November 2007 – Page 2 – Karla's Cottage

Just a Little Note about the Monthly Giveaway

By Karla Nathan / November 15, 2007

I’d like to explain my monthly drawing to those who don’t know the rules yet.

Its easy! All you do is leave a comment.

Every month, I give a present to someone who left me a comment.

Leave your comment on any post- BUT NOT THIS ONE. This is just the explanation.

My gifts vary. I have tried to match the gift with the winner when I can. Other times, I will say in advance what I am offering that month.

If you are an artist or crafter, I have Cottage Collage Kits also, and that is always an option as a gift. Mention to me if you’d rather have vintage and cool goodies for your own craft, if you are a winner.

Every single comment counts and you can enter as often as you like.

I enjoy getting comments and try to answer each one or visit the commenter’s blog, but for some reason, sometimes the emails don’t go through. I think it is a Typepad issue. About 1 in 30 emails bounce back to me. If yours is one, I’m sorry.

Also, sometimes time doesn’t allow for me to answer all the comments. I definately read each one, and try to visit the commenter’s blog or else reply by email.

On the other hand, I do realize that some comments are just that, a comment or a statement abou the post. Not an ongoing conversation. And you are not expecting a return reply.

I appreciate the fact that you take the time to come and visit, and let me know you were here by leaving a comment. Its nice to know that there is someone on the other end of my endless ramblings!

Thanks for visiting!!

Part Three of Silver Bella, and my car still isn’t all unloaded yet, so I guess there is more to come!

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Silver Bella, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 14, 2007

Ready for more project pictures? I am excited about this one from Charlotte Lyon’s class. It started out as a cereal box!

Since I don’t eat cereal, and Beth’s husband eats almost as much cereal as Jerry Seinfeld, she provided the boxes for both of us.

But what is exciting about this project is that Ms Lyons has a picture of it on her blog right now. (Beth’s too). Beth says that is like getting an "A" in class!

Country Living was there covering the event (to be published next fall) and photos were taken of my project. That sure would be cool, if mine made it into the magazine! They took tons of pictures, so chances are slim that mine made the cut.

Great supplies and papers were provided, but I chose to add my own embellishments, like the vintage velvet flowers and the hand drawn vines at the top, with glitter accents. And I am quite enamored with sheet music ruffles lately, so added one to the top.

In Rebbecca Sower‘s class, she provided bags full of goodies to foof up 6 wall hangings. I added my own ideas and pretties, but she had such a nice selection, I did use a lot of hers.

She made copies of old postcards for us to use, I loved that.

Out of the six provided, I only finished 3. I usually work fast and cockily brought side projects to do, thinking I’d zip through and be bored.

I learned quickly that these class projects didn’t go quickly.

On this Turn up the Twinkle (which I liked to call the Turnip class) I really really sucked. It was my first class there and my hopes of zipping through were dashed.

I didn’t even get this little so and so close to done.

I used the provided back ground paper from Melissa Frances. Our teacher, Caroline Peeler is a designer for them. Over that I used some wallpaper that I had brought with me.

The Country Living photographer also liked my hand painted craft bucket and borrowed it to take photos.

My sparkly "K" tag tied to the bucket was a gift from Holly and the apron was made by Beth. I thought I looked properly crafty for the weekend with my stylish supplies, I hope the editors at Country Living agree!

I guess we’ll see this time next year when the magazine is out. Better get your Silver Bella tickets early, because once that event gets a full spread in Country Living, we’ll never be able to get in, it already sells out quick!

I’m still not 100% unpacked from the trip yet. I did manage to pull out a few bags. And found things Beth bought, not me. Oops, the bags got switched.

But this purchase was definitely mine. I’m not sure what it is, I think old newsprint stamps for ads.

Back in the dark ages, before computers I used to do ads for the local JC Penny’s. Sometimes they would put a dress on special and not have a photo from the home office to use in the advertisements. So, they would call me to sketch it for them and my drawing would run in the Sunday paper. These metal plates remind me of those dresses, but I do think these are from an earlier date.

