Yard Sold! . . . and the house too!

Goodbye Glendale. . . Hello North Hollywood!

Here it is. It's about half the size and 5 times the price of the house we owned in West Virginia, but it's ours, all ours!


So that was the big news. Also, as if things aren't changing enough for us, I got a job. I'm going to be an assistant 6th grade teacher at a small progressive school in Van Nuys. I was starting to miss being a teacher. The great thing is that it's part time, so I'll still have time for kokoleo. Commissions may take a little longer and I might scale back on some craft fairs and boutiques for now, but I think it will all work out. For some reason when things start to get easy I get restless and look for ways to shake things up. I think I thrive on chaos.

Yard Sale!

Okay, when I originally posted the title for my last blog entry it said, "Changes is good, right?" Der. I wuz a Engilsh major!

So those big life changes that were supposed to be finalized Friday? They've been postponed to Monday. Argh. In the meantime. . .

Yard Sale! My friends and I had one in my front yard today. I made $75. Do you live in the L.A. area? Stop by 451 Riverdale Dr. in Glendale tomorrow from 8 a.m. to noon. Tell me that you read my blog I will let you browse the kokoleo studio and give you 50% off any item! (This is a test to see if any locals are lurking.) I'll also let you have anything you want in the yard sale for free!!

Change is good, right? Right?

Big major life-altering changes are afoot in the VanHorn house and kokoleo studio. I cannot speak of them until Friday when these changes become official. Suffice it to say I haven't been updating my website or blog very much because my life is a wee bit hectic right now.

But not so hectic that I can't fit in Project Runway, Season 3! Man, I love this show.

One person's crap is another person's CRAFT!

I've been on needlepoint, cross-stitch and embroidery kick lately. I'm not actually doing the work, but rescuing pieces that have been forgotten, cast aside and given to thrift stores, garage sales, etc. Someone somewhere at some point in time spent hours making these and it breaks my heart to see a sticker on top that reads, "25 cents."

Okay, actually I get really excited when I see that, but also a little sad for the one who made it. I look at the indivual stitches and see the hands behind it. I imagine the person in front of the T.V. (M.A.S.H.? Matlock? Murder She Wrote?) or on a porch in a rocking chair on a Saturday afternoon or in the carheading for a vacation. They are having conversations or enjoying the solitude while their fingers repetitively stick the needle in and out and over and under and through as they meticulously follow a pattern or don't. They stop every once in a while to rest their fingers and examine their progress. At some point they finish it, frame it, hang it on the wall and go on with their lives. And then somewhere along the way it gets discarded. This is where I come in. Here are a few things I've picked up in the last few weeks. . .

First, a pillow ($1.99):

I think it's going to become a purse someday.

A snow skier (89 cents):


Damn, that's ugly. Something weird is going on with one of the boots too. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it but I think 89 cents is a bargain for a thousand tiny stitches.

A house ($2.19):

It reminds me of the little wooden collectible "Cat's Meow" houses my mom has scattered around her house. See the black cat at the front door? I might give it to her for a surprise. Oh wait, she reads my blog. There goes that idea.

A needlepoint printed tin (89 cents):


And lastly, my new favorite, unicorns! ($10.80)



When I was buying the house and tin (above) at the thrift store the clerk pointed out the unicorns to me. I had overlooked it before because I thought it was just a cheesy painting. Somehow the embroidery makes it beautiful to me. I guess that beauty is in the eye of the beholder because when I brought it home the first thing Erik said when he saw it was, "You're seriously not going to hang that up are you?"

Yes! At least until I get the urge/nerve to turn it into a purse. Is that wrong? Nahh, it's recycling!

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.

a purse post

I'm a purse-watcher. There have been many times when I've gone out of my way to study the design of a stranger's purse, going so far as to follow the woman and take mental notes of the design components that make her purse attractive. Needless to say I've gotten a few strange looks from people who probably thought I was fixing to rob them or something. There's just something about a well-designed bag that intrigues me. In order for a bag to be perfect it has to have the right number of compartments, the right kind of strap and closure, the right color and fabric and the right amount of space for all your stuff. But then, what's "perfect" for one person just doesn't work for another. I think this is why so many women are addicted to handbags - they're always searching for that "perfect" one. Years ago a simple clutch would suffice for me. Nowadays I need one that will not only hold my wallet, keys, sunglasses, cell phone and business cards but also some juice boxes, crayons, matchbox cars and random rocks and leaves that Sage instructs me to keep forever.

