Pies Made with Love

Today, Escher and I are making some pumpkin pies. One is for our Thanksgiving dinner and the other is for the homeless and needy. We're participating in a really wonderful thing called Atlanta's Pie Patrol. We're going to bake it up then drop it off at Young Blood in Virginia Highlands. The Pie Patrol will then make sure all the homemade treats get to the people at the Salvation Army Metro Atlanta to help feed the homeless and needy this Thanksgiving holiday. If you're in the Atlanta area and can bake a pie, this is such a great way to give back.

You can drop it off at either Young Blood (636 N. Highland Ave. NE) or Force Marketing (3525 Piedmont Rd. NE Building 8, Suite 720). Since, they don't have a large refrigerator don't bring pies that need to be kept cold. Please, see all the details here:
https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaPiePatrol

Remember, to be thankful for what you have and make sure to share the love. I plan to bake my pie using extra love and blessings and I hope you do to! You have until noon tomorrow...so go!

Best,
Kacee

Indie Craft Experience is pretty cool.

Since their popup shop in Criminal Records last holiday season I've followed the girls of the Indie Craft Experience. Last year's Christmas' gifts were significantly cooler thanks to this cool Popup shop. Meet the ladies of ICE:

How cute are these two? 

                                                                              (Image from ICE website)
Christy Patterson and Shannon Mulkey founded The Indie Craft Experience in 2005. They also organize Wedding Day Hooray and Salvage. As a developing crafter and art entrepreneur I aspire to be a cool as these girls. Their annual Holiday Popup shop is a keenly curated and extremely shop-able selections of art and goods. This year the girls moved into a new space at, 1390 Mclendon Ave. Candler Park, Georgia. In addition to there holiday season popup, they have the Indie Craft Experience's "Holiday Shopping Spectacular". The "Shopping Spectacular" is a weekend event happing now (Nov. 23rd and 24th) at Ambient Plus Studios in Atlanta.

I wanted to find out more about ICE so when they asked for volunteers to stuff gift bags I jumped at an opportunity to help out. I joined a cool and diverse group of vendors, volunteers and friends who gathered Thursday night to get ready for the big "Shopping Spectacular". I must admit a small part of me went just to check out the gift bag's swag. I'm happy I did because it was a fun night filled with cookies and a couple of Christmas beers.

The bags themselves were worth getting there before they open Saturday or Sunday and standing in line (they only give them out to the first people). The bags are credited to:  http://littlethingsstudio.com/

and https://www.etsy.com/shop/thimblepress.  There was a black one and a red one and, both designs were adorable. I took home the black design since it had woodland creatures on it (they gave us all one- I did not steal it):

One of the items I stuffed was this handcrafted soap made locally by "Soapzilla. This honey and beeswax soap was one of my favorite pieces of swag. It not only has an amazing Dinosaur on the packaging but it smells really fresh.

While stuffing gift bags I met a super cool vendor named Lucy Ricketts. She's an illustrator and does the most amazing lumber jack prints. I'm a huge fan the print on her business card as well (shown bellow). I will probably end up collecting a lot of her stuff. Make sure to check out more of her work at http://www.lucyricketts.com/ .

(Image stolen from business cards)

Yesterday I went to their "Shopping Spectacular" event. It was amazing and I wanted pretty much everything. The vendors were cool, artistic, and super skilled. I collected cards to form my best of list. To be fair I was with a two year old so I missed some of the booths but, I had a hard time choosing from all of the booths I did see. Here's my "Best of ICE Holiday Shopping Spectacular" shot:

While there I got a couple of Christmas gifts and, picked up something for myself. Ladies and Gentleman meet my new, vintage Dooney & Bourke. I picked it up from Lily & Lucille-Vintage and Antiques. It was love at first sight and the girls who run this curated vintage booth are adorable. For an off-holiday fix of some of their other amazing vintage finds you can visit their booth at the Queen of Hearts store in Alpharetta.

Speaking of favorites, I discovered this artist who makes super-amazing, clay robots. Collectively, my family decided we'll purchase one of his large robot creations in the near future. Michael Klapthor not only makes these amazing sculptures but, he teaches at Callanwolde. Make sure to check out his work here: http://www.mklapthor.com/.

(I stole this image from his Facebook page)

At the top of my Christmas wish list is any of Heather Lund's Wes Anderson screen prints. It's everything I love; Wes Anderson, art, and screen printing. Well done, Heather. You should also check out her Scoutmob Shoppe. I want all of them (this is not the best quality picture but, trust me they're good):

(Stollen from the internets)

This Holiday Popup is one of my new favorite holiday traditions. So, find the Indie Craft Experience on Facebook to stay updated on what these two will do next. If you hurry you can still make the 'Shopping Spectacular" (ends today at 6pm) at Ambient plus Studio. If you can't do that in few hours it has left, no worries you still have over a month to shop the Popup in Candler Park
(open until December 30). I hope you find something you love or the perfect gift for your loved ones.

Have the best day!

* All information was gathered via booth chatting or internet stalking so let me know if anything is inaccurate. ;)

Now you can find me on Etsy!

