may giveaway day...

I missed the announcement and subsequent registration deadline for Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day, but I do love a giveaway so I'm just going to pretend I had my ducks in a row and play along anyway. This time around they set up parameters for a more uniform event (an excellent idea, I might add) - and according to those parameters this giveaway will remain open until midnight, CST, on May 31st, winners will be posted (and notified) on June 1st, and the prizes will go in the mail as soon as I have addresses to ship to! I will ship internationally via regular airmail.

Up for grabs this fine day:

Giveaway - Number One


necklace and earrings set: enamel on copper, sterling silver ear wires, coordinating lampwork glass button clasp. all made by me!

and, also made by me, Giveaway - Number Two


dollfaced earrings: enamel on copper, sterling silver ear wires.

Be sure to check out the entire list of giveaway goodies •○ here ○•.

ETA: Regina is hosting a giveaway too - go see!

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I posted a freebie embroidery project pattern yesterday too so click on over and take a peek.

a bit of catching up...

Way back in March I started working on a pattern for my little hummingbird mobile and a pattern/tutorial for the hummingbird nightlight. Well, instructions still need to be written for the mobile. It's a very simple project to do, but to put all of the steps into words that make sense and are easy to follow for anyone outside of my own head is a whip. And in case you haven't heard, I like to procrastinate when something is not fun for me to do...

Anyway, I did complete the pattern for the nightlight, but never got around to posting it for you all to use until today. Now, I realize the Coraline reference is slightly passe for some here in the states at this point, but you can certainly use the directions to feature another embroidery design (maybe a tiny version of Cathy's chandelier? Or a little group of Jenny's Pretty Maids. Now, any of that would be cute!) I'm putting Caleb and Logan to work drawing again tonight so I can work up three of these for End of Year gifts for their teachers. If I'm up to it, I'll photograph the steps and post them here for a step-by-step tutorial.



You can download the pattern .pdf by clicking right ►h e r e◄. Of course you'll need Adobe Reader to view and print the file, so if you don't already have it, click ►h e r e◄ for your free copy. Post links to your nightlights if you make any!

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I have a couple boxes of these nightlight kits here and I am almost certain I will never use all of them myself so if you can't find them at your local craft store (my Hobby Lobby sells them sporadically) leave a comment or email me and we can do paypal or work out a little trade.

straight up shatner style...

Friday night we (Lynn's dad and sister, Lynn and I) took the boys to see Star Trek. Before we headed out, Lynn got his craft on and spiffed up a shirt in homage to Mr. Spock. He was bummed for not having any ears to complete the ensemble.



I am definitely going to embroider a shirt for him and I am also going to attempt a pair of felt or felted ears for him. I would say I'll shoot for Father's Day, but that might be a little too grand an undertaking given our current calendar of events. So - shirt for Father's Day and ears for birthday? That seems totally doable.

little passports...

Caleb got a world atlas for his birthday last year from Aunt Katie and Uncle Aaron. We have flipped through that book a thousand times pointing out where we've lived, where we've visited, where family members live and have visited. In the last few months my sister and her husband have traveled to Germany, Amsterdam, Switzerland and Paris on two different trips. My brother went to Italy at the beginning of April. As a result of all this travel mania, my boys are sort of obsessed with places unknown.

With a budget that does not allow for travel outside of our fine state I've been hunting fun things to do this summer. We already have several trips planned and of course there's VBS and Twilight Camp (both on the same week - ugh), swimming lessons and library visits, but what to do with them on the days we don't have stuff planned?

Luckily I stumbled upon the Little Passports website this morning. I just signed us up for a subscription and I can't wait to see what country we get learn about first. The program looks well thought out, plus you get a wall map! Caleb is super stoked about the wall map. I'll be sure to let you know what everyone thinks once it's here.

we've got company coming this weekend...

and Lord knows there is plenty of work to be done around the house in anticipation of house guests, but there is also embroidery and lampworking and metalsmithing and enameling to be done as well. And well, by now you all know where my priorities lie (lay?).

