Handcrafted Excellence! Ana's Candles

Thank you to Art & Anglophilia for
introducing me to these amazing candles
created by Ana Candles. They are absolutely
wonderful in their graphic simplicity and
edited style .The color combinations are rich
and varied offering just about any combination
for any color palette. A perfect example of less
is more. Loving these. k

And also a heartfelt thank you for all of you
who voted for me in the decor 8 workspace
contest. It was great fun and we came in 3rd.
Awesome. k

Blogging for RED

Hey everyone. Im very excited about "Product Red". "What
a fantastic, creative, win win idea. And I really believe that
the blogosphere will play a major role in keeping the momentum
going. So fellow bloggers and friends. Jump on the "Red"
bandwagon. Lets help keep the concept rolling.

I took my guys to the Gap and we bought tees, bracelets and
pins. That's "waterboy's" wrist modeling the gorgeous "Red"
leather bracelet. Went back to the store today and I'm so
happy to report that most of the "Red" merchandise had been
wiped out much like the aids virus in Africa will be when WE
unite worldwide to make it happen. Awesome. k

The Perfect Gift!

I love to find the perfect gifts for friends and family. One
of my favorite places to shop for that "darling something"
is Paddington Station here in Ashland. They obviously have
a great buyer for the store because I don't think I've ever
come out of there without a bag in my hand. Yesterday,
after lunch with the "girls" we stopped in and I was
immediately drawn to the almost edible "cupcake"
scarves by co. Too Sweet. They looked good enough to eat
and what a perfect gift. enjoy, k

For the Pottery Lover, Diana Fayt

I found this amazing pottery by Diana Fayt via cake
and pie and I am absolutely in love. If you had to find
a line of pottery that was made for my house and
epitomizes my personal taste this would be it. I will
definately own a piece or three of Diana's work in
the very near future. My only problem will be which
pieces to choose. Take a look aound her wonderful
website. This is just a taste of the many pieces available.
enjoy. k

Just found out Diana has a blog called one blackbird. Now
we can get a daily fix of her awesome work. k

Handcrafted Excellence and Henry Update!

I'm a total fan of beeswax candles. Something about
their natural look and warm honey fragrance are so
appealing. I especially love these four uniquely
sculpted candles found at Gumps a favorite source
for original works from artisans around the world. I
grew up just south of San Francisco in Burlingame
and Gumps was a favorite destination when shopping
in "The City". I think one of my dream jobs would be
to be a buyer for Gumps! We'll be visiting often at
kstyle. enjoy, k

Now for a Henry update! Robert and I hooked up the boat
and headed to Fish Lake today for one last rendevouz
with Henry. It was 46 degrees and very windy. When we
arrived we could immediately see that the amazing bird
life of the summer was non existent. The skies were empty.
Not a single osprey, pelican, blue heron, canadian goose or
bald eagle in sight. We caught fish but unfortunately Henry
was not around to feed. I kept hoping he'd show up for a free
lunch but evidently Henry has already headed south and is
hanging out on a tree in Mexico. Lucky guy! So I guess we'll
have to wait for Spring to rendevous with Henry again. Will
keep you posted. k

I Love Whimsy!

I doubt I will ever top my latest post. Henry is a very hard
act to follow. But kstyle has to move on so I thought I'd
show you these fabulous lampwork cupcake rings by Ehme Glass
studio. Yes, you would have to be extremely careful if you
actually wore one of these amazing rings but how fun to wave
one around for a day.

Speaking of lampwork I've packaged and sent off Holly's
earring charms. Can't wait for her to get them. Hopefully
they will be a little more "user friendly" than the cupcakes.
enjoy, k

Meet Henry, He's Been Outed, Congrats Holly

Meet Henry photographed by Troy Robinson age 14.

Holly from Holly's Plate has outed Henry.

Thank you all for your great guesses and participating in my first contest at kstyle. I feel like I've gotten to know lots of my blogging buddies in the "design" community and that was the whole idea.

Now for the story of Henry.

We often fish at "Fish Lake" just a 40 minute drive from Ashland. This summer on our first trip we noticed a large eagle perched in the trees a short distance from our boat. Wow, we realized it was a bald eagle and it was definitely watching us. The fishing was good that day and we caught fish after fish. We kept our eye on the eagle sure he would fly off at any moment. But no, he patiently stayed in that same spot for hours. Finally my husband had the idea to throw one of our fish into the water and see if the eagle would take it. Troy and I thought he must be kidding. No way a wild bald eagle will come that close to us and the boat. Just as we were ragging "dad" the eagle swooped down from the tree, flew right over the top of us, the wind from his massive wings blowing in our faces, and took the fish ,talons displayed in all their predatorial glory. Wow we were stunned. Did that really just happen. We probably fed Henry 10 fish that day.Troy grabbed the camera and every time Henry came in for a fish he snapped a photo. You can imagine how exciting for a 14 yr old boy.

