PHOTOS and POEMS and ANGELS

Hello and Howdy Enablers :)
I don't know about other areas of the country (or world) but today in Connecticut was BEAUTIFUL! Perfect temp, blue skies, just lovely... actually, with one exception the past few days have all been pretty nice. I took advantage of the weather on Wednesday and took Lennon down to the run off some energy at the lake while I took some photos of some new creations, and some reshoots of some of my not so hot photos... Hopefully I'll find the time over the next few days to get these up into my shop. I did a clothing photo shoot with my baby sister Addi (incidently it is her 19th Birthday today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADDI) to showcase some of the upcycled clothes I created several months ago... That will also be going up in the trashheap's shoppe very soon.

New creations the past few days were mostly of the felted beads or written variety. However, I'm noticing that as the weather is getting more consistently nice... my thoughts and inspirations are turning away from the crocheted and felted... to the painted, the upcycled and the repurposed... Over the next month or so I'm thinking that much more creations of this variety will be spilling forth... I will also be placing my monthly order for blank letters from my supply-guy and for the next two weeks I expect to find paint on my wardrobe and under my nails on a very regular basis while I work on creating several full orders and a whole lot of Pay It Forward orders

On to my best of news... On a whim, while online a few weeks ago, I had submitted a small want-ad in the "neighbor to neighbor" column of a local paper asking if anyone would be willing to trade with me, some muralist work for some or all payment of a used car... I didn't really think anything would come of it, but figured, what've I got to lose... I am in dire need of a car, I had jobs lined up for this summer, teaching summer camps, art classes and such, and I have had no car of my own ever since I sold my car last June a couple of days before I ended up with a very serious illness... it was a long and hard recovery and just the past couple months I've finally started to get back to my old self again, but have still hadn't begun to be able to get back on my feet financially... it's the old catch 22 of needing a car to get to a job to make money... and needing money to get said car...

SO ANNNNNYWAYS :) To get to the point... I got ONE single response to the ad... A wonderful woman several towns away offered me a 99 Hundai that runs and is in great shape with the exception of a transmission issue... which isn't necessarily an issue.. it could last another couple years for all we know... and the woman is GIVING it to me and wants ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in exchange... I plan to make her something nice regardless... she is a dog trainer so I'm thinking maybe a picture frame or two and a set of letters spelling "WOOF" or something along that lines, with paw print design... I go pick up the car tommorrow, and next week will be much fun time spent at the DMV(dept motor vehicles) and such getting registration and whatnots.... Happily, waiting rooms at the DMV provide ample opportunity for sketching and felting :))))

What a wonderful blessing and SUCH AMAZING PEOPLE that do exist out there... I am so incredibly thankful for this little bit of help... It feels like maybe... just maybe there is someone out there looking out for me, and maybe my 10 year streak of catastrophe after catastrophe is finally winding down... :) Here's hoping... and to give a little more back to the universe I'm going to be putting up a few "PIF" TWENTY CENT LISTINGS in each of my shoppes next week... I'll let you all know when I do so you can get'em while they're fresh :)

On Thursdays I teach a writing class to 6-12 grade students.. I wrote a poem during this past one, about my Lennon, that I'd like to share... the title was inspired by his love of trains... he says "train train" instead of "choo choo".. he thinks that is the noise they make, hehe :) Here is the Poem....

"Train Train"

Every time he says it
my heart just turns to smush
like the tiny buggies he "quishies"
between his fingers till its goosh

He likes his uncle's "sickle"
when he revs it it goes vroom
Instead of "mom" he calls me "Key"
says "ah Yah You" when I leave the room

Sometimes he be's a "Peenbutt"
but mostly he's just "Hah-Pee!"
We "wook it cars" and "wook it Fwollers"
and sometimes "wook it trees"

The "toy planes" in the sky
and "ban-yahyahs", "beegles" and "ookies"
oh the wonders of a "Gow-Beech Twuck"
and all that HE's taught ME to see...


Lennon and I had a great time tonight running on the playground for a couple hours...playing "I Get you" and swinging.... Tommorrow morning we are going to a car show that my big brother, Donald, is DJing, later going to pick up my car, and finishing the day at a dance recital for little sis, Addi... The funk is dissolving and tommorrow should be an AWESOME DAY! Perhaps if I am not too spent I shall pop in for a quickie tommorrow evening...

Until then,
Kalee

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

Half Asleep Brainstorming

Good Morning my enablers,
and a good morning it has been for me as well so far! I'm not sure at what point during the night this started, but the dreams I was in the midst of this morning when I awoke were all about brainstorming new crafty projects... oh wow... I really am ill! But seriously, last night before I went to bed I had been browsing around etsy, and I guess I was massivly inspired or something! One of the several really nifty ideas I awoke to was a reusable party banner made of fused plastic... and from there I brainstormed through changing Lennon's diaper, washing up, fixing breakfast, and now I sit here typing this as I finish the last few bites... usually I wait until the evening to blog, but I am just so excited about the stream of ideas flowing right now that I had to capture it all! I do believe I am going to work on some reusable upcycled party sets this week.. and probably a set of DIY Patterns for the same. I also had a ton of other ideas that could totally all come together to form a DIY functional upcycling E-BOOK, which I'm REALLY psyched about that possibility! Man, Once I had the idea of the banners it has also now opened up a whole new world of ideas that could be done with fused plastic.... it probably also helped that last night I stumbled upon a baby bonnet and a RAINCOAT made completely of fused plastic! Purses and pouches are wonderful... but THAT is some creativity right there! Now I can't shut this flow of ideas off... eating breakfast Lennon was waving his fork around in my face and instead of fearing for the safety of my eyes, I started having visions of this super cool mobile/wind chime that could be made with silverware swisted and spiraled into some interesting shapes and suspended on butter knives..... yes, ladies and gents, I either need some SERIOUS help, or else a SERIOUS workshop space! Anyways, I am pretty sure that my Lennon is wreaking the kind of quiet havoc that only a 2-year old can pull off... and there is a sink full of dishes calling my name, so I best be getting to my day. Happy dreaming ;) and farewell until the next-time!
-Kalee

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!