month of softies: may flowers

Another month has flown by and it's time again for Loobylu's A Month of Softies.

I almost didn't think I'd have time for a submission this month, that is until Lola arrived. She's a saucy little character, as you will soon come to find for yourself.

You see, Lola is a fallen prickly pear pad. Lola could not wait to drop off the family prickly pear patch. Lola's twin sister, Zabrina, always got more sunshine, more shade, more rain, more attention, more, more, more. It was really a "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha" type predicament and Lola had really had enough.


Meet Zabrina

When Lola finally fell off the family prickly pear patch she thought she would be free to do whatever her little heart desired. She didn't really know what her heart desired, but nevertheless, she knew she just wanted to be away from Zabrina and everyone who compared her to Zabrina.

Well, our paths crossed and Lola convinced me she would be an excellent candidate for propagating a new prickly pear patch. We arrived back to the house and I set to transplanting her in a fresh terracotta pot filled with a nice sandy soil and new pebbles. Then the attitude started to surface. "This pot is very plain." "I don't like the color of these pebbles." "Are you going to leave me sitting on this table like this?"



I put the kibosh on the attitude by reminding Lola that I could've just left her to bake on the sidewalk or better yet sautéd her in some olive oil and served her with chicken. Lola zipped her lip and I started some laundry.

As I was heading up stairs to put laundry away, I looked in on Lola, only to find that her good friend Jose had stopped by for a visit.



I told Lola that it was unacceptable to have unannounced guests and that proper introductions were required. She apologized, made her introductions and I went on to put away the laundry.

I wasn't aware of the history that Lola and Jose shared. On my way back downstairs for another load of laundry I found Lola to be a bit worse for wear and Jose wiped clean out.



I'm no hypocrit, so I didn't scold Lola, just cleaned her up and showed her to her new location in the house. She's now upstairs by the computer so I can keep a closer eye on her. Time will tell if Lola can conform to our house rules.



Lola is made of painted muslin and high loft batting.

magical kidney beans...

Off topic, but, a kidney bean Limoges box? Weird.

My mother-in-law has always had trouble getting back to sleep in the middle of the night. After having no luck with sleeping aids, prescription or otherwise, she tried taping a kidney bean to her wrist as sort of a last ditch effort. It works.

She found this information in a wellness newsletter that she subscribes to. The newsletter says to tape an uncooked kidney bean three finger widths down from your wrist joint on your right arm (my mother-in-law tapes it to her left arm).

I suspect a smooth pebble would work just the same, but I'm making sure to buy a bag of kidney beans on my next trip to the grocery store. I'll let you know how it works for me. If the dried kidney bean ends up doing the trick for this sleep deprived mother of two, I will be making cute little pouches stuffed with low-tack cloth tape and kidney beans for all my sleep deprived mommy friends.

things heard on our trip to San Angelo...

My husband loves truck stops. If it were up to him we'd stop at every single one along the way on any road trip we ever take. He is on the eternal hunt for the perfect jerky. He forgets that my Aunts down in Houston already know where the good stuff is and would probably mail him some if he sent them a note on a twenty dollar bill, asking nicely, of course.

I, on the other hand, despise truck stops. Generally, I find them to be the most vile and filthy locales in the state. I feel like I should boil my hands and dip my children in vats of Purell after setting foot inside one.

My truck stop embargo is pretty solid, although I do make one concession on our way to San Angelo. We stop in Weatherford at the Petro station to eat and check out the pinball action. There are dozens upon dozens of colorful characters at the Petro stop. Some are seriously bodies-buried-under-the-front-porch creepy while most are just friendly country folk.

I am no stranger to country vernacular or the accent that goes along with it. In my previous life, I was known to lay it down thick if I thought it would sell a warranty or GAP coverage. To this day, if I'm liquored up enough you will definitely notice a Texan drawl come to the surface. You might even hear the word "y'all" spill out of my mouth. But Friday? Friday at Petro Logan and I met a man whose southern drawl was so severe and his jargon so country that it was as if he were speaking Portuguese.

Logan, Caleb and I were walking toward the arcade while Lynn was getting the check. Logan was walking ahead of me, not watching where he was going. As he was meandering into the path of two older gentleman truck drivers, I reminded him to watch where he was going. Logan scoffed at me and then said, "excuse me," to the men. The first OGTD smiled, patted him on the head and stepped aside to let our circus train pass by. The second OGTD smiled as well, only he proceeded to have a conversation with Logan.