A friend of mine once remarked that it was funny that I have a sewing room full of purses, yet don't carry around a kokoleo purse myself. I guess I consider the purses and bags I make to be more sculptural experiments than anything else. I may spend up to 5 hours working on one - adjusting the size and shape, testing out different pockets, straps and closures - and then when I'm finished I just set it on the shelf and look at it. When I go to buy a purse for myself I tend to go for interesting shapes and styles that I simply couldn't recreate. This week I sold one of my needlepoint owl purses (thank you Sarah!) and then went out and bought these for myself:



The beaded one reminds me of those massage-chair thingies. It's definitely not something I could ever do because I don't have A. the beads or B. the patience to put something like that together. The same goes for the "prison art" candy wrapper bag that I got at Out Of the Closet, a thrift store that benefits AIDS research. I love these type of bags and have another one I got off ebay years ago made from old cigarette packs. I have no idea if this one was actually made in a prison but it has no label so I suspect some lone crafty soul made with his or her own two hands. At about 60 bucks less than these Ecoist bags I'd been stalking, I just had to get it.

I went to the Melrose Ave. flea market this Saturday and got a Depression-era patchwork quit for 15 bucks. I may or may not some day work up the nerve to cut it up and turn it into baby dresses? skirts? purses? but for now I'm going to leave it as a lap quilt. I also got a couple framed needlepoint pieces. Recently I've been on a mission to rescue neglected and forgotten vintage needlepoint and give them new life in the form of purses - the ultimate portable art. I forgot to photograph this one in it's frame but last night I turned it into this:


It's big enough to hold a Saturday Evening Post or whatever else you need to tote around. The lining is a multi-colored cotton material and the inside pocket is lined with an American flag:

Happy Memorial Day!

Kokoleo and Kali 'n Leo

I just spent at least 10 hours updating my website and it's hardly even noticeable. Making stuff is the easy part. It's the taking pictures, uploading, photoshopping, organizing, describing, and HTMLing that complicates everything. But I now have a whole new assortment of embellished tees like these:

And some other stuff too. I've also been steadily working on commissions. Among them, this flower growth chart for a little girl in Canada:


And a banner for a shop in San Diego:

It's done in yellow, green and pink gingham and it was the first time I experimented with hand cutting cursive letters to recreate a logo's font. Here's the shop where it will hang.

It's funny how as soon as I finish a big commission, another one comes along to take it's place. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining or anything. I love my job.

I also love my boy. And my dog Kali. And my cat Leo. My boy also loves our dog and cat. Sometimes too much.

Craft shows, art shows, weirdos, etc.

It's been a busy week since I last added an entry. A month ago I remember thinking, man, our lives are going to get really hectic around the end of April to the middle of May what with our trip to Austin, the Felt Club and then Erik's art show. Suddenly, all those things have come and gone. We did it! So. . . now what? I guess we'll have to think of new things to do. The wheels are already turning.

As promised, here are some pictures from the first Felt Club. Here's my booth, er, umm, scaffolding?


The scene:


The shop whose parking lot we occupied:


That picture was taken in the evening after I treated my family to dinner at a hip little restauarant called Cheebo across the street from Meltdown Comics. For more pictures check out our Flicker group. The next Felt Club is June 10th - mark your calendars!

Fast forward to Thursday night and the opening of Strange Loops, Erik's painting show at the Walt Disney Feature Animation building in Burbank. We served these hors d'oevres:


But no milk, just beer. You can see his art here: Lord North, Strange Loops. He's actually pretty normal in real life, he just comes across as a big weirdo on canvas.

Speaking of weirdos, here's my little one pretending he's a seagull at Zuma Beach in Malibu. We owed the boy a beach excursion after a week of carting him to and from craft shows and art shows.

Nice tattered towel there. You'd think his seamstress mommy would fix that.

Felt Club kicked ass!

