katinka ♥ pinka

2012-01-16T09:58:00.002-06:00

i am now officially a member of the bike punx crash club. as of 3am saturday morning, that is.

like the klutz that i am, i fell off my bike riding down a curb and broke my knee.

it's a transverse displaced fractured patella if ya wanna get all technical and shit. in layman's terms, i broke the shit out of my kneecap and now it's floating around in multiple pieces inside my leg. i knew something was immediately wrong after i fell and touched my knee and felt my knee cap up near my thigh. being the brave little soldier that i am, i avoided calling an abulance because i didn't want to disturb the sleeping neighborhood and i waited to cry until i saw the xray and someone told me i might not be able to ride my bike for another 6 months.

but let's end on a happy note. here i am about 7 hours prior to my accident, content as a clam, at the san marcos community bike project (ironically after watching a bmx biking documentary full of crashes and accidents). ha!

2012-01-16T09:53:00.002-06:00

i have been moving more and more towards salvaged objects for my jewelry. my latest work includes fox teeth + bullet casings:

vintage dog tax tags:

an antique edison phonograph cabinet key:

and of course, the ever-present locket.

new year.

2011-12-30T11:34:00.003-06:00

2012 is fast approaching...and i realize i slacked big-time on updating the ol' blog. and flickr, too. so this new year's resolution is to get organized, mentally and physically, and keep the updates and pictures flowing. we'll start off with a self-portrait i took on december 7th to showcase my newest makeup aquisition, Besame lipstick in red velvet.

i'm not a big makeup person...i usually buy about 2 tubes of lipstick a year and maybe one pot of blush and an eyeliner pencil. so this was a big splurge for me...but it was something that i've wanted for a long time (good reds are hard to find!) and i was delighted to be able to purchase it from my friend Allyson's store, Coco Coquette. (hint hint, she also carries my jewelry and select frippery)

so, as promised, new jewelry updates coming to the etsy shop. my goal is to work on the fripperies monday thru wednesday and update le shop every friday.

thursdays are still my best junkin' days...you'll find me traversing the backroads of central texas before sunrise and afterwards unloading the goods for purchase at Max's Haus in New Braunfels. definitely looking forward to lots of happiness in 2012!

2011-11-27T18:46:00.001-06:00

{safekeeping necklace}

post-renegade haze.

2011-05-29T22:34:00.003-05:00

renegade was pretty awesome. and i have to give mad props to my helper minion, noellie, who not only puts up with my psychotic grumpiness and anal-retentive setup habits, but she also fetches cheeseburgers from local joints several blocks away (when it would obviously just be easier to just buy junk from concessions). that said, please behold the lace wonderland that was KATINKA-VILLE: RENEGADE SUMMER 2011
yeah, it took an entire over-flowing crate of old lace tablecloths, curtains, remnants, and some shredded antique silk slips and nightgowns to entirely swathe 3 sides of the booth, but totally worth the hassle. i think the only thing that i would change is to suck it up and pay for electricity next time so we can swag a few lines of garden lights across the 'ceiling'. the lighting in Palmer Events Center is ATROCIOUS. terrible industrial florescent glare that doesn't do much for illuminating antique rhinestones and tattery vintage textiles. but i digress...

i worked up a bunch of new feathered frippery, many pieces with femina ostrich feathers (my new obsession) and brightly colored peacock feathers (turquoise! fuchsia! orange!). also, the requisite party frocks, hand-dyed almost every color under the sun. of course, i've slowing been incorporating some not so colorful bits...white and ivory pantaloons, revamped petticoat skirts, and be-ribboned camisoles. all good things for layering under fripperous frocks or just for summertime lounging.

sometimes, folks ask if the frocks are...dresses? lingerie? the simple answer is: whatever you want them to be. don't be hesitant to wear a slip as a dress. layer a couple of them or pair them with leggings and/or a little cardigan. goodness, people wear much scantier clothing....just because something began its life as an undergarment doesn't mean it has to remain relegated to hiding under your dress!

i leave you with my favorite necklaces of this show, the watches and knives combo; only the silver one remains...surely not for long, though, as the knife is so delicate and the watch contains four diamonds. a special piece, bien sur!

RENEGADE OR BUST.

2011-05-20T10:54:00.002-05:00

i will be peddling the wares this weekend at Renegade Craft Fair...one of my favorite shows of the year!

i've got my nose to the grindstone in a final effort to have as much merch as possible; i like to torture myself by working insanely hard in the final 72 hours before showtime. this, in turn, means that i have forgone 'junking' this week which has been painful like heroin withdrawl. i did manage to set up one little display at the shop yesterday morning...

this weekend should be a blast...hope to see you at the show! xoxo

summer, already.

2011-05-10T20:48:00.005-05:00

i've been away forever. i always think of things to blog about when i'm away from the computer....which is more often than not of late. um, significant stuff: gave up soy milk and started drinking almond milk. somehow that's significant. home garden is planted and we've already harvested snow peas, pole beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and very soon our first cantaloupe. watermelon and peppers are growing, too. the pommello tree didn't produce this year but all of our other citrus trees have little baby fruits on them, as do the jujubes. we've been eating blackberries off our vines, grapes are growing....and there's been a smidge of talk about starting a mini-vineyard at the land. not that i know shit about wine or wine-making but we sure can grow some awesome grapes, so there's that. oh, we had spinach and lettuces, too. we tried pumpkins but the squash beetles have been eating them-WHICH-is okay, because so far it seems to have kept them off the more readily edible plants like the cukes and melons.

eeyore's birthday party

other stuff: still doing really well selling antiques and junk at Max's Haus....and having a blast at the First Friday events and getting to know everyone that sells there. still enjoying getting up before sunrise and driving off into middle-of-nowhere, texas for barn sales. my only regret is not taking more pictures (or any pictures at all) of the things i see during my drives.

hunting easter egglingks w/ the nephew @ angeliska's

renegade is FAST approaching and, as usual, i feel totally unprepared. i start questioning my abilities as an artist/seamstress and feel that surely i suck and everyone else there will have better/more items. still working on making mostly recycled jewelry/clothing...even skipped the last two gem + mineral shows that came to town in favor of pushing myself to use more of what i already have and to continue hunting for broken bits and pieces to re-invent. also have continued my quest of not purchasing new/retail clothing. i think i've only made a few 'new' purchases but they were items i considered long-term and necessary: 1 pair of jeans, underwears + bra, a couple cardigans, and socks/hosiery. underwear and hosiery are items one should never purchase second hand, i think. as usual, i tried to source items not made in china. everything else, including housewares, over the last 6 months has been purchased at thrift stores, garage/estate sales, or dumpster-dived.

first friday {may} Max's Haus, photo by Norma Garvey

i've been going to the river once a week with a friend and i think it's been great for my mental health. i hired a house-keeper to come once a week and clean for a few hours in hopes that i can use that extra time to work on my own projects. so far, it's been worth every penny. already planning for autumn/winter art and shows. getting organized, somewhat. hoping to stay on track.

crazy pants.

2011-04-18T21:37:00.002-05:00

i liked my lace pictures so much i decided i need to use that little vignette as a backdrop for something. i haven't photographed any headbands in a loooooong time...mostly because i have sold way more of them at shows and privately rather than online. and let's face it, photographing and writing descriptions repeatedly for headbands is kind of a pain. especially when i feel it's necessary to describe their tattery goodness in painfully minute detail. anyway, here's one of my favorites at the moment... i love the pale, pale, pale pink femina ostrich plumes, the way they curl just a tiny bit at the tips! true to my word, i played around with a few self ports this evening. so many times i end up looking like i have 'crazy eyes'...when it feels all the world like i'm just gazing at something.

had to call the mister and the pup over for some family picture action. we're geeks.

by the way, it's hard to get a chihuahua to smile and look at the camera. mr. p tends to look floppy and glazed over whenever we hold him for pictures. go figure.

it was like a million degrees today. and by a million i mean, like, 95. which is waaaay to hot for april 18th. the excessive sweating has begun. nevermind the fact that i sweat excessively by hereditary factors and also as a side effect of the cybalta that i take. so, i'm like, awash in perspiration. this may be the summer that kills me. i say that every year, but seeing as how we haven't had rain in almost 4 months, it could be true.

this past weekend i hit up some estate sales (as usual) and ended up with some 'grab bags' of junk. you know, like, bags of old buttons, wads of old lace, ribbon, string, broken jewelry....that kind of thing. usually, i'll go through the bags (after purchasing, of course), pick out what i want/can use, and then toss the rest back in the bag and put it in my de-stash suitcase that i take with me to shows for other people to pick through. well, i had made some little piles of the buttons (organized by color, naturally) and had some extra ribbon and bits and bobs and so i decided to make my own little grab bags to take to Max's Haus. i found some old clear cellophane bags (the crispy, crackly kind, not like plain ziplock bags) and i filled each with a sweet little mix of vintage buttons and odds and ends and closed them up with little homemade crown stickers, piled them in a pretty pink vintage bowl, and took them down to the shop. they're so lovely and full of promise (and cheap!)....i love sharing my little bits and bobs with other folks that will make good use out of them! so far, the prices on each little package range from $1 to $4, depending on the contents), so it's quite a bargain i think. i can't wait to get back in my workshop and pack up more. pics to come!

2011-04-17T23:16:00.002-05:00

i've been busier than ever before. so much so that i broke down and hired a housekeeper. i have mixed feelings about this; on one hand, i feel like i ought to just be doing the work myself. on the other hand, i really think it will free up a little time and a little portion of my brain that stalls when the house is overrun with dust bunnies the size of feral hogs. i found someone trustworthy and willing to take on 3 hours a week of reversing my filth. i figured hiring a person (instead of going thru an agency or something) was a good way to put money back into the economy and keep it local to boot. i'm pretty excited but at the same time i keep wondering if i should tidy up before she comes. uh. dumb. anyway, the last 4 days have been filled with junk, just as we like it. friday brought a huge score of old, tattered lace in various forms. and saturday took me to a barn in the hill country (i had to drive through part of a river to get to it) where i found, among other relics, this fella: we named him 'Moose'. naturally. i wasn't sure where to hang him in the living room because our fireplace isn't finished yet (above the mantel would be cool) and on another wall i have a collection of oddly small [found] antlers. and found wasp nests, as well, but that's another story for another time. so for now, Moose hangs here, on the opposite side of the window from a large, old southern belle portrait in an oval frame. eine kleine pink:

and finally, a self portrait with some huge rusty scissors i picked up at an estate sale and promptly left in a bag and forgot about for a month or so. i was looking through my flickr account the other day and realized that i haven't been doing self ports. the way i used to and i'm not sure why. i figure now is probably the time in my life i should documenting the most...so expect more of these to come.

a little bit of happy.

2011-03-29T09:58:00.003-05:00

so, funky finds was great. sxsw was incredibly busy. and now i'm in the lull between those and the upcoming renegade craft fair. i'm trying to pace myself....preparation-wise. i always procrastinate and then spend the 4 days before a show pushing myself to the breaking point to get enough things made. i don't know why....but i work best under pressure. always have. anyway, things are a bit different this year. since i have starting peddling antiques at Max's Haus in New Braunfels, i've spent alot of time junkin' and 'restoring' my finds. also, curating my little space at the shop....which is one of my favorite things. i think since i started officially junkin' i've been happier than i've been in a long, long time.

what i'm getting at, in relation to my show preparations, is that my hands are totally full. i'm constantly working on something....whether it's sewing, jeweling, hitting up estate sales or picking old barns, cleaning my finds, or arranging them in displays....i'm always busy. which i guess is what makes me happiest. i can't stand boredom, sitting around, watching tv, doing mundane things. i like to be out, on the road, getting my hands dirty, hauling furniture, and of course my old habits of sewing and jewelry making.

which brings me to another point....etsy. sales started dropping off dramatically about 9 months ago and have seriously dwindled (online-wise). at first i blamed the economy. but then i really started looking at etsy....more and more i was seeing not only a saturation of the jewelry category (it's only natural) but i was finding commercially made, mass-produced CRAP left and right. i'm familiar with this type of jewelry not only because i have formally studied metalsmithing (essentially, i know how shit is made) but also because many years ago i bought cheap-o costume jewelry for my brick-and-mortar store (this was way before the whole handmade movement, so don't hate). i 'flagged' everything on etsy that i could find that i was also able to find on ebay and wholesale/import websites. did it ever disappear from etsy? no. this shit drives me crazy because not only is it NOT HANDMADE, as etsy claims all items sold within its interweb walls are, but it's clogging up the category in which i offer most of my wares. long story short, yesterday i took matters into my own hands and made a 'treasury' (a curated picture list for those of you not fluent in etsy speak) that basically contained about 10 of the same peacock bracelet offered by different (overseas) sellers. i threw in a few other peacock bracelets and a brooch or two that were also commercially made just for variety's sake. now, i know these bracelets were totally not handmade. they were cast base metal with glued-in rhinestones and soldered to hinged bracelets. nevermind the fact that multiple sellers were offering the same thing, even if it were just one it's not the sort of jewelry that is 'handmade'. i'm aware that people cast metal and set stones....but it doesn't take much of a trained eye to recognize factory produced wares. for 15 hours the peacock treasury was within the first 4 places of the entire treasury list on etsy. everyone saw it. i attribute most of the excitement to the fact that i posted a link to it on Regretsy's facebook page (71,000+ readers, hey-o!) what surprised me the most (other than the fact that it took etsy admin more than 16 hours to pull the treasury and send me a scathing email about how i shouldn't abuse the treasury to call out sellers in a negative light, but that PEOPLE WERE ACTUALLY DEFENDING THE JEWELRY. people were tsk-ing me in the treasury comments....there were over 100 and many of them were waxing poetic about the beauty of the bracelets, the elegance of peacocks, and HOW DARE YOU STIR UP NEGATIVITY! gasp! i responded to the flying tomatoes with something along the lines of, "you people should be angry that etsy allows this junk to bury your handmade art," etc, etc. i received hate mail and someone even took it upon themselves to compare my bee necklace to that of other sellers offering essentially the same thing and proclaimed that basically i was just as bad as the resellers. sure, i may put a simple gold bee charm on a gold chain and call it handmade, and it is. if you want a longer chain, a shorter chain, a different chain, a stone added, i can do that. it's not like i order 50 bee necklaces premade in a factory, paying slave wages to children that wrap them in a cellophane wrapper and dump them in a box so i can mark them up 25 times and proclaim them handmade. no. the majority of my raw materials are purchased from ethical suppliers here in the US, many subscribing to 'green' business practices. every chain is inspected and finished by me, i ensure that jump rings are tightly closed, there are no rough edges, charms (if multiple) all face the same direction, etc. and if there is ever, EVER a problem with the jewelry the buyer can return it to me for repair. additionally, i like single charm necklaces to layer with other jewelry and it's also a cost-effective item for folks that maybe can't afford a hand-linked wire-wrapped gold and topaz necklace. i can't even believe i'm having to defend my 'assembling' of jewelry to anyone. the point is, sure anyone can put a charm on a chain....but not everyone has the time or even wants to. some folks just want to buy the finished product and i'm here to offer that along with options for customization. also, i would welcome anyone into my studio to see how i 'assemble' any and all of my wares.

MOVING ON. it's spring and the citrus trees have been blooming like mad. the smell is the best in the world. sweet little honey bees are everywhere and this is the first year that i've finally been able to get some poppies to grow in my yard. it's just excitement all around, y'all.

this friday is First Friday at Max's Haus, which is always a treat. from 5:30 'til dusk we'll have refreshments, specials on select merchandise, and a GYPSY TENT chock full of beautiful old junk that you most assuredly will want to purchase and take home for yourself. last month was my first experience with this little soiree and it really was a lovely time. i really can't explain how happy it makes me to meet up with other lovers of junk...and i really have come to enjoy thursday and friday mornings...waking up at the crack of dawn, mapping out a path to the best estate sales, finding wonderous treasures, and then unloading them with the other junkers at the shop. it's really a treat to get to peek at everyone else's finds and talk about what we're going to do with them. i feel a bit sappy saying it, but so far this year...i feel really blessed.

no. sleep. 'til fort worth.

