Each year seems to get better and at the end of it I'm hesitant to say goodbye. But I love new beginnings and a New Year is a perfect time for reinvention. But first - a reflection on what made twenty-ten the best year yet.



FOOD:



Last year I made a resolution to eat local, whole foods as much as possible. I've been a vegetarian for half my life now and half way through the year Jeremy joined me in not eating meat. I've made countless meals and have learned so much about cooking.



ANNIVERSARY:



In March we celebrated our first year of marriage by making a big list. Number 1 on the list was trekking to Mt. Everest Base Camp.



ANOTHER YEAR WISER:



In May I officially (and happily) entered my late twenties. I started feeling restless and by the end of the month I had quit my job as senior art director at the advertising agency I had been at for 5 years to pursue my own freelance career. With 28 I've really come into my own - I've really started to define who I am and who I will become.



AND KATHLEEN DESIGN CO.:



I had big dreams for new beginnings but I found the change didn't come easy. I still have a lot to learn and figure out regarding my new career (and how to balance it with living life) but I've finally found my swagger and am entering the new year feeling good about the work I'm creating.



PIKE'S PEAK:



We spent a good part of our year prepping for our trek to Mt. Everest Base Camp. And with that we decided to hike to the top of Pike's Peak - after a very long day, we made it to the top. When we came back down we felt charged and excited - not just about our summit but about our lives together. What we're doing now and what's next.



PERSONAL STYLE:



In 2010 Jeremy and I quit our daily What We Wear project and I started my Anatomy of an Outfit series. I'm no longer dressing for client meetings or to impress coworkers. I love fashion and I love expressing myself through what I choose to wear. Through Anatomy of an Outfit I've determined that my personal style is Apocalypse Chic. If the end of the world happens on any given day I want to be dressed appropriately for it - even if that means I'm incredibly inappropriate for a Tuesday afternoon.



NEPAL / EVEREST BASE CAMP:



I'm most sad to say goodbye to twenty-ten because the further I will be from Nepal. In October we trekked to Mt. Everest Base Camp and I spent the month of November recapping the adventure. Upon our return I knew that we had had a grand adventure - but it took a couple months of settling back in for me to fully realize how much the experience has left me forever changed - and for that I am grateful.



And that brings us to right here - December 31, 2010. Jeremy and I had an amazing year and we did it together - side-by-side. And I'm so thankful to have been able to share our adventures and life together with you all - my blog buddies. Thank you for your friendship, energy, and thoughts - you guys inspire me to no end.

So with that... farewell, twenty-ten. You were a good year.

• Labels:
• new year


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From Jeremy: necklace from Collected Thread


From my brother: ampersand and k type

I received some amazing gifts this Christmas but some of my favorites came in the smallest packages.

• Labels:
• Christmas
• gift ideas


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Let me paint a picture for you: I have this friend named James. He's really tall and muscular with a shaved head and some serious facial hair. He's usually wearing work boots and tan overalls OR work boots, basketball shorts and a camouflage hoodie. He shoots his own turkey at Thanksgiving and loves biscuits and gravy topped with chicken fried chicken. (Yet, we get along splendidly.)

So you'll imagine my surprise when he got me this super fabulous vintage jacket for Christmas. It was so thoughtful and it fits perfectly. I'm looking forward to layering it on top of all sorts of things but started with my favorite plaid.

Jacket - Vintage from Mister Rabbit
Red Plaid - JCP
White tee - Urban Outfitters
Shiny Leggings - Target
Boots - Frye

• Labels:
• anatomy of an outfit
• friends
• gift ideas
• what we wear


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A couple weeks ago I casually remarked in this post that I think I'd like to put feathers in my hair and just days later Plume Your Hair emailed me asking me if I'd like to try a few out (without asking for anything, like a blog review, in return). I was thrilled - and of course I wanted to share the look and experience with you all.

First, I picked out three feathers. I went with a mix of Grizzly Dark Bar Ginger, Grizzly Natural and long Golden Straw. I wanted the feathers to be neutral and kind of blend in with my hair.



The feathers came with a great instruction sheet but I modified the process a little to make it easier for me. Basically, what you want to do is get your hair through the teeny tiny bead, slide the feather through the bead with the hair and then crimp the bead flat with pliers. I threaded a loop of little dental floss through the bead - then my hair through the floss and pulled everything through that way. Then Jeremy assisted me by putting the feather in through the bead and crimping everything down with pliers.



