Meet the newest Mooney!

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!

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!

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

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?

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!

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

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