Monarch Post

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

  

 

weekends, here and there

Meet my new birthday present! Isn't it gorgeous. It's been sitting in a bag since the Mothers Without Borders charity bazaar, waiting till it was officially my birthday (It's Saturday, but today is close enough, right?) When I saw it, I told Mike I'd picked out my birthday gift! It's hanging across the upstairs hall banister now, giving lots of personality to a spot that was boring.

 
Never got around to posting photos from the bazaar weekend. These are some of the women who have been taught to sew by Mothers Without Borders. They sustain themselves now with sewing skills.

Such talents. Fifty plus natives, sold out. Mothers Without Borders helps find ways for those talents to be shared, and the crafters now earn incomes from their folk art.

 


Even the children are being taught to sew and crochet to sustain themselves with a trade. Look at their beautiful art!

I have to say, buying that quilt and knowing each dollar would go back to Africa to do lots more good felt really, really, really good. Beats WalMart (where I don't go anyway) shopping all to heck...  

........ 

I'm tagging along with the husband, who has a conference in Palm Springs this weekend, for my birthday gift. Just the two of us for three days-- I won't know how to act!? But I plan on learning fast at the pool;)

Take care, hope your weekend is wonderful too! xoxoKelly 
 

   

beauty is...

 
" Beauty is..." That was the title for our kids school-wide art contest this year. We're grateful for a school that still places a strong emphasis on art education. The "Reflections" contest had categories from A-Z. All forms of visual arts-- painting, photography, 3D art. You name it. Dance, film, poetry. It was fun to see all the kids stepping on stage, grinning, and receiving their purple ribbons.

Sophey and Jesse took home three ribbons between them. And Sophey won a district level award for her 3D hand sculpted pink papier mache piggy bank. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder-- pink pigs and soccer fields, it all depends on your perspective, doesn't it?

 
Pink skirts on the dog-- that's pretty beautiful to me too. Lots of giggling here lately. The kids seem to get more creative when the weather gets cold, and there's less to do outside. And Winston doesn't seem to mind at all; he's just happy to be part of playing time.

  And my own beautiful thing last week? A fabulous local childrens'/moms' book and gift store who saw my designs, bought a whole big load of my handcrafted items--ornaments, brooches, bracelets, scarves, AND sock monkey outfits! 

 
We started talking sock monkey making, and apparently, all her store sock monkeys needed clothing. They are now stylishly dressed in my new sock monkey couture;) Clothing certainly makes the monkey:O

I'm back in my studio today-- making more goodies. I worked like crazy right till Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving was low key and relaxing for us this year. We skipped the turkey and grilled steaks-- yep, really. No shopping yesterday either-- I avoid Black Friday like the Black Plague... Monday will be a Christmas shopping day.

Hope you're all enjoying the long holiday weekend! xoxoKelly 
 

not your average cookie cutter creations;)

I suppose this is what happens after you write two posts about gingerbread-- those dog-eaten cookies, and those nummy gingerbread pancakes... It's only natural to follow up with gingerbread ornaments made from recycled wool, er, if you're me, after all. I've made some of the growing gingerbread crowd into kids' ornament kits, while other sets are ready made for my Etsy shop.

Anyhoo, sorry for the unplanned blog break. Sick kids here, falling like dominoes. I think I ran to the grocery store for Gatorade, and whatever else sounded good about every day last week. And also last week, I lost my camera. The oldest sick person, Ainsley came over here to be sick (There's no place like home to be sick, right?) for a day. In between feeling lousy, she worked on crocheting an afghan, and I wanted to blog about her creation. And how for generations, the ladies in my family have crocheted. But no camera. Hunted everywhere. I found it later that evening, when I went to my embroidery thread basket... because you know, that's just where a camera should be, right? Sheesh.

I'm trying to be more organized and useful today-- so here's that post for how to make a coat wreath pin.

