yosemite

-Vernal Falls-

I'm back!

Where was I? Yosemite National Park. That's right. I came back a day early. Why? Because it was really cold. I'll leave it at that. :)

Anyway, take a look at the bit of crazy stuff I've seen for that past four full days...

-Nevada Falls-

-Pretty sunlight-

-Half Dome-

-Yosemite Falls-

-Pretty deer-

-Cool meadows-

-the valley of Yosemite-

Where I took this picture there were some really awesome Japanese girls that wanted to take a picture with my brothers and I. And so we did. Now I'll be with them for the rest of my life in those several photos they took with us! :)

That's kinda cool.

This is a picture I took during the car ride home. The sun is starting to set...

What did you do while I was gone?

emma

mustaches rule!

One of the best things ever - mustaches. Oh yeah. And guess what? I made one!! Yay! They're so much fun to play around with and they are the best "disguise gear" you can get. I think my mom barely reconizes me. I know, they work that well. :) haha Use this great tutorial by Andee at Bearing Fruit to make you're own! :)

From tomorrow to next Friday, I won't be here sadly. I'll be camping in Yosemite, so when I come back on Friday (maybe I'll be able to get a post out that day...we'll see) expect some coolio pictures. :) The next God-Lover post will be moved to Saturday. So until then, make some mustaches for me! :)

*mr. mustache man decked out in my snazzy sunglasses. oh yeah.*

emma

flower power & joyce meyer!!

I am so proud of these flowers. It's been a goal of mine for awhile now to make some sort of crafty flower. And guess what? I. DID. IT.

Yes!!!!

Bonus point, they're a no-sew project. Definitely my kind of project. All you need is some felt, a pair of scissors, and glue. "It's that easy!"

You can find this tutorial on how to make these pretty fellas, here.

flower power... :)

In the meantime, guess what I did today? What? I went to the Joyce Meyer Conference Friday morning session in Long Beach! It. Was. AWESOME. :) I went with my mom and two friends. More awesomeness! :)

For worship, they had one of my favorite singers (yeah, when I found out who it was, I flipped), PHIL WICKHAM!! eeee!!! :) I love you Phil! :) *he's got music on youtube and itunes, be sure to check him out*

Oh, and there's Joyce. The speaker of these incredible conferences. :) Yeah, that's her on front of a magazine catalogue. It was close enough we got to meeting her. :) I love you Joyce! :)

What did you do today, my awesome friends? :)

emma

the car ride home...

I'm back!! :) Did you miss me?

Just thought I'd share some of the beauty I saw just outside my car window. It was so "purty". :) There were clouds scattered here and there in the sky, the fields were green, and... it was just a great way to end the trip. These pictures were taken through my car window- hope you don't mind the blurriness in some of the pictures and the dead bugs...- from Lodi (it's about an hour from Sacramento) down to an area near Los Angeles.

Look how green that field is! Whoa!

And then the clouds... I couldn't help but think that these are the dust of God's feet. I know there's a verse talking about that somewhere in the Bible... Guess He was taking a stroll on my side of the earth today. Hope the weather was nice up there God. And, boy, you're dust is so much prettier than mine! :)

on a trip once more...

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Well, my friends, I'm out of town once again. I seem to be traveling a lot lately... don't ya think? It's a shorter trip though- just a few days. In fact, I get home on Wednesday. In the meantime, I'm having a good time. It's a lot of fun. :)

Anyway, talk to you later all! :)

My Trip & Ami Kitty

So, you guys all (or most of you) know that I was on trip this past week and a half traveling all over north of California. Well, I'm back! :)


I went up to Sacramento and did a lot of tours of the place- including the Capital. The Capital's architecture is beautiful and if you ever happen to be taking a tour inside, make sure to take a good long look at the inside of the dome. It is pretty impressive I must say. :)

I also stopped by San Francisco. Now this city definitely has character. :) But whenever I think of San Francisco I think of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a massive, red bridge that stretches from one side of the San Francisco Bay to the other. I took a tour that took us underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, which you can tell by the angle of the picture above. This unique place is a fun city to tour.


I traveled other places as well, but these are the two key places I thought I'd mention. :)

Like any other crafter, I brought along a crochet project to do. It's a "Tiny Ami" Kitty using the pattern from the book, Amigurumi World, by Ana Paula Rimoli. It was a lot of fun to work on and I think it turned out real cute! :) It is a gift for my Grandma. :)

-HappyHands

Just a little "check-in" :)

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Hello Reader! Today, I just wanted to do a little "check-in" with you guys. So,

Hello!

