mini christmas...

happy christmas eve! busy day for us today, but i wanted to drop in and show you the christmas decor on the outside of the dollhouse.

{all decked for the season...}


{need to fill in those floor-board gaps... but the rest is pretty!}


{a delivery on the front porch, and a kitten testing out the sparkly snow.

one small step for christmas preparation...

i've completed my christmas cards. signed, sealed, and about to be delivered. rockin'.

rotten lighting, but a photo of one of my favorite things right now. some vintage christmas tissue paper which i framed in simple frame-less photo frames (ikea) and hung together on the wall. the wreath over the top was an afterthought, but i like how it fills the space, and how the frames do the same for the wreath.

the difference between boys and girls...

matt asked me yesterday "so, when did you want to open our gifts?" and i said (almost incredulously) "well, at the farm on christmas eve, of course...why, when did YOU want to open them?" and he said: "today."

blog is moving...

for the last year plus, i've been keeping two blogs - one via the company i work for, and one here. i've decided to condense the two into one on or about the first of the year. the pre-existing blog entries will remain here, but all new blogging will happen at the new site.

i know most of my readers are friends and family, many of which are already registered, but this invitation is open to all: if you're not already a Groupee user, i would encourage you to register (but you can read most of my blog entries without registering if you prefer). Groupee is a social network, with lots more style and functionality than some of the others out there. it's lots of fun, and of course, i'm there. ;)

so, that's it for today. i'll post a bit more through the end of the year (at my normal pace probably), but i just didn't want you to be terribly surprised if you found me at a new address after the 1st. also, katethaete.com will still exist, and will likely be redesigned in conjunction with the blog move (i'm obsessive like that).

over and out!

the countdown is on...

• purchase presents.
  
• wrap presents.
  
• buy a few more little things for matt...
  
• bake for parties.
  
• bake for christmas eve.
  
• have caroling party. {got rained out... oh well, the games were just as fun.}
  
• holiday lunch and white elephant party at work.
  
• celebrate "Birthday Party for Jesus" with the kids.
  
• put together an angel costume to wear for the Bible lesson on sunday (that's said "Birthday Party").
  
• shop with mom & aunt jodee, saturday.

so i'm moving right along. the only place i'm struggling is with our christmas cards. i'm not really excited about sending them this year. i love the cards - simple and cute... i love the photo we chose to include... but there's something about signing them that's got me all worked up. not enough room (or strength of hand) to write what i really want to say... and yet, a short little greeting seems to terse. maybe the people that write holiday update letters have it all figured out...

my studio is a wreck, so much so that i've lost the only trim piece i need to finish the exterior of my dollhouse. pathetic, huh? i suspect a little feline with tendencies toward kleptomania is to blame, but i just can't find it. so i'm not posting any photos until it's finished. i guess i could just make a new one.

i've also been working through the christmas journal again this year, and i'm doing better with it so far (though i didn't even start until the 14th, for what it's worth). the secret to my success has been smaller pages, and allowing myself to vary. they'll all be ring-bound when the project is finished, but for now, they're loose in a page keeper. last year, i chose a 10x10 book, and it was just too much space to fill to do it each day (not to mention, two pages in one day if i missed an entry). i just don't have that kind of time anymore.

well, there's some monday rambling for you. maybe this week i'll get it together and have a dollhouse update. merry december 17th!

choir of the sound, holiday 2007

i've finally finished proofing the holiday 2007 show i shot for COTS. i'm not as thrilled with my work here as i have been in years past. part might have to do with the new lens and not working with it enough beforehand, or it could be that i'm raising my expectations of myself regularly...

anyway, it was an excellent show, and i'll share a few of my favs.

the first half of the holiday show is usually classical or traditional. usually a few soloists, sometimes a dance or two, but mostly just choir. i like this one because i got the star gobo (left) while it shone briefly and the mission fly-in (which my stepdad made).

for "i saw three ships", a gal played the ... hmm. bells? i can't recall their real name. but i had a great time shooting her at an odd angle to get the action of her playing, with the choir and ship gobo in the background...

second half gets a little more fun - this year's theme was memories, so there were several "character" appearances, including the grinch himself (as well as the chipmunks, charlie brown and crew, and santa, of course):

they did a medley from Polar Express, which included the "Hot Cocoa" and "Rockin' On Top of the World" songs - see waiters, dancing:

and it wouldn't be complete without rudolph, who was undoubtedly my favorite character of the night - just as cute as can be. most certainly a different arrangement - more fun. this is the dance that i shot the most of, and had the hardest time paring down:

weekend ahead with tons on the calendar. be back monday, i hope.

