hmm...

I must be far more busy and preoccupied than I thought I was...in such a frenzy of packing (which is done! HOORAY! Ticker tape is being tossed into the air! Weeeee!), tidying (which is not done. B O O. H I S S.), and list making that Caleb decided to take diaper changing duties all on himself.

Normally he's very helpful with diaper duty anyway: he brings the fresh dipes and wipes, hands me the number of wipes I will need to complete the transaction, lifts his bum up off the changing surface so that I can slip the fresh diaper underneath him and then holds the top of the diaper snug while I attach the side straps. Everytime we do this I wonder what the trigger is going to be that makes Caleb decide it's time to potty like a big boy ALL the time instead of sporadically. It has to be coming soon right? Clearly he understands the process, since he accurately assesses how many wipes it will take to clean him up, right? Groan.

Anyway, here's what I think happened at the midday diaper change. Caleb was busily playing with his suction cup ball and blocks (build them up, knock them down, repeat five hundred times so as to drive your big brother crazy) when he decided that I was too busy to be bothered to change his dirty diaper. He took off the offending diaper (which, thankfully, was dry and only had one medium sized nugget in it...TMI? Probably, but hey the story requires it...), attempted to wipe himself, folded the diaper up WITH the straps, just like mom does, and then threw it in the garbage. Then Caleb tried to put a fresh diaper on by himself. I do not know how long it took him to finally give up, but I DO know he was seriously pissed off by the time he came into my bedroom and threw the uncooperative, mangled, fresh diaper on the floor. He then proclaimed, "I HATE it!" and then proceeded to gripe gibberish at me. I can only assume he was telling me how well the diaper changing session had gone up to the point when the fresh diaper ruined it all. When he finally calmed down, he grabbed another diaper, climbed up on the changing table and assumed the position. Surprisingly, he did a very good job of cleaning up. We did a once over with one more wipe and put on a clean diaper. Then, just to be sure, I asked him where the dirty diaper was. He grabbed me by the pinky finger and led me down the stairs to kitchen trash can where I found a dirty diaper wrapped up (just like I do it). I inspected it a little, asked him how many wipes he used, he motioned two. I aked him if he washed his hands and then Logan chimed in, "NO! And you should maybe boil* them 'cause he picked it up and looked at it. Caleb is GROSS!" At that point, I vomitted in my mouth a little, wondered what in the hell goes through little boys' brains and then washed Caleb's hands.

* * *

*Whenever we come across someplace that is seems really filthy, I often make the comment, "We'll have to boil our hands when we get out of here."

And now, back to the tidying and last minute errands.

two days and counting...

until we leave for our vacation to Disney World. We went last year in December and had a wonderful time. And swear to you, the minute we made it home, my husband was in front of the computer planning our next trip. The good thing about my husband's obsession with Disney World is that he knows all loopholes. Somehow he knows just where and when to look for the deals. If you booked our trip through the Disney site or through a travel agent it would easily cost $2500. I know this because he's shown me a dozen times since he booked everything. Through the magic of LynnVision, our trip is costing us slightly less than $800. And since we've paid it out over the last ten months it almost feels like it's free. There is a method to his madness, people. And it's only times like these that I realize and accept/appreciate it.

I really cannot wait to get there, Logan STILL loves Stitch and Caleb is OBSESSED with all things Buzz Lightyear (Buh Ly-ear! ALWAYS said with an exclamation point). If Caleb sees anything, eventhe colors associated with Buzz, he yells, "Buh Ly-ear!" It is bone crushingly cute. We will most certainly ride Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Stitch's Great Escape as many times as is humanly possible. And when we're waiting for our fast passes to mature, we will probably ride Tomorrowland Transit Authority's [something-something] People Mover because it's air conditioned in parts and goes through Buzz Lightyear's ride, Stitch's ride AND Space Mountain. We are also taking the boys to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. If it's anything like the Christmas Party, it will be a blast. The kids get to trick-or-treat with the park characters, so I suspect it may be even better.

Now, back to packing and errands for me.

halloween decor browsing...

Because I don't have anything better to do...HA HA...I have been browsing the web for Halloween stuff. At Disneydirect.com I've found these (on sale no less) and this (although on sale, still a little steep).

Artist Kristen Beason creates THE nicest folky papier mache, wood and gourd art. But I think my favorite of her many endeavors is her folky Halloween stuff.

