December 2010 – Page 2 – Karla's Cottage

Angels, fairies, and snow princesses

celebrations, fairies, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, parties, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 16, 2010

We had a Kid's Holiday Party yesterday and the little ones indulged me with a little dress up play and modelling.

I tried to make the photo part quick so they would think it was fun, then got them back to the main event- goodies, and art projects.

We had hot cocoa with all the fixins, eggnog, brownies, pumpkin bars, veggies, and rollups. It was an early out day for school, so the party was from 2-5, so these weren't meant for dinner, just after school snacks.

We had a couple different projects to do too. I picked up a dozen Santa hats from the dollar store, and a bagful of half price holiday floral pics from Hobby Lobby. There really is a lot of fun stuff on those wire picks, jingle bells, flowers, pretend candies, glittered leaves, etc. I just took some wire cutters and separated all the big sprigs into individual pieces, easy for gluing on to the hats and set out a few other fun tid bits for them to have at too. There is always plenty of extra goodies around the studio to share.

They got to make some chip board ornaments too, and all the mommies each made a couple of those for their trees too.

We ended up not getting photos of all the kids. The boys weren't as interested in posing, and my fairy grand girls were busy with playing and artwork. I can catch them later for pictures, though.

A few years back, I painted a Christmas tree mural on plywood and had cup hooks on the tree branches to sell ornaments off of at antique shows. Now, I bring the mural in from the shed and set it in my living room for the holidays. With a few other props in front of it, it made a good backdrop for the pictures.

This morning, I've been doing some editing to the pictures. I LOVE PICNK!!!!!!!!

Playing with hand tinted photos is almost as much fun as painting, but easier and quicker! And way, way too addictive.

I should be out doing some Christmas shopping instead of playing with pictures.

But can you see why I love doing it so much, when I have such gorgeous little models to work with?

I'll get some prints made and maybe these can be some of my Christmas gifts this year.

Its been a hectic, busy, Christmas packed couple of weeks. Before the trip, I had my book club bash, then while we were in Virginia, we were treated to a holiday office party dinner out with my husband's co-workers.

Since I've been back, I have had Sugarwing's school play, craft day, and his little kid party. Plus a couple of Sugarwing Sleepover nights, and those are a party in themselves….

Tomorrow is a party at a friend's and Saturday I'm having another dinner party.

And do I have presents purchased and wrapped? Heck no.

I thought about shopping while in Virginia, but my family is not easy to buy for. I can't just pop into JCPenny and buy a gift for any of them. They like specialty items, dance costumes, art supplies, hand made stuff, or recycled goodies. So, I've put it off.

Those hand made items are going to be biting me on the butt if I don't get moving on them…. I have hopes to do some small paintings for the kid's rooms.

Waiting till the last minute, then throwing one party after another might not have been the smartest holiday plan…

I'm afraid that by the time I get done with all my parties, and its time to do that last minute gift rush, I'll be feeling like Sugarwings was last night after the party!

(no editing can help this little model, I'm afraid- she partied hard)

Did I mention that there was face painting at the party too? I painted the kids' and they reciprocated by painting mine.

My hair is still a bit crisp from the paint.

One of the few gifts that I bought and have ready to give, has to be returned! I bought matching fairy gowns for Pixie Pie and Sugarwings at Tuesday Morning for $10 each, and Pixie Pie showed up wearing the same dress for the party!

She looks so beautiful in it, I just knew it was the perfect dress for her. But now, what do I give her?

While we are talking about gifts, I need to announce the winner of the 1,000,000th visitor giveaway.

Thanks so much for leaving all the kind comments about my milestone! I wish I had a gift for you all (but as you just heard me complaining about- I don't even have gifts for my family for Christmas yet!)

This gift goes to:

Pat Spone (no blog) Pat, please send me your address and I'll get your gift in the mail.

Holiday goods

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), holiday decor, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage

By Karla Nathan / December 13, 2010

We are back from our trip, and had a lovely time. So good, that my jeans don't want to zip up.