We found a new antique mall in Missouri on the way home from Omaha, and I bought enough old jewelry to last me a while, or at least until I come across another bargain jewelry find and buy it all out too.

This is just a handful of the 2 shopping bags FULL of sparklies that I bought.

The vintage bottle brush tree is a music box. It has little deer on its base, and the whole thing turns when it is wound up and the music plays. But I think it is from the island of misfit toys, because the deer face backwards when it turns.

I bought a few bottles to glue some of that old jewelry to. And an Eiffel tower. I wasn’t going to get one, but Heather Bullard insisted. And when THE Heather (as I call her) the West Coast style expert tells you to buy something, maybe you should listen!!

She also advised me to get a blog makeover and recommended Sadie Olive for the job. Sara, of Sadie Olive is ready to go and should have something done for the big "What do you LOVE about your Holiday Home?" virtual party on Wed. Dec. 12th.

So, I’ll have a decorated house and a decorated blog to show you!

(Heather has pink and white Eiffel towers on her blog right now, they are sweet.) I will paint and glitter mine up, as I was instructed to by my new style guru.

Friends that I met at Silver Bella, Carol and Jennifer also used Sara’s blog design service and have beautiful sites. Take a look and see. Oh, and so does Joy. All of them are so pretty. I’m excited about the new look!

I will try to unpack the rest of the loot from my weekend tomorrow. Today, we had a house guest. Sugarwings is spending the night.

Twinkle is always thrilled when the fairy grandbaby is here.

You know what happened next don’t you? It involved a lot of splashing and giggling and a very wet dog.

Silver Bella part 2 of MANY to come- you’ll have to stop me when you’ve had enough!

antiques/junking, give away, jewelry, Silver Bella, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / November 12, 2007

I still haven’t unloaded the car from my trip to Silver Bella, but at least all the glitter has been shaken from my suitcase and my clothes are put away.

I am the world’s biggest TV junky and had gone 4 days without. Last night was a pure veg out in front of the TV with Dexter and Larry David.

Today is a studio rearranging day that I can’t quite concentrate and work on.

So, I’ll take quick break from puttering and tell more about Silver Bella.

It was so fun to be able to deliver my October giveaway prize in person- wish that happened more often!

And yes, Jessi is as much fun in person as she seems to be on her blog. (And don’t forget, EVERY comment on my blog is an entry into the monthly drawing)

Here I am with Jessi, Natalie, and Jennifer, more of my blogger friends that I got to see in person.

I was all decked out in my Bella-wear. Tiara, crown shirt (blinged up), 2 vintage crown necklaces, official Silver Bella blinged up hoodie and toting an official Silver Bella tote.

I said that I if I were at Disney World, I’d be that person who was walking around dressed in Mickey Mouse wear from head to toe. I looked like the ultimate tourist/consumer who couldn’t say "no" to a souvenir! And who didn’t have the sense to not wear them all at once.

But the weekend wasn’t all play, there was WORK too. Well, that was more like play!

Each teacher prepared kits for us to make their projects. This one was Jenny and Aaron’s. They painted the scene, then copied it for us to reproduce ourselves.

It was a light hearted, fun kit to put to put together, and I was able to add my own touches, which all the teachers encouraged.

Here is a close up of mine, with a swirly snowy sky done with a ball point glue pen and clear glass glitter.

I also added a vintage reindeer brooch to mine, and switched the ruffle from the white crepe paper (I’m just not a fan of crepe paper) to old wallpaper that I brought along.

I also used a gelly roll stardust pen to outline the windows.

I tried to take a photo of each of my five projects next to the kit they were made from.

And here it is, in place hanging on the wall of Sugarwing’s room.

I liked it in there because it went well with my cottage print collection.

And of course, with the doll house too.

That is the only project I have unpacked so far. I am trying to get ready for the local TV show that is coming this week. The host will be here tomorrow for a pre-interview, and the shoot is Thursday.

Here is my roomie with her finished one too. She really wasn’t demented like the photo seems. She might have just been on glitter overload by then.

