10 Years Ago Today...

... I married this sweet man on a beach here in Maui in 2001. Can I just say, eloping was one of the best decisions ever! No stress and no major expense.

We are celebrating our 10th anniversary here in our favorite place. Besides being married here, we gave our son a Hawaiian name; that's how much we love Maui! I was 6 months pregnant when we vacationed here in 2003 as our last celebration before becoming parents. Leaving the Kahului airport, we finalized Kalino as the choice for the Little Guy. Kalino means "bright one".

I intended to make an anniversary card for my husband using this picture, but I ran out of time.

Yesterday I was totally thrilled to finally meet Jen Tapler! We started blogging at the same time 3 years ago. I've known who she was since then. I got to see her very nice studio space. We went to lunch at Flatbread Company in Paia. Awesome pizza, salad, and the best sugar cane root beer. I had a lot of fun talking with her.

Thanks for stopping by!

Our View of Paradise This Week

We flew to Maui yesterday. Here's our view for the coming week. I love this place! I first visited Maui over 20 years ago and fell in love with it. It's been 4 years since our last visit and I've missed it.

As I type, there's a gecko on the wall behind the TV. Kalino is not thrilled and wants it out now, but we're trying to explain that the gecko just wants to find a meal. It will leave on it's own to find food outside.

I'm having lunch tomorrow with Jen Tapler. We've been blogging friends for about 3 years. We've talked on the phone before, but I look forward to actually meeting her.

Last week I found out I have a first cousin that lives on Maui. He's flying back from New Mexico tomorrow, so I'm going to give him a call and make time to see him.

While waiting for our luggage at the baggage claim, a little kid next to me turned around. I recognized him! He said "Hi, Mrs. Chavez". He's a first grader at Kalino's school! I volunteer in the library when he comes in each week. I met his mom and aunt. During their layover in Honolulu they also saw a 2nd grade teacher from our school. Small world, isn't it?

I wish you well in your part of the world. Later!

Happy Birthday

Hi everyone! I wanted to show the versatility of the Jeepers Creepers Hybrid Printables from Sweet Shoppe Designs by making a non-Halloween birthday card from one of the card fronts. Yesterday I featured cards and popcorn cups made with this Jen Tapler & Libby Weifenbach kit.

I trimmed one of the card fronts by using my EK Success border punch. I glued the scalloped border on the card front. I added ribbon. I used a masked off Happy Birthday stamp and stamped the sentiment on the dotted circle. I did some faux stitching to finish off the card. I threaded the button with a thin strip of the leftover cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by.

Card Ingredients
Stamps: So Many Scallops (SU!)
Paper: Lovely Lilac, white, Jeepers Creepers Hybrid Printables (Sweet Shoppe Designs)
Ink: Chalk ink (ColorBox)
Tools: Dotted Scallop edge punch (EK Success), 2" circle punch (Fiskars)
Other: button (SU!), ribbon, foam tape

Working With Jeepers Creeper Hybrid Printables

I'm SO proud of Jen Tapler! She teamed up with Libby Weifenbach to create an awesome pack of ready-to-print Halloween goodies called Jeepers Creepers Hybrid Printables from Sweet Shoppe Designs. She gave me an advanced copy. I had fun playing with the kit this weekend and today. The kit comes with 2 card fronts, 3 different tags, a cookie wrapper, tall popcorn cup, and a short popcorn cup. I just printed the PDFs and got to work. It was so easy! I messed up the printing a little bit; I was printing from the computer upstairs and my printer is downstairs. The papers came out of the printer too fast and the black ink was still a little moist. The projects piled up on each other and smeared the ink. I didn't reprint because I liked the distressed look it produced. I printed on a few different types of paper to see the difference. I have another project to show you tomorrow that is not Halloween. I wanted to show the versatility of this kit.

I got to use my Gooey Goo punch from Martha Stewart. I finally found this punch at Michael's a few weeks ago. I wanted this punch last year, but could never find it.

Thanks for stopping by!
Project Ingredients
Stamps: none
Paper: Kraft, Pumpkin Pie (SU!), Brochure paper (Xerox), UltraRS (JudiKins), parchment cardstock (CA Paper Goods)
Ink: my printer
Tools: Gooey Goo border punch (Martha Stewart), Scallop edge border punch (SU!)
Other: Jeepers Creepers Hybrid Printables, foam tape, ribbon, Green Galore button (SU!), googly eye, Silver twine (SU!)

Fun New Opportunity!

Happy Friday! This week was short, but a lot of things happened to me; good things and my most embarrassing moment of the year.

Good News #1. When we returned from our long weekend in LA, I had an email from Robin Carlton, the owner of Sweet Shoppe Designs. She asked if I would like to be a Hybrid Babe. Of course I said yes! Sweet Shoppe Designs is a cool online store with the most delicious digi designs (paper packs, images, and brushes). I'm relatively new to the digi world, but I've been wanting to get into it more. You won't see me all of sudden doing digi-scrapping layouts, but you will see me printing their papers and images and using them on my paper crafting designs. Jen Tapler is a Hybrid Babe for Sweet Shoppe Designs. I always love the designs she does. Because of Jen's suggestion, I'm on this team. Mahalo, Jen!

I got the biggest shock this morning when I was registering on the Sweet Shoppe site, Robin announced that both myself and Heather (yes...THE Heather as in "pine is here.") were newest members of the team. I gasped when I saw Heather's name. I love all her work!

Good News #2. I had to be at school super early this morning. Our local newspaper is doing a story about the Parent Volunteer Room we (the PTA) opened this year at my son's elementary school. We were meeting a reporter to talk about the new room. Parents can sign up to help on various projects to help out individual teachers (making copies, transparencies, binding booklets, etc.) or help in the library. In our room, we have a laminating machine, copier, and computer. We have a kid's corner with toys and a TV to keep our kid's occupied while we get some work done. We also have a refrigerator, coffee maker, toaster, and microwaves to make the room more welcoming. We have an area where we can sell school t-shirts, pencils, notebooks, and folders, as well as SCRIP (gift cards that earn money for the school). I'm very proud of the work we are doing.

Embarrassing Moment of the Year. On Wednesday, I triggered the fire alarm at school! I was trying to get to the PTA closet, which is next to the stage in our multi-purpose room. The room was pitch dark, so I went in feeling for the light switch. I did think to myself "this is a weird feeling switch, but it is a very huge room so maybe it has a very large switch". Duh! I pressed it and BAM lights were flashing and the noise was very loud. I tried to turn off the "switch", but it was the fire alarm. I rushed to the office, but I could already see teachers leading their students outside. I met up with the principal and confessed my that it was my fault. He and the staff were very nice about it. I emptied a school of almost 700 people in about a minute flat! I was sweating and red for at least an hour after that. I can laugh now, but I was mortified when it happened. It qualified as their September fire drill, so they don't need to have one for the rest of the month.

The Little Guy is sick today. I was up before 1 AM with him since he had a bad sore throat and a weird cough. This morning when I got back from school, I noticed he had a fever. He's currently resting and watching a show.

Have a great weekend!