Stuff I've been wearin...

 (this one is my favorite of all)

I'm not sayin ya'll really want to know what I've been wearing, but since I find dressing to be sort of like creating a painting (my background IS art), I am going to share some of my favorites lately! I love color,  pattern and texture, and combining them in exciting ways.  Its the same for when I am creating an art piece! When I was in college I did an entire series of paintings about fashion being an extension of personality. So, for these reasons I think I will share an outfit or two when it strikes my fancy:)

my GRANDMA loves to collect....

Meet my maternal grandmother, Jean. She is a spunky thing with funny quirks that I am just starting notice in my older years. While I was visiting the past couple weeks the funniest thing I realized about her was how she loved to decorate her house with heads. These heads have always been around. And so I decided that my grandma deserves a spot on my blog with a post of her head collection:) enjoy.

these two heads are on the window sill of the office/ where Olivia slept

These four heads are near the front door. They welcome you to my grandma's house:) haha.

These heads are on the back porch. My favorite has to be the head in the dirt. There use to be walking stones, and plants, etc and now its just dirt and a head. so random. love it.

And this is the head on the counter by the sink. So what do you think? Do any of your grandparents have funny collections? Mine also has an EXTREME obsession/collection of St.Louis Cardinals stuff. I will show that sometime perhaps....

I love to collect... (part three)

Okay this looks pretty sad for a collection, but I really do more than this, these are just the ones I have on display in my home (I've since added to this display of geodes, but I took this photo awhile ago.

Geodes. I know what you are thinking. Collecting geodes isn't "cool." ...like maybe collecting vintage collars or old buttons would be (but those two give me good cred right?). But I love them. They never cease to amaze me! This love began when I visited the little science museum at the University of Utah, and saw this amazing exhibit of the largest geodes in the world (some of them). I couldn't believe that these huge multi-faceted blocks of color existed in nature!

I see a little chartreuse stone, all rough and rugged and I am smitten. (Let me say though, that I DON'T love the polished ones. I like em rough.<---- thankfully no guys read this blog (that I know of)).  I won't ever have a geode glass case or anything, but I like to have them around the house. And to wear them around my neck. And to create artwork inspired by them (see above).

I love to collect... (part two)

Vintage collars! Yes, In addition to creating my own collars (and I have another tutorial coming for one soon!) I love to collect them.  The delicate crochet, a bit of tatting around a crisp cotton fabric, the subtle aging of the white... it all lures me in. And then as I put it around my neck it transforms my plain t-shirt into something stylish.  I definitely need this on days when I don't want to "waste" (I am weird I know) wearing my cute clothes because no one will see me but Olivia and Franc. If I have to run out the door, I can just throw on a collar and at least I feel a semblance of my old fashionable self!

(That is what happened on the day I took that photo above. Oh and that wasn't really a collar in the first place. It was a tatted triangular doily and I just added a little hook and eye to make it a collar. You can also wear vintage handkerchiefs this way, or just tie them.)

"Vintage" Katie creations PART II

circa 2004.
With this one I was trying to learn a few new techiniques from my "complete guide to sewing" book. and I put them all on one shirt! I had tired of ruffling all my shirts and so I wanted to do something different. I remember at the time I thought that I should stop putting ruffles on all my shirts because people would think that was all I knew how to do. (well, it kinda was so I  needed to learn new things). Plus I figured ruffles would go out of style. WOA was I wrong. fast forward 5 years later and ruffles are SOOOO all over the place! And I still love them of course! especially what LEX does with them:)

I made it from an old shirt and scraps of fabric.

circa 2009
I made this top in August because I didn't have anything that I could easily nurse in public in. It was super easy, and I think I wore it at least once a week for the first few months after I had olivia because it was the only thing that fit all the enlarged parts of my body. By the time I modeled it for this shoot it was too big for me (YIPEE!!!!). But I still love it and will wear it again next time around! ( Oh and I think I might do a tutorial for it on luvinthemommyhood come May!

