Stampindipity By Deidre

Wow Time Flies!!

2011-10-16T20:39:00.001-07:00

So sorry that it has been so long since my last post. SO MUCH has happened! We have moved back to my hometown of Bartlesville, OK which has been a very difficult move for us so far. The main reason it has been so hard this time, is because it was a choice, not a mandatory move, like we have had to deal with in the past. In the Army you went where they sent you, when we went to San Diego it was because we went for the job.

This time was different, there was nothing wrong with the job or our life in San Diego, in fact we were quite happy. But one of the great regrets in my life was not getting to grow up around my grandparents. They were all such wonderful people and I really wish I could have dinner with them just one time as an adult and parent. I am sure the stories they could tell would be priceless. I really want that for my kids and Joel got such a great job offer that it made that decision a little easier to make. But WHAMMO! this has been a hard move. Although we sold our house in 9 days, we lost money and had to replace the heat and air unit in the house, a week before we listed it. Yikes!! I guess I should have seen the foreboding there! Pulling the Uhaul out to Bartlesville was an adventure as always, including having to load and reload it two times along the way…NOT FUN! I think that will be our last Uhaul trip, if my husband has anything to say about it.

Then we arrive in Bartlesville where we thought we would be able to find an amazing house for half the cost of our house in San Diego. This did NOT turn out to be the case. All the homes that were in that price range needed LOTS of work. (Or they were located on a busy corner or had a fault in the foundation and were literally leaning!!) Some of the houses needed 100k to 200k just to be safe (roof, electrical, windows.) We were starting to think we would never, ever find a house! Yes, we are kind of picky and we had a huge list of “wants” (big yard, trees, lots of light and an open floor plan were the biggies) but we really thought we could find it. We found one house we both loved but the house had some major issues ie, it was not finished and liens, and we never felt quite comfortable with the deal, so we opted out of it.

Long story I know, but it does appear that after 70 days of intense searching we have finally found our home. So as of December 1, we will officially have a Mooney residence in Bartlesville. Just in the nick of time too, because I don’t think my hubby can handle sleeping on the couch anymore at my Mom’s. The bed hurts his back, so that is where he finds the most comfortable spot but he is really looking forward to our mattress arriving!

We have had quite a few adventures these past few months and I will tell you all about them one by one as I get the chance to write more!!

Here is a pic of one of my favorite moments since we have moved..seeing these wild turkey’s in my Mom’s front yard!!

and a card I made using the direct to paper method which is fast and easy!!

Ciao for now….Deidre

So Neglected!!

2011-04-19T23:02:00.001-07:00

Man it has been way too long since I posted. I am sorry I have so neglected the ole blog but it has been a crazy 6 or 7 weeks. I just finished my third half marathon in 87 days, so as you can assume, that means I have been running…A LOT! I am really proud of getting that accomplished, but I am even more excited about my upcoming runs because A) they are short….5k and 10K and B) They are crazy fun!! Both are team events and the little 5k is called the ridiculous obstacle course challenge and we have a team of 30 ladies called “Moms Gone Mad.” It should be similar to the show called wipeout, except I don’t think they are going to have moving things, but I could be wrong. We are going to wear wacky costumes and just have a fun time. With 20 obstacles in 3 miles it is just going to be a hoot. We have the biggest team in the competition and as such, we also won tickets to a Padres game, so even more exciting!! In June, I have the infamous Camp Pendleton Mud Run which is a 5 person team. I did this race last year injured and am looking forward to doing it strong and healthy this year….our team for it is called “Moms Gone Mud!!”

I finally hit the ole 20 pound weight loss mark and then I went and blew it by going on vacation with my hubby! We went to San Francisco for two nights and then to wine country for two nights and had a wonderful time. We had great food, great wine and just really enjoyed the time together. We visited Alcatraz, ran through the presidio and along the bay, walked the golden gate bridge and hiked lake Sonoma. But despite all the activity I still managed to gain 4 pounds in 5 days. Isn’t that crazy that I can gain 20% back in 5 days when it took me a month to lose that much? YIKES! Luckily it has come back off pretty fast and I am only up a pound now so I know I will get back down there and I wouldn’t change a thing as I enjoyed every last bite!!

Here’s a couple of my favorite pics from the trip:

I was amazed at how much there was to do in wine country. It would be great for a family trip as well..hiking, quaint towns and festivals, the russian river and of course wine for the parents at the end of the day! I had always wanted to visit this area and now I really want to go back, as there is so much more to see and do!

When we got home from SF, the girls and I took my Mom to the Carlsbad flower fields which you may remember I have blogged about before. I have to share the beautiful wedding though, that they were preparing for while we were there…I just love the rustic feel of it….see for yourself:

the reception area:

table seating chart:

the bar area:

and the bridesmaids, LOVE the boots!!

Last, I will leave you with my latest creation:

This card uses the emboss resist technique. I embossed using versamark and clear embossing powder onto decorator paper and then brayered over it with melon mambo. When you wipe the ink of your embossed area the flowers just pop off the page! Try it sometime!

Ciao for now!!! Deidre

Happy Belated Valentines Day!

2011-02-25T21:57:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great Valentines Day with your loved ones. Life has been unusually busy. The whole running thing kind of overtakes your world when you are training for a race! 16 days until my next half marathon! I am just hoping to have a strong finish this go around. Normally when we run, I can sprint at the end. Most people would say that means that I did not run fast enough during the race. Well, the last race I did, I ran too fast the first half, averaging 8:48 per mile going into mile 7 and I totally fell apart during mile 11. My heart rate got up to 192 and I could not get it down. I was so happy to see that finish line, but I had absolutely no juice left.

My running buddy Patty, normally hollers at me…..”you know you have a sprint left in you Deidre!!” as I am finishing and she is usually so right! That is my goal for this race, just to finish strong. I really don’t care about my time so much, I am more wanting this not to be such a big deal. Last time I got canker sores from the stress, my stomach was upset, all kinds of trouble. This time none of that nonsense. It is so weird how your mind can wreak havoc on the body. I have been running 10 and 11 miles during my long runs pretty much every weekend for a while now… 2-3 more miles should not be such a big deal! Here’s hoping!! I am lucky this race is closer to home too, so we don’t have to get up at such ungodly hours which will also help cut down on the stress.

I hit 19 pounds on my weight loss only to get sidetracked by Valentines Day and overeat on chocolate and gain two back!! I only weigh once a week so hopefully, I have been tighter on my eating this week and will be back to 19 pounds lost. I am ready to make it 20!

Here’s a belated Valentine for all you wonderful people out there using the inlaid embossing technique. Basically you punch out shapes and adhere them to cardstock and run that through your big shot, in an embossing folder, to create a wonderful textured piece! Love the texture and the colors of this card!

Hope your Valentines Day was filled with love…..

Ciao for now….Deidre

Half Marathon-DONE!! Another one on the horizon!!

2011-01-27T16:30:00.001-08:00

So I finished the Carlsbad half marathon and although it wasn’t easy, I did not get injured and I finished in 2:01! If I had been looking at my time ( I purposely DID NOT look at my time...I just wanted to do my best) I might have been able to squeak in under 2, so I am so stoked and excited about it, that I don’t want to let all the training go to waste, so I signed up for another one!! I figure, I actually kind of like running (up until about 7 or 8 miles..then not so much!!) and it’s beautiful here, so why not just keep going?? Here is a pic of me and my constant inspiration, Patty, who inspires me to do better every run!

Patty is a faster runner than me, which I have decided really helps you when you are training because you push a little harder just to keep up with them!! She too, is a twin Mommy and I am so glad that she is my running buddy!!! Patty had an asthma attack during the race and still finished in a really good time so we both are excited to get another shot in 6 weeks. Not to mention the fact that the shirt and medal they have developed for this race are just amazing….check it out:

So yes folks, I am doing it for the shirt and the medal and to get under 2 hours. Madness, but you know what? It keeps me moving!!! I have 10 pounds left to lose!!

I wanted to show you guys how I decorated my house for New Years because I thought it was cute…at the last minute we decided to have a family come over for a low key New Years so I threw some decorations together and thought they were pretty good for not buying anything...here is the table..with the clock..get it??

Here is my buffet near the front door:

and for all the stamper’s out there, here is a cute card that I got in swap I recently participated in that was made by Dee Shore…isn’t it “unBEElievably” cute?

Ciao for now….Deidre

New Year, New Me!!!

2011-01-20T10:48:00.001-08:00

If you are here for the stamping and don’t care about my dieting adventure...scroll down for some eye candy! For anyone else who cares…I have lost 15 pounds since October and I am thrilled! I actually didn’t think I could ever do it. Now don’t get me wrong and think that weight is all that important to me...I knew I was healthy, I knew I had curves and I didn’t want to change any of that, still don’t! But Susan Lucci is my height and her, albeit bony self, weighs 100 pounds. I was at 157.5…so I knew somewhere in the middle was much more appropriate for me!! But anyone who knows me knows I work out like a maniac and what else could I do? I was getting really tired of not seeing any results and of getting injured. My Mom actually thinks I am addicted to exercise. I can guarantee you that is not the case!!! But I do love regular exercise; especially here in San Diego where you can do so much outside.

I guess it all kind of hit me last fall when I was talking to a friend about my running partner being so fit and she made the comment, “well she works out all the time!” I just looked at her and she goes, “but you do too, don’t you?” I thought to myself what the heck am I doing, I know for a fact that I work out as much, if not MORE, than my running friend! It is kind of like the definition of insanity…doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I was definitely ready for a change.

I have had success in the past with the Bill Phillips Body for Life plan so I tried that..basically healthy eating, one cheat day per week and weights and cardio. So I tried that again…I couldn’t go two days without cheating! The sweet tooth always gets me. I have tried weight watchers before and had moderate success on that, but I really hate keeping track of my points. That is where I am the most horrible…writing it all down. I also knew what I didn’t want…even though I know people who have had great luck with medfast and with the HCG diet it just never made sense to me to try a diet where the calories are so low you shouldn’t exercise. I knew I didn’t want to give up my exercise!! I had tried Nutri System when I was training for a triathlon a few years back and although the food tasted good, I still overate, justifying it with my workouts. Nothing worked for me!

I read Jacquie Werner’s new book called “This is why you are fat” that is just fantastic and kind of made some things click in my head. She discusses in the book about supplements and vitamins and how they all effect your hormones and how that all ties in to weight and the stuff she said made sense. I knew I needed a good multivitamin and I was especially interested in using some amino acids. A friend had just started selling Advocare and I remembered Advocare. I had taken some of their vitamins in the past, but I had a hard time remembering to take them on time, but I did remember I liked them and knew they had been around a while. My friend suggested I try the 24 day challenge. I was leery, I freely admit! She broke it down into two parts for me, a 10 day cleanse and 14 day follow-up. I had to be super good on the 10 days..no coffee, no alcohol, no sugar. YIKES!!! On the 14 days I could be good 80% of the time and bad 20% of the time. Which meant a glass of wine or two per week, some small deviants with the attempt to be mostly good. I decided to give it a try. I could do anything for 10 days right?? I was really unhappy about giving up my coffee and creamer…man I love that stuff, but I knew I had to try something different. The first day was pretty hard but it started to get easier and surprisingly, I didn’t cheat! I made it through the first 10 days but only lost about 3.5 pounds. I was happy but I also was expecting something more. I mean I didn’t cheat!! I always cheat..I thought that would make such a difference!! I was expecting Biggest Loser type results I guess! I will have to say that my cravings had completely gone away by this time.

During the second phase I met with my friends upline who was on the US Bobsled team!! Very fit chick who has so much cool information to share with me and we discussed my food intake. She strongly felt that I wasn’t eating enough and encouraged me to eat a higher protein snack around 8:30 at night, since I normally go to bed at 11. That shocked me, as I thought you really shouldn’t eat after dinner and would try my hardest not to. But I started having a snack at night, usually my greek yogurt with some berries and fiber cereal and lost another 4 pounds. Then I went to Vegas and had a great time with hubby and ate and drank…not crazy and we did exercise but we had a good time, then we had Thanksgiving and I weighed and had gained 1.2 pounds back! (but it was worth it!!)

Now we are at the holidays...dangerous territory!! I could easily gain 5 pounds in one week of parties, wine, cheese, Christmas cookies and candy. Luckily the gym I work out at (Studio Sweat, so awesome!) decided to do a healthy holidays contest. The whole goal of the contest was to lose weight or NOT GAIN any during the month of Christmas. I loved that idea and although I did have my share of Christmas goodies, (gingerbread crème Brulee on Christmas day just to name one!!) wine..three parties in one week too! But thanks to the vitamins I didn’t have cravings…I used some techniques like, I have to drink two glasses of water before I can have another glass of wine, and I was running a bunch as I prepare for my second half marathon in three weeks so I was burning quite a few calories. I was pretty sure I was at least staying the course and not gaining at least. (I hate the scale and rarely weigh myself unless I have to!!) I had decided that I wanted to do the 10 day cleanse again starting January 1 to clean out all the junk from the holidays and get a fresh start for 2011. I had to weigh in the first day and you can only imagine my surprise when I saw that I had actually lost 3 pounds over the holidays. I was stunned.

Now, I am on day 6 of this cleanse and down another 3 pounds and am so happy! No wonder I am feeling faster when I run…I have removed 60 pounds of pressure (5 pounds =20 pounds of pressure) off my knees alone!! I feel so much better, my clothes look better on me, and I know that I am not going to get injured this time. Can I get a YAHOO!!

Anyways that is my journey..I am 7.6 pounds away from my goal weight. Even more importantly, on Sunday I plan on doing my second half marathon WITHOUT injury. 2011 is going to be my healthiest year ever!!!

Joel has been out of town but as soon as I can get him to take some pictures I will show you guys the new me!!!

For all you stampers out there..I am so far behind!! Here is the technique called bleach pastels that I did in November for my club members..basically you stamp in bleach and then rub pastels over for a soft color look..I love how it turned out and love that peach parfait color!!!

All images @ Stampin’ Up

Ciao for now!! Deidre

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-25T11:28:00.001-08:00

Man it has been so long since I posted but it just seems like November and December flew by. I have lots to share and will be back soon with that but I couldn’t let the day go by without wishing you all a very merry and blessed Christmas!! We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, enjoyed opening presents and are looking forward to a nice dinner out in Balboa Park, no cooking today for this Mama!!! The most fun present this morning was the super duper reindeer pooper and the girls new vtech digital cameras. I think they have taken 100 pictures of the dogs so far!! More to come soon!!

From our home to yours hope your day is great!!

Ciao for now!!! Deidre

BOOOYAHHH BABY!

2010-10-27T22:42:00.001-07:00

Okay so it is October 27th and I actually kept one of my New Year’s resolutions today! BOOOYAHH!! I actually finished the treats for the girls classes and special friends yesterday….I know, I know, the shock and awe of it all!! Now, the teachers gifts aren’t done but I already know what I am going to do and I have all day tomorrow to do those two which involve baking; which had to wait until the last minute, so I have to give myself an A ++++. You want to see now doncha??????

I made the cutest and simplest little triangle box that we learned how to do at convention in 09, stuffed them with some candy added a cute tag and ribbon (all scraps mind you….nothing except the candy was purchased for this project!! How’s that for using my resources???) AND THEN even had time to go back and add the sentiment and the bat…I made 70 of these suckers….

Here’s more cause I know you want to see more right????

and one more just cause I kept a New Year’s resolution finally on October 27th:

excuse messy desk and another stuffed animal that I have to hand sew back up because I HATE MY PUPPY LILY WHO EATS EVERY STUFFED ANIMAL SHE CAN GET HER PAWS ON….okay sorry for yelling but that dog creates so much extra work that I could use to do papercrafting…she is lucky she is so cute…in case you have forgotten, how can you be mad at this face??

And that folks is all for now. My goal next year? To keep one of those resolutions by March…I can’t outdo myself too fast now can I?????

Ciao for now…..Deidre

Laughing all the way home!

2010-10-17T14:33:00.001-07:00

My kids seriously crack me up. So here is the conversation in the car on the way home from school Friday: Matteson: “Mom, we have two days off of school, right?” Me: “Yep!” Matty: “WOOHOO, PARTY IN DA HOUSE!” Me: laughing all the way home….only in kindergarten…..and already living for the weekend!!!

So I wanted to show you guys my latest club technique card and the stepped up version I am doing for a swap I am in. Ever since I saw the Christmas Collage stamp in the holiday mini, I imagined it in lots of colors. I knew I was going to do the baby wipe technique and was hoping it would turn out like I saw it in my head and I have to say.…it came out even better!!

So here’s my card for my club ladies this month..the gorgeous glass glitter from the Stampin’ Up Holiday mini really sets it off:

This is what my baby wipe looked like that I used as my stamp pad:

I like to do mine on aluminum foil, a paper plate would not have worked for me as the stamp is too large, but the foil keeps everything under it dry and easy to clean up!

Just in case you need to be shown…here is a blog showing how to do the technique:

http://www.stampingtoshare.com/2010/10/106-drip-drop-reinker-technique-video.html

I sponged the edges of the main image first in so saffron ink and then again in crumbcake to add more depth. Used my crystal effects to hold the glitter on, let it dry and then assembled it all. I just love it. Since I still had so much ink on my baby wipe that I hated to throw away I decided to do the same card for an internet swap group that I am in, but I needed to take everything up a notch, so I decided to do the cracked glass technique on the 25 so it would look like an old ornament and then I added a tiny tag with a vintage trinket safety pin for a little extra yummy!!

I wish you could see the cracks better in the cracked glass but trust me they are there!!

Some old olive satin ribbon is the perfect accessory!! Hope you guys like my vintage Christmas Card!!

CS is real red, old olive and very vanilla

reinker colors are elegant eggplant, old olive, real red, more mustard, so saffron and night of navy

Ciao for now! Deidre

Long Days and Longer Nights

2010-10-14T23:24:00.001-07:00

Well it has finally happened! The girls started full day school last week and they are officially whooped! At first, two days in, I thought to myself, “they seem to be handling this pretty well.” The next day, we had a new teacher in gymnastics and breakdown city. The long days were starting to kick in!

This week, Matilda has been in my bed at some point every night and both of us are officially exhausted! No matter how much I love hugging that little body into mine for a cuddle and rubbing her back and hair, I just can’t sleep with her!! She wiggles like a sack full of snakes!! Ever since I had the girls, that deep REM sleep that I used to have every night, all night, before children is easily interrupted by the slightest noise.

Needless to say, heavy breathing 6 year olds that wiggle like snakes all night…keep me up!!! She came to my bed twice last night, the second time saying she had a bad dream. After about 30 minutes, I headed to the couch and just left her in my bed hoping to get the last hour of sleep in before the alarm. Wouldn’t you know it… 30 minutes later she is putting her feet on me on the couch and working her way into a cuddle again…she had tracked me down!

Let’s hope we get through this transition period soon and then maybe I will actually feel like myself again!

I had not had the chance to show you guys the girls birthday party yet. We had an art party and the kids had a blast painting everything. Here are some pics:

here is the sign at the beginning:

here’s midway through the party:

and the final result:

the cake:

I wish I had gotten a better picture of the inside of the cake..it was so cool..here’s the only close up I could find….

it was a rainbow cake and so fun to make..the kids were high on food dye all day though, I am sure!! Here’s where I found the cake if you ever want to replicate it:

http://www.omnomicon.com/rainbowcake

Here is a pic of some of the kids working on their art piece:

and of course the all important goodie bags:

here’s the thank you cards we made...the invitations were just like them, but I can’t find my pic of them:

Hope you enjoyed a sneak peek at the girls 6th birthday party!!

