Saturday 28 June 2008

Ehm...

A wise man once said : you cannot fulfill other people's promises. So sorry friends. I can't post on something crafty just yet, and I'm sure I couldn't make it more interesting... Due to taking care of an ultra great but very energetic toddler, a new massive show opening at work with assorted unsolvable problems, and the sudden and sad loss of my friend Loulou's father, I've been working 7 days straight for two weeks now. That's ok, Loulou needs a break, and I'm happy to help. And I enjoy working. And my toddler, she is so WOW! But no. No crafting, however much I'd like to. I've had a few wonderful fabrics arrive on my doorstep, but they've been untouched cause, sigh, no time.
I hope next week will be a bit less full on, and ho ho : I promise to do an Etsy update next Thursday. We've been very neglectful of the Etsy shop of late, and I feel bad about it. I've tried to stick a few clothing items in there, but not nearly enough... So Thursday it is.

To make things worse, my camera is ill, and turns itself off all the time... Something with the batteries, dunno. Hopefully this also will be sorted in the course of the coming week, fingers crossed.

Ok we must find something interesting then.
Well. How'bout some of my Etsy favorites?
Enjoy (all photo and other credits go to the below mentioned of course!) X


very original crockery
and
gorgeous colourful collages
at

Ninainvorm



Handprinted sweetness
at

LeiLiLaLoo




This one makes me smile so much,
a bit of humor in fresh craft
'boxed universes'
'super good luck charms'
Yeah I guess sometimes you need the extra 'super'
get it at



'The courtyard garden'
no words needed i think
at

Support these talented people friends!
And have a warm weekend (it's rather freezing here...)
-Lies

Friday 27 June 2008

i'm sure lies will post something craft related soon



crafting is always going to be one of my true loves, even when I don't have time for it, which is right now.

so I'll just leave you with this today; a fashion collage I have been working on.
I hope you all have a good weekend.

I'll be more interesting next time, I promise

-k

Tuesday 24 June 2008

a loss and gain

First I wanted to say a big fat thank you to everyone who went to my new illustration site. It helped heaps and I was very encouraged to see it rising up the google ranks.


In other news, a friend of mine is leaving for melbourne this week and his goodbye party is tonight. Since he can't take much with him, he donated this huge box of crafting supplies to me. Yes, a male crafter, you heard right, a rare breed indeed.

inside was stacks of quality paper, great images for collage, a stamping kit including an embossing melter gun thingie, and a glue gun. So I am armed and dangerous, packing crafty heat.


Also inside was this....
A genuine Japanese kimono !!!! thankyouthankyouthankyou! I am not worthy!
(if you think I am summoning the power of chlorophyll in this photo, you would be correct. Its just something I like to do in my spare time)

So as a thank you and goodbye, I made him this. Its between a4 and a5 and includes images from a transformers book, a childrens cooking book, and an origami manual. I've also done some pencil drawing and watercolour over the top.

I have been interested in manual colouring of black and white photos ever since I saw it done in the film 'sweet land' (which is wonderful by the way). so I watercoloured over the balck and white photo of the japanese girl as my first go at this technique. I want to do more now.


i thought I would leave you with two things: This video of my dog struggling with the lid of the previously mentioned craftbox. I don't know why I am posting this other than, posting videos mixes it up and bit and you might like to hear me sound like yoshi's crazy stage mom.

Secondly I also encouragement you to visit Werkhaus if you are interested in seeing an amnesty international commercial starring luke (the husband), and a work in progress pencil drawing of my niece.

cheers all, hope you are having a good week.
-k

Friday 20 June 2008

because work should be fun

Thanks for your warm welcome back everyone. I have missed this while I was away, the writing yes, but also I missed keeping up with your lives. I get itching to create when I see what everyone else is up to. The best creations come when you have seen what great stuff others have been up to; Call it peer pressure but it works for me.

So I have been back in the studio and after some time sketching, sewing, unpicking, and mistake fixing, I present to you my new rabbit prototype. Some of you may know I have a thing for rabbits, and after thinking about what was lacking in my former rabbit design, I came up with this.
Right now I am pretty happy with him (yes it's a he, boys blush too you know) but because I am such an optimist, I may be overlooking things. So I am asking for a general opinion and ways to improve the design. I want to get it right before I build my master rabbit army.

Also I have to give props to Helen from stripy socks for the rockin' fabric I used for this bunny. the stash she gave me over a year is still proving to be incredibly generous. My cup runneth over.

Here are few baby shoes that I have made. I mostly have these on hand for gifts and markets. I don't sell them online because Melissa does it so well. (So I bow to the master of baby shoes, and reverently step aside.) But those strawberry ones are sweet, no? (its not me, its the fabric making the magic happen).


ONE LAST THING: a surprise and a favour
Last night Luke came home and said, 'I have a suprise for you'. Excitedly I closed my eyes and held out my hands in anticipation, but it wasn't that kind of gift.

He typed something into the browser and THIS popped up.
He made it for me, goodness gracious what a guy!

The favour I ask is this: simply click on the link. This will help my google rating and hopefully my career in general. so please, please visit!

thanks!
-k

Tuesday 17 June 2008

oh I am back, and have been for.... errrr... weeks.

iconic american image #1

So I have come to this page several times in attempt to get back into blogging. My grace period for not blogging is officially over since I have been back now for (gasp) two weeks and have not said a peep thus far.

the problem is, so much happened that blogging about it seems quite impossible. What should I leave out? (that's the real question for a talker like me) well the answer finally came to me: nobody is really that interested in other people's holidays as much as the people who went on them think.

