Holiday Gift Fair

On Saturday, November 8th, the Women's Ministries at our church sponsored a Holiday Gift Fair. There were over 20 vendors at the fair, ie, Cookie Lee Jewelry, Tupperware, Party Lite Candles, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Longaberger Baskets, Home Interiors, Home & Garden and others I can't think of now. My booth was one of about 3 vendors that offered handcrafted items. A few of the vendors did quite well, some did nothing at all. I, at least, paid for my booth space with a little extra. We had a pretty good crowd considering that it was a windy, cold day. All in all, it was quite a learning experience.

I've committed to doing another boutique on December 11th at the Charter School where three of our granddaughters have gone for extra credit classes. I need to get busy and do more Christmas items. I worked my fingers to the bone after we returned from our trip to Pacific Grove getting things ready for this fair. I am hoping this one will do a little better.

Here's some of the items I had for sale. I need to do something different in showcasing my cards, etc. They were just laying on the table. There were cards, bookmarks, shopping list pads and journals. I will do another post showing the items that I am offering for sale through my blog.

Anniversary Trip to Pacific Grove/Monterey

You will see the pictures first then have to scroll down to read my post of our trip. I wanted my pictures at the end. Oh well!! Next to the Lodge where we stayed is a cemetery. In the evening the coastal deer come out to feed. Here's the buck walking towards where the does were feeding. He wasn't very big. As we were leaving he came up pretty close to where we were parked.

Here's few of the does feeding. They do not seem to be bothered by people being close by watching them.

Sunday afternoon we parked along Ocean View Drive and watched the waves. Probably because of the rainy weather, the waves were pretty high. I miss so much being close to the water. I am always quite content when we do take a trip to this area and I can just sit and watch the water.

We were told by a docent at the Aquarium that this bird has been with the Aquarium since it opened, some 20 years ago. It has some arthritis in it's one leg so limps quite a bit.

The penguins being fed. They are so fun to watch. The water spots on the glass are from them splashing in the water.

One of the many huge fish in the Kelp Forest. I took lots of pictures at the Aquarium, unfortunately, very few actually came out good.

We visited the Butterfly Grove on Saturday. It's just around the corner from the Lodge where we stayed. Those dark spots on the leaves are the butterflies clinging to the leaves, hundreds and hundreds of them. At first it looked like dead leaves until they fluttered their wings.

The dark spots on the rocks are hundreds of black birds. This was a block or two from the Lodge along Ocean View Drive.

The dark spots in the water are otters floating along, some on the kelp. We missed seeing the otters being fed at the Aquarium.

On Friday, October 31st we left Sacramento bright and early for a trip to Pacific Grove/Monterey to celebrate our 28th anniversary, which was Saturday November 1st. We stayed at the Lighthouse Lodge & Suites. My husband's bike club stays here when they go over to Pacific Grove for their annual bike ride every year in October. We were there about 3 years ago on the club's ride. And in fact, the weekend before the club was there for their ride. Anyway, the room we had this time was not the greatest. It was pretty small, the king size bed took up most of the space. We were there from Friday until Monday the 3rd and each day we had to go to the office to ask for hand towels and/or washcloths.

We stopped in Castroville at The Giant Artichoke Restaurant for breakfast. Years ago when I lived in Salinas, this was a little vegetable stand. They served deep fried artichokes, which they still do, and I use to drive from Salinas to Castroville during lunch to get these fried artichokes for everybody in the office. It was driving on country roads, I could make it up there and back in 45 minutes. There would still be time to eat them when I got back to the office.

The Lodge offers a full breakfast for the guests of the Lodge and Suites each morning. The Suites are across the street from the Lodge. There's scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, sausage or bacon, danish, bread for toast, dry cereal, oatmeal one morning and assorted fruits, fruit juices and milk. Lots of hot coffee too. We ate breakfast there 2 of the mornings. Of course, it was before the election and the TV was on CNN. My husband can't stand CNN so we hurriedly ate so we didn't have to listen to what was being said. In the evenings they also offer a BBQ for the guests. I think when the weather is bad they do something else for dinner. It's usually hamburgers, hotdogs, potato or macaroni salad and something for dessert. We ate there Friday night.

