Tag: craft sale

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.

Sleepy Girl

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.

Garage Sale Goodies

$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!)

Garden Angel

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

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.

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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.

Beachy Names

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)…

Funky Quilt

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

…and the whole “ransom note” genre…

Fridge Ransom

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!

New Sign

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?

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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.

Open House

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.

Apple Cider

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.

;)

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