surprise!

I went to Disneyland last weekend!  Totally surprised my oldest son, Q who hasn’t been there yet.  I told him that morning we were driving down to LA.  He didn’t believe me.  It was just the two of us!  I felt so lucky to be sharing the magical day with him.  So lucky to be his mom

He was such a trooper.  We got there at 8:30 and left that night at 10:30!  Such a cool day and no huge lines.  My favorite was finally going on the Matterhorn.  We sat in the very front.  Q didn’t like it as much as I did!

Since it was so close to being Christmas you know I had to take pic’s of the decorations.  These were the lamp posts in the New Orleans area of Disney.

Aren’t they so fancy!  I just love the vivid colors.  Only in Disney!

I think I’ll have a pink and purple Christmas too!  Feliz Navidad.

just look

Look what Sadie Lou did!  She put my little hanky apron top on the front page of Lollishops.  Such a cute site and a fun place to shop.  Have yourself a look around!

Thank you Sadie Lou for the little surprise.  You’re the best!

finding a new home

Ella has been my inspiration for some time now. But I am finally ready to release her to a good home and allow her bring some sunshine in on someone new.  So today I am listing Ella on katie jean.

Ella was handmade by me, using a vintage toy as my pattern. The origianl ella was made by my husband’s grandmother from Kansas. It might be more of an antique than simply vintage.

Ella is made using vintage linens in the cheeriest shades of pink, yellow, orange, and green. The eyes are sewn on buttons and she has a moss green ribbon tail.  Although Ella is not intended for small children, she would be a cute addition as a little shelf decoration.

treasury

My baby jean organics has been featured in an etsy treasury!  It features all shades of softest blues.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=91502  Be sure to check it out and view talies items too.  She uses a unique combination of plastics, papers, and fabrics for her fun eco friendly creations.

feliz navidad

OK, so I’m not fluent in Spanish, but Christmas has been on my mind during the month of October.  And instead of saying Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, sounds cooler some how.

So here is the story of my stint with Macy’s and their Christmas trees.  With lots of photos of trees that I decorated.

Hi, my name is Katie and I decorate Christmas trees.  I have been decorating Christmas trees during the whole month of October.   I feel like I’m confessing something.  It seems like I was at a different Macy’s everyday but I really wasn’t.  Just 11 stores.

And thanks to my friend Ralph, I had such a great experience doing something that I had never dreamed of before.  In the midst of burn out from travel, not enough sleep, and too much glitter, I had the best time. Now I have only the best memories.  And three days after I had decorated my last tree, I found myself at the Macy’s Holiday Lane, looking at the trees that I had decorated.  And I was ready to do it again next year.

my favorite tree, I just loved these colors

Thank you to all of my friends, my husband, and kids for letting me have some grown up fun working and earning a paycheck.  Thanks for letting me be a working mom.  It has made me appreciate being a stay at home mom.  Te amo.

katie, ralph, marshawn, our last day of work in monterey

hola!

I have been so busy this month of October and have so very much to tell you about.  I am just struggling today thinking about where to begin.  I am often reminded of Julie Andrews whenever I have this problem.  Just start at the very beginning, a very fine place to start.

But here is a little bit of background.  I have been working at Macy’s decorating Christmas trees for their Holiday Lane shop.  Visual Display!  I also went to Quilt Market in Houston with my sister.  Went back to Christmas trees and 16 hour days.  My neice was married and my daughter was asked to be a Leaf Girl.  A dress and shoes had to be found, for the both of us.

This is all the stuff of lengthy blogs, but little time to blog about it!  So back to the beginning.

taggie blanket

If you look at my etsy you will find a new category called Baby Registry.  I have a special girlfriend who is going through her fourth pregnancy and we decided to do a baby registry for her.  Rene is already really familiar with all of  my special vintage baby creations.  So when she came to my studio (home living room) we had fun looking through my fabric stash.

She is doing her nursery using the Peter Rabbit line from Pottery Barn Kids.  And I found some quality yardage in the fabric that was close to what she already had.  So she picked out about ten different items for me to sew up for her.   Isn’t that a special gift to buy for someone?  I love it and love the idea of doing this for my friend.

