what a week...

We flew kites again. I even got to (try to) fly Nic's uber kite. Crazy! My mom took pictures.

We've visited the illuminated bible exhibit at the Tyler Museum of Art.

We visited the Caldwell Zoo. Here's a slideshow of some of the animals we saw.

A quilt shop sucked many, many dollars out of my pocket book.

I registered Logan for Kindergarten. Sniff, sniffle.

I made my little lion for July's Month of Softies submission. And I think I might be the only person that made a softie for the challenge this month. Yikes! Hopefully, next month's challenge will be a better inspiration.

i'm melting...

It's hot. Very hot. Everywhere. They say a cold front is blowing through tomorrow. It'll only be in the mid 90's. Honestly, anything less than 100 will be nice for a change.

Despite the crazy heat, we've managed to keep WAY busy around here. I've been working on a handful of swaps and other projects. Lynn bought me a new camera! It's a Cannon PowerShot S2 IS and I LOVE it. We've had Lynn's parents' dog here while they're away in Sweden. He is very sweet and very well behaved - - - B U T - - - I'm having an ever so delightful attack of allergies due to our four-legged friend.

I just shipped off three swaps today. I sent one package on its way to Belgium for Didine; another to my Sweet Pea Swap #3 partner, Jessica; and the third (a Christmas in July ATC swap) is headed west to Sioux in Mineral Wells.

Here's a quick pic of the ATCs I did:



With the heat being what it's been lately I have to say it was a challenge to find inspiration for these cards. I finally landed on a combination of the 4th of July and Christmas. I watercolored the flag background and then collaged the trees and a snow mound at the bottom of each card. Sewed transparencies on top of a pinch of vintage mica. Let me tell you, a pinch goes a LONG way as I discovered with this first card. Whoever gets this one will have to give it a good shake to distribute the snow. The other two look less like trees stuck in the aftermath of a blizzard and more like snow kissed Christmas trees. Anyway, I wrapped each card in kraft paper stamped with my Christmas dove carved stamp and sealed them with a Dymo label that reads, "ho ho ho!" I hope everyone who gets one likes them!

I've been dying to make some more glass beads lately, but was hesitant to try because of the heat. Well, I broke down the other night, fired up the torch and discovered it wasn't too terribly hot after all. I ended up making a good handful of beads, most of which were test tube beads to see which colors did what with each other, trying out different design applications (of which most were terrible!) and attempting different shapes (with mainly disasterous results, but I did figure a few things out). I made a couple simple necklaces with some of the good beads. The not-so-good beads have been claimed and divvied between my two biggest collectors...the wonkier the better as far as they're concerned.

Here's a close-up (playing with the macro settings on my new camera) of one of the necklaces I made:



I have to get back to plowing through my workspaces again...Mom and my little brother, Pat, are coming up for a visit next week and well, I haven't been as diligent as I should've been in keeping things clean and organized. Shame!

Everybody stay cool and have a great weekend!

finnegan mae monster...

Finnegan (or Finnie, as her cousin, Pennie, likes to call her) is a little mermaid monster I made recently. Caleb fell in love with her before she was even finished. He would sidle up to my desk, grab her unstuffed carcass, tilt her side ways, zig zag her through the air (as if to make her swim) and ask, "Is this a pish?" "Yes, it's a fish," I would say. Then he'd ask, "Is it my pish?" To which I replied, "Yes, I guess this will be your fish." After the exchange he would put her down, I would pick her up to work on the next thing, put her down for a split second and the exchange would begin again.

Later in the evening when I was ready to stuff her and sew up the gaping maw on the top of her head Caleb insisted on helping me. He would take the empty doll, roll her up from the head down, stick her in his armpit and then jump around on the bed. Once he was sure she'd jumped enough he was ready to sit down and begin stuffing her. It's a good thing she's a tiny pish because I'm positive I would have gone bonkers from all the "help" I was getting. Once Caleb was bored with stuffing I sprinkled some of his favorite board books and cars on the bed and proceeded to ladder stitch her head closed. Caleb snatched her out of my hands, plopped down, curled up with her and fell asleep. My heart nearly exploded.



She was so cute with hair in her sketches but when I started to put hair on the real thing it just wasn't working. Partly because I'm pretty sure the hair wouldn't stay the way I intended it to for very long and but mainly because it took away from the overall look of the doll. Plus, hair might tickle somebody's nose and wake him up and Lord knows we have a hard enough time having somebody sleep through the night as it is.