2011-03-09T15:39:00.002-06:00

this weekend i'll be peddling the wares in Ft. Worth, Texas...

come visit me at the will rogers memorial center (in the poultry barn, naturally) and try on some fancies and frippery!

this is a pet friendly event and will benefit the Humane Society of North Texas, so saddle up your your tiny sweetie and come say hi on saturday or sunday!

xoxoxo

katinka

curations.

2011-03-01T11:01:00.004-06:00

last week at an estate sale i purchased an old ammunition crate full of crusty old paintbrushes. i love stuff like this. when i go to an estate sale, garage sale, whatever...the first place i hit is the garage, shed, or barn. because i love crusty, rusty junk more than life itself. the ammo crate is cool. my mom has been asking to buy it from me. but what i'm really intrigued with are the brushes. most of them are wood-handled and each is spattered with varying shades and colors of paint. some are more used than others, some are natural bristled, some are synthetic. alone, each one is junk. together, they become a curation, telling the story of many years of one person's painting history.
i'm going to hang them somewhere in my house. what i haven't decided yet is how i will hang them. one long straight latitudinal line? or an arrangement fenced in by an old frame of sorts?

i told you yesterday of one of many great gifts i received....the little box of glass eyes. well, here they are for your perusal.

i'm most fascinated by the tiny, threadlike 'veins' running through the whites. such a delicate hand went into creating them, bien sur!

lastly [and leastly]...i was given notice that i was rejected (REJECTED!) from the 2011 etsy dallas spring bash craft show. so. you know which north texas craft show you needn't bother shopping at this april now. that's my public service announcement for today. la!

thirty two years strong.

2011-02-28T14:21:00.004-06:00

it's muh birthday! it's been a pretty good one; i've received lots of lovely and decadent gifts....but my favorite has been a tiny box containing two antique hand-blown glass eyes. yes, as in eyeballs. i'm a sucker for the macabre. pictures of that to come.

my life has really been revolving around my little antique booth at Max's Haus in new braunfels lately. i'm very into it. i love it. alot. i love making little 'vignettes' even more than i expected i would.
yesterday we had a little 'work' day where we all showed up and worked on cleaning up the front yard and porch. to be honest, i was dreading it just a bit. i don't care much for being outside for extended periods of time; that coupled with weed-pulling and general dusty stuff usually results in a migraine. but i was quickly put to work re-arranging the porch, which, of course, was loads of fun! we made a little sitting room vignette with lots of 'pops' of color. i think my favorite things are the two chairs hanging on the wall. i love putting things in unexpected places.

another chair in an unexpected place. but hey, how else are you gonna build height?

a good time was had by all and no migraines made their way into the perfect afternoon. the yard looks fabulous and is all ready for First Friday.....from 5:30 to 7 on friday evening max's haus will be hosting a little soiree....refreshments will be on hand while you browse items specially marked down just for the occasion. yay!

i've been working alot lately with vintage czech glass and swarovski rhinestone jewels. most of them are unopened packages from around 1960. not only are they jewels themselves resplendent and sparkly (and eco-friendly seeing as how they're vintage/recycled) but the packaging graphics rock, as well.
btw, they're pictured here sitting on top of a book i picked up out of a trash pile at an estate sale...it's copyright/print date is 1879. crazy!

on saturday i got up at 6am to start garage-saleing/antiquing. i ended up in martindale, which is basically a ghost town with a few awesome abandoned buildings and a few super-shitty yard sales. really, if you're going to try to pawn off your old kitchen wares on me, at least give 'em a wipe-down with a damp towel. seriously, if i wanted to look at old cups and utensils with grease and fuzz on them.....i'd save the 7 bucks in gas and just hang out in my own kitchen.

i like the number on the silo door here. as if it's an apartment. hey, i'd live there. i guess the downside is that i wouldn't have any windows. but still...it's pretty cool.noodle? farm implements and equipment. whatta name.

one of my cats killed and presented me with a dead lizard a few days ago. being the creep that i am, i saved it as well as documented [via photographs] it's scales and coloring.

these colors are insane!

speaking of wild things, i leave you with my jeunesse earrings:

winter.

2011-02-09T18:13:00.002-06:00

i've been doing 500 things all at once and the only thing that finally slowed me down was a horrible cold. if it weren't for that, i probably wouldn't be writing this right now. i've been applying to and making pretties for all the upcoming spring art/craft shows....

{edwardian sealed reliquary with pink topaz}

completed a costume for the latest Coco Coquette Performance, Cherchez La Femme...

{ellen stader brings life to the joy of stalking and obsession in a Katinka frock}

making ridiculously silly frippery from velvet bows and junk that i find on the floor and under beds at estate sales...

{all it needed was to be cut open + stuffed with fabric scraps}

stocking my little space at Max's Haus in New Braunfels...

{this entails intricate mapping of estate and rummage sales}

and purchasing my third (and what i finally believe to be the perfect) couch...

that is all for now, mon amies!

a quick update.

2011-01-14T11:19:00.003-06:00

i've been antiquing. junkin'. garage-saleing. pickin'. i have a little booth space at Max's Haus in new braunfels now and i've been busy trying to fill it up with old + fantastikal junky treasures. getting ready for spring shows. trying to stay organized. piktures and jelly beans soonly. promise. ♥

pioneer.

2010-12-30T10:56:00.005-06:00

xmas has come and gone. as always at this time of year, i'm ready to start fresh. i have lots of projects in the works for 2011, including a new website and hopefully a local chapter of Food Not Bombs. my overall goal for the new year is to purchase nothing new....shopping only at garage sales, thrift stores, and the like. when that's next to impossible, i'll shop only at local stores. i've been reading about Freegans...i like the idea and they're theories are very close to what i've had in my head for a while now but hadn't had the time to sit and put it all down in words. i've been dumpster-diving since i was a kid....never for food [yet] but for wonderful old pieces of furniture and usable household items that quickly become treasures in my own home. i remember the first thing i ever pulled from a dumpster; my mom and i were driving down an alley in a junky, urban part of the town we lived in and spotted a giant metal STOP sign peeking out of the trash. that's cool, let's get it, said my mom. and so began a life of looking into any and every dumpster i've ever run across.

recently, i've begun delving into the world of peddling antiques. i've been a 'picker' since we lived in savannah, georgia...knocking on doors of people who have 'junk' piled up in their yards and offering them money so i could haul it away. i aquired bathtubs, sinks, antique mirrors, doors, windows, old glider benches, tables, chairs, crates of american encaustic fireplace tiles, 100 year old house trim...and just about any other crusty old thing you can think of. and now i'm working my way in to a place to showcase and sell it. it's very exciting and it's such a wonderful feeling to bring home rotting furniture knowing that i can fix it up and re-sell it to someone that will love and cherish it as much as i.

today i'm working on an old vanity, probably from the early part of the 20th century. it's missing one of it's tiny wooden wheels, but i'm pretty sure i've got a spare rolling around this place somewhere.

i picked out a pale, silvery-blue paint from the 'oops' table at the hardware store. i like to recycle as much as possible but paint isn't really one of those things you run across in dumpsters very often...so i figure the mis-tints at the paint store are the next best thing. i have a stash of antique glass knobs and pulls, too....the reproductions are far too clean and tidy for the likes of my work. more pictures and updates coming soonly!

so this is xmas.

2010-12-20T09:25:00.002-06:00

well, the year is almost over. i don't know what i really accomplished in 2010 but i'm hoping 2011 will bring more organization to my life. i'm thinking of quitting etsy....mostly because they don't seem to give a shit about resellers anymore. if you don't know what that means the simplest way to explain is that there are people selling mass-produced schlock over and over and over again and it's clogging up the categories and thus shoving us REAL artists to the bottom of the pile. i'm not going to really get into it because the anger will ruin my day.

that said, there's hope on the horizon with a plethora of shows coming up this spring. also, there's some underground talk of a collective. maybe....MAYBE some sort of brick-and-mortar storefront for antiquities and curiosities and frippery and wares from other local artists that Get It. anyway, maybe it's just a pipe dream. or wishful thinking. or me, once again, biting off more than i can chew. will definitely keep you posted.

maybe i will post again before the end of the year. maybe i won't. all i know is this time of year means it's time to start adding up receipts and thinking about paying taxes. and starting it all over again.

thift store holiday.

2010-12-10T11:32:00.007-06:00

this is just a quick post because i'm busy but pretty excited. i went to the thrift store the other day and found four strands of this vintage pink + cream ball garland for $2 each! i'm not doing a xmas tree this year because things are a bit hectic and we'll have one next door at my mom's haus, so to at least get a little bit in the holiday spirit i draped a few strands around the dining room:
oh my beloved hutch:

also, i tried to 'distress' some beautiful fabric that i had and ended up totally screwing it up. so now, instead of 15 yards of rosey, toile-y fabric i have yards and yards of yellow fabric with a print on it that's barely visible. i've gone through 3 boxes of rit color remover trying just to make it almost white but it just stays yellow. today's attempt will be with a little purple dye to try to neutralize the yellow to a tan. and then maybe just an overall wash of brown. i'm working on pantaloons for spring....i wanted everything shades of cream and white (i already have some made from vintage frilly curtains) so maybe i'll have to have some earth tones mixed in. i'm excited to share the pantaloons with the public....i've been wearing my own pairs for years now and they're great for shows and even just doing around the house because you can bend and move and never worry about anyone seeing up your skirt. it took awhile for me to draft the perfect pattern; everything i did kept turning out too narrow. i finally bit the bullet and made a pair that looked huge (HUGE!) but once i put the waist band in and tried them on they were simply billowy and magikal:

i thought sewing with cotton voile would be alot more difficult, but it turns out if you use the proper needles and thread size it's a piece of cake. i love voile....i love sheer fabrics that you can layer and layer. i've sewn these with french seams for durability and they have a nice wide elastic waistband that doesn't roll or get twisted in its casing. i wore them all weekend at wheatsville and they were a hit! they have a lot of fabric in the seat so you can really move around and it feels just like wearing a big petticoat but with the advantage of being able to do cartwheels and not show your skivvies if you so choose.

i'm very excited about 2011....lots of delicate, sparkly jewelry with old bits and bobs mixed in and a definite edwardian feel to the clothes i'll be stitching up. everything will be a little bit frilly, a little bit punk. of course, the apron slip dresses will still be in full force if you lean more towards the kitschy side of things. ♥

zlammed + wheated. or something.

2010-12-08T17:15:00.005-06:00

this past friday i schlepped all my wares out to austin in preparation for the 2010 wheatsville arts festival and promptly made my way out to emo's to see one of my favorite-est bands, zlam dunk.
they like basketball and know how to rock a crowd. they are incredibly passionate about their musik and their fans are even more enthusiastic about that passion, i think. everyone was singing and jumping, bouncing and crowd-surfing. it was 40 something degrees outside that night but we were all sweating (and losing our hairpins) in the club, as evidenced by this photo captured by photojournalist, tina phan.

after a late night my service-goose and i trudged out the door at 6:45am to set up my little home-away-from-home at wheatsville co-op. i was pretty jazzed about being near the stage....there's always lots of people around checking out the musik which usually means they'll check out your wares, as well.

the booth setup went smoothly and turned out really lovely with my new accoutrement. accoutrement being the edwardian mirror frame-turned necklace display and books. uh...turned jewelry display. whatever. it all fit together really well and drew in quite the crowds.

many folks inquired about purchasing some of the books. maybe i should quit this frippery business and devote my time to peddling old tomes. the favorites were obviously the little red tooled-leather canasta card holder book and the crumbling 1912 bible. a fan of the bible i am not; it's just not my thing. but i can respekt it as a piece of literature and especially when it's been loved nearly to death by a former owner from my own town of san marcos (it's inscribed on the front cover).

i started collecting more czech and german glass jewels for earrings....i think they make such lovely little accessories to fancier necklaces....just a tiny bit of sparkle here and there, you know? i also acquired an envelope of tiny turn-of-the-century tintypes from an estate in pennsylvania; they happened to be just the right size for little necklaces with a tiny little locket added on, just for good measure. i'm really pleased with the tintype necklaces. they're kind of like lockets, but open, where you can see the photo....and the method in which they were made is such a piece of history in itself. alot of folks asked how i put the piktures on the metal; i had to explain that they were printed [developed] on the iron plates over 100 years ago. i simply drilled a hole in them and filed the edges smooth.

the cameo necklace shown below has since sold, but i was rather pleased with this little vignette and its combination of the carved shell cameo and the vintage branch coral....sort of a wee ode to the sea, if you will.

i'm giving up using recently harvested coral in favor of hunting out vintage sources. i'd always felt a little guilty about using the new stuff as i know there's alot of reef destruction that comes with the territory. the vintage bits are semi-easy to come by if you know where to look and it comes with the added bonus of having a little history.

in closing, the 2010 wheatsville was a wonderful success. two full days of peddling, great musik, yummy wheatsville food, friends, and new inspiration. i'm really looking forward to next year and a whole new slew of shows, as well. cheers!

teaching an old dog new tricks -OR- making a short table taller.

2010-12-01T12:03:00.005-06:00

in an effort to simplify my traveling katinka-ville setup i decided i needed to purchase a foldable table. i searched high and low, through the interwebs and retail stores. i finally decided on the 'timber creek' 6 ft. folding table with handles. i purchased mine at academy. i can't find it online but this is pretty much the same thing. the only problem was that it was waaaaaay tooo short. so i came up with a little rig...

i popped the little rubber ends off the table's legs...

so that they would easily slip into a 1 inch PVC pipe. now i could give you all sorts of measurements here, but let's face it, i suck at numbers. if i understood math or had ever passed a math class with a grade higher than a 70 i would've become an architect. so my advice here is to figure out how much higher you want your table to be and cut your pvc to the correct length based on the leggage you already have.

i added rubber stoppers at the bottom to keep the table steady and also to cover the rough edges from sawing. you can cut pvc with a hack saw, by the way. i don't recommend chop saws as they can sometimes splinter the plastic.

next slip you pvc 'leg' over the original table leg. (this is why i removed the original rubber feet)

1 inch pvc worked perfectly, but measure your own table to be sure about the right diameter. i took one of my table legs with me to the hardware store to be sure.

here's where that whole numbers thing came into play. see these little plastic bands around the leg? that's what stops the pvc from riding up any further. there's alot of the original table leg that sits down in the pvc...so you might think you could get away with using less pipe, but the more leg in it the more stable the whole thing is. or something.

once you get all the pipe slid on you'll probably need a helper to assist in flipping the table upright as the pipes want to slip off. gravity sucks, no?

so the new table is pretty tall. i love it. it's a perfect height so customers don't have to bend way over to look at the goods and also so i don't have to spend entire days hunched over a too short table writing receipts and whatnot. i used a vintage table cloth to drape the front with and a linen curtain panel i found at a thrift store for the top. i secured all of the cloth-age on the back with a few clothespins. now for the fun part--hooshing!

if you are unfamiliar with hooshing, or a 'hoosh', you should read Interior Alchemy by Rebecca Purcell. in a nutshell, it's either a noun or a verb defining a vignette. if you live in or near austin and you're familiar with Uncommon Objects, well, all those fantastikal displays? they are hooshes. anyway, on with the hooshing.

i built a new display for my longer junque jewelry necklaces. although laying them out flat on the table is great for people touching and investigating them, (i think people are more apt to buy something if they're not afraid of picking it up off a display like an old bottle or mannequin) it creates a time-consuming vicious cycle of constantly straightening the chains. don't get me wrong--i WANT people to touch and try on the jewelry but when things get busy in a booth there isn't time and it doesn't seem polite to constantly be reaching around customer's hands to straighten what they may have (in my eyes) mussed. i just like every customer to be presented with a fresh, tidy display so that it's easy for them to take it all in. sooooooo. that said, i made a hanging display from the frame of an old edwardian dresser mirror. i put little hooks on the back to hang necklaces from (still easy enough for customers to remove or ask for) and bolted the whole thing with steel L-brackets to a salvaged piece of wood that i had stained and edge-routed to help tie it together visually/stylistically with the 100 year old frame.

behind the table there is lots of space for storing my suicases, bins, and supplies. and kittens!

i bought this old chippy pink (PINK!) milking stool from my neighbors estate and the plaster bust i've had since the good ol' days of my brick-and-morter shop. she adds height and will make a good display for a possibly pricier piece that i might not want handled by 100s of people.

alot of people have asked about my little tree branch. it's rubber or some sort of rubber-foam polymer with an internal wire armature. it doesn't bend as much as i had hoped it would (i hang delicate chain necklaces on it) but it gets the job done and it's little twiglets don't snap off like the real branch that i had used previously. you can purchase one like it here. i secured it in a vintage planter with plaster of paris (you can always chip it out later if you want your planter for something else) and topped it off with some rock salt (though gravel, beans, or rice would look neat, too).

i've got a ton of old, tattered books to set jewelry pieces onto, as well. this is good for highlighting special necklaces or bracelets and also helps carry on the 'theme' and style of my upcycled/rustic jewelry.

et voila!

hope to see you this weekend at wheatsville art festival!

saints + wunderkammern.

