live . craft . learn

one whole hand

you have brightened our world in so many immeasurable ways bubba jones.

from the private moments that we shared as mama and bubba

to the infectious smiles & giggles you always have to share

to the way i see the love from your papa grow with each day

to the moments when i wasn't your favorite person on earth

to the everyday wonder i saw in your face and witnessed in your actions

to the way i see your adoration of the bean develop and bloom

to today, when i saw you for the first time as a big boy. ready to take on the world

 

but you will always be my baby boy. my bubba. my sweetness.

i love you with all my heart.
always.

happy 5th birthday my sweetness.

xo mama

taking deep breaths

 

{ ♥ }

over the last few weeks i've been spending alot of time thinking. taking deep breaths. listening to my thoughts and pondering all that has happened over this past year. i'm not sure if it's due to bubba jones turning five this friday or the fact that tomorrow is thanksgiving but i think i have finally started to open up with myself and let all that has hit our little family over the last few months really begin to sink in.

it's not that trials don't happen to other families too. i gain strength from reading their thoughts. their stories. their ways of dealing with stress. with dealing with life. this is part of the allure for me of blogging and blog following. i know that others deal with mountains larger than ours. mountains of unmeasurable pain and heartache.

i know their stories. i feel their stories. i relate to their stories.

we shared a hospital room with a family struggling with heartache and pain this summer. it was the most excruciating 24 hours of my life. not because it was horrible. but because it was so emotionally trying on my soul to hear and to witness the life struggle of a sweet 14 year old with cancer. i will never forget it. i thought our surgery & recovery with the bean was barely endurable. but i witnessed 24 hours of a life with childhood cancer. that is excruciating. i heard her cries of pain and i felt her agony. i kept telling myself how fortunate we were. every time we are at lpch i tell myself the same thing. we are so very lucky.

i know that what we have dealt with is nothing in comparison to what some have had to deal with. i am so grateful and thankful and feel so blessed that our family has been given struggles that we have solutions to. i have been tested. our family has been repeatedly tested. but we have gained so much. i have gained so much.

it's made me realize that i need to share more and i need to tell you how rough it's been. these past few months.. they've been rough. i need to trust that by sharing it will all be made good. it is all good. it's good because i am here. you are here. we are here.

there's a reason we are here. faith. kismet. support. friendship.

these thoughts and these feeling bind like no other. this is what i keep telling myself. when i doubt that you want to hear these struggles. when i think i can't speak because you don't come here to hear how hard this has been. how i have struggled. how i have dealt {or not dealt} with these trials.

but then {and even now} i remember that there is a reason why you come. there's a reason why you read. there is a reason why we are friends. there is a reason why i need you. there is a reason why we connect. i know this. and i am grateful for this. i am forever grateful for you.

and so i breathe a little more and i am grateful alot more.

eta : i'm not sure why but this post was such a struggle to write. i think my brain keeps fighting my heart and makes me feel like a jackass when i put these words and feelings of mine together and make them public. it's another safety net. another way to avoid. another plight to keep the wall up. but i'm done with the wall. and i am ready. and i know you are all here as support. again. i am so grateful.

cruising with my super hero

november kenner road

 

The November kits went live last night and i have to tell you, this was one of my top favorite reveals ever. I spent last weekend creating the tannenbaum project with our vintage addon kit and i have been sitting on my hands just itching to show it off all week. I think this one is in my top five most favorite creations ever. ever!

There's two tannenbaum kits {all gone now} left at the moment {and just a handful of the others} and it comes with everything you see on the tree, including the bobbin and tin mold, all you need to do is add the craft wire {which can be purchased at any craft store for about $3, which is why we didn't include it}. Instructions for making this and all of those tags will be on the kr blog december 2nd. :)

I've been really getting inspired by patchwork alot lately and have been going through my japanese craft books & cotton time magazines for some inspiration, which is how the ellie love layout came together. i have a fascination with cutting paper in random sizes and odd {non-straight} edges and just went for it, the fact that my sweet darling niece {who is going to be a big sister this year!} is smiling at me just made it work perfectly i think.

the little man. i have been crushing over this picture of him for a while now, with his stoked sweatshirt from peek {my FAV kids store!}. we were having coffee near the train depot and just walking and it makes me a bit weepy looking at it knowing he's going to be five in two weeks. my baby. five! it's going by way too fast now...

This is our friend april. she works at the most wonderful deli here mac's, and we adore her. the kids think she's the bees knees and run to her for hugs and love whenever we go in. i've been wanting to document their/our relationship with her for a while now because she's one of those people we adore and always look forward to seeing when we are out and about in our daily life. she's good, people.

and jess. sweet, cute, jess. life has been really crazy here over the last few months with maddie's surgery, my medical issues and just focusing to keep everything working smoothly for kenner road through all of it really zapped alot of my creative spirit. so when jess and i had a "girls night out" at home, scrapping in our jammies over skype, i knew i needed to document it. i still need to add some words, but this was such a perfect quick capture of her spirit and how fun our night was. i'm so blessed to call her a friend.

happy sunday sweets!
xo

some more kenner road sneaks

timber cove + vintage provisions

I love this layout. It has these beautiful handmade & handwritten calligraphy sticker seals we had designed exclusively for kenner road as well as some new items from our vintage provisions market. that silver maple leaf makes me so happy.

