Shop Sale!

{Eensy - Weensy Cards - The Four Processes Set}

I just found out that I was accepted for a local holiday craft fair in early December! Yay! So now, I need to move my older inventory - which means: A SALE! Through the end of the month (until 12am PST on Sunday, November 1st), all cards - handmade, digital, photo and eensy-weensy - are 20% off! For my blog followers, I'll add an additional 10% off (just leave me that info in your notes to seller)!!

30% off! For 4 days! Go go go go!

It's Really Fall, Isn't It?

(from blurbomat)

Tonight it is really cold. And windy. And cold. And did I mention cold? Jon and I try to leave the windows open all the time so that we keep our air condition bills down, but tonight I may have to close them. Even bundled under the covers, I can feel the chill. Which is great, because I love sleeping with the feeling of weight on me. My mom used to pile blankets and blankets and more blankets on me asking, "Is that enough?" Nope. I want to feel cocooned.

The problem is that I am a super warm sleeper. In fact, I'm a super warm person, but at night it intensifies and I can barely tolerate a sheet usually. With that, hopefully I'm off to get a really great night's sleep! Good night to you all and I wish you lovely Wednesdays! <3

Change is Afoot!

(me on Saturday night at a Halloween party - see my effort? I'm wearing puppy ears)

I have been playing around with my layout today and have settled on a design that I think I'm happy with. This doesn't mean I'm done, though! Just done for now.

Give me your opinions! Like it? Don't like it? Think it's hard to read, slow to load or just ugly? I'd like to know!!

Kitty Salad, Anyone?

The Prairie Girl's Guide To Life Giveaway!!

I recently purchased a slew of super fun books on Amazon and will be posting reviews of them in the next few weeks.

The first one is The Prairie Girl's Guide to Life: How to Sew a Sampler Quilt & 49 Other Pioneer Projects for the Modern Girl, a book I really enjoyed.

The style is reminiscent of an almanac, acting as a compendium of common knowledge. Oh wait, knowledge that was common when my great-grandmother was a prairie girl! The information ranges from how to make rock candy (surprisingly simple) to darning socks, washing livestock, and lacing corsets. Don't forget making your own night cream, predicting the weather, and knitting a shawl!

My favorite would have to be how to braid your own hair. That is something I could never do when I was younger, so I would just jump around behind my mom in the kitchen, saying, "MOM, MOM, MOM, braid my hair!" I tried it using the technique outlined in the book and I did it!

Now for the good part: I'd like to give away a copy of this book to a lucky reader! It's really easy to enter and you even have 5 different ways to do so:

1. Follow my blog or add me to your RSS feed.
2. Fan me on Facebook.
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet this: "Prairie Girl's Guide To Life Giveaway at Kate & Oli - http://tinyurl.com/ykvb8tk"
4. Heart my etsy shop.
5. Blog about this giveaway (please leave a link to your post).
6. Any purchases on etsy will get an additional 5 entries! (Leave a comment with your username.)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry. I know that can get tedious, but it's the easiest way to ensure fairness!

On Monday, November 2nd, I will select a winner at random! The deadline for entering is midnight PST November 1st.

Good Luck To All!

Kittens! Cute, Cute Kittens!

Sorry for the lack of substantive posts lately, but I have a good excuse! A few days ago, I found 5 kittens at the new property we're renovating! The tenants below had told me they had seen them when they were babies but had lost track since the mama kitty kept moving them around. We stumbled upon them in the carport while doing some repairs and I knew I couldn't leave them there.

I'm kind of guilty that I took them since the mama was there and they're all healthy, so she was doing a great job. However, no one needs five more feral cats and I can't let un-fixed cats stay un-fixed. So, we're finding good homes for them and they will all get de-wormed and fixed and their starter shots, at least.

I'm working on convincing my roommate to let me have one (Please, Jon?) and I've suggested my boyfriend take one too (Please, Adam?) and I'm using their cuteness to convince other friends (C'mon, Mike and Sarah, you know you want one!) to take one. In the meantime, I am falling in love with all of them. :)

For your viewing pleasure, here they are in all their cuteness:

We put them in the bathroom when we first brought them home and they all hid behind the toilet. They were so scared that when we even looked at them, they hissed. But have you heard kitty hisses? They're so CUTE!

The mama (grey) and the papa (black). We're going to try to catch them this week to get them fixed as well and hopefully find new homes for them. They were abandoned by a previous tenant. Who would do that?

Fluffball. He doesn't have a real name yet. Oh, and please note that my use of gender-specific pronouns are completely random - we've checked them all, but I can't remember who's a boy and who's a girl.

Burton - named by my sister and her boyfriend after the snowboard company. He's got a patch of white fur on his chest.

My baby :) I named him Burrow, because he... burrows. But, it's transitioned into Gopher.

Climbing kitties!

This one's tummy is full of curly, swirly, matted fur. SO soft.

I hope to post more real posts later today! Enjoy the kitties :)

Arts and Crafts Finds

Ever since finding that cabinet, I have been interested in finding out more about it. This morning, a similiar piece in Shoestring Chic caught my eye and it was labeled as arts and crafts style. Turns out that those heart cutouts are a distinctive marker of the A & C style! Now, I'm on a mission to find out all I can about this distinctive movement. Of course, in my searching, I found lots of beautiful things that I'd like to share with you!

This is probably my favorite find in my searching. This lovely sign is available from Christopher Vickers' shop based in Frome Somerset, England. I'm a sucker for great fonts and this is definitely a GREAT font. I love how some of the letters fit into the others and how the 'N's are diagonal. The font was designed by CFA Voysey in the late 1800s or early 1900s. One day, when I know for sure name that will come after 'Katie +", I will order one of these. :)

The Broadley font from Fontcraft is based upon Voysey's hand-lettering style above. They have a free demo version available here!

This interesting piece is called the Large Double Gourd Vase and is from the Teco Art Pottery Collection available from Fair Oaks Workshop. These are faithful reproductions of Teco pieces by Prairie Arts.

A C.F.A. Voysey calendar? Count me in! I love buying calendars because they double as such inexpensive and easy art afterwards. Simply tear out and frame the months you're done with! Voila! This one is available from Amazon and showcases an assortment of Voysey's textiles, house sketches and furniture designs.