carrie kim

Today on the way to the market

I realized two things. 
The first is that I am, at times, completely delusional.  Spring has not arrived, no matter how you look at it.  Really what was I thinking? One purple sky plus the March editions of a few magazines and a bunch of cadbury cream eggs do not equal spring.  Seriously, if it were spring would it look like this?

No, no it would not.  And if it were spring would I have just come in from shoveling my driveway.  I don't think so.  I'd like to think this is a case of optimism not delusion.  Of course I would- I'm delusional.

The second is that I've let myself go.  Again.  It turns out I never really have that firm of a grip to begin with. I thought about taking a picture and showing you but I decided that was a bad idea.  While stopped at a light I looked down and saw that I was wearing a dark blue sweat shirt(with paint all over the sleeves) my black gap puffer vest and brown ill fitting corduroys, ill as in a little too tight and a bit too baggy in all the wrong places and a waist that is too high and not at all in a cute way like these Seven jeans.

Do I dress in my sleep?  or with my eyes closed?  I don't even remember getting dressed today, so maybe I do.  I also noticed in my rear view mirror that my hair is turning gray.  OK, truth is it's been turning gray since my mid twenties but I haven't been to any fancy schmancy salons lately so now you can see the gray.  A fancy salon is not an option right now, so I bought this. 

Isn't she pretty? I've never colored my hair myself but I don't think it'll be too hard because right now my hair is cut like an English fella.  No offense English fellas :)
Well, I better get to sleep, I've got a busy day tomorrow. Happy Wednesday!

a pretty purple morning

Spring is coming or maybe even already here; depending on how you look at it :)  This morning when we got home from picking Big E up from work it wasn't night anymore.  It was purple.

This picture doesn't really do it justice. The sky looked magnificent and was so good to see after a long gray winter.  I was starting to forget that the sky could go purple or pink or orange.  What a nice reminder.
Here's to a productive week everyone!
but not so productive that we don't have time to take pictures of the sky or the dishes:)

New Line- Hello Happy

Or maybe called Old School.  I haven't decided yet.

I'm designing a new line for spring that is more affordable than my previous pieces.  My designs are primarily for wall pieces.  I think I'm going to use colors similar to my Stripes and Dots "Keep it Together!" desktop piece that I made last year.  I'm using peg board and steel and I'm thinking about using some cotton canvas on some of the pieces.  We'll see how that goes. 

I want to get my new items in my shop soon, maybe the first week of March.  Maybe?  Here are some photos of Stripes and Dots.  What do you think of the colors.  I may go a tad more primary with them and I'm thinking of thicker stripes. 

Stripes and Dots "Keep it Together!" desktop

a trip into the city

I drove into the city to see about some metal.  I found a good source and now I just have to finish my designs. 

I've heard this city was great once.  I wonder if it will be again.

Illustration Friday- Theory

Sally had a theory that living in the suburbs would be easier and more relaxing than the city.  She was starting to reconsider. 

Middle

Taken the middle of the week, during the middle of February in the middle of Michigan.

The sun was out and the sky was blue, both are rare this time of year.  So I left the dishes in the sink and the clothes on the floor and spent the afternoon taking pictures:) 

Happy winter everyone!  Spring is just around the corner. Not the next corner but maybe the one after that:)

and a Valentine for me :)

Well this isn't really a valentine at all, but it seemed like the right title to follow up my last post.  I recently went home to visit family and while I was there I went in a lovely paper store that also carries art supplies. 

I miss living in a city that has art stores and paper stores and record stores, but I shouldn't complain because I have a donut shop, and a darn good one at that. 
Can you believe that this beautiful box of 48 Sennelier oil pastels was on the clearance table?  And marked way way down.  I love oil pastels, they are my favorite favorite thing to draw with and Sennelier are my favorite oil pastels.  Oil pastels, well all art supplies really, are expensive and I haven't bought any since we moved into this money pit our lovely new home:) So I bought these immediately.

Aren't they pretty, all new and neat:)  I do wish that in all my excitement I had thought to buy something to put them on.  I have a lot of drywall around here.  That would work but it would be a mess to move around and heavy and hard to frame or store. No, I think I better order something from DickBlick and have my pal FedEx bring it over. 
Not much else going on here.  It's cold and it's snowing but that's nothing new. 

