Today Is Canceled, Go Back To Bed

I hope everyone celebrating had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday!  We got to spend a lot of nice time with family yesterday, and we are taking most of today off to spend a little time just the four of us.  You won't find me out in the Black Friday shopping chaos, instead I plan to drink lots of tea (still sick, ugh), have a little dance party with the girls, and HOPEFULLY set up our Christmas tree.  This is the latest I've ever waited and I'm beyond ready!

Have a very happy weekend, friends!

We Heart Art Feeds

We've been in love with Art Feeds in this house ever since we heard about their cause.  I believe art to be an important part of expression and development in children, and this organization gives more kids the opportunity to experience this.

"Art Feeds believes all children are artists. We exist to feed creative development and facilitate emotional expression in children through art and community. To do this, we provide free therapeutic art and creative education programs within schools and children's organizations by mobilizing teams of community members to bring all forms of art into classrooms."


If you'd like to learn more about Art Feeds, check out their website and learn more of what they are about. ART IS IMPORTANT. xo.

My Little Sewing Corner

When I switched up my desk area, I rearranged my (hand) sewing spot as well.  My studio side of the room had all the furniture basically pushed against the wall, which made the floorspace for projects long and narrow.  Once I eliminated the corner desk, I knew it was the perfect place for a cozy sewing spot, AND it allowed me more floorspace to work on larger projects.  Whenever I'm hand stitching animals, this is where you will find me.

Our bedroom has an issue with lighting since it is such a long space, so I bought a hanging light to suspend above the sewing area.  Now I don't have to constantly move a lamp over or strain my eyes.  Honestly, I should have done this years ago.  It's so much more motivating when you can actually SEE what you are doing.  My stuffing stays in this old cedar chest that was passed down to me from my mother, and I hung some of my favorite art on the wall.  I left a few blank spaces so I can add more as I find it.  

I've spent a good little chunk of time here lately as I'm speedily stitching up ornaments.  My goal is to have them in the shop the Monday after Thanksgiving (Cyber Monday).  I'll keep you posted on all that.  For now, back to hand stitching!

Snapshots

In the spirit of keeping things real, I'll just be honest and say- a good bit of our life has been really tough for the last month or so.  These snapshots of shiny moments truly were happy bits, but Hope has been going through some anxiety issues lately and it has been very hard on everyone.  I don't want to go in to too much because it isn't really my story to tell, but it's nice to just say, "Hey, life is good AND life is hard, blog friends."  BUT, if life didn't have the hard stuff, we'd never grow as people.  I try to constantly remind myself of that whenever I'm feeling more than spent.  Here are some of the happy things from the past few weeks:

*I made these cats for a sweet couple a month or two ago.  Wedding cake toppers are some of my favorite things to make.
*Since it's gotten really cold here Google has kinda sorta become an indoor cat.  You can't leave a sweet cat outside to freeze, right???
*Poesy is 100% personality.  Have you heard the term "threenager"?  I'm pretty sure someone saw into the future and coined that after experiencing all that is Poe.
*Okay, this may sound like the most boring thing ever, but in times where I feel overwhelmed by life, I take a breath, fill my water can, and just enjoy the moment.  I mean, of course I water my plants when I don't feel overwhelmed as well, but it's seriously calming for me.
*I helped a sweet friend paint her outdoor furniture THE DAY before Missouri decided it loved winterish weather more than fallish weather.  We scored at the buzzer or some sort of sporty analogy I have no business using.  ;)
*Our house is always overrun with music gear in inappropriate places right now, but I swiped the rug from the dining room and put it in the living room.  I'm loving the color it brings to the space.

Anyway, I hope you all have a super duper weekend!  Many of you have emailed me asking about ornaments this year, and I AM going to be selling them.  There won't be as many as last year, but I would be too sad to skip making them this year.  It's something I always look forward to!

Happy Friday, friends.  xo.