On Saturday we visited the Monarch Butterfly Grove which is not too far from the Lodge. It was hard at first to see them, they were the dark spots clinging to the leaves of the eucalyptus trees, then drove through the town of Carmel and down to the Courtyard, an outside shopping mall off of Highway 1 on Carmel Valley Road. We did a little shopping there then drove up Carmel Valley Road to the village. I have a friend who use to work for San Saba Wineries and the last I knew their tasting room was up in the village. Well, we couldn't find it so we drove back down to Highway 1 and stopped at The Barnyard. It's another shopping place across from The Courtyard. Got a piece of some delicious chocolate at a shop there.

We looked through some of the brochures we had of the Monterey area and found out where the tasting room was for the San Saba Winery so decided to drive down there. It's in Soledad which is south of Salinas. It was a beautiful drive, had some rain along the way. We found the tasting room and then sadly found out that my friend no longer worked for San Saba. We were told where we could find her.

It was back to the Lodge for a little bit then went to the Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey for dinner at our favorite restaurant on the wharf, Rappa's. It's at the very end of the wharf. We go there everytime we are in Monterey. The fish is always so fresh and we try to get a window table so we can watch what's going on with the boats. We noticed this time that the seals weren't climbing all over the boats as they have in the past. Our waiter told us its because there is hardly any fish in the wharf area so the seals don't come. We did hear some barking but couldn't see where they were.

As we left, it started to sprinkle a little. We had had rain off and on since we got there on Friday. Thankfully, we had our umbrella with us. We also noticed that there were hardly any people on the wharf. It could have been because of the weather and/or the economy.

On Sunday we went to the Aquarium and spent a couple of hours there. We could have stayed longer, however the parking space my husband found was only for 2 hours. Our tickets were also good for 2 days and we thought about going back down on Monday before we left town. After we left the Aquarium we decided to drive back to Carmel Village and see if we could find Janie which we did. She manages the tasting room for Cima Collina Winery. It was so good to see her.

Back in the mid 70's I lived in Salinas for about 10 months. It's a long story as to how I got there, however Janie and I worked for Salinas Valley Radio which offered radio/phone service to the growers in the fields surrounding the Salinas area. We became very close friends. We were both single moms and so spent a lot of time together outside of work. Her son is 5 years older than my daughter and at one time, lived in Sacramento. In 2005 when we went over to Pacific Grove for my husband's bike club ride, I looked up Janie and we met for breakfast. A couple of years ago my Christmas card that I sent her came back and I thought she had finally left the Salinas area. Anyway, I'm glad to have hooked up with her again. Hopefully, we will do better with keeping in touch.

Sunday night we had dinner at a Korean restaurant in Monterey that we went to back in 2005. There was just another couple there besides us. We spent some time visiting with the owner and her husband. The food is really good. I can't think of the name of the restaurant, it's on Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey before you get to David Street which you take to get to Pacific Grove Lighthouse Avenue. Try it if you are ever in the area and like Korean food.

We left the Lodge on Monday morning to head back to Sacramento. I didn't want to eat at the Lodge again so we stopped at Toastie's on Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove. I wanted to go to the Red House but it's not open for breakfast during the week. Anyway I had been to Toastie's with Janie and knew the food was good. I had blueberry pancakes which were yummy, could only eat one and a half of them. My husband had a fried potato scramble and he couldn't finish his either. It was lots of food. It was a very busy place too.

On the way home we stopped in San Juan Bautista at the San Juan Bakery to get some of their delicious bread. Got a loaf of their Portuguese Sweet Bread, Coconut White Chocolate Bread, Portuguese Orange Bread and some Peanut Butter cookies. The sweet bread is absolutely yummy. My husband made french toast with it one morning. The Coconut White Chocolate Bread was out of this world good. It's their newest bread. Very rich!! The Portuguese Orange Bread was ok, nothing to shout about. The bakery has been there in town for many years!!! Leaving there we drove back to Highway 101 then took 152 over to I5 and stopped at Casa de Fruita for a few minutes. There's a new highway going through there now so there's an off ramp for the place. It use to sit right on the highway. Lots of stuff going on there but hardly any people. We were home by 2:30 that afternoon.

