope you are staying cool :)

a card.

Things are still pretty busy around here. And still no air in my stamping room :( We went to go get it today, but the one we wanted was already sold. We are supposed to look tomorrow after church at a different store. Really hoping we find one.

And here's a card. This really pretty stamp is from Unity. I use it entirely too much, I am sure :) The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I thought it was fun to keep the whole card in only black and white. I heat embossed the flowers and the sentiment, because I never can get just the white ink to show up bright enough on dark cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by today!! I hope you have a great day!

here it is...June.

Can you believe it is June already?? I just can't.... I can't believe it is has been more than 6 months since we moved. Not that we haven't really settled in, just that that much time as actually passed.

While we did go on a hunt for an air conditioner last week, we have yet to get one :( And as it keeps getting hotter here, I'm having some trouble spending much time in my stamping room...

But, I really miss it when I don't, so I try to spend some time there when I can.

And here is something I made. The pretty butterfly is from Stampin' Up! The frame die is from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by today!! I am excited that the weekend is here. Hoping to sleep in at least a little :)

I did it :)

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that when we moved out here, I had to get my Japanese drivers license. I'd had my American one since I was 19, but not having a Japanese one, I really haven't had a whole lot of experience driving around. Moving here, though,  I really haven't had much of choice and I have been driving all around going to doctors, dentists, classes and shopping. I am SO grateful to be able to. I often wished I was able to do more on my own before, and  now I do. And it  bears repeating--I am SOOO grateful that I can. But I have mostly limited myself to around here. Nothing too far, and definitely not anywhere I haven't been before. Not anymore though. Yesterday, not only did I take Rhys to his nose doctor in the city, but I drove almost 2 hours to pick up Leah at her golf tournament, at a place I had never, ever been before. It might not seem like a big deal for someone else, but trust me, for me, it is. I have no innate sense of direction, unfortunately. And I am not the adventurous kind either. And I only moved here about 6 months ago. But I did it, without any problems any problems at all. For me, it is a big accomplishment. yay :)

okay... and I have a card too.

just a simple one. I really like these little vases from Papertrey. So fun to stamp in lots of different ways.

Thanks for stopping by today!! We are supposed to go air conditioner hunting today, so I'm excited :)

too hot....

I really do enjoy my little scrapping room that I have out our house now. It fits everything nicely and I don't have to keep it too clean,heehee :) But, at the moment, there is no air conditioning in there... And this past week, it has gotten quite hot here in Kumamoto. I tried to go up there and stamp, and I stayed as long as I could. But once I started sweating too much, it just wasn't fun anymore. Fortunately, my sweet hubby has said we'll go buy a small air conditioning unit, hopefully this weekend :)

Anyway, here is a card that I found in my files, that for some reason I forgot to share.

I like the glitter on the butterfly. I'm pretty sure I did it with stickles, and I'm thinking I should use them a little more often :). Stamps from Papertrey and Hero Arts on this card.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you have an amazing day!

Hello...

I actually started this blog post 3 or 4 days ago. But I've been having one of those barely-have-time-to-even-sit-down weeks. Lots of swimming, golf, school, doctor's appointments, birthday parties, church, meetings...Have you ever had one of those times when you barely feel like you ever get the chance to unwind? Just had so many things going lately....But Emma and Levi seemed to have a great birthday, and Leah made into the top 5 junior golfers in Kumamoto....I'll just be glad when I finally feel like I have a handle on things.

Here is a card from a couple weeks ago.

Some of my favorite leaf stamps (again, I know I use them a lot). And some of my favorite sentiment stamps too. Both are from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope I have some time to post a little more often this week. Sorry things have been so slow lately.

and then there were none...

Yep, they all got it. Fortunately, I was expecting it, so we handled it fine. Emma is now doing much better, and hopefully we've seen the last of the flu this year. I was glad Tomio didn't get it though, since he and Leah are at another golf tournament of hers this week. They'll be back tomorrow.

Anyway... here's a card.

Love all the kraft :) And the envelope pattern background stamp. It's from Hero Arts, and it adds just the right touch without being too much. The fun big sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I don't know about you, but I am always looking for fun, different sentiments.

And that's it for today :) Thanks SO much for stopping by today. I hope you are having some nice weather--looks like the sun finally came out over here!

