November 2007 – Karla's Cottage

Ready * Set * GO!

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, fairies, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / November 29, 2007

I’m DONE! I’m ready for my sale!!!

I even had time today to cover this cash box in old wallpaper and foof up the keys to it.

I had bought it at a garage sale this summer for $2, and it was a plain, industrial grey color. A little bit of vintage papers, some glue, ribbon, a charm and some old pearl buttons, and I am ready to make change in style tomorrow!

I also made a few more teacup posie arrangements.

Pretty teacups that were slightly chippy got a makeover with oasis glued to the inside, then covering them with moss or shredded papers and gluing in some pretties. I used a variety of goodies inside of them, tiny Christmas balls in silver, millinery flowers, and glittered birds. After putting them in place, I drenched them in white glue and did another light fairy dusting of glitter over the top.

Price tags are done, stuff is arranged. This cabinet is all whites.

I have more than one area done in reds and greens. There are plenty of traditionalists who want the old fashioned Christmas colors. I love them myself, and have fun setting up the displays, but have gone with more pastels and neutrals in my house this year for holiday decor.

The pink poinsettias are my favorite, I love the rich deep pink ones, that are almost the color of an azalea. (by the way- if you think your house isn’t ready to photograph for our "What do you LOVE about your Holiday Home" party on Dec. 12th, here is a good example. There are dirty dishes in this sink, but the angle I took the photo hides them. And the mess on the counter top, just got pushed aside for the picture. Your house doesn’t have to be perfect to show us some pretties in it for the party!!) But I should replace that light bulb before the open house.

Or you can just zoooooom in.

The grocery store had $1.99 roses again this week and I bought 3 dozen (all they had) for my open house.

I also buy pink and white poinsettias ($3 a pot at Wal-Mart) and use them as cut flowers instead of potted.

Yes, these are sitting on the back of my toilet. Is that tacky? Should toilets just be left alone??

I was able to take the 3 dozen roses and 2 poinsettia plants and spread flowers all throughout my home.

Most of the roses were still buds, so I am gambling they’ll still look good by Sunday. I had to arrange all the flowers on Wed. since I’ll be tied up with my sale the next few days.

Actually, I don’t arrange them much. I just plop them into vases. More cottagey than a true arrangement.

Oh-oh, I see some price tags coming lose. I hope I don’t run into many of those situations in the studio for the sale.

Its too bad the price tags have to be so visible, they don’t make a pretty photo. But I like them to be right in your face for shoppers, easy for them to see. Don’t you HATE having to wait for someone to get a key to open a case and flip something over so you can see the price???? Why do people hide their prices so often????

Remember the clearance stockings I bought earlier? I got them all foofed up with glitter, buttons and old jewelry and will be hoping to sell them for $15 each. Seems like a good price for them, I hope the shoppers agree.

I put $18 on my little ballerina fairy under glass.

Can you see why it has taken me so long to pull this together? I hope the care that went into it shows.

Right now I am off to bed. Well, that is after I watch Survivor. Wish Beth and I luck tomorrow!!

Favorite Things

hand painted signs, holiday decor, paintings, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 28, 2007

I am making headway! Things are coming together for my sale. I even had time to embellish another photo album. This is covered in a great, old wallpaper, ruffles of sheet music and an handpainted oval of anaglyta wallpaper that I did for it.

None of these items are newly done, but I have them hung and priced! That feels like an accomplishment right there.

I had painted the wreath onto my closet door and decorate it for the seasons. Right now, it just is sporting clearance junk I want to get rid of, nothing too special.

I had painted these two bright little pictures and the flower polka frames for an article I wrote, and they really aren’t my style. But the story was about using a round sponge brush to paint the flowers on the frame and I was told to use BRIGHT colors.

These are more my style. I painted all of these last night.

And all of these- too. The ones on the floor still need hooks and wire on the backs. That is the time consuming part. I can paint like a fiend, it is the grunt work that gets me.

Ready for a parade of signs?

Sugarwings stayed all night, so I had to do get these done after she went to bed.

I snuck out to the studio to paint while her Pop Pop was playing with her for a bit, then went in to take my shift of chasing her energetic little body around the house.

