tiny suncatchers...

I had a few stragglers left over from the bag of big glass blobs so I set to making some magnets with them. I drew little faces with black ink on a neutral paper and glued the portraits to the blobs. They turned out really cute. I couldn't get a good picture of them to save my life so I held them up to sunlight to take the pictures. At that point I realized they were just not meant to be magnets as their true personalities would be lost with magnets stuck to their backs. These little souls were born to be suncatchers. I'm calling them Captured Souls suncatchers because some of the faces I drew looked like they were trapped, while others looked tickled pink to be featured, so there you go.



The first three have been spoken for but I have a couple more I'm going to post to my website to sell. I'll set up a link when I have the pictures uploaded and the shopping cart programmed.

solder and such...

I unwittingly got myself wrangled into babysitting a neighborhood kiddo from the crack of dawn until after lunch today. Thankfully once his parents where back from running errands they kept the big boys down at their house for a reciprocal number of hours. This little boy is Logan's best friend and is a sweet kid, he just drives me batty because he will do almost anything Logan tells him to do (and I think we've established the fact that Logan can be VERY inventive in his schemes and adventures). The boy is two years older than Logan and in my opinion a six year old should have a little more sense than to go along with what a four year old thinks is a good idea. But that's just me.

Anyway, I must have sounded like a crazed woman when Lynn called home this afternoon because he offered to pick up a Cobb salad for me for dinner and to take the boys to the water park for a couple hours to give me a break. He even took Logan's friend so the doorbell wouldn't ring incessantly! How awesome is that? FREAKIN' awesome if you ask me.

With at least two hours of peace and quiet all to myself, I enjoyed my salad, watched a re-run of C.S.I. and then wandered upstairs to see what sort of trouble I could get myself into.

I recently bought a couple bags of glass blobs to make magnet sets to throw in with thank you notes and orders and such. One bag was the smallish clear blobs and the other was a bag of large bluish iridescent blobs. The small ones work like little champs, the big iridescent ones? Not so much...the iridescent portion of the equation doesn't work so well. You really need to use a plain black and white graphic with them. BUT! All was not lost for the giant glass blobs. I happened to have a roll of lead came with a layer of dust three inches thick in one of my storage closets. Amazingly, I found it on my first try. The crafting goddesses were smiling down on me. I pulled out my soldering iron, chemicals and other tools and then set to work.

I decided to make a sun catcher for my Patsy-Grandma. I laid out a simple pattern with the blobs and then wrapped each one in a strip of came. After each blob was wrapped, I set to soldering each joint and then soldering all the pieces together. Once the sun catcher was completely soldered I treated it with chemicals to age the finish.


I'm digging the fisheye effect the blobs reflect. Would make a good submission for Self Portrait Tuesdays.


I was going to use hemp string and a knitting knobby to make a nice hanger for it...but the crafting goddesses were on break and I couldn't find either one of my knobbies so the hanger is just plain old hemp. It's actually nice that way, adds to the rustic appearance of the sun catcher.

what can brown do for you...

Well, "Brown" delivered Christmas in July to me yesterday just like the U.S. postal service did last Tuesday. When the doorbell rang yesterday afternoon, I was expecting a laptop for my husband and that was all. I opened the door to find a box addressed to me(!) and the laptop for Lynn. And then I thought, what did I order and then forget about? Then I saw the return label info and it was from Kim. Then I remembered she was sending me copies of a book. We set to peeling tape off and opening the box to find a box full of packing peanuts (which in itself is enough for the boys, packing peanuts are BIG fun) with little corners of things peeking out here and there. Then the treasure hunt began: find all the little packages with little notes tucked in amidst the peanuts. Logan thought this was the best as he had just done this same thing a few days earlier when his birthday box from Aunt Patty and Aunt Liz arrived. Caleb was busy catching and crunching flying peanuts.







The copies of the book were in there along with a ton of cool stuff: tiny little papier mache boxes (that will soon be painted and embellished), milled french soap (tuber rose scented, wonderful), a fabric frame covered in old (looking?) buttons (it is so pretty!), a glassine pouch full of shells from Edmonds (Logan wants them badly), a couple of little spools of ribbon (ribbons, paper, fabric, can you ever have enough?), a spool of some neat novelty fiber, another of her gorgeous cards, and three pieces of fabric, two beautiful asian brocades (the purple with dragons has my baby sister's name written all over it and the orange, well, that one has my name on it) and some Valori Wells Florentina cotton.

