Calamity Kim

Post Atomic Letdown Syndrome

So after months of working on things to sell and wondering if people would like them, or love them, pay good money for them, I finally found out the answer is yes! This was my 4th Atomic Holiday Bazaar and I was not disappointed. In fact I think it totally exceeded any expectations I may have held regarding sales and the weather! I expected Sunday to be rainy but it was just gloomy and I do love the fog and drizzles.

I had an awesome space, right up by the front entrance with Deb of Picasso's Moon to my left and some cute and crafty girls in front, I was very happy to get set up and start the show. Usually it is just on Sunday but this year Adrien did it the exhausting way and had Saturday and Night and Sunday! I did all 3 events and by Sunday night I was feeling like a zombie but joyful that the show was such a success!

There is so much validation when someone picks up something you've made and they want to take it home with them. The older I get the more discerning I am about what I want to have in my nest. I used to fill it with teddy bears and tiny tea sets. Now I tend to collect work by other artists along with gnomes, mushrooms and deer.

It's nice to know that other people want my work in their homes.

I sold all my fake cupcakes.

I sold a whole lotta pompom birds and all of the small house ornaments.

One doll, a few mutants, some charming buckets and some handspun.

Bits of this and that.

Now I want to stick the leftovers in Etsy and get my house and sewing room cleaned out. I have a few more projects to finish up and get mailed and then I have the clean slate of January!

This morning I woke up with a sore throat and I took some meds and am now sipping some Earl Grey tea and hoping I will feel better so that I can go sew some more.

Probably just run down from all the gogogo lately!

Yesterday I went and did the window at Picasso Moon and loaded it with the hand made shabby chic benches and filled it with white, cream and taupe yarns, wool fibers and hand knit owls. I will try to get pictures on Friday to share with you here. If you are local please stop by and see it!

We have big plans for the Springtime window- of course it will be a while until we can work on the giant octopus, Captain Jack, mermaid theme so the window will stay a winter wonderland for a bit. It's so difficult to feel winterish here with the palm trees and green grass but it has been cold the last few days and it's more like it should be! The undyed wool roving is also a pretty good imitation of snow and with twinkle lights it looked pretty magical!

My friend Kim Perkins had her handfelted soaps in my booth and they sold like hot cakes! The scent of lavender and ocean mist filled the air and just about everyone who stopped by had to pick them up and smell.

The music was good during the day and the Burlesque Show and live bands were pretty cool on Saturday night. I don't know how Adrien gets it all organized and running smoothly but she does a great job and this was bigger and better than it's ever been.

 

It was nice with the lights down low on Saturday night andit gave everything a wonderful ambiance. I already have plans for next year. I am making some shadow box scenes and mixed media shrines with more serious themes. The cupcakes and birds sell because they are inexpensive and who can resist that level of cute? I feel the need to make things with a bit more depth and soul to them. It's the crafty glue gun glitter assembly line that really gets to me! I want to have my booth be like stepping into Ye Olde Curiosity and Oddity Shop with shadow boxes filled with botanicals in belljars and butterflies made from felt and all sorts of rusty and sacred things. This year my display was more shabby chic and pink feminine sweetness and light. It was very pretty and I received quite a few compliments on my display which really made me smile.

 

The next few months will be busy for me- working on stuff for a Spinning Conference in Destin in January, a show called FAB in February and a Community Show at the Art Center in March & April. I will be sewing spinning smocks and making bags and getting things ready and hopefully sharing it all here.

One of my goals for next year is to write a seasonal magazine with projects for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter with my friend Elizabeth Hillmann. The first issue will be available in March as a PDF that you can buy and download. Using the seasons as themes gives us a starting point and we will have at least 20 projects per issue. I adore magazines like Marie Claire Idees and Somerset Studios Sew and Home and hope that some of their wonderfulness will rub off on us as we try our hand at putting together some Make & Do fun for bored housewives and craft divas. You know who you are. Imagine the possibilities.

So, thank you to everyone who came and saw me at the show and especially those of you who introduced yourselves to me as someone who reads my Blog- that was nice- I hope I can make next year more enjoyable with a whole lot more content here. I appreciate those of you who have been reading me for a while and put up with my irregular schedule lately.

This year was sort of difficult and snarfy and I feel as though I was absent more than I was present. It was difficult to write about so I didn't. Then I felt guilty for abandoning my happy bloggy place. After that I just quit worrying about all of it. I don't care about the people out there who don't care about me and I am not going to allow them to hurt me or change the way I live my life because they are too shallow minded or filled with bitterness to forgive or be kind.

Live and let live is my motto. I have adopted my own family and have many sisters and mothers and grandmothers that give me love and happiness and keep me centered and filled with joy. I have my Son and my Brother Glenn and his wife Pam and my sweet husband Fred and I feel blessed with them in my life. Life is far too short to be so unforgiving and everyone should just reach out to each other and be loving. But, that's not really the way it is with most people, so you just have to learn to live with it. and I am trying. It is their loss. Life is what you allow it to be and you have to nuture relationships just as you would a plant or a baby penguin. (getting a little tired and thinking about soft puffy cloud comforters and warm cocoa with tiny marshmallows).

