Monarch Post

good news and more good news

My good news:

I love getting surprises in my mailbox. So much so that sometimes I order a good used book from Amazon and then purposely try to forget about it... when the mail shows up a few days later, I have a nice little "surprise" package waiting for me. (Does anyone else do this? If you haven't you should. Surprise yourself. You know you deserve it:)).

This week was even better-- a real unplanned surprise. For a minute, I couldn't figure out why Art Doll Quarterly was in my mailbox. And then I remembered answering Somerset's call for upcycled art dolls, and mailing off my recycled sweater/papier mache fairy doll, Susan Gloria last fall.
I wrote about her last spring. And now she's in one of my very favorite magazines! Yay! Is that bragging? I hope not. (And I remembered I'd let you know if she made the magazine). It's just such a pleasure and a treat to be in a Somerset publication. (I've even left the magazine on the kitchen table, on the entry table, on my work table this week-- just so I can casually walk by, flip the pages, and say, "Oh ya, I'm in there...  la, la, la." Complete narcissism, I know. But I'm thinking of it as nice, clean, fun narcissism :-D

Anyhoo...moving on... more good news:

If you live in Utah, circle your calendar for this date:

February 16th @ 12:00 noon.  I'm planning a lunch @ Oakridge Country Club for local blog women. Last November, after running into a few local creative blogger ladies, we decided that actually meeting more local blogger ladies would be really fun. Now it's time to spread the word-- so if your local, email me for details. The more the merrier!

*****

I'm sorry the blog posts have been skimpy here lately. I'm so busy working on hearts, flowers, and all sorts of handmade goodies for the local children's shop I'm selling to. But when things settle down, I'll be back to better blogging.  Hope all's well with you. Lotsa love, xoxoKelly

the doors

I ran across this collage on flickr. I loved it.

"In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself."

~Jiddu Krishnamurti 

Wishing you a week of only open doors. ~xoKelly

what a crew!

If you haven't lately, you really need to run right over to Craft Hope's site. A spirit-filled few days of wonderful community just happened there. In just three short days, the brand-new Craft Hope Etsy shop sold over 550 donated craft items, raising over $10,000 dollars for Haiti and Doctors without Borders! Truly amazing. They are regrouping for a little while to figure out how not to be victims of their own success. They will begin accepting handmade donations again in about two weeks.

Just read that Rebecca Sower has also set up an Etsy shop, Haiti by Hand, and is asking for handmade items to fill it.

I'm working on items for Etsy and a local children's shop. Valentine decorations and remade teddy bears in felted sweater clothes and little pinafores. It was so much fun making these sweetie pie bears and their sock monkey buddy. 

 
I love making baby jingle balls...

and red Mary Jane shoes. Can you tell?

 
I think this miss in the green sweater needs some Mary Jane's too. And I need to go find the floor in my workroom. It looks like someone threw a party in there, must have been these guys. Whadya think? ~xoxKelly

spreading the word

I just checked in over at Craft Hope to see if anything had been posted about helping Haiti. As usual, they are quick responders. An Etsy shop has been opened today for crafters to donate handmade items. 100% of all proceeds will go to aid the recovery effort in Haiti. Money is still the most needed item. We donated to the Red Cross already, but I think there is always the need to make it feel somehow more personal. Craft Hope certainly knows how to do that. They are asking to spread the word about their efforts, so here we are... 

 
And while we're on the subject of spreading the word, I found a brand new bakery next door to the dog groomers this morning. The Sweet Cake bake shop is lovely. if you're local, you really should stop by and try the chocolate cupcakes. Oh my. (Roll eyes here). You are in for a treat. It looks like they are open for online sales now too.

Northern Utah has the worst air in the country right now. We're being advised not to be outdoors if possible. And after my outings this morning, I know why. My lungs are burning! I can't ever remember the air getting this bad. The fog is so thick, and the hoar frost is still on the trees this afternoon. I'm glad to be home. So grateful for our refuge. Can't stop thinking about all those who don't have a home today... I picked up a little bouquet of yellow and white flowers, and a red wooden heart ornament on my way through the grocery store also today... I think we're set to stay inside and hope for a snowstorm to blow all this thick, nasty air away. 

   Now we have decadent cupcakes, cheery flowers, and Valentine's decorations in the kitchen-- I think that should lighten up the fog right now.  If you can't go out to a party, bring the party home-- right?

