Cats on the brain...

Apparently I've made this week on my blog all about the cats (sorry you dog people) and I just had to share yet another kitty site with you. Take a moment and check out everyday cute. An adorable (well named) site filled with little chubby kitty image posts. Just check out chef cat kneading that bread:


Ah! So much cute! They've also been nice enough to inform me that siberian kitties apparently produce less allergy inducing dander so fraser might even be able to handle living with one! Eee! Now to fast-forward a few years to the point where we maybe have stable careers and aren't renting to be ready for cat ownership! Ok...so I might be waiting a while..but everyday cute will certainly fulfill those cute cat cravings for the time being...I hope...

Friday Find: Seven Olives

I used to really enjoy meeting other crafty folks in etsy's chat rooms and even though I haven't found a ton of time to spend in there, I still very much enjoy the seldom occasions to chat. The other day I was working on my taxes (eugh) and quickly realized that my crafty efforts have really switched from etsy sales to craft shows and that I need to put a little more time into my dear old etsy shop! Back to the chat room I went and came across the wonderful illustrated goods of seven olives! I instantly fell in love with her adorable avatar and super charming shop banner:


Isn't it awesome? I love that style of illustration! I'd love to see her do children's books but in the meantime I'll stick to drooling over her great items in her shop:


Climatology (well...clouds anyways), pets, and tea! What else could you ask for? I definitely recommend taking a browse of seven olives great products and if you ever see her illustrating kids books let me know...I'll be sure to pick those up to! Happy Friday!

that is one lovely mustache mr. cat!

As you may know, I am quite fond of felines and facial hair as demonstrated by my mustache kitty buttons I've illustrated and sell in my etsy shop! I'm sure you can imagine my delight when I came across this adorable real life mustached cat during my internet searching:


Ahahaha! What an adorable kitty! So much better than all those images of cats that have hitler mustaches if you ask me too...Now to find a cat that looks just like this one and cure fraser's allergies and I'll be set! What do you think?

Invasion of the soot sprites!

With my craft show schedule behind me I'm loving spending my spare time working on personal crafty projects for a change! The other day I shared a tutorial with you about making your very own studio ghibli soot sprites and even though I didn't really follow the paper crane's directions, I did make some super fun pom pom sprites:


Pretty cute hey? Fraser picked me up some ultra soft black yarn and using my lovely clover pom pom makers I whipped up a bunch of sprites! Then I just cut out some white circles from felt, added a little french knot, and sewed them onto each pom. Simple as can be! Check out my soot sprite invasion:


Ahaha! I love them! Next I found some thin floss thread, strung them up, and taped them to the corner of the room. Just take a peek at the view of my living room/front door:


What's that in the corner there? Some cuteness! Let's look closer:


Hehe! I may have just provided further evidence that I am indeed a very odd person. Fraser told me that as long as he doesn't catch me trying to feed soot to the little happy pom poms that I'll stay clear of the crazy list but I'm not totally convinced of that. I also put a few soot sprite pom poms up in the corner of my crafting nook to keep me company when I'm working on projects or blogging:


Adorable! Now to go watch more spirited away and my neighbor totoro to see what other fun craft projects I can come up with! What do you think of them? Have I crossed the line to crazy-ville or am I still safe in the "endearingly quirky but sane" area?

cats of the world

I am most definitely a cat person. If fraser wasn't allergic to them I'm sure I'd be all over having a house full of fluffy kitties (ok, actually probably not since we're still renting and cat ownership is awful when looking for places to live). Instead I'll just spend my days adoring cats from afar and falling in love with this adorable cats of the world illustration from gemma correll:


Yup - pretty adorable! I especially like the kitties with bows (and hats!). So how about you? Are you a dog or cat person?

Do you ever...

Do you ever think you have a most genius idea and then halfway through think you're kind of crazy for following through with it? Perhaps even worse - following through, then taking a picture, and blogging about it? This is one of those instances:


Fraser and I get take out sushi a few times a month and there are always a million little soy packets hanging around. I thought I'd be super thrifty and fill up our empty soy bottle with the packages when I realized that I just may be the cheapest person out there. Heck I'm all for bargains but the amount of time it took me to drain all those packets was a little ridiculous. It did fulfill my goals though - getting rid of those soy packages that were cluttering up the kitchen shelves/table/fridge door while also filling our soy stock! Double win! Fraser does tell me I'll be handy if we ever have another depression...but I figure my frugality is an endearing quality right? Anyone else out there as crazy as I am?