2nd OGTD: Awh, he's doin' jest fine, raght bud?
Logan: Uh huh (with a little fancy footwork). My shoes light up.
2nd OGTD: You jest tell yorn Momma there that you've gut it under kintrol, aincha bud.
Logan: (blank stare) That's my baby brother. His name is Baby Wah Wah.
Amy: (trying not have a blank stare) Yes, I think he has things pretty well under control. Excuse us (SMILE).

We made our way to the arcade where Logan says to me, "Mom, that guy was nice. He talked funny. I think he's from out of town." I said, "Logan, you're probably right."

tsunami relief chunky book...

I came across the Tsunami Relief Chunky Book project via Moki's site where I was admiring her beautiful contribution yesterday. Upon visiting Lending Talents I found that the deadline had been extended and Joleen was still looking for participants. I have certainly done my fair share of collage, but never to contribute to a chunky book. I have oohed and aahed over many a chunky book in the past, so I figured, why not? It's for a good cause too. I was going to work on it this over the weekend and ended up starting and finishing it today instead. So without further ado, here is my contribution:


Hope Mends Heartbreak





I am pleased with how it turned out. I think I'm going to do a larger collage on canvas based on this piece sometime soon. I really like the colors and of course the papers. I hope it stands up to the rest of the contributions!

dreams...

Anyone out there good at interpreting dreams? I had the most bizarre dream this morning. It went something like this:

I'm getting ready for bed, following my usual routine. I climb into bed; I fall asleep. I dream within my dream about getting a blissful night's sleep. I wake up for a little while to see Lynn off to work. Both boys are still asleep (in our bed, again) so I climb back into bed for some more shut-eye. I wake up a little while later to an odd noise. I walk out of our bedroom to find that someone has left the front door slightly ajar. Aside from that, the strike plate and latch are installed six inches from the bottom of the door, but the deadbolt and knob are where they're supposed be. After I notice the door I realize our GIGANTIC (as in weighs ten tons) computer desk is missing. I walk over to the loft area to further investigate only to find that my art supplies, fabric, sewing machine, and work desk are all missing from the area as well. The thieves did, however, leave us a craptastic particle board desk for our computers to sit on. Walking back toward my work room I realize that my "shipping station" is also missing, shelving unit and EVERYTHING on it. For some reason I was particularly upset that my digital scale was gone. I open the door to my work room and it too is empty, they even took my pilates machine and vacuumed too (WTF?). Only after all this discovery do I surmise that someone has indeed robbed us. Then I wake up.

Of course my body is actually reacting to this dream I just had...heart pounding, face flushed, rage brewing in pit of my stomach. Talk about a suck way to wake up in the morning. It's a good thing I had little boys near by to help shake that crappy start off with hugs and kisses.

Normally I'm pretty good at decifering my dreams, but this one, this one has me STUMPED. Any ideas?

new bracelets, two of them...

it comes in threes

I made a similar bracelet to this one not too long ago for a friend who has had tough go of things lately. My thoughts behind the design were twofold; one being that good things come in threes and two being the Holy Trinity. Now, whether you choose to believe in these things or not is up to you, but "three" became my design challenge: three of each of the three focal beads, three sets of three for the accent beads, etc. I chose the particular beads for this bracelet based on purported qualities they are said to impart to the wearer.

• adventurine: healing, mental agility, visual acuity, peace, motivation, leadership.


• carnelian: precision, analytical capabilities, physical energy, verbal skill, peace, spirituality.


• garnet: health, removing negativity, awareness, commitment, regeneration, order, insight.


• jasper: protection, nurturing, joy, awareness; balancing of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies.


• turquoise: spiritual attunement, cleansing, healing, protection, valor, soothing, peace of mind, guidance through the unknown, romantic spontaneity.
  

Whether or not the stones actually bear these qualities isn't the focus so much as the wish for these things to come to the wearer is. Personally, I'm a firm believer in "every little bit helps," no matter what part of the universe the help comes from.

As a result of the first bracelet I stumbled onto the fact that the carnelian beads slid freely over the delica beads I used for the clasp ends. This spurred another design idea which brought about this bracelet:


spheres-a-float

my precious...

(Just pretend Gollum is saying that for effect's sake.)



I went a bead show in Grapevine yesterday and above are a sampling of my purchases. I walked into the showroom and knew it would be a short trip. The place was a sauna full of smelly people. Hoo-it. I guess that's what happens when the A/C isn't working at full capacity on a ONE HUNDRED DEGREE day. In any event, I high-tailed it to my favorite vendor, spent my budget at her booth and then ran back to my truck where I promptly cranked the A/C, because, well, I was melting.

