To Honor You

First, I want to thank those of you who commented on my "Fix You" layout about our Alex.  Many promised to pray for him, and we really appreciate it.  Some people won't understand, but Alex truly was a member of our family.  Jon and I adopted him when we had been married for less than a year, so he was deeply woven into the fabric of our lives.  He was our "baby" for the four years before we had Paige, and of course he continued to be our baby up until the end.

We made the decision to put Alex to sleep on Wednesday.  It was and continues to be a gutwrenching, agonizing decision.  There is so much guilt connected to the idea of calling the vet and arranging for your child to be put to sleep.  The grief and anguish comes in waves.  In those times, I try to remind myself of how much pain he really was in.  It would have been selfish to keep him alive just because we didn't want to let him go.  It had gotten to be a terrible struggle for Alex to have to go up and down the stairs to our yard for bathroom breaks.  We had to help him lift his back legs to get up off the floor.  His eyes were sad most of the time.  We had run to the end of all medical options and prescriptions, and he was getting worse.

Thankfully, the girls are taking it much easier than Jon and I are.  Alex wouldn't have wanted them to be sad.  He hated it when any of us were crying or upset.  He's feeling better now, up in heaven...but we keep looking for him here.  We keep thinking we hear the sound of his collars jingling.  It's hard.  So hard.  And so sad.  He is everywhere in our house, in our yard, in our hearts. 

I woke up early this morning working through the idea I'd had last night.  Humans have obituaries when they die.  I wanted our Alex to have one too.  I wanted to preserve those memories and quirky things that made Alex everything he was to us.  It's hard to understand now, but I know there will come a time where seeing this layout framed on our wall will only bring smiles and not more tears.

To read the obituary, click on the layout, and it will be made bigger and easier to see.

Thank you all for taking the time to remember our Alex with us. 

I know there are plenty of other pressing sorrows in this world, but thank you for helping to share ours.

Wendy

My Creative Sketches blog (For Me)

Hi All!  Jillibean Soup and I have made a layout of my Erin's beautiful beaming face.  She had found a small blossom in a park we were hanging out at, and she ran full speed to give it to me.  Aww...cue heartmelting swell of love...

I made this to participate in the first sketch challenge at My Creative Sketches blog. . .
I stayed very true to their sketch, and when I saw all of those circles the first thing that came to my mind was the Jillibean journaling sprouts.  Perfection!

I hope someone gives you wildflowers today, or at least brightens your day with a smile like this!

Cards for Olivia and the My Mind's Eye Challenge

This month for the My Mind's Eye challenge, I did both a layout and a card.  First up, the girls on Sunday, July 3rd in their annual themed dresses.  At church that day, the children sang "God Bless America" and, of course, "Happy Birthday" to America.  Both of my girls had little speaking parts in front of "God Bless America," and they remembered them and did great.  Every single thing on this layout is from My Mind's Eye other than the adhesive (ha!) and the circular brads.  The sketch looked like this...

Then, I read on Stacy Rodriguez' blog about her cousin's daughter, Olivia.  I was planning on trying the card challenge this month, using the adorable playing cards that are geared toward a child.  This seemed like a perfect opportunity to take that 1/2 hour and make a card to brighten Olivia's hospital room.  Read more here: Cards for Olivia drive . 
Here's the card...

Thanks for stopping in...
Wendy

Another Sassafras Challenge!

Hello all!  Long time, no see!  This past month has been very hectic, and now I'm back in my classroom preparing for my 26 angelic second graders who will come to be my students very soon.  In the midst of it all though, I needed a little crafty break for myself so I took up the August Sassafras Lass challenge.  If you remember, I posted about entering the June challenge and told you I'd let you know if I made it into the top ten....   Well, they actually choose a top sixteen that month, but MY layout was the fourth one shown on the page!  YAY!!!  :)  I didn't get the July challenge done, but here's August:

For this challenge, all we had to do was use three different Sassafras Lass alphabets.  Well, that was a snap because I think I have at least 12 different Sass alphabets at my disposal!  :)  These were the first professional pictures we'd had taken of the girls for two years, and I saved a few wallets.  They just forced me to make a griddy layout.  I love grids!  :)
Thanks for stopping by!
Wendy

Thoughtful

Here's a quickie layout of my girl Paige again.  We were at a local park on Tuesday night, and I managed to catch some pretty sweet pictures of the girls there.  This was a nice contemplative picture of Paige looking at some wildflowers she'd found.  Journaling reads:  "Over the course of this summer, I’ve noticed Paige being more thoughtful.. She’s been a bigger help around the house. One night while I was busy doing the “important business” of updating my blog, she even cleaned the whole kitchen for me! When I’ve asked her to do something, her attitude has been better too. What a wonderful change! I’m so proud of her!
July 12, 2011

This collection is Basic Grey's "Out of Print" line.  There are some really great patterns in that line!

