What's your favorite pie? (a mini giveaway)

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

For one of TGF's past challenges, I altered a recipe box that needed some attention. This is my Cheeky Cherry Pie that I won from TGF, what a great incentive to enter in on those challenges!
For my altered item I dug up some papers from an old Nana's Kitchen DCWV stack to decorate this cardboard recipe box. Instead of using it for actual food concoctions, I am going to store card techniques in it (measurements for stair steps, easels, etc.) so I have it all in one place.

So I want to know, what's your favorite pie?
Leave a comment here and random.org will select one lucky friend on Saturday to win a sweet surprise of their own. ;)
Thank you so much for coming by today!

♥ & Aloha,

Our sweetie, your candy!

Happy Candy everyone!
I am so excited to write this post as it means SO much to me. It celebrates our Kindergarten graduate {and soon to be birthday girl} Maali!!

Here she is with her favorite library book, she wants to be a doctor one day. ;)
For those of you who are new friends here, Maali is a cancer survivor. At 2 and a half years old she was diagnosed with cancer of the eye and underwent chemo therapy and a major surgery. This past summer DH and I hesitated in putting her into school just yet, but she was ready to socialize and emulate her older siblings.

Fast forward a year later and not only has Maali been so gracious at offering explanations as to why she has a prosthetic eye ("My eye was sick and now it's a special eye") but she has reached and exceeded all of her Kindergarten requirements, testing above level in math and was 3 points away from a perfect reading score. Woohoo!!! Yes, it still makes me cry every time I talk about it. For a little one who battled cancer so graciously and then went on to catch up with her age group, we are sooo proud of her.

Maali is cancer free and turns 6 on July 14th, the day that this blog candy ends. I accumulated several of her favorite things as she is a budding crafter and has her own desk right across from mine. ;) Some of the goodies include dimensionals, Nestie tags, Sassy Suzi from TGF, flowers, my favorite Inkadinkadoo children's sentiment set, handmade watermelon buttons (her favorite fruit), gel pens, chipboard, TONS of 6x6 DP from all my favorite companies, and the most amazing ribbon scissors that I found at GAS. (These scissors are made from Teflon and makes the most amazing cuts!)

Please note, I will be adding to this pile (had to take a quick picture before I lost natural light) but wanted this post up with plenty of time for friends to add their names in. This is open to ALL friends, international and local. All you have to do is leave a comment below, and Maali will press the generator button on random.org on July 14th to pick the winner. Woohoo!!

♥♥♥Thank you so much for coming by and good luck! ♥♥♥

My Story, Your Candy ;)

One Memorial Weekend, a long long time ago, I arrived home from work and saw the most gorgeous guy sitting in my apartment. He was a friend of my roommate's boyfriend, and just arrived in Hawaii to begin his military career.

I dare not say it was love at first sight, but I was smitten.

We talked and hit it off immediately. I even ventured into the kitchen to cook homemade dinners when he visited.

He came from a good family and had so much more life experiences than the college guys I knew!
I made a note to myself:

He is the one.
Apparently he felt the same way too. We saw each other whenever it was possible, although he had to drive 45 minutes in traffic just to see me. Even through periodic overseas separation and all of his training in the field, we kept in touch and left messages on each others' pagers. Yes. Pagers. ;)
He eventually popped the question, so we chose a beautiful Spring day to get married.

And on March 18th in front of friends, family, and my wonderful Mother In Law, we exchanged rings.

Many thought we chose shades of greens for our wedding to embrace the natural surroundings. Truth be told, it matched his Army Dress Greens which helped us save money by not renting tuxedos.

Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't the white horse/castle/knight in shining armor sort of beginning. I was a young college student still in school and he was a low ranking enlisted soldier. We had a lot to learn!

We got through the hard times but celebrated all the good times even more.

 

And yes we even held true to our decision to have 6 kids: 3 boys...

 

and 3 girls.