Oh, and here is one other thing that is unpacked, because it was in my suitcase not in the big shopping bags that have filled the back of my Scion. (or the Brave Little Toaster as Heather Bullard calls it after our antiquing trip to Brass Armadillo with one of our great teachers and a sweet lady, Jennifer. These rings (and a handful of others I HAD to buy) were black and dingy and over looked. I bought 8 for $7 each, all are vintage, most are sterling and one was 14 kt gold!

A few of us had some time to kill on Saturday afternoon, so drove the Brave Little Toaster (my family calls it the Refrigerator, but I guess it will answer to the name of any appliance) to Brass Armadillo, about 20 minutes from the hotel.

It was one of many highlights of my trip. Jennifer is fascinating and as down to earth and friendly as can be. Heather is hilarious and just too much fun. And of course, you know I love Beth.

And I was in on the birth of the next big design that will be sweeping the country. Jennifer found this vintage pillow and has plans to remake it in her Sis Boom fabrics and you know you will be buying one because it will be so cool.

I’ll have LOTS more of Bella stories, crafts and pictures if you aren’t tired of me going on about it yet.

In the meantime- don’t forget that I am having a virtual blog party on DEC. 12. It will be a Wednesday and we will all link and show each other what we LOVE about our HOLIDAY HOMES.

Part One of Silver Bella ( a mere taste of the gushing to come)

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Silver Bella, Travel

By Karla Nathan / November 11, 2007

Silver Bella was the BEST!

I had been looking forward to it, but had no idea it would be that much fun.

Beth and I drove up from KC and antiqued in St Joe, MO where we ran into a fellow Bella who happened to stop there too!

No, not this gal, but she does look ready for the event.

Carol is also from the KC area and happened to be at Jesse James Antique Mall at the same time as us.

The spending spree was just beginning. I hate to admit it, but since my husband doesn’t read this, I guess I can– I shopped all the way up to Omaha, and went to all the local antique stores, as well as buying things all the way home. And there was Silver Bella Vendor night in between!

At Jess James, Beth and I found a pile of ephemera at dirt cheap prices. Well, dirt cheap for an antique mall, but not estate sale cheap. About 50 cents each isn’t bad, though.

There were so many, we spread them out on the floor, sat down and relaxed as we went through them.

When I got to classes, I was so glad that I had I bought some of the vintage cards. They were an excellent addition to projects there.

And of course, the doll’s head I found in St Joe was a perfect tiara stand for the hotel room.

As soon as we arrived, we "decorated" our room and set out some pretties to enjoy.

Everyone at the event was so nice. Jack and Jenny Heid were sweeties.

I could go on forever, gushing about the glitter and the fun. And I probably will in my next post. But its time to get back to reality, unpack my bags, shake out the sparkles from my suitcase (those poor hotel maids, there was glitter everywhere!! I wonder how many people were like Beth and spent time sitting on the bed cutting, gluing and making little tiny confetti sprinkles with their hole punches?).

And I need to go and play with my little Dorkies and find out what they’ve been up to all weekend.

It always feels good to be back home and to know I was missed.

I’m outta here

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, magazine pictures or articles, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 7, 2007

The Lawrence Magazine is out now. It is local, so I’m sure that doesn’t mean much to most of you.

I had to have 3 rooms of my home decorated for Christmas by Sept 15 so they could shoot this, and what pictures do they use?? Two, both from the same room!!

Oh well, at least I have the upstairs decorated and ready for the Holiday Home Tour and can concentrate on other things. If I hadn’t had this early deadline, I’d be scrambling to get those rooms done now instead.

This year, the tour will feature a Kwanzaa home and a Hanukkah home too.

(I am in the top photo.) I wore jeans, not knowing I’d be in the pictures. Its lucky I don’t have paint smeared all over me!

These pictures are by Jason Dailey Photography

http://www.daileyimages.com
http://www.blackboook.com/jasondailey and he was kind enough to let me post them.

I took time to list a couple things on Etsy today. I made these boots for an article I wrote for Victorian Decorating. I am keeping a couple and selling the others.

Aren’t the old buttons great?

One already sold too! They are $7 and there is one left in the shop if you are interested.

