Pretty Gifts For Family And Friends

I decided to make up some toiletries/catchall bags again this holiday season. I happened upon some very pretty vinyl fabrics while out buying notions for Kiddo's school Egypt project that she completed a few weeks ago. Couldn't pass them up, so I have catchall bags for sale this holiday season.

They are so perfect for makeup bags, corralling electronics cords, organizing all the little lotions, lip balms, etc. in one's purse and storing childrens tiny toy pieces. There are so many uses and they make the best gifts for coworkers, family and friends.

Here are the three colors I went with and the bags come in three different sizes: Coin Purse, ($6) Medium  ($12) and Large ($14). Here is a shot that better illustrates the three sizes.

I have a good supply in stock but they are going quickly now that folks are getting more serious about getting their holiday shopping done. This season is going to fly right by, isn't it?! I can't believe it's already December 6. If you're interested in giving some kc accessories catchall toiletries bags for this holiday season, email me at kalanicut @ hotmail dot com or message me on instagram at kalanicutblog.

West Elm Metallic Honeycomb Pendant Lights For Sale

We purchased these fixtures for our kitchen and then put them in storage until we decided what to do our kitchen renovation. Since then we've realized they probably won't work with decisions we've made so far in other areas that are open to our kitchen, so we've decided to sell them and try to find something else that will work better. I'm a little sad about that because I love these but I hope they find a very happy home!

These sold out very quickly with West Elm and there are no longer available. They are still in the original boxes and have not been opened or unpacked. They come with two different cord options: hanging cord with on-cord on-off switch and we paid extra for adapters so that these can be hung as pendants from the ceiling.

Here's the store description: 

Artfully shaped. Our Metallic Honeycomb Glass Pendant is handblown by artisans in India, then cut by hand on a wheel to achieve its faceted face. Dipped in shiny silver as a final touch, it's a beautiful way to add soft light to a room.

8.5"diam. x 8"h.
Handblown, hand-cut glass with silver finish.
Plug in.
15' cord set included.
In-line on/off switch.
Made in India.

If you're interested in these and in ABQ you can pick them up. If you are in Utah I can get these to you next week. Anywhere else we can arrange shipping. $300 for the three light fixtures and we'll toss in the three pendant adapter kits for free.

A Quick Introduction to Live Love ABQ

I haven't been here much the past two weeks and that is because I've been wrapping up a huge project that I first dreamed up two years ago and have been working hard on for the past several months. Over the past two weeks I've been pushing very hard to complete setting up an online store and yesterday I was able to launch it which was very exciting. I'd like to introduce you to LIVE LOVE ABQ!

The idea behind LIVE LOVE ABQ hatched not long after I moved to Albuquerque, aka ABQ or The Duke City. Not long after I arrived it became clear that due to a variety of factors, Albuquerque had a bit of an image problem, that there were some ABQ residents that felt pretty "meh" about the city and that there were a lot of really amazing things about Albuquerque that just weren't getting the recognition they deserved from locals or beyond.

I remember specifically one conversation with a friend who has lived here for many years now. I mentioned this absolutely beautiful place I had visited that has been here in ABQ since the 1930s. She had never heard of it. It was at that point the idea of  "Living" the city and "Loving" the city came to me.

Living the city to me means enjoying all the fantastic things there are to do, see and experience. It's so easy to get into a routine and just stay in that routine....work, school, local grocery store, same restaurants, fast food chains all in the same neighborhood(s). But living the city to it's fullest means checking out new restaurants, theaters, shops, sights and events. Really taking advantage of all the cool things there are to do in the city. There is no reason to be bored. There are always things to do and online calendars, newspapers and television stations that promote all of these events to locals.

Albuquerque is very unique in it's history, ancient sights, arts community, large number of museums, culture, culinary depth and energy behind large and small business development. I want to help promote all of that and I think a reminder to LIVE the city does just that.

The city also has it share of problems as any city does. LOVE the city to me means we all take part in having responsibility for what happens here and why. We can do so much to help build the community in our own ways if that is as simple as getting to know our neighbors and participating in neighborhood watch programs. We can participate in town meetings, with volunteer organizations or serve on city or civic councils. We can all do something! We can love our cities to a better place! And we can also speak positively about our cities and help build they image of our cities by accentuating the positive instead of focusing on the negative.

