No, I know it's not Valentine's Day yet...

but I'm going to upload a Valentine's scrapping project anyway :)

I made this as my October design team assignment for CreativeXpress.com. This mini-book with pages and accents created using the Cricut Expressions and Cuttlebug machines, is a fun way for the kids to tuck a way their treasured valentine cards exchanged with their lil' "friends -n- crushes"...

Valentine Cards-Keeper Mini Book w/ Handmade Valentines (Oct.2008 CX dt assignment).

Even though I myself do not have school-age kids, I really enjoyed creating this Valentine Card memory book for young ones to display their treasured card exchanges! This book is very simple to replicate and utilizes a 7" scallop square design for the bases of the entire mini-book, cut from the Cricut Expressions machine. Each page I designed as a "pocket" format for which the Valentine cards can be tucked into.

- I first cut out my front, back and book inserts using a 7" scallop square from the Accent Essentials cartridge. I wanted the front and back covers to be a little more substantial in weight so I also cut out extra pieces from a weighter cardstock, then sandwiched and adhered them between 2 other cut scallop squares of cardstock.

- I then chose the patterned papers that I wanted to use from the Figgy Pudding BasicGrey collection. These papers are typically Christmas theme but I thought they lended very well for a Valentine oriented book! I also cut these papers into 7" scallop squares. These pieces are used for the page inserts and I cut them to alternate in the book as pockets, diagonally and horizontally. After cutting the pieces, I faux-stitched and inked around the edges and adhered to the cardstock page inserts.

- Creating the embellishments for this mini-book was probably the most fun part of this project. I used the clear product packaging that some of my Cricut cartridges were shipped in, and cut out clear acrylic heart and flower embellishments. For these, I used images from the Accent Essential cartridge once again. The heart pieces I even ran through the "Swiss Dots" embossing folder for added texture. Buttons, trim and ribbon, along with some other Cuttlebug die-cut and embossed hearts and stamped images were used to accent the book further...

- I also created two "homemade" Valentine cards using my supplies to show how adorable cards look displayed in this unique Valentine memoir.

Supplies from the CX store:

• 36-8240 - Pomegranate Trio by Bazzill • 03-0122 - Figgy Pudding Collection Pack by Basic Grey • 37-1604 - Swiss Dots Embossing Folder by Cuttlebug • 37-1540 - Deocrative Hearts Embossing Folder by Cuttlebug • 37-1115 - Hearts & Stamps Dies by Cuttlebug, 2 X 6 • 37-1092 - Heart #1 Two-Step Die Set by Cuttlebug, 2 X 2 • 37-1056 - Harmony Alphabet Die Set by Cuttlebug • 35-7638 - StazOn Opaque Cotton White • 03-0304 - Journal Block Clear Stamp by Basic Grey • 03-0033 - Infuse Buttons by Basic Grey • 03-0058 - Recess Ribbon by Basic Grey • 36-5169 - Vintage Hip Trims Gracen by Making Memories • 36-0427 - Embellishment Distressing Kit • 73-3848 - Brown Medium Slick Writer • 24-3072 - Terifically Tacky Tape® by Provo Craft, 1/2" • 31-1002 - 2-Way Glue Pen Fine Tip • 73-6937 - Extra Large Gromlet Cool Metals by We R Memory Keepers • 36-9552 - Crop-A-Dile Eyelet and Snap Punch by We R Memory Keepers • 29-0300 - Expression Machine by Cricut

Other supplies used:-ColorBox Chesnut Roan ink.-White Bazzill cardstock.-Accent Essentials Cricut Cartridge (Offered with Expressions Machine).-Clear product packaging.-Generic cardboard.-Binder ring.

So there it is! Hope you enjoyed the lil' break from Christmas, lol!

As for Christmas, it's approaching quite fast and I suppose I should get myself in gear and get out to those stores to finish up the last of my shopping. Christmas dinner will be hosted here at our new house this year, so that's got me a tad excited! I don't do turkey though so I'll be making my signature specialty, "Mushroom Wine Chicken", and mom's bringing the Prime Rib!

