grown in the heart

(source)

I was privileged yesterday to attend an adoption shower. The gals who planned it & hostessed it did a beautiful job. My favorite part was not having to play those ridiculous baby shower games!
Aside from the beautiful & tasty refreshments, the planners did offer two activities. One was tables where we would be decorating blank onesies (my, my, my! -- some of those women were quite creative!) 
For the other activity, we chose a blank alphabet page to compile for the baby's first alphabet book. We drew something starting with our letter. I had "K" -- my kite was not too crafty, I must confess...)


The gift I brought was a bird mobile. I stitched 5 birdies from here, 1 large & 4 small. I assembled it with twigs trimmed from my garden a year ago. Here are a couple views:

The "L-O-V-E" hanging down from the center is adapted from the Cheri alphabet here. I love the ♥ dangling from the center of the "o"!

A Raffle for an Adoption...

My friends Karen & Josh over at Our Adoption Faith Walk are holding a raffle as a fund-raiser to bring their baby home. They have some mighty sweet prizes for those winning tickets!

I have it on good authority that an ElisabethJean original bag, such as this one

(I blogged about creating this here.)

will be included in one of these raffle "baskets". I've been told that it will be part of the "Spa Package". If you've had your eye toward snagging one of my purses, then this is just the opportunity you've been waiting for, isn't it? 

This just in:

Well, the bag is now finished. I really love how she turned out! Still trying to decide what color fabric from my stash to use for the accessories...

inside pocket

pleats & top-stitching

Happy Adoption Day, Auggie!

watching for the boys to come home

Love you, our sweet lhasapoo.  

drinking from my cup

You have been such a joy this past year. 

September 7, 2010

Your little tricks for treats make us smile, every time... 

"Wait'll we get our Hanes on you..."

We might have chosen you at the Humane Society, but you've rescued us from a life of boredom!

not liking the new hoodie

design by Urban Threads

Thank you for being the best dog!

doesn't like the pool, so he rolls in the dirt

Acting like a cat, reading books with H.

favorite spot to nap is on top of clean laundry

new "pseudo" card

My inspiration:

I have had a picture of this art piece for months. (Now I can't find where I credited the artist, whoever she is -- MY BAD!) I've wanted to do something like it for friends who are going to Columbia in a couple weeks to finalize the adoption of their children.

Not having readily available canvas or stamps or steady hand for lettering this weekend, I did the next best thing for me: I went digital & went small (as in greeting card small...)

My base was this image of antique torn paper from *the Graphics Fairy*. On it I applied the words "I love you" in a handwritten font called jellyka western princess regular.

On my vellum over-lay I printed parts of Ephesians 1: 4, 5.

After I trimmed the edges, I sewed the vellum & scrap of crochet lace to the card.

In searching for "bling" I came across something I've had for over a dozen years. They are tiny brass personalization letters for a key carrier I bought the hubs.

They fit (with a bit of trimming) onto the heads of the heart-shaped brads I had.



(First initial of each child...)



Aaaaaaaand -- we're finished.

(Planning to link this up with *The Graphics Fairy* 's Brag Monday...)