March 2010 – Page 2 – Karla's Cottage

Woodland magic

By Karla Nathan / March 16, 2010

My cottage sits on ten acres. Lots of trees, a few fields, and I70 as a border. A bit loud out in the woods this time of year with no leaves to muffle the sound of the traffic. But this time of year is wonderful for exploration, there is no poison ivy and its not over grown yet.

In the summer we keep trails mowed to walk on, and call it the Fairy Berry Trail because it is lined with mulberry trees. But right now, the whole area is open and ready to explore. Sugarwings can run through the "deep dark forest" as she calls it like a woodland sprite and hunt for fairies, dance on fallen logs, and climb fences.

For years we had horses and they grazed the woods, but now they are gone, and the fences are drooping, and wouldn't hold a horse in for long. They were never very good, we were constantly mending them.After we quit keeping horses, I felt like we weren't even using our space. We rarely went out into the woods.

But since Sugarwings has fallen in love with the area, and we mowed the trails for her, it has been a joy to rediscover our land. Even if that is only a small area of it. We don't cross the creek, there is a few more acres back there that we still don't get back to.

There are also a couple of large, unused fields of brome grass. But now we have found a use for some of that too! Our niece is bringing out a group of young couples from her church and starting a community garden!! I'm so excited to see some of our space going to a good use.

It thrills me to see my fairy grand baby grow up with a love of nature and the outdoors. We are hoping to expand the Fairy Berry Trail this summer for her so she will have a large woodland play ground to enjoy. I want to add swings, benches, someday a tree house or little cottage.

Although, are the additions more for me or for her? She's happy with a twig that becomes a magic wand and a short cedar tree that can become a giant birthday cake with one wave of that wand.

Drink Me

Books, magazine pictures or articles, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 14, 2010

There was another little glitch with the tag books. I think these bottles are too fragile just to tie on the books! So, I spent time wrapping each one up in bubble wrap, then in pretty paper. I'll slip them into the bubble mailers with the books, and I'm afraid all the swappers will need to tie them on their own books. Its just safer that way.

It has been such fun making the books! I made up most of them yesterday. Today and tomorrow is the packing and labeling. Trouble is, they are so pretty, that I have to stop and look at each one again and again as I wrap them. Of course no two are alike, that is what makes it so interesting. I just wish you could see all the books together.

Some of the tags still haven't arrived in the mail yet, so what I'll do is finish the ones that are here and the latecomers will all be swapped with each other.

So this first "wave" of books will be sent out tomorrow. More the next few days. I simply don't have the concentration level to do all the packing, then all the mailing, so I need to break it up. I'm doing about 20 packages at a time, then starting on the next 20. I'll get to the PO each day to drop off a boxful, instead of waiting till all are done.

Feel free to go ahead and post photos on your blog (plus flickr) if yours comes early! We all want to see the finished books.

As promised, here are a few photos of the house from the day Carol was here. Now, her pictures are top of the line, done with a camera that costs more than a whole roomful of my furniture (of course, everything I own is from garage sales, so lets make that a couple roomsful of furniture at least!)

These photos are from my camera, which I love to pieces, but it sure doesn't compare with hers.

They are for Somerset Home. Hopefully. I hate to jinx myself, because you never know with a magazine until the type is set!

For the shoot and for the baby shower we had last week, I "made" a new table cloth. There was so much going on in the table settings, that I wanted something a bit more toned down.

So, I cut a square of burlap a bit smaller than a vintage crocheted cloth that I usually use. No sewing, I just layered the two.First, I put the burlap in the dryer with a wet cloth and a fabric softener sheet, to take the stiffness out. All I had to do after that was pull a few threads to fringe the edges and layer the burlap over the lacy cloth.

We did photos in the living room, dining room, and kitchen, and I focused the story on using ephemera in your home.The article should be out in August.