Weekly Wears: Home Sweet Home

As I mentioned yesterday, I missed out on our first Missouri snow this weekend.  My friends were all sending me snaps of beautiful snowflakes and it reminded me all over again of why I love my home.  It's not the weather, it's the people.  Home is where your best friends are, and though I have tons of people I care about all over the country, this concentrated friend spot is my very favorite.  I have so many quality people in my life... people who do little things like send me pictures of snow because they know how much I love it.  They are good.

Dress: Urban Outfitters;  Bodysuit: F21;  Tights: ASOS;  Knee Socks: ASOS;  Shoes: Nasty Gal;  Coat: c/o Emerging Thoughts;  Necklace: Shlomit Ofir;  Clutch: DIY here

Now it's time for me to dive back into work in order to meet my deadlines this week.  I hope you are all having a wonderful one so far!

Smell Ya Later, Nashville

As I mentioned last week, I took a weekend off (four days, to be exact) and flew to Nashville.  I stayed with my sweet friend, Gowa, who I met through the internet.  When we first met up in person, we had already been friends for months via texts, emails, etc, so when it was love at first sight earlier this year, neither of us was surprised.  We share a million common interests, so spending 4 days with this pal was nonstop fun.


She lives in this darling little cabin in the woods and we had fires in her wood-burning stove every morning as we planned our day.  This place could not be more charming.  Straight out of a book.  She has a really great Etsy shop full of handmade leather goods, so you should definitely check it out if you're looking for gifts this holiday season.


We shopped, went to honky tonk bars, saw Jenny Lewis (!!!), went to the Opryland Hotel, ate like kings, and heard SO MUCH great music from local bands.  It's crazy how talent-saturated Nashville is.  Everyone I met was amazing.

It was nice to have a weekend away, but you know how great it always feels to get home.  I'm getting back into the swing of things today, as I have lots going on this week, but it's great to be back in Missouri... though it did snow while I was away and I was a little jealous I had to miss that.  The trade off was worth it, I guess.  ;)

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Snapshots: iPhone Edition

**Lips sweater from Emerging Thoughts and Bob's Burgers and Simpsons pouches from Danny Brito's shop.

Friday, you're here again already???  It's been another crazy/good/weird/exhausting week, but I have the weekend off (what?!).  I'm taking a trip to see see an out of town friend, catch a Jenny Lewis show AND a Cotton Jones show, and do some serious vintage shopping.  It's going to be a really good weekend!  I hope you all get some relaxing in!  xo.  Katie

My Office Area Makeover

When we first moved into this house, I was more than pumped about our bedroom.  It's large enough to be a multi-functional space for my work, our music gear, and still be a sweet space to sleep.  You can see our full bedroom tour from last year right here.  As months have passed and I've worked on project after project, this lovely space has turned into a disaster.  My desk wasn't super functional, my fabric stash has gotten out of hand, and storage for craft supplies became an issue.  I knew I needed to rethink the way I had things set up, or just accept that our sacred space was going to forever be covered in scraps of paper and piles of fabric.

So, first things first: my desk area.  My desk was cute, but it was also uncomfortable and I rarely found myself working there.  We had this desk we snagged from the Red Velvet estate sale last year on the other side of the room for Johnny, but it was just a station where we parked papers and junk... so I swiped it.


I got this pink paint on clearance (I ALWAYS check the clearance paint-- you never know what you're going to find) and was saving it for the right project.  BINGO.  I went to town painting the desk pink and sanding the black paint off of those chrome legs.  I know it's just a matter of taste, but geez... who paints chrome legs black???  I decided to leave the drawer alone for a little bit of contrast, and I love the way it turned out.


I pulled an old record player out of our basement to use as a printer stand and transferred my favorite desk pieces from my old desk.  The Rilo Kiley quote is from this DIY, the dreamcatcher was made by my favorite pal Gowa, Hope made the ceramic pizza in pottery class, I bought the hair print from ChipperThings on Etsy, and the little framed guy is a Laura Berger original.  The other stuff is either vintage or crafted.

I love my little functional office space now.  It's important to have a space that not only inspires you, but is easy and comfortable to utilize.  I'll be showing you my other work areas soon!  Sometimes it takes time to figure out what works for you and what doesn't.  xo.