It’s all custom handmade work.  I’ll be sharing most of the photos of the baby items through my flickr account and you’ll also be seeing some here as well.

So now the Baby Registry is a new service that I am providing.  If you know of someone who is pregnant or interested in any of the other items that I make, pass it on please.  Thanks!

photos

So I guess that I was the last mom in Lincoln to have taken her kids to Disneyland.  That’s what it sounded like to me weeks before we left on our trip.  I honestly didn’t understand all of the hype and excitement.  What was the big deal.  Isn’t it just another amusement park?

Now I get it.  And now I am already saving money up for my next trip.  I want to visit every Disney location.  Euro Disney, Tokyo Disney, Disneyworld.  Any place else?

My girl went right up to Mickey, and Pooh Bear, and Eyeore, and Tigger.  I was so surprised.  Her shyness was gone for the moment when she saw those character’s that she is so familiar with.  And quickly went to each of them for a hello and a hug.

Grandfather made this trip possible for us.  He is 88 and swears this is his last trip away from home.  He had just come to Anaheim from the Grand Canyon.  He has really been all over the world and I’m sure that if he can get on the train, he will be out the door again soon!

Once my kids got their ears, I told them that they had to wear them to get on all of the rides.  They didn’t pick up on the fact that I wasn’t wearing any myself.  And the night we went out to IHOP, I told them that they would get a free glass of water for wearing their ears too.  I know, I’m bad.  But aren’t they so cute!

Thanks to all of my friends and family for all of the Disney help.  Especially Gram who watched my Q when I was gone. And thank you to Beth and Grandfather for making the trip with us that much more fun to share it with you!

just a recap

Before I tell you about Disneyland, I wanted to tell you about the Roseville show.  It was great!  Our booth looked great and was well attended.  The Tattered House girls put together a terrific event with great shoppers and fantastic sellers.

This is just a few of the items from the Glitter and Grunge table.  Vintage patterns, papers, full of scrap booking and collage fun.

These are just a few of the little bits of goodness from my side of the table.  The little Get Well Soon card sold.  Isn’t it just the cutest!

Claire at the G&G table helping customers.  See the collage work, it’s done by artist Alexa Lett.

I had a ton of aprons for sale.  And they were really well received.  I also borrowed the mannequin from Claire and dressed it in a groovy dress that I bought in San Francisco on Haight Street.  The mannequin is also wearing a bag from newest Glitter and Grunge artist Julie aka Ona.

I walked through the other booths and saw this.  My son’s initials! Since my days doing calligraphy I can’t resist all sorts of lettering.

Some more handmade goodness, and it’s vintage.  Aren’t they just beautiful.  Jewelry is so popular right now, so I am trying to wear more.  I’ll have to show you a photo of the rings that I bought at this show.

But for now, I’ll just show you this perfect bag.  Julie pulled out this bag that she handmade and I grabbed it right away!  It was just what I needed for my Disney trip.  A few people even commented on how they liked it!  You can now see her other work as the newest artist to join Glitter & Grunge.

little pillows

These little pillows are made especially to soothe your eyes and your brain.  They are filled with lavender and organic flaxseed.  So you can relax and rid yourself of that headache or just have a little time out by yourself.

I was inspired by Melly and Me when I learned how to make one of their quilt squares using only scraps.  And that is how these eye pillows came to be.  I have such a good time going through my bags of scraps now and mixing and matching.  It’s great color therapy.

 

Aren’t all of these colors just delicious.  I never get tired of looking at them.  Silly, I know! 

I hope to post again tomorrow with some other new creations to show you before the Roseville show on Sunday.  But after that it will be a week before you hear from me again.  I am leaving on Monday for Disneyland.  So have a great week!

my ironing

Would you like to see what I have been busy cleaning and ironing?

Now can you just guess what this is?

This one has a beautiful pocket with ric rac trim.

This one is super colorful with a rainbow of sewn on strips of fabric.

These are all photos of the vintage aprons that I have been collecting.  Some of these I bought just for the fabric.  They never got cut up though.  Probably because these aprons are all in great condition.  So it became a collection without me really knowing it.

I still have about five more aprons that need to be ironed.  Getting ready for my booth this Sunday!  I think they will all look wonderful hanging together.