~ Dog Park with Momo and New Blog ~

I went to a nice dog park over the weekend with Momo to meet up with our friend Mac the Shiba Inu.  They had a lot of fun and after taking hundreds of pictures of them running around, I finally got a great one.  It's not that clear but still pretty awesome.

Dogs are so funny! :)  Anyway, I have started a new blog about Momo and his cousins, Miko and Milo on Wordpress.  It's called Mimolo, which is a combination of their names.  My brother (whenever he is not playing Starcraft or sleeping) and I will be writing about our lives with our precious Havanese fur babies.  So, from now on, I will write full blog posts about Momo over there and just mention them here.  To see more pictures of Momo and Mac at the dog park, click here.

A side note about Wordpress...  I like it.  I think the editor is so much better than this sucky blogger one.  However, I don't like how limited the widgets are because I am not hosting the blog myself.  That really sucks.  I want to add Google Friend Connect, but I can't because Wordpress doesn't allow javascript in the widgets if they are hosting the blog.  Maybe I should set up hosting at DreamHost afterall...

~ Shopping Continues on Cyber Monday ~

I spent too much money already but there are some good sales going on today that's irresistable to me.  I divided them into two categories:  beads and beauty products.

Beads

At Fusionbeads, Swarovski crystals are 15% off!  I don't need anymore crystals, but it's a good deal.  They have free shipping too so it's awesome if you only want a few things.  Plus, they  have 10% off $100 or more with code 'Jingle'.

Artbeads has 20% off everything!  But, you must order $60 worth of stuff.  I already stocked up on sterling silver chains and other findings.  

So, Artbeads is a good deal if you just need to order $60 worth of stuff, but Fusionbeads is better for Swarovski if you order more than $100.  

Beauty

I have been pretty obsessed with Origins lately and they have $10 off $25 and free shipping!  And, you can use it multiple times so I have placed 4 orders already.  I think the eye cream set is the best deal.  It has a full size eye cream, lip gloss and mascara and it's the same price as just the eye cream!  I also got Clear Improvement mask for my mom, High Potency Night-A-Mins®,  the eye cream set, Modern Friction™ 

Nature's gentle dermabrasion for myself.  I am tempted to get more!  For each order, you also get a sample of Youthtopia™ Skin firming serum with Rhodiola.

If you don't already know, Stila is having their warehouse sale, up to 80% off!  Missha has 50% off all their gift sets.  BeautyTicket has 30% off everything.  As a side note, Forever21 has free shipping on any order!  Victoria's Secret has buy 1 get 1 50% off bras and I am sure there are a bunch of coupon codes floating around on Retailmenot.com.

I am going to stop shopping now, I think.  Maybe just 1 more gift set from Origins.  Anyway, Happy Cyber Monday!  Don't forget to stop by my handmade jewelry shop and supplies shop on Etsy for 20% off with coupon code 'Thankful'.  Sale ends at midnight!  

~ New Colors for Swarovski Crystal Butterflies Stud Earrings ~

My handmade Swarovski crystal star stud earrings are quite popular so I started making butterfly ones too!  Actually, maybe the butterfly ones are more popular since the black pair made it into Etsy Finds a few months ago!  In my recent Swarovski crystal haul, I got a few new colors for the butterflies and there's one that I am absolutely in love with.  It's the brand new color Crystal Silver Night from the 2011/2012 Winter collection.  It's so super sparkly!  I am sad that Swarovski doesn't produce the star beads in this amazing color.

 Another very pretty color is Air Blue Opal.  This is also a relatively new color.  It's so soft and gorgeous!

This pair is Sunflower.  It's a great solid yellow and also part of the 2011/2012 Winter Collection.   I also have Jonquil, which is a much lighter yellow.  It just doesn't work as well as stud earrings in my opinion. 

Crystal Red Magma is a great color for the fall!  It's so warm and earthy. 

