JUGS Challenge #5

So the girls over at JUGS are having a challenge this week to make a Christmas card with a photo. Kristin gave me credit for this, but I've stepped down with my "duties" for this team due to a LOT of things going on.....being that I'm having a baby in a little over 2 weeks might have a lot to do with it!!! I read Kristin's blog this morning and thought I would pull out my Christmas card from last year. It's a little different layout than what I originally ended up with, but everyone is still sleeping here at my house so I opted to not take a new pictures. This is one of my favorite pictures of my kiddos. It's supposed to represent Joseph and Mary carrying baby JESUS on a donkey. Of course that is our little burro, Ranger, our kids pride and joy. Since we took this picture last year, the kids kept calling this particular baby "Baby Jesus". It's too cute. The baby is actually pink, so "SANTA" brought Ethan one just like it except in blue for Christmas last year.

Here's a picture from Christmas last year with both baby "Jesus" riding on their horses.

This year I just can't bring myself to make a photo Christmas card. It's just hard to do the "traditional" things so I'm opting out of this for this year. Maybe next year will be different, we'll see. At least I take pictures again, right after Ethan died I couldn't even take pictures of Ava.

Hope you all hop over to the JUGS site and join in their challenge. Kristin has some blog candy....she's giving away a digital image by just joining in the fun! Have a great Halloween weekend!

More New Digis and Lots of Glitter!

Lots of fun new images to share this week. I got in a glitter mode and made everything sparkly! I took the little birdie holding the Star of David and used it to add the star to the top of my tree. I just got a new package of Paper Studio paper from Hobby Lobby so that is where the tree and pattterned paper came from. I added some garland, the star topper and a little bow for some bling.

Lily is so cute sitting on this lolipop. I thought she needed glitter too so she got a little bling added as well. I did everything on the computer, printed both my image and the sentiment from Word. I used the Wordart in Word to make the words looks arched. You can't go wrong with polka dot ribbon! There are dots added to her dress and more glitter to her hat.

Be sure to check out all of the other girls creations too.

Melissa - http://www.pinkcatstudio.blogspot.com/

Emily Leiphart - http://www.leiphartonart.blogspot.com/

Inge Groot - http://www.patternedpaper.typepad.com/

Kerry Donovan-Casey - http://threecloversdesigns.blogspot.com/

Kristen Catalano - http://www.scrap-creations1.blogspot.com/

MacKenzie Bruckler - http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Maria Bell - http://stampininspirations.blogspot.com/
Suzanne J Dean - http://www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com/

Tracey Cuccia - http://www.tmcuccia.blogspot.com/

Tori Hemmingway - http://scrappinangler.blogspot.com/

Vicki Garrett - http://www.summerthymestudio.blogspot.com/

Have a good weekend and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Quick and Easy Sympathy Cards

I had to make some sympathy cards today and these are my least favorite cards to make and I only send these out if I absolutely have to. I've seen more sympathy cards this year to last me a lifetime. I needed some so I sat down for about 10 minutes this evening and whipped these up. They are simple yet elegant I think.

I used Mamask Designs from PTI and Ocean Tides paper and ribbon. I added a little chocolate for some pop and the pearls. It's a very, very easy card and could be mass produced

for almost any occasion.

New Digi DT Bio Contest from Pink Cat Studio!

Digi DT Bio Betty Contest
Pink Cat Studio is starting a fun contest today! Melissa asked each Digi DT member to create a Betty that tells us a bit about herself. Can you figure out who created each Betty ? If so then you could win some free digi stamps!!
Visit the Pink Cat Studio blog to learn how to enter the contest. If you know me at all I'm sure you can figure out which one I am!!!

Decorating 101!

Finally I have pictures to share of my kiddo's rooms. My Mom came down to help me finish up the baby room and I LOVE how it turned out.

Here is the new rocking chair pad cover that I got to match the room. I thought this paisley print went perfectly in his room.

Here is a YEE HAW sign that I actually made for Ethan's 4th brithday party. It was the banner than we hung up and our friend Brick remembers oh so vividly Ethan pointing to his sign saying that it said "Happy Birthday Ethan".

Here's a look at the wall of "frames". I got this idea from something in a pottery barn magazine. I just took unfinished 12x12 frames, painted them red, bought red gingham paper and cut out a 6x6 square and added the art in the middle. This is one of my favorite parts of the room.