New beads mean new jewelry so check back for a couple new pieces to be posted shortly.

back-tack: my mystery goods shipped...

finally. I'm such a procrastinator, it's terrible. The problem is I'll procrastinate for a few days and then totally forget about what I was procrastinating about in the first place. I'll walk around with that latent nagging feeling that I've forgotten something until it finally comes back to me and then I'll take care of it that day because a freaking week has passed me by.

Anyway, I did finally get my box of goodies out to my Back-Tack phase one buddy. The combination of fabrics is a little weird, organic (Kaffe Fassett) and geometric at the same time. I think they work together though and should make for a really nice bag/roll/container. There's a full half yard of each of the fabrics so an entire ensemble of things could be made I suspect. It will be fun to see what all comes of it.

illustration friday: aquatic

I have an affinity for almost anything monkey. Cute monkey, anyway. When I saw this week's theme for Illustration Friday the first thing that popped into my head was a sea monkey. My sea monkey princess is inspired by one of my all-time favorite button/charms ever to live amongst my collection of buttons and charms.


from Green Girl Studios

This picture doesn't really do the sea monkey justice. It's just much more tiny and cute in person. Whenever I make myself a piece of jewelry I use one of the sea monkey buttons as a clasp if it fits into the design scheme. If you have an afternoon available you should really wander around the Green Girl Studios website. There's just way too much whimsy and wonder at that site not to at least bookmark it for later.

so...

Some how I missed the Brittany Spears show last night. How? I don't know, probably my brain choosing to protect itself from the gray matter meat tenderizer that is most reality television these days. All I can say is, "thank the T.V. gods for the fine folks over at televisionwithoutpity.com." Why? Because I save hours of my television viewing time by reading the various recaps in all their snarky fabulousness (it's a word, I checked).

I don't recall exactly how I came across TWoP, but the day I did, it was like the clouds parted and the sun shone down into my den and the angels sang. The recappers don't miss a beat as far as story lines go and they pretty much make the same observations and snide remarks as I do. The best thing about Television Without Pity is I don't have to subject my husband to my commentary and he can watch his baseball-poker-basketball-crab fishing marathons in peace. So thanks to Television Without Pity and separate tubes of toothpaste, marital bliss remains at the Lyons' abode.

back-tack: the mystery goods...

My anonymous supplies arrived in yesterday's mail. It's quite a nice array of stuff too! There is a decidedly "blue" theme to this little package.

I don't think we're supposed to post photos of the loot just yet so I'll "verbally" run down the list. But! If you really can stand to wait, you can click here to see the goods.

• a sweet little munki munki print (Which one? It'll be a surprise.)


• a good sized piece of navy duck cloth


• some charcoal colored fabric (If I remember correctly from my two semesters of weaving is called a crackle.)


• a bit of cornflower blue felt


• a zipper and a spool of ribbon in sky blue


• some turquoise buttons


• two skeins of embroidery floss; one royal blue and the other a bluish gray


• and last but not least, a cute little notecard and envelope, a Soy Amada pin, and a candy cane (which the boys thoroughly enjoyed, especially since it came "all the way from 'Shutago'.")

Now I have to get my supplies out in the mail (today hopefully) and get started on the finished product to ship off its recipient. Should be a fun project!

i got the itch...

to change up my website again. I have been a bad website momma lately. And by lately, I mean since Caleb was born. I feel like that's a valid excuse to let something as important as a means of income fall by the wayside. Right? Sigh.

I started my website up when I was pregnant with Logan and it became increasingly clear that there was no way I could go back to work and leave my precious baby in the care of some stranger. My "web presence" made enough money to keep me humming along in my projects and my projects kept me blissfully sane. I built up a nice clientele who kept me busy with orders and special requests. And then Logan started walking. And then we decided to sell one house and buy another. And then Lynn was offered a job that brought us back home to Texas. And then I had a miscarriage. And then I became pregnant with Caleb. Life has a way of inserting itself right in the middle of the best laid plans. Sometimes for the best of reasons and sometimes for other reasons. In any event, with all this living going on, my little cottage business sort of withered a bit, okay, a lot.

