Darling Moments: Baby & His Penguin

bruce playing with his own mini penguin

Things That Make Me Smile

This week felt so great! It felt great to be back home, healthy and productive.

I've been able to update my blog daily and have my creative juices flowing again. I have an idea for a product... Well, I have tons of ideas but one in particular that I hope to launch by Christmas this year. I know what you're thinking: "Isn't Christmas so far from now?" It is! But with a lot of things going on right now, I thought it was a legit deadline. I want to do this right in hopes that it'll be a success. More on this project later as I get it going.

I was talking to Brandon the other day about My Dear Darling and he mentioned that I should use my "smiles" more in my branding because I always sign my MDD handwritten letters with "Lots of Smiles, Akiyo", use a lot of smiley emoticons, and even made my Maid-of-Honor speech for my best friend's wedding around smiles! So I thought to start it off with Friday posts being dedicated to things that made me smile throughout the week. Simple as that! :) I'm even thinking of changing my tagline too but now I'm getting way ahead of myself. Seriously though, smiles are contagious so maybe some of these will make you smile too!

1. I joined in on the Instagram madness. I've seen many of my Facebook friends post Instagram pics so I finally downloaded it and tried it out. Works pretty well and now I have more photos of random things in different photo filters. Good random things, that is.

2. I mentioned on Monday and yesterday that I've been trying to dress a little nicer everyday. Note that before this week, I would wear sweats and a T sans makeup around the house or jeans and a sweater with makeup when I know I'll be going out. Boring, right? Well, look how not-so-boring I looked on Monday! Yes, it's somewhat of an improvement. But I've been keeping it up and I have to say, it has been a mood booster! I just need to hone my own Five-Minute Face routine and work on my hair.

3. My mom brought these cookies up with her last weekend. I have no idea what their called because the packaging is in Korean but they are so good! There's creamy goodness sandwiched between two Ritz-like crackers. They made me smile. :) Yummy food always makes me smile.

4. After reading Ez's Pinterest post, I checked out if anything from my site had been pinned. I figured nothing would come up but I tried it anyway. To my surprise, Sticky Penguin, had pinned two of my own works! :D Thank you, Sticky Penguin!

5. Yesterday, I ordered A Print Handbook for Designers and am excited for its arrival!


Woohoo! I think I'm diggin' this Friday's post. What made you smile this week? :)


I'll be home this holiday weekend doing a lot of cleaning around the house. Hope you have a lovely Memorial Day weekend!

Shout Out - BlueBirdHeaven

As I mentioned earlier this week, my friend Erin has been inspiring me to "look good, feel good" by accessorizing outfits. I stayed over at her and her husband's home while I was in Orange County and of course, I fell in love with all their home decor; one of which was an awesome jewelry display case made out of a printer drawer. How clever and unique! Then a couple days ago, when I was going through my Google Reader, I came across this sweet a** lego storage made out of a printer tray as well. So I looked around Etsy and found Jessica's shop, BlueBirdHeaven.

I actually don't know if this is where Erin got hers but I really liked the craftsmanship of Jessica's work just by looking at her photos. I also like a lot of the jewelry in the pictures. ;) Now I have to find a bigger home to move into so I have space to buy one and hang it up!

shop: BlueBirdHeaven
photos: Printers Drawer Jewelry Display (dark distressed), TEAL Printer Drawer Jewelry Display, Printer Drawer Jewelry Display (white distressed)

An Apple Magnet

I made this for a friend last November. :) I think I'll be making one for myself too since I'm in need of more fridge magnets.

Happy Birthday

mini's party hat was a little too big

happy birthday to my sister, kaori

she also just graduated with a BA in Baking & Pastry

so congratulations too

The Wait List

I'm delighted to share that my Wait List has been so helpful to me and I feel blessed that I continue to add people to the list almost on a daily basis. I apologize for having such a long wait but I am just one crafter (and a mother). As my list gets longer, I thought I'd share some guidelines.

 *If you'd like to have a personalized My Dear Darling product and/or a made-to-order My Dear Darling product, please email me to be added to the Wait List.

 *Once you're on the list, I will send you an email as soon as I am available to work with you on your personalized order. If you'd like to check up once in a while to see where you stand, don't hesitate to send me an email and ask. I totally understand waiting isn't fun and knowing where you stand can be helpful.

 *I will email you twice as soon as I'm available and will wait one week for a reply before moving onto the next client on the Wait List. If I do not hear from you within that week, you will be automatically removed from the list. You won't need to worry about spam emails from me. ;) If you contact me after the week, you will be next in line. (I hope that's fair.)

 *The Wait List is a no obligation list so it's free to add your name and if you feel at any time you don't want to be on the list, just let me know and I can remove you from the list.

I look forward to working with all of you to create your special personalized gift! Thank you so much for all your patience and support!

Hello Monday

I don't know if you can tell, but I'm feeling so much better. :) I finished taking the last Cipro pill on Saturday and my stomach has been keeping foods down much longer than an hour. A big thanks to my sweet mom for flying in again this weekend to help out around the house. I'm feeling good enough that Brandon's finally able to go to work today. Here's to hopes of a smooth day! *raising a glass of water* ;)

How was your weekend? I hope it was full of good times!