Can you see what happened to her clothes when I gave her a hug?? She’d better get used to it. Everyone around me ends up getting smeared with paint sooner or later!

Back to work. Sorry about the photo quality. did I mention I am in a rush to get ready? You can tell by the reflection in that mirror that my studio is a bit of a mess and not finished yet.

Plus there are a few more things that could use a sparkling of Fairy Dust glitter on them yet. I’m sure little Sugarwings will go home with a few sparkles on her to match the paint.

Tiny Dancers and Globs of Glitter

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 26, 2007

Do you ever have days when you are trying to meet a deadline, have tons to do, but get easily sidetracked anyway?

I have an open house as part the local Holiday Home Tour and a 3 day sale in my studio this weekend. There are so many things I need to be doing for it.

But what do I do instead? Give the dogs haircuts and baths.

And go to Goodwill. Where I found this vintage jewelry box!! For 49 cents!! It plays "When you Wish Upon a Star" and the ballerina twirls. I need to cover the exterior in vintage wallpaper. Of course.

There has been some work getting done- I’m still painting ornaments and charms. Although, yesterday I took a movie break and went to see "The Mist". I have always been a huge Stephen King fan, but more of his earlier work than later.

Last night after the movie, I painted about a dozen charms.

Including some especially for Kansans- Jayhawks and Sunflowers.

I have no idea how many hours I have spent making price tags. They seem to have taken over my life. I know that on Thanksgiving Day, I put in 9 hours of tagging!

I looked around and think I am about 95% done with pricing. So, I have today and tomorrow to make more things (and more price tags for them too, I guess).

I made this up real quick this morning, it was a glittered bucket with ugly stuff on it, that I pulled off and exchanged for flocked wallpaper (that I bought from Dede during vendor night at Silver Bella) and a German die cut cherub, some old trim, and a bit of vintage velvet ribbon.

I painted this little fairy ornament last night too. She still needs a dollop of glitter on her.

These ornaments from yesterday could use a shake or two from the glitter jar too. I think that the poly top coat and sparkly glitter just makes them look finished.

Of course, I think everything looks better with glitter.

I won an giveaway this summer from Michelle and she had made this darling little blue bird for me. She told me it was OK to glitter it up, I think she knew in advance that the poor little bird couldn’t escape my glitter shaker!

This little ballerina fairy has been sparkled too. She is standing in a shallow dish, that I have no idea what it could have been meant for, it is an odd shape. The dome was 49 cents at the Goodwill.

She is wearing butterfly wings and crystals, and is perched on an old bulb from a string of Xmas lights. That wasn’t easy to do.

I glued a nest of shredded paper to the bottom of the dish, then added tiny, vintage glass Christmas balls onto the nest, making sure to attach them to the glass below so they would be secure.

Then, I turned the light bulb so that it pointed upwards, and glued the base to the glass and the tiny dancer to the tip.

I think she has a little bit of acrobat in her too. She did a great job of hanging in there while I held her in place while waiting for the glue to dry.

I stuffed a lot of ribbon and velvet millinery posies around the base of it all and globbed a lot more glue on it. It seems to have dried solid as a rock and very stable, but you should have seen my gluey fingers and all the shredded paper and glitter stuck to them while doing this. She kept slipping and sliding down and I didn’t think I’d ever get it all to stay in place.

Did I mention I had a million things to do for my sale? So, add blogging about glitter and price tags to giving the dogs a hair cut and shopping at Goodwill to avoid working.

I’d better get on with it.

Don’t forget, you can still do some shopping from the previous two posts (as well as the ornaments in this post). Just email if you are interested.

And every comment you leave is an entry into my drawing for the November giveaway. the prize will probably be something glittered.

A FEW MINUTES LATER:

I added glitter to these balls, better, huh?

Swept away by shades of pink!

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, paintings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / November 24, 2007

Thanks to everyone who came by yesterday and shopped or visited.

And thanks to Phyllis for hosting the craft fair. Easiest one I have ever done! No packing or hauling or setting up.