 

timber cove + daybreak + snow drift

timber cove + daybreak + snow drift

 

snow drift

this last project will be one of the projects we will create in the private snow drift class that comes with the specialty kit. i'm super excited to share this one, it's so adorable!

don't forget to join us tonight at 8pm when the gallery goes live at kenner road and we hang out & chat online the hour before the kits are available for sale! we have some fun games and prizes scheduled, i'm looking forward to the giggles i know will be coming.

happy saturday!
xo

i cannot wait to show you ....

this on Saturday night {Nov 14th @ 9pm pacific}.It's created with one of the Kenner Road vintage add-ons we have this month and it is divine. i just finished it this morning and i am so happy right now. It almost makes me anxious to skip Thanksgiving decorating all together, but then i just made sure to take a good long look at my new banner and i knew I could wait a few more weeks. but barely...

The littles are home today with dueling ear infections. Thankfully the bean had the day off for veterans day and we're still in our jammies and still snacking on the pumpkin bread I made this morning. It's a good day my friends.

Happy Wednesday!
xo

Windy Corners harvest banner

I posted the last project for our private Kenner Road Windy Corners class this morning and I am so in love with the harvest banner I created for it. I created a pdf download with for this one with some exclusive elements and now that it's finished i'm on a roll to keep adding to our sparse Thanksgiving decorations.

 

The class will be open all month and you can get access by either purchasing the Windy Corners kit as the class is free with kit purchase or you can just purchase the class pass. both items are available {{here}} and we'll add more class passes as they sell out.

Happy Sunday!
xo

filling the well

last thursday, before i headed to ucsf for my mri of which i'm still awaiting results {i'm taking this as good news btw as i'm sure i would have heard something by now if it was bad} i decided to go and refill my creative well with a visit to the one place that always inspires me, the legion of honor in sf.

it's a stunning building and houses some of the most beautiful and breathtaking {in my humble opinion} art in san francisco. i can enjoy the de young in golden gate park and i am always inspired by the moma but this is where the european classics are stored and it's where i first fell in love with art on a grander scale right before i started college. and, it is here that i was ultimately pushed to be an art history major.

it also houses my most favorite painting in the world, the russian bride's attire by konstantin mokavsky {the color is so off in my pic, click the link to see the stunning version}. the painting is huge, spanning 9 ft x 12ft. and although it's amazing to just sit on that bench across from the painting and soak in the vibrant color and intricate detailing it's when i stand a mere 12 inches away {the guard is usually nice as long as i keep my hands at my sides} and gaze at the brush strokes and the way the light and dark shades of pigment are stacked and blended that my heart truly starts racing. i only had an hour and a half the day i was here, and i spent over an hour with her. it was worth every penny of my admission ticket. every penny.

rodin's three shades cast statue in the grand rotunda. i think this visit was the first time that i noticed the spotlights were on and their shadows were dancing on the back arched wall. it was truly wonderful.

happy friday.
xo

 

only treats

owning kenner road means that there is alot of product package recycling that i do each month. from the cardboard that the product is shipped in down to the individual product plastic packaging and sleeves; all in all it amounts to alot of waste {all of which we recycle aggressively!}. last month, after i finished kitting the windy corner kits {there are still a few left here} i had about 24 of these cute plastic boxes from the maya road chandelier trinkets left and i knew exactly what to use them for... halloween treats for all of the littles teachers and friends.

 

it was the quickest school project i have ever made. the candy corn was put in first and then i simply cut a 3.5" x 5.25" piece of pink paislee pattern paper down and slid it right into the back where there were built in sleeves from the mr product card. then i wrapped an older {2008?} piece of making memories glitter paper around, stapled it to secure in the back and added some seam binding ribbon and cut out sassafras lass monster frames.

 

the entire process from start to finish took only 1/2 an hour and i've been so happy to see the thrilled faces of all of our recipients. these three are all we have left and are for three special monsters we will be trick or treating with tomorrow night. mr aviator goggles is by far my favorite one of the bunch!

i'm heading out to go watch a beautiful pega-corn parade around her school {while a mini peter parker watches in jealousy} and then hopefully i'll be able to resist the coma inducing 1st grade candy party that will follow.

happy friday!
xo

hey mummy!

the little man and i finally made it to the pumpkin patch on monday with his preschool class. it's the cutest little farm called "grandmas" up in healdsburg and it's one of our favorite patches ever. there are gates everywhere so the littles can all run like the wild animals they are and the parents don't have to worry that they'll break out.

i have to let you know though, as much as i loved the pumpkins and walked around the property this is was where the little man was for practically the entire 2 hours we were there {although he did go sit for the snack & picture!}. he's such a boy!

 

and congrats corrine! you won the spot in dina's graffitti of my life class. email me kl [at!] kenner [dot!] com your info and i'll pass it along to dina asap!