We wined and dined, and I was pretty lazy. I thought I'd get out and shop but I didn't. Instead, I hung out in the room, read two books and made up a few dozen felted nests and rosettes.

I'm going to extend the drawing for the 1,000,000th visitor gift drawing. I kept getting the date wrong when I mentioned it in previous posts. Some said the 12th, others said the 14th. Sorry! So, we'll have the drawing after midnight on the 14th

Just leave a comment on this post.

Felted nests and rosettes was a great project for a hotel room. All I had to pack for it were a couple sweaters, scissors, glue, and pearls. There were moments when I missed my studio and would have liked to have access to more stuff, but on the other hand, I enjoyed the challenge of making use of what I had on hand.

Like brewing a quick cup of coffee to dunk the sweater in to give the nests a tone on tone look. The hotel room smelled great with coffee sodden sweater bits draped over the heater vents.

There was also a swath of silk in my bag, and I made up a few roses from that. Using such a fine fabric really changes the results. Its not as easy, the silk soaks up the glue too easily. But its worth the effort.

Some of these will be glued to barrettes for the grand fairies' hair. Others will be used in some collage work.

Once we got home from the airport, we went straight to pick up Sugarwings and got to keep her for 2 nights!

So, since I've been back, I've not got much done… except playing with my fairy baby. Its been COLD, so we stayed put indoors at the play dough table, or baking goodies. We also cut fabric scraps, sewed them up, filled them with beans and created a bean bag toss game with the pink bucket she uses for her watercolors.

(you don't want to see them, neither of us have that great of sewing skills)

But while she played with Pop Pop here and there for the weekend, I skipped out to the studio on my own and decorated a few bottle brush trees, got all my packages ready for today's mail, and added a few new goodies to both shops.

Silly me, trying to sell holiday goods on Dec. 13th….

But there is still time to mail them, so I thought listing some holiday stuff was better than packing it up till next year and storing it till I could sell it then.

If I had been on the ball, I'd have listed all the holiday stuff 2 months ago, but life is too short and there are too many other things that are more fun to do than taking pictures of estate sale Santys.

(not a good attitude for a person whose job it is to take pictures of stuff and try to sell it, huh?)

But mostly, I think that I am so much in the middle of all the holiday cheer myself, that it doesn't feel too late to try to move holiday inventory. I'm still decorating little bottle brush trees.

I wish I had time to make more. I'd like to just sit and glue mercury glass beads onto these little trees all day long.

But I was smart enough to add some non-christmas goods to the shops too.

And Somerset sent back a few things that they had published, so I added those too.

Like this altered book. There is only space for 3 photos on my website, but there are more of the book itself on this post.

I had a hard time pricing this book. I really try to keep my work affordable, but with over 20 collaged pages, and lots of hand drawn detail, this book got a bit pricey. Until I figured out that it was being sold for under $4 per page, then it didn't sound as high!

Tomorrow, I'm having friends over for craft day, and look at this room. Tonight is Sugarwing's school play, so I'll be up late after that, attacking this room with a shovel to get ready. (funny, looking at this photo, what bothers me most are the two brown lamps that don't match the room. Someone gave them to me, I want to paint them white and change the shades)

The play should be really good. Sugarwings tells me that there is a forest and a rocket and bunnies. I can't wait.

The dogs have made their share of a mess in the studio too. Agnes Rosebud looks like she might feel a bit guilty for adding to my work load. Twinkle doesn't care. She is the one who learned how to jump up on my table and throw fun stuff down to the floor for the puppy to play with.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of what is new in the shop. Thanks again for your understanding about my lack of returned emails and comments. Since we've been back from the trip there hasn't been a lot of extra time. But, I've read each and every one from my magic phone and was happy to hear from you! Thanks again!

Pink and more pink

holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 12, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please do, go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, I will mail your purchases Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

Sugarwings has a pink tree of her own, eye level, for her to decorate and redecorate to her heart's content. It can keep her busy for the longest time.

Her tree is in the kitchen, where we seem to spend a lot of time. So, I went with the pink theme she already started and pinked up the rest of the room.