So that is where LIVE LOVE ABQ came from and I have had so much fun creating products to promote those ideas including tote bags, mugs, home decor, and more. The goal for now is to create small, handmade items in small batches - so they feel special and unique. Hopefully as things go along I will also add some large run items like sweatshirts, hats and tees. It's been a fun labor of love for my new city that also really feeds my creative and entrepreneurial spirit.

I hope we'll have a chance to work with collaborators to use our tote bags for event swag or wedding guest gift bags. I think a lot of the decor items are great for a home office or workplace for anyone doing business in ABQ! Any of the products would be a fun gift for anyone moving to ABQ or for anyone going off to college or moving from ABQ to remember all that's great about life here.

There are so many applications to helping promote our city and share all that is great about it. I'm excited for the opportunities! Now it's full speed ahead to continue with marketing, networking, product fulfillment and more product design. I seriously have a list of about 100 things I'd like to create as we move forward!

You can find the shop at www.liveloveabq.online -- not .com -- but .online. If you have a moment, I'd love you to check out the shop and let me know what you think. Thank you as always for all your generous support now and over the years here at kalanicut. I adore my readers and treasure the relationships we've built over the years!

Fun Items Posted For Sale on eBay Today

Its Christmas in April, haha. Hey just wanted to let readers know that I just posted a bunch of fun things for sale on eBay today. I am cleaning house literally and selling some great stuff I've had tucked away. Posted items include this Christmas-themed subway wall sign art, a beautiful vintage button collection, darling fleece fabrics, jewelry and several Martha Stewart glitter sets (12-packs & a 24-pack).

Check back again later this week because I still have a lot of things to post including some vintage floral frames, a never opened IKEA curtain set and some beautiful upholstery fabric. I'm also going to be posting some good books and back issue magazines up on Amazon soon. Stay tuned.

You can see everything currently on eBay right here.

Catching Up With A Few Things

image by kalanicut

Hope you are having a great Tuesday. Sending you my very best wishes. This is a shell I picked up on the beach in Virginia. There are a lot of whelks on the beach there, which I have not seen many of in all my travels. Last night I opened up the bags of driftwood and shells I brought home with me from Virginia.

Seeing as how the driftwood was wet or very moist when I picked it up on the beach, it would've been a very good idea for me to take it out of the bag immediately upon my return. Lesson learned. I set it all out on a cookie sheet to put out in the sun today to dry out. I also washed up all the shells and have the most beautiful collection of shells in my dish drying rack next to my sink now.

There are a bunch of little things I wanted to share with you today. So I thought I'd pop them all together in one blog post for a quick read. Here we go:

• For the past four or five mornings I have woken up within the four minute span of 7:10 to 7:13 every morning. No alarm or anything. Weird, right? Is there something special going on at this time that I should know about? ha.

• Big news - I have been working on a facebook page for kalanicut for a while and finally published it today. You can follow kalanicut the blog on FB here. Feel free to "like" and comment and all that good stuff.

• There are good things going on with my eBay sales and there is still some great stuff available. I will also be posting more goodies in the next couple of days: fabric, button collections, toiletries bags, etc. You can see it all right here.

• I've fully jumped into the Pinterest world now and you can follow me there at, you guessed it, kalanicut! I love finding new people to follow so come over and say hello.

Next on my agenda, I need to check the air in my bike tires and likely get those pumped up since it's been a few weeks since I've ridden my bike. With gas prices at $4.70/gallon at some stations here, I am not driving one inch more than I have to. So lucky to have a grocery store just one block from the house. I'm headed there now for milk for a bowl of cereal.

I think June Gloom has arrive in SoCal and sitting next to an open window for the past two hours I am freezing. It's time to get a very late breakfast going here and get some warmer clothing on. Have a great day. I'll see you back here tomorrow. I have several posts in the works for you and hope to have a DIY driftwood garland post up by the end of the week.

Fab Upholstery Remnants Available

 Yesterday was a nice day. It was definitely Valentine's Day 2.0. I got a call yesterday morning from a flower shop across town apologizing for not delivering a bouquet of flowers to me on Tuesday. That was a total surprise to me since I did not know they were coming. So mid-day yesterday a beautiful bouquet of mixed flowers arrived at my door. What a treat. When the flowers came I decided they needed a little chocolate to accompany them, so I treated myself to a bit. Made for a nice second Valentine's Day.

I am continuing to post items I am selling to eBay. This week I am posting some fantastic upholstery fabric remnants I have. These are some expensive, gorgeous fabrics: silks, animal prints, florals and even cotton madras. I am also posting a few vintage yarn craft & macrame pattern books. I am making progress which is exciting. And I am happy to be sending these things to a new home where they can be appreciated and used.

