We Turned Three!

lattice chicken pot pie for Brandon

inspired by this

heart rice krispie treat for Brandon

my beautiful white kitchenaid mixer from Brandon

A glimpse of what we did for our special day. I promise that's the last of the anniversary posts because now I'll be busy with Bruce's first birthday in just a couple days! :D

Wedding Anniversary Newspaper

My personalized take on a greeting card - a phamily newspaper! :D I had so much fun working on this project mainly because I went through most of our photos since we started dating. Lots of memories came flooding back which put me in the lovey dovey mood and made it that much more special.

I started out with a crossword but was "puzzled" (heehee) on how I'd give it to him. My sisters suggested many different (mostly ridiculous) ideas like putting it in a bottle and throwing it in the ocean. But then they mentioned publishing it in a newspaper. There was no way I was going to do that but it sparked the thought of creating our own newspaper together: The Phamily Times. I'm corny like that so it's okay if you want to laugh. ;)

yes, I call my husband "tanny poo" :)

his vietnamese name is "tan"

the original crossword puzzle

3 things i love about you

3 memories i love

3 things i'm excited for

(inspired by this pin on pinterest)

the hearts & maps idea was taken from pinterest here

I put it in his man purse bag in the morning before he went off to work and asked if he could make copies of paperwork if he gets the chance. Of course, he didn't check what it was and I received this text message about an hour later:

"tricky bastard." "pretty damn cool. love it. love u."

Lol. He loved it and enjoyed "a major trip down memory lane" (as he put it). <3 Happy Anniversary to us! :D

Thumbody Loves You Card

thumbody loves you card in a red fabric envelope

for my husband, Brandon

I've been wanting to make this card for Brandon since I posted my list of 101 things in 1001 days. It's taken a while, but I was able to add a small touch that I couldn't before. ;)

the little card in Brandon's hand

my thumbprint girl

a simple note

the little addition I wouldn't have been able to add years ago

bruce's tiny thumbprint boy

Brandon loved it :)

Here's a list of materials and pointers if you'd like to make one yourself:

paper - cardstock

stamp pad

scrap fabric

scissors

pen

glue

I bought a pack of different colored stamp pads so I first tested each color to see which one showed the thumbprint the best. Originally, I wanted to use yellow (since it's the husband's favorite color) but it wasn't reading as a thumbprint even on dark paper. Testing is key so you know how hard to press too.

Then I cut the cardstock so my thumbprint would fit just right. But maybe you want to use a bigger size to show how small your thumbprint is? I made my mark, let it dry and drew in the face, arms, and legs. I did Bruce's thumb right when he woke up since that's when he resists the least.

For the envelope, I kind of just eyeballed it so you can see it's not perfect. But you can find many envelope templates online so if you're nitpicky, you could use that as a guide and draw it in before you cut. Glue the flaps down and wait for it to dry before putting in your card.

After you squeal in excitement, put it on your husband's keyboard while he sleeps so when he wakes up to work on his computer, he'll be pleasantly surprised by your love note. ;)

This completes number 2 on my 101 in 1001 list. If you want to check out the other two handmade notes  I made for Brandon here are the links: a plush heart card & cupcake notes.

Tomorrow's our 3 year anniversary and I finally finished my card last night. :D So excited for him to see!

Pictures In The Frame

I finally managed to update our little gallery wall last week, just in time for our anniversary weekend! Remember Valentine's when those three picture frames on the bottom right had the default Ikea labels in them? Okay, maybe not. But here they are, our Phamily gallery . ;)

I'm so glad I changed out the photos that were in these two frames above. It now has a more casual and cheerful feel than before. The one on the bottom is now one of my favorites. It's from our first wedding which we celebrated with just us and a couple of our friends as witnesses. We never got around to printing any of the pictures so it's so nice to finally be able to see and remember fun moments from that day. The top photo is from our second wedding and I added "you make me smile" because it does just that every time I see it.