And as a side note; the same principle applies to dreams you have had. No matter how funny/interesting they are to you, if you want to tell others, make it brief.

So with this in mind, I present you with a brief slide show of my trip with limited commentary.

These flags fly from my parents deck: America, NZ, and Kenya (my dad does a lot of work there)

when I am home, I do a lot of bargain hunting, because let me tell you sister, America is full of bargains. Like these 2nd hand mugs from goodwill that I cheered my heart for a mere dollar.

and all of these black shoes.

and my new glasses

my sister came home from college and this was her room after she brought all her stuff back from school. ahh the college pilgrimage, I remember those days.

Things to do in Colorado: feed giraffes. They really do have black blue tongues and lots of slobber.

Lets move from a colorado landscape to minnesota.... see if you can notice the difference.....
bam! that's right! we are in Gods country now. beautiful lush Minnesota. Glorious grain silos. I heard a story once of some one falling in one of these and being sucked down through the grain until they suffocated to death. I am sure this is just a rural legend but it took me a long time until I could have happy thoughts about grain silos again.


I'm almost getting patriotic just looking at these (until I think of the bush years, then any national pride seems to flood out of me quite quickly).



okay onto wedding stuff...... In the U.S.A it's common to get your nails done before a wedding. don't ask me why, it's just how we roll. Brittney here is our hand model.

I am not used to nail salons so these blue lights scared me as much as they confused me. What does toxic looking neon light do for the manicure process? just asking.

If you are the bride, sometimes you get acrylic nails for your special day and this is what they look like before they file them. that's primal! oh yes, and meet bridezilla here.
Just kidding, joanna, my sweet cousin was no bridezilla. See how happy she was about the little party we threw her.
and she loved her giant underpants which were grossly disproportioned to her thin frame. (that was the joke, get it?) Cousin Megan's body fills out the other thigh.

Cousin brittney made the jewelry for the brides maids. clever girl.

fabulous cousins

These are our moms. Gayle didn't like Claire's joke, so she is giving us her long suffering look. My mom is the one in the white jacket. pretty lady, yes I know.

these are my youngest female cousins Sophie and Olivia. I had to subject you to their general adorableness. they have sparkle, no?

meet my elder brother (hi Joel!) who is looking dapper in that vintage tie... little did he know he would match his vintage sisters....
Yes here we are. this is the LOVELY dress Melissa gave me a while back. I told just about everyone who made eye contact with me that the it was "from Norway and is genuine 1950s vintage!" reponses were mixed.

Carling's dress was my etsy find of the year, also 1950s vintage. Can you believe that in both cases no altering was necessary! yes you heard it here first, it was dress destiny.... or dresstiny.

oh dear. the bad jokes are coming out now which means I am getting loopy from all this posting. time to finish. I lied to you when I said this was going to be brief. I truly believed it for the first little while. honest.

if you have read all this it can only mean you missed me lots.

more craft related posts coming soon.

xo
kimberlee

Monday 16 June 2008

Making things

The new fabric and sewing book from the previous post were very very inspiring, I had a little secret stash of Nani Iro fabric waiting, and so I have been making looooooooots of things.

little red dress
and
cream top
from the Iro book


The photo is blurry
but I'm showing (off) the selvedge
of the Iro Pocho dots
in a detail of the pocket

And some of those dots
are
a splendid silver

Lieve sweet and cosy
she insisted on wearing tights
cool those purple tippy toes

Yup i made skirts with that Goodness fabric, I call them 'half moon skirts'.

There is still a red one in our little shop

Cute I reckon.

Gosh it's time for a tribute to the good and inspirational as I've discovered a few more interesting sites, there are such talented people out there :

-La : such fresh and simple style, French bien sur

-Particules : perhaps my favorite of the day - stunning in beauty and idea's

-Grijs : a word from my language that means gray, but i think this one highlights all the special wonderful shades in between... and around... and lots of green!


Finally, here is a little collage of Lieveke - doing her new thing : pulling faces - in my favorite green knit. I made it about a year and a half ago, without a pattern, and heh heh it still stands! I've been searching for the same yarn (Touch I think) since but can't find it anymore, bummer cause the green is so vibrant and happy...
Keep well!
-Lies


Sunday 8 June 2008

Goodness

Last week a lovely package was delivered from one of my (and i'm sure, yours as well) favorite Etsy shops, 'A little goodness', with some fabrics and the (fantastic!) famous Nani Iro sewing book. The Goodness lady kindly added a complementary fat quarter of sweet 'bear in the street' fabric, which Lieveke immediately appropriated as 'my sewing blanky'. So every-one was satisfied (including Gabriel cause his girls were crafting and happy).

Mmmmmm, for skirts I think

Nani Iro, yes truly wonderful

Goodness bears and thankyou card

We had a few thrifty goodies as well this week :

dramatic batik 70's shirt from the oppy

sleek cut
very finely woven cotton
spectacular print (fireworks!)
five bucks

in a box marked "Gabriel '96" I found
black glazed earthenware japanese mugs
that match our
Mikasa black teacups and saucers (Aotea flea market)
black Japanese bowls (3dollarshop)
and black-blue plates (Avondale markets)
yay don't you love it when it all comes together.

I knitted a lacey scarf for a friend with kidsilk and 9mm wooden needles, it was delightful knitting (and very fast)! The scarf is very soft, I think I'll make some more, nice to give away something so cuddley...

despite the holes,
the thing is very fluffy
and so
warm


I'll leave you with my favorite images of the Iro-sewing-book, so beautiful :

pretty girl

* sigh *

Hope you have a nice week!
-Lies