Artist Toni McCorkle has a great folky fraktur style and she creates a lot of her work on reclaimed surfaces. She doesn't seem to have any Halloween stuff up right now, but I bet it's in the works as I type. Toni is a super lady, so talented and so nice to work with too.

Artist Sharon Bloom glazes up spectacular Halloween ceramics. She creates everything from serving pieces to the sweetest little lapel pins. Not to be missed, I assure you.

Artist Janell Berryman is a papier mache artist specializing in holiday (and not-so-holiday) folk art. I have several of her pieces and leave them out all year round because I just love to look at them. Janell is super nice and talented too.

There are so many more artists I should be listing here, but I really HAVE to get back to packing and cleaning and errands!

can you believe...

I haven't posted about Corpse Bride yet? I can't. Lynn and I had a little date night Friday thanks to my brother Nic. I hem some pants for him...he babysits the boys for free. He would babysit the boys for free anyway, but I feel like we should pay him, usually it's with a twelve pack of beer. So, without the boys, we went to supper and the movie. It's probably a good thing we don't go out to eat very often without the boys because I think we ate twice as much as we normally would since we weren't wrestling little boys and rushing through the meal. In the long run that saved us a boat load at the theater...no room for popcorn or candy!

We loved the movie. The characters were wonderful although I wish they would have "fleshed" out some of the extras...they all seemed very interesting. Danny Elfman did a great job with the soundtrack and score. The music IS reminiscent of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I love that movie too, so it's forgivable as far as I'm concerned.

Make plans to see this movie. It's a quick one at 78 minutes so the babysitter fees won't drain the bank. As far as the littles going to see it, I think it will depend on your little ones and what normally frightens them. We do Halloween up big here, so skeletons and such aren't considered scary. I would take Logan and Caleb to see it. The only trouble I could forsee would be keeping Caleb in his seat.

and the winners are...

First, the answers:

1. 47
2. Red shoes
3. From the movie, The Princess Bride, Wesley always said, "as you wish," to Buttercup's orders. Everytime he said it, the words meant, "I love you." I LOVE this movie, one of my all time favorites.
4. Everyone's blank check art/craft undertakings were great. They ranged from ceramics, to glasswork, to silversmithing.
5. The most unintentionally odd creation answers were great too. Those answers ranged from a quilt whose questionable color palette was chosen by a participant's husband, to a ceramic birdhouse-turned-ferret-house, to a papier mache bowl misinterpretation, to a ceramic kitty-turned-phallic mishap.
6. Some great links were provided: eBay, Dick Blick, ARTchix Studio, Limited Edition for their awesome Nick Bantock stamps, eQuilter, and Dharma Trading Company
7. For pirate names we had: Red Bess Cash, Captain Pablo, the peg-legged pirate (from the Backyardigans. They're a big deal at our house too.), Mad Mary Bonney, Iron Bess Cash, Iron Anne Cash, Black Mary Rackham and Mad Mary Flint.
8. It takes entirely too many licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop. The consensus says a couple of crunches and it's over.
9. Halloween or Christmas? It's a toss up.
And finally:
10. Cu, which everyone got right, by the way.

Since the questions weren't really definitive and all the answers were really great, I have decided to do a drawing of names of all who participated. Then I decided that everyone who participated will win something too!

For the drawing winner, Logan drew Faun's name out of the hat.

Everyone else will get a little goodies package too for being good sports and for making me laugh while we were waiting to see what the storm would decide to do.

I already have addresses for some of you, but not for all of you, so when you have a chance, send me an email with your address!

back to regularly scheduled programming...

Thankfully, Rita ended up taking it easy on my family down in the Gulf area and altogether missed us up here. Poor Louisiana can't catch a break though. Hopefully the reconstruction for them will be much quicker this time since there are already procedures and protocols in place from Katrina. Can November 30th get here any quicker? Let's hope so.

can't sleep...

It occurred to me just now that September is my blog birthday month. September 9th is the actual birth date, but as is the case sometimes...it slipped passed me. So, what to do to celebrate? I'll have to think of something quick because I suspect we'll be otherwise occupied for the next little bit if Rita stays true to the prediction models.

Hmmm, I know, what about a game with prizes? Sound good? Okay! Here's the lowdown: I will ask a series of ten random questions. If you want to play, post a note in the comments and then e-mail me (amy AT aplcreations DOT com) your answers. I'll leave it open for entries through Saturday 6PM CST. I presume we'll have power and internet then (fingers crossed!), but if we don't and I'm not able to close comments entries posted after closing time will be discarded. The winner(s) will be determined by my hurricane house guests and me. The prize(s) will be a box jammed with goodies of my choosing which may include, but are not limited to, doodads, ephemera, shiny things, sweet things, maybe even fuzzy things.