Easter Bunny Time!

Happy easter everyone! If you aren't celebrating the holiday with an egg hunt and treats, you can be overwhelmed with eastery goodness by checking out loads of cute bunnies from pinterest with me! Ready for fuzzy adorableness? Let's go:


Hehehe! Ok - so that last one is really a cat in a lion costume...but I just couldn't resist! I love furry little mammals! How are you spending the day?

thrifty herbs

Back in march, poppytalk had a great post about using thrifted vessels as an indoor herb garden. Take a peek:


What a great idea! I think this would be a great spring into summer project perfect for inspiring some fresh herb filled recipes! OoO! And it totally gives you an excuse to go thrift shopping for neat old containers! I think I'll have to add this one to the to do list, but I can't think of a spot large enough in our little rental to put these. Perhaps I'll have to wait for the snow to stop (you may think I'm joking - but no. It's snowed a few times in the last week even though it's april), and plant them for the front stoop! Yes! I think that sounds lovely! Any suggestions for fresh herbs to grow in pots? I'm not much of a gardener but I am certainly willing to learn! Anyone else out there have any tips for me?

Friday Find: postcards from

Instead of my usual friday find feature where I ramble about some etsy shop I'm in love with, I thought I'd switch it up a bit and do a post about a blog instead - because after all, this blog did come to me under extraordinary circumstance (well...sort of). On with my story.

A few weeks ago my boss told me he hired two new girls at work - sarah and kate. Our store is already plagued with sarah's (new sarah being our 4th) and I wasn't particularly thrilled with having another kate (since, if you weren't aware - that's my name). No big deal - I'm sure we can figure it out, and new kate will just have to suffer with the awful fate of being branded by her initials. The new hires started, were truly wonderful in every way, and I quickly learned that new kate is actually a kate m. Rats. I'm a kate m! Now what are we going to do? *Sigh* I'm sure it will work out and someone will get a nickname somewhere along the lines (even if we don't have jacob to invent them anymore).

So the work weeks passed, I got the pleasure of getting to know new kate m a little better and I heard that she runs a blog. Oh! I run a blog! What are the chances? Kamloops is a pretty blog-free city for the most part. What fun! I tried to nonchalantly pry info out of her to creep on her site after work and the verdict? I've been reading kate's blog for many months now. Crazy! What a small world! She does a wonderful job of tip toeing around any details about her location so I guess I'm not a complete fool for not putting two and two together - but when I told some work mates about the funny coincidence they wanted to know how it is that I didn't recognize her. Well...I'm not sure. I do read a lot (I'm talking 350+ blogs) so I can't be expected to remember every last detail right? Ah well, regardless, kate is a wonderful new addition to my day job and a wonderful addition to the world of fashion blogs! Take a moment and check out the awesomeness that is kate m's postcards from. Here's a little montage for you if you're short on time:


I love reading (well...more like looking...) at fashion blogs and kate's is no exception. She has a wonderful sense of humor and style and inserts little snippets of her lovely witty personality in every post. Her images are dreamy with lovely colour schemes that romanticize the usually blah looking semi arid desert that is kamloops! She inspires me to toss out all my ill fitting pants and stick to skirts/dresses with tights year round and totally makes me want to grow out my hair (which, for the record, is probably not going to happen since my red tresses are way too thick for me to deal with). Wonderful! Maybe one day I'll throw some fashion posts into my usually strictly crafty blog...but for now I'll just stick to reading about outfits...

Rainbow fun!

With spring in full swing I've been spotting lots of fun rainbow themed projects around the internet and I'd love to share a few with you to brighten up your thursday! Let's go!

Rainbow fun #1 - organized crafting area from pinterest! I would love to say my crafting nook is this neat and colour coordinated but sadly I am far from this level. It is certainly fun to dream/drool over though! (I'm particularly jealous of those coloured tapes)


Rainbow fun #2 - candy wrapper pouch tutorial from punkin patterns! This project looks like a ton of fun and gives me the wonderful excuse to go out and eat some candy! I think it would be a ton of fun to make for the kiddos or keep for yourself. Plus little zippered pouches always come in handy right?


