live . craft . learn

hey mummy!

the little man and i finally made it to the pumpkin patch on monday with his preschool class. it's the cutest little farm called "grandmas" up in healdsburg and it's one of our favorite patches ever. there are gates everywhere so the littles can all run like the wild animals they are and the parents don't have to worry that they'll break out.

i have to let you know though, as much as i loved the pumpkins and walked around the property this is was where the little man was for practically the entire 2 hours we were there {although he did go sit for the snack & picture!}. he's such a boy!

 

and congrats corrine! you won the spot in dina's graffitti of my life class. email me kl [at!] kenner [dot!] com your info and i'll pass it along to dina asap!

a creative spark {{giveaway}}

it's not often that you meet a fellow artist that you feel has been a part of your life forever, from the moment you met. someone who understands your quirks, supports you when you just need to vent, holds your hand when you are feeling sad and inspires you to make things every time you view their work. dina is one of those people to me

she is in my top five of inspiring artist friends. i've taken every single one of her art journaling classes, and each and every time i am inspired to paint. to create. to document. to explore and stretch. to leave my mark and dive deeper into my heart and soul.

so it's no wonder that i am extremely happy, extremely honored and extremely humbled to be able to giveaway a slot into her new art journaling class "Art Jounraling 301 : The graffiti of my life" to one of you, my sweet friends and readers. Just leave a comment before tuesday, october 27th at midnight pacific telling me three words that matter most to you and i'll pick a winner tuesday night and post here on wednesday, october 28th.

{Please note winner will have 48 hours to claim prize so make sure you pop back to check so you don't miss out!}

here's some more info from dina about Art Journaling 301 :

Are you ready for an artistic challenge and adventure? In this project-based technique class, you will learn how to create a stand-alone art journal from start to finish! First, you’ll identify words that matter to you—quotes, advice, song lyrics, mottos, life lessons, anything that is important to you. Then we’ll use them to create grungy, painty art journal pages on loose watercolor sheets.

When we’re done with the pages, we’ll assemble them into signatures and bind the art journal with an easy chain-stitched spine. Art techniques included are: color field wash backgrounds, manipulating stencils & inks, making inclusions to tip in, confined collages, and book-binding. Don’t worry if you’ve never bound a book before…there will be extensive written materials and how-to videos to help you every step of the way.

and lastly i'll leave you with three of words that matter most to me :

humility | compassion | home

happy weekend!
xo

truly i do

dear in-n-out ...

i love you. no, i adore you. you save me on a minimum of one night a week when my littles know you as "the tuesday night special". there has even been a lazy sunday {or two. or three...} when i get in my car, drive 15 minutes on 101 south and pick you up for dinner.

i love you that much however ... there is this one teeeeeensy little thing that drives me nuts. nuts!

you need a "double wrap button". seriously. you do.

it would make it so much easier than asking at all three points of interaction with your staff along the in-n-out path to goodness drive through line "could you please make sure those are double wrapped? thanks."

cause this is what i do. every. time. cause 75% of the time, when i am finally holding my box of deliciousness, they aren't ... double wrapped.

but don't get me wrong. i adore you.

and other than this one small thing. this teeeeeeensy little thing like adding a double wrap button to your register system that will SO make my-life-&-the-rohnert-park-in-n-out-staffs life better and happier.

i think you are good. really, really good.

xo
one cheesburger animal protein style
+ a few sips of ben's split chocolate shake

eta : have an mri appointment set up for the 29th but neuro feels strongly that this is a benign behaviour and something i'll just have. i think some stress reducing strategies will be enacted soon. thank you SO much for the love & support, really. i'll keep you updated ;)

exactly perfect

for the last few years i've had plans to sit down and create a halloween countdown calendar and it just never happened. either time got away with me or i just couldn't figure out exactly what i wanted to do. two weeks ago i finally made myself just sit and start playing. i couldn't be more pleased with the end result, giddy actually.