I do have to tell you, it was inspired by my lovely, sweet maternal Grandma Warner. I remember the little crocheted green coat wreath pins with a red yarn bow she made for Christmas. And how as a child, I thought they were the most wonderful, clever things. My Grandma was a farm wife and a mother of nine during the Depression years.. I loved her, and how she smelled... White Shoulders perfume, Jergens lotion, coal dust, and farmy. More like cow-ey, actually. She lived next door to a cow stockyard. She was always complaining about the "cow dust" in her home, and the smell. But I always liked it. And the mixture of White shoulders perfume, and cow dust.... Well you'd just have to smell it to understand, I'm sure. Love you, Gramma.

Cut two strips of felted wool. Approx 1" wide X 9" long. Twist both pieces together like so in the photo. Just until they twist, but don't knot.

Tie a regular old knot with the red wool strips. (That is a crappy photo, I just realized. Sorry)

Cut the green wool strips into leaf shapes. Trim red bow. Sew on a few beads for berries. Sew a jewelry pin backing onto the back.

Gee, you're done. Was that worth directions? I hope I didn't insult anyones' intelligence on this one. The thing is, you never know... I'm sure some people would look at this, and know exactly how to make it, and others would be stumped. I am often stumped at something simple, so in the spirit of, um, whatever you might call it, here you go:) 

If I'm not here more than once or twice a week until Christmas is over; I'm Okay, just busier. Right now, I really want to make so many things. Some of those things are for my kids, and a couple of those kids actually read their Mom's blog (gasp!) So, I know I can't post all of what I'm working on at the moment. And I also really want to just share ideas for Christmas right now. And I want to try and have a successful Etsy shop, like, someday. Maybe like now would be good, huh?

Take care, hope all's well with you? Are you making anything fun for the holidays?

Tell me tell me, please! xoxoKelly

winner, winner, pancake dinner

 
 My new sock monkey helped draw the winning name.... Congrats to Cindy @ Yapping Cat Studio. Yay! Email me your address and I'll get the giveaway goods in the mail for you!

 
Of course, she couldn't read the winning ticket herself, since she's still needing her eyeballs sewn on:)

I think I'll take her, and her eyeballs with me to the skate park this afternoon, I'll stitch while the kids are skate. Then we'll get to designing a wardrobe with that stack of wool and cotton tomorrow.

 It's early out all week at our school for parent/teacher conferences. Yesterday, Sophey and Jesse had their conferences, and they had amazing grades-- so we're heading out for some fun at the local skate park to reward those good grades today!

Last night to celebrate, I made the kids something sweet and new: Gingerbread pancakes and apple compote. Sounds fancy, but it was really simple. I found the recipe at messycook. It was sooo good! We all loved it. Jesse's friend ate over last night with us and said, "Everything your Mom makes is so good." Jesse replied, "Well, you haven't eaten everything she makes-- you shoulda been here when she made potato barf soup last month!" That's my kids-- always keeping it real, and me humble.  xoxoKelly

tales and a giveaway

Okay, here we go... I've been making more ornaments, and duplicates of these are here for you. Yes, that over-hyped giveaway is finally here folks...

So four handmade recylced, upcycled, sweet, sweater ornies could be yours-- for a comment:) How about your favorite or worst holiday story if you've got one too-- please do tell. Inquiring minds want to know;) Or just stop and say "hi!"

*****

So here's my Christmas tree decorating horror story: Christmas 1992. We had just moved back to Utah from a three-year Air Force stint in England. Mike had decided to take the Air Force early out option available at this time, and so we were able to settle down and buy our first home that October. We were excited to celebrate the holidays in our hew home as civilians. We had also promised the kids a dog after the move and house-buying. And so we did. We found a darling, young, spotted black and white shitzu mix at the pound. Ainsley instantly named her Spotley: in honor of herself-- Ains-ley, Spot-ley. (Because we are narcissistic like that sometimes.) Cute dog, cute house, cute kids. Christmas time. Life was sweet.