Friday’s craft fair items will be available for sale till Thursday the 29th. On Friday my studio sale starts and I will include what ever is left in that. The snowman and the top left ornament are sold

Here are the ornaments that remain from what I got painted yesterday. If you are interested, or need to see a closer picture, just leave a comment or email me. They are $10 (normally $15) each plus $5 shipping for the first, free shipping on all others, or on any included items, just not the albums. (The albums are too heavy to pack in the same box with the fragile balls)

Anything in my Etsy Shop can be combined with the shipping of the craft fair items too.

I didn’t go out in the crazy shopping frenzy the day after Thanksgiving, but I did go the day before to get new shower curtains so the bathroom would be all spruced up for my open house.

I had the floral curtains already, but a plain white shower curtain was under them. I bought a Simply Shabby Chic set of soft white cotton panels at Target and hung them instead. I even took down my clear plastic curtain that was underneath and gave it a good washing in hot water and bleach so I can see through it again. We have such hard water that those things cloud up fast.

I had to replace the curtain for the other bathroom too. I’d painted the ceiling in lavender and pink, and dripped onto the plain white curtain that had been hanging there.

Why don’t I know better? I should have taken it down first, but I get impatient and just want to start painting.

This faux finish is one of my favorites. I did it a while ago and am not tired of it yet. It started as a lilac ceiling and aqua walls. I blended in other pastel colors over these two and made gradual changes in the color as I went down from the ceiling to the floor.

It transitions from the purple to a green, with lots of blues and pinks in the middle.

That watercolor on top of the cabinet is one I did of Dahlia, my first Dorkie. She was such a lively dog, we still miss her. She was a great mom too and always had 7 puppies at a time. That is sure not typical for Yorkshire Terriers.

She was stolen from our yard, and was pregnant at the time. I felt like I’d had 8 dogs taken instead of one.

On a happier note- look what else I found—- A PINK vacuum cleaner!!!

It was only $18 too. Will it be any good? I don’t know, but it’s pink!

Craft Sale day, get out your list for Santa!

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, jewelry, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 23, 2007

Phyllis is hosting an online craft fair today!

Here is my plan for the day:

I’m going to show a few photos of ornaments to start with and all are $10 each, a special price for Phyllis’s craft fair.( Plus shipping. )

Shipping for ornaments will be $5 for the first item, all others free.

I will be painting ornaments all day and will add them to this post as I finish them, or you can email special requests from me. check back later today for more to see!

All the ornaments can be personalized for free. Names and dates can be painted onto to the ball for you. Free personalization and custom order offer is good only Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th.

Sale prices and shipping specials are good all week

ROSE BUSH IN TERRA COTTA POT AND SNOWMAN SOLD

I make all of my earrings from vintage beads and findings.

The French hooks are always either sterling or 14ktgf.

For today, all these sparklies are SALE priced at $10 a pair, Shipping will be $3 or free with other purchases. GREEN EARRINGS TO THE RIGHT, BLUE EARRINGS SOLD

This vintage wallpaper star features old sheet music (a Christmas carol in green ink!) and an old millinery flower. (4 1/2 x 4")

$5 plus $2 shipping if alone (free shipping if included with another purchase) STAR SOLD

These sweet little peat pots are filled with glittered up vintage figures and millinery flowers and hung with old trim, then embellished with old buttons.

$4 each

plus $5 shipping (free shipping with other purchases)

6 PEAT POTS SOLD, BUT I HAVE a few more MORE email me if you are interested.

Also for sale today-

Any of the albums from this post: http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2007/11/twinkly-sparkly.html If you’d like to see more photos close up, please just ask.

These are prepurchased albums, that are made with really pretty papers inside. I have embellished them with vintagey goodness and lots of old wallpaper!THE PINK AND YELLOW ROSES ALBUM BEHIND THE BABY ONE IS SOLD

$35 each, plus shipping of $9

(I’m sorry, they can’t be shipped with the hand painted glass balls or the peat pot pretties, but anything else you purchase can be added to the box at no charge.

Hand painted charms with vintage beads are available today also.

$15 each, with $3 shipping

These can be shipped free with other purchases

BLUE BIRD SOLD

Thanks for shopping with me today, and make sure you check out the other locations that Phyllis will have listed. My friend, Beth, has some great stuff to check out too.

We all appreciate you buying HANDMADE!!

