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Sunday, January 1st, 2012

Looking Back At 2011

Well folks, it’s been a year. Let me start by wishing you all a Happy New Year!!! And, by thanking you for popping by my little corner of the interwebs when you did. As with every new year, I like to begin by taking a look back to see how far I’ve come. And let me just say, last year was quite a ride…

In January 2011, I took things quite easy on the blog as I was a) doing a lot of solo parenting (the hubby was directing a show), b) had visitors in town, and c) had two Monkeyboys to plan birthdays for. I started posting “Creative Inspirations” links (see also the list at right) to share with you some of the sites “out there” that inspire me. Of course, times and tastes change, so I think we may be due to overhaul the list… but I’ll have to see how busy January 2012 looks first.

February 2011 saw the return of some more time to create, and as a result it seems, some of my most popular posts. People apparently want to know all about iCarly Penny Tees and birthday parties, and Angry Birds crocheting. But I think my favourite creation blogged about that month was the fat quarter hostess aprons, which I both gave instructions for and created for myself.

March 2011 saw me going on a trip to LA, which led to some fun suitcase personalization, and was followed by me crocheting the cutest little Poko hat for Monkeyboy Junior Jr.

In April 2011, I got busy in my garden and made only a few blog contributions – like the quilty critter cards I made as thank you cards, a few yummy recipes, and the IKEA dog revamp.

May 2011 involved even more gardening and lots of spring cleaning in preparation for the garage sale, which meant little time to create “stuff”. But there were a few nice photos as I recall… like this, of my favourite flowering plum tree.

In June 2011, I was a ~~little~~ lot too busy with life – the garden, the kids, the house, etc. – to blog about much. But I made up for it in July 2011 by posting about tons of stuff – like making the backyard cabana, the gorgeous summer blooms in my garden, putting up more art, my temporary rock cozy crocheting addiction, and my favourite of all, painting the Kelly Rae-inspired “Love” girlie.

August 2011 saw me participating in Susannah Conway’s August Break once again, but with a new twist – the use of online editing programs like Pixlr-o-matic. Which <ahem> I have become quite happily addicted to. =) It also saw me starting on the Dancing Mermaid-inspired Words On Bodies project, taking some gorgeous photos of some gorgeous ladies (see Day 5, Day 9, Day 17, Day 25, and Day 31). I shall have to find some more “guinea pigs” for this project once the weather warms up again. Yup. August was a great month for my photography…

In September 2011, I finally purchased PSE9 and started playing around with it on some baby photos for a friend, but I really didn’t have much time to explore all of it’s offerings. Instead, I continued to play with the quick-and-dirty online presets I had grown to love, and began using my photos to create more mosaics for the “These Moments” Flickr group, and to pepper my new gratitude journal.

In October 2011, I continued to take lots of fun photos and play around with them in editing. But I also tried my hand at some embroidery (for the first time in years), completing the Alicia Paulson-inspired alphabet sampler and creating some “Naughty Stitches” of my own.

I also learned a bit more about PSE9 and created a wacky composite self-portrait.

Thanks to the arrival of my replacement spy-cam (woohoo!), I spent November 2011 and December 2011 mostly blogging with photos. But I’m afraid I was too preoccupied with working on tidying up the house, preparing for Christmas, and various travels and whatnots, to do much else. Except maybe make a few gifts, but I haven’t posted about them yet…

So, yeah. Even with just the highlights, 2011 has been quite a year. Not to mention all the stuff that I never got around to blogging about! Whew. Talk about ebbs and flows… As for 2012, I am looking forward to carving out even more time to get the house in shape, and to create some more fun goodies to share with y’all. Peace and joy to you! =) K

Tags: 2011, 2012, alphabet sampler, Angry Birds, art, August Break, baby photos, birthday party, blog, blogging, blooms, cabana, creative inspirations, crocheting, fat quarter, flowers, garden, gardening, girlie, gratitude, hat, hostess aprons, house, iCarly, IKEA, instructions, journal, KateWares, links, looking back, love, mosaics, naughty stitches, organization, painting, penny tees, Photography, photos, Pixlr-o-matic, Poko, PSE9, quilting, quilty critters, recipes, revamp, review, rock cozies, self-portraits, spy cam, suitcase, summary, thank you, tidying, words on bodies

Posted in Musings | 6 Comments »

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Here We Go Again!

