kt40

busy with summer fun

this week we have had jasmine's best-friend andrea visiting so it has been a busy fun filled week.... yesterday was a drive to the Adriatic sea with friends, where the water was calm and i collected seashells and the kids played and ate ice cream. tonight a party to celebrate an early 4th of july...i have overheard the girls planning out their hair and outfits which made me smile of course when jason asked "Why are they doing that?" doesn't he get it by now. 

a small vacation

we had so much fun visiting friends and the town where we use to live. we celebrated Jasmine's birthday the big 13, ate near the beach at night, laughed and swam like fish.......what more could you ask for.

p.s. wyatt took most of these photos

p.p.s. thanks for meeting up Anna, i loved seeing you.

summer colors 6

Well I am bringing my summer colors to an end. It has been a fun challenge for the week. My beach bag below was inspired by Beth over at more doors who left this comment when I had finished my market bag

 "ohhh I love the colors and the design....really perfect for the market or the library or the beach when picking up drift wood and sea glass...."

I am using beach glass colors thanks to Beth on this bag.... I will post it when it is finished.

You can find the book I am using to teach myself decoupage here.

We are heading out to visit friends this weekend so I won't be blogging for a bit. Have a great weekend. kt

my summer colors 5

summer colors 4

summer colors 3

carol over at akashapeace might be able to break from work and play along with my summer colors at the end of this week.... make sure you treat yourself and check out her blog just the same  

colors of summer 2

do you want to play along? this week i am challenging myself to take snapshots, three a day adding simple words to each photo, these are representing my colors of summer, what i see..... what is taking place around here this summer.

if you want to play along email or comment and i will post your link on my blog...it doesn't have to be everyday maybe you want to post just once this week just give me the link to that post. kt

summer colors

my sewing room

i am feeling the summer love in my sewing room, jasmine made me a pink rose to hang up in my room, iris made me a bright red card to put up on my board and wyatt peeks in through one of my windows when he is taking a break from shooting hoops and will ask "How it is going?"

I finished my first market bag. i added some special Italian ribbon on the straps. the straps when pulled taunt can be long enough to go over your shoulders but I reccomend that you just carry it in your hands and strengthen those biceps, i mean let's be honest, as women don't we already carry enough on our shoulders:) okay... men too.

p.s. i must add that the straps on this bag was an idea i had taken from a little change purse from Nepal that i had received as a gift when i was eight or nine. i loved how the person that made it had put these little triangles on the end of the straps and i was fascinated with how you could simply pull them and the purse would close shut and i said to myself "one day i will make a purse like this." it is 33 years later and here it is (i like keeping my word:))

farmers market bag

i am working on a bag that would work for taking to the market (it will be in my shop)

having fun making patterns

here is one side of the bag see how long it is which i think would be perfect for filling with fruit and veggies. 

i have a tree in the background because this bag means you are skipping paper or plastic.

here is the other side of the bag it is made out of a soft cotton which means if it gets dirty you just spray any stains and throw it in the wash....yes to that!  this is going to be a tough little bag, a work bag, but it's soft feel and look will throw others off. i am just finishing up the straps and when it is all finished i will show how much fruit and veggies it can hold stay tuned:)

kt 

zoom

i wanted to share a little pillow cover i have been working on for my little shop

this little ape truck whizzing past the leaning tower filled with flowers, i have seen this scene in Pisa and in Rome.....okay maybe the flowers weren't really falling out but that part of this design truly makes me happy.

as i sew i start thinking things like this morning's thought "Is my stuff to "girly-girl"?" a term my girls use all the time but then i look again and think "Give me a boy who doesn't love flowers". 

Yesterday it stopped raining for a small moment. The kids all finish school this week.....another year gone by. (I measure my years by school schedules....is that nerdy in a studious way? not really sure) Summer is coming and my garden is giving me a small taste of what is to come. Have a good weekend! I am starting mine today, it will be a work weekend with play thrown in( yin and yanging it over here)

working on my little shop

I have been working on my shop ...just trying to figure out the Etsy site ....boy oh boy there is a lot to figure out, I'm easily getting sidetracked.....what's new:)....but finally came up with a logo

I am choosing to combine my kt40 blog name since the kt stands for me and the 40 is the age I was when I started this blog, which meant really starting to write which then lead to creating again after years of setting this part of me to the side. There is a heart wrapped around it which is how I feel when I make something and my home which is a big part of me always has been and will be. Since what I am choosing to make is items for people's homes it all seemed to make sense....how easily I smile... it only takes a simple logo to make make happy....now I better stop wearing this silly grin and get going, get started on making things to fill up this little shop.

visiting Prague

The kids and I went to Prague this last weekend to see my Mom and stepfather Mark.

 

So I am sharing some photos today of a city that really captured me.... a place I want to go again and again and....

at home

This is our dinning room, the center of our home really, the kids use this table for homework and crafts.