Alright, let's get this show on the road!

1. Pick a number between 1 and 211. The number has been chosen and photodocumented.
2. I have a penchant for a certain color shoe. What is it?
3. What does, "As you wish," mean as spoken by Wesley?
4. If you were handed a blank check and then told to choose one art/craft to give a whirl, what would it be? Mine would be weaving, although I've already given it a whirl and love it. I would have to build a studio space in our backyard to house my hoogantic looms and fiber supplies. So, thank goodness for that blank check...
5. What is the most unintentionally odd thing you have ever made? My most recent one would have to be the purple and orange suncatcher that my dear siblings, Katie and Nic, decided was very phallic in nature. I have since donated it to the quality assurance program run by Logan and Caleb. They randomly take it, drag it around a bit, leave it on the floor, drop it down the stairs, "bombs-away" it from the second floor through the banister railing, etc. It is VERY sturdy, so far not a chip, crack or split. Go figure.
6. What is your favorite crafty supply internet link?
7. What is your pirate name? You can make one up if you don't want to mess with the name generator. Mine is Captain Anne Roberts.

My pirate name is:

Captain Anne Roberts

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. Two things complete your pirate persona: style and swagger. Maybe a little too much swagger sometimes -- but who really cares? Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

8. How many licks does it take to get the center of a tootsie pop?
9. Halloween or Christmas? It's Christmas by a nose for me.
And finally:
10. On the periodic table, what is the symbol for copper?

hurricane rita's acoming...

and she's in no mood. Already a category FIVE and she hasn't even made it to the middle of the Gulf yet! Sheeee-it. DFW could be looking at a category 1 hurricane on Saturday night/ Sunday morning. We lived in Fort Lauderdale for five years and never (thank God) had to ride out a hurricane. A tropical storm or two, yes, but never an actual hurricane.

To give you an idea of the escalation of my freaking out, here are a few maps to peruse.

This is the projected strike zone as of 1PM today.


This is the projected three day footprint of the hurricane.




"A" is Denton, where the Lyons' Den is located.
"B" is New Braunfels, where my brother and sister-in-law live.
"C" is San Antonio, where one of my cousins goes to school and my great great aunt lives.
"D" is Victoria, where my grandparents, my aunt and uncle and cousin live.
"E" is Houston, where two aunts, an uncle and my grandmother live.

I have another cousin who lives in College Station, right near Bryan on the map, too.

We have many friends and friends of friends in these areas too.

From what I'm reading on NOAA.com Denton can expect a good amount of rain and high winds with possible tornadic activity. But if you look at the five day footprint of this hurricane it reaches all the way up to Nebraska and Iowa. N E B R A S K A and I O W A. Holy cow. The five day footprint has dipped back down to the Kansas/Nebraska border as of 10PM. Still, though, KANSAS.

underestimated...

I GROSSLY underestimated my time frame when I assumed a weekend was all I would need to clean out my studio. For me to assume I could start cleaning it over the weekend was laughable really.

This weekend was an oddball one in that my husband had a major migration and relocation to orchestrate and lord over all day and late into the evening Friday, the better part of the day Saturday and a couple hours on Sunday. The boys expect to do things on the weekend, things that do not include our regular stops (grocery store, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, craft store/lbs/lys) during the week. So to keep things interesting, we went to dinner, just the three of us. Roly Poly Sandwiches was highly entertaining for the dorito hazed almost two year old, highly annoying for the "I only want my tuna outside of the tortilla, and with a fork, and then I will make a HOOGANTIC* ball of tortilla and eat it whole without the tuna" four year old, and highly draining for the thirty year old mom. We stopped by Hobby Lobby and the mall playground after dinner. We made mudpies in the backyard too. What a mistake that was...you should see the back porch. What was I thinking at the time? I don't know. Man, did we have fun though. I love mudpies. Good times.

No mommy reprieve to speak of this weekend meant no child free time to start in on the abyss of my studio. It is one thing to get through everyday housework while battling four additional, very busy, little hands. It is quite another when trying to sort through boxes of twenty year old Intellivision cartridges and systems**, art supplies I never knew I owned, art supplies I ordered entirely too many of***, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. In any event I have spent the last two days working on the studio and still have a ways to go...probably through Friday based on the current rate at which I am able to get through things. Oh to have a pause button...