I placed these feathers in the hair right above my ear. I did the black and white one a little higher and together crimped the brown and yellow feathers a little lower. I'm really excited about the results. I'm considering ordering one or two more black and white feathers to place a little higher on my head - just under my natural part. I think these are subtle enough I can get away with it without looking like a bird or fishing tackle.

Thanks again, Plume Your Hair!

P.S. I originally found these feathers via Merl - they look fantastic in her hair!

• Labels:
• feathers
• hair
• plume your hair


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One of my favorite things to do is design for small businesses. My dream job would be to design a restaurant or boutique from top to bottom - we're talking logo, identity collaterals (business card, letterhead, envelopes), signage, rack cards, print ads, web site and even helping with the interior design such as paint colors, furniture and textiles. But enough dreaming and back to reality.

I was thrilled when the super stylish Merl Kinzie approached me to help her develop an identity for her jewelry line Clyde's Rebirth. Not only did she want me to design a logo but she also wanted me to brainstorm creative ways to package her product in an eco-friendly way.

After a discovery process I learned that the name Clyde's Rebirth was born from Merl's obsession with her cat (named Clyde), sparkly glittery jewelry, and the need to recycle and reduce her footprint. For me the name evokes almost a mythical story to be told. Merl loves grey and orange. She definitely wanted to include a cat paw and use a lowercase typeface. She told me about an idea she had of the paw coming out of a flower bud but beyond those things she let me have at it.



I started sketching on paper and from there moved a few of my ideas onto the computer for a more polished execution. I knew I wanted to use metallic neutrals - gold and grey - to represent the timeless materials Merl uses in her jewelry. I also wanted to visually show the modern application of repurposed materials by contrasting a modern typeface (which I then additionally modified) with a more vintage looking logo mark.





Merl chose the logo that was inspired by her idea of the paw coming out of the flower bud. I also love that it looks as if the paw is sitting on a pedestal. Merl asked that we tweak and refine the colors ever so slightly and I was happy to oblige. Otherwise, she didn't have a single revision to the design.

I will often create both a horizontal and stacked logo for my clients to be used in appropriate applications. For example, a blog header might use the horizontal logo to fill the space, while a small tag might use the stacked version.

I was so excited to create a logo identity for such a talented designer like Merl.

For more examples of my small business identity work:
• Sweet B
• Ada's Technical Books
• Kathy Wolfe Photographer
• Sideshow Performer Donny Vomit

• Labels:
• and kathleen
• brand identity
• graphic design
• logo design


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The other evening I was feeling too lazy to cook but even lazier when it came to going out. We had seemingly no food on hand and I was starting to feel like the end of the world was approaching - this is how dramatic I get when I'm hungry.

I started rummaging through cabinets and giving my fridge a once over. This delicata squash had been sitting on my counter for weeks (that's the beauty of winter squash) and I forgot it wasn't just for decoration. I had an onion and some mushrooms. This is when I started brainstorming a meal. I knew I wanted to include a grain in order to make our dinner extra hearty and filling - I always have a jar full of quinoa around so I decided to use that. Quinoa always seems to make the cut when ohmigod, we have nothing to eat in this house! So here's how it all came together.

Delicata Squash Stuffed with Mushrooms and Onions
1 Delicata Squash
1 Onion
2 Handfuls of Sliced Mushrooms
1/3 c Quinoa
Olive Oil
Truffle Oil (optional)
Herbs de Provence
Fresh Sage
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your oven to 450F. Slice the ends off your squash and cut vertically down the middle. Scoop out the seeds and guts. Rub the inside of the squash with olive oil and generously season with herbs de provence, salt and pepper. Place cut side up in a casserole dish filled with about 1/2" of water (this keeps the bottom of the squash from roasting to the pan.) Roast for 45 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven to cool as you prep your stuffing.

Rinse your quinoa and cook in a small sauce pan that can be covered. You'll want to add 2/3 cup of water to 1/3 cup of quinoa (like most grains you just use 2 parts water for 1 part grain). Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until all the water has evaporated.

Over a medium to low flame, heat a little olive oil in a large pan. Add your sliced mushrooms and chopped onions. Salt and pepper. Allow these to cook down until the mushrooms lose their liquid and the onions are transparent. Add your chopped fresh sage. After about a minute add your quinoa to the mix and stir until everything is blended together. Generously stuff your squash and if you have extra stuffing just let it spill over the top. Drizzle with truffle oil. Note: the great thing about delicata squash is you can eat the skin if you like but I preferred to just scoop the meat out of the shell as I ate it. Also, this recipe would be great with garlic and toasted pine nuts - I just used what I had on hand - but feel free to experiment.

