{invited}

i didn't do a whole lot today, unless you count doing a favor for my mom something. she's having a party {that i am not invited to}, and she got some really cute invitations from paper source. she realized on monday, though, that she didn't have enough {shoulda been my first hint} and that she wanted to get some more...

i, of course, went with her to paper source {since i had a massive gift card and would take any excuse to go there} and the following went down there:

me: wow, those invites are really cute!

mom: yeah i know, right? hey question.

me {unsupsectingly perusing paper}: mmhmm?

mom {sweetly}: so i was wondering. would you like to use some of your writing to, oh i dunno, make them look pretty for me?

me {enthralled by patterns}: wow look at this one!!

mom: well?

me {still not comprehending}: um, yes?

**my mother does not really talk like this. it's pretty much her words in katespeak.**

i am a bit slow on the uptake. i should have asked her how many, but i didn't. so when she brings me a list after i whip up the prototype my jaw kinda dropped.

sixteen?

now that doesn't sound like a lot, but i'm kind of ocd. when i make something, i want every detail to be perfect. if there is a mistake, i scrap it. my garbage can is always the most full in our house. and since these invites were going to fall into the hands of people i respect, i knew that this would take a while.

and it did.

after scrapping four invites and four envelopes {about 30 + minutes of work} i finally got all sixteen done {in about 3 hours}. my hand hurts like crazy.

but it was fun. i love drawing with all of my heart, and my mom promised that in return we would redo my bathroom this week, so i guess i won ;)

since i didn't really have time to do much else today {i worked at the library all this morning} i figured i may as well share the fruits of my labor.

i wasn't going to include this last one cuz one of the envelopes is washed out but i had to. my desk is cracking me up right now. please note: rubiks cube {i am in love with rubiks cubes...i've gotten down to 2.5 minutes}, jar full of the barrettes you put into two year olds' hair {they have pretty colors!! i have to wear them!! and everyone loves a good plastic bow}, madeline and pepito piggy bank {saw it at a garage sale. madeline was my childhood hero so i couldn't say no. you don't want to know what's in it}, kate sutton band-aids {i almost hate to use them they are so pretty}, cubby full of archie comics {from my younger years}, and deoderant {always good}.

does anyone else have such a desk?

teehee okay i am done now. hope wednesday is brilliant.

-kate

{i want to marry joshua radin}

because all of his songs are amazing. seriously, listen to them. they are exactly the kind of no frills songs i want some guy to sing to me one day. one of my favorites is i'd rather be with you...the lyrics are great but so is the guitar ;)


i love it so much!!

soooo i decided to make a book {gasp i know it's about time, aren't you proud of me??}

more on my flickr.

i wanted it to be simple, no frills...like the song. so i used corkboard for the covers, so it would look natural, but i don't know how i feel about that choice. sure, it looks nice but you try to open it! it's a good thing i have thumbs of steel or you wouldn't have any pictures to look at. the photos in the book took so long to pick out...i wanted each page to match a line of the song. it's not my best work but i definitely like it...and it fits the weather outside today.

have a happy tuesday!

-kate

{finally! creativity!}

wow. actual creativity to post. on a weeknight! when i had a class! people, this is a breathrough. i'm as stunned as you are.

but today i had ten minutes of homework which never happens, like, ever. and when i have time on my hands, i start to think. and when i start to think, i need to write things down. so i decided to make something. now, this isn't the first thing i've made in, what is it now, a month? no, i've made some little things i never got around to take pictures of, and *gasp* finally got dain's book done (by the way, she has been making some awesome stuff lately, so go and check her out if you haven't done so before!).

anyhoo!

i was thinking today about how busy i've been, and how it's been all my fault for not remebering what that word means where you say you won't do something. i think it's two letters...possibly starts with an n? can someone help me out?

oh yeah.

no.

so basically i'm doing a billion things. and i was thinking about how i have no room to complain because it's all my fault, and truly, i should be slowing down. because i'm deathly afraid my junior year is going to fly past me and i'll look back and realize i missed it. that i didn't enjoy anything, just spent my time worrying about what i had to do next.

so i decided to break out what i have "fondly" called my "gosh-darn-frustrating-but-so-pretty" stamps to kill a couple of hours and really slow down. and, yeah. hoo boy, did those stamps take a while. but it was a good exercise because i am what you would call a *ahem* impatient person. oh yes. very impatient.

i just love how it turned out so simple, but pretty. i really like it.