Tomorrow I have to catch up on housework, email and all my daily blogs. My tools arrived from Rio Grande and I am absolutely D Y I N G to play with them BUT I can't until the studio is straight! I should be in there right now...as soon as I'm done here I will set my timer for twenty minutes, get through what I can get through in twenty minutes and then go to bed where I will dream of a clean studio and new toys to play with in that clean studio. It will only be a "clean" studio for about thirteen seconds after I get everything set up properly, but that's how it should be right? I thought so.

* HOOGANTIC is Logan's most favorite word these days. Everything is "hoogantic" and if it isn't, well, it should be.

** Know anyone in the market for Intellivision games or systems? I put a crap load up on ebay with LOW starting bids. These are all the duplicates left over from Lynn and his sister's collections. I'll just be glad to have them out of the house...one less box of stuff to move around. Click here to view auctions.

*** In the very near future I will be adding a supplies section to my site. Keep your eyes peeled for more details.

thirty three pounds...

of gadgets and goodies and chemicals (oh my!) are enroute to my front door from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The shipment will be here Monday. I have another sizeable shipment coming from Delaware too. Those supplies will be here sometime next week, probably Wednesday or Thursday. I am taking quotes for a logo hand stamp. Why, oh WHY, does it take so long to get a quote for a measley 7mm stamp together? They make these things all day everyday, one would imagine the figure could be calculated in a matter of minutes.

I have tight feeling in my chest...excitement and trepidation. I'm taking the plunge, head first, back into metalsmithing. I want to say "I think" at the end of that last sentence. But to say, "I think" is just leaving a back door open to sneak out of later. I will not be sneaking out, though, I will not be putting this on a back burner. I just spent a rather large amount of money on tools and equipment. I've been re-reading old jewelry making books. I've pulled out all my old tools and supplies from my college days. I've been kicking myself for not keeping in touch with my old jewelry making professor. I've been sketching out designs. I've been dreaming about miles of silver sheeting, strikers and torches, soldering blocks and pickle pots. I will be spending this weekend, GASP, cleaning out and organizing my actual studio...the studio that is currently a dumping ground for anything and everything we don't have a place for. I have to have a place that I can close a door and lock away all the chemicals and incediary prducts so that my boys (and the rest of the house) will be safe.

This will be exciting and certainly fun. But before the fun can begin, I have some staightening and, of course, some laundry to take care of.

caleb see, caleb do...

Ahem, the time has come for Caleb to do anything and EVERYTHING he sees anyone, especially his DAD or his BIG BROTHER, doing. I will give Logan a temporary pass for the first few pages in this new chapter of our family book. He, after all, has only been a big brother for twenty-three-ish months. Lynn, on the other hand, has been a dad for four years, three months, and several minutes now. With all this time and experience under his belt he still fails to remember that his children watch and emulate EVERY SINGLE FREAKING THING he does.

Case in point: Friday I took Logan for an evaluation with a speech pathologist. He did very well at the evaluation and as a treat I bought him a bag of peanut M&M's. Well, apparently I missed the memo - Logan does not care for peanut M&M's anymore, thank you very much. So we saved the bag to give to Dad and Caleb when we arrived home. We walked in the door, handed Dad the bag of M&M's and Dad proceeded to stick one brown peanut M&M in his left nostril. This may as well have occurred in slow motion and then instant replay, because both boys watched in awe (and I shot laser beams out of my eyes) as it transpired. Now, granted, Lynn hasn't had any previous experience with children shoving foreign objects up theirs or someone else's nose. I'll give him that. I, on the other hand, know first hand about this phenomenon. I'll just say this: it must have seemed like a good idea at the time to shove a Lantana berry up my little brother's nose, but it wasn't. The little green beebees expand once they're shoved into a toddler's nasal cavity. Who knew? Anyway, not a minute later, sweet little Caleb is standing there in the foyer with us attempting to shove a BROWN PEANUT M&M up his left nostril. I couldn't even stand it, I yelled at Lynn, "do you see this?!? If this doesn't prove my point, I don't know what will!! *Insert face-melting explitive here*." We confiscated all the remaining M&M's and then went on about our business.