I'm not sure I'll be making another post by Christmas, but I will try. If not though, I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope that you really take effort in enjoying your time spent with your family and friends closeby! Make some special memories!

Trying Ohhh Sooo Hard!

That's me... tryin' so hard to gain some spirit! It's already the 10th of December, and I'm just not feelin' it. Where's my Christmas spirit? I do wish I could find it, but it's just too hard this year. I'm just kind of going through the motions right now and trying to make it to a new year. I just can hardly fathom that we will be having Christmas without Dad... he absolutely loved Christmas with his whole heart. As he stated in his family Christmas newsletter last year, "I am positively and absolutely, unapologetically a Christmas groupie -- not quite a junkie, but surely a groupie." And so he was!

I've put up some decorations, but that's about the extent of it. I am so happy that we now have our own home this year and I do enjoy decorating for the holidays, but I just can't seem to get the full-blown enjoyment out of it right now. At this time last year, we were spending time in my parent's home... we were away at friend's for the weekend and we had stopped into Altoona to see how my dad decked out their house for Christmas. I am just so sad and hurt that the "magic" that my dad seemed to put into our Christmas celebrations will never be embraced again. All we have now are memories.

Aside from the decorations part, Christmas Eve will forever be changed without my dad's messages. I looked forward to going home to church every Christmas Eve to hear my dad preach... and luckily we took the video camera with us to the service last year and did record some of my dad's very last Christmas Eve service. Now I can barely even make it into a church. I know it shouldn't be that way, but I believe it's just temporary as I continue to grieve and let out my frustrations. Afterall, I don't go to church to worship my dad... I go to worhip God.

And, then there is Amelia. This was to be our first Christmas with our new baby Amelia. Again, this just doesn't seem fair. But, we will make it. We might not have everything that we had hoped we'd have, but there is still so much that we DO have, and I know that we are blessed in many ways. So with that thought, I will just say that God is good and merciful!

So like I said, I have put up some decorations and I'd like to share them of course! I didn't get around to any of my usual cookie baking or card-making for this year, but I always decorate.

I love that we now have a fireplace mantel to embellish...

The carved angel with the nativity scene is a Jim Shore collectible piece that we actually gave as a present to my dad last Christmas. He had just started collecting some of the Jim shore pieces about a year before. I think it's beautiful on our mantel, and I can't help but to think of him every time I look at it!

The metal silver tree is also from my parents collection. I've decorated it with all old glass ornaments from when my mom and dad were kids. The Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus wall hanging is actually a pastel drawing/painting that I did one year for them as a gift.

I decided that this year, the only tree that I wanted us to put up was the babies' tree. Last year I had been wanting to get a small white tree to hold all the ornaments that I was collecting in memory of our first baby and of Ava. I found a cute pre-lit white tree the day after Christmas. Since we now lost Amelia too, I thought that we could honor their remembrance this year by putting up their baby tree only, and I think that is what we'll do now every year until and "if" we welcome home another baby. Here's the tree and a few close-ups of some of the new ornaments for this year...

And last for the time being, my wonderful hubby brought me home a beautiful surprise the other night. He got these three sweet bear stockings embroidered with each of the baby's names! I was speechless...

He said he wants us to start our own new Christmas tradition of writing notes to our angels every Christmas Eve and putting them into their stockings! Isn't that a beautiful tradition?! I think so!

Ohhhh no, SNOW!

Yes, it has snowed here. Tuesday was the first sight of any, but now this morning it had laid enough to have to shovle it. Not my favorite thing to do, but I went out and did it. I think today I kind of was eager to do it since it's our first snow fall here at our new house and I got to shovle "our" driveway for the first time... but I know the second, third, fourth X's etc... will not but such a welcome chore! Anyway, I shoveled about 3 hours ago and we only had about 3-4 inches, but now as I'm typing and looking out the window, I see the snow is falling again. It is always so breathtaking to see the first snow of the season sticking to the trees and brightening everything around, but I'm the kind who is satisfied with that first snow fall only. If it were up to me, I'd have no more of it until Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and after that... good-bye snow... farewell!

