A Teeny Mouse or a Teeny Rat?

Can you tell the difference between a mouse and a rat? Ok, so you hear the word RAT and you think "Eeeew...gross!" Yep, got that a lot... but the rats that we have in our home are not those yucky ones that go through your garbage and eat through boxes and plastic containers...our 2 rats live in a cage and are cute and gentle...we got them from a pet store. I chose the gray one...like in the card that I made here. Her name is Annie. She's really sweet...she can sit on my shoulder for hours at a time if I let her. The other one that we got is cute too, her name is Cassie. She has kind of a cow pattern. Cassie was added to keep Annie company because my other half read somewhere that rats are social animals. Well, when we put Cassie into the cage with Annie...I was worried that they would beat each other up...they roll around every now that then and you hear a little squeek too, but they sleep next to each other and follow each other around, so I guess they are playing when they roll around. These rats are very gentle. We just got them these clear plastic balls to exercise them. It's really cute, you just drop each one in, close the lid, and then let them wander around the house. They just roll and roll and roll. They are the latest addition to our family! I'll get a picture of them posted later! Hope you all had a great Monday! I took most of the day off today, but it's back to work tomorrow.

It's a Win Win....

As promised, I'm back this morning to announce the winner of my blog candy... so sad that only 2 people left comments, but that's okay... Jenny and Enjoli now have a 50/50 chance of winning...I wrote their names on scratch paper... folded them into tiny pieces...and shook them and dropped them and shook them and dropped them...closed my eyes and picked, Enjoli from Stamping Under the Sun. But wait, since only two of them played along...Jenny is a winner too. Remember I had 3 blog candy's to give away... so I'll send out two...one for Enjoli and the other for Jenny. Enjoli, I'll send your candy out shortly. Jenny, please send your snail mail addy to me at ohhnicky@yahoo.com, so that I can mail yours out too. So I got the blog candy for my Birthday out of the way and the blog candy for reaching over 1000 hits. I know that Jenny's been visiting my blog a lot, because she leaves such sweet comments. : )

Thanks to both of you for playing along!

It's Ryder!

Just thought I'd share a picture of my nephew, Ryder. I was downloading pictures from my camera and came across this picture that my other half took when I wasn't paying attention. In this picture, taken a month ago, Ryder was 9 months old. This will probably be one of the few pictures that he actually stops to look at the camera, since now, he's rolling around, doing the army crawl, and is just moving all about. He's a sweetie...when you see him, you just wanna eat him up. Poor thing though, he's not as cute as his big brother, Skyler. Ok, I only say this, because I'm biased... his big brother Skyler, 4 yrs old, looks like me when I was little. Hee hee... I know my sister is reading this...well, hope you are all having a wonderful Saturday! Enjoy the weekend!

Life Is Sweet!

Dawne and I had another play day the other week...and all I have to really show for it, is this ONE card. I was there from 10:30 - 7:30'ish... and I completely finished only ONE card. Ok, so we did manage to go and pick up lunch and we made a quick trip to Ben Franklin too. But that's okay... I had A LOT of fun... as usual. There's never a dull moment between us. Within the first 5 minutes I was there, we were both laughing so hard we were crying. I don't know what it is about us getting together. : ) Anyway, this is an image from Two Scoops Rice. The picture of course is washed out because I don't know how to use my camera properly. It was Dawne's idea to add those other embelishments, I just couldn't think what to do. She suggested the addition of the sprinkles, which turned out to be a really cute idea. She's so crafty. I really do enjoy our little scrapping sessions... okay... I guess I should say, I really enjoy her company... because I don't get too much done, but I ALWAYS have fun.

Birthday Blog Candy

Here is the first of the 3 blog candies that I'll be giving away! This one is to help celebrate my birthday. I'll be adding a few more thing to this before I mail it to the winner. So far it includes a pack of printed paper and cardstock, a cardboard cut outs, stickles, roll of ribbon, some embelishments, and a gelly roll glitter pen.