So. As you may recall, a couple of days ago I wrote a post entitled “Mom’s Fortune Cookie, #56″. It had occurred to me, as I lay unable to sleep in my overcrowded bed, that there were certain parental truisms in this world (i.e. like how kids are the worst bed hogs), and perhaps it was time that somebody wrote them down. Ooooh – and perhaps added humerous photos… and even little illustrative examples or stories. You know, so we could all have a good chuckle at our parenting selves. In my mind’s eye it, was a cross between “Confucius Says” and a “Family Circle” cartoon. Or something like that. And I got a little excited by the possibilities.

While I tossed and turned, and got unintentionally smacked in the head by my sleepy son, a list of possible posts began to form: toys… schooling… potty issues… When I shared the idea with my husband, the list began to grow with his contributions. And when I actually posted my first entry, I got an immediate and unheard of 3 comments (on facebook, at least) from parents who were identifying with the post. Hmm. What to do, what to do. I suppose it all boils down to the fact that I didn’t want this blog to be taken over by that idea… so today, I have started another blog dedicated to Mom’s Fortune Cookie wisdom. I have no idea where either of these blogs will end up (or if I can keep up with them both), but hey, if something inspires you, you should go with it… right?

Anyhow, I hope to see you over there! Oh, and if you have any parent friends, please feel free to direct them to the new site, or to the new facebook fan page! Wheee!

PLEASE NOTE – I tried to keep up with two blogs for a bit (I really did) but I just couldn’t. There was just not enough time to go around, so the site and page have been removed. Ah, well. It was worth a shot.

Tags: blog, blogging, Mom's Fortune Cookie, parenting, photos, truisms, wisdom

Posted in Crafty, Musings | 2 Comments »

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Time For Some Words

Okay. So, right as The August Break was starting, I had a little breakdown myself…well, of my ego at least. One night, as I was rocking the baby to sleep and mulling over ideas for posts, I started thinking about the concept of “drive” – that insatiable urge to get stuff done that some people just seem to have. You can call it a Type A Personality, you can call it ambition, you can call it Maurice for all that it matters. The end result is that these people – no matter what their level of talent or their inherent “luck” genes – well, they get stuff DONE. They are “somebody*s” in their respective fields.

Track 5 – “You Can Sleep While I Drive”. Wouldn’t that be nice?

I started thinking about all of the people I know who fall into this category – whether they are in the arts, the business community, or both – and quite honestly, it left me feeling somewhat like a failure. I mean, yes, I have wonderful family and friends, a lovely home and garden, and I’ve done some pretty cool stuff in my time, if I do say so – and I am grateful for these things, truly. But. Many-many things on my bucket list have fallen by the wayside. I am nowhere near the person that I thought I would be by this time (not that envisioning “future me*s” has ever been an easy task, but I had some ideas), and it got me wondering why.

Well, I’ve outgrown some of them – like trying snowboarding and having a darkroom, for example. It’s not that I couldn’t do these things, but the person I am now really has no interest in pursuing them, and I am okay with just letting them go. Some of them are definitely “sacrifices” – things that I have to let go of because I am part of a family now, and they don’t fit in with our “team vision”. No, wait. I choose to let them go, because my family is far more important to me than driving around in a VW Van or living in a loft are. And who knows, when the boys are grown and if these are still things I am interested in, then there may still be time to achieve them. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Me “dream” loft – designed and constructed with balsa wood by me (the upper “bed and bath” level have been removed) circa 1992.

