kt40

worn wallpaper

i chose this photo to post today

it did not make it into my shop but i do care about this old worn out wallpaper

this space has been quiet i have been working on my etsy shop, i had a long conversation with my mom last night about my shop who was helping me come up with descriptions and pricing, making sure i was going to be charging enough for my work, she knows me, i would give it all away for free if i could afford too, and according to her i practically was when i told her some of my prices. this of course can be hard to wade through, she is after-all my mom..... but i know my mom and she knows me, i want things to be fair and just....i want to have items i could afford to purchase....but i do also want to honor the work i put into each thing i made and cover the cost of the materials .....getting ready to open shop is really helping me grow as an artist, a crafter, a person. putting a value on what i have been creating, this is extremely hard for me but it's about time.

p.s. thanks suz and tray for your help too, it is soooo appreciated!

truly

this last weekend my friends Bridget and Anna came and visited us. It was so nice having friends for the weekend. We have been here for one year now and the thing I miss the most is my good friends and family. I have gotten use to the area which I love, truly love......but it is the laughter and conversations that flow easliy when sitting around with my friends and family that I miss, truly miss.  

p.s. don't mind me in the photo, jasmine was getting frustrated because I kept closing my eyes. 

bridget, anna and me

 i have been busy this week taking all the photos necessary for displays my etsy shop, then of course deciding to change things, so next week guess what i will doing again. But i finally have set an opening date Thanksgiving weekend (the 28th of november) so even if i only have two items in my shop, it will still be opening.  i need to this or i am afraid my not opening will drag on and on and on. i need to stop hedging around it drop the intense analyzing and agonizing over every single photo or item. time to lighten up and remember that this is going to be fun.

p.s. dear readers, have a great weekend

black and whites for wednesday

 

the call

 

Yesterday the air was cool and crisp. Like a true day in the fall, the light disappeared and jet black took over. Jason had gone on a late afternoon bike ride and when I first noticed the blackness outside my thoughts went to him...did he bring his bike lights?

Right then, the phone rang, it was him, could I come find him? 

He did not have his lights and he couldn't see a thing on the long windy country roads that surround our home.

I called Wyatt down from his room "You are in charge, I need to go find your dad, can you finish making the rice for me?"

"Sure" he replied

"Wyatt, you are in charge now." I heard Iris say to him, spoken like a ten year old in awe of a fifteen year old.

"Wyatt, you are really in charge." she repeated again.

"What is it like being in charge?" she asked

"Enough, Iris." spoken like a fifteen year old, getting slightly annoyed by a ten year old.

Jasmine was upstairs listening to her music and fixing her room if I left quickly she would never know that her brother had been given the full reign not her, and no she wasn't getting second in command either that could easily turn into a "situation".

So off I went with my face up close to the windshield, squinting my eyes, trying to get through the dark, along a thin, windy country road and after a while there he was standing with his bike, I couldn't help but smile, it was as if time had gone backwards and I was that same teenager he had asked to meet him at his locker before lunch. I pulled up and he said "Thanks for coming to get me" and too embarrassed, because I couldn't lose the huge goofy smile that had taken over my whole face, I looked down like I was looking for something and replied "Sure, no problem."

fish napkin design

Well the new contest over at spoonflower is that you must have fish and must use only the four colors that they have chosen.....well they added black and white to the choices too. So I started thinking napkin designs.......napkins that were already printed for you..... all you had to do was cut the fabric, tuck, iron and sew the edges. I was not thrilled with the set color choices but I was thrilled at the challenge to have to use them and try to make them work. So I started designing a napkin, the wheels were turning and my flower napkin grew right in front of me

 I started adding the colors, the hours were flying by, this wasn't going to be so bad after all....then I remembered....FISH it had to be a fish design, some very loud swearing followed. I had to stop for the day the kids were home, dinner had to be made...etc...etc.

This morning I woke up if it needs to be fish, then fish it will be........fish for dinner......fish napkins...I can do this......

