HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I'm about to start my Halloween prep, I just thought I'd say
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!



(I have a major soft spot for Fiona Apple. Her voice is incredible.)

I hope yours is wonderful! :) xoxo

Happy Weekend!

Well, it's finally Friday. It's that day when some of you breathe a sigh of relief, and others just work straight through. For me... well, it's Thursday. I don't know what my deal is, but every second I'm not concentrating on the fact that it is Friday, my mind decides that this day is Thursday. No, brain. No. I already had my Thursday, and what a lovely Thursday it was...


Okay, so there ended up being NO skating. It was a little disappointing, but the grown up in me breathed a little easier. I mean, I'm a lot bigger now, which means I fall a lot harder. ;) Like I said, it was a great evening. I got to spend some great time with these pretties:


...annnnnnd Mr. Will, who is not pictured, but is great all the same. :)

Recently I went to a flea market and found the greatest bit of yarn embroidery that I was going to tea stain and hang in my kitchen. Sadly, when I got home I realized that something had happened and it didn't make it in my bag. I really have been dwelling on this for a couple of weeks... not crying about it or anything, just wishing it had made it home with me. Today I took that and turned it into inspiration. Well, half inspiration. The other half came from talking to my dearest friend Christin yesterday, who lives in PA and loooooves elephants.


I love him to pieces! He doesn't have a name or anything (go figure), but I know I want him to be a boy. I spent forevvvver working on him, but he was worth it.

Show and Tell

So, my friend James had the best idea ever. All of those fun collections and special things you have around your house, well, she's doing a little bloggy show and tell. I think it's so fun... and funny... it's just really cute. If you haven't popped over, you should. Then you can see what all of the giant kids (including myself) are showing off. :)

I had to show off my wax lips. I <3 them. I'm sleepy from a great night. Will tell tomorrow... xo Kates

Busy Bee!

Okay, so I'm just popping in to say I love you and show you something new. Then I have to pack for Hope, go buy juice boxes and run to the class party, drop Hope off at Mema's work, head out of town, grab some food, and GO SKATING (later)!!! I just wanted to share this new dragonfly-- it was a request for a friend and I nearly forgot about it... well, I did forget until that friend texted me the day before it was due and reminded me. I snapped some pictures in terrible lighting and now it's already off... can you tell I still didn't get around to building that light box???


Like I said, terrible lighting-- she was just gorgeous in person. The fabric on the top of the wings is shiny. I hate to see her go... except, I know the lovely lady who gets her, so it's bittersweet.

I'm off to find my skates and do my other stuff. I'm sure to fall plenty of times tonight, because even though I have mega awesome skates, well, that doesn't make me a great skater, does it? :) Have a lovely day! <3 Katie

Pumpkin Patch!

Today was such a lovely day. Hope got out of school early and the
weather was amazing, so we decided it was the perfect day to finally
make it to the pumpkin patch. The place was really cool. There were
little games and a tiny cafe inside of the greenhouse, and outside they
had a hay bale maze and tractor rides to take you out to the pumpkin
patch. Here's a glimpse:



























































































































































Like I said, it was a good day. We brought the pumpkins home and carved them. I'll try to remember to take pictures of them tomorrow. We always let Hope draw all of the faces and then Johnny and I have the task of trying to cut them out. She does draw pretty small, so sometimes that can be very challenging. When they are finished they are almost always adorable and HILARIOUS. :)

I hope your evening is full of something great. See you tomorrow. xoxo Katie xoxo

Well, Lookie There

Yep, lookie there- I have 200 blog followers. That is pretty amazing,
really. You guys are very cool. Thanks for reading my ramblings.
*smoooooch*

source

source

source

I know this is sort of random, but I've been obsessing over pretty
paper cranes lately. I REALLY want to do something like the last
picture in my home. I think it could be really great, only problem is,
I live in a fairly small house with lots of covered area. I'm not sure
where I would put it. I may have to rework a few
things... ;)

I meant to take some photos of my narwhal brigade, but I was busy
taking photos for a different project. A secrety one. One of those
things that makes you wish you'd thought of it first because it's so much
fun. I'll tell you more when I can. For now I must go- carpal tunnel is
showing its ugly face and I need to curb it. You know, with all the sewing
and whatnot that I need my hands for. Nighty night. xo Katie

A Short Post

A little post because I just can't stand NOT to share my new friends. I was working on ornaments last night, and I accidentally made a pattern too large. Here's what happened:


Mini narwhal and mini narwhal girlfriend! I loooooove the girl- she is so sweet! By the time I'm done tonight, I'm hoping to have a dozen of these made. It's my first real factory day in preparation for Renegade. I'll shoot a pic of my army-- hopefully tomorrow.