Ciao for now!! Deidre

Don’t faint!!

2010-09-20T14:34:00.001-07:00

WOOHOO two posts in two days….the world must be spinning off its axis!! Matilda was the source of interest this morning. She woke up crying saying she had a bad dream. When I asked her what about, she said that I had left her and Matty with a mean queen and never came back to get them and that the mean queen put a spell on Matty so whenever she tried to sing, only bubbles came out! What the heck does that dream mean?? Any of you dream readers have anything for me to go on with that one???

I totally reassured her that I would never leave her and that if I ever had to leave her for some weird reason, I would make sure she was with someone nice and loving, definitely not someone who wouldn’t let Matty sing!!

Anyways a good story and a chance to share another awesome card I made……This was a for a gift certificate for one of my best “stamping ladies” as the girls like to call them…..I love the colors and all the new vintage trinkets that we have these days:

Gorgeous eh???!!! (YILM!) I am going to have to make a few more of these as they are just too pretty!! The texture, the colors, the vintage brads, I could just eat it up!

And here are some baby shower invites I made for a friend’s baby shower a few weeks ago:

and lastly the diaper cake which was my gift for her:

Check out the cool palm trees along the bottom!

Here’s the baby card I made for her, but it’s almost 100% cased from this card:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1231529

Here’s my version…sure wish I had not sold that key tag punch now but the tab folder punch definitely worked the same magic!!!

Ciao for now…..Deidre

PS….Dad…. I used it’s and its correctly in this post! Guess this old dog can learn new tricks!

There is some “P” in the pool at Palm Desert

2010-09-18T11:59:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry it has been so long since I posted. I keep hoping one of these days I will do better. I have lots of great things to share with you, I just have to find time to write about them all! I have to start though, with our latest trip. The girls and I went to Palm Desert (right next to Palm Springs) over Labor Day weekend to enjoy some time with some friends that were using their timeshare week. They had a great place that was super huge and fit both families wonderfully! Thanks so much Jeremy and Lisa! Joel, at the last minute, had to stay home and work, so that was kind of a bummer, but he rarely has to do that so we just kept our plans, which involved lots of swimming!! We pretty much spent two days in the pool. It was 115 degrees there ,so the pool was really the only place to be. It was so hot, that you had to wear your flip flops right to the edge of the pool or you would burn your feet walking on the concrete. BUT...the water was perfect and refreshing.

We were having a great time and I happened to glance at Matty who looked absolutely horrified at one point. I said “Matty what is wrong??” She says, “Mama I am so sorry, I couldn’t help myself and I peed in the pool!” She is normally so good about getting out to go, so I was just about to reassure her, when Matilda pipes up, “Don’t worry Matty, I pee in the pool all the time!!” That made us all laugh so hard! So, I just have to warn you if you are heading to the Marriot Desert Springs resort you may want to give it a few weeks!!! Ha!!

Here is a pic of the famous windmills you see on the way out there!!

When we got back my hubby surprised me with my early birthday present….

I had been looking at this painting in the store for a year and never could bring myself to spend the money despite knowing how perfect it was for this spot. Joel knew I was in love with it and got it for me…what a great hubster!! It really reminds me of the days we lived near Venice!

Since I last posted, we have had the girls birthday party, a baby shower, and many other projects. I think I will start in chronological order with the baby shower! The inspiration for the shower was the bedding picked by the soon to be Mom, Steph. Although she is having a girl, she is not a pink kind of gal so she wanted something more neutral and contemporary and I have to say I absolutely love all these colors together!

Here is a pic of the bedding that was our jumping off point:

So I took the main colors of yellow, orange and brown and also, polka dots and animals and ran with it! Here’s the stuff I did:

and here is my first watermelon baby carriage…I kid you not this took maybe 15 minutes:

Here’s the baby cards which I cased from a christmas card because the circles were just perfect:

http://artisticavenger.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/but-mommy-theres-no-snow-yet/

Kerrie, my friend who hosted the party, had everyone print their address on the envelopes to help Steph send out her thank you’s, which I thought was a fantastic idea:

Here are the party favors:

and the banner (click on the pic for a better view!):

The gift list:

The game cards:

the baby shower bag game:

and the whole table... another super easy idea here….I punched out different size circles in all the colors and scattered them as a table runner:

Hope you liked Steph’s contemporary shower!!

Ciao for now……Deidre

Light and Romantic

2010-08-02T23:25:00.001-07:00

Well I am going to try and post a little more often, because I have a ton of projects that I have been working on and can’t wait to share them!!

But first a quick funny from Matty, my resident comedienne! Matty is really getting into music. She has all the songs on the radio memorized, who the artist is, and whether they are an old or new “rock star.” Her favorite right now is Adam Lambert’s “What do you want from me?” When an old song comes on, she gets the 411 on it immediately. She is back there singing Pat Benetar, Rob Thomas, Kings of Leon, you name it! Well, the other day she was getting frustrated because we couldn’t find a station playing music, so she says to me, “C’mon Mom can’t you find something light and romantic??” I mean seriously, I about busted a gut! Where does she get this stuff?? Matty Moo, I do love you girl…romantic…she doesn’t even know what that means!!

Last weekend we were invited to our friend Thatcher’s 2nd Birthday Party at the miniature railroad in Balboa Park. Well, Stampin’ Up used to have a great looking vintage train stamp set so I borrowed it from a fellow Rubba Sista (my fun group of demonstrator friends here in San Diego…Hey Girls!!) that I knew had it; and this is the card that I came up with….I have to say I thought it was fabulous!! (YILM!) Click on the photo to make them larger and see the detail...there is a lot of texture going on with the card.

and of course the matching packaging:

and here is a close up of the tags:

Okay that’s all for tonight friends…more to come soon… I have lots!!

Ciao for now! Deidre

It’s feeling like summer!

2010-07-18T13:08:00.001-07:00

It has been a fast and furious month since I last posted…one of these days I will start posting more often, but for now, I do it when I can.

Life has been good for the Mooney’s lately. The day after the girls dance recital we headed off to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming for our vacation with our friends, the Fico’s. We stayed in a cabin outside of Bozeman, MT about 30 minutes north of the Gardiner entrance. Every which way you looked you saw magnificent mountains…check it out:

Yellowstone is just spectacular when it comes to seeing wildlife, we saw lots of bears, mountain goats, big horn sheep, bison, elk, mule deer, a coyote, trumpet swans and two bull nosed snakes. The only animal we didn’t see was a moose. They had a big fire in Yellowstone which burned up the trees that moose like to eat, so they have moved further south into the grand tetons. As the trees grow back, they expect the moose to return. Our friends from Alabama got up super early one morning to go see the wildlife (getting up super early on vacation doesn’t sounds like vacation to me, so we passed!) They left the house at 4 am and were rewarded with seeing wolf pups, a grizzly with a kill, grizzly cubs and lots of black bear cubs. So for them, the wild animal lovers, it was totally worth it. I was happy with just seeing them as we drove out of the park each night, there was plenty!! Here are some pics of the wildlife:

Here’s a pic of the whole family enjoying a little hike near Yellowstone lake:

and last but not least some amazing shots of Yellowstone, my favorite was the grand canyon of Yellowstone:

here's lake yellowstone:

and you have to see ol faithful while you are there:

Lastly, Yellowstone is known for its thermal activity, bubbling mud, fumaroles and geysers which make it truly unique. Here’s a few pics of that:

Now I just have to share a funny story! We finally took a nice hike away from lots of people and we were really enjoying ourselves. We met a family coming down the trail who said they had to leave their picnic, as they had seen a black bear and decided to get out of there. We were like, COOL! Let’s get up there! They happened to mention some sheep they had seen too. So, we come around a bend and see about 5 sheep that looked like this, pretty tame huh?

They were eating grass, looking at us, we were looking at them and wondering more about the bear. We didn’t take into account one thing:

8 year old Ben was last in line and decided to start bleating at the sheep..BAA BAA BAA…well the sheep didn’t like that at all and after a few seconds they started running at us!! I scooped Matilda up and ran like the dickens…Randy, (Ben’s dad) was ahead of me but started running past me, taking off his backpack so he could use it as a weapon….Joel had Matty up ahead and he started yelling, “Run for the trees!”…but that made me think…what about the damn bear???

Luckily, we made it to the trees, the sheep stopped running, and there was no bear to be found. Joel and Ralph (Randy’s Dad) kept an eye on the sheep while we gave them very wide berth….Randy was with the women and children and declared himself to be the secondary line of defense, in case the sheep broke past the other guys! All in all, looking back it was pretty funny, but I have to say the adrenaline was pumping for a minute or two, and we decided to cut our hike short just in case there was any other wildlife (besides Ben!) out there!! I mean if we can't handle sheep, I think a bear is definitely out of the question!

But it truly was a fabulous vacation. I am loving all the national parks. Next year maybe Zion???

I made another diaper cake last month for a bunko baby shower. I went with a vintage theme…check it out:

and here are the party favors:

the gift list:

and some thank you cards I made:

Ciao for now! Deidre

It’s 3 am, I can’t sleep and I need a new butt!

2010-06-18T03:25:00.001-07:00

Yowsers…I am supposed to be sleeping right now. Some of you might know from facebook that I woke up two days before my half marathon with leg pain, well actually butt pain! I have had a problem with my piriformis muscle for well over a year now but nothing like this. The piriformis muscle wraps around the sciatic nerve and when it is inflamed it squeezes the sciatic which is where the pain comes in. Usually the pain would be off and on never more than a day. This time it just kept getting worse. I still ran the half marathon, although to be honest I limped most of it, which was really disappointing for me. My body was ready, my mind was ready and my butt did not cooperate. It was the first long run I did where my feet didn’t hurt. I finished in 2:29, which was better than the average time but I know if I had really been able to run like I had been doing for all those months prior I could have probably finished around 2:10. But I guess that means I just will have to do another one to prove it to myself! The downside of all this, is that I am still limping. Today it has been officially two weeks. I am seeing a great sports medicine doctor who I thought gave me the miracle cure on Tuesday. She gave me a shot of Markane (SP?) and steroids. By the end of the day I was walking normally again. Wednesday did great. Thursday, limping again.

Not good, as we head out on Sunday to go to Yellowstone National Park for a week of hiking. I am going to go back and see the Dr again tomorrow and am praying for a botox shot. Supposedly the botox will paralyze the muscle and make me pain free. At this point I just want to be myself again. I want to go back to exercising and being my active self. I wonder if she does decide to do the botox if there would be enough left for the old face! hee hee hee

Here’s a pic of me crossing the finish line at the marathon:

I have been doing lots of stamping for my new club members and some other projects. A friend asked me to make her some cards, as they are moving to Hawaii, to give to everyone with their new address. I was only too happy to oblige and this is what I came up with:

The inside read the Kennedy’s are moving from one paradise to another! I thought they really turned out cute (and they used up a bunch of my glorious green paper that I really had no idea how I was going to use!)

Then I had to make a little something for the girls dance teachers. Here’s the card I made for them:

I also made them a little frame with the names of all the little girls in the dance class which turned out really cute, I especially love the saying..”all you need are toe shoes, a tutu and a willing heart”:

Well, I am off to try and sleep again, I think the medicine I took is keeping me awake along with hubby’s snoring, but I have to give it another shot...hope the dr gives me one tomorrow! Wish me some sleep and a new butt!

Ciao for now…..Deidre!

Curlers and Coffee Baskets

2010-05-28T23:14:00.001-07:00

Hey all…hope things are well where you guys are. I completely forgot in my last post to mention a slight obsession that I have…the band Daughtry! I got the chance to meet the band, go to their soundcheck before the concert and then had front row center seats for the show… and I have to say, I have never been that close before and it is fantastic!

I usually have the worst luck getting good seats for concerts. I thought we had bought level 1 seats off the floor for Aerosmith when we went to Vegas a few years back. When we got there we were the second row from the very tippy top. Our seats at $129 a pop were so bad that the sound equipment was hanging below our field of vision blocking the jumbotron so for the entire show we got a great view of Steven Tyler’s crotch and that was it. If the music had not been so good we would have left!! So this was a major treat for me. I have loved Daughtry since he was on American Idol. When the first album came out in 2007 Joel was in Iraq and he and the girls would sing “Home” to each other over the computer and for many months after he came home for good. Even at 2.5 the girls knew who Chris Daughtry was! They have every song memorized on the newest album and ask to listen to it all the time in the car. I love that they know all about my favorite group and love hearing their sweet little voices singing the songs. Here are some pics from up close:

this was the soundcheck

here’s where I got to meet the band:

here’s from front row center at the concert:

We had a blast although my ears rang for a day and I was really tired from staying up so late waiting to get Chris to sign my cd, but at around 2 in the morning he came out and we did get them signed so it was worth the wait!!!

My girls had to get ready for a show last week so we got to use sponge rollers for the first time and let me tell you those suckers work..the girls look like they had stuck their fingers in a light socket for about 3 days! Here’s a pic I just have to post..Joel called them Myrtle and Ethel and they definitely looked like that!!

I also made it home to OK for my goddaughter’s graduation from high school. I was only there for 48 hours but I got to see my family and enjoy Samantha’s big day..here’s a pic of me with the graduate..isn’t she beautiful??

and for my stampers out there..I finished a coffee gift basket for the girls teacher for her birthday. All the kids brought something to put in the basket and I made some cards and tags for her. Check them out:

I got my color scheme for the cards from the dish towel we used in the basket. Another fun thing was I shredded coffee filters to use as the stuffing for the baskets. It turned out really cute!

Ciao for now…..Deidre

Life is good but busy….

2010-05-11T21:52:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone…life has been moving so fast around here that it seems like I hardly have time to breathe!

So let me recap what has been going on around here since I last posted:

I am starting up some new stamp clubs and have had great response this time which is really wonderful because it keeps me in business as a Stampin’Up demonstrator and makes me stay on track making things for them, which forces me to get my therapy time in and that makes everyone happier!!!

I am training for my first half marathon and for a non runner like me that is not an easy task. Because I have paid the entry fee for the Rock and Roll Marathon I have been doing the work and am super proud to say that I ran 11 miles on Sunday which is by far the most I have ever ran in my life and it went pretty well, I have to say!

Last week was teacher appreciation week and as room mom I was responsible for making a poster for the room, a sash for the teacher to wear to the luncheon, a basket tag and a placemat for the luncheon. Of course, most of the stuff got made the day before (what happened to the procrastination resolution huh???) and I forgot to get pics of everything but here is the poster I made for her and before you notice it… I did get an extra c added to the word “success!"

Much thanks to Heidi and Tricia who helped me cut out all the cupcake parts while we were watching our kids do gymnastics!!

I was also recently involved in a charm insert swap for Stampin'Up's simply adorned jewelry line...I had the tag from a workout shirt that I had bought and I really loved the colors and style of it, so I used it as my inspiration. Here is the tag and my charm insert that I made:

and here is the insert inside the charm:

I know there’s more but that’s what pops in my head right away!!!

I have pics of lots of things to post so I will try and do better this week and get some more blog posts done!

Ciao for now……..Deidre

Supermom!

2010-04-16T22:51:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone..hope your week is going well…I am actually starting to get caught up on things…all my projects are finished, birthday cards went out in the mail...one from last month,one from this past week and one for next week! Ha! At least one of them will be there on time. You would think since I am a cardmaker I would be better at that! I do need to get my Mother’s Day cards going… I just can’t decide whether to go westerny like this:

http://www.tenealewilliams.com.au/wp02/2010/04/16/inkspirations-sketch-challenge-21/

or flowery like this:

http://itsastampthing-vicki.blogspot.com/2010/04/elements-of-style-friend.html

Both really suit my Mom, so I am still thinking!!! Speaking of supermoms ( and I have one of them!!) I have to tell you a funny that Matty said to me last week….we were walking over to the neighborhood pool (don’t be hating…our mortgage is extremely overpriced...got to love CA!!! but I get to swim in March and April…it’s a trade off!!) I was pushing the girls in the jogging stroller and thinking about maybe I could possibly push them for a jog, since I am training for this half marathon and during all spring break I did not get to run..anyways I digress…This would mean pushing 100 pounds with improperly aired tires and running which would not be easy…oh yeah and add in hills. So I said out loud to the girls…” Maybe tomorrow we could go out in the stoller and let Mom jog a couple of miles…can you guys sit still for that?” Then I said, “ I don’t know if I can do it though” and Matty says “you can do it Mom, you can do anything…you are SUPERMOM!” God I love that girl!!! Made me grin all the way to the club! If you are wondering...I didn’t even try to take them for a jog…but I did get my jog in!!

Matilda also had a funny comment when we got back from the club that day…they were having some cereal on the patio for a snack since they were ravenous after swimming and Matilda says to Matteson… ‘isn’t this a lovely cafe??” Um, that makes me a waitress, not a supermom don’t you think????

I got an order for my third diaper cake if you can believe that!! This one was going to Chicago for a baby shower and needed to match the Carter’s Tree Tops bedding line which had owls and squirrels and foxes. So I scoured cyberland trying to find punch art owls and the other animals. I found the owls, and a squirrel but no fox. I found a bag with a fox face but I was really wanting to have the whole fox…so don don daaaa…I am the first one to make a punch art fox!!! Woohoo…here is my little guy!

and here is the whole cake:

They are really fun to make!!! So for those of you that are tired of diaper cakes..here is a card I am making for a shoebox swap next week:

Hope you are all well and have a great weekend!!!

Ciao for now….Deidre!

Hearst Castle and Diaper Cakes!

2010-04-03T22:07:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone…..hope you are all doing well. Things are sort of back to normal here in casa di Mooney. We had company in for a week, then a friend from college was in town so we spent a day with her, the next day we packed our bags, took the dogs to the kennel and the following day left on a great vacation. Add to that I got an order from someone who attended the baby shower to make the shower favors for her sister’s baby shower which of course needed to be done before I left AND my company asked me while they were here to make some baby shower invitations and let’s just suffice it to say I was really busy!!! I just realized as I typed this, that I forgot to take a pic of that baby shower invite too, darn it! Well, I will have to have her take one and email me I guess!!!

So we headed off to the wedding on Wednesday….oh yeah and picture this…while I was getting my pedicure done on Tuesday, I was making the favors for the wedding and am happy to report I finished assembling all 50 butterfly matchboxes while I was sitting there….all the little Korean ladies has tons of questions about those, and I was sure glad to not have to work on them in the car! The coast along highway 1 in California is so amazing and rugged and beautiful, we just loved seeing it and everything that the area has to offer. Our view from our room at the Ragged Point Inn was just amazing as seen here:

but for the first time in a long time, we had no cell phone service or decent internet. I paid for a satellite service but it was really spotty and went in and out the whole time and was about the speed of dial up and as everyone knows it is really hard to go backwards when you are used to superfast internet, so I just put the computer aside and enjoyed myself!!

We drove to Monterrey on Thursday and went to the aquarium which was very fun and hands on, then on the way back to the hotel we found the most awesome restaurant…Nepenthe….we loved it and the view so much from there, we drove the hour back there on Sunday to have dinner there again! Very cool place and here is their website if you ever go to the area: http://www.nepenthebigsur.com/

Here was my view:

Then on Friday we toured Hearst castle and it was simply amazing, all the attention to detail was something else!

