Today

Today . . . Ava made some "rockmen" -- complete with green grassy locks. Aren't they lovely? At first she told me she was making snowmen, but then she thought for a second and said, 

"No, Mommy. They're rockmen!" 

 I think they're cute. :)

Later on, we painted her toenails for the first time ever! We actually had to go out and buy some nail polish because I didn't have one single bottle. Are you shocked?? Well, maybe you're not. I actually don't mind painting my nails, but I probably haven't done it more than about . . . once in the entire 6+ years we've been married. Anyway, she had such fun choosing a polish color at the store, and Sam had fun riding around in the stroller and waving at everyone he could see! He loves seeing new people. :) Anyway, Ava and I landed on bubblegum pink with glass slipper for a sweet, shimmery topcoat. She said, "It's just like Cinderella's toes!"

What I didn't document in photos today: 

- My less-than-patient demeanor while trying to make lunch for my two screaming children. 

- Sam throwing an entire bowl of applesauce on the floor which then splattered all over the carpet and about 5 feet up the walls. Great.

- Ava being disciplined for being mean to Sam and making the poor little guy cry.

- Sam pushing Ava and pulling her hair in retaliation . . . 

- and later, me reveling in the joy that is naptime.

Just wanted to keep things real. :)

Missing Friends

One of my best friends, Megan, moved away a little over a week ago. If you know me, you know I can be a little quieter (ha) than most, so sometimes I feel like it can take me a long time to really make a close friend. Which, in some ways, I don't mind, but it does make me just that little bit more sad when someone moves away. I miss you, Megan! We are quite different, but I feel we became kindred spirits. :) I think she is my only friend who loves children's literature as much (or more!) as I do. And I just love all the conversations we've had about such things and so many others. 

It still seems funny that they are really gone, but I hope and pray for their family to thrive their new city, Evanston, IL. They moved to pastor a church there, and I pray that their ministry will be truly blessed.  I miss them all -- the whole family! But, I know we will see each other again.

Their son, Drew, is Ava's friend. Really, he was her first friend. Drew is just about 8 months older than Ava, so he's been in her life since she was born! They've had so many fun times at church and weekly playgroup and really are just sweet little friends. I had all these cute pictures of them, so I just had to post them. Memories, you know. :)

At Drew's 1st birthday in 2009. With Sophie, too!

Playing at Ava's 1st Birthday.

Ava, Drew, & Henry playing with balloons at Ava's 2nd birthday party.

Superfriends!

A day in April . . . digging in the dirt and other exciting activities. 

These last ones were all taken on their last day in CO. The kids had fun playing all day while we finished packing up the house!

Ava and Drew were pretending that Sam was a monster trying to catch them. Lots of running and screeching in the back yard! I must say, Sam did an excellent job of growling and chasing them. He's a pro.

But they all got together for a picture for me. Cuties!

Their parting words?

Drew: "Next time you come, let's play swords!"

Ava: "Okay! Swords of truth!" 

^^ (ha! I have no idea where that came from.)

(Hugs)

Ava: "I love you, Drew."

Drew: "I love you, too."

Scott, Megan, Anna, Sophie, & Drew . . . can't wait to see you in December! Praying for you.

Share the Love

     It's been awhile . . . summer has been busy! I'm writing now to let you all know about something near & dear to my heart. My friend Liz Messer over at I'd Rather Be Elspeth will soon be having a fundraiser to support their upcoming adoption beginning on August 13th. There are going to be a lot of amazing things that you (yes, you!) can enter to win! I know many of Liz's friends have made things for the fundraiser, so there will be tons of awesome handmade things to choose from. 

     To get you intrigued, I thought I'd share with you what I made for her. Remember the capes I made for Sam's 1st Birthday party? Well, if you want one for your munchkin, there will be a cool super cape you can try to win. I made a fun gender neutral cape that I'm sure any superkid would love! 

I also made a cute, girly art smock that is almost just like this one that I made for Ava for her 2nd birthday. 

Look at that sassy little artist! :) I made the one for the fundraiser a bit bigger than this, so it would definitely be very roomy on a 2 year-old, but would probably fit any preschool girl up to about 5 (maybe even 6?) years old.

Ava's art smock has gotten a lot of use in the last year. You should definitely check out the fundraiser on the 13th and try to win one for your girlie! 