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday, like I did. We had a wonderful family day, and I didn’t have to cook it!! I made fudge (my specialty) and noodles, then brought the wine and pop. How easy is that????? A first for me, and I could easily make it a habit.

Aren’t Sugarwings and her Hippie Chick mom some of the prettiest things you’ve ever seen? My son is a lucky man to have them as his family. I’m thankful he has added them to our family.

OK, I am off to go paint ornaments. I’ll add some soon. This will be a loooong post.You’re used to that from me!

(Don’t forget about the party on the 12th.)

LATER: I have been painting a few ornaments in my breaks from making price tags for my upcoming sale here in the studio. Here are the newest, still wet ornaments.

Well, not the prettiest display to show them on, is it?

Upside down egg cartons work well for a drying rack .

I just painted 3 balls with butterflies and 7 mini ones with a tiny rose.

The small ones are only $5 each, but I’m afraid the same shipping applies.

But remember, the shipping is discounted with mulitple orders!

I’m off to paint more and will add them when they are done.

MORE!

Here are a few more ornaments. 3 rose topiaries and one rose bouquet.

What am I working on now? Cupcakes! But they are still wet and arent’ glittered yet.

UPDATE:

I’ve had a nice day. Made some pasta, watched some Tivo (30 Rock and House, not a bad way to spend an hour) and then painted a few more balls.

I’ve had some special orders to fill, which I enjoy, and got a few ornies painted for my gift shop this week.

All of these will be available until my gift shop opens on Friday. If you see one you need, let me know. I can do special orders on Saturday too, but after that, I won’t have time till my sale and open house are over.

Thanks, Phyllis, this was fun!

Twinkly, Sparkly Gifts and LOTS to be thankful for

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, how to's, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 21, 2007

Its not even Thanksgiving yet, and I am getting Christmas presents!

Earlier, a reader, Kathryn, played secret Santa and sent a box chocked full of goodness.

Now, my "brother from another mother" Barbara (we have the same birthday, plus a lot of other similarities) has sent these sweet silvery snowflakes to me.

With my dorkies’ names on them!!

I thought maybe they’d make great dog tags, but Twinkle didn’t agree and wouldn’t pose. Sparkle will do anything if I tell her she looks pretty. (a girl can get into trouble leading her life that way)

Thanks, Barb!!!

Another ‘kind of’ gift was some cards from Amy who through in a few extras with my order.

I can never get enough vintage cards.

The card addiction isn’t as strong as the wallpaper one, though. I’ve been battling the urge to buy more wallpaper, I wonder if there is a 12 step program for that?

But, I can rationalize my purchases of vintage paper, since I really do use it, and lots of it.

I covered these photo albums with some the other night.

I took new albums made with handmade papers, (on clearance from Tuesday Morning) and embellished the fronts of 8 of them.

At first, I was covering the backs too.

And inside the front covers.

Then, about midnight, when I did these two, I started only adding a tag to the inside cover.

And then, only a bow and some vintage posies.

But then, by 2am, they were only getting the fronts decorated!

They were made with such lovely papers to start with, that I think this is enough, my additions to these two were pretty ornate anyway. Or am I simply justifying my decision to go to bed instead of doing more to them??

These are laying on my faux brick floor in the studio. I painted the bricks with a kitchen sponge, torn to a brick shape (always tear sponges you paint with, it makes a more attractive edge).

I covered this table top with vintage wallpaper too.

It had bad veneer, cracking and peeling up. This isn’t a perfect fix, but makes it usable. After the glue dried, I put a coat of water based poly over it, so it should be durable.

I also sprayed all of the fronts and backs of the photo albums with poly to protect them. Of course, I did it AFTER I had added rhinestones and flowers, so had to cover those up. I’d say if you were doing this, spray BEFORE you doodad them up.

I will have these albums available for sale on Friday during Phyllis’ online craft sale.

I plan on working on some projects throughout the day and adding the pictures as I finish pieces. I’ll have special prices that day for people who want to shop at home for handmade pretties instead of fighting the crowds at the mall!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I know what I am thankful for.

I’m lucky enough to have great blessings in my life, and lots of love.

