Festive fun!

Wishing all a very merry & blessed Christmas...

Mele Kalikimaka! 

& 

Hauoli Makahiki Hou! 

Happy New Year!

(We will be traveling and spending Christmas with all our children at my dad's in the beautiful winterwonerland in northern Wisconsin. When we reutrn...I will post some photos from there and also post about my wonderful Secret Santa gift that arrived from the Secret Santa gift exchange...Thank you soooo much for the wonderful surprise package :o)

*****

Here are some photos taken during my visit this past weekend. It was so good to see & spend time with all the kids, be there for our daughter, Girly~Whirly's birthday & see her, so beautiful, try on some wedding gowns (we weren't allowed to take photos, but she was stunning :o)

...and to be at our daughter, Girly~Twirly's baby shower hosted by Girly~Whirly and 5 of her dear friends.  They did such an amazing job with planning, organizing, decorating, catering!  They did it all and each living in different towns.

Come along and join in. 

It was held at the beautiful home of the girls' sorority sister M's parent's home.

(Girly~Twirly and Girly~Whirly are Kappa Deltas).  Their gorgeous home had plenty of room for all the guests and was so inviting.

This adorable baby rattle with the burlap ribbon, created by J, welcomes you at the front door.

Step inside and the festive pom-poms created by M.B. hang from the entry's chandelier. On the table is a framed invitation created by J.E., a polaroid camera to take your photo and a little book created by J.E. You can pick any page to put your photo in and write a little note.

This is the room off to the right, where some guests can sit, eat and visit. The pom-poms in here were created by M.B. too. And the three sweet ribbon topiaries were created by J. Little frames filled with sweet sayings were placed in the center by J.E.

Here is another view from the other entrance to this room, where you can see the entry hall and door to the office across the hall.

Here are a couple of the areas that the guests could sit, eat and visit in. In the sunroom, J and her hubby and baby girl visit with three of the other hostesses - M.B., J, and L.

Girly~Twirly enjoy the company of her hubby's parents, and a few of the guests.

Here is the mantel with the fabric covered letters announcing "It's a Girl" created by M.B. and her sisters.

Our son in law, Dr. Awesome, and Girly~Twirly are here!

Love her little baby bump!

They also welcome our son Heartbreaker and his girlfriend Sweetie to the shower.

Here are two of the 6 hostesses, Girly~Whirly, L and her little cutie D in the kitchen setting up.

M.B. prepared the Arnold Palmer tea and the fruity cocktail. And M.B.'s hubby and a fraternity brother brewed a special beer for our son in law and the guys.  Couples were invited to the shower.

M's brother-in-law's sister baked this yummy cake! & L baked these lovely cake pops!

L also baked these lovely onsie cookies! Sweet in yummy flavor and sweet teal icing with the details like the KD for Kappa Delta and the little pearl buttons.

Girly~Twirly holding the little Kappa Delta onsie.

By the full table of yummy treats and sweets prepared by M.B. Girly~Whirly, L, and me. M also made a delicious Chicken Stew...perfect for the chilly day.

 Standing by some of the beautifully wrapped gifts and the diaper cake.

The little bow and hair ribbon holder I made by adding a some green fabric and tutu to a little dress form.  I made the bows to match the little dresses, my hubby and I had fun buying :o) More hair clips can be clipped on the tutu.   (I didnt take a photo of them opening the finished baby quilt I had made.)

Girly~Twirly with the six lovely hostesses.  In order, from left to right:

M is a dear friend and Kappa Delta sorority sister. This is her parent's beautiful home.

J with her adorable little girl. J is specializing to be a Pediatric dentist and graduated with Girly~Twirly.

M.B. is a dentist, who graduated with Girly~Twirly. Her hubby also graduated as a dentist with the girls.

Girly~Twirly

L is a dear friend and Kappa Delta sister with a beautiful little girl and cute little boy.

J is a dentist who also graduated with Girly~Twirly. (I love the written wishes sheet that she created for all the guests to fill out.  There were sentences left unfinished and to be written by the guests to the little one... Some were very sweet and some were funny...and all fun to read.  A great keepsake for our grandbaby to look back on and read.)

& of course, our sweet daughter Girly~Whirly. Our girls are like two peas in a pod...so blessed that all they and their brother are close.  I am in awe of all that she has had to do, especially this time of year with all the exams for dental school,  the clinical work, preparing & creating this beautiful shower, etc...