Which leaves the rest…which just haven’t happened. Moving to the coast, vacationing in Italy, going to “art school”, and so on. Not that these can’t happen, but the clock is seriously ticking, and life always seems to get in the way. Much of the time, it feels like whenever I do make a plan, “the universe” steps in and sets me on a different path entirely. And though I have happened upon a great many amazingly wonderful things this way – I am “married with kids” for goodness sake, which was totally NOT part of the plan – I fear I am simply just not driven enough to achieve some of the crazy dreams that I dream.

Now, on the day of my little meltdown, the fatalist in me was thinking “Why bother dreaming at all then, if I am just going to get rerouted anyhow? And seriously, what kind of character flaw do I possess when I’m afraid to even dream, or ask for help achieving the things I truly want? Why is it that I feel so unworthy of, well, pretty much everything I can think of right now?” Cue the tears. (Even now, as I am writing in retrospect, I am getting a little verklempt…what’s up with that?) Thank goodness that my amazing husband stepped in at this point and talked some sense into me. If there’s one thing I truly love about our relationship is that we take turns being the “sane” one.

My amazingly wonderful boys – I am a lucky lady, indeed.

As mothers (and maybe even as women, period), oftentimes we get so wrapped up in nurturing others that we forget about ourselves. Part of why I started this blog in the first place was to gently remind myself to make time for myself and my creativity every day. I am trying to think of my mini-crisis as a reminder that I just need to start working on the “where I want to end up” part now. Looking at all of the other wonderful blogs out there has been both a blessing and a curse for this. It is so easy to hold ourselves up to the “successful” people out there and chastise ourselves for not being one of them instead of being inspired by their greatness to also do great things. I guess you just have to remember that everyone has to start somewhere. And with that, I am going to spend nap time today doing a little dreaming.

Tags: ambition, blog, bucket list, creativity, dreams, drive, failure, meltdown, outgrowing goals, sacrifices, success, Type A Personality

Posted in Musings | 4 Comments »

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Six Degrees Of Kate

Kevin Bacon’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (only 2 degrees).

One of the things I just love about this whole creative blogging adventure is finding cool stuff quite by chance. Years ago, when I first started “social networking” on Myspace, I could spend hours just clicking on Person A who would randomly lead me to Person B who would randomly lead me to Person C and so on. I found it interesting to play a “Six Degrees” game for myself – what kinds of people existed beyond my usual social circle, and what were they willing to share with the world? I’ve tried this with Facebook recently, but it’s not nearly as fun with everybody (myself included) cranking up their privacy settings – a dead end at the third degree? *sigh* But the blogosphere…now here’s a whole new frontier just begging to be explored!

Some days I’ll just go to a friend’s Blogger page and hit the “Next Blog” button at the top and see where it leads me. This is the most random technique, as I could end up at a page about anything from clothes for dogs to finding Jesus to somebody’s vacation photos of Spain. Talk about random! Some days I will check out the blogs that my friends know about and suggest to me, which has proven to be somewhat enlightening too. Lately I’ve been a little more focused, however, starting out at a friend’s arty/crafty page and clicking through subsequent blogroll entries. Which is exactly how I ended up at Women At Rest – “an oasis for the frazzled and overwhelmed”. Ooh, now there’s something I can relate to!

While perusing this site, I noticed they had a Facebook page I could become a fan of, and it was there that I found the following entry:

A good day doesn’t have to be big, splashy and flamboyant. Life is not a pie-eating contest. Listening is good. Hugs matter. A 30-minute run is enough. Short blog posts count.

It’s like it was written just for me. Well, except for the running part. There was also a link to this manifesto that can’t help but make you feel good, if you’re looking for a warm fuzzy feeling today.

And so with that, I am keeping this post short and sweet and heading out into my poor, neglected garden while my “domestic assistant” is here today. Time to create a little order in my yard so I can once again enjoy it without feeling guilty for spending so much time creating other things.