Take care. Hope your weekend is lovely,  xoxoKelly

  

  
 

very funny

    I walked into our bathroom this morning to take a shower. I noticed a note taped to my bathroom mirror.  

    Mike is out of town. So it seems the message was just for moi. It looks like I've been punk'd by my little punk.

    And then I remembered what's been on his night stand for bedtime reading lately. It came in his stocking for Christmas. Apparently Santa has lost his marbles-- what was he thinking, giving a ten-year-old boy a book like this?  Stay tuned.

a happy, wooly explosion

It always seems to take a little time after Christmas for me to get back in gear creating something new. Kinda like I need to throw sand behind my back tires-- I'm spinning my wheels for a couple of weeks. But then the usual post-Christmas scenario kicks in, and goes something like this: go to the grocery store for the after Christmas storage or cleaning supplies, spot the Valentine candy and heart-shaped paper doilies, get a big smile on my face, yell "Yippeee!" to my self, go home, and get busy. The wheels start moving forward again! 

And it works every year. Seriously. Seeing valentine candy is as good as seeing the first spring daffodils. If hearts only smelled like daffodils... well, that would really do it for me.

So, I've been busy here. Everything came down from my studio last week. I wanted to hang out with the football watching family, and now the kitchen table looks like something wooly and cheerful has exploded. I'm cranking out the hearts, and everyone is eating somewhere else. Sophey sits down and joins me, she inspires me to not think, and just make. Kids are so good at this. It takes tons of focus for me to be that way. Crafting these hearts has turned into a creative exercise in following the heart-- no thinking it over, just playing at it like a kid. So fun.

  
 

Teeny ones too.

It seems good to use up all the little scraps and odd buttons; kinda like taking all the small containers of leftovers out of the fridge and making a winter's day soup. I always feel good about myself when that happens, too many times those containers contain unknown fuzzy blue stuff :-O

Anyways, gotta get back to making hearts for a local store... I've listed some of the hearts in my Etsy, if your interested.  Take care! xoxoKelly 

Here's to a brand new year!

 

The last of the ornaments (my favorite handmades here) got packed up and put away over the weekend. Christmas has almost vanished here, except for my poor wilting poinsettias. I always feel sorry for the ones that have to come and live at my house. Their days are always very numbered-- can't keep the things alive for longer than three weeks no matter how hard I try. 

Sophey made our New Year's Eve cake. We came up with the idea a few years ago, I think it's our new tradition. We all blow the candles out at midnight and make a wish for the coming year. It's kinda nice.

We usually order Chinese and stay in on New Year's Eve. This was the messsage in my fortune cookie. It seemed so appropriate for the past year. 2009 was one of the hardest years I've had. Losing my Mom has been tough on so many different levels. I haven't talked much about it all-- who wants to come to a blog for inspiration and find sadness... But I'm grateful for all the wonderful goodness in my life, and I've tried to stay focused on all that goodness. Working to stay focused on the love, and beauty in this family and home has pulled me through. Focusing on creativity has helped me heal and find joy more than I could have ever imagined. Since I was a little girl, I've always created. I've spent years creating professionally too. It's something that's in me-- a need needing to always find expression. It makes me so happy to be in the middle of the creative process. So many people think the pursuit of art and craft is just fluff. It's not. But I know now that I really didn't understand the awesome power of creativity until this last year... It is tranformational power, power that can take a painful heart and make something completely new start to grow again inside.

So all that being said-- here's to 2010! I have to say, I breathed a sigh of relief when the clock struck midnight and 2009 was officially over. Thanks for all the lessons... but I hope I don't need to repeat those lessons again this year. (I'd like an order of nice soft lessons for a year, thank you very much.)

I've got lots of plans in the work for 2010. My time is more my own now. And my mind is running along with ideas-- how to make this old blog better, how can I serve more through creativity, how can I share more this passion to create. Lots to think about... I'm working on it.

And thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and offer sweet, kind words of encouragement. It means the world to me. I am constantly amazed at what's happening in our little corner of blogland. I believe this is what true community is really all about. People sharing and supporting so freely-- without any thought of what's in it for me. We can learn and share and be inspired to keep journeying along on our creative paths-- without competition. And that is a pretty amazing thing to me, my friends! THANKS!!! xoxoKelly