Katie Makes A Topiary

My friend Katie as been crafty today.

Where Are My Trick Or Treaters?

Halloween Bowling

Halloween bowling from Ruth.

Be Afraid, Very Afraid

Happy Halloween! Here are some tricks and treats.



A little goblin in his sweater.



Someone woke up the witch!



A treat for you.

Scary Bobble And Pumpkin Heads

The paper mache Mr. Pumpkin Head that Duane (co-worker and friend) made for ME last year. Isn't it just great!



My husband collects Bobble Heads, scary and otherwise.

Worth Every Penny

Tom Arma’s baby costumes are making me giggle out loud. Unfortunately, it looks like most of them are sold out - and I can see why! Baby pea in the pod costume. Mermaid, Baby Chili Pepper. The monkey, elephant are my favorites, here is a slide show of a few and more here and here.

Spooky At Phirebrush

Spooky wallpaper by Jason Krieger.

Broken dreams by Brandon Bradley.

Green behemoth fly image by texture junkie.

Wow Gifts From NM

This is the cutest thing - Snowbiz Table & Chair from Neiman Marcus.

How 'bout His & Hers Custom Photobooth?! Or a tree sculpture!

Bembos Zoo

Bembos Zoo

Test Your Font

Test you font at Typetester. "The Typetester is an online application for comparison of the fonts for the screen." Very nice.

Thinking With Type

Dutch type library

Gif your type right from fontshop.

Have FontShop make a digital font from your handwriting.

And not to forget this fun little thing, Who are you? This was me.

Bag Borrow Or Steal (It)

Look, what deal on an Hermes Birkin Bag in Orange, at this price I doubt that it is real?! I watched a piece on VH1 the other day about the manner in which the rich and famous spend their hard-earned money, ok, I use that in the loosest of terms.

Which led me to ask my good friend, Katie, a cool, 30-something with exquisite taste "What is up with those Birkin Bags?" Who and Why would someone pay $23,000 on some leather stitched together (ok, and some dye). She confessed that if she had the money she would probably purchase one. So she sent me the site that for a monthly fee you can borrow a designer purse, then return it. I wonder, just wonder, if those rich and famous are actually just renting them

Big Mama, Big Daddy

The computer in my studio is hardly ever on anymore. It is in sad shape, in need of cleaning up and cleaning out. It is so slow that I can't stand to boot it up. But sometimes, I find wonderful files there. This is one of my grandparents, Big Mama (she has on the headband) and Big Daddy. That must be a total "southern" thing to call your grandparents. She was the light. He was wonderful, gentle. They loved to take road trips. I miss them but they are always with me.

Photobooth

I think we should pick a day, go the photobooth and post a "photobooth" day. Or maybe that could be a future Self-Portrait Tuesday challenge.

Here is one we made for D on his 50th birthday for a tag. Note to self: wear makeup before visiting another photobooth.

My Favorite Season

I am so fickled. Each season that is upon us, THAT season is my favorite! I am in love with fall right now. And only have two of these little wreaths for the white china cupboard. I should go out and find three matching ones.

Small World, Getting Smaller

I love that world map feature on sitemeter. It is fascinating to know that all of us are connected via the internet and the love of an idea of creating. Isn't technology a wonderful thing!

Thank You Fiona Chan

Fiona of Leap of Faith, sent me the sweetest ATC today! I had told her how much I love her ATC set on Flickr and she offered to trade. I did not have anything worthy to trade but she sent me one anyway!

Finally

I finally hung the art I purchased from Tara via Ebay. It only took me a couple of months but I found the perfect location.



New inspirations on my wall. One of the wonderful papers Amy sent me, gift tags from Amy and Cassi, a wonderful note from Cassi, German postcard from Ruth.

Illustration Friday - Remote

Telling your 14-year-old to do anything can be very much like living on a remote island and talking to yourself. Illustration Friday, illustration by Kim Carney.

Very Blue Favorites

I know I have something better to do beside play around with Flickr toys, but I started and I can't stop - Mosaic Maker.

