Monarch Post

enjoying...

Today I am enjoying:

My new thrift and fabric store finds.

A child's tea set in a red basket.

Just like the one I had when I was a kid.

(I don't know what happened to it).

A Minnie Mouse dancing figurine to add to the Disney collection.

A needlepoint granny purse.

New fabrics in colors and patterns I LOVE!

Fat quarters with FIVE great patterns... That never happens.

The amazing Indian summer we've had in Utah.

The leaves have stayed on the trees so long this fall...

And the "nesting in" that happens for me in the fall.

The cool weather always renews my creative energy.

I'm enjoying:

Sewing and working with wools again.

And making headbands and pins for the shop I sell to.

Lots of 'em :D

I'm enjoying:

the kids creativity too.

The creative "leftovers" on the kitchen table this morning.

The roses given to me by Mike last night... 

he worked long hours for us this week.

And turning old things into something new and different.

I think this will might be a child's purse for my shop when it's finished...

I'm enjoying stitching again,

and dreaming up new ideas to make and sell.

It's been a dry, uncreative year for me.

I am so glad that is all changing...

 

I think the tide has to go out

so that it can come back in.

 

I think the well has to be drained dry sometimes

before it can be filled with new water again....

 

And if you're the last five people left reading this old blog

that struggles sometimes to be real

and authentic,

and me,

then thanks for hanging out.

And in with me.

 

This  c r e a t i v e  life is my journey,

full of twists and turns,

valleys and mountains,

deserts and lush green gardens.

 

All I know for sure at this point in my life is

that life truly is a journey,

and it's made just by going on,

one foot in front of the other,

EVERY. DAY.

In fear and joy.

**********

 

(And all I really hope for this old blog is that it 

inspires you to live true and authentic too!)

(You are who you are for a reason and you are enough!)

 

Wishing you a lovely Friday and a happy weekend,

XOK

 

The WEDDING (part 3 ;)

 

I was planning a how-to post on the tabletop decorations we made for the wedding today, but of course I didn't actually take photos while I was making the crafts (that would have been too easy, of course) and it's just been so rainy and dreary here for the last few days, I haven't been able to take good photos... but I will, as soon as the sun is shining again!

So I'll do another post or two soon on making mercury glass look-alike vases (yes, thrift store vases and jelly jar glasses can make awesome wedding tabletop decorations ;) and a how-to for the photo booth photo by the vase and votive holder.

The black and white photo booth photo of the two of them was perfect... so so them. (They are constantly laughing and joking around all the time). I had to figure out a way to use it for a wedding decoration, and almost by accident, the photo of the two of them and the whole photo booth thing tied together really well.

 

Ainsley wanted a photo booth at the wedding after seeing this one at a bridal fair last January. It was such a hit-- I wouldn't have guessed it, but it was. The booth printed two photos, one went into their guest book with well wishes, and the other photo was tucked in with a bag of candy for the guests to take home. The kids at the wedding took about a zillion photos of themselves in the booth-- it turned out to be a great babysitter too! 

 

 

It was a great place for shmooching and being silly.

 

*************

Running off to my studio today, I think I've got wind back in my sails. I'm glad it's a rainy day today... the house and studio feel so cozy on days like this one.

And after the next couple posts, I'll quit blabbering on about the wedding and move on to other schtufff!

XOK!

The WEDDING- part 1!

 
Oh, what a week it has been.... I'm still taking it all in!

So far this is the only photo of the wedding day I have. Way, way too busy talking, hugging, laughing, and dancing to take a single photo!

When the wedding photos are posted on the photographers blog, I'll link it and show you what a beautiful wedding day we all had. (I don't think I've ever been in a more love-filled, joy-filled, spirit-filled place in my life).

 
I did remember to take a few photos of the flowers the morning after the wedding. I knew our florist was an artist, but I still couldn't get over how gorgeous the bouquets and the table arragements were.

 
Ainsley's bridal bouquet.

The blue brooch belonged to my maternal grandmother, Millie Warner. A '50s costume jewelry piece... it fit the old Hollywood vintage dress/wedding perfectly.

 

Something old, borrowed, and blue all in one... Made me feel like she was there for the day too.

 
Roses, delphinium, ranunculus, and phlox in the most gorgeous shades of salmons, peach, orange, and blue became the tabletop centerpieces.

 
 
 
There are four leftover bouquets in our bedroom, and two bouquets in our bath this week. The rooms smell so heavenly. The roses heavy scent mingled with the nutmeg-spicey phlox makes for the loveliest room perfume!