Here are some pictures of the neptune pool:

and here is the indoor pool:

and the dining room:

I think Matty said it best at the end of the tour while we were in the theater room watching old black and white movies of WR Hearst and his guests: “ Mom, I am really impressed. This guy did a great job building this house!” That’s my girl! We also saw the seals as we were driving there:

The wedding was Saturday and took place in this spot:

here’s a pic of the happy couple:

and here is the beautiful reception area:

I wish I could post pics of the girls in their flower dresses…. they got their hair curled for the first time and spun and twirled so cute on the dance floor. The said it was the best day ever when they went to bed that night!

The last day there we took a hike not far from the hotel to a great waterfall:

and I think this last pic really exemplifies the Big Sur area:

and not to forget to mention it..the drive over to highway 1 on Highway 46 had the most amazing show of wildflowers, the hillsides actually looked like they were on fire!

So I am killing you guys with pics this time but I have to show you my great diaper cake for the baby boy jungle theme shower, here where the invites that were my inspiration:

and here is the cake:

and here are all the favors and things I made her to go along with:

and guess what??? I already have another order for a diaper cake!! Maybe I have found my niche after all!!!

Ciao for now!!! Deidre

The Baby Shower-Froggy Style

2010-03-14T13:47:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, so it seems life has been super crazy this past couple of weeks and it won’t be getting any better until March is over! Yikes! The past few weeks I had a stamp camp and then was preparing for a baby shower that I hosted for our realtor here. I really had fun putting everything together... so let’s get to it and I will show you what I did although I forgot to take pictures of everything! DOH!

Lea is having her third baby and her third little boy..but this woman does nothing conventionally and has had them each 6 years apart so it is like a new child every time!! She says she did it on purpose to make sure they weren’t in college at the same time!! She is young though, so she can definitely handle it! I love baby showers so I offered to help host one and my part was all the decorations. We had it at beautiful home across the street from the Mom to be. Lea and her sister did the food, and a friend of Lea’s from LA did the punch, so it was definitely a collaborative effort!

I just have to share the most yummy appetizer that we had, I wish I had taken a picture of it but they went too fast. It was fresh asparagus wrapped in bacon and then crisped with red pepper slices under the broiler...that’s it! Oh so good! The only trick to it is you have to dump the grease twice while cooking it, so that they will be crispy not sitting in the grease. YUM-O!!

Here is a pic of my favorite part, the candy buffet:

and here are the little baby bottles that they filled with the candy as their party favors:

and some smaller ones:

Here is the diaper cake…my first!! It took a case of diapers from Costco plus about 30 from a small package, I pulled 10 out to do the poopy diaper game (hey don’t knock it, the Mom to be specifically requested it!!)

Here’s the gift bag I made for her gift:

All the frogs are made from punches….wide oval for the face, 1 3/4 inch circle for belly, large oval for legs and boho blossom flower for toes, 1/2 circle for white part of the eye, 1/4 circle for black eye and then for the mouth, I punched out an oval and then punched a strip with the tab label to get the strip for the mouth!! I shaded everything with the same color green to give it dimension….they turned out so cute!! The daisy’s are our Daisy number 2 die for the big shot.

Here’s the cards I made to play the two games:

and here’s the poopy diapers ready for action:

We also played a game where you had to guess what baby items were in the brown paper bags with the letters spelling out baby shower..I forgot to get a pic of the mantle with the word all spelled out but here is the Mom to be standing in front of them, isn’t she the cutest?

It was much fun and much work and now I am pooped!!! One last pic for you though, I sold one of our decor elements tree to the lady who hosted the party a while back and finally got a picture of how she used it in her house…it is so cool and fit perfectly in this little alcove above her desk..such a fun idea!!

Now I have to go get used to this time change and relax a little…oh wait I have company coming in two days..4 people for a week, guess no relaxing for me, it’s off to clean!!

Ciao for now!!! Deidre

So damn cute!

2010-02-14T22:53:00.001-08:00

Usually it is Matty who cracks me up but this week it was Matilda. She had on all pink and brown and we were trying to get her a pair of shoes. I recently bought her some really cute brown leather shoes with pink polka dots on them and they would be perfect but we couldn’t find them. Matilda says to me, “ Mom I really need to find those shoes because they are so damn cute!” I almost spit out my coffee! Her eyes twinkle like no ones business when she knows she is being ornery, so I had to stifle my giggles and give her my “that’s a daddy word lecture!” Since she usually looks like a hobo wearing everything in her closet at once; it was really funny fashion commentary!

Matty did make me laugh earlier this week. She wasn’t particularly enjoying writing her name on all of the Valentines and was telling me she didn’t have “time.” I said, “well, maybe if you would work on your valentines when you get home from school instead of playing on the computer, you could get them done.” She looked at me and said “that’s a really good idea, Mom!” Yeah I know, Mom is very wise, young grasshopper! I hope she will continue to take my guidance with the same enthusiasm ten years from now!!

So, like I said last week I did not get the kid’s valentines made this year but I did make some super cute gift bags for the girl’s teacher if I do say so myself. These bags were 4 for $1 at the Target dollar spot and I stamped them up:

Inside of one was a package of cards and the other held one of my mailboxes. She really liked them!

So Lily is just fitting right in with the family. The girls love her so much! We have been letting her sleep with us and we are all getting more sleep because of it. She doesn’t take up much room so it works much better..if she gets restless it wakes us up and I let her out, if not we all sleep…win win!! Here is a pic of her giving Nico comfort:

and another just because she is so cute!

We had a great relaxing Valentine’s Day. I got 6 miles in this morning and we had some friends over for dinner. It was another beautiful day here…hope your Valentines day was great as well!!!

Ciao for now……>Deidre

Meet the newest Mooney!

2010-02-06T21:26:00.001-08:00

We have an old dog named Nico that just turned 17. He has been a great dog and has been through so much in his life. Joel has had him since he was 6 months old and he has been all over the world with us!! We know that the end is in sight for old Nico. He is having a harder time walking and getting up. He can’t take his pain medicine very well anymore. It is really amazing to me every morning when he gets up to go outside. Sometimes he is in such weird positions that I really think he has left us and then I detect breathing. He sleeps almost all the day now. We knew that we wanted to get another dog as we are firm believers that dogs need a buddy. We also knew that although we are not usually fans of little dogs we wanted a dog that the girls could play with and walk…Clapton just about drags them down the street! So we decided to drive out to the animal shelter last week just to see what they had….we were NOT planning on getting a dog. Then we saw this:

Now how could you resist a face like this???? At the shelter her name was Latte and she had a sister named Cappuchino. After playing with the puppies for a while the girls were calling them “Licky” and “Elle.” We actually thought about adopting both of them but the shelter was pretty strict about only allowing you to adopt one, and the cost was outrageous compared to what we have paid at shelters before (although it is a great shelter and I know they will use the money wisely) so one it was, and we decided to combine the two names so they both got to name her so we have “Lily.”

She is a fantastic little puppy! She is only 9 weeks old and she was potty trained in 3 days! I can’t believe it! Her only downfall is she can not be left in her kennel for more than three hours at this age, so we are having to take turns at night letting her out. I tell you I will never get any sleep…damn girls have kept me up for 5 years now and we then get a puppy! Crazy I know!!

She is already a huge presence in the house and every night she is curled up on daddy’s chest. (This was a guy who never has liked little dogs!!) Clapton continues to put her in her place but Nico loves her. Whenever I can’t find her it is because she is curled up next to him, so I am really glad we got her because I hope she brings him a little comfort and joy during the time he has left with us.

We are all having lots of fun with her and I am trying to keep her from chewing up all my furniture!! So far she has only damaged one sock, so all in all, pretty good!

It does seem like time has been flying by..I was busy with this for a while:

This was the ribbon and embellishment share I did..plus a few customer orders, and my last class in the background. Then I made a bunch of these:

This was my technique card for this month..my favorite, reverse masking. I did this card for my stamp club and my Swap group in Georgia..Hi Ladies!!! If you want directions on how to do it just email me!! I guess I do need to send those directions out to my clubbers, DOH!!

Then I made a bunch of these for hostess gifts:

I love that strip of chunky glitter..just use a piece of sticky strip and press the glitter into it!

Then I made a few of these from my last class as I really need girl birthday cards on hand!

Last but not least, I made some of these cards up for my stash…heck I may even send one this week with valentines day coming up!

So I have been keeping busy lately and I have to confess one last thing….I bought the girls Valentines this year! I know, the horror! I just don’t have time to make 48 of something right now…I am going to make all the teachers something and call it good…sometimes you just have to throw in the towel you know!!! There is always next year!

Ciao for now!!! Deidre

One last Christmas Gift!

2010-01-17T13:09:00.001-08:00

Okay I found one more picture of things that I made for Christmas, so I had to share with you guys. This was so fast and easy to do, and I have to say this caramel popcorn is absolutely to die for. I made two huge roasting pan batches in my oven and was so surprised that it only made about 3.5 large bags of finished product. We gave 3 bags to the neighbors and ate the half bag in no time at all! This kicks the tail of any tinned popcorn I have ever eaten! Next time I will make a double or triple batch so I can share the love.

Here’s what the finished product looked like:

the tag has that great saying from sweet season, “gingerbread and sugared things, enjoy the sweets the season brings”

Here is the recipe for the caramel popcorn:

Caramel Popcorn

Rated:

Submitted By: BS4U2C

Photo By: Monika

Prep Time: 30 Minutes

Cook Time: 1 Hour

Ready In: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

Servings: 20

"Popcorn is coated with brown sugar and corn syrup caramel then baked for a crunchy treat."

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 quarts popped popcorn

Directions:

1.
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (95 degrees C). Place popcorn in a very large bowl.

2.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.

3.
Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

YUM-O! Ciao for now!!! Deidre

Happy New Year!

2010-01-10T12:32:00.001-08:00

I can finally say that now that I have posted my last Christmas story for the year….on to 2010! Life is good here in San Diego. I spent some time this week making my future daughter in law’s wedding invitations with her help and getting to know her. She is such a delight! Jacquie was loving on my big shot machine…she likes scrapbooking and says she really needs one of them…guess what girl you joined the right family!!! There are lots of birthdays and Christmases in the future so I have that girl covered! We are so glad to have her join the family! The big wedding is at the end of March in beautiful Big Sur, California and I am excited to go see a part of the state that I have never visited...I hear it is fantastic!

I also got my club technique cards finished and my Columbus swaps done, so all in all, it was a pretty productive week I would have to say! I am teaching a Valentine’s Stamp camp on Friday and looking forward to seeing my San Diego crafters this week! We are going to make mailboxes, two cards and a cute packaged valentine treat. I can’t wait! I will share all of them after the class…can’t spoil the surprise you know.

So other than that it was back to the routine and that is a happy place for me. Hope you guys are enjoying a great new year as well!

Here’s my eye candy for today:

This is what I made all my club ladies for Christmas….you guys know you want to be in my club now don’t you???

And here was my technique card for my club ladies in November..I thought this card turned out so pretty..I love the non traditional Christmas colors and just love those vintage ornament stencils!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Elf on a Shelf

2010-01-01T20:39:00.001-08:00

So Santa brought us a special gift early this year. One night, the first week of December, the front door bell rang and on the stoop was a package from Santa. Inside was our own Elf on a Shelf! Santa was on the fence I guess trying to decide if Matilda and Matteson should be on the naughty or nice list and sent us an elf to help make the decision!

According to the story that comes with the elf on the shelf, the elf flies back home to the North Pole every night before Christmas to report whether the children have been naughty or nice that day and to relay what they want for Christmas.

We gave ours the name of JT, as every elf needs a name you know? I hope the real JT, our friend from preschool class doesn’t mind that he has an elf named after him! When the elf returns the next day he is always in a different location.

For some reason the girls did not want him in their bedroom that night so we placed him in the stairwell on top of a picture where he could oversee everything. The first thing the girls did when they woke up the next day was to go and see if he had moved…as soon as they saw that he wasn’t in the spot anymore…Matilda said, “whoa, he is magic!” Every morning they would search the house until they found JT.

They talked to him and told him what they wanted for Christmas, and when they were naughty, all I had to do is say… “do you hear that JT? Make sure and tell Santa that the girls are being naughty tonight,” and the next thing you know they were apologizing to me and begging JT not to tell Santa that they were naughty! The hardest part about having the Elf on a Shelf was remembering to move the little sucker every night. Santa’s helper had to really stay on her toes, and was more than a little bit relieved when JT went back to the North Pole until the next holiday season! For those of you wondering where you can get your own little guy, Santa shops at Borders around here!

Here is a pic of JT in one of his locations:

and here he is in a different locale:

See you next year JT! Here are some of the teacher gifts I made this year….I made the cocoa kits for the main teachers and the candy bars for the assistants. I thought they turned out pretty cute although I am getting tired of drinking the frappucinos to get the bottles and packaging!

and here are the bars:

the poem on them is about how this is this year’s edition of homemade Christmas fudge! So true this year!

Hope your Christmas was wonderful and looking forward to a great 2010. Happy New Year everyone!

Ciao for now….Deidre

Is Candy an Option?

2009-12-18T22:01:00.001-08:00

So I have to tell you guys this funny story about Matty, before I forget all about it. Matty and I have a lot in common..one being a huge sweet tooth. We come from a long line of sweet lovers. My Grandma Gressett would have dessert before dinner. God I loved that woman! We finally finished up the Halloween candy around the first of December. It has already been replaced by the plethora of Christmas goodies so fear not that we are sweetless in this house! Anyways, I would normally give the girls some of their Halloween candy after lunch and one day about a month ago, lunch was over and Matty had this look on her face. I said, “what do you want Matty?” and she gave me more of the big doe eyed look. So I said, “Matty do you want candy?” She looked at me and her eyes got bright and she said, “are you saying that candy is an option?” On my gosh I about died laughing…”yes sweetheart, candy is always an option!!!” Oh, the things those girls say!!!

I really need to take some pictures of some of the things I have been making so I have more to post, for today I will leave you with this Christmas card I made using Soft Suede, Serene Snowflakes and the Shimmer Champagne paint, that stuff is so fun! All Supplies are SU!

I have to say this is officially the craziest week of the year. Packages to mail, school parties, teachers gifts….one last furniture delivery and 2 digital scrapbooks that I finished for a client for Christmas gifts. One more party tomorrow and 3 packages left to mail and I am finito!!! Woohoo…now for baking and all that fun stuff! We are going to sneak in the Princess and the Frog on Monday too!!

Ciao for now……Deidre

Sorry it has been so long!

2009-12-08T23:04:00.001-08:00

Hey friends….life seems to be blowing past me at breakneck speed these past few weeks, hence the lack of blogging. We recently (thanks to inspiration and assistance from my Dad) decided to purchase a piano. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but it kind of necessitated the rearranging and redesigniong of two of the main rooms in our house as there was no place to put the thing! So, we bit the bullet and invested in some new furniture for the first time in a long while. We had gotten a new couch this year due to the fact that our old one was damaged in the move, but before that it was 5 years ago that we bought a bed and entertainment center. We bought a dining room table when we lived in Italy in 2001 and before that we had never bought any furniture since we had been married. So doing two rooms was a huge deal!

This is the first time that I have ever felt like shopping was such a chore. Normally I love searching for just the right thing, but this time I wasn’t finding it and no one was willing to deal either. I went on a wild goosechase to get 6 different furniture store business cards so I could get 5% off for each one of them. That took a whole day, so I could get 30% off !(Yes, I finally got the desk...well it hasn’t delivered yet, it is my Christmas present….made me want to vomit knowing I was paying $300 more than the base store.)

I only had an hour per day after my workout and before I got the girls to look, and all the furniture places are 20 minutes away…so it was all rush rush rush..no fun! Then on top of that, not finding anything that I loved that wasn’t particle board or $3000 and it makes for one very frustrated girl. It literally was one saga after another. I won’t bore you with all the details, but I have been very frazzled over the past two weeks. Now I am behind on my Christmas presents and shopping but I have to say the rooms look fabulous and cleaner and more useable than they did before and I love that!! We had hardly sat in our front room at all and now we are using it constantly….Yeah!

We have had about 6 birthday parties as well. I made some goodies for them and didn’t even get pictures taken of some of the stuff as I had to wrap it and leave!

But here is some eye candy for you guys today and I will try and do a little more blogging soon!!

Hope your Christmas season is not being too rushed and that it brings you joy!!

Here’s a card I made for the ladies who invited us over for desserts on Thanksgiving:

Here are some bags I filled with goodies and a movie card for one of the birthday parties we attended:

All supplies SU. Let me know if you have any questions on either project and I can fill you in!

Ciao for now…….Deidre

Bippity Boppity Boutique

2009-11-15T22:28:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone. Sorry it has been so long since I blogged, it has been crazy around here! It seems like this is the last thing I get to when things get busy. My Mom came for a visit and we took the girls to Disneyland for the first time and we had a ball! It is only about an hour and a half from here, but we stayed the night so we could get the full effect and see the parade. The girls loved it! We rode quite a few rides the first day and towards the end of the day they were really dragging, but we had an appointment at the bippity boppity boutique for a princess transformation which was a delightful birthday gift from Grandpa! There was much whining as we made our way to the boutique from across the park, but afterwards it was like we were with new children they had so much energy! It is amazing what a little pampering will do!

First, their hair was gelled into a perfect ballerina bun with a “diamond” tiara placed in it. Then they had make up applied, eyeshadow, blush and lip gloss. Then the nails were painted and all the supplies used were put into a princess backpack. Matilda squealed when she found out she was getting to keep the makeup and nail polish! Then they were given a humungo fake diamond ring, a pink sash and some pixie dust on the hairdo, and they were ready for the big reveal! They said Bippity Boppity Boo and the little birdies pulled back to reveal a sparkling mirror with flowers that “bloomed” at the bottom to reveal their princess transformation. It was so awesome! They just loved it and for the rest of the day they were floating on air and had so much energy. We just couldn’t believe the transformation!

We decided to leave the do in overnight, praying that it would stay in and I have to say it didn’t move an inch while they slept. In the morning when they woke up the first thing they said was “We are still princesses!” What was even better was that every Disney employee called them princess when they saw them after they had it done! They just loved that!

Anyways lots more to tell but I will save it for another post!

Here’s a frame I made for one of my best customer’s in Oklahoma!

This uses the delightful decorations stamp set and ornament punch along with the great cocoa decorator paper…I love that stuff!

Hope she liked it!!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Warzone!

2009-10-25T21:58:00.001-07:00

Sorry it has been a while since I posted…my house has been a warzone and I have been very overwhelmed! We started a small painting project that ended up becoming a major project that we had not planned on. We know some good painters who said they could help fix some of our ceilings where the previous paint job was not very clean, they were also going to paint our fence. They thought it would be a 3-4 day job max. Well, when they went to paint the popcorn ceiling in the main room it fell right off! That changed the plans big time! They ended up scraping all the popcorn off, priming and patching the ceiling and then having to reprime it with oil based primer to prevent any yellowing showing through. All in all, it doubled the amount of time and they still aren’t done. It’s been 8 days now. Tomorrow afternoon they will finish up the fence (11 gallons down, 2 more to go!) The ceiling from hell is done though and looks fabulous. I am a little worried that it had asbestos in it and we totally removed it the wrong way. I am just praying that the ceiling was not the original one. It was in perfect shape it was just kind of gray from never being painted. We were able to keep the master bedroom and bath dust free so that is where we all slept, so the girls never were in any dust at all. Joel was in it a lot as he helped clean it all and I walked through a couple of times. I have been fretting over that and just praying that we haven’t done any serious damage to our bodies.

