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

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

Animal Antics

Greetings and Good Morning Enablers!
I spent nearly all afternoon and evening yesterday working on some new designs for my printable stationery and signed art prints that will be in mama trashheap's shoppe. I came up with what I think are some SUPER cute designs for the animal lover and/or vegetarian N vegan crowd. Hope you like them (see photos of the stationery below). I also spent the entire morning raking the front yard and chasing Lennon away from the road :) Which, despite the 3 years worth of sticks and stones among the leaves, was actually fun in this beautiful weather.. I did get a nasty sliver in my hand from the old cruddy wooden rake, which was NOT FUN... at all.. its still in there and it kinda hurts, it is in my right hand and I'm gonna try and dig it out soon, I am not looking forward to the digging... but pain or no pain, it won't stop me from CREATING!

That's all for now, Lennon was up half the night coughing and I'm not quite sure if he is sick or if his throat was just irritated from the meltdown he had just before bed... either way he got so upset when I tried to give him some homeopathic cough syrup that he proceeded to throw-up on the bed... so now I have to go wash all of my bedding... What a fun night... hopefully I leave you now.. to A MUCH BETTER DAY!

Hopefully!
Kalee

Yesterday...

...I fell asleep without posting, but I have to go on a quick rant about how much it sucks when you accidently save over computer files you worked on for 2 hours and didn't save anywhere else... sigh.. I made this really cute crazy penguin stationery... and then I saved another stationery I did after that over it by accident. Sucky suck suck. Oh well, anyways, I came up with several really cute designs for some Printable stationery sets I'm going to be putting up on Mamatrashheap's Curiousity shoppe (see photos below). I'll be working on some more today, including a great little set for the Veggie-heads out there.... A couple of them aren't really eco or green themed in any way but, they were just random cute ideas I had... and that's pretty much what Mama Trashheap has become the venue for... Randomness ;) Anyways... I'm going to take Lennon over to the playground for a bit, and then later me thinks I'll be drawing and possibly painting some new printables.. be on the lookout for cute critters creations coming soon!!!!!!!! :)
Later Gators,
Kalee

All Images Copyright Kalee Prue 2009

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

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!

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!