In order to play, leave a comment on this post and share with me one of your favorite birthday gifts that you've received over the years...be sure to include your "approximate" age at the time of the gift and explain why it's one of your favorites. You have until 11:59 pm Hawaii Time on March 27th, to leave your comment. I'll announce the winner on Saturday, March 28th.

For me, last year at the age of well, let's say "somewhere in my 30's", I woke up to a note left on my bathroom mirror...the note indicated that my favorite stuffed sheep had invited his brother and nephew all the way from the UK to come live with us in Hawaii. Below the note, sat an identical twin and a miniature version of my Sheepy. To give you a little background, on our trip to New Zealand in 2006, I picked up a NICI sheep as a souvenir. I've slept with him under my neck every night since...needless to say, he was rather dingy looking after 2 years...well loved, you could say. I had always talked about finding another Sheepy and how sad I would be once he fell apart. Come to find out that they didn't sell him just anywhere. We'd have to order himj online and pay an arm and a leg for shipping, so that was out. Or so I thought. He ordered it online and managed to keep it a big secret. He waited til I fell asleep and then strategically placed them so that I would get up in the morning and see them staring at me as I put my eyes on. Gotta love him for that! It was so thoughtful and made me teary!

Owl Always Be Your Friend

I made this card using an old template that Jean from Dandelion Designs has on her website. You pull the string to reveal the message. Her template is actually smaller, I made this to fit a regular size card. The image is Jean's as well and of course the sentiment "Owl Always Be Your Friend". So perfect to match the image. I tried to give the owls some dimension, but I don't think you can really see it in the picture. I just rounded them out and put some pop up dots in back of their heads and bodies.

Hello Kitty!

I made these Hello Kitty cards when Dawne came over to my house to play, several weeks ago. She brought over her new Hello Kitty Sizzix for me to try. Also had gotten some new cardstock, so I played around with it too. I was happiest with this first one.

RAK's from Kristie, Tia, and Tracy

These are RAK's I should've posted a long time ago. Kristie was my January Aloha RAK partner. This RAK exchange is hosted by Tracy, from Tracy's Happy Place. Kristie made this cute card for me...purple and green...love that color combo. You can't see it too well in the picture, but the background on the green paper has a dotted texture. Look how she colored the dress, it looks like it has texture too. This image is so cute...Thank you Kristie!



I received this card from Tia in February. I participated in a card swap that Teri from Big Ideas from a Little Girl hosted. I has posted the card that I made for Tia in an old post. I had a picture of Tia's card with all of the embelishments attached, but that picture was lost when the computer was taken. : ( There was a heart button on the blue flower and I'm missing a red dew drop. The card is still cute though. She added a lot of detail. Love the layout and of course Anya is so cute sporting her overalls. Thank you Tia!




I received this RAK from Tracy from Tracy's Happy Place. It was from her Christmas Card Challenge that she's been holding on her blog every month. What yummy goodies! Thanks Tracy! She posts the challenge on the 15th of the month. To participate, you just need to follow the requirements, make 5 cards, and then post the link to your 5 cards on her blog. It's really fun and helps you get a jump on getting those Christmas Cards done early!

What a Wonderful Day!

Happy Birthday to Me!

It started out as a normal work day...but when I arrived at the office, I was greeted with a beautiful micronesian ginger and orchid lei from my office. Proceeded to get some work done and then was pleasantly surprised by a visit from Dawne, bearing gifts and a bunch of yummy cupcakes to share with my office. How sweet is that? The cupcakes were soooo yummy! My office then treated me to lunch! Finished the work day. Then I got home and opened a lot of presents!!! Such thoughtful friends and family! Look at what my other half got for me.... a Silhouette machine! I was stunned when I got home and saw it. How did he know? A little bird told him... and I know that little bird was Dawne. Those sneaky buggers!