I was really getting a little depressed about the whole situation, so Joel worked really hard every day cleaning to get the house back to normal so I wouldn't have to do it all. He is such a good guy. I think he was a little worried about me!

I also did a little retail therapy on Friday morning at a craft fair. It is practically impossible to be depressed at a holiday craft show! Especially with the yummy cinnamon friendship bread. That loaf was worth every penny of $7! I also got one Christmas present purchased and hey, it’s still October! Double Score! Think I will get everyone’s gifts to them by Christmas? Odds are not in my favor, but I am going to do my best!

Here’s what it looked like the second day which was completely different from the snowstorm of the first day:

here’s all the furniture crammed in the family room:

I did have some time to stamp before all this happened for a few birthday parties we attended. I really love how this card turned out for little Sophie’s birthday.

and here is the name frame that I made to go with her Ariel bedroom.

I have lots to show you so I will try and do better about posting this week….stay tuned! Back to cleaning we go….

Ciao for now……Deidre

Sickness all around

2009-10-10T11:39:00.001-07:00

Well I can honestly say it has been a few years since I was sick with a cold. So I guess I was due. I was so proud that I had not had a sinus infection since my sinus surgery back in 2007, but I don’t think I can say that anymore. Matilda and I both seem to just have the crud but luckily, no fevers or other symptoms other than sinus stuff. So that is why I have been a wee bit absent lately. I have been crafting some, and just need to edit the pics and I will get them posted. So today I will just share some pics from last weekend. I went to a shoebox swap that my local Rubba Sistas (Hi ladies!) put on. I didn’t get to go until after lunch due to Joel’s studying but I still got all my cards done. Here are some great pics of some of the samples and projects that were on the boards:

Loved, loved, loved this wreath made by Pam Gaynor. I really need the daisy die and butterfly die for the big shot now, don’t I???

Here is a great card made by Evie Bennet:

Here’s a beautiful hive bag and matching cards...again by the ultra fabulous Pam Gaynor:

the banner welcoming us made from top notes…not sure who made this, maybe Pam or Gail??

Can I just say I love living in California? The place where we did the shoebox swap overlooked the ocean….stamping and viewing the ocean..does it get any better than that???

here’s a cool card made from circle circus….

and my nemesis the more the merrier stamp set, but I actually think I could copy this one…once again though, it’s a die I don’t have, the scalloped oval for the big shot….I need it too, don’t I???

So there is a little sampling of our shoebox swap. Birthday cards and gifts coming up soon….stay tuned and here’s to getting over the cold!

Ciao for now….Deidre

Kathy Griffin is a hoot!

2009-09-27T19:30:00.001-07:00

So for the last part of my birthday, (Joel says I can not celebrate any longer!) we went out to dinner and saw Kathy Griffin with our friends, Lisa and Jeremy. We had a great time and although you won’t see us when they broadcast the show in November (we were way up in the nosebleed section) ...you might just see Lisa and Jeremy as they were in the 6th row! She talked so much smack about people, but it was really funny. Lots about Levi Johnston, (Bristol Palin’s baby daddy, as she puts it) Britney Spears and Whitney Houston. She pretty much did not let up on them either, but the funniest, I thought, was how she stalked Barbara Walters into the ladies room to talk with her on “The View.” She does a great Barbara impersonation. Anyways, we had some good laughs and a great dinner with our friends in the gaslamp district of San Diego. It was a great night out!

Other than that not much going on around here. Here was the card I made for my stamp club last month. It uses a technique called “Sepia Photo.” It is very easy to do… just stamp with stayz-on brown ink and then paint in some highlights with vanilla craft ink. You can add some more lowlights with brown ink but I did not do that on this card. I really love this monochromatic look!

I am going to use this as my shoebox card for a swap I am hopefully going to next weekend, so I am getting some big use out of this one! Hope all is well in your part of the world!

Ciao for now…….Deidre

So much fun and thank god for coffee!

2009-09-19T09:30:00.001-07:00

I stayed up until 2:00 am last night playing with My Digital Studio (MDS). It is addictive! I never stay up that late but I just couldn’t stop. Now I am really getting excited about all the possibilities. In one night I made a 24 page book on our trip to Yosemite. In the past year I have finished 10 regular scrapbook pages so needless to say this is just a wee bit faster! But I have to say I am already ready for some new downloads…I want more stuff!!! I started by using the designer templates that are already set up, you just drag your pictures in and they autofill to the size set up in the template. (you can move them around from there really easy.) Now I am thinking how easy will this be to get some pages done and I really like the idea of adding regular scrapbook elements on top to create hybrid pages. But it isn’t just for scrapbooking...you can make calendars, cards, blog banners and more. I have only watched one webinar but I am going to try and watch one a day to learn more cool stuff to do! Some of the pages are similar but by keeping all the same colors you get a really cohesive book! This will all be printed into a hardback book!

So without further ado here is page one of my Yosemite scrapbook:

I changed the paper from the original template, added the text, brads and ribbon knot and the cute little red scallop border and it was done. Just right and even better…FINISHED!

Here is another page:

Please overlook the saggy boobs and note to self…no more hiking with only a camisole….bra is definitely a necessity after birthing children…what was I thinking?

Here’s another page:

Amazingly easy if I must say so myself! Now I am going to make a scrapbook page from scratch that I can make into a hybrid page when it comes in. Then a greeting card. After that I will get them all printed so I can have samples to show everyone. I can see how this is going to be lots of fun and now if I can just get Donna and Randy to send me some of their pics, I can easily replace the pics of my family with theirs and make them a scrapbook for Christmas…they will love that! Literally it will probably take me 10 minutes once I get the pics!

I am seriously low tech folks and this stuff is easy and fun! I can not wait to play some more and hee hee hee Joel has to work all weekend…so some bad parenting (putting my kids in front of a movie) and me playing with MDS sounds like a great weekend!

Ciao for now…..Deidre

Princess Peep and Princess Lolly

2009-09-14T21:00:00.001-07:00

So today the girls were really giggling and I had to find out what was so darn funny…..they were making up rhymes all of which ended with poop or pee and some word that rhymed with poop or pee. Yep, 5 year old humor at it’s best! Then they told me that their names were Princess Peep and Princess Lolly and I told them that those were wonderful names for princesses who like to sing about poop! They are too funny! Go here to see what these funny girls look like these days:

http://www.lifeshadowsphotography.com/blog/

They are growing up way too fast! So, I will take all the poop and pee rhymes I can, because someday it will be so passe’! (Which is one of their favorite words!) That is French for “over” they say all the time. Poop and passe…yikes what a juxtaposition!

Today, I am showing you my two swap cards I made for convention. I totally forgot to show you guys these! I did do one thing different though after I took the picture..I added a red brad to dasher’s nose on the middle dasher so he would be more Rudolphy. I loved this card!

Here is my other swap card from convention using the “out of the box” hostess set. I loved all these bright colors which are not my usual choice but really look great together!

I popped up the bottom heart with a dimensional and added some crystal effects for some gloss. The square punches make it all easy peasy!

Smiles and Ciao for now! Deidre

Birthday Blessings

2009-09-10T23:32:00.001-07:00

So it’s official, I am older! 42 now and it seems like just yesterday I was graduating from high school. Man time does fly by fast and the five years with the girls seem like minutes. They say the 40’s are the new twenties so I am going with that! Although my sore body and grey hairs might disagree.

I had a great day, got caught up on my errands in the morning, did a little stamping to get ready for an upcoming shoebox swap that some demonstrators here in the area are hosting, got to spend some time with my neighbor and her lovely daughter and get a little interior decorating advice as that is what she does for a living…and then out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants…Buca del Beppo’s. Joel is not a fan of theirs but I am, and I had a coupon, so double score. Since it was my birthday, I knew that was the only way I was going to get to eat there because it was my choice! We had a mix of pastas and a gorgonzola salad but the best part was the yummy tiramisu…even Joel liked it and it was huge! We all had bites and we still brought enough for 3 people home. Big Yum-O!

Joel is taking me to see Kathy Griffin at the end of the month for my birthday, so that should be fun. I also found a piece of furniture on Craig’s List that is going to fit perfect in my craft room closet and help me not waste so much space. So going and picking it up without too much complaining was the rest of my birthday present. I do not even want to hear the moaning and groaning I am going to get, trying to get it upstairs, (it is super heavy!!!) but when we get it in, I will post pics for you guys!

Here is a little wall hanging I made for my two past club hostesses. Hope they liked it. I used the champagne shimmer paint on all the snowflakes to make them soft and shimmery. I thought it turned out really cute!

Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes… I know I am blessed to have you all in my life……

Ciao for now……..Deidre

Nothing exciting...just stamping

2009-09-05T10:39:00.001-07:00

So since the last few weeks were action packed, I am really glad this week was not! Just getting stuff marked off the ole to do list, you know. My girls were whupped come Thursday and Friday but like real troopers finished out the week strong! Life is good. Here is the card I made for their new teacher on the first day of school…she really liked it!

Inside I put “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, thanks for being part of our first step!”

I tucked the little bookmarks on the ribbon in the inside to contain them a little better.

I can’t believe my little two pounders are in school already…time is just rushing by!

Ciao for now……….Deidre

I can’t stop!

2009-09-01T23:33:00.001-07:00

Okay, I am having way too much fun with these sweet treat cups. They are seriously addictive! So here is a Thanksgiving Turkey. I have yet to see anyone else out in blog land do one of these so I think it is truly an original!! Dang, after 5 years I think I am getting good at this stuff (YILM!) I am just so surprised after all the brain cells I have lost after birthing children, that it is in my head somewhere. God does that on purpose I think..makes you lose brain cells when you have children so you can deal with the incessant whining, irrational behavior and no sleep! Survival behavior at it’s finest, anyways, I digress….here’s my gobbler!

and here is a Halloween card using these cute things….

See aren’t they fun??? I love new toys…

Ciao for now…..Deidre

Sweet Treat Cups

2009-09-01T14:34:00.001-07:00

I started playing with some of my new stuff last night. I saw a snowglobe and had to make my own version.

Here’s mine and it is not as crooked as it looks in this picture, so mea culpa for that part!!!

Such a fun idea, sweet treat cups, buffalo snow and voila’ snow globe!!…I can’t wait to play some more!

Ciao for now!!!! Deidre

Tea for you, tea for me, won’t you please come for tea?

2009-08-29T22:14:00.001-07:00

The last week has been kind of crazy for me, getting ready for the girls 5th birthday party. It was our first, non-family party with kids invited and I think I went a wee bit overboard. Now why can’t I have this kind of turnout for my stamping classes??? I think we had about 24 total darlings! Next year, definitely fewer kids! All the little girls looked so sweet though, all dressed up in their princess outfits and nice party dresses, it was totally worth all the work.

Just our luck, that San Diego decided to have a record heat wave this week though, so temps were close to 105 today. Our “garden” tea party had to be moved inside, and I was really hoping I had enough to keep the girls entertained! Especially, with the trampoline and swings now out of commission due to heat.

The girls played a pass the sugar cube game with spoons around the table and a stack the sugar cubes into the tallest tower game. Then we had tea (strawberry lemonade) and sandwiches (cucumber, raisin nut and PB&J, of course!) I had been hitting all the thrift stores and had china tea pots and plates and saucers, all mismatched, but that way it didn’t matter if anything broke! The girls did great..no spills and no breaks. Even the two year old table did great! I had hit paydirt at one thrift store and got 50% off everything, so a 30 piece set of china was $10! One of the teapots was $2.79 and everything else was way less, so I felt like I was being pretty thrifty!

Here is the invitation I made for the party:

and here is the (tea bag shaped) pullout with the actual information for the party:

Here are the decorations:

Here is the cake which I thought was kind of a mess but you get the idea. It was going to be $250 at the bakery, so here's the Deidre googled teapot cakes on the internet version:

Forgive the crappy vines, I am a much better stamper than I am cake decorator!

Here’s Joel doing his best Prince Charming impersonation, or Captain Stubing….you pick:

I have to say I was proud of my man fitting in this tux that we got married in, not sure if my wedding dress would still fit or not..probably not!!

And of course the most important part of the party (according to every 5 year old????) The goodie bags!!!

Folded up to look like a tea bag of course! These bags caused quite a bit of consternation on Matty’s part as she wanted one so badly and I did not have enough for them to have one…uhm isn’t that pile of presents enough, Matty? Matilda also cracked me up with her 6 wardrobe changes throughout the afternoon, starting in a tutu with an "I love my mom" tshirt and ending with a cheerleading skirt and back to the "I love my Mom" tshirt. You would have thought she was hosting the Oscars, as many times as that girl changed!

Needless to say I am resting with my feet up and enjoying all my memories of the day! I hope all the little girls had a great time today which is the most important part. I know my two did, and they went right to sleep tonight, they were so tired! My mental notes for next time to improve are:

1) Less Kids, I am thinking about 12 would be good.

2) Get a picture of the family together before the party starts, uhm yeah, totally did not get this!

3) Get a picture of the birthday girls together on the big day, again doh!

4) Take a picture of the place setting...I didn't hand tie all those napkins for nothing!

5) Have it at Gyminny Kids! Ha! Just joking, I really love doing this stuff!

Ciao for now…….Deidre

I. AM. JUST. DISGUSTED!

2009-08-23T07:37:00.001-07:00

Some of you have heard this story by now and some of you haven’t so for those that have, I am sorry but I still can’t get over it and I have to put it down in words. When we moved to California last year, all the bedrooms in the house were smaller than our home in Georgia, which is fine, but I had a huge desk that I used for my crafting, that was just TOO big. So I sold it on Craig’s List, and it was a beast getting down those stairs, let me tell you. Since then, I have been using two tables in a L shape. I loved the L shape and it gave me great workable area, so I started looking for an L shaped desk. The heavens opened and I found the perfect desk….the Ashley Brush Hollow Desk…see here:

But alas, the price on this bad boy was way too much for me at $1200 before taxes. Yikes! I am just a stay at home Mom, with a limping along stamping business, that at this point is still in a loss situation ever year! No good! I just kept going in every once in a while and VOILA! around Thanksgiving found out they were having a great sale at the Ashley store. I was able to get the desk (without the hutch, which I really wanted) for around $500, so I was excited about it but the timing wasn’t perfect so I thought...maybe for my Christmas present. Went back at Christmas and they refused to give me the same price...said it is only a sale at Thanksgiving.

I was appalled. I said “in this horrible economy, you won’t sell the desk for the same price that you quoted me a month ago?” They said NOPE! So went home without a desk, again. Imagine my surprise when the same desk of my dreams appeared at the Military Base furniture store! Score! Now I was excited! Price was the same but now, no taxes! And I know military base stores...that sucker would go on sale one of these days.

So I waited and waited and waited! I checked every time I went to base to get groceries…run in, no sale, leave. I searched online, hoping I could get emails or something when they have a sale but the Marine Corps store doesn’t send out flyers like AAFES does. So I just kept checking knowing, one day, it would be mine! I would have drawers again! You can only imagine my horror when I walked in on Friday (after almost a year people!) and didn’t see the desk in the corner…. instant panic. I saw they had put in a clearance room and I thought it will surely be there….nope, no desk. I asked the salesclerk about it and she said, “oh, we sold all of those last week.” AACCCKK! NO! NO! NO! She said it went on sale for $800 last Wednesday, and they sold one, then on Thursday it went on sale for $500 (including hutch!) and they sold the last 4 including the floor model. The guy who had bought it for $800 told his friends and they all came in and got it for $500.

Seriously, you guys, I thought I was going to vomit in the store. A year of my time on this damn desk and I miss it by a week. The guy who paid $800 tried to return it and get the difference back, but they wouldn’t do it, and he opted to keep it rather than return it and not get it back. Smart guy! So I am just disgusted! I thought, “I will just check Ashley again.” Went over there (it is actually just across the street from the base). Desk is there, price is still the same (plus taxes now, of course) The salesgirl says we had a sale that ended yesterday, but I can’t give you that price now. I could get you about 12% off if you want, which means $1000 plus tax. I said no thanks and walked away broken hearted AGAIN. I really wanted those drawers and the hanging file drawer and a place to hide all my goodies, so my room doesn’t look like a bomb went off every day. Oh well. Such is life.

Maybe I will get a good price on it this Thanksgiving, but I am not holding my breath. I am seriously disgusted about the whole thing. A little word of warning if you shop Ashley...we bought our couch and ottomon there too. Those guys aren’t kidding about their return policy. We tried to return the ottomon on day 5 after receiving it (they have a 3 day return policy) I had decided I wanted something less matchy matchy. No way Jose, would they let me return it. I talked to everyone. I didn’t want my money back I just wanted to exchange it and nope, no go. So if you do buy something from them…you better decide yay or nay in the first three days!

Well obviously, I haven’t gotten over it yet but I am sure in time I will. I keep checking Craig’s list praying that someone bought it just to resell and make some money, but no luck so far. Total and complete bummer I tell ya!

Here are some more pics from convention with lots of cool ideas though....enjoy!!!

stencil on the walls surrounded by empty frames..cool huh?

loved this card..the beer mugs have crystal effects on them so they are all shiny and three dimensional…

magnet board for whose in the doghouse..loved this!

new stamp from the holiday mini catalog which is ready to be inked on my desk right now!!!

Amy and I doing our make and takes. This is what my desk looks like on regular basis, drawers people...I could have had drawers!

Halloween display, so cute!

Cute framed art…

Gingerbread house..love it!

Ciao for now…….Deidre!

Home again, Home again jiggity jig!

2009-08-19T08:21:00.001-07:00

It feels so good to be home again! We made the trip back last Wednesday and I am already missing my family in Oklahoma but thank goodness for phone calls! I have been working hard to get the girls back into a routine that will prepare them for school. So we have been going to bed earlier and waking up earlier. We almost have it down, last night they were asleep by 8:15 and awake at 7:15. My goal is asleep at 8, up at 7:30 since we are all piddlers in the morning that should give us enough time to get to the school by 8:50. Can I just mention how much I LOVE the fact that their school doesn’t start until 8:50? Genius I tell ya!! Today we are going on a school tour and to get a new outfit for the first day…big doings in the Mooney house!

I have gotten all my unpacking done, my stamp room is back in order and I will be finishing up the girls birthday invitations today! Just had to get the time finalized and now we are ready! We are having a garden tea party for all the little girls and don’t tell anyone but Joel is going to dress up and play prince charming! Should be a hoot with cucumber sandwiches and scones and of course cupcakes!!!

On a personal note, I did meet with the doctor last week to discuss my miscarriage and my chances of a normal pregnancy if we want to go that route. I never knew I did, until that little wakeup call last month! There are a few tests we can do and then we can make up our mind once and for all.

