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 It has already been replaced by the plethora of Christmas goodies so fear not that we are sweetless in this house!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

Warzone!

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

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!

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!

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