Crafter's Paradise

Hello my friends,
Today was Ahhhhhhh-mazing! Every 6 months or so I go to a wholesale bead show up in Massachussets with my mother (from whom I received my crafting genes). Today was one of those shows and it was a DAMN GOOD ONE! It's usually the same vendors every show but at this one there were SEVERAL new ones with some REALLY awesome beads. This one booth had porcelain beads that are each indidually hand painted like little works of art. I probably spent a good hour drooling over their product though in the end I did not buy any because I simply could not choose a favorite out of all the really cool pieces! Next show I go to I will surely set aside a "few" dollars to stock up on some of those...

Another vendor I really liked was a Lampwork booth. I blew all of my budget there and bought quite a few items from them including some glass cartoony naked lady beads that were so funny. I am going to make some jewelry to put up in Mama Trashheap's Shoppe so (along with some other cute fish, chickens, and such) these adorable and silly little girls will soon be available for you to own. Be on the lookout!

After I spent all of my cash my friend and fellow artist Madelyn and I stepped outside to let Lennon stretch his legs and to soak in some sunshine. My mother and sister stayed inside to continue shopping while Lennon, Madelyn, and I had a picnic of chocolate animal crackers and 3 dollar a bottle (yeah.) bottled water. My smiling little boy bouncing around, Good conversation, a patch of grass, blue skies, and a bag full of pretty glass craft supplies... what more can a girl ask for?!

Following the bead show we stopped into a Cracker Barrel restaurant for some grub and then proceeded on to the New England Felting Supply shop in Easthampton Mass which is one of my favorite shopping spots in the world. This place is UNBELIEVEABLE and to a felter or fiber artist it is an absolute PARADISE! You walk in the door and it is as if you were a child walking into a giant box full of every color of crayon imaginable.. There are ROWS upon ROWS of bins with rainbows of soft fluffy goodness, pick your own, deli style.. shimmery accents, books with great projects and inspiration, beautiful samples of the creations people have made with their fibers. Wonderfully textured swatches everywhere... batts, and boxes... bundles and bags... everywhere you look: COLOR and loveliness... It is truely breathtaking. I skipped and danced too and fro throughout the isles pinching off a little of this and a little of that. When all was said and done I walked out their door with two plastic bags packed full of fun for around 30 dollars. If you're ever in the area I highly recommend checking this shop out.. it's the second time I've been there and I'm pretty sure that it will not be the last! :) Anyways, thats mostly it for today. The past couple days I've been doing a lot of digital designing which, while a fun creative outlet, is not the most interesting thing to give a play by play on! However, in the near future you will be seeing the fruits of my labors so stay tuned! And with that, I am off to drink an ice cold bottle of Grolsch (with the swingtop) and dip my fingers into a bag of treasures! Have a lovely Friday!

one day at a time

Today was mostly a good day... I did pick up the pen once or twice... drew a few new Mellohead designs... One is a book plate, and another will be the design on my business card. I also sketched out a few ideas for a new line of stationery products I am working on which will eventually be found on myothersockisamonkey.etsy.com. I have this love of all things sock monkey, and I will be puting all sorts of fun funky socky items on there as well!

I feel like I am getting stronger, and though I slipped a little, all in all I did seem to fight my creating cravings pretty well. A few times I thought about my felt.... sweet, sooooffftt, felt.... and had a yearning or two for yarn... but By eating I was able to avoid giving in... another day in the books, does it ever get any easier?

Happily, I am finding more and more enablers out there who have been so gracious as to take away some of the evidence, a dreadlock bead over at mama trashheap's curiousity shoppe went just today. Yay! One less incriminating goodie in my home... Thanks for reading, and come back soon!

Houston, we may have a problem...

Hallo and Welcome! I am Kalee, and I may be a compulsive creator. I think it all started when I was a kid... I started out with the normal childhood outlets... play dough... crayons... maybe the occasional permanent marker when my mom wasn't looking... it all seemed harmless enough at first...

...But as my illness progressed, I soon was obsessed with embroidery floss and toothpicks... my worry dolls were the most detailed worry dolls the earth had ever seen.. and I made them by the dozens. Worry dolls of my favorite band (instruments and all), worry dolls of Disney characters... and worry dolls of every color, style, profession that my little 7 year old brain could possibly think of. I still stumble upon one here and there with a fair amount of regularity...

Phase after phase passed.. I found all sorts of new materials to get my fix... beads, pom-poms, and chenille stems... empty coffee cans, clothes pins, and colored paper... and then it happened.

The pen found me at 9 years old, with my first poem entitled: "The baby". It was about, what else, my new baby sister. I'm not sure if I have a copy anymore but I do remember it started with the lines: "The baby sleeps, The baby weeps, when the baby cries, she sees many peering eyes looking at her, just her"... A version of it, with a small drawing I had done won me a blue ribbon in a local fair children's contest, and gave me my first taste of recognition as an artist... even more than that, I realized that through my creations I could finally have my voice be heard... and in a family where I was but one of six children that was no small thing!

Anyways... from that point on a monster had been unleashed, and nothing could keep my pen from the page. As the years rolled by I continued to use my "gateway drugs", the pencil and pen, I also discovered in my early teens, the paintbrush and canvas... later I would fall in with a bad crowd and get hooked on the guitar and the song... but none of that compares to the addictions which now wake me at night, in a cold sweat... visions of trash and wool dancing about... Sometimes I wonder if I should seek help, but I am far too busy trying to pull every thought from within the deepest crevices of my mind... and to give them a solid form.

The needle marks from my felting needle are getting harder and harder to hide... and it scares me that someone might find my stash of plastic bags and cardboard and have me commited... but I hope that maybe with this blog, this psudeo-anononymous confession, and my growing number of Etsy shoppes (5 and counting) in time I may be ready to accept help.. after all, the first step is admitting you have a problem ;) ... and in the meantime, perhaps I will be able to find a few kind folks to take my creations off my hands, and thus ridding myself of the evidence... lest my loved ones catch on.


Please visit my etsy shoppes and take home the evidence!