I had a lovely evening with my mother-in-law. A little dinner and shopping for kiddo clothing. We never get to spend quality time together anymore, (we just stay too busy) so it really was nice getting to chit chat and reminisce. Johnny should be home at around 3 in the morning, so I'll be working until then (if I can stay awake). If you aren't too busy, you should pop over to my friend James' blog. She's having a wonderful giveaway. Sleep tight. *love and kisses* Katie

Rosco(e)

Once upon a time, we were recording some songs in a studio not too far from here. Hope was with us that day, and being incredibly patient. We decided to go outside to get some fresh air, because this studio really was more like a cave, and sunlight sounded refreshing. As we were enjoying the outdoors, a dog came up to us. As Hope was petting it, the dog realized Hope looked like a tasty snack and ATTACKED her. By attacked, I mean jumped up and bit her throat! Ferociously. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. That dog's name was Rosco.

There is this game that Hope loves to play now. She will say, "You be Rosco and I'll be Hope," and Johnny will pretend to be that dog, jumping up and biting her throat. It's a little disturbing and demented, but also slightly humorous. I tell you this, because A) this game was happening in my house last night (yet, again) and B) because I am in love with a band called Midlake. I listened to this song today, and just laughed. Oh, Rosco(e).



Have a great day! <3 Katie

Etsy Fav Fav Favs

Some Etsy pretties I REALLY want (yeah, I have a case of the wants).

Amazing art.

The loveliest dress.


The best earrings ever!

Adorable paper dolls.

Pretty, pretty cape.

I'm off to spend some time with my family-- Johnny is leaving for Minnesota in the morning, in hopes of buying his dream guitar. It's quite the drive from Missouri, so he'll be going to bed soon to get some rest before the drive. Have a good evening-- if I can locate my card reader, I'll have new things to show tomorrow! xoxo Katie xoxo

Tutorials

A couple of you have asked for tutorials on the finger garland and the poms, so I thought I'd lead you to some links. First of all, when you start making poms, you won't stop. They are so fun and they brighten everything. Here's a great tutoria.l These things were ALL OVER the last craft fair I went to. I added them to my fall wreath to make it more fun.




Here's great tutorial for the finger garland. This is a lot of fun to do, also... especially if you have a little one around to help. :) After I finished my garland, I just cut some leaves out of various fabrics and zigzag stitched them to some felt to keep them flat. Then I cut up a few more poms to give it a little weight and nice texture. I used the finger weaving last year to make a really pretty garland for my Christmas tree. I plan to do it again this year, but in a different color.



Annnnd, not that I have any amount of free time, really, but I would really like to make this:


I think that crocheted wreath is SO pretty. It really wouldn't take much time-- maybe I can squeeze it in. ;) I'm also planning to make a braided rag rug soon, so we'll see how all of this goes. I think it's mostly internal rebellion-- not wanting to be sewing every second of the day, but knowing I have so much work to do in the next month to prep for this festival. Anyway, I hope these are a few things to make your weekend even better! <3 Katie

Happy Randomness

Happy Friday, everyone! I can't seem to gather my thoughts tonight, so I'll be keeping the words to a minimum. First of all, I just had to share these wedding cake owls. They might be my very favorite couple (so far).

The colors are so fallish and vibrant, and I loooove the little top hat and tie combo. So cute!

This morning I walked into the kitchen and found some of Hope's papers from this week. They had me cracking up!


Yep, that's my kid writing about poop at school. When I asked her to maybe not write about poop at school, she seemed really upset and said, "What about when I'm telling stories on the playground?" Uh, what do I even say to that? :)

I spent quite a bit of time in my sewing room today, and I thought I'd share some pretty things that make me smile.


Lastly, some pictures of the fort. It's been so fun playing in there with Hopey. We are leaving it up for quite a while, and decorating as we go.

We decided that we HAVE to sleep in a pile. :)

We also decided to start a band. Hope plays the accordion and I have the little organ. :D

Her bed is a platform bed with a slide, so it was perfect for building the semi-permanent fort. I think we will be making paper cranes for it tomorrow. I'll take some daytime pics soon, so you can really see it.

I'm off to do some snuggling now... I hope your weekend is wonderful. I can't wait to show my custom work to you next week. There are some very exciting things! xoxo Katie

Fall and Pandas

This dreary weather has been making me so sleepy. It's rainy and cold (again-- but NOT complaining), and though I feel like I'm chugging black tea, I think I could nap at any second of the day. I did manage to complete a few things. First off, the fall garland I mentioned yesterday. It makes my living room look a little more autumny, which I love.


I also finished my little panda! I'm really excited about this one-- I've been loving bears lately, but have felt that I couldn't do one justice. A panda was just the thing I needed- now maybe I'll be brave enough to make a sweet little bear. :)



I adore his over-sized bow tie! It's my favorite thing besides the contrasting patterns. He's still without a name-- I find myself drawing a blank these days. It's probably because I've named so many of these little guys by now.

I think I'm going to go make some more homemade hot cocoa, light some pretty candles, and enjoy this autumn evening. I hope you get to do the same. <3 Kate