Two new frames for baby Kale. The horses are acutally a metal ornament and makes it 3D. The other is an embroidered boot and hat by my sister-in-laws Mom.

Here are the other 2 frames. The star is another metal Christmas ornament another one of Donna's embroidered designs.

This is Ethan's barn on his train table built by Papa. Ethan painted his barn red just a couple days before he died. It probably needs another coat or two of paint, but to me it is just perfect and will stay this way for a very long time.

Here is the baby's changing table. Soon instead of the cowboy picture there will be a frame with all of Kale's information and a picture. I decided to wait until he got here to make that!

All of the bedding/curtains in the room are Ethan's. He picked this out from Target and just loved his cowboy themed room. This is exactly how Ethan would have wanted the room for his baby brother!

Here's a peek at Ava girl's room. The house/bookshelf on the back wall is what Papa made for her. It was another Pottery Barn inspiration. The furniture Ava just got and she loves her new big girl bed and dresser.

Here's Ava's matching vanity. She loves to fill the drawers with little things. I think she is really going to love having this some day....what little girl wouldn't?? The "A" sitting on her vanity is actually something I had when I was little that my Mom painted for me. The kittens on her vanity are my collection of Calico Kittens that I collected too.


I couldn't get away without getting a picture of Ava girl showing off her room. She is pretty good about making her bed each morning. I got this bedding from Wal-Mart. I loved all of the little birds. I only spent $35 on it, and had to take back all of the Pottery Barn stuff I had bought. We are going to build a house next year so I imagine that she'll probably want to do something different in her room so $35 isn't too bad for some "temporary" bedding.

Here's a shot of Ava sitting at her vanity....she wanted me to take this pic too!

Here's a picture of Ava's bed and her wall decorations. I made the personalized wall hanging a while back and the tree is from SU, one of those art deco things that you just press onto your wall. I think I have finally figured out a saying to put with it. Wouldn't "Good night TweetHeart" be cute! Get it Tweet!!

The other walls have her personalized frame that I just finished up a while ago too and a shelf that houses pictures of me when I was little both with my Mom and my Dad. It has little shoes from when I was a baby and some baby booties of Ava's too.

Here's a closeup of those wall decs.

That's it for today. I know I've been promising pictures of my kids rooms for a while now and I'm so glad that they are finished, now if I only had my daughter's Halloween costume ready!! I'll get it done and imagine this, it's another Pottery Barn inspiration too!!

New Digis.....Lily all Bundled up! (And a Contest too)

Melissa with Pink Cat Studio has created 3 adorable images once again. I chose to work with Lily in her winter coat! I really like how the background turned out and I added some bling with rhinestones! Look on the digi site too because there are "FREE", yes "FREE" digital sentiments to go along with these images. Be sure to take a look.

Melissa is starting a contest too....."Digi Ideas Contest". To enter the contest, leave a comment on Melissa's post and suggest an idea for a new digi stamp. Each week she will select an idea and turn it into a digi stamp. The person who made the suggestion will receive the new digi for free in advance of the release and will be invited to create a card with it to be displayed on Melissa's blog during the new release.

Stop by and see what all the other gals have created too. One of these days I'll get everyone loaded on my side bar, but until then:

Melissa - http://www.pinkcatstudio.blogspot.com/
Emily Leiphart - http://www.leiphartonart.blogspot.com/
Inge Groot - http://www.patternedpaper.typepad.com/
Kerry Donovan-Casey - http://threecloversdesigns.blogspot.com/
Kristen Catalano - http://www.scrap-creations1.blogspot.com/
MacKenzie Bruckler - http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Maria Bell - http://stampininspirations.blogspot.com/

Suzanne J Dean - http://www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com/
Tracey Cuccia - http://www.tmcuccia.blogspot.com/
Tori Hemmingway - http://scrappinangler.blogspot.com/
Vicki Garrett - http://www.summerthymestudio.blogspot.com/

Have a great Thursday. I'm actually going to work today because I only have a few weeks left before baby comes and lots to finish before that!

Some Christmas Ideas!

Stamp club is tonight so I worked up a card/photo book this morning to make tonight. I made a little aensemble to go with the card. I love these new templates that Lauren created for PTI. You can take a look at them here.....all for $5 and you can keep creating with them! I'm going to use these at Christmas for some gift cards.

