my secret life

a page for miss kara's life story class. when i lived in japan i loved eating onigiri...a rice ball wrapped in seaweed.

i feel like i live a double life with my art. there is me...the one who does nothing but play tennis everyday. the one who has been committed to her sport almost all her life...the tennis girl. that's me at my high school. i am also that funny girl who has a lot of guy friends at school because there is less drama. i am the smart, tennis girl who is in all honors/AP classes. i only have two really good girlfriends at school. the rest of my girlfriends are at tennis who i see all the time at practice and tournaments.

then there is the second me. the creative/crafty girl. the girl who quilts and takes pictures...the one with a blog who rambles about things almost completely separate from the other her. the one with an online shop and a bunch of online friends whom she has never "met" before. she also reads a bunch of other blogs about people she doesn't know, but thinks she does.

i have realized that i live a double life. the more i think about it though...i'm not me without both parts. my art and crafty endeavors help me relax and give me energy to play tennis and train all the time. up front i keep it all separate, but really my lives coexist. some just are not aware of my other half. no one at school or tennis knows about my blog or art. i don't want that...is that bad?

yesterday i spent the day with one of my friends from school. we went to see "he's just not that into you". WE LOVED IT!!!!! it was absofruitly amazzzzzzzing!!! then we came home and ate some sushi and played cards before we went out to see "confessions of a shopaholic". it was vair vair vair cute...but we made the executive decision that "he's just not that into is the best and we would most definitely buy it. it was a chick flick day.

when she was over at my house i realized how much about my second life she didn't know about. when she saw my room, it pretty much gave it all away. random paintings on the shelves, quiltlets and quilts strewn about, half finished stuffed hippos on the window seat, my journal and anthro catalogs on the floor, my life story box, the typewriter on my desk, and the picture wall and old cameras. wow. she didn't know i had a blog, had been published twice, journalled on a daily basis, or had a world of online friends. she knew i was crafty, but not to that extent. i've decided she and my other really good friend can know about it, but they are sworn to secrecy. i just feel the need to keep it all separate even though both parts are who i am.

ps. sorry for the extremely long post. if you've made it here to the end leave me a comment with your thoughts and i'll will pick someone to win a little something. comments will close on wednesday.

today...

a journal page from this month's anthro catalog.

mega post?

Hello blog world! I have had a GREAT weekend! I went bowling with a bunch of friends on Friday night and it was a blast. I have also been pretty crafty too! I will be making some etsy updates soon so check back! I was also thinking that I would like to have a place like a coffee shop or a deli where I am a "regular". It goes like this...I walk in they say, "hello Kayla! would you like the usual?" and I would say, "hello Joe/Bob/etc. yes, the usual would be great." ahhh...sigh. that is one of my goals in life.

in other news, i am helping my mom teach a quiltlet class at the local quilt shop next month. we were busy making samples this weekend. she made the above one for me and i made this "perfect pair" one.

here is a page i made for kara's life story class! can you say fanny pack action?

i could not sleep this morning. i was up in bed at 6am and decided to start crafting. i cleaned my room a bit and listened to music...so refreshing. i also finished up my art journal for this girl's class that I took in AUGUST!

i'm kinda disappointed that you can't see all of the pretty glitter in the picture. i took kara's advice an added mod podge and glitter to make me happy!

life story class sneaks

Lace for the new taif prompt...a full pic to come soon.

the mess on my floor.

the face of ambition. (page in the making...yes that little whipper-snapper on the left is me.)

these are sneak peeks of what i have been working on for miss kara's class. i whipped out a bunch of pages...still incomplete. so far there it is full of pictures, kraft paper, gesso, some glitter, black thread, heartache, longing, wishes, hambly, anthropologie catalog pages, and me.

needs more: journalling, happy memories, wishes, gesso, glitter, mod podge, and love.

i broke up with the boy. it was ten months that i didn't appreciate enough. we'll see what happens...right now i am enjoying the company of my best girls. girls rule. peace. keep it crafty.

