Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!

I was depending on Hallmark for my Chinese New Year cards, but unfortunately, I waited too long and they were sold out. So, I was forced to use my craft supplies, lol. I bought the Firecrackers stamp from Hanko Designs in December when Sister Stamps announced their closing. So a big shout out to Hanko for letting its customers know about the sad news. Unfortunately, the Firecrackers stamp is sold out, but it looks like the Lion Dance stamp is still available.

The reality is, I would have hoarded this stamp for years, had not Hallmark forced my hand. I enjoyed the stamp so much, I had to place another order before all of the Sister Stamps are sold out. If you're interested in any, I suggest you order now since I noticed a few more stamps were sold out since I ordered.

I hope the Year of the Monkey brings you prosperity and good fortune!

Owl be home for Christmas

AKA, I couldn't resist this cutie from Target. How much could I not resist? I even paid full price (only $5)! He'll be going to the office with me on Monday.

And yes, I am doing a bit of crafting. It feels good to play with paper again.

Happy New Year!

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Chinese New Year's eve was last week, but since the celebration lasts for two weeks, I figured I had a bit of time to decorate my office. Earlier this week, I made paper fortune cookies using these instructions. All the fortunes are somewhat work related.

They were a big hit! Several disappeared before I could take a picture so I had to make more to bring in and then get my picture.

Tips:

• I happen to have a Quickutz 4x4 die with a circle, but you could hand cut your circles.
• Lighter weight paper (but not as light as Chatterbox) worked better than heavier weight paper (Basic Grey, Creative Imagination).
• If you use heavier paper, you need extra strong adhesive to hold the cookie in place. Glue dots won't cut it.

Season's Greetings

I'm old fashioned and enjoy sending snail mail. And did I ever tell you I like matching my stamps to the season?

Jingle all the way

I decided to decorate my office, cubicle actually, for the holidays. This was the first thing I made:

I used a glass block and bells that I purchased from Hobby Lobby and ribbon that I custom printed with an Epson LabelWorks printer.

The hardest part was adding the bells to the glass block in the office. It was a little embarrassing to "jingle" as I walked in with my supplies and more embarrassing to really jingle as I poured the bells into the block. Oh well, better than me singing Christmas carols!

Almost ready for Christmas

Only one more gift to wrap and these are "wrapped" too. We're bringing rice balls and nu mai fan (Chinese sticky rice) to Christmas dinner tomorrow. We'll fry the rice balls tomorrow morning. Rice and rice, from each of our cultures. I know the family likes the rice balls; we'll see about the sticky rice.

Christmas in July

(most of) our haul from our annual trek to the Hallmark store. I am a bit amused that Mr. Fix-it collects more ornaments than I do. Although I am considering starting a new collection. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see that ornament in person until October. Yet another opportunity for Hallmark to get more of my money. Although some might think they have enough of my money since I've been collecting the Nostalgic Houses and Shops series for 27 years.

Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day

It was a double celebration (I can't remember it ever happening before) with the start of Year of the Tiger and a day for love. We didn't do anything special, which I hope is not a bad omen for the coming year, but then I'm not really superstitious. I did find time to make Mr. Fix-it a card (nothing like waiting until the last minute) and then a neighbor brought over some yummy snacks. So while we did not do anything traditional, it was still a nice day.

Don't forget Mom

Mother's Day is this Sunday. What are your plans? Unfortunately, Mom and I don't live in the same town anymore. But I did make this card to send her. Actually, this was a card I made a while ago and I just added the text. Let's hope USPS cooperates and the card arrives by Saturday.

Thankful for

Family, especially A since he had to put up with me on the long drive home, friends, food. I'm thankful for a safe drive to and from visiting family for Thanksgiving. But I'm not thankful for the flu. I thought I had food poisoning, which I'm sure you can imagine made for an uncomfortable drive home. I slept almost the whole ride home. Had some water, half a Luna bar (and neither stayed in my system for long). But now I think I've got the flu. I'm feeling quite miserable at the moment.

Blah, halloween

My carpooler was anxious to leave work on time so she could get home for the trick or treaters. Me, I was just happy to get home. A cooked dinner (yahoo!) and we're vegging in front of the TV.

The porch and kitchen lights are out, the universal sign for "don't ring the doorbell," lol. We did have one kid knock and ring, but hopefully, she'll be the only one.

So, in celebration of tonight, Happy Halloween, even if I am a humbug.

Happy Independence Day!

Truly, I feel fortunate to live here in America. We're not a perfect country, but we have the power to change, to improve, to speak our minds. I've done some traveling overseas and really, we do have it better here.

As we were driving around today, I noticed a dearth of flags. There were only two homes with flags in the neighborhood. Both families are immigrants. What does that say about the rest of us? Are we taking today for granted? Are we too busy shopping or BBQing?

I remember my dad would put up our flag every holiday. I loved helping him take down the flag at the end of the day. I used to know the proper way to fold a flag, but unfortunately, I don't remember anymore.

Thank you America!