You can read about the Messer's adoption story by clicking here, and really learn a lot about them by just perusing Liz's older posts. I love reading her blog. There are few blogs I've found out there that are more open and heartfelt. The trials they have endured are full of heartache, and yet I know they always have sought to put their hope in Christ and now hope to adopt in the near future. Go read their story. You will fall in love with this sweet family. Check back again in time for the fundraiser -- let's support them as they get ready to adopt a new little one into their family!

Also, if you act fast, you can still get in on her pre-fundraiser giveaway! Click on over to her blog and enter to win a cute pair of earrings. She'll be picking a winner tomorrow, so hurry on over! 

Ava's Dollhouse -- A Tour

     I thought I'd post the finished product now that the dollhouse is done! Well, mostly done . . . it's as done as it's going to get for now. I still haven't settled on a roofing solution, but it doesn't seem to matter at present. It's busy getting played with!

     You can look back to see what it looked like when I started. It's come a long way! After many hours of scraping, caulking, painting, decorating, and furnishing -- it turned out like this:

This was probably one of my favorite projects ever. It was rather time consuming, but I love how it turned out. And, even more so, I love how much Ava loves it. She's already spent many happy hours playing with her little bunny family. 

Shall we take a tour? :)

First, the exterior -- I went with Becky's suggestion (from the comments of this post) of a pale taupey grey for the shutters, and the gables are a very pale pink. As I mentioned in a previous post, I really liked this palette that I pinned on Pinterest awhile back. Simple and sweet. The exterior is the only part of the house that isn't entirely finished. There is actually a little front porch that attaches under the door. I've painted it a darker grey-brown, but haven't put it on yet. 

 I kept all of my interior stuff fairly simple. There is a ton of Calico Critters &/or dollhouse stuff out there, but most of it involves a lot of little tiny pieces. I knew we weren't ready for that yet! Ava is just barely three, after all. And we have our little Samasaurus to worry about! I'm sure he'd happily eat all the tiny dollhouse accessories he could find. :) Anyway, larger, more sturdy furniture pieces are best for now, and we can add more to the house as Ava grows up.

Also, I'll point out that all of the interior wallpaper came from the Nana's Nursery scrapbook paper stacks (view here and here) which I already had in my paper collection at home. I attached the paper to the back walls with double stick tape so we can easily switch it out if we ever want to redecorate!

The Kitchen

    This little shelf was the only piece that came with the dollhouse. I think the seller just threw it in because it was slightly broken and she had no other use for it. (We bought the house off a Craigslist ad from a lady who collects and restores dollhouses.)

    Anyway, it used to be red, had one door (the other was missing), and some half-broken feet on the bottom. I cut off the door and broken feet and painted it a springy green on the outside and yellow on the inside. Much more cheerful! 

    Then I cut out a little tea set and the cake & flowers and mod-podged them to the shelves. I cut them out of a piece of scrapbook paper from the Nana's Kitchen stack. I made the little clock on the wall (pictured above), but the other art on the kitchen wall was cut out of another paper from the same stack. Cute!

    

    The kitchen table is made out of a small oval wood plaque (70￠ at Hobby Lobby) that I painted blue, and a small wood candleholder. I just hot-glued them together. Easy peasy!

    The chairs were also purchased at Hobby Lobby for about $2 apiece. I cut off the legs of both the chairs to make them a little shorter. The bunnies aren't very tall!

The Living Room

I blogged about the little sofa here, and the red side table was a dollar store find! I printed off the little sunburst mirror and the other art, too. It was found by doing a search for vintage butterflies. We'll definitely have space for more furniture in this room. Maybe we can add some armchairs and such later on.

The Nursery

    Pretty simple! I like the little birdies on the wall. Sweet. The triple baby bunkbeds were a gift from Nana. And, she now has three baby bunnies, so all the beds are filled. :) Sam gave her the third one for her birthday! Such a nice, thoughtful brother . . . hee hee.  

    I made this simple little bunting out of scrapbook paper and thread. It took all of about 10 minutes to make, and looks pretty cute. :) To make one, just cut out a bunch of little triangles and string them together. Quick & easy!
    The little picture on the other side of the room (shown in the main nursery photo above) was just a little bunny cut out of a Nana's Nursery paper.

Sister Bunny's Room 

    Ava told me that this is her favorite room. :) It's probably the pinkness. She's still a fan! How long do most little girls like pink, I wonder? Maybe she will always like it. 

   The little gallery wall is a combination of scrapbook paper, google images, and pinterest finds. All the art in the house is attached with tape so we can switch it out later. If you wanted something more permanent, Mod Podge would work best!