I thought I would share more pics from convention of some of my favorite swaps…please forgive me that they have not been photo edited….all stamps are @stampin' up 1988-2009

These above were all the ladies that I saw swapping in the phoenix airport..what a hoot! And here are a few of mine that did not make the cut…I will show my officially convention swaps in the next post…

Ciao for now….Deidre

Crazy Stamping Ladies!

2009-08-10T18:47:00.001-07:00

Well, sorry it has been so long since my last post, I was frantically preparing my swaps and getting ready for convention last week. Then we headed to Salt Lake City on Tuesday this week and just got back! We had a blast and got inspired with lots of new creative ideas and tips on how to build our businesses and be better demonstrators. When we got to the airport in Phoenix there were ladies already swapping cards waiting for the plane to Salt Lake City! Here’s a pic of the first thing we saw when we hit the convention center:

this was the line to get into Memento Mall and buy lots of neat stampin up goodies..pics of those to come later!

Here’s some of the crazy swapping ladies….these gals had made up aprons to show off their swaps!

Here’s a pic of a gal that had made earrings and a necklace from our filigree brads, crystal brads and other embellishments:

I can’t wait to share everything about the trip, but I will start with some pics of the boards at convention (click on them to make them larger):

and one of my favorite yet simple cards on the boards:

and check out the pink ribbon on this card, they put two way glue on it and dazzling diamonds and made a glittering ribbon..so beautiful!

more pics to come next time. I had a total blast..saw two chick flicks (the Ugly Truth..so funny! and Julie and Julia…Meryl Streep was awsome… but I fell asleep in the middle of this one) got to stamp and actually ate hot meals at restaurants for a change! It was such a great trip!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Shock, Surprise and Sadness

2009-07-23T22:10:00.001-07:00

Sorry it has been a while since I posted. Life was crazy there for about 10 days…so let me fill you in. Sunday June 12, after a nice dinner with the family and a big mojito, Joel made me buy a pregnancy test as I was a wee bit late. I, obviously, did not think I was pregnant or I would not have had el grande mojito! You can imagine my shock when I saw the positive sign on the pregnancy test. After 12 years of marriage, twins via IVF 5 years ago, I did not know that natural conception was in the cards for us! SO the following days were filled with surprise, thinking how our lives would be changing (you know I have only mentioned how excited I am about the girls starting kindergarten, what maybe a 100 times?) Planning where we might put a baby, (the stamping room is severely off limits!) Planning what kind of exercise I could do, (Bikram was probably out for sure!) and oh yeah, traveling to Oklahoma for our visit. Like I said surprise and craziness were rampant. I kept thinking that a normal healthy pregnancy might be doable, it would be nice to actually hear my baby’s first cry, have my husband there for the delivery, take my baby home when I go home from the hospital, just have one baby to focus on instead of spread thin with two…all those things that we did NOT have with the girls! So mentally, I was getting prepared and excited. We still had not quite adjusted to being in Oklahoma yet, but we then traveled down to my Dad’s for the weekend to visit him and see a few Oklahoma sights. We took the kids to the Jasmine Moran Children’s Museum in Seminole on Saturday, which I have to say, was absolutely fabulous! The girls had a ball and I noticed a little brown spotting while I was there. That continued for 4 days, but from all my internet research didn’t appear to be much cause for worry. I was still adjusting to the fact that I was really pregnant, which means in translation….going through coffee withdrawals and hormones sans alcohol. Intolerable conditions! (You guys probably think I am a lush..I am doing good having 1 drink per weekend..but I sure enjoy it!!!) Tuesday, I took the girls to swimming lessons and noticed some red bleeding. Bummer…definitely not a good sign!

I spent the rest of the day at the ER where they did an ultrasound and saw a gestational sac, but no baby. My hcg levels were ok for a 5 week pregnancy, but when I didn’t see any baby, I just knew something was wrong. I saw the girls heartbeats at 4 weeks! But the doctors could only tell me it was 50/50 at that point. They told me to come back on Thursday and check my hcg level again. Today I went in, and found out that my hcg level had dropped significantly. I found out that my situation is called a blighted ovum. I had the feeling on Tuesday that all was not right, so in most ways, I was prepared for today. It still stinks and I am sad, but at the same time, I was also still in shock that I was pregnant at all! Especially when I had no idea that we could procreate!

On a happier note, I will be able to enjoy my trip to Salt Lake City for the Stampin’ Up Convention much more! I was worried about being overtired and all the walking. I also know that everything happens for a reason and I could not have done justice to my family if I had had a difficult pregnancy. As big as my girls are getting, they still need Mom in so many ways and I must be available for that!

In between all this drama, I have been designing cards like crazy to prepare for convention, although I haven’t photographed anything yet! Yikes! I made about 20 samples and my sister in law and I each picked three to work on for our swaps. We are also designing two 3d swaps as well. I am going to make either a post-it note holder, or a planner and Amy is going to make a bag tag. I think I finally have it all designed, we have a bunch of stuff cut up and we are just waiting on our order to finalize everything.

For your eye candy today, I had not shown you yet our friend PK’s birthday invitation. She is having a fun penguin pool party. Wish we could be there! Here’s what her invites look like:

So that sums up the past 10 days! Much happier topics the next time around, I promise. But it is what it is, and life goes on…and the little arms I had around my neck tonight at bedtime make every moment worthwhile!

Ciao for now………Deidre

Leaving on a jet plane

2009-07-11T23:19:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone…so we leave Tuesday to go spend some time in Oklahoma. Woohoo! I don’t know exactly what I am thinking, leaving 80 degree weather to go to 109 degrees, but sacrifices must be made! We are really looking forward to spending time with our family and friends and I can’t wait to get some serious stamping done with my sister in law! Other than that, I am sure we will be hitting up the always amusing, Bartlesville Kiddie Park…..home of rides a plenty, tantrums galore and cotton candy or snow cone highs, whichever poison you prefer! You can’t imagine the fun we will have sweating, swatting mosquitoes and dealing with screaming children and that WILL happen when they are up past their bedtime and haven’t gotten exactly what they think they need. Ahh, the sounds of summer!

So, I have been packing up most of my stamping supplies to take with me so I can make all my convention swaps and such while I am there. Of course I tried to make a quick gift for our new neighbors today and was missing something I had already mailed to myself in Oklahoma! DOH! No worries though, I made do!

Here is what I made this week for our little friend Thatcher’s birthday, which was today. His room is all Hawaiian cutie stuff so I thought he could use a surfboard name frame…now how cute is this? (YILM)

I had seen the petals from pick a petal before used as surfboards and I just thought the idea was fantastic! I had so much fun making this!

Here’s the card I made to match:

Now the only thing that would have made this card better would have been if I had an airplane button or brad instead of the corduroy button and believe me I looked through my stash; but alas, did not have anything. I did dye my red corduroy button to match by taking the kraft colored corduroy buttons and using a few drops of reinker and water and dying the button. Now how brilliant is that idea? (Thanks, Janet Wakeland!) Any color is possible with those suckers!

In case you are wondering how to make the clouds, I just used a scalloped circle punched out and used my sponge to shade around the edges of it onto the paper to create the edge of the clouds…very easy and adds lots of dimension.

So last but not least, Thatcher had a sock monkey party where the kids ate bananas and had chocolate milk! How fun is that? Here are the invites I made for his party….I thought they turned out really cute!

So there is Thatcher’s birthday in a nutshell. Hope you enjoyed it! I am sure the next time I post it will be from Oklahoma. Pray we have an easy trip!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Happy 4th of July..a little late!

2009-07-09T11:33:00.001-07:00

So I hope everyone had a happy 4th! We went to one of Joel’s coworkers house for a barbeque. One of the guests was a personal trainer, she informed me that I was a “grazer,” yeah like I did not know that! Grazers eat little bites all day long so they don’t feel like they are eating too much yet they are consuming lots of calories and yep that is me to a “T!” The eternal battle with the same five pounds! I gain them and loose them on a regular basis. Wish they would just go find somewhere else to hang out besides my hips!

We are still being tortured by the mockingbird. Last night at 9 it was so peaceful, then voila about 11:40, dude starts going to town. I must be getting used to him or extremely sleep deprived as I went right to sleep, despite his wicked ways.

I wanted to share with you guys what the girls and I made for the 4th of July. It was a fun project to work on together. I can’t say it is an original idea but I will give you the link so I am not stealing anyone’s stuff!

Cute Huh? I got the idea from this great blog:

http://pamperingbeki.blogspot.com/2009/06/4th-of-july-wreath.html

Wish I could have found that polka dot material...that would have been great. I think I will have my Mom be on the lookout for orange and black and purple clothes at garage sales and make a Halloween one! The girls got to work on their tying skills too. Win, win!

So since I was casing (copy and sharing everything in stamper speak) this holiday, here is the card I cased to take to the Barbeque…loved this!

http://weeinklings.blogspot.com/2009/07/more-happy-mail.html

too cute not to copy… hey they don’t all have to be original ideas sometimes!

But since I am working on swaps for convention, at least trying to figure out what I am going to do, I have been playing with the new set, “More the Merrier” and this set is giving me fits, I have to say. It must be the same for everyone else because there are only a handful of cards made with it on splitcoast so far..what gives people? There are like 200 images of circle circus and 8 of more the merrier and they came out at the same time....we all need some help with this one I think!

I am not the best watercolorer, but here is one attempt that I kind of liked…it probably won’t be a swap card, but hey I am trying…..

There is even sewing on this one..impressive huh? Too much time though..it went into the craft show basket….time to try again…I am thinking the pumpkins this time! Take care!

Ciao for now…..Deidre

Torture

2009-07-06T11:07:00.001-07:00

One of the things I love about living in San Diego is sleeping with the windows open. We hardly ever need the air conditioning and the house is so nice and cool at night. Despite living closer to our neighbors than we ever have, the neighborhood is so peaceful and quiet it just makes for a great night’s sleep. (When I am not tending to the wee children that is!) BUT, we are now in the mating season for mockingbirds and my peaceful slumber is being tortured on a regular basis. Mockingbirds get going ‘round about midnight and let me tell you those suckers are loud! Screeching and calling, they “mock” everything, so it is always changing and always loud….you can’t get used to one thing because they change it up so much. Let me tell you, peaceful it is not, around here right now. My neighbor fell down his stairs trying to get rid of his annoying bird. Luckily, our bird likes to move around so we get him about every other night. I want to commit homicide and it is the first time I have ever even thought those words! I did some research and unfortunately the little suckers are covered under the federal migratory act. Some people suggest burning newspaper under the tree. Anyone have any ideas? Luckily I have read that it only lasts about a month. Let’s hope the little bugger gets laid soon so I can get some sleep!!!

The girls and I went to their “best friend in the whole world” (everyone is that these days) birthday party yesterday. It was a slip and slide party and the girls had a blast. They had dirt cake and a pinata. Fun for all! We (meaning I) made the birthday girl a cupcake kit and a name frame. It was a hit! Here is the cupcake kit I made. Bailey’s favorite colors are pink and red so when I found these heart shaped silcone rubber baking cups at Target, I thought man those are prefect!

Here is a close up of the little cupcake pick toppers I made:

I used a pop up glue dot ( I call them snot dots because it looks like a glob of snot, nice huh?) to hold two punched scalloped circles together with a toothpick stuck in the middle of the glue dot. Very easy! I made them for some fourth of July cupcakes I made to take to a Barbeque and I wanted to see how they would hold together and they did great!

Here is the name frame I made for her as well…I thought it turned out really cute!

Here’s hoping that our mockingbird torture will end very soon!

Ciao for now……Deidre

It’s Official!

2009-06-26T22:53:00.001-07:00

I have definitely been taking out of the running for Mom of the year. Thwarted by my own forgetfulness, I tell you. Yesterday, I was talking about Michael Jackson passing away. (Although I really don’t give a fig about him per se, I did love Jackson 5 back in the day though…I was much more saddened to hear that Farrah had lost her battle with cancer.. what a fighter she was!) I was trying to explain who Michael was, to my lovely girls, they have seen the thriller “dance” a number of times when people have done it at gymnastics performances and such, so what do I do? Pull up the ole thriller video on utube. Now remember, this was from 24-25 years ago right? So my memory, well she ain’t what she used to be, ok? I just remembered all the ghouls dancing…completely forgot the beginning of the damn video was Michael Jackson turning into a seriously scary, crazy werewolf! Yikes!

I thought to myself holy crap, I can’t let them watch this… and I am trying to explain how it is all fake and then we are still morbidly watching the thing, hoping that the dancing would save me and be fun and then trying to explain what a zombie is to a 4 year old and why they had oil pouring out of their mouths and yep, I couldn’t hang with it and turned it off, all the while trying to act like it was nothing and just costumes and acting and such. Holy Moly! Then I am trying to do some damage control by showing them the Jackson 5, singing ABC, anything light and airy and non zombieish. YIKES and DOUBLE YIKES!

So I am praying and hoping that their little minds will not remember what they have seen and we are reading Dr. Suess and nice happy rhyming books before bed. I get them all tucked in and it starts… “Mom, I am scared of the werewolf, Mom I can’t sleep…” Here’s me thinking to myself, "okay, you totally deserve this for showing them that crap!" So I wind up sleeping on the floor in between their two beds holding each one’s little hand. And you know what, my hands going numb and all the pain of sleeping on the floor was totally worth it; if I took away an ounce of the fear, I had unfortunately given them! Yep, I am officially out of the running for Mom of the year!

Guess what though? This morning when they woke up they wanted to watch it again...they wanted to cover their eyes in the scary parts…uh, NO FREAKING WAY! God forgive me but Mommy learned a VALUABLE lesson in childrearing last night…always screen what your kids are watching!!!

Here’s a little eye candy for you today, this was the gift I sent to my hostess last month..Miss Joyce. Hope she enjoyed her goodies. I made a little set with the beautiful Parisian Breeze Paper…that is some gorgeous paper I tell you!

I was especially proud of my little pull for the nugget matchbox…so cute! Here is a closeup of the box:

If you need any details on the pieces above let me know but they are pretty straightforward…..the book is a scrapbook I picked up at the dollar spot as is the picture frame, and I just altered them all to match. Cute huh?

Ciao for now….Deidre

Back to normal…sort of!

2009-06-24T10:51:00.001-07:00

So why does it seem like you are just wiped out after a vacation? I still feel like I need more sleep. I think it has to do more with my hormones than vacation, but you never know right? Of course, the fact that the girls have been waking up every night doesn’t help. The definitely go through cycles…sometimes they sleep like logs all night, then they will go through a few weeks of waking up due to nightmares, wetting the bed, earaches, leg aches you name it. All I know is, praise Jesus for coffee.

I don’t have much to share story wise, so I just thought I would share some of my latest cards. I have been trying to figure out what cards to make for the SU convention in August. I have to plan well because we are going to be in Oklahoma for a month. So I have to bring everything with me that I need. So far, I am involved in 3 swaps. One, I have to make 2 sets of 18 cardfronts. So here is one of the cards I think I am going to make for it, I love the bright colors (Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Crushed Curry) , although I will have to find a sentiment that is not retired to stay within the rules.

Here is another one I made while playing around…I have to say I am loving this circle circus set and these three colors together are so perfect for fall…dusty durango, crushed curry and soft suede!

These both use the emboss resist technique, although I did not use glossy paper, just regular old whisper white. I stamped the images in versamark and embossed with clear powder. Then I rubbed different new incolors on the circles and then after that was all done, took the darker color (dusty durango) and sponged over it all, blending everything. Creates a cool tie die look.

Yesterday I finished up some birthday invitations for a friend. I have one more set for her and then have to make the girls upcoming tea party invitations for their birthday in August. Lots to do before I leave. I will share as I get them done and photographed! Hope you are all well!!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Happy Father’s Day!

2009-06-20T23:26:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone…Hope you guys are enjoying a great Father’s Day weekend. We are enjoying a nice relaxing one and plan on making Joel breakfast in bed tomorrow and the girls can’t wait.

One of the places we love to eat at when we are in the mood for a hamburger is the fantastic In and Out Burger here in CA. We ate there twice during vacation..once on the drive up and once on the way back..the reason I mention it is I have to tell you Matty’s name for it because it cracks me up…are you ready? Inside Out Booger! Ha Ha…really makes you want a hamburger now doesn’t it?

I would just like to wish my Dad a wonderful Father’s Day. He is the smartest guy I know and I am so proud to be his daughter! I love seeing some of my father’s traits in my children and I love even more watching him interact with them! It’s always fun to see what they do with Grandpa. Here’s to you Dad and I hope your day is as great as you are!

My husband also deserves a lot of kudos as well on Father’s day. He always amazes me at his selflessness. Yesterday, he came in starving because he hadn’t eaten lunch and I had made some barbeque pork in the crockpot. He made a sandwich and put the last few bbq potato chips on his plate, (there wasn’t even a handful.) Matty made a comment about how she wanted a chip and Joel put all the chips back in the bag without eating any, so she could have them when she ate her sandwich..that’s just the kind of stuff he he does for them and me everyday and I really love him for it! We always come first with him and we are really lucky! Happy Father’s day baby...you are the best!

So in honor of the two great men in my life, I made up a card for them both….it uses my all time favorite stamp set lovely as a tree….

It is in the mail as we speak to my Dad and Joel will get his tomorrow! I hope they both like it…Dad loves trees and it reminds me of our vacation to Yosemite, so I think Joel will like it too!

Hope you get to spend time today with all the men in your life!

Ciao for now! Deidre

We’re Home!

2009-06-16T15:18:00.001-07:00

So we are back from a wild and crazy two weeks! Our friends from Alabama came in two weeks ago and we have done it up California style! I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation! The first week was filled with the local sights….Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, the Wild Animal Park, La Jolla with the seals, and of course my favorite place..the Bernardo Winery! We really enjoyed hanging out with our friends and you always see something new at these places so it never gets boring. Then we all loaded up in the vans and headed North to Yosemite! Let me tell you, I was dreading it! I honestly pictured being in a cabin for 5 days and trying to entertain the children unsuccessfully. I was so wrong! What a phenomenal place. It truly is a national treasure. Let me show you what I mean:

and here is Joel taking in the view from Glacier Point:

and the waterfalls…let me show you:

and another:

and one more for good measure, I think we saw at least 6 different ones:

The first day we hiked in the giant sequoias, which was an experience to say the least. The girls did okay for the first two miles (uphill), the last two, not so great. Let’s just say that cold and rainy does not make for happy 4 year olds! Here is a picture of the giant trees:

and just to give you an idea of how large they really are:

and here is the bottom of one that fell:

The second day was a tad bit easier, as we took a small hike to a waterfall and explored the Yosemite valley floor. The third day we took a bus to Glacier Point (elevation 8000 ft) and got to see a live black bear wandering through a meadow (although it was golden brown..only 9% of black bears are actually black…a little known fact that the bus driver informed us of!) We then hiked (straight downhill!) for 5 miles; which will cause any parent to have a few heart stopping moments as their kids get too close to the edge! We had a good hold of their hands though!!! That was a rough hike and my calves were screaming by the end. I carried Matilda down the last half in a backpack on my back. Matty walked most of it, but needed some help from Daddy’s shoulders about the last mile.

The following day, we took it easy, considering Joel and I could barely walk downstairs in the cabin we were so sore! We walked 15 minutes from the cabin to another waterfall, and then followed the stream down until we found a place where the kids could play in the water and on the rocks. Our 6 year old friend Ben put it best after that: “ This was a good day!” Needless to say water and rocks equals very happy and tired kids!

