Happy Stampin

Here's the inspriration piece from Lauren....don't ask me why it is so small :-)



Ava's room is coming right along....she has two new wall hangings in one week! I've had a frame with her newborn picture up for....well over 3 years now so I thought it was time for a change. I really like how it turned out. The colors of the inspiration matched her new room colors exactly. I didn't stamp anything on this project. I even blew the dust off of my pazzles inspiration and cut out Ava's name. It still works like a charm. I punched out most of the embellishments, added a little bling with dew drops and stuck on some felt flowers with rhinestones. Here's a closeup of the dewdrops. Here's a closeup of the bottom border and more dew drops. I used some patterned paper from SU for the main background.
I've really been enjoying creating things for Ava's room. I'm about ready to start working on the baby's room. It's setup for the most part, bu…

Just a snapshot before the fair!

We made it through Ethan's birthday......it was a rough day, but we managed. Ava let go of some balloons and said "Happy Birthday Ethan, I love you" with each one. Then we watched some home videos. I'm sure Ethan had a super day up in heaven....it's just here on earth where we are sad.
Cheese!

Tuesday this week we took Ava girl to the county fair. We met up with some friends there and they all had a ball. Ava had her pigtails in again and I must say she looked pretty darn cute! She ate and ate the entire time.....snowcone, chicken strips, ice cream, more snowone and then it was time for bed. She didn't take a nap and lasted until 9:00 without a nap and without being crabby. Go Ava! I think she had a very fun day!
I was talking to my friend at the fair and we were talking about life getting busy and I made the comment that after what we've been through I just like to "Keep life simple"! That day all I had done was go…

Those are the sweet simple words that my 3 year old Ava said this morning after I said, "Do you know who's birthday is today, Ethan's" It instantly brought tears to my eyes and Dave's. It was so sweet and innocent. She misses him so much, we all do. Today would have been my Ethan's 5th birthday. It's been less than 2 months since our Ethan went to heaven, but I must say this is one of the toughest days yet. You never think about planning a birthday without your child.....one should never have to, but we never know what life has in store for us so that is why it is so important to cherrish each and everyday. I want to share a photo today of our family that we had taken. It is a beautiful picture that captures all of us so well. Ethan got to see this picture as it arrived on Thursday, June 11, the day before Ethan died. He really liked it and Dave had it up on the wall that very day! I was pregnant in that picture with our baby so this will definitely be a …

I finally got around to making Ava's new wall hanging for her room. I've had the idea in my head now for several weeks and sat down to make it today. I love how it turned out. My mom even finished up one of the curtains so her room is coming right along. I used some chipboard birds from SU for my embellishments. The letters are "recycled" from her old wall hanging. It didn't take me long to make either.....all in a days work! The pink polka dot fabric is a napkin from Pottery Barn and the green fabric is a sheet from Wal-Mart. I stapled everything to a cork board and then used hot glue and my tape glue to adhere everything else. I got the original idea from a picture in the pottery barn magazine and thought "I could do that!" Ava girl had to pose of course to show off her new stuff!





Here's a little glimpse of her bedroom set too. She loves it. I'm waiting for all of Ava's curtains to be finished before I get the rest of her room (hint Mo…

It's time for Lauren's weekly challenge and today was a sketch. I really struggled with this as I like my cards and crafts to be symetrical for the most part. When I sat down to make my card this morning I remembered that I had my Cowgirl Ava all colored and ready to go. I made a little tag in Word with my Digi images from the Weiman Wrangers set from Pink Cat Studio. Did you know that the set raised over $2000 for Make a Wish Foundation of Illinois....isn't that awesome, all in honor of our Ethan. He would have loved to color up these images as he loved to do arts and crafts as much as his mommy.
Here's a closeup view of my card. I added some ribbon that I got a long time ago from the $1 bin at Michaels and I added a little bling with glitter to Cowgirl Ava's hat and belt buckle. I love how my tag turned out too. It's so easy to rotate the images and layer with other text. We have already started a busy weekend, but a fun one. Opening day at our count…

While Ava was putting together a puzzle this morning, I decided to take the chance and make a baby card for a friend of mine who just had her first baby. I still love the baby set from PTI called Bity Baby Blessings. I stamped it on the patterned polka dot paper from SU and cut out each onsie. The background was made using a template from SU. I sponged it with a dobber and then used my scorpal to create a grid. I really like how it turned out. It was a little time consuming, but I thought it added a lot to the card. This morning I took Ava to a friend's house to play with some other kids. She will be going there 1 day a week when I go back to work in a couple weeks. I think it really does Ava a lot of good to hang out with kids her own age. I know Ethan and Ava didn't always play well together, but I think there is some assurance from having your brother there just in case you want to play and she doesn't have that anymore. I'm hoping the new baby will hel…

This is my template that I made first for this week's template challenge....wrong colors, but I still love how it turned out. I love this new set from PTI, Vintage Picnic. I used the Pack a Picnic template again. I have only used the large one, but I'm sure that the small one would be just as cute! The best part is that you get both for just $5. Give them a try if you haven't already.
I used my last 2 sheets of pumpkin pie paper from SU....oh I with that PTI had a pumpking color, maybe that is what is in store for next month. I found my checked paper at Hobby Lobby. I mixed up my coloring and used both copics and watercolor crayons from SU. My Mom actually taught me to do this and I like the look of it.

We had a nice weekend. Friday night we went out at the local winery for a comedy night which was our first night away from Ava girl since Ethan died. She had a good time and is already asking to stay at Grandma's house again. Saturday we had a lazy morning/afternoon and …