Life hasn’t been easy, getting to this point.But the struggles were all worth it.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Stairway to Heaven

Etsy Goodies, hand painted signs, how to's, parties

By Karla Nathan / November 19, 2007

Natasha is throwing a prom! I guess it is Spring in Australia, and the weather here today was downright Springy too, about 74!! A perfect evening for a magical night at the prom.

I thought I’d start with proms through out my life.

Here is my sister, Bobbie Sue, posing before she leaves for her prom.

That’s me, Karkie Jo Downey, the one missing a shoe. Next to my sister, is my god-mother, Bootie, the sweetest woman on the planet.

My mother made all of the clothes for us girls. I remember thinking that Bobbie’s dress was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

And it doesn’t look like I have changed much over the years, at least in attitude.

That is my mom behind me, does it look like I wear her out? Poor woman.

For some reason, we seemed to think it was more scenic outdoors for the pictures. Oh, yes, the outside of a trailer park is always such a pretty place!

That is my 1st car next to me, a 1963 Chevy Impala.

My mother made this dress too. I wanted something other than the pastels and frothy things everyone else was wearing that year. I drew what I wanted and she made it from the sketch.

Maybe she should have told me it was a bit naked for my age? Everyone else at the prom that night was ruffly and I was slinky.

She made a little lace jacket for the dress, so that covered me up a bit! But the lace emblem on the front of the halter? That was peek-a-boo, the satin was cut out and the lace was over the hole.

But hey, when you are trailer trash and are going to Ride the Stairway to Heaven (everyone’s prom theme that year) with the cutest boy in the school, you need to be a little sleazy, huh?

Didn’t work. He was voted Prom King, and he spent most of the evening dancing with the little blond cheerleader who was voted Queen. My heart was broken. (Did I mention that he drove a green MG convertable and his eyes were the same color as the car?????)

While I was looking through old photos to find the prom pics, I noticed one thing about myself. I have always loved roses! This dress that I wore for my senior picture is something I would wear today! (well if I still had a waist, that is). And both prom dresses had a little lace rose on the front.

I recently bought this pink dream of a dress, and have it as part of my set up for the upcoming sale in my studio.

If I don’t sell it, I think it will go into Sugarwings dress up clothes for tea parties with Grandmama Karkie. I used to love wearing my sister’s old prom dresses when I was little. I think my fairy grand baby will have a good time with the dress up clothes I am accumulating for her.

Thanks for the prom party, Natasha! It was fun taking a stroll up the memory lane stairway to heaven.

In honor of the prom party, I listed this ball gown on Etsy today.

I worked outside a while today too.

With the weather in the 70s, I couldn’t stay indoors, even though I have a ton to do before my open house and sale.

I cut branches from some fir and pine trees in the woods and wired them to this arch and over the front door of the house. When I was done, I was a bit like Chevy Chase in one of my all time favorite movies, Christmas Vacation, sap sticking to my fingers, and, then me sticking to everything I touched.

Then, I spray painted this sled white and set it out on the porch to sell at the open house. I hope to get more signs painted and use this as a display for them. I will also just pound nails into the siding and hang them all over the house.

Did I mention that I used to be trailer trash? I think I might still have that in me, a bit!

To fill an old basket, I decided to sparkle up some dried hydrangeas.

It was easy to do, (well, except for the wind blowing them. I had to hold on while spraying, but I was already sticky from the sap anyway)

First, I sprayed the blooms with clear poly, and sprinkled on glitter, then sprayed again to keep it in place.

Speaking of the open house, I need to get back to work on it. And don’t forget the Blog party on the 12th- "What do you LOVE about your Holiday Home?"

And don’t forget Phyllis’s craft fair next week too. I plan on making things all day and showing them on the blog as I finish and offering them for sale.

Have fun checking out the proms!

Not Bella-ed-Out Yet!

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, fairies, holiday decor, I do tend to run on, don't I?, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 18, 2007

Did you think I was all bella-out? Nope, here is more!

I was only in one organized swap, silly silly silly me.

Take my advice, if you go to Silver Bella, sign up for as many swaps as you can.

You would not believe some of the gorgeous creations that were given in trade!

I was lucky enough to get into a few side swaps to, besides my ATCs. Rebbecca, and Julie and …… and oh my, you know I am bad about this. All my notes and business cards are packed in the box with all the swaps and are all mixed up.

