nine years...

That's what Mr. Lyons and I celebrated yesterday. Nine years! It's really going on fifteen or sixteen years that we've been together though which is a little mind boggling in itself.

My brother, Nic, babysat for us while the Mister and I went off and had a nice dinner out and caught an excellent movie. Today we ran around doing last minute errands and bought each other a luggage rack for my car as anniversary present...so romantic (heh) and so necessary at the same time.

The holidays are here in full force now and I want to wish everyone a very safe, very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, creative 2007! See you in the New Year!!

snowman ornament tutorial...

Supplies:
*Wooden knobs (also labeled doll heads) of two different sizes. These are 1.5" and 1.25".
*Buttons the same diameter as the smaller knob base.
* 20 gauge wire and something to cut it. I use datacomm cabling from my stash and wire nippers.
* white paint and a paint brush or sponge
* black paint pen
* orange polymer clay
* drill with 1/16" and 5/64" bits
* hot glue gun
* yarn or ribbons for the scarf

- Paint snowman body parts white (or yellow if you're a 35 year old child...). Allow paint to dry.
- Use orange polymer clay to make carrot noses. Insert straight pins into the base (top? big part?) of the carrot before baking.
- Drill a 1/16" hole in the center front of the smaller knob.
- Remove the straight pin and drill a 1/16" hole in the top of the carrot.
- Drill a 5/64" hole in the top of the smaller knob.
- Thread the head, neck and bottom onto the 20 gauge wire until it reaches the bottom of the larger knob. Mark the wire 1/4" above the top of the smaller knob with your fingernail and remove the wire. Bend the wire at the mark and trim away excess wire.
- Insert wire hanger through the top of the head and put a dab of hot glue to secure. Thread wire through button holes; put another dab of hot glue in the bottom knob and insert the wire ends into the bottom. Allow glue to set.
- Using a black paint pen draw snowman's face.
- Bend a small length of wire (will vary according to depth of hole drilled) in half and insert ends into carrot nose and then insert the carrot nose into the 1/16" nose hole.
- Tie yarn bits around your snowman's neck and ta-dah, you have a roly, poly super cute snowman ornament!



For some of the ones I've made this year I finger crocheted the scarves to bulk them up a bit. I used nine stitches to get all the way around the neck and then left the ends long for the rest of the scarf.



These are fun for the kids to do too. Be careful with the hot gluing and straight pins of course! My guys did all the painting and stacking for measuring the wire, I did the drilling, cutting and gluing and they did the faces. Logan (5) also made carrot noses with me and I stuck the pins in for him. Caleb (3) just played with the clay. Still fun and everyone has a nice project to show off!

shipping complete...

The boys and I took the last three boxes for the swaps to the post office yesterday (what a zoo!) and now all I have to do is clean the house, finish up a couple orders for family, wrap a few more presents, bake several dozen cookies, and pack for Christmas! Then I can relax for a few days...ha ha.

Packages that went out in Saturday's mail were for: Deborah, Sue Sue, Kim, Moki, and Eling. Packages we took yesterday were for: Dawn, Cathy, and (Aunt) Patty. I have tracking numbers for you guys too if you need them. Just email me.

Thanks to everyone who sent in such wonderful ATCs and ornaments! We'll definitely do this again next year, but we'll be starting and ending a little further way from Christmas.

snowmen and spam...

Last weekend the boys and I sat down to paint a box full of wooden knobs and made a plate full of polymer clay carrot noses with the intent of making snowman ornaments for the tree and for family gifts. To date Caleb and I have actually assembled some ornaments and Logan and I have a date to build his ornaments tomorrow. I'm working on a tutorial for these guys...hopefully I'll have it up tomorrow sometime. They're super easy and super cute, especially when they're all wonkified by wee artists hands.

Here is a group of ornaments I made last night:



And here is Caleb with his two completed snowmen (as eyeballs):



* * * * *

Oh, and the spam mention? Haloscan is apparently under attack at the moment as I am being buried with spam comments. I have no idea if they're malicious links or what, but to be on the safe side I switched on the comment moderating so that I can ban the IPs and delete the spam before anyone else has to mess with it.

* * * * *

12/18 New filters seem to be installed and the spamming has ceased! Back to regular commenting for all of us :).

and the shipping begins...

I have been busily sorting and packaging ornaments (and ATCs) the last few days and printed postage (or attached sent labels) for twelve boxes so far! I am utilizing the USPS's pick-up service because this pregnant lady doesn't want to try to wrangle a three year old and a mountain of boxes up the stairs and into the post office bldg.

