HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU

As 2011 comes to an end, I'll remember the fun journey I've been thru blogland. Making new friends who share the same passion, being so inspired by other amazing bloggers while blog hopping, and reading sweet comments from all of you who visit my blog just made my year a fun-filled and fabulous one. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Here's a card for all of you with wishes for a bright, safe, healthy, and very prosperous New Year. The "firecracker" image is by Sister Stamps. Cute yah?


Other supplies: Branch die by Sizzix, flowers by Gakken which I bought in Japan, Copics, DP by DCWV, Distress Ink, Spellbinder dies, and "go" yen (a nickel) from Japan.

Well, I better hit the sack now. Need to wake up early to cook, cook, cook.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2012 "Lion Dancers" Calendar

Hope you all had a SUPER Christmas and Santa was good to you. We enjoyed a nice little family dinner and I'm so lucky that the boys helped cook. The eldest and his girlfriend grilled some Leg of Lamb, our other son grilled some steak, cooked Spicy Tofu with Noodles, baked Lemon Lucious Pie, and mini Cream Puffs. I made Won Bok Salad, Korean Chicken, mini Spring Rolls....oh and the rice. Hee-hee.

Oh boy....what a FAB day!!!! Did anyone grab some bargains at the After-Christmas sales today? I sure did. Up at 6:00 and out by 7:00. Got some Xmas wrapping paper at 50% off so I'm ready for next year. YAY!!! Also, got some BARGAINS at Ben Franklin Crafts and Island Scrapbooking. WHAT A SCORE!!! WOO-HOO!!!!

Enjoyed lunch with my friend Faye today. We were both craving noodles (of course...my favorite) and had the Special Mein Soup at 1-Plus-1 Cafe. They make DA BEST. Ummmm, I could go for another bowl right now.

I wanna share my very first "hanging" calendar featuring the "Lion Dancers" image by Sister Stamps. I inked it up with Copics, cut out the image, then applied it to a red CS cut with my Spellbinder die. The red circle was then affixed to the black scalloped piece. Here's how this idea came to be. The December month somehow tore off so I though, hey, why not make a hanging calendar. Something a little different. How do you like the washi paper? It's from Tokyu (not Tokyo) Hands in Japan.

Here's a closer look at the image. The red circle was embossed using an oriental design by Cuttlebug.

And here's the bottom section.

Other supplies used: Edge punch by Stampin Up, ribbon, and dowel. Our son's girlfriend loved the calendar so I gave it to her. She was all smiles. :-)

Thanks for stopping by and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

One Last Christmas Card.....I think....I hope

Oh brother, just when I think I'm done with everything, I realized I'm short one card for one of our sons. So I just whipped this card out a few minutes ago. Whew!!! I hope that's it because I've already put all of my Christmas stamps and embellies away.

Anyhoo, this was a fun card to make. I already had the snowman image by TGF stamped so it was just perfect to make a card with it. I rummaged thru my collection of Christmas DP and pulled out this Christmas tree "Smirk" paper by Kyla May. OK, so why not add a Christmas tree button to my Happy Holidays image too.....make it at Christmas tree theme. Sounds good!
I finished it off by distressing the edge around the snowman, used my edge punch and Happy Holidays sentiment by Stampin' Up, applied a red-dotted ribbon by American Crafts, and of course, can't forget the Spellbinder dies. And wa-la......done!

Thanks for popping in for a visit and have a very Merry Christmas!!!! I'll be back very soon with a New Year's post. Keep warm and be safe. Oh, speaking about keeping warm, it was soooo cold last night I couldn't even craft because my fingers felt like ice. I spoke to my neighbor today and he said it was 50 degree F last night. OMG, that's much too cold for me. I'd NEVER survive on the east coast for sure. Toodles till next time.

December C.A.T.S and Chinese Pretzels

Happy Christmas Eve Eve Peeps!!! Can't believe the big day is just around the corner. A few last minutes things popped up over the past few days. You know how that goes. Got those squared away. Whew. I'll be glad when we can sit down and enjoy our family Christmas dinner.....THEN hit the stores on Monday for some after-Christmas sales. Woo-hooooooooooooooo!!! That's probably the best part....for me anyway. I LOVE DEALS.

Have you seen that Hyundai commercial with the little girl singing Feliz Navidad with her dad? Oh, that is my fave commercial. She's soooo cute singing with her heart and soul. If that commercial comes on while I'm busy doing something, I always stop and run to the TV to watch it.

And did you watch X Factor last night? YAY, my fave won. Go Melanie!!!!

I want to share this sweet card I received from Mimi who was my December partner for C.A.T.S. (Card and Tag Swap). What a cute image and so perfectly colored. Love the DP too and rhinestone bling.


And here's the matching tag. Cute yah? I love the layout and embellies LOTS. THANKS MIMI!!! Check out her blog for some inspiring creations.

Oh shoots....another senior moment. I forgot to post a picture of the sparkling Christmas brads and embellies. Trust me, they are CUTE. I'll save them for my 2012 Christmas cards. THANKS AGAIN MIMI!!!

And here's a pix of the Chinese Pretzels I made the other night for gifts. Thought I'd share a pix for Colleen. Check out her inspiring blog too. She has her house so festively decorated.

Thanks so much for stopping by. HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS with your family and friends.

Star Christmas Card

Edited on 12/22: I added the 3rd paragraph.....something I almost forgot to share.

