Digi Dares | I Will Never Forget

Digi Dare #332 this week is to scrap about something that we will never forget.  I thought about it for a long while and it was our 10th anniversary party.  We chartered a boat and invited 30 of our family and closest friends to celebrate our 10 year anniversary with us.  This was in 2004, so the event has never been documented on my blog.

Here’s my layout for the Dare.

Supplies:  Identity digital scrapbook kit & journal cards by One Little Bird; Wood Veneer Alpha Essentials by Gina Cabrera; Swim Like A Fish by Kate Hadfield; fonts are Brush Script MT and Listgirl Type.

Journaling: Surrounded by our dearest family & friends, we cruised around San Diego Bay, enjoying cocktails and dinner. It was the best celebration ever! The night concluded with fireworks over the bay, which was a great highlight of the evening. But most of all, I treasure the memories of all of us together in one place. 

I won’t ever forget our 10 year anniversary party.  I’m also wistful because my mom and my friend Barbara has passed away since then, so we could never repeat this party again.  There are so many memories… I remember that the battery on my camera ran out, so almost all the photos from the event were taken by friends, and also disposable film cameras that were on the tables!

We got to dress up.

With a family photo shoot.  Everyone looked so much younger back then!

Arriving at the dock.

Embarking on our boat…

Group photo on the boat.

Our personalized buoy.

The two of us.  Married 10 years.

Cake eating.

And our family & friends who joined us, some from afar…

Todd’s Northstar Session band mates.

Sally & me.

Todd’s sister Amy and her now ex-husband Leo.

Having a toast.

Chatting with friends.

Views of San Diego from the bay.

And fireworks at the end of the night.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime party that I’ll never forget.  So many things have changed, yet many stayed the same.  Not sure what to do for our 20th anniversary next year!  :)

That’s What Friends Are For

Todd and I recently spent some time hanging out with some good friends.  We are reminded of how important it is to cultivate friendships with people we care about.  We are really blessed to have these friends in our lives.

On Friday evening 7/19, we met up with Dejah & Roby at Addison at the Grand Del Mar for their summer “Tastings On The Terrace”.   July 19th was Italian wines. 

We got to taste a Prosecco, another white wine, and a red wine.  Sorry I forgot the names, I’m not a wine expert! 

It was great fun to hang out with Dejah & Roby on the terrace.  We thought we saw Michael Douglass at a nearby table even!

On Sunday 7/21, we got to celebrate National Ice Cream Day with AJ & Meera at their house.  We basically invited ourselves over.  Todd cooked Spicy Sweet-And-Sour Chicken at their house, and we all loved it.  The fresh pineapples really make the dish great!

We always love to hang out with our good friends AJ & Meera.  The conversation is easy and fun.

To celebrate National Ice Cream Day, I had a little bit of this Dreyer’s Slow Churn Light Ice Cream – Triple Cookie Fudge Sundae.

It looks like a lot, but it’s about half a cup.  Only 110 calories, or 3 Weight Watchers points.  Yes, I’ve been on Weight Watchers since July 1st.  I’ve lost over 4 lbs so far!  I’ve got 10 more to go to get to my goal weight.  This is a topic that I will cover on a different post sometime in the future.

Yesterday (Sat 7/27), we met up with Roby and Dejah at our favorite authentic Chinese food in San Diego, Dumpling Inn.  We haven’t been there in a while.  They open at 11am, but at 10:50 there was already people lined up outside the door!

I didn’t have any of these potstickers (Weight Watchers!)  Todd, Dejah, and Roby got to enjoy them! 

I did have these sauteed Chinese greens!  Yum!

And I had some sea bass with black bean sauce.  This is my favorite dish there.

I had a little bit of chicken & veggies from this pan-fried noodle dish, but I didn’t have noodles.  :(  Making the right eating choices is hard every single time!  But I do it because I’m determined to lose the weight I’ve put on the last few years.  Plus I know it’s only for about 4 months.  Losing weight is more strict than maintaining weight.  Every time I make the right choice I’m very proud of myself.  And every time I step on that scale, I’m buoyed and encouraged by the results, so I keep going!  :)

These dumplings are called “Xiao Long Bao” and they are delicious.  They are small.  I did eat two of these since they are steamed. 