Yesterday I went along with my mom to her doctor's appointment and we also had lunch and did a bit of shopping. We went to Cracker Barrel and I had my favorite chicken and dumplins. They are sooo yummy there! And of course I love their gift shoppe, esp. around the Fall and Christmas seasons. Every year I always look for new ornaments to add to our family collection, and Cracker Barrel usually have a ton of sweet ornaments there, so I spent some time admiring their decorated trees to see what I liked. I ended up buying 2 of these sweet angel ornaments, one for Ava and one for Amelia...

For the past 2 Christmas's we've been collecting various ornaments in remembrance of Ava, and the day after Christmas last year, I bought a white christmas tree to use from here on out to display all of her special ornaments. Now we'll be hanging our dear Amelia's decorations on that tree too. I am going to get a fine tip gold paint pen to write the girl's names on each, but I'm quite happy with my first ornament purchases of the year! I'll be looking for more :)

Thought I'd also share 2 other cute items I picked up yesterday. Our new bedroom comforter set is browns and aqua-blues and I found this rockin' brown damask throw pillow that match in with the set really well... ya know, stripes for the guy, and a little damask for the girl!!

I have really been loving the damask pattern designs lately for both decorating and scrapbooking... just as much as paisley I think! So I thought it was really cool that I found a fab looking flocked damask candle holder too that matched my pillow...

On another happy note, we finally have our mattress and boxsprings ordered for our new bed! We've been sleeping in our guest-bedroom for the past 3 months and felt it was about time that we be able to enjoy our own "new" bedroom and bedroom furniture. I can not wait to get this mattress because it will be like sleeping on a cloud... it's that cozy and plush! It will be delivered on Tuesday, so after I get the bed all put together I'll snap some photos to post.

I also thought that I'd post my first pieces of work that I completed last month for the CX DT! These all used the BasicGrey Eva collection of papers and the Cuttlebug and Cricut Expressions machine. The tutorials and supplies for all my projects and others from the Design Team can be viewed over at the CreativeXpress.com forums CX Academy under the CX DT Projects...

There really are some wonderful and unique ideas over there for scrapping, and we've really been concentrating lately in getting the most and best use out of fun tools such as the Cricut (regular machine, Expressions and Design Studio) and the Provo Cuttlebug machines. So if you are in need of some new ideas or just would like to be inspired with something creative you can always head on over to CX! I'm always amazed by things I find there on a daily basis. :)

Feeling apprehensive of this day...

Today I am having all kinds of feelings, yet I feel completely empty. I wish today I was someone else. I wish I were somewhere else. I've been avoiding the arrival of this day, and at the same time I've been anticipating it so much, just so that I can move past it. Not like the next day is going to really be any different, because I'll still be missing a very important piece of myself and that can never change.

November 7, 2008... it's here. This was to be Amelia's expected due-date, if she would have been born full-term. I'm exhausted and I have no reason to be really, except that crying and thinking and re-thinking takes so much out of a person. God knows I've cried my share of puddles this week alone! And if I could only count the times that I've just sat here with my mind twisting in every which way.

I've been so unproductive with everything lately and I am ashamed to admit that I have wasted practically every single minute of every day this week. I haven't even really stepped out of the house, heck, I haven't even had much of an urge to shower this week (but I have). I don't want to do anything, except maybe to crawl under my sheets and wallow in my own self-pity for a very long time. That would be so easy to do! See I don't like going out of my safety zone, which is basically why I am quite comfortable hiding myself at home. I can't find much joy in doing things I am accustomed to doing. I detest shopping right now... too many pregnant women and mommies with their babies who also shop. It's an odd sickening feeling to carry around so much resentment for other pregnant woman, but since I've become a "mother who grieves for her babies", this has become an unavoidable problem... my problem. I understand that these other glowing and growing women mean no harm. They ARE blessed, but I guess that's why it hurts so much. They are blessed with new lives growing inside that I so dearly yearn for myself. Jealousy is a difficult test, and right now I am flunking mine with a big ol' F! And church... dare I even go there. This past Sunday was the first in many months that I even attended, and I wouldn't have even gone then if it hadn't been for the new pastor calling and telling me that it was "All Saints Sunday" and there would be candles lit in remembrance of Amelia and my dad. I was okay once I got there, and luckily there were no baptisms that day. But the honest truth is that I am still tangled up with my feelings toward God right now and the path of life he has chosen for me... for us. I am angry, and I am unsettled, and I haven't a clue as to how long this will take me to work through and feel more "at peace" with everything that has happened over the past months ( or years for that matter). I know that God isn't supposed to give us anymore than we can handle, but really, that is a hard pill for me to swallow.