 Have a great Thursday!  :)

Fix You. . .

We've gone through a recent health crisis with our beloved 12 1/2 year old German Springer Spaniel, Alex.  It was literally overnight that he went from his usual happy self (albeit stiff, as a 12 1/2 year old with arthritis will be) to a dog we couldn't even recognize as ours.  He couldn't get up off the floor without help.  He completely stopped eating.  He went from drinking 3-4 bowls of water a day to maybe 2/3 of a bowl.  He stopped following us around, and even stopped wagging his tail when we came into the room.  We thought the end had come.  We prepared our daughters, as best we could, to say good-bye, and we took him to the vet. 

What we didn't know, was that our regular vet was on vacation, and we had a guest vet.  This vet didn't seem overally worried at what was catastrophic to us.  Of course, it didn't help that Alex got pumped up with adrenaline over the car ride and the vet office and started acting a little more spunky.  He did blood work and decided to give Alex a joint medication and some pain meds and sent us home.  This was on Thursday.

By Saturday morning, Alex was not improving and was continuing to decline, so we took him to another local veternarian.  This doctor did a chest x-ray, more blood work (another $100 for the same thing done only 2 days before!), and recommended we admit Alex to their hospital over Fourth of July weekend.  The money was really adding up.  We didn't feel like we could leave him there, so they gave him an i.v. of fluids and antibiotics and recommended we do further testing.

Tuesday morning, we called our regular vet who was thankfully back from his vacation, and after looking over all of the results, he recommended we do that same test.  So, Wednesday, we took Alex in for yet more blood work and waited for the results.  Of course, they came back negative.

We are now down a substantial amount of money, and we still have absolutely no idea what is wrong with Alex.  They now want to do a stomach x-ray and more blood work to see if he has a tick disease....

Only a few days before this whole nightmare started, I downloaded Coldplay's song "Fix You" onto my ipod.  Through the tears, this song spoke to me.  The lyrics felt so right for where we are right now.  We honestly do not know how to fix him.  In the meantime, it is so hard to watch him be so different from his normal self.  He's currently on prednisone, which has spunked him up a little bit.  But our fur baby's future just feels so unclear...

If you've stuck with me through this long novel, thank you.  If you're a pet owner, or ever have been, you probably understand what we are going through.  A few days into this, I took this picture of Alex as he laid on our floor, basically unresponsive, one day. 

I had to use this picture to make a layout.  My hope was it would help me process the feelings...

The tag underneath has hidden journaling, and the lyrics are the ones from the song, "Fix You", that really hit me every time I listen to it.  Thanks for reading...
Wendy

A Sassafras Lass Sketch Challenge...and Children With Hair Loss!

Hello all!  I'm thrilled to be able to say my last month entry to the Sassafras Lass sketch contest was selected to be in the Top 20!!  I was so thrilled when I found out, I did a happy dance right there in the parking lot at the Chinese Buffet.  :)  It's really a wonder sometimes that my family takes me anywhere with them.

So...the ante has been upped this month.  There will be only 10 entries featured on the Sass blog, and I loved the sketch for June which looked a little something like this. . .

My Paigey girl (and Erin, but we'll get to her later), has been waiting forEVer to get her hair cut.  In fact, she's waited so long she had enough hair to donate to a Michigan organization called "Children With Hair Loss."  This is much like "Locks of Love", but they are willing to accept fewer inches of hair, and they also offer their wigs and other products to all of the children who need them free of any charge.  Paige was worried she wouldn't have enough hair for the donation, but she definitely had the required 8 inches, so a ponytail was formed.......and then.....chopped off! 
Paige loves her new hair AND the fact that she could help other children.  Here's my layout....

Remember, you can click on the layout to get a larger view of that beautiful new haircut.  The stylist told Paige she thought she made her look at least TWO years older!  lol

And a little sneaky peek at the hidden journaling....

I will certainly let you know if I reach the top ten for this month.  In fact, you might be able to hear my scream of joy right from your living room.  :)

Wendy

Her Wish (When You Wish Upon a Star)

My Mind's Eye is running a sketch challenge on their blog, and the theme of your layout also has to include song lyrics.  Here is the sketch by Anam Stubbington...