I sent off my international packages on Tuesday and they should arrive in 4-7 days. Marieke and Marianne, keep an eye out!

Scheduled for tomorrow's pick-up are: Mary (Mom), Michelle, Raesha, Regina, Jackie, Kristin, Emily, Theresa, Rose and Bertha. I have delivery confirmation numbers for all of you. If you need it, just send me an email and I'll get it to you.

I'm waiting on one last package and I have two ornaments myself that I need to finish up today. If those all make it today then I should be able to get all the packages out in tomorrow's pick-up. I'll keep you posted!

I really hope everyone loves their ornaments! It was such a treat to get to see all of them in person.

baby girl lyons...

is just over twenty weeks now and I'm finally starting to notice her wiggling without having to stop and wait for her to do something. I'm sure she enjoyed her spacious accomodations (as opposed to what Logan and Caleb had to work with...I felt them move consistantly from about sixteen weeks on) while they lasted. And she is a girl after my own heart...dancing to Christmas music! She must know her momma loves Christmastime.

Did I mention the fact that she is still a she was confirmed again on my last regular OBGYN appointment? Well it was and with that confirmation I am beginning to more comfortably peruse the baby girl sections of any store or website I come across. And so, apparently, is Lynn. How cute is that? Just today I wandered around Zappos.com. Of course I was shopping for myself but couldn't resist looking at the little girl shoes. O H M Y G O S H. Between the absolutely adorable (but spendy) polka dot and print tights I keep looking at and all these totally cute shoes I just found I'm really going to have to amp up the sales around here!

I should also mention Baby Girl Lyons has a name now and I promised not to post it until we've announced it to the family first. However, if you would like to know (family or friends or even inquisitive strangers) ahead of time you can always email me or call the house :). I'll gladly spill the beans.

the advent calendar that almost wasn't...

I still haven't officially landed on the perfect Advent calendar idea. I wasn't going to do one this year at all but then Raesha sent me the COOLEST vintage Advent calendar (I will post a picture later on) along with her ornaments so we were just doing that one and everyone was happy with it. Then Saint Nick showed up on Tuesday and now Caleb wants to open all the presents under the tree...of which none are for him...Momma has a LOT of wrapping left to do yet. So in an effort to preserve the presents under the tree...this kid, he is his mother's child after all...Caleb and I went out yesterday to buy a package of brown paper sacks and a bunch of goodies (a few little toys, useful stuff like chapstick, pocket sized tissue packs and mittens, PEZ dispensers and candy treats) from the Dollar Tree and Target.



I cut up some more of my Daisy D Christmas paper (and man, looking at all those yummy pages makes me want to go out and buy a bunch more!), printed off and cut up number tags and attached them to the stuffed brown bags with red and green jingle bells (from Dollar Tree - nine for a dollar!) and then hung them from the banister. It's not exactly the look I was going for, but it works. The boys had a nice treat (Thomas the Train wind-up characters) this morning before school and Caleb hasn't asked once about the presents under the tree!

visitors and more visitors...

Tuesday morning Deborah stopped by to visit and to drop off her ornaments and atcs for the Christmas swaps I'm hosting. She is as delightful in person as you would guess she is from reading her blog. I quite like this meeting blog friends in person! Now if I could figure out how to put extra hours into the day and extra days into the week, etc. I could make my way out to meet all my blog friends. Some day, I hope! Anyway, Deborah made fast friends with Caleb by bringing a small treat for both him and Logan. After Caleb showed us how his new frog ornament danced and showed Deborah a portion of his Ninja Turtle collection we pulled out all the ornaments and atcs that have arrived so far and oohed and aahed over them. Then we sat down to visit for a little while and Caleb climbed up in the chair with Deborah, made himself comfortable and requested she read him his books! She obliged him and now he can't wait for more of Mommy's friends to come read him books. Apparently, it's way more fun having other people read books to you.

Tuesday night we put our shoes out on the porch for Saint Nick and he did not disappoint. There was some confusion the next morning though...both boys thought Uncle Nic was the one who had left the loot.

This year Saint Nick left them each a mini Bionicle (Caleb's and Logan's), a Mickey Mouse board book and Mickey Mouse stickers. Both were equally ecstatic.

I can already tell this year's Christmas festivities are going to be the best yet!

more new jewelry...

I made bangles this morning and the charm a few months ago. I've been wearing it all day and I have to say it's really nice! Caleb likes the tinkly sound they make when I shake my wrist. It's definitely a fun piece to make and I can see lots of different design possibilities.

company's coming...