2010-11-29T10:36:00.006-06:00

i went to my first ever live auction the other night. it was loud, smokey, and made my heart go thumpety-thump. when the bidding began i was sure everyone in the room could see my heartbeat through my hoodie. i don't know why it was so nerve-wracking....maybe because the bidding just moves so quickly. it's much faster than what you see on tv and in the movies! at any rate, i can home with this fantastikal beauty:

it's an 1870s mahogany secretary with secret compartments.

i've been drooling over a similar one at an antique store in new braunfels but couldn't cough up the money for it. when i saw the auction preview photos and spotted this behemoth i knew i had to have her. she's almost 8 feet tall and probably weighs 100 pounds for every foot. i've had a mid-century metal dentist's cabinet in this spot forever but its short stature of less than 6 feet made its presence in a room with 11 foot ceilings seem out of scale. i've loved that cabinet dearly for over a decade; there was even a little write up in the austin chronicle about it and how much i loved it years and years ago. when i purchased it at the city wide garage sale before i was married, people were following me out of the building asking to buy it off me. but my love for mid-century deco has slowly but surely been fading since we left savannah all those years ago and i'm definitely entrenched in all that is gothic-victorian with all my heart. i always have been....my whole life, it's true; but there was definitely a mid-century phase and that deco style will always hold a little spot in my heart no matter what.

anyway, the next morning i quickly set myself to the task of filling up my new cabinet with my favorite collections:

i collect vintage virgin mary statues....mostly in shades of white. there's a blue one in there because i saw her at goodwill many years ago and couldn't pass her up. i love how there are three of the same mary, just in different colors:

also, these two slay me with their fluttery eyelashes, tousled hair, and vamp-ish lipstick:

this one has such a human look to her face. most of them have sort of a dreamy, ethereal style....but there's something almost staunch about her:

this mary seems to embody all that is retro, tiki-madness, space-age 1960s, i think. there's something very south pacific about her...

settled in their new home:

all together now:

so the bottom of the cabinet was empty...and as i had been carting in my mary's from the piano in the parlor i decided to empty off the top of the other piano (yes, we have two). i created a wunderkammer of sorts with all my found bones, nests, and bits and bobs we've found while digging around our yard.

please be aware that i never kill animals for the sake of harvesting bones, fur, etc. all of my bones, skeletons, and taxidermy have been strictly found in the woods, on the road, or in antique stores. many of these bones i've been carting around with me for nearly 15 years now...i care for them dearly.

the rose water pharmacy bottle, above, came from my granny's medicine cabinet. who knows how long it had been there. the 2 smaller bottles we unearthed in the backyard.

most of these arrow heads and scrapers were found out at our farm in staples...a couple came from the yard here at the homestead.

antlers are some of my favorite-est things to happen upon. it's a real treat when i find them!

on that note, i leave you with two new treats from le shop:

katherine, a vintage carved shell cameo on a chain of freshwater pearls and tiny sapphires.

and tresor, an antique french religious medal on a chain of petite pearls and oxidized sterling silver.

girlie shows + winter jewels.

2010-11-23T10:28:00.003-06:00

it's been forever and a day since i last posted anything here....but so many exciting things have been going on! i made my first ever road trip to a show....The Girlie Show in oklahoma city. it was so much fun! i had a ton of frippery to peddle....
my dear, dear friend, noelle, made the journey with me. she is an excellent road trip partner! she refused to fall asleep on the ride even though we left at 6 in the morning and she also knows how to get my gas station coffees mixed up just right. she's also a doll for putting up with my angsty pre-show madness.

the drive went faster than i expected and was also lovely. we both ooohed when we crossed the Red River....because it really is so red! once we were in oklahoma it was a bit like being up in new england....the leaves were already turning and the weather was crisp and truly autumn-esque. we set up our booth at the farmer's market building (which is totally old and awesome, by the way) and then proceeded to our overnight accommodations, the OKC Private Art & Culture Exchange Lodging. we stayed in the bunk room and were quite comfortable and made to feel right at home by the inn-keepers, pete and cyn.

friday night was a whirlwind of frippery peddling! the girlie show was like one big party and people were there to SHOP! at one point, it was so crowded you could hardly move through the aisles!

i had so much fun and met so many lovely people....including the charming Heather of Audrey Eclectic. she's cute as a button and i wish i could teleport to oklahoma so we could have tea parties and craft our wares together all the time!

we left OKC sunday morning and i was a bit sad to go, really. we had such a blast and it really was one of my favorite-est shows that i've ever done, i think....so i really hope i can do it again next year.

usually, after a big show like that, and also after driving about 850 miles in 3 days you'd think i'd be burnt out. but i was surprisingly inspired to get back to work making more goodies.

i have been working more and more with vintage bits and bobs, incorporating them into slightly more upscale pieces with gemstones and [semi] precious metals. don't get me wrong, i love doing the junque jewelry....but i have a soft spot in my heart for gems and heirloom-style treasures. i recently received a lot of antique religious medals from france. they are the most beautiful, tiny, amazingk treasures i've ever beheld, i think! so wee and precious, their delicate faces rubbed and worn down, almost flat like old thin dimes. more pictures of those to come!

i have discovered a new thrifting paradise....the saints peter + paul thrift shop at the church where jj goes to mother's day out. i found these old wooden hangers (just like what i use in my displays) for ten cents apiece!

and this amazing 1920s pink silk piano scarf for.....well, alot less than the hundreds of dollars i see them for at antique stores. i've been aching to have one of my own for FOREVER...and now i do! it is the most beautiful thing ever....a bit tattery in a few places, but that's how i like stuff, as we all know.
new earrings in le shop....they're even prettier in person!

okay, wheatsville arts festival is less than 2 weeks away! and i'm stoked about my new setup....i've been collecting a bunch of old edwardian....things.....and crumbly antique books and all sorts of chippy, dilapidated furniture and bits and bobs for displaying the wares. i think it might be my best little vignette, yet! for now, it's back to the grindstone, lots of pretty bits and buttons and tattery old fabrics to work with! come see me December 4th + 5th at Wheatsville!

skulls + art.

2010-11-02T10:17:00.006-05:00

eeeks! i'm in a mad rush to finish as many projects as possible before this friday, when i leave at 0'dark-thirty for The Girlie Show in oklahoma city. last night i was up in the werkshop cutting, clipping, stitching, and gluing feathers and fancies into wonderous plumed fascinator headbands until well after the rest of the world was fast asleep. i always panic before shows, and i know i mentioned before that i have nightmares where customers ask for items that i almost made but didn't. i must say, i'm very excited about this show! the only part of oklahoma that i've been to before was very po-dunk, small-town, dusty, and not incredibly welcoming to people covered with ink and metal. this should be very exciting, indeed! i've heard nothing but wonderful things about OKC!

in other news, i attended a little halloweenie fete and dressed as my interpretation of marilyn monroe's spirit. really, i just wanted to try my hand at some sugar-skull/muertos makeup, which was fun...but alas, i'm so blind w/out my glasses that it was hard to really get any detail into the makeup. in fact, i had to break off the end of my one crappy makeup brushes just so i could get 3 inches from the mirror to see what i was doing. c'est la vie, though, right? i think it turned out well.

sure, the ubiquitous leggings made their way into the outfit. it was a loose interpretation and god forbid i show my actual legs to anyone. also, it was less sugar skull and more just dead girl skellyton makeup, but i was pleased that my glasses blended nicely into the whole thing. it was a big concern for me.

please note the pill necklace.

anyway, in less light-hearted news, i'm pissed. i'm sick of re-sellers on etsy and my anger sort of came to a head yesterday when regretsy posted this. there's a few sellers in particular on etsy that i KNOW are re-sellers....buying their junky shit from wholesalers and selling it as if they designed and made it with their own hands. i've been flagging their crap for years now and etsy lets it fly. i send etsy LINKS TO THE WHOLESALE WEBSITES that sell the same items being sold in these etsy shops and yet these sellers continue to make a living off of it. meanwhile, i, and many other REAL ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS struggle to eke out a living by grinding our fingers down into dirty little nubs by sewing, soldering, and WORKING to produce our wares. i have stained, peeling fingers, i have arthritis in my knuckles, i have aching wrists from ACTUALLY PRODUCING THE GOODS I SELL. and since my sales are down 75% from what they were a year ago on etsy (i blame the influx of resellers and plain ol' junk on etsy that has created a sea in which my items get lost in) i schlepp all my goods to the farmer's market at 8am every saturday morning just to make enough cash to buy groceries for the week. i'm drowning, i tell you.

no matter what, i'mma keep doin' what i'm doin'....keep making and recycling and schlepping. i'll earn my honest, albeit meager, living by keeping it real and working as sustainably as i can. one of these days the real artists will prevail.

dollies + squirrels.

2010-10-23T13:47:00.004-05:00

i have been crazy busy! recently, i was commissioned to make a very special keyhole bracelet with a fantastikal and old porcelain keyhole cover. it has since made its journey to a northern fairy land to live with Karin of GypsyEyesJewelry / LookingGlassHouse. please have a look-see at her lovely and amazingk frippery...it is over the top divine!

a few days ago i drove out to Schertz to procure a new Old dress form for myself, as Dolly is on holiday at the university modeling the gadjo disko dress until the semester ends, and i've been so sad without her. i haven't been able to photograph any new dresses or skirts since she departed and it was starting to drive me mad. i have another adjustable dress form, but she's modern and plastic and, although she's just what i need for sewing + draping, she's not much of a looker as far as modeling goes. so i am pleased to introduce dolly's counterpart, Mollie:

i paid more for her than i've ever paid for a dress form but it felt like the right thing to do. i found an add for her on craigslist.com and struck up a deal with the seller. when i first got her, she was covered with a strangely-colored and slightly dusty jersey knit fabric. i quickly went to work picking and tearing it from her paper-mache' body. once she was completely skinned i thought about decoupaging her with a light layer of white tissue paper, but ultimately decided to leave her in her original crusty, grungy state. i gave her a light spray of clear coat lacquer and then a little buff with some sandpaper to polish her up a bit.

below, you can see that the finish looks a bit like old, worn leather. i think it will compliment my frippery fantastikally, don't you?

moving on, this afternoon i noticed that a sprig of the coral vine had blossomed INside the porch. sort of seems like a very personal little bloom, no?

on the OUTside of the porch, the coral vine is really taking over! making its way all the way up the front gable of the house...

wouldn't it be wonderful if it reached the top and then made its way back down again?!

in the world of animal husbandry, we have released the squirrel babies! the boys took to the wild like the wind....but sweetie-girl has stuck close by.

we can feed her pecans by hand...she also loves apples and bread!

i just want to snorgle my nose in her little furry tummy!

next weekend is my last weekend at the san marcos farmer's market for the year...after that i will begin the Katinka Pinka Holiday "World" Tour, making my rounds to Oklahoma City for the Girlie Show and back around through a few austin venues before a winter break. watch the 'events' page on my website to see a continually updated list of when + where i will be peddling my wares! xoxo!

gearing up + knuckling down.

2010-10-06T11:00:00.003-05:00

skulls + bows!

recycled bike tire inner tube cuff bracelets with spikes!

lee has taken up cycling and with it came a whole slew of accoutrement (i.e. different kinds of tires, multiple helmets, lights, clothing, etc). well, he tends to go overboard with everything he does, which means he rides about 25 miles a night and pops tires on a regular basis. so the old inner tubes become property of katinka and are thusly turned into some good, old fashioned punk rock regalia. i found a company that produces the spikes here in the US (most spikes + studs are manufactured overseas, BOO)...though i'm still working on finding snaps made in the US, as well. you'd think they wouldn't be that hard to find, but, well...they are. at any rate, the cuffs turned out better than i imagined and i'm trying to sell them at a pretty fair price to, you know, keep it real for my crusty, young, and poor brethren. hey, they're vegan, too!

hoodie weather is upon us and i'm really trying to knuckle down and prep for all the holiday shows. i never can seem to get on top of things though, but it's all going to come together. it always does. still waiting to hear from wheatsville to see if i was accepted to the art fest....last year was so cold but such a good show. i'm really hoping i make it in again...i've got some great new things in the works.

come see me this thursday at Concerts in The Park at San Marcos Plaza Park, 6-10pm and this saturday at the SM Farmer's Market...it's not too early to start holiday gifty shopping!

dance punk.

2010-09-30T10:35:00.004-05:00

autumn is finally here! just when the heat of texas summer starts to make me think i can't possibly exist for one more day on this planet, a cool front sweeps through and we fling open the windows and sleep to the sound of rustling curtains and chirping crickets. if only fall were year round!

so much going on! the holiday season is officially here in katinka-ville....i'm back at the SM Farmer's Market (except not this coming saturday, i'll be shopping at my secret flea market) and i've signed on to set up every thursday at the Keep San Marcos Beautiful Fall Concert Series. I'm pretty excited about the concert tonight...there are 3 bands playing, all new to me but with one, Zlam Dunk!!, purported to be playing what they refer to as Dance Punk (hence Dunk!!) you know i'm going to be jim-jamming at my table. and by jim-jamming i mean Rocking Out. I've got a few new Long Walk Home necklaces in le shop (as well as being available at my set-ups) and i'm overwhelmed with joy to be debuting something a little new, too! (more on that later)

i recently did a little commission work for the lovely Heather of Audrey Eclectic:

she mailed me a sweeter than sweet cross that had belonged to her great-grandmother and asked if i would mix it up al la Katinka into something she could wear everyday. i put the cross on my workbench and the little hand just seemed drawn to it. the little heart, with it's timeworn surface, reminded me a bit of heather's wonderfully rustic prairie-land painting style...and, of course, every girl needs a little vintage rhinestone bling. i found a wonderfully patina-ed vintage gold-fill chain and the whole thing came together flawlessly. i couldn't have been more pleased. except...i was even more excited because i traded the parts + labour for two of heather's pirate themed prints! i've decided i need to start a collection of nautical + pirate themed art and Adele and A Pirate at Heart seemed like the perfect jumping off point.

lastly, i leave you with a petite little trio of charms, Priere, or prayer in french. i found this little virgin mary charm at an estate sale in seguin a few weeks ago and couldn't be more pleased with how sweet and peaceful she seems with her wee sparrow and frosty white iolite drop. la!

squirrel nest.