But like I said, you never know until you see it in print if it is a go or not!! I've got a few articles dangling around out there still unpublished. One is of my bedroom and another was done at Christmas a few years back at a Victorian mansion. Maybe they'll turn up someday, maybe not.

Ooops, I lied. This little metal table is not 2nd hand! I got it at a garden center on 75% clearance at the end of the season.

Everything here but the Gothic arch window are from garage sales. The alabaster lamp was only a few bucks and the chairs were $100. The arch is from my favorite antique store Rusty Chandelier and was a major splurge at $150. More than I paid for the couch.

Another non junk store or garage sale purchase in the room is my TV cabinet. Sorry, no picture. It was a scratch and dent piece from a furniture store that I repainted once I got it home.So yes, Carol's camera is worth a lot more than this room full of furniture and the dining room as well (that table and chairs was $600 from a friend's consignment shop)

Twinkle was hilarious all day while Carol was there. That dog never gave up on posing as long as Carol had the camera out.

We humored her and took a few pictures of her. Carol has a good one on her blog now. You can see what I mean about how good her camera is! And not just the camera, she's got mad skills.

Charlotte the bunny fairy?

Books, fairies, swaps

By Karla Nathan / March 13, 2010

Today, I am sending out this little Peat Pot Pretty with a Charlotte fairy to Amy. If you've ever seen her blog, you know she LOVES bunnies. So, I made slip on bunny ears for the fairy to wear.

Thanks for all your purchases, I love making these guys, and have plans for some pots covered in rosy wallpaper too. I'll let you know when they are listed.

That is, after I finish these!! Isn't that a pretty pile? Suz sent the book, and I can't wait to read it. but first, I am organizing tags into piles that look nice together.

While putting them together, I try to chose tags that look good together, but are still a nice assortment. I do take the assembly seriously, its kind of like picking out wallpapers or millinery flowers to put together in packs, you want some coordination, but still variety.

And I did keep the notes about special instructions to follow too. I just can't promise that I will be able to keep all of that in my head too, but will try. Please forgive me if you get your own tag back and you didn't want one of them.

But honestly, all of the tags are SO stinkin cute, you will love your books, I'm sure!

If I have loaded this correctly, you should be able to click on the collage and see it larger.

Okay, back to work for me. I have tags to play with! I also need to add the "Drink Me" labels to the little bottles. I'm going to drop a heart shaped key in each bottle, there was a bit of a problem with the keys I ordered. Apparently, I'm not very bright when it comes to metric sizes. These keys are miniscule!! If I tied them to the package, they'd just be lost. I need to either glue them to the covers, or drop them in the bottles. They are cute, just way too small.

what a nice week

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, swaps

By Karla Nathan / March 12, 2010

Well, the parties are done, and today was back to work. I wish I could have had one more day to play! Between Carol here to do photos on Monday, and the surprise online shower for Andrea, then the Craft Day Tea Party Baby Shower for Shawn, its been a blast of a week.

Not to mention all the Alice tags filling my porch every day when the post man comes! Talk about fun!

I'm excited about them all arriving so that I can get them sorted, stacked and ready to build into books. Some people are running a bit late, so it will probably be Monday before I start in on them. I'm sorry that so many of you over-nighted tags to me, just to have them sit and wait here for other's tags to arrive! I wish that you had asked me before you paid so much extra for postage, I feel really bad. But I do appreciate your efforts.

Also, I figured that you were sending 480 tags to me, I'm adding 81 covers, plus my 6 tags too. That is 567 tags. So, please forgive me, if I can't follow your wishes to put certain tags together in books. Some have asked to get their own tag in a book, others say to make sure that they don't get their own tag back. I will TRY, but honestly, I'm just not that sharp. My skills will lie in putting tags together that look pretty in a book with each other. I might not be able to do that plus keep track of who gets which tag.

I'm really sorry, but I can promise you that ALL the tags that are coming in are cute as can be and you will like your book!