Lynn was on the phone with the airline, I was putting laundry away, the boys were downstairs playing. Then Caleb started crying. And then the crying turned to slight hysteria as Caleb climbed the stairs. He walked over to me crying, sticking his finger up his nose. The first thing I noticed was orange snot all over his face...couldn't think of what would cause ORANGE snot so I called on my ninja mothering skills and smelled the foreign substance on my child's face. Since we don't have smell-o-vision here, imagine the smell of Sweet-Tart slobber. Yes, Logan shared some Sweet-Tart pellets with Caleb and Caleb decided to shove an orange one up his left nostril. It fit perfectly too. Lucky for Caleb his mother keeps assorted sizes and types of hemostats around the house for her crafty pursuits. I laid him down on the floor to see if I could wrangle his hands and dig the candy out of his nose. No dice. Lynn was on hold with the airline so he held Caleb's hands while I tried to retrieve the errant confection. The first try only succeeded in shoving the candy further up Caleb's nose. Caleb was losing faith in me fast. So I picked him up and carried him to the changing table where I stood him up and proceeded to blow puffs of air into his good nostril in hopes of pushing the candy back down...it worked! It also served to seriously piss the patient off. I laid Caleb down on the changing table and Lynn, who was still on hold with the airline, grabbed Caleb's hands again. I stuck the hemostat just inside Caleb's nostril this time and opened them as wide as I could without hurting Caleb and grabbed at the candy, missed it! Crap! Tried a third time and VOILA! (the third time IS the charm), the candy was finally out of my child's head. We are all ecstatic and then I snapped to and (half jokingly) barked obscene things at Lynn as to where I should shove the candy as a reminder to him to act more RESPONSIBLY around the boys. As I'm finishing up my tirade we hear the operator from the airline frantically shouting, "Sir! Sir! Mr. Lyons! Is everything okay?" We both laughed and then he gave the operator the Reader's Digest version of the tale of the misplaced candy. She offered to book him flight to some place uncomfortable. Hee.

boshblobberbosh...

Boshblobberbosh: Runcible Poems for Edward Lear is written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Gary Kelley.

I found this little treasure of a book (in MINT condition; the spine isn't even broken!) at the used book store for $9 tonight. All I can say is: now I HAVE to go to the library and check out every book they have on or by Edward Lear.

We all got a kick out of the silly poems. While a handful of the poems lend themselves to bedtime reading, most do not. The meter for most of the poems is upbeat and silly.

A limerick from the book:

There once was a man who loved vowels
So much that he hooted to owls.
When they cried, "Ooo-ooo-ooh!"
He cried, "Ooo-ooh! to you,
You half-moony meloobious fowls!"

The book is a hoot to read out loud...you get quite a vocal work out and the kids LOVE it. Plus the illustrations are wonderful too. I don't think it is in print any more, but I bet if you check in with your local used bookstore you could find a copy. It's definitely worth picking up for your own collection.

chiyogami...

It is a well established fact that I am a paper/ephemera junkie. I can't help myself. I come by it naturally. My mother is a paper junkie too. She does far more interesting things with her collection of paper.

My mom is also very adept at origami folding. Origami is something I have NEVER found the patience to conquer. I am mesmerized by the elegant creatures and objects that are created from a flat piece of paper. I love the patterns and colors that chiyogami paper offers. I buy origami and chiyogami paper all the time. When I attempt to start folding, the instructions usually just make me cross-eyed so I quit. I have relinquished myself to the fact that folding is probably just not for me. I say 'probably' because I still want to try my hand at quiltagami. The end product of the quiltagami process is really just beautiful. I bought Beautiful Quiltagami : New Ideas for Fabric Folding for my mom as a birthday gift. I must have flipped through that book a thousand times before I gave it to her. The images are gorgeous. The fabrics the author used to make the projects are fabulous. The instructions seemed simple enough. I just never got around to trying one of the projects before I gifted the book. I was wandering around Amazon tonight and found a couple more quiltagami/omiyage books that look really interesting. You can find them here, here and here. But really, the whole point of this post was to point you in the direction of a link I stumbled on that is just jammed with CUTE chiyogami paper prints that you can print with your desktop printer!

http://cp.c-ij.com/english/3D-papercraft/origami/getto_e.html


http://cp.c-ij.com/english/3D-papercraft/origami/moji_e.html


http://cp.c-ij.com/english/3D-papercraft/origami/santa_e.html

* * *
09/09 Just found this site: fabricorigami.com. You'll find patterns for fabric stars, bookmarkers, twinkle light covers (very cool), napkin folds, etc.

links for artists and buyers wanting to help...