    This little mirror was already in the house and was glued to the wall very well. It's a bit too high for Sister bunny to use, but oh well! :) I made a little frame for it out of paper. Before, it was just a little oval mirror . . . with paint smudges all over it that I had to scrape off. I think this house has been through several owners, because I could tell it had been though many paint jobs in the past. Layer after layer of different colors!

Brother Bunny's Room

   Are you still with me? This is the last room! The little shelf on the wall was in the house when we got it, and I thought it would be fun if it sort of looked like Brother bunny kept his toys up there. Someday, when we're ready for more little pieces, we can have real Calico Critters stuff for the shelves, but this is fun for the meantime. Ava likes it! She pretends that Brother bunny likes to play with his dinosaurs. It's adorable. :)

Thanks for joining us on our tour!

Here's a bit o' Ava cuteness on your way out . . . 

Peekaboo!

Easy No-Sew Dollhouse Couch

Here's the latest addition to the birthday dollhouse -- a lovely new couch for the living room. It was very easy to make. I don't think it took much more than half an hour to put it all together and was a nice cheap addition to our little house. (Free since I used things I already had!)

Want to make one? Here's what you'll need:

Small box

X-acto Knife

Fabric

Batting or Polyfil

Hot Glue

Beads or Buttons (optional)

 First, find a smallish box that works well with the scale of your room.

 Mark how high you want the back of your couch to come to and draw a line all the way around the box.

 Cut it out with an X-Acto knife.

 Cut out a rectangular piece of fabric to cover the cardboard. Make sure to cut a generous amount of fabric so you have plenty to wrap around. I had this pretty green fabric from another project and it worked perfectly for my little house!

Now, simply wrap the fabric around the box and hot glue it on!

 Notice those little curved arms on the couch in the last picture? When I started covering it, I quickly found that it was not going to work well. I ended up just cutting a slanted arm for the couch instead. The fabric laid much nicer on a straight line.

 Pull the fabric nice and tight and it will look something like this!

Next - cushions! Start with the bottom cushion first.
Cut out a rectangle large enough to wrap around a small bit of polyfil and with enough at each end to fold over like an envelope. Hot glue it together. Super quick and easy!

Tip - before glueing, test the cushion in the couch to make sure it's a good fit.

Now, make your back cushion using the same method.

Did I say this was a no-sew project? Well . . . I lied (sort of). :) I decided to add two small pearl beads to my bottom cushion to help it keep it's shape. And to make it look a bit more couchy! If you want to add some too (or small buttons could be cute!), just make one stitch through the cushion, pull it down tight, and tie it on the back side.

I decided to glue my cushions into the frame so that things would stay together nicely, so that is the last step!

All done and looking good in the living room. Cute! :)

Ava got her early birthday present from Nana and Papa yesterday! The Cottontail Rabbit family will be ready to move into the dollhouse soon. They also gave her a new bike! Can you tell? :)

Dollhouse

Our Ava is turning THREE on Sunday! My life is currently consumed with working on her present -- a dollhouse. :)  Last fall sometime, we were at the toy store and Ava discovered Calico Critters. Have you seen them? They're these cute little animal families with all sorts of little sets to go with them. Ava doesn't actually own any yet, but she's getting some for her birthday!

They do sell houses for them, but they are rather ridiculously expensive. I decided to start looking on Craigslist and found this house for $20 -- not too terrible, but it did need a lot of work. We bought it from a slightly eccentric lady who lived at the tip-top of a mountain. I probably should have at least tried to offer less . . . but I think I'm sorely lacking in bargaining skills. :) Oh, well!

 Lots of missing shingles, missing trim here and there, broken windows, and, in general, just dusty and in need of a lot of freshening up!

We replaced some of the trim -- all of the old trim on the gables was pretty crooked & poorly cut, so it was easier to just start over. We found this trim at Home Depot for about 2 or 3 dollars. It was a quick fix!

I painted the inside all white to brighten things up a bit. I've started wallpapering some of the rooms, but haven't taken pics of that yet. It's looking cute, though!

Here's where I could use some input -- I decided I didn't like the yellow pictured above (it was looking a bit garish), so I mixed up a pale blue which I like much better. But . . . what color should I paint the gables and shutters? As you can see below, I've tried out quite a few, but I'm not really set on anything yet. Any opinions? Let me know!

I really like this palette, so I may try to go with the pink . . . we'll see! 

Also, any roofing ideas? Right now it is just painted white, but definitely needs to be covered somehow. I can't seem to find the perfect solution . . . share some brilliant ideas with me! :)