 

i've had a 12" x 20" piece of sheet metal that i picked up at the local hardware store {about $4.} and i covered it with some vintage wallpaper that i have been hoarding, i'm sure you can see why. lol. after covering the sheet metal with the wallpaper i trimmed it in black dennison crepe paper that i sewed and then fringed and added a little black velvet scallop ribbon at the top and bottom. the coolest part? the sheet meatal was jsut the right weight that i could punch a hole in each top corner with my crop-a-dile so it can hang easily.

 

each of the daily calendar objects are magnetic, although i have to be honest, we'll never really take them on and off. but it will make storing the calendar after halloween is over easier and help keep each individual item in great condition becuase i can remove them and wrap each item in some tissue for protection.

 

creating each of the individual items was really the most fun i've had in a long time. i have a vintage card catalog that i have divided all of my little vintage and scrap odds and ends into. each drawer is sorted by color and for this project i simply brought out the orange, silver, red and black drawers. i pulled the base of each piece out first and then decided the order and how i wanted them to look on the calendar. then i simply rifled through the drawers for the layering items as i went along.

 

i also have two plastic bins that have all of my halloween and christmas themed scrap items in them and i of course rifled through the halloween bin as well. i'm a holiday freak and i think having everything together really works for me. and it gets me to use items from past years and i can see what new items i want to add to the lot when the new seasonal scrap items are released. the monstrosity sassafras lass {of course} was the highest on my list this year and i used alot of extra elements from the cautionary kit we sold at kenner road last month as well as some additional miscellaneous elements from past kenner road kits {which i store all together too}.

sigh, doesn't it just make you happy to see all of this together?

happy tuesday!
xo

kenner road : october

we're on our way to ucsf for my neuro exam but though i'd pre-post these lovelies so there was only goodness happening here while i'm in the office. this way {or so i keep telling myself} i'll just simply have to think of these things if i start to get nervous.

i'm adoring the kaiser crafts birdhouse SO much! it's in the windy corner add-on {ala lucy's home in a room with a view} and the cool thing is that we'll have another kenner road private class using this add-on, cool eh?

 

gi. simply perfect. and i have to add that she is telepathic too. not 10 minutes after i finished this she called. seriously. and it had been too long. too. too. long.

 

two years ago we had a family vacay in southern california and we decided to go to Disney {well, actually we always go to Disney, lol} and there was no one there. it was drizzling and empty and it felt like a crazy dream day. no lines. no crowds. no one at all. magical, i'm telling you!

this was my crazy pattern experiment with the wallpaper stamp. not quite sure if i'm in love with it {i like it but don't think my concept came through exactly as i wanted} but i loved this day in solvang. stuffed pancakes and the family driving down 101 to los angeles. sometimes digging back through the older photos to scrap really makes my day.

happy thursday!
xoxo

kenner road : october sneak peek

windy corners add-on

whew... i am barely making it this month. With everything that has been going on i have barely had time to sit and take pics and still make sure that everything is ready for tonight during the Kenner Road reveal. goodness gracious!

In other news I have a neuro appointment tomorrow morning at ucsf that i am anxiously awaiting. I'm a little nervous but also looking forward to talking with someone about the tremors and hopefully finding an easy solution or explanation, wish me luck please as i'm sure tomorrow morning i'll be jittery and feeling a bit scared. maybe alot scared.

i also drew a name for the halloween craft giveaway so make sure you check the post out below for the winner!!

xo

A Hambly Halloween Giveaway

eta : Congrats Jessica Dougherty you won the halloween giveaway, make sure you let me know which one you would like and email me your addy kl [at*] k8tykat [dot*] com :)

I have a really fun vintage inspired Halloween project up on the Hambly blog today {sneak peek above} that you just have to go see. I think I could craft for Halloween for the rest of my life and never get tired or bored and I could seriously marry these little skeletons that are on the new Hambly Halloween kraft stickers, I LOVE THEM! 

here's more evidence of said Halloween crafting, it's another version of my tutorial that I created for the blog.

I also wanted to thank all of your for your love & support with my last post. It's strangely comforting to know that I am not the only person who has dealt with medical issues like mine and/or the instant doom & gloom thoughts. It's just one more wonderful thing that blogging can offer, isn't it? The coming together and the sharing of stories.

