fabric charms finished finally...

And I only have three incomplete attempts prior to these charms. I started out with an idea to needle felt small birds...um yeah, small and needle felting equals stabbed finger tips which ultimately equals a very unhappy Amy. After I scrapped the 3d bird idea I thought I would needle felt roving onto felt to make 2d birds...not much room for detail in such a small piece so they looked like blue dots with a couple spots here and there. Ugh. Then I tried using the fuzzy, fluffy underside of the needle felting and embroidery to make monster faces...again small killed the deal. However, thanks to small, I have some good ideas to work on in a larger format.

Anyhoo, I finally went into the studio and stared at my wall of fabric, dug through my drawers of fiber and beads and buttons, and eventually came up with these. I stitched different fibers across two pieces of the batik background fabric and then sandwiched a piece of wool felt between the two embellished fabric squares. I sewed lines (perpendicular to the fibers) spaced a quarter of an inch apart to bring all three pieces of fabric together. Then I stitched the borders of each charm and used pinking shears to finish the edges. I sewed the little forget-me-not beads (that Dawn gave me last year or the year before; thanks again, Dawn!) along the center line and attached a steel wire jumpring to the top of each charm. I didn't have time to package up the charms the way I would've liked so instead, I attached each charm to one of my business cards. That way recipients will at least know who made the charm for them.

I am pretty sure with the next swap I do, I'll be back in the swing of things as far as usual presentation goes. I'm sort of looking forward to it. Hey, if you know of any good swap sign-ups going on, tell me about them!

dear God...

are you there? It's me, Amy. It's about all this rain. Rain is great. I love rain. Except when it's repeatedly flooding people's homes and businesses and eroding land to the point that people's homes are dropping into rivers and creeks. My rain troubles are minor in comparison to some, but really. Can we have a break? I need about two weeks of dry, rain free weather so we can find out how the water is getting into the dining room wall and then fix it! And then there's the garage doors that need painting. STILL. Okay, I will be the first to admit I was never all that concerned with the drought problems the great state of Texas was experiencing prior the constant rain, upon rain, upon rain you've generously been dumping on us since April. Sure, I obeyed the drought restrictions even when it made my flowers die and my yard look like crap. But I really didn't think about it much beyond my civic duties. Now that all our lakes and rivers have been revived to the point of destruction, don't you think Georgia or Florida could use some of this rain? Maybe California? Surely there are places that need this rain more than we do. I bet if you asked anyone in the area they would gladly, even emphatically, give up all this rain for folks who could really use it. Anyway, I really hope it's in the plans to get this weather system moving elsewhere soon. Thanks for listening.

P.S. Thanks for the rainbow last night. It made the rain water seeping into my dining room (again) a little easier to take.

adding to the agenda...

This is the summer of the Fort Worth day trip here at the Lyons' den. On our way to the zoo last Saturday we noticed a bill board advertising this. Should be a good time!

music to my ears...

a snap from our trip to the fort worth zoo yesterday.

It's almost four o'clock on a sweltering Sunday afternoon (hello, June weather...we've missed you so) and I as I sit here roaming the internet I can hear a baby girl cooing at her daddy as he watches the USA v. Mexico soccer match and two little boys giggling at the television as they watch Happy Feet for the one millionth time. Life is good.

finally, something crafty...

I found this fabric at Walmart yesterday. The trip to Walmart was meant to find smaller towels for the boys to use after swimming lessons. Prior to finding the new towels the boys were using giant beach towels that were really just terry cloth death traps biding their time before they managed to trip my boys up good and knock all their front teeth out in the process. But I digress...

With swimming lessons in full swing, I've discovered that a tote would be handy. So I made one. Perhaps now I won't forget towels for the boys and maybe their t-shirts will stay dry too!



I drafted the pattern and decided to skip the "test sew." Aside from it being smaller than I had intended, it turned out exactly as I had envisioned it. It sewed up in about two hours and that's only because I had to rip out the strap seam to turn it right side out after I had realized I left no way to turn the strap while it was sewn together in the middle. Ugh.

Tomorrow I think I'll make a sun dress for Molly out of the print. Stay tuned for the results. It's either going to be really cute or really weird. It will all depend on how the fabric drapes on a baby's body.

since we last left you...

We made our trip to Victoria. It was a good trip even with the mosquitos, heat and humidity :).



We celebrated Logan's SIXTH birthday. We are now obsessed with determining how old Caleb will be when Logan is X years old as well as with how many minutes it takes to complete a task or get from point A to point B.



We have played copious amounts of Better Batter Baseball...no matter how hot it is, or how many mosquitoes are swarming or how much Mom is sweating...the fun FAR out weighs any of these tribulations.



We made a pitstop in New Braunfels for a quick visit with Uncle Nolan and Aunt Jana.



SOME of us have had an incredibly stinky spell of three-year-old-itis. Ahem.



We celebrated Father's Day by preparing a delicious (and colorful) breakfast.





We started swimming lessons today!



And last, but not least, Molly turned two months old today. She had her well-baby visit, got FIVE vaccinations and even after all that, she still manages to be completely charming.

I'm currently working on: my fabric charms for Dawn's swap (hoping to get them finished and in the mail by Wednesday); baby gifts (some are LONG overdue and some are rapidly becoming due); and swag bits for my paperbag swag swap cohorts. Things I should be working on: moving my studio (so Molly will have a bedroom one of these days); sewing a mock up of my bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding; collaborating with my sister and designing her wedding invitations; and putting together a mock up of my sister's centerpieces for her reception. That should-be-doing list needs some working on doesn't it! The calendar is coming out and the mapping is being done. The organizing will begin and the work will be done.

But for now, I'm going to be a good girl and go to bed early tonight!

a quick hello...

Well, summer vacation is upon us and we have hit the ground running. Last week the kids and I made our first solo (as in only one adult) road trip and it couldn't possibly have gone any better than it did. Caleb and Molly slept all the way from the driveway to Benoit. Logan fell asleep about ten miles outside of Coleman and woke up about ten miles outside of San Angelo. There was not a single peep of discontent from anyone. The entire trip. It was blissful. I think, perhaps, Lynn could learn a thing or two from his children when it comes to road trip etiquette...apparently he was not quite as delightful on his trip down with his sister and my brother as the kids were with me.


sunset at baby brother patrick's graduation

The weekend was a fun one. We watched Patrick and about 150 or so of his 670 sum odd (how do you spell that?) class mates graduate from high school (thank goodness they started with the Z's this year), played a lot of Wii Sports, visited with family and even did a little shopping (the San Angelo Dillard's has a new and improved ladies department for anyone interested...)

Oh, I made some lampwork beads this week too:



They're the first I've made since Molly was born AND they're the first sculptural beads I've EVER made that I was really, REALLY pleased with the final outcome. They are charms I made for Theresa's Paperbag Swag Album.

Here's the overall spread:


All cut paper collage...made with a whole new layer of appreciation for what artists like Theresa and Ellia. That tiny little panda took me FOREVER and several attempts before it was satisfactorily completed :). And just so you know, there is SO going to be at least one stuffed panda made in the near future.

Here's a blurry picture of the clip I made to keep the swag pocket closed:


There's more to show and more to talk about, but I'm about to turn into a pumpkin. So, until next time, take care and I hope everyone's having a great summer so far!