And I greatly appreciate the tidbits that have been included! Its really nice to get so many extra tags as gifts, they will make my own book really special. I'm overwhelmed with the generosity that's been rolling in. Lace from Debra, teacups, bowls, goodies, all sorts of pretties. I'd just admired this Alice collage on Sandy's blog, then was so surprised to see it arrive here at my cottage! Notice the cards painting the roses? What a cute touch.

This package came from Marian Ballog and I thought it was just about too pretty to open, but I'm glad I did- it contained the book in the previous photo, by Marian herself!

Thank you everyone, its all such a treat for me. And for little Miss Sugarwings too. She has a little pile of pressies to open. We will have a party and I'll get some pictures of her as she sees all of her goodies. Debra (who sent this beautiful lace panel) also sent some books for Sugarwings to share with Pixie Pie, so we'll invite her to the party too, and maybe make some fairies from a kit sent by Cindy.

Thank you everyone, once again, I have to say, I'm just BLOWN AWAY !

Since I can't start on assembling the books until the tags all arrive, I spent the day photographing and listing goods for the Boutique.

Yep, there are Heavenly Paper Packs FINALLY for sale. In the extra large size, 11×14" sheets of some of the prettiest papers ever.

And Millinery! In gorgeous springtime colors.

Also bits and pieces of jewels, and a sparkling bird in its flowery nest (first photo).

It feels good to get the shop stocked up a bit. Yes, its been a nice week. And tomorrow is a Sugarwings day, so the week just gets better and better.

Plus- my house is still clean from getting it ready for Monday's photo shoot! That is a miracle of some kind. I'm loving having a tidy home. Lets see, its been 4 days
now and things still look good? Yes, a miracle.

I'll have some photos of the shoot for you in the next few days, thanks for asking about them. Now, I'm off to wrap up some Peat Pots and wallpaper and millinery that I need to get in the mail.

There are 2 Fairy pots left, from the 12 I had for sale, if you want one, please email me. They are $25 plus postage, and are not listed in the shop.

Oh Baby, Baby! Twice the fun as just one.

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, Food and Drink, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / March 10, 2010

Surprise! Today is a surprise baby shower for our sweet as can be, friend, Andrea. She is expecting a little sister for her two boys.

So, a group of us are helping her celebrate by sending her some hand made girly gifts to Hope, who lives near Andrea and is gathering all the presents and surprising her with a shower.

My gift is a little cartoon painting of her two sons as elves, holding a newborn fairy girl.

Its done in watercolor with ink. And I added some pearl paint to the baby sister's wings, with a hint of glitter.

Her gift was sent wrapped in vintage paper, and I used very little tape, so she could reuse it for a project. Don't you hate getting some cool old paper and having it ruined by the tape?

Here is a section of the paper that you can click on to enlarge if you'd like to print it to use.

Please visit the other shower "guests" and see what pretties they have made! Here's a list of who is attending the shower today.

And of course, what is a baby shower without some yummy treats? I made a carrot cake up for yet another baby shower. Tuesday, we celebrated Shawn's upcoming addition with a Craft Day Baby Shower Tea Party at my cottage.

As a surprise, I made a fairy picture of Shawn's daughter, Bethany holding a new baby brother.

We really wanted an Alice theme for our tea party, but since I had the photo shoot the day before, my time was short. I was able to make a mini effort to Alice up the table. The party favors were little Charlotte babies that came along with a pig picture cut out of a vintage book. Since Alice was holding a bundled baby that turned into a pig.

And I cut out little "drink me" notes to put by all the tea cups.

Beth was the Mad Hatter (or Russel f
rom Survivor?) and I was the March Hare.

Shawn and Bethany came with Rabbit Ears too.

Shawn has more photos of the day here.
Shawn's baby is due after Twinkle's babies are coming, so I told everyone we had to squeeze in one more craft day and make it a baby shower for Twinks. (if you live nearby and want to come, let me know!)

