Spaark It Up!

Hurray! The new web site for Spaark Album is up! Tammy @ Spaark did a wonderful job and it shows!

A "TOOT" for me as I went to peek at the home page, my 8x8 album cover is the featured project! YEAH!!! It's one of my favorite designs...I was able to incorporate my chipboard designs from LaserLine to make it happen! So thanks Spaark for loving it as much as I do!

Last Sunday, my family and I joined the Japan American Society's event at Brookfield Zoo. The day was warm but not overly hot. The event consisted a tour of the Lemur Monkey and a private dinner on the zoo grounds. The boys had fun but I think they're getting too old? for this place?! Ah, pre-teens....what to do with them! LOL!!


This is what greeted us at the south gate entrance of the zoo.










The Lemur monkeys (they're sisters) hanging around.










The baby polar bear having some fun while parents are sleeping! LOL!!







The black bear doing the back stroke....he was HUGE!




Oh! If you have any ideas on what kinds of events pre-teen boys would be interested, please do share! LOL!!!

Thoughts & Prayers of 9/11

Before we go on with our day today, I just want to stop and give thanks that we were safe during the 9/11 attacks...it was too close for comfort.

For those who don't know the background, we lived in NJ/NY area during the year we were attacked...our home was right on the Hudson River overlooking the Manhattan skyline. My DH worked in the Wall Street area and commuted via ferry. Many of his clients worked at the Twin Towers (aka World Trade Center) and would go there on a whim to visit them. He would comment every now and then before this tragedy that he felt uncomfortable being there. That morning he went in later (a conference call to Tokyo until 2am kept him) and he was on the ferry when he saw the second plane crash into the tower. The New York Port Authority radioed the ferry to turn around and go back to NJ. He was lucky...

My warm thoughts and comforting prayers to those who lost a loved one...words cannot express what you all are going through. But know that I have not forgotten the fear, the unknown, the quiet and mostly the smell of that day. Bless you that you have strength to get through this day.

Happy Grandparents Day!

I'm a little late with this!! The day is almost over but I wanted to share this layout I did a few days ago of my father and our youngest DS :0)

Need to do one with grandmom..ran out of time (sorry, mom!!) :0(










Isn't Hiro cute?! LOL! These pictures were taken in West New York, NJ where we lived for about 5 years. I think he was about 3 years old and my parents were visiting from Tokyo (small pics from top is Grand Central Station; middle is our family room; bottom is the skyline of NYC - this was our backyard & what a sight!).

Thanks for looking!
Everything on the LO is Rusty Pickle...love their stuff!!

Happy September!!

Just a quick post!

Since it's "Back To School" season, I wanted to post a layout I did in 20 minutes. One of our customers at Frozen Memories commented why we only had one Rusty Pickle school paper and one sheet of school stickers...she couldn't do anything with it?! OK...I feel a challenge coming on! LOL!! So I took that piece of paper....well, actually two (I wanted to take advantage of the 2-sided design), thought of a layout design and went with it!














So yes you can do something with only one kind of 2-sided paper! LOL!!
How about you?! Post your link on my comments :0)

Have a great holiday weekend!