She is really into favorite colors right now and likes to ask everyone what theirs is. She and I both always answer PINK!

There used to be a lot of pink in the room year round, but lately, its been getting more and more neutral, but with pink accents. But this time of year, I can let my pink flag fly!

Really, its a small area that I decorated this way, but the color is so vivid, it really packs a wallop.

And I can't help but smile when I see it.

Hmm, maybe I could use a bit more pink in my world year round after all.

Being walloped with smiles isn't such a bad thing.

Isn't that a yummy millinery bloom? I stuck it in a goofus vase with a handful of old mercury glass picks. A floral arrangement that will last all season.

But I always need some fresh flowers in the kitchen too. Its the one room where it matters most to me.

The local grocery store used to put their older blooms on clearance for $2, but stopped recently. Now they are $4- $6 a bunch, so it still not painful to the grocery bill to add them. Every Monday they mark down the flowers that didn't sell the week before, and I try to get in early enough on Monday to pick some up.

You can tell these are a little brownish around the edge here and there, but for $4, I'm not picky. And this is only half of them, I divide the dozen up and use them in other vases.

This picture was taken at night, so isn't as clear as it could be….

I've wrapped a strand of big white lights with two golden, ivy vines from Hobby Lobby. To that, I tied large, pink, metallic poinsettia leaves (vintage) and dangled a few small, pink shiny brites.

To that, I tied some of my little fairy girls that I used as decorations for the baby shower last month.

Most of my decor this year was quick stuff and will be easy to put away. THIS was not. I'll be sorry I did it about January when I go to take this all down. Too many things wired together! There will be some whining around here when its time to pack up.

Sugarwing's pink tree sits underneath this and I love the way her tree's pink glow is reflected off the metallic leaves.

And she enjoys the fairies. So, its worth it!

A shiny brite dining room

holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 11, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please, do go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, and I will mail your purchases on Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This season, I wanted my dining room to be extra festive.

Using what was already on the buffet, I spruced up the display by adding lots of bright and shiny holiday trinkets, a string of white lights, and slapped some wings on the ladies.

Normally, I'm a fairy wing fan, but for Christmas, I went with white feathered angel wings.

I wish I had a large pair for myself, but I'm afraid they'd burst into flames if I wore them.

This lady's dish became a nest of shiny brites with some shredded tissue and a pile of balls.

Grandma's tinsel tree got planted in a wine bucket that I'd had a glittered pumpkin in all fall.

Instead of a star on the top, I hung a strand of pearls.

All of these basics were there already too. I added the lights, branches, beads, and ornaments to the existing display. (Yes, I'm gaudy all year round, but at the holidays, I really flaunt it!)

As much as I love white, silver, and gold, I still need flashes of color. With all the rose pattern and blue bird dishes in the corner cabinet, I thought some pastel ornaments would look pretty up above.

And how could I not set out all of these, just because they weren't neutral colors?

There are too many things that I have and love that I want to set out and enjoy!

No matter how hard I try, I can't restrain myself. I tried to edit, and keep things simple, and on some levels I am much more streamlined than in the past. I have clusters of decor here and there around the house, not in every single spot.

Also, since I did about 90% of all the decorating one night while Sugarwings slept so I could surprise her in the morning, I had to cut back a bit. I wanted it to be over and done with after that one all nighter.

She and I did a few little projects together, and she has her very own tree to mess around with as much as she wants, so the decorating continues daily. I added these vintage balls to my chandelier on another day too.

Maybe next year my decor can be even more simplified and I can squeeze ALL of it into one night of frenzied foofing.

All bella-ed up

family, holiday decor, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / December 10, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please, do go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, and I will mail your purchases Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This year, I kept it simple. Well, simple for me, that is. I do like stuff….

But this area seems restrained, doesn't it? I hung a simple silver spray painted vine wreath on my gothic arch window frame and hung a tree that I made for Romantic White Christmas Ezine on it.

On the table below the frame, is a gold glittered dish filled with an assortment of shiny tidbits, and a tree that I made at Silver Bella.

