Breakthrough

We moved down here to Oklahoma just over a year ago.. it's been a great year of meeting new people, making new friends, learning our way around, building [or starting over for the 3rd and final time] Kustom Kate, and working on the house and yard while waiting for my marketing efforts to come to fruition :)
The good thing is that the house is personalized (for the most part) and the yard has lots of plants flowers and a vegetable garden! However in the meantime there have been ups and downs and lots of conversations with God asking for revelation and direction. I actually really connected with Third Day's song "Revelation" when they started playing it on the radio.
It feels like just in the past week or 2 things have begun to come uncovered for both of us and I am jumping out of my skin with excitement waiting to see what God has in store for us in this next stage...
We're in the process of getting connected in a church that's doing a great job of making the Gospel: The message of Jesus Christ relevant to today's world.
Mike's working with the 9th and 10th Grade boys... I am looking to serve in some way also... I have a great idea for a ministry I'd like to start and see expand to many cities that I will share later.
We went to our first Community group/Home group/Bible study... whatever you want to call it :) on sunday evening and REALLY enjoyed the people!
Kustom Kate is starting to grow... I have worked hard and invested time and resources into marketing harder than I have ever had to before. Not knowing anyone in a depressed economy while trying to sell a high-end luxury service has really been challenging. I thank God for the strength and perserverance and will continue to need it... Everytime I wanted to give up I thought "What else would I do?" Paint is my passion... that's what I've been given.
And I have been getting into more and more fine art which has been really fun... I hope that continues to grow... I would even be really happy if that's where Kustom Kate was ultimately going... we'll see :) One of my pieces got selected for viewing among other local artists with Tulsa Young Professionals to hang in Gilcrease Museum for a week... I am excited about that. What does it mean?? Nothing really, but it's exciting and something to add to the resume :)
Anyways, it's been an uphill climb and it feels good to have finally reached a plateau... I am going to enjoy this for a while because as we all know... the terrain changes quickly!
"I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me" PH 4:13

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Weekend Visitor :)

This Past weekend My Cuz Anne came in for an awesome visit! We kicked off the weekend with Bocce and Pizza...
On saturday we went to Safari Zoo in Broken Arrow and Met Missy and Fed the Tigers...

Later on we Played LOTS of Settlers of Caton; Our super fun neighbor firends came too ... and we grilled an awesome dinner!

Great fun... definately a treat to catch up with Anne IN PERSON! Crazy how much time passes between visits with our favorite people as we get older.. It was a long overdue visit... Now I better make plans to go to DC before too much time passes!

Thank you for Coming Ann-a-rooski!

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Sunflower For Kate

I couldn't post until this Gift reached it's rightful owner....
I had fun doing it though!

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The 4th in Denver!

I know I am a bit late... but I did want to share our adventures to Denver over the 4th of July with all of my AVID readers. [note sarcasm]

Anyways we took a road trip to Denver from Tulsa... the drive started out beautiful... Here in Green Country! Once we reached western OK it was very important to try and keep up good conversation all the way to Denver.... Yes, although a natural wonder in itself... there are streches in South Eastern Colorado where you can see NOTHING but hay... No I am not exaggerating Not a House Not a Bush, Not a Tree, Not a Cow!

Alas once we arrived we had great fun! Upon our arrival we recieved a free guided tour of the Historic Borown Palace Hotel Denver by my brother Ryan. Then we were on to have Dinner with Aunt Julie and Uncle Bob.... it was delicious and great conversation!

We woke up on friday morning and headed to Idaho Springs for mine and Mike's first experience with white water rafting! Super fun... I was freaked out... but My Tough Guys : Ryan and Mike did a great Job Keeping us out of trouble on those Class 4 Rapids. YIKES!

Saturday we enjoyed a first-class viewing of the Denver Pro LaCross team on the field at Invesco... cooking on the field by the Brown Palace 5 Star Chef's. After the game Fire Works!!!

Then we headed back to Ryan's for some late night chats... then up early to make coffee for everyone at Ryan's Church... After Church we filled our bellies with BBQ and hit the road!

It was an action Packed weekend.... and of course too short!

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Cub's Room

Today I finished painting a Todler's Room in Bixby OK in a Chicago Cub's Theme. It was a treat to do... considering I'm a Chicago Girl myself!

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Hand Painted Vanity

This week's project was fun! Some furniture pieces can really be fun!

I used a little silver tamise for some sparkle :)

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Laundry Room Paint Update... before and after!