Thanks, Kim, for such a generous and fun package! I've got to get to planning some good projects with all my new stuff. I think one of my coral pieces from Dawn might end up being a clasp for a bag made out of one of the brocades. It's really interesting how these two packages from two different people are so complementary. Now, to arrange for a couple extra hours to be added to the day...

pony express goodies...

Last week Dawn sent me a parcel jam packed with crafty goodness. I'm talking yards of fabric, vintage beadwork, a sunflower pin, millinery flowers (which will be great for assemblage), three coral "twigs" (that are begging to be made into rings or something) and a pack of Pirates of the Spanish Main cards for Logan.

Caleb was thrilled to have the box to play with. Dawn decorated the outside of it with a pirate ship, waves of water and a big red crab. Caleb spent the better part of the day on Tuesday packing small toys into the box and then dumping them out and then packing them up and then dumping them out...again and again and again. I owe Dawn a package back and it's sitting here on my desk still! My dear children are hard on the schedule these days. Or at least hard on me and in turn I let the schedule slide, whatever, it has to stop right now or nothing is going to be accomplished!! Anyway, thanks so much for all the goodies Dawn. They'll be put to good use, hopefully sooner rather than later.

plush you!

Are you going to be in the Seattle area between August 12th and September 9th? If you are you should really stop by Schmancy for the Plush You! Show. The opening for the show will be August 12th at 5pm. Some artists will be in attendance and there will be wine and appetizers served as well. Sounds like a nice way to kick off the weekend if you ask me...an awesome new plushie for mom, free wine and snacks for dad. Can you beat it? I don't think so. And hey, if you can't be there for the opening (like me) then you can buy a show catalog now, fix your own appetizers and cocktails at home and flip through the catalog instead. Contact Kristen Rask (kristen.rask(AT)gmail(DOT)com), owner of Schmancy, for more details.

Here is a list of the artists who have contributed to the show:

• Amy Proff Lyons / Texas


• Amy Rue / Georgia


• Ariana Marinelli / California


• Beck Wheeler / Australia


• Camilla Engman / Sweden


• Claire Robertson / Australia


• Clarity Miller / Washington


• Corinne Dean / Kentucky


• David Huyck / Wisconsin


• Eireann Lorsung / Minnesota


• Emerald / London


• Erin Shafkind / Washington


• Faythe Levine / Wisconsin


• Heidi Estey / Washington


• Heidi Kenney / Pennsylvania


• Jenny Harada / Ohio


• Jeremy Read / Washington


• Jess Hutchinson / California


• Kate Sutton / U.K.


• Krissy Harris / California


• Lisa Congdon / California


• Lizette Greco / California


• Lori-Lyn Hurley / Texas


• Maria Samuelson / Indiana


• Mark Hundley / Arizona


• Melissa Lound / Washington


• Mai Le / California


• Mia Hansen / Canada


• Minoji / Japan / Two


• Monique Duke/Moki / New Mexico


• Mr. Eyeball / Taiwan


• Rebecca Kaufman / Illinois


• Renetta Sitoy / Washington


• Rhya Tamasauskas / Canada


• Rita Volpi / Ohio


• Robert Hardgrave / Washington


• Sara Lanzillotta / Washington


• Susan Kelly/Luminant Studio / California


• Wendy Crabb / New York

For sneak peeks and more information on the show, visit Schmancy's blog.

for aunt doot...

We once temporarily lost Aunt Doot while visiting here at the Tower of the Americas (also known to me as the KENS 5 Tower). As memory serves, that was about twenty-two years ago, when we all thought our dad was Mexican because of his black hair and tan skin. Katie mistakenly took the hand of a hispanic dad who was corralling his own brood to the elevator for the LONG ride back down to earth. It was at about that time that we realized Katie was missing. We were all freaking out up top while they were all freaking out down bottom. Yeesh. It was scary back then, but now that I am a mother, holy sheet, I feel the terror in my stomach just thinking about it!

sweltering...

is the best way to describe the weather in San Antonio last weekend. Our trip was a success aside from the weather if you don't count Caleb's behavior on the flight in or the swamp creature who was trapped in the drain of our bathtub at the hotel.