PS. Happy Monday! rock it!

my life story box

bottom of my box, originally uploaded by kaylaf.

here is the bottom of my box for kara's class. you can see more pictures on my flickr page! the box is from anthropologie and i stitched the cover of it with my sewing machine.

i am really excited about this class! all of the prompts are awesome and i feel extremely inspired. it may have something to do with the fact that kara is also a teenager so i can easily relate to her teen ways. i am hoping to catch up and work on some prompts this weekend!

today is friday and it is GREAT! i also wore a cute outfit so it made it that much better. (am i allowed to say my own outfit was cute?) haha. it was a preppy pinstripe jacket with this white shirty thing. sounds great right? maybe if i could explain it better.

anyways...happy friday everyone!!!

this is the gift i gave my mom for christmas. it is a little mini that i sewed together and put inside a jewel case. the little pictures on each page are the thumbnails sent when you order prints from shutterfly or snapfish. i gave it with this print from the talented kelly rae. it was mainly the inspiration for the mini. you can see it in its entirety on my flickr page.

need more time

I can not believe this weekend is already over. Major bummer, but all good things have an end. I made some stuff. That was fun. One of the girls I babysit turned six. She is hilarious. I made her a little quiltlet with a picture from this summer when we all ate popsicles together.
It makes me feel like I am growing up too. She wasn't even born when I started babysitting her older sisters. It's funny to think about. I know I am not old, but I went out to dinner with friends on Friday to celebrate one of their 17th birthdays and an older girl said she cried when she turned 17 because she felt so old. I thought it was weird, but she said it was because she realized that she only had three more years left as a teenager. I don't know how I will feel when I hit 17, but I don't think it will be too depressing. haha.
I made these pages for a mini for my collection of fortunes. I sandwiched pages from the Ikea catalog with pages from Anthropologie catalogs. It is not done yet, but another one of those "in progress" projects.
I listened to the "J" block of my iPod this weekend. I realized that a lot of the "J" guys have a similar soothing sound. All around good music I would say.

• James Morrison
• Jon McLaughlin
• Jon Foreman
• Jack Johnson
• John Mayer
• James Blunt
• Josh Kelley

Anyways, start of this week fresh and think of all the possibilities.

the weekend update

Tutorial number seven for rachel's art journal class...used an anthro page on the back of the page before this one (first picture above)
I got not one, not two, but three fortunes in my cookie on Saturday...is that considered extra lucky?
mirror self portrait. you can see my room. Anthro initial letters above my bed along with an old green clock that doesn't work. bed spread made by my mom...I am still working on my new Amy Butler one.
the pile next to my bed...teen vogue issues, artful blogging, a bible, and the latest addition...Twilight.

we had our tennis team car wash on Sunday...we made the freshman girls hold the signs and awkwardly stand by the cars during a red light. someone brought their iPod and I am sad to say this, but we played the Jonas Brothers and yes everyone knew all the words and sang along...I will confess, I was anti-Jonas, but their song "Burnin' Up" has grown on me and I catch myself humming it sometimes.

this is Stella...the 9 week old puppy of one of the girls on the team. super cute. she loved the water.

last, the quiltlets...i have eight that are almost done. i hope to have them in the shop later this week. for now you can peek at the doors with the cute buttons i picked out. i also finished off a baby quilt that will also go into the shop.

i hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend!

Tutorial # 8: What I did last summer (in photos)

first things first...my new shoes.
page one for rachel's class. I cut out all the photos into squares and then framed them with various papers i collected over the summer: receipts, menus, food boxes, scrap paper, catalogs, mail, brochures, tickets, clothing tags, you name it.

page two.

page three. i think i have a slight obsession with sunglasses.

page four.

sorry about the flash in the center of each picture. i didn't have any natural light to work with at the time.

p.s. as i mentioned in the previous post about that one song...well it wasn't a coincidence. it seems as though that song is played every 15 minutes on the radio now a days because i think i heard like ten more times today.

even more art journal pages

tutorial #5: "August means..."
tutorial #6: "observations". i did this page right after i got in a fight with my parents and was in my room thinking about what they had just told me.

tutorials #5 and #6 for rachel denbow's class. both pages were written with acrylic paint and a small paint brush.