We just got back from a delicous dinner at Kobe Steak House. Yum Yum Yum!!! I had a great day...thanks to all those thoughtful people in my life!

Stay tuned for my blog candy giveaways... I think I'll do a few...one to celebrate my birthday, another for reaching over 1,000 hits (now over 1500), and the last one to mark the arrival of my new computer! Woo hoo!

I'm Back!

Got my new lap top and today and I am very happy to be able to blurf and post! For those of you who are wondering... I'm doing much better these days. Our life has gone back to normal...with a few changes. My other half installed an alarm system in our home, so I feel a lot better about leaving the house now. For awhile, I dreaded returning home. Always had the anxiety that we'd come home to find our house broken into again. We were so lucky that no one was hurt and that they didn't have a chance to take too much.

Thank you for those of you who shared your stories with me and for the nice comments and words of support. I have a lot of posting to do...so I'll be catching up in the next week.

Thank you to Enjoli...for her very sweek RAK...she sent this to me to cheer me up. Look at all the goodies she mailed!

I got these goodies from Dawne. She came over to play one day and brought these with her to give to me. It's my favorite Chococat.

February ALOHA RAK from Anne

I got this box of goodies from Anne in Arizona. So sweet. Her card is so pretty. Again, I'm so sorry for the poor lighting on the card. I'm not quite sure what she used to make it, but it sure is pretty. She sent me a bunch of other goodies too. She even sent me a mini Hello Kitty picture frame. Thanks Anne!

I took a picture of the card that I sent to her, but I am really sad because it was on my computer : ( I went with an Easter theme and attempted to add some pearls with wire. I used the Girl and Boy with Easter Baskets from Dandelion Designs. Shucks! Oh well, I hope that the card made it to her intact!

Well, that's it for today... I can take pictures tonight... but will not be able to post until later because I don't have the cord for my camera. My other computer was great... I could just take the card out from the camera and stick it in to the computer to download the pictures... I'm using a friend's computer tonight, so I should just be happy for that.

A Card for Tia

This is a slider card that I made for Tia. She was my partner for a card swap that Teri hosted. Tia had mentioned to me that she saw my blog and liked this type of card, so I incorporated it into her card. The image is from Hero Arts...Dawne let me use her stamps, so I stamped several of this cute girl for Girl's Day. I hope Tia liked her card, she must've received it by now.

I was asked by several people if I had thought of doing a tutorial for this card...and I hadn't really thought about it, since it's not a project that I created... but I'd love to share this great idea, so I'll see what I can do. It really isn't that ut the creator of this card was very creative!

Anyway, I haven't taken a picture of the card that Tia sent to me yet. Her card was so cute. She used Farmer Anya. I'll try post it soon!

I also need to post my January ALOHA RAK from Kristie and my February ALOHA RAK from Anne. So far behind. Sorry Kristie and Anne. I'll get those up soon. I need to take another picture of Kristie's card, because that picture was lost with the computer. : (

Thanks for bearing with me!

Valentine's RAK from Dawne

Oohmigosh!!! Look at what I got from Dawne. She gave this to me for Valentine's Day (I'm very late posting it)... these are Chococat key covers. You put them over your keys and can easily identify which key is for home, etc.... She knows how much I love Chococat, although she didn't know his name was Chococat, LOL~ She's so sweet!

Another Set of Christmas Cards

Tried to play along with Tracy's Christmas Challenge, but with my computer being stolen I didn't have time to post my pictures in time to meet her deadline. That's ok though... I did finish my cards and now I have a jump on Christmas....I made 10 Christmas Cards this year so far...Woo hoo! I used Penny Black's Hedgehog stamp. This challenge was to make 5 square cards, any size...but no sentiment on the front. Sorry that the pictures are so dark. I gotta get better lighting for my pictures. Thought I was going to be able to post more than one today, but ran out of time... I'll try and post something later today, if not, then tomorrow. Hope you're having a good Monday!