Losing Days!

Man it just seems like the days are flying by around here. Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. My Dad and stepmom were here so we were seeing the sights of San Diego. Lots of neat things! We had lunch at the Rancho Bernardo Inn surrounded by fields of white roses,

we saw a sea lion and seals at the children’s pool in La Jolla, (a beach made for kids but now overtaken by the seals!)

We did a wine tasting at the Bernardo winery, (YUM!), went to Seaport Village down on the harbor and saw all the sailboats, and watched the paragliders and hangliders on the cliffs at Torrey Pines…very cool and spent a long day at the zoo where Matilda had her face right next to the glass and a cobra’s face..her comment? Hi!

I don’t think I would be saying “Hi! to a King Cobra!” That sucker was big! So I haven’t had much time to stamp lately, I have just been too exhausted! We have decided to give up cable tv after the season ends for heros and all our other favorite shows this year. We can watch most of the shows on the internet and there really just isn’t much to watch. I am hoping by watching less tv, I will get more stamping done!!! This weekend, we are taking Dad to the wild animal park and maybe the Carlsbad flower fields so we will have another busy weekend in store!

I did make a bunch of cards a while back with some of the free stuff from SaleABration and I haven’t showed it to you yet, so at least I have a little eye candy for you. Here it is, using the “Crazy for Cupcakes” set.

Pretty basic card using liquid applique to make the frosting. Cute though, huh?

Oh and here is a fantastic dessert recipe I made the other day that is so easy and yummy! Can’t beat chocolate and coffee!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/05/easy-delicious-and-yes-elegant-pots-de-creme/

Hope you are all well, I should have some sightseeing pics for you soon…Ciao for now! Deidre

Yucky!

I have just not been feeling great lately, and no I am not pregnant...don’t even go there folks! We had a party at our house the weekend before Easter and maybe I just did too much and didn’t get enough sleep, but the last few days I have just been feeling yucky. My stomach is rumbling and nothing tastes good. Matty is feeling it too..she got sick in the middle of church Easter Sunday. She didn’t throw up but she started looking green and queasy and fresh air didn’t help so we packed up and were out of there before communion, unfortunately. Not the best way to celebrate the rising of our savior, but they give special considerations to mother’s of young children, don’t they???

Matty didn’t have much candy that morning, we only let them have two pieces before breakfast but who knows, maybe we all have a little bug. Yucky, yucky, yucky though!

On a more positive note, I have lost 5.6 pounds since our “Biggest Loser” Contest started. Can you believe I did not eat a piece of chocolate on Easter? Willpower, baby! But I did make and eat homemade pizza for dinner on Easter Sunday. Sad isn’t it? But I just didn’t have the time nor the stamina for the whole big meal thing..not too mention the calories…so pizza and salad it was!

I haven’t even wanted to stamp lately so you know something really must be wrong with me! I did make a banner for the party that I will share with you….I love my big shot machine..you can do so much with it!

For this I cut the pennants out, and then glued cardstock to some cardboard and used the big shot to cut out my letters to make them thicker. Then I used crystal effects and chunky clear glitter to make them all sparkly and used some sticky hearts I had with the chunky glitter. It was very soft and sparkly all at the same time. Believe it or not I made this in 30 minutes the morning of the party. I added a few punched butterflies and voila! Instant Banner!

More soon when the yuckiness passes!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Thud!

I heard a big thud this morning and then Matilda started wailing.  Matty had thrown a very heavy napkin ring at her and hit her right in the head!  Not sure why that happened, but I really heard that thud.  Why they go after each other I really don’t know, Matilda had just walked into the room when it happened so it really didn’t make much sense as she had not even had a chance to bug her sister yet.  So we iced it down, sprayed it with Bactine, and sent the naughty culprit to timeout.  I do remember wanting to kill my brother a few times so maybe it just comes naturally to siblings?  But poor Matilda’s head.  I have been watching her like a hawk since it happened to make sure she is ok!

Today I wanted to show you some table cards I made for a bunko group I played with on St. Patrick’s Day.  You know how you are always wondering which table to move to?  Well I thought it would be cute to mark the tables as low, mid and high.  Here is a sample of one of the cards.  I made them all in about 10 minutes!  (I was running short on time… I know you find that hard to believe!)

That heart punch makes a great shamrock! 

Last weekend we went to Point Loma to go check out the tidepools.  It wasn’t the best day as the low tide was at +1 foot.  I have to figure the tide charts out better so we can go when it is –1 and there will be much more to see.  But it was still fun, and the girls could have easily played there the entire day.  The kept collecting all the little hermit crabs in their shells and moving them to a designated tidepool.  There were 100 of them or so in one pool by the time we left.  I am sure those poor little crabs were ready for high tide to come in and wash them away so they could have a little more elbow room!  Matilda also loved touching the sea anemones and making them close up…..child will put her hand in anything!  Here are a few pics of our day: 

 

We are off to have lunch with daddy and then go to the beach for a while to enjoy spring break!

Ciao for now…….Deidre

Life Happens

Okay, so my New Year’s resolution to get things done before the night before, isn’t happening for me. Once again, I was working until midnight to make something for the girls to take to school today for Easter gifts. (We have spring break next week). I had been making some cute baskets for another project and they weren’t all that complicated, (uh, yeah right!) so I thought to myself on Monday, “I could make these for all the kids and teachers in the preschool!” This is where I should have ended it, but I decided that yes, I could do it! So I haven’t had time to do anything except work on them since then! Yikes…why do I self create problems like this?? Then, of course, I couldn’t figure out what to put in them that was cute and low cost, so what else do I decide to do??? Make cookies to decorate and put in the baskets. Double Doh!!! Oh well, it keeps me busy I guess! I finished the last part this morning at 11:33. Which is exactly 3 minutes past the time that the girls are supposed to be at school. Needless to say we were a wee bit late!!! Thank goodness the school is only a mile from our house. So here is a picture of the cute little baskets which I never want to see another one of:

and here is a photo of the cookie we put in them:

I will say that these are the best decorating cookies I have ever made, although I only took one small bite (really!) as I started a weight loss contest yesterday. More on that in a minute. Here is where you can get the great recipe and I will never need another one I liked it so much! Definitely a keeper..I think it is the cream cheese!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/RecipeDisplay?RID=R646

So some of the moms in the neighborhood decided we should do a “Biggest Loser” contest to get us all motivated for summer. Yesterday was our weigh in day. Cost is $20 and the winner gets the pot. We have 17 people in it now so that is $340 to the winner! My hubby who is always so supportive of anything I want to do involving being fit, also told me that if I win, he would match the pot. Botox, here I come baby! Needless to say, I am highly motivated! If Valerie Bertenelli can be on the cover of People Magazine at 48 in a bikini..surely I can lose a little weight. It is all about the willpower people! (of which I usually have none!) So we weighed in yesterday and I had gained 5 pounds! OH MY FREAKING GOSH! I had no idea! I work out so much that I am really doing myself a disservice by eating so much crap. I keep telling myself I can do anything for 6 weeks and I am going to stick with it this time! No Reese’s eggs at Easter! I will just have to remember how good they taste! It is time for a change! I am keeping a food diary and I have not had any junk food and only about 1200 –1300 calories each day. I had eaten a bunch of chocolate the day before so I figured I could do 1200 for a couple of days! Here’s hoping I will be our neighborhood’s “Biggest Loser!”

Ciao for now! Deidre