3 out of 4....

that's how many kids here have ended up with the flu this week....fortunately they are on the mend now. We were supposed to start school back again this week, but it's been put on hold for now. Hopefully things will all settle down by next week.

Anyway...how about a card? :)

simple. I heat embossed the butterfly first, then stamped the woodgrain and inked the edges. The sentiment and butterfly are from Gina K. The woodgrain is from Hero Arts. It is super simple, but I like it :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope are you having a healthy, restful week!

not as expected...

Our golden week certainly has gone nothing like I expected (or hoped).... It started with Rhys getting a bad stomach bug Sunday evening...and then we all ended up with it, in turns. We also took Rhys to the doctor to see about having his adenoids removed for his chronic nose issues. That alone would have been enough, but then Tomio seems to have gotten unexplainable, spontaneous hearing loss in his right ear. He's been to the doctor for it a couple of times now and is taking some meds. All we can do now is pray....

Anyway...all that has totally changed our "fun" plans for Golden Week. Leah did still make it to her church camp, though. And we rented some fun dvds to watch as a family. I was hoping to stamp, but haven't been up to it or had much time. But I hate to finally post after this long and not have a card. So, here is one I made a couple of weeks ago:

It is a smaller card. I heat embossed the sentiment. I don't have black embossing powder or black pigment ink, so I did it with my black soot distress ink, and it worked well :)

Thanks for stopping by today!! I hope you have been having a restful week!

and suddenly...

it seems  a week has gone by(!) how did that happen? I have been dealing with a few sickies here. I've been really preoccupied with homeschooling plans at the moment too, which seems to keep from really getting into stamping. Golden Week is coming up here in Japan, so I'm hoping to get in some good crafting time then :)

Anyway, here is a card I made last week. I love how it is really simple, yet still pretty :)

It is hard to capture in a photo though. All supplies are from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for stopping by today!! I hope your week has been going well :)

April showers...

Seems we've been having a fair amount of rain lately. But it is still getting rather warm too. I actually LOVE spring weather! I love it when the nights get cool, but not cold :)

Anyway, here's a card.

Just a quick one. This one I just happened to put to together when I saw the woodgrain and red scraps on my desk together lol. But I think it turned out pretty nice. I heat embossed the sentiment in white. I like how it adds some interest. Oh, and I really like the butterfly. It is from Stampin' Up!, and has  a matching punch.

Ok, that's it for me today. I have lots of laundry and school waiting for me :) Thanks for stopping by!!

the weekend....

is here :)yay. I really do enjoy doing our "homeschool." But it also nice to have a couple day off to do other things around the house and with the kids.

Here is today's card. Just having a little fun with die cuts and matching stamps. I really like this look, and I'm sure I'll try it again with some different stamps :)
Oh, all stamps and papers are from Papertrey Ink on today's card.

Thanks SO much for stopping by!! I hope you enjoy your weekend too!

Quick!

Just a quick card to share. Kind of busy around here with school, golf swimming...

Anyway, here it is. I  heat embossed the flower in white after stamping the background. Then I colored it in with copics, just for a little bit different look. I kind of like it...lol. But it was fun to something different :)

Thanks for stopping by today!! I hope you have a super day!

more clean and simple.

Here's another clean and simple card for today.

I used some of my favorite PTI stamps on this card--these flowers from Larger Than Life. I also *love* the background text stamp. It is from Stampabilities. It took me awhile to find a fancy script stamp that I really liked, but this one is perfect. I embossed the sentiment in white--I seem to be embossing on several of the cards I have been making lately.

Thanks SO much for stopping by today! Are you ready for the weekend? I definitely am :).

goodness...

I didn't expect to be so busy last week. It was good though. We had a great Easter service at church, a BBQ and a fun Easter egg hunt.

Leah didn't place in her tournament this time, but she DID manage to get a HOLE-IN-ONE!!!! Pretty amazing, if I do say so myself :) They interviewed her for the paper and everything.

okay, on to today's card.

Sticking with the clean and simple. I really like how stamping with red on kraft looks. And well, I always like brown and kraft together. It was a little trickier than I hoped, masking off to stamp the leaves. Made me think of getting some Eclipse masking tape I've seen others use...Oh, the leaves are from Papertrey, frame from Waltzingmouse and the sentiment is from Sweet N Sassy stamps.