My other creation from the two classes I took from Kerry Lynn Yeary sits on another table. (by the way, if you ever get a chance to take a class from her, DO IT! She is delightful.)

I'm so happy to be using my Silver Bella creations all over the house this year.

Of course, I always enjoy my bella classes, but this year seems even more special. I'm extra pleased with what I brought home, because I color coordinated them and made plans ahead of time to use them for Christmas.

This basket was made in Charlotte's class, and I brought lots of gold wallpaper to cover the segments.

The inside is covered in 100 year old, hand made Chinese paper, that I found on the trip to wallpaper heaven. Just what I needed to make this festive!

I added this little girl in a top hat, so I'd have a souvenir of this year's theme, "Hats on Parade".

In Betz White's class we learned how to make felted rosettes. I took the idea and twisted some tattered silk into a rose bud to add to the basket too.

The frame on the left is what I made in her class. Not exactly what we were supposed to be doing, but I used her technique to make the nest, and then I covered the frame in wallpaper, inked the edges, and glued mica over it all. Inside the frame is a vintage Christmas card with a baby picture tucked into it.

(this is all on top of the TV cabinet)

In a previous post I showed you the 5th class, the Tea Cup Fairy. But that is not the end, we got a great bonus project this year!

This frame is from our opening night dinner project, which I had to bring home to finish. I take pride in finishing my projects while in Omaha, but this one I wanted to frame baby pictures in, and I didn't have the new grandbaby yet!

Pictures of my fairy girls went right inside as soon as I could get them printed.

This frame will be a special heirloom for me to pull out every Christmas and show the girls, and talk about what cute babies they were!

My friend, Laurie, gave me this blue ledger paper and I had to immediately glue it down on something and use it right away, I loved it so much. And since this was our opening night project, it is made of blue ledger paper.

I am a big believer in "using the good stuff". Mostly because I am too impatient to save it, I love playing with new 'old' pretties!

Even though the blue isn't as neutral as the rest of the projects, I think it fits in well.

Heck, these girls are so cute, I could have used TP instead of good paper and the frame would have been beautiful. They steal the show!

While speaking of Bellas, here is a gift I got from my new pal, Shel

And if that wasn't enough, look at this cute hat she made too!

You get what you need

holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 9, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please do, go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, I will mail your purchases Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This year, I really, really, really wanted a big white tree. But I didn't plan in advance at all. The day I decided to decorate my tree, I looked around town for a white one. I decided that I'd sold enough dyed bottle brush trees to treat myself to a beautiful, big tree! It seemed fitting that all the Pay Pal money that came from tiny trees should go to a big tree.

Can you tell that this tree isn't so big? And not so white. Its silver, and I've been using it for years. There were NO white trees to be found in the whole city of Lawrence. After going to 4 stores, I got smart and used my magic phone to access the internet (I still can't get used to having that kind of power, it does feel like magic to own an Iphone!). I looked up phone numbers from my car and called around instead of driving to each store.

I even called stores in Topeka (25 minutes away), no luck there either. I was too lazy to drive the 45 minutes to Kansas City, so went home and pulled out my silver tinsel table top tree instead.

(these photos were taken in the dark, so might not be as sharp, I was trying to catch that special Christmas tree glow)

And I am glad it worked out that way after all. I love the added sparkle of the silver.

And I love the jammed pack, lush look of having lots of ornaments on the branches.

This tree is filled up, top to bottom, and around the back too!

Its also layered, with large, clear balls deep inside the tree and the other ornaments toward the outside of the branches.

If I'd gotton a larger tree, I couldn't have filled it in quite this full.

Isn't it a wonderful feeling when something you didn't really want becomes something you really LOVE?

Lately, Sugarwings has had a case of the "I Wants", so we have been serenading her with the Rolling Stones' "Can't always get what you want". And I think this tree is a good example of what I needed, even if I didn't think I wanted it.

Plus, my Pay Pal account is still full of tree money! That's not bad either. Maybe I'll see what someone else in the family really does need and use the tree money for that instead. It is Christmastime, after all!