It is Teacher Appreciation week here at the Lyons' Den and with everything on our household agenda it sort of fell by the wayside yesterday. So we made up for that oversight today:



Logan drew the flowers with very specific placement instructions ("don't rearrange these.") and free reign for me on color choices. I decided to make some lampwork flower buttons and leaf beads to embellish the bookmark. The leaves ended up looking like tongues, so they are now alien tongues to be used for something later when Caleb comes home from school today.

Logan was tickled with how the bookmark turned out (me too) and hopefully his teacher will be equally pleased. On deck for today's projects? Etching a short vase/pencil holder with another drawing and bookmarks for Caleb's preschool teachers. Also, we need to think of something for Caleb's speech teachers (we gave them bookmarks last year) too.

Now it's time for housework. Boo hiss.

for all the moms out there...

Happy Mother's Day!!

back into the swing of things...

After the boys were at school and we were finished with our morning errands, Molly and I returned home for lunch and a nap. With lunch out of the way, I had a picture disc to burn for a friend and Twilight Camp stuff to work on as well. I set Molly up on her computer (Noggin.com, I love you) and went to work on my own. I knew she was sitting there next to me, because she was chatting with me and with the characters on her screen. She was not in my peripheral vision because I am positive I would have noticed the giant white globs of creamy A&D ointment all over her.



Last night was also our traditional parents vs. players soccer game with Logan's team. We have another tonight with Caleb's team and a coaches game next week and by "we" I mean Lynn. With all these games piling up, Lynn decided to go buy himself a new pair of cleats.



Pimp shoes in action:



It's because of things like this that he can wear hideous shoes and act a fool and get away with it:

swine flu scare school closure break: day three

Another day successfully under our belt. Well, Monopoly and necklaces were swept aside again today for coloring in Clone Wars coloring books, playing outside and watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The boys were well behaved today, only a few bickering spells. Molly insisted on wearing panties all day today and managed to pee everywhere but in the toilet. For the record: I do not like potty training. At all. Well, I like the end result, of course, but the road getting there? SUCKS. She can dress herself now so it has to click soon, right? Fingers crossed.

Today I created a blog for Logan's cub scout Pack, added hairsticks to my website, revived my stale ArtFire shop and updated my banner and avatar over on Etsy. I even folded a basket of towels. I did not get any other form of housework accomplished. Unless you count maintaining the current level of chaos, then I guess I did manage some housework.

The kids all head back to school tomorrow so when Molly goes down for her nap (please let her go down for a nap!) I plan to work on a special order enamel/charm pendant and try out all my new colors that arrived earlier this week. I also still have several pieces to list from the Spring Fling, I just need to get some good pictures of them!

Next week is going to be pure lunacy: field trips, Field Day, Teacher Appreciation Week, out of town company for the weekend, a bead show that is calling my name AND Esty Dallas's Spring Bash. I think some adult beverages will be in order when it comes time to wrap up that week!

And because I can't bare to leave this post without a picture:


currently posted for sale at artfire.

swine flu scare school closure break: day two

And we survived another day! Today was not as happy go lucky as yesterday, but it still wasn't horrible. We didn't get necklaces strung or Monopoly played because I had a metric ton of cub scout Twilight Camp stuff to do, orders to take care of and cleaning to do. The kids were left to their own devices until the hey! that's mine! he took my -insert Lego piece/Star Wars character/art supply here-! began to bubble up and then there were time outs.

Molly has reached the point where she insists on dressing herself. Today's ensemble was awesome: a sort of psychedelic tee (with paisleys and birds and orange and purple and pink print) and bloomers covered in pink and red cherries. Pink flip flops were a must. And that child strutted around like a peacock once she got everything on her little body. It was a sight to behold, especially after she covered herself in grey Crayola marker.