Another photo of the hostesses, Girly~Twirly and our son in law, Dr. Awesome. :o)

I realized once I got back from my trip, that I didnt take photos of all the guests.  ...& didnt get a photo of our future son-in-law, Dr. Amazing, who was also there, but had to come a little later after some training for placement of mini dental implants.

Most of these photos were taken before the guests arrived...afterwards, I was enjoying the moment and failed my photo-taking duties! :o)

Our son in law..."modeling" over his shoulders...the beautiful crocheted blanket that Girly~Whirly created for her little niece...in between all the studying for the dental boards, other exams, and clinic!

I love that they had an impromptu kiss...but I missed it, so had them kiss again for this photo :o)

We are looking forward to meeting and holding our sweet little grandbaby girl in March. They still are deciding on names :o)

We will be traveling up to my dad's for a white Christmas, so although my hubby was not able to go to this past weekend, he will be able to see Girly~Twirly before she has the baby.

*****

Joining in with Ms. Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday fun...


& here is one of the recent orders that is not a Christmas gift, so am able to post this one now.

 (if you are new to my blog...ALL the artwork I do is completely drawn entirely with a person's name.  This little firetruck is drawn with ETHAN....the entire image...the wheels, etc...)

This is one is for a baby gift.
Thank you Kerri for thinking of this one for your friend's little newborn boy.

Thank you all for visiting and commenting!   After being away from home, getting back in the routine at work and finishing on more art orders for Christmas, I hope to return all the visits from my last post! Thank you again!

Engagement...to be or not to be?

I am repeating part of a previous post...
Our younger daughter (Girly~Whirly) and some friends are hosting a baby shower for our older daughter (Girly~Twirly), so I'll be flying out after work.  I wanted to be sure to still join in on Ms. Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday fun...

So here it is... E is for Engagement...to be or not to be?

...I mentioned a little bit about this on my very first blogging post "A little Bit about Me"...

Let's see...the thing that you have to catch in this story is...what a fast worker my Handsome Honey is!

(one of our engagement photos)

We met in November 1980. I was 16, he was 18. (I was a Senior in high school. Both our birthdays are in December.

We would go out on the Friday or Saturday nights that he wasn't on shift. And he was at our house during my school nights that he wasn't on shift. (At the time, he was an Air Force firefighter/EMT and they worked every other day and on his 6th day off, they had  3 day break...)

December 1980, he flew home to spend Christmas with family in Hawaii.

(My handsome Hawaiian Honey in green shorts and his older brother in blue shorts and yellow muscle shirt after lifting some weights!)  *did I say handsome? ...yessiree bob! ;o)*

After he came back to New Mexico, around the first part of January, he had a ring! I was a wee bit surprised!

I mean...I really, really, really liked him, but wow! that was pretty fast! :o)

***Let me *pause* to give you my Handsome Honey's story of how this came about so quickly...
he says he definitely knew I was the one.

Before he met me, he had gone to listen to a Christian body builder (Bob Birdsong) speak. During Mr. Birdsong's testimony, he spoke about how he prayed for a wife... "...blond, blue-eyed...etc..."

Well, that made an impact on my Handsome Honey, so when he went back to his barracks, he prayed for a wife... "...blond, blue-eyed... (Yeah! I am NOT blond nor blue-eyed! :o)

...but then my Handsome Honey says he immediately stopped, cuz he felt that the Lord knew and had the one picked out for him. (Good thing!)

Shortly after that prayer, we met...

(another engagement photo)

My Handsome Honey was very fast at declaring and saying "I love you"!

I wrote "to be or not to be?", cuz my dad promptly had me return the ring back. (Um... the two of us thought we were so grown up and ready!...and at that time, thought "how unreasonable Dad was!") Now, of course, both of us see that Dad was very reasonable! (For goodness sakes, we were mere babes and we knew each other less than a month!)

So...I gave the ring back and it wasn't until Oct 1981, when my dad was retiring from the Air Force and we were moving to Wisconsin that he allowed me to accept the ring. (We think his thinking on that was with us moving away, we might not stay engaged....after all, there isnt the convenience of cell phones, facebook, skype, and whatever else there is now-a-days to keep in constant communication with).

But here we are...almost 30 years later...together more years than the years we had not known each other! ...by the grace of God...so blessed!

(taken at the Melting Pot in Savannah... on June 19, 2011...we used the card that our younger daughter Girly~Whirly sent us for our Feb 29th Anniversary).

*****

Still working on more orders for Christmas and I do like to be sure that I do not post an order before they have been given to the recipient.

But am able to share this local order that was delivered.
Thank you Ann for ordering this one to display  in your Coffee Cafe of your Hill House logo.