I'll leave you with a few more pictures. And wishes for a sparkling holiday season at your home too.

Bookworms partying

Books, collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Food and Drink, give away, holiday decor, parties, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / December 7, 2010

Last night, I hosted our book club's holiday party. It happened to fall on a dear friend's birthday, so we got to sing and have cake too. How festive!

Now, I'm trying to remember what books we have chosen for the upcoming year…. I know that one was Cleopatra, I heard a reveiw of it on NPR and was interested in reading it. Lets see… something about freaky cows by a local professor, A Tale of Two Cities, and an apocalyptic book called …. uhm…. Hand Made World? or something like that There are a total of 6, but I can't remember them.

I was most intersted in that last one, I'll have my fingers crossed that there are zombies. I'm sad that the AMC series, Walking Dead is done for the season. Wow. It was like a new horror movie every Sunday night, so well made and scary. Of course, that is what you can count on from AMC, very well made, not always scary though.

We also each brought a wrapped book to trade, and played that game where you can open a gift or steal one from someone else instead. My pal, Shan, brought a wrapped book for me, I was such a loser this year in the reading department that I had nothing to give away. I read too many novels that weren't quite up to book club standards and didn't want to look like I had low class taste.

Not that I was embarrassed, I just didn't want to give a book that no one wanted.

I guess what I mean, is that my books this year were not high quality literature, they were just books that I loved. The only "good" books I read were the same ones that we read in book club last year, so everyone had already read them.

Novels that I enjoyed- the latest Sookie (and can't wait for the next!), the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, the latest from Jennifer Weiner and Sophie Kinsella, and not much else. I used to read at least a book a week. Now, I'm down to about one per month.

TOO MANY GOOD BLOGS OUT THERE TO READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the club books that I read:

Edger Sawtelle

The Worst Hard Times

Something about gay rights at Stonewall

And… well, I've forgotten again. I remembered first two because I loved them so much.

My friend not only brought me a worthy book to give away, she made this stain glass star for Mayara! And tied it to a bottle of wine!!

Its just perfect for my little Star Brite's first Christmas ornament. Hey, that seems to be a good nickname for her….I like that. Sugarwings and Starbrite.

My living room was a bit crowded, with 13 people in it. We all squeezed in anyway and everyone was so nice about it. They all said they would come back next December for our holiday party even if we had to practically sit on top of each other.

My old house has the original living room, and its small. We have a big house, just small rooms in the old part of it. But I have space where it really counts- the studio!! I could have had the party out there, but decided to stick with the main part of the house since it was decorated more.

Plus my studio is knee deep in stuff again.

And I waxed the living room floor! That rarity deserves to be noticed and enjoyed!!

For the party, I set up a coffee service, with home made, fresh whipped cream, shaved light and dark chocolates, orange peels, cinnamon sticks, decaf, and a bottle of 150 year old Grand Marnier.

When I go to schmancy dinners with my husband at restaurants his company owns, they always impress me with the goodies that come with the coffee. You don't need to order dessert there, the coffee treats are dessert enough. So I wanted to set up something similar.

I think I'll do it again for my next craft day. But I doubt if the orange liqour will be as popular at lunch time as it was for this party. Everyone drives in from Kansas City, so there isn't much in the way of drinking going on at craft day.

The cart is a vintage one from my garden that I brought in to use. On the bottom, I set out these glittered letters that were meant to go on a garland that never got made.

Agnes liked it. She thought it was a great place to hide, hoping for food to be dropped down on the floor.

Tomorrow, I'm leaving for a few days in Virginia, and this will be my first time leaving Agnes home alone for long. We have a great system for the dogs, they get penned up in the living room where they can get to a doggie door and a fenced in yard. And my oldest son, Ryan lives here too, so he'll be taking care of all the dogs.

She is just getting used to the set up, and is now an expert at running in and out of the swinging door. But I think we'll miss each other.

I've preposted for the rest of the week while I am away. Each day, there will be Christmas decor from another room of my home, so please check back.