But the story gets even better. As we left that day we said goodbye to Henry and hoped that someday we might see him again. Back in Ashland we couldn't stop thinking about this amazing day. We decided to go back the following week. Maybe we could find him again. Went back to the same fishing spot and whoa, there was Henry perched in the same tree as if he had been waiting for us. We fed him more fish and took more photos. Over the course of the summer we have probably fed Henry over a hundred fish and Troy has taken at least a hundred photos. It's October now and we are going to the lake tomorrow to say goodbye to Henry for the year. He'll be flying south soon. But I'm pretty sure he will be back next year waiting for us to motor out and provide his meals for the day.

Will keep you posted. k

Hot Handbags Under $100 and Henry Clue!

I absolutely love this gorgeous purse called Cherry Blossom
B which you can find at the amazing online store Napa
Studio. Check out the many original and unique handbag designs.
What I love about this one besides the fabulous kimono fabric
is the price. $75.00. I have a big dress up event coming on
October 21st called" The Art Affair" and I'm thinking of designing
an outfit around this very "arty" purse. I love it . k

And here is my next Henry clue! Remember to be specific when "outing" Henry.

You wouldn't really call Henry cute and by the way did I tell you that Henry was photographed from a boat.

Outing Henry, Info & Clue

Hi everyone,

Loving all the Henry guesses. Can't wait for someone to out Henry.
Pretty sure it will happen next week.

Remember to be specific when guessing Henry's identity.

For example somone guessed butterfly. But monarch butterfly would be more specific.


Henry's definately not your everday ..................... but a very specific ............... ................ .


To be the outer of Henry you will have to be specific. k

Cookie Couture and Henry Clue!

While browsing for halloween finds I came across
these amazing "couture" cookies from Eleni's New
York. They're spendy and I'm not sure I could
actually eat one but how cute are these? The whole
line is amazing. Check out the butterflies here and
t he makeup cookies here. I think I could almost give
up lampworking to design cookies like these.
enjoy, k

Oh, and here is your next Henry clue!

Henry is a vision. He's mostly a very dark brown/black and white with a touch of ........... !

Clues will be getting easier so stay tuned. I'm pretty sure Henry will be outed next week. k

Black and Orange Contest & Henry Clue!

No this is not another kstyle contest but one I recently
entered. It's called the Black and Orange contest and you
can see the guidelines here. They said "make anything with
a black and orange palatte". Hmmm somehow I think my
earrings are a bit lost amongst some of the fabulous entries
that you can see here. Can't wait to see the rest. Winners will
be announced on November 3rd.

Okay on to Henry. Here is the next clue

Henry's overall look is very photogenic and he's not a house pet.

The Prize!

Here are the glass earring charms I will
give to the first person to "out" Henry.
These are probably my hottest selling color
combo. They look awesome with denims and
all the naturals that are so popular this season.
Each charm has been gently marvered to create
a natural stone look.

Oh and here is the next clue:

Henry is patient and Henry has legs!

Contest at kstyle, Outing Henry!

I've decided to have my first contest at kstyle. The
prize will be a pair of my lampwork earrings which I
will post tomorrow. They will be gorgeous and they
will feature turquoise, amber and cream
murano glass. yum!

So who is Henry? That blogging buddies is the question
and the first person to "out" Henry in a comment will
be the winner of my lampwork earrings.. With my daily
posts I will give clues as to Henry's identity. They will start
out challenging moving gradually to the hint that will be a
dead giveaway. Feel free to guess all you want. You never
know. You might just get lucky.

The moment Henry is outed I will post an award winning photo
of Henry taken by my son Troy. It was the highlight of our
summer and I'm dying to share it with you.

So here is the first clue.

Henry is an animal and a study in graphic design.