So to say thank you I'm giving away one of these two Halloween pieces vignettes that I created yesterday. Just leave me a comment telling me what your favorite costume ever was and I'll pick a winner on Tuesday, October 13th. You'll get to choose which one you want, so make sure you note that in the comments too, ok?

Thank you again my sweet wonderful friends, I so appreciate you!
xo kl

learning to live

life has a crazy way of sneaking up on you and throwing all that you thought was normal and simple into chaos faster than you know it. last week when i made my morning coffee i had a hand tremor that was so severe i spilled my coffee all over the kitchen floor. to say that it scared me is an understatement. over the last year my shaky hands have gotten shakier and monday was the final episode that got me into my internists.

up until monday i just felt like a hypochondriac.

i explained to him the tremors, we talked about my headaches. we discussed the hazy & blurry vision issues i've been experiencing. he ordered blood tests {normal}. i saw an ophthalmologist yesterday {i need glasses}. i'm waiting for a neuro appointment {seriously takes forever to get scheduled in}.

and although my outlook is better today after knocking down two of the three doubts and fears with substantial evidence that everything is ok {maybe i just have tremors?}. what has really shaken my mind today is how i let the fear of the "what if's" take over my mind last week.

after my appointment on wednesday i wanted to disappear. i cried everyday for five days. all day long. i worried about parkinson's. about multiple sclerosis. about a brain tumor. my entire weekend was full of depression, doubt, worry, stress and a wandering mind that had been processing all of the different medical conditions that could be causing the tremors.

i'm sure this is normal.

i'm sure the worry is normal.

i'm sure the stress is normal.

i'm sure the doubt & jumping to medical conclusions is normal.

but it has sucked.

and now today, i still feel like a hypochondriac. even though the neuro is still needed. even though my hand still shakes whenever i pick up something heavier than a pound. even though i know i've gotten two of the three worries cancelled out with 1.postitive and 2.changeable explanations i still have this little piece of my mind that i keep fighting back.

i still feel like a hypochondriac.

only {trying to be upbeat & positive} soon i'll be a hypochondriac in cute vintage glasses.

xo

cautionary tale

lisa  and I are teaching a halloween class for kenner road and I just wanted to share a little preview of one of our projects. The class will be open through all of October and you can join us by ordering the class through the Kenner Road etsy store here for only $12.

eta : if the class is sold out send an etsy convo or check back as we'll be adding more spots as needed.

i had so much fun

... playing with the september kenner road kits.

it's the site's first birthday and i feel so happy & humbled that the past year has been filled with so much support from my amazing creative team, our wonderful guest designers and especially each and everyone of our supportive and happy customers. we have alot coming up in the next month, some little surprises and some HUGE! eeks!!

i completely fell in love with new cosmo cricket lines when i got a sneak peek before cha and when i began designing our exclusive fabrics and the stamps i was itching to get it all here to use, and use it all i did :)

the layout above was actually one of my last creations {so far} as i have a love affair with my scraps but haven't been using them up like i always want to. it was probably my quickest layout ever created, about 10 minutes.

these bottles were one of my most favorite parts of the CC chipboard... want to come over?

this is maddie and 1/2 of her besties whom you've seen me document before. when i took mad's back to school shopping she saw these bff shirts at old navy and just HAD to get one for each of them for the first day. so priceless!

ok... i'll admit that i got a little carried away with this one but it was SO fun to make. Those Jillibean Soup corrugated alphas are my new favorite, i could use up the negative sheet over & over & over & .... well. i think i have a 1" x 5" section left. lol

 

and i could write a sonnet for the vespas that line one of our downtown streets everyday. while the new ones are beautiful it's the vintage yellow one that grabs my heart each time i pass it on my visits downtown. if i didn't have littles i would be on one of these on a daily basis, unfortunately they don't make them with dual child-seats, or maybe they do? hmmmm...  ;)

happy tuesday!
xo