Patchy Postings

Greetings and Hellos,
It's been awhile again! I have a feeling Summer-time is going to be a bit patchy with the posting if the spring is any indication so far! Between riding my bicycle, tending my wee one, creating randomness, filling orders, teaching 2 different summer camps, farmer's markets, craft shows, and my summer-long mural project for a local youth theatre group.... well.... you get the idea ;) Here is the latest... I have been painting like mad the past 2 weeks, finishing and catching up on all of my Letter orders for ATIONS. Depending upon wether or not varnish is dry enough tomorrow morning (it's SUPER SUPER humid here...) they will hopefully ALL be shipping tomorrow (otherwise I will hold them back until first thing Monday), and then I am totally caught up with the exception of 1 name, and 2 single letters which I'll easily finish next week. HURRAH! See photos below for a taste of the fruit of HOURS and HOURS of loving labor. Anyways, I will be posting new letter styles in ATIONs as I try to polish my photos and come up with my own designs after several years of mostly mimicking and matching bedding lines and decor. Please don't hesitate to contact me for an original design JUST FOR YOU... I have many good ideas to pull from, lots of experience and passion for painting, and I ALWAYS love the challenge of custom work :)

In other news, all but a few photos in Mama Trashheap's abode have been replaced by newer and better photos. Please take and look if you have a moment and I GLADLY welcome any feedback, ideas for better photos, personal favorites, etc! Most of the photos in Melloheads have also been replaced except all of the greeting cards which have to be re-shot. Those will be fixed this week so be on the look out for that. I also have a few new designs in the works for the next few weeks... I have lots of ideas for the melloheads line but I've been holding off on really going all out on it since sales haven't been terrific... opinions? ideas? Do you like the characters? Does the line just need to be expanded? polished? tweaked? Euthanized? I am really in need of some feedback on this shop, pretty please :)

On that note I should head off to bed... Lennon and I went out on our bike for a couple hours tonight after three days straight of sitting in a chair only exercising my painting hand ;) and I am DOGGONE tuckered out.. Lots to do this weekend, I will be going to see a play done by my little sister's theatre group tomorrow night, attending a family gathering tomorrow morning/afternoon, finishing a few touches on a present and celebrating my niece's 1st birthday on Sunday... packing a couple dozen letters to ship, and putting in several hours of work to help out my parents business (www.magicaljewelry.com) whew, lots of fun but I am definitely going to need to conserve energy by getting some "beauty sleep", lol! Good night all and have a wonderful weekend, I will try to check in at some point next week.
Later Gators,
Kalee

P.S. ALL PHOTOS can be clicked to zoom and see full detail.. and in some of these there is A TON of detail that will be missed if this is not done :)

Vintage Ice Cream Paper

Top of the evening to yah,

Does anyone else recall "Ice Cream Paper"?? It was this cute paper that we used to use in kindergarten grades to write our letters on... it had three lines: chocolate vanilla and strawberry and a great little illustration of an icecream sundae at the top... Anyways, for whatever reason I woke up this morning to a picture of this paper in my head. I used to love the stuff and my mom used to have this mass supply of it. So I asked her if she had any left and sure enough she did... Long story short, My latest brainstorm was to create my own version of this paper, and so I did. And then I was so inspired by the idea of making paper for little kids to learn with, that I made another design... and then another.. cars, trains, cats, sock monekys... all in all I came up with 8 designs, finsihed and just waiting for me to list in my shoppe. I believe I will be listing them in my Ations shoppe. I will let you all know once they have become available for purchasing.
Later in the day was the writing class I teach for a local youth organization. It was a great class and after 4 classes with these students I am really feeling like we are making some good progress. Their homework for next week was to start a book which will be an ongoing project for the remainder of the class... I am really amazed by the intellect and communication skills that these kids are already showing at the tender ages of 13-16... Can't WAIT to see what they come up with for this book project. With their permission I may post a bit of their writing in a blog at the end of the class semester. THats all for now, Lennon and I went to the Library earlier and borrowed a new (to us) DVD for him.. So I'm off to go cuddle up with him and see what "Chicken Little" has in store for us :) G'night and Be Well!
Kalee

Drawing at the playground

Greetings Enablers!
I took my little one to the playground this morning... did I play? Chase him around? not much... instead I walked behind him DRAWING all the while in my notebook... It was around 40 degrees and Lennon and I were all bundled up from the triple layered jackets to the wool hats... all except my fingers which were FREEZING but which I had to keep exposed to hold a pencil... I also discovered once I had arrived at the playground that all of my pencils were virtually pointless... so I used a pocket knife to whittle some points! Am I strange?? I have no idea... But the one positive thing about this odd behaviour is that it keeps me from having to engage in parental gossip sessions :) So I sit here drawing again... and having again refrained from my felt for the moment, I am starting to jones like you would not believe. Tommorrow just might be the day I give in... I have attached a few photos of some recent sketches. A friendly farewell and a happy hoppy day to all!
-Kalee

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!