i suppose you want to see it, so here you go ;) (the rest of the pictures are on my flickr)



um, yeah, there we go.

and if you're wondering what posessed me to put the urban outfitters card upside down, don't ask. i thought it would be funny to turn it upside down. sometimes my sense of humor is so lame i can't even believe myself. but i like me that way :)

and if that wasn't enough, here are some highlights from my week (boy i am over achieving today!!):

1) i got hired at the library! (this is a good thing) this means that i'll be working 15 hours a week (which, granted, is a lot) but making so much more money to put away for college. and spend on art supplies *insert evil laugh here*
2)picked out one of my christmas presents at urban outfitters. this baby. i am so excited!! this is like, the first time ever that i am actually excited for winter. go figure! (see, when you live in the midwest and get about 30 feet of snow accumlutating throughout the winter, and below zero days, it gets old really. really. fast. especially when winter lasts throught the spring.) but i can't wait to start using that lovely!! *sigh*
3) read three books over 300 pages in three days. truly, it was spectacular. good gosh, i love books. (my most excellent year, suite scarlett, airhead {and yes, pretty much all chick lit. i cried in my most excellent year. seriously, guys, you've got to love mary poppins and the cutest deaf kid ever. sigh.})
4) made a fool out of myself on many occasions, but what else is new?

okay, i've fully over exerted myself today. i hope your fridays are fabulous! i'll be back later this weekend with a september calendar and where i've been inspired lately :)

ciao!

{i'm feeling random.}

today is going to be quite a day, seeing as though i'm already kind of random, and it's only 9. i have a feeling i'm going to be freaking out by the end of the day. oh well! i wanted to blog last night, but it got to be midnight after i finished my calender (which you'll see in a minute), so i just decided i'd do it in the morning. so.

my night

~my tshirts finally came in! i designed them for our switzerland trip (which is in two days!!), and they came back from rumpleshirtskin yesterday! i really like how they came out. i'll explain it in a second:

okay. so the hills are alive with the sound of music (the music notes), since we're going to be in the alps. i made up the font because i couldn't find a font on my computer to copy that would match the sound of music box. and finally, those people. well, i personalized all of them so that they'd look like the people on my team. we all have a picture! :) can you guess which one is me?

~then, after the meeting (which was interrupted by a huge storm that made the national news this morning {did you see it??}), i realized that school starts two weeks from today and that i really needed to get organized. am ordering my supplies from vera bradley this morning. but last night, i made a calender for the month of august. i love it!! it turned out totally me. i took a lot of pictures (you can see them all on my flickr):

yeah. those last few are the days i'm excited for and i'm not excited for. can you guess which? :/

~so also, at the meeting last night, we formed a band called las papas (yeah, yeah, you already knew i was odd, right?). that will be fun while in europe...but we made up a song about a cow. i was kind of on a sugar high from the fabulous jewel brand brownies, so i drew it on my hand. i woke up this morning and just laughed at the sheer strangeness of it all. so i took a picture.

please don't think i'm too strage. i mean, i guess i kind of am, since i did draw it, but i like to think of it as more loveable, or something. *sigh*

okay, so according to my calender, i have a doctor's appointment in an hour. and i'm still in my pj's (which i stayed in until 2 yesterday! hooray!). plus also, we have to go and find a way to get rid of a turtle leagally today.

wish me luck.

oh! my drawing for the rak from yesterday will take place at 7p tonight. so if you haven't commented on yesterday's post, do it! yeah. okay. ciao!

{she...is creating, reading, and giving...}

so i've decided i really have to stop telling you when i'm going to post next. because that is really not working out for me. and now i feel all guilty about not updating you on my rather boring little life! :)

i kind of forgot how i had to work like 26 hours between the ice cream shop and babysitting this weekend. basically, this leaves little time for creating, let alone blogging! so while i gave myself a nearly strained wrist after getting it stuck in a tub of ice cream, and a serious migraine after playing barbies for 3 hours straight, i silently hoped that none of you would hate me too much for not posting for a while.

and then on saturday, before i had to go babysit, breaking dawn came out! finished that one in seven hours. but i'm pathetically sad because i don't get any more edward and bella vampire drama! i'm pathetic, i know. but i love reading. and i love those books!

i love reading so much that as i tried to shove my new book purchases onto my bookshelf, the back split open. this is a problem. i have to get a bigger bookshelf. and now my books are on my chair, with about twenty i loaned to friends coming back soon. and a bunch shoved into my closet.

books are dangerous. but really fabulous.