I keep wondering what it would be like right now if things would have been different. Tuesday was Election day, the one day I did go out of the house. What an amazing day, a day full of historical significance for the United States. All day long I kept thinking what a perfect day for a Birthday... how awesome it would have been if Amelia would have arrived on Tuesday. How great it would be to tell her that she was born on the very same day our country welcomed change and hope for all Americans.

I'm also thinking about what it would be like to have our new home filled with the sounds and scents of a fresh new little life. Just months ago while I was still pregnant, I was nervous because we were still living in our small 2 bedroom apartment and I was worried about not having enough room to accomodate the baby and all the "stuff" that a baby requires. Then after we lost Amelia we pulled ourselves together and threw what little energy we had into finding our first home, and it happened fast! We now have a beautiful spacious home and we have a baby room too. We painted the room green (the same green to match the green and brown elephant baby bedding that we had bought for Ava... and had also planned to use for Amelia's nursery too). Now if only we had Amelia home with us, that nursery would be complete... WE would be complete.

I know I am filled with so much emptiness and grief and that most days it's so hard for me to even come up to breathe, but I also know that I am not alone. At times I often feel alone in this journey, but I'm not because I have a husband who's been on this path with me every step of the way. I hope that he knows that I understand how much he hurts too as a grieving father. I know that he tries his best to stay stronger than the both of us combined. And he does! So on this day, it is my prayer for us that we can just help each other to carry on. He often reminds me that no matter what our future holds, it's important to remember that we still have one another, and he's right. Such a wonderful blessing to count on!

~Remembering, loving and missing Amelia, today and ALWAYS!~

I Scrapped Some!

Lately it just hasn't been in me to scrap for myself. I did complete my Design Team projects for the month at CX, but I have done very little in the line of scrapbooking just for my own sanity. Actually, I haven't even really been feeling the urge in me to scrap, even though I've been wanting to. Sooo, I started surfing around the other night and came across a new sketch challenge blog, Inspired Blueprints. Well, they had a bonus sketch uploaded and it looked do-able for this mind who desperately needed inspired. I printed out the sketch, ventured down to my new scrap-cave and within the hour I was so excited to have completed my second page for Amelia's remembrance album! And here it is...

Here are the supplies I used for this layout-

Patterned paper and cardstock die-cuts: Sweet Baby Jane collection, April Cornell for Daisy D's.

Sassy Posies & buttons: Fancy Pants Designs.

Chipboard & Felt accent pieces: Creative Cafe.

Rub-ons: BasicGrey.

Vellum Quote: www.pregnancylossribbons.com

Other: Pink crystals, embroidery floss, lace & pop-pom trim.

So if you are searching around for some new inspiration and you like using sketches like I do, check out Inspired Blueprints for yourselves! It helped get me out of my scrap rut for the time being.

Let's see, what else has been going on since I last updated? Ummm, the yard-sale. It was a sure success if I do say so myself! We had the sale for 2 days, a Thursday and a Friday. The first day we didn't even have advertised because it didn't make it into the paper on time. Regardlass, there were other houses on the street having sale that day too. Can you believe that practically ALL the scrapbook items that I had out for the sale SOLD on Thursday. I had a huge stack of 12x12 paper that I had priced for .10 a sheet, and toward the end of Thursday's sale a girl offered $25.00 for the rest of the box of paper that was left. I was so wiped out of scrap stuff on day one, and since it was going to be advertised as selling scrapbook items for day 2, I went down to my room and scrounged up some more stuff that I wasn't using and could part with, lol! All in all, in the 2 days I cleared around $375.00... not a bad 2 day earning! The amazing thing is that I got to clean out my scrap-area and purge, and ya wouldn't even know it by looking at it!

