Fleur De Lis Wedding Card

made this for our friends getting married today :) i almost panicked because my silhouette blade was showing some signs of dullness while making this card. i thought i wouldn't have finished in time, but the blade pulled through (thankfully!) anyway, i busted out my stampin up background stamp and some perfect pearls dust to go along with the works of the machine and voila! simple, yet beautiful wedding card that ties in the bride and groom's fleur de lis design.

TC's First Trip to the Zoo

For my husby's 29th birthday, we decided to have a family day at the Honolulu Zoo. First of all, husby and I are no way the outdoorsy type! We're usually content with eating in air-conditioned restaurants for special occasions, hehe. But now that we have TC in our life, its important to take him out to explore and learn new things. So we packed our cooler with musubis and drinks, slathered on the sunscreen, and headed out to Waikiki.

Man, we had an awesome time there! It was pretty chill, strolling around and showing TC all the animals he's only seen in books. TC was being a good boy, too, and didn't fuss or try to climb out of the stroller. Husby was also amazed at what he saw since he hadn't been to the zoo in ages. I especially liked the relaxing lunch we had. We sat on a table near the zoo cafe and ate our musubis while some pigeons and a peacock roamed around us nonchalantly.

I look forward to more family outings with husby and TC. We want to hit up the Waikiki Aquarium or Sea Life Park next, but we'll see. In the meantime, here are some pictures husby took on our visit.


We were fortunate to be there when the elephants were taking baths and exercising. TC was amazed (and probably somewhat confused at the size of these animals! Lol!)



TC kept pointing to the play structure near the keiki zoo, but we didn't let him play there, unfortunately, since there were too many kids on it.



TC was hiding from us during lunch and playfully chasing the pigeons.



You know you let your son have a good time when he knocks out quick during the car ride home :)

baby steps

i am thankful for having a career job that pays the bills and grateful that i am still employed in this failing economy, blah, blah, blah. but everyday i come to work, i realize that working with children is no longer my passion anymore. yeah, they're fun, whatever, but this is not what i want to be doing for the rest of my life. i have no desire to be responsible for other children anymore. this was a good job when i was single and childless because all my energy could go to my students. but now that i'm a mom myself, my interest in early childhood education has changed. i want to be home with my son more often. i want all my energy to just go to my OWN son and family. and i want to do something with my life that i actually ENJOY and find rewarding. is it selfish to want all these things instead??? i think not!!!

at the same time, venturing into something new is pretty scary and overwhelming to me. first of all, i don't know a darn thing about owning/running a small business! i've been trying to read up about where to begin and asking my own dad for advice (he owns his own welding business). for now, i know that building a successful business takes time. so i'm not rushing into it. i'm just taking baby steps. yesterday, i purchased a digital kit and with the guidance of my "tech-ie" husby, i created my banner and avatar for my etsy store. you don't know how proud i was to see them up on my page! lol! for me, this is just the beginning of, gosh, i dunno, exactly...maybe a new career change that i've been dying to make, maybe my chance to finally be a stay-at-home-mom, and maybe some real satisfaction at what i do for a living :) all i can do is pray and keep moving forward, one thing at a time...

birthday dress

a former student of mine invited me to her birthday party. (she was one of my favorites, btw! :) and at the same time, i wanted to experiment with a new dress pattern. so of course, i tried my best and worked carefully to make this especially for HER. she also has an adorable baby brother, so i made a matching onesie to go with her dress. i hope she likes it. i had fun making this for my "roxy girl".

Card for My Daddy :)

I made this for my dad whose welding business has reached it's 15th anniversary. I was pretty happy to find a silhouette design that represented some of the ornamental gates that my dad has made over the years. I also love that I still had some 'hardware' brads to use that complements this card perfectly.

Try and Try Again

i told myself i'd stay away from making more bags since i messed up real bad the last time i attempted to make one. but i really LOVE this alexander henry fabric and i really wanted to make something else out of it at a slightly higher skill level. so i challenged myself to another bag, taking my time to study the pattern and sew carefully. this actually came out better than i thought :) so my bag-making confidence is now restored and i guess i shall try other bag patterns in the future.

i would probably add some interfacing and maybe more embellishments, but i like the whole 'less is more' concept and that the beautiful fabric speaks for itself.

new stuff

some new projects i did the other week