2010-09-23T10:22:00.006-05:00

headache, migraine, headache, migraine, headache. not much helps. i ate a salad yesterday evening and that helped for a bit. i rode my bicycle off into the gloaming, Discovery blasting thru my earbudlinks. and then my stupid phone kept ringing. i should just disable the phone when i'm using it as an ipod. biking should be about traveling and not people calling me on business. i stopped at the tracks and watched a freight train pass by. i've been learning all the different cars....grainers, gondolas, boxes....and where and how you can ride them. i may never catch out, maybe years from now once jj is grown....but someone said that train hopping is part of 'the great american adventure' and that pretty much sold me. totally dangerous and stupid. i should just fly out to europe, get a rail pass, and see where it takes me for a few months. safer, but also more expensive. maybe once the farm is in full production and there's less to worry about around the homestead. i haven't been on a real vacation in quite some time. the thing about europe is that i don't speak much of anything but english. i have studied french, german, and japanese...but my brain can't seem to retain much more than standard greetings and oddball phrases.

finally! it's autumn! late summer storms were rolling through the other day and blew three baby squirrels out of their nest. lee heard them hit the roof over his office and went outside to see two of them hanging from the gutters and one on top of the a/c unit. so pitiful! we quickly gathered them up and dried them off...
we've been feeding them puppy formula from an eyedropper and they're growing by leaps and bounds! this is our second time to rehab orphaned squirrels...they are the cutest things ever! about seven years ago we found 3 babies drowning in a tree nest that was quickly filling up with rainwater during a storm. they were crying so loudly we could hear them from inside the house! it's pretty amazing how quickly they can bond with their human counterparts. we worked with them for a long time to make sure they were ready to be re-released into the wild, and once we did, they would visit us on occasion. hopping out of a tree onto our shoulder, taking pecans from our hands. i hope these little guys do just as well.

on a more business related note, i've felt a bit burnt out since Cowtown. i missed the last 2 san marcos farmer's markets, but this week i should be back. this really is a terrible time to not feel like working! i have more shows this holiday season than i've ever had before so i really need to buckle down and WERK. on october 19th, i'll be showing off one of my textile creations....my version of Delilah....for the Dangerous Women show at the ND in austin. 12 designers, 12 models, 12 dangerous women through time! november 5th and 6th is the Girlie Show in OKC, the next two following weekends in november are E.A.S.T. and i have a booth with my mom at the Vortex Theatre, and then December 4th and 5th is Wheatsville Arts Festival (which i still don't know my status of entry as of yet). and in between all of that i have the SM farmer's market and online sales to compete with. so yeah, i better get to work.

indie bazaars and the being of bizarre in general.

2010-09-09T10:50:00.002-05:00

i know, i know, i've been away for, like, forever. but i was busy! the cowtown indie bazaar was great. better than expected. this was my first time to schlepp my wares to another city for peddling and the whole experience was much smoother than i imagined. of course, i always imagine [and thusly prepare for] the worst. the drive to fort worth wasn't so long that it made me crazy and i had thought ahead and packed my leetle ear budlingks so i could listen to my musiks while the husband listened to whatever crazy new shit MGMT is cranking out. thankfully, though, he did include the new arcade fire album in his musikal lineup and so i was persuaded to remove my earbuds and i must say Ready to Start is really rocking my socks now. anyway...so the show....it was very busy! so busy, in fact, that i didn't have time to step back and take a picture of my booth. so instead, i present you with my newest + favorite-est necklace:

miss havisham's scissors

yeah, there's no way i can sell this necklace. at least for now. i'm so in love with it, it's out of hand. i have always been a fan of any sort of take on the whole punk rock mess o' chains thing. usually there would be an old heavy, rusty padlock in the mix but the antique scissors are a fresher, more ladylike approach, i guess. i'm going soft in my old age, y'all!

so, moving from punk rock to goth, let's take a look at these leetle bats:

the whole bat-loving goth thing is ironic and let's face it, cheese, at this point. but look at the bats from a naturalist's point of view and it becomes a slightly macabre and victorian-esque statement. it's sad that modern culture has turned vampires in to prissy little sparkling ninnies...so i've gone full circle with the whole idea and camped it up by naming these earrings after the Say Hi To Your Mom song, Sweet HeartKiller. here's the lyrics, just for fun:

In her youth she made tons of pence

ghost-penning songs for big hair aristocrats.

Now she lies in a plush, velvet bed,

shaped like a coffin and filled with bats.

And she is pale

and I am smitten

and in the moonlight we both still like the smell of anything night blooming,

and she bites through the necks like Ginsu:

my sweet sweet heartkiller,

my sweet sweet heartkiller.

Next to walls that jut from the earth like frozen trajectories of superheroes,

we nibble and jest about things that drain and the taste of lust.

And she is over here

and I am over there

and the unlucky dark cloud is in the middle.

We like to time ourselves,

we like to watch ourselves,

and her winks cut through me like a Ginsu:

my sweet sweet heartkiller,

my sweet sweet heartkiller.

And everything's good

and everything's fine

and everything's bitter like sweet things should be,

when I'm sinking my teeth into her:

my sweet heartkiller,

my so sweet heartkiller,

my sweet sweet heartkiller.

...............

the song is from the album Impeccable Blahs. blah being an ironic take on old skool vampires saying, "blaaaah, blaaaah, " i guess, when they show their fangs. or whatever. anyway, the whole album is about vampires. and alot of the lyrics pertain to how the lifestyle is sort of complicated and depressing. but in a very upbeat way. so check it out, you will love it.

speaking of vampires and things that come out in the dark, our beloved dragon fruit cactus bloomed the other night:

in other news, i was accepted to The Girlie Show in oklahoma city. !!!! sounds like it's going to be an amazingk craft show/art party. i've never thought of oklahoma as an artsy kinda place (sorry, heather) but apparently OKC is. see? you learn something new every day. also, my gadjo disko wedding dress that i made last year is currently on display at The Gallery of the Common Experience at Texas State University. more exclamation points. i still haven't made my way out there to see it...but i need to. mostly because the dress is displayed on dolly, my vintage dress form mannequin, and i miss her like crazy. and by 'miss her' i mean i don't have anything to model my clothes on for pikture taking. waaaah. and she'll be there 'til the end of the semester! and i'm totally kicking myself for not buying another vintage dress form that i saw for sale at a secret flea market for $40 a month ago. duurrrrr!

so for now, i'm going to just have to put my nose to the grindstone and start cranking out the frippery. c'est la vie.

technicolor travels.

2010-08-30T11:26:00.003-05:00

i'm still schlepping my wares to the san marcos farmer's market every saturday morning. the crowds come in waves....some recognize the value and beauty of hand-made items, others sometimes scoff at the prices. on the whole, it's a lucrative and rewarding experience. i enjoy meeting my customers face-to-face and seeing their faces light up when they discover a piece of jewelry or a dress that feels like it was made for them.

this saturday, you will find me not at the farmer's market, but at the Cowtown Indie Bazaar in Fort Worth. come say hi and try on same fancy frocks and frippery! xoxo!

tiny things.

2010-08-17T10:44:00.005-05:00

yesterday we paid a visit to ye old Aquarena Springs (now known as Aquarena Center). i'm a bit sorry to say that it had been years since i'd last been. things have changed. the old submarine theatre where guests could watch mermaids and ralph the swimming pig perform is long-since closed.

the shell of the submersible theatre, whose heyday reigned from 1951 to 1996, now sits defunct:

it is refreshing to know that its current purpose is served as a platform for scuba divers that maintain and study the delicate ecosystem contained within spring lake, a body of water fed solely from the edwards aquifer. if you take a glass-bottom boat tour you will be privy to the bubbling little spouts of water that undulate sections of the lake's floor like a boiling pot of water. it's a lovely sight indeed! the water is closely monitored and has been analyzed and proven to be 5 times cleaner than the water that pours out of our san marcos taps. additionally, if you were to empty all the water from spring lake (which, by the way, is quite large) it would only take a mere 6-8 hours for the springs to completely fill it again. amazingks! you can find lots more information about the history of aquarena springs here and here.

there is also a self-guided wetlands walk that you can explore...

and if it's hot when you visit (like the 101 degree temperatures that we're experiencing currently) you can cool off in the mini-aquarium while viewing some of the inhabitants of the springs.

it happens to be quite entertaining for leetle ones, like JJ here:

in other news, i recently received a parcel of vintage (circa 1960) german and czechoslovakian faceted glass jewels, which i have since set into new brass prong settings and am slowly getting each and every one perched on long antiqued brass earwires and necklaces.

from the bit of information i was given regarding the stones, they'd been collecting dust in a warehouse for over 40 years. hard to believe considering how lovely and sparkly they are!

in preparation for the upcoming holidays (only 4-ish months away, y'all!) i'm debuting two new dainty necklaces...perfect for layering with each other, larger necklaces, or just for wearing alone as an everyday piece of jewelry.

The Messenger, a 24k gold vermeil honeybee on a delicate 14k gold-filled cable chain:

i used to be very afraid of bees! but somewhere along the lines i began to educate myself on them....how important they are to our fragile food supply and really how simply lovely they are to just watch them go about their business. they really are only interested in gathering pollen and nectar from the fleurs...the have no interest in stinging you as long as you let them be. this necklace celebrates the royal symbolism of the honeybee and their role as messengers of secrets and wisdom.

the other tiny necklace is The Secret, a solid sterling silver wee skeleton key on a sterling double-link chain, both oxidized and polished by hand for a time-worn, rustic feel:

both (and more!) are available in Le Shop!

junkin'

2010-08-12T15:27:00.008-05:00

this is an image-heavy post. may i suggest walking away from your computer for about the time it takes to down a bottle of whiskey while it loads. thanks.

this past saturday i went junking. 3 estate sales, 4 antique stores, and 1 flea market later i present you with:

new old nightstands. for muh bedroom. the one on the left came with original glass pulls and genuine chippiness. the one on the right? i had to put some work into. i'd show you the 'before' but i couldn't take a picture of it as it was a terrible 1970s shade of orange which happens to be a very unsettling color to me. seriously. i'm on medication for this very reason. anyway, behold the derilict goodness:

5 million pieces of vintage rhinestone costume jewelry. bestill my heart!

vintage velvet millinery leaves for headband making:

an old solid brass lady-hand, sans pinky:

she makes for a very good earring/business card holder!

a roll of vintage 'horsehair' trim (for sewing into skirts and such for shape):

a pile of the most delicious, decrepit textiles in shades of PINK:

pink-hance:

vintage slips:

another mary for my collection:

an antique bell jar (with broken doll head already encased for creep factor):

a 1930s oak library shelf set (which currently happens to be the perfect place for kitten lounging:

a 1904 book on obstetrics for nursing. so now i can deliver your baby edwardian-style:

no, seriously. i've already read it cover to cover. i know everything there was to know about birthing babies at the turn of the last century.

nurses don't wear hats like this anymore. pity!

an old tiny pair of scissors. i'm pretty sure we all know what will become of these.

antique curvy beveled edge mirror:

some almost dead cacti in some pretty kitschy shell planters:

i picked up a few other things but i've been to lazy to photograph them. also, i feel like i've been hemmorrhaging money. but i'm finally stocked up on supplies for holiday jewelry/frippery making. so that's that.

on a slightly more naturlist note, the deer are about to go into rut. check out their velvety antlers {click!}!

lastly, but not leastly...i've reincarnated the rosey noir earrings in a slightly more petite and pastel version and i couldn't be more pleased!

eine kleine pink.

2010-07-30T11:29:00.004-05:00

i have been working quite a bit of late....one of my favorite-est projects has been making custom feathered frippery for a wedding....ooooh la la pastels and plumes and tattery millinery fleurs. heaven!

i was wandering around the front yard the other day and thought i might share a few photos of some bits of pink. my most favorite chair of all time:

a metal rooster:

lantana:

another metal rooster (my haus is well guarded!):

and the entire haus, of course! but what delights me most about this photo is that you can see how my coral vine has grown up onto the roof and is stretching towards the gable:

that is all for now....so many things to do! i will be peddling the wares at the Cowtown Indie Bazaar in a little more than a month so i better get busy! xo

mattress up-cycle.

2010-07-09T14:34:00.005-05:00

i was just stung by a wasp about an hour ago. anaphylaxis has yet to set in and i've plied myself with some caffeine (the poor man's epinephrine, right?) so i figured now would be a really great time to get out in some 96 degree full sun humidity and play with a box cutter. you see, i'm cleaning out my werkshop and i discovered a bed that had been forgotten about 3 years ago. it was covered in fabric and various textiles of questionable origins that i have now been in the process of sorting, washing, and folding for the last two days. anyway, the mattress needed to go. and so after some thought i decided i should rip it apart and use the guts as a trellis of sorts:

this is the kind of thing that has two schools of opinions. there are those that live south of the river; to us this is considered yard art...a functional piece of refuse to be admired and utilized no matter how rusty or tetanus-laden it may become over time. then there's the folks that live north of the river. they see this as trash. blight. something to call the neighborhood association about. we don't take kindly to that school of thought 'round these parts.

anyway, you'll need two things for this project.

an old shitty mattress:

mine came from a hole-in-the-wall mattress store in savannah, georgia. i paid $25 for it 8 years ago. it has seen the best of times. it has seen the blurst of times. and some pretty wicked hangovers, as well.

next, you'll need a box cutter. preferably rusted just enough that you can't control the length of the blade. perhaps a screw is a little loose and the blade is just unpredictable enough that it may or may not slip whilst cutting, possibly slicing the shit out of your finger(s). you can usually locate this instrument in the back of a junk drawer...where you won't be able to see it until it has already sliced the shit out of your finger(s) for the first time.

next, you'll want to insert your unpredictable box cutter into the mattress and attempt to cut through the cover, inner layer, and foam all at once. no need to be careful and take your time here, we're all about efficiency. remember always cut TOWARDS yourself. safety third!

make sure while you're hacking a mattress to pieces (as if you're trying to destroy some less than respectable evidence) that you stand within full view of the street so that all your neighbors and passing cars can stare on in concerned wonderment.

another thing that really adds to the je ne sais quoi of the process is to set your camera on top of a garbage can and photograph yourself with the timer set to every 10 seconds. really, the neighbors won't find you any weirder for doing so.

once you've successfully hacked and ripped, tear the cover and foam lining away from the inner coils. it's good to grunt a little and make a lot of frantic, straining motions with your arms while completing this task.

finally, set your mattress coil trellis upright somewhere where you and your neighbors can really admire it. i suggest perhaps the portion of your fence that faces the street. this way, everyone can really gain a sense of your know-how and thriftiness.

et voila!

scissors for life and beyond.

