live . craft . learn

creative therapy : my dream home

i long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever i find myself. - maya angelou

this weeks catalyst and the maya angelou quote i chose was perfect for me. perfect for where i am in life right now. perfect because for the last year of my life i lost myself. lost myself in ways that i didn't realize until a few weeks ago. i centered my life around something that shouldn't have become more important than my family, than my children, than the life that i lead, right here in this house that i live in. and yet, even though i know better i lost parts of me and i lost sight of the most important things to me.

when i was younger, before having my littles. before i fell in love with mike. i thought my dream home was huge. a wrap around porch. lots of pretty things inside. decorated and perfect. like a magazine. but it isn't. my dream home isn't filled with things and objects that i purchased at target or pottery barn. it's filled with laughter. it's filled with love and trust and support. it's filled with tears and struggles and lessons learned. it's filled with 2 children who love me because i am their mama and they need no other reason. it's filled with a man who has been by my side for 9 years. a man who knows who i am at the core of my soft heart. a man who will put up with my silliness and sometimes crazy expectations because he knows that eventually i see the truth, and i am not afraid to change my path when i am unhappy or when i am wrong. it is filled with my friends who trust me and can be trusted, because they see me, the real me and they ask for nothing more because it is always enough.

so this house. my dream house. it is being built on a daily basis. it gets tattered and worn. it needs strength and support. it receives laughter and love. it spills tears and sadness. but it is real. it is mine. it is everything to me. it is perfect and i will never, ever, leave it untended again.

happy wednesday.
xo

love market friday

urban prairie magazine : refueled finding maddie's self portrait on her new camera new vintage treasures for a new vintage project kit thursday night audible wars with jayney

back to {my} basics

i spent last night rocking out to this girl's tunes and making this shadowbox for a dear friend. it just felt good to get my hands dirty and create something with the things that i love the most. back to my basics, the things i always gravitate towards, the old, the forgotten and the recycled vintage ephemera i shop for at thrift stores and flea markets. i used vintage buttons pierced with brads {ala my leesa peesa} and chenille fabric to trim the frame and i've been saving that vintage little girl place card for quite a while.

the sides of the shadowbox {ikea} were created by raiding my scrap bin and decoupaging with gesso and gel medium; i just tore the scrap pieces i chose and layered them haphazardly on the wood with gel medium and then coated it all with gesso. nothing scientific, but it gives the sides a sweet & worn white-washed quality.

and, the interior. i adore the interior. that pink paislee background paper is to die for, and i used my beautiful october afternoon butterfly silhouette stamps on the vintage date book which was repurposed from an older project that i just wasn't feeling anymore.

the basics. my basics. that is what i'm excited to start exploring. learning what i like. learning what i love to use. learning how i love to use it. experimenting and discovering myself in this craft. that's something i haven't really done in quite a long time.

also, just found out that silver bella registration opens up on monday. eeks!! cannot wait to be back at that glittery event. new teachers, including the soldering goddess sally jean {double eeks!} who alone will make the entire event so worthwhile for me. are you going??

happy thursday.
xo

he is everything to me

i made this two weeks ago for the man. a little simple thank you. he's always there. always supportive. i couldn't have picked a better man if i was shopping for him at tar-jey. in fact i know i wouldn't have. which is why i am even more thankful that one night, exactly 9 years ago today, he walked up to me and whispered a sweet sentence into my ear. from that moment on i was his. i had no choice. i was his.

the skies here are full of brown smoke & residue from all of the nearby wine country fires. so the littles and i are hiding out inside as i'm quite worried that it will make ben's asthma flare. when we woke up this morning and headed to maddies' speech lesson it seemed that it was better, but the heat is making it worse. so sad to know that so much of this beautiful county, and the ones near us are burning.

also, for those of you who asked about my book... gigi finally started posting the directions on her blog. such a simple & amazingly brilliant idea. make sure you go see how it's done.

happy wednesday.
xo

the beauty of sonoma county sunsets

i ran out the door the other night to catch these. the pictures are unedited. straight from the camera at sunset right in front of our house. sometimes the truth of the picture is more important than the editing.

i love this time of year. the sky here is so magical, all those pinks and blues.

mike used to have an apartment downtown with the best balcony. you could look straight west and see amazing sunsets full of so much color. we'd spend alot of evenings sitting out there, taking pictures and hanging with friends. pre marriage. pre babies. such good times.

i love sonoma county. love.

happy tuesday.
xo

*smiles*

saturday at pmp was amazing. seriously! i taught two classes to a room filled with some of the most amazing women ever. it was relaxed and carefree and when the classes were all over i sat down and laughed and cropped until almost midnight-thirty. of course i had a hell of a late night drive back home {1.5 hours} but i would {& will!} do it again....

