Happy Chinese New Year!

Some pictures from the Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown, L.A. this past Saturday:


The dragons were my favorite. I want to make one and run around the neighborhood in it. More:





Look! These ladies like fabric almost as much as I do!


The lucky golden bowl of rice:


Our hottt mayor Antonio Villaragosa:


Sage on a one-man ferris wheel with random high school hipsters posing behind him:


After a long day:

Look ma! I cleaned my room!

I've documented my newly organized, color-coded and folded fabric for posterity's sake (because it probably won't stay this way for long):


It took me hours this weekend but I managed to find the floor, put things in designated places, complete a few projects, assess all that I have and even (gasp!) get rid of a few things. I'm over the first trimester hurdle and finally feeling like I'm getting my creative mojo back (and not falling asleep before 10 p.m.). Last night I made six! pairs of monster pants. I'm even managing to keep things nice and neat. See?



At least, this is what I call nice and neat. Others might call it crowded and cluttered. I've never really been one for minimalism.




Here's my bulletin board, crowded with pins I've collected from craft shows, cards from shops that carry kokoleo, flyers from shows I've been in, and a few kokoleo labels waiting to be sewn into yet-to-be-made purses and clothes.


Too bad I'm going to have to give up this room when the baby gets here. We're thinking of converting the porch in to the new kokoleo headquarters. Or maybe the garage. Porches and garages don't really make good nurseries. I simply have too much though to NOT have a space of my own. We'll figure something out. Life would be so much simpler if I didn't sew. Think of all the time I'd have! All the space I'd have!

Nahhh, that would be boring.

My name is KB and I'm a fabriholic.

There could be worse addictions, right? Rather than a hoarder I prefer to see myself as a recycler; a rescuer of forgotten and neglected fabric. I'd choose to peruse a crowded old house over a crappy JoAnn Fabric store any day. And that's just what I did yesterday at an estate sale in Burbank. Check out my haul:


I fear if I keep up collecting that I will be like this woman in 50 years. One room was packed with fabric - huge piles and boxes of vintage linens, half-completed projects, patterns, purse handles, craft kits and more. Another room held lace and ribbon trim, velcro, embroidery floss, buttons, googly eyes, and lots more craft kit stuff that's not my style - styrofoam angel kits, latch-hook kits, crafts involving fake flowers and hot glue.

Poor Sage and his sister?brother?, one day after I'm dead they'll be trying to unload this stuff at their own yard sale. But 50 years from now I bet some yet-to-be-born crafter with happen upon that yard sale and be as excited as I was to find patchwork turtle and mushroom print fabric! gingham galore! needlepoint butterflies! googly eyes! (That is if I don't use it all first.) See? It's an investment in my family's future. Yeah, that's it.

Alien Invasion!

So, I haven't been blogging much and here's the reason why:


There's an alien in my belly! Okay, actually it's a wee little baby, no bigger than a strawberry, but it's what's been occupying a lot of my mind and time lately. I didn't want to say anything until it was for sure, because well, last time I was pregnant it didn't go so well. But yesterday we saw two little arms and two little legs dancing around and the doctor says everything looks perfect. I've been sleepy and nauseous and not able to crank out the kokoleos as quickly and as often as before, but I'm sure this will all soon pass and I'll be back in action soon enough.

I am however, keeping busy with banner and pillow commissions. When I told my new OB/GYN about kokoleo and my banners and pillows he said I should give him some of my cards, as he knows a few people with babies. Ha! Here are a few recent works:




It's pretty funny, my (newly redesinged) "Personalized Items" shop reads like a book on baby names:

Anna, Adowyn, Avenelle, Brooke, Clarissa, Lola, Malayna, Piper, Willa. . .

Dashiell, Evan, James, Jake, Jesser, Nolan, Sam, Tenzin, Will, Wyatt. . .

Hmmmm. . . choices, choices.