So I used my original napkin border, not all was lost, added my two fish, even gave them a sappy little fish tale (bad pun I know) to go around the napkin.  

 

Two fish met in the sea. It would have been easy for them to pass each other by and not say anything but both knew that sometimes you have to take a chance. So they both stopped swimming and talked and talked. It started getting late, so they both asked (at the same time) "Would you like to go to dinner with me?" No answer needed, instead they swam away, this time in the same direction, happily ever after.
 

Have a great week! I will be off the computer until next week.

kt

black and whites for wednesday

reworking

this week i have been sewing pillow covers for my shop (yes the same shop that never seems ready to open:))

anyways i have to say this has been extremely enjoyable for me. i have purchased some linens from local flea markets and received old linens and now i am combining them with my own two cents, if you will. 

taking apart old linen shams that still have that wonderful high quality to them but may have some old stubborn stains and reworking them back into new pillow covers without the stains. managing in some cases to still have their original fabric covered buttons grace the backsides of my covers.

wondering who S is, that stitched her letter delicately at the end of her work. 

and who was it that hand stitched their crotchet work to their flawless embroidery, would they mind that i had picked their piece out of big old pile and saw that with some mending it could once again be proudly displayed in someone's home. 

would they mind that i thought some hearts added to their small lovely piece would make someone smile 

question

 

i am working on items for my shop and wanted to ask for advice. If you brought something homemade would you like to see a little tag on it that showed the person's logo or would you like the logo (tag) to be hidden a bit 

example: 

hidden: inside the pillow cover.

showing: on backside of pillow cover where the opening is to insert pillow.

i would love to hear from you.

thanks kt

my first dolls

This week I am in another spoonflower design contest doll panels. I shared my drawings a while back on this post and this post and this post. Yesterday the voting began and as luck would have it my fabric arrived too. This morning I sewed the mama doll and nap-time doll. I must say I am soooo happy with the fabric from  spoonflower they did such a nice job!  The colors are vibrant and unlike my photos that follow the tones are all even( i used natural light when i took these photos and it kind-of blew out the colors in places). Jazz held one in her hands to give you a comparison ratio. They are little and sweet and I can't stop fussing with them this morning.

front

back

my logo printed on bottom

riding home

The clouds in front of her were beginning to look ominous....then she turned her head back and saw that they were a deep black behind her. I must pedal faster she thought as the wind was beginning to bite through her thin jacket. Then she felt the first raindrop on her face. She awkwardly pulled over, because she wasn't the most swift of bike riders, and took off her coat so she could wrap her camera up and place it safely in her basket. Then back on her bike she pedaled faster and faster and soon the young girl who used to ride home with fierce determination to beat the storms had joined her middle-aged self and together they beat the oncoming storm once again.

black and whites for tuesday

paper-chains with wire

i can not throw something away, my next small project is proof of this

converting garbage-bag-ties into paper-chains

 

1. have your garbage-bag-ties, paper and glue

paper ideas: newspaper, rice paper, tissue paper, magazine pages, wrapping paper

 

i cut the paper into strips the same length and then twice the width of the garbage-ties

placed the garbage-bag-tie inside the strip of paper

put some glue along the inside edge 

then fold the paper in half and pressed down

i even added a little shape at the top on some of them

 

now you can use theses for twisting a tag onto a gift

or making paper chains

whatever and wherever your imagination takes you with these

 

my window treatments were calling for a small paper-chain to be added into the mix

gelato by the lake

If you turned your back to this view you might have spied a middle-aged married couple, choosing to sit side by side at a small wooden table so that they could both enjoy the view.

