Made by Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We've all been a bunch of sicky-heads this past week. Erik stayed home all last week with the flu, I've had some weird morphing cold, McKenna's been a fountain of snot and Sage has been fine and healthy and full of boundless energy.

A while ago he saw some personalized towels in a catalog and asked if I would get him one. I told him I'd do better than that, I'd make him one with great big letters. Bella seems impressed.

Some recent personalized pieces:

And this one, a little different from the others because the letters are made from vintage quilt tops.

Sage made an airplane out of a box.

He named it Sagefly Airlines and recruited McKenna to be his passenger.

I've been slowly getting my studio together one corner at a time. Here's the one corner that's presentable enough to show you:

We're also still (still!) working on that hole in the other corner:

This time we covered it in casting resin, which is what we should have used in the first place. It made a nice thick clear coat over the whole hole and eliminated all the sharp edges. I would very much like to be done with this project now. Have you ever seen the movie The Money Pit? It's like that. The other night, as we were looking down into our newly coated hole, Erik said we should have chopped up lots of dollar bills and encased those in resin instead of the tiles. It would have been cheaper, at least.

Uh oh.

They're conspiring. They're plotting to take over this house. They'll overthrow us soon, I just know it. Help!

Thrift Thursday - great big humongous giant necklaces.

Here are a few of my recent scores. The little amount of fabric I got is nothing to write home about. (That phrase should be updated and replaced with "Nothing to blog about.")

I did get this cute tray though.

I can't figure out the story. The guy is fishing, then a lady is giving him a turkey. I guess he didn't catch any fish? Also, he has tiny feet. It reminds me of something Made with Love by Hannah would like.

At the same sale, I got this:

from 1982. It was the only Collie one in a box of lots of other breeds.

Lets see, what else? I got some plants, a big spool of elastic, and some clothes for Sage. The clothes were Guess? and Diesel and Gap, some with their labels front and center. I almost passed over them because of this but Sage liked the colors and they were only $3 total. When we showed Erik he said, "The neighbors are going to think we're snobby rich folk dressing our boy like that." Ha! Label whores, we're not.

At another yard sale the woman kept telling me I had "great taste" when I inquired about her prices and then proceeded to quote ridiculously expensive amounts claiming she "just couldn't bear to part with it." Then why are you having a yard sale, lady? She did let me have this for $4 though.

Which has the added bonus of serving as a cleavage concealer. I love great big funky necklaces. This one was my mom's in the 70's:

and this one was my grandma's:

Sage loves them too and when I'm getting ready to go out he often tells me I should wear one. I rarely do though because they're so big and heavy and tend to get caught on things. Still, I like how they oversee my necklace rack and keep all the other necklaces in line.

Me and my lesbian friends. . .

This month has been unusually full of visits from friends and family. Sunday night my friends Terri and Jessie came over for dinner.

Terri was my best friend at summer camp (Peterkin) since junior high and Jessie was a counselor with us when we were in high school and college. The three of us hadn't been together in. . . 14 years? A lot can happen in that amount of time. Terri is a nurse in Raleigh, NC and Jessie is living in Long Beach and has her doctorate in psychology (and makes jewelry). Me? I'm just a boring housewife. But them? They're lesbians now. They probably were back then too but no one (including them) knew it. Terri and I lost contact for a few years because she didn't know how I'd react. What is this, 1950? I love them. They're fun.

The thing I'm liking about my 30s is that I now have friends from ten and twenty years ago. Suddenly, after spreading out across the world, many of us are reconnecting and I'm getting to find out where they've been, what they've become, how many kids they made and where they're living now. If we're lucky, the stars align and we cross paths in real life and get to hang out again (and sometimes watch our kids hang out, which is a trip.) It's those times that we remember why we liked each other in the first place. I can't wait to keep doing this with long lost friends. Imagine the stories we'll have to tell twenty years from now.

CRAFT: party at Handmade Galleries

What, it's Wednesday already? I haven't even blogged about Sunday. I need to catch up.

Sunday afternoon I took my mom to the Handmade galleries in Sherman oaks for the CRAFT: magazine issue launch hosted by Jenny Ryan and Cathy Callahan.

