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

The Winner

It's safe to say that I have been totally
obsessing over which card to choose for the
decor 8 competition. So many sleep deprived
hours later here is my thinking. I absolutely
feel that from a design "purist" point of view
card A is the right choice. And some of you
clearly felt the same . But the majority of you
chose Card B. Ultimately I decided to agree for
the simple but powerful reason that "color"
played such a dominant role in my workspace.
I just couldn't get over the one color theme in
the first card although I think the feel of the card
was right on. So today I will submit my entry and
we'll see. At the very least I've had a great time
with this contest. Right up my design/competitive
alley. k

Introducing K style Lampwork Beads

I want to thank everyone for their fantastic
input on my "contest dilemma". Will let you
know what I decide when I submit my entry
next week.

Thought it would be a good time to introduce
my lampwork beads and jewelry since you've
now seen my studio and a bit of what I'm up
to. So just scroll down and check out my new
flickr photostream of recent work. Just click
on an image and you can view the set. Thanks
so much. k

Decor 8 Contest, Heeelp!

"Decor 8" a large design blog with a huge readership has
teamed up with "Fabulous Stationery" a wonderful, hip
stationery co. with over 350 contemporary and funky designs.
Our task is to photograph our workspace and then choose the
ONE notecard from the stationery line that most "represents"
our space. So here's where I need your help. Both the daisy cards
pictured above are good choices but one has to be chosen as the
"it" card. Tell me what you think. Card A on the left or card B
on the right? Submissions have to made by next week.

By the way besides a blogger I am also a lampworker (torch glass
to create beads as pictured above). The picture is my corner in the
garage where I work. I decided to go retro with my theme
being "flower power".

So let me know what you think. I can't decide. Thanks in advance, k

Styling With Birds

As you know by now I have a thing for birds in
just about any medium. These wonderfully stylized
owls are yet another piece in the gorgeous line by
finnstyle. Just had to show you these before we
move on to some other things. Will be entering
decor 8's "work space" contest and need your
help so stay tuned. k

Hot Handbags Under $100

Everything about this bag is hip but the
fact that it is made from recycled car tire inner
tubes makes it a conversation piece as well.
Check out the rest of this amazing line
at finnstyle. I love the clean, contemporary
look of so many of their products. Will be
keeping track of this fun site. enjoy, k