Many years ago in the church foyer, I was introduced to my friend Cindy. Her husband Eddie and my husband Derek had recently become good friends. The day we met, Cindy and I said” hello” but the conversation didn’t really go far from there because I was busy looking after my teenagers, while she was attending to her newborn son.

A short time after that we met again, this time at my friend Karin’s house for a Christmas dinner. I remember the moment like it was yesterday. Someone at the table brought up crafting and the next thing you know Cindy and I were excitedly talking and finding out that we shared a lot of common interests.

I called her the next day and we have been two birds of a feather who flock together, since then!

Over the years as we spent time together, I felt grateful to God for blessing my life with such a special friend. Cindy has such a huge heart, she is an amazing mother, teacher and oh so incredibly talented. Although we both enjoy creative projects, what we do is very different from one another. I mostly work with ink and paper while Cindy is an expert with fabric, food and well, basically anything she puts her mind to create, she can!

At Halloween time, I can’t wait to see what costumes she creates for her family. Just look at her husband and son many years ago during their sushi themed Halloween. I wish I had a photo of the whole family as they were all different types of sushi.

Since I admire her so, one Halloween when she was very pregnant, I surprised her and showed up at her house dressed as her.

We’ve shared a lot of great times together and I am thankful for all the fun memories we’ve made over the years.

During the holidays, Cindy is often found working on her famous cookies or gingerbread houses. Her houses are one of the things people come early to our Home for the Holiday fair to choose because they sell out fast. Here is a cute one that she created for this years fair. Each house is unique, no two are alike!

Last year, I ordered a custom made University of Hawaii house as a Christmas gift for my son in law’s parents who are huge UH fans! Here is what Cindy created for me!

When you are a crafter, the holidays can be a crazy time! Cindy is known to stay up late working on projects but still finds time to take her four kids to all their activities as well as substitute teach school and coach volleyball. Yet, even though she has such a full and crazy life, she still makes time to share with friends like me.

In fact, when I was diagnosed with cancer she was the one who coordinated a family meeting to make sure that I would have everything I needed during my treatment. Cindy also is the one who has coordinated rides for me and she made me promise that when I was having a hard day, I would call her. There have been a couple of times during my treatment that I did call her and despite her busy life, she dropped everything and came over with food or to just sit with me which made me feel so loved and cared for.

Cindy just celebrated her birthday. Since I am not going out in public that often, we celebrated her birthday at my house with a birthday breakfast early one weekend morning.

We had the perfect set in our catalog this year to create a card for Cindy. I used our Yummy Christmas stamp set and colored it using Stampin’ Blends. I then used Red Rhinestone Jewels, Clear Rhinestone Jewels and Shimmery Crystal Effects to add sparkle and shine.

It made me happy to see how much Cindy loved her card.

I am so grateful to God for blessing me with a friend as special as Cindy is! And to think I almost missed out on this precious friendship cause I assumed we had nothing in common the day we met.

Although my life has been going through a challenging season, I am thankful that I have had a friend like Cindy in my life who not only tells me that she cares but also demonstrates her love through her actions.

I am so blessed to have Cindy as my forever friend! If you’d like to see more of her incredible creations you can check out her out on instagram at Zoe, Hawaii. Just know that what you see there not only looks amazing but tastes delicious!!!

Gingerbread Kisses and Sweet Birthday Wishes to my wonderful sister and friend!

Sweet Birthday Wishes

Pink Pineapple

The Glad Game

Stamped With Aloha