My Favorite Flickr Animals

Leaves Falling From Ceiling

I finally got around to creating my ceiling decoration. Not quite what I thought, but it is fun for a couple of days. Found some brown and dark red lanterns at Target, and strung leaves on white thread. I think I should have used fishing line. With a little breeze, it is magic.

I was going to sew through the leaf, and hang them about every 3 feet. All the leaves had long stems on them and decided to just tie on each leaf by the stem. I used a very long length of string and was very careful not to tangle. I have been hanging goodies off my ceiling for a long, long time. I hang all thread and fishing line with white thumb tacks into the ceiling, but realized the other day that the only reason I can use so many thumbtacks over and over again is that I have textured ceiling, so you never see the holes. If you have a smooth ceiling, I don't advise a bunch of thumbtacks. I have thought of building a grid into my ceiling, with little hooks. I could have a grid to hang from and I would have to use the thumbtacks.







Last year I hung a couple of branches, very carefully and securely from the ceiling. It was for a party and I liked the branches so much, I hung more. At first I superglued little artificial pink cherry blossoms and carefully cut them off later. I hung little handmade flags from them. I also cut some fun leaves out of colorful paper and glued those on. Then the branches had to go and I moved on. But I would like to do that again, it was fun.

Getting Hitched By Hatch

A friend and co-worker is getting married soon so we get to look at cool samples and give our opinion on her invitation. I was blown away by these yummy treats of letter press samples she received from her friend, Brad Vetter, who works for hatchshowprint.com.

I quickly said "I do" for the life-size poster invitation, with a scored bottom quarter for the rsvp. I will post the final invitations, I can not wait to see what they come up with!

Blog Wear

My friend Sherry had such a great idea, "Wear Your Blog" Day.

Another Good Bush Joke

Another good Bush joke from Melissa in Perth, Australia.

Skeleton

How can something look so delicate and be so strong? This is a climbing hydrangea petal but looks like a fan coral.

Bewitched Treats From Texas

How does this very creative blogger, mother of two boys, with a thriving craft business, who can fix a toilet still have time to put together the most delicious treats, perfectly wrapped and decorated with the cutest little shrinky dink witch dangle and hand punched gift card? It must be witchcraft! I am the recipient of bewitched Halloween treats from Amy. I love all the gifts, Thank you!

Sweetly Said

I really try to read, really read, many blogs. Unfortunately, I would rather look at the pictures and click links. But sometimes I start reading someones personal thoughts made public through their blog, and I can't stop. That is what happens when I visit A Sweet Life. Here is one of her sweet entries:

Living a sweet life...I often think it's about being open to life, letting everything that touches me teach me. That's what I want for my life but often find it easier to philosophize about than live. I want to stand in the center of life without wiggling away from intense feelings of joy or overwhelming feelings of fear and grief, to just be still in the unfolding of life and to learn to trust this crazy, unpredictable unfolding. To somehow find peace in the unknown and acceptance of the messiness, to look within and beyond to a place I used to know but have unknowingly burried beneath shoulds and should nots, a place that still lies underneath all the worries and wrinkles, somewhere below the memories of life, a place deeper than soul, and once there to rest and know with certainty that I have come home. And hopefully I can use this little corner of the cyberworld as a witness to that unfolding. As my fabulous friend Kel says, this is my blank canvas. I choose to paint the unfolding of my beautiful life upon its bright newness.

Sprout Home Store Window Shopping

I love to visit design sponge and see what is going on out there. I have not had time to search/surf the internet lately for stuff I want to own (but don't have the room or money).

Crack and egg and grow

People Pillow

I love this square saucer - Grass Cup with saucer

Roll of plummy paper

Blue and brown elipse vase

Nice way to recycle, Rubber vases

Self-Portrait Tuesday 10.18

Picking grapes, mowing on the lowest setting and cutting the remaining hydrangeas today. This is my self-Portrait, de-leafing hydrangeas - the perfect fall day. It is bittersweet but wonderful, as this time of the year always is. The colors, the grapes, the end of hydrangeas and flowers and the promise of winter to come. Each season has it's highlights and fall for me will always be grapes and many vases of hydrangeas to give away. I did press a few hydrangea petals this years, Montana Raven reminded me to do that.