I had Sugarwings most of yesterday. It was her first peek at our Christmas tree, I was waiting for her with the camera so I could capture her face.

I think the lights and decorations will mean every bit as much to her as they do to me! We walked all around the house and pointed at pretties and talked about the holiday.

This morning, I decorated my tiara. It was a store bought rhinestone one, pretty enough. But I thought that to be worn at Silver Bella, it needed more. I think it might have plenty now.

The scarf it is sitting on will be what I tie around my waist for "Junk Gypsy" night at Silver Bella. I am just wearing jeans and a tee shirt and this scarf (with the tiara of course! I might have that on all weekend!)

I think the scarf might be a Xmas tree skirt when I get home…

I’m not getting decked out like a lot of the attendees. But I also am a lot older than most of them too.

Which reminds me, I should go and pack my bags. My swaps and tools and goodies are ready to go but my clothes aren’t.

When you are about to turn 50, the clothes don’t seem as important. A few t-shirts and some jeans and my tennis shoes and I am set for anywhere. It took a lot longer to figure out which glue, which pretty rhinestone buttons, etc to take than what clothes to pack!!

Good bye, everyone- hope you have a good weekend too. I plan on having a spectacular one.

Presents, packages, and procrastination- a look at my October giveaway prize

Etsy Goodies, give away, paintings, swaps, Travel, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 6, 2007

Am I making any progress on the studio before the fairy grand baby gets here and I have to stop? Well, kind of.

I packed up my swaps and am taking them to the PO today. This ornament goes to Shirley, as my part of the swap that my Pretty Romantic Homes group on Ebay is having.

And my package, all wrapped up in vintage wallpaper, is ready to go to Natasha in Australia for the Deck the Halls swap hosted by Monica at:

monicaanderson.blogspot.com/

I won’t show Natasha’s gifts yet, so she’ll be surprised, but here is something I am sending to her son, Leroy. I doubt if he reads my blog.

KU is undefeated so far this year (that is a very big deal to my husband). Natasha is a football fan, so I thought it would be nice to send Leroy a football. Now my husband tells my that "Australian Rules" football is a different ball. Oh well, little boys have a good time with throwing balls around, so I’m sure he’ll enjoy it anyway.

I have a side swap at Silver Bella with Julie. Its funny, I listed 3 mini wallpaper,ephemera packs with an ATC as side swaps and Julie took me up on it.

The trouble is, that she was already in my ATC swap and I was including that same pack as part of it!!

So I told her I would bundle up some big pieces of wallpaper as a swap so she wouldn’t get the same thing twice.

I am hoping someone else takes me up on these ATC/ephemera packs. It would be sad to offer to trade and get no takers!!

I also made a gift for the winner of my OCTOBER GIVEAWAY– Jessi

She happens to be a Bella too, so I am taking the gift to her there.

You know you can enter my November drawing for a custom Christmas gift by leaving a comment, right? Any comment, any time , all month.

Lets see, what else did I do yesterday while avoiding cleaning the studio?

Well, as I did attempt to clean my work table, I came across a few things I wanted to finish, like this piece.

And I made up 6 of these little vintage ballerinas, so they could be fairies.

They are sweet little things. I guess you have to be pretty sweet when you have a face like that.

(oops, that was catty- but really, look at that face!)

I also framed this watercolor, but I just don’t like the vintage frame gold, it will have to be painted white. Well, I tried to get by with not painting it.

So, I am packed up and ready for Silver Bella at least, and all my swaps are done and ready to go to the PO, as well as all my Etsy sales for this week.

I am lucky to have 2 boxes to Australia and 2 to Canada on the same day! One trip to the PO for all, instead of going back for each. Out of country boxes have to go through the main PO here, I can’t just drop them off at the grocery store like most parcels.

OK, enough procrastinating. I have to go and clean the studio. Or I could go pick Sugarwings up early today……

Why do I have to be “Hex Goblinweb”????

fairies, holiday decor, paintings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 5, 2007

My fairy is called Hex Goblinweb

"She is a bringer of riches and wealth.