As soon as I arrived Jenny said, "You have got to see this!"

It's her friend's daughter decked out in one of my Smokey the Bear sundresses.

Seriously one of the most adorable kokoleo models ever.

The gallery was really nice and the turnout for the event was great - everyone was stitching up creatures and munching on cupcakes.

My mom, the quilter, took forever with her meticulous stitches .

and ended up with a cute little snakey. Sage made a glittery alien pickle monster and I made a quick little finger puppet with felt and glue which McKenna promptly disassembled.

(photo by Jenny Ryan)

It was a nice way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Johnny Phlapjacks visits the VanHorns

Last Monday we got an email from our long lost friend John saying he's be in town and wanted to see us. It had been 5 years since the last time we talked, wrote, or saw him so we were excited to catch up. Here's a picture of Erik and John circa 1995:

They were in a ska band called Sploosh the Woosh and I was a groupie. (I may actually have been dating John, not Erik, when this picture was taken.) John and I worked together at the Bistro Bistro Golly (really, that was the name.) Ahh, She-town days of old, those were some crazy times. John doesn't drink anymore, but he's still as goofy as ever.

We took him on the downtown Hollywood tour.

He even sang karaoke at the Pig and Whistle.

And he bought my pterodactyl hat. He's going wear it around NYC (where he lives) and tell everyone his friend KB - a clothing designer in L.A. - made it for him.

Long time, no blog.

There's been too much going on here lately to sit down and write a blog post. To combine it all into one post would be weird, so I'm going to write about them separately.

My mom is in town this week to get her biannual grandkid fix. She's been here long enough to miss the big blizzard that hit Columbus, Ohio and instead has been basking in the sunny SoCal weather. Time flew and tomorrow she flies home.

We've been spending our days shopping, sightseeing, and doing grandmotherly things like getting McKenna's picture taken with the Easter Bunny.

Sage was in kindergarten. Also, he's not fond of costumed freaks, unless of course he and his friends are the ones wearing the costumes. Here's a picture of his playdate on Friday:

On the weekend we hit a few yard sales. My mom was all excited to experience one of those fabric motherload sales I sometimes blog about, but alas, most of the ones we found were duds. I did find a few things though, but I'll save those to show you on Thrift Thursday.

Made by Monday - Distractions.

It's hard moving from one room to another. I keep finding cool things I packed away, projects I want to finish, and ones I want to start. Then I came across my box-o-yearbooks from junior high all the way up to when I was teaching junior high. Then I found my box-o-diaries from Shepherdstown that started when I moved into the house on Main Street and and wrote in until we moved to Savannah. That took up a good hour of my time. They were like primitive blogs, only juicier. Then I picked up these hats I'd been holding on to, matched them with these patches I'd had for years, and drew some trees to bring them all together. The results:

For the homeboy park ranger, and this:

because guns should only be used to shoot the pterodactyls.

Did I mention I'm starting a kokoleo men's line? Well now that I wrote that I actually have to do it. I've been mulling it over for a while. Occasionally at a show a guy will come by my stuff and ask, "Got anything for guys?" and I'm ashamed to tell them no. So I've been making some guy stuff - hats, shirts, etc. mostly pulling from my collection of hilarious patches.

Also, remember that Lonely Tree kick I was on? Well I'm over it, for now. Instead, I want to do these:

I call them Crowded Skylines.

Now, what was I doing? Oh yeah, moving stuff. Stop distracting me!

Things that are good. . .

My last few posts make it seem like I'm completely and unusually obsessed with fabric. I may be, but I have other things in my life that make me happy too. Here are a few.

#1 - All my life I always said when I grew up I wanted to have a boy and a girl and a dog and a cat and a house. Not a day goes by when I don't think, now I have everything I ever wanted. It's funny how I still find more to want though. Not kids or pets or houses this time, but good things to happen to the ones I have.

#2 - My husband is my best friend. It's a good thing too because we've been through a lot together these last 12 years. I look forward to Saturday nights in the garage when the kids are both in bed and it's just us two playing darts. We somehow never run out of things to talk about. Yet we can also hang out for hours working on our own things and never saying a word. That's fine too. He's interesting to have around.