We can't really complain about the weather though. We do, after all, live in Texas where 100 degree plus heat is never newsworthy and we were in San Antonio where it is almost always humid. Humid and hot are really a foul combination though...and honestly, I would love to just keep the beautiful blue skies and substitute free air conditioning for the heat. At least in my own little universe that's how it would be.

As for the flight in, it was delayed an hour to start out due to weather (high fives to whoever thought to set up a play area in the terminal). Not a big problem considering the flight is all of 45 minutes start to finish. However, 45 minutes of wrestling a tired 21 month old beast of a child in the confines of a packed airplane may as well be four and a half hours. All I can say is thank God there were other children on this flight who were in more agony than Caleb was.

Once we made it to our room full of glorious cold air we realized there was a hideous sound coming from the bathroom. Lynn opened the door and the sound amplified. Imagine the sound you hear as the last of the bath water is draining out of the tub or the sound you hear when plunging the disposal side of the kitchen sink. Now, imagine that sound not stopping. AT. ALL. EVER. The entire time we were there the noise was there. With the drain closed and the door shut with a towel jammed in the space between the floor and the door you could hardly hear it. Bathing the kids was a challenge though, what with the creature from the black lagoon trapped in the drain and all. Logan now prefers to take showers.

Sea World was a blast. The kids got a kick out of all the shows. The only trouble we had was at Viva! during the pre-show. Lots of splashing and misting of the audience and Caleb does not like to be sprayed. The kid is like a fish to water, but DO NOT splash him without his full and complete knowledge of it happening before the actual splashing commences. Thankfully the performer paid attention and steered clear of the little kids who were upset by the spray.




Lynn and I were upset to see that Schmedley is gone. He has been replaced by The Cannery Row Caper and Uncle Max, who is clearly not an uncle, but an aunt, as far as we could tell anyway. Uncle Max/Aunt Edna was kind enough to give us a full view of the "plumbing" if you will.

I don't remember Schmedley being so "fleshy" either. Perhaps I am romanticizing Schmedley? I don't know, but Max? Really, it's time to lay off the fish!




The water park portion of Sea World has quintupled in size since the last time Lynn and I visited (easily ten years or more). We all had a good time at the water park, yes, even me. And I have the sunburn to prove it too. I don't know how it happens, but even covered in sunblock I manage to get to burned. This is the same sunblock that keeps my children and husband sunburn free. I don't understand it!

san antonio...

here we come! We're packing the family up to go visit Shamu, Uncle Nolan and Aunt Jana and possibly partake in some touristy shopping too. This trip will undoubtedly end with me being sunburned and tired and never wanting to see another fish as long as I live, but it will be worth the pictures and the tales we'll have to tell!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Aside from packing and preparing for the trip I have been shopping. Shopping for staging and props to build up a good booth display for shows. I'm going to see about doing one show in December and then go full force into 2006. I'm still mapping out my plans, but I think I'm going to shoot for doing one show per quarter. I feel like that's a reasonable starting point.

I've also started shopping for a mini kiln again for PMC, fusing glass and small ceramic work. I bought one almost a year ago and got such a runaround with delivery and delays that I cancelled the order. I will not be purchasing a kiln off of eBay this time, that is for sure. I still get a little aggrevated thinking about that situation. More at myself than at the numbnuts seller. I had a ton of good ideas for jewelry and whatnot floating around in my head and did not take the time to sketch any of it out...I tell you, I'm kicking myself now. The ideas come back to me in bits and pieces and I'll grab a piece of paper and sketch and then misplace the paper! Sofa King sometimes, man. I swan, I am going to buy a stack of sketch books the next time I go to the art supply store, then I'll have no excuse. One for the diaper bag, one for my purse, one for the kitchen junk drawer and one for each of the bathrooms. That should do it. Then I have to retrain myself to actually use the sketch book. One might think that's the easy part. We shall see.

charlie and the chocolate factory...

Um, why are you sitting here reading this when you could be watching this movie instead?