Does anyone else think it's odd to have grapevines in Michigan?  It probably isn't, I don't know much about gardening or grapes, but I was surprised to see them when we bought the house.  We were told that they didn't taste good and were more for looks than anything else, but that was a lie.  They were delicious!
I wonder if I should have pruned them or done something to them, what do you think?   Are grapes high maintenance?  If so, these grapes are in trouble.

Illustration Friday - choose

Love

Every year
         month
         day
         moment there is a choice.

It is the unchanging variable
          the uniform promise 
          the terminable sacrifice
          the savory surrender of You or Me?

 

 

note- I edited this post on February 15th
This is what I originally  wrote to accompany my IF
I posted this as a sweet valentine to Big E and substituted a simple little poem, which meant the same thing.  The valentine was given, accepted and now the day has passed. 

Washing the dishes all day long

I just figured out how to manually adjust the exposure on my camera. I can't believe I've never tried this before.  It's a huge improvement over the automatic setting. 

I also learned that if you stop to take photos of all your chores it takes twice as long to finish them.

But they seem to go by faster.  Efficiency for enjoyment seems like a fair trade to me:)

Maybe tomorrow I'll break out my camera manual and shoot some outdoor chores.  Sounds pretty exciting doesn't it?
Have a happy tomorrow and one today too!

I may need new clothes soon

bigger, roomier, with elastic waistbands :)

There is a donut shop very very close to my house.  It's almost right across the street and it's open 24 hours. 

They might might be the best donuts in the world.  They are definitely the best donuts in my own little world.  There was once a donut that I'm sure was better. In all fairness no donut can really ever compete with the donuts my mom used to make from scratch in our apartment kitchen when I was a little girl.

   
But these come close.  Especially very late at night or very early in the morning, however you want to look at it, when they're fresh out of the ovens.  Did I mention how close this shop is and that it's open 24 hours.  And that Big E and I have started to think that it's not only OK but really sensible to eat donuts very late at night or very early in the morning. Something like a very very early breakfast .  Well, we just had a lovely early breakfast of blueberry cake donuts with a side of original glazed donuts and now it's time for bed.

good night :)

Stitches Become Circles

I was pretty excited about participating in Illustration Friday and I still am but I haven't done as much participating as I imagined.  I did sit down to give my Stitches illustration a honest go.  But things didn't go exactly like I planned.  My little E woke up early from her nap and in the way that things seem to happen when you have a two year old, I became we and stitches became circles. 

I think we may have created a masterpiece :) 

Making Days

Julia Freund made my day when she passed on this nice award to me:)  I always enjoy looking at her blog and illustrations.  They make me smile and think so generally make my day:) I had a hard time narrowing down the list to only 5 blogs.  I would like to pass this back to Julia, but I don't think your supposed to do that, and to Jen at BeeBeeMod (she makes the MOST adorable things EVER) but I don't think I should do that either because Julia already gave her the award. And also to a couple of Sarahs I know but they don't have blogs so that won't work either. 

Here's my list.  I hope they have time to accept.  These are blogs that I regularly visit and also if I won the lottery I would go on a huge shopping spree and empty out there shops:) (yours too Jen, my little E would look adorable in this)

I would like to pass the "You make my day-Award" to

Satsuma Press

Mod Mom Furniture

the Scent of Water

Kitty Genius

Shim and Sons

"You make my day-Award" works like this:
1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the "You Make my Day Award" logo with a link to the post that I wrote. (Optional)
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

Julia Freund made my day when she passed on this nice award to me:)  I always enjoy looking at her blog and illustrations.  They make me smile and think so generally make my day:) I had a hard time narrowing down the list to only 5 blogs.  I would like to pass this back to Julia, but I don't think your supposed to do that, and to Jen at BeeBeeMod (she makes the MOST adorable things EVER) but I don't think I should do that either because Julia already gave her the award. And also to a couple of Sarahs I know but they don't have blogs so that won't work either. 

Here's my list.  I hope they have time to accept.  These are blogs that I regularly visit and also if I won the lottery I would go on a huge shopping spree and empty out there shops:) (yours too Jen, my little E would look adorable in this)

I would like to pass the "You make my day-Award" to

Satsuma Press

Mod Mom Furniture

the Scent of Water

Kitty Genius

Shim and Sons

"You make my day-Award" works like this:
1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the "You Make my Day Award" logo with a link to the post that I wrote. (Optional)
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.