 
 
(The photo booth was the hit of the night...!)

Back with, "The Wedding- Part Two" (and probably part three, four, and five... ;) soon!

XOKelly 

Oh and P.S.- I just remembered you can see her bridal photos, (if you care to) they are on our photographers blog now.

 

 

Sun*day on a Friday

 
I'm backtracking for a post today... last weekend we threw a wedding shower for Ainsley and her girlfriends at our home. It was a craaazy busy week and I want to do a post on it, but the cool craft/wedding idea went home with the-bride-to-be without a photo; I'll have to retrive it and photograph it before another post.

But before the kids went back to school, I helped organize a fieldtrip with our church kids to Salt Lake City. We went on a hunt to find God in places other than our own church.

 
 

It was a gorgeous sun-dappled August day and Salt Lake city was wearing its finest dark aqua-blue sky for us.

 
The Cathedral of the Madeline is a stunning old grand dame with wonderful bones; she's painted so beautifully too. Feels like I've stepped back into time and Europe when I walk through her doors. It smells really old, spicey and just polished... with Lemon Pledge.

 
Loved the baptismal font.

 

 
 
Sunlight streaming through stained glass takes my breath away.

 

 
The kids were so attentive and well-behaved.

 

 
After the tour at the Cathedral of the Madeline, we went to a sister church, St. Paul's Episcopal in SLC. The kids were given snacks prepared by St. Paul's.  After the snacks we toured this lovely old church and the grounds too.

 

 
Each child was given a disposable camera with the instructions to take pictures of where you find God today. Lots of photos of flowers and other children were taken... the kids always get it.

 
 

 

 
Oh, those doors with all the kids charging out... such joy to watch.

 

 

 
After our tour at St. Paul's, we went to The Salt Lake Peace Gardens. Various ethnic communities in the Salt Lake valley have each planted their own gardens, all of the gardens then make up the entire Peace Gardens.

 
 

 

 
We had a sack lunch picnic at the Peace Gardens (we packed sack lunches the night before for all the kids). After lunch, the kids climbed trees (more fun apparently, than the swing sets) and played freeze tag to burn off energy... the parents watched and wondered how the kids had so much energy in ninety degree weather. I said "youth is wasted on the young". We all agreed.

We made one last stop at a funky place called Gilgal Gardens. Lots of stone and scripture creations there, but this on the side of a trash can made everyone laugh

After the Peace Gardens and Gilgal Gardens, we headed back to our church for music, communion bread-making, scrapbook-making, pizza, annnnd a sleepover.

We were gluttons for punishment :)

 

 
 

 
 
The cameras were rounded up and taken in for one hour development. Scrapbook supplies were spread out and the kids snipped, glued, and colored away.

 
 

The kids were fascinated with the film negatives-- they had never seen photo negatives and wanted to know what they were for?! (Ya, really).

They asked if the negatives could go on their srapbook pages.

I told them they could do whatever they wanted to-- it's art!

And the adults felt old.

 
 

 
We finished the day with a short, lovely outdoor communion service. 

The kids each held a small lit (!) candle; there was only one slightly singed head of hair-- whew.

In the morning we were served breakfast by members of the parish; the kids rolled up their sleeping bags and got their rides home.

And the adults tried to unroll various muscles after spending the night on the floor...

I went home and slept on the couch for four hours.

 

It really was a beautiful day... all in all.

 

 

 

Happy Easter, happy Spring!

 
Never lose an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful.    
 
It is God's handwriting- a wayside sacrament.

 
Welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

 

contemplating

 
Here's my best thrift shop find of the winter. Every morning now, I open it and let it fall to the page I need to read for the day. It's words are in alphabetical order-- starting at ACCEPT at page 1 and ending with YES! at page 365. A word a day for a year if you read it cover to cover, I just noticed.  It's filled with the wonderful sort of advice an inspired friend, spouse or a wise motherly soul would give you, just when you needed to hear them most. Words to comfort, inspire, nudge, and move you through your life with more authenticity. Words are powerful things, I've been coming to realize over the last couple of months. Words are made of energy too, just like everything else is, and they have the power to literally hurt or heal.