Rainbow fun #3 - Nyan Cat video. My sister posted this on my facebook wall a few days ago and insisted that I watched the entire thing. You certinaly don't need to sit through 3:37 minutes to see how cute this one is (and how catchy that song is!) I love the little tail and feet running - but it does make me wonder why that kitty has a poptart body....enjoy:

Hooray! Happy thursday everyone!

Bunny Weekend

With the easter bunny's arrival just around the corner (except not really in my case since I doubt there will be an egg hunt in my household), I thought I'd share this adorable bunny garland from hello clementine:


I just love the fun characters and colours of each bunny and I think this would look great in a kids room year round! I am especially fond of the little glasses wearing bun:


Hehe! So cute! Best of all it's sold as a pdf printable meaning you almost instantly receive it with no shipping cost! Then you can mix and match all your bunny outfits, accessories, and patterns to create a garland just right for you! Hooray! Plus it's only $6 so it won't even break the bank! What fun! Do you have any big plans for the easter weekend?

More Geometry!

A little while ago I shared this tutorial with you and boasted about how I was all ready to jump on the trend train and get going on my own version of the geometric pendant:


Well unlike most of the projects I never manage to find time for and seem to disappear on my never ending crafts I want to do list, I actually got around to trying this one out! And, just as I promised, I skipped the glitter and painted each side of my creation for a bright springy fun take on the project! Take a looksie:


Ah! I am in love with this necklace! I just adore how the colour combination turned out and how neat it looks at every angle. It's even reversible since I painted the other side with more shades of teal and blue (no red, pink, and gold) for a more subtle accessory day! Hooray! I bought the chain off etsy (during a supply restock shop) since I wanted to be able to alter the length easily but I am enjoying the 24" size for this piece. Yay! Like most projects I start, I decided to make the polymer clay geometric jewelry in mass and ended up with two necklaces and two rings:


Fun! Although it wasn't really intentional, each piece is a little bit different since I randomly sliced off chunks of clay to form the shapes. I mixed all of the paint colours up from my scattered collection of acrylic paint tubes (I do love my colour mixing) and used the same shades for each geometric bit. Much like my geometric brooch I made a few days ago for brooch week, I stuck to a neutral gray/blue/silver base with a few contrasting sides thrown in there for a little pop and interest. Check out that pink and red from the side angle:


What a super project that was! I had so much fun playing with polymer clay again and making these and I'm just thrilled to be able to share a finished project with all of you! So - I'm dying to know...what do you think?

adventures in bird watching!

Two months ago I told you all about how I am going to embrace my old lady ways and add yet another hobby to my plethora of pastimes by taking up bird watching! (Don't recall? Not to worry - here's a link.) Well! I may not have found enough time to go out in the field with my non-existent binoculars, but I certainly did see a bird at my seed cone feeder the other day! I was so thrilled I called up fraser at work (he pretended to care) and then my mom (who may have actually cared) to tell them the good news! Jim (my partner in bird watching crime) came over to help me identify the exciting little chubby bird too! Woo hoo! Check out our friend who came to visit:


Pretty cute hey? Well un-excitingly, he turned out to be a house sparrow. Perhaps not exactly the rarest of birds to see - but I am stoked to see that seed cone get some use! The stealthy ninja birds in my neighbourhood managed to eat all of the suet brick feeder over the winter without me seeing a single one (oh except for that flock of black birds that one day) making spotting one on the seed extra awesome! While jim and I kept our eyes peeled to see if the little house sparrow would come back we saw another little chubby bird at the feeder! Take a gander at this beaut:


Wooo! My first day of attempting to bird watch and I got to see an adorable downy woodpecker! He had the cutest little spots on the backs of his wings and the red on the back of his head was so vibrant. How wonderful! Now I just need to find a little more time when jim is available and we'll have to do some more adventurous bird hunting (like where I'm not in my pj's standing at my kitchen sink). Oh fun! So what do you think? Anyone out there see any of these birds at your home?

brooch week! day 7 of 7

Looks like sunday has finally arrived meaning it is the last day of brooch week. I've really enjoyed sharing my creative accessory challenge with all of you and although I feel like these last 7 posts have been a smidge repetitive I have really been treasuring all your thoughts and comments. The final brooch in the collection is yet another illustrated character favourite of mine - sophisticat:


Oh hello there! My mustache cat buttons have been quite the popular seller in my shop and at shows and for a good reason! I mean felines and facial hair? Double win! I really enjoyed making sophiticat brooch and am loving the gold monocle stitching and pointy 3D whiskers:


Of course the wide set eyes and tiny little smile are still up there in my books too. What do you think of him?