Special thanks goes out to Uncle Nic for keeping the boys while Lynn and I caught this movie. Holy moly was it fun to watch. As you would expect, it is very Tim Burton, right down to the Wonka delivery trucks. Johnny Depp was fantastic as Willy Wonka...not even remotely resembling creepy Mr. Jackson in behavior or appearance (well, okay a smallish resemblance with the pale skin). The actors chosen to portray the children were so good! Charlie Bucket's character was charming as ever, Violet Beauregard was foul as ever, August Gloop made me want to gag, Mike Teavee...ugh, and Veruca Salt was still rotten as ever. While Grandpa Joe was precious, Grandma Georigina stole my heart, "I love grapes!" "I love grapes!" will be my new interjection into dull conversation from now until sometime next week. I cannot forget the Oompa Loompa(s). The actor who was CGI-ed a gozillion times is the best Oompa Loompa ever. When I was little, the original Oompa Loompas were creepy to me. Deep Roy as an Oompa Loompa, not so much.

But really, the best part of the entire experience? Getting to see a full trailer for Corpse Bride! Oh my freaking gosh, I cannot wait for September to get here. CAN. NOT. WAIT!

Ahem, seriously, why aren't you standing in line for your popcorn? Call in sick if you have to, take a long lunch, what ever you do, check this movie out. I think this film is very well done. There is no bad language to worry about...it does get dark and a little frenetic at times though which could be disconcerting to younger children. It might be a bit too much for the under six market, at least for my under six market anyway.

stages...

Stages. Why must there be SO MANY STAGES? At the moment Caleb's stage is what I like to refer to as the "flooring it up the on-ramp so he can hit the terrible twos running" stage. The "demolish everything, including myself" stage is where Logan is right now.

Caleb I can totally handle. Been there, done that. Albeit, Caleb has picked up some toddler kung fu tips and tricks from his highly skilled sensei brother. So it seems as if Caleb's terrible twos are more of a challenge than Logan's terrible twos were.

Lately with Logan I have days where I am totally at my wit's end with the boy. I'll give you a couple 'for instances' so you'll know what I'm dealing with here. Then by all means, please feel free to commiserate, share tips, anything so I don't feel like the planet's worst mother. Please!

About a week ago I was wrangling Caleb for his nap and putting away laundry. All of the sudden I noticed the sounds of toys that were previously tossed ON TOP of the downstairs entertainment center. So, knowing there was mischief afoot, I sneaked down the stairs and took a peak under the railing only to find Logan sitting squarely on top of the entertainment center, sorting through the detritus. Horror and a terrible urge to laugh washed over me. I barked at him, "what do you think you're doing, young man??!!" He replied, "I'm getting toys down for Caleb." Uh, right. A little freaked out and he asked, "will you help me down?" "No, you get down by yourself." Now, instead of taking the shortest path to the ground, he crawled back across the entertainment center and proceeded to scale down the OTHER set of bookshelves. Do you think he's done this a time or two before? Jesus, Mary and Joseph, help me. This entertainment center is solid wood and weighs two tons, but there is always the chance that it could tip over with him on top of it. I had nightmares for two days after that one. Then...

Yesterday Logan and Caleb were in Logan's room playing. I had just checked in on them because there had been no screaming or crying or hitting in the last ten minutes and I thought to myself, "they're either dead or sleeping." Much to my delight they were not dead or sleeping, but playing happily in opposite corners of the room. Logan was deeply involved in a Teen Titan battle and Caleb was busy playing with the train set. I sat down to the computer to check email and fart around some and then out of the blue Logan started to cry. And then Caleb started to cry. It takes maybe five steps to get from the computer desk to Logan's door and before I made my third stride the crying was tinged with that instantly recognizable sound of terror. The blood rushed out of my head. I couldn't even imagine what would make both of them so upset. As I rounded the corner to Logan's room I found Caleb still sitting amongst the train set and Logan standing on the sill of his window with terror in his eyes and the &*^%!@# blind cord wrapped around his neck! He was breathing just fine, but he had jumped off the sill and cinched the cord tight enough that it gave him a terrible rope burn, broke the blinds and scared himself (and Caleb and me) nearly to death. We are forever telling the both of them not to tie things around their necks or anyone else's. What in the hell possesses a child to do such a thing? After we all calmed down, I slathered the burned areas with neosporin and made him lay down for awhile. Then I called my husband and promptly became hysterical. Lynn calmed me down. But every time I saw Logan for the rest of the day I just lost it. I had the worst nightmares I've ever had as an adult last night. My stomach hurts right now just thinking about what could've happened. We tried to explain to Logan that he could have died because of what he did and at his age he just does not understand. How do you make a four year old comprehend something like this?