There was only one problem in the happy holiday homecoming story... I needed to have a painful, heel/bone spur removed before our military benefits ran out. Two days before Thanksgiving, I went in for the surgery. Two hours later, I woke up with a full cast (just below the knee) on my right leg. No one had told me any casts would be involved. No one?!! I was then told I would be in that cast for six weeks. I was an angry woman when I left the hospital... It was Christmas time, I had a seven-year old and an eighteen-month old baby, a new dog, and shopping to do. I couldn't drive. I couldn't walk. I had crutches. (There was no Amazon computer shopping back then.) It was icy outside. I had two pairs of sweat pants to wear for six weeks; jeans wouldn't go over my cast. I became an angrier woman in a hot pink sweatsuit. I looked ridiculous. Poor Mike.

Three weeks into cast wearing, it was time to get a new cast. The orthopedic tech asked if I wanted a colored cast this time. I somewhat sarcastically replied: ya, why don't you alternate the red and white cloth strips and make it look like a candy cane for Christmas... He did. Now I was an angry woman in a hot pink sweat suit with a candy cane cast on my right leg. And crutches. And Christmas fast approaching...

I think I'm making a long story longer here... Okay, onto tree decorating... Before my surgery, I made sure to bake dozens of our traditional gingerbread ornaments for the Christmas tree.  Four weeks in a cast had also made me a determined woman on crutches. I hobbled and hopped around the tree decorating the night away. I meticulously hung all those tucked-away gingerbread ornaments too. The tree was beautiful, and it was midnight. I hobbled to bed.

In the morning, I did my skip/hop/hobble downstairs to find a COMPLETELY DEMOLISHED Christmas tree. Almost every single ribbon hanger was empty of gingerbread ornaments. THE DOG HAD EATEN THE CHRISTMAS TREE!!! I learned that the cute new dog was apparantly part kangaroo, and could jump really high; while simultaneously eating gingerbread cookies. It never crossed my mind that I had made a tree bakery for the dog! (I grew up without a dog in the house.) I sat on the stairs and cried. After a really good feel-sorry-for-myself cry, I pulled everything off the tree and started over, minus gingerbread ornaments. I have never baked gingerbread cookies for a tree since, and I probably never will. As long as we have a dog in the house, anyways. Sheesh.

******* 

So tell us your stories-- good or bad about the holidays! And since you've stayed with me to the end of a post that was preeetty long, here's a little something extra.

 I've been making wreath brooches for my charity boutique this week.

They remind me of my grandmothers' and great aunts' pretty Christmas brooches. 

 
  

They're super simple to make. I'll post how-to's for sure next time:) 

And I'll leave this post up till Tuesday, Nov. 10th. Then we'll do a random draw. So pretty please... leave a comment or a story, I'd love to hear the tales!! xoxoKelly

P.S. If you are a local-- the MOTHERS WITHOUT BORDERS charity bazaar is this Friday and Saturday In Layton and Lehi, Utah. See above for details, and come if you can! 

a walking exercise in creativity

 
After dropping the kids off at school this week; I drove to the old area of our little town, and took some long walks.  I needed a change of scenery from my neighborhood walkabout. And what glorious scenery there was to see right now!

I think my favorite things about fall are the brilliant colors, front porches decorated for Halloween; how excited my kids are for trick-or-treating, and their endless costume planning. And candy corn, of course.

 
Love the old Grandma houses in this neighborhood... 

And all the pumpkin decorated porches.

 
The methodically decorated houses.

 
The sparsely decorated houses.

And the porches which seem to suggest lots of children living there...

 
I'll bet the Rodgers family lives here, what do you think?;)

 

And so with all that delicious, autumness inspiring me-- I got busy. I've wanted to try and make a fall garland out of recycled wools and fabrics for a long time, so I did. (I know I said I'd do the ornament how to's this week, but ornaments can wait a week, right?) Fall is wonderful right now...I'll do a giveaway too, we haven't done that in ages. Next week for sure!

I thought it would be really cool to make chains from the wool. I was really wrong. After ten chains; my eyes glazed over. After twelve chains; my eyes rolled back into my head. I nearly had a seizure. Ridiculously TEDIOUS, I tell you! 

 
I then had a much better idea: strips of garland. Yes, strips are good, and a garland happens in no time. But I still didn't want to sew all those strips together.