This past Tuesday, the 21st, my sweetie and I celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary ALREADY! I just can not believe how fast these years have gone. I must say that we have had our share of trials and tribulations, but I wouldn't have wanted to go through them all with anyone other than him! He is my stronghold here on Earth, no doubt about it! We may not have it all together, but together we have it all!

Okay, I guess that's enough for now, I need to get back to CX. Tonight is the cyber crop and chat and I LUV me some chat time, so I must mosey on back! Later!

Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act, National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day ... Remembering Once Again!

Hi Everyone,

I'm posting to enlist your help. Pregnancy loss is something that we are all touched by in one way or another. If we haven't personally suffered a loss, the odds are that someone very close to us has. We've cried with them, prayed for them, and celebrated when they found joy.

In the world of pregnancy loss, October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Memorial Day. The goal is to light a candle at 7pm in every time zone around the world. The idea is that there will be a continuous blanket of light at that time.

I'm requsting, if you have a blog, to please post this on your main page:
October 15th is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in the United States. More than 25,000 children are stillborn in the United States every year leaving mothers, entire families and communities devastated. Estimates of the rate of occurrence of stillbirth make it at least as common as autism.

Stillbirth is not an intractable problem. Greater research would likely significantly reduce its incidence, but good research requires good data. H.R. 5979: Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act is under consideration by Congress. This proposed bill would standardize stillbirth investigation and diagnosis, thus providing more data for the needed research. Better research means fewer children born still.

On October 15th, remember the thousands of unfinished children lost and the families who remain to grieve them. Honor them by taking action. Let's help pass H.R. 5979.

Action Steps:
Step 1. Use Your Blog to Enlist Others-Copy the contents of this entire post and publish it on your blog immediately.
GOAL: Enlist 10 of your readers to spread the word
Step 2. Use Your E-mail to Enlist Others-E-mail 5 bloggers and ask them (nicely and in an unspammy way) to publish these action steps on their blog. Consider contacting celebrity bloggers, political bloggers, medical bloggers, or bloggers who are not part of your reading community.
GOAL: Enlist 3 bloggers outside of your normal blog sphere to spread the word in other online communities.
Step 3. Help Pass the Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act-By October 15th, publish a post on your blog supporting H.R. 5979 Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act. For maximum impact, title your post: "Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act."

GOAL: 1,000,000 Google results on October 15th when that term is searched for. Currently, Google only returns 20,400 pages - most of which have nothing to do with the bill.
If you don't have a blog, please post it on another message board that you frequent. If we can get the word out there, we can spare one more mother the pain of loosing her child. We can spare one more family the worry of something happening, and we can push one more doctor to check things one more time. Please help us get H.R. 5979 passed. If not for yourself, for someone else that you love.

And if you think about it, light your candle on October 15th. Think about your family or friends that have lost a child at any point during their pregnancy.

Thank you so much for reading this and any support that you can give! Let's get Google at 1,000,000 results!

Please, if you'd like more information about the importance of this day, feel free to check out www.october15th.com

Thanks again for all the love, prayers and support that so many of you have given us as we have struggled along our journey. You are all our Earthly Angels!

Must be October!

Yes, It's October, my favorite time of year! But it's a fast month because it's always a busy couple of weeks around here for us... we always seem to have so much to do and see in October and it kind of just goes by in the blink of an eye. Before we know it, it's Turkey time! It's only the 6th, but we've already gone to a few Fall Festivals in the area, while taking some much needed breaks from the moving and organizing hoop-la.

This week I am busy getting ready for our yard-sale that my mom and I are having on Thursday and Friday. We have soooo much junk! For the past week we've been purging my mom's storage unit, bringing boxes of stuff down to our garage and deciding what she wants to keep (or what stuff I want to keep here too, and what my brother and sil want), what gets sold at yard-sale and what gets kept to sell later at public auction. You should see my garage... I need to get a photo snapped! It is so difficult going through all my parents belongings. Just imagine, the majority of their 42 years spent together, all crammed into 2 storage units! It's heartbreaking that I no longer have my parent's house to "go home" to for the Holidays or for whenever I need to get out of town for awhile. And I can only imagine how my mom feels about not having her home anymore with her husband, my dad. It's been great though having her close-by again, and she does enjoy spending time with us in our new home when she gets down our way (10 minutes down the road). I've purged many boxes of our junk too through this move. Amazing what all we've accumulated over the past 8 years of our marriage as well. Ohh, and I'll have plenty of scrapbooking items to sell too, so if you want any... come on over!

