Hannah Kate Children’s Clothing Trunk Show January 29, 2008

First of all, if you are here looking for Funnyface Designs, I have now uploaded the whole kit and kaboodle to my site: www.katinthehatdesigns.com, so you can go directly there to order from now on. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm over this fun new Kat in the Hat endeavor!

Hannah Kate. The trunk show is this Thursday and Friday at my home, 9-5 both days. Here is a link to view the entire Spring/Summer collection.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcMm7Jo5cs2sG    

It is the most adorable line of vintage-inspired designs and fabrics. You can pick any style, any fabric, add any embellishment–the options are endless. From infants to big girls and boys, you will surely find something you love.

If you are in the Knoxville area, we hope to see you then! And if you can’t be there in person, you are welcome to contact me and place your order by email or phone based on the preview above.

Introducing funnyface designs by kat… January 19, 2008

A spin-off of Spittin’ Images, the whimsical children’s portraits I offer, these are a bit simpler and a whole lot of fun! Why? Because you design your own funnyface. You choose the hair style, color, extras, add your child’s name and voila! A precious funnyface. Put your funnyface on tees, canvas, stationery products, notepads…as always with my designs, on almost anything you can dream up! I’m totally ready to roll on these but adding all the details to the site, as I’ve said before is a terrific pain. I’ll post all of the features here for now, and if you want to order, just email me. (kathryn@katinthehatdesigns.com) I have a form you can fill out and email me that makes ordering a breeze. By the way, it only costs $15 to create a funnyface and then regular prices apply to tees, canvas etc.

choose a “do”…

add some details…

pick a background color, font and font color

Oh. True to form, I misspelled ridiculous AGAIN. Literally have never spelled it right in my LIFE. Can’t teach this old dog new tricks. Ha. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be adding a few features here and there and if you don’t see what you need let me know. Phew.

Here are a couple of tee designs…and the real deal on the poor kiddies who were forced outside in the below-freezing temps (not really, I swear). Just call me Mommy Dearest.

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far… January 15, 2008

  What’s with these kids that eat their veggies? I eat lunch with my son on Friday’s and the kids who join us at the table scarf down those green beans like mine eats french fries. And how come my kid won’t touch the darn things?

 Well, ok. I admit it. I wouldn’t eat ‘em either. I had a couple of tricks. Early on, I used the stall tactic. My brother stabbed a whole pile of green beans onto his fork at once, held his nose, shoveled ‘em in and washed the whole lot down with a jug of milk. I could not do this…no way, no how. Instead I sat. And sat and sat. And scooched them around. And sat. And the table was cleared, and still I sat. Finally when they were stone cold, I was sent to bed. Well worth my efforts.

When I got older I came up with an even better technique which didn’t cut into my phone time as much. Here’s how: one by one, push the beans off the plate and into lap/napkin. Once beans are transported, wrap in bottom of shirt and excuse oneself to potty. Discard beans in potty, flush and VOILA!  Problem solved. That is until potty backs up, plumber is called and you are found out.

So back to my kids. My daughter will eat edamame of all things, and my son will eat brocolli but only if it is COMPLETELY covered in cheese…my daughter will also put spinach in her mouth, but only to lick the dressing off. But what made me think to write this, is that my potty technique has been passed on in my genes.

But she hasn’t applied it to veggies yet. Thank goodness, because we have really old pipes. Miss thang will not drink her juice anymore and she’s had a cough for the last month so I insist.  And she pushes back. Hard. Will NOT drink the juice. Then, all of a sudden that changed. I’d shove the juice in her hand, she’d amble off, and moments later…”I’m done!” Empty cup. Wow. “So proud…what a BIG girl you are!”

But my son, well-known for his tattling ways, happened by to find Sassy Pants in the bathroom, with the door wide open. And yep you guessed it. DUMPING THE JUICE.

All I can say, is that I love my veggies now (except green beans of course) so there’s hope. I just pray the same can be said for the pipes.