The last day our friend Stephanie stayed home and watched the kids and we went on an adult hike on the “Mist Trail.” Translation = get soaked and walk up tons of slippery steps. But the view from the top was well worth it…see if you agree:

And it was actually really good for the legs to get this strenuous hike in, as it really helped stretch everything back out!!

All in all it was a blast and a few days after we got home I got another treat..my new Stampin Up catty arrived! I got a chance to play briefly this morning with some of my new stamps and new incolors and let me tell you…I am liking them!! Here is my quick card from this morning:

This uses all the new incolors and two new sets, the More the Merrier for the sentiment and Circle Circus for the images. I am loving all the matching polka dotted ribbon! I raised a couple of images on dimensionals for more texture! Hope you are all doing well and enjoyed your visit to Yosemite via pictures. I can’t do it justice though..you have to go see it for yourself sometime!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Drama Queen

2009-05-28T20:54:00.001-07:00

How can someone only 4 years old be so dramatic? Two days ago Matty was on the phone with my mom (NANA) and fell off the couch while she was talking. She said goodbye to Nana, told her she loved her, passed the phone to Matilda and then went into a bloodcurdling scream…. “ I FELL OFF THE COUCH!” Uh yeah..that was over a minute ago while you calmly said goodbye to Nana. DRAMA QUEEN, I tell ya! I don’t even want to think about the teen years, maybe if I am heavily medicated I won’t notice them…what do you think, do I stand a chance?

You guys aren’t going to believe this either…I got my teachers gifts done on time! Actually, they were two weeks early! Since we won’t be there except for maybe a picnic on the last day I decided to go ahead and get them done and given out today. The girls always enjoy handing out gifts to the teachers and getting lots of hugs in return. Hopefully they all liked them. Here’s what I made, and let’s just pretend my ribbon is straight shall we?

There are 4 pencils, 4 thank you cards with envelopes, 4 chocolate crunch sticks and a small notebook.

Here is a close up of a couple of the items:

The template is called “from the desk of” and is by the enormously talented Lauren Meader. Here is what I saw of hers that I just loved:

http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2009/04/11/2nd-new-release-template-peek/

and here is two of them, put together back to back, to make an even cooler box:

http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2009/04/11/2nd-new-release-template-peek/

Here’s where you can purchase the template for $5. I see much potential with this template….hence the purchase!

http://www.papertreyink.com/timeless_templates_download_here.html

I wish I could say that the letters are an original thought but alas, they are not…I just took the alphabet I had (define your life) and ran with it. I would totally make some of these cubes though if I could find some for cheap! Such a great idea!

http://canyousayaddictedtostamps.blogspot.com/2009/04/there-she-goes-day-twoan-alphabet-set.html

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I may not be posting for a while. Company is due in on Saturday! Good times!

Ciao for now! Deidre

From plain to shabby chic!

2009-05-28T10:15:00.001-07:00

Not much going on here in Mooney world which is a good thing, as we will be crazy busy the next two weeks! I am hosting a girls night stamping party tomorrow night since hubby is away. While the cat is away and all…..We will have some pizza and brownies and work on craft projects. I have so many things to get done…I have to make invitations for the girls birthday party (we are having a tea party and Joel has agreed to wear his tux and be prince charming and serve all the little girls...how fun is that?); invitations for my friend Shawn’s kids birthdays…one is going to be a sock monkey party, the other a penguin pool party so those are going to be fun to design and some thank you cards for her business, although I think I have those kind of done. Let’s see what else? Hostess gifts for my club members (hi guys!) , a grad card, June’s technique cards for my club, June’s swap cards for my Columbus friends, and oh yeah..that little thing called convention...I am doing a 3d swap, a 2 card front swap and need to make gifts for all the roomies..shout out to our group!!! Yep, I can say I have plenty to keep me busy over the next month!

The girls have had a virus this week so I lost out on a day of school (insert sad face here). On an up note though I did get some stamping done while they were sleeping….you will see the teacher’s gifts I made on the next post. So today is our last day of school and I plan to use it wisely…pedicure and grocery shopping without children and hopefully get the van cleaned…keep your fingers crossed that I get it all done!

So as soon as I got in the “kind thoughts” stencil I knew I wanted to use it on one of my scrapbooks. This poor scrapbook has just been calling out for the longest time to become something more than it’s plain old self. So here you can see what a little bit of acrylic paint and ribbon and punches can do to a plain ole linen scrapbook…we will call it my “Susan Boyle transformation” for those of you who have seen her on Britain’s Got Talent. Here it is:

So I started with cream paint on the stencil then red, then a light brown, and finally a chocolate brown. The colors got a little more muddled than I would have liked, but I am ok with the overall result. A nice shabby chic don’t you think?

Ciao for now…..Deidre

Happy Memorial Day

2009-05-25T23:46:00.001-07:00

Hey folks! We have had a nice relaxing weekend here in San Diego. We went to the pool one day, and went to the vineyard on Sunday afternoon for jazz with some friends. We just love that place! We have also been getting the house ready for our company (Hey Ficos!) that will be arriving next Saturday and for Joel to be out of town for a few nights this week as he goes to Chicago for a meeting. This will be our last week of school, since we will be busy with company next week and then in Yosemite for the week after that. Good times coming up! Joel says I can’t bring my laptop but you can bet I am smuggling it in my suitcase. Let’s hope for some WIFI in our national parks!

I came home from yoga tonight to see Matilda singing “Creep” by Radiohead and Matty banging away on the drums and they were really doing great! I am not quite sure I approve of Joel teaching our 4.5 year old to sing “what the hell am I doing here?? I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo.” But I have to say I was impressed about how well they were rocking it out. Joel was so proud! They have really enjoyed having Daddy around for 4 days straight to play monster and jump on the trampoline with them. Joel definitely has enjoyed having a few days off. Last year his big vacation was 3 days of driving the van, with a Uhaul trailer, from Oklahoma to California with the dogs in tow, not exactly a relaxing time. He is really looking forward to our time in Yosemite and doing not much of anything. I see a lot of hiking and smores and board games in our near future.

Here is a card I made for my recent stamp a stack…I love all the purse cards floating around the internet and thought I would make one of my own using my favorite decorator paper sweet always…here you go:

I used the big shot texture plates to make the dry embossed backgrounds and although the top card is made from different punches…designer label, and the keyhole one I really prefer the one on the bottom using the round tab punch for all the purses. Very fun and easy to make for all your girlfriends..one of the ladies even used it for an “it’s a girl!” card which I thought was great!

Hope you are all well and enjoyed your holiday weekend…..Thanks to all you great folks who have served our country and even more…..those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We are so blessed to live in this country and enjoy those freedoms. Happy Memorial Day!

Ciao for now….Deidre

My feet hurt!

2009-05-19T22:33:00.001-07:00

Okay, these two yahoos I am raising really crack me up sometimes. I bought Matty a new pair of croc sandals the other day, because she is down to only about 2 pairs of shoes that fit her and she really needed them. Matilda, on the other hand, can still wear all the shoes Matty has outgrown, and literally has a laundry basket full of shoes from which to choose! Needless to say, I did not buy her a pair. When I gave them to Matty, I tried to tell her not to make a big deal out of it and not to say anything to Matilda…and just be cool about them. As soon as Matty walked outside, Matilda noticed the dang shoes of course! I heard her scream and then she came running into the room to ask if I had bought her any. I tried to explain how she had plenty, but she wasn’t buying it at all. A few minutes later, still very upset, she screams….. “My feet hurt!” I say to her, “Why do your feet hurt?” She screams…. “My feet hurt because I need NEW SHOES!” He he he he..well if that is the case, sweetheart, than Mommy’s feet hurt all the time, too!

So the eye candy for you guys today is this gem:

I haven’t used this set as much as I want to yet, but I finally got to play with it a little and did some paper piercing and I really had fun making a bunch of these up for my stash. No real techniques here just adding some bling and crimping. Hope you guys are all doing well!

Ciao for now….Deidre

Kindergarten here we come!!!

2009-05-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! I enrolled the girls in kindergarten today. Now how exciting is that?

Not much else to report as I have been sick this week. I ended up in the hospital on Monday and had to be rehydrated after a stomach virus all night. I took two liters of fluid and the doctor asked me if I needed to pee. I said "nope" and he said, "then you were really dehydrated!" But guess what that meant? I gained 3 pounds in one day, thanks to the plumping! I feel like those chickens in the TV commercial. And this was our biggest loser weigh in week! I am happy to report that I was down a total of 6.6 pounds though, even with my 3 pound plumping. I wish I could have weighed in before I got the IV's, but of course I wouldn't have been able to stand long enough to weigh myself, I was in such bad shape! I won't be the winner, two ladies have lost 12 pounds each; and one was my weight to start, so she will win the big jackpot. But, that is a pound a week for me and hopefully something I can keep up doing. Joel has promised me some "prize" money as an incentive if I make it to 140, so I just have to keep at it!

I made a few things this past week which are now on the way to their new home. One is for my friend Morgan who just had her 4th baby, a sweet little one named Kamryn Nicole. So I made a name frame for her and matching card. Morgan loves anything glittery and bright colors so I stepped out of my favorite, worn out, vintagey style and picked some colors that pop and will coordinate with Kamryn's nursery. Here is the name frame:

and here is the card I made to match:

Since I rarely spend money on products that are not Stampin' Up, I don't have any Nestablilities or Copic Markers. Here is a great blog candy giveaway that I just couldn't pass up!
http://passionforcrafts.blogspot.com/

SO, if you are like me and don't want to spend the cash...go sign up for the blog candy maybe we can win some and not have to spend $$$!!!! Bona Suerte!

Ciao for now...Deidre

You rock, girlfriend!

2009-05-09T22:53:00.001-07:00

Matteson has taken to saying this to me all the time, so I thought it would be the appropriate title for a quick little mother’s day post. Every time she says it, I crack up laughing because it just seems too old for her and yet somehow it also suits her. The dichotomy of a four year old. Still your baby and needs those cuddles and attention, at the same time expanding her vocabulary and testing things out to see what my reaction is. We had our neighbors over for dinner and we really tried to get the girls to take a nap today, but it just wasn’t happening. When, oh when, will they learn how wonderful it is to nap? SO, I had to resort to a movie to get everyone a little quiet time. I am starting to get a little tired of hearing Disney movies, although I love me some Shark Tales…..my brother, my player, the shark slayer! Matty likes to go around saying, “you’re not a nobody; you’re a WINNER!” Anyways, it is a great movie but it was time for a change..so I served up some Goonies today!!! You can’t forget the 1980’s and some Goonies!! One of our favorites and although I was a little afraid that it would be too scary for the girls, they loved it! (Of course, they were cuddled up with daddy to help with the scary parts!) It was great to put away the cartoons for a change and watch a great movie. So a nice relaxing day was had here in SoCal.

This post would not be complete without thanking my Mom for everything she has done for me in the past and does for us to this day. She is the epitome of selflessness, giving and caring and I hope that I am half the Mom that she is. She will always be my hero and my heart. I love and miss you Mom!

For all the great Moms out there that I know and love..here is a bouquet for you all:

I used the directions found here:

http://sluman.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2009/01/25/flower-pot-pocket-card/

The paper is Parisian Breeze and Kraft Cardstock. A bunch of embellishments were used such as corduroy brads, 5/16” brads, filigree brads and button bouquet buttons in white. ]

Happy Mother’s Day! Ciao for now….Deidre

Boxers or Briefs?

2009-05-08T13:41:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone..I played a great game last night at a Mom’s night out that I got invited to, called Boxers or Briefs. You roll the dice for a color and then everyone has seven cards that have different statements in different colors. You pick the one that you think is the most appropriate comment for that person and put it in the stack of cards in front of the person..they read them all and pick the funniest one and the truest one. Whoever submitted the cards that get picked get a token. Person with the most tokens wins….very fun!!! Some examples of what the cards say:

“I am dead sexy”

“I don’t wear underwear”

“I don’t care what people think”

We had a ball..of course the mojitos didn’t hurt!!!

SO I have been having some fun with a new stampin’ up tool….the stencil! Check out what I have done with it..I think this is totally original…at least I hope it is……I haven’t had time to look at SCS lately so I don’t think I have seen anything like this anywhere else….I am very proud of my creations!

I used a sponge and dabbed the baja breeze on the stencil first, then creamy caramel, then chocolate chip at the edges. Creamy caramel was sponged all around the edges of all the pieces. My favorite edge scalloped lace punch and some beautiful wide grosgrain ribbon..I think it is lovely!!!!

Here’s a different take:

and here is a different color combination using rose red:

These also use the Friends 24-7 stamp set, and oval all stamp set and baroque motiffs stamp set. Close to Cocoa paper and very vanilla paper. Enjoy your day!!!

PS… on an exercise/weight loss note..I am down 5.5 pounds..one more week to go on my biggest loser contest…the mojitos last night didn’t help… but we are still going in the right direction!

Ciao for now….Deidre M

Cutest Birthday Invites

2009-05-04T09:43:00.001-07:00

I have the coolest friend here in San Diego. I met her (again) my first week here thanks to my brother. She is married to one of my brother’s best friends and I met her 14 or 15 years ago when they graduated from college…. She has taught me quite a few things in the short time that I have known her here such as: let the girls have milk in their teapot and pour it themselves when we have tea parties (that is the fun part…don’t worry about the mess! This is hard for me..I always want to wipe up the spills!); hot chocolate chip cookies MAKE a tea party even more special, how to relax a little and enjoy the kids as they are, and even how to use my camera better..she is an INCREDIBLE photographer!…if you don’t believe me check out her blog:

http://www.lifeshadowsphotography.com/blog/

or even better check out her web site:

http://www.lifeshadowsphotography.com/

I can’t wait until I get the girls pictures taken this year by her…I know they will be amazing!

Anyways her oldest is having a pajama party to celebrate turning 7, so I really enjoyed helping her make some invitations for the party. We had both done some scouring of the internet and found the cutest idea for the invites…sewing material into a pillowcase and having the card with all the details slide in and out. Shawn also had the great idea to put bubble wrap in the case to make it look more puffy like a pillow…so she came over the other day and we whipped up the cutest invites in just a few hours….I hope they have a blast at the party and the kids all enjoy their special invites! Here is what we made:

So how cute are they, with all the paper piercing on the little birds??? It was a blast making them and even more spending time with our friends! Have a great day folks!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Hey everyone..time is zipping past!!

2009-05-03T14:39:00.001-07:00

Wow again it has taken me forever to sit down and write a post..sorry about that…make sure you go check out all the cool pics I added to my last post..

http://stampindipitybydeidre.blogspot.com/2009/04/losing-days.html

you can see all the places we saw the past few weeks in person!

The last weekend that my dad was here we did make it to the Carlsbad flower fields and they were well worth the visit! Little did I know that this place is the world’s largest commercial grower of ronunculous! Don’t know what those are? Neither did I until last Saturday. Here’s a few pics:

this last one is from the orchid show they were having..quite the unusual flower huh???

So I have had two small stamping workshops this week and that seems to have kept me super busy! Here is one of the cards we made for Mother’s Day:

This uses the great friendly words wheel, and the thought and prayers stamp set. The colors are baja breeze, not quite navy and kiwi kiss.

Hope all is well..I just edited a bunch of pictures so I will post them pretty soon so keep checking back….Miss you all….Ciao for now…Deidre

Losing Days!

2009-04-23T09:14:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-04-13T23:19:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-04-06T10:42:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-02T22:45:00.001-07:00

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

Anzo-Borrego Hike

2009-03-26T10:12:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, sorry I have not had anything exciting to write about lately! I am going to start telling some old stories of the girls soon; mainly because I want to get them down in writing to preserve the memory of them. We did have some fun last weekend, we went to the desert. There is a town called Anzo-Borrego about two hours from here. This time of year, especially when there have been good rains, and this year there was; the wildflowers are amazing. We missed the main bloom by about 3 weeks, but we still found lots to see. We had just started hiking when the girls started complaining though. “ I’m hungry, my feet are tired.” I was like, “that is impossible girls….we can still see the car!” After about 30 minutes we stopped for lunch and they were much better after that and enjoyed the rock climbing and hike. Then of course, we had a couple of falls and skinned knees which were very “dramatic”. On our way back, we stopped at a quaint little town in the mountains called Julian which is known for their apple pies. We all had pie with cinnamon ice cream except for Matilda who preferred a gumball…go figure! Here are some pics from our trip:

For all my stamping readers I came across this article on one of my favorite blogs and thought..man this is so true! Here’s where you can find the original article; but here is the excerpt that I related to the most!

http://stampspaperscissors.typepad.com/stamps_paper_scissors/2009/03/the-day-you-become-a-stamper.html

“The day you become a stamper...

You start to develop Stamper's Syndrome. It means that you can kiss giving commercial cards goodbye forever. And sometimes, you kiss giving cards at all goodbye as well.

I used to be much more regular about sending cards, but now that I make them, I often forget to send them all together, one of the chief symptoms of SS. Which is quite stupid, really, since I have boxes of the things downstairs just waiting to be used.

But you will also find after developing SS that when you do decide to send a card, you end up making a new one anyway. Because nothing you have is JUST RIGHT for the person you have in mind. Yes, it's a disease and it's hell. As the disease progresses, you procrastinate making that perfect card until it is entirely too late, and you send nothing at all. You are now in the final stages, but the horrible thing about this is that you don't die of it. It just spreads.

Once you have reached the final stage, you realize that giving gifts with ordinary wrapping paper (except for children, who usually don't deserve anything better anyway) is out too. How can you give anyone something simply wrapped in wrapping paper, without at least stamping your own tag or adding some kind of paper decoration crafted by your loving hands? It becomes impossible.”

This is so true, Jan! And so well put! Click on the link to see the cute project she made after this article was written......But I did make some great cards recently..I even have plans to mail one of them! They use our brand spanking new Manhattan Flower embossing folder which is the best $8 I have ever spent….just take a look at these cards. The flower is dry embossed and then I used a sanding block to sand the paper to the white core to make it stand out even more…They are gorgeous, if I must say so myself! And easy! Throw a sentiment on there and you are finished..here they are:

These all use the new textured Parisian Breeze decorator paper as well. I heart them all!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Thrift Store Junkie

2009-03-17T09:43:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! Happy St. Patty’s Day! Hope everyone gets to kiss the blarney stone or their favorite Irishman! I married one, so “check!” as my girls like to say. Every day when we leave the house they say Mommy, “did you brush your teeth, take a shower?” And I say “check, check” and then I ask them if they brushed their teeth, went to the potty, etc., so they can say “check, check!” They are funny!

I thought I would share a little obsession that I have today. My name is Deidre and I am a thrift store-aholic! When the girls go to preschool, I go thrifting! I haven’t bought clothes in a regular store since I can remember. Half the time at the thrift stores I find things that still have the tags on them!!! One reason I love it is that all the clothes have been shrunk and washed already (except for the new stuff obviously) and the way they fit, is the way they will stay, which I love. I also love looking through all the knick knacks from the seventies and old furniture to see what I could save and update . It is a very entertaining and cheap way to spend the afternoon! I always get the girls kids books from the stores and they are always excited to see what I have found for them after school. Matty always asks if I went to the thrift stores! You may remember the oval mirror I decorated at Christmas:

http://stampindipitybydeidre.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-in-california.html

That was a great find from the Salvation Army. Today I am heading to the Goodwill in Pacific Beach and Oceanside which are pretty ritzy areas so who knows what I will find! I think being a thrift store junkie is a genetic trait I inherited from my Mother, she is a professional at it and I am proud to carry on the tradition!