2010-07-08T11:33:00.003-05:00

last thursday i went and got some scissors tattooed on my left arm. i've wanted this image for so long and finally had enough cash saved up from shows and markets--i usually just put my cash towards mundane things like groceries and gas and things for the haus, but i'd been setting aside a little pile of money as a reward to myself for being diligent about schlepping my stuff and doing shows. you see, when it comes to shows i get very excited about the application process and planning how i'll set up my booth. but when it comes down to the night before....i start to get a tummy ache, my head hurts, i'm a little dizzy...and i don't want to go. i try to talk myself out of doing it (oh, it might rain, what if i wake up sick, i feel a migraine coming on, people probably won't be shopping...). however, i've been very good and werked very hard, even going to the san marcos farmer's market when there was no upfront fee and i could have simply not shown up without any problem. let me tell you, shows are not easy. i have alot of equipment that i bring along and many times it's just me setting up (though, i've been very fortunate the last few times to have a few wonderful helpers)...but it only adds to the perpetual back pain that i have from a roller skating injury 7 years previous not to mention that it's texas and it's hot and humid and i get sweaty and wilty looking and my anxiety makes it hard for me to be happy and outgoing. but somehow i've managed and i continue to find ways to make the process run more smoothly. and thus, my reward:

i guess you can't tell a whole lot from the picture...but it's exactly what i wanted. i adapted the drawing from a 1916 sewing implement catalog illustration and alex at No Surrender perfected it. it's healing up right nice so i'll have to get a better photo of it soonly.

nextly, photos of firewerks:

i don't want to call my self patriotic. i subscribe mostly to the school of anarchy. not so much that i believe in a 'lawless society' as much as i don't believe the government should be quite so involved in people's personal choices. it's much more in depth than that, but that's another discussion for another time. disdain for the government aside, i used the city of san marcos fourth of july firewerks display as a photographic opportunity to capture 2 and a half second intervals of continuations of light that our eyes/brains cannot perceive as single moments.

sea creatures. fleeting meteors.

electric oscillations of light and fire.

displays of seemingly geometric perfection, exploding rays of the golden ratio...

aesthetic mathematical perfection from mere grains of flammable dust.

lots of people photograph firewerks, i think, with the intention of capturing simple majestic beauty. i however, intend, at some point, to enlarge these pictures to gargantuan proportions and submit them to a gallery. i believe the distortion would only enhance the other-wordly feel.

on other news, i've listed a few new junk jewelry necklaces in le shop. they've been traveling with me for awhile now and i've only recently had time to photograph and curate them.

vega; circa 1920s 12k goldfill locket with photograph on hand-linked burgundy freshwater pearl chain.

remembering etta; civil war era tintype photograph on mixed vintage chains with 10k goldfilled elgin watchface and brass locket.

this next batch of goodies will first be available this saturday and the San Marcos Farmer's Market:

so please come and peruse the wares and support other local artists + farmers this saturday from 9am to 1pm on the south side of the courthouse. xoxo!

frippery + antiquated relatives.

2010-07-01T22:29:00.005-05:00

firstly, i've been helping my mom move. the other night we were going through boxes of things and at the very bottom was this 8x10 photo of what i'm thinking might be some sort of may-day celebration play. it's dated 1913 and somewhere in it is my granny's cousin and maybe her cousin's sister. i'm not entirely sure who's who...i'm going to have to do some mathematics based on the year and my granny's cousin's age. they're all deceased now, so only deductive sleuthing will answer questions.

anyway, i think it's only THE GREATEST PHOTOGRAPH EVARRRR. i'm going to find a print shop that will blow it up to about 4 x 6 feet, have it mounted, and hang it somewhere in my haus. by the way, i took the above picture of the photo with my {precious} iPhone, thus the blurriness. also, i'm totally aware that enlarging it to such massive proportions as i intend will make it grainy and possibly a bit distorted...but i'm okay with it. this photo is my new inspiration for EVERYTHING i do.

speaking of helping mom move, here's the kiddo enjoying his new old bathtub. the haus my mom has moved into is one that lee and i restored (the longest 2 years of my life) several years back. so, naturally, the bathrooms are OLD SKOOL. that's right, i spelled it with a K. we gutted this haus to the studs and rebuilt it RIGHT. antique stainglass windows, wood floors, clawfoot bathtubs, beadboard and pressed tin ceilings....so i'm glad it's now in the hands of my mom who will totally appreciate all of the fanciness.

sometimes the sky explodes behind my workshop:

it happens to be my awesome-ness. and sometimes my awesome is dangerous™. (thanks, matt!)

this past saturday i set up shop at the new san marcos farmer's market. i wasn't sure how well it would go so the setup was what i like to refer to as katinka-lite.

it's really a fantastik and friendly market...a very austin-ish vibe with live musik to boot. it's small, but growing...and it happens EVERY saturday behind the courthouse so please make time to come out and support it when you can.

i sold a suprising amount of jewelry...including the 'entertaining in the parlor' necklace!

and now, some frippery:

queerbomb + updatingks.

2010-06-14T23:47:00.004-05:00

shuh! queerbomb was awesome! celena joined forces with me and we paraded through the streets of downtown austin with all the other freaks, geeks, and weirdos. and it was perfect.

i dressed in my tattery bridal finest and waved and hooted and hollered......and got really sweaty.

we had police escorts to stop traffic at all the intersections....and i must say it felt like a grand thing to see the frontage roads of I-35 come to a standstill as we all made quite a scene.

minor mishap marching band led the way....and if you've never walked along side a marching band, then i highly suggest you try it sometime!

afterwards there was much dancing to be had! the entire event was very positive....we didn't encounter any negative opposition and it felt like, although i risk sounding cliche, a big happy family. my new favorite phrase is, "you don't have to be gay to be queer." we're all different and that is what unites us.

mwah!

if you aren't familiar with the wonderment of MMMB, i offer you this quick glimpse from the parade:

on a slightly different note, my mom is moving into the haus next door to us which is strange and nice all at once. i have a feeling i will take advantage of the fact that she cooks and has, thus far, always been willing to share her meals. i don't have much of a kitchen so i don't do alot of food prep. also, making food has always made me a little lightheaded, a little dizzy. making sammiches and salads is okay....i can make a mean muffaletta, bien sur. but put me in front of a stove with boiling pots and baking casseroles and i'll likely need a fainting couch. i'm not saying i CAN'T cook...i just don't care for the way it makes me feel. i'll have you know that i've made many a successful holiday meal in a 1920s combo gas/wood-burning stove with no temperature regulator. i just start up a flame, stick the food in, pull up a chair and read while i peek in every so often to see when everything's done. never fails. i've been told this is a feat not everyone can accomplish.

lastly, have you familiarized yourself yet with AirBnB? it is amazingks! i am even more excited about traveling in the upcoming months for shows now that i have found some incredible people/places to stay with/at. and hey, if you happen to have a spare bedroom lying around, you might just consider putting it up for nightly adoption and make a few bucks. ♥

end of an era / new world order

2010-06-03T12:12:00.002-05:00

so my new shop is up and running, though i'm still working out some kinks and continuing to add more merch...

everything is shifting and changing and it's wonderful. this weekend is going to be endlessly busy and crazy. so much to do TODAY! if you're in austin (or anywhere nearby) you need to meet me at QUEERBOMB friday night. DO IT!

moving.

2010-06-02T10:32:00.005-05:00

we moved our camper out to the farm.

at first i was reluctant to tell anyone or show pictures.....i mean, it's out there all by itself. obviously i carry a little fear that it will be defaced or pilfered by neerdowells. but then i thought, and chuckled to myself, what the hell, it's not like anyone's going to be able to find it 45 miles out in the middle of nowhere amidst the cornfields and cows. so HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

last saturday i set up at the 78704 artisan market.

which was alot slower than i had expected. AND HOT. oh lord it was hot. the kind of hot that makes you a little queasy. the mr. brought me a fan (because thank goodness they had electricity out there) and after that i was alot better off. it got a little overcast and was pleasant enough for the rest of the day. however, i'm more excited for indoor shows....which leads me to my next subject: THE GIRLIE SHOW. thanks to the wonderful and amazingks Heather of Audrey Eclectic (in my mind, i always say 'audrey eLECTric' and picture this glowing, neon-enshrouded folk art girl...don't know why, that's just what my mind does to things)...anyway, heather pointed me northward to OKC for this fantabulous sounding show and i'm thrilled to be mailing off my application for it today!

as i said in my last post, i think, i'm becoming more interested in simply taking my wares to the masses. i'm tired of sitting in my office writing descriptions, taking measurements, and all the other schlock that comes along with interweb commerce. also, the feedback on etsy seems like it's getting a bit abusive. if you aren't happy with your purchase, simply mail it back to me and i will refund you. don't wait 3 months to leave some convoluted and inaccurate 'neutrality' that will mis-lead other potential customers into believing i'm a hack, selling bubblegum machine junk disguised as costume jewelry. or something. i'm just going to let this roll off my back now, okay? thanks for hearing me out.

in more fantastikal news, i'm listing more apron slip dresses:

and upcycled ReVamped skirts:

ombre dip-dyed beribboned beauty:

and wee, tiny curious key necklaces:

merchandise aside, my mom's moving in to the house next door. my life has changed so much in the last year....and sometimes it's hard for me to take it all in. the other night i layed awake until after 4am...just thinking. my mind goes and goes and goes. really, my only respite, besides making the fripperies, are my walks to the post office. i turn on pandora on my iPhone, squish in my earbuds, and set off on a 2 mile thought journey. and now it's summer and i sweat profusely in the heat...but i try to take it in stride. i just accept that i'm sweating and a little gritty and i try to imagine that my frustrations and angers and confusions with the world that weighs on me is leaving me along with all the perspiration. i listen to musik so loud, i'm sure other people walking past me can hear it. i take one earbud out when i walk into the cool hallway of the post office, in case anyone says something to me. i try to drop my packages in the mail box as slowly as possible so i can savor the air conditioning as long as allowable. then back into the blazing sun to try to sweat out more of my mental instability. a stop at the coffee shop brings another small respite and the fact that sitting down at a table with strangers is taken and offered with great welcoming makes me feel a little less outsider, a little more normal.

M.I.A.

2010-05-24T16:39:00.005-05:00

jeez, i was gone awhile, huh. well, everything turned out smashingly.

renegade was awesome-tastic.

like, way more awesome than i had imagined....and a bazillion thanks to noelle + co. for all the help. alot of people suggested i apply for the SF and chicago RCF and so i've been weighing my options for becoming a traveling saleslady. SF is looking likely as it would be about 2 weeks after wheatsville art festival and obviously it's one of my favoritestestest cities in the world. the world! i'm feeling more nomadic than ever....which is frustrating because i'm pretty much tied down to my life here in texas. but i'm thinking of ways to swing this SF thing. i figure if i get a roof rack for my tiny car i can transport everything i need for about $250 roundtrip (gas money). tack on another $50 for food + the $325 for the RCF booth and i figure i can still earn a hefty profit. lodging shouldn't be too bad since i've discovered AirBnB, basically a craigslist type website for locals offering up a room or a whole apartment for night to night rentals on the cheap. the advantage of this over craigslist is that there are reviews from past renters so it definitely takes the creep-factor down a few notches.

i figure i'd make the drive in 2 days, stopping overnight in phoenix....i think two of my cousins live out there and surely it wouldn't be too much of an imposition for me to sleep on their couch for a few hours. i used to be so afraid of staying with people. something's changed in the last few years...maybe due to being medicated, but i no longer fear couch-surfing. if it weren't for my husband and pets i'd probably be homeless by choice. that's weird, i know. but comforting to my restless brain in a strange way.

anyway, speaking of traveling salesladies, i'm takin' my show to the streets....south congress to be precise. i'll be set up almost every saturday at the 78704 Artisan Market in Austin from noon 'til dusk so you can shop to your heart's content!

p.s. i promise i'm going to make a better effort to keep shit updated here on the blah-og from now on. xoxoxo

eeyore's.

2010-04-26T11:04:00.003-05:00

jj attended his first eeyore's birthday this year. but first, photographic evidence of his apparent love for other people's shoes:

that's right, those are my grubby chucks. he also enjoys shuffling around in my flip flops, too.

anyway, here's the eeyore's pictures....proof that fun was had by all, i think.

we opted for a 100 year old edwardian mourning parasol in place of excess sunscreen:

this picture's hilarious to me because, although jj was yawning, it looks more like he was shocked and appalled by something he saw:

in anticipation of eeyore's, and also junking jaunts with the J in tow, i purchased a lavender linen ring sling to carry him in. he was surprisingly okay with it, in fact, i think he liked it more than just merely being carried, so i suppose it was worth the money. now my arm doesn't feel like it might break when i hold him for more than 3 minutes. if you're interested, the sling came from lil peeper keepers on etsy. i paid for upgraded/expedited shipping and to my amazement the package arrived within 2 days of placing my order. awesome!

also, jj was way more tolerant of the drum circle than i expected. he hasn't proven to be comfortable with loud noises in previous experiences, but he didn't cry once and even started to pat his chest to the beat at one point. we brought a toy tambourine for him but he wasn't keen on jingling it until after we left the drum circle. of course.

all in all, it was a lovely and perfect day for eeyore's and i'm glad we've started on a fun fambly tradition.

RCF ATX!

2010-04-23T12:51:00.000-05:00

kilocycles.

2010-04-14T10:11:00.005-05:00

in a feeble attempt to begin emptying the parlor to make way for a bedroom, i moved my granny's old stereo cabinet out and into the dining room. sadly, the guts of the old radio and turntable were long ago removed (not by me, of course!), so atop it i placed a new old-ish looking stereo. it's not the greatest stereo in the world but it plays records, cds, tapes, radio (duh), and even has a place to plug in your auxiliary noise makers (i.e. iPhones w/ pandora app.) and it suits the aesthetic of the haus and aesthetics are really what counts, right? so for those reasons, it's really a great stereo, at least for me. some people like loud, booming, crisp, clear sounds. me? i simply prefer the ability to play old scratchy records while i do housewerk.

obviously, the cabinet has seen better days. i used to not be so good at taking care of things. mostly because i was young and drunk and obsessed with moving across the country and into condemned 100 year old hauses. anyway, even though the guts are gone the face of the old radio remains:

and it is awesome.

kilocycles? megacycles? sounds industrial and steampunk and ratchety and like a culmination of all the strange and curious things i adore. shortwave radio, bitches!

it has occurred to me that i have been lax at recording my adventures over the last few months. i've been to wimberley twice and took a road trip to warrenton with the lovely and always enchanting Angeliska. we had a really fun afternoon junkin and chattin and eating yummy sammiches from an old airstream trailer. i saw a baby possum, too! it was wee and just ambled across my path in broad daylight like nothing doing. maybe it was a sign, a spirit animal perhaps? anyway, my mind was sort of reeling for the next couple days because of the ease in which angel and i clicked. i knew her through the interwebs for years and years...all the way back to my savannah days! and one day lee saw me reading her musings on the computer and proclaimed that he had known her in person several years before we were married. we finally met face to face a few years ago in Uncommon Objects, that holiest of holy junkin jaunts and now it feels to me like we've known each other forever and ever.

i need to photograph my junk findings...this most recent wimberley jaunt i came home with two old bumbershoots....a 1930s red and pink number and (gasp!) an edwardian mourning umbersol, both purchased for about $5 each. score! also, tiny tin-type photographs for jewelry makin, rhinestone festoonery, bits and bobs and scraps of old lace, and other things i can't recall at the moment.

la la la. i just added a few more skellyton keys to le shop along with a couple more long walk home necklaces, too.

that is all for today. i am waaaaay behind on my renegade preparation schedule. i need some serious motivation. and perhaps some turkish coffee, as well. be well!

xo
k

spring mess.

2010-04-12T10:46:00.007-05:00

man, my werkshop is messy. anyone want to come clean + organize it (for trade, of course)?

i whipped up this smoking jacket recently with an old anti-maccassar and a cutout from a vintage card table table cloth. (the lace hanging down is actually from something underneath it, not part of the jacket).

i started on this top, but the filet crochet runner proved to be too fragile....i've since removed it and am going to back it with some sheer organza or fine netting and then re-apply it.

old dresses hanging from the ceiling:

mess, mess, and more mess:

in a feeble effort to 'organize' i've started hanging my lace and ribbons on hangers:

i think it also helps me to be able to see it, all of it, right there in front of my face when i'm working on a new project. you know, instead of trying to imagine what something might look like, it's all just right there for playing with.

we had a little drizzley rain the other morning and the husband and i spotted these spidey webs ripe for pickture takin':

our garden is currently overgrown with kale, mesclun mixes, lettuce and arugula. time for tomaters already, no?

lady bank's rose is a good alternative to a hedge if you need something lovely to grow over and around a fence.

it makes these lovely, although scentless, wee yellow rosey fleurs:

more bolting lettuce and broccoli (and red clover):

rain drops on iris petals:

and finally, an update on the current status of the quince. by the way, i was informed by mr. katinka that these are pineapple quince and can be eaten raw just as well as cooked in a pie or squashed into jam.

other than that, i'm just keeping my nose to the grindstone. i've been working a bit here and there for the neighbors, alongside my mom, going thru their late mother's estate, though i work for trade only....because they have awesome old shit that i've been setting aside to make into lovely things for YOU, mon amies.

i feel like i have a bit of a cold...or just really terrible allergies. my throat is scratchy and i have to take nyquil at night just to be able to breathe and sleep.

jj got to take his first dip in the river yesterday with his uncle leaf, who, by the way, took care of him all by himself for the first time for an entire day. hopefully, this is the start to a very good week!

in case yer new here.