My garden in happier, less weedy days.

Tags: blog, Facebook, Myspace, six degrees, social networking

Posted in Musings, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Sleep, Perchance To Dream

Well, as you may recall, I left off last week on somewhat of a sleep deprived note. Take your average, busy life and throw in a few nights of being up every 1-2 hours to comfort a crying baby, and well…it isn’t pretty. Trying to create something (let alone something even remotely inspired) is challenging enough on most days – try doing it when you can barely remember your own name! But, enough complaining. Suffice to say I was brutally tired and feeling rather dejected about the whole creative blogging experience.

Bouncing back from a long night was much easier in my youth.

Luckily, by then the weekend had rolled around and with it, two days of self-granted blog-free living. The way I figure it, if I allow myself these weekly pressure valves of “non-creativeness”, I will come back on Monday refreshed and eager to contribute something new. Kind of like the way an evening away from the kids or a vacation works. Plus, if I feel like I absolutely HAVE to create something on the weekend, then I can…but only if I really want to. So, yeah. Go, me.

Well, Saturday morning arrived and we decided that it was high time to get out of the house – to do what exactly, we couldn’t decide, but we packed up and headed out anyways. Maybe it was my husband’s incessant positivity (his battle cries of “Woooo!” are still ringing in my ears), or the beautiful morning sunshine after a previous cloudy day, or the mere act of leaving the confines of the nest, but it wasn’t long before I started feeling those tinges of excitement again. We ended up driving around a few nearby neighbourhoods scoping out garage sales, and in doing so, we eventually stumbled across what appeared to be somebody’s store liquidations.

$1 and $2 felt bags, a $7 canvas tote, $0.50 ornaments – bargoons!

It reminded me of Christmas craft fairs, and all the good things that go along with them. Pretty soon I was thinking about the aprons I could make and the bags I could sew and the frames I could decorate and so on and so forth. PLUS, as I was leaving said garage, I noticed the coolest garden angel that I may somehow have to try and duplicate. Except for the hair, I don’t like the wire at all. (Funny thing – I have a very similar looking angel atop our front door, likely done by the same artist even. How crazy!)

Adorable garden angel that I want to chase away my rabbits.

Anyway. The other thing I picked up at this particular sale was a stack of wooden letters that spell the word “dream”. Now, I have had a bit of a fascination with wooden letters such as these ever since we went on a quaint cabin vacation where the owners had the letters for “eat” in their kitchen. Far too much fun was had rearranging the letters to spell “ate” and “tea”, and with the addition of other paper letters, a whole host of things. Remind me to do a post on our names shelf one day, will you?

As I have mentioned, I don’t have much wall space in my current studio to display my pretty new letters. What to do, what to do? And boom – there it was, my idea for the day. A little reminder to dream.

Dream a little dream with me, my little one.

At bedtime, Beautiful South’s version of Dream A Little Dream plays. Aw, I love my little monkey boy. And have I mentioned how much I adore Hipstamatic photos? In the future, when I have more time to run around taking pictures, I would love to take these letters and put them in unexpected places – like a grungy alley or hanging from a tree. But for today, I am happy just to dream.

Tags: blog, craft sale, creating, dream, garage sales, hipstamatic, inspiration, letters, sleep deprived, vacation

Posted in Crafty, Musings, Photography | 2 Comments »

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Watermarks

Alright. I know that some of you have made your way over to the new blog and poked around (yes, I’m keeping track). For your support and your interest, I am truly grateful – thank you! I also know just how discouraging it can be to go to a gallery page and find the dreaded “Under Construction” message instead of fun and colourful goodies. And for that I am very, very sorry. It seems that in addition to the Herculean task of cataloging my stuff, I’m also having to make some decisions about what I want to show and how picky I want to get about ownership. And it’s been tripping me up some.