anyhoo...now things have calmed down.

but!

surprisingly, i actually managed to make something on friday between babysitting and working. and...i really really love it! wow. it's a bunch of "she" statements that i either made up or was inspired by, all about me. i didn't mean for it to become really long, but it turned out to be like 20 pages, 40 if you count the backs. so, naturally, i was not about to put a picture of every page on flickr. but they are all on my sis, which you can get to from the link on the left. i took some of my favorites to show you:

i had so much fun making this that i decided that i would host a giveaway. at the end of the post, i'm going to write all of the statements in my book. if you leave a comment with another "she" statement about yourself, or just any comment in general, within the next two or three days (giving myself a window!!) i'll do a random drawing and make the winner her own book. the winner can decide what statements she wants or add any others. i could even leave it blank, if she wanted to write them in.

i'll also be in switzerland from the seventh to the eighteenth of august, so i'll be gathering paper there. i'll use most of it in your book, so you can say you have a bit of europe in your autobiography! ;) you'll just have to wait a teensy bit to get your book in the mail.

so comment! i want to hear you guys talk about yourself, rather than just me rambling on about nothing :)

okay, here are my statements:

she always dwells in possibilites. she is the heroine of her own story. she made her own magic. she's got a little world hidden in her heart and hands. she knew there was never a dull moment. she's at the beginning... she looked to the future with bright eyes. she loved imperfections. she knew she'd do foolish things, but she wanted to do them with enthusiasm. most of the time, she was almost too happy to breathe. she could be a fancy pants, but she knew bad style happens. she had her cake and ate it, too. she spun recklessly and sometimes fell down. she always got back up. sometimes, mindless decisions were hard for her. she wanted to travel the world. she appreciated simple beauty. she often paused her pursuit of happiness to just be happy. life was the best party she's ever been to. oh, can she live! she was guilty of running with scissors. of making mountains out of molehills. of painting with her fingers. of indulging. oh, could she smile! easy things were sometimes her biggest problems.but at least she never gave them up. she loved fashion. often, there was love on her mind. she was a rather silly girl.caffeine saved her as her ideas raced late into the night. she was the queen of her castle. she was sometimes confused. she giggled. oh! she was such a silly, silly girl. she knew life went on. she stared at simple objects, reveling in the possibilities. she stopped to smell the roses. and the daisies. and the lillies. sometimes, she felt like there was a storm in her head. she tried her best to live without being afraid. she was right to dream such dreams. she frolicked, twirled, and dilly-dallied. she tried every closed door, just in case. she made a million wishes and believe they'd all come true. she tried her best to be a real artist. she was tickled pink. a pink ruffle. a pink bow. but never a pink eye {sally jean}. she batted away the clouds. she always had hope. she never stopped believing. she knew the journey was the reward. sometimes, all she wanted was red velvet cake. and the only reason she'd make it would be to lick the spoon. her motto was to say nothing, be silly, act natural. she hoped she wouldn't miss anything. she fancied herself sugar, spice, and mostly nice. she skipped to her lou. sometimes, she was reckless. she really liked her feet, but didn't know why. she had great friends, and when they got together they laughed and laughed. she appreciated the fancy, but adored the fancily simple. she sometimes was an artist behaving badly. she loved art. she loved life. she loved herself. she is me.

so yeah. even if you have no blog, have never commented before, or have never even read this until today...comment! i want to make you something so badly (so i guess this is a rather selfish rak...)!!

ciao!

ps. longest post ever on this blog award! woooot! :)

{confessions...}

okay, i'm awol no longer! sorry i disappeared for a while...it's been quite a week ;) and i thought summer wasn't supposed to be busy? not a chance.

anyway, i thought i'd confess two things in today's post, to account for my missing-ness and my latest mini. and then maybe some randomness, just so you know me better (*chuckle*).

1) i am addicted to books
truly, i am. i devour books, and very quickly. it really is like a hunger, sometimes. that's what's been mainly distracting me this week :) i decided to jump on the bandwagon and try reading twilight, because target was having a sale. holy. stinking. cow! i read really fast, so i finished it in 6 hours on wednesday. i drove back to target on thursday, and bought new moon. i finished that one in 7 (it was a little slow in the middle...). i had work to do after i finished it friday morning, so i had to wait till yesterday to get eclipse. finished that one in 6, too. i am so surprised at how much i actually ended up enjoying them. because they're not really well written (yesssss i am an english nerdlette...thank my mother for that one...), but they're so creative! and addicting. i can't wait till next saturday to get breaking dawn! seriously. read them. and share with me book suggestions! :)

2) i tend to be a perfectionist.
okay, this is one of my bad-kate traits. i am kind of obsessed with not messing up. i work way too hard at school to get good grades-i actually exert so much energy into everything to make sure i don't let people down. or myself, for that matter. so naturally, this year (my junior year) is going to end up killing me unless i lighten up a little ;) (surprising, i'm actually really a very easy going person. i just like to do things really well.) so yeah. i'm kind of fearing failing on some decisions right now. i'm really trying to work through these faults, so i made a mini to get my thoughts out. really helped. you can see all the pictures on my flickr.