For Shawn's gift, we bought her an album and each created a page for it. Her husband is an aquarium enthusiast, so I thought that a fish theme would be good for my page. I made a pocket out of watercolor paper that I painted like to look like water, with little purple fishies in it. I cut out fish shaped tags for her to glue photos to, and slid them into the pocket.

Next, I painted some colorful fish and grasses on watercolor paper and cut them out to glue onto the pocket for a 3-D effect.

For the back side of my page, I used sparkle scrapbook paper over reversible scrap book paper that I folded into a pocket page. I do like pockets in photo albums. The little card with the old fashioned baby picture opens up, so that Shawn can add a small picture there too.

But that isn't all the babies, or all the gifts! Our other friend, Holly, is expecting her 3rd son. I wanted to send a little something to her and since I am on a Charlotte roll, I thought I'd use one of them. Although her child is a boy, so we won't say Charlotte, we'll say Charles.

The carriage is made from a box that I have cut down and covered in flocked wallpaper, then lined with white velvet, and trimmed with ruffled ribbon. The wheels are mother-of-pearl buttons.

And geez, as if this post wasn't already long enough, I need to let you know that I've restocked the crown rings in my Boutique.

Also, I will be emailing everyone who asked me to save a Peat Pot Pretty with Fairy for them, and will have a couple left to add to the shop too. Thanks so much!

And congratulations, Andrea, Shawn, Holly, and Twinkle on this spring's new crop of little ones!

A fun little helper

housework, magazine pictures or articles

By Karla Nathan / March 8, 2010

Well, I think I am ready today for Carol to come over and do pictures of the cottage. I had planned it for last Monday, but got the flu instead and had to reschedule. Too bad, because cleaning and redoing was much harder this week, it was our weekend with Sugarwings. She really, really likes to help. She rearranges my flowers, cleans the toilet with a feather duster, and finds much more interesting displays than I had planned myself.

(the "Joy" banner I made for Christmas has been switched out to spell "Fun" for springtime.)

We waited until it was time for her to go to her mommy's before I banished all of the kid stuff to the porch. My kitchen seems twice as big now!

Actually, it was Sugarwings who put the flower vase on her piano. See what I mean? She did come up with some good ideas. Not all were as successful as this one.

I'll have more photos later if you are interested. I'd better get to work now.

Peat Pot Pretties with Fairies

fairies, magazine pictures or articles, parties, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 6, 2010

Not all of the Charlottes went into my Boutique for sale, I kept a bowlful for myself. And I do have more on order, but have not been able to find them as dirt cheap as I did last time. I found a decent price and will still be able to sell them to you at a price you will like, but probably not one so cheap that I sell over 100 of them in a matter of hours…

I'll let you know as soon as they arrive, and will probably sell them in sets, since everyone bought more than one. (Its easier for calculating postage that way.)

They certainly are a fun little supply to have in the studio. I have plenty of plans for Charlotting up some projects. For now, I am making Fairy Pots. To each, I am adding a flag with the name of a guest for my Baby Shower Tea Party Craft Day on Tuesday. I will set a potted fairy in front of each plate as a place card.

Each little fairy girl has been dressed in vintage millinery flower petals to make a skirt. I've added hand made, sheet music wings and "planted" her into a little peat pot. No two are alike, but I've stayed with a white, rusty brown, and cream palette. A couple have some faded pink, like this one.

The little pots are collaged in pages from old books. Lisa sent me some fairy pages that were just perfect, and I've added some other elderly text too. I've sugared and inked the pots after gluing on the paper.

When I decoupage, I never use Mod Podge. That stuff just isn't good in the Midwest, seems like in July, anything that it has been used on feels sticky. For this, I used Elmer's.

Then, I've topped off the pot with curly moss and bunches of flowers plucked from my old hats.