All comments will be entered into December's drawing, but if you want to enter ther 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, you need to leave it on THIS POST by the 14th

Sugarwings and I made crustini for the party, by cutting leftover bread slices with her holiday cookie cutters, and brushing them with a little melted butter and olive oil, with garlic. Then, we slow baked them till they were crunchy. I'm going to take the leftovers and smash them up to make bread crumbs for my next turkey meatloaf.

Well, I'll be back this weekend, and will be checking messages on my phone, but its just not that easy to answer everyone that way. so please forgive me if I don't get back to you.

And if you'd like to skip seeing the blog posts and see the holiday decor at my cottage, I've loaded it on HGTV's Rate my Space.

I'd love to get your votes!

Here is the living room

Dining room

Kitchen

A new holiday tradition?

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, parties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 5, 2010

When my boys were little, we had a tradtion of hanging candy canes on the Christmas tree, one for every day until the big day came. In the evening, we'd take one down, share it and read a story together, sitting by the tree.

This year, Sugarwings thought of an improvement to our holiday rituals. She saw a cup of cocoa with a candy cane in it, on the pages of her Rudolf book, and wanted to give it a try.

Life with little girls gets a bit fancier than with boys. We weren't just going to sit by the tree, we had to create a pretty party!

She and I moved her little table next to her pink, glowing tree (that she decorates and undecorates herself, over and over) and had a hot chocolate party, in the dark while we sang Christmas carols together.

We had French vanilla marshmallows shaped like snowmen, and chocolate mint candy canes to add to our drinks, and pulled out the good tea party dishes to serve it on.

This cocoa party was so fun, we did it again the next night she stayed with me. I make the hot chocolate with organic milk, a little melted Belguim chocolate and some honey, so its a bit of a healthier snack than packaged cocoa. Yes, the marshmallows and candy are full of HFcorn syrup, but hey, its the holiday season and we need to splurge sometimes!

We also discovered that Dorkies love candy canes. And can climb up on the little table to steal them if the treats are left unatended.

A tradition that begun last year was the never ending gingerbread house. When she comes over to stay, she adds to it with more and more goodies and icing. I have to help with the can of icing, but Sugarwings does great with heaping on the candies.

She and I agree that there is no such thing as too much when it comes to decorating. And she also knows this house isn't for eating. I was impressed with how fast she learned not to snack on the house. We have plenty of other treats around, but this is a "pretty" and way too much fun to destroy by eating it. I've told her that if she eats the candy, we won't be able to keep adding on to it, and that solved any issues with sneaking treats off the rooftop.

We might have another new tradition. I've always been a fake tree person, I like pink, white and silver. But there is something quite wonderful about the smell of a fresh cut tree, for sure.

This year, my fairy grand baby kept talking about chopping down her pink tree and gluing it back together. At first I thought it was just a craft project she had in mind… then I realized that she wanted a traditional tree, and wanted to go pick it out and cut it down herself.

So, I found this tiny little seedling growing in my flower bed and gave her the clippers.

There wasn't much to it. She probably could have taken it down with nail clippers.

The little guy is so tiny that I had to support it with a wire. I added a metal star and jingle bell to the top of the wire, the tree wouldn't hold much in the way of decorations itself.

We stuck it down into a flower pot that was on the porch, added some moss and a hint of silver tinsel, then a bow.

Since decorating is an ongoing thing around here, we redid the pot with a teeny vintage glass ball on a strand of tinsel and took off the bow. We liked this better.

The star has a rhinestone jewelry remnant on it. Do you ever use The Ulitmate? I love that glue! After the wire was in the dirt supporting the tree, we thought the star needed something, so I glued this jewel on. It was too late to lay it flat to dry, but that glue is super tacky and held the piece in place as it was.

If you'd like to enter the giveaway for my ONE MILLIONETH vistor (yippee! thanks guys!!) please leave a comment HERE before the 12th, when I will draw a name for the lacey trimmed bag full of holiday cheer.