I've been everywhere lately. Okay, maybe not everywhere but I've been doing a lot of traveling this past week. I stopped by Sacramento, San Francisco, and some other places. I've done a lot of tours, visited a ton of museums, and ate some good food. And during this time, lots of inspiration! I've even been inspired for to make a few embroidery patterns. :)

Traveling and seeing new places is what I think is so incredible. God's creation seems to never end. Maybe I'm just seeing farms roll past the car window, maybe I'm just plucking a little flower from a bunch, or maybe I'm looking at the bay of San Francisco- His creation is so...neat and overflowing with awesomeness. God is the greatest artist I've ever known! Just look at you- God made you beautiful. He loves you like crazy too! Now look around you right now- what do you see that He created?

Read from me on the 7th! :)

-HappyHands

Mexico! (missions trip)

Wondering where I was all this past week? I was in Baja, Mexico! I thought today that I would share a bit about my missions trip and a lot of pictures to give you some crafty inspiration. :) (The picture above is of the border.)

I couldn't help but take a picture of this statue of Jesus on a hill. Isn't it awesome? :)

Oh, and this is the beach. The best beach I have ever been to--ever! To get to it, we had to cross these sand piles with the green plants growing randomly on top of it (see above). The waves were so calm and smooth. Not like Zuma Beach in California where they crash at the shore line. If I had to go to any beach, I call dibs on this one! :)

Remember when I told you that I was bringing my friendship bracelet supplies? Well, on the first night I was there at the orphanage, we got to babysit some of the kids so the house parents (the people who take care of the kids) could get some "free time". So I brought my supplies that night. The picture above is of a little girl trimming the end of the friendship bracelet she made. It's a bit blurry because I took it "in motion".

Here's the same girl, only on a different night, working on another friendship bracelet. It was so much fun making these bracelets with all the girls! :)

Here some of the bracelets that my friend has. They were all given to her during this past week. :)

One day, we had a "mini carnival" for all the kids at the orphanage in the theater that they had. We put bunting up on the ceiling and set up booths with fun games in each one. There were prizes, balloon animals, and face paint. Above is a picture of one of the balloon animals I made. It's a dog, can you tell? I also helped out with the face paint. I did mainly butterflies (mariposas in Spanish) for the girls and cars (carros in Spanish) for the boys. It was so much fun! :)

Here's a balloon animal poodle that one of my friends made. Isn't it cute?

On the last full day we were there, we got to do a bit of shopping. We went to a park where a lot of women had set up booths full of handmade items. One of them had these cute dolls. I bought one very similar to the one above in Ensenada. See below..

Isn't she cute? :)

In Mexico, they have these tasty chips called, Tostitos. They are amazing! They only sell this certain flavor in Mexico, so if you happen to be down there, make sure you buy a bag of these! :)

They also had these amazing brownies! So what it is, is of course a large bottom layer of brownie and the top layer is a layer of cookie. It's so good! I definetly need to find a recipe on how to make these!

At the park, where they were selling all these handmade goodies, they had these bags. You can find them about anywhere in Mexico. I want to learn how to make them because they are so cute! Here's one that I bought...

Like it? :)

Last but not least, here's my dala horse cross stitch I was telling you that I was going to work on during the long car rides. Well, I did't get much done-- except a leg. On the way there I was in a car with two of my friends so I got caught up in conversation and on the way back down... well, I was looking out the window to see Mexico passing by.

I loved Mexico. I loved the dirt, I loved the homes, I loved the food (you gotta try their tacos!), I loved the language, but most of all I loved the people. I loved serving everyday at the orphanage. Which could mean I was pulling weeds, cleaning bathrooms, sorting nuts, or assembling newsletters. I loved it all.

We would go on child and aldult evangilisms on some days of the week. At the child evangilisim, we would drive around a village while one of the ladies would speak into a mega phone, inviting all the children of the village to meet at a building. When we would arrive at that building, children surrounded the doorway, anticipating for us to arrive. Once they were all inside and seated, the lady would tell a story from the Bible (in Spanish of course) and they would sing songs. At the end, we would serve milk and peanut butter to kids-- a cup of milk, and a spoonful of peanut butter.

At the adult evangilisim, we would go as a big group to one village. Then we would seperate into smaller groups and we would go throughout the village inviting people to meet us at this one spot where we had a large white van\car\not sure what to call it. Once we were done inviting people, we would all head back to that one spot. During that time, we would play with the kids, paint little girl's nails, twist balloons to make animals, and play jump rope. After that, we would watch a video about Jesus and after the video, give out Bibles and pray for the people. It was so nice. :)

This missions trip was so eye-opening for me. I saw how much people hurt and how much they need the love of Jesus. This is an experience I will never forget. :)

-HappyHands