These pots will be part of the photo shoot I am doing on Monday with my buddy, Carol. Then, I'm doing double duty by having a party the next day and just keeping the table set overnight, which works out perfectly since we don't have little Sugarwings on Monday night. If we did, there is no way I could pull off having a table set for a tea party and not letting her in on it! She'd be insulted.

After Tuesday, these peat pot pretties will be for sale. If you'd like me to reserve one for you ($25 plus shipping) please let me know. I can write whatever name you would like on the flag. Or maybe just "Spring" or "Fairies", or "Welcome"?

When I get started on something its hard to stop, so there are about a dozen of these. Plus, this was my last arty project that I needed for the photo shoot, and I knew that when I was done with these, it would be time to clean the house. It was much more fun to play with Sweet Charlottes than to tackle cobwebs and wax floors.

Ugh. I'm off to clean. Sugarwings is here to help me, we pretend to be Snow White cleaning up after those 7 messy little dwarfs. That helps a bit. Although it is a bit disturbing when she keeps repeating, "Dirty, dirty, dwarf." Somethings not quite right about that.

Good Goodies

Books, give away, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 4, 2010

The Alice Tags are starting to arrive at my doorstep, and it gets more fun every day! Not only are we getting some gorgeous tags for our books, I'm blown away by some of the packaging too. Like Samantha Miranda's tags wrapped in a sweet hankie, and including some chocolate bunnies! She and I had similar ideas, about Alice and the small door opening but we each had different takes on the theme. Aren't hers pretty?

Some thoughtful gifts came too, which was a nice surprise, especially after the week I've had. How can I be feeling down and yucky after opening all of this?

These are from Suzanne Crowley, and the box smelled lovely, from the gift of verbana soaps she included! I'm saving all the tissue paper that she used, it has the scent of flowers on it, and will make packages I send out smell wonderful too. (I try to recycle as much as I possibly can, and this time it will be a joy to do!) Look at how she has made Alice hang out over the edge of the card. I love it when people "color outside of the lines".

Suzanne also sent a fluffy pet for Sugarwings, and a towel set to go with the pretty soaps. To top it all off, everything was tied with soft old ribbons and hand made crepe paper flowers.

Kitty, who I've had the pleasure of meeting when I went to PA to visit her daughter, Heather, (and who is just as talented as that girl of hers) sent these. She included gorgeous, vanilla velvet ribbon wrapped up and packaged in an old album mat, then pinned with hat pins she made with crystal beads.

And this loveliness is from Laurie. Along with her pastel Alice tags- look at how cute that doily is!- was this Cottage sheet music and pink rose wallpaper!

The colorful bunch of tags are from Karen. She also made stationary set with the images she used on the tags.

I repeat- blown away! Thanks, ladies!

Yep, some very pretty things are showing up at my doorstep. I can't show you all of the tags that come in, but here is a Flickr site if you'd like to see what everyone is making. So far, we have 22 members, I hope that more of the 80 swappers will add their photos. Yes, I did let the number GROW again. Very much like Alice eating the cake, the swap grew, and grew, and grew.

These tags are from my Sissy. All of that red is very fine glitter, I wish it showed up better in the photo.

You can see the glitter better here. She has great little details in her tags, like the vintage crown charms hanging from heart shaped punch outs.

Now, you'd think that was enough mail excitement for any one person, but look at these! Vicki sent me a passle of her Shadow Box frames with fairy collage sheets. I'm going to have a craft day party with these and we can all see what we come up with. Won't they be fun to play with?

My photo shoot with Carol is rescheduled for Monday and I have not done ONE THING for it yet. I woke up today, again thinking I was fit and happy and ready to face the world. Then, I started to droop.

Ignoring my droopiness, I thought I'd try to clean up and foof the living room, but after dropping and breaking a couple of things, I gave up. But I knew that there was no way on Earth I could face another day of bed and TV.

