Thompson Family-Life

Home page, Embroidery Sneak Peek, Kitschy Crafts Book

Thanks *so much* for everyone's help and tips on the home page issue! I ended up doing some domain mapping with Typepad... still waiting to work out some kinks in the whole process, but it was pretty easy! Here's a screen shot of my home page... the address is (naturally) kitschydigitals.com... but right now it's just being re-routed to my blog... would probably love to do more with this design, but i wanted to get something up asap...

 

I've been stitching up a storm this week. I'm truly *itching* to show you these embroidery patterns! But I still have to finalize everything.. I hope, hope, HOPE to have these patterns available by the end of the week. Hopefully life and my "day job" won't put me behind. ;-) But I'm very, very close. Here's a mosaic showing some sneak peeks of some samples that I've been working on and so have the Kitschy Digitals Creative Team. You might notice those candy-colored plastic embroidery hoops in there. ;-)

It has been so cathartic to get away from the computer (where I end up doing most of my work!), and be able to sit on the couch, relax and embroider. I really want to make this a priority in my life... to just sit and craft and not depend on the computer all the time for whatever project I'm working on.

Along with embroidery, i really want to get back into crocheting! I was able to watch lots of movies and shows that I don't normally have time to watch (since I'm usually on said computer)... I watched some really good movies (The Reader) and a really bad one...

Twilight... oh.... my. I could go on a rant about that one. Not that i'm "Stephanie Meyer's BIGGEST FAN!".. but i did love the books. And my expectations were very low for this movie b/c of the reviews I read.. but, damn. I haven't seen bad acting like that in a long time. I actually felt really put-off about it after I watched it. Like really in a bad mood. Because my free time is valuable!.............. DANG!

And i'm not just jumping on the bandwagon of Twilight-movie-haters.. i really just did not like it. 

but moving on....

So anyway, embroidery truly rocks. :-)

I also wanted to share with you a really fun book! The Craftster Guide to Nifty, Thrifty and Kitschy Crafts. It's by Leah Kramer who is the founder of Craftster (who was kind enough to feature Kitschy Digitals on their blog recently as you might remember!)... Leah sent me a copy of her book and it just totally charmed me. :-) Alot of the patterns were adapted from vintage patterns from the 50's and 60's... so fun, and yes, very kitschy. :-) I scanned a few projects from the book that I really loved.. just a few! (sorry about the weird shadows on some of these.. the problem with scanning books...)

i LOOOVED these earrings made from medicine bottles.. how cool is that? i love anything made with plastic. :-) And it's even cooler that you're recycling something!

And how can you not love these kitschy doll-face magnets.. ok, maybe not EVERYONE would love them (people are so weirded out by dolls), but i love them. :-) And i know alot of people that would! :-) The crochet part is the best!

 

And these toilet seat covers just truly make my heart skip a beat they are SO. AWESOME. oh my, love! The yellow froo-froo one is my fav!

 

And last, there are tons of great kids crafts in here! LOVE the yarn octopus!

 

This is a totally fun book and i'd totally recommend it.. i really love the recycling and reusing focus too.. who doesn't love that? 

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! :-)

website

Could you help? I really have no idea where to start on this, but it's fairly simple what I want to do... I have a domain for my Kitschy Digitals stuff.. and all I'm wanting to do is create a home page where people will click to take them to my various shops, etc... that's all the domain will be used for, for now. It will take them to my shops and my blogs.

I've registered my domain at Register.com.. but I don't think i can just create a home page (would this be called a Splash page?) without signing up for their monthly service.. and i don't want to have to pay for that. I'm not sure if there's a way to go into Register and input my own HTML.. i don't think that is an option.

Can anyone recommend another place where i can register my site where i can add just a home page like i'm talking about? i'd love to be able to design it myself.. something simple that would redirect people. I just don't know where to start. That is why i love places like Typepad and BigCartel b/c they have templates, but you can tweak the html to make it look more like you want it to.. and you don't have to create something from scratch b/c i have no idea how to do that!

If you can help me out on this or point me in the right direction i would be eternally grateful! :-) Thank you Thank you!

Margaret and Pauline, Kitschy Peek

So, I finally named my girls.. Margaret and Pauline after the Neko Case song "Margaret vs. Pauline". :-) I'm so excited about these names. I wanted to think of something somewhat meaningful, not something random. And these fit perfectly! The carrot top is Margaret and the blue top is Pauline. :-)

  

(forgot to photoshop out their pull cords and you can see the food skewer holding up Margaret. ;-)

(heart photo overlay from here)

 

 

I SO love how you can have them play off each other in photos.. makes for much more dynamic shots! This one above is my fav. :-) It's almost like you can hear her whispering "this way..."...