On this side is the wedding gift I made for Brandon back in 2008. It's inspired by this, but I wanted it to be more us, so I used buildings that were relevant in our relationship and added a lot more personalized touches. The little note is the first written note from Brandon that was left on my car so I'd stop by the library to see him. I kept it all these years so I framed it. :) The rest are photos of us with Bruce. Hopefully we'll get a photo with the entire phamily, and by entire phamily, I mean with Katsu too!

I catch Brandon looking over at the pictures every once in a while and it makes me smile. Mission complete. ;)

Sneak Peek

As I promised, here's a sneak peek at what I'm hoping to release next month! What do you suppose it is? ;)

Next week is a big week for our Phamily. Brandon and I will be celebrating our anniversary and Bruce will be turning ONE! (I can't believe how fast the year flew by.) I'm hoping to share the personal projects I've been working on, you know, projects I have yet to surprise Brandon with and I'm all kinds of giddy inside! Heehee. But until then, have a wonderful and safe weekend! <3

Surprise Attack By A Dinosaur Penguin

penguin in a dinosaur costume surprising a mini penguin

Seems like these dinosaur costumes are quite a hit. This one was named Harry and he was shipped off to the UK to meet his new family. I love it when customers share the names they give to their plushies! :)

Thank you SO much for everyone who gave me insight on the Wait List question! You don't realize how helpful it is receiving feedback from all of you! I'm still making a decision so I'll share what I end up doing once I work some things out.

And for those of you waiting for those two new products that I mentioned in this post, I seriously can't wait to share! I'm working on the packaging for one and hoping to release it by early October... I promise I'll share a sneak peek soon. ;)

Rawr! Dinosaur Penguin In Love

yellow dinosaur with initials on each arm

for Kelly from her boyfriend, Thomas

"i love you kelly"

i'm dino-mite ;)

My Dear Darling Wait List Question

I asked this over on my Facebook Fan Page last Friday but only my husband responded so I thought I'd ask here too:

Would a viewable Wait List (for personalized orders) with names on my website be helpful?

Labor Day With Grandpa

Dropping in to wish you a happy weekend and to share a few photos of last weekend. :)

he made a new penguin friend

at the Sausalito Art Festival

Grandpa's hooked on Bruce

bundled up at Fisherman's Wharf

News: Blogging

Hello, September! :) So nice to see you!

August has come and gone but it was a very productive month. I completed a design job consisting of 3 projects for a client (will share once their business opens), 4 personalized gifts, started Bruce's birthday planning, and worked on 2 new products! Isn't that unbelievable? And I don't work full-time! I get a few hours a day while Bruce sleeps to work on anything and everything. Although, I hate to admit, it was starting to look a little shabby around the house. Haha, I can't do it all!

The blogging "break" was a success in that I was able to focus on projects instead of worrying about blogging on a daily basis. I usually complete a couple orders a month and that's if I'm lucky! Personalized orders take time since I email back and forth with customers which sometimes takes as many days as it does making the gift or more. So last month I took on a few clients at a time and it worked out perfectly!

Now, news that you may or may not like, depending on what side you're on. I had been contemplating on stopping my personal posts on my blog or even quitting the blog altogether. As I looked through old posts, I realized there's a lot of me instead of My Dear Darling, which isn't too bad if it was balanced but clearly, it wasn't. There's so many beautiful and inspirational blogs out there that lured me into wanting to put more effort into blogging frequently. We'd be spending family time and I'd bust out my camera saying, "Wait! Lemme take a pic for the blog!" This part was not my favorite. It took time away from enjoying living in the moment with whoever I was with. My goal isn't to become a fulltime blogger. My love is creating, crafting, designing and my goal is to share that with you. So with last month's blog approach being a success, I decided to continue with the break (not really a break at this point since this will be the norm) and I'll be posting My Dear Darling news, sneak peeks, personalized gifts, with the occasional shout outs and a little look into my personal life. :)

My focus had been offtrack and now I'm back. There's other changes I'm still working out but I'll share those with you once I'm ready.

How was your August? Were you productive?

I'm happy to welcome my second favorite month of the year, September, where we'll be celebrating Brandon and my anniversary along with Bruce's first birthday! :D So much to look forward to.