So I took myself
off to the salon to get some new hair, as Sugarwings calls it. I figured that sitting in the beauty shop chair would get me out of the house, dressed, and maybe perked up. I know myself well enough to realize that if I'd stayed home, I wouldn't be resting, I'd be working, whether I was up to it or not.

Plus, being so sick from just the flu made me feel extremely OLD. Some highlights to hide the gray helped a bit. I'd probably feel less old if I wasn't so tired.

Before I forget, I need to announce the winner of the February Giveaway, the Alice Tag Kit.

Here is the sweet comment left by:

Pattyjo

I would love to win the giveaway…so I am hoping you will add my name
in the hat! Thank you for your blog and all the gorgeous projects you
show us. It must take so much of your time. I think I can speak for
most everyone on your blog that we appreciate it so much!
Pattyjo

Now, I really need to sit at the desk and get out the glue and paper to make a few small projects for Monday.
Wish me luck on being ready for the photo shoot! I'll need it.

Poison Kisses

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 3, 2010

Thanks for your well wishes! It was nice of Beth to ask you to send me get well messages. I sure appreciated them, this has been a rough week.

Last week, Sugarwings had a little tummy ache and didn't eat for a couple of days. So, of course, I cuddled, coddled, and kissed her better. Friday night, her little bug bit me and by then, it was like one of those bugs from 1950s horror movies. Remember the attack of the giant mutant bugs that had been zapped with radiation?

Since we've had a grand baby around, the whole family has had one thing after another. We say that her poison kisses are so sweet, we just can't resist, even when she drags home one germ after another. Seems like she catches everything going around (then gives it to us!). Probably because she is one of those kids who are always putting everything in their mouths.

Please forgive me if I don't return comments right now, I'm still feeling a bit droopy.

But I am much better than I was a few days ago, when that mutant bug sent me to the ER all dehydrated and weak. They pumped a few bags of IV fluid into me, and filled me with anti nausea medication and sent me home to recover.

Yes, I'm a mom, so I know that fluids are important when someone is ill, and I never let my kid's cups go empty when they were laid out with a fever. But somehow, I forgot about doing that for myself. I just didn't care, all I wanted to do was sleep and have everyone stay far away from me.

So much for my much anticipated weekend all alone with nothing to do but play in the studio and get my house ready for the photo shoot that Carol and I were doing! A weekend all alone is not quite the same when you get to the point that every time you force yourself to face getting out of bed to lurch to the bathroom, you fall flat on your face.

My sweet boys came by to check on me, but of course, I just kept telling them that I just wanted to sleep. Adam made herbal tea and rented a movie for me then sat to keep me company while watching it. Ryan fed the dogs and brought in the mail and kept asking if I needed anything. My sister-in-law and niece came by to bring me a bottle of vitamin water. I should have opened it and drank it, but just couldn't stand the thought. Then, my husband flew home early from his business trip and brought rose and made broth. He wouldn't take no for an answer when I refused the broth.

Twinkle never once left my side. If I didn't already love that dog to pieces, she sure won my heart this week. Every time that I landed on the floor, she was right there licking my face and crying. Not that I like to have my face licked by a dog, but I knew she was doing it out of love.

I don't know how anyone can get through any kind of flu or cold without a warm, furry friend by your side. Of course, we have a fenced in yard and a doggy door, so she didn't need to be walked or taken out, that might have not been so pleasant otherwise.

Anyway, today I woke up feeling bright and shiny and raring to go. I had plans a mile long, packages to send, emails to get caught up on, projects to make for the photo shoot that I rescheduled for tomorrow.

But, after taking a look at my house and realizing just how much work it would take to make it picture perfect, and cooking breakfast for Sugarwings, I felt like I hit a brick wall. Sweet Carol and I will reschedule again for next week and Sugarwings and I will curl up with some movies. Its her turn to cuddle and coddle me back to health!

Too bad, these roses would have been wonderful for the shoot.

Tomorrow will be my day to be in the pink again! Everything else can wait till then.