The table also gets used for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday.  I walked through it today and glanced up at the love bowl Wyatt decorated years ago, there it was perched on top of a cupboard oh how i love the love bowl.  I found the cupboard near a dumpster here in Italy....Jasmine and I managed to shove it into our car (it took two trips) I painted it a bright turquoise only to be begged by the whole family to change the color so it would be more relaxing.....they were right it think it fits in much better now. Just sharing some of the inside of our home today.... I think I tend to share only the outside of our home. Do you have a center of your home where everyone gravitates towards? Does it make you happy when you pass through it even when it is empty because you know it will be once again hosting the ones you love.

Here is the recipe we had for dinner last night, oh so simple to make and added bonus, it is pretty to look at when cooking.

p.s. have a great weekend!

i had to take a photo(two actually, to capture it all) this morning of the backyard we have jasmine and honeysuckle covering the back wall. I worked in the yard yesterday and kept walking over to this area just to inhale the fragrance ( i love you garden)

i also worked on another pillow cover. i realize it is Indian and Scandinavian inspired, crazy mix i know, i just can't help myself. i loosened the tension on my trusty machine so that my white bobbin thread peeked through. i am deciding to call what i am doing rustic applique (maybe there is already a name for this) since my appliques will fray a little after their first washing instead of being perfectly tucked under and sewn down. I like this look it  seems to go along with my designs.

two things today

First off I finished my first pillow cover. I am truly proud that I took apart an old Italian sham that I had purchased at a flea market. It had had some stains so I reworked it and even put it all back together (the original lace and buttons on the back). Now it is just a smaller with a whimsical design.

I love the original details the pin-tucks and lace that was crochet to the linen.

Second I wanted to pass on a potato soup recipe I made this weekend (it was cold and raining here) the kids were crazy about it. I topped mine with bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, scallions and black olives. The recipe seemed decadent because you add milk as your only liquid, usually I either add vegetable broth or chicken stock but I am telling you it tasted great with the milk. 

making pillow covers

i am working on opening an esty shop...i think i am going about it in an around about way...or maybe that is just the way i do things. I had a bunch of ideas but then when it came to actually following through on these, my hands seemed to have had other plans. 

"No you are not going to start making pillow covers, there are millions of pillow covers out there." my logical side said in a scolding tone. But my hands won out, they even wrote working on pillow designs on my idea board. 

so i am cutting and designing, throwing caution to the wind and i am starting with little 12 inch pillow covers that make me feel happy to make, mixing old Italian white linen with pieces of my own collection of fabrics.  

and i don't have my shop set up properly yet and i am not sure what else i will offer in it. i have set a goal for the middle of this summer and i have butterflies in my stomach from the excitement and they are finding their way onto my pillow covers.

this last weekend i went to Chicago. My dad and step-mom Amy wanted to surprise my sisters so that is why i never mentioned i was going on this blog.

My father grew up in downtown Chicago so this weekend we went to his old neighborhood (that is him walking into the alley he played in as a kid) We went on a bus tour and a boat tour great way to see the city if you only have a couple days.

My sister madeline with Dad cross the way in the baseball cap. Amy in the seat next to me on the bus.

Chicago.

the food was great( me and my sister Alicia) (Amy, Tracy, Alicia and Madeline) the art(my dad), the city, the weather...most of all the company.

It was bittersweet getting on the plane to come home. (my sisters and Amy in the cab) (My sister Tracy)

I was given the perfect bike for mother's day. It is black with a basket on front, it has gears so I can switch when going up hills. I love it!! Yesterday I rode around the neighborhood and kept braking for photos like the one above. I think me and this little bike are going to have fun exploring.

happy mother's day!

first off a photo for the behind the the scenes work, the everyday tasks that sometimes go unnoticed...we all know what they are..... this is just one of the many.

a photo of a daughter walking with her mother, i was walking with my daughters as i took this photo, hoping someday this picture will be taken of me...jasmine once said to me "I don't ever want you to die mom." I said "well....(long pause)......everyone does end up dying at some point but i do want to live as long as i can so i can see what you will do in life and just be around you when i can, that would make me very happy." that was a good enough answer for her. 

a photo for those moms out there that record the family moments that mean something to them, keep taking the photos because they do speak.

responding

i am sort-of like the guy pulling the canon when it comes to this blog sometimes, moving very slowing and out of my element. for the last month or so i thought i was responding to people's comments, sending my reply back to their email but i think i wasn't and instead I was replying to my own blog which now i can't seem to fix or delete. so i apologize if you have commented and felt like i never responded. a big oops on my part! kt 

garden area for kids

I am letting a section of the lawn grow as tall as it can

it is a area around the tall pines in our yard

i have mowed a path to it and then a small circle between the pines 

i think the best part is the sign that i made, 

it is firmly stuck into the ground at the beginning of the path

NO Parents Allowed

this summer the grass will hopefully be tall enough that when you sit in the circle you can't be seen.

my mom and mark's garden

I talked to my Mom and stepfather Mark the other day. We talked about our gardens. They had noticed how much I have been blogging about mine lately. I said "Send me some photos of your garden I would love to share them on the blog." So they did and what fun it is to see. If you( dear readers ) want to share some of your garden this week either email me a photo or if you have a blog just leave me a link to your blog.  Let's celebrate our gardens this week. kt

Their courtyard looks so cozy

A planter just beginning

A  path in the front yard

Some edging garden tiles I made and gave to my mom