#3 - Sage can read. I mean really read, with inflection and comprehension and everything. I think a big reason is all the signs signs everywhere the signs in our neighborhood and everywhere we go. Even the mountain has great big letters on it. It warms my heart to see him read to his sister and warms my heart even more to see how she looks at him when he reads to her. She thinks he's hilarious.

#4 - I have a studio. A space of my own to make things. When I start to complain about my lack of wall space/closets/shelves/outlets, I remind myself that I'm lucky to have my own room and I should make the most of it. I've moved almost everything into my new back porch studio and I think I'm going to love it better than my last one. Good lighting can make a world of difference.

#5 - I am happy, and only a little lonely. It's hard sometimes being so far away from family and our friends. I miss being part of a community like we were in when we lived in Shepherdstown. Living in L.A., it's not easy being a little fish in an ocean full of famous fish and young beautiful fish and fish who speak other languages. My fishbowl is my home where I'm raising my kids and making stuff. Every now and then I send out little snippets of the goings on in this house in the form of blog posts, photos, pillows, etc. - my messages in a bottle to the outside world. If I didn't have this outlet (literally, this plug in the wall) keeping me connected, I might be sad. But I'm not. I'm excited to see what will happen next and I'm happy to have someone - my boy, girl, dog, cat, husband and you - with whom to share it.

Diary of a Fabric Addict

I'm back! and feeling better. The fiery pit of hell that was my throat now just feels like a furball. I Zycammed and lozenged and Emergen-C'ed the bejeezus out of it to make it go away. Maybe I should give up sewing and become a doctor. Nahh. . . look at what I'd have to give up:

It's all relocated, folded, color coded, and grouped according to its texture and usage. You'd think I couldn't fit another piece of fabric in there but I can. Watch me! I found a rare Friday estate sale advertising "Sewing Items and Everything for the Quilter...ie: Fabric, Threads, Pin Cushions, tons of Notions" and after dropping Sage off at kindergarten, McKenna and I stopped by. Here's our haul:

Thread. I go through about 5 spools a week and I've been needing some new colors. Those were all the oldskool wooden spools, there were also some newer ones:

That there looks like a spool showdown! Pretty soon they'll start wielding needles. Watch out!

Uh oh - looks like someone forgot to return their "5-Day Loan Sample." Lucky me.

I love that one. You can click on it to see a larger view. In the windows are people talking, fighting?, drinking?, and there's one where a woman is giving a man a shirt and one with a man in a wheelchair. At least that's how I see it. They're all up for interpretation. I've been attracted to buildings and windows lately, but I'll save that for another post. Next!

Wheee! Sewing machines! It's from 1993, the year I graduated from high school. Does that make it vintage? Am I vintage? A few weeks ago a teenage girl in a thrift store asked me if the outfit she picked out was 80s enough (I guess I looked like I'd have knowledge of that era?) I told her yes, the pastel track suit was very Golden Girl-esque. She seemed happy with that answer and said she loved vintage clothing. Up until then I never considered pastel track suits as being vintage, just fugly. But I digress.

I bet some people would consider those prints to be pretty ugly. Not me! However, the gingham faux patchwork ones hurt your eyes if you stare at them long enough. Go on, do it. See? Next up, notions:

These are great big in real life. I love me some great big buttons.

The Sagittarian in me loves those centaurs.

When Sage saw the bag full of those little roses, he asked if he could eat them. Ha! He thought they were candy. Of course, I only let him have a few because I didn't want him to spoil his appetite.

Is it weird that I go to people's homes and buy their unwanted fabric, then take pictures of said fabric and gush over it like it's bars of gold? Eventually I'll cut into it all, turn it into something new and send it back out into the world. I can only hope that when we're all old and having estate sales that some kindred young spirit will be excited to find a vintage kokoleo hidden in the mix.

Caution: This post is contagious.

I've been bitten by the bug. My head hurts, my bones ache, and my throat feels like I've swallowed red hot razor blades. Fun!