2010-04-02T11:46:00.003-05:00

i'm a klutz. i fall down ALOT.

i will cut a bitch:

and pink birthday cake and big knives make me happier than just about anything. except kittehs. i like kittehs alot, too.

quince updates and the cataloging of iris.

2010-04-02T11:12:00.003-05:00

so spring has officially sprung 'round these parts and the iris are bursting forth in colors i've never even imagined. i've decided to document and catalog the different varieties that have been making themselves known in our gardens and tag them (literally) so that when it comes time to divide and share, i'll know what i'm giving away.

i usually fancy myself a good name-giver, but since i'm tagging the physical plants to correlate with photos stored in my leetle pink computer i decided to go with super-basic color descriptions. like yellow-burgundy here:

gah. the color of this violet-copper slays me:

this violet isn't the usual purple...it's a definite grapey hue and the one pictured here appears to be some sort of mutation. i don't think it's specific to the variety, just a single freak flower on the plant.

purple dutch:

extra ruffly peach (with strange foufy things extending out of the 'beards'):

super pale lavender:

this is the exception to my generic color names as we've always called this one 'old indian chief':

okay, maybe another exception here, but there really isn't a better description for that color:

more yard junk:

magical shooting star columbine fleurs:

onions going to seed:

my yard is FINALLY beginning to look the way i want. big mounds of crazy plants that just grow and grow and grow. i want an english cottage garden more than anything!

crazy blossom-full pear tree:

lavandula:

and finally, an update on the quince tree:

that is all, mon amies! easter is this sunday and dresses, cakes, treats, and ideas must be worked on, post-haste!

mutants and shadows.

2010-03-26T11:35:00.003-05:00

i accidentally took this photo coming down the stairs this morning. it was one of those things where you press the shutter button and don't even realize the camera is on...but it seemed like such an accurate representation of this particular corner of the house so i thought i'd share.

also, it would only be natural that my garden would produce a mutant carrot.

leetle behbeh conjoined twin (or triplet, whatever) carrots.

the quince tree is in full bloom. i don't even know what a quince fruit looks or tastes like. i've heard they're good in pies. so i'll keep you posted.

pear blossoms, too. i think we only got a handful of pears off this tree last year and if i recall correctly, they were pretty yummy.

there is finally grass, real grass! growing in the backyard. it's been a dirt/dust/mud pit for as long as i can remember. thanks to the new old plow and some shade-tolerant grass and wildflower seeds, we're changing all that.

and now that the last frost has passed, we were able to un-plastic the pond and put our rusty mermaid back in her rightful place guarding over the water lilies and gold fish.

i realize i'm not keeping up with my blah-og the way i used to. things have been changing around here...getting ready for jj and all...so i've neglected my updates. i've been sort of depressed in a way that's not really describable. mostly, i guess, because my brother seems to have really cut his ties with me and i don't have any other siblings. i guess it's selfish but i get upset alot, too, that i don't have a sister. and i've pretty much let go of the idea that either of my brother-in-laws will ever marry and obviously my brother doesn't seem to be able to pick nice girls (even if he were on speaking terms with me). why is a sister important? i have no idea. it was just something i always wanted and never had. maybe it's just me being selfish. don't get me wrong, i'm not sitting around weeping all the time, i just have this vague, lingering ennui in the back of my head. i need to spring clean the house but once i start, it always feels overwhelming. the dogs track in dirt, the cats shed, dust collects on everything. it makes me crazy! anyway.....

thank you, thank you for all the lovely and really heart-felt comments on the last post! it means alot to me that i've met such really wonderful folks through the blue haze of the interwebs and that y'all care enough to take a bit of time and share your thoughts. ♥♥♥

when jewelry finds a storybook home.

2010-03-17T10:40:00.005-05:00

as much as i hated to say au revoir to this necklace, i was more than delighted to send it on its merry way to the fantastical and charming miss heather of Audrey Eclectic. miss heather paints the most magical storybook-esque pictures...they remind me alot of how i picture things in my own leetle head. so i know, bien sur, that this special piece will live an amazing life!

i came across a few more tiny vintage pocket knives, with which to make the long walk home necklaces with. i was even commissioned yesterday to make a special one for my lovely friend dani! she paid a visit and had lots of fun digging through all my little bits and bobs and charms and stones, to find just the right combination of knife, gem, and key. by the way, miss dani is a massage therapist at Sink Creek Day Spa right here in san marcos...so if you are in need of some serious R+R, she is the person to see!

i could be posting pictures of all the fleurs that have just begun blooming around the homestead but instead we're focusing on the jewelry today. maybe because i'm honestly a little too lazy this morning to head back downstairs with the camera for documentation. you see, i moved my office upstairs, to a little converted attic gable room over our kitchen...in part as an effort to get the computer farther away so i'm less tempted to spend so many hours pouring over antique lockets and cameos on ebay all day and also in preparation for the impending arrival of my nephew jj. you see, my mum was granted permanent guardianship by the georgia court system (don't even bother asking why this shit went thru georgia, it's way more complicated and lame than i care to explain) and so now she is planning on moving across the street from us here in san marcos. and the room that once housed my 'parlor' and a makeshift office will now be a bedroom for a growing leetle boy. honestly, we haven't decided who will make the official adoption through the texas court system, my mum or the katinka household...it's a delicate and complicated task and as much as i love and cherish that tiny blonde boy...i feel very afraid. i am in love with my career...i sew and jewel with reckless abandon and take off for wild junking jaunts in far away towns at the drop of a hat. this child will no doubt grow up as a gypsy if i have anything to do with it! i want the very, very best for jj...but i never intended to be a parent so everyday with him is a learning process. i've found that i'm more patient than i ever thought i could be with another human...just sitting and reading to him, quietly telling him no when he does something naughty and then explaining why it's naughty...fixing juice after juice, offering graham cracker after graham cracker...taking the time to walk through the house and point out every star shaped object {and saying "star!"} at each one. we feed the bunny, watch the chickens, walk to the post office, and sit at the table and draw. but there is a tiny part of me that feels selfish and wants to run to my workshop, crank up the stereo, and sew until my fingers bleed. i do, however, have the wherewithal to postpone such fits of creativity until after he is asleep or back with his nana. in the end, everything will come together and be as it should, bien sur.

my most recent junking jaunt took me to wimberley where i scored these awesome antique rusty scissors:

naturally, they became part of a necklace. i knew as soon as i saw them what i wanted to do with them. i love when that happens. junque finds me.

on that note, i leave you with one of my favoritest pieces {ever, i think!}...cora takes a seaside holiday:

an edwardian-era locket with beautiful etching and the most amazing little carved shell cameo...she has the most satisfied look on her face that i've ever seen on any cameo!

say something charming.

2010-03-10T22:12:00.004-06:00

a quote i'd like to share {because i don't have much else to say right now} found via JunkerVal who discovered it, handwritten in beautiful script, in the back of a circa 1920/1930 book:

"To live with small means,
to seek elegance rather than luxury,and refinement rather than fashion,
to be worthy, not respectable and wealthy,not rich;
to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly;
to listen to stars and birds, to sages and babes with open heart,
to bear all cheerfully,
do all bravely,
await occasions, hurry never;
in a word
let the spiritual, unbidden, and unconscious,grow up through the common;
this is to be my symphony."

{the night we never came home, necklace}

possibly for sale...soonly.

it's muh birfdee.

2010-02-24T11:16:00.003-06:00

okay, well muh birfdee isn't technically today...but it is on sunday and i nearly forgot all month long about it. everything has been so busy and crazy since the start of the year that i probably could've gone into march and not have even given a thought to the fact that i'm turning 31. yikes! a 'reminder' came to me in the mail the other day, thanks be to micah, my brother-in-law who gifted me this fantabulously beauteous edwardian carved-bone and silk fan:

it's glorious! i also covet this antique diamond ring from laurenrosedesign via etsy:

photo via laurenrosedesign

however, seeing as that ring is merely a pipe dream of mine, i would be equally overjoyed by a pile of vintage lace. it's true!

it snowed yesterday:

i don't know if i have birthday plans yet. i'd been wanting to go out to the farm for a mid-day campfire and maybe some hotdogs and s'mores...but the weather's been weird, i have a little show coming up at Garbo on the 11th, and we're 1 week away from the court date for my nephew jj's custody hearing (which has been weighing heavily on us all for quite some time now). i don't like discussing the situation publicly right now, so i'll just leave it at that. in an ideal world, my mum will move to san marcos, live across the street, and jj will become a permanent part of our lives. and, of course, we'll shower him with attention, gifts, art, and the best private education {with what little money i have} can buy.

on a lighter note, the sun is shining today and all is peaceful on the homefront. seems like a good day for sewing.

winter. spring. winter. again.

2010-02-22T20:07:00.006-06:00

well, i thought it was finally spring. the daffodils started blooming:

and by daffodilS (plural), i mean all THREE of them. ha!

this one with white petals and a pale yellow center has a fragrance! it's sort of sweet like a stargazer lily, but not cloying.

i used to not care a thing about daffodils. until i learned that they will naturalize in your yard...spreading a bit more every year. in fact, if your climate is right, they will eventually form a carpet (aka a drift) that will bloom all spring and then you can finally mow it all down once it's died back.

and if you really get into it, there are a bazillion different varieties...many with a fragrance!

now that i've overwhelmed you with my 3 yellow daffodils, i'll show you my leetle blueberry fleurs:

wee little bells that, come early summer, will have plump little berries in their place.

in not so flourishing news, here's my 'rose garden':

pretty pathetic, huh? but my mister just gifted me two new rose for valentine's day! sweetness, a lavender variety, and black magic, a velvety dark red rose---the same rose that i carried in my wedding bouquet!

oh, all this springy flower blooming business? well, snow has been forecasted in central texas tomorrow. schmeh! what gives?!

for ♥QueenPlinker♥

some pics of the chicken house (in all it's tattered-plastic prepared for winter finery, errr....yeah):

we just recently built the little fence around their house. they had pretty much destroyed everything in the yard, plant-wise and also would build nests in strange, hard-to-reach places where they would end up broody and thusly missing for a month...so now they have a happy little hay-filled playland and they seem surprisingly content within its confines.

i have to say my favorite part of the chicken run is the old rusty gate:

i bought that gate at an antique shop in houston, like, a million years ago. it sat rusting, relegated to a stack of vintage metal gates, headboards, and fencing that lives in our backyard. until lee came home one night and dug holes for fence posts around the coup in the dark. i suggested he use the old rusty gate and he happily obliged. we're both quite proud of it.

the picture below makes me cackle with laughter.

i didn't realize until after i uploaded it to my computer that, nevermind helga in the foreground, but the girls behind her (ursula, stella, and ruby) all appear to be craning their necks to look around her to see what i was up to. (it's more effective if you click on the picture and view it big.)

additionally, by request, my finch and dove 'cathedral' that mr. katinka built from cypress plant stakes purchased for 10 cents a bundle at the garden center. it has a tin roof that cost about 20 times as much as the rest of the entire structure. and no, it's not finished being painted. it may never be. c'est la vie.

in mr. P news, he had his cast removed saturday morning and proceeded to chew his stitches out saturday night while we were sleeping. and not only did he chew his stitches out, he thought he'd take a little skin with them, too. sunday morning i pulled him out from under the sheets to find a gaping hole on his little foot where once he had been sutured up so neatly by dr. sebby. at any rate, we made a visit to the vet (again) where they decided it would be best to re-wrap his leetle foot with a granulation agent (this is a new term to me, but now forever ingrained in my mental animal-husbandry filing cabinet) to help the skin regrow (layman's terms). he's been on antibiotics since the initial surgery for the tumor removal so i'm not concerned with an infection and he seems to be minding the new wrap just fine. we'll go back friday morning to remove the wrap, inspect, and probably put another on. poor little P, the doctor says he'll most likely have an ugly scar now, but we aren't worried...we just want him to be happy and healthy. we love all our animals no matter what! currently mr. P is curled up in bed with mr. katinka, awaiting this so-called cold front that's supposed to blast through our neck of the woods sometime tonight. cozy!

with that, i leave you with........my happy girls:

pearls of wisdom.

2010-02-18T09:22:00.008-06:00

i'm loving pearls more than ever right now. i've been playing with some ideas and working with some pearls that have been sitting in my stash for almost 2 years now (shame! i know.) while thinking about new designs i pondered some of my old ones...

this was one of my first necklaces to sell on etsy, i think. i made this sometime back in late 2006 or early 2007...back in the days of the old brick-and-mortar shop on south first street in austin. i've always worked with pearls and the process of wirewrapping and linking them one by one has always been a favorite project of mine. the little lock charm came from a vintage charm bracelet that someone had given me (maybe it was aunt karen?). i'd been hanging all sorts of pretty things like gemstones and skeleton keys from these necklaces for several years but this little lock was a first and it sort of took me in a new direction with utilizing vintage trinkets as pendants.

anyway, i'm toying with pearls again...

i love the pearls above. natural pastel pearls...lavender, peach, pink, and cream. a delight! and mixed with an antique cameo or edwardian locket...can you imagine?!

i bought a pair of vintage cameo earrings to turn into pendants...

i found them via feathersoup and i couldn't be more pleased!

now i just have to decide which color pearls to match them to.

on a slightly more melancholy note, my dear Mr. P had to have surgery to remove a tumor from his tiny little foot yesterday. he came through with flying colors, though, and a little green cast to boot!

he'll make a full recovery, never you worry.

p.s. it's almost spring! the daffodils lining the front walk are mere seconds away from bursting into bloom:

junkie.

