Blasts from my past

Since I launched kokoleo online and starting blogging over a year ago, one of the coolest things to happen is that blasts from my past pop up to say hi. Yesterday I received and email from my former neighbor and best friend in Parkersburg, WV. She's now a mom of one (soon to be two) living in Virginia. Hi Susan! Remember this?


I don't. But I do remember your swingset (that's the old one in the picture, before the cooler newer one) and playing in your basement and our lemonade stand and walking around the block to the Quaker State for candy lipstick. Good times.

Another friend from Parkersburg Googled my name one day and stumbled upon kokoleo. Courtney now lives in Nebraska and works as a wildlife biologist. Here she is (the curly haired one) beside me (in my fancy Burger King crown). Susan is on the other side.


I moved to Wheeling West Virginia in 1984 and hadn't heard from those girls since. It's a great thing, this Internet stuff. Also, thanks to kokoleo, I've been contacted by my friend Katie from Wheeling. Katie lives in Ohio and is a mom of two boys. Here we are on the Homecoming Court in 1992:


Others who have contacted me are Dave, my friend from Spanish class (he's now a paramedic near Pittsburgh) and Rachel from Shepherd College (a teacher and mom in Virginia). We're all growing up into such fine upstanding citizens! Also, I know my friend Jessie in Shepherdstown sometimes visits my blog when she's at work on the town paper. Get back to work Jessie! Here we are at our going away party. Sniff. I miss you girls.

Now, who else is out there? Speak up! If you're Googling Karebeth Price you won't find much. I go by KB now. There you go. Now contact me. Tell me what you've been up to. Don't be intimidated by the fact that I might post awkward childhood photos of you. It was the 80s. Everyone was awkward back then.

What's the opposite of Distressed?

Okay, after that last post even my mother called to ask me what I was high on when I wrote it. The answer is nothing. I was just suffering a bout of creative A.D.D. I'm happy to say that I'm no longer distressed, only mildly stressed, but in a good way.

I'm better now. So much better in fact that I finished this commission - a quilt! See?

The woman who commissioned it asked if I could do a personalized quilt for her sister who is heading off to college soon. Viola! She asked and she shall receive. Thanks for the fun project Angelica! I think I'm going to start offering them on the web site soon.

I also whipped up these:


Reason # 6459 why I need a little girl. Sage just wouldn't go for this matching mother/child getup because, "Skirts are for girls!"

Confessions of a Distressed Seamstress

It's 2 a.m. and I need to write. I need to do something constructive and since cleaning is not fun, I'll write.

I just spent about 10 minutes sitting in my sewing room staring at my fabric paralyzed with a million ideas running around in my head and an inability to settle on one single project. The inner dialogue (crazy voices?) in my head sound something like this:

I have this and that commission to work on but Hey! I remember this fabric, I got it to make a purse one day. Maybe I should do that. Yeah, it'll be a messenger style bag with an inside zipper pocket. What strap would I use? I'll go look in the ribbon drawer. Hey! I remember this ribbon! It would look perfect on a little girls top. Maybe I should do that. I'll pair it with this fabric over here. . . Hey! I've been looking for this! I thought I lost it. Damn, I've been carrying around this fabric since I worked at the Dragonfly. God, what's that been? 11 years. Jeez. I'm getting old. Erik and I had just started dating then. That reminds me, I need to fix that button on his shirt. I should look for a button to match. Hey! Look at all these buttons! I should do a button collage. No, I should do a fabric collage. Why don't I make art anymore? I need to make a work of art that isn't functional and just hangs on a wall. People pay more money for art than they do for functional stuff like purses and baby clothes. Why is that? Man, I have a lot of stuff in here. Why do I feel compelled to make so much stuff? Am I crazy to think that someone is going to want to buy these things? I think I have a hoarding problem. Maybe I should get rid of some stuff. Okay, I'll start with this. No, some day I might need it. How about this? Okay, I'll put it in a bag to sell at a garage sale some day. There, that's progress. I'll just put this bag over here. Hey! Here's a bunch of T-shirts I got to reconstruct. Maybe I'll do that. How about I applique a cityscape across the bottom? No, a mountain/river/sunset scene. No, how about a pteradactyl? Yeah, think outside the box. Hey! What's in this box? Yarn. This would make good monster hair. Maybe I'll make a monster. He'll have hair and I'll name him Hairy. and horns! I name him Horny Hairy. No, that won't do. What should I do? Hmmmm. A pillow? A purse? A baby dress? Embellished tee? Tooth fairy pillows? Backpack made out of neckties? How about I weave all my ribbon together and make something with that? Man, it's a mess in here. Maybe I should clean it up and organize everything. Nahhh. I'm just gonna go mess around on the computer.