Oh and those friends out there reading my blog who have already
been introduced to Henry (you know who you are) are excluded
from this contest. sorry guys. k

Jonathan Adler Meets kstyle for Halloween

Hi everyone,
From time to time I will be offering some of my
lampwork jewelry to my friends and blogging fans here
at kstyle. So today I am posting my signature custom
earring charms. They are made with murano glass from
Italy and are all my original designs. My earring charms
are made to slide over most hoop earrings and look fantastic
on gold and sterling silver. They are app. 1/2 in. in diameter
and are smaller than shown. The silver hoops you see in the
pic are NOT included. The two glass charms that you see will
be $25 and will include shipping. If you would like to order
please email me and let me know. Please specify "donuts" for
this pair. I can only accept paypal at this time. thanks so
much, k




This second set of charms are really fun and I designed
them to be totally verstile. The charms can be slipped
off and rotated to make three different combintions. So
you can have polka dots in white/ orange red / or one of
each for a halloween look. The charms are app. 1/2 in.
in diameter and are smaller than shown. Again silver
hoops are NOT for sale. The two earring charms will be $25
and will include shipping. Email me as above if you would
like to order. Specify "polka dots" for this pair.




Finally I love these orange polka dot plates by Jonathan
Adler for any occasion but if I could I'd buy the whole set
just for my halloween entertaining I would. They were my
inspiration for the earring sets you see above. As always
Jonathan Adler so cleverly combines the modern with the
unexpected.

This will be my final post in my "A Well Deigned Holiday
Series" Time to move on to other kstyle topics like

Who is Henry? Stay tuned for details, k

Halloween Meets The Dollar Store

It wouldn't be kstyle without a nod to The Dollar
Store so here's my halloween pic. While I love
some of the high end finds you've seen this last
week I also think "cheap and disposable" when
decorating especially for that impromptu gathering
or kids party. I also love to give simple gifts like
the darling teddy bear in the picture above to the
small children in my life. This one goes to Hayden,
the team mascot for my son's water polo team. Go
grizzlies!

Will be posting halloween inspired original earrings
from kstyle tonight. So stay tuned. Then later this
week will be introducing Henry. k

Halloween Treats, Entertaining and a Bit of Whimsy

I love the halloween pumpkin and witch hat cakes which you
can find at Grandin Road online. Wouldn't they be fabulous
paired with one of Mattew A. Yanchuck's cake stands which
you can find here. I also love the halloween truffles you can
find at Williams and Sonoma and the marzipan creatures
at Dean and Deluca. How cute to make cupcakes using these.
For entertaining check out the Halloween finds at Wrapables.
The spider plates and their string lights are perfect for an
informal gathering. Add the ghost and pumpkin pillows from
Gumps to complete the look. And finally a touch of halloween
whimsy with the sad ghost salt and pepper shakers from Moca
store online and the too much fun halloween glass pets also from
Wrapables. Tomorrow we'll wrap up kstyle's "A well Designed
Halloween" series with some original kstyle earrings inspired by
Jonathan Adler! Stay tuned, k

Halloween Cute!

These have to be the cutest ghosts I've ever seen and that
they happen to be earrings, well just how cute can you get.
You'll find lots of amazing lampwork at ehme glass studio.
Be sure to check out the cupcake rings and the gorgeous
beaded pens. enjoy, k

A Well Designed Halloween, Outdoors

I love Smith and Hawkins Halloween topiaries and
simple orange globe lights. How fun to set the
Halloween stage in such a natural and playful way.
Instead of the lights you could tie black and white or
orange and white polka dot or stripe bows around
the animals for a daytime look. I'm also loving
the glass pumpkin and squash candleholders.
Great color and a perfect fit for a natural Halloween
theme. How fun, enjoy, k

A Well Designed Halloween

Welcome to the first in what I hope will be many
"well designed " holiday series. I love any excuse
to decorate and Halloween is a favorite. I like
to mix it up with the simple, the unexpected and
once in awhile the extravagant. I'm going to start
this series with the extravagant, from a favorite
source called The Artful Home. Their online store
as well as their catalog are filled with gorgeous
handcrafted pieces from around the country. I love
the hand blown glass pumpkins by Michael Cohn
and Molly Stone so classic in shape yet unexpected
in color.The handmade beeswax candles by artist
Alice Hoffman are gorgeous and would be such a
subtle suggestion of Halloween for a more formal
or minimal look. And finally I have posted the
handcarved "halloween set" by artist Hilary Pfeifer
where each piece is a tiny work of art. Stay tuned for
lots more Halloween finds this week. My "treat" k

A "Glass" Act

I am absolutely blown away by these glass finials by uk co.
blowzone. I could just toss all of my generic versions into the
"basura" and completely start over with these gorgoeus works
of glass art. I love the nature theme and the edited simplicity,
and as a lampworker I understand the amazing effort that goes
into the production of these unique pieces. enjoy, k

Stay tuned for my first "A Well Designed Holiday" post series. I
will be devoting an entire week to my best pics for Halloween and
I have some awesome finds. Can't wait to share. k