Tag: one of a kind

Posted on by

Springtime!

Life seems a huge blur right now as we finish up the school work. I am spending great huge amounts of time with my right foot up on a chair, foot stool, or couch. I seem to have torn some tendons or something along that line.  It is a huge frustration to me. I seem to make plans only to have them changed mid-stream.

I recently opened the new shop ChocolatesBabyShop which is keeping me busy crocheting. I love crocheting little baby hats as they are just so cute and it is fun to think of the sweet little babies that will get to wear them.

2014-04-019

 

We seem to be sitting on the the thresh hold of so many  different experiences in the next two – three weeks. Our oldest daughter comes home from college. Our youngest son gets ready to graduate. Then we spend the summer preparing them both for the journey back to college and we will be left with one little bird still in the nest.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/101448416/she-sat-on-a-creative-nest-8-x-8-small

This is a wonderful time and I am so looking forward to all of the exciting changes that are happening. I will continue to rest my foot and hope to see you soon!

What is happening at your house this spring?

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

Posted on by

Chocolate’s Baby Shop

Introducing Chocolate’s Baby shop! You can find it here: www.chocolatesbabyshop.etsy.com I started it to put all the baby items in since I had so many. Now I am adding these super cute baby hats and blankets to the shop in the week ahead.

2014-04-18 11.45.30 2014-04-18 11.50.39

 

I also have some cute baby bibs and will be adding some taggies and possibly some baby shoes as well.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on by

100 items in 100 days!

Looking back at this challenge. I would say that it has helped me think outside the box. I had to get out of my comfort zone in my sewing and forced me to finish some mending projects. I finished a bunch of things in a short period of time.  I forced myself to use what I had on hand to fill my shop. It was good for me as it pushed me to create new and different things. It was an incredibly freeing experience to

Here they all are!

See you later,

Karen

Posted on by

OKCMOA again!

We also saw a wonderful exhibit of recycled items called Come on down by Lisa Hoke.

2014-04-05 13.13.49 2014-04-05 13.10.08

2014-04-05 13.11.58 2014-04-05 13.10.20

This collage art was about 30 feet long and the colors covered all the colors in packaging that you see on your grocery store shelves. There was a video at the beginning that talked about how she created this art work.  She worked in 2 or 3 foot sections to make it easier to work with. You could watch a time elapse of her putting the collage on the walls of the museum.

It is awesome incredible artwork full of life and color. She has friend and family save their recyclables for her. It is a great example of creating with what you have on hand.

http://www.okcmoa.com/see/exhibitions/come-on-down-by-lisa-hoke/

You can see a panoramic photo of the installation on her website as well as her other collage work here: http://www.lisahoke.com/pages/newInstallations/74.html

talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on by

Oklahoma City Museum of Art!

We spent the weekend away from our children. It has been about 10 years since we planned to spend time away from them with a purpose. The intensive child rearing years can be overwhelming. We got stuck in just planning to get them to adult age and had not planned beyond that horizon. The end of child rearing and the speedy approach of the empty nest is now only about 3-4 years away. So, it was more than time to spend time talking, dreaming, planning and thinking what we would do in the future. We visited the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and saw the Ansel Adams art exhibit and also the Dale Chihuly Glass exhibit. 2014-04-05 12.31.46 2014-04-05 12.34.05

We weren’t allowed to take photos in the Ansel Adams exhibit, so I don’t have anything to show you of the beauty he captured in his photographs.

I have been wanting to see the Chihuly Glass exhibit for years and years. It was incredible and the photos I took do not do his work justice. The blown glass is enormous and he created with bright colors. Imagine the bright colors of my crochet blankets only glowing. Each piece of glass appeared to glow from the inside.

2014-04-05 12.51.03

This is a boat with giant  glass marbles. The colors were intense and bright. The same range as the colors in the photo below. This is a ceiling installation in a hallway. The colors in this photo are more true to life.

2014-04-05 12.55.49 2014-04-05 12.58.24 2014-04-006

We also saw a wonderful exhibit of recycled items called http://www.okcmoa.com/see/exhibitions/come-on-down-by-lisa-hoke/

I will tell you more about her art soon!

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on by

#92-100 Finished At Last!