Here is a great looking cake recipe in honor of St Patty's Day from my stamping friend Kerry's blog. Doesn't it look yummy? I am definitely trying this soon! Alcohol and cake, sounds like something special!

http://threecloversdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/03/baileys-irish-cream-cake.html

On to some papercrafting…I have a couple of cards from the new Friends 24-7 set to show you today. I really love this set and the new decorator papers that SU has out. This one is called delicate dots and you can earn it free for the rest of this month by placing a $50 order. I made a couple of different versions because after I made the first one I wanted to turn down the paper and show off the other side using the great eyelet border punch!

Both cards use Sahara Sand paper and inks with So Saffron marker for the flowers. I love how soft and pretty these colors are together. A little sponging around the edges softens it all up and there you have it. Once again that eyelet punch is the main player! For some reason I find it much easier to use than the scallop edge punch. I always end up with one pointy scallop but this one, I get right every time!

Hope you are all well..go check out a thrift store today and have a green beer!!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Problems

2009-03-11T11:24:00.001-07:00

Sorry guys, I posted a couple of days ago but you guys didn’t get an email. I am trying to figure out what happened so I wanted to send this one through as a test….Hope you receive it!

Here is a quick card I made with some sock monkey images I stamped from my sister in law’s set last August! (Hi, Amy!) I am just now getting around to making cards with them!!!

I overstamped the monkey with the canvas background stamp so it would look more like cloth....and for the banana I coated the peel with the versamarker and clear embossing powder to look shinier.

Hope you get this post everyone….let me know!

Ciao for now!….Deidre

They crack me up

2009-03-09T12:26:00.001-07:00

Matty to Joel yesterday: “Daddy, what is your favorite color?”

Joel: “ I really don’t have a favorite color honey”

Matty: “Is it blue?”

Joel : “I like blue, but I really don’t have a favorite.”

Matty: “Is your favorite color lavender?”

Joel: “I am positive my favorite color is NOT lavender!”

So funny! Lavender? I mean really? This is not a word we use around here…why that came to her, I have no idea!

So I haven’t scrapbooked in a while, but I have wanted to do this for my friend Stacie (who just qualified for the Boston Marathon..You rock woman!!!) since last year, when her daughter Cole had her Elmo birthday party. The twins also had an Elmo 2nd Birthday party, so I made 6 of these pages..one for each of the girls!

I put some pics of Cole on here before I mailed it off to Stacie and hopefully they will be able to use it! I actually sold the stamp set that I used to make this Elmo but I sold it without this stamp because I wanted to keep it around to make Elmo’s and Cookie Monsters and Oscar the Grouch’s in the future. It is so easy you just stamp the squiggly stamp around in circles and then add punches for all the features…. The stamp set was called Sketch it if you ever want to pick it up on ebay. Here’s the left side:

and here’s the right:

I put three pictures cut down to fit on the red strip on the bottom of this page with one large photo in the middle.

My favorite part is the “2” It is chipboard covered in black craft ink and then crustal effects and chunky black glitter in top..very shiny!!! Here’s a close up:

Here is a close up of the Elmos:

Circle punches were used for the eyes and mouth

a small orange oval for the nose.

Here’s Elmo 2:

I cut the oval in half for this one since the face was smaller, and used an oval punch cut in half for the mouth.

Hope your day is a good one!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Confusion for a four year old

2009-03-04T10:08:00.001-08:00

This morning I overheard on the monitor:

Matilda: "But my name starts with a M*A*T*I*L*D*A not a T*I*L*L*Y"

Matty: "and my name starts with a M*A*T*T*Y"

Matilda: “this is not right!”

Matilda: “MOMMY, my name is wrong”

SO… she is finally realizing that her bedroom wall has letters that spell TILLY on it and not Matilda. I really like calling her Tilly, but she very much prefers Matilda. One time, we went to a birthday party in Georgia for a little boy named Will, whose grandma ran the preschool we went to. She had borrowed chairs and tables from the school and Matilda about had a conniption, because she did not want to sit in a chair that had a name that started with a “C” on it! Her chair should have an “M” on it! Ah, the joys of education! Guess I will have to change those letters so she won’t be so confused in the mornings!

Joel would not be happy at me for putting a pic on here but I can’t resist showing you guys this cute one I took of the girls in the bubbles the other night:

So this was the last month for Stamp Club. I will be starting a new one in April. Our technique for this month was an oldie but a goodie; and I just had to do it when I saw the new saleabration set, Polka Dot Punches. It really reminded me of the old tin pie safes, so I had to do some Faux Metal!

It is a very easy technique but you have to work fast. Here’s the card:

To make the cardstock look like metal, you cover a piece of cardstock with versamark or a matching color of embossing ink and then coat the paper with silver embossing powder. Tap off excess and heat it up. Then do a second layer of versamark and embossing powder, heating the middle up last. Before I do this second step I already have stamped my heart punch in the versamark ink and have it at the ready. As soon as I finish heating up the middle I put down the heat gun and immediately stamp the stamp in the hot middle. Warning..hold paper by the edges or with a tweezer so you don’t burn your fingers. The stamp stamps into the hot center leaving the impression. Easy peasy! Let dry for a couple of minutes and then punch out with your heart punch. I also punched out a few hearts from the scrap pieces of paper and used them as embellishments. Here is a picture by picture tutorial at splitcoast if you want to see each step:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/faux_metal/

Here is a tutorial for how to make the red eyelet square. http://paperpleasing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/02/eyelet-punch-tutorial-.html

I didn’t have enough red brads so I took some of my silver hodgepodge and put a dollop of crystal effects in the middle and some red chucky glitter to give it some red bling.

Hope your day is a great one!!!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Not Much New Here

2009-03-02T21:17:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone! Life has been pretty easy and simple these past few days. We had a nice relaxing weekend and actually went to the pool on Sunday. The pool is heated and outdoors, and although I wouldn’t say it was “warm,” it wasn’t freezing either. It took the girls a few tries to get back into the “swim” of things. There were a few surprised looks when they went under water the first few times, but they rose to the challenge and were swimming like pros again in about 15 minutes. Matilda poor thing has no meat on her bones and she had to get out after about 20 minutes because she was freezing. She tried a few more times but was pretty much done for the day. They slept really well last night which was SO great, because this past month they have not been sleeping well and I am getting run down because of it. I have been popping vitamin c and trying to get to bed earlier to try and fight it off, but unfortunately, I feel it starting to win! Hopefully another good night’s sleep will get my resistance back up and in the game. I did get some projects made last week that I thought I would share with you guys. A good friend of mine’s nana recently passed away and she had a few of her friends that had done some really nice things like send flowers and be there to listen; so I thought she could use some thank you cards and sent her a few. Her favorite color is orange and I really liked the way the tangerine looks with our basic gray…very striking together! Here’s the card:

Stamps are cute and curly and eastern blooms. I used the Curly label punch and three flower punch as well. White craft ink, tangerine tango ink and a few well placed brads and some matching ribbon were all it needed. And check out the embossed polka dot background…it’s SU’s new texture plates for the big shot…very cool!

I also had another baby gift to make for Joel’s boss’s new baby girl, Emily. I always give a book that was my girl’s favorite…Moo Baa LaLaLa by Sandra Boynton. The bedding in the nursery is mossy green with a white damask pattern and pink edging, so I was so excited to use our new Friends 24-7 stamp set that has the great damask stamp in it….Here’s the name frame:

Here’s the matching card:

and last but not least how cute is this bag that I put it all in???

That eyelet border punch makes the bag look so classy and finished! I just love it!! And yes I cheated a little..I got the Martha Stewart Butterfly punch. I thought it would be the perfect size to go with the new butterfly die for the big shot and I used a 40% off coupon….it just had to be in my arsenal! I especially like punching out vellum butterflies with it. I thought this really made a simple .50 cent bag look fantastic!

Hope you guys are having a wonderful day.

Ciao for now! Deidre

Witty Repartee

2009-02-24T09:04:00.001-08:00

Overheard on the monitor yesterday:

Matilda: “Sissy, please put these clothes on!” (she likes to dress sissy and herself the same and she’s my little fashionista..the latest trend is a dress with a shirt underneath it and tights)

Matty: “No!”

Matilda: “Sissy, PLEASSSEEEE!

Matty: “let me think about it….NO!”

(wonder where she has heard that before?)

Matilda: “PPPPLLLEEEEAAAASSEE!” (At an extremely high decibel)

Matty: “NO! I do what I do when I doooze it!”

Matilda: “SISSY!!! PPPLLEEAAASSSEEEE!” (at an even higher decibel if that is possible)

Matty: “NO!”

Matilda: “If you don’t do it, I am going to toot on your pillow and make it all stinky!”

Matty: MOM!

Me: Cracking up laughing!

Now THAT, is some comic relief for a stay at home Mom I tell you! I keep thinking about it and smiling!

So I have been working on some new things that I can’t wait to show you guys but they need to reach their destinations first….I also found some old pieces of a card that wasn’t finished and put them together to have a few extra for my basket, so I thought I would show you those today:

You can’t see the main image very well here, because it is way sparkly… I used the damask stamp from Friends 24-7 and stamped it in versamark and then daubered green/gold pearl ex on top of it, so it is very shiny gold and green in real life. I used an old background piece that I found that had two background stamps stamped in versamark on choc chip paper and then daubered with pearl ex as well, so everything is really gold and green and sparkly.

I used a leftover main image, added some pearl ex to the center and made this card as well:

The new eyelet border punch on the edge of the matting..it is on the matting in the first card as well..I can’t seem to make a card without it these days! I need to add a sentiment to really finish it off. I think I will do that now! Enjoy your day!

Ciao for now! Deidre

25 things

2009-02-22T09:49:00.001-08:00

I get tagged all the time on Facebook and never do the lists, but I thought I would post it here for you all to see….it is supposed to be 25 random things about yourself, so here goes!

1. My biggest pet peeve is using a double negative…example.. “don’t know nothing.” It should be “anything” people, and my hubby is the number one culprit on this. College educated and all...I just grit my teeth.

2. My children are the best and worst things that have ever happened to me….people may wonder about this, but parenting is by FAR the hardest thing I have ever done; and I haven’t truly slept in 4 years which takes a toll on your body! But their smiles and silliness DO make it all worthwhile!

3. I have a love hate relationship with exercise.

4. I do it (#3) so I can drink margaritas, pomegranate and lemon drop martinis and wine, my favorites!

5. I love to travel. Destinations that will be in my future are Tahiti, UK, Ireland, South America and Prague, also the west coast of Italy..Portofino, we didn’t make it there! Stateside, I must visit Sedona and Napa Valley!

6. I am obsessive compulsive on tidiness, cleanliness not so much! I like stuff in its place, but could care less if it is dusty!

7. I am addicted to stamping, like you guys didn’t know this.

8. I love taking pictures and would really like to learn how to be better at this!

9. I have always hated my hair and still do. It’s my cross to bear.

10. I am addicted to the internet and am on it several times a day.

11. I could care less about the vehicle I drive. As long as it runs well, has air conditioning and the dvd player for the kids, I could be driving a Chevette, doesn’t matter to me, although it is fun to drive the hubby’s beemer on the weekends and pretend I am not a van driving mommy! But I would feel the same in a Yugo I am sure, it’s the freedom I like!

12. I am not a beach person. I love to get sun playing golf or hiking, but the beach and sand in every crevice don’t do it for me, I do enjoy watching the kids at the beach though and I tolerate it for them.

13. I play pool really well. I played in tournaments when I was in college.

14. PF Chang’s is my favorite restaurant although my favorite kind of food is Mexican.

15. I love giving gifts especially at Christmas, could care less about receiving them.

16. Green is my favorite color.

17. Daisies are my favorite flower.

18. Peanut butter and my family are the only things I would need if I had to survive on a deserted island.

19. Night Shift is my all time favorite movie…. “ I am an idea man, Chuck!!) Survivors is my second most favorite movie of all time... “Hi Jack, want some pancakes?”

20. My freebie five would be: Andy Garcia, Oliver Martinez, Will Smith, Christian Bale and Daniel Craig..hubba hubba

21. I love music and have very eclectic tastes when it comes to it.

22. I played trumpet and french horn in high school and was a certified band geek…. Joel finds this very humorous. Hey, I couldn’t be a basketball star now could I?

23. Volleyball and golf, in person, are my favorite sports to watch..can’t stand sports on tv.

24. I am blessed to have a wonderful family, not everyone is so lucky.

25. I talk too much!

So if you made it through all that, then here is some eye candy for you today:

I made this for an internet swap group I am in...the requirements were two layers, and a brand new stamp set from our new catalog. This uses the new Friends 24-7 stamp set and friendly words wheel, and the sentiment comes from the SAB set Botanical blooms. I really love this card! I used the new eyelet border punch, I can’t make a card without it these days and the new Parisian breeze textured decorator paper…it is so heavy and cool! I roughed the edges up of the bird and the main frame..this card came together so easily! Hope you are all well!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Lagniappe-a little something extra

2009-02-19T10:01:00.001-08:00

Not sure where I am going with the title of this post but I have always liked this word and thought I would use it! I spent some time in the Lousiana area in my twenties and heard this word a lot! Mainly in conjunction with food, but it crosses all conversation boundaries, and is just a cool word…pronounced LAND-GNAP (like gnat).

So here is my little something something for today, since I am prone to rambling, I have made a few projects this last week and in doing so had an extra background stamped that didn’t make it to the final project but I really liked it. So, I decided to make it into its own card. I didn’t want to loose the pretty background and I wanted it to be clean and simple which is not my normal MO. I am much more of a vintage type gal, but hey you have to change it up sometimes right? Anyways I am so pleased with how it came out...I just want to keep looking at it! And, I finally used one of those filigree designer brads that I have been hoarding…ahhh, may we all live long enough to use up our supplies!

And speaking of that, in case I ever have an untimely demise….all you stamping ladies better high tail it over here as my husband says he would put all the stamping stuff on the curb and that would just be a travesty! He says that, but he supports my “business” ( I can hardly say that with a straight face! Loss so far on my taxes this year is $600 and I am not done) in his own special way and he did let me have a whole room for my “chick shit” as he calls it; so he is on board in his own special Joel way!

So here is the card I am so proud of…hope you like it too!

Isn’t it pretty??? It uses the new set Friends 24-7 and the sentiment is from Baroque Motifs. It uses whisper white craft ink on choc chip paper and choc chip craft ink on white ink for the sentiment. A little white taffeta ribbon and that filigree brad and definitely a little lagniappe for the eyes….don’t you agree?

My four year old is sticking her tongue out at me so time to go deal with that…where do they learn this stuff??? Joel and I don’t sit around the house sticking our tongues out at each other…what do you think would be good punishment….lashes with a wet noodle...time out? Nah, too extreme! Ignoring her works much better….drives her crazy!!! Yes! Parenting at its finest!

Ciao for now…Deidre

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T12:13:00.001-08:00

Hope you guys are enjoying your day with your sweethearts. I am sitting at a Midas station getting my water pump fixed..go figure. So I thought I would share my Valentines Creations with you before they are 364 days early for next year! Here we go:

This is my Valentines Stamp Camp I did at my house last weekend..everyone had fun making these projects:

the card was a case of Michelle Forces just with different color of red..you can see hers here:

http://micheleforce.blogspot.com/2009/01/love-you-much-valentines.html

and here is the link to how to make the test tube holders:

http://www.lisasomerville.com/2008/08/holiday-lineup-candy-test-tube-holders.html

the design shown here was Claudia Perry's design, my friend from Columbus..you can see her blog here at:

http://stampingincolumbusga.blogspot.com/

she has some cute Valentines pages on there today!

and here is the little class I did for my Mom’s night out ladies:

sorry for the dark pic..I am still figuring all that stuff out. The little red box holds 2 ghiradelli chocolate squares and is made from the SU mini scalloped envelope die for the big shot (2 of them)…how cute is that??

Lastly here is a card I did for a monthly swap group I am in..Hello Claudia and friends..wish I could have been there!

It uses all the new stuff from SALEABRATION..the ribbon bundle, the decorator paper pack and the polka dot punches stamp set..cute cute cute..I love how soft looking it is and the eyelet border punch?? Perfection!!! I did one with chocolate chip on the hearts to go with the saying but didn’t care for it as much..you can be the judge:

I preferred the vanilla craft polka dot hearts...

All supplies SU, except for the target $1 spot mailboxes! Email me if you would like more info at deidrelm@hotmail.com

Here’s hoping you are having more fun than I am at the Midas Shop on your Valentines Day….

Ciao for now…Deidre

Sugar High

2009-02-12T22:47:00.001-08:00

So we had two Valentines Parties today! My girls have had enough sugar to last them for a week! We had some friends over yesterday to decorate cookies and cupcakes so the fun started then. Today was their preschool party...more cookies to decorate and eat; and then capped it all off with a Valentines party at the neighbors with 20 kids, pink punch with ice hearts and MORE cookies to decorate! Of course, I told the girls they couldn't eat one, that we would bring them home and they complied, but every time I looked over, Matty was licking the frosting off the knife or eating the sprinkles..she definitely has my sweet tooth, and her nana's and her great grandma's (who had dessert first then maybe some food!) so she comes from a long line of sweethearts!

Needless to say their heads were spinning by the time we made it home, so I had to stash all the goodies away and focus back on protein, veggies and fruit..not the easiest task after a day of sweets! You don't know how many times I had to threaten them with throwing all the junk in the trash to get them to eat real food, but the sugar high finally started to subside after some regular food...you have got to love Valentines day with 4 year olds!!!

So here's a pic of some of the valentines we gave out today...these were for their school friends and I totally got the idea from this wonderful stamper:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1192084

Now how perfect are these for San Diego???

And here are the valentines we gave out at party number 2, these hold one ghiradelli chocolate square and took me less than an hour to make them all:

I will have some more Valentines stuff to show you over the next few days...until then enjoy the sugar high! And just to let you know the actual existence of my willpower; I did NOT get the Reese's double peanut butter filled heart today at the store.....HA! Take that sweet tooth!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Not just for paper

2009-02-10T10:12:00.001-08:00

Hey guys! Sorry... I have just not had much time to post lately. I will try and do better I promise! I had two stamp camps over the past week and lots of Valentines to make so I have been very busy. Hopefully I will get some new folks stamping from the workshops. I will show pictures of everything we made after I get them edited....

Last week I noticed that Matilda's favorite shoes were starting to get a little worn on the toes. Of course, since she wears them everyday what can you expect right? So here's a picture of them before; can you see the worn toes?

So I thought to myself....man I have some chunky silver glitter...I bet I could fix them....so I added some crystal effects glue, and some chunky glitter and voi'la (sp??).... just like new!!!

Here's the after:

So since this post is about other ways to use things..how about some decor elements?? I really wanted a red laptop, but they were a couple of hundred dollars more and of course I wasn't going to pay more just to have a cool red one....(think of all the stamps I could get for a couple hundred bucks, right???) So I was thinking, how can I make my computer my own... maybe bling it out a little bit, right??? Well, I had this bird sitting around that I am planning on using on an old window, but just haven't quite gotten around to that project yet, so I thought I would put it on my computer..so here's my laptop tricked out....isn't that cool?