Best idea so far: garage sale scrapbook brads! I had a whole tin of them sitting by me, just waiting for a new purpose in life:)

 

  
 
  Strips now mixed together with those tedious chains. Much better...

 

Leaves brad-tacked on, and mantel draped. I think it makes my dated family room mantle really perk up, and say fall la la la la! (Sorry.)

Well, we're off to buy our pumpkins at our favorite patch-- our porch is currently pathetic. And I'm stopping at the fabric store to buy one of those quilty template things to use with my cool, new rotary cutter. I have strips to cut, and more garlands to make!

Have a great weekend. xoKelly

autumn stuff

Slow newsweek here, guys. I've been a crafting robot the last few days, hurrying to get as much stuff made as I could for the charity bazaar-- Mothers Without Borders. Mission accomplished, and a deadline met-- ornaments, red ribbons, twenty-seven bracelets, and a few random goodies delivered today. Yay!

The bracelets sold out last time almost before the boutique began. So I wanted to make as many as I could yesterday.

My favorite bracelets, the two Jesse made with the leftover findings.

 
On the home front, Sophey entered the school art/photography contest today. These are the photos she took around our house. It's gorgeous here right now. Nice work, sweetie.

***

  
 
And last Saturday, Ainsley, Sophey, and myself made our annual treck to "Witches Night Out". It's west of SLC, in a place called Gardner Village. It's a village of pioneer homes, now turned into fun shops.

 
We ran into some witch friends of ours.

 
This festival has grown so large, it really was wall-to-wall witches. So packed it was hard to get good photos. I'll bet there was a cool thousand witches strolling, shopping, dining, and literally dancing in the moonlight last Saturday. We unanimously decided it was kinda creepy hearing "Thriller", this year.

Snapped a blurry Glenda the Good Witch, while caught in the crowd.

 Shoot. Shoulda asked her if she coulda waved her magic wand, and turned a few piles of beads into bracelets...

 Always thinking of things like that a little too late. Dangit. xoxoKelly

And a big THANK YOU to Maria at GREEN EARTH ORIGINALS for donating her some of her beautiful beaded gracelets! Thanks again!

inspired ornaments

I found a box of perfectly preserved ornaments at the thrift store last week. Vintage 1970's stryrofoam, silk thread wrapped, red ornaments. Do you remember those? They frayed so easily, I was surprised to find a box of eighteen looking like new, maybe they never got used.

Anyway, I had plans to add trim and redo those ornaments; then I looked at the new pile of red and creamy, yummy wools I found that same thrift store day, and I got inspired... I made up a pattern and started decorating my own versions of vintage ornaments. So far, I've finished a dozen, with piles and piles of cut out ornaments to go... I've discovered it's a great way to use up odds and ends of trims, buttons, and beads.  

I especially like how the "tin" ornament caps turned out!

 

Next week I'll do a tutorial for you, if you're interested in making your own. Although they're so easy, I'm sure you could wing it and do just fine!

Hope you don't mind Christmas ornaments in October. I've always been one of those people who doesn't want to see Christmas in the shops until until Dec1! But the deadline for the charity boutique I'm working on is next week. So it's going to look like Christmas here for a bit!

I'm planning on filling my Etsy shop with my ornaments soon. I'm afraid if I don't do it now, the holidays will pass me by.

 Anyhoo, it's ornament-making time for a charity, Etsy, and my tree!  xoxo~Kelly

so far, so good

 
Back to working on crafting ideas and projects for the Mothers Without Borders charity boutiqe today. I've suddenly depleted my fab vintage earring and button stash! Tomorrow, I'll need to hit the thrift stores and hunt for more.

Anyways, I decided some stylish AIDS Awareness Day (Dec. 1st) red ribbons would be a perfect place to start crafting for this charity. They could even double as Christmas tree ornaments after wearing on Dec. 1st! :)

 

After a few fancy ribbons, I moved onto felted wool ribbon making. One felted red sweater back made about thirty ribbons! Not bad, for an old castoff. Plain and classic red wooly ribbons for the Land's End crowd, I'm thinkin.

Gotta run! Take care and happy Monday to you:) xoxo~Kelly