Now that bones and backs are mended and my little guys are able to keep themselves safely entertained I'm going to make a solid effort to bring the site back up to speed. Obviously gears change a little bit, different paths are taken, but anyone who knows me knows that I have an acute case of artsy fartsy attention deficit disorder. I always have my favorite mediums and projects and I always find new things to become obsessed about too. If you're curious to see my sprucing up of things, click on over to the front page. There's still plenty of construction going on, so to make up for the "dust" I've marked a whole mess of stuff down 25%. I'll be marking more inventory down and adding new items as I revamp pages in the next few days so keep checking back!

r. i. p. big chuck...

Big Chuck was a rescued lemon basset hound we adopted in January of 1998. At the time he was seven or eight years old and was a perfect companion to our three year old blue basset, Harvey. Chuck and Harvey were best buds for a couple years until Harvey died from stomach cancer. Chuck was miserable. He moped and cried for weeks. Then Henry, another blue, was introduced into the family at eight weeks old. He and Chuck became fast friends.

I loved Big Chuck up until the day he bit Logan. That was May 1st of 2002. From that day on I tolerated Big Chuck because that's what wives do when their husbands can't bear to remove an animal that has attacked said husband's own flesh and blood. Big Chuck was old and set in his ways and did not need to be around children at all. I continued to tolerate him until he snapped at Logan again, just before Caleb was born. At that point Lynn knew it was time to either find Big Chuck a new home or I'd be dispatching one of my brothers to take care of Chuck as they saw fit. My inlaws took Big Chuck in and he was able to live out his last months and years in the lap of luxury. He had a companion in their pound puppy, Lance. They have a nice shaded yard in which Big Chuck could lounge and bark at golfers and birds to his heart's content. He had broccoli, cauliflower and carrots for dinner along with his dog food every night. Aside from all those perks he got all the attention he could ever want, whenever he wanted it. Plus there were rarely any little kids around to torment him. Although I cannot say how he was treated before we knew him, I know he lived a comfortable life with us and our family.

We knew Big Chuck's time was nearing its end. When my inlaws were up helping with the new baby Chuck became very sick and couldn't/wouldn't take any food or water. Big Chuck passed away last weekend while we were away for the wedding.



Rest in peace, Big Chuck. Here's to a steady stream of golfers, birds and squirrels to keep you barking to your little heart's eternal content.

illustration friday: mischief

I was tempted to just put up a picture of my boys for this week's Illustration Friday theme. Lord knows those two can be mischief personified. Instead I worked up another altered photo, because well, they're just fun to do.



I'm sure many a mom has seen that little lightbulb going off above their little boy's head. Generally I just sit and wait to see what the lightbulb brings. There are, of course, occasions when I must intervene for phalanges and eyeballs' sake. But for the most part I let them work out the process. It makes me giddy to watch them put their ideas to work. The successes are twice as exciting for me and the failures are as precious to me as they are disappointing to my boys.

I wish I knew who took this photo because it is really gorgeous; balanced just so. The dogs and frog are from different Dover Publication collections. The rickrack and the Dresden fish are just scanned in and shrunk down. The banner is scanned in from an ephemera pack and then colored and lettered it in PSP.

how could i forget...

I don't know how, but I did. I totally forgot about Millicent when I was posting about my recent crafty endeavors. Logan felt that Pennie needed a mom so I enlarged the pattern I made to make Pennie and out popped Millie.

Technically Millie is a larger, younger cousin to Pennie. Why? How? What? Well, the fabric I used to make Millie is old, just not as old as Pennie's fabric. I decided with Millie that I would use wool felt and machine applique for her features. I'm glad I did. I think it adds to her 1950's-60's persona. I hadn't sewn her tail or her hair on yet and Caleb was REALLY concerned about the lack of hair business. He took matters into his own hands.

Here he's telling me that Millie really needs a nice coif.


Caleb grabbed the wad of green cotton/acrylic blend yarn I had cut for Millie's hair and set straight to designing.


He tried it this way and that.


He would stop and ask his client what she thought.


When she'd hesitate or make a backhanded compliment, he'd rip it all off and start over.


And finally when he'd had enough of his snarky client's comments...


He dismissed her and decided to try the green do on himself instead.

back from the wedding and in one piece...

Can you believe it? Caleb is a little worse for wear, he felt he needed to continue tradition by cracking open his face for this wedding too. On top of that he's cutting all four of his last molars right now so he is a walking waterfall with a mouth full of fists at the moment.