When I opened it today, thinking and asking for just the right page for you, the book fell open to the page LOOK... and... once again, it was just the right page-- for my cyber girl-friends, this time :)

 

LOOK

Look at yourself, how beautiful you are. Look at the love that pours from your eyes, look at how your wisdom and experience are written all over your face. Look at the beauty of other women. All of them. Look at their lips, full and ripe, thin and dry. Look at their skin, smooth and wrinkled, creamy and coarse, olive and terra-cotta and peach and ebony and freckled and scarred. Look at how women move, See them stride, see them shuffle, see them with eyes on the ground and eyes on the sky. See them inch slowly like the turtle; see them fly like the eagle. Look at the muscles in a woman's body; look at the serenity in a blind woman's face; look at the rugged hands of a laborer. Look at every person you meet with compassion and love. Look for the good in their hearts and you're sure to stumble on the good in your own.

 

Have a lovely weekend my friends, 

xoKelly

 

limiting the limitless possibilites

 
Whenever I've been out of the creative process for awhile, I usually feel overwhelmed on where to jump back in. But in the last couple of years I've found a really good way to get myself over the hurdle of that overwhelming and blocked mental state.

 
I limit myself to just a few things from my studio to play with. For me, that begins to stop the overwhelmed feeling of where to start from when the world is too wide open. This time when I started this exercise to get unblocked, I choose a dozen plain white paper tags, one sheet of red paper, one bottle of red acrylic paint, a brown stamp pad, one heart paper punch, a few stamps, a red marker, letter stamps to spell one word-- transform, and then I let myself have free reign with a box of buttons and my stacks of fabric.

(I also told myself I didn't have to blog about this, so I wouldn't have to feel stifled in that way either, and I really wasn't going to blog about it, but since it turned out so well and the process might be helpful to someone else I decided to blog about it anyway!)

 
 
 

 
And then I played and played for a couple of hour. (Night time seems to help too. So do candles, good music, hot tea, a shut door, and the phone of the hook :)

 
 

 
 
 
 

The cards weren't made for a purpose (other than to get me moving again) or to sell, and not thinking in those terms when I'm creating really seems to help me too.

 
It's a great little creative exercise for me, and I'm sure lots of people have similiar tricks they've learned along the creative path. 

I used the same "limiting idea" to make soft hanging hearts last week-- back with those next time.

XOKelly

 

 

the creative connection event

    (... and a great pair of walking shoes instead of high heels, and a fatter checkbook... but ya, we had the love :) 

It was wonderful! I am so glad I went to the creative connection event. Sorry it has taken me so long to get back here. Extra busy here these past few days. And it always takes me a day or two just to get my feet back on the ground after a trip-- especially a trip like this... there was so much to learn, do and see.  And meeting blog friends for the first time was such a highlight. (Meleen, I love your New York accent, and I could listen to you say "Kwaaffee" all day long.)

My only regret was not taking more photos. I forgot and left my camera in my room one day, and I just didn't seem to be in picture taking mode most of the time. I was in "running to class late" mode most of the time. It was a pretty packed schedule, but in between I took a few photos of the handmade market.


 

I met Jana from brown-eyed girl photography at the TCC.  And if you actually want to see  great professional photography of the event, stop by her blog. She documents it all very well. 

I took only one crafting class, there were so many business classes I wanted to take instead. But the class I did take was wonderful-- making heritage toys with Jenn Murphy and her lovely mom, Pat.

 
I am now the proud new mom of a mohair bunny with fully jointed arms... and a big attitude (we decided :) 

What a whirlwind of a few days.... whew. I've got new wind in my sails-- it was so inspiring to meet so many passionately creative women. Kudos to Jo and Nancy and their army of volunteers!!

*And Kudos to my husband for coming with me (because he knows how much I hate to travel alone) and braving all that estrogen exposure! :)

  

shopping around

For the past few years I've signed up to help with school holiday parties at Jesse's and Sophey's back to school night. But this year all the fill in slots for help were pretty full by the time I got to the sheet. The "provide school supplies" line sounded like a great (ie., easy) idea this year-- and I've always liked being a supply kinda person. Then last week I spotted the black totes at my local craft store... Aha! finally had an idea for a craft project. Yay! (my idea well has been running dry lately), so I bought the totes and hit my studio; thinking pretty, but practical thoughts. 

  

*(This is also counting as my end-of-the-year-teacher-appreciation-gift, since I stink at ever getting anything more than a quick thank you card signed. I have two birthdays that last week of school, so all my good intentions for doing something really nice for our teachers just never quite happen.)*

Anyway, the fabric sewn to the front of the bags is a big pocket. I cut the paisley fabric into a rectangle that fit the bag well and then cut a strip of the brown and black print and the checkered fabric to fit vertically along the side of the bag. I zig-zag stitched the brown fabric onto the paisley fabric first and then zig-zagged the checkered fabric. The vintage lace got stitched on last. I ironed the top of the fabric down about an inch, and ironed the three side edges under about a 1/2".