Somehow we find a way to make each other a priority: a phone call, in-home date night, doing each others' chores, an inside joke that we laugh about in front of our kids.
While I don't have any of the answers for the perfect marriage, I do know that he and I strive to celebrate 40 years together as his parents just did, and 50 years together as my mommy and daddy would have if he was still here. What we do know is that God put us together and we have so much to learn from and with each other.

And that's the story...

 of how I met my Soldier.

Now you can celebrate our wedding anniversary with us!

Leave a comment here for your chance to win everything (plus some that I couldn't find a way to incorporate into the story) that was shown on today's posting, including Hula Anya and Soldier Ian who are on their way to jump into your box. You have until April 3rd to enter, I will randomly select one person on Easter to send this blog candy to.
*Please note: Due to postage and handling, if an international friend's name is picked (outside of Canada and the US) I will compensate with an online gift certificate to their store of choice. Thank you for your understanding!

{If you would like to post this in your sidebar, please take the picture above OR the Hula/Soldier Ian picture. :D}

Thank you so much for letting me share my story, have a wonderful and blessed day!
♥ and Aloha

Congratulations to my blog candy winner!

Random.org selected Pam from Cure For Cole!
Thank you all to entered, I will be having more giveaways to celebrate all the wonderful milestones this year. :D

*Love and Aloha*

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers...

"She's Cheer Captain and I'm on the bleachers!" I got you all singing some Taylor Swift now, didn't I?  :D Happy Tuesday everyone! I was singing this song the entire time when I was making my little Whimsie Doodles project:

Melyssa came up with the cutest set of V-day images, including this sassy high heeled one. This little goody bag is perfect for Nala's former Kindergarten teacher. Ms. Brogden owns over 200 pairs of shoes! That is not a typo, her shoes have their own bedroom. She donates dozens of them every year to shelters, then re-stocks them with new favorites. Hilarious! They aren't all high heels, I've seen her in some snazzy sneakers, cowboy boots, and espadrilles, but this digi immediately reminded me of her. :D

It's also that time of year when the teachers are asking for supplies again. Bless their hearts, they come out of pocket for so many classroom goodies that I always send in some extras that I keep in my stash. Here is one that I made with another adorable Whimsie Doodles digi from this line:

And filled the inside with some goodies:

I'll put the larger extras in a gift bag, but filled the inside of this pencil box (10 cents at WalMart) with black, red, and blue pens, glue sticks and Purell hand wipes. I should add in some Motrin too. lol! You can find the entire set HERE on the Whimsie Doodles store site - as well as the newest penguins and my new favorite Cupid cutie.

Thank you for coming by today, there's so much going on including my blog candy giveaway HERE, and Inktegrity's fun blog hop on Thursday with all the details HERE.What a fun week we're going to have. ;)

Enjoy this beautiful Tuesday everyone!

*Love and Aloha*

Raise the CANDY Bar!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope your weekend went well? We just chilled out - literally - with this cold front through the East Coast.
Today I have a fun little announcement: I celebrated my 1 year blogaversary this month!! Woot woot! I cannot believe how much fun I have had this past year. Friendships, inspiration, DTs, challenges...I never knew it could be this exciting!
To celebrate, I am giving away some blog candy. However, this comes with a little twist (heehee!).
I started up a challenge blog called Raise The Bar and would love for you to join us! This Friday will be our first challenge, so to enter for this giveaway, all you have to do is become a follower of the RTB blog HERE and leave a comment on either blog (yes - you can be entered twice!). That's it! Really!
This is just a snippet of what I am giving away:
The Greeting Farm's Showtime set
Martha Stewart New Baby set

American Crafts Spring rub-ons
JoAnn's thank you embellishment tags
MM vintage ribbon charms
Fresh Paint felt floral embellishments
CK light pink flowers
American Crafts Spools of ribbon
$10 gc to Inktegrity

I will be updating this post when I add more to the box, after all, it's an all month celebration! I'll combine both numbers of comments and pick one random winner on January 31st.
Click HERE to become a follower of the Raise The Bar blog and be sure to comment on both posts too. Have a wonderful day my friends!
*Love and Aloha*

Blog candy update!

