Updating the Shop

My poor little Etsy shop has been neglected. I've been buying & buying & buying all sorts of fun junk. I've actually been making things with my new supplies & I have lots of new work. I told my husband I need to start selling some of these lovelies. So I'm working on adding some new friends to the store. I've been so creatively charged lately & I love it.
There have been a few things I've been obsessed with: vintage anything (cabochons, buttons, jewelry bits, belt buckles), glass pearls, enamel & crystal sliders, Swarovski crystals & teardrop beads. All those things are just popping up all over my new pieces.

I've always been one to mix things up. I am so loving the asymetrical & non-pattern look.

I'm working on writing up all the copy for the listings. Thank goodness I've already taken the pictures & edited them. I don't know how someone actually keeps a website updated. So here's a sneak peak of just a few of the new pieces. I hope to start listing them Tuesday after the holiday. Hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day Weekend!

Card Swap

This post is REALLY late. I did a notecard swap hosted by the wonderful Regina. I had so much fun doing this. I was really inspired by the themes: birds, flowers, trees, bees. We had free reign to interpret. Regina carves her own stamps & made us the cool bookmarkers. I used her picture to show the bookmarks & stamps. She has some great info on her blog, so go check it out.
Deb Crawford: top right. Photograph of a beautiful watercolor.
Heather P : bottom left. Heather recycled magazine pages, made them into flowers & added a quote from Emerson.
Tangee H: top left. Decorative paper with paper flower embelished with epoxy middle. It says princess!!

Tanya F: bottom middle. Tanya took the photograph of the flowers & collaged them with other elements into the card.

Sweet Sweet Jane: middle. Bird cut out of decorative paper.

Needless to say, I was blown away by the cards I received. All of them are stunning & I don't know if I'll be able to part with any. There is a group pool on flickr if you want to check the others out. Go on over!

Thank You Jamie

I am so incredibly lucky. I entered Jamie's blogiversary giveaway & I won!! :) I won a one of her very special OOAK bracelets & a pair of earrings. Jamie's work is stunning & in person WOW! I also received a gorgous ring & bobby pins. And the t-shirt... crown, bling... to die for. Jamie is so gracious. I was going to cry as I kept taking things out of the box. I was a little kid opening gifts so I didn't take any pictures of the lovely boxes. Everything was wrapped so nicely with her new wrapping. I'm keeping the tissue for some collaging project. (Yes, honey I'm saving MORE paper)
Something happened to my Show & Tell Sunday post on linens this past Sunday. (Possibly operator error!) Anyways, I'll re-post & add pics from my jaunt to the May fair at the Lucketts store.

Show & Tell Sunday ~ Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there. I'm so blessed as I write this post. I am a mom to my 2 irreplaceable boys. I'm continually inspired by my wonderful mom. I have a supportive mother-in-law that I've been lucky to grow close to. My sister is celebrating her first mother's day with her little one. I'm surrounded by love. To these special moms, I LOVE you & you are my heroes.

As a matter of fact, my business name, Kate Vee & Me has significant meaning. Kate is my Lola (my mom's mom), Vee is my mom & well, I'm me. (I'm always asked about how I got that name. There's the story). That's where I get the creative juju from. I know my Lola is still watching down on me. I was lucky enough to have parents that encouraged my creativity. My mom just comes out of left field with these ideas that I am constantly blown away by.
These are the cards I made for the special moms in my life. I've decided I'm going to stop buying cards. After all, I've got all this stuff I keep buying (I am a paper freak!)

This necklace was one I made for my mom 3 years ago. It's one of the few pieces I photographed (very badly) before I gave it away. This was before I learned how to stage semi-good photos & learned that photo editing existed!

Thank you again to Analise & Cerri for being our hostesses for Show & Tell Sunday. Analise will blog about the participants & have links to all those who are participating so go visit or take a look at the flickr group. Again, Happy Mothers Day to all of you out there! You deserve it :)

My Mini-Man is Becoming a Bigger Mini-Man

I joined my oldest at school today for a Mother's Day lunch. It was the sweetest thing. The kids prepared the food, decorations & gifts all week. Brandon's getting so big. He's teaching his brother the ropes, helping him with speech therapy, he's so darn creative - what an imagination!
His birthday was a few days after mine & we celebrated it on the actual day & he's having a party with his friends tomorrow. Cross your fingers that the rain holds out. Anyways, when we celebrated at home, we had to have Pancake Puffs "Just pour & flip" (Brandon's quote from the commercial, not mine). We watch Sprout & I swear, even the adult commercials are aimed at the kids. I saw it at Target & it was ours. I have to admit, we (the entire family) are enjoying this thing.

Last weekend we, the entire family again, ended up being in the parade we were supposed to watch. Brandon didn't want to get on the float, so we walked next to it. Thank goodness I had some walking shoes on!

Show & Tell Sunday

Thanks again to Cerri & Analise for hosting this week. Make sure to take a look at the flickr group too for all the participants.

I'm showing pictures of Lucketts, VA. It's the sweetest place to visit. My in-laws live in the "sitcks" but it's just a short ferry boat ride over to Lucketts.

If you are in the area the Old Lucketts Store is having their annual Spring Antique Market. I originally posted about my shopping day here & here. I'm adding a few pictures here that weren't on the original post, but I have put all of them on my flickr account.My new favorite local place is Spence's Bazzar here in Dover, DE. I featured it last Show & Tell Sunday & went again yesterday. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the outdoor market. I have a few pics of the antiques indoors & some of the food. I bought some more bling from the sweetest lady yesterday. I told her I take vintage pieces & rework them into new bracelets & necklaces. She gave me a price break just because I love all this vintage stuff. Here's something new I made with all the new old stuff I've acquired. I'm really excited about where my new creations are going. I've been so inspired lately. I'll post more tomorrow. I'm working on a deadline to get some jewelry into a contest.

My Birthday (Which Was in April & is Just Getting Posted)

My birthday this year was pretty low key. The boys & I had our normal hectic routine; bring Brandon to school, Josh & I go run errands, then pick up Brandon. We got to enjoy some yummy pad thai for lunch. Rick had a case the day after, so he worked really late. I got my birthday present early from Rick - money & babysitting to go to the bead show in Maryland. Yea :) Here are some of the beauties I bought.

Pretty seed beads. I love the mixes & multi-colored beads. I bought some teardrop shaped ones to make more bracelets like these: I also bought some great sterling silver clasps & charms. Look at these amazing crown charms. The company designs a lot of their own silver & these crowns are one of them. I'm in LOVE. I would have bought a whole strand of them, but they were out. They only had a few pieces when I got there & I almost missed them. I had been shopping the table for a good 20 minutes when I saw them. I just about peed in my pants. Yes, I LOVE crowns that much.I also visited my favorite supplier for Swarovski crystals. They sell the crystals with the coatings applied by another company. I am in love with these. They just have the prettiest finishes with the coatings.I got these beauties for a pretty good price. It's not real turquoise, but I loved the color & the veining. It's been so long since I've posted, so I'm going to go ahead & post this now. I started this post a week ago & have yet to finish, so it's finished!