I made it from scratch out of knit jersey and amy butler fabric. and vintage red buttons (that weren't on the cards of course)

circa 2008
This is HANDS DOWN my all time favorite creation. I love it. lurve it. I think I wear it everytime I am going to be hanging out with someone artsy or if I go to an artsy event because it always makes me feel hip. Even if nothing else I am wearing is cool (because it is really hard to dress cool when you have a baby spitting up on you and grabbing and chewing on everything you wear), I still feel at least a semblance of my old self when I wear this top. And the green on the torso is much brighter than it appears.

I made it from scratch out of vintage bedding fabric and a vintage afghan.

circa 2009.
This was another attempt to make a nursing-ready shirt. only I put like a million buttons (down the blue part) and so in the end I just started lifting it up to nurse (more info than you wanted I am sure). Oh and for some reason I decided to put a circle at the end of the ruffles and  it of course was right near my boob. so I usually wear this under things now. or when I just don't give a rip.

I made this from a white hanes shirt, a vintage pillow case (the sleeves), an old t-shirt (the blue), and vintage buttons (not off the card:)).

not a flattering shot, but I like the hair...

circa 2004.
and yes so is the photo (taken on a cell phone). Yes, shrugs aren't really in style anymore, but back when they were, I had this ( I thought) fantastic idea to make them out of t-shirts! (this was pre-blogging, so who knew if they already existed). I would die the t-shirts and cut them off, add crochet trim or lace, and a velcro clasp. (with sequins). I loved them. and I even made a little "catalogue" with shrugs, tie headbands (made from vintage ties, another idea I had), yo-yo necklaces/bibs/collars (which are all over the place these days), and re-vamped t-shirts. I put the catalogue on the table in the back at Anthro (where I was a display coordinator/artist). That is where I am posing (in my studio with dresses I had made out of amber-shellaced tissue paper and old book pages).

circa 2003.
Of course all the details are lost, but I had died a shirt brown, added lace ruffle to the bottom, and hand stitch gold thread in an organic shape on the top. at certain points I added sequin-clustered flowers. I really loved it, and wore it under lots of v-neck sweaters back then.

circa 2004.
This shows 2 things I made. A tank top and a geode necklace (which I plan on doing an entire post about one day). The tank I made out of jersey knit and a vintage lace tablecloth, and back in the day I layered this thing over all my shirts. I especially loved to juxtapose that lace with things that were much different, like the little boys baseball tee I had on. (oh and that beautiful girl is one of my best friends in the world. courtney anderton).

circa 2005.
not the best photo of me, but the best one i had of the dress. I remember wearing this number all the time. I was so proud of it! I made it out of some 70's skirt that was long and stretchy, and then added the brown twill tape I had off of some pottery barn present/package!

That's all for now! but there is lots more to come! I haven't even shown you the accessories! ahhh! I hope you all are enjoying these posts. I figure they help paint a picture of my evolution into who i am now, and how i got to "blue-eyed freckle."(my accessories line).

OH AND YOU CAN SEE "PART I" HERE

I love to collect...

Vintage buttons! Here is a part of my collection. I really really really love vintage buttons on their original card. In fact, I used to make necklaces with them (I created a clear casing and then added a chain), that I used to sell in my etsy shop when it originally opened! (blue-eyed freckle did not start out as headbands, it evolved. More on that at a later date!).

I think the reason people are so enamored with buttons is that though they mostly retain the same shape (circular), they have so many different textures and colors that make them unique. I personally am hooked when I see a fun color or pattern on them. And well, I am a sucker for the cute card they are sewn on too... There are so many possibilities with buttons, but like fabric, my favorite ones never get used. They just sit on the shelf for me to admire.

I keep buying them with the intentions of USING them on things I make, but I just can't bare to take them off the card! I am pondering the idea of just framing them. anyway, hope you liked this post, because along with the "vintage Katie creations (which  I still have more of!!)" I will also be periodically posting about the things I collect! hooray!