The boys spent a lot more non-negotiable time in their bedroom today so I took some of that time to compile another seller appreciation photo for one of my Etsy shop sales. I've decided I'll do it for my Etsy shop sales through the summer as time and children permit. I'm already dreaming up different scenarios and location shoots. Clearly, I have no problem keeping myself entertained...

Monopoly is top on the list tomorrow and then necklaces because Thursday the kids are back to school! Apparently the CDC, local health department and ISD officials jumped the gun on these school closures. Go figure. Good job, Chicken-Little Media Folk. Whatever will we do when the sky actually IS falling?

I will leave you with some snaps of my champion gerbera daisies (they're champions because they all manage to survive my brown thumb!):

such a lemming...

As I was browsing my usual blogs this morning I noticed this neat little addition at the bottom of each post. I love a good suggestion link and these come with pictures too! So with curiosity piqued, I followed the LinkWithin link and picked up a widget for myself. It is beyond easy to set up and I think you should go get one too.

Back to business for me...more beads to be made, necklaces to string and games to be played. Too bad the sun's not out...we could do most of that outside if it weren't so glum and chilly.

Check back this evening for a report on Day Two of the SFSSCB.

swine flu scare school closure break: day one

I am happy to report we have survived Day One of the Swine Flu Scare School Closure Break (SFSSCB). With the way the boys have been after school the last few weeks I fully anticipated a truly awful day of yelling and screaming and fighting and bickering. Much to my surprise, there was very little of any of that mess. Awesome! Don't get me wrong, we all had our moments today, but for the most part it was an easy, fun day.

We started our day to boys and girl up bright and early, ready for breakfast. Breakfast was served and then a bit of Noggin was watched - Toot and Puddle is NOT to be missed around these parts. Before Lynn left for the day he was suckered charmed into fixing Molly a glass of milk and a stack of Oreos. She sat at the kitchen table dunking her cookies into her milk like an old pro, so I went on about my business of putting up laundry only to return minutes later to her cup of milk dumped onto her plate and her hands splatting milk and cookie debris all over the table, herself and the floor. She got a little swat and a scolding for it and I got the full water works, complete with sobs and quivering lip and ending with her in a heap on the kitchen floor. Mommy's little drama queen...

Everyone played outside anytime the sun decided to show its face. Lots of Legos were built and Star Wars play was in thick rotation as well. Then Caleb demanded I make good on my promise to let him string a new necklace. I convinced him he needed a new bead to use as a pendant and then he remembered the owl necklace and had to have one of his own. Oh and an alien bead too, please. Logan wasn't all that interested until I started pulling out all my tools and supplies.

It's funny, right now Caleb isn't all that concerned with the process, only the outcome; whereas, Logan is all about the process and the outcome is bonus. This makes for LOTS of questions. Oh, the questions.





So here are the beads we collaborated on this afternoon. The owl is Caleb's. He requested it be red with purple eyes. He also asked for a green beak...which I completely forgot about until I was cleaning the bead. Caleb totally surprised me: instead of pitching a fit royale, he just went with the flow, "because it is definitely not a Christmas owl." The dude in the middle is Caleb's bead also. He wanted it to be a green bead with purple eyes and light green stringer decoration on it somewhere. Aside from that he didn't have a preference. Logan and I thought we should do a cyclops with horns. Well, the horns turned into snail eyes and then I put the stringer dots on before the mouth making the mouth weird and lopsided...but it is an alien bead and aliens look weird. Or so I'm told. Still a hit though. Logan wanted his alien to be green with four orange eyes, a yellow nose and a red mouth. He also wanted light green spikes all over, but I accidentally melted a few too far into the bead so we agreed that all should be melted in for continuity. I love a kid who pays attention in art class!

Anyhoo, tomorrow we'll bead some necklaces for the new beads and we have a Monopoly game scheduled too. Fingers crossed for another good day!