 This one is Purple Haze.  It's a special color that's specially coated by a company and not Swarovski.  It's hard to catch it in its full glory.  Sometimes it's a very light color.  Sometimes it's a brilliant purple with a green glean. 

I can make these earrings in many colors!  I have listed most of them in my shop.  I just don't like people would buy light colors like Jonquil, so those are not listed.  But, some light colors work very well like Silver Shade and Golden Shadow.  If you want a color and can't find it in my shop, just let me know and I will make a custom one for you.  Here are the colors:

• Light Rose (pink)
• Fuchsia
• Light Siam (red)
• Crystal Red Magma (deep red)
• Sunflower (rich yellow)
• Jonquil (light yellow)
• Fern Green (deep green)
• Peridot
• Aquamarine (bright blue)
• Air Blue Opal (light opulence blue)
• Violet
• Provence Lavender
• Purple Haze
• Crystal Metallic Light Gold
• Jet (black)
• Crystal Silver Night (deep silver)
• Crystal Silver Shade
• Crystal Golden Shadow

 That's a lot!  I am sure you'll find a color you like :)  By the way, these will make great stocking stuffers!  You should probably stock up and buy 10 pairs now during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale.  Everything is 20% off! 

~ Black Friday Sale and Shopping ~

Happy Black Friday! I was so tempted to go shopping this year and join the crazy mobs at the malls. But, my friends warned me that it's not worth it. Good thing because my husband stopped by ToysRus and didn't even go in because the line was so long. But, I was feeling like a shopaholics. I just want to buy something!!! So... I got this awesome Canon S95. Only $299 shipped on Newegg!  It's already sold out after an hour of the deal going live.  I feel so special that I got one :)

I also want to get one of these Silhouette SD cutters.  It's $190 on Amazon.  I want this one to make special cards and tags for my shops.  Should I?  Should I??

Ok, enough shopping! Now, time for some shameless self promotion. My supplies shop and jewelry shop have Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale too! Use "Thankful" for 20% off everything in the shops!!! There are new earrings in the jewelry shop. I love these pegasus wings and dainty butterflies!!

I also have a couple of new items in the supplies shop. Like?

I hope you enjoy shopping this weekend!! If you see any good deals, please let me know! I want to buy more stuff!

~ Happy Thanksgiving ~

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving again!  What a crazy year!  Last year, I wrote about everything that I was thankful for and it was a little..... mushy.  This year, I am going to skip that.  I am still thankful for having everything I had last year.  This year, I am also very thankful that my family has grown!  I am now married and I have all my wonderful in-laws.  And my stepmom has moved in with us and now my house is always full of food and laughter.

This past year has been great and I am thankful for every single awesome moment of it.  I hope everyone had a wonderful year as well and enjoy your day off with your family and friends!  Happy Thanksgiving!!

~ Viva La Violette ~

When I first started on Etsy, I entered into the world of handmade, blogging and giveaways.  One of the first thing I won from a giveaway were beautiful cards from Viva La Violette.  I loved her packaging and her branding.  Violet is such a sweet lady too!  She is a wonderful customer and I made these pretty pandora pendants.

Now, her brand has grown and she has her own website and blog!  And she has expanded into blogger and word press designs.  Her work is great!  I am tempted to have her redesign my blog.

I just love her style and when she started putting ads on her blog,  I decided to do my first ad with her.  That's why I made these ads. 

She is so sweet that she even wrote a feature on her blog about Happy Cloud Moments!  So, if you wants to put out an ad, or if you need to redesign your blog or if you need cards, check out her website!  Isn't this card cute too?

~ The Colors of Autumn ~

The weather had been beautiful lately! Very warm for November. I didn't get a chance to go hiking though, but I did walk around a lake with beautiful trees and plants!  I usually like to take close up pictures, but I am trying to get a hang of landscape pictures. 

I think I need a wide angle lens.  The trees are so beautiful and I just can't seem to get them all in the frame. 