i am alive...

and sucking up every bit of this glorious season. our days are busy, evenings too. a few new traditions for us: we honored Hanukkah - the festival of light - to prepare our hearts for the birth of Christ, the Light of the world. we're celebrating Advent, reading through various scriptures about light from Genesis to Revelation, and enjoying the symbolism of light in the darkness and celebrating the birth of Christ just days from the darkest day of the year.

we're also doing some just-for-fun things - spontaneously driving to odd and distant places to see christmas lights with friends, checking out events like a gingerbread exhibit, enjoying peppermint mochas for a limited time, planning a caroling party, teasing eachother about reindeer sweaters instead of wii accessories for christmas.

in all, i have been focused on peace instead of stress. starting early, finishing early. relaxing more. saying "no" frequently enough to keep my schedule tame. christmas is not a race. this is my favorite time of year, so i'm soaking it up.

this is one of the photos we're sending with our christmas cards this year. i'm not wearing sunglasses, and i hate that it looks that way. i added transitions to my new glasses, and they - well, transition - very quickly. i even tried retrieving my old glasses just for the photos, only to find that the frames had broken from neglect. oh well. i suppose it's better than nothing.

mini adventures: pre-renovation tour

(originally posted on my blog at the original groupee.com social networking site.)




(originally posted on my blog at the original groupee.com social networking site.)

years and years ago, my dad bought a dollhouse kit for us to build together. we put quite a bit of time into it, but never finished it completely. he's stored it for me for all these years, and last week, he brought it over to me so i could hold onto it (read: store it for myself).

i've been planning for it for several weeks - first clearing a space for it in my studio. as soon as we hugged goodbye, i headed right for the dollhouse and got started. most of the miscellaneous trim, roof pieces, building accessories and miniatures i had were stored inside the house, so it looked like a tornado went through it - see photographic evidence above.

these photos include two phases. the first three are the official before photos, including all of the miscellaneous contents that had found a home in the dollhouse over the years (arachnids included). the last six are a room-by-room tour of the interior, before renovations began.

off i go...

made it through thursday night and even had some time to veg when i got home. now, the weekend ahead, and things will be quieter by monday (or so, i keep telling myself).

this photo is from last weekend, part 2 of my photo extravaganza with marisa and the girls. the girls were not in a "lets take photos" mood, so we only got a handful. this has shaped up to be my favorite, save for one really nice portrait of the three of them together that i'm saving for marisa. i hope she likes it as much as i do.

off i go on my whirlwind weekend. wish me good focus and exposure!

much better...

all cleaned up - removed the contents, did some serious vacuuming and damp-dusting. i'll give you a little pre-renovation tour:

{living room - didn't get very far in here the "first time around" years ago}


{used to be the living room, complete with the "what was i thinking" wallpaper, but will become the kitchen because of it's size}


{the master bedroom, above the kitchen. mmmm, royal blue carpet... that's going.}


{second bedroom... white carpet, not bad - but it's going too, if not just because it has a spot on it.}


{3rd floor - this might be a real storage attic, just for fun...}


{3rd floor - this will probably be a bathroom?}

the porch is being converted into a front yard so that complicated banister came down. i've also got fresh paint on the outside, so i'll take photos of that later. i've put a lot of thought into how i want to decorate this, whether or not i want to remain historically accurate, etc. after alot of research, i've concluded that the house is of the Queen Anne Stick style, which would've been common near the end of the 1800s. i've determined not to strive for historical accuracy, however i do want to make this project more than a mish-mash of miniatures. i've decided to go with a style i'm calling "Victorian farmhouse" - set in approximately 1890, which will include elements of a traditional farmhouse with a nod toward the elegance of the Victorian heritage of the house.

that's it for me - i've set it all down until sunday after church, when life gets quieter, and i'll undoubtedly need to unwind.

mini renovations...