I was trying to figure out why I love playing with these dolls so much, and although I'm sure lots of people that aren't familiar with Blythe probably think i'm TRES strange ;-) (although i think the Blythe world is getting smaller and smaller! :-)... here's what I came up with:

a. They don't move. They are MUCH easier to photograph than humans. It's is truly a fun new challenge photographing dolls. :-)

b. I *REALLY* love the wardrobe options. If I could wear these clothes I would, but the truth is that they look MUCH better in these clothes than I would. So therefore, I buy the clothes for them. ;-)

c. They really do fill that "girly" part of me... I never played with dolls much as a child, so this is truly fun. Sinfully fun.

d. They fill the "daughter" hole, although they are much better because I don't have to clean up their poo or clean up their messes. ;-) As silly as this sounds, this really does make up for the fact that I don't have a daughter.. and I don't have to deal with their raging hormones since they won't age! YEAH!

e. I love that Ethan is so supportive of these silly dolls. He gets as much into them as I do. He thinks they're totally fascinating. And I love that. He's a keeper. BIGTIME.

f. (whoa, these are alot of reasons!) The Blythe community (that I've mostly found on Flickr) is so genuinely nice and helpful. It's amazing how such quirky little dolls can bring people together. And I've even helped bring some scrapbookers over to the darkside! You know who you are!! LOL! I might add that both of these girls have 2 boys as well... see a trend? ;-)

 

Oh, and Coop doesn't seem to mind them either. ;-)

 

I posted some REALLY *fun* new artwork and projects over at the Kitschy Digitals Blog yesterday! Here's a sneek peek! For more photos and details, check out the new post!

 

 

random picture post

Happy Monday! Just wanted to post some images for a Monday morning post. We had a nice weekend, hope you did too! :-)

And make sure to check out if you were a winner for the giveaway over at the Kitschy Digitals blog! Thanks so much to everyone that entered and for all of your kind words and support! Means SO much!:-)

I finally got all of my Blythe clothing and accessories in my vintage Barbie case.. i have to admit, this was really fun.. lol! I think I'm making up for the fact that I didn't play with dolls much when i was little. ;-) Seeing all of her *stuff* all neatly put away just makes me smile. :-) (P.S. thank you to everyone who linked me to the Alexander McQueen line for Target that is using Blythe in his ads!! LOVE IT!! :-)

There's a place for everything! :-)

And who's that little redhead you ask? MY NEW GIRL! :-) Ethan let me get her early (Anniversary gift) b/c he left me at home with 2 sick boys last weekend... lol! He felt guilty. ;-) I love her! Here's a stock photo of her:

As you know I love carrot tops. :-)

And here's some random photos of my packaging I use for Tiny Bazaar orders (and Kitschy Digitals Goods!)... I think all packages should have lots of cute stickers on them. And I found this AWESOME Shinzi Katoh packing tape at a local store. I couldn't believe it. His stuff is hard to find anywhere but online!

 

 

 

The girl sticker is from Shop66 on Etsy... LOVE her stickers using images from her vintage Japanese illustration collection!

And look! Tiny Bazaar was on the front page of Etsy today! I've never been on the front page.. thank you Leigh-Ann for letting me know!! :-)

And speaking of packaging, i've been having fun designing some for my new Kitschy Digitals {Goods} shop... here's a footer design that I'll be adding to these orders.. i used a Fiskars border punch for the scallop border.

 

 

As you can see, I'm adding a 15% off coupon in first-time orders! :-)

And a sneaky peek of some embroidery I did this weekend! Working on my patterns that will be in the Kitschy Digitals {Goods} shop in a few weeks! I'm ***so*** excited about these, I can't even tell you. And i'm thrilled it gives me a reason to embroider which I haven't done in so long.

 

 

I ***LOVE*** these candy-colored plastic hoops I found at Michaels. I have a fun idea for these!

 

And i'll leave you with a couple images of my boys... Coop not looking too happy about getting his photo taken, but that's ok, because i still love looking at his beautiful (pouty and dirty) face. ;-) Have a great Monday!

 

 

This one warms my heart.

winner!

Find out who the winner of the Kitschy Digitals {Goods} Giveaway is over at the Kitschy Digitals blog!

Have a great weekend everyone! :-)

P.S. THANK YOU so much for your concern with the allergy post. :-) It certainly sounds like we're not alone with these horrible sinus problems!! I knew we wouldn't be. I hope everyone is feeling better!!! Hopefully we can all get to a point where we can enjoy the upcoming spring weather and not be sick from it! :-) The boys are doing better!