Road Trip

Tomorrow my friends and I are headed up to Warrensburg, NY for what is promised to be "the World's Largest Garage Sale". I am sure I will have many pictures of the fun that will (obviously) be had.

Tags:

• personal-ramblings

Craft Challenge 1-Uniform

One of the nicest things about being in a craft collective (besides sharing the price of craft fair tables) is sharing ideas and getting inspired. Our collective, the Department of Craft, thought it would be nice to have a monthly Craft Challenge. We each wrote down a word, put them all into a hat and one of us picked out the challenge. The plan was that each of us would then make something based on that word and present it to the group at the end of the month. September's Challenge was "Uniform".

The purpose of this challenge is not to compete but to really think and flex our crafty muscles. I know that I get really bogged down by making things to sell that I don't make things for the joy of making them. It really felt nice to sit down and think about what I could do without worrying if it would sell or who my target market would be. No, this is purely for fun and inspiration.

Last night we met, ate many cookies and showed off our work. Here are some of the projects:

Adam (also known as my husband) made a cycling hat out of camo fabric. It looked really great and he thinks he's going to start making more hats. I swear I'm not just saying that because we're married.


Jenn took it in a different direction and thought of the word uniform as "sameness". I love that she used tampons. They really are perfectly shaped.


Lori took one uniform (Girl Scouts) and made it into another one (Riot Grrrl). That bird is just the cutest.


And finally, my take on uniforms was that everyone has a uniform of sorts. If Adam and I were dolls, this is what we would be wearing in the package. Note the one pant leg rolled up on hid black pants for biking.


At the end of our crafty night, we picked a new challenge for October: "light". Hmmm... so many ideas already. Oh, and if anyone wants to play along, send me a picture! It will be fun.

Tags:

• DOC

Beads, Beads, Beads!

I was never really into jewelry-making until I discovered the world of vintage beads. Lately I have been obsessed with vintage plastic and bakelite beads. Here is a bunch of my newest finds.

Tags:

• thrift-scores

D.O.C.

I am a member of design collective/underground spy organization Department of Craft. We are lucky enough to have a very talented photographer within our ranks, agent Enid Crow and we often pose for D.O.C. group photos.
Here is our newest one:

That's me on the left! Oh, i shouldn't have told you that. Now I have to kill you.
To find out more about the D.O.C. and the other five members, got to click here. To see more of Enid Crows, fabulous photography, click here.

the science of sleep

I am so excited to see this new movie by Michel Gondry. He creates the most amazing dreamlike worlds. If only I could live in a home made of felt or corrugated cardboard. I am not a big fan of expensive special effects and computer animation so I love that Gondry uses stop animation and builds elaborate stage-like sets for his movies and music videos.
If you are like me and you can't get enough of Gondry and live in the New York area, you can see some installations from the film (as well as some strange, lovely little things he has made for his various girlfriends) at Deitch Projects on 76 Grand Street from September 6th-30th. I fell in love with the handsewn plush representations of animals and objects and the corresponding screens that showed them coming to life in film. Amazing!

thrift scores

Here are some of my latest thrift scores:

All of these buttons were from a trip to Stormville. Unfortunately it was in the middle of a hurricane-like storm (nothing can keep me away from thrifting!) so I didn't get much that day but I did score a ton of these beauties!


These plates are a mix of recent finds from Stormville and the Salvation Army in Port Chester, NY. I love these little plates with floral patterns and silver leaf and suddenly I see them everywhere. Lately I want everything to be pink and blue. I love colors that look like frosting.

Tags:

• thrift-scores

Still Life

One of the things I love to do in my house is to create little still lifes of different found objects. Here's one that I set up this afternoon.

This is sitting on my kitchen table right now. The jade plant is in a milk glass vase i had been using as a toothbrush holder, the painting was found on the side of the road (I love how crazy the perspective is), the cake stand is from Crate and Barrel , the beautful little bird vase was a wedding gift from two of our friends and the greens I plucked from a tree in the park.
It's not really hard to do. I like to group uneven amounts of objects (3 pieces on the cake stand) and have something for height (the painting). If you look around your house, I bet there a tons of weird things you can put together.
Now I just need to find another thing to hold out toothbrushes.

Wanted

Lately, I have been salivating over this little table from Kartell. The table top is so beyond beautiful and delicate, like lace made out of plastic. I have this dream of buying iconic designer pieces for my apartment; it's kind of like buying art. We got a red Uten-silo as a wedding present and now I want to add to the collection! Well, I guess one thing does not a collection make but I'm working on it.

Jennifer Vanderpool

Designsponge posted about artist Jennifer Vanderpool today and I am so in love with her work. I love artists who use crafty, "feminine" materials in new ways. Also, there is something about those really intricate bundt pans and molds that I enjoy. I love when food looks too formal to eat. There is not enough of that anymore.

Last night my friend Sarah and I went to a party at Treehouse, an adorable store that sells DIY, independent (and mostly local) designer's work. It's right in my old neighborhood, on Graham Avenue between Frost and Withers in Williamsburg. It's one of those stores you can spend hours in, finding all sorts of little fun and gorgeous things. My favorite part of the store is the knitted tree! I love when people use ordinary craft materials to make something amazing! They even had a tiny little knitted bonsai.
If you are in the neighborhood, check it out.
Oh and there is also a really cute vintage store that I think is called Marmalade across the street. Why do neighborhoods always get so happening when I leave them?

My mom and I had an impromptu photo shoot in her garden a few weeks ago and we took a picture of stag, one of my favorite bunnies. I love him so much that I don't think I can part with him anymore.
I started making rabbits a year or so ago because of my feelings about my real live rabbit, Potato. Rabbits are so different from cats and dogs and sometimes it's hard to tell what they're thinking: they are so silent and mysterious. My rabbit can go from loving and snuggly to petulant and bratty in seconds and I love it about him because I don't totally understand what he wants from me. Anyway, without overly analyzing this too much, I wanted to make some "damaged" rabbits that are just slightly off but no less loveable.

moments later, this guy showed up! cute!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! My name is Kayte. My fledgling business is called Love Forever and I make all sorts of fun little things like pin cushions, cards and floppy eared rabbits. This blog is intended to be equal parts of what I am working on and what inspires me. Oh, and I do a lot of thrifting wth my friends so there will be a lot of pictures of thrift scores.
I wanted to start a blog because there are so many things I see every day that inspire me and I wanted to be able to gather them all up into one home. My mind is usually racing with millions of little things and ideas, so here they are for both you and me.
Eventually I would like to expand this blog and have craft projects and decorating tips. There are so many things I want to do! I am committed to updating at least every other day so keep reading and I promise it will be fun.

Tags:

• personal-ramblings