High Hopes and Lots of Love for Baby Laura

A week ago, an old friend of mine from back  home had some complications in the eighth month of her pregnancy and ended up having the baby.  They both ran into some complications, but mommy is doing much better and Baby Laura is getting stronger each day and hopefully will join her mommy at home soon. 

In the meantime, I made her a diaper cake topped with a Precious Moments blankie with a praying baby.  It's only a single tier since it's being shipped overseas, but I hope they like it.  

°This little tiny baby
Was sent from God above
To fill your hearts with happiness
And touch your lives with love
He must have known
You'd give your all
And always do your best
To give your precious baby love
And be grateful and so blessed°

"Family" Comes in Different People...

OK, so I'm sick. My poor little self, couldn't resist the winter weather and managed to get sickly.  My head feels like a balloon, my nose is runny, I sneeze a little too often and people at work remind me that I look like heck :) Like I've mentioned before, through my time spent working at both of my jobs in the last few years, I have come to know some amazing people.  One special person where I work now (but not the only special person) is Mirna. She is like my substitute mommy.  Quite often, I'll pop my head over the cubicle that separates us and I'll be greeted with a sweet, wide smile.  This woman wears her heart on her sleeve and although she has been through many trials and tribulations in her life, she still keeps that smile on her face. Today, me being sick and all, I pop my head over the cubby and she looks up at me, smiles, and searches through her desk for something. She comes across a piece of paper and hands it to me accompanied by a grin on her face.  Simple sticky is all it took to put a smile on my face...

I do count my lucky stars to have met such a wonderful lady =) I hope she continues to strive and succeed just as she has been. Thank you!! =)

Since I'm sick, I realized today that I can't taste anything... Not even chocolate! I need my daily dose of chocolate (since it has antioxidants, right? :), so I had a Dove chocolate anyway.  Then, another great woman here at work came by my desk to vent about some issues going on... and I'm sorry that I can't help you fix them, but maybe some chocolate would help?  So, my Dove piece suggested that I share a chocolate with a friend... So, friend, I hope it helped (even if just for a minute).

Keep your head up Monet... Better things will come...

Family is defined by genes, love, relationships and many other aspects.  But the "family" members I've acquired over the years of working have held a special place in my heart.  We have shared a lot through the times and I am grateful for each and every one of my added "family" members.   

The Twins' Castle Diaper Cake

Over the past few years, I've had two jobs... Both of which allowed me to meet some wonderful people... Some of which have touched my heart and became like family to me. I was lucky enough to meet a wonderful young lady, Jessica, who has a set of the most gorgeous twins who just turned one year old. Gabriella and Vincent are my little cuties =)  So since I am very much into making the diaper cakes, (and they can clearly use the diapers), I decided to build the babies a castle =) I must say, this was a completely new concept of building a cake since the ones I've done up to now have only been round in shape, but I have come to learn from making the other ones and this one (although it did take an extremely long time), was much easier to make when it came to the technical aspects of the cake.  The cake was made out of about 125 size 5 diapers and took a very long time to make, but I hope the twins' mommy and daddy loved it =)

So, without further adieu (and special thanks to my Mirna), here is my latest creation for baby Gabriella and Vincent =) and some after party pictures of the little cuties =)

Happy 1st Birthday =) 

May your smiles, giggles, first steps and all of the first achievements bring your proud parents all the joy in the world day after day.

 

Clearly, Gaby is mama's little girl, but Vincent is my little guy =) 
We had fun.  

L@@k Here!! =)

So, my very good friend Laura, who is super talented, crafty, and never ceases to amaze and inspire me with her unique ideas, has decided to share her work with those of us who are less crafty :)

Check out her latest giveaway!

...And a little bit of sunshine for the rest of us... These were my grandmother's favorite flowers... and somehow over the years, I've grown into falling in love with them as well... Enjoy and happy Thursday =) 

Because my sister is the best...

So, this morning... my sister calls me and as usual, needed something from me. The need was mutual, so it all worked out =)  Then she called me back and asked me to come to her house for lunch, but since it's a far ride, I wouldn't make it back to work on time.  So she offered to bring me and my old co-workers lunch to the office.  She made us homemade soup, vegetable filled acorns, strawberries, blueberries and cookies and even made fresh jasmine tea =) Even my grandmother's serving spoon made it here from Europe... I love it! =)

Again I say, my sister is the best =) 

Thank you =) 

She's one of the people who make my world go round...

Our Family's Pride and Joy...

OK, so a little recap... I came to NJ with my parents in January 1994... looong time.  Exactly one month and one day later, joined us the most beautiful, chubby little guy with the deepest little blue eyes.  My nephew, Eddie, was born February 4th, 1994 and was my best friend for a long time.  Here is a picture of him when he was 6 weeks old. Can we say chunky? =) Those cheeks were so nice and chubby, how can anyone resist from kissing him all day long? 

