guess what!?

i bought the tank and torch i need to solder jewelry at home!!! i'm so excited! now, hopefully i don't set the apartment ablaze! (i shouldn't even say that! haha) i have bought so much equipment and tools for my jewelry studio. i feel really proud. i'm not even sure where the money came from but all the sudden, i had it. i'm excited to start to make some more jewelry.
i think i'm going to do a giveaway soon. it's clothing....so stay tuned!
oh and happy friday! do you have any fun plans this weekend?

i am an emotional creature

a few blog posts ago i put a video up from Eve Ensler and this is the poem she performed at the end of her speech. i absolutely love love love it. a lot of times in my life i have been told i am too sensitive and it has caused me to try to harden or hide my true feelings about things. and in the end, it is just not worth it. i become more and more ME everyday, being more authentic in my feelings. and i'm very proud of that now!

I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE

I love being a girl.
I can feel what you're feeling
as you're feeling it inside
the feeling
before.
I am an emotional creature.
Things do not come to me
as intellectual theories or hard-shaped ideas.
They pulse through my organs and legs
and burn up my ears.
I know when your girlfriend's really pissed off
even though she appears to give you what
you want.
I know when a storm is coming.
I can feel the invisible stirrings in the air.
I can tell you he won't call back.
It's a vibe I share.

I am an emotional creature.
I love that I do not take things lightly.
Everything is intense to me.
The way I walk in the street.
The way my mother wakes me up.
The way I hear bad news.
The way it's unbearable when I lose.

I am an emotional creature.
I am connected to everything and everyone.
I was born like that.
Don't you dare say all negative that it's a
teenage thing
or it's only only because I'm a girl.
These feelings make me better.
They make me ready.
They make me present.
They make me strong.

I am an emotional creature.
There is a particular way of knowing.
It's like the older women somehow forgot.
I rejoice that it's still in my body.

I know when the coconut's about to fall.
I know that we've pushed the earth too far.
I know my father isn't coming back.
That no one's prepared for the fire.
I know that lipstick means
more than show.
I know that boys feel super-insecure
and so-called terrorists are made, not born.
I know that one kiss can take
away all my decision-making ability
and sometimes, you know, it should.

This is not extreme.
It's a girl thing.
What we would all be
if the big door inside us flew open.
Don't tell me not to cry.
To calm it down
Not to be so extreme
To be reasonable.
I am an emotional creature.
It's how the earth got made.
How the wind continues to pollinate.
You don't tell the Atlantic ocean
to behave.

I am an emotional creature.
Why would you want to shut me down
or turn me off?
I am your remaining memory.
I am connecting you to your source.
Nothing's been diluted.
Nothing's leaked out.
I can take you back.

I love that I can feel the inside
of the feelings in you,
even if it stops my life
even if it hurts too much
or takes me off track
even if it breaks my heart.
It makes me responsible.
I am an emotional
I am an emotional, devotional,
incandotional, creature.
And I love, hear me,
love love love
being a girl.

Eve Ensler, a playwright and activist, is the founder of V-Day, a
global movement to end violence against women and girls. In
conjunction with I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE, V-Day has developed a
targeted pilot program, V-Girls, to engage young women in our
"empowerment philanthropy" model, providing them with a platform to
amplify their voices.

i hope you enjoyed reading that. it's so inspiring to me!
i dyed my hair this weekend. this is a horrible horrible phone pic but the ends are a raspberry color! i was so nervous because my hair was black at the bottom so i had to bleach it. it is not as healthy as it was but i needed a change. i think i want bright red next. we'll see!

happy monday!

new pendant finally finished!

hi there! i have been working on this pendant in jewelry class forEVER! it's hard to get things done in there sometimes because we all share the equipment and sometimes i can't make it to class. i miss weeks at a time. so anyway, i was so excited to get this done. it's a druzy set in sterling silver and the base of the pendant is brass. i think it turned out pretty cool! i want to do more pieces like this. i am getting closer and closer to having the equipment and tools i need to do it at home. i'm getting pretty antsy.... i think today i'll look on ebay for some more stones/druzy/crystals to use in my jewelry designs. then i think i'll go lounge around the house so my cats don't feel left out! hehe

valentines day (belated)

