Calamity Kim

Saimba, my new Favorite Blog

How serendipitous that I just ordered that stamp (of the girl above) from Teesha Moore and received it today and then found this great Blog called Saimba where the lovely Sarah shares her very cool handmade books and jewelry. Check out a few pages of it and tell me it's not a rockin cool blog!

don't let those bed bugs bite!

xo,

calamity kim

Threading the Needle

Thanks to my friend Jude I found out about Hand/Eye Online magazine and am so glad I subscribed to it. There is an article about Natalie Chanin and her Alabama Chanin company that I found interesting. Remember I blogged about her book? Well, I am happy to report that she has another book on the way (I am adding it to my wish list) that is titled Alabama Studio Style.

Due out March 2010, and chock-full of recipes for food, gorgeous photography and livin' that Alabama style, I simply can not wait!

Here is a link to the Alabama Chanin Journal that has wonderful links to books, DIY stuff, green living and interesting info on Alabama Chanin life.

If you don't have time to read it all now then bookmark it for later because it will give you droplets of joy and splashes of happiness once you wade in and swim around in it.

If you are unfamiliar with her style I suggest you beg, borrow or steal a copy of Alabama Stitch Book and read all about it. Designing, cutting and then using stencils to create a design on knit fabric, then stitching down the layers and cutting off a layer to reveal the under fabric is what it is all about. I tried it- only once, due to the amount of time it took. I love reverse applique but the knit fabric handles differently than 100% cotton and I need to revisit this technique again and give it another try.

Wandering back to the sewing room, a pleasantly creative day ahead of me. I will get photos and share if anything new develops.

Love & Stitches,

Calamity Kim

Thank you, Thank you very Much

His home, Graceland, draws 600,000 visitors a year, making it second only to the White House as the most-visited home in America.
Since his death, he's become the only artist to sell more than a billion records worldwide. Elvis Presley Enterprises earned around $27 million last year and is thinking bigger.
It has been buying land around Graceland and a new $250 million hotel-visitor complex is now under way.
  ***Elvis movies with my Grandma on Saturday afternoons were always fun!
She would snap her fingers and sing along and we would laugh and say how handsome he was!
I remember I was shocked to hear he had died.
It seemed unreal and then very scandalous and wrong. 
I was only 16 and still very naive about the world.
Living in a southern Bible Belt town like Black Mtn meant that Elvis was indeed King of Rock n Roll.
My Grandmother said it was because he went to "Sin City." Like there wasn't trouble to get into in Tn.

I am sure that he had become jaded and bored and tired with all the fame and wealth.  I don't think he'd be so happy about all the product endorsements- from toilet seat covers to auto floor mats to anything imaginable. His image is on everything. I even saw Pez with Elvis heads and I didn't think they made Pez of real people.
Anyway, I remember him with fondness because of his early films and his music that still sounds as good as it did then.

 
The fabric line that is out with his pictures are proof that his popularity hasn't wained.

He is an icon of American Pop Culture.

If you saw the silhouette of him from jail house rock you'd recognize him. That's beyond famous.

He is a symbol now just like Mickey Mouse and Uncle Sam.
United States of Elvis.
Let's all look up to the heavens and whisper thank you, thank you very much.