Wicked Little Pumpkin

I made a mess of this one. The lettering was too thin and I had to dig out smaller drill bits for the Dremel. It still glows from the inside.

Fall Walkin'

Illustration Friday - Cold

I am skating on thin ice but decided to reclaim these old illustrations from COLD storage, bbrrrrrrr, that was too many years ago. Travel ski special and Holiday Shopping. Illustration Friday, illustrations by Kim Carney.

Illustration Friday - Lost (time)

Lost. This might be a stretch, but this is what I thought when I saw the prompt LOST. Life has gone by so quickly in last 15 years, I feel like I lost some years in there somewhere. When I think of myself, I think of myself as 35 not 50 closing in on me. Illustration Friday, illustration by Kim Carney. Time lost because I am having so much fun! so busy! All the above.

Self-Portrait Tuesday 10.11

I managed to fit in a root canal this morning. Now will spend the rest of the day packing and unpacking. I am coming in with the dirty and my husband is leaving and needs his ironed. This is part of the Self-Portrait Tuesday series challenge of documenting the mundane.

Society Of Newspaper Design - Houston

I have not been to one of these conferences in 14 years. It was a whirlwind trip of seeing old friends and met some very nice new ones. One of the most interesting sessions I attended was hosted by illustrator Federico Jordan: Through Another's Eyes, Illustrating Across Cultures. He was very charming and talented and has a blog in spanish. Also In February 2004 he called friends and colleagues with the purpose of asking them about their relationship with art direction in their illustration work process and their perception in the future of our industry, these interviews can be found here.

I also attended a session in making Stylebooks, another with Andrea Levy of The Plain Dealer: Golden Photo Illustration - I found this one very interesting. I take lots of photos in the same theme she does, but she does something extraordinary with hers. Susen Schult of Svenska Dagblaget session and Janet Froelich, Creative Director of The New York Times Magazine and T: The New York Times Style Magazine: From 9/11 to Haute Couture. An interesting discussion about branding for the New "T" Style Magazine.

The opening reception was held at Houston Museum of Natural Science. Each exhibit of the museum offered different cuisine, lots of margaritas and wine. A kick-ass dessert bar in the gem and mineral exhibit, with on tower of moving liquid chocolate over biscuits and fruit. Need I say more? Before cocktails we walked through The Cockrell Butterfly Center. Wonderful and magical. The weather was perfect Texas autumn, blue skies and slightly cool breeze. Looking out to the horizon from my hotel room I felt homesick. And everyone from the waitress to complete strangers being so kind, chatty, friendly. It is always hard for me to leave.

Must See DVD

Mom and I settled in to watch a couple of movies today. 'The Story Weeping Camels' a must see DVD. It is different, but the scenery and peek into Mongolia's Gobi desert is worth the watch.

"National Geographic's The Story of the Weeping Camel is an enchanting film that follows the adventures of a family of herders in Mongolia's Gobi region who face a crisis when the mother camel unexpectedly rejects her newborn calf after a particularly difficult birth. Uniquely composed of equal parts reality, drama, and magic, this film is a window into a different way of life and the universal terrain of the heart."

Another DVD my mom rented that is totally worth watching is Sony's Winged Migration.

Congress is ready to consider budget bill in October that would let oil drilling rigs into the pristine Arctic Refuge on the northern coast of Alaska. If you have an issue with this, the Audubon has a TAKE ACTION page for Protect the Artic Refuge or go directly to Artic Refuge Action here.

See caribou in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And visit Save Our Environment.

Hello From Houston

I thought I would have time to call and visit with Charlotte and WordyBird. But since I have landed in Houston it has been a whirlwind of cocktails parties, sessions, award banquets and meeting old friends and making new ones.

Illustration Friday - Float

Two just came out of me. Illustration Friday is Float. Illustration by Kim Carney.



And floating in the sky.

Natural Beauty

I have been decorating with dried seed pods, weeds with cute and interesting little seed pods, fallen sticks with lichen, and marvelous bunches of oak leaves. I really do love this time of year and I forget how much. So I surprised and tickled all over again when I start discovering how beautiful nature is, even when preparing for winter. For some wonderful fall colors look here, here and here, flickr fall group.