How long does this "demolition" stage last? I'm willing to fill out the long form for extra guardian angels for this boy. Sheet!

okay...

The following information probably sheds an unfavorable light on my questionable taste in entertainment, but on the off chance that you might share my sick sense of humor, it's totally worth the risk.

My brother, Nic, and I stumbled across a seriously funny site one evening while I was showing him this equally hilarious website (please don't forget to read the header titles up at the tippy top of each page).

In order to fully appreciate this production you'll need to have sound capabilities.
And now, without further ado (and no affiliation with me), I present to you: Amy's Third Grade Diary.

stumble strikes again...

Perfect for really disturbing guests at your next dinner party.


These would totally make sweeping more enjoyable.


Heh. Moo.


Gives new meaning to "walking on egg shells."

stumble...

Yesterday as I was browsing my daily list of blogs, I was warned by Heather that I would soon be in trouble. Why? WHY? Why couldn't I heed her warning and go on blissfully unaware? Because I'm the girl who secretly opens Christmas presents and wants to find out the gender of her babies before they're born. If I were a cat, I would most certainly be dead by now.

Heather posted a link to a Firefox plug-in, Stumble Upon. I think my mother has mentioned Stumble to me before too...she always finds the coolest things online. Anyway, I had the time yesterday to read up on this plug-in and decided I'd give it a whirl. The way this application works is you set up your preferences (art, crafts, fitness, bowling, whatever) and then click the "stumble" button and it randomly pulls up websites that match your preferences. So far it's pulled up a ton of sites I've visited and enjoyed before as well as a nice handful of sites I probably never would have found just roaming around. Now, I'll warn you just the same, you're gonna be in trouble. Stumble might just be the black tar heroin of the internet.

In case you're feeling a little leary, here are few sites I've recently discovered via Stumble:

Whale Fish Studios
Cabanon Press
Straight Line Designs
Typorganism

happy birthday, mom...

Hope today is slightly less exciting than yesterday! True to form, your card and gift are still sitting here...not even boxed up yet. I promise to mail them out TODAY!!

In any event, have a WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL day. Have dad fix you a special birthday scotch and soda. Put your feet up and relax!

Love, Amy

oh my word...

How cute are these?

i heart shrinky dinks...

I don't recall ever getting to play with shrinky dinks as a child. I don't recall ever being upset that I never got to play with shrinky dinks either for that matter. But man, now that I've had a chance to play with them, I feel like I have twenty years of catching up to do!

I came across a seller on ebay who sells inkjet shrink plastic for a seriously reasonable price. While I had a bit of peace and quiet this morning, I pulled the shrink plastic out and set to playing around with it.

The little witch is SO tiny and cute and I am really digging the signature tag. I drew the little witch last year for Caleb's first birthday party t-shirt. As far as my witches go, I think she may be my favorite. I forgot to punch a hole in her hat so I'm not sure how I'll use her just yet, but nevertheless, she sure is sweet.

illustration friday: metropolitan

Do you ever come across certain words that you know are said a particular way and you say them the correct way but at the same time you're saying a completely different word in your head? I do, alot. For instance, there is a western apparel shop we drive passed all the time down in Lewisville called Cavender's. Everytime I see the sign I think CADAVER'S. Everytime. On the way to San Angelo we drive through a county named Erath. To myself I think EARTH. Further down the way to San Angelo we come within ten miles of a town named Scranton. The brain thinks SCANTRON. When I read the prompt for this week's Illustration Friday my brain said NEAPOLITAN.

so...

I'm thinking Penny is the genesis of a rapidly multiplying family of little monsters.

As I was working on Priddy, I noticed that I really liked the way the wrong side of the applique was looking too so I decided I would work up the snowman applique using that technique. After I finished the snowman applique I decided to make another little monster. Another little monster ghost.



She is temporarily named Casper until I can find something more fitting. Any suggestions? I am throwing around a couple ideas to finish her off: a glass glittered word banner reading "BOO" or perhaps a tiny little glassed halloween collage. Even though it's a lot more work, I'm really leaning toward the collage. Naturally as I've been thinking of things to do for this little monster an idea for another pops up...what about a beaded one on the order of this, this or this?

the evening project...