3) i'm probably taller than you.
i don't know if i've mentioned this before, but i'm over six feet tall. it's pretty useful. also annoying. if i ever meet you, please try to refrain from pointing out this observation. i really don't mind (that much) if you forget, but seriously. i get told at least once every day (a lot of times by strangers) "wow! you're tall!" i never do, but i'm always tempted to say "really? i've never noticed that before! you see, we don't own a mirror in my house..." yeah. but it can be totally fun (when i'm not sticking out like a sore thumb...), especially in shoe stores. and target. i always try on really high stilettos and walk around the store, pretending to look for my friends to ask about how they look. people are hilarious!! they have such funny reactions! little kids have pulled on their mothers' shirts, pointing, one guy tripped over a shelf one time, people have stopped conversations. it's hilarious. and in europe...well, i think i endangered people in the middle of the street who forgot to look where they were going, just gaping at me. ha! yeah. fun times.

4) i'm hardly ever sad.
it's true. i say this to people all the time, and they totally underestimate how i'm not lying. i really am hardly ever sad. i can get contemplative, and sometimes i do get down...but it only lasts five minutes, tops. i'm really quick to forgive, too...so i'm hardly ever mad at people either. i'm convinced it's totally God's doing. it's like that song i used to sing in sunday school..."i've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart..." yeah. if i meet you, i'll like you. if you make me mad, i'll forget it in a second. but only if you promise not to call me tall (kidding!).

5) i talk a lot.
but you could probably figure this out from my ramblings. :)

okay, that's it for today. ciao!

{thinking...about tonight!!}

sooo...i got creative this morning! i dreamed up a babysitting job. i woke up early early (very hard, since it was raining and rather darkish) to go and babysit, but apparantly it was the wrong day. not one person was up, and i woke them all up. and i embarassed myself. apparantly i was supposed to babysit them two weeks from now, or something. ga. that is just so like me!

but i also got creative in the scrapping department. made myself a little journal to commemerate this week where i decided to just be. it's a journal of all that i have been thinking about this week. i really wanted to use the sewing machine, so i whipped up a bobbin and sewed most of the pages in some way or another. i used that fantastic bag from the thrift shop as the cover. like?

you can see the rest on my flickr. link is on the left. it was totally fun to make. took up a good three hours of my morning :)

but now onto my night. i am going to the american idol concert tonight!! i'm totally excited! my family is totally into reality television. it's totally sad, i know, but we are. this is one of our faves, so the chicas in our fam are going with one of my friends and her mom. ack! it's going to be fab! plus also i love jason castro and can't wait to get a picture of him... ;)

it's going to be fantastic! i'll post pictures tomorrow and give links to where i've been inspired lately. till then, ciao!

{how many can you think of?}

i'd kind of been in a creative slump for a while, but i finally dragged myself to my desk today to make something. i have a long list of projects i want to do sitting there, but seeing as though the week is almost over i decided to do the prompt from the art is found. which is about notebook paper. which i love.

i took eight pieces and layered them to do a lo and then decided i'd encompass one of my own challenges in there. i do these things from time to time to get my creativity going where i set a creative goal for myself. this time i wanted to think of 50 unique things one could do with notebook paper. so i went to town and wrote a list on the layered pieces of paper and added some envelopes for texture/dimension. it's not the best thing i've ever made, but i really had a fun time thinking up all of the different things one could do with paper. so i kind of love it.

how many can you think of?

if you want to know what it says, i can write the list here. but it would take a while and frankly, i don't have the energy at this moment. next i'm going to work on a yes/no mini. i think this should be amusing. i'm also going to make some more atc's to put into my quote book. this will come probably saturday since i have to work tomorrow.

until then, ciao! :)

oh wait! did you see project runway last night? what did you think?? i loved it besides the fact that they recycled a challenge and let two weirdos stay. but other than that it was a pretty inspiring episode. i love recycling to make art! especially how kelly did the bleaching on that vacuum bag. pure. genius.

okay now i leave you.