Here's a close up of my card. It is scored at a 1/2 inch from the edge so the pages will turn nicely. I used burlap as the background.

Here's a closer look at my little gift boxes. I just love these little things.....they are sooo cute!

Thanks for stopping by!

Good Fun Weekend!

Guess I was in the picture taking mode this weekend! We promised Ava we could go get some pumpkins yesterday, so we loaded up Ranger and went for a walk to the winery. Most kids get to go to a pumpkin patch, but not us, we walk with our miniature burro and cart down to the winery! Here are some of the cute pics I got!


My favorite Fall Picture of Ava Girl! Sitting outside of the winery!

Here's Ava toting the pumpkins to the cart.....she's quite independent and had to do this all by herself!

Here's Ava all loaded up and ready to go home!

Then our famous Lilly Rose got on the roof again so Ava and I rescued her from the window. Then Ava got to play with her upstairs in her room for a while before putting her back out! She just loves her little kitty!

Great Project Day!

So much for my sleepy nights.....last night wasn't one of them. I went to bed around midnight and was up by 4:30....oh well, guess it could have been worse. I'm surprisingly not very tired. I did lay down for a while on the couch, but couldn't get back to sleep. So, I decided to work on my boppy cover for my new little boy. I bought this brown very very soft chanielle fabric with raised dots all over it. I had a cover for my boppy so I used that as my pattern and cut around that. My husband was nice enough to get my bobbin loaded in my machine. I always struggle with that part. I have a Janome, the machine that only costs around $50, but it worked like a charm. I'm so excited to have that done and to know I did it all by myself!

I have 4 12x12 picture frames painted red waiting to dry. I'm making something similar to what I saw in the Pottery Barn Kids magazine. (except for a fraction of the cost). I just have these frames to finish and one more thing to hang on the wall and the room will be finished and ready for pictures to share. My goal is to get everything finished before the end of the weekend!

Speaking of pictures to share, I went to a friend's house yesterday to take fall pictures of Ava and here is how they turne out! The last one is Ava with Buster the cat....he is so cute and cuddly!

Pink Cat Studio Digi Release!

It's time again for another Pink Cat Studio Digi Release! Aren't these owls just adorable! They are all so fun to color! My daughter has enjoyed coloring them too. She usually insists that when I print one out for me that I print one out for her also! I created a birthday card for a little friend of ours with the Owl Unicycle. I went a little crazy with dots, but I think it turned out really fun!

I made this little Halloween treat bag filled with minature oreo cookies. Little Bobby in his dinasaur costume reminded me so much of the monster on Monsters INC.

I've been creating a little this week, but mostly cleaning and organizing in my house! I guess they call this nesting. Good thing is that the last couple of nights I've been sleeping better. I'm only up now because my "DH" and I don't mean "Dear" won't get out of bed and his alarm keeps going off! Oh well, sleeping until 5:30 is much, much better than only sleeping until 2 or 3:30! Today I have to put a few more things away and then I will hopefully have time to finish up some things that I've been trying to get done for Kale's baby room. I keep saying that it is almost finished, and it really is!

This weekend we were supposed to have a fall party at our house, but the weather here hasn't been cooperating! It rains almost every other day and it is rather cold for this time of year, so yesterday I canceled it. I think the kids would have been miserable outside and I don't have room for everyone in my house! So hopefully Saturday we'll be taking it easy at our house and just enjoy having nothing to do! I doubt that will happen, but we can try!

I need to take some pictures of my Ava girl....seems like forever since I have taken pictures of her. My friend just got her the cutest little owl shirt that I'll have to share from the Gap. What 3 year old tells you that when you ask them what color they want to wear for the day says "brown". That is what she told me yesterday! She's too funny when it comes to clothes, you would think she is a teenager already as she is already picking out what she wears and refusing to wear things some days! I'm off to the couch to try and get a couple more zzzz's before my day starts! Have a great weekend!

Be sure to check out all the other girls blogs too!