She lives in places hexed and tainted by black magic.

She is only seen in the mist of an early morning.

She wears black feathers and rose petals. She has gentle green wings like a butterfly."

You can get your fairy name too, although, I hope yours is prettier than mine. Hex Goblinweb?? Why couldn’t I be "gossamer petals" or "blissful bella" or "glittered sparkle wings"

I saw this fairy name finder on Phyllis’ site, check it out and see if you get a pretty name: http://www.emmadavies.net/fairy/default.aspx

While I was going through the handmade greeting card drawer, I thought I’d show

another old Christmas card. Some years, I’d do a golfing themed card for my husband to send to his colleagues, I’d also do a pretty card with angels or fairies to send to family and friends.

I always loved this angel’s face, just don’t look at her poor hand. Ugh, that is badly done.

(this is the only one I don’t have extras of to sell, they are sold out till I copy more)

I am happy (and relieved) to say that my house is decorated for Christmas and ready for the local TV crew on the 15th!

I still have this mess to deal with before I leave for SILVER BELLA on Thursday.

I’d had the front third of my studio set up for the Holiday Home Tour and gift shop way early, back in Sept. so a local magazine could do photos of it. That was a great head start. Xmas_021

But now, all this mess is in front of the pretty stuff!!

I can’t seem to keep a clean work environment. It clutters up so fast, I am always shoving aside one mess to work on another.

At least I know I am 90% done inside the house, and the studio looks really bad right now, but I’ve seen it worse. I’ll have it whipped into shape in the 3 days I have before I leave.

Well, I will be babysitting Sugarwings over night on one of those days, so between watching her, and the recovery time I need to rest after keeping her out of the Christmas tree, I won’t have a full 3 days.

I’d better get busy.

Christmasses Past and what ever happened to those unicorns??

collections, fairies, paintings

By Karla Nathan / November 4, 2007

Don’t forget that every comment is an entry into my monthly giveaway. This month, it will be a hand made Christmas item.

After seeing Sugarwings dressed up like Dorothy, I got to thinking about this painting I did years ago.

I called it "Great Aunt Dorothy Reminiscing"

It is my vision of Dorothy in her 90s. With photos of Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, Toto and a hot air balloon on the wall behind her, and a vase with poppy stem in it on the table next to her chair.

Her favorite color is emerald green, because it brings back such lovely memories. And no matter what, she’ll NEVER give up those ruby slippers.

While digging through the drawer to get to the Dorothy card (I made my old paintings into note cards) I came across some others and thought I’d show them today.

I am in the middle of decking the halls and my husband says "it looks like Christmas threw up all over our house!". It is a wreck, boxes, ornaments, garlands, branches,everywhere. I have nothing new made right now, except a mess.

Notice the rain drop hitting the unicorn? That is why there are no more unicorns today, the rain started before his mate arrived and he could get on the ark.

My husband runs some golf courses and I try to do a unique Christmas card for him to send out every year. (this one is wrapped up in plastic, I used to sell them by the 6 pack too).

This guy is a golfing Santy, done in ink.

This is one of my faves, Santa’s elves building sets of clubs.

And a golfing snowman.

One year, I did this painting of the front of my studio with Sparkle sitting on the porch and used it as the family Christmas card.

The Holiday Home Tour that I am a part of this year is using this image in its advertising now. That was so flattering!

This one is a little different, well no golf clubs, but also, it was done with watercolor pencils. I had never worked with them before and probably won’t again, they don’t have the range of color I wanted and I found them hard to use.

I do have a few cards left if anyone wants any, I can sell them for $1 each or 6 for $5. I’ll have to double check to see what is left if you want any.

Pure Luck

family, housework

By Karla Nathan / November 3, 2007

Boy do I have some good friends. And I know how lucky I am to have them.

See the peeling shutter on the top window? That is what all my shutters looked like before today.

Two of my craft night friends came over today and helped me scrape and repaint them!

We have done projects for each other, like helping Jen sand and prime her kitchen cabinets and doing a faux finish in Diane’s entryway.

