So Groundhog Day is almost upon us....on Thursday to be exact. For some reason every year around this time I always think of the movie as opposed to the little rodents who have five minutes of fame as meteorologists -- who studies have shown are only accurate 37% of the time! Everyone really does head on down {or up or over or whatever} to Punxsutawney in the hopes that this chunky rat doesn't see its shadow so we can have warmth......seriously people?!


So, back to the movie -- which, in my humble opinion is way better than this tradition -- if you haven't seen it I would first ask where you have been for the past fifteen years....lol.....and then tell you to head on over to one of the movie-on-demand channels and watch it! I often feel like I am living the Groundhog Day saga -- going through the same day over and over -- trying to figure out what I need to do in order to GET OUT!! Am I the only one?!

Okay, so one month ago today I had my 32nd birthday....yea, I know -- 32!! wth....time flies -- when you're having fun {or even when you're not}. So, in honor of said milestone and in the midst of my feeling "old," I decided to put together a little montage of 80's goodies.....from Etsy -- where else?! Of course, this didn't help in the way of feeling "old" since these items can now be found in the "vintage" section -- and again I say WTH {I really want to replace that last letter with another one}?! Who would think that you can find Popples, Strawberry Shortcake {the plump, frumpy one -- not the anorexic hoe-ish one}, Rainbow Brite, Chuck Taylor's, Micheal Jackson, Transformers, G.I. Joe and so on in the VINTAGE section of anything?! That's almost as insulting as finding Guns 'N Roses on the "classic rock" station -- again I say WTH?!?!

Yea so anyway, here are some VINTAGE goodies on Etsy - there are tons more, as you can image! Check 'em out when you get the chance. Maybe I will dig out my Smurf collection and proudly display them in my studio ;)

Enjoy,
Kate :)

Hello BamFam....just thought I would share with you all some inspiration. Inspiration comes in many forms -- as you all are very well aware of, I'm sure. But, that's me, Captain Obvious -- and I dig it, so just roll with it ;). Anyway, when I was a kid, my dad was in the Army and we were fortunate enough to be stationed in Germany. Well, dad was in Germany once before (courtesy of the Army as well) when he met these great people -- Willy, Ralf, Harry, Roland, and eventually Sonja........I was four when I met these folks -- and they are my family -- in fact, my little brother's middle name is Willy's first name {Wilhelm} and Willy & Sonja's son, Manu has my dad's name as his middle name.....needless to say -- we were all super duper close at one point -- and as life went on and we moved from place to place (even back to Germany for a second tour) we remained family.

Okay, get to the point please......Well, there is a super cool clothing and jewelry company that is headquartered in Reichenberg, Germany -- right around the corner from Würzburg -- where we lived for a while. This company, called SIM, was created by and is run by my uncles (Willy Sommer -- the S, Ralf Middelmann -- the M, and Harry Isfort -- the I -- SIM) :) I say that with extreme pride....well, when I was a kid, they just moved in to a school -- yep, they bought a school and made that their headquarters!! I can still remember running around that place -- looking at all of the jewelry and wanting to grow up so badly so that I could wear their clothes. I can also remember being so happy when I finally got my ears pierced so that I could FINALLY wear some of their earrings.....However, nowadays those babies are sold in Harrods of London and are slightly outta my price range! lol.....I do wear a couple of their rings everyday though :)


Enjoy,
Kate :)

So, I get three magazines every month in the mail -- I wonder if you could ever guess which ones they are! lol.....I will tell you that one of them is Country Living....yep, I LOVE Country Living. Every time I see it in the little mail slot {we don't have actually have mailboxes here for some reason -- it's like we live in an apartment complex and have to walk a mile to get the dang mail} I smile and wait to read it until I have time to really look it over. It's "me" time and it rocks!


Since it is a new year, I have decided that portions of my house need upgrades -- or a new look....lol...whichever comes first :) The montage above comes from the Country Living website -- which is chalked full of inspiration and DIY projects -- which I will be undertaking and posting about on here as well so stay tuned for that. If you have the time, try some of them out and let me know how it works out for you.....and, if you can think of some things to do with pallets, let me know -- I have 5 of those things in my garage waiting to be reborn in to something fabulous!

Enjoy,
Kate :)

I am always on the lookout for different packaging -- I am a super creative person and I kinda think I am never satisfied -- but, then again, things evolve so why not packaging?!


Here are some of my latest "finds" -- and there is also an Etsy packaging Flickr stream if you would like to see some more goodies. The problem that I run up against is that most of these really cool pictures and ideas are for smaller goods -- not for apparel pieces or aprons.

Don't you just hate it when you know it's your bedtime, but, you get sucked in to a movie and stay up wayyyy too late watching the entire thing -- even though you have seen it about a million times before? My confession of the week is that I do this with several movies, but, for now I will confess to doing this with.....The Bone Collector...


Even though I am really not a fan of Angelina Jolie {as a Friends fan from the 90's I am on Team Aniston!}....I LOVE Denzel Washington! I have since seeing Glory many moons ago -- and he surely doesn't disappoint....I don't think I have seen one movie with him in it that I didn't like. I really think that his new one -- Safe House -- is going to kick serious @s* :)

So there you have it -- one of my confessions...what's yours?

Enjoy!
Kate :)

Okay, my little brother always steers me in the direction of things that will make me cry I laugh so hard. It's fantastic when your stomach hurts from laughing so hard. One of the most amazing {and I can't believe that I never thought to look here} sites to find hilarious goodies is actually AMAZON.com......seriously?! YES....seriously


This is going to be a recurring entry for me since there are soooo many of these out there! Yes, this is an actual book -- and these are reviews that are actually on Amazon.com. Of course, these are seriously smart@s$ comments -- but they will make you roll on the floor laughing. Who knew a book about avoiding huge ships could spark so much interest!

Enjoy,
Kate :)