From Alyson B. Stanfield, ArtBizCoach.com: Resources for organizing a fundaraiser.

From Craft Revolution: Crafters United on Etsy.

From eBay.com: Giving Works.

Know of an auction or fundraiser not linked here? Leave a note in the comments sections.

grandpa fred and me...

My mom is making her way through all her and my dad's files at home right now. She's organizing all of my dad's family papers and photos, scanning it all, adding my dad's memories along side photos, etcetera. A major undertaking if you ask me. I'm glad she's doing it though. Every couple of weeks she'll email a file with a note along the lines of "thought you'd like to see this," or "the debate about the red shoes and the frilly white socks is now over." She emailed me a note she found in one of her old day planners that I'd left for her warning of the impending dismemberment of my brother, Nolan, for some henious transgression against me. I laughed out loud when I saw that note. I wish, I WISH, I would have thought to pontificate on the transgression. What could it possibly have been?

Wednesday she sent me this picture she sketched of me and my Grandpa Fred. I must be three or four in the picture, circa 1978-79. I can almost say that I remember that moment, but in reality it's probably a memory of many different moments combined into one. My Grandpa Fred died nineteen years ago after a long battle with lung cancer. To this day, this very second, anytime I think about him or talk about him, I cannot help but well up and just bawl. It's almost involuntary. I miss him terribly. I wish with all my heart that my youngest brother and sister could have known him. I wish he could have been at my wedding or even just once met my husband. I wish my boys could have had the chance to curl up in his lap and smell his cologne and love him like I did.

My boys are lucky though, they have both sets of grandparents and my maternal grandparents still. They get the chance to know my Patsy Grandma and my Grandpa Don. I wonder if the boys will have the same impression of their Great Grandparents as I did growing up.

When I was little, my grandmother was the fanciest woman I knew. Her hair was and is always just right. She has an entire jewelry ensemble for every outfit she owns. Even in her housecoat and slippers, she is put together. Now that I am an adult, my grandmother is still one of the fanciest ladies I know and one of the funniest too. It's not that she's a joker or anything, but she's witty and can totally hold her own with all of her smart-assed grandchildren.

My grandpa iss a retired engineer by profession and a hobbyist carpenter and photographer too. As a child I always thought he was a carpenter and I thought that was the coolest. He built me stools, wooden block sets, and jewelry boxes. I remember watching him turn table legs (or something) on the lathe. Always out in his garage working on something or other. I don't think he gets out to the garage to woodwork as much these days, but you should see his computer set up...once an engineer, always an engineer. As an adult I appreciate Grandpa Don's dry sense of humor (a while back my sister, Katie, and I were down visiting after my grandmother had had some surgery. Grandpa was in the kitchen doing dishes, talking to Katie and in conversation says, "yes, Grandma's surgery went fine, only one little problem with some memory loss." We sort of hesitated and then he proceeded, "yes, she's forgotten how to do dishes." Holy cow did we laugh.) The two of them together are the sweetest couple you'll ever hope to know. I look forward to the day when Logan and Caleb will tell me their impressions of their grandparents and great grandparents. I guess that's a little presumptive of me, but I can hope can't I?

night light number one for Halloween 2005...

Click here for a daylight view.

They're back again. You know, I have momentary (months long) lapses in memory sometimes. Case in point: these night lights. I made and sold a big batch of them last year around Halloween and Christmas. I made a few more around Valentine's Day and then I completely forgot about them until my sister said something about the one I made for her last year...she leaves it on continuosly and the bulb STILL hasn't burned out. You have to love that. Anyway, that conversation reminded me that I still have TONS of the kits left. With that said, I'm back in business with the night lights again.

This particular night light is a digital collage that I transfered to the shade treatment. It is available for purchase here.

this is brilliant...

Dave Devries's Monster Engine. Be sure to download the electronic press kit.

Along the same lines, Lee Skalkos' website, Totally Out of Hand is fantastic. I think I've blogged about her before, but her conversion of children's artwork into sterling jewelry really deserves a second, third and fourth look.

Lizette Greco takes her children's drawings and turns them into appliques, three dimensional softies, embroideries and such. Original and wonderful work.

Or how's about this? It seems a little pricey to me, but it's good to know this sort of thing is out there.

Here is a nice article with tips on displaying children's artwork.