Hello everyone and thank you so much for coming by! This is an updated post, as promised, with a couple of add-ons and a FUN announcement!

What you see above is a snippet of all the things I love:

Susie Surprise from The Greeting Farm (one of my all time faves, as she is the happiest and most adorable little cutie)
big brads in pinks and oranges
ribbon in coordinating and bright colors
paper clip embellishments in the most fun shapes (hearts, music notes, stars, etc.)
DP pack of fun colors and designs
The cutest punch that I found - it makes the sweetest flower or curvy star

EEEK! And here's the fun addition:

Yes! LEGALLY! lol! I have been graciously given permission by Marie of The Greeting Farm and Melyssa of Whimsie Doodles to give these digis away to the lucky winner!
All you have to do is just leave a comment here, no need to post it on your blog or anything. I will consider all entries that are in by 11:59 EST on November 15th, and will announce the winner the day after.

FUN ANNOUNCEMENT:
Click HERE to read the details, especially the last part. ;)

Thank you for coming by to see me!
Have a wonderful day and good luck to you all.
*Love and Aloha*

Nuttin' better than a friend like you :D

Happy wonderful beautiful cold Friday everyone! 45* and rainy. yay. Why did I ever move from Hawaii? lol! I hope you all had fun at yesterday's Whimsie Doodles blog hop! I saw some of my friends that I haven't chatted with in a while, and was sooo excited to meet new ones! Thank you for coming by, it truly means a lot to me. Be sure to check back in to the Whimsie Doodles blog for the winners list, I can't wait to see who gets that Gingerbread Greetings set. ;)

What a great day, the weekend is upon us and Fall is here...

And there's Nuttin' better than a friend like you! This is my new little critter from my Inktegrity line named Candy. Candy was named after my DT Tammy's site HERE, her blog is just full of eye candy!
This tree was made out of scrap brown cardstock and the distressed stripes CB folder. Vicki and the awesome designers over at Saturday Spotlight have a current challenge of dressing up trees. The leaves were punched out of scraps with Martha Stewart's maple leaf punch, I decided to make them out of fun patterns.Life is too short to be taken seriously. ;)
Here is a closer look at the card:

Her tail was printed off twice and then popped up on dimensionals so that it would look nice and fluffy. We are surrounded by adorable little gray squirrels here in VA, so I made sure to check out their gray coloring up close. They think I'm 'nuts.' (wink wink)
Here is another little image that I created named Happy Mail:

This little birdy was designed for Sheri, as she is the queen of sending happy mail! In fact, the DP on the mailbox and in the background was sent to me by Sheri for a Secret Sister swap. I knew I wanted to incorporate it into this card!

Happy Mail comes with 3 coordinating sentiments, and is really fun to paper piece. She and Candy + 5 other friends are available in my Inktegrity shop.
And speaking of Happy Mail....(drum roll) congratulations to my blog candy winner:
random.org picked #24

Congratulations Marilyn! (mlj-mlj) Please email me with your home addy so I can have this box postal!!

And don't forget, I'll be having another blog candy announcement for my birthday month, so be sure to check back in. Have an incredible Friday everyone! Enjoy this beautiful day~

*Love and Aloha*

Sticky Blog Candy

Full of sugar and calorie free! :D

Hello to you, and thank you for coming by for a visit. As promised, here is my blog candy for October to celebrate all the 'Hope and Grace' that this season brings:

The Greeting Farm's Hope and Grace, NUM

3 packs of Bazzill Fall colored jumbo brads

MS leaf confetti

ribbon spools in burgundy and burned orange

Paper Shapers mini leaf punch

Cuttlebug's Autumn folder

Just leave a comment here on this post (only one please). The winner will be picked via random.org on October 15th.