This room was 100% updated with Paint!

These are obviously the "after" pics... Owls and Pairs. Think it'll sell? I think it's trendy :)
Here's the ugly "before" with 70's dark cabinets. Also note that I moved the holes and chose fresh 'retro' hardware'.

(click to enlarge)
Always coming up with something new here at Kustom Kate Studios!

Now I will be anxious to put some fresh tile down... hmmm I'm thinking slate!

Comments and criticism are always welcome!

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Our Mini Road-Trip

On Saturday Mike and I decided to have an adventure together... so we went to the welcome center in Tulsa and picked up our maps and trail guides and state park guides for the summer! We decided to check out Natural Falls State Park in West Siloam OK The falls were beautiful! There was a short 20 or so min hike down into the gorge to be at the base of the falls. Then we headed back and continued on our road trip...
Since we were so close, we decided to wander around a bit in Arkansas... our most favorite state :) It really is so amazingly beautiful... We still want to retire there... or just move there someday! We ended up in Prarie Grove where we enjoyed our picnic lunch at the Prarie Grove Battle Field Park. Then we took the driving tour of the Civil War Battlefield; I read info at the stops while Mike drove.
We decided to "make a loop of the day" and came back through Talequah OK... (neither of us had seen Talequah yet)
We stopped at blockbuster on the way home and picked up "Taken" and "Valkyrie"... when they were over we crashed and slept like logs!

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Bloomin'

I like to share a couple pics through out the season showing off my greens ... a lot of which I always attempt to start with seed... whatever does not make it, I fill with plants and flowers... I try to find on sale :)

Here's the Vegetable Patch... small this year... it'll grow

Here's one of my pots

This one's probably my fav... the wave petunias were one of my seed babies

This is the first garden I started at this house... perennials obviously not from seed.. looks like it needs a little love...

I've done a lot in the front too... I'll share that later :) Most of it was spring bloomers

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Concert in the Park

On Tuesday we packed a picnic dinner and went to a free concert at the RiverWalk in Tulsa/Jenks Laura, Simeon and their new friend Julia.

Some great songs were played and sung by Kristy Nockels, her Husband and a new artist named Christian. We all discussed how thankful we are that we can still express praise to God publicly in this great nation!

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An interesting call

Okay... I don't necessarily talk about each and every job I do... however this one was different..
I got a call from a business in Okmulgee OK... about an hour or so away... They needed someone to do some seasonal painting on their windows... something I had neve done before... so I hope that the paint doesn't wash off... here are a couple pics:

Was it worth the time? I don't know, I have to think about it. It was an adventure anyways :)

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A Relaxing end to a CRAZY month!

It all started a month ago with my birthday... as I mentioned in my previous post we have some great-long-time friends come and visit for my birthday weekend and we had a lot of laughs! The next weekend Mike's sister came down with her 3 munchkins... the weather wasn't great... but we managed to have a great and silly time :) Quality time with family is always welcome here!
What's interesting about that weekend too is that it is the same weekend we were supposed to break ground.. or raise the wall for house #9 Habitat for Humanity Womenbuild Tulsa... we were blessed to have the celebrity Trisha Yearwood to come and do some building and promotional videos to kick off national Women Build Week... Anyways it was so rainy that week and we were not going to be able to build outside... so the 10 of us Lady Builders that formed a committee last fall were informed at 6pm on friday that we would be making a luncheon for her and her Hubby Garth Brooks at noon on saturday... yikes! No pressure or anything ;) Anyways I made Brownies [yes from the box] and a cheese and cracker platter. It was a great time and I was pleasantly impressed by their humility and open hearted love for Jesus. What a great day it was!
Anyways.. the next weekend I got sick... I went to the wall raising day and had fun... but needed rest! Then on tuesday Mike's parents called us with a last minute decision to come and visit the next [last] weekend. Once again we had a great visit... lots of time to hang out and chat... they brought us lots of plants and Mike's mom helped me with lots of gardening... and we went to Mayfest in Tulsa a quality visit again.
Anyways needless to say we decided to take it easy over Memorial Day we I went to the build on saturday and drank about 18 gallons of water and never peed because it was so hot! But it was great fun!
Yesterday we went to church and then just chilled! We had Mike's boss and wife for a noon BBQ today and are now winding down [I'm catching up on 4 blogposts and he's doing homework] for the week .... a relaxing end to a CRAZY month!
If you haven't yet check out http://www.hearts4hammers.blogspot.com I have been updating progress on the house! :)

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