half of the girls in the process of making ...

this is a peek at the vintage embellishment bar i had available during my mini book class. the girls could go up and choose whatever extra little bits of vintage embellishments they wanted to add to make the project reflect them and their story.

some of the goods in the mini book kit. lovely jbs, maya road and lots of vintage bits.

i realized i took exactly 8 pictures and only of one side of the room. what's with that?? lol

this is my sweet friend marie's hands playing with the vintage filled goodie bag i gave everyone who signed up for both classes. she had surgery a few weeks ago and i was SO happy to see her... and hear her little chirping hiccups.

i've got just a couple kits from both classes still left and thought i'd offer them up here before they go into my etsy shop. never mind they're here now, it's probably easier this way. :)

also, i know some of you have pictures with me from the sis event and i would adore a copy. if you do, can you please email them to me? kl[at!]k8tykat[dot!]com. thank you!

happy monday!
xo

oh and ps : i saw miss suzy cropping too. but shhh... don't tell anyone. it'll be our little secret. ;)

because this is what it's all about ...

a day spent frolicking outside with my two littles. splashing in fountains. feeling the warm sun upon our faces. laughing. giggling. being together. i lost sight of that a while ago, but thankfully, i have found it again.

tomorrow i'm heading to pmp for a day filled teaching two workshops, scrapping with friends and definitely more laughter. yes. it will be just what the doctor ordered.

happy friday! happy weekend!
xo

it felt good ...

last night to spend a few hours making things. completely inspired by gigi's class last weekend {which was brilliant!} i took this old vintage book and made a sewn page mountain. to be filled with the everyday thoughts that i write down and always have floating around on itty bitty strips of paper. to hold the daily inspirations that i cut out of magazines. to hold whatever my heart and my creativity desires. bound together, it will be a collection of new beginnings.

happy thursday.
xo

today ...

it still hurts. but today is a new day and i am doing everything in my power to take one step forward. your words of encouragement, both privately and publicly have meant the world to me. your words have made me realize that i have friends who care. friends who support me. i do not plan on walking away from any of you. we will just have to figure out another way to connect and share our work, i promise.

i talked on the phone with two friends today who asked for my story. they told me that you need to hear it. while i appreciate that, and i know that there have been things said about me, things that i was not given the opportunity to respond to due to the deactivation of my account, i also do not feel that i need to defend myself or my actions in any way.

my reason for resigning from sistv has always been a private matter between jeanette and i. did i privately confide some of these thoughts with my fellow fashionista friends over the weekend? yes, yes i did. do i think i was wrong for doing so? no, i do not. i told them the truth when they asked me if i was going to step down. i felt i owed them that, out of respect for our friendship. i confided in these friends because i believed they were my friends, my confidants. they worked with me and i believed they could offer me a safe and private sounding board so i could know if i was being out of line. apparently that was not the case, and i have learned a valuable lesson.

should i have talked with jeanette in person and told her how i felt and that i needed to change my path and step down? yes, but i also don't believe that discussing such matters, during the event, was proper either. would i change that, and tell her, there in tennessee that i was leaving? in a heartbeat. again, a valuable lesson learned.

i know who i am. i know i live my life with an open heart. i know i believe in being respectful and honest and that there are always two sides to every story. we are all hurting here, even if we do not agree. i am no angel and i too make mistakes but i know i have been supportive, caring, loving and encouraging. i will not deny that i was crushed to be cut off from the community that i have supported and in which i made valuable friendships for over a year, simply because i chose to take a different path. but i know i will be ok and i am ready to move on.

please let this be the end. let us all move on. let us all start down our paths. i won't be speaking of this any further and i hope that you all can respect that this is a private matter. one that involves, in honesty, three people who are very hurt. it should have always stayed that way, and i am saying those words to myself as well {again, another lesson learned}.

i will be here and i will still scrapbook. i will still live my life and i can hopefully share it with you, here.

xo
kl

i believe ...

in honesty. i believe in my friends. i believe in living my life with an open heart. i believe in moving on when you are no longer enjoying the ride or having fun. i believe in moving forward and creating for the passion and fun and therapy.

i resigned from sistv yesterday morning after i chose to take a different path. i was still planning on being a part of the community i adore but unfortunately jeanette felt the need to deactivate my account and ban me from it. that is her choice. i am saddened and shocked that she would chose to do so, but i am not surprised.

scrapbooking is a craft that i adore and i will still be here.
it is a new day.
xo