2010-02-17T14:37:00.007-06:00

it's true, i am. i collect junk with reckless abandon. but only good junk, of course! like my bathtub:

i literally dug it out of someone's backyard. i guess it had been removed from the house probably sometime around the 1960s based on what was currently in the 'remodeled' bathroom and slowly sank into the earth for 40+ years. once unearthed and given a scrub with some good old fashioned soap, water, and elbow grease...it looked like this:

i suppose some people would find this combination of rust, paint, and bare cast iron metal distasteful, but i embrace it. i'll never paint this tub!

i collect vintage virgin mary statuettes, mostly white ceramic ones, though there are a few with pale blue robes mixed in. it sort of started many years ago when, in my (now closed) brick-and-mortar shop i set up a 'white' display. anything and everything white or cream or ivory that i could find went onto this table...vintage coral specimens, old teacups, vases, milk glass, antlers bleached by the sun, and a few virgin mary statues. the marys never sold and so they came home to live with me. i'd always collected virgin mary and catholic imagery (trashy-catholic kitsch, we called it...no offense to the catholics out there) but there was something lovely about that table full of white that i couldn't ever forget. and so i started seeing mary everywhere...every flea market, every garage sale. and they all had to come home with me and live on top of my 90 year old piano:

that piano, by the way, has traveled across the country and back with me. one little victorian row house we moved into many years ago had such a narrow entry hallway that we had to up-end the poor piano and literally somersault it into the living room. a feat only made possible by a pile of pillows, some coffee, and me and the mister. we were alone in a strange new city, no friends, no movers...so we did the best we could do by ourselves. we flipped antique wardrobes over staircase railings and heaved clawfoot bathtubs in and out of trucks. loneliness does funny things to people.

i collect abandoned bird nests. this is exactly how i found it, hanging in my neighbors garage:

a few xmases ago, before granny petmecky died, she had this old seth thomas clock restored for me and mr. katinka. it's a calender clock, circa 1870 and i heart it alot.

i don't change burnt out light bulbs very often.

and i don't care if cobwebs grow on my house's original light fixtures:

this chandelier was a gift from my sweetie long, long ago. like the piano, it has traveled near and far with us:

this chandelier is new but i find the addition of cobwebs and globe light bulbs make it appear much older:

another gift from the mister, a junk yard find in savannah:

why i can never live somewhere with a home owner's association:

(not that i want to live somewhere with an HOA.)

in fact, if i were single, i would probably live here:

i thought about selling it for a while.....but then i decided that if 'the shit goes down' post-apocalyptic gypsy caravanning wouldn't be so bad in it. so in my backyard it remains.

i grow wormwood, too. it's where absinthe comes from. if you want to get all technical and shit, it's Artemisia absinthium. okay, this isn't really like a collectible or something, but in the spirit of showing off things from around the homestead, et voila.

my great, great grandmother's fan:

i found it in my granny's cedar chest after she died. clearly, she wanted us to know where it came from:

this is also my great, great grandmother's button hook:

used back when boots and spats were buttoned and corsets prevented a lady from bending at the waist to accomplish such a task.

i think this peacock purse came from my grampa's sister, Dodie. all the metal on it is actually tiny coils of silver. someday i'll take a much better and closer picture.

this is a cameo i received for xmas from me da and jan. i just recently discovered that it is a depiction of Rebecca At The Well, a common victorian symbol of love.

another find from my granny's estate:

inside is a picture of my grampa and me when i was wee:

another cameo; this one i bought for myself about a year ago. it's diana (or artemis, if you belong to the greek school of mythology), goddess of the hunt. i think the thing that drew me to this cameo (and convinced me to fork over the $$$ that it cost) was her crescent moon headband...i had never seen another cameo like this one (that, and it was engraved on the back with initials and the date 12-25-17). i added a bar-link chain that i found in my granny's jewelry box + another smaller chain because i was afraid it would somehow unlatch and i'd lose it. extra security, you know?

my mom brought me a pearl + cameo bracelet from one of her adventures. naturally, i took it apart and reVamped it, a la Katinka:

lastly, but not leastly, bien sur (!) is a bohemian garnet brooch/pendant that has traveled down through my mom's family and finally landed in my hands. actually, it's sort of on permanent loan from my mom, i guess, as she has the rest of the collection (a ring, earrings, maybe another brooch, i think) hidden away in her stash. i borrowed it and wore it on my wedding day and can't bring myself to give it back:

that is all for now, mon amies! i just found out i made it into the Austin Renegade Craft Fair (the first for ATX!) and i have another little show coming up at Garbo's 25th Birthday Party in march, so my hands are busy, busy! hope you all have a lovely week ♥

10 years going on 100.

2010-02-08T09:55:00.008-06:00

this weekend the mister and i celebrated our 10 year anniversary. on february 5th, 1999 we had our very first date. we and a group friends all had dinner at a korean restaurant...i was so nervous i could hardly eat! we sat and watched the koi in the fish pond behind the restaurant and on our way back i found brian found's (and terry jones's) book of pressed fairies tucked between the passenger seat and the center console. it was at that moment i knew this was the man for me.

on february 5th, 2000 we got hitched at mayfield cottage and gardens, the same place he proposed to me only 6th months previous. the rest is history, folks.

so for our special day this year, we headed out to blanco, texas where we perused the antique shops (which are really more of junque shops, and in-turn, our kinda places), had a little bbq (at the kinda place where you don't get a plate, just some butcher paper with some ribs and brisket slapped on it), and called it a day.

of course, the day would not have been considered a success had we not brought home some prime examples of chippy painted make-do furniture:

replete with original glass knobs:

i remember, many years ago (what, were we teenagers then?) standing outside Uncommon Objects on South Congress with Selah and Celena, me swooning over some old broke-down, rusting, chippy, derelict piece of furniture and selah saying something along the lines of, "what is it with you and falling-apart stuff?!" there's something about that sentiment that, to this day, always makes me smile.

i found an old rusty stool:

with excellent rust-to-paint chippiness ratio:

my sweetie bought himself a plow for the farm:

and yes, he does plan on actually using it. we are somewhat of a primitive people.

sunday brought about a day of baby-sitting while my mom worked for the neighbors, helping them sort through their deceased mother's estate. (we have become such a family of gypsies, it seems.) at the end of the day, my mom came over and told me they had a little pile of things for me to go through to see if there was anything i wanted...lo and behold, a box FULL of vintage seam binding:

not only was it vintage, but much of it had been used and then removed from clothing that had seen its prime. this is one of my favorite things to find...seam binding tucked away for later use by a depression-era granny. it's shabby, worn, faded in spots, wrinkled, washed a thousand times, and a few remaining threads cling to it's length. Selah can attest to the wonderousness of this finding as just friday night we were chatting back and forth via etsy convo and i was showing her color charts for some seam binding i wanted to order. i always find it fantastical when i can wish, wish, wish for something and poof! as if by magic it suddenly appears.

in other news, i will have a little valentine's day set-up over at the lovely Adelante this friday and saturday....lots of heart-shaped jewelry, pink things, red things...and cameos!

the soul of my valentine collection revolves around these sweet heart necklaces....which i adore so much i will probably keep them in rotation year-round. two of them (the bird and the pistol versions) i actually had in the shop a year or two ago but somehow faded into the haze for awhile. i'm so glad (and i hope you are, too!) that i brought them back!

The Bohemian:

The Sweetheart:

The BeeKeeper:

and last, but not least, The CowGirl:

a few more books.

2010-02-03T10:35:00.011-06:00

a few weeks ago, i showed you one of my favorite design books, The Relaxed Home by Atlanta Barlett. this week, i'll introduce you to some of my older faves...three books i've had since i was quite young.

the first is The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils: The Complete Guide to the Use of Oils in Aromatherapy & Herbalism
by Julia Lawless. you see, before i settled on a career sewing, crafting, and jewling, i wanted to be an herbalist. i even had plans to become certified by the American College of Healthcare Sciences (formerly the Australasian College of Herbal Studies, i believe...at least that's what it was when i was 13 and ready to play mad scientist with herbs and oils). anyway, at age 13 or 14 i was obsessed with naturopathy and and devoured any and every book on the subject that i could find. this was one of my favorites and still sits out on a table for occasional referencing:

i was endlessly enchanted by the photos of the little corked vials filled with resinous liquids and illustrations of the herbs and plants themselves. it was like a magic cookbook!

there are stories of the history of perfume making and an introduction to the methods of usage...

you can almost smell the herbs and oils the descriptions are so thoroughly complete!

the next is a book i probably aquired around the time i was 15 or so. i had started taking life drawing classes at Laguna Gloria in Austin and discovered that i really enjoyed drawing blind contour studies with conte crayon. if you've never tried conte you simply must! you get saturated lines with the ability to add fine details and excellent shading qualities when smudged over with a bit of gum eraser. sadly, most of my drawings have been lost to time, and by time, i mean 16 years of moving across country, living in semi-condemned houses, and moving back across the country does not careful art preservation make. c'est la vie, no? anyway, back during those classes my instructor commented on how my drawing style reminded him of Modigliani as well as the sketches of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. curious, i made my way to a bookstore and, again, began devouring all i could find about these artists with Lautrec quickly becoming a favorite:

my copy is a Barnes and Noble version, but i belive this Taschen version is pretty much the same:

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Taschen's 25th Anniversary Special Edition)

it has facinating pictures that illustrate the mystery and intrigue of all the dark corners of turn-of-the-century montmartre.

immediately, i was consumed with wanting to know more about this french bohemian lifestyle! the book has a wonderful glossary in the back that offers tidbits about some known and not so well known aquaintances and family of Lautrec.

Lastly, the all-important French Dictionary. i believe mine came from my great grandmother, blanche blanchette. what a name, right?! this one was published in 1965, but i think any old french - english dictionary will do.

i must have received mine when i was in fourth grade judging by my inscription inside the cover. and yes, my name used to be kate greene. now you know. also, math was not my strong point.

french dictionaries are handy when you need translations for things like clairvoyant, claw....

classroom and clavicle. in the back there is also a glossary of 'general' expressions, in case you need to say something whilst in france like, " pardon me, but where can i find some horsemeat?" yes. always handy to know.

that is all for today, mon amies! i'm a bit backlogged packing and shipping (just a bit!) as yesterday we had a slight emergency with a sick kitty that needed a trip to the vet. poor mouse had gotten into a fight with a stray on sunday, disappeared all night even with us calling for him until after 2 in the morning, only to return monday morning with a swollen leg and what turned out to be an abscess that we caught just in time. he's been given a round of antibiotic injections and seems to be feeling much better this morning, thank goodness!

featured!

2010-01-29T11:23:00.003-06:00

it's hard for me to even begin to tell you how honored (and excited!) i am to be one of etsy's featured sellers. it's something i've aspired to for so long now. i'm literally *shaking* i'm so excited. thank you so much to all my buyers, friends, and anyone and everyone that has ever supported my little dream. i couldn't have made it this far without you!

sew lame.

2010-01-26T16:14:00.003-06:00

today was a total waste. i spent two hours trying to sew through nylon that wanted nothing more than to chew up my thread and spit it in my face.

frustration.

then i walked to the post office to deliver mail and realized on the way back that i could only do one of two things: get a coffee or get my medication from the pharmacy. i had enough money for the meds but it would leave me with nothing for coffee. alternatively, i could get the coffee and forget the pills but my mental state already feels a little comprimised to begin with. so now i'm medicated but going through caffeine withdrawl.

that said, i'll leave you with Crystal Visions by The Big Pink. don't let the name fool you. crank this shit up:

no pictures today.

2010-01-25T10:54:00.003-06:00

so many things to do! something very exciting is happening at the end of this week...and then february will be here! february is the Best Month Evar. my anniversary, valentine's day, mah birfdee, oh! and mardi gras [this year], too! i am trying to patch together a birthdee party plan...i'm thinking maybe hotdogs and s'mores over a mid-day campfire at zee farm. of course, there is no electricity nor running water out there so anyone that attends will have to be agreeable to 'primitive' conditions. the fantastical Angeliska has been making me ponder the idea of putting together a teepee of sorts out there. we keep talking about moving the camper onto the land but i fear nare-do-wells will loot it. or something. it's too pretty to put out there for now. i think. anyway, mark your calenders with february 27th or 28th and load yer guns cuz we're gonna party like it's 1892.

in other news, my nephew came out to the homestead for the first time yesterday and we had him hand-feed bread to the chickens. he also hand-fed the bunny and the dogs and had a pretty good go of it. of course, i was too involved to think to utilize my camera and record the milestone, but whatevs. he'll be back. we'll do it again. i laughed so hard--we have 2 big dogs that kept trying to lick his face and they were practically knocking him over so we showed him how to point his finger at them and say NO! and he took to it with flying colors. i'll have to tape a little movie of him doing it next time he's here. no is one of his favorite words, by the way, so it really wasn't too much of a stretch to teach him this trick.

i want to paint my nails badly! alas, there is too much jewelry making on the schedule this week so it will have to wait. it will have to wait 'til the exciting news hits at the end of this week!

p.s.

2010-01-22T11:27:00.002-06:00

a side note i feel is important to mention: all of my [new] brass charms are made in america, many from vintage dies (the molds that the brass is stamped into). there are alot of charms i see over and over again (on etsy) that seem very popular but a search for those charms in the 'supplies' category turns up alot of sellers in china and i refuse to buy into that. i think it's important to support our own economy and i try to use that method of thinking for anything and everything i buy. i hope you will think about that, too!

heart of gold.

2010-01-22T11:05:00.003-06:00

i'm in a surprisingly good mood this morning. p'raps (perhaps) it's due to new brass goodies arriving in the mail yesterday. i'm STOKED about these three new charms:

the little heart on the left SLAYS me with it's little inverted star rhinestone setting...though, i don't plan on putting any rhinestones in (well, maybe in some) because i like how it's reminiscent of an eastern star emblem or, on the more 'evil' hand, a pentagram. hearts and pentagrams. YES! hahahahah. oh the little key makes me so happy, too! it's solid brass, not a simple, hollow stamping. but my new favorite is the giant (GIANT!) nouveau-y scrolly heart on the right. it's huge! if you are old enough you may remember that in the '80s it was very chic for a while to wear necklaces with big hearts. well, i'm bringing that back. like, totally. just in time for valentine's day.

in other news, i met face to face with an arch-enemy the other day. and i looked her in the eye and told her, flat out, what i thought was wrong with her. i don't think it made a difference to her, but it was an accomplishment for me to not (A) flake out and stare at the floor and mumble or (B) fly off the handle and start screaming obscenities. granted i let a few F-bombs drop, but in a matter-of-fact way. i think my medication is doing it's job. this is probably one of those things i should 'censor' here on the blah-og...but again, it's part of my life...one of those things that i'm dealing with on an on-going basis.

and now on a more light-hearted note, i've taught my nephew, jj, how to waltz. and by waltz, i mean i pick him up in one arm and we 'waltz' around and around the room. he LUVS it. he runs up to me and begs to be picked up and when i do, he moves his hand around in little circles (his interpretation of my waltzing arm movements). we waltz until i'm out of breath and i have to set him down and drink some water. then he wants more. then we practice 'jumping' and then we march and 'lead the band'. he's brilliant, i tell you...BRILLIANT.

that is all for today. i'm off to pack orders and spark up a torch for oxidizing big brass hearts. spring is in the air, bien sur!

another old picture.

2010-01-20T12:16:00.003-06:00

today's installment of old fambly pictures is one of my Granny Petmecky:

except here, she might still be a Mason. i don't know if this was before or after she married my grampa. anyway, i like to think maybe i look a little bit like her here. maybe it's just the semi-shapeless dress fitted at the waist with a belt (reminds me of my black and white polkadot dress) or possibly the closed-mouth smile. maybe i don't look anything like her at all and i'm just thinking she looks familiar. i think maybe she was on a picnic or a camping trip here...she and my grampa were country folk and it seems like every story i've ever heard about either family involved hunting or some form of traipsing through the woods. these people loved their guns, bien sur.

in other news, i just think i overcame a 2 day migraine from hell. i also feel totally overwhelmed and if i owe you a phone call, email, letter, or text message reply...well, please know i'm going to get to it in the next few days. i just feel like i can't get ahead lately. at least i got my state sales tax stuff done (done!) and in the mail. phew! now, on to federal taxes. bleh. i'm sure i'll owe money. but i put money away in a special account all year just for that, so really my only concern is that i've saved enough. i hate taxes! don't even get me started on what i think of the government taxing inheritance money! the government basically gets paid TWICE for the same chunk of money just because it's changed hands once somebody kicks the bucket. lame. anyway, i'm rambling, so i'll leave it at that. i'm off for a few days, but only because i'm working 'behind the scenes' and will return with a myriad of wonderment next week!

nothing doing.

2010-01-15T13:45:00.002-06:00

it's cold and blustery and rainy here at the homestead. my eyes hurt and i'm a little dizzy today.
i have very little motivation to work but have some really exciting things coming up SOONLY, so i need to load up on the espresso and tea whatnot and WORK. i have actually worked on cleaning my studio for the last week or so...but i'm sure that to the untrained eye it really doesn't appear that i've ever even come close to attempting to organize it one bit.

but i have!

anyway, all i can tell you is that everything is crazy right now. total chaos free-floating through the cosmos. it's time to start planning spring gardens. 'sweet 100' tomaters are at the top of the list. and a butterfly garden! lots of edible fleurs, too. what will be in your garden this year?

things to look at.

