happy 2009!

Here at the Lyons' Den, we're ringing in the new year with old school pinball, Legos and Wii. Aside from all this it's been uncharacteristically low key (no boozy goodness for momma tonight) due to a nasty little stomach virus a few of us had the displeasure of hosting on Sunday and Monday.

2008 was a good year for us and 2009 promises to be the same or better. I am so very grateful for everything we have: a healthy family (including a brand new nephew! Congrats to my brother and his wife on their first baby, born yesterday :)), wonderful friends near and far, can I mention health again? I'm even sort of grateful for the plumbing woes that go along with the roof over our head!

Thank you all for helping to make our 2008 what is was. I love this community we have. I love that I can pitch a fit and somebody out there pipes up and lets me know they've been there too. I love that I can post pictures of my creations and have a cheering section pop up right there on the page. The friendship and generosity I've experienced through the internet never ceases to amaze me. Thank you!

From all of us to all of you: Best wishes for a healthy, happy, prosperous 2009!

Save Handmade Toys!

Contact your congressperson. Contact your senators. Hopefully your congressperson and your senators (or their office staff) will be more in tune to the gravity of this legislation than mine are.

Sign the petition.

sugar plum fairies...

I made these little fairies for this year's ornament swap. These girls were over a year in the making! I did the bulk of the work last year for last year's swap and then Caleb got sick and I didn't have it in me to finish them. Plus, it didn't help that I wasn't really in love with the way they were turning out at that point. So in a box they went for a long vacation.

This year I decided to change some things: tutus are gone, tulle wings are gone. All for the better I think. I ended up making the wings out of datacom cabling and used cotton chenille for the arms and, really, those two tiny changes put me head over heels again for my little fairies. And bonus: the chenille arms gave me an opportunity to use up a few more of those little red glass balls I'll have in my stash until the end of the world.

when brothers are sleeping...

a wee girl can investigate to her heart's content:







Fortunately for her (and her dad), it's times like these that make me over look the mayhem and destruction she wrought on my staircase and banisters today. Gah! Stupid ill placed Sharpies strike again.

hey, i resemble that remark...

Please enjoy this joke my sister emailed me today:

Last night my friend and I were sitting in the den and I said to her,

"I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some

machine and fluids from a bottle to keep me alive. That would be no
quality of life at all...if that ever happens, just pull the plug, ok."

So she got up, unplugged my computer and threw out my wine.

She's such a bitch.

jolly old saint nick...

We lined our shoes up by the front door and left some carrots out for Saint Nick's horse. Then we watched Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode 9 and afterward the kiddos all dropped off to sleep one by one. The boys had big plans to stay up until 2am...Caleb managed to hold out until 8:45pm. Logan and Molly checked out just after 9pm. Sometime shortly thereafter Saint Nick snuck in and left us all treats. As you can see, he left the kids each an apple (2 honeycrisps and a pink lady...we're having a taste test at breakfast) and a Christmas Star Wars character (the Christmassy stuff is removeable!). The only nuts he had were pistachios and the kids aren't big fans of the pistachios so only Mom and Dad got nuts this time. He also left everyone some chocolate, a Bob's candy cane and a peppermint tootsie pop (which I think I might be addicted to now...)

out of 242 entries...

The winners are:



210 was Aurore who said: The cards and the tags are beautiful {Thank you!}. My favorite holiday recipe is from the foodnetwork for baked french toast. It's great because you can make it at night and then pop it in the oven while opening gifts. I usually skip the praline topping.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recip...ipe2/ index.html

Aurore wins a set of snowflake gift tags, her choice of color and glitter level. Congratulations, Aurore!

79 was Katie who said: those are absolutely adorable!! {Thanks!}

Katie wins a set of snowflake gift tags, her choice of color and glitter level. Congratulations, Katie!

26 was Karen who said: I love those little cards {Thanks so much!}!! Thanks for the chance to win {My pleasure!}!!

Karen wins a set of snowflake gift tags, her choice of color and glitter level. Congratulations, Karen!

188 was Kelley Brady who said: your giveaway items are wonderful! {Thank you!}

Kelley wins a set of Noël angel flats. Congratulations, Kelley!

When you have a chance send me an email (amy at aplcreations dot com) with your mailing address and I'll get your goodies out in Monday's mail!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my little corner of the internet the last couple days. I am loving all the links and recipes you've shared!

Merry Christmas!!

i just remembered...

click here for tutorial.

I meant to put a link to the tutorial I did a couple years ago for the cute little snowman ornaments on the give-away post(s) yesterday. Now, I don't want to antagonize the Blogger gremlins anymore than I already have so I'll post the link here and hopefully it won't double post!

And since the day got away from me I'll wait until tomorrow morning (Friday, 12/5) to draw the winners for the give-away.

it's give-away day...

* * * * * Time's up! Winners to be announced shortly. * * * * *

I love a good give-away and I love this idea the ladies over at Sew, Mama, Sew! Blog presented us with too. My little give-away is going to consist of a handful of Christmas paper goods!

Up for grabs today:

* three sets of Snowflake Gift Tags. Each set includes twelve 2.5" square cards with double stick adhesive attached to the backs. Winners to choose color and "bling" level.



* and one set of Noël Angel Flats. The set includes ten cards and ten coordinating turquoise envelopes. And if my stamps get here in time I'll include ten matching Noël stamps too.



To be included in the drawings, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post. Feel free to share links to your favorite Christmas cookie recipes, to other favorite blogs, favorite Christmas song, etc. I'll visit random.org tomorrow after I drop Caleb off at school and announce the winners then. For now I'm going to get busy finishing my ornaments and treats for my swappers.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm looking forward to some fun new links.

it's give-away day...

* * * * * Time's up! Winners to be announced shortly. * * * * *

I love a good give-away and I love this idea the ladies over at Sew, Mama, Sew! Blog presented us with too. My little give-away is going to consist of a handful of Christmas paper goods!

Up for grabs today:

* three sets of Snowflake Gift Tags. Each set includes twelve 2.5" square cards with double stick adhesive attached to the backs. Winners to choose color and "bling" level.



* and one set of Noël Angel Flats. The set includes ten cards and ten coordinating turquoise envelopes. And if my stamps get here in time I'll include ten matching Noël stamps too.



To be included in the drawings, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post. Feel free to share links to your favorite Christmas cookie recipes, to other favorite blogs, favorite Christmas song, etc. I'll visit random.org tomorrow after I drop Caleb off at school and announce the winners then. For now I'm going to get busy finishing my ornaments and treats for my swappers.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm looking forward to some fun new links.

custom postage discounted AND free shipping...

today ONLY over at Zazzle.



It's the perfect opportunity to help yourself to some cute postage and whatnot from my Zazzle shop and lots of other fine folks' shops too!