You might have overheard him asking her, if her gelato was good and in response she would ask him if he wanted to try it. He would say "no"  he just wanted to know if she liked it, she would say "yes" and look at him while thinking and grinning, after what is almost thirty years now he still wonders if she enjoys small pleasures and noticing her grin he would ask her what was so funny.

follow up to yesterday's post

quick follow up. Esty did respond to my email, very kindly and thoughtfully i might add, they liked the idea of  having a more personal section for info on the the seller not just a thumbnail photo and a place to write a bio up. I think this would be great for the buyers and the sellers both. The man who responded to my request said he was going to send my email and photos to the products committee. i do hope they look into this for the future. thanks for the comments sperlygirl, Deb, pixiedust, and carol

kt

working on my etsy shop

this morning i spent all morning working on photos for my etsy shop......lets see, some of this might not make a lot of sense......currently on etsy they just have a small profile on the side bar where you can see who the seller is(a very tiny photo) and you can click and read a little bit or a lot depending on how much they write about themselves. 

I wanted to load the following photos (below) to make my shop seem a little more personal, less online, not just a small face among many small profile faces and when letting my buyers know that yes there is a pet in my home where i make my items, (there are some buyers who might be allergic) I wanted to be able to show who the pet is, again personalize it....but there doesn''t seem to be a place on their set-up page to do this all this......yes I know you can attach your blog info but i wanted this information on the etsy page itself so that when it opens up voilà  this is who this shop belongs to and the place where  this shopmaker makes her stuff....

I have put this request in with etsy and i am waiting for the response. Is it just me that wants online shopping to be more personal?

 what are your thoughts on this subject. 

 

 

 

 

my black and whites for monday

father, dad, pappà, babbo doll

this morning i worked on the doll that was missing that needed to be made. let me digress for a moment, working on theses dolls designs has made me really think about dolls in general, what they mean, represent, what role they play...i can't answer these thoughts for everyone but i can for myself.... they mean comfort, fantasy, make believe, reality, and most of all they belong to the person they were given to....it is your toy...that someone gave to you and you alone. i realized as i have grown that i had forgotten the importance of the doll....but it is slowly coming back to me.

The father doll, i couldn't leave him out, he holds the babies too and loves them just as much as the mother doll. He is colorful and completes the home. he is also the one that helps those same children explore the paths outside the home. now i realize now-a-days not every home has a mother and father under the same roof, this is where the beauty of a doll comes in it can travel with a child so when they are at either parents house they can bring their parent doll along with them if they so choose... and then let us not forget those who maybe have lost a father(or mother, i just was thinking of this as i happened to be making this doll this morning) and sometimes they just want to snuggle up with him/her, talk to him/her this is where the doll allows oneself to jump into the comfort of fantasy(make-believe).....again the comfort of a simple doll....yes these dolls are making me rethink their importance.

i was joyful yesterday when jazz, my thirteen year old requested a time-out doll..."i really would like one of those to put on my bed". dolls are for any age.

 

time-out doll

today i had another idea for a soft doll. a time-out doll. now let me say first off, as a parent i know adding a doll into the mix of trying to implement a time-out seems insane.....but i couldn't stop thinking about making one anyways......a doll that you can take with you, squeeze the daylights out of.....maybe even throw on the ground or maybe just hug and bury your face in because it understands, a doll that shows how you might be feeling, arms either crossed or clutched up against your chest, not wanting to listen because you are all stormy on the inside and yes maybe you also have teardrops the size of raindrops...and maybe where your feet are, small tornadoes have gathered because you can't quite ground yourself right now. but just like the big storms that rumble through in the daytime, the time-out doll also sports the rainbow that always follows close behind those storms. then as i was drawing i of course realized there have been plenty of times i have needed one of these myself. 

chair not included.

