March 2007 – Karla's Cottage

Dancing with Abandon

By Karla Nathan / March 31, 2007

We always have the Welcome sign out here at our cottage, and get a lot of guests to show for it. After the Easter egg bash yesterday, we had an old college buddy of my husband’s drop by from Colorado for the weekend with his family, and our niece and nephew came over to hang out too, ended up staying the weekend. To feed a houseful of hungry teenagers, I decided on a build your own taco bar, and set up a couple large tables in my studio for seating. I don’t know if they cared about the fresh picked grape hyacinth and the fairy figurines as a center piece, but it made me happy to do.

Then, I took advantage of having two 13 year old girls over to giggle with and we decorated Easter cookies. After raising two loud boys who cared more about eating cookies than decorating them, this was a treat for me.

It has been hectic, but a lot of laughs. And this is just the beginning of visitor season. Next week, my mother-in-law arrives from Michigan. And who knows who we’ll have the week after that? I have been known to go months with people coming every week to stay for a night or two.

I am sneaking away for a bit to work on listing some more things on Ebay (this Welcome sign for one!) Oh, that sounds like I didn’t want guests, that isn’t how I meant it. I have a TON of these, am constantly painting on old bits of wood I collect. This one is from the old cabinets we tore out when we remodeled. I hate to throw away anything that has a possibility of painting a rose on it!

I also listed this ATC, isn’t she just full of zip? She reminds me of myself at my son’s wedding when I led the conga line and didn’t realize every wedding guest saw my panties as I dance through my gazebo and around the gardens! When you are having such a great time, who cares about a middle aged woman’s panties showing a bit??

Well, back to the guests. And the Easter cookies. There are a couple with way too much icing on them, and those are really calling out to me.

Eggstravaganza

paintings

By Karla Nathan / March 30, 2007

Well, the eggs (and fingers) are all dyed and the goodie baskets passed out and all is left are the remnants of the party. But it is colorful and pretty and I just might not pack it all away quite yet. It looks festive! And I hate to waste the dye, might just have to do a few more eggs this afternoon.

The 3-5 year olds came up with some glittery colors on their boiled eggs while I was hand painting the hollowed out ones. Of course, the kids had a go at the paints too, and luckily I keep a cupful of old brushes just for these type of occasions. Here are a couple of my painted eggs

In my studio, everything gets glitter on it, whether I meant it to or not. Today was no exception.

Bagsful of treat filled eggs were found after a hunt that went much quicker than the time it took to fill and hide the eggs! Kansas Spring time weather is always iffy, but we had a break between last night’s storms and today’s scattered showers.

Piddling Around Instead of Working again

paintings

By Karla Nathan / March 29, 2007

Yes, yes, I know I already posted today. And yes, I know, I should be getting ready for my egg decorating party tomorrow. But haven’t I mentioned before that I tend to get side tracked and do what I feel like doing instead of what I should be doing?

I just added a photo album of some of my murals to this blog, and as I came across this picture, it just made me giggle a bit. Of course, no one would want real squirrels on top of their kitchen cabinets (too rat-like) but how fun to have some mischievous painted ones. Looks like the scene outside my studio window right now, squirrels running around, excited that spring is here.

The Ideas that Friends Add

Film

By Karla Nathan / March 29, 2007

Tomorrow, I am having an egg party. I’ve asked a group of friends to come by and have their kids color boiled eggs while the adults work on hollowed out ones to make keepsake eggs. I’ll have dyes, glitters, paints, collage items all out to tempt everyone to make something special.

We’d had a group that got together semi-regularly for "Craft Night" with wine and projects and it has fallen away, with everyone so busy with their own lives. I am hoping that this egg decorating party will trick them all back into the habit of crafting together!

My buddy, Beth, http://bethleintz.typepad.com/gathering_dust/ , and I do projects together quite often. Sharing ideas and tips with another artist can be inspirational, educational and also provides the social outlet that often, artists miss. We all work alone so much. Here is a ATC that I did with Beth this week, the gold on the crown was her idea to add. Sometimes a friend has the eye to point out just the touch you need to finish something up right!

Our Craft Night Group is a mix of different medias. Diane is a photographer and she brought her equipment and we all learned how to take portraits of each other. Here I am, in my paint clothes. (most of my clothes do have paint on them). Diane is not only a photographer, she is a really GOOD, professional photographer. I worked with her on a Romantic Homes shoot, she does beautiful work.

Shanna is a mosaic/stained glass artist. She shared her expertise to teach everyone mosaic principles. Here is a bird bath I started one Craft Night, then was hooked and stayed up all night to finish.

See why I want to get the group back together? So much to learn, so much fun to have together!

Vintage Roses

paintings

By Karla Nathan / March 28, 2007

This morning has slipped by and I sit here still in my jammies, with all the things I meant to do, still waiting. I ended up spending time figuring out my camera’s options and reorganizing picture files on my computer. Not exactly a waste of time, but not what really, really needed to be done.

Anyway, I got a decent photo of this rose watercolor I had done a couple of years ago. I have a snippet of it on my blog already, but this picture is so much better, I wanted to show it.

My sister and I were having a great junking day in Indianapolis a few years back and came across a gorgeous old painting on faded paper. I bought it, and painted my own version of it, and this is it. Old paintings inspire me, and I do change them a bit when I do them and make them my own, so I try not to feel like a "copy cat" of the original artist’s work. Heck, I’d be flattered if someone was inspired to paint by one of my watercolors.