You can see everything I've posted at eBay here. I still have quite a few pieces of fabric & notions to post, so if you're looking for fabric or vintage touches for small home decor projects check back again throughout the week. A lot of these fabrics would make some fantastic accent pillows or to cover chair seats. I'll be back later in the morning with another  post. It's a beautiful Thursday already!

images by kalanicut

Lovely Delights Posted To eBay

Part of anticipating merging households for me definitely entails a consideration for what I own, am using and need. As I do regular cleaning and tidying up I've been going through my things considering what I want to keep and what things I could pass on for use and enjoyment by someone else.

I have putting a few things aside to sell and today finally got started posting items for sale on eBay. Just putting these posts together makes me love all these items anew and remember what it was that drew me to them in the first place. However, realistically it's silly for me to have them and not use them.

So I'm passing them on to the next person who will love them. If you are interested you can see the items at eBay here. Over the next few weeks I'll be adding some new items and posting a few things to Craigslist as well. I have a stash of fabric swatches, vintage buttons, vintage sewing notions and some larger pieces of fabric for that I will put up for sale soon. If you want first peeks, let me know.

Have a great rest of your Monday! Wishing you all the best.

all images by kalanicut

Glasses Cases Are Here

Glasses cases are now in stock! Love these colors and love how these turned out. Had so much fun brainstorming with our friend at the fabric store about what color I should do for the tags this time. Love the gray with pink combo and how it works with each of these colors. And all these materials have a felt lining so they're extra gentle on the lenses.

Green Olive

Silver

Robin's Egg

Glasses cases are $12. As a special promotion for kalanicut readers for the next week (ends April 25 at midnight PDT) you can enjoy FREE shipping & handling on any purchase of two or more bags or cases. So if you buy two or more glasses cases or a glasses case and a toiletries bag or two or more toiletries bags -- I will pay the shipping/handling fees

Here are all the details on the new toiletries bags.

To order, just email me at kalanicut at hotmail dot com and let me know what you'd like to purchase. You can pay via paypal or check - or cash if we meet in person. Thanks again for your support and interest in my designs. Hope you enjoy the new glasses cases!

Sassy New Toiletries Bags Are Here

As promised here are the new toiletries bags in hip, sassy new color combinations. It's been fun to take them to a new level with a new label. Since this is all very experimental I did a short run of these, so if you are interested get in touch with me soon for best selection.

These bags are the perfect gift for girlfriends, cheery for all your make up every day, perfect for organizing everything for travel. They are very sturdy and will last you for years.

Prices

Small   (3 1/2"  x 4 1/2")  $9 

Medium (approximately 7" x 8 1/2")    $16

Large  (approximately 14" x 7 1/2")    $21

*Shipping & Handling (for medium & large bags) $3

To purchase you can contact me via twitter (@kalanicut), FB (kalanicut) or email (kalanicut at hotmail.com). If you have a shop or know of a shop that might be interested in carrying these, let me know. I always appreciate great leads you all share with me and you have been so generous over the years.

Hope you're having a great weekend. Cheers, K.

Toiletries Bags Clearance Sale

Grab 'em while they're still available. I'm having a quick close out sale of existing toiletries/carry-all bag inventory. These bags are great for keeping make up and toiletries easily contained. They are great for organizing your bathroom, car and travel accessories, and other goodies. I carry a small one in my purse to wrangle up all the little lotions and potions in one easy-to-find place. They make great little gifts too.

If you're interested, email me at kalanicut@hotmail.com, send me a tweet @kalanicut or hit me up on facebook -  first come first served.

All Red SOLD OUT

Large Apple Green SOLD OUT

All Dark Green SOLD OUT.

You can pay via paypal and I'll drop them in the mail to you for only $3 shipping/handling (in U.S.) or we can meet up for a drop off if you're local. Stock up at these low prices while you can.

images by kalanicut

2 Magazine Racks for Sale

$20

While I am working on simplifying life and reworking my apartment I am selling a few treasures. I have quite a few lovely little items hidden away in closets.  Here are the first two items I'm selling - two great magazine racks. The first is a vintage bamboo rack and the second a galvanized steel rack that hangs on the wall. If you're interested contact me at kalanicut@hotmail.com or leave a comment here.

 

$20- No longer available

Hope you're enjoying the Academy Awards! There are quite a lot of opinions out there about who will win and who looks good or doesn't look good. Will be fun to see how it all unfolds in the end.