Here she is today, amazingly still clean, no marker tattoos or pudding smudges.

surprise mail...

is always the best mail! Within a couple days of each other I had two fabulous surprise packages arrive on my doorstep. The first was from my friend Dawn and the second from my friend Theresa.

From Dawn: it arrived in a box wrapped in lavendar paper with a cat drawn by her daughter, Rosie (who's nine today, Happy Birthday!). The unopened box was such a treat! Caleb took off with the paper before pictures could be taken.


if you click on the picture it will take you to flickr where the image is annotated.


these buttons make me giddy!

Also missing from the pictures are four luchador action figures. Logan and Caleb pounced on them before they were even on the table. A big hit, needless to say.

From Theresa: all this arrived in a stamped and decorated envelope, the book was wrapped in a flowery paper and the boys goodies were wrapped in the cute tiger paper pictured. I need to take a picture of the envelope, because it, all by itself, makes me happy. There are all sorts of her carved stamp images all over and the spirally way she writes the letters...I just love it.



Theresa sent along two craft kits for the boys to make too. So far we've taken them out the packaging about five times, stacked them up, arranged everything like they wanted and then put it all back in the bag afterward. Neither wants to glue anything down because then it won't be a puzzle anymore.

Thanks so much to both of my friends for such generous and thoughtful gifts!

okay...

In the last few days I've come across a couple web ads and one television ad for products made in Eureka and they are cracking me up! I'm really looking forward to this show, seems like it will be right up my alley...a more sci-fi version of Wonderfalls and the like. I always love those quirky, smart shows and they always get cancelled.

to answer aunt doot...

not dead, just chin deep in all things child related. We made a quick trip to San Angelo last week when Lynn was in Houston. Then Lynn bought Logan the new Teen Titans game for PS2 over the weekend and we have been obsessed with it ever since. I don't feel too guilty about it because it is miserably hot out right now and there is a good bit of reading involved too. See, air conditioned, educational AND entertaining. Ahem.

It's ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. Logan and I (with Caleb in my lap with his own unplugged controller) sit down and pick our players. I'm Starfire because her weapons are way cool and Logan is usually Cyborg, but sometimes Robin or Beast Boy. We start the game and become entranced immediately. Before I know it an hour and a half...okay, almost TWO hours have passed and we're oblivious. After today's round I have decreed we will set the timer and when the timer goes off we will turn it off and put everything away. Then we'll actually do something enriching. Not that video games with the kiddos aren't enriching...they build hand-eye coordination, right? It's mother/son/son bonding time!

But really, we're going to pick back up on the kindergarten prep stuff for the rest of the month. Logan starts kindergarten on August 15th! I'm already dreaming about it...about how he'll stroll right into the classroom, walk up to the first kid he sees and say, "Hi, my name's Logan. What's yours?" In the meantime I'll be a blubbering idiot down the hall. I don't want to be a blubbering idiot because I want Logan to see that I am thrilled and proud for him to be starting kindergarten (I'm already getting teary as I type this...sigh). So in my dreams I'm lecturing myself: it's only kindergarten, really, it's not like he's off to college already; you're going to see him at 3:30 and you'll wonder where the day went; you don't want to upset him on his first day of school, etc. At the same time Logan is telling me how much fun he is having; every last detail about his new best friends; how cool it was to eat lunch in the cafeteria. Hopefully I'll come to terms with this in time to be a dry-eyed, happy mom and not a bleary-eyed, splotchy-red-faced, happy mom.

Aside from all that excitement my mail carrier delivered some fabulous, surprise (the best kind!) packages over the last few days too. Pictures and such to come shortly!

lions and (no) tigers and bears, oh my!

It's a new month (already!!) and that means a new theme for A Month of Softies is due. This month it's going to be The Peaceable Kingdom and the challenge is to make any one (or more) or the animals or people in Edward Hicks's painting (or paintings...it's said he painted at least one hundred versions of the theme) in your own style and design.

I bet you can't guess which animal I'll be making...

happy independence day...

Hope your day is filled with family and friends, bar-b-que and beer (or whatever your July 4th beverage of choice is), and fireworks and fun!