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In other news, all but a few photos in Mama Trashheap's abode have been replaced by newer and better photos.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 :)

Art for the MAIL in your life...

Greetings,
just a quickie before I hit the hay.... Took Lennon down to the playground this afternoon and in between manning the swing and pausing to "wook it airplane"s :) I did a quick photo shoot of some recent projects that I've mentioned lately.. The steering wheel cover.. the Recycled envelopes and such... I am attempting to list the Recycled Envelopes as we speak but Etsy's listing editor is giving me some hassles with uploading my photos... :( Keeps getting stuck. Anyways, hopefully those will be up tonight before I'm through.

I also spent a good portion of the day swearing at my sewing machine... but the final result made me smile wide. I created some gifts for my students in the writing class I teach. They've done an awesome job and have grown so much.. tommorrow (today?) is our last class and I wanted to give them something special. So I crafted some journals with some leftover scraps of ribbon and fabric, as well as some tacky cover but nicely blank-paged journals I had picked up for the project... I will post photos tommorrow after I have given them, since they have the website address for this blog and though it's not likely they'll visit in the next 15 hours, JUST IN CASE... I want them to be a surprise. I'm off to finish the battle with Etsy's servers, and then to join my snuggly wee one :) Have a peaceful night all...
Kalee

lazy days, funky ways, sunshine rays, and what the hays

Hey There all of you out there in the WWW...
I have been being so bad about blogging lately, but I promise I will pick up the slack and try and post every couple days at least... anyways...

I spent much of the past few days running in circles and attending to the car... On saturday night I let my little brother borrow it to drive his girlfriend home, just across town. He only has a motorcycle at present and it was a little rainy and foggy soooo... 20 minutes after he left I get a phone call. The car had stalled and would not restart. Same thing had happened to me the previous night but when I had put some gas in it started back up so I figured the gas gauge must be broken.. it also happened earlier that day when I was picking my mom up from visiting my Grampa in the hospital... same apparent remedy with the gas... So I grabbed the gas can and headed down to rescue my brother. Only this time it started without the gas, and he hadn't gone far enough for it to have been just an issue with the gas gauge... so I followed him towards my mechanic's garage the next town over. Half way there the car stalled again, this time at the stoplight in a very busy intersection... after much fun of running back and forth with gas cans, being sworn at and called not-so-nice names by a couple disgruntled motorists apparently convinced that we had broken down just to get in their way and piss them off... and having a police officer dialing the number of a tow truck, it FINALLY started... I jumped in and drove it to the mechanic's with the ole slow-and-roll-through technique at the couple of back road stop signs (since it only seemed to stall out when you come to a complete stop)... 200 and some-odd dollars later, it turns out it was the "Crank Shaft Sensor"... SO hopefully (crossing my fingers) the car is now quirk-free, at least for the summer because I am so broke after the past couple weeks that if one more thing malfunctions I fear it will have to sit there for a couple months until I catch back up on my debts...

Happily, I have a few custom Letter orders in the works and the summer camp I am teaching is rapidly approaching. I think I may spend this whole weekend throwing a massive tag-sale. I have a TON of stuff I don't use or need that is either sitting in one of three storage spots, or is stashed in random corners and nooks in my bedroom and living-room... Even at a quarter per item I could probably do pretty well for the three day weekend... We shall see.

I have unfinished letters on their way and I will be working on those soon.. expect pictures. I also spent some lazy time today gluing and pasting some awesome little recycled envelopes, I have to take some photos tomorrow and that listing will be going up this week. I also have to catch up on listing a bunch of the items from the last photo shoot. While my mom and I were out this past week end I found a super awesome little crystal bottle at a tag sale (for a QUARTER!) that I'm going to rig up as a vase for my car... And I finished the Steering Wheel cover in my car, which I THINK looks really rad :) Picture of that in posts to follow... Now on to the seat covers and floor mats..

FInally, today, after picking up my poor car, Lennon and I took a run down to the lake... We weren't there for long but we had a good time... I've been in such a funk over money problems the past several days that it was a much needed break from reality :) I think I'm going to make a pact with myself that if it is nice out, I'm going to take him outdoors for at least 2 hours for the next two weeks straight. Deal? Deal. :)

SOrry for the lack of crafty photos, but there were just SO MANY good ones of my Lemon :)
G' Night...
Kalee

A GIVEAWAY and Mother's Day ...and Many more...

What a busy week! I went to pick up my car last weekend and since then I haven't stopped! Car show was fun, and the car I was given is AWESOME :) Brought it for a quickie to my mechanic who said it's in great shape after fixing a tiny leak in the power steering system... I took it through a car wash, vaccum, the whole shebang and now it sparkles... I've also got several ideas to dress her up and give her a little bit of "personality"... I will be using canvas to make some floor cloths instead of mats.. I will be using the seat covers the previous owner left behind to make some really fun patchwork seat covers... I want to rig up a bud vase on the dash using a bottle or two from my empty bottle and random little containers collection.. and I've already begun covering the steering wheel with a felted wool contraption that (I hope) will be the best of all the projects, and nice and comfy cozy on my hands...

In other news, I have been hard at work inverting security envelopes and then embellishing the daylights out of them... Much fun and I hope they will receive good and loving homes when I place them in store soon... I have also been updating and editing listings in my ATIONS shop and replacing a few pictures in Mama Trashheap's shoppe here and there so go stop by if you have a moment, have a quick peruse and let me know what you all think of the improvements.. More are coming over this next week.