Saturday was the first Felt Club event and wow, what a great show! So many cool crafts and cool people (both vendors and shoppers). The weather was nice (I got a tan!), the location was great and I did some sweet trades with Jek-in-the Box, Susan Stars, and Chebang. Two years ago if someone would have told me I would be participating in a craft show on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, California I would have peed my pants.

Pictures coming soon!

Sunday was a nice Mother's Day. Sage and I visited some yard sales (fabric! new blank tees! Charles Eames stacking cards! Pee-Wee Herman DVD box set!) then we lounged by the pool (by pool I mean kiddie pool) and I tried to teach him how to properly do the slip and slide (ouch!). Tonight was spent getting my sewing room back in order. Whew! I'm exhausted. Oh yeah, it's 1:30 a.m. Maybe that's why.

Hey Loretta!

I made myself some pants this morning:


Ew. That picture doesn't do the fabric justice. They look like polyester grandma pants. It's actually a vintage velour with an aqua paisley print on it and they are soooo soft and comfy. I made them to take the place of a pair of lounge pants that I finally admitted needed to be thrown away. Holes + stains = trash, right? I just loved the way they fit so I held on to them and simply confined them to inside the house. But this morning I realized how ugly they were so I cut them up and loosely used them as a pattern for these. I can't remember the last time I made something for myself. I'm usually so busy working on commissions or making random baby clothes and purses and whatnot for my webshop that I rarely consider keeping what I make anymore.


This afternoon I picked Sage up from preschool and took him out to lunch. I'm amazed that he's suddenly at an age where we can sit across from one another and have real conversations. I try to imagine us this way 5, 10, and 20 years from now and I just can't envision him all grown up. I want him to be little forever. I recently got an email from my former boss at my all time favorite job, The Dragonfly (a vintage clothing store I worked at in college) and she told me that her boys are now teenagers who tower over her. I remember when she was sending them off to kindergarten and now she's getting ready to send her oldest one off to Iraq.

Anyway, after lunch we visited 2 thrift shops and I got this:


Earrings, fabric, zippers and two books I've always wanted to own. When I got home I opened the Hand Made Modern book (a 99 cent investment) and found that it was signed by the author, Todd Oldman. Either that, or someone named Tom Blahbittyblah.


Hey Loretta! Thanks for the book.

Like shopping, only better

One of the great things about making stuff is being able to swap with other people who make stuff. In the past few months I've been able to clothe my boy, decorate my home and adorn myself in some fine handmade goods. Check it out:

I traded some kokoleo clothes for an original work of art by my friend Holly:


Score! I love it! I simply told her I was fond of fabric, Day of the Dead skeletony stuff and that the words "Forget-Me-Not" have a special meaning to me and she just went from there. I had no idea what to expect and was more than pleasantly surprised when I opened the box.

Also, from another crafty friend of mine, Adrien at Keen Designs, I got these:

Excuse my hairy neck. Ewww. But also, Ahhhh! Aren't they beautiful? I especially love her pirate stuff.

Sage is also a recipient of cool handmade stuff. Check him out in this cowboy tee by Bumba Dee (who I met at the Bazaar Bizarre) and funky patchy pants by Textile Fetish.

And finally, here's a nice haul I got at All Aboard!, a cool shop in Echo Park that carries kokoleo. I traded some diaper bags for some of the cool stuff that the owner Gina has in her shop - perfume, handmade stationary, notebooks, clocks, monsters etc. Sweet!

It's like I went on a big shopping spree and my bank account was none the wiser. Fun! Now, if only gas stations took stuffed monsters in exchange for filling up my tank or the electric company accepted baby clothes as payment, wouldn't that be nice?

To Texas and back

Well we did it, and now we're back. We rode the gas-price roller coaster all over the Southwest United States. Along the way we stopped in


Texas and picked up pens and magnets with our last name on them. Next stop, Wimberly, Texas where we shacked up in a fancy ranch with my childhood friends now all grown up. See? Recognize these girls? (See the last post for a clue.)


We watched our good friend Stew get hitched:


Awww. Congrats Stew and Angie! After a few nights and many drinks and countless stories of the good old days we packed up and headed home. Along the way we stopped at Balmorhea State Park (this humongous pool was spring-fed and filled with a million little fish):

And here:

Have you slept in a Wigwam lately?


We did. And then we saw the Grand Canyon:


The end.