i love four-day weekends. i feel like i accomplished so much, and even had time to visit my family and rest too. so nice. and good timing, because this week is shaping up to be one of the busiest of the year. this weekend, i'll shoot the COTS concert, so that means I have to be fully prepared for church on Sunday before Friday. to make things more complicated, i just found out that the director of our Thursday night program at church will have to work late, which means that I'll have to run the program. so, now I have to be prepared for Sunday before Thursday, and be prepared for Thursday... well, before Thursday. wheew. trying to tie up loose ends, finish proofing photos that have been looming for a while and otherwise have my ducks in a row. how's that for three cliches in one sentence?

my dollhouse came home on friday, thanks to my dad. i started working on it as soon as we hugged goodbye, and have been finding extra minutes here and there to hide out in my studio and accomplish what i can. sometimes it's good for stress relief. sometimes it causes more stress. having done some research on the make and model, i've heard that some people have had trouble with the roof, having gaps and such. i'm encountering that now, but my handy-hubby is helping me resize things to fit

i've been taking photos as i go along, so i can remember (and show you) the phases. here are a few of the dollhouse when it arrived (we had stored much of the "stuff" for it inside the dollhouse, so i moved nothing before taking these).

looks a little like a tornado hit in there... definitely needed some love. more later.

FOs

FO: finished object.

i've had these photos sitting around for a while, doing nothing with them... and there are more to come, surely. but i'll share these for now.

{polar-fleece purses - christmas presents for three special little girls}


{fabric covered thumb-tacks. had to make these because they were just so cute. now i just need a corkboard...}


{more thumbtacks, different breed. these are topped with a glass pebble, that i backed with patterned paper. pretty awful photo. cuter in person.}


{hanging jar tealight holders, made for our back deck during our mini-makeover project last summer. sad to take them down when fall came...}


{acorn trees line the streets in downtown seattle, so i was collecting mass quantities of acorn caps for this project. made a set of these elegant+rustic napkin holders. might trade the hemp twine for a fancy velvet ribbon or something similar...}


{i know halloween was sooo last month, but i wanted to share this anyway - a "silver" (ahem, aluminum) platter, covered with a few of my favorite halloween prints, embellished with ruffled crepe paper and some other halloween yummies. the close-ups don't do it justice. i plan to make a christmas version as well.}


{another halloween project, and again, the close-ups don't really give enough detail. wooden "trick or treat" sign, covered in silver glitter, embellished with some beglittered die-cuts, ribbon and tags.}

and that's it for now. wheew, i get a little worn out just looking at this stuff.

oh, and for the record, this is several months-worth of work because i haven't had alot of time recently... just felt like it had been a while since i posted craft projects. :)

i *heart* miniature...

i'm counting down the days until my dollhouse arrives. in fact, i've begun preparing for it's arrival and wanted to share a few photos. a few of these are projects from earlier this summer - when i was first feeling the mini-vibe. a few are from the last couple of weeks. not pictured, a handmade couch - created from chipboard and "upholstered" in the same fabric as the rug below. it turned out better than expected, but missed the photoshoot. all of these creations are in 1:12 scale, which means that 1 inch of miniature would equal 1 foot in real life. i'm only sorta confident that this is the scale of my dollhouse - it's the "standard" scale - but i can't find any information online about it. *fingers crossed*

{a pint of blackberries - super-mini, hard to see...}


{bolts of fabric}


{a hutch, with wallpaper}


{rug}


{pink retro wreaths for the exterior of the dollhouse (i'm guessing on the number, might have to make more)}


{braided, rag rug}


{knitting basket, with yarn and needles}

everything was totally handmade, except the hutch which i bought unfinished and added paint and wallpaper. :)

more later, of course!

hello, new friend...

hello, new friend. i eagerly await your arrival. i've never met you, i've only read about you. i have big plans for us, and i know you're destined for great things. i just know we'll be great friends.

{my new favorite toy arrives today. can you tell i'm frothing at the mouth?}

starbucks...

allows you to design your own starbucks card... i've been playing with their card design wizard:

{yep, that's me... in the city... camera in one hand...
coffee in the other... tiara on top!}


{my normal drink order - cute huh? the quote is a new favorite:
"happiness is a form of courage" ~holbrook jackson}

sweet little girls, part 2

more of these gorgeous girlies...

we went for a stroll down an autumn-clad sidewalk...

and stopped for a hug...

then we played with the leaves...

and in the leaves...

and that pretty much summed up my morning with the girls. they're such fun. silly, but sweet. they love to cuddle and talk. and beth has finally started saying "aunt kate" - though it comes out more like "ahkaaaaaaaaaaay"... it's pretty cute.