I dropped a little gift off for the wonderful car gifter this evening, you can see photo's of what I made for her below... I did forget to stick in another couple little goodies I had intended so she'll likely be receiving another care package in the mail this week.

I have decided to offer a little giveaway... A $25.00 gift certificate good for any one of my shops.. to enter leave me a comment... you may leave as many comments as you like for as many entries with a limit of ONE COUNTABLE COMMENT PER POST (so you are limited to the number of blog posts)... comments should be constructive or applicable to the post you are commenting... in other words, please do not just go through each post typing in "HERE'S MY COMMENT" or Spamming advertisements all over (though one or two plugs of your goods is fine ;)) and to receive 15 entries you can post a little blurb and link about my blog on your blog or website and then come back and tell me you did :) The contest will be going until 12:00 AM JUNE 1st 2009 . On June 1st I will place each entry in a big ole jar and pick a winner with the ever popular swish and grab technique :) Winner will be announced on my blog on June 1st-2nd. Have fun! :)

In Lennon news, he has been developing and refining his language skills like mad this week... and his wonderful childish powers of observation and association never cease to amaze me... such fun to hear him explaining the world in his uncorrupted and bubbly ways... this past weekend he pointed to the sky and told me to "LOOK IT THE TOY STORY"... so Up I looked... to see the bright blue sky and fluffy white clouds that are depicted upon the walls of the bedroom of the child "Andy" in the Pixar cartoon movie TOY STORY.... I still smile when I think about it :))

On mother's day Lennon and I went and got a pancake breakfast and brought it down to the nearby lake.. we spent a good portion of last spring there before I became ill last summer... We played on the swings and dipped out toes in the cool water.... as we were tossing rocks into the gentle waves, goofing around with our dramatic sound effects and Lennon's contagious giggles it occured to me that I might have missed this... and very easily could have. Tears got the best of me momentarily... all that has happened since last mothers day, and that with the ever so slightest change in actions and outcomes Lennon could be motherless on this, his 3rd mothers day.... And I would have missed that tiny face with a ridiculously big smile and the "sploosh"ing of those rocks... I am so thankful I didn't.....

with that thought, Lennon is fast asleep and we will be getting up in way too few hours... After some budgeting issues and fee increases since my last round with the Motor Vehicle Department, and lots of paperwork digging and many hours of phone tag with insurance agencies, I will finally be going to register my car bright and early tommorrow Later I'm hoping to head over to my local green community for some R n R, good company and conversation, and a lesson in the art of Foraging for edible plants..... Needless to say, I should get on to some sleepage...
Take Care until next time,
Mama Kalee the Trashheap :)

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!

I Heart Trees

Good Evening sweet Enablers of mine,
Just a quick note to let you all know, I've posted the ANIMAL ANTICS Stationery Line... as well as the "I heart Trees" set. Go get yours just in time for EARTH DAY! :) Have a wonderful night!
Kalee

Banners and Blurbs

Hola, Aloha, and Hello!
My illness is happily passing and I have subsequently fallen back off the wagon... Several New additions to Mama Trashheap's today, including a series of three bracelets/ Wrist Cuffs inspired in part by the ultimate arch enemy: THE JOKER. Not too long ago, I was playing around with a bit of wool in some of my favorite colors, green and purple (MMmmmmmmmmmm....Puuuurple), and decided to do get my hands wet with some felting.. After lots of soapy elbow grease I unrolled my felting mat and heard this crazy, CRAZY, lunatic of a voice in my head say "why so serious?". So I pulled out my needle, a pinch of Red wool and my button stash... and VOILA, three fantastic little creations that I couldn't be happier with.... I'm debating pulling a listing and keeping one for my own wrist!

Next, I listed a new Crocheted Tam hat that is part of an ongoing upcycling project. I save all of my scraps of yarn, along with bits of ribbon, shoe laces, fabric strips, hemp, cord, and such.... wind them all into a ball and once it's big enough I toss it into my pocketbook for a quick and easy fix anywhere and anytime! The latest Scrappy Ball turned into this really cool and quirky hat, lots of handspun wools, some nice satin ribbons and eyelash yarn, and a whole mess of hemp twine! Check it out and let me know what you think... I LOVE these hats but since I already have a good dozen or so for my own personal wardrobe I figure I better let this ole girl go... WANTED: A GOOD HOME FOR HER.

This afternoon, I also sent my Printable files off to my local staples, as my printer is suffering from an incurable and fatal illness... an inability to print in color... fortunately this is nothing that a 20 minute trip to staples can't cure and I have a good 30 or so files to print (which makes it even more efficient and economical) .....soooooo, Revised Melloheads listings coming soon AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: by this time tomorrow my new Animal Antics Line of Printable Paper Goodies should be up and available for you to take home and love'm up real good!

My final frolic of the night was a digital one... Directly above this post you will see but one of the fruits of a speedy "paint" job (I don't have Photoshop on my little mini Acer Aspire yet, only on a rather cumbersome old desktop)... I have also designed new banners for Mama Trashheap's and for my more personal (and random) blog, "Musings of me mind". That's about the size of it... I don't quite feel like I've gotten my fix for the day but I should probably retire to my bed, or else I fear I may stay on here doodling away in crappy and cheap windows drawing programs all night and come tomorrow morning I'll be very very sorry... A fine evening to all and to all a grand night,
Kalee