One in a million!? A giveaway and some winners

give away, sewing?, Sugarwings, We're having a party, Workshops, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / December 4, 2010

This week, I've caught the sewing bug. And I hate to sew. But embellishing ready made bags (vintage postal bags that I've coffee dyed) is simple and fun, and addictive. I gathered up some trims and flowers, sat down to the machine and before I knew it, there was a pile of decorated bags.

These bags were found in Texas at RoundTop, and had Kansas City, Kansas postal labels on them. I bought all that was left in the pile, and am just now getting around to using them.

I've had to make myself stop embellishing, because, I have too many other things that I need to do. These can wait… But I wanna play with these pretties!!

Do you blame me? I just love making them. Of course, I started it all while I had a little helper, the new baby was laying on a pillow under the table while her momma and I sewed. Now that she isn't here, it isn't quite as fun.

So, I can get back to my other duties, I've got an article due, and a few other projects with deadlines. Some of you are asking about my Cottage Art Event at May Day, and I really need to pull those details together. I'll be working on it this weekend. Info coming soon, I hope. Thanks for your interest!

See, how cute she is laying on her pillow under the table?? Of course, it was hard to concentrate on working with so much cuddliness nearby. But we managed to get a lot of work done, anyway.

Aggie Rose seems to be every bit as fascinated by this baby as Twinkle was with Sugarwings. We got Twinks when Sugarwings was 6 months old and they grew up together. I think doing it this way, with the dog a bit older than the baby is better. She is still a puppy, but not as fragile.

Here they are together on the day they met. Twinks adored her girl from the beginning and no amount of ear pulling or squeezing ever bothered her.

Twinkle has taken on so much of Sugarwing's personality, I have to wonder if AggieRose will be like Mayara?

Sugarwings and her pup are both fiercely loving, loyal, and happy, excited girls. Always exuberant and dramatic. Curious, bouncy, and packed with way too much personality to fit into their tiny bodies. So far, Mayara and Agnes both are pretty calm, laid back types. It will be interesting to see if they continue to be a match as they grow up together.

Or is it just odd that a grandmother lumps her baby doll's personalities in with the dogs?

I forgot to announce the winner of my Romantic White Christmas giveaway. This bunch-o-baubles goes to:

Sue Elseth

And my November Giveaway goes to:

Susie Q (no blog)

She will get Mrs. Santa's Slipper from our Romantic White Christmas classes.

For the December Giveaway, I'm not sure yet…. But please leave a comment, all comments all month go into the drawing. Since it doesn't mail out till January, I don't want the prize to be too Christmassy. So, I'll come up with something this month and let you know.

Guess what milestone I just passed? I'd been watching my stats knowing this was getting close, but it came and went before I realized it!

MY ONE MILLIONETH VISITOR!

Wow. When I started blogging, I sure never thought I'd even reach 1,000 people looking at my little on line diary. Thanks so much to all of you who come to visit. I enjoy the comments and the company.

So, since I missed out on seeing who exactly was number 1,000,000- I'll have a drawing here.

I'll fill up one of my decorated postal bags with some treats for you.

Some vintage angels, a brooch, mini bottle brush trees…

A frosted angora rosette…

A tiny test tube filled with mercury glass beads…

And a free entry into Romantic White Christmas ezine.

Deadline?? hmmmm… I'll give you some time. I'll draw a name next week when I get back from my trip to VA. Sunday the 12th. That way, the winner gets the little angels in time to enjoy for the holiday season.

Remember, all comments on all posts count toward the December Giveaway, what ever that will be, but for the 1,000,000th visitor prize drawing, please leave a comment here.

And thanks again for coming to visit!

The ABCs of my day- Airplanes, baby, and contraversy

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, sewing?, Sugarwings, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / December 2, 2010

Our newest fairy baby came to spend the day while her momma and I worked on projects.

It was her very first craft day!

She rested on her pillow under the sewing table with the fabric scraps and dog toys and seemed pretty happy just to hang out with us.

Ace Hardware has 6 foot banquet tables on sale for $29 each, so I bought three for my May Day celebration and art event here in the studio next Spring. Since I still had my studio dining tables set up for Thanksgiving and was loving the table scape and not ready to disassemble it, I just set up two of the new tables for us to stitch at, and that worked out great.