Ohhh, only 3 more days till Christmas? Are you ready? I just got thru making some Chinese Pretzels for gifts and my son is eyeballing them.

Do you have young children or grandchildren? As a child, I gotta say, Christmas was quite boring. When we had our sons (3 of 'em) I had to make it EXCITING and FUN. Soooooo, I'd give them a "Treasure Hunt." Each son would be given a note at the same time. One note might say, "Look under mom's pillow." Another "Look in the dryer." The other, "Look under the dinner table." They'd scramble around only to find more notes (about 8) telling them to look different places. Oh how fun to see their joy and excitement. FINALLY, they'd find a gift and ripped off the wrapping to find something that was on their wish list. Oh, those were Kodak moments to see them jumping for joy.

One year, they "thought" they opened all of their presents and I told them gently, "Sorry boys, no Treasure Hunt this year," and they were fine. We ate breakfast, THEN, I asked them, "Are you ready for a Treasure Hunt?" They froze for a moment looking at me and each other, and happily replied, "YAH!!! YAH!!! YAH!!!!" And the hunt began. This particular year was exceptionally exciting because I told them they had to open the gift they found "at the same time." The reason is, they wanted a Playstation system that year. One opened the system, another the controls, and the third opened a game. WOW, TALK ABOUT JOY AND EXCITEMENT. I'll always treasure those happy moments.

I also did this for Easter. If you try this, please be sure not to hide a note or the gift near anything breakable. Yikes.

Here's a card I made from one of the embossed stars that Jeri sent me. OMG, I didn't see her for years and she found me while blog hopping. How cool is that? I was so surprised when I got an email from her. She wanted me to help her create something with it. Oh boy, I tried a few times buy my mojo was malfunctioning probably from holiday overload. LOL Anyhoo, here's what came up with....finally. I love the distressed effect so I thought I'd do it to the star and green background. If you zoom in, you'll see that I embossed the green CS with a pine embossing folder from the "Bird & Reindeer" set by Sizzix.

The images and sentiment are by Pink Cat Studio colored with Copics and Stickles applied to the round "Merry Christmas" sentiment. The stripe DP is by Making Memories. Embellies are a must so I added a peppermint candy by Darice to the center of the sentiment at the top, a candy cane by Dress It Up to the little girl at the bottom, and pearls (for buttons) by Kaiser Craft.


Jeri, thanks for the stars! Hey, did you know we are related (calabash) in two different ways?

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS. Be safe and keep warm.

Thanks for stopping by.

"Yuki" Ornament Card & Mochi Pounding Pix

Hope you're all enjoying some nice and sunshiny days. OMG, we've been having rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, and more rain. And it's supposed to be worse tomorrow. Good grief.

Here's an ornament card I made for Linda for the December Secret Sister Swap. The "ornament" is made using a Spellbinder die. How fun! I placed the top on the fold to create this card then inked "Yuki" by Sister Stamps with Copics. The red cherry blossom is from Wild Orchids, small lavendar flowers by Mulberry Bear, large leaf punch by McGill, and small leaf punch by Punch Bunch. To give the leaves more definition I distressed the edges. I LOVE embossing folders and used dots by Cuttlebug on the green trim, then used an EK edge punch.
Here's a peek inside the card.

The sentiment is by Dandelion Design. Don't you think it goes perfectly with Yuki hugging her toy-filled Christmas stocking?

Now on to mochi pounding. Cely requested pictures and here they are. I wish I took more. Shucks.

The day before mochi pounding, we wash then soak a 5 lb. bag of mochi rice in water. The following day, the rice is steamed in a wood fired steamer until it's soft. Then it's transferred into a large stone bowl for pounding. Then several of the guys, each with a long stick, will poke at the same time to soften it more. Now it's ready to be "pounded" which is a 2-person operation.

Well, here I am getting ready to pound with my hubby.

We need to have good timing so we don't end up hitting the other person's "hammer." Also, a good aim is a must so we don't hit the side of the "bowl." If that happens (and I did it before), the "hammer" ends up with splinters. Yikes. Who wants to eat mochi with wood splinters? LOL. Good thing they always have extra hammers.

The men folks do most of the pounding but as each family's mochi is pounded, the members of that family get in a few "hits."

After the mochi is pounded several times, someone will turn the mochi by hand. Oh, and we need to be careful not to pound his hand too.....dangerous job. LOL :-)

Once the mochi is pounded, it gets transferred to a long table that is sprinkle with "katakuriko" so the mochi won't stick to table and our hands. The ladies then make kazari or ko mochi.

Okie dokie, that's Mochi Pounding 101. :-)

Nighty night and thank you for visiting. Have a great week.

Winner of my Merry Christmas Candy

12/19/11 - Hi Peeps, just wanted to let you know that I received an email from Colleen. Congrats to her. Hope you all have a safe, warm, and Merry Christmas.

Hope you all had a great weekend. We went "mochi pounding" yesterday and had lots of fun seeing and chatting with our relatives.

The winner of my Merry Christmas Candy is COLLEEN whose name was randomly pulled by my son. Please send me an email by Wednesday, 12/21/11 at 9:00 p.m. (Hawaii Standard Time). If not, another name will be drawn.

Colleen said...
Thank you so much for a chance to win some fun and very generous blog candy. What you are giving away is looks super yummy. I espcially love the HK stickers. :) One thing on my list for my News Year's Resolution is to loose some weight.

Thank you all for visiting my blog and hope you all have a WONDERFUL and SAFE holiday season.

Hugs,
Karen