Now I think I will get a "D" and put it in the top left corner..what do you think???? I might even get it in red!

Hope your day is a happy one..I am not folding laundry so you know I am happy!!!

Ciao for now....Deidre

Not the best housewife

2009-02-03T09:23:00.001-08:00

Is it just me or does everyone hate housework? It just seems like there are not enough hours in the day. I spent an hour and a half just folding laundry yesterday! Time I easily could have used elsewhere and will never get back! SO my most hated chores are as follows:

1) Unloading the dishwasher, once or twice a day minimum! I have no problems filling that sucker up but unloading it..uugghh!

2)Folding clothes! An hour and a half people. I could have easily made a couple of cards in that amount of time and guess what... I have two more loads to do today!! Once again I have no problem washing and drying....just the folding!

3) Mopping the floor. Give me a toilet to clean any day, but mopping just plain stinks and what makes it even worse? Five minutes later the dogs come in from outside and it is dirty again. I mean this is really pointless when you have two dogs and twin four year olds right?? I can spot clean and vacuum the heck out of them but mopping? Bleh Bleh Bleh. Luckily I have a hubby who doesn't mind doing them.

I guess I am just a frustrated housewife because doing the folding took so much time last night, but unfortunately somebody has to do it right? I wonder when those girls will be old enough to put them to work? Whoops..did I say that out loud?? Well, they sure are good at messing it up so someday they will have to do their part too!

Updates: Matty is doing much better this week and I lost the two pounds I had gained back last week...so that makes things a wee bit nicer! Me and those two pounds are really tight... I have gained and lost them probably 50 times!

So for all my club ladies, here is our technique for the month! I call it a surprise card. We saw this at convention and when the new heart punch came out I thought they would make a perfect fit!

Here's the front of the card:

and SURPRISE! Here's the inside:

Here's the how to:

1)Use your 1 3/4 inch circle punch and punch out two circles.

2)Start at the edge and start cutting into the circle turning it as you go so that you wind up with a springed coil.

3)Roll your mini glue dots so that you won't have any hanging out the sides and attach one end to the top of your card and one to the bottom of your card

4) Cover the glue dot with a heart if some excess glue dot is sticking out to prevent the card from sticking together.

5) add more hearts to the coil and voila a surprise!

Imagine it with party hats for a birthday or butterflies! A fun card that is way more interesting than housework I'd have to say!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Miscellaneous Ramblings

2009-01-27T09:17:00.001-08:00

Well, not much going on here in the Mooney household. Matty was sick again which is three separate incidents of vomiting/diarrhea with days in between of being fine. Very weird but the doctor doesn't suspect anything and just wants us to watch her milk intake at night (all of the incidents she had a big bowl of cereal before she went to bed.) Maybe she is becoming a little lactose intolerant? Anyone know anything about that?

So a little Bikram update...I have done 35 classes now and gained 2 pounds back! Blah! I swear my body likes this weight...but I don't... so I have to stop eating chocolate. If I can have the willpower to go to the torture chamber 35 times now...I can stop putting chocolate in my mouth right? But man oh man is chocolate good!!! I have had one success I am happy about though which means I am getting more limber...around class number 30 I was finally able to do the camel posture! Before this I could not reach my feet so I just kept my hands on my hips! So I must be getting more limber because I can now do this:

Woohoo!

When we first moved here my brother introduced us to some old friends of his and they were nice enough to invite us to a birthday party for their daughter PK at the beach. The girls had a ball, but I was not very prepared and didn't have any of my supplies so I did not have a gift made for her. We had a playdate with them last week and we finally got to give her a name frame for her room.....here it is and I apologize for not having the copyright info on it..my new computer doesn't have the right photo editing software yet, so as you all know....all images are copyright Stampin Up 1990-2009!

and here is the matching card I made her which is exactly like the football card I made for Eliza, just different colors and different stamps..I love this sketch! It is perfect and you can use any image!

So I guess that is all for me today..I have to get to work making some new stuff or I am going to run out of things to show you...that's a good excuse to get back to the stamp room, right???

Ciao for now! Deidre

Not the bestest mama!

2009-01-23T21:21:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone...sorry it has been a while since my last post. Joel had surgery again on his ankle this week and I have been single parenting it. He is doing much better, the first few days he had quite a bit of vomiting due to the anesthesia, so I had my hands full. The few days before Joel's surgery Matty had a stomach virus...so needless to say I have been seeing way too much stuff I would prefer to black out over the past week!

So, the girls really play together well for the most part, but everyday they have their share of tiffs and spats. When this happens, and they are really fighting about something, it is usually followed by the ultimate putdown, cut down phrase, "you're not my bestest sissy anymore!" That is the one phrase that makes the other one go beserk crazy! It is the worst thing that can be said to each other, and is usually followed by a timeout from Mom. I try to talk with them about hurting the other's feelings, blah blah, blah, and how would that make you feel, etc., but this usually falls upon deaf ears when they are so worked up. Usually after the timeout is over though and we have all hugged and made up, they are off to play together again.

So it really shouldn't be any surprise to me that after denying my daughter more cookies the other day and getting barraged with tears and screams; that I finally got the ultimate insult..."you're not my bestest Mama!" Ouch! Dagger to my heart! My comment back to her.."well kid, I am your only Mama and I said no more cookies." So, I don't think I had quite the reaction that she was looking for. Another typical day living with a 4 year old!

So on to a little stamping! A friend of mine recently had a baby and I made her little one a name frame and card that I am hoping to get in the mail this weekend...don't look Jodi, if you want to be surprised! Little E has a cute cowboy themed room, in pretty blues and browns, so here is his name frame....I just love doing these! Click on the pictures if you want to see them larger!

Here is the card to match:

and the inside of the card, since it is so trendy these days to decorate the inside as well!

Can't forget the matching envelope:

I just love these colors together! Blue Bayou and Chocolate Chip... I mainly used the stamp set Nursery Necessities and Wanted, along with the large and small star punch, top note die and polka dot embossing folders. If you want more details on what I used you can always email me...I hope she likes it!!!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Window Lickers!

2009-01-15T13:44:00.001-08:00

Maybe it is a 4 year old phenomenon? I really don't know what to make of it, but my kids lick everything! Despite constant talks about germs and cleanliness they just don't get it. Now I will say that this house has way more glass, mirrors and windows then we have ever had before. In fact, I was a little shocked when I came out here to house hunt last May and noticed all the mirrored closet doors. I had always thought they were kind of seventies, bow chicka bow bow, if you know what I mean. I remember asking the realtor about them and she said in California those were very desirable and an "upgrade." I guess people really like to see themselves here in SoCal, but I am more of a traditionalist and give me a 6 panel door anytime, not to mention cleaning them..Ugggghh! Not my favorite thing for sure! So here is what I find on a daily basis:

and this:

I have gone through more Windex since I moved here than I did in 4 years of living in Georgia! Still everyday I walk in to one of them licking or smooching a window...I just don't get it. But wait.... it gets worse...we went to Yogurt World the other day which is our favorite place here....you can choose between 20 different soft serve yogurts and about 50 toppings and you pay by the ounce...my favorite is the green coconut! Yum! So we go to the bathroom before we leave and I am helping Matilda wash her hands, I turn around to check on Matteson who is sitting on the toilet and see that SHE IS LICKING THE HANDICAP RAIL NEXT TO THE TOILET! Yep you read that right...... UUUGGGHHHH! Matteson also spent last night and this morning vomiting...huh..I wonder if there is a connection??? Can anyone please, please explain this behavior to me??? I just don't get it. I live with window lickers....please God let this be a phase.

So on to something a little more pleasant..another of the Christmas gifts that I made this year was a monthly planner for my goddaughter, Samantha. I make her one every year and they are very easy and fun to do. I buy the planners at the dollar store, they usually show up in November or December and I cover the front with paper and add an initial and some embellishments and ribbon of course....here is the one I made to match her stationary box:

This uses that yummy Always paper and the matching Always Stamp set. I hope she gets good use out of it this year! Here are the cards that I made to match her stationary box:

and here are the ones that I made to go in her Mom's box:

If you want the ingredients for any of these just email me and I will get them to you.....I used liquid applique to make the puffy frosting on the cupcakes and balloons. Hope you guys like them!

Ciao for now! Deidre

Egg juice?

2009-01-14T09:53:00.001-08:00

So funny story from the girls preschool....they were discussing during lunch bunch where apple juice comes from, orange juice etc., and the teacher threw in hot dogs to be funny and all the kids laughed...then she said how about eggs and they all laughed but my child.....of course, MattyMoo says...."you can get egg nog from eggs".....and the teacher was impressed and said, "that's right Matty, you can make egg nog from eggs...and you know what, I like to put egg nog in my coffee", to which Matty replies, "well my daddy likes to put egg nog in his adult beverage"! So now the preschool knows that we imbibe here in the Mooney household! Oh well, I don't see how anyone could survive parenting without drinking some! The teacher said she actually thought to herself, well so do I, but I am not about to admit that here!!!

Speaking of funny......I found a hilarious blog the other day called Looky Daddy, http://www.lookydaddy.com/. You should watch his video of the first day of his twins preschool...I was cracking up..especially from the aspect of a stay at home Dad. He has a 3 martini playgroup that I would love to join, and check out the state of that van...and Joel thinks I am a mess, he doesn't even know how bad it could be!!! Hey I figured out how to add this video. Push pause on the music box at the bottom of my blog, so the music won't conflict!
The First Day of Preschool from Brian Sargent on Vimeo.

So many of you might remember this project from the past few years:

or this one:

I make these for the girls teachers every Valentines day and usually try to do a class with them....I have looked all over creation to find these mailboxes from the Target Dollar Spot and I just want you to know they are in the stores NOW!!!! This year in addition to red, pink and white they also have silver and pink metallic. You have to be diligent though, as they sell out fast...make sure and ask someone to check the stock status, as they usually have them in the back room or can tell you which stores have them...stay tuned for this years version coming soon using that cute heart punch from the love you much bundle! (Still on sale for 20% off through January 18!!

So all my Christmas gifts are officially mailed and I can share them with you now.....the only thing I have left to do is get out my Christmas cards and since postage is going up on the 18th I am going to start those today! Yikes! I swear in 2009, this will be done on time!!! Oh well, I guess I should cut myself some slack..I did move across the country for goodness sakes!

So here are some stationary boxes I made for some special ladies:

and here are the front of two of the boxes:

You can find out how to make these here:

http://jackietopa.typepad.com/Stationary.pdf

and here is a video of how to do it:

Cool..not sure how that happened but I loaded a video on my blog...my technical ineptitude astounds me sometime!

The boxes hold 4 regular size cards, 4 tags and 4 3x3 notes...as well as an address book, a place for stamps and a pen...how cute are they?

I will share the cards for each box tomorrow...hubby is out of town, so I have been stamping in my PJ's every night after the girls go to sleep...I am in heaven and getting so much done....

Ciao for now........Deidre

Football anyone?

2009-01-12T10:34:00.001-08:00

Okay so I enjoy watching a football game now and again but other than knowing that OU lost..heh heh heh and OSU lost..:( ........and the Chargers lost...another :(.. I don't really have much to do with it! But this past month we have been invited to two Football birthday parties! One for baby Ben who turned 1 and the other for Eliza who turned 5. So, we had some presents to make and wrap as well as a few cards. Now I really try and do a nice job stamping when it comes to gifts like this because you never know when a Mom there might want to start stamping with me!!!! So one of the things I do, is I buy plain brown wrapping paper from the dollar store and have the girls stamp all over it with whatever the theme is. This gives them a project and shows how anyone can do some stamping! Sometimes I can't find the plain brown so I buy one with stars or whatever and stamp on it too!!! Then I make a card and tag to match. Since everything is acid free, they could use the card on one side of a scrapbook page and the tag on the other and have a layout for the party! I also made cutie pie Ben a banner with the SU exclusive pennant dies which are so cool! I didn't put many embellishments on it so that his Mom could reuse it in the future. So here are the pics:

Riding Hood Red decorator paper, Night of navy paper, and summer sun....easy peasy!

Here is the card I made:

and here is the tag for the gift:

I used a retired set from SU called Sporting Goods, the sentiment is from a retired saleabration set called Birthday Whimsy, the name from the retired rough edges Alphabet set and my wonderful White gel pen....as well as red riding hood, night of navy and choc chip inks...very easy and cool!!!

And now this one is even better..here is Eliza's card, since she is a girl how about some pink footballs????

Simple cute cards and you can do them for any theme!!!

I also used the polka dot background stamp on this and mainly regal rose cardstock with some rose red and pink pirouhette thrown in there.

So we spent yesterday at the beach..it was a gorgeous day and Joel got to try out his new wetsuit. The water was freezing but that didn't stop the girls from running in and out of it! We had a picnic there and the girls slept like logs last night! You can't beat the beach for a good night's sleep!

Ciao for now.....Deidre

Funniest Christmas Memory

2009-01-08T23:03:00.001-08:00

So we had a lot of fun with Mom here over the holiday. We went to see the popular Del Mar Light Festival at the Del Mar Fairgrounds on Christmas Eve. We had the girls all in their footie pajamas so we could get them to bed faster when we got back. The lights were nice, and you got to drive around the racetrack which was interesting, but even though they are supposed to be the largest light show on the west coast, it has nothing on Callaway Gardens in Georgia! You don't appreciate what you have in your backyard until it is gone that is for sure!

So here we are driving around the track looking at the lights and Matilda had asked to get out of her carseat and of course we wouldn't let her, so what does she start saying..."I have to go potty!" Even though we had just went potty before we left! We carry around an Elmo Potty seat for emergencies, and she knows it, so she starts saying, "I really have to go!" I knew she was full of it, but when you have Daddy (totally wrapped) and Nana (completely wrapped) as well, I was fighting a losing battle. I knew she just wanted out of the car seat but they were all "if she has to go, she has to go!" So I get the potty from behind the backseat, set it up between Mom and me and get Matilda out of her carseat and completely naked..footie pajamas remember!..and there we are riding around looking at the Christmas lights with Matilda naked "going potty"! Did she go?? Of course not!!! We finally had to make her get back in her carseat, so we could go home! Joel and Josh tried to get a picture, but cell phones don't have flashes on the camera so we couldn't get one....but what a memory!!!

So for all my stamping ladies..some exciting news was announced today at the SU leadership conference...SU is getting into digital scrapbooking! Sometime over the next year we will be selling a product called My Digital Studio. It's user friendly - for PC and MAC users both, the program is similar to MS Word, you can use drop menus or click and drag. Has SU custom colors, punches, accessories, stamps, DSP. Has preset layouts, or you can create your own. You'll be able to print from your own printer, or send to one of SU's printers (so you'll get TRUE SU colors).

I don't know anything about digital scrapbooking but it sure sounds like fun!!

So here are the Christmas Gifts I made for my downline..(Marci and Kathy..yours are in the mail!!!) I totally copied from Rebecca at Bella Carta, it was such a great idea. Here's hers:

http://bellacarta.typepad.com/rebecca/2008/11/christmas-decor.html

I got my small shadow frames from the dollar store, opened them and covered up the gaudy saying with the paper, glue gunned them back together, painted them and had to add the yummy striped ribbon from SU's winter Mini catalog. I love that stuff! Here's mine:

So this uses the smallest decor element "jingle all the way", Riding Hood Red Decorator paper, cream acrylic paint and some jingle bells! I think I am going to make some of these for craft shows in the fall..what do you guys think? Would you buy this for $10? It sure is cute!

Ciao for now....Deidre

Took a little break!

2009-01-02T11:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has been so long since I posted! A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! I took some time to bake, clean, wrap presents and do a little sightseeing while my Mom was here and enjoy the holidays! And unfortunately, I am still making Christmas gifts! Yikes! Poor planning on my part combined with not much stamping time will get ya! But be prepared to see some neat stuff over the next week as I finish them and get them out the door. Then I will consider this holiday season officially over..after I do my Christmas cards, I mean New Years Cards!!! Okay, so obviously that is my New Year's Resolution for '09...get projects started before they are due..not wait until the last minute and actually send out some of these cards that I make....then I will be a success!!! Ha! We shall see if it actually happens....

So a little Bikram yoga update....I am at way over 20 classes now and was able to wear a pair of jeans that a month ago I could not even squeeze into lying down....Total success. I still suck at it, but I can really see the changes and it feels so good afterwards that I really feel like I have found something that works for me...Yeah!

Christmas was great for the Mooney family..Joel got a wet suit and clothes for work, the girls got Barbie bikes with streamers on the handlebars from Santa..aka Nana....and have learned to ride them very quickly! So funny to see them race around on them, little legs pumping. They squealed when they came down the stairs at 6:50 Christmas morning...Santa came...Santa came...we did make the nice list! Not that they haven't given the naughty list a run for the money!!! It was close! So my great Christmas present was actually a two-fer. I got a new laptop! The keys on my old one were so worn that there weren't letters on them anymore! Plus, we were able to set my old one up for the girls to have their own computer station to play their Dora games and more so everyone got a great gift!! But also because of that, I have a lot of work to do to set up my new computer so I actually had to go back to my old one to start blogging again. I don't have the capabilities yet to put text on my images so....I had to go back to what I know! I will figure it all out soon enough though I hope!!

I wanted to share with you my favorite Christmas cookie recipe this season....man does Ree Drummond know how to cook! Check them out of you are looking for a great crunchy, yummy cookie! Perfect to dip in milk!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/12/spicy-molasses-cookies-seriously-delicious/

So I wanted to share all the fabulous handmade cards I received this Christmas season..they were all beautiful and gorgeous and I hope one of these days I will get my own out!!! Check out this slide show of them and welcome to 2009!

Ciao for now!!! Deidre

Teacher Gifts

2008-12-19T22:17:00.001-08:00

I have known since the school year started that I needed to make some Christmas gifts for the girls teachers..so when did I start them?? The night before I needed to take them of course!!! I started at 9:00 pm. I went to bed at 12:30 am and did about 30 minutes more the following morning! But they turned out kind of cute if I must say so myself...

Here is a pic of the whole batch:

Here is the inside of the stationary folder:

I made 4 cards with matching envelopes and a large paper clip bookmark ..all matching with the great "Always" decorator paper..this paper reminds me of ice cream!

Here is a look at just the cover and the bookmark:

and here are the four individual cards:

So I made all the kids in the girl's class and my wonderful stamp club ladies AND my monthly swap group these great stockings from Lauren Meader's Timeless Templates..this is a free download and a great one!!

http://www.papertreyink.com/timeless_templates_download_here.html

Here's mine:

Mine aren't nearly as cute as the ones she has on there with fur cuffs and such but hey, I was mass producing!!! I made 3o of them! I was actually cutting out stockings at a playground while the girls were climbing..a busy Mom has to multitask you know!!!

So there they are..this year's batch of teacher gifts and such. I have a few more projects I hope to finish up this weekend and show you soon! Merry Christmas to all..I am gathering up some faboo recipes to share with you all next time! My holiday favorites! Oh and I have to leave you with this cute card I saw while blurfing the other day:

http://chicnscratch.typepad.com/chic_n_scratch/2008/11/many-merry-messages.html

I had to copy them they were so stinkin cute!!!

Ciao for now!!! Deidre