It was a great trip celebrating our anniversary and spending time together without any distractions.

Baby Shower Card & Thank You Cards

Here is a card I made this evening for a baby shower tomorrow. I made the Baby Shower invitations a while ago. I've been wanting to use this technique where just part of the card is embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. It was not difficult at all to do. I used the Swiss Dots folder. I left the bottom inch or so blank, turned the card over and drew three score lines using my paper cutter and bone folder. There's two lines where the embossing ends and then another one just above the edge of the card. I used 2 different size circle punches and a scalloped circle punch. The image is from SU's Cuddles & Tickles stamp set. I used Copics to color the baby. The sentiment is from another SU set.

Then I made twelve Thank You cards using the same SU set. The striped paper is some DP I got from The Paper Garden. The ribbon is a pink check I found at Michael's. My picture taking is not the best so hope you can see these. I think the cards turned out really cute.

Card Class and Craft Fair

Yesterday, Saturday, 10/18, I taught my first card class here at the mobile home park where we live. I thought I was going to have to cancel it due to no one responding to the flyer I had posted at the clubhouse. Our park manager and her son's girlfriend were the only ones that said they wanted to do it and then the park manager had a short hospital stay. I saw Betty, the park manager, one day last week and she said she was looking forward to it. As it turned out, there were 5 of us there. Betty, Lisa, my friend Michelle and Michelle's niece who was visiting from Oregon and is in the 3rd grade and myself, of course. We had a great time and they were pleased with the cards they made. This was Lisa's first time stamping and I think she enjoyed herself. Betty has made a few cards and Michelle stamps. Her niece Kelsey did a fantastic job. Kelsey's mom actually signed me up to be a Stampin' Up demonstrator a few years ago. I no longer am a demonstrator and I am not sure if Kelsey's mom is still a demonstrator.

We made 2 fall cards and 3 Christmas cards. All of the stamps are from A Muse Art Stamps. We had a little chuckle, Lisa actually placed her pumpkins on the second fall card where I was intending to place them on my sample. On my sample, they are suppose to be closer together with one of them slightly touching one of the wheat stalks. Without using a stamp positioner and having not stamped before, Lisa got them placed perfectly!!

On the Tom Turkey card, I used my new Creative Memories oval cutter to cut the white oval. I think I am going to love those cutters. I bought the circle ones too. My daughter, Denise, is a Creative Memories consultant. I had a hard time using the cutters at first, however, I got the hang of it. Denise told me I needed to get the newer blades which are larger in size. The blades I have I bought several years ago.

This Christmas card was their favorite. It is hard to see, there is a stamp right beside the dove on the left side. It is called Madeira. The pattern of this note card is Madeira and the stamp is an exact replica of the pattern on the note card. This is from A Muse. We put some glue on the dove, sprinkled it liberally with prism glitter and then heat set the glitter with a heat gun. It is so nice and sparkly. Of course we had glitter all over ourselves afterwards. I must say I love the combination of these 3 stamps. I will be using them a lot this Christmas.

After I made this sample, I decided I didn't like the size of the card so I pulled off the layers and cut it down. It went from a card size of 4.25 x 5.5 to a 4.25 square card. So that is why the sentiment is crooked. There are red Stickle dots all around the outside of the Ivory circle and gold stickles for the star on the tree. The small oval is edged with red chalk ink. There are 2 different sizes of snowflakes stamped on the card base with Versamark ink. The ribbon is a narrow red edged in green.