And since it is sunday that also means that I successfully completed my brooch a day challenge! Let's look back at how the week of pins has progressed:


What a fun bunch of brooches! Which one was your favourite? Any suggestions for any other brooch designs I should get to work on? Are there any of my illustrations you're just dying to see in felt pin form? I'd love to hear suggestions...that and I really need some new craft projects to do fill that "my hands like to be busy all the time" void...

brooch week! day 6 of 7

Brooch week is rounding down to a close and today's pin is my sister's personal favourite. Check out my bird and birches pin:


That gray/teal felt from steggy has returned in a nice nature inspired piece. I really wanted to make a tea cozy or coffee press cover using this birch design I've been thinking about for a while now but the time crunch for my last craft show was just too much to start playing around with new designs. I really wanted the trees to pop on a dark background and I think the bird adds a nice detail and asymmetry which is lovely. I'm also really enjoying the colour combination. Let's take a closer look:


Have I mentioned how much I'm loving wool felt? Ok, yes, I've said that a few times now but I haven't gushed about how amazing using my new spring loaded super sharp crafting scissors are (pictured up in the corner of the brooch week banner)! What a great investment those were and they are dramatically cutting down on my crafting injuries. They are so nice on my old lady arthritic hands and wrists meaning I can just keep on creating! Woo! Let's check out how that brooch collection is coming along:


Eee! Only one more day to go! How have you been enjoying brooch week? What do you think of them?

brooch week! day 5 of 7

Hooray! Friday of brooch week is finally here meaning that 1) the weekend is just around the corner and 2) it's time to reveal another felt pin creation. Today's brooch is all about the bright seasonal fun of spring with a nice fuchsia flower:


I really liked making this one but boy was it ever hard to photograph! I wanted to keep my brooch week images consistent with that lime green background but the super bright saturated pink was really not ideal with the green. After playing around with my camera settings and photoshop I think I managed to get a few images that turned out alright but I still think this brooch is much more appealing in person. I used a layered petal design for this one and am quite pleased with the result. It has quite a bit of texture and presence without having poly-fill stuffing like the other brooches so far. Take a look at that close up goodness:


Yay! A nice fun bright flower to add to the brooch collection:


What do you think?

brooch week! day 4 of 7

Back to more wide set eye smile cuteness today with another button illustrated inspired design. Take a look at felt brooch acorn:


Hehe! Such a cutie I really love how acorn turned out. He's perfect for anyone who enjoys nature, oak trees, the outdoors, or at least pretends to! Perhaps he is a little larger (and more smiley) than his real life counterpart but he does have some fun cross hatch stitching on his little acorn hat:


Man acorn is darling - and a perfect match to go with the other brooch week friends:


More than half way done the week! Stay tuned for more brooch felt fun tomorrow...

brooch week! day 3 of 7

I think today's felt brooch just might be my favourite so far. I'm loving the geometric shape trend happening in the crafty world these days and it is super fun to combine abstract coloured felt triangles - check it out:


Ooo! I just love those colours (yet again showing that wool felt is awesome)! Once I actually got to executing my triangle brooch design it did prove to be very time consuming - just look at all those little stitches and thread colours:


Whew! I definitely think this brooch will have a higher price tag when I list it in my etsy shop but all that labor deserves recognition! Actually, I'm sure if I worked out how long I spend on any of my crafting projects I'd be making slave wages but I don't think a huge hourly wage is really the point of handmade crafting. I really love being able to sit down and make something with my own two hands - especially if it's something that turns out like this geometric brooch! I may be forced to make another one of these pins for myself once brooch week is over because I really think it would be perfect with so many of my outfits. What do you think of it?

Oh and while we're at it, let's look at the progress so far:


Four more brooches to go! How have you been enjoying the pins so far? Any favourites?