A perfect me in a perfect world wouldn’t care about getting credit. As it is, I take hundreds of photos for the theatre company I volunteer with and haven’t put my name on a single one of them. Partly because I’m not doing it for me (well, other than the practice and fun factors), and partly because I don’t think anybody else could take credit for my work if they wanted to. But fundamentally, my ego is patted enough just knowing that they’re up on the wall for patrons to see. End of story.

But here, in the vast and uncontrollable reaches of cyberspace, that’s just not the case. Goodness only knows where these images are ending up. But, these are KATE’s creations, and if somebody is going to get famous or make money from them, it sure as heck had better be me. And so, I ask you – do you think it’s worth the trouble to watermark everything? (For those of you that don’t know – a watermark inserts a difficult to remove pattern onto your digital image to identify it as your own – see below.)

For me, it kind of distracts from the image you want to get across in the first place. You could solve that by putting it in the corner – like signing a painting – but that defeats the purpose entirely, as it could get cropped or digitally painted out in a heartbeat. Not that I think I’m going to be producing the Mona Lisa or anything here (teehee), but seriously – if I do create something that somebody somewhere out there takes an interest in and wants to use for something else, should it matter that it’s mine?

I know that the files I’m uploading here aren’t the biggest and best quality, so maybe it’s not going to really be an issue. Hard to make a billboard out of a 430-pixel-wide image I suppose. But. I’m also uploading my new works to Flickr – in their original sizes, which can be rather large. SO. What should I do?!?! Opinions? Suggestions? Insider knowledge about intellectual property in the 21st century? Yes, the fallback answer would be to let karma deal with whom so ever would try to steal something of mine. But really. I still lock my doors at night, don’t you?

Tags: blog, creation, credit, intellectual property, karma, ownership, serendipity, watermarks

Posted in Musings, Photography | 5 Comments »

Monday, June 21st, 2010

It’s A Sign, People (Ha!)

When I first started dating the man who would become my husband, he showed me this neat trick he could do with his name. When he wrote his first name above his last name, the second and forth letters lined up and were the same in both, so he’d draw them as one. Naturally, it was serendipitous when he showed me the same trick could be done with my name.

Aww, how romantic. A sign we were meant for each other?

I’ve been toying around with using this idea for a logo for myself – using KateWares, of course – for years. But I could never seem to make it look quite the way I wanted. As a result, I’ve been putting off making a sign for my craft table etc. for, well…a long time. But not anymore! Thanks to the kick-in-the-pants that this blog is providing, I spent parts of this weekend working on said sign. I also spent parts of it cleaning up my kid’s vomit and tending to my own sore throat, so it’s taken a while to get done. But that’s life, isn’t it?

Since the stacking idea wasn’t working for me, it was time to try something new. I’ve always liked the look of funky quilted lettering (see also the last photo in the last post)…

From Better Homes and Gardens, Quilting Ideas, Fall ’03.

…and the whole “ransom note” genre…

Somebody’s cool fridge magnets – a future project I think!

So I started playing around with ways to put the two together. First, I typed out “KateWares” in a variety of fun fonts – just to get a feel for different cursive forms. Then, I pulled out a schwack of old scrapbooking left overs (time for a little “green” crafting), sharpened my pencil, and found a good eraser.

I sketched out several big, blocky letters on a scratch pad before deciding on the basic feel of the letters. Then I decided on a final size for my sign and sized some paper blocks accordingly. I sketched each letter onto a paper block, and then cut them out using an X-acto knife – which seemed to have a will of it’s own, changing a few of the letters for the better. Then, I found coordinating cardstock for the backings, put the two together, and viola!

KateWares new 11×14″ sign – all framed and everything.

I decided to do the tag line at the bottom using standard punch out letters (Alpha Stax by Colorbok), tracing them onto my own paper if necessary, to save time. I also added a floral detail for interest. So…what do you think?

Tags: blog, craft sale, green crafting, letters, quilting, ransom note, Scrapbooking, sign

Posted in Crafty | 5 Comments »

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Welcome to KateWares!