making up dolls

yesterday i was talking to sperlygirl (suz thanks  for listening to me) and i was telling her how frustrated i get sometimes when going to create, let me explain, remember the spoonflower contests i have entered so far, well on my last entry when my fabric was printed up, the white was gray and the black not so black, this was not spoonflowers fault. i don't make my designs on the computer i don't have that kind of technology (a graphics program) instead i draw by hand, then take a photo, then upload it to my computer and then try to tweak it in photoshop, maybe this is why the quality is not the greatest? well spoonflower is having another fabric contest, (do you love these guys as much as i do for holding design contests and encouraging anyone out there to join in) this time it is a design a doll contest, you make a pattern that can be cut out and sewn together to make a soft doll. I was feeling woe is me...i want to do this but i can't, i just don't have the right equipment but i realized i had left someone, something out...... good old imagination......i still had good old imagination.....that little scrapper who will fight in your corner and isn't afraid of getting knocked down, imagination will get back up, dust off and put it's dukes back up......and with his/her's help i could still do it, so i borrowed iris's crayons (the opposite of a computer graphics program:)) and combined them with my colored pencils (moving closer to the 20th century) and then let my imagination run with it and when i was finished i realized one doll just wasn't enough, scrapper and i were still in the race and yes maybe our shoes were from the 1970's but that wouldn't stop us, not even a side-ache could make us quit.

making up the dolls;

this made me think what kind of doll would i have wanted when i was little. nesting dolls were one of my favorite toys when i was a kid, i still love them so.....but i also wanted a doll that would have a little baby, and maybe that baby had a brother and they had a dog and let us not forget a cuddly cat. , when i finished with one  i wanted another doll, a nap-time doll with stars and a sliver of the moon and a little gray, scruffy, crazy-eyed owl like the one that hangs out in our yard at night.....

i ordered my fabric design when i get it i will make the dolls and post them.

what kind of doll would you make?

art room is calling

my art room is calling, see my two inner children on the phone my yin and yang 

 

start working on those visions of yours

  

  

your supplies are calling, your cup is 3/4 of the way full, great daydreaming view, they are lined up waiting for you.

 

time to turn up the heat.

gluten free pear and fresh fig crumble muffins

the pears and figs are ripe on the trees in our yard so i came up with this recipe.....i am still going to tweak it a little, i am thinking of adding one more egg to it. but i put the plate out on the table and when i came back in the room only one and half were left so i think that means this recipe is a go.

gluten free,  pear and fresh fig crumble muffin 

recipe by katy keuter

This recipe makes 1 dozen muffins

preheat oven to 350 stateside or for europe 200-220

in small mixing bowl whisk together:

2 cups of gluten free flour (i use bob's red mill flour mix)

3/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

*a  little trick: i always divide my baking powder when i add it to dry ingredients so i added three 1/4 teaspoons this way i know it is getting well mixed when combining ingredients

In large bowl:

one large egg    whisk this egg up

3/4 cup white sugar   while still whisking egg, add the sugar in slowly continuing to whisk until egg and sugar look pale in color

next add and whisk again:

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Then gently pour the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, stir with a wooden spoon until just combined

(it is important to not over mix)

Lastly carefully stir in:

1 cup chopped pears

1 cup chopped fresh figs

 

bake for about 35 minutes these are a little extra crumbly so a plate and glass of milk is good with theses

quick note

quick short happy note:  last week i entered spoonflower's design contest and this week i am in the final round...this was my big hope and it happened!!! i am so happy i didn't give up. kt

visiting Venice with dad and amy

well we started off in a cafe with our cappuccinos then began following the signs to the square

i of course had to have my dad and amy pose for me and  i managed to capture some laundry along the way

i love this photo of amy she is so ooh la la in venice 

 

 it just came to me why i love this photo Amy reminds me of Audrey Hepburn in the movie Roman Holiday 

we made it to the square which i never tire from seeing, especially when it has special people in it.

 

after we found a cafe in a quiet square

  

well folks, i am ending this with a few snapshots of venice from that day. 

 

  

  

Dad and Amy, 

thanks for visiting us and have a safe trip back.

xo katy

a slow return

my dad and stepmom left yesterday. i have loads of photos to go through and will share soon. this morning i was catching up on blogs.....wow only one week off.....need i say more my prolific friends.

my parents watched the kids for us, jason and i, and looking at the photos of our weekend trip, just the two of us, makes me sigh, the kind where your shoulders go up and down.....yes it was that nice.

 i am making a slow return to this blog this week, new monthly banner to construct, maybe even switch it up a bit, some new ideas are slowing starting to flow through me. 

and last but least feeling thankful and letting it show.