happiness is...

opening the mailbox on Saturday to discover my Spoonflower order had finally found its way home! I have to say, I'm impressed with the final product. The colors translated nicely and the hand of the fabric is decent. Once I wash it I think the hand will improve, it's a little stiff-ish at the moment. Will report back as details arise.

Other things making me happy today:



I spray painted some grapevine that's been sitting in our garage, taunting my husband for neigh on three years now, and then I impaled a few sticky eyeballs on branches here and there and tucked the rest in between branches. I found the skeleton at Michaels a couple weeks ago and decided he needed some doctoring so I cut apart all the original "joints" and replaced them with hemp. I gave him a jaunty tulle bow tie too.

Originally I was going to hang the skeleton in the middle of the wreath; however, upon further contemplation I nixed that idea...morbid anyone? My next thought was to pose him as if he were modeling or something and yikes, the first couple of poses were, shall we say...risqué? Eventually we arrived at the delightfully innocuous pose you see above. The only trouble is he now requires a counter balance to remain upright. Tonight I will engineer something and tomorrow I'm going to shop for black satin ribbon. If I can find some cheap then I'll be all finished by tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise I'll be back at the drawing board figuring out my next move!

have you heard?

Martha wants to know about your blog! Yes,that Martha! Seriously, go here to read all about it.

a haunted atc swap update...

click here to see full screen version.

I got a small fix for my Cosmo Cricket jones over at Scrapblog. Thank goodness.

dear paper junkies...

Look away from your monitor right now. I mean it. If you so much as peek at what I'm about to share you're going to hate me. I already hate myself. You have been warned.

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Tsk, you're not going to look away are you? Alright then...I cannot be held responsible for the money that will surely fly out of your wallet or the DTs you may encounter if there aren't any local retailers near you (as in my case).

Prepare for some serious paper goodness. Meet Cosmo Cricket. They had me at hello...see this (I NEED two of everything on that page!), and this, this is adorable, and this? Well it just cracks me up.

And look at their ad copy. I would hang a print of this ad (click to enlarge) in my work space in a New York minute.

I emailed them this evening to see if they have any online retailers and I'll let you know what they say. Otherwise I may be begging someone who can purchase locally to go buy me some of the crack.

i'm pretty sure i don't like this...

I don't know how if I like the idea of my blog being fictionally bought and sold.

why? how? i do not understand...

I am completely baffled as to how Kenley survived the auf last night. C O M P L E T E L Y! Her look wasn't remotely "hip hop." Granny goes to the Indian casino? Pretty close. The pants, those hideous pants! They weren't even well made. Ugly and well made might have been something. Her attitude doesn't help her cause either.

Poor Suede. Now I am not a fan of Suede, and yes his look was a little on the subdued side but at least it was well made. I don't know, color me silly if you want...but I think a paler, well made version of the genre assigned should come out ahead of a poorly executed, miles-off-the-mark look.

And now I am done griping about Project Runway for this week.

that witch doctor...

He's been busy taking over the joint today. I made a new banner, finally, and am in the process of making notecards with his likeness too. He imposed himself on everything I mailed out today and right now he's plotting additional surfaces to conquer. He's out of control, really, and I'm not quite sure he can be stopped!

ooo, eee, ooo, ah, ah...

I had a dream I carved a witch doctor stamp to use for my Haunted ATCs this year and I used some skull beads (that Suesue gave me last year or the year before) as a shrunken head for his staff. Seemed like a good idea, so here we are so far!

I went ahead and carved a staff for him as a back-up, but my plan is to make a staff using a twig, a skull bead and some jute (or something). I don't really have a clear idea of how that staff is going to come together just yet, but I'm sure it will firm up eventually.