Around the time I started living in my own houses, I began hosting an annual “Christmas Open House & Craft Sale”. For that one day a year, I would throw open the doors and let whomever was interested come on over, grab a cup of homemade hot apple cider, and paruse my wares. If there was time, we would sit and chat about life…and crafting…and Christmas. If there wasn’t, we’d briefly wish each other a happy holiday, share a hug, and be on our respective ways.

A Christmas Open House & Craft Sale at KateWares.

Well, after my two boys were born, hosting such events became a logistical nightmare. Not only was is difficult to find the time to make wares to display, but I couldn’t imagine having to also get the house (and the boys) ready for a day of often hurried and unpredictable visits. It was just too much stress during an already stressful time. I mean, if I was lucky, I might squeeze in hosting a table at a craft fair or something, but that’s about it. And yet, a part of me was always missing them every time Santa rolled into town.

And then…there was cyberspace. With the securing of the domain “katewares” and the encouragement of my uber-supportive husband “Tupper”, my bucket list goal of setting up my own website was soon becoming a reality. I began paying more attention to the blogs of my friends (see the accompanying blogroll to the right). I started thinking about what it was, exactly, that I wanted to share (and doubting myself – but that’s another story). And then…I took a deep breath, and all at once, embarked on this exciting (and what I hope will be wonderful) new adventure.

So…welcome! Consider this my daily invitation to come on over, grab yourself a cup of cider, and paruse away. If you have the time, let’s sit and chat about life, crafting, and the Christmas-like joy of creativity (which is why I’ve already published a few posts for you to wander through). Or maybe you’d prefer to quickly explore my past works and move on (see the “Gallery” above – parts of which are still under construction I’m afraid, but oh, well). Hey, that’s fine too. In any case, I hope you enjoy your time here and I look forward to where ever this journey may lead us both.

A hot and delicious cup of cider - just for you! (Note to self: photo shoots of consumable yummies are good!!!)

If you are at all interested in receiving updates about new posts, please join my Facebook fan page for KateWares, Ha! Look at me doing something creative.

Tags: blog, bucket list, craft sale, creativity, doing something, journey

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Monday, June 14th, 2010

What the Heck Am I Doing?

Before I formally unveil this site to the world, I’d really like to have it pretty much figured out. And I don’t just mean the whole “How do I blog?” thing, I mean knowing what goes where and what exactly I want to focus on. Yes, I want to blog about the creative experience, but is there some aspect or theme I want to explore? Do I include “mundane” creations – like cooking? Should I force myself to be more “arty” than “crafty”? What the heck am I doing anyhow?!?!?

Well, I’m still mulling over all of the above, and I likely will be for the next little while at least. (If you have any suggestions, PLEASE feel free to share them.) However, I did make one decision. In addition to having at least a few posts already up for you to read, I decided to include an unchanging gallery of things that I’ve made in the past. Partly so that readers could get an idea of where I’m coming from, and partly for my own inspiration. There’s nothing quite like looking at things that you love to encourage you to create more of them.

A photography page was a must, seeing as I spent four years earning an art minor in the subject, and considering my lifelong enjoyment of the hobby. A page dedicated to sewing…and knitting…and embroidery…and so on, made sense too as I also spend a lot of time in these endeavours. Next, a papercraft page for scrapbooking and the like, and then… And then what? How exactly should I categorize the rest of my repertoire? And voila, I was stuck.

So, dear reader, I have spent today uploading photos of my various creations only to shuffle them around repeatedly, like an awkward looking sofa. And then there was the whole child-rearing, household-tending, and garden-weeding time conflict. And, as a result, I have had little time to challenge myself today to create something new. Other than this blog, that is. But with a few minutes to spare before dinner, I grab my “spy cam” and make use of the blooming peonies in the garden and my son’s old, rusted watering can to create this.