Hip Hip Hooray, Fairies on Ebay!

fairies

By Karla Nathan / March 27, 2007

My buddy, Beth (http://bethleintz.typepad.com/gathering_dust/), the Ebay guru, came by today and helped me start listing on Ebay!!! She patiently walked me through each step and gave me advice for a couple of hours. (did I tell you she was a very good friend?) Since I closed my showroom in June, I have been telling people I was going to start selling on Ebay, but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. At first, I was "taking the summer off." Well, honey, summer is long gone and I just might have stretched my vacation to the breaking point. Time to get back to work!

Here is one of my listings, it is a Fairy Cottage. I am trying to do a variety of items, jewelry, fairy homes, fairies, artist trading cards. I will have cottage style antiques, garden signs, paintings, and other goodies coming up. Wish me luck!

Beth even showed me how to put a link from this blog to the Ebay sales and visa-versa. Take a look if you’d like to, by clicking on the link in the top right column of this site.

After we listed things, we sat and played with papers. She was making tags with cool old dress patterns, I was making artist trading cards with some of the vintage paper items I had added hand painted fairy wings too. Here is one, titled: Delight of Earth.

Colorful Sepia?

fairies

By Karla Nathan / March 27, 2007

On my junking day last week with friends, I found sepia photos for 50 cents each, so bought a dozen of the cutest for projects. This little girl was already as cute as she could be, but with that elfish smile, I thought she should be a fairy. I liked her so much, I painted all of the "new" old photos into fairies.

How To Hints: I used acrylic craft paint, glitter glue, gold pulver, chalk, and distress ink with artist paint brushes and cosmetic sponges

Ink and chalk are great for tinting in areas where you want to see through to the original picture, such as I did on the hair, stockings, and pants.

Craft paint is opaque, but doesn’t tend to want to stick. Build up layers slowly on the large painted areas like the wings. I used a cream color (never pure white, it is too much of a contrast against the sepia) and painted the wing shapes, then did about 4 coats of the cream letting it dry in between.

Once I had a base ready for the wings, I used pink and yellow to color them in and outlined them in brown/black together with a fine brush.

The flowered and stripe shirt and antennas were done without having to build up like the wings. I used acrylics again and just made dots and lines. No base coats were necessary since it was only simple strokes and was just gone over once.

Buttons are dots of glitter glue with gold pulver sprinkled on to the wet glue.

Blooming Business Cards

flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 26, 2007

Art shows are coming up and I am thinking about getting ready. My favorite, is Art in the Park in May. The show has a huge community following, with a history of over 45 years, and a loyal attendance. Today, I worked on business cards to have on hand for shoppers. I am off to make color copies and then cut them out. When I get home, I think a touch of glitter would be a good idea.

Maybe I should be working on inventory for the sale. I do tend to spend a lot of time on non-money making efforts. I prefer to think of it as "atmosphere". When people come to see me, I’d like them enjoy the whole package and all the details.

Another Beautiful Day

flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 25, 2007

Today was every bit as beautiful and Springlike as yesterday, so of course, I had to plant more flowers. And waste not, want not, I couldn’t throw away the flowers that broke off in the flats! So I gathered up the few little stems and placed them in a vase that that one time was a salt shaker, and added some leaves from my St. Patrick’s Day shamrock for greenery.

Here is a group of pots I filled and sat by my breezeway door as a welcome to guests. I like to top off the pots with a handful of moss as a finishing touch. Especially this time of year, when the flowers are tiny and seem a bit lonely in a big pot.

Earlier this week, I had a good junking day with good friends. I found this lost little lamb and decided he needed to be a part of my Easter decor.

When I stopped at the craft store to get the moss for my flower pots, I saw this little chick in the 50% off aisle. I thought she should come home and be part of my Easter decor too. Over the years, since my boys have grown and gone, I haven’t set out anything for Easter. But now that I have a grand baby, I am excited to get back into the habit.

When my boys were little, I used to paint hollow eggs. Here is one with a little chick on it. I used to date them on the back, this one says 1989.

On the junking day, I found a few bunnies too. Here they are in a glass compote nestled in yellow grass. The tallest one with the violets on her back is one that I made about 25 years ago and hand painted.

Pots of Pansies

flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 24, 2007

What a beautiful day here in Lawrence, KS. I made the most of it by doing some much needed yard work, and then rewarded myself by planting some pansies. I drove around town to see who had the best bedding plants at the best prices this morning, and I hate to say it, but I bought a few flats at Wal-Mart. I usually think their flowers are saggy, but they were certainly pretty today.

Here is a photo of the front of my studio with a few pots of violas, pansies, and snapdragons. I also saw petunias for sale and thought that was odd, didn’t realize they were hardy enough to be out this early. I didn’t risk it, just in case.

One sad thing, while cleaning up the yard, I found a dead bluebird. Not a bluejay, which are pretty common, but an actual, pretty little bluebird. Even dead, he was a vibrant beauty. This might sound gross, (but if you know me you won’t be surprised that I did this) I plucked out his wing and tail feathers and saved them. The little guy will live on in a future craft project. Maybe I will make fairy wings for a vintage doll from his feathers.