Even the fallen leaves are pretty!  I want to go back when all the leaves have fallen and cover the grass completely.  I also want to rake them into a pile and throw Momo in it!  Will it be weird if I am raking leaves at the lake?

Do I look sporty?  I got new clothes for these strolls and hiking!

I was hoping the sky will look more blue in this picture.  It looked really blue in real life.

One of my favorites...I even got the duck that makes it more interesting I think.  The reflections are just so gorgeous!

I love these little fuzz balls.  Very cute!

I don't know what these are, but it looks cool!  I like stuff with 5 petals because it reminds me of stars.

Looks like cotton...the fibers are strangely shimmery.  Very interesting.

More fuzz balls!  I think I like the 2nd one the most.  My brother would call it fuzzy, but I think it has a very romantic mood to it.

Bright red leaves and bright yellow leaves.  So glad I got a chance to enjoy the beauty of autumn before it gets cold!  It's strange.  I never appreciated or liked autumn before.  Now, every day when I drive to work, I am in awe of the beautiful blue skies, wispy clouds and colorful trees along the way.  Must be getting old!

~ Camera Lens Mug ~

Today, I came across these awesome mugs for photographers.  They even come in Canon and Nikon!  I see them on Amazon, Ebay and CanonMugs.com.  Won't it be awesome if all my photographer friends get together and have coffee with these cups?  Too bad they don't make Pentax lens cups!

~ Etsy Rolled Out Coupon Codes ~

Being such a big commercial site, with thousands of sellers depending on its smooth operation, Etsy usually rolls out their new features to a small percentage of the users, just in case there's something wrong.  Many people would think this is risky to be genuine pigs, but I think it's awesome!  And finally, I got picked!!  I got picked to test the coupon feature!  It is a simple system.  You only get to put in a coupon code and how many percent for the discount.

It's not as feature rich as EtsyOnSale but it's a great start!  From a developer's standpoint, it's fairly straight forward to add more types of discount once the system has been tested.  So, I am sure there will be plenty of options soon.  Look at all the coupon codes I made already!

I plan to leave these coupon codes for this week as a pre-black friday sale.  Let's see if these codes work!  In case you can't see, use "happyblog" for 20% off all jewelry and supplies for this week!  Get your orders in now before I run out of the most popular items!!  Coupon expires November 26, 2010 11:59pm.

~ Lush Chrysanthenums at Brookside Gardens ~

This past weekend, we had beautiful weather!  I am so glad my friends and I planned a trip to Brookside Gardens to see the Chrysanthenums.  It was my first time at Brookside and it was great!  Not very hard to find, plenty of parking and just beautiful!  The sky was so blue and all the color leaves are just so pretty.

Loves these bright red trees!!  I need to go take more pics of the red leaves before they all fall off!

So the chrysanthenums are in the observatory.  It's surprisingly small.... for some reason, I was imagining all the flowers being outside, in a huge space.  But, it was only a small green house.

But, there are a lot of pretty flowers inside!!  I walked around the entire place 3 times and every time I see something new.

Of course, I took lots of pictures.  I really wish I have a macro lens but my hands probably shake too much for a lens like that.  Sadness....Anyway, here are a few of my favorites.  This one looks really soft and romantic to me.  Very .... wistful.

I never realized these flowers are made out of all these little flowers!  They are so adorable!!

These are so fluffy and big!  It's like the size of a slightly flattened soccer.  They look like pillows to me.  I just wanted to touch them!

This one is just....weird......

Such pretty colors......  So warm and sweet.  

I like these a lot too.  They are like little stars.  

I want to take my mom here.  She loves flowers and she'll love to see so many pretty ones.  She also loves taking pictures so this will be a perfect outing for her.  There's also a little succulents section in the observatory that she'll love.  Too bad she rather go to Vegas than come visit me.  And yes, this is my passive aggressive way of telling her that she sucks!  Just kidding.....I love my mom!