be merry

a quick post because my 8 month old is in a very needy mood.

finally finished and mailed all the xmas cards to everyone we love & care about.
over 40 of them.
all done by my hands.
and maiya helped me seal all the envelopes.
such beautiful santa's helper.

i used tags from 7gypsies that had been stored away (for a LONG time).
then used some patterned papers from different amm & cocoa daisy kits.
crate paper, october afternoon, lily bee, my mind's eye pp's.
fiskars border punch and an inkadinkado stamp.
and there you go.

and for the final reveal....

be merry...

xoxo,
j

{ 8 months }

yey-yah!
she turned 8 months today.
and she's already hairstylin'.
check out the 2nd photo...
heehee...

she is now a full-time, fast-time crawler.
and has promoted to holding onto things to stand up.
i think she's gonna be an early walker.
o my!

working on a birthday card today.
and trying to finish off the xmas cards to get them mailed out next monday.

will share soon.

14 more days til travel time.
can hardly wait!

weeeehhhhh!!!

have a great weekend!

and here's sierra...

introducing a new family member of ours....

we found her at the antelope valley animal adoption center just yesterday, 12.4.2011.
she's a german shephard mix.
a lil over a year old.
and she's a healthy girl.
so far her temperment is pretty good.
she's a pretty good dog.
very smart.

i'm so happy she's a part of our family.
and she will be for a very long time.

"hi!  my name is sierra!"

where did we get the name?
we actually had to work at it and come to an agreement.
we came up with koda, koa, shelby, athena, tisa, etc.
but we just couldn't get a good grasp on a name.
then i said to my hubby...
"what about one of your fave beers?"
(because he loves beer).
he looked at me and said..."sierra!"
and me and maiya both agreed.

sierra...welcome home.

at this time, on this date

o my!
gotta share this one...finally!

here's the layout i've been wanting to post for awhile...
i used some american crafts pp and cardstock and letter stickers from my stash.
i've been wanting to use this pp for a long time but just couldn't figure out when and with what...
also used scraps and scraps from some cocoa daisy kits.
crate paper, echo park, jillibean soup, october afternoon, sassafras, etc.
did some tone-on-tone layering of some border punches and doodling.
spray inked here and there too.
also used a ribbon holder as a template for those yellow painted circles you see there.
so fun.

the photo was taken during my and my hubby'z trip in seattle for our 1st yr wedding anniversary.
that was back on 3/13/2010.
the picture was taken exactly at 1:36 p.m., thus the title.

okay, okay...
here it is with the lil dittiez...

a nice way to end the week.

tomorrow nite is date nite while our wonderful neighbors watch the girlz.
it's been too long since we've had one.
dinner & a movie.
can hardly wait!

have a great weekend!

happy birthday to K

today is a special niece's birthday.
she turned 11 today.
and we sent this one to her last week...

i used a cocoa daisy kit "cherry soda"
and used martha stewart punch, hero arts stamp, stickles, uniball signo and ek success pens from my stash.
a nice, simple and quick card.
loved how it turned out.

here are the close-ups...

lastly, i'd like to give a lil peeky sneakz to a page layout i completed over a week ago...
ya know...
the one i told you about here????

more to come later on this week.
make sure you come back and check it out.
okay?
okay!

lataz!!!!

happy gobble gobble

from our family to yours...
have a wonderful, happy thanksgiving!

i am most grateful for the love of my family.
we are so blessed to have each other.

what are you grateful for?

xoxo,
jd

an ode to sea-town

i use to live in seattle...
close to the downtown area.
went and graduated from seattle university.
use to work for the city of seattle for about 8 years.
went clubbin' quite a few weekends.

what i did not do is take pictures.
i wasn't into taking pix back then.
i did not explore it as much as i should have.
and now that is something i totally regret.
but i have at least been around the downtown area, pike place...
many restos too.
i just never took photos of these events, happenings.

but what i am grateful for is that i got engaged at the top of space needle.
that we had our 1st year wedding anniversary there too.
i've gone and explored with my family there too before we moved to CA.

i miss seattle.
next time we go there...
i want to:

• take more pix
• eat at THe Confectional for some cheesecake
• walk around the downtown area and Pike Place Market
• take more pix
• have some good dimsum
• walk by the waterfront
• take more pix.

i did manage to take a few pix of sea-town before we moved to sunny CA...

aaaahhhh, i love seattle.
i love WA state.

oh, btw...i started a scrapbook page layout.
i started in just this past veteran's day weekend.
using one of these photos.
can you guess which one?

aaaahhhh...the suspense.
stay tuned.

"whuzzamin!" she says...

my 10 yr old daughter, maiya, loves to come up with the most unique words.
like "whuzzamin"
in the maiya dictionary it's defined as "awesome."

so from there, that's how we came up with the title for this LO.
used the cocoa daisy kit, "printer's drawer."
i used some embossing powder and my nifty heat embossing tool by american crafts.
embossed it on cardstock, then punched some shapes, adhered with foam adhesives.
then doodled around those punched shapes to make them pop more.
also added a few buttons on them too.
lot's of doodling around the chipboard letters and around the LO.

it took me 2 1/2 weeks total really to finish this one.
i had finished it in 1.5 hours.
but for some reason something was missing and i couldn't say it was finished.
so i just put it down, took a break.... a LONG break.
added the burlap string and staples one day.
took another LONG break.
then a couple of days ago, added the punched starburst shapes and buttons on the right side of the pix.
and voila!
it is completo!!!!

and without further ado...

and the dittiez...

these 2 pix of her was on her 1st day of 4th grade.
i was going to just scrap 1 of them.
but i loved both of them so much, decided to do 2.
love the different lighting in each of them.

well...it's time for a nice long weekend.
have a good one.

and happy veteran's day!
especially to my loving and hard-working hubby!

xoxo,
j

{ 7 months }

selene turned 7 months yesterday (11.9.2011)...
she is crawling big time and all over the place...
has become an expert screamer, laugher, growler...
expertise in letting you know when she doesn't like peaches by holding her mouth shut...
a binky extraordinaire, at times...
and just an all-time lovable lubby dubby lil thang...

go go go lil girl!

xoxo

what's to eat?

some yummiez to share...

enchiladas...

a new fave snack, mint oreos w/ nonfat milk (it's 1/2 healthy...lol)...

homemade pesto on herbed chicken tortellini....

hubby made us some homemade fries with lots of ground pepper in ketchup, grilled some hotdogs and onions...

homemade baked apples...

snack time:  pita bread w/ a spread of garlic hummus...

the very last spoonful from the tub vanilla ice cream, just for yours truly...

lunch at panera, half a sierra turkey sandwich, french onion soup...

dinner at domingo's, one of our fave mexican restos; i had the soft taco beef asada...

an after-workout treat, lowfat cottage cheese, a lil honey & strawberries...

a nice appetizer at the yard house, sweet potato fries with a maple-bacon dip...

then i had the grilled korean bbq tacos at the yard house (it was yumm-o, but the portions were definitely not big enough for my hubby)...

i've got to do more posts like this, huh?

maybe i will.