But that doesn’t mean I love all of them any less! I am going to add hangers and make ornaments for a special table top tree, all Silver Bella themed with the ATCs.

Thanks, Bella Buddies!

On the other hand, here is a mystery solved. Remember the beautiful box full of gifts I got in the mail and didn’t know where from, was afraid I’d forgotten a swap or a giveaway?

Well, the gifter wrote to tell me, that is what it was, a gift. How sweet and kind. She was trying to be a secret Santa, but didn’t want to worry me and make me rack my brain to figure out what I had forgotten!

Thanks, Kathryn!!!

My Silver Bella tiara found a home in the bathroom cabinet on the doll head I bought on the trip to Omaha.

We named the little dolly "Bella Donna"

On the shelf near Bella Donna sits my swapty gift from Dede, who by the way, said she wanted to be the "Blotto Bella" and was a blast the whole weekend.

She let me pick ornaments, and I chose "Naughty Bella"

Which is a good name for me since I was bringing a strange man into our room at 3 am.

Maybe I should tell the rest of that? My roomie, Beth, went to bed early and I stayed up late with my new Bella Buds, Carol, Heather, the other Karla (yep, there were two there), and Stacey. and we giggled like school girls till way too late in Heather’s room.

Did you know that if your key card is in your pocket with your cell phone, it loses its magnetic abilities to open doors? So I was locked out. The room was in Beth’s name. I couldn’t get a new key, but the manager said he’d let me in if I could describe the room and my luggage.

I told him he couldn’t wake up Beth, I was trying to sneak in! But it was the only way, he insisted.

So, I described my stuff as all the bags on the floor overflowing with purchases from Vendor Night, supplies for classes, all the stuff from the antique mall I’d gotten, and all the swaps, stacked and piled up on the floor from the TV cabinet to the front door, so that you could barely get in the room. He stepped inside, took one look and realized it had to be my room. Then, I promptly tripped over a paper bag and made a lot of noise, but Beth still slept through it.

I am continuing to burn the midnight oil getting ready for my sale in two weeks. I’ve been up till 4 am the last two nights.

I glittered all these Ballerinas that I bought at Vendor Night and added butterfly wings that I got there too.

They are hung on a Bethany Lowe tree I picked up on the trip.

Sometime around 2am I was making these cones. The base of them is a 90% off clearance Tussie Mussie that I ripped all the tacky things off of and embellished myself with vintagey stuff.

Most of the embellishments were from our trip too. Either leftovers from class, goodies from Vendor night, or from the shopping along the way. Beth was so nice to me on the shopping part of the trip. I don’t get out to junk as much as she does, so she was calling it my "Pity Trip" and giving me first choice on all the goods!

Look at the pretty ribbon on this one. it is from Rebecca’s class. Did she just get some old seam binding wet and crumple it, do you think?

Wish I could have gotten more than 3 of these cones for 50 cents each, they were great to work with.

One more purchase from our drive up to Omaha. I bought another Bethany Lowe tree for my living room.

I’m going with an all white theme, for Christmas in that room. Well ivory and cream really. Multi whites. I’ll show more during our

What do you LOVE about your holiday home? party

I’ve been so busy Bella-ing, redoing the blog (well Sadie Olive did all the actual work, but it took up a lot of my time too) and then getting ready for the upcoming sale at my home, I haven’t done much Etsy listing.

I did list this, the background is an invoice from Acme Coal Mining. I loved that 1917 paper! I wondered if Santa got his coal there.

I’m sure that is where Wiley Coyote and Bugs Bunny did, every exploding device or weird thing that they bought was from Acme.

(this sold to Louisa who had this wallpaper in her home growing up! I sent her all the scraps I had of it so she could make something too)

Now, I am going to be good, stop running on, and go list something else on Etsy. I am crazy about this old wallpaper too. I had made a banner from it also and that sold to Bethany. And that is all I had of this wallpaper. It is so rich and deluxe, but in small doses, I can’t quite picture it filling a room.