I was 12 at the time, so other than school, I had nothing else going on in my life, other than him.  I would come home, not do homework, since I didn't understand any of it (no English) and just spend time with  him.  I can't believe we are here, 16 years later and he has grown up so much.  I still remember when he was just starting to walk and he would follow me everywhere and even if we did absolutely nothing, he was the happiest just sitting next to me.  We used to sit around watch Barney, and (sadly) both of us knew all of the words to the songs (part of how I learned English) and we would move all of the furniture around in the living room, and he would run back and forth and dance around and bang on things and sing and just be the happiest little guy :) Sometimes, when I would come home from school, he would be standing at the door jumping up and down and yelling and he was so happy to see me.  And just so that I wouldn't ignore him, he would run to my desk where I did homework and sit in my chair so that I wouldn't be able to sit in it.  I can't help but miss the times when he was little. I loved taking naps with him, taking him outside to play, seeing his smile every day, watching him learn new things day after day, seeing him walk for the first time, having him go from saying Mami Mami to Mima Mima :) Then when he was old enough to understand the concept of my sister and I being sisters, he came up to my mom and told her that I'm his sister :) 

He's now going to be 16 years old and he has (so far) grown to be 6 foot 1 and his feet are officially bigger than his father's.  When he was younger, we signed him up for hockey and now he plays for a local town team as well as for his high school.  I told him that if he ends the season with having the most goals as a record, I will get him a new hockey stick for the following season.  I must have stuck my foot in my mouth, because he is already over half of the previously set record at 14 goals (previous record is at 27 goals in one season).  And apparently, he is also currently at the top of penalty minutes at 40 minutes. Lol! So, here is our "baby" now. 

While I do miss the days when he was young (and I wish my sister would have given him a little brother or a sister through the years), I am so proud of him.  He is a polite, sweet, kind hearted young man.  And I'm sure I don't say it often enough, but I am so proud of him. I wish him ALL the luck and happiness in life and in everything he does.  .... My baby :)

Inspirational...

For Christmas, a very good friend of mine got me a bracelet, which has a message engraved on it that she says she would like for me to live by...

The words read:

Choose this moment... Love... Shine...
B the change U wish 2 see... Dream BIG! Love life... Be brave... Smile... Laugh... Sing... Play... Dream... Dare to be different... Wish...


She's been going through some of her own tribulations in life, and I hope that she can take those words as well and try to live by them... She's an amazing woman whom I've known since some time in middle school (and since I've been out of high school for 10 years this year *WOW*, that's a long time). And I know things aren't easy these days for any of us, but keep your head up girlie... Hopefully, this too shall pass (and soon). High school... leads me to another topic... 10 year high school reunion... At this point... I think I'm against it.

Yummy cakes... just don't eat them =)

I've dabbled into some crafts over the years and along the way, I stumbled across diaper cakes. The prices for them online are ridonkulous (yes, I did :) so I decided to make some of my own...

My first creation was a little over 250 diapers and took a good week to make (since I had no idea what I was doing and failed to think of the fact that YouTube would have a tutorial video by other obsessed fans such as myself). It was a 6 tier cake for a baby Javon back in 2007...

And then came what seemed a little messy, but it held a nice amount of things for mommy and the baby in the top tier and throughout the cake with a hand made card as well. This one was for baby Eli'Jah in 2008.

Then in spring 2009, was this one for baby Robert.











Summer 2009, this one went to a friend who's co-worker had a baby girl.

















September 2009 was a busy month trying to make two of these babies for co-worker's twins :)











October 2009, kept this one in the family for baby Nikolka :) with some real flowers on top.










So, 2009 was the most productive in diaper cakes so far :) Next up is a single (possibly two) layer cake that's going to be shipped. This will be the first one that's going to be put to the test of being placed in a box and shipped anywhere... I've usually personally delivered the cakes in the past. This one will be for baby Laura in Slovakia :) Wish me luck! :)

These are a few of my favorite things...

So, over the last few years, I've come to realize that although my skin isn't too fond of it because it dries out, I love the winter and snow. It's always better in the winter because when it's super hot in the summer, you can only take off so much when you're hot. But when you're cold, you can always bundle up and have plenty of reasons to cuddle :)

Through my random internet searches, I found a few pics of winter wonderland that I am absolutely in love with...

Except for the fact that I would probably run out of food due to seclusion, I would LOVE to stay in a little hut like this one... Overlooking the water and snow all around. It would be awesome! =) Where does one find a heaven like this?









I shall pray in the little chapel at the base and then I will take those mountains in the back and go skiing, please! :)








And here is a picture I took in December 2008 on my way to cold, cold Pennsylvania to see my friend Sally. I had to pull over and take some pictures of the scenery. The way the trees were frozen with the sun glistening over them... it was perfectly peaceful winter wonderland :)








This is a picture of my sister's backyard... First snow in late November 2008. Just enough to cover a few spots :)











OK, back to work now :)

Another day... got a goodie :)

Today, (slightly delayed) Santa (in the form of the UPS man) brought me a present I got myself :) They are yummy silver Ed Hardy (overpriced) boots. Even though I've been desperately needing to get myself something nice, I am having sort of a buyer's regret about the price of these... On the up side, they were half off.... and they are so comfy. Now all I need is for there to be some snow (ok, a lot of snow wouldn't hurt) so I have a reason to wear them :) Yummyness :)

So here I am...

So here I am... It's a new year... and I'm hoping a new me... I feel that maybe putting my thoughts down may help me get through things.

Happy New Year! :)

And Congratulations to Laura and Wbeimar! Laura's day after Christmas present was a gorgeous princess cut diamond ring :)

PS: Since I have no idea what I'm doing here... this is the best I can do for now :)