Next year I will be 50 and I hope to make it an exciting, creative and blissful year.

Hope you have a lovely day, I'm going to make another cup of tea and curl up by the tree and then go see what the elves are up to in my sewing room.

I'll be back soon with some pictures of some of the things I found irresistable at Atomic.

Happy Holidays!

Calamity Kim

Atomic Mushrooms

 

Yesterday I made these two giant sized mushrooms using some leftover pieces of wool felt that I had made last spring. I wet felted bamboo, silk and corriedale wool fibers together and it was a fun exercise but I never knew what to make with it until yesterday when I was using some wool to make mushrooms for the art show I am doing in 2 weeks- Atomic Holiday Bazaar.

It's rainy outside so I can't take pictures of them in the yard because the bottoms would get wet and dirty. Trying to get a good shot in the house is sometimes a challenge even when the elves help out! I love the pearls, shell buttons and lace with the cream color wool. Very feminine and sweet to use as a display for jewelry or pins or just as a decoration themselves!

This morning my Brother came over and we built 3 bench type shelves for me to use at Atomic.

We bought the wood a few weeks ago and it only took 2 hours to build the benches. After the first one was finished the others came together pretty fast and it was fun.

Now we will distress the wood by hitting and rolling stones across the soft pine surface and then I will paint a black coat and then several white coats, sanding in between. After that I will wax them with some pigmented wax to add a nice luster and create a shabby chic look.

This year I have a woodland concept for my display and am so excited to get these benches made. I hope the weather is nicer tomorrow so that I can start painting them. I am setting up a mock display next Friday so that I can get an idea of what it will look like when I actually do the show (Dec 11& 12th at Municipal Auditorium in Sarasota). It will be my 4th year doing the show and this year promises to be as much fun as past years except with an all day Sat & Sun and Sat night show I might be happily worn out by the time it's over!

I wish that there was an Atomic Halloween Show- that would be so very cool! Tomorrow I am teaching pompom birds at the Surface Design Guild Play Day.

I think I am going to make a few more in different colors and also some fabric birds for the show.

Just wanted to say hi and share what the elves and I have been up to!

Happy Cartoonday!

xo,

Calamity Kim

A Spider's Web

 

The Spider's Web

The spider, dropping down from twig,

Unfolds a plan of her devising,

A thin premeditated rig To use in rising.

And all that journey down through space,

In cool descent and loyal hearted,

She spins a ladder to the place From where she started.

Thus I,

gone forth as spiders do In spider's web a truth discerning,

Attach one silken thread to you For my returning.

-- E B White

My maiden name is Snider and I can remember in grade school the kids singing out : snider, spider, drinks apple cider! Back then I didn't think it was too funny. Now I can laugh because it's silly and harmless and apparently didn't ruin me on spiders (or cider for that matter!) and I have been enjoying making some beaded arachnids this past week to embellish the men's silk tie roses I made a while ago. Not that the tie roses aren't great all by themselves, but the spider gives it a bit of surprise, shine and mystery. Danger even; and you know how I like to look dangerous ;)

Some are regular spiders and some are grandaddy long legs, which my Grandmother always said were good luck to find and she would gently pick them up and release them outside when she found them in the house.

Of course they are all named Charlotte and I may even try to make a web with words like she did- Awesome spelled out in gold thread for my son would be cool on his Christmas tree.

My husband asked me to try to make some scorpions and I love cicada bugs so I may try some different ones. This pattern came from one of my friends at the Surface Design Guild- Betty who had brought some for show and tell and I raved until she shared the pattern. That was two years ago but better late than never and I appreciate her generosity. If you know how to bead they are really easy and the most difficult part is actually choosing the beads!

It takes about 30-45 minutes to make one and is a great way to use up any beads leftover from other projects. I will probably hand stitch each one to a rose and make the roses into pins. I am going to make some into hair barrettes too- just cause I like the idea of a nice spider in my hair...charming, I know, if not strange.

Passing by a consignment shop window yesterday on our way to lunch I made fun of a hat with a giant gold fabric rose on top- like a rose turban and my husband said "Thank You for not wearing stuff like that!" Hahaha! Wait till he sees me in a spider hat!

Hope you have a lovely day!

xo,

calamity kim

cereal killer

You know it's time to go to the grocery store when you run out of Rice Dream and you have to put eggnog on your cereal.
I know you want to hear all about Atomic Holiday Bazaar- and I want you to know it was a BLAST!!! But, I have to go run some errands and rest up a little- I seem to be worn out and there is still much to do before I can sit still long enough to write about the show...
It was raining and now, suddenly, the sun is out!
Still Bazaar today, eh?