The most wonderful time of the year...

Thought I was done with my Christmas shopping, but I just realized that my furry-faced friend has not been checked off my list yet. This is a photo of my favorite woofer from a couple years back. I remember giving her these red and green rawhide lollipop treats and she grasped them between her paws and ate them like a proper lady. It was so funny to watch!

Well, Christmas is tomorrow and I still have lots to do! Next year, I vow to "do less" in December since the holidays sort of took me by surprise this time around. I've never felt so rushed and ill-prepared as I do this year. I've been asking Santa (and everyone around me) to give me the gift of time this Christmas. I hope it'll fit under the tree...

Speaking of time, I'm closing the studio for the holidays through January 6. I wish I could say that I'll just be playing the whole time, but that's never the case. I do have some very special plans and some MONUMENTAL events to attend, so it'll definitely be fun even if I have to squeeze in a few hours of work here and there.

I may pop in for a blog post here...and a blog post there...here a post, there a post, everwhere a post, post. Or, I may not. I'm giving myself permission to NOT do things and engage in some holiday laziness (that's a huge gift to myself). In any case, I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! It warms my heart to think about all my clients who will be spending their first Christmas together as husband and wife. *sigh*

ReinBEER

I'm still trying to finish up a few Emi Ink projects, but I squeezed in a quick...and I mean QUICK...arts and crafts session to whip up these root beer reindeer for family and friends. Someone sent me a photo of these adorable guys last week and I couldn't NOT make them. I only wish I could credit the creative person who came up with the idea! This is everything I used:

• Henry Weinhard's root beer (it was on sale and I liked their label the best)


• brown pipe cleaner


• red pom poms


• googly eyes


• red satin ribbon


• jingle bells


• glue dots

I tackled these assembly line style and put my husband to work twisting all the antlers while I stuck the eyes and noses on. The finishing touch was the two little bells dangling from the loosely tied satin ribbon. That's it! A cute addition to any gift.

Up on the housetop

When you're competing against a 4 1/2-year-old in a gingerbread house competition, and his parents are among the judges, expect to lose. So was the case when I competed head-to-head in a gingerbread showdown with my friends' son this past weekend. I did win one category: Most Competitive. Oh well, I tried. I don't blame my team (aka my husband) or the lack of planning. I blame my inexperience. In all my years of celebrating Christmas and indulging in every imaginable sweet treat possible, this was the FIRST time I ever built a gingerbread house. And it was more work than I thought it would be! But it was loads of fun and I can't wait for next year's rematch.

And because I'm a gracious loser, I've posted the photo of the winning house...I love the dog bones used to tile Snoopy's roof. And the entire design was artistic and creative with just the right amount of whimsy.

Ahh, I never had a chance. :)

Golden rings

On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me - 165 golden rings.

Naomi Lee from Les Saisons was kind enough to send me this photo of a client's pretty gold napkins with the gold, floral-embossed paper napkin rings that I made over the weekend. The imported paper was also used as a wraparound belly band on the couple's invitations...I will be updating my client gallery soon with more photos!

So, it's been another busy week and I'm counting down the days until I can take some time off for our annual trip. I'm trying to ignore the fact that, once again, I will most certainly be ill-prepared for a chilly Midwest visit. Instead, I keep repeating this to myself, "Fireplaces, hot chocolate, wool socks...oh my!" For now, though, I really need to keep my focus on the tasks at hand.

Over the past month, I was hit with a flurry of rush jobs. I'm about 70% done with the work that's due before Christmas, but as soon as we fly back home in January, I know I'll need to hit the ground running. It will be an interesting couple of weeks, that's for sure!

Knots be gone!

In the midst of chaos, my hubby and I found a bit of peace and tranquility in the form of a long overdue couples massage this past weekend. This was a WEDDING gift from a couple of gracious friends a year and a half ago, and because we could never find the perfect time to schedule our appointment, we decided to pick the most inopportune time - smack dab in the middle of the busy holiday season.

