happy spring--happy earth day

just wanted to share something brandon wrote (all on his own) back in march in school. notice how he just says that my mom likes me instead of love! haha

happy earth day....a day late. my earth friendly element in the card above is the grass. it's made from a coffee cup sleeve, cut and fringed, then inked.

mother's day is coming up. what are you all planning on giving to your mom or to the moms in your life? it's always so hard to figure out what to give. i started making my cards earlier this year! the one above is layered 4x. the ones below were fast & easy to make. stamp, cut, stickled, adhere and stapled.

edited: trying something new in blogger to make my pictures bigger. it worked but also cut it off some on the side. i am too lazy to fix them.

welcome to hawaii

look at this poor little traveler! the last 2 hrs of the flight was rough (for me). both brandon & bryan got real antsy. i can only let them play w/ the iTouch, iPhone, and leapser so much before their brain gets fried. too many snacks may give tummy aches so i had to pace the goodies for them too. bryan finally fell asleep the last 1.5 hrs before we landed. eddie just took the whole car seat and carried him off the plane like that. one of the workers saw us and was kind enough to give us a smart carte and we wheeled him off in it through the airport. i was worrying about bryan waking up and then he'd be up the rest of the night. thankfully, he remained sleeping through a rental car transfer, a trip up to the hotel room, and changing him into PJs.


our room had a gorgeous view of the garden and looked out to the beach. we slept a few nights w/ the balcony windows open and fell asleep to the sound of waves---and rain! it rained a lot while we were there and was windy. but it was off & on.

while we were there, i got a chance to meet up with the very talented donna. go check her out---she's amazing and so so sweet! she treated us to a great lunch and even stocked us up with a bunch of hawaiian snacks! came in so handy and she knew exactly what we needed! she also sent me home with a heavier bag with some crafty goodies!! can't complain there ;) !! brandon & bryan just talked her ear off......brybry was all over donna! i only wished i wasn't so distracted with the boys and i wanted to talk to donna more. i hope donna wasn't scared off by my 2 monsters!

brandon could have spent our entire vaca on the beach! he loves to build sand castles and just dig his hands & toes in sand. brybry, our fear-of-water boy took a real liking to the ocean! at 1st, he was reluctant to go into the water but once he did, there was no turning back.

rain and no parking at diamond head one day brought us to the farmer's market nearby. i think the boys made out a lot better. they had shaved ice for their breakfast! we also went to aloha stadium to their swap meet. it was suuny, rainy, sunny, rainy. the boys had a ball there and bryan would catch streams of water coming off the vendor's tarps. his hair was soaking wet by the time we left!

only in hawaai would we ever see a smart car with a surf board rack! very cute!

i mentioned in one of my posts that i was bummed the boys would be missing easter back at home. low and behold, there was an easter celebration going on right at the hotel easter day! lucky us! they even had a bunny there!

there were a ton of crafts for the kiddos to make. can you tell what craft the pic below was for?i caught both boys being picky & choosy about the eggs they were hunting. bryan was taking his sweet ol' time using 2 fingers to pick up eggs. brandon, shook each egg by his ear and put them back down if he didn't like the sound of it! in the end, they had more than enough but sheesh!

we were told that there are 5 "special" eggs that contains a winning tix for something. guess who was 1/5? [his winning tix is on the last row, middle pic]

BRYBRY! he claimed his winning tix at the front desk for this easter basket! brandon was a little disappointed he didn't have that 'special' piece of paper....bryan sensed it and just handed brandon his winning tix. what a great little bro!

there was almost 2 of everything in the basket and bryan didn't even like the peeps.

we got to ride a 90 minute train ride. this is where the boys learned how to do the 'shaka' sign and they haven't stopped since.

my boys[brandon---always the ham] we saw many rainbows on this vacation!my birthday dinner at roys. dinner was not w/out incident. bryan tipped himself on his chair and fell. people felt sorry for him but i really didn't. i dunno HOW many times i told him not to do it and........y'know, they just never listen. dinner was yummy though!here we are at the dole pineapple plantation.

fun maze. more fun was the dole whip.shaved ice again. cannot pass on matsumotos!

the boys are hooked!

we love asking random strangers to take our pic!
thanks for looking at my gibillion pics!

have your cake and eat it too

so i got a new laptop for my birthday last month from hubby! i got it right before we left on our trip to hawaii. my last laptop was fine untilllllllllllllllllllllllllllll some little boy stepped on top of it!! i suspect he's stood on top of it more than once. the computer still worked fine but just the screen would flop over if it was too slanted. it has a huge crack on the outside corner. i had to always prop it up just so. not anymore! i am still geting used to this laptop. when editing pictures, i thought i rotated the pic but when loading them, it still shows that it's still sideways. ughhhh. still getting used to it. the pic of the card above---- i had to upload it like 4x before i got it rotated right! not liking this photo editing program on this computer.
trying to finish the hawaii pics to show y'all. at the rate i'm going, they'll be a thing of the past!
also, if you would just give me your link to your blogs so i can bookmark them. i have to start from scratch all over again. if i've commented on your blogs within the last week, then i bookmarked you.another birthday present i received was the bloggie by sony. this present was from the boys. i still need to learn how to use that! [any reviews out there?] yep, i got techie toys this year! no crafty things, can you believe that?!

edited to add: the card above made the galllery here. =)

cupcakes vs. muffins

ain't that the truth!!

simple sketch & blog candy winner

back with another simple paper pieced card using some scraps from the previous card. again, i paper pieced the wings, blinged the body. also, i've been trying to use up more of my neglected supplies. for instance, this embossed scalloped border. i don't think i've touched it in a year or 2! i used a simple sketch from here. simple is my thing and that's all i really have time for with my 2 boys!

back to the grind of my 2 day work week..............happy monday!

BTW, the winner of my blog candy post from 3/23 is.......................................Toothy (heather)! i will contact you soon or contact me with your addy. will get your goodies in the mail ASAP! again, my scientific method of picking is writing down the names (23 from that post---1 person commented 2x), cutting the names out and dumping them into a bowl for brandon to pick. i think i will have blog candy once a month so keep an eye out for it!

snail mail

playing with my nesties, new stamps, some felt and bling. paper pieced the butterfly. realized i really need a cloud stamp....had to compensate by using blue dotty paper.
isn't it great to receive snail mail? i always enjoy getting mail---happy mail. i can do without the bills =) will make an effort to send out more cards and notes to my friends & family. Hoping it will brighten up someone's day.

paper dolls

i remember playing paper dolls with my sister when we were little. paper piecing this cute little boy & girl reminded of that!
going to a wedding today and made this for the happy couple. dropping off the boys too.... YAY! i will be able to eat my dinner in peace!