As we waited to take our family photos after the ceremony Caleb was busily climbing around on the kneelers having a grand time. Now, even though I warned Lynn that he needed to just put the kneeler down before the baby busted his lip open, Lynn apparently figured playing roulette with the baby's face was more fun. And Caleb busted his lip in fast form, bled all over Lynn's white shirt and my Dad's white "sweat rag." Fun times. It's a good thing littles are so resilient.

I didn't get nearly as many photos as I would have liked but I did get a few and I know my Mom and Grandpa took plenty. So for now, here are a few to start off the dog and pony show:

Logan and Caleb, milling around waiting before the mass and ceremony. Note the mouth full of fist. It was ever present in every last picture I took of him.



Logan took this picture of Uncle Nolan, the groom. He managed to get a nice glimpse of the flowers, GORGEOUS hydrangeas everywhere.



Logan took this picture of his new Aunt Jana. She didn't realize he wanted to take a picture of her until after he had moved on. We'll have to work on the pre-photo warning.



As Catholic weddings go, this one moved along nicely. As Catholic wedding receptions go, this one was right on target. The decorations were lovely, but really, it's the beer and bar-b-que that you want to hear about right? Hah-ha. The beer was cold and the last keg floated as we all saw the bride and groom off. Talk about perfect timing. The supper was great, brisket and all the 'fixins.' I really wish I would have thought to ask about the potato recipe. Jana's cake was gorgeous with a smooth buttercream icing and purple-y hydrangea clusters scattered about. [Side note, the freaking wedding coordinator cut the top layer of the cake to serve to guests! What the hell kind of wedding coordinator doesn't know that you save that for your first anniversary? WTF? I thought my Patsy Grandma might have a stroke. Sheesh.] Nolan's cake was Batman. [Whoever did his cake really went half-assed into it because it could have been really cool but ended up only so-so aesthetically speaking. However, flavor wise it was GOOD.] My brother is slightly fanatic about Batman. He made a delightfully odd (and when I say delightfully, what I mean is escaped-from-the-institution odd, but that's my brother and that's why we love him and really, once he starts having his own little batmen, holy cow, there will never be a dull day that Proff house.) homemade version of a Batman suit for Halloween a few years ago. He then reprised it for my sister Katie's college graduation party that December. Then my brother Nic sold it 'as-is' on ebay to some schmuck who felt gypped once the costume arrived...go figure. But I digress.

There was no shortage of beer cans leftover from the weekend and the groomsmen left them to be thrown out by housekeeping at the hotel. So I have to say the get-away truck was done up in the most ghetto-fabulous MacGyver way I've ever seen. I have no pictures of it so you'll have to use your imagination. Anyhoo, the guys wrapped chunks of toilet paper here, there, and yon. They tied a five gallon bucket, couple of stray beer cans, two fence pickets and a bag of potatoes to the bumper. I do believe MacGyver would be proud.

crafty goodness for one and all...

So, amidst my plumbing adventures, getting ready for the wedding this weekend, and the everyday minutiae I have been happily working away on new projects and ideas.

My little soldered glass collages have morphed into something wearable. I suppose the smaller ones could all be wearable, but the solder I'm using at the moment is not 100% lead free. Probably not life threatening for occasional wear, but why risk it? Anyway, a few nights ago as I was working on a handful of collaged charms and thought they might be cute on a cuff of some sort. So without further ado, here's the bracelet I threw together.



I haven't dyed anything since junior high when my friend Tammy and I tie-dyed some t-shirts. Yesterday I tried my hand at vat dyeing garments. I choose a really nice deep red to work with not thinking how seriously labor intensive it would be when the rinse cycle rolled around. The color turned out really nice after it was all said and done.

I also worked up another collage this time featuring a little boy. I printed it and a few other little collages out on transfer paper and made patches to sew onto the "magic" t-shirts. Logan calls them "magic" because they start out white and then all of the sudden come out red...a child's wonder is SO SWEET!

It's crappy and overcast here today so the color isn't coming through very well in the photos. The color is pretty close to true in the top picture, not so much in the second one. Nevertheless, here ya go:





I made a little lap dress for my niece with an altered photo of an infant and a t-shirt for me with the "daring" collage I did for last weeks' Illustration Friday. These four shirts will be my test dummies to see how they do after several washes and some regular wear and tear before I officially start selling them. If they can stand up to Logan and Caleb then they're damn near indestructible. Keep your fingers crossed!

Now, I must get back to laundry and packing. Sigh.

guess what momma's gonna git ta do...

I'll give you a hint or two.





Click here for step by step instructions. Just in case you need to replace the wax ring that separates your universe from the sewer too.