(first one in black and white and the second after a little color was added, like your logo shows).

And thank you for the delicious coffee, quiche and other yummy treats that you sell and serve there.

*****

I am so Excited to be flying up to see all our three kids...I'll be posting some photos of the fun times there...at Girly~Twirly's baby shower...at Girly~Whirly's birthday...and just hanging out with our girls, son Heartbreaker, son-in-law Dr. Awesome, and future son-in-law Dr. Amazing. :o)

Thank you for stopping by and for your comments!

Disney Days

Disney days of the past for my hubby were those fun adventures with his family, when he went with his family from Hawaii to visit some family in California.

He also performed with his middle school Ukelele Band in Disneyland.

Also Disney Days for my first time was when we went as newlyweds to Disneyland before continuing over to Hawaii.  (That trip to Hawaii would also be the first time I would meet his family and friends....but that is for another post.)

I can't find any of those photos from those past Disney adventures....but was able to find the following:

Disney 1988

1. Our daughter Girly~Twirly, my little sister M, and I with Goofy.
2. Girly~Twirly and M reassuring our daughter Girly~Whirly that Minnie Mouse is ok :o)
3. Another photo of us by Goofy.

1. In front of the well known entrance: me, Girly~Whirly, my little brother L, Girly~Twirly, my little sister M, and mom
2. My dad, little sister M, little brother L, and mom with one of the Robin Hood characters. (Does anyone recognize this character?)

 

1. My handsome hubby, our girls and I with Sleeping Beauty's castle in the background.

2. My parents, little brother, little sister take a pose in almost the same spot. I had sewn all the girls dresses out of tube tops and two ruffled layers of fabric.

Our children had asked as they were growing up when we would go again... Their dad would say "some day..."  For various reasons, there wasn't the opportunity to go until...

DISNEY 2005

Our son was completing chemo tx for the lymphoma. And my hubby's older brother and his family and also one of his sisters and her two boys flew from Hawaii to visit.

 

 1. In the hotel room the night before checking out Disney.

2. The girls and I at the hotel.

3. Our nephew B, me, my hubby's brother and his wife in the tram going to one of the parks.

4. My bald hubby (he shaved his hair off while our son was going through chemo and lost his hair), daughter Girly~Whirly, niece K, son Heartbreaker, abd daughter Girly~Twirly on the opposite side of the tram.

 

1. Cousins at the entrance...

2. family foto

3. Heartbreaker is so awesome on the guitar, I wouldnt be surprised if he figured out how to play this huge one! lol

 1. cousins and Minnie

2. big bro, hubby, Minnie, and younger sister...one more sister in Hawaii who was not able to come.

DISNEY 2007

 

1. Heartbreaker, the year he was Georgia's Ambassador for Children's Miracle Network (CMN).

(This time with a little more hair...he was growing it out to donate to Locks of Love).

2. Hubby, Heartbreaker and I with CMN's co-founders Marie Osmond and John Schneider.

They were so awesome to meet.

 

1. Heartbreaker performing before 2000+ at the telethon.

2. Heartbreaker, his "backup band" and Richie MacDonald (from Lonestar).

 1. Heartbreaker was able to meet so many wonderful people, like Miss America, shown here in a magazine article about his time with CMN.  (This photo was actually taken in D.C. during the days prior to flying down to Orlando).

2. oops! Already posted this one of the three of us and Marie Osmond and John Schneider.

3. Heartbreaker and Mary Lou Rhetton- she was so sweet! She looks as amazing as when she was a teen gymnast!

4. Heartbreaker and the Jonas Brothers - great boys....they had fun hanging out at the Disney hotel and pool.

*****

Joining

...with Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday's "D"

 *****

I have more Disney characters, but will share these ones of Mickey and Minnie.

(some of these are not as dark as the originals due to lighting).

 Here are a few Disney Mickey Mouse Personalized Sketches...

 

 

 

 

& Disney Minnie Personalized Sketches...

 

 

 Thank you for stopping by and for your comments :o)

Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving!

(a closeup of the pumpkin wall hanging that I photo-shopped the scripture verse on to: 1Chronicles).

Family and friends throughout the years have blessed us...

We have gathered together with family and/or friends during Thanksgiving.

...places like...

the Philippines, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Japan, Texas, Taiwan, New Mexico, Hawaii, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Georgia...

& there are many different recipes that we are sure to have for Thanksgiving,

...but my hubby's favorite Thanksgiving treat is his mom's Pumpkin Pie Bars.