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Tonight was the first time in a LONG time I've had a chance to do much of anything creative. I miss it! I feel like I need about four extra hours in the day to get back to creating regularly. Lynn was in Houston all last week up to his eyeballs in getting his people back up and running after Ike left his mark. This, in turn, left me up to my eyeballs in single parenthood. I have a new found appreciation for single parents. Getting three kids up, dressed, fed and out the door by 7:30a by oneself is a MAJOR undertaking. It gets done, but not without constant reminding on my part and lots of whining and foot dragging on their part. Why? I don't know. Karma, I'm guessing. Anyway, we pick up the carpool kids and get to school around 7:45a. We see them all off and head back to the house to get Caleb ready for speech therapy or pre-school depending on the day. Then we drop him off at the appropriate location. Molly and I head out for errands or head home after that. Molly then wonders and wanders, where is Caleb? We pick Caleb up from school and then head home to meet Logan. Then it's playtime, snack, homework and (depending on the day) soccer practice for Logan, soccer practice for Caleb (and Lynn is Caleb's soccer coach this year), Cub Scouts for Logan, dealing with PTA business that I did not sign up for but instead had ambushed upon me (an entire other post, trust me), and of course the usual stuff: feeding the kids, bathing the kids, doing the laundry, keeping the house (somewhat, ha ha) straight.

On the weekends it's a fun sort of busy: soccer games for both boys, Sunday school for both boys and did I mention we sort of got ambushed into being assistants in Caleb's Sunday school too? We felt it would be too much to take on volunteering full time at church this year with everything else going on only to find out there weren't enough people to cover the pre-k 4 enrollment and if replacements couldn't be found the classes would have to be downsized (or something, I'm a little foggy on how this actually happened as I was not present when "we" volunteered) and now Lynn and I are tag-teaming as teacher's assistants at Sunday school. And really, it's a lovely little group of children...with the exception of a handful: the miniature terrorist who throws a fit because her red crayon isn't red enough, tosses her book on the floor because everyone else is turning their pages too fast, cries because her cotton balls aren't fluffy enough; the trouble-maker who works really hard to instigate mischief with other kids; the kid who consistently falls prey to the trouble-maker. I will be suggesting assigned seating to the teacher next Sunday and hopefully that will take care of two problems straight away.

And now my pity party over. High fives to the single parents out there and more power to you!

and the winners are...

Last week there were a total of twenty comments left between Monday morning and Friday morning so I figured two winners would be cool. The way I figured it out was to pull up my Haloscan comment management and count all the comments left on any post between Monday and Friday morning. Comment #17 came from my Aunt Patty and comment #3 came from Bertha! Congratulations to you both! Since I know both of you personally, I will tailor your prizes accordingly!

I am working on something to share with everyone as a thank you for always stopping by to visit and always leaving such great comments. Hopefully you'll think it's a worthy prize :). Will post a note when it's ready to go!

last day for sign-ups...

for the Haunted ATC Swap! Leave a comment here or on the original post or email me at amy AT aplcreations DOT com to join in on the fun.

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In other news:

some celebrating is in order...

My last post was my 600th post. That deserves to be celebrated right? And my FOURTH blog birthday was back on September 9th. Four years! That totally deserves to be celebrated.

So what do? What to do? A giveaway of course. I don't know exactly what the prize (or prizes) will be just yet. But I promise they'll be good! How can you win? Just leave a comment here or on any other post on my blog between today and next Friday, 10a CST.

Next Friday I'll pull up my Haloscan manage comments page and count all the comments left between today (9/14) and next Friday (9/19 at 10a CST) and dump them into a random number generator to pick some winners!



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More reasons to celebrate: we had no trouble from Ike up here, just some much needed rain and gusty winds from time to time. All our family and friends are safe and sound and so far their damage has been limited to loss of trees and fences. Our Houstonians are without power still and that's a hardship I hope goes away very soon. We are thankful for our good fortune and our thoughts and prayers are with those left dealing with the aftermath of Ike.

ike...

photo courtesy of weather.com

So, we're waiting for Ike to make landfall. Our family and friends along the coast are all either evacuated or fully prepared to shelter in place (per instructions of city officials). We are expecting tropical storm force winds and rain here at the Lyons' Den sometime Saturday. The closet under the stairs is prepped to bunk the children in the event of tornado warnings. We are fully stocked with water, canned foods, fresh fruit and veggies. All the usual "survival" gear has been collected in a central location: batteries, flashlights, radio, chips, salsa, guac fixings, beer.