But the biggest and toughest project of them all has been Lori’s shed.

We hauled all the junk out, then cleaned and painted the shed for her, as a group.

We rented a spray gun and just shot paint all over everything.

One of the group, Diane, is a photographer. She and I got to talking about how cool it would be to do a before and after story about the shed, so she snapped some shots before we got started.

I fetched a "few" of my pretties from my studio and staged the room, and got out my paint brush to foof things up a bit, so Diane could take these shots.

I wrote up a little article to go along with the photos and we sent the package into Romantic Homes, and it was published last summer.

I am lucky to be a part of a group of such giving, talented, and HELPFUL friends!

I think our buddy, Shanna, is next for a redo project, she is house shopping, so is saving up her turn for something in the new home.

I was so relieved to have this eyesore taken care of today. My Holiday Open House is less than a month away and those ragged shutters were one of the things that were making my eyes pop open at 3am with worry.

Thanks to my pals, I can start worrying about something else now.

But not about the eyesore that the yard had become, that is handled today too!

Sugarwings, my husband and I started the big fall clean up.

He had taken down a 30 foot tall cedar tree that needed cut up and burned, along with sticks and leaves around the farm that were cluttering up the yard.

Our friends saw the tree laying out by the driveway, and commented "Karla is going all out for Christmas again, huh?" Apparently, I am known for my excess and no one was surprised to see a 30 foot Christmas tree in my drive way.

But in a matter of hours, that tree was kindling and burned away in the bon fire pit behind the garden.

After climbing up and down ladders and scraping old paint all day, I was ready to relax by the warm fire and watch the last of the tree go up in flames while I sat back and sipped a glass of wine.

There is nothing like a crisp fall day when you can accomplish a lot of needed yard work and home repairs, enjoy the company of your friends, and then relax by a bonfire at the end of it all.

I think I have mentioned it before, I am pretty lucky!!

If I only had a brain!

Uncategorized

By Karla Nathan / November 2, 2007

My little Sugarwings is such a Kansas girl! She made a perfect teeny Dorothy.

We had some of the nicest weather this year, seems like it usually rains or is chilly on Halloween.

I hope the weather holds for next week in Omaha for SILVER BELLA!!!

I have my swaps done and ready to go.

I took my 12 glittering ATCs and packaged them up with some wallpaper and added the recipient’s names in glitter to vintage wallpaper tags embellished with millinery flowers.

I have 3 extra so I signed up for side swaps that weekend. I am open to ANY trade, so I hope I get some takers.

(NEXT DAY) EDIT- BETH TOLD ME HOW TO LOAD THE BANNER! I DID IT!!!!

I’ve been working on a new banner tonight, after the baby went to bed. (Yes I got to keep her overnight TWICE this week! and no, I am not getting any closer to being ready for my sale, or the TV shoot!)

I copied and added color with pastels and glitter to the sepia water color I did of my fairy grand baby.

Then I cut out a piece of vintage fairy wallpaper.

At first, I thought I’d be techy and do it all digitally, with the scanner, but I had to resort to scissors and glue after my dismal failure.

So I snipped and clipped and glued and glittered and made this.

I will pretend that my cottage is that castle!

Trouble is, now I can’t load it into a new banner. Geez, what is so hard about it???? I seemed to have it resized correctly. but NO.

If Sugarwings is Dorothy, I must be the Scarecrow. I am brainless when it comes to changing banners, or adding buttons to my blog.

So, I give up for now. Its 1am and the baby will be up in about 6 hours and a grandmother needs plenty of sleep if she expects to keep up with a one year old. As if sleep is enough to keep me going when she is here! It requires heavy duty cafienne, running shoes, and a helper to hold her down when I change her pants.

So I’m off to bed, after announcing October’s winner:

It’s a fellow Bella!!! Jessi gets the choice of a vintage wallpaper and ephemera Cottage Collage Kit or a hand made item from the kit.

Thanks to all of you who commented and entered. I enjoy hearing from you and will be bribing for more comments in November. Every comment counts as an entry into the drawing. I will make a custom Christmas ornament for November’s winner.