break time.

It's finally summer break time :) I think I might be even more excited than the kids lol. We'll only have about 10~14 days for break, but I intend to enjoy every.single.day. Really, I do :) I think the boys feel the same way too, though, because they have spent the whole day up in their room, playing, fighting and finding toys that have been lost for months :)

Today's card is another elegant one (remember how I like to get out supplies and make several things using them and my scraps?)  This card came from "elegant" scraps lol. I really liked the pink and black combo. And I also used the rest of my one piece of silver cardstock heehee :) The music background is my wonderful huge square one from Impression Obsession. Love how it can cover a whole card vertically or horizontally :) I heat embossed the damask on the circle after stamping it a slow drying pigment ink.

Thanks for stopping by today! I'm going to enjoy my break, hopefully by making some cards :)

I think it's time...

for another layout. I made this one a few weeks ago, but I'm pretty sure I haven't shared it yet. So sorry if  I did!

These pictures are from last year when Miss Emma was first learning to eat by herself. She's eating broccoli :) which was, and still is, one of her most favorite foods. She prefers veggies over meat all the time. And she insists on calling eggs "chicken", which I suppose, isn't too far off, right?! Anyway, back to the layout-- I used some Fancy Pants Papers and some Prima flowers. I stamped, colored and trimmed out some PTI butterflies. Oh, and I die cut the letters out of coasters from PTI too, just for something different.

Short and sweet today. We've got some school to do and then we are going to the kids' first lesson at their new swimming class. Hoping things go well. They are all super excited :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

i don't...

drink coffee. At all. Or tea. Or even hot chocolate. I never developed a taste for coffee or tea, and I figured why try when I know I get more than enough caffeine from my coke, right? And as for the hot chocolate, well, I just really don't like the idea of *hot* drinks. I am completely aware that I'm probably in a very small minority here.Despite my aversion to all the aforementioned drinks, I simply adore cute mugs :) I mean really, what's more fun than drinking out of a really cute mug? So I have several of my own that I use. I simply drink my coke out of them. And if you haven't tried this, I really do recommend it. It is more fun than you might think :)

I also adore coffee and other mug related stamp sets. So much so that I *almost* tried to start drinking coffee just so I could feel more justified in buying more of them. In the end I just reasoned that I could just make card for my coffee-drinking friends with the stamps. I know, my reasoning is exceptional :) Today's card I made with probably cutest set of "coffee stamps" ever. Love their rustic look.

I chose to go with a really CAS card. I love how crisp the white looks for CAS cards. I used a the matching dies to cut out the mug. And isn't the heart-shaped steam too cute?

Oh,  I have to add in a quick brag on my little golfer :) She went to her probably last competition for season on Tuesday, and she tied for 3rd!! She's has been golfing for a lot less time than most of the other kids there, and only been in a couple of competitions so far. So proud of her for all her hard work.

Thanks for stopping by today! Are you ready for the weekend? I am sure--unfortunately our "weekend" finishes today...:)

I guess...

 I spoke too soon. Or I jinxed myself >_<  Miss Emma apparently decided  to make up for behaving during the day by screaming all night long. She speaks tons and can communicate fine, but she still wouldn't tell me why she  was unhappy with me and the world....I'm pretty sure there wasn't a real reason. oh well, sleep is overrated anyway, right?! At least no one else seems to hear her crying and get woken up.

But I still do have a card :) I mean hey, no sleep and no crafty time would be even worse. Gotta have some fun too :)

This card was fun to make :) Kind of just came together as I was playing. That's the best. And as an added bonus Tomio noticed it sitting on my desk and said "hey, that's a great card! The magazines will choose that one."  They didn't, but I still really liked it :) Love kraft and red together, and in case I hadn't mentioned it yet, I {heart} my PTI impression plates. I *need* some more. So far I think this one is my favorite.

Well, thanks so much for stopping by! I'm hoping to get a little more sleep tonight than I did last night :)

enjoying the cool...

I have really been enjoying the cooler weather the last week or so. Seriously,  I don't think I can remember a year where there have been this many cool days in July since I've lived in Japan (and I've been here about 20 years!) Not that I really go out in the heat all that much anyway lol. But since we don't have central air, it's nice not to have to get all sweaty just going to the potty heehee :) And I'm also pretty thrilled with my little Miss Emma lately. Remember, this is the girl that had to go to the corner screaming rather than eat her cookie at the  table. So yesterday she got a "preacher cookie" and promptly walked to the sofa and sat down. So like always, I said "Eat at the table Emma." She looked at me.... and I finished saying "don't want to make a mess on the sofa, right? So we eat at the table." And she did :) She said "I eat at table". I'm not sure if I'm conveying the significance of this, but trust me, it's huge :)

And now for a card.


I've been thinking of making a card with kraft and black for awhile, and I finally did :) I lov bee how they go together, so I will definitely be doing it again. This cute little butterfly is from Hero Arts. Since I cut it out and the antennae were gone, I used some twine instead.

Thanks for popping in today!! Hope you have a great weekend!!

some elegance...

I don't usually make very "elegant" cards. Or very elegant anything for that matter lol, it's just not "me". But for some reason that's how this card turned out. And when I showed it to Leah ( I usually show her most things I make since she will appropriately ooh and aah and say things like "oh, you heat embossed that flower?" or "oh, that's the new stamp you got, isn't it?")  the first thing she said was "It's pretty! So...elegant."

I'm thinking it must be the color choices? I must admit I pretty much almost never use silver. I think this might be the only sheet of silver cardstock I have. But I had fun. I really like how it turned out stamping the black script and the doing the clear embossing over it. The script background , by the way, is exactly what I had been wanting. I had been searching for a pretty whole background script stamp for a long time, and knew this one was perfect when I found it :) The link is to the store where I got it too, the have excellent overseas shipping :) All the other stamps are from PTI :)

I was happy to use ribbon on this card. I was beginning to be afraid I wasn't the ribbon type anymore(!) I think it was just a phase :)

Oh, in case you were wondering, Miss Emma is doing just great without her bottle~yay :) She now just asks for her "elephant", which is what she calls her sippy cup :) You know, because it has a picture of an elephant on it. It's fun to hear her say "Mama, can we have more elephant, please?" :) (she never asks for things just herself, it's always "we")

Thanks for stopping by!! I have laundry to hang out and school to teach. I hope you have some fun planned too :)

no card...

So I don't have a card for today. Still working on family (read: discipline) things lately. Even though all my older kids were weaned from their bottles much sooner, has still been taking hers for comfort. I'd been meaning to wean her from it anyway, so today when she seemed to have lost it (again!) and I really couldn't find, I just told her she had to make do with her sippy cup. She managed just fine of course. I even was able to put her to bed without her bottle, which is a pretty big feat, especially if you know Miss Emma and her...um, stubbornness. It did take her longer to actully go to sleep, but I'm hoping it will improve her overall sleep though :) Hey, maybe if I'm lucky she'll start sleeping in a little, maybe even make to 6 sometimes. yeah, better not get my hopes up lol :) Anyway, that and school just has been taking a up a lot of time, so not enough crafty time left it seems. I'll have to be sure to adjust that for sure. Too many days without making cards isn't good for the soul :)

But, as I'm sure you are well aware, every good blog post must have pictures, right? So how about some of
my little Miss Emma?

I  {heart} her happy smile :) And her wild hair :) It's always extra fuzzy and cute after her naps lol. I so hope her curls stay! All the rest of us have straight her--she gets the curls from her Papa.

Anyway, that's all for me today. I *did* manage to clean up my desk, so hopefully I'll get some creating done too. Hope you had a great weekend :)