If the power goes out I will be forced to work on something crafty. I'm collecting projects and supplies as I go about the daily business today. Will keep you posted on the status of things as I can!

To all our family and friends in the strike zone: be safe!! We're keeping all of you in our prayers.

more halloween swapping goodness...

So I just stumbled upon this swap via SwapDex which I stumbled upon via my blog stats. Of course I signed up! Keeping in mind the main theme is "Owls and the Moon," you'll make a jointed paper doll, an atc and an owl and get one of each in return just in time to decorate the nooks and crannies of your Halloween home. Sign ups end September 15th so hurry over and sign up!

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As a reminder, sign ups for my Haunted ATC Swap also end on September 15th too.

a ghostie girlie...

So Spoonflower recently lowered their shipping rates and in turn made it easier for me to spend $18 a yard on fabric of my own design! I scanned and manipulated a print of a hand carved stamp I made two years ago for the first annual A Haunted ATC Swap (go here for info on this year's swap) and I can't wait to see it in person. I've read a few blurbs about colors not translating so my fingers are crossed that it works in my favor!

Since I'd already been futzing around with the image file, I decided to try my hand at making a virtual letterbox using my little ghostie girl as the stamp "reward" for solving the puzzle. If you'd like to give it a whirl, click here. I think you'll have to be logged into AtlasQuest to see the "prize" screen though.

boo to you and you and you and you and you...

Not that I need any help getting into the mood for Halloween, but, if I did this was waiting for me when we returned home from our Tour de Tejas:



His name is Oscar and I bought him from Theresa at her little Shoppe Across the Universe. Oscar and I have a bit of history already...I pined for him last year when he was packing up for a visit to Plush You. I cannot remember why I didn't snatch him up then, but lucky for me, the stars aligned and now we're together at last!

Now, if any one else needs help getting into the spirit of Halloween I am here to help! It's that time of year again when I get an itch that can only be scratched by hosting a swap and making some ATCs. I'm starting a little earlier than in years past due to all the new things we've added to our plate this year and I figure if we're getting busier, most everyone else probably is too. Here's the plan:

A Haunted ATC Swap 2008!

Same as in years past, this will be a five for five swap with some sort of trick-or-treat from me. You'll need to enclose a self addressed, stamped (with two forty-two cent stamps) A7-ish envelope. International swappers can send neat postcards to my two boys in exchange for postage.

Sign-ups will close on Monday, September 15th.

The mail-to-me deadline will be October 17th and the mail-to-you date will be October 24th.

To participate just email me (amy at aplcreations dot com) with your name, blog/flickr address (if you have one, if not, no biggie), and your mailing address.

Be sure to take pictures or scans of your cards and post them to the flickr group! Check out a slideshow of cards swapped in 2006 and 2007 so you'll know how awesome this swap really is!

well...

How was your long weekend? Ours was good. We did spend a lot of time watching Gustav hoping for the best for all our friends and family in his direct path. So far so good, though we're waiting to hear from a few internet friends yet. Fingers are crossed that their damage is minimal to none and that all their loved ones are safe as well!

Along with our hurricane watch we managed a little letterboxing (of course) and went to another FC Dallas game too. Monday Lynn had a second practice for his team, took the boys to see The Clone Wars again and then cooked up ribs and chicken for everyone. After practice, Molly and I went shopping and while we were out, we discovered there's a Blue Goose Cantina right down the road from our house!! YUM!

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Soccer is in full swing again here at the Lyons' Den. Due to unforeseen complications and miscommunications from our local soccer league, Lynn is now the head coach of Caleb's U5 soccer team! He held his first practice with the new team on Saturday and honestly, it was a huge success! Right now there are five little players on the team and they are all real go-getters. I think we're headed for a great season.

Logan's team has moved up to U8 this season which means a bigger field and learning goalie skills too. They've been practicing a couple times a week for about a month now and are picking up on the importance of passing and trapping skills. Their first games on are on Saturday so wish them all luck!

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Check back in a little while for a Halloweenie filled post!

care to cross your eyes?

Go here and test your color IQ. On the first go I scored 14.