i'm a little late on my valentines day post. we had such a nice time! we wanted to have a mini getaway, so we got a hotel room. we went on hotels.com and found one in our price range. you never know what you are getting exactly. but the hotel was SO nice! it was a Westin and the description said it was the airport hotel. it was sort of by the airport i guess, but it was right on the water! the view out of our room was so gorgeous and we saw dolphins swimming in the water!the hotel was pretty new, so the decor was really modern and cool. we had a drink and lobster bisque and seafood appetizers down at the restaurant. and then later had room service for dinner and breakfast the next morning. i love room service! it was such a nice little getaway. i didn't want to leave. i wanted to lounge around and look out at our view and have room service for one more day! haha

mushy love stuff

so it's close to valentines day! we finally figured out what we are going to do. we are staying in a hotel for the night. no where far away, actually pretty close to home. but we can pretend we are on a mini vacation! it has an indoor pool and hot tub. so i'm really looking forward to that. and you can get in room massages!!!! we might dish out the money for that...not sure. i could use a massage every day of my life, they are my favorite!
i found these on carrie's blog. you can add your own words to the candy hearts! check it out here. (yes, i have strange names for chris! haha)



i told the story of how chris and i met (just under this post) and i mentioned it was our anniversary of the day we decided to make the long distance thing work. and he bought me a really pretty iris and lily bouquet and they are just now starting to bloom. i getting love flowers!
well anyway, just popped in to say hi and that i hope you all
have a great weekend! what are your plans??

how we met

so today marks the anniversary of the day chris and i decided to be together despite the distance. i have never had a long distance relationship before and wasn't sure how or if it could work. i'm SO glad we did! i'll tell you the story of how we met.... i was visiting my friend who had moved to virginia. it was a girls weekend, old friends from michigan who i hadn't seen in forever. it was may of 2007. so we went out on the town and we grab a seat at the bar and order some drinks.
it's blurry, but this is where we were sitting. i wish somehow chris was in this picture, but he's down at the end of the bar, just out of the picture.

we are having a great time, laughing our butts off and joking around and all the way down on the other end of the bar i see this adorable guy! now, i am not the type of person that really goes after guys or really ever sees anyone who really sparks my interest. i never see a guy and feel an attraction to him. i can say they are cute or handsome, but i never am personally drawn to them. this time, i was instantly drawn to this person i saw from across the bar. i told my friends to "look at how cute that guy is down there!!!" and as soon as i said that, they all looked at him and he looked at us all gawking at him! eek! i am pretty shy so i quickly turned my back to him and pretended that didn't happen. he jokingly says, "what i'm not good enough for you?!" what am i going to do? go hang out with some random guy that will probably turn out to be a jerk like the rest of them? right now? when i'm hanging out in a different state with all my old friends i have not seen in forever? nope. so i go on, never looking back at him. my friends and i had a great time, such a fun night! and as far as i knew, the night was over....the bar was closing down and my friends went outside. i went to the restroom and when i came outside, who is standing there waiting? my christopher! it was like one of those moments when your whole body, inside and out, smiles uncontrollably and you are walking on cloud nine! we clicked instantly. of course we had some drinks so i am sure that helped but honestly i never felt anything like that for someone ever before. we ended up all walking to our cars together, chris and i staying back to talk and smooch. it was such a fun night!

these pictures are from that night. this is us all smoochy, like we've known each other for years!

but i couldn't fully take it seriously. he lived i virginia, i lived in florida. we were both completely cynical about relationships at this time. we exchanged numbers and texted for a bit. then we were emailing/myspacing. eventually one day in an email i took something he said the wrong way and he said, no you don't understand my sense of humor! let me call you so you can hear me talk. so that started about 8 months of phone calls. we were "friends" but we both liked each other as more. for two people who were completely apprehensive about relationships, this was a perfect way to ease into it. plus we were both thinking, could this really end up working? eventually we decided we HAD to see where this goes. so he planned a trip down here. he came to visit in february of 2008.i wish i had more pictures from his first visit, but i really like this one.