At this point every extra idea I had to make it look like a teachers bag seemed like a big cliche. Apples? No. Pencils? Nah. Well, what then? So I put the project aside for a few hours (I always think of it like cooking-- on the back-burner and slow simmering..) until this idea came to me: If the kids did the artwork, those pencils or apples would be fabulous, AND they would be involved in the project. Perfect. I handed Jesse and Sophey a box of fabric crayons and fabric pastels with the instructions: draw something school-ish for your teachers, pretty please (followed by please please please).

And they did! Way better than anything I could have ever come up with... kids are so cool.

Jesse's pencil art: 

 

Sophey's schoolhouse art:

The drawings are done on a piece of torn canvas. Sophey used fabric crayons and Jesse used fabric pastels. I sprayed both pieces of canvas art with clear matte spray polyurethane sealer, and then allowed it to dry very well (a few hours) to protect the artwork before sewing the canvas onto the other fabric piece. I added a few big buttons for interest. And then I sewed the whole piece onto the black canvas tote bag. I pinned the fabric in place securely before sewing to make sure the pocket wound up even. It worked. A little tricky and bulky, but still easier than I thought it would be.

Can't wait to hear the tote report after school today :)

In other news around here, I went with my girls to SLC to our big outdoor shopping center, Gateway, over the weekend. We went on a clothes hunt. Didn't find much. It seems the palette for winter this year is black, grey, creme, and black, grey, creme, and dusty rose.... ugh. Not a fan of dusty rose. I think I O.D.ed on it in the '80s. I had a dusty rose bedspread, chair, and waaay too many dusty rose clothes back in the day.

Anyway, a stop by good old bright and happy Anthropologie saved the day. I am always totally inspired by the colors, the displays. SO creative.

 

Dog tea towels?! Man. Eighteen dollars each?! No mon :(

 

So I came home with one little tea cup and a few more bowls. But I'd say my new/old church rummage sale tea towel (compare at 25 pennies, people) is looking pretty darn Anthro cool with the cup, now isn't it?

Sweetness...

 
with a flowery handle. It really is the little things, isn't it? 

And while we're in the kitchen, and I'm writing another catch-up marathon post, here's what got baked last week too. Very yummy. And less sinful than those Oreo cupcakes ;O

 

Here you go:

LOW-FAT PUMPKIN COOKIES:

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup brown sugar (I used 3/4 cup- it worked)
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the pumpkin, sugar, and applesauce.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, then add to the pumpkin, mixing well.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until done. Recipe found at About.com

Oh, and I almost forgot. I added my own drizzly frosting made with a pkg of low-fat softened cream cheese and about 2 cups of powdered sugar and a little vanilla. Mix in mixing bowl till smooth, adding a few tsps of milk till its drizzable. (You know what I mean.)

ENJOY!

P.S. I'm gettting ready for the CREATIVE CONNECTION EVENT this Thursday - Sunday in Minneapolis. It's going to be three days filled with arts and crafts and estrogen galore, I'm sure. AND I'm going with Mike, so three days alone with my husband. Wow. Gotta million things to do though. I'll be back with a report on all the wonderfulness early next week.

Have a lovely week, my friends. xxKelly 

 

flowery

'The splendor of the rose and the whitness of the lily do not rob the litle violet of it's scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its lovliness."

~St. Therese of Lisieux, the little flower~

And now for something a little softer than flourescent sock monkeys.... my shop owner friend, Brenda @ Just A Bed of Roses, asked if I would make some flower pins and hair clips for her pretty pretty shop. So here are a few of the first flower pins I made over the weekend. It was the perfect sort of 'gardening' for a weekend filled with gale force winds and pouring rain yet again... enough with the rain already. But the sun is finally shining today and it's still feeling like mid-spring here-- and so easy to think of the quote by St. Therese while I cut and stitched flowers for Brenda. 
On Friday, I went to our church rummage sale. I bought wool blankets, linens, tatted doilies (unbelievably intricate!) and rolls of vintage aqua, black and creme crocheted lace-- loved how easily they turned into those flowers in the photo.

 

And I loved finding those two crocheted blankets in the photos at a thrift store recently-- a whopping $2.00 a piece. It was half price day. They were in perfect condition. And my little cheapskate heart skipped a beat... or two :)  xoxoKelly