So I thought I'd share a few pix of my Fall/Halloween decorations that I put up. Silly me, I didn't really take any pictures of the new house itself to show, but I will. We have a big old honkin' pine tree in the front yard that we are planning to have cut down, so as soon as that baby comes down I'll be able to get some better view shots.

Here's my cute punkin' couple...

I had the man last year but he was lonely, so I brought home a lady friend for him!

Above is my newly decorated front porch with my scare-crow lady. I just love mums and pumpkins and all the beautiful Autumn colors!

Next is my window sill with my shadow-box decorations.

And last is my favorite punkin' dude, which my dad bought for me last year. Mugi decided to let punkin' dude hold Ava and Amelia's Gerber baby this year. They look pretty happy together!

Before I get going though, I thought I'd share a layout that I did late last week and entered into a Fancy Pants layout contest over at CMK.

I even used a lot of pretty Fall colors in it. Although it's a prom page from my niece's prom last May, she did wear a gorgeous Autumn colored orange and yellow dress. Perfect match to the Fancy Pants papers! I did happen to win one of the three prizes in the contest, but it was for a different page that I had entered. Very excited for that! Here's the page that won...

(What Makes A Mother?)

Also regarding Fancy Pants, very happy to add that I was selected as an Honorable Mention again this year for their Design Team selection. I was holding off in saying anything because I wasn't sure if we were supposed to or not, but it's been a few weeks and there hasn't really been any mention of it, so I can't help but to toot my own horn! So, I will be doing a Guest Design Team spot for FP sometime throughout the coming year! Yay!!! :)

2 Years Ago!

Yes, two years ago already. Two years ago one of the most amazing things happened to me... to us! We welcomed the most perfect little Angel into our lives and she rearranged our world forever! Because of her, we are more loving. Because of her, we are more understanding and compassionate. And we are stronger. We are all these things together... because of our Angel.

Dear Ava, our Angel, thank you for blessing and enriching our lives! We love you and miss you soooo much.

A little while ago, my sweet hubby left for work and I was sitting at home here doing some stuff on the computer. I heard someone knocking on the door and I was wondering who it could be because I hadn't showered yet and I hate answering the door when I look all frightful, lol! It was M, and he was holding a bunch of pink roses and a card for me and for Ava. He is so good to me! Thank you God, for sending him to love me... ME!!! What did I ever do without him? Look at these pretties...

The butterfly tea-lite candle that is glowing in the photo is a remembrance gift that I got from the hospital staff last year at a Remembrance Service for the infants and babies who were all lost throughout the year. We light it now for her every 1st of October, in honor and in memory of her Birthday.
~Happy Birthday, baby girl! Hope that you are playing and celebrating with all our other Angels today, and be sure to give Pappy and your sisters lots of hugs and kisses from us all!~

I LOVE the smell of new carpet!

We just had new carpet installed in the 3 bedrooms and in our sunroom today and it's all so fresh and plush on the feet! We chose the same color throughout all the rooms, "Champagne Truffle", a light mocha/tan. I also got all the painting completed on the walls late last night so now I finally have some time to relax and take a breather until we move the rest of the furniture in late next week that's currently in storage.

It's been a hectic and busy 2 weeks, but all so worth it. Bit by bit it's all starting to come together and feel like a real home for us! I don't have any photos to share right now because my camera battery needs recharged and I need to find the charger. I'll be sure to take some pix of the house soon though.

Nothing else much to report, except for one more tid-bit of excellent news for me, but I don't know for sure if I can share it yet, so I'll keep mumm for now! :D

I know I've been quite scarce, so I just wanted to check in quick and let you all know how the move's been progressing. We are SOOOO HAPPY in our house that's now ALL OURS! What a great thing!