(This pumpkin wall hanging is the first "fully completed" quilt that I had done years ago.

Instead of the other words that were to be embroidered on it, 

I decided to print out the ingredients from his mom's pumpkin pie bars.)

I made the bars today to share with dear friends tomorrow.  They are so sweet to open their home & hospitality to us tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving with them this year.

Although this year, my hubby and I will be the only ones of our family that will be in Georgia for Thanksgiving, we are so thankful that our children will be in great company.

Girly~Twirly and Dr Awesome will be spending Thanksgiving in their home with his parents. (His dear parents have had all of us to spend a Thanksgiving meal with for the past 2 years!)

Girly~Whirly and her fiance' Dr. Amazing will be spending Thanksgiving at his parent's home.

Heartbreaker and his girlfriend Sweetie will be spending Thanksgiving at her family's home.

We are so thankful also that we were able to spend Thanksgiving with my dad last year.  He had just had heart surgeries for 5 bypasses. This Thanksgiving, he will be at my sister's.

Joining

...with Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday's "We Gather Together"

*****

Still working on more art orders...but will not post them, since they are to be given as Christmas gifts. I have also completed an order for calligraphy on wedding envelopes for a sweet sorority sister of our daughters. I love doing these too! :o)

Close up, but with the address and personal info blocked out.

Thank you Lauren, for your email:

"...We received them.. They are Magnificent!!! Thank you so much for all of 

Your work! I love them! ....  I can't wait to send them out!"

Thanks again!

Lauren

*****

What special family treat or dish do you have at Thanksgiving or other family gathering?

Wishing all a day of Thanksgiving today and every day!

Celebrate

...& sharing more wonderful family news...

Our younger daughter, Girly~Whirly...

 a sweet princess...

Top photo: 2007 University of Lousiville Homecoming Queen

Bottom Left photo: 2008 Kentucky Derby Princess

Bottom Right photo: taken this spring 2011 @ the Kentucky Derby tea party for "those future princesses" :o)

*****

...had met her Prince Charming...

A sweet couple

  ...in every season...

Clockwise: Gatlinburg, Gatlinburg snow!

Keeneland Races, Keeneland again

...in sunshiny days...

...in stunning sunsets...

...while out and about...

...while in Savannah...

Clockwise: after church, lunch at an old Savannah restaurant, at Forsythe Park

...visiting at our other daughter (Girly~Twirly) 

& son-in-law (Dr. Awesome)'s beautiful new home...

...at numerous weddings of friends...

...at a special occasion...

Dr Amazing's dental school graduation

*****

This sweet couple

on 11/11/11

 ...at a surprise beach picnic planned by Dr. Amazing...

 

...at the Outerbanks...

& after a ride on the beach...

 ...the proposal!

...engaged!

From when our three were very little, we have always prayed for their future spouses...My husband would pray for them to have Chrisitan spouses, whose whole heart is given to Jesus Christ, strong in their faith and walk, who would love, honor, cherish, support, care for them...

When our girls were older, they interjected one night with..."Dad, don't forget "good-looking" too :o)

We look forward to the many blessings ahead as our family grows!

Happy to be joining in again...

...with Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday's "C"

 

*****

Here are a few art orders completed:

I have more, but will wait until I know that they were already given.

 Thank you Linda, for sending this photo of one of your Eiffel Towers. I love the matting and framing that you chose!

 

Thank you also for your feedback at my Etsy shop:

"We asked Maria to sketch the Eiffel Tower with our son, Zachary's name. He will be serving a mission for our church for the next two years and we wanted something in our home (and in his one day) to remind us of the selfless work he will be doing and how proud we are of our son, Zach. Maria captured our idea perfectly and made this beautiful sketch for us. We couldn't be happier with her artwork or her customer service. Thank you, Maria! "

Here are two orders from Tracie. I'll post her other order later, since it has not been given yet.

She chose this sweet pose from her sweet pup's photo. ...who had passed away not too long ago.

 & this one is of Lady Justice, as a gift for her boss, who is a lawyer.

Thank you very much for your email:

"...The package arrived yesterday (safe and sound!).  I knew the sketches would be amazing, but they are AAAMMMAAAZZZIIINNNGGG!!!!  You are so talented!  I can't wait to pick out frames for them, and I will send you pictures once they're framed and ready.  I will definitely pass along your information to all my friends and family!

And I'm sure I will be ordering again -- I'm already thinking of more things for you to sketch :)"

 *****

Thank you all for your lovely visits and comments! I still need to catch up with last week's post!