we couldn't figure out how in the world we waited so long. and WHY????? instant chemistry when he got of the plane. it was like a movie. i'm standing there waiting for him and the second i see him, i zoom over to him and we are all kissing...pda in the airport! haha... i would love to relive that day :) anyway, he stayed with me for about a week. we had an amazing time and we decided we wanted to make this real. we wanted to be together. today is actually the anniversary of that day. unfortunately, chris was being deployed for 5 months!!!! he was in the navy at the time. so even more looooooong distance. thankfully he was somehow able to call me from the ship every day. we could also email and send pictures. so it wasn't completely horrible. it was really actually a lot of fun and a completely different experience than i have ever had before. we never had to have an awkward first date, let's put it that way! but i couldn't wait for the 5 months to be over!

us in july 2008.

after he was done with his deployment, he came to visit again in july. this pretty much sealed the deal. he was moving in with me after he got out of the navy. so in october of 2008, he moved to florida and in with me!


these pictures are from a visit to oregon, where his family lives. this was right after he got out of the navy and right before he came to live in florida.

wow, that was a long post! i tried to condense the story as much as possible. i just love how we made it happen even though we had to wait soooooo long! hope you enjoyed our story.
here's us today. yeah chris hasn't used the scissors much since he got out of the navy!

i still have no clue what to do for valentines day. these holidays are kind of pressure, do you feel that way ever? hhhm.... i'll figure something out! hope you are having a lovely day! xoxo, katie

just because....

i like it!



la native


articles & texticles


all sources are weheartit.com unless otherwise notedhappy sunday!

jewelry, relationships, the like...

hi!
i got some requests from readers to provide a list of jewelry tools. the tools are different depending on what type of jewelry you want to design. and i am by no means an expert. but some basic tools and supplies that you would need for making necklaces with beads or pendants or wire wrapping are:

pliers: needle nose, flat and round
wire cutters
beading wire
crimp beads
jump rings
clasps
silver wire

the type of jewelry design i am moving toward requires A LOT of tools and supplies and they are not cheap. so i've been putting a little money toward the list of supplies slowly. there are so many but here's a list of some basics. this is for metal smithing:

pliers
saw
saw blades
stick of Bur-Life®
assortment of files
hammer with rounded top
raw hide mallet
bench pin
variety of sandpaper
shears
hole punch for metal
sheet metal
liver of sulfer

you can buy materials at riogrande.com
if you have any questions regarding tools or supplies you can email at kelderkin@hotmail.com

there really are a ton of tools but with that list you can cut metal shapes out, hammer them, oxidize them with the liver of sulfer, sand them, file them down. use the hole punch to make a hole for a jump ring and throw it on a chain with your pliers! sounds easy! it is actually. and pretty fun.

for what i want to do, i need a torch and a tank so i can solder. i want to be able to do stone settings and more elaborate pieces. right now i can only do that at class. there are two big ticket items that equal around $700 and then a gagillion other smaller tools and supplies. it'll happen!

---------

on another note. valentines day is coming up! i have no clue what i am going to do for chris yet. something cute and inexpensive. gotta get creative! maybe a picnic if the weather is nice! this picture was taken at our first picnic. the unicorns you ask? click here!

i signed us up for this online relationship course by robert ohotto. it's only $15, very worth it to me. i really think relationships are extremely important. and i want mine to be as healthy and happy as it can be. i never had a healthy relationship to look up to as a kid, so i'm trying as an adult to learn and grow as much as possible. if i get married and have kids one day, i want to be able to show them the most amazing example of a loving relationship possible. here is a link to the website where the course is, in case you are interested.


i think sometime soon i'll do a post about how we met and our beginning. i love how we started out and i love where we are going!

hope you are having a great day! do you have anything planned for vday yet???

girl power can save the world

please watch this video. the author of "the vaginal monologues" talks about being a girl. it is such a great message. of course i cried...such a mushy girl! ;]

pretend vacation!

my sister was down here visiting. i love it when friends and family visit from up north and i can pretend i'm on vacation too! we went to the beach and laid in the sun and had drinks in the sun and ate tons of seafood and even gator bites. it was so much fun! then every year here in tampa they have a pirate festival called Gasparilla. it's pretty much madness. i live right down the street from the parade. and so you either have to participate or leave for the entire day. because it's loud and crazy! so this year i decided to participate and we had a ton of fun. the weather was not the best, a little rainy and really windy. but other than that we had a blast! my sister and her friend went home yesterday. so now.....back to reality!
here are some pictures from their visit.my sister looking like a true pirate!!!
my sister tossing beads on some guys neck!