Definitely. January 10, 2008

This is so bizarre. NO ONE can spell this word. I get at least one email a day with this word spelled wrong. definately. definatly. Gosh, a million variations. I pointed it out to a co-worker over a year ago, and she forwards her emails to me ALLLLL the time with this word misspelled. Of course now she’s obsessed, as am I. It’s become a pet peeve, as ridiculous as it may be. If it weren’t for spell-check, I’d be murdering the King’s English left and right too, but apparently there are folks who don’t take advantage of this fine feature. Anyway, just thought you might like to join in the inane fun of sleuthing out challenged spellers. (And as I ran spell-check on this, I realized that I’ve been misspelling  ridiculous my WHOLE LIFE. Rediculous. Geez. How humiliating.

Another… January 9, 2008

tee design. Holy Ta-moly Batman! It isn’t on my site yet, and probably won’t be for a couple of months so if you want one, just email me. As you can see, you can get the design in 5 colors.

Haven’t posted in a few days…some dreadful bug struck and just trying to stay afloat. Busy, busy with life, work, revolving door of overnight guests…the usual.
But a close friend of mine is a caregiver for a friend who has terminal cancer. The girl who is sick was a missionary in Singapore for many years and never married or had children. She’s my age and dying. She actually said that she felt honored that God chose her to have this illness so she could be a witness to others. Whoa! If that wasn’t enough, a customer recently ordered something for a friend’s child and later informed me that the child was just diagnosed with cancer (at 2 1/2). Boy, does this put things in perspective. I’d been following another babies illness this year as well which certainly opened my eyes, but news of more illness really makes you stop and think. It could be any one of us at any time. And so many of us (me included) are so crazed with squeezing too much into a day, a week…that we never stop to appreciate life or what we have. How to stop this, I don’t know for sure…but geez…perhaps 2008 is the year to try.

Also just read an article about moms who blog in a magazine (while sitting in the doctors office. ugh). The author writes a blog (for a national magazine even) but said something that really struck me. Blogs are about narcissism. So true! An opportunity to talk about ourselves and hope that others care about what we have to say. I love writing a blog, but this bugs me. I mean, I guess that’s why we talk or communicate at all–but to sit at a computer pounding away on the tyepad writing to an invisible audience…it is kind of odd. Me, a narcissist? Well, I guess so! I write about my successes don’t I? Am I bragging? Sure sounds that way! I guess we’re all voyuers too. How fun is it to peak into someone elses world? I guess that’s why I love biographies and memoirs so much. But since I can’t take my MAC to bed with me I guess I’ll stick with the paperback version. Trying to cut back on my blog reading (I used to be “into” at least an hour’s worth every morning)…talk about a time-suck!

So while I may share some of my work here…as an extension of my site, to point folks here when something isn’t yet available on the site…my plan is to keep it fun. An opportunity to sort of document the silly stuff my kids are up to, photos…soapbox rants…and keep the biz stuff separate.

Soooo…..Debbie Downer signing off now. Ha. More at some point.

Practice, Practice, Practice January 4, 2008

I just enjoy taking pictures…and though I don’t know all of the in’s and out’s of my camera, or photography, I have a good time “practicing”. This is the cutest little boy who also happens to be my neighbor…and he is ALWAYS in my midst but rarely moving slowly enough for me to corner him. I did yesterday for ONE shot…it’s all I was granted. And he’s not giving me his usual whole-face-smile, but I love the colors of his eyes, dark hair and the ivy with that beautiful, luminous skin that only children possess. I’ll try again one of these days…he’s worth the chase. And wait til I capture his SISTER!

 

Get Your Pink On! January 3, 2008

Hard to believe another year has rolled around. I think I’ve gone full circle now on all of the holiday tees, but I think I like the Valentine’s tees the best because I love PINK!

I have lots of shows coming up plus I just did a mass mailing of this and the orders are rolling in. Yehaw–2008 is off with a bang!

ava & griffin January 1, 2008

Never before has there been such a compliant poser. We only had about thirty minutes before we lost our light but we squeezed in a few sweet shots. This self-proclaimed “tomboy” below was having none of it–wouldn’t spit her gum out, wouldn’t wear the shirt her mom wanted her to wear because it’s pink, comb her hair…nothing. And the only thing that got her outside at all was my promise to take a pic of the tattoo she’d plastered all over her belly. But these pretty blue eyes were worth it for me.