a Robot, a Spider, a Postman and Pumpkins

Mad-seamstress that I am, I worked feverishly in my lab this week to transform one sweet little boy into an angry robot:


Ingredients include lots of silver vinyl, red, blue and bronze vinyl, a fake brain in tupperware, telephone cords, calculator parts. . .


. . . an empty beer box, the top to a salt shaker, polyester stuffing and cotton batting, elastic, an plastic placemat, Sharpie ink and about a pound of hot glue.

On their way to the Atwater Village trick-or-treat event on Friday, Sage and his friendly lion friend (kind of Wizard of Oz-ish but with a demented Tinman):


Last week at a Halloween party Erik went postal and I went as a spider. It's kind of hard to see my legs here but they were three pairs of black tights stuffed and hanging by strings from my wrists.

Lovely couple, aren't we?

Tonight we carved pumpkins. When I picked these two out at the pumpkin patch they just screamed Bert and Ernie to me. It's hard to ignore a screaming pumpkin.



Erik's pumpkin - evil, of course:


and Sage's pumpkin - cute just like him:

Happy Halloween!

buzz buzz

Felt Club was last week. Here's a picture of my booth, er, middle-of-the-room installation:


As always, it was a blast. I sent some monster pillows to some loving homes and the tie accessories were a hit. More than anything else it's great to get feedback on your work, hang out with other crafty folk, read BUST magazine and eat cupcakes. The next event is November 12th at the Echo. I won't be there, but I'm planning on being a part of the holiday event in early December and sewing like mad to stock up for it, as well as Bazaar Bizarre at the Shrine Auditorium on December 16th. Whew. December's going to be a crazy crafty month.

Speaking of crazy crafty, this past Saturday I attended an estate sale in Burbank and hit the motherload. Vintage embroidered linens, doilies, upholstery samples, embossed vinyl, a vintage dress and apron, vintage stickers from 1952 that say, "I made it myself!", buttons, fringe. . . you get the idea. I never found out the story of the woman whose house it was I sifted through but she obviously had good taste. I only hope I can make her proud but giving her old stuff a new life. Like this:


Vintage embossed vinyl is bee-utiful.

Speaking of beautiful, my wee viking:



I didn't make that crazy hat. I do need to get crackin' on his Halloween costume though - a robot! An "angry robot" to be exact. This should be interesting. . . stay tuned!

A woman's work is never done

Long time, no blog. I'll try to write more often, it's just, sometimes life gets so busy that it's hard to find the time to stop and write about it.

Work is a bit consuming, but in a good way. I keep being drawn back to teaching. The truth is, I love it. There's nothing better than looking in to a crowd of 15 or so kids and seeing them excited about a particular novel or suddenly getting a particular aspect of grammar or suddenly becoming aware of a new way of looking at the world. Witnessing those aha! moments is what makes it all worthwhile. Sure, there are times when they make me want to pull out all my hair, but at the end of the day it's more fulfilling than anything else I've ever done.

That's not to say I've abandoned kokoleo. I've still been making stuff out the wazoo, I just haven't been able to update my website as often as I used to. I'm trying to stockpile my wares for a few big craft shows coming up this winter. Lately I've been on a necktie kick and have a whole slew of new necktie accessories that should be on the website soon along with a bunch of new embellished tees. I've also been accumulating more needlepoint and embroidery pieces like these that I got at the Melrose Trading Post last weekend ($7 for all):


Sometimes I think I'm the only one who appreciates them. Erik looked at them and asked me why I'm so attracted to dirty laundry. Pshaw. I mean, come on! Who can pass up an embroidered rooster!?

In other kokoleo news, yesterday I had an order all the way from Paris, France. Ooo la la! Also, Felt Club is tomorrow at the new venue in Echo Park and I'll be there. Come on out! I'm sure it will be a blast as always.

Another thing that's been keeping us busy is our backyard. The past few weekends have been spent digging, planting and generally sprucing up our little lot of land. Here's a before picture:


It's kind of hard to see but there was a big dusty bare spot where the previous owners had an above ground pool. There was some decorative trim that randomly cut through the middle of the yard and against the wall was just bare dirt and rocks. Here's an after picture:


You know you've become a grownup when you enjoy watching grass grow. And look! Herbs!



There's basil, oregano, thyme, cilantro, rosemary, lavendar, sage, dill, parsley, spearmint, pineapple mint, peppermint and catnip, plus snapdragons, cala lillies, tomatoes, snap peas, and to make us official Californians - a tangelo tree, lemon tree and avocado tree. Whee! Who wants to come over to our house for a big plate of leafy greens?

We all had a Yellow Submarine birthday party

A few months ago Sage discovered our Yellow Submarine DVD and was fascinated. When we asked him what kind of birthday party he wanted, he chose a "Yedow (his pronunciation) Submarine Birthday Party." We obliged. Here's the invitation Erik made:


And I made the cake:


At Sage insistance we played "Pin the looker thingy on the Yellow Submarine":


He also wanted to lead a marching band (which he did with his friends around our yard) and a have a pinata. Erik and I tried to make him one the night before but a few hours before the party was to start it was still soggy, so we went out and bought this one:


And here he is blowing our his candles:


That night when I was getting him ready for bed, I noticed that he was practicing holding four fingers on his hand. He lifted one, then two, then three, and then slowly let the pinky go and stood there studying his four fingers. I said, "Hey Sage, How old are you now?" and he smiled and held up his hand and said, "Four!"

Cool Press

I've been m.i.a. lately, busy with my new job and still settling in to the new house. I have new things to add to the shop but my digital camera is broken, or rather, filled with Malibu sand - oops! I bought a disposable camera for Sage's birthday party this weekend, so when I get that back, I'll post pics.

Until then check out the latest edition of N.E.E.T. magazine. More specifically, check out page 81. Two of my kokoleo items, a flower tote and friendship pillow are featured. It's such a cool magazine, I'm honored that my stuff was chosen!


Also, kokoleo got a mention in the WAHM Spotlight last week when their Friday's Feature was bags. Sweet! I don't know if I still quailfy as a work-at-home-mom since I took on this other job, but technically, I'm still a mom who works at home (and somewhere else). It's been a little hectic trying to juggle both but I'm hoping to settle into a routine and give kokoleo the attention it deserves. First, I need to find a camera fix-it shop.

Aaaaaand we're back!

Jeez it's been almost a month since I last posted. In that time I painted some walls, refinished some floors, packed a TON of boxes, moved a TON of boxes, unpacked a TON of boxes, hung a bunch of paintings, watched Sage's beloved fish slip down the drain, took Erik's sister's family to California Adventure, and spent a week with my dear mom (a.k.a. the "kitchen fairy" due to her amazing cupboard organizational skills and ability to have breakfast ready before the birds were chirping). We also managed to fit in a Dodger game

(our once-a-year attempt at being red-blooded Americans) and this weekend, Felt Club.


You can more Felt Club photos here. As always, it was a blast. Jamie Chan of MaryJane's Attic taught me how to do needle felting and I think I found a new craft addiction. Check out my balls and nipple!


I've always coveted those felt ball necklaces and now I'm on a mission to make my own. And the nipple? I made it for this: The Nipple Project, a community based art installation
that will be exhibited in October 2006, to coincide with National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Go on, send your nipples too. The more the nipplier!

(Apologies to my in-laws who sometimes read my blog. Your son/brother really did marry a fine upstanding normal girl. Oh wait, your son/brother makes art like this: Lord North, you're used to such nonsense.)

So now the dust (and dog hair) have settled and things should be getting back to normal. And by normal, I mean not.

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.