2010-01-07T15:36:00.004-06:00

i was flipping through my sketchbook today to find a blank page and this old picture of my grampa on his motorcycle fell out onto the table:

my grampa is the guy on the far right. his motorcycle looks pretty hardcore...maybe this is where my admiration of all things industrial came from. also, the house behind him is pretty deck, too.

in other exciting news, my february issue of Country Living magazine showed up in the mail today. i was much relieved as i almost bought a copy off the newsstand at the grocery store the other day thinking my subscription had run out. it looks to have some extra lovely things to read about:

speaking of reading, i want to share one of my favoritest design books of all time: The Relaxed Home
by Atlanta Bartlett.

the cover doesn't even begin to do justice for the pretty, pretty pictures inside...

ooooh, pink saris for curtains and beds with kitties and crumpled white linens...my favorite!

also, hot pink russian dishes + blowsy roses:

and kitchens that are more arty than orderly:

and once again, my favorite color combo, hot pink and pale aqua. this picture alone should make you want to go out and hunt down this book:

you will not be disappointed by it! i've probably read through this book 500 hundred times since i purchased it many years ago while i was living in savannah.

framed.

2010-01-05T11:50:00.003-06:00

after the hexmas tree was halfway disassembled for me (for me?! you shouldn't have!) by the kitty minions around the 2nd day of the new year, i decided to take the rest of it down, pack it all away and tidy up the dining room. 2010 is going to be the year of putting my collections to use. and by use, i mean out on display. and whatnot. that said, i present you with my crusty old collection of chippy-derilict (one of my favorite words!)-decrepit-cobwebby-dusty-falling-apart-garbage-pile-estate sale picture frames:

i hope to cover the entire wall with old frames that nobody wants anymore. i do not know where my love of decaying things arose from...but that fondness and appreciation seems only to grow, day by day. by the way, it's COLD here.

stripey socks and fuzzy russian hats are the ony way to go, bien sur.

the dining room still needs trim and crown moulding. someday, oh someday, we'll get there.

sewing, sewing sewing:

aqua and fuschia: you are my favorite color combo.

but a goodly mix of tan, ecru, beige, and white are high on the list, too.

well, so far, 2010 has started out with a bang. and by bang i mean fambly drama. sometimes i think i should censor myself here...not talk about the dirty laundry that i carry around in a suitcase that seems forever stuck to my hand. but the fact that i have a nephew that needs care that his biological parents can't seem to provide is just a part of my life. the fact that i sit up late at night staring at a glowing computer screen in the dark trying to write down all my frustrations and file them away is part of what makes me who i am and what i do. my life is not perfect....though i am pretty content. i'm not going to pretend that i wake up to bluebirds singing every morning because more often than not it's more along the lines of getting out of bed and stepping in a hairball that one of the cats coughed up an hour earlier. i just roll with it. we all should. so maybe 2010 should be also be about being a little more patient, accepting, and honest. sounds like a good start to me. ♥

mirthful hexmas and a harpy new year.

2009-12-25T23:06:00.003-06:00

i know i said [in the last post] that i wouldn't be back 'til 2010. well, i changed my mind. one last post for the year, i guess. holidays are weird for me now and my cats are wild minions so this is as festive as my lilting white tree gets:

it's mostly lights and pearly garlands. i have antique suitcases FULL of vintage glass ornaments in shades of pink silver and blue-y grey. however, after the first year of losing almost 1/4 of what was on the tree to naughty kittens, i am reduced to keeping my pretty old ornaments captive in a hidden gable closet upstairs in our house.

in other news, here is a brief list, mostly for fun's sake [and personal documentation] of what i received gift-wise this year:

♥ HUGE victorian stained glass window
♥ antique cameo brooch
♥ chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate
♥ coffee, coffee, and more coffee
♥ leather gloves
♥ teapot
♥ 2 vintage virgin mary statuettes
♥ pink cuisinart kitchen utensils
♥ amazon gift card
♥ lots of books, mostly humorous animal-related, but one 1935 medical advisor
♥ various sundries
♥ diamond skeleton key pendant necklace from my sweetie
♥ a 'man' watch (because i have big hands and can't wear little watches)
♥ an iPhone perch for my car
♥ bungee cords
♥ target gift card
♥ antique surgical forceps and extractors (macabre, yes...but also good as sewing implements)
♥ victorian game cards (good for collaging!)
♥ vintage enamel 'meat' drawer from an old ice box
♥ a little bit of spending money (i'm going to have my 1930s sofa re-upholstered!)

that's all i can remember. i'm sure i'm forgetting something really lovely that someone has given me and they'll see this and remind me and then i'll be embarassed. so, um...apologies in advance for that.

lastly, i'm sure you're wondering what katinka does when she takes a few days off for a mini-vacation after a year of crafting madness. she decides to sit down for 2 hours and sort through her collection of vintage thread on wooden spools, organize them by color, and then string them into a garland of sorts.

these aren't just any old spools of thread, mind you! they are all on their original wooden spools, many still holding onto crumbling bits of their old paper labels. these came out of my granny's estate and some flea markets and the colors are just incredible. i heart the spools of silk thread the best...they are so pearly and luminous they almost look like they're glowing! i haven't decided where i will hang the garland yet (it's very long!) but we have been talking about moving the piano into the dining room and making the parlor/music room more of a library/office where i can house and display my collections of odd curiosities without fear of the aforementioned naughty cats doing them any harm...and this will be a perfect place for the thread garland.

that is all! i'm off for a few more days of R+R and then it's back to the grindstone, mon amis!

xoxoxo

breathing.

2009-12-22T12:37:00.003-06:00

ahh. the hexmas madness is over. i can breathe again. the adelante trunk show was really, incredibly lovely....many thanks to the wonderful ladies of adelante that made it all possible and for sharing their beauteous boutique with me. i sold an incredible amount of goodies...there will be some very happy holiday gift recipients, i'm sure!

sunday brought about a day of not doing much. not much other than finding someone with a tractor to wench the mister's truck out of the mud at the farm {where he so very accidentally practically buried it the night before in an attempt to hog-hunt}. then i worked on organizing my office. i cleaned off part of my desk and found THREE almost unused tubes of e6000 glue! i knew had bought several tubes recently and just couldn't figure out where they had gone.

monday, however, was a FANTASTICAL day! my mister is on vacation this week and so we lazed around watching the travel channel all morning, then spent a little time in the winter garden (salad greens, anyone?), talked to the chickens, and then headed over across the street to the neighbors house to see if they would finally let us look through their late mother's house o' stuff. et voila! we succeeded with flying colors and a crisp $100 bill brought home piles of vintage dresses, fabrics, doilies, lace, an old metal radio flyer style wagon, and LO.....a most incredible assortment of old broken jewelry bits and bobs for making into new frippery:

oh yes, this spring will bring a whole new slew of crazy mrs. havisham-inspired ornamentation to le shop!
speaking of spring....i have been walking to and from the posty now for several months and my goal to lose 20 pounds by my next quarterly doctor's appointment is proving fruitful. i walk and walk and walk. and my petticoats make pretty shadows in the late-afternoon winter sun:

this is odd, but worth mentioning, i think. the ladies' bathroom at the Spiderhouse Cafe in ATX is awesome. a fan of public bathrooms i am not, but it seems they have converted the original bathroom of the house into a multi-commode'ed powder room by adding a couple walls and hanging the original solid wood paneled doors on what is essentially a sliding barn door track:

i find it to be a very ingenious use of space-saving technology...and one that employs recycled materials (the old door), to boot.

also on the agenda for spring, sweet + dainty headband frippery:

some very exciting things are percolating in katinka-ville right now! they are all to be kept under wraps for now, but the end of january promises to be full of excitement, bien sur. i am so excited for the neue jahr...i am ready for all sorts of new shows, meetings, parties, vacations to exotic locales, gardening, and watching my nephew continue to grow and learn new things.

lastly, a huge hug and thank you's all around to everyone that sent such lovely holiday cards, emails, greetings, and sentiments....i hope everyone has a wonderful winter holiday and a fanciful new year. see you all in 2010!!!

xoxoxoxo

katinka

pictorial.

2009-12-14T11:12:00.004-06:00

firstly, vintage optic lens necklaces are back in le shop.

last week i took some pictures of my nephew, jj, at laguna gloria in austin. it's a lovely art museum on even lovelier grounds. it has been my standby/go-to for portraits for as long as i can remember.

i know, i know...if you don't have kids of your own, it's usually not a ton of fun to stare at pics of other people's kids. but jj's pretty cute and i was pretty pleased at how the pictures turned out. that kid never stops moving! i practically had to wrestle him into facing the camera most of the time.

i love the look on his face here. but you can see my hand under his arm holding him in place. i could crop it out but i think it would make the picture a funny size so i'm just gonna roll with it.

in other news, i'm done hexmas shopping and all that's left is to continue churning out lovely things to schlep and peddle.

i'm already ready for spring shows. which reminds me,

DEAR SAN MARCOS ART IN THE PARK FESTIVAL,

please do not schedule yourself on the same day as eeyore's birthday this year (as you have done every year past as long as i've lived here). i like both festivals and hope to attend them. both. so please CHANGE THE DATE THIS YEAR.

thanks.

katinka

wheeeeeeatsville!

2009-12-07T10:10:00.010-06:00

firstly, thankies for all the lovely comments on the last post! i wanted to respond to them individually, but i was working from my iPhone all weekend and it doesn't seem compatible with blogger, sadly.

as a remedy to my winter hat emergency i was reminded of big fuzzy russian hats and, unfortunately not being able to locate one that i thought was floating around the house somewhere, i pondered and brilliantly thought of heading over to austin's own Banana Bay, the local source for all things military and outdoorsy. et voila! they had just what i was looking for:

it's not real fur in case you're wondering. i heart it ALOT and i swear it SAVED me from freezing to death out at wheatsville arts fest this past weekend. FOR REALS, YO. it was BITTERLY cold, y'all. it snowed the day previous (albeit only a dusting of flakes for about 3 minutes) and i am not a cold-tolerant person in any way. oh! also, at 8am saturday morning as i'm leaving to set up, my truck failed to start.

FREAK OUT.

i was picturing myself pulling a little wagon of goodies down to 30th and guadalupe but thankfully (and mad props to) my brother who graciously got up from a dead sleep and jumped my old F-150.

set up went smoothly and i was more pleased with my booth than i've ever been at any show i ever done before.

after doing lots of shows with jewelry hung on little trees or draped around bottles, i decided straightforward was the best approach. i hung the more delicate pieces, but simply laid out the longer junque-jewelry necklaces on my table. i think sometimes people are afraid to mess up your display or they are just uncomfortable removing jewelry from a prop. sure enough, people touched, tried on, and BOUGHT. lord, they bought.

lots of people had great reactions to the necklaces with the wee pocketknives, and many commented that they remembered their grandfather always having a little knife like those. it makes my heart warm when my wares elicit childhood memories like that.

i also sold some of mine and my mum's collages. everybody seemed especially fond of the saint/icon/mary collages. understandably, of course! i mean, who doesn't like mary? you don't have to be catholic, or even religious i think, to appreciate the peacefullness that mary represents.

in the picture above, you can see my poor fingers were swollen and unhappy from the bitter cold. ouch! by the time i got home i wanted to just submerge my hands in a tub of warm lotion. i don't know how people that live up north can stand it!

earrings! i sold so many that i started to run out! i had to re-arrange the displays several times to re-distribute and even out the empty spaces. then i ran out of earring cards! thankfully, the mister came to visit on sunday and brought me more!

i kept the displays pretty simple. it had quite a lovely effect, no?

suitcase o' collages.

i was very pleased with my old wooden ladder-turned-headband-display!

overall, i thought my little tent looked like a tiny little pastel-y, chippy, fripperous booth. exactly how i envisioned it.

okay, okay...enough with the booth pictures already! how about some winter wonderland katinka-garb:

brr!

my mister showed up in his finest gypsy garb (with exotic tiny oranges, to boot!):

he embellished these pants himself!

one last katinka photo to prove my cold-bravery:

look how wet the toes of my boots were! i kept wondering if my feets would get frostbite (even though by sunday afternoon the temps were in the low 50s). still, cold + damp does not a happy katinka make. at any rate, wheatsville was super fantabulous and i'm so thankful for all the lovely people that braved the weather this weekend to shop local. i can't wait to do it all over again next year! xoxoxoxo!

winter weather.

2009-12-02T10:31:00.002-06:00

brrr! suddenly, it's freezing here. snow in dallas and forecasts of ice for central texas this weekend. WHEATSVILLE WEEKEND. wtf?! why the face?! (fans of modern family know what i'm talking about). well, i hope my fellow austinites (and surrounding citizens) are prepared to shop al fresco because i'll be out there with hot potatoes in my pockets and lots of fancy frippery to peddle:

hearts and stars!

the grave digger's daughter:

i was in a bit of a snit yesterday...prepping for shows always stresses me. i feel overwhelmed by a need to have one of everything and something up my sleeve. i have reoccurring dreams of working a show and every customer that i talk to asks for something that i almost made but decided not to. i had a long chat with the husband yesterday and came to a resolution that i don't need to make so much stuff. just make what feels pretty and run with it. i get in these ruts where i ask myself what the 'customer' wants and i realize that i need to break free from that. think outside the box, if you will.

as an artist, i think it's important to free yourself from any sort of self-imposed creative restraint. stop worrying about what anyone else will think, what anyone else would buy. think of what is beautiful and lovely to you, what makes your heart pitter-patter and feel like it might burst forth with stargazer lilies and blushing roses.

that said, i do hope you will brave the forecasted cold weather this weekend and join me under my lace-covered tent for some holiday shopping! you can find me at the wheatsville arts fest annex @ 30th and guadalupe from 10 to 5 on saturday and sunday. there will be all sorts of lovely music and art and good food, i'm sure!

dear universe,

2009-12-01T18:24:00.004-06:00

sorry for all the lame things i've done in my life. sorry for all the feelings i've hurt and bridges i've burned. i promise, that deep down, i really never meant any harm.

sometimes my brain + mouth just get ahead of themselves and i've been working really hard to correct this.

that's all. carry on.

Happy Turkey Day Sale!

2009-11-25T16:46:00.003-06:00

now thru midnight on cyber monday' all prices in my etsy shop have been reduced by 20%!

remember, no matter where you shop, please shop local and/or handmade! it really makes a difference! statistics show that for every $100 you spend at a locally owned business, $68 of that filters back down through your local economy.

happy thanksgiving, y'all!

xoxoxo
katinka

cold weather makes me sleepy.

2009-11-17T11:03:00.003-06:00

like this:
warm sunbeams on the back porch are the only place to be. also, hot tea makes a comeback.

a second round of patty-pan squarshes:

seasonally confused honeysuckle:

the meyer lemons are just about ready for harvesting...what will i do with 30 lemons? i'd make lemon curd and put it away for safe keeping but everytime i've tried to make some sort of preserve it ended with disasterous results. anyone up for the challenge?

the lemon tree (albeit small right now) looks like something out of candy-land with it's little lemon drop ornaments. can you imagine how it will look in several years when it's as tall as me? crazytown!

hot tea: jasmine, chai, and blooming! have you ever had tea that blooms before? i wish i had a clear teapot to brew it in. alas, a big mason jar and a kettle of boiling water will have to do for now. pictures to come!

whoa! so much going on in katinkaville! i need an interactive calendar for the blog...anyone know how to make one? this month and the next are going to be so busy! i started making some smaller headbands (less ostentatious frippery is what i mean by 'smaller')...they seem very 'woodland' to me. sadly, i have no pictures of them at the moment, but you can find them at Garbo Salon right now. lots of tiny little tattery vintage millinery flowers, a feather here, a feather there...some bits and poufs of old hat netting, a snippet of antique lace. i just ordered big box of vintage millinery goodies that i found on schmeebay, which i'm over the moon about. so many tiny little velvety and chiffony little buds! i cannot wait to put more of these little woodland headbands together so you can see them in le shop and at the wheatsville + adelante shows!

wednesday morning zen.

2009-11-11T10:00:00.001-06:00