Remember these? Well, I finally worked one of them up!

This is how it began:


Then I worked up my fabric specifications:


And this evening after dinner I appliqued it together:


Tomorrow during Caleb's nap time I'm going to dig out my super and cut my davey board and get to binding this dude. I've decided I will make it a photo album/journal with some pockets and of course, my favorite thing ever, a baggie full of picture corners. I love the look they give to an album. They make the pictures seem more special than they already are. They're little bits of magic for your photo albums.

I think I will do a stab binding on this journal...that calls for a trip to the yarn store for cool fibers! Eeee, can't wait until it's all finished.

introducing priddy...

I bought the fabric used for Priddy about three years ago. I have had this fabric sitting out in front of my shelves of fabric for about three years. I LOVE the color combination. I like to just look at it. For the longest time (about three years) nothing came to mind to make with the fabric. Primarily because I didn't want to mistakenly use the fabric for something only to have the perfect project come up and then not have enough of the fabric left to complete the perfect project. Well, I think Priddy turned out to be the perfect project for this fabric.

I'm having a hard time boxing her up to ship off to Schmancy. She really is too freakin' cute. Gasp, I almost like her more than the original Penny!



Anyhoo, her hair is hand-spun, hand-dyed wool. Her features are all machine stitched wool felt. The heart she is holding is ceramic. We'll call her Penny's fancy city cousin.

sneak peak...

This is what I worked on periodically today. I didn't get around to taking pictures while it was daylight, surprise. BUT, I am delighted with the way she turned out. She'll be packing her bags and heading off to Seattle along with my topsy turvy doll sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Logan named her Priddy. Caleb likes to hug and smooch on her. Especially the smooching part as he has just learned how to make the "swak" sound when kissing. Up until this recent epiphany Caleb was all about the sloppy open mouth kisses.

At the moment I'm having a hard time deciding which is cuter: slobbery open mouthed baby kisses or the super sweet, teeny-tiny, new-and-improved-with-audio kisses. Well, now that I have typed that out and reread it...of course the super sweet, teeny-tiny, new-and-improved-with-audio kisses are cuter. And drier too.

baby bird...

We have a nest of starlings or purple martins or something with a forked tail nesting WAY up in the corner of our entry way. While it's nice to see the babies coming along, it is not nice to have to hose bird excrement from the doorbell, wall and corner on a daily basis. For such small creatures they sure produce a LARGE amount of waste.

Anyway, Logan took this picture of Bob on Sunday evening. This little guy is the first of the three to attempt flying so far. He seems to have figured it out as there are three little heads peeking over the nest this morning.

road trip home from san angelo...

As far as trips to San Angelo go, this one was super easy. On the way down, 80 was the median speed. The kids were as well behaved as can be expected. Smooth I tell ya. The trip back was equally easy. Both boys were asleep before we hit Miles.



(Caleb was covered from head to toe in bruises and bumps and a Cheeto haze. He is about sixty seconds away from comatose in this picture.) Traffic was light and in case you were wondering why noone was stopped for speeding on I-20 between Cisco and Weatherford on Sunday:

The boys and I stopped into the Eastland Dairy Queen for a break. We ran to the restroom for a potty break and to wash our hands and when we stepped back out to place our order, two of Texas' Highways finest were ordering beverages and flirting with the very haggard, very unimpressed cashier. Once we received our order, Logan, Caleb and I grabbed a booth and proceeded to enjoy our ice cream cones. Then a third DPS officer arrived. At that point I couldn't help myself. I had to snap a couple covert photos.



I'm sure most of you know how SLOW a 20 month old and a four year old can eat an ice cream cone...we were there for a good half an hour, minimum. While the boys were savoring every molecule of ice cream a FOURTH highway patrolman walked in! And can you believe, not a ONE of them took his hat off indoors. I was tempted to ask if their heads were cold in this 102 degree weather we're having, but I didn't, just in case our paths crossed again before I made it home.



I decided then that I'd better pack the boys up and put the pedal to the metal while I had the chance.

We made it home just in time for pizza and fireworks with Lynn, my brother Nic and a handful of neighbors.