After lunch, we all headed to Kelly Paper, because my friend Cassi told me there was shiny metallic vellum paper there in all kinds of colors.  And shiny metallic thick cardstock!  I bought some and I’m in love!  I don’t have any photos of them though.

Today (Sunday 7/28) we met up with Sally and the twins at La Jolla Cove for the free “Concert By The Sea” from 2-4pm.  They have this every Sunday in the summer. 

It was overcast by the ocean, but still so fun to put a blanket and some chairs down and just hang out and listen to music!

And walking down to the cove is always fun.  I don’t ever get over this view when you round the corner.

Sally & little Johnny.

The twins playing and eating on the blanket.

Nina, Sally, and me.

Summer fun is in full swing!  We have about a month of summer left and we plan to pack it full of fun and friends!  And food too, just not as much food for me, and only healthy foods, LOL.  If anyone thinks this Weight Watchers thing is easy for me, you would be wrong, ha ha!  You know how much I like to eat and try new foods.  It’s practically a hobby!  But I also know that I wasn’t at my best and didn’t feel my best, and it was time to do something about it.  :)

Lily Bee | DIY String Envelope Tutorial

I blogged last Friday on the Lily Bee blog with a tutorial on how to make this cute A2 envelope using scrapbooking supplies.  You can see the tutorial here on the Lily Bee blog. 

Supplies:  Pinwheel Collection (Flower Box paper, 6x6 Tiny Tablet, Embellishment Bundle, Label Stickers)

Or here on my blog as well!  I swoon whenever I see cute handmade envelopes or pockets of any kind. I just think they are so cute!  I will show you how to make a string-tie envelope sized at A2.  The size of this envelope is very convenient because all handmade A2 cards (4.25" x 5.5") will fit inside.  You can also use this envelope on a layout too.

These are the supplies you will need:

• 12 x 12 piece of patterned paper
• twine or string
• buttons or brads
• circle punch
• paper trimmer
• scoring board or bone folder
• scissors
• ruler
• hole punch
• adhesive

To start out, I cut my piece of pattern paper to 9.5" x 7.75".

Next, I scored two lines on the long side of the paper, one at 1/2", and another one at 5".

On the short side, I scored lines at 1 3/4" and 7 3/8".

Your paper will look like this after scoring.

Next, I cut out the corners of the paper like this.

I folded the paper into the envelope shape.  I rounded the corners of the flaps.

Next I measured where I wanted my holes for the brads to be.  I wanted them halfway across the 4.5" side, so I drew circles at 2.25" across.

The two pencil-marked circles are where my brads will go.

Next, I used my 1" circle punch to punch out two circles in a contrasting color than my envelope color.

Then I hole-punched the center of each circle.

I lined up the hole on the circle to where I had drawn a circle, and pushed the brad into the paper.

This is what your paper looks like after both circles and brads are attached.

I folded the two strips of flaps and put adhesive on them.  Then I folded the large flap over to make the envelope.

Then I tied some twine from the Pinwheel Embellishment Bundle around both brads under the paper circles to close the flaps together.

To complete the look, I adhered a Label Sticker to the front of the envelope.  I think it adds a nice finishing touch! :)

I can't wait to put a handmade card into this cute envelope and give it to the recipient!  I plan to also figure out the paper dimensions to make a 4x6 and 3x4 envelope to fit into my Project Life album. :)

Featured Designer @ Life Paper Scrapbook

I’m honored to be the Featured Designer this week at Life. Paper. Scrapbook.! 

Life. Paper. Scrapbook is an Australian quarterly, online publication that is dedicated to showcasing designers from all around the world to inspire each other, explore current trends and techniques and most importantly to celebrate our love of scrapbooking and paper crafts.  They also showcase products, designers, and challenges with prizes on their blog!  Ruth Bonser asked me a couple of months ago if I would be interested to be one of their featured designers.  Of course I said yes!  You can read my feature and interview here!  :)