About

Curious Kitty is a DIY blog where I can actually share the results of my own curiosity in the form of tutorials, guides, and resources that I sincerely hope will inspire others to embrace their own creativity and the Luxury of Life.

Many of the DIY projects are crafted from 'upcycled' objects that can be found around your own home. The Luxury of Life also means living responsibly, and I fully believe that the small act of even turning a simple cereal box into something more than fodder for a landfill makes a difference in the lives of everyone.

So, Curious Kitty's Mission: to show you how easy it is to make truly stylish, professional projects without cringing at the hit on your wallet; to help you live the Luxurious Life philosophy in ways that fulfill you most.

Every guide, tutorial, and resource in this little corner of the Internet is based on one guiding philosophy: The Luxury of Life.

What is the Luxury of Life? Why do I (and my young co-conspiritor) care so much about it?

The Luxury of Life is simple: Recognizing and creating beauty every day.

Through our thoughts, words, and actions we affect the world we live in. The community we inhabit. The abode we call home. Small things become large things, and it's important to remember that living - simply living - is a luxury that should never be taken for granted.

Simply living is not enough for most of us, though. You know that you're an 'artist' when you would happily create simply to create, without compensation or reward. That is when living becomes more luxurious. To fully complete the life lived luxuriously, you must surround yourself with the thoughts, creations, and words that make your life fulfilling. Beautiful. Luxurious.

The Luxury of Life is different for everyone. For some of us, it means surrounding ourselves by nature and all things green and fresh. For others, it means crafting finery to decorate our homes. And still others aren't fulfilled in the Luxury of Life unless they're creating gifts to enhance the living of others, through traditional gifting or donation. It's all important, and it's all something Curious Kitty tries to help facilitate through its tutorials, guides, and resources.

Curious Kitty loves creativity in all its forms. It is curiosity that leads to my own Luxury of Life. Curiosity in what makes people tick, what will bring my neighbor a smile, why the girls down the street are laughing, and how something as lovely as an orchid can be interpreted into art form flowing from my fingers.

I've been crafting and creating since a child, when I first became frustrated with the lack of resources on creating something that looked professional. Even as a child, I hated the silly 'toilet paper roll' crafts that are pushed on kids. It was this curiosity, much to my mother's chagrin, that led me to wake up in the middle of the night because I just had to create something that had come to mind. Right then. It couldn't wait.

My first creations were sewing patterns. I'd been taught hand-sewing and embroidery very young, and was elated with the speed of creation that a sewing machine brought. I began looking at clothing and accessories differently; they weren't simple pieces of cloth stitched together any longer. They were now carefully crafted shapes that connected in simple and intricate ways to create an object. I began creating patterns for everything from purses and backsacks to southern belle quilts.

Curiosity can't be stopped. From sewing and embroidery I quickly began eating up charcoal drawing, then pottery, crochet, wood work, and the joy of taking an abused old piece of furniture and turning it into something new and beautiful with magical pieces of sandpaper and wood stains or paints.

During this time, I achieved things that I took for granted as a child. First professionally published at age 11, honored by the production of a play I'd written at 12, acceptance into the National Student Artists association at 14 ... my curiosity was insatiable. I moved from one project to the next, usually more than one at a time, including organizing a fundraising Walk for the Manatees to the creation of a book compiled by teenagers filled with poems and short stories of what life was really like for them.

Today, I continue to thirst for more. I've received two B.A. degrees; one in Broadcast Communications (largely in editing and producing videos as well as set design), and the other in Web and Graphic Design (a vague title that basically means I get to express my artistic curiosity online through website building and graphics creation). I continue to write, largely on a freelance basis, for a variety of sites including the Yahoo! news network. My love for pattern creation has grown to include not just sewing but crochet, embroidery, and paper craft.

Before deciding to branch out and create my own business, I worked as a teacher and was sponsored through a course that certified me as an Integrated Technology Curriculum Specialist. Woah. Okay, so that basically means that I learned and became certified in creating educational materials that combined technology into the learning process. It is something that has driven me strongly ever since.