On a last note, I just want to say that I've been thinking about and praying for Aleida Franklin's family and for Aleida's soul all week long. May her dear husband, children and all who loved Aleida find comfort in the days, months, and years ahead! I know she'll be missed like crazy!

So Stinkin' Cool!

Yes!! Can I just say that I am way EXCITED!

I am proud to announce that I've been selected to be part of the 2008-2009 Design Team at CreativeXpress!!! This was my 3rd year trying for a spot so I am very pleased with myself.

Now only if I'd be picked to be on the Fancy Pants DT, I'd be doing cart-wheels on the moon!

So, here are the rest of the lucky girls to round out the new CX team...

Returning Members:
Elizabeth Carney
Nikki Hobbs
Melanie Douthit
Jen Nichols
Kara Henry
Becki Adams

New Members:
Stephanie Ackerman
Heather Carpenter
Andrea Amu
Joy Hager
Stacy Armstrong
Laura Mendoza
Karen Pinsonat
Megan Peacock
Meridith Watson

Congratulations to all of you awsome girls! I am really glad to be joining you all and I can't wait to see what the year has in store for us! :)

HELD

Here it is, my latest scrapbook page, and the beginning of a new remembrance album. This is the first page I've been able to scrap of Amelia. When I was doing Ava's pages, I was eager to begin the process and I started working on those pages almost the week after I had her. I felt as though all my impressions and images of her tiny being were still fresh in my mind and I wanted to capture all of that before I felt her slip away... not that my memories of her will EVER disappear, but I guess it was more-so a feeling of anxiety of wanting to do her memory justice!

It's now going on 3 months since we've "held" Amelia, and I am just now getting the motivation I need to start her pages. We immediately got the photos developed the very next day, afterall pictures were all we would now have. Again, no bringing a baby home from the hospital. There is nothing so lonely as being wheeled out of the hospital without our baby being held in my arms, and even more torturous, the ride home!

I'm glad to be scrapping these photos though! It is therapy to me, and brings me a comfort that can't even be explained. A sweet, sweet friend, Wendy Rago who's in charge of the Bad Girls site, was gracious enough to send me one of her luscious kits after she heard about Amelia. She had hoped that the kit would help me to preserve some of our memories of our lil' girl. I was absolutely thrilled to have gotten her package and I assured her that it would all be put to good use to document our time with Amelia. So, Wendy if you come across this post, I just want to again say thanks! You really do have a big heart, girl! ;)

So here's the first page! It is my most favorite photo of her too. She's so tiny, yet so perfect and amazing. Most of the yummy ingredients used to create this came from the June Bad Girls kit, Malibu Pop Shop...

Remember to click on the photo to view it larger. Other products that I added to the page that were not included in the kit include pink Stickles, black ink, dimensional medium (Aleene's), a floral acrylic stamp from Fancy Pants and the vellum quote from http://www.pregnancylossribbons.com/.

Here are a few more close-up views of the details...

I cut out the above flower from the Tinkering Ink paper (Giardino flower), and added bling to it with dimensional medium and pink Fruit Punch Stickles.

For the "Held" title I used the BasicGrey Undressed chipboard letters (Middleset) that came in the kit, and I painted them with Making Memories Honeydew green paint, also from the kit. The floral accents I then stamped onto the letters with black Staz-On ink and a Fancy Pants floral stamp. I then cover the letters with dimensional medium and extra-fine glitter.

Thanks for letting me share this page with you all! I expect to be working on others real soon, but I may not get the chance until after the big move, which is fast approaching (at last)! Our closing date on the house is scheduled for the 29th of this month, so I have been quite busy packing boxes. Of course I'm trying to avoid packing up the scrap-room until the last possible minute, lol!


Yesterday I had a Hysterosalpingogram test done at the hospital. It's a test performed to detect problems in the size or shape of the uterus that may be the cause of repeated pregnancy loss. It has been determined that my uterus is normal! This is a very good thing to know, but now we still have to persue some further testing. For now this all remains a mystery, but we WILL get to the bottom of all of this... I'm determined!

Again, thanks to everyone for your continued prayers and blessings!