*Please note: If an international crafter outside of the US or Canada is selected, I will substitute a comparable online gift certificate instead and add this set of candy to November's giveaway. :D
Hugs and have a wonderful day!
*Love and Aloha*

A Sticky Blog Candy Situation

I am so excited to be typing up this post as I want to celebrate by thanking you all!
I have reached the 20,000 hits on my stalk market - woohoo! I wanted to do something special, so this is the situation:

I am offering exclusive online candy!

On September 15th I will randomly draw a number from the comments on this post for an online gift certificate of your choice. How much you ask? Well, it depends on how many hits I have at the time of drawing. For example, 20,001 - 25,000 hits will be rounded up to a $25 gc, 25,001 + hits will mean a $30 gc.
In addition to that, the grand prize winner will receive the entire digital series and sentiments that will debut on September 16th off of my Inktegrity line. 2 other lucky winners will receive the new releases as well!

You want more? :D I am doing an additional giveaway on my Inktegrity blog HERE. All you have to do is link your name up on that posting for a chance to receive the same blog candy! There is ONE difference though - since it is a fairly new blog, I will take the amount of hits and divide it in two to equal the amount of your gift certificate. For example, I am currently at 3900 hits so the gc would be rounded up to $20 if we were to draw a name now.

Could I possibly have made this more confusing? LOL!
You have until September 14th 11:59pm EST to comment. Don't forget to link this up and spread the word, feel free to use the pic above as it was made for this occasion! If you post it on your sidebar (like I do) that is perfectly fine with me. Now don't forget to hop over HERE for your second chance!
Mahalo Nui Loa for all of your love and support - I never dreamed I would have this much fun in blog world!
*Love and Aloha*

The sad truth of a luau...

I know, I know. I'm sorry that I have to start your Monday off like this. HAHA!! Hi everyone! I hope your weekend went well? And slow? Unlike mine! Grrr...at least Summer is coming, and at least I'm not that pig. LOL! What a way to start my June/July Guest DT over at Club Anya!!! Yeahhh! I'm celebrating Hawaiian style. ;)
And look at how happy everyone else is at the luau:


Oh the guilt that I have now, enjoying all the entertainment, hula girls, handsome Hawaiian guys in their pareo (sarong/lava-lava) escorting you to your table as you pass flaming torches. And there on that back table, a pig that I have lovingly named Kalua sits amongst fresh fruits and a bowl of rice. LOL! (note: no animals were harmed during this film)
All of these images are from The Greeting Farm: Hula Anya, Dress Me Ian (both fair and tan complected-teehee!), and Kalua from the Farm Friends set, I drew the pineapple and torches to keep it more realistic. ;)
And guess what today is? It's the big announcement of my Trick or Treat blog candy giveaway! Random.org has selected Sara Strand! Congratulations Sara! :D Okay everyone, have an incredible Monday, I hope my card made you smile. :D
*Love and Aloha*

Trick or Treat candy!

Hi everyone! I promised you a picture of the candy, and here it is, in all of its summery glory. ;)

K&Co. brads in yummy striped colors

Jolees summer embellishments

2 spools of American Craft ribbon

Fiskars heart punch (perfect when you just need a quick embelli)

Treehouse Chipboard

Hidden Hues cardstock (I love this pack, it has colored core!)

die cut Celebrate ribbon

3 vials of glitter

Now I may be adding on to it throughout the rest of the month, but remember that this candy is for a little unscramble-the-word contest that I have going on. There will be 5 letters given to you every day this week. Once you've figured it out, email me at jonjinko@hotmail.com with the word in the subject line. (If you missed yesterday's post, click HERE to read the details and start the fun!)

Don't forget - if you link this up to your blog, let me know on today's post so I can add your name in for a 2nd chance to win. All emails need to be received by May 20th (11:59AM EST) and I will announce the lucky ghoul's name on June 1st. I will post the winner's name on my blog as well as contact you through your email or blog link. If you'd like to follow me that would be fine but not necessary...I already have 3 kiddos who do that all day. teehee! Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone! -->The letter for today is "E"<--

*Love and Aloha*