{good day}

okay okay okay. i lied. sort of. i said i'd try to post every day this week. i fully could have done so yesterday, but i really didn't have the energy. because it was like midnight. and i was very very sad.

i was sad because i was supposed to go this morning to get my driver's licsense. but last night i took a tumble down the stairs, ripped my social security card, and then realized that i was short two night driving hours to get my licsense. so obviously we had some work to do today. i was very mad at my parents for making me be honest about my hours, but okay, i guess i see how lying to the government might be sort of an issue. oh well. tonight i guess i will drive around town for two hours. oh joyous.

but today turned out to be quite a fantastic day! my friends are all back from their vacations, so we got together and had just a simply fantastic time at katie's house. i tried a wii for the first time, and was totally hooked to this racing cows game. oh and the boxing. but especially the one with the cows. because seriously, could there be anything more funny than watching this cartoon guy with an afro kick his legs up on the back of a cow every time the cow hit a scarecrow or jumped a hurdle? or watching your totally hilarious and awesome friends make crazy weird movements when trying to seriously maime the other person on virtual boxing? (we're talking seriously hilarious movements. seriously.) umm, no. i didn't think so. it was entertaining in every sense of the word.

also this morning i got this email from sistv about the class (unpredictable requests) held next week by the totally awesome ashley wren (hooray hooray hooray!!!), and i totally signed up. for twenty dollars for ten days, it's totally worth it. so excited! i've never looked forward to a monday before. so seriously, anyone who reads this (probably not that many people yet, but still), sign up here! i totally can't wait to see what comes out of that class.

and finally, like a cherry on the top of my good day, my ap us history test scores finally came in the mail. i was totally totally totally nervous, becuase i remembered how stinking hard the test was, and how scattered all of my essays were, and how wrong all of my answers seemed, but...(drumroll please...) i got a four!! a four!!!!! (that's really good if you didn't know about ap scoring.) i was so happy. am still happy. wow.

so now to the pictures. another great thing that happened last night was one of my friend's dad (who works for a print company) gave me all of these fantastic paper sample books their company gets inundated with from wausau papers. they cost like 9 dollars normally. i was so incredibly happy and excited. the colors, shapes, and textures are fabulous.

also, like i promised, some sketch book snapshots. there's a game i played with my friend marilyn on a plane, and some other random doodles i did. it's more of a doodle book. i love drawing.

wow, that was a long post! anyway, i hope your days are all fantastic! until tomorrow...ciao.

{longish post coming your way}

i've got a lot of ground to cover in this post, seeing as though it's been a couple of days. i went up to wisconsin to get my little sister (who i haven't seen in a month!) from camp, and i had a great time re-living the memories from when i was a camper. i feel totally old, even though i'm totally not, because it seems like that was just me, like last year. riding up to camp, eating so many m&ms i got sick, missing home like crazy, marvelling at the beauty of creation, getting pelted with hail, shooting a gun (they trusted me??!!), camping (um...yuck), missing camp like crazy when i got home. it made me a little sad. but not too much.

anyway, i got some great pictures of the boats there, among other things. i got this one picture of an otter that really made me laugh (what is it about otters that is so funny? am i the only one with this problem?), but i didn't upload it. i took way a lot of pictures. especially at the hotel pool that night with my friend and sister...yeah. you can't see those either. but you can see some of the boats! because they were so colorful and pretty.



then i came home and made a journal from my scrap box. my scrap box is huge and has many many many many many random pieces of paper in there. i love it probably most out of all my supplies. i meant for it just to be beautiful and reflective, but it turned out to be beautiful, reflective, and pretty personal. so i decided not to take pictures of all the pages. it felt so great to get some journaling done, it's been a while. i did decide to take pictures of the cover, though :)

i made it out of: scraps of patterned paper, a business card, catalog pages, an invoice, a page of a french map, a greeting card, an envelope, a library card, an awesome pink playing card, post it notes, my favorite post card, an index card, and a 3d coloring book page. i love it. i'm going to make another one, later, and take pictures of the blank pages. maybe i'll even give it away.

you can see the rest of the photos from this weekend on my flickr.

i'll try to post every day this week, but no promises. i'm working on a pretty great project now that you can definitely see. plus also i think it's time you took a look at my sketch book. so pictures are coming your way, too. so until tomorrow, ciao!