This little guy is so adorable. It's actually a robin, although by not inking his tail, he could be a penguin. The thing Betty, Lisa and Michelle liked most about these cards are that they are all very simple yet very nice. They want to do another class so after the first of the year we'll pick another date to do a class. I was a nervous wreck before the class, my stomach was bothering me, yet I was glad that we went ahead and had the class. It was a lot of fun!! And they did a fantastic job on their cards!!

Craft Fair:

November 8th is the day for the craft fair at church. It was going to be held at the elementary school gym across the street from the church. However, the school would not open their facility on a weekend so the fair will be held at our church. I will be one of the vendors. I have just a few short weeks to get some things done so I will probably be at my craft table night and day. Michelle made some bookmarks for me using some scraps I had from the baby shower invitations I did a couple of weeks ago. She did a fantastic job and I will post those at a later date. I'll include them in my items to sell at the craft fair. Thank You Michelle!!!!

Update on October Class & a Craft Fair in November

Earlier I mentioned about teaching a card class here at our mobile home park this month. It's actually scheduled for the 18th. I have found out that the park manager, who asked that I do it, is in the hospital. I prepared a flyer for the class and that has not been posted as yet. It may be that the class will have to be postponed for a later date.

Last week I received an email from a friend at church, it was actually sent out to several different people. It seems she and another lady at church are planning a craft fair for early November. I've indicated that I will participate. This, of course, will be the first time I've ever participated in anything like this. I know I have a lot to do to get ready for it. I've gotten several ideas for things to make that aren't necessarily cards, yet involve cardstock and stamps. :) It should be fun and I am looking forward to it.

SNSS Yahoo Group Request

I belong to the Sweet and Sassy Stamps Yahoo Group. The owner of the company posted a request for cards to be made and sent to two different families. I really felt like the Lord was leading me to participate. The owner of this stamp company is a Christian and most of the ladies in this group are also Christians. The butterfly card is for a family in Texas whose toddler daughter passed away suddenly. The yellow card is for the niece of the owner of SNS stamps. This little girl who just turned 2 years old has leukemia and is presently undergoing another chemo treatment.

The butterfly card is a Stampin' Up stamp set, the card base is turquoise with a peach layer that I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on. The next two layers are chocolate chip and ivory that I stamped the image on. I used SU markers to color the butterfly and flower. I actually stamped a sentiment inside of the card which I don't usually do that is part of another SU set. I used a chocolate chip and ivory layer to stamp the sentiment on. I meant to take a picture of that too, then forgot to do it.

The yellow card is a stamp from Savvy Stamps. I used SU markers to color it in and then the Sakura Stardust glitter gel pen over the whole image. It sparkles quite nicely. The card base is from A Muse.

O.N.I.P.A.A. Luau 2008

This past Saturday, 10/4, Gerry and I went to a Luau presented by O.N.I.P.A.A. which stands for The Organization of Native Islanders of the Pacific. It was a luau and hula presentation. The food was authentic Hawaiian food, Kalua Pork, Chicken Long Rice, Sweet Potatoes,Lomi Lomi Salmon, Ahi Poke (which is marinated raw fish), Poi, fruit salad and Haupia (a pudding made from coconut milk) for dessert. There was also Teriyaki Chicken and Rice which is not typical Hawaiian food. The food was fantastic and the hula was very well done. The halau (hula school) has their studio in North Highlands, not too far from where we live.

For some reason, most of my pictures did not turn out, which is a great disappointment. I don't know what the problem was as I am not a photographer.

Gerry took this photo of me. It is not a good one with that frown. He bought me an orchid lei which I enjoyed and I wore it to church on Sunday. Several people asked if I had been home to Hawaii. I am wearing a black mu'u'mu'u that I bought on one of my trips home.
These next two pictures are part of the grand finale. The entire group is dancing a Tahitian dance. Tahitian is a difficult dance. It takes a lot of control of the muscles in the waist area and hips to be able to do the dance. They did a beautiful job.

I apologize for the darkness of this picture. This was the very youngest of the halau doing their number. This little girl, probably no older than 5 years old, had her arm in a cast and sling. She was doing the dance with just her left arm and was doing very well. Her sling matched her outfit. I hope you can see this.