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

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

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!

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!

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

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….

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