I loved the hour-long massage and felt the tension slipping away as the knots in my neck and shoulders were given extra special attention. My husband, on the other hand, was less enthralled by the whole experience. If I left it up to him, he probably would have traded in the massage for a cold beer and some chips and salsa. That's HIS way of decompressing from a stressful work week. To each his own, I guess.

Time out

For weeks now, I've been wishing for some quiet time...wishing for the world around me to just s-l-o-w down a bit. Well, I got exactly what I wished for.

Yesterday's torrential rain wreaked havoc on many parts of the island and at 8:30 in the morning, the power at my place went out. It didn't come back on until 4:30 in the afternoon. In my completely wired world, that is a looooong time to be unplugged.

I did manage to sneak away for a short meeting which meant navigating the flooded, debris-covered roads, but once I was back at home things slowed down to a snail's pace. With no electricity to bring my gloriously powerful PC to life, I was forced to check emails on my phone. Having to peck out responses on my tiny keyboard was painful so the theme of the day was short and sweet. Phone conversations were also kept to a minimum because my battery indicator only showed one lonely bar...dear Santa, please bring me a car charger for my cell phone this year?

I was able to do a little assembly work for about an hour when the sun actually peeked out from behind the clouds and lit up my studio through my big picture window. But when the clouds and rain returned for an encore performance, I reluctantly realized that there was nothing left to do but clean. It wasn't exactly how I wanted to spend the day, but I got a lot done and listening to Christmas carols on my little transistor radio brought me back to my childhood days of sitting at the breakfast table before school, chowing down on my bowl of dry cereal (I still do this), watching my mom pack my dad's lunch, and listening to the morning radio show on the old radio that had to be turned at a slight angle to get the best reception.

I got all that because I had no power yesterday. What a priceless gift.

Fair wrap-up

Have you noticed my sparse blogging lately? It's no coincidence that there's a direct correlation between the number of days left in 2008 to the number of days that I can have a quiet 20-minute break to tend to my blog. It's downright scary!

But I did want to share a few photos of the goodies that I created for the East-West Center craft fair last week. I was a bit worried about how my sales would fare given the gloomy economy, but I was happy to bid adieu to so many of my products that are undoubtedly finding nice new homes this Christmas.

Scalloped gift tags:

Note card sets (these were made with the beautiful washi paper that I picked up in Japan this year!):

Mini desk calendars:

I also created a bunch of butterfly notecards, whimsical tree notecards, blinged out notecards...but unfortunately I didn't take any photos of these before they sold out. Oh, and the other hot item at my table was my mother's infamous steamed mochi. Yes, it was a mother-daughter tag-team event with my childhood friend pitching in as our star salesperson.

Thanks Mom and L for a fun fair!

Driving music

If someone found something on a web site called www.extremegeek.com and decided that they HAD to have it, would that someone be considered a geek? If the answer is "yes," then that certain someone wasn't me. If the answer is "no, of course not," then I have the most amazing find to share with you!

It's not romantic or chic or in anyway wedding-related...but it's so very cool. It's a VW minibus record player that "rides" around on your LPs while pumping life into your old records via the built-in needle, amp and speaker. It's recommended that you don't use this with your valuable, irreplaceable records...but I don't think my old Queen record falls into that category.

Check it out here.

Crafty goodness

I'll be getting out of the studio this week to participate in a little 2-day craft fair over at East-West Center on the UH Manoa campus. This is year number 3 for me and it's something that I always look forward to! I love working with my wedding clients, but it's a nice change of pace when I get to create stationery that's a reflection of me. I packed away all my products last night before I remembered to take any photos. Hopefully I'll be able to take a few quick shots at the fair today and, of course, post them here!

Happy Wednesday!

Holiday cards

Did you survive Black Friday and Cyber Monday? We're definitely smack dab in the middle of holiday season now! I know I should be updating my Christmas list and creating my holiday cards to send to friends and family, but I decided to squeeze in a batch of cards for The Wedding Cafe shoppers first!


These simple, sweet designs are on sale at the cafe now!