A whole new Me

give away, holiday decor, parties, Silver Bella, Sugarwings, swaps

By Karla Nathan / November 16, 2007

I am so thrilled with my new little home here! Sadie Olive Designs (Sara) has done such a beautiful job of using my original paintings in her design and making the blog still feel like "me" but be cleaned up and professionally designed.

Did you see how she turned my rose painting vertical and made it look like antique wallpaper???? I LOVE vintage wallpaper!!!

And I have my Sugarwings picture, roses, sparkling old rhinestones jewelry, scalloped old paper— it is all my favorite things!!! I don’t think there can be enough exclamation points to describe how happy I am!!!!!!

Plus, the poor woman was so patient and kind. I don’t think I was an easy job for her…….

I almost hate to write on this, it is so new and clean and pretty. Its a bit sad to start using it.

Kind of the way I felt after cleaning house for the photo shoot yesterday and had the house all perfectly sparkling and TIDY. Then, I heard that my son and Sugarwings were coming over. Now, I love them and loved having them here, but I knew that the small window of time that my house was clean was over.

And I was right. She did her best to wreck the place. And is really good at that. Toys, toys everywhere. Till she was worn out and fell asleep watching the Jay Hawks in her Pop Pop’s arms.

Yep, it looks ‘normal’ again. A big, ugly portable crib with a garage sale sticker on it, puppy chew toys and baby toys all over. The dog’s water dish spilled, ahhh, home sweet home.

My photo shoot went well. Or at least I think it did. I’ll have to see the program to know how much babbling and stuttering I did. This is the hostess, Lori Carson.

And this sweet guy, Neil, the co-producer/cameraman has offered to make a dvd copy for me that I can post on my blog!

I hope to have it pod casted by the "What do you LOVE about your Holiday Home" party!

(unless of course, I really sounded like an idiot, which I tend to do when I get on TV or the radio. I am a born babbler)

I still don’t have all my Silver Bella goodies out and unpacked! But here is a special pretty from Carol. She and I did a side swap. Ithink I got the good end of the deal on this one!

Carol made this little snow princess from an old watch box. I have it on my bathroom shelf and use it to put my rhinestone pin into when I unclasp it from my jacket.

This princess banner that is on Sugarwing’s doll house in the fabulous button that Sara made for our upcoming party, is also from Silver Bella.

I bought the banner at vendor night. It was done by Kathy and it is so cute and just perfect for the doll house!!

Speaking of parties, Natasha is having a PROM!!! I’m going.

And one more mystery to solve. A sweet and kind person, named Katherine, sent a goodie box to Sugarwings and I!! It included this pretty floral dish, old trims, ornaments, a cute ATC she made, a book for the baby, and this great doily.

I love it, but I don’t remember winning a giveaway. Isn’t that terrible? I know it isn’t either one of my holiday swaps. I enter every contest I see, they are always so generous and fun. But I don’t remember this one. And I don’t have a last name or a blog name with this gift so I can thank the person for the pretties.

Here is what I did with one of my Silver Bella projects. I hung the tussie mussie from a wall sconce.

I’ll be getting all the gifts, swaps, and purchases out soon, now that my photo shoot is done.

Although, I still have that sale to get ready for and it looks like I will have to clean my house all over again for the holiday tour! (I was smart and rolled up the newly washed rugs before someone could spill on them or twinkle could tinkle them up)

What do you LOVE about your HOLIDAY Home??

We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / November 15, 2007

Yep- it is time for another PARTY!

I had such fun with our last party, with everyone linking and showing what they love about their own homes (check it out here).

Many people told me that they enjoyed it too. And who doesn’t enjoy looking at all the holiday decor?

I have a feeling that there will be some spectacular displays of Holiday Glory out there in blogland! After seeing what Easter and Halloween had to offer, I am ready to be blown away by Christmas.

You can show anything you like. A whole room, a whole house, or just a close up of something special to you.

So, on Wednesday, December the 12th

If you have a blog: all you have to do is comment on my blog after you post your photos, and make sure I have your info.

I will link to your Holiday Home and we can all party hop from home to home and visit each other.

Please add the button, designed by the talented Sadie Olive, to your own site so everyone will know you are coming to the party and will meet you there!

If you don’t have a blog: please leave comments about what you LOVE about your own holiday home for others to read.