When I participate with a sketch challenge, I really like to print the sketch out.  That way, I can rotate it around and see it from different view points.  When I turned this sketch upside down, I found my inspiration!

I used the song, "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinnochio because my daughter, Erin, had been wishing for months on every star she could find.  She REALLY wanted to lose a tooth.  She felt like the kindergarten world was leaving her behind!  At the dentist in February, they told her that her bottom two teeth were loose.  For the next two and a half months, she worked those teeth like crazy!

Finally, on May 3rd at 8:07 (one hour after I put her to bed), we heard footsteps thundering towards us. "I lost it!" she triumphantly announced. She'd laid in bed for the past hour wiggling that tooth! The funny thing was, her other bottom tooth came out only three days later while she was at school.

 Her wish finally came true!

I was so excited on my birthday weekend to find a new scrapbook store that carries My Mind's Eye and more specifically the Alphabet Soup collection.  Love it! 

Thanks for stopping in!!  :)  Wendy

Ooh, how SWEET it is!

For my first design duties in a long time, I was given the awesome assignment of working with Basic Grey's new line "Sweet Threads".  I haven't been this excited about a BG line since Lemonade!  I had printed some older pictures of Erin and had been saving them for over a month just waiting for the shipment to come to my LSS.  And then, when it finally came...I had to do a gift baby album first.  Bah!  So, I got myself through doing the baby album with the promise that when I finished it I could finally play.  And today, I did play!!!!

First up, "The Little Things"...

I adore these pictures of Erin taken three years ago this month.  The frames stickers worked perfectly for bringing a little bit of motion between the photos.  I wanted to add some embellishments, but the layout told me it was done.  So, I let it be.

Then, I played with the greener side of the line.  This picture is Paige on Easter this year.

I had a grand time with my sewing machine adding edges around the papers.  The design is a lift from one of my friends on scrapbook.com.  The flower is another one made with my heart punch.  I think I finally figured out how it's supposed to look on this layout!  :)  My journaling is hidden on the tag underneath Paige's picture.  She's growing up so fast!!

I have thoughts in mind for at least one more layout with this line, but that will have to wait for another day.  Now it's time to gear up for the week ahead.  I hope you have a great week!  :)  Wendy

Sassafras Lass, Basic Grey and Echo Park projects

Over the past two weekends, I've managed to complete three more projects.  The first is for a sketch challenge over at the Sassafras Lass blog.  The sketch given is a design from Marcy Penner, and it looks a little something like this:

Normally when I'm going off a sketch, I tend to stay fairly true to the exact components and placement of the elements.  This time I challenged myself to mix it up a little!  I kept the three stars, but I masked and misted them and scattered them about.  I also liked the boxes, but I moved them about as well.  And so the finished result was...

This is a little more free-flowing than my usual style, but I have to admit, I'm pretty happy with it!  :)

I also had some time to paw through my stash and pull out an oldie but goodie, Basic Grey's Sugar Rush.  When it first released, I got the whole paper pack and sticker elements and chipboards.  Then...it sat and sat.  I donated some of the wilder papers I knew I'd never be able to work with.  The rest continued to sit and sit.  Then, beautiful inspiration struck!  I used some pictures from Paige last August waiting for the fireworks at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and voila!

I'm particularly proud of the die cuts, chips and border embellishment cluster here. 

Embellishment clusters and I don't always get along so well.  :)



Last, but not least, I took some pictures of Paige recently in an outfit of her own creation.  She *really* loves to have girly clothes, and I'm just a throw-on-what-I-can-find-to-wear kind of girl, so her fascination with "style" is a little foreign to me. But fun too!

Looking at the colors in her outfit, Echo Park's "For the Record" collection spoke to me.  Off to my local scrapbook dealer (thank you, Vanessa!) I went, and away I came with the beautiful reds, yellows and greens of this collection.

The design is a scraplift of a layout I clipped from one of my scrapbooking magazines several years ago.  I don't even know who to give credit to, but I knew I really wanted to use the three pictures on a double page layout so I could give them some space to breathe and be seen properly.  I got a little punchy on here too, as you can see.  That adorable little flower came from a heart punch tutorial on October Afternoon's blog

http://octoberafternoon.typepad.com/october_afternoon/2011/05/tutorial-3d-florals.html

Yes, I actually went out and bought one heart punch (okay, okay, it was two)

so I could make this flower.  I loved the results!!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you women who make such a difference in children's lives--

whether or not you are their physical mom!