Pulse Racin' Heart Thumpin' Good Times!

Hey Howdy Hey Neighbors :)
Hope everyone is having a fun and safe holiday weekend! Lennon, my mom, and I went out last night to see some fireworks light up the sky. I was sick at this time last year and so Lennon hasn't seen any since he was about 8 months old... He wasn't quite sure what to think of them and spent the 1st 5 minutes of the 15 minute show trying to drag me back to the car and saying a very urgent "okayokayokayokayokay!"... He settled down for most of it after that and was pointing to the sky saying "colors" and doing big dramatic jumps (everytime one would go off) while shouting "BOOMP!". However, during the very loud finale he freaked again and climbed up my skirt and into my arms within about 2.5 seconds! You gotta figure that the human instinct that we're all born with would probably be something along the lines of: Loud bang, Big flash, RUN for your life! So in that light his reaction was pretty understandable! A woman nearby gave us a couple sparklers which was mostly fun other than Lennon didn't really understand the "EXTREMELY HOT" thing and waved it a little close to my face a few times... Fortunately no mothers, children, or small animals were harmed during the brief light show..... The show itself was kind of lame... but then I'm probably spoilt for life in terms of pyrotechnic displays... My dad was a licensed pyro for several years during my childhood and I was able to see some PHENOMENALLY choreographed firework shows, some insanely large shells, embellished building demolitions, massive controlled explosions, and all sorts of other goodies... we even took family vacations to firework CONVENTIONS a few times where the BEST shells and shows from around the world would take place... After years of being so close to fireworks that you could smell the black powder, see the flares, and feel the little bits of brown paper raining down on your head after the reallly big ones... watching a few dinky chinese shells in a brightly lit mall parking lot... just doesn't really get your heart raceing, know what I mean ;)

ANYWHO.... on to crafty matters at hand! This spring has been so busy and July is shaping up to be downright hectic! I am teaching a summer camp in the last two weeks of July, and have signed on for all sorts of other volunteer community projects. My town celebrates its anniversary every year with a weekend called "OLD HOME DAY". Last week I was asked to design some masks and large puppet heads for a Lion King themed parade float, as well as performing the role of "MUFASA"... so I also have to come up with a costume for that. Which means I have to felt 30 wool dreadlocks in various shades of reds, browns, and yellows to mix in amongst my dreads, and a mask, and some sort of african-esque fabric draped clothing... I am also planning to go down on Tuesday and help construct the float as well... And then on Wednesday I have a day planned with the Green Cooperative I am involved with. I will be down there all day doing some painting, planting, and baby wranglin with a few other awesome women! I also have a bulletin board that I am working on for the Co-op......

AND THEN ;) in the midst of all of this hubbabaloo I have a few more letters that I just painted up the past few days that are in need of some finishing touches and a coat or two of Varnish, AND I am launching my NEW SHOP (that makes 4....) which will contain most of my digital designs, including all of the ones I have been working an insane amount of hours on the past several weeks... My blog readers get the special sneak preview: http://wookit.etsy.com where you will find a small sampling of what's to come .... I will post an update once it is fully stocked with goods! These 2 A.M. nights are starting to get old, but I am really trying to finish up all of the projects I've started/promised... Throw in a few Drs appointments, a tagsale with my sister-in-law, a birthday or two and....... well, you get the idea! BUT, In all honesty, I THRIVE under pressure so its ALL GOOD :)

Finally, my bike tire had an unfortunate meeting with a thumb tack on the 30th and I have been going stir crazy with the lack of an energy outlet... I just bought a patch kit on Friday so I'm off to go see if I can figure that out and get in a quickie before I put the ole nose back to the grindstone... Hope everyone reading this out there in the WWW is well, and I will be back with another update the next time I come back up for air!
See Yah!
Kalee

Fantastic Fathers!

Happy Father's day all you papa's out there... and all you double-duty single mama's too :) I'm taking a little break from all the digital art and design I've been pouring most of my working time into the past few days... You can check out some of the fruits on the new banners/avitars for mamatrashheap.etsy.com ations.etsy.com and magicaljewelry.etsy.com (my mom and pop's shop)... I also will be listing a new and AWESOME (if I do say so myself ;)) Alphabet poster though I haven't decided which shop it will be listed in.... and a few new digital art prints are also in the works... I've also decided to try my hand at selling banners and avitars.. I designed a few simple and basic ones to start out... if there is demand for it I may offer custom services for more elaborate CUSTOM shop banners/avitars/logos and graphics... a few teasers in the photos below...

Most letters were sent out last week with the exception of 2 single letters and 1 name, and to the recipients of those: don't worry, they are on my agenda for the next 2 weeks.

I don't know about the rest of the country but here in Connecticut it has been RAINING. and RAINING. and RAINING. for nearly the past month straight... I have managed to sneak in a bike ride here and there but nowhere near as much as I want to... and Lennon has not gotten nearly enough playground time... Not to mention the strawberry fields that are calling my name! I am so hoping that this coming week will contain a bit more sunshine than the previous few... so much to do, so short a summer :)

I did some major overhauls of my email setup, finally got outlook going, AND installed Photoshop on my main laptop (as opposed to only having it on my mom's computer that I use infrequently) so hopefully the digital creation and communication processes in my life will be MUCH easier and much less time consuming now... which should give me much more time to devote to more hands on important tasks... and for mommying..

speaking of which... Lennon said his first musician/band name yesterday (completely unprompted) and appropriately enough it was "BEATLES"! He has also been watching the yellow submarine over and over throughout these rainy weeks and is starting to sing along with "all together now"... as in counting and the ABCs :) Leave it to the Beatles to be teaching my kid the essentials, lol!

Thats about all for now, my "to do" list is getting longer and longer and not nearly enough check marks :)

Until later!
Kalee


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