I've been doing more drawing than sewing

Last November (at my last post) my quilt guild announced the theme for this years guild challenge, "Let's Go Fly A Kite"... immediately my creative juices started flowing... a little black girl flying a kite... in a little yellow dress... make her 3-D... make the kite 3-D...!!! So that's what's been on my sewing machine BUT I can't post any pictures until March, that's when they'll be judged.  I can't wait because mine is so out-of-the-box that I'm not sure what they are going to think, but generally they like my work.

Something that I've been doing for years and years is drawing zentangles, or zendoodles.  I have created a separate blog for my works of art here: Timeless Tangles and I just posted a new challenge created by Jake Parker of Inktober that you might want to check out.
This is one of my zendoodles but everyone creates them differently:

Newport News Fall Festival!

I know I've been MIA for a while but it's because WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!! So this summer was all about purging old junk and moving to our new place.  As soon as the boys went back to school I told myself that I really needed to buckle down and get ready for this year's fall festival.  So here are a few pictures from this weekend:

One of my new items this fall was my zendoodle notecards.  Here's a better picture I took before the festival:

My booth may look totally different next year because as I was sitting there assessing what people were buying (and not buying) and what creative endeavor I like to spend my time doing now... I think I'm "reinventing" myself.  

I probably won't shut this blog down but I will be devoting more time to my newer blog over here: Timeless Tangles Thanks for looking!

Fabric Designer

I am now designing my own fabric!  I joined Spoonflower last year but didn't really understand how it worked until last weekend when I decided to play around on it some more.  Spoonflower is a website that allows you to create and sell your designs on fabric, wallpaper, gift wrap, drapery and much more.
If you want to get your creative juices flowing, Spoonflower has design contests.  They post a theme and leave it up to you to do the rest.  This weeks theme is "Endangered species" and since my nine-year-old loves rhinos I decided to take on the challenge.  I drew a zentangle rhino then shrunk it down to the appropriate size for a fabric print.

There are also a few drawing apps I use on my phone to create abstract designs like this:

When I was in church on Sunday I kept looking at the architecture of the building.  I took a few photos, changed them to black and white, and after sizing and mirror-imaging them I came up with another beautiful print.  This is the initial photo I used:

Tuesday, when I was on a field trip with my son's class, I took a picture of this little frog.  I first manipulated the colors in the picture, mirror imaged him, then turned him into fabric as well:

You can be a customer or vendor or both!  Here is a link to my virtual storefront but I encourage you to use the search engine and look up anything your little heart desires.  I can almost guarantee someone will have designed exactly what you are looking for.

My shop name is October Cat Studios, the link is October Cat Studios

Thanks for stopping by!

Decorating and zentangles

     We are moving in just two short weeks!  I'm not that much of an interior decorator but one of the bathrooms in our new-but-old house needs some TLC.  We currently have a glass door on our shower but in the new house I get to pick out a shower curtain... which then entails picking out the rugs and any other accents.  I have had so much fun with this!
     It took me a while to decide on the perfect shower curtain (which I'll probably change out six months after we move in, because I'm like that). This is the shower curtain and it looks like it has a white background but it's really a cream color.  I'm thinking of hand sewing beads onto it because it just feels like it needs beads, plus I love to hand sew.

     I bought it from Target online.  It's made by Boho Boutique and the name is Utopia.  This picture is from their website and it's even more gorgeous in person, the red and orange really pop.  I bought two rugs (one orange and one cream color) locally.  I bought fabric from JoAnn's to eventually make curtains but I need to take measurements first.  And finally I decided to do a few zentangles for the walls.
     I probably only needed to do one or two but I've done three so far.  There is light blue and olive green in the shower curtain also that doesn't show up to well in Target's picture.

     I can't wait to move in and get this bathroom all set up so you can see the final product.

What I've been up to

     We are moving in June!  My husband is a Methodist pastor and if you know anything about us Methodists it's that the pastors move often.  Since we are in the Virginia Conference we will stay within this state.  When we got married we were assigned to a quaint little town on the Rappahannock river called Urbanna, Va.  Six years and two kids later we moved to Portsmouth, Va.  We have been here five years and are now moving to Lexington, Va.
     So, needless to say, this is what's been going on in my life for the past few months: helping the kids transition, packing and purging, starting to change our address on bills and looking for new doctors, etc.
     I am still working on my two young adult fantasy fiction stories but yesterday I revisited one of my other passions, zentangles!

So if you don't hear from me for another month or two it's because I'm knee deep in boxes.

Networking and making connections

I'm not a very outgoing person, I keep to myself and I like it like that but when it comes to promoting my items I'm learning to engage with people more.  I need to break out of my shell and slowly but surely I'm learning how.

I always carry around my business cards in case anyone asks what kind of artwork I do.  It's hard to explain Art Dolls or Fabric Bowls so I just lead them here to see everything I do.  This past week I was at the vet and started talking to a lady who mentioned Instagram.  She said that she buys items off of Instagram!  I chimed in and said that I joined Instagram last week to get more exposure but I didn't know you could sell from Instagram!  (I'm on Instagram as KimberlyJDC) So I'm looking into this but that was one business card.  

The other card I gave out was to a lady that struck up a conversation with me while I was getting my car inspected.  I was drawing a Zentangle and she asked about it.  She was super nice and we talked about everything from Pinterest to thrift stores to tattoos.  I didn't get her name but if you are her reading this here is the finished Zentangle I was working on while we were talking:

So a big THANK YOU goes out to anyone reading this and likes and supports my work, you guys are the best!
Link to my Etsy shop: October Cat Studios