• Labels:
• vegan
• vegetables
• vegetarian
• what we eat


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Scooty Boots would especially like to wish each and every one of you a very merry holiday weekend.

• Labels:
• Christmas
• Holiday
• scooty boots


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One of the best parts of the holiday season is reuniting with old friends who have managed to make a life long impression on who I am today. Friends like Sarah Amspacher. Between the ages of 15 and 18, I spent every waking moment possible with Sarah. And these were particularly formative years. We donned overalls, hemp jewelry, hairy legs and not a stitch of makeup. And we thought we were so cool. We kind of were.

I met up with Sarah for lunch last week and she gave me a time capsule of snap shots from over a decade ago. I instantly became nostalgic with memories of who I was - becoming vegetarian, going on long walks barefoot, fretting over whether or not I'd ever start my period, eating free meals at The Diner, becoming an Ashtanga yoga addict, driving around in my 1973 yellow VW bug and Sarah's boxy Volvo, listening to Chainsaw Kittens tapes on repeat and burning Nag Champa. Sarah and I were each other's number one fans. She was (and still is) brave, smart, creative and completely inspiring to me. We gave each other courage to power through the shit-hole that can be teenagerdome.

At 18 years old, Sarah went on to study sustainable agriculture at Evergreen in Olympia, Washington. I stayed behind to study art at the University of Oklahoma. We said our goodbyes and snapped these photos as Sarah's dad loaded up his big red truck to take her out of the Heartland and into the Pacific Northwest. Along our separate paths we slowly but surely retired our overalls and hemp jewelry. Sarah's now saving the world and finding ways to make renewable energy a reality (when she's not kayaking along coast lines and being attacked by rabid cougars - no, really). And I'm a working artist and have exchanged my '73 yellow Volkswagen Beetle for a Turbo GTI with a sunroof. It's clear that we've grown quite a bit since then - but the seeds we planted as kids hold firm root on who we are today.

• Labels:
• friends
• kathleen
• nostalgia


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Remember when this blog used to be solely about renovating our historical home? No? That's because only 12 of you were reading at the time. I'd like to take this time to welcome my new readers - feel free to take a tour of our home here.

I would also like to show you a house project that was completed about 6 months ago - but I was so caught up in everything else that I forgot to share. After a pretty serious hail storm we got a new roof and painted all of the trim. What used to be green and cream is now all inky black.


Photo taken in the lush Spring.


Photo taken in Fall 2010, after everything had mostly died.

At first I was shocked and terrified I had made the wrong decision. It was just such a bold change. But now I'm really happy with the update - I feel like our house looks more refined. If only we had the funds to replace all the metal stormer windows too. Oh and you'll have to forgive our awful landscaping - I'm going to tackle that situation in Spring/Summer 2011.

• Labels:
• Before / After
• House
• Painting


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Our decorating was kept to a minimum this year - but it's just enough to keep me in the holiday spirit.

Other things that get me excited about Christmas:
• Hot chocolate
• Anything cinnamon
• Snow (it's 70F here in Oklahoma - at Christmas last year we got snowed in at my parents house)
• Pajamas
• Holiday tunes & Christmas movies
• "Trash" - this is what we call my mom's recipe for homemade Chex mix
• The fireplace channel

• Labels:
• Christmas
• Holiday


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I feel like I haven't bought clothes in ages. So when I get bored I start to shop my closet and find pieces I haven't bothered to put on in years. Like this purple cable knit skirt - I forgot how long it is. It feels just a smidge too big and takes a bit of concentration to keep from falling down past my hips. This might be one for the donation pile but I'm glad I gave it one last shot.

Scarf - Urban Outfitters
Cardigan - Target
Cami - Urban Outfitters
Skirt - Target (from about 6 years ago maybe)
Leggings & Socks - Target
Boots - Seychelle

• Labels:
• anatomy of an outfit
• Fashion
• what we wear


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I've always liked Kanye West. He might be a bit of an acquired taste but I love him. His music, his style, his girlfriend and even his abrasive attitude towards pretty much everything. The man is undeniably talented.

I don't know why it's taken me so long - but last night I carved out 30 minutes of my evening to watch Kanye West's full-length film Runaway. And my mind was blown and my heart ached - in a good way. I quickly became sad and jealous that not only was I not on the team of creatives that brought this work to life but that I'm not a bird or even a ballerina.

• Labels:
• kanye west
• movies
• music


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