Tomorrow Caleb and I have a date with a blogging buddy! Deborah is hand delivering her Christmas ATCs and ornaments for the Christmas swaps I'm hosting. I'm excited to finally get to meet one of my blogging friends in person! I was hoping to have my studio spaces at least somewhat presentable, but at the moment...yeah, not so much. It's more like a series of natural disasters has blown through the area and I am once again working in a six inch square area on one desk and one table is completely covered in stacks of stuff. BUT my bench is pretty clean and that's only because I'm actively using it right now and don't really want to set my house on fire due to an errant spark flying off onto a paper towel wad or something. Too bad my bench is sitting in the middle of the natural disaster area currently known as my studio (but soon to be known as Baby Girl Lyons's bedroom).

After I take some pictures of a new bracelet I made today I am going to attempt to get through my studio and office. Wish me luck!!

stella and the much too sunny afternoon...

"stella's day didn't exactly go as planned..."

Stella woke up bright and early this morning expecting a sunny, but COLD forecast. Everything seemed to be going according to plan until just about lunch time when the sun really started beating down and suddenly things weren't so chilly anymore!

Stella knew her days were numbered from the start. She really wished she could've had a few more days to enjoy the view, but accepted her fate and melted quietly to the ground.

We gathered what was left of her and stuffed her in a clear glass ornament for posterity's sake.

Stella's guts are vintage mica flakes. Her eyes, mouth and buttons are little black glass beads (currently buried under her hat and scarf). Her arms are bits of grapevine twigs. Her scarf is made of ribbon and her hat is a tiny i-cord made on a knitting nobby.

trees...

We finished putting our tree up this evening. Lynn's job was to unwrap and distribute the ornaments to the boys who in turn hung them on the tree or handed them to me to hang on the tree. Uncle Nic helped too.



I have to admit it turned out really nice: Logan and Caleb were very satisfied with their job; Lynn actually looked at our ornaments and was surprised by how many really nice ones we have in our (my) collection; and I think Nic had a good time too. I fully anticipated it being completely lopsided and wonky, but in the end the tree was reasonably balanced, needing only a few minor adjustments.

I am definitely missing a box of ornaments and decorations somewhere around here...will have to go looking for that tomorrow. Instead of looking for it tonight I decorated another little "tree." Some of Logan's weekend homework was to bring a 3-D shape wrapped as a gift to class on Monday. I have a stack of these press board cones that I often forget I have. They're just plain brown things and I thought, "how boring." So, of course, I had to decorate it before I wrapped it and sent it off to Kindergarten.



I decoupaged some green mulberry paper to the cone, wired some tiny grapevine around the outside, made a little nest out of excelsior and tucked the little cardinal inside the nest and topped it off with a tin snowflake I painted white and then covered in German glass glitter. Took about twenty minutes (plus dry time for the glue) to put together and everything was from the stash. Hooray for quick and "free" projects!

christmas atcs...

I finally finished my atcs Thursday evening. I was beginning to worry...no specific ideas were coming to me. I knew I would use my little carved elf stamp (this dude is getting some serious mileage!) and this summer I bought a package of the pink and red flocked paper that I've been itching to use since the day I bought it and from there...nothing. No composition, no nothing was coming to mind! Then I thought I would make little window sills for the elf to peek through to pay homage to the old "Santa's watching you" trick until I decided that was entirely too involved given my current list of MUST-DO-NOWs.

As you can see I went with plain and simple in the end with a pretty decent result, if I do say so myself. The little elf is slightly elevated from the card itself and the little snowflake is a Marvy Uchida Silhouette punch. I printed my info onto cardstock and punched gift tags with them. I put the ribbon through the tags figuring the recipients could use them as ornaments if they like.

Now I need to finish my ornaments! The stitching is proving problematic with the cotton batting I used inbetween. I have an idea to remedy the problem and of course have had several other completely different ideas for ornaments in the process too!

new jewelry pieces...

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I made it a point to make some new jewelry pieces. I worked backward this time; stringing up my beads first and then creating the components after the fact. I enjoyed the challenge...it was a different pace...perhaps even a little more inspiring? Hard to say. I haven't even TOUCHED any of my tools since I found out I was pregnant so it was really nice to finally sit down to my bench and saw metal, melt metal, solder metal. FUN! I still have a few more components to make for some bracelets I made over the holiday. Hopefully I'll find a couple hours over the weekend for those.

I just finished uploading the new pieces to my jewelry page. You'll find five new necklaces and one set of new earrings (which coincidentally match my lampwork pendants). I hope you'll have a look! Did I mention that I offer free gift wrapping?