Happy Father's Day!

That's me with my dad circa 1977. And Here's Sage with his goofy dad circa this morning.


It's a decorated tie card that he made at preschool. It has his picture on it and a poem on the back and at the bottom it says, "I love my dad because I play with him." He also received this:


We made it at a craft table last weekend at the Los Feliz Festival. Sage chose to cover it in buttons. That's my boy!

Happy father's day to all the dads out there! We love you.

Stitch My Ass

Last Saturday was Felt Club at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood and again, it was a blast. I actually sold less but somehow I think I had more fun. Go figure. It's just such a great atmosphere in which to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon. Check out the pictures here.

One customer who bought some kokoleo baby clothes at the last show and some more this time informed me that she was buying them for Jack Black's baby. (Am I supposed to keep this info on the down low? I'm not sure about the L.A. protocol here.) Anyway, WooHoo! My first celebrikid! (that I know of, that is). Congrats to the Blacks! Wait, that just sounds wrong. Welcome to the world, kid.

Here's my booth, er, um, scaffolding/tower/installation thing. I envy the vendors who sell small stuff and can fit all their wares in one box and can set up and take down within minutes. For some reason I am incapable of simplicity.


I really must take some time here to thank the ladies at Junk in Our Trunk who, true to their name, were looking out for the junk in my trunk when they informed me that I had a six inch rip in the ass of my dress. See?


Lovely. Of course, I learned this a few hours into the show after much bending over and running about. Klassy. Luckily I had a needle and thread on hand to fix it, which was not an easy task to do without taking off the dress.

Aaaanyway, enough about my ass, look at all the cool stuff I scored!


I bought an illustrated card from Jaime Zollars. It reminded me of Sage in bed under a quilt with a monster by his side and butterflies all around. I also did some great trades and got dinosaur earrings and pins from Wendy, the Singing Librarian, a little voodoo guy and soap from BiggerKrissy, a flower barrette and "L.A. scarf" from Handmade Pretties and a bunch of cool jewelry from beebalalou. Whee!

On Sunday I took Sage to the Los Feliz Village Street Fair and watched him brave the giant bouncy tent/obstacle course/slide monstrosities with no fear whatsoever. My little boy is growin' up! At the Griffith Park Neighborhood Council booth he won (okay, the girl let him win) this:


the latest addition to the VanHorn clan. He name it Goldie.

Best. Haul. Ever.

A few days ago I was looking through garage sale postings on craigslist and I came upon this: "A crafter's dream! A garage sale with fabrics & supplies galore. 6/3 - $1". So of course I printed out Mapquest directions and planned to be there bright and early to snatch up all the:

"Sewing Supplies, $1-$5 each
-thread
-buttons
-trim (including pom pom trim)
-rolls of ribbon "

Well, bright and early ended up being 10:30, which was not bad considering we hosted a poker marathon at our house last night until 4 a.m. I only needed a couple Excedrin and a glass of orange juice and I was out the door.

So Sage and I walked up to the house and Yay! The pom pom trim was still there. We met the owner of the stuff, Kim and learned that she had a crafty biz too. Check it out - it's Good Stock. Sweet! I told her a little about kokoleo and she helped me pick out some great stuff. Thanks Kim! For a mere 50 bucks I scored all this and more:


Check out my giant ric-Rac!


I'm sure it will look nice alongside these big-ass polka dots:


I'm envisioning bright polka-dotted, ric racked, pom pommed baby dresses, pillows, purses, who knows what? in kokoleo's future. Get a load of all this pom-pom trim!


That's enough pom poms to shake, well, a pom pom at! And look at my random assortment of felt hearts, leaves and beads:

I'm sure I'll find something to do with them. I also got a couple bags of assorted ribbon. It wasn't until I got home and emptied the bags that I really saw what great ribbon I got. It almost rivals the great ribbon haul of 1997.


I swear it was like Christmas day going through all this stuff when I got home. Erik of course rolled his eyes when I walked in with the big box, but I won him over with some graphite pencils, tubes of watercolor paint and a sealable palette that I got at the same yard sale.

I had every intention of also hitting this massive event in Silverlake "58 Homes! 58 Homes! 58 Homes! SAT JUNE 3" but figured I'd met my accumulating-stuff-quotient for the day. Or I should say week. No more accumulating stuff! I have enough. Now I need to take the stuff I've got and kokoleo-fy it and send it back out into the world. Then I can take the money I earn from it and get. . . more stuff! The cycle never ends.