Thanks SO much for stopping by today!!! Have an awesome day :)

Tomio and Leah..

are gone the rest of the week. Leah made it to the all Japan Junior golf tournament (actually 2 of them!) this year. They are far away, though, now that we moved to Kyushu, so they won't be back till late Saturday night. Praying the weather holds out, she does her best and has a great time :)

On to today's card:

This card came together really quickly. I liked using all the bright colors--made such a cheery birthday card. The cupcakes are from Stampin' UP! and the banner is from Papertrey Ink. Everything's popped up for a little dimension.

And that's it for me today. Thanks for stopping by!! I hope your week has been going well!

pirates!

We had a fun weekend :) It was full of strawberry picking, bowling, pirate parties...and presents too of course :)

Will Turner on his cake--Daddy drew it, of course :)

Everyone had their own personal bottle of "rum" :)

Red velvet cake.

And the birthday boy himself, with a surprise present of all the Dragonball mangas.

some decorations.

"Happy Birthday" time.

And some pirate games.

Oh, I do have a card today. I thought I would share a more masculine one to sort of go with the pirate theme today.

Here it is.  I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out...but it's pretty good I think.

Okay--that's all for today, everything goes back to regular scheduled programming this week.
Thanks SO much for stopping by today!!

yay!

My kids all had their swimming tests today, and all 3 passed :) So proud of them. (Emma doesn't start till she is 4.) I wanted to make sure we found them a new swimming class that they liked right away when we moved out here. That's why I started looking for one as soon as I heard we were moving. I'm thrilled that we found one they all enjoy. Emma likes coming and watching with me, and she is pretty excited about starting when "she is a big girl" :)

And here's today's card. Can I be honest? I really like this card :) I like the subtle woodgrain. I like the silhoutte flowers. I like how the white embossing turned out for the sentiment. And I like the colors :) Plus I just started stamping and it came together really quickly and smoothly, so that was fun too :) The flowers and sentiment are from Unity, the butterfly is from  Stampin' up!, and the woodgrain is from Hero Arts. Huh... I just realized there are no clear stamps on this card. That is rare for me....
Anyway :), thanks SO much for stopping by today!! I'm off to do some party prep for my big boy that is turning 10 this week *sniff* :(

well it's over.

the weekend, that is. I've noticed that school on Mondays always seems to take a little longer, and attitudes seem to be a little more pouty.... I haven't come up with a way to remedy it completely yet, but at least I'm not taken by surprise when it happens :)

I've been getting a lot of card making done this last week or so (yay!)
This is one of them. I like the red and black together. It was a little tricky to mask of the edges when I stamped the flowers, but I think it turned well :) The poppy image is from There She Goes stamps, the frame is from Waltzingmouse and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks SO much for stopping by!! I hope you have a super day!!

I'm so happy...

the weekend is here :) I'm always glad when the weekend arrives. I usually spend Saturday morning doing some cleaning and straightening, but I did that last night. So now, I got to take it even easier this morning.  extra fun :)

Here is a card I made yesterday. I hadn't used this pretty flowers from Unity in a long time, so I had fun breaking them out again. You can't see it very well in the photo, but I embossed the black panel with a woodgrain pattern.

I popped up the black panel too, for some extra dimension.


Thanks for stopping by today!! I hope you have an awesome weekend!!

how about

another birthday card?

Pretty Clean and Simple again, I think. I actually masked off the middle of the white panel when I stamped the polka dot pattern to keep the middle plain. The huge gems are from Doodlebug. I'm still on the fence about them....But I guess they'll stay :)

Thanks for stopping by today!!! I hope you are enjoying some warmer weather--we sure are :)

a simple

birthday card.

I feel like we had a pretty busy weekend, and I didn't get to go in my stamp room at all. But I do have this a card I finished earlier to share. Just a really simple, somewhat masculine card. I like how it turned out. The really perfect "Happy Birthday" stamp is from Sweet 'n Sassy stamps. The label shape is from Papertrey Ink.

And, that's about it :) Thank you SO much for stopping by!! I hope you had a great weekend.

Not so...

clean and simple today. As I've said before, I mostly make clean and simple cards. But every now and then, I like try something a little different.

This was one of them. I often end up and the fence out this kind, but I think I like this one :)I used stamps from Papertrey Sweet & Sassy, and Stampin' Up on this one.