I finished up these pot holders and coffee press cozies this week. The pot holders have two layers of batting in the middle to keep your hands nice and cool. There is coordinating fabric on the back that I pulled from my supplies and the front is quilted from fabric I had as well.

Here is # 92

2014-04-03 07.55.38

#932014-04-03 07.55.21

#94 and 952014-04-03 07.55.14

They turned out really nice and I love the thick potholders. I also finished up these coffee cozies using the supplies I had on hand.

#96

2014-04-04 10.50.39

#97

2014-04-04 10.54.56

#98

2014-04-04 10.56.09

#99

2014-04-04 10.57.14

#100

2014-04-04 10.52.14

There we go 100 items in 100 days! I am so excited about being finished. I have a bunch of new items on the horizon. I did use up a bunch of supplies and it did stretch my creativity. I had fun and finished up a bunch of projects quickly as I was motivated to be able to buy some new fabric! I still have about four projects that are unfinished that I have started during the challenge time and I may continue counting them toward the challenge. I did have to breakdown and buy some new supplies towards the end of the challenge. If I hadn’t started the challenge I would not have been ready for the opportunity that came my way at Java Dave’s!  I have a ton of things cut out, ready and waiting for me to sew.

See you later!

Karen

Posted on by

To Do List 3/30- 4/5/2014

The post about being overwhelmed has encouraged me to write my to do list each week. Last year I kept a running list on my computer. I had several lists that kept  work in the front of my mind. I stopped using them after several  comments from my family about how busy it was and overwhelming. Productivity dropped through the floor. So  I will start the perpetual lists back up immediately. Here is my To Do list for this week.

Home and family

Scrapbook page for Home school yearbook.

Baby photo of Sr. for yearbook

Meal with son and daughter in law

Plan meals for week

Mail sr photos out to family

Get Commencement invites out

Organizing

Create shopping list

Clean bedroom

Clean out front flower bed and plant irises in back yard

Work on organizing files (pick one drawer to work on)

Chocolate Dog Studio

Finish pattern for baby blanket

Create  last 10  items for the 100 day challenge!

Complete Calendar planning for shop and home for rest of year.

Plan vacation times and fabric shopping trip

Self

Exercise four times this week

Plan quiet times for re-energizing

Date night with Hubs.

 

I hope I can get all of these things done!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

 

Posted on by

#90 out of 100 Items!

2014-03-26 12.36.59It has been a frustrating week and I tend to hit one of these fairly frequently. My creativity seems to hit a slump and my ability does well. I  have been working on using up my stash and part of that was to finish a crochet blanket I started about 10 years ago. I thought I had finished it way back when. It is a lovely green, white, yellow and blue blanket that I use in the studio when I wake up too early. It was not big enough to be warm and cozy. So, I have started adding to it with my stash yarns. I finished it once and the ends were definitely not the same width by about 12 inches.This is a  huge difference, and it looks gathered. I changed crochet hook sizes and went up to my largest hook, and it is still not even. Now I will need to count stitches and see if I have dropped stitches off the ends of the blanket. It is only about 4 inches difference now so dropping stitches might be the answer. Turns out I had dropped about ten stitches so I added those back in and the width turned out just right. I used up a bunch of little balls of yarn and some larger ones as well. It isn’t the most beautiful blanket I have ever made but it is incredibly soft which more than makes up for it’s homely appearance.

See you later,

Karen

 

 

Posted on by

71- 76 of the 100 items in 100 days

Here are the other brooches that I have been working on.

Some Kandinsky inspired circle brooches. 2014-03-15 22.39.35

2014-03-15 22.38.58

2014-03-15 22.38.47

And some Spring Tulips!

2014-03-15 22.39.28 2014-03-15 22.39.20 2014-03-15 22.39.12

This is #71 – 76.

They were fun to make and something new for the shop. I still have a ton of felt left, though the bead supply is getting low. I started the challenge with this.

2014-03-15 12.47.50 2014-03-15 22.40.09

 

So, I am using up my bead supply with these pins. It is hard to imagine that I am only 24 items from being finished with the challenge. I started on January 17 and it is only March 17 now.  So if you count the days;15 days in January, 28 days in February, and 16 days in March, for a total of 59 days! I am super motivated as I really need to buy some critical supplies for the shop! : )

Talk to you later,

Karen