I've been so productive lately that I've decided to open up an Etsy shop. The store is still very new so it needs some improvements but, it's an exciting start! I want to thank everyone who supported me especially my wonderful husband.

I hope you like my new work.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Kaceesix

Business Cards

I just received my new mini-cards from Moo.com. I love them! I choose a package using my own photos and cropped in on five of my recent collages. They're way cooler than regular business cards. Here's five reasons why:

1. Being able to put my artwork on the card allow those I hand it to have a sample of my work. Being an artist, I find this to be pretty handy.

2. I can ask the person I giving it to which card they prefer. Since, each of the five cards is a bit different it gives me feel for their ascetic. Maybe, I have a similar piece or one in the same series that he or she might like?

3. They are super luxe (it even says so in the product name). The mini-cards have a heavy paper weight and feel expensive. You can also add a custom stripe through the center of your cards. I have a bright blue stripe running through mine, it's awesome. (Not seem in picture)

4. Everyone has a place to tuck a mini card. Ladies may have a small clutch. It makes sense.

5. They are unusual. People remember unusual things.

How to make a Captain Barnacles, Octonauts costume.

My son is obsessed with the Octonauts and so this year his costume was a no brainer. I choose to have him be Captain Barnacles because I had a good idea of how to pull it off pretty inexpensively. It also allowed me to mix in some store bought items which cut down on my sewing load.

I bought a thermal shirt from Target and he already had matching jeans from H&M. I made a belt, hat, and collar out of felt using glue to put together the pieces. I used a winter hat that fit him well to get a general shape for the "ears".  I created the "zipper" at the shirt collar with a bit more glued felt. To complete the look I painted the boots with blue fabric paint. I free handed pattern pieces so it's definitely not perfect but, it has personality.

I made my accessories out of the felt squares you can get at any craft or fabric store. I cut the pieces out and use Elmer's glue to put them together. Don't be afraid to be heavy with the glue, it dries clear and stiffens the felt.

I bought some basic boots at Target and painted them with fabric paint. Make sure you leave at least a day or two for this to dry.

The belt comes together. I doubled up the blue felt for more stability (I bought a yard of the blue felt since I need so much). I hot glued the velcro to the felt since it's much faster than tacking it and I only need it to hold up for a night.

This is before we put on his ears and hat. He loves it!

The final product is pretty darn cute. However, my son is so charming he can make anything look cute.

Trick or Treat time!

We painted our pumkin with the Octonauts symbol. Since he's to young to carve this year I went the quick route with some basic white acrylic paint and ten minutes of my time. Escher sort of helped. 

Cool Factor

There are a few things I push my Son into because they're cool. It makes me feel like a good Mother.

Here's the main line up right now:

-Dinosaurs: No big questions why. Obviously they are the original cool.

Educational tools: Dinosaur Train, Stuffed Toy Story dinosaur, and "Have you seen my Dinosaur?" book by Dr. Seuss.

-Balls/Hockey Equipment: He's a boy, he'll play sports. His father loves hockey so he will play for at least a few years. Plus, balls and sticks are fun.

Educational Tools: Smurf hockey stick and puck, two spiderman balls, one Elmo mini-ball, and a cars and truck ball. He also has been watching sports since he was born.

Watching his cousin't tee-ball game with his Grampa.

-Legos: No brainer they were cool before cool existed.

Educational Tools: We're starting with the kid's stuff but I can't wait until he can play the real stuff. We have a lot of Lego blind package people and all of the Star Wars vehicles that I've seen while in line at Target. Which brings me to our next thing...

-Star Wars: I mean come on, how's he going to be a good director/actor if he doesn't have the deep love of Star Wars?

Educational Tools: Star Wars mini guys, Wookie backpack, Darth Vador Lego alarm clock, and soon he will start his cinematic education via movies and cartoons.

Best backpack ever! Thank you, Baby Gap.

It's a twofer.

-Music: I would love my son to be really musical. I think music is the rhythm of life and it's so important.

Educational Tools: We listen to the music we love and we listen to it often. We also play a bit of the drums and my old baby piano.

He loves the old piano my Grandma Reta gave to me when I was a child.

He's really good.

-Super Heros: Nothing is cooler than a super hero to a boy of any age. We're into the super hero cartoons and movies. Mike is a comic book guy. I like Batman, Mike likes Spiderman. We make it work.

Educational tool: Super hero guys from Criminal Records, shirts, pjs, Thor helmet, Captain America Shield (thanks to The Burns) and we've been to a Super hero Birthday party.

I think every parent defines it's child's definition of "cool", it's one of our biggest perks. I hope my choices make you smile.

Best,
Kaceesix

Halloween video Chris Tsambis and Bret Wood made. You'll like it.

I love how this captures Halloween. It has a true spirit and a bit of edge; which makes me slightly uncomfortable in the best way. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Dear Chris Tsambis and Bret Wood you guys are kinda cool.

Happy Halloween!

http://vimeo.com/78326212

The beautiful artwork of the Reign advertising campaign.

While working on a blog about my love of the CW network , I came across these. The Reign posters are so beautiful they needed their own post. These are the images I wish I was creating. These dark and surreal ads are credited to the CW Print Creative but, I will continue to try and find the man behind them. Well done CW Print Creative, well done.