Since I was feeling almost back to normal Sunday, Brandon took us all out to the mall for some shop therapy. Hehe, what girl doesn't love to shop? Actually, to tell you the truth, I don't really like shopping. I think it's because I'm not very good at it. Everyone around me seems to always find great deals on clothes and accessories but I tend to spend hours at the mall and come home empty handed almost all the time. But lately, I've been inspired by my girlfriend, Erin, who has the cutest outfits and is always decked out with the right type of accessories. So yesterday, I dove right in the racks of Forever21 and tried on things I never would've dared before. To my surprise I ended up buying 2 pairs of shorts, a skirt and a $9 romper! Thank you, Husband! My mom bought a few outfits too so we all went home happy.

During my ill sticken days, I received a package and card from my best friend, Bryce. I was so sick I was unable to open it until I came home from the hospital but I wish I had opened it earlier. She has this crazy ability (hehe, mainly just crazy coincidence) to foresee what I will need in the future. She had gotten me the cutest Matryoshka carafe and the sweetest Mother's Day card that was beautifully embroidered with flowers. Thank you, B! She also got me a necklace with a letterpress block "A" in Bodoni but I didn't get a chance to take it off and photograph it.

Back to business. I've emailed everyone back over the weekend so if you haven't received a reply from me, then please email me again. It might've gotten into the spam folder and deleted before I got to it. I'll be writing another blog post about the wait list today, so hopefully if you have questions regarding that, it will be answered there. :) Have a wonderful start of the week!

Home Sweet Home

Guess where I'm blogging from today? :) Not my Dad's, nor my Mom's, and not even the hospital; I'm finally here in my own home with Brandon, Bruce, and Katsu! And it feels great to be back!

As you know, Bruce and I had been in Orange County visiting family for two months while Brandon was working back home. My family got a chance to get to know Bruce and watch him grow from barely crawling to standing with support. I loved watching my Dad's face light up every night he came home and saw Bruce. It made me wish we didn't live so far apart when my mom and Bruce would giggle their hearts out while they played peek-a-boo. My sisters were great with him too. But the time came for us to come back home to Brandon so we decided to return after Mother's Day weekend.

behind the scenes of family photos

(by erin)

My first Mother's Day was nothing short of awesome! We kicked it off with a family photoshoot on Saturday because my mom had been wanting a photo of all of us together. I'm hoping I can share photos soon? Hehe, we had our friends take the pictures and are having another friend Photoshop it for us. Because you know, when you say you'll do it yourself, months seem to pass before finishing a project like that. ;) On Sunday, we took my mom to the Flower Fields in Carlsbad. It was simply beautiful! We had taken my mom there when we were younger but this time we brought lunch and had a little picnic. We took lots of photos and Bruce seemed to have enjoyed the colorful flowers too.

poor little Bruce was sick too for the first time

Sunday night was when my fever started but I felt good enough for the 8 hour drive home Monday morning so home we went. Once I got here, things turned for the worse and I couldn't keep any food or fluids down. We figured it was a bad case of the flu and brushed it off until Thursday when I nearly fainted and had to get fluids through an IV. The Doc thought I had the flu too so she sent me home. By Friday early morning, I was feeling weaker than the day before so Brandon took me to ER. There, they determined I didn't have the flu so the blood tests began and I was hospitalized. They didn't find out I had campylobacter until this Monday and after trying two different antibiotics, they finally gave me Cipro to get rid of the bacteria. They were avoiding it because I was breastfeeding but since my conditions weren't improving, we went ahead with the Cipro. I'm still nursing, but not as much or often until I'm done taking the antibiotics. Bruce has been such a good baby throughout this time and has been drinking his formula like a champ.

the little window to the outside world
I wasn't allowed to step outside my room

my goal: to keep clear liquids down

the tv became a good friend of mine

The staff at my hospital were wonderful. The nurses checked up on me ever so often and the Doc came to update me on my condition daily. The surprising thing was that I was the youngest hospitalized patient there. The next youngest patient was in their 70s. So when Brandon came to visit with Bruce, you can just imagine how popular Bruce was with the nurses. Hehe. I was in isolation so everyone who came into my room had to wear gowns with gloves. My mom flew up last weekend and my sisters drove up for a couple days afterwards so they had the pleasure of dressing up. Okay, so maybe it wasn't pleasurable, but it was really sweet that they came to visit and helped Brandon around the house.

shizuka ready for surgery ;)

I finally started feeling better Wednesday and was released. I've been home recovering since but nothing gives me more energy than watching Bruce play and smile. My mom will be flying in again later today so I'm hoping to be at 100% by next week. :) Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers! I'm so grateful to be surrounded by so much love! I will be responding to emails this weekend and hope to be blogging regularly again!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hospitalized

Hello everyone! I hope I find you well!

I just wanted to stop by and let you know that I haven't updated my blog and replied to any emails lately because I have been sick. I had a nasty cold for a couple weeks and then felt pretty good for a few days. But then I ate something bad and was sick for another week until I was hospitalized last Friday. I'm still in the hospital because things aren't improving as fast but hopefully, I'll get to go home soon and play with my baby Bruce. I have a bacteria called Campylobacter which is absolutely no fun. I apologize for the long silence on the blog but I'm hoping to come back soon! :)