Happiness is. . .

. . . a heap-o-fabric.

Made by Monday - Progress.

I moved my sewing machine table, machines, fabric and shelves. Now the task of folding, sorting, and organizing all this material and maybe even (gasp!) purging some. My mom is coming to visit next week. I should have saved this task for her. She's good at it.

This pile is about one foot high and six feet wide
Soft as a downy chick.
It's made from the fabric of forty million scraps
plus a few bolts of cloth in it.
It'd hold eight kids and Kali our dog (but I won't let her, because she's hairy)
and a kitty we keep well fed.
I don't get much sleep but I have a lot of fun
on my patchwork fabric bed!

(John Denver fans will get it.)

I'm moving out!

Adios old studio!
This weekend I'm gonna do it. Or at least most of it. Or maybe some of it. Remember way back in October when I blogged about the new studio we had built? I have yet to fully move in. There are a million different reasons (excuses) for this. There were all the winter craft shows that consumed my weekends, then the holidays, plus it was cold, then there was the HOLE - that was the biggest hangup - what to do about the HOLE. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the HOLE to show you. What is this HOLE, you ask? Well, it seems the previous owners decided to cut a HOLE in the floor of backporch, fill it with gravel and install a fountain. By the time we got the place though it was just a HOLE full of gravel. Shortly after the new room was built we filled the HOLE with cement. Then left it alone for a few months while we decided what to do next.

We got this bright idea that we'd turn it into art. Floor art! We'd make a mosaic! After numerous trips to Lowes, Home Depot, tile stores, etc., we couldn't find the tiles we envisioned (and could afford). Twice I ordered cool looking tiles off ebay and both times the sellers sent the wrong tiles. This HOLE was starting to become a monkey on our back. A big HOLY monkey. Finally one night, after a few gin and tonics we said Screw it! Let's just do something with what we have and get this over with. Here's the end result:

Meh. I don't love it. I don't hate it either. We adopted the motto: It's better than a hole! and joked that we should start a company called EriKB Construction where we offer to fill holes with random shards of crap for people.

I won't even go into the part where Erik poured polyeurathane on it to make it shiny but instead it turned brown and I painstakingly pealed off the polyeurathane one night.

AAAAnyway. I got it all off. And, it's better than a hole. You can't throw a rug over a hole.

No more excuses. This weekend I'm moving in. No starting any new projects until I've relocated. No yard sale excursions (okay maybe just this one, it's close). No camping trips. McKenna needs to move out of our crowded bedroom and into her own space (my old studio). Sniff. I'm gonna miss her. Maybe this is the reason why I haven't been so quick to move.

Here's a before picture:

Stay tuned for the after.

Thrift Thursday - The fruit of Joshua Tree.

On the main road that runs through the town of Joshua Tree I spotted two thrift stores right near the entrance to the national park. I told Erik, "You know I'm not leaving this place until I get to go in there." Although he's not a fan of thrift shopping, he obliged and even found himself a funky Tiki shirt. Lookie what I found:

Check out the oldskool Tigger, before he got all Disneyfied.

That is actually a smock shirt that ties in the back. I might wear it, but I probably won't cook in it.

Whoa, look at those freaky animals! I like the boy and girl fabric best. But not better than this:

Now that's the kinda print that sends my heart a-flutter. I loved it so much that as soon as I came home I made two toddler sundresses out of it:

each with a tiny toy that lives in the pocket:

The second most exciting fabric score was this:

which inspired me to make these:

Each with a matching heart in its pocket.

Wait! I'm not done yet. there was also this haul:

It was all folded like this when I bought it. I thought the mushrooms were awesome but the sleepy kitten/home sweet home prints were kind of dumb and the patchwork print was rather faded. But when I got home and unfolded it all I realized that's actually the backside of the patchwork print fabric and the mushroom fabric also has panels of owls and butterflies. Owls and Butterflies, people! I made this today:

Last but not least, I also got this:

Which I turned into this:
I love how this time last week I had no clue this fabric existed and now I have all this. Now, excuse me while I go see what else is out there. . .