Pretty short and sweet today. It is pretty late, and I need to head to bed :) Thanks SO much for stopping by! I hope you have an awesome day!!!

good :)

Today turned out well :) It started out a little too "Monday"-ish. You know, kids not starting school or chores on time, feeling overwhelmed with all the things you need to get done that day...But it worked out ok :) I managed to remind myself what was really important during school so as not to get too frustrated when things didn't go *quite* like I planned. And I was able to go to the city office and deal with the kids' medical stuff and get all their vaccination stuff figured out. She was actually really helpful, and when she realized she forgot to give me one of the papers I needed, she mailed it to me right away. Oooh, and we went to the post office, got some groceries, and the kids' new socks. AND I still managed to get dinner on time and take Leah to her golf. Maybe not earth shattering stuff, but it felt good :)

Anyway here's my card. I used some pattern paper on this card(!) I really have a hard time working it onto my cards...but I think it works here :) I really like these flowers and their matching dies from Papertrey Ink. I usually try to add a little bit of shading to the flower. It seems to "finish off" or something, I think :)

Ok, that's it for me today. Thanks SO much for stopping by!! I hope your week starts off well!

new things.

I like "new" things. As in, I like change and having to do new things. That's I wasn't too worried about having to move and find new everything-- doctor, dentist, church, hair salon... I just think it makes things exciting :) But sometimes it can be hard, and you end up having to keep trying to find ones that suit you and your family. Leah wanted to get her hair done, so she and I tried out a salon. It can be hard enough just to find a place that you like, but it is even harder to find a place that knows what to do with non-asian hair. Unfortunately, it didn't really work out well *~* She really messed up Leah's long hair.....So we tried a different salon.  And after having him cut my hair, Levi's hair and Leah's hair, I'm am pertty impressed :) He totally saw what was wrong with Leah's and fixed it, made Levi's look cute, and even colored mine nicely. yay :)

see? :) Aren't they cute? :) There was a really big difference in how I felt after I left the salon. It was nice to feel like he actually listened and did what he could to give you what you asked for.

I know it probably doesn't seem like a big deal, but it was just nice to feel like I found one the many things we needed here. So today, I'm happy :)

And I do have a card too. I used stamps from Unity, Hero Arts, Impression Obsession and Papertrey Ink on this card. I thought about adding a sentiment, but I just couldn't seem to find a place to put it that I liked, so I just decided to go without.

Thanks for stopping by today!! I hope you are having a super fun day :)

aah!

Can you believe that it is almost March?? I cannot believe how fast February flew by. I am looking forward to spring though, so I don't mind too much.

I thought I would share a layout today :) This a favorite of mine. It is one that I had published in Creating Keepsakes magazine.

I just loved how it turned out. I happened to find these perfect pattern papers that matched :)

These pictures are pretty old now--Levi will be 7 soon! He's not even 2 in these pictures. *sniff* I wishe they would stop growing:(....anyway....I used several Quickutz dies here. And there are a couple Papertrey Ink stamps too.


Thanks for stopping by today! I hope your week is going  well. We've been enjoying some really nice weather here this week.yay :)

another birthday

card. We won't have another birthday here until next month. But that doesn't mean I can't make them whenever I want, right?:)

Plus since this is for a teacher, it wouldn't work for any of the kids anyway:) I just had this really cute idea for this card, so I wanted to try it out. It turned out pretty much like I pictured, so yay! I also have to say I was pretty proud of the job I did fussy cutting the pencil.heehee :)

Thanks for stopping by today! I actually got a quite a bit of stamping time in today. But, I'm still very glad that there is one more day of the weekend left:)

A happy birthday

card :)

Just a card I had fun making. And you always need birthday cards, right? These leaves are from one of my favorite Papertrey sets, Harvest Berries.  I like stamping in different colors on kraft cardstock.

Oh, and things went really well at the dentist. I think I might have finally found one that I can actually agree with and continue going to. yay :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!! I hope your week is going well.

off to the dentist.

Again.... I don't know what it is about dentists (and dermatologists).... I'm off to get a 4th opinion on what to do about the 3 bigs' teeth. So far I have received 3 completely different opinions and solutions...sigh. I'm optimistic about this one, though :) We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, here's today's card. I embossed pretty mehndi medallions in clear on the white. It is kind of hard to see in the photo, but it looks really pretty in real life :)

Here's a detail shot :) Isn't it pretty? The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!

Okay, that's it for today. We are off to the dentist. Thanks SO much for stopping  by!!