Melissa - http://www.pinkcatstudio.blogspot.com/

Emily Leiphart - http://www.leiphartonart.blogspot.com/

Inge Groot - http://www.patternedpaper.typepad.com/

Kerry Donovan-Casey - http://threecloversdesigns.blogspot.com/

Kristen Catalano - http://www.scrap-creations1.blogspot.com/

MacKenzie Bruckler - http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Maria Bell - http://stampininspirations.blogspot.com/
Suzanne J Dean - http://www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com/

Tracey Cuccia - http://www.tmcuccia.blogspot.com/

Tori Hemmingway - http://scrappinangler.blogspot.com/

Vicki Garrett - http://www.summerthymestudio.blogspot.com/

JUST US GIRLS (JUGS)! Paper Piecing Challenge

This week I'm doing something kinda "new". We aren't having the My Time Challenges anymore so the girls made a group and our new name is "JUGS". Kristin and Pam have worked very hard on getting this all put together and have even created a website to house everyone's projects and the weekly challenges. We'll all be hosting at different points throughout the year. Take a look at the JUGS site.

The challenge this week was Paper Piecing. I got out the good old "Cowboy Ethan", now for sale as Cowboy Billy, but he will always be Ethan to me. I LOVE how this turned out, almost enough to change my baby announcement design "again"! I knew this would happen. Take a look at the other gals creations too! Be sure to give this challenge a try and add your link to "Mr. Linky" on the JUGS BLOG. This week there will be some blog candy too - full deets are on the Just Us Girls blog but I will tell you that this week to KICK OFF the JUST US GIRLS challenge blog, we are giving away a $25.00 gift certificate to either Gina K Designs or PaperTrey Ink (winner's choice) to one lucky winner! To enter you need to participate in our Week 2 challenge by creating a new card with the Paper Piecing technique, post it DIRECTLY to your blog or online gallery, then link it to the Mr. Linky on the Just Us Girls Challenge site. Deadline to post to Mr. Linky is Thursday, October 15, 9:00 PM EST. We will post the winner on the Just Us Girls blog on Friday along with our very special "top pick" stamper called our "Chic of the Week".

Just a few thoughts on my little boy. It's now been almost 4 months since we lost our Ethan, but it seems like it was just yesterday. I can still picture him running up to me in the morning with the best hugs and kisses ever. I was usually up before him and would be downstairs on the computer and he would come running in with the biggest smile on his face. Then we would head to the living room and turn on cartoons, usually Boomerang that had all of the old cartoons....his favorite was Duck Dogers in Space....and he would always get excited when this was on and yell for his Daddy to watch it with him. We would snuggle on the couch until Ava girl woke up and then I would sit between them to keep the fighting to a minimum. That is how we started most of our days. Oh how I wish I could have those back. I had to go to the clinic today for flu shots for myself and Ava girl and it just brought back so many memories of bringing our Ethan in for his labs. He hated to do that, but was such a trooper through all of it. He'd always be dressed to the hilt with his button down shirt, black cowboy hat, boots, seat belt and jeans. I may be "a lot" biased, but he was the most adorable little boy there! Just missing my Ethan a lot lately. So hold your kids tight because life is often just too too short!

It's Time for more PINK CAT STUDIO Digis

My post is a little later than planned today, but all for a good cause.......I slept in past 8:00. This is amazing since the last several days I've been up around 3:30 or 4:00. Ava girl had to actually wake me up this morning! I've been out of town for the last 2 days so I've been pretty busy, not to mention tired. I was at the most boring conference. It was all engineers learning about things from GREEN buildings and Fire Protection to Do I need a Geotech Engineer on this project......now if this is getting you excited, I can send you the info so you can go next year and sit in a classroom from 8-5!!!!

Anyway......I did get my card created using one of the new digi images from Pink Cat Studio. I don't usually create Thanksgiving cards, but these are too cute not too! I think they would be perfect to use with name cards for your Thanksgiving dinner too. Here's what I came up with!

Be sure to check out what all the other girls on the team created too. Melissa has a great blog post showing all of our creations here too! Here is a look at all the new digi images for this week!

Emily Leiphart - http://www.leiphartonart.blogspot.com/
Inge Groot - http://www.patternedpaper.typepad.com/
Kerry Donovan-Casey - http://threecloversdesigns.blogspot.com/
Kristen Catalano - http://www.scrap-creations1.blogspot.com/
MacKenzie Bruckler - http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/
Maria Bell - http://stampininspirations.blogspot.com/

Suzanne J Dean - http://www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com/
Tracey Cuccia - http://www.tmcuccia.blogspot.com/
Tori Hemmingway - http://scrappinangler.blogspot.com/
Vicki Garrett - http://www.summerthymestudio.blogspot.com/