During our Thanksgiving dinner, we had started talking about Magnolia Pearl and a few of us decided we wanted to make some bags like hers.

So, this craft day became sewing day. Here is my new purse, a colorful confection of left over bits and pieces. I was going to go all neutrals, but fell in love with a swath of dyed velvet and a magenta silk ruffle, and had to use those, whether this purse will match anything I own or not!

Adam's Beloved brought a grab bag of old clothes and scraps to cut up and she had the best stuff to play with. The velvet was from a long skirt that had been torn along the side.

She scours thrifts for old clothes to reuse and had a great assortment.

She is making a Gypsy diaper bag for the baby. Here is the flap all pinned and ready to sew on. The bag itself is made of patch worked velvets. Both of us were inspired by Magnolia Pearl for our own bags, but I made a few others that were not as elaborate too.

Well, this one is still pretty elaborate, its got some MP influence going on too.

You notice I said that Miss Robin inspired us? Who has NOT been inspired by an admirable artist? We studied her look and used the ideas to make our own creations. I'm a big believer is sharing ideas and tricks, techniques, and styles. And I think that anything you create using something you've learned or seen should be your OWN creation.

Take what you've learned or seen and make it in your style. We all do it, its not stealing. None of us has a monopoly on an idea. Just because I make wallpaper covered journals, or decorated bottles, or fairy Charlottes doesn't mean that I think I own the idea! I started making jewelry with vintage pieces in the 80s and I certainly don't think I have a monopoly on it. I'm thrilled to see it everywhere now that it is so popular, and I am smart enough to know that I am not the one who popuarlized it to start with too.

A friend was flipping through a magazine the other day and stopped at a page to ask if I'd done the art. I thought maybe I had, then took a look and saw it was someone else with an idea much like the one I had published a year earlier. Was it stolen? NO! It was their take on it. Or maybe they had never even seen my article, but if they had, then GOOD, I hope they learned a little something from what I did.

And if you ever take one of my classes or are inspired by one of my pictures, I'd be sooooo flattered if you got your project published. But I do hope that you put your own spin on the piece. Its one thing to follow step by step instructions and then claim them as your own, its another to learn a technique and then make something with it.There is not one thing wrong with learning by doing step by steps, of course. I taught myself to paint by copying painings I liked. Plus I teach online classes and I know that its perfectly okay to do the patterns and steps to create and learn.

. Its one way of learning. But once you learn a technique, try challenging yourself by adding to it and doing something that says YOU with it.

No students should try to market the exact same class and patterns that anyone sold to them, BUT- if you learn a trick or get an idea from my class, and make your own project to market from that idea, then GOOD FOR YOU!! That means I am a good teacher, so YAY ME!!

I certainly will never say that no one who takes Romantic White Christmas classes can never, ever teach a class about an altered shoe or a garland. Geez.

Which brings me to the lovely, gracious, classy Dawn, who tackled this in her blog this week. She stated her opinion with no name calling or bad blood, like I said, Classy. My pal, Lisa, is a passionate artist who puts a lot of herself into her creations. She used tips learned from another artist and did well with what she learned. Isn't that what every teacher wants? I'd say that is the mark of a successful class! She did NOT reproduce the items in the exact way, she made her own creations.

As far as classes go, why take one if you are not going to use what you learn in your own work?

I don't want to get too serious or contraversial, but I care about Lisa and know her work. And I loved Dawn's post, its worth you popping in to read.

Also, I am honored to have Lisa and Dawn teaching at my event this spring, along with Carol. I dearly love their styles and look forward to how much fun I'll have with them here at the cottage with me!

Since I just mentioned that I have been making necklaces from old pieces forever, I had to show you this!

Our Gypsy Beloved found it at a thrift store and brought it to me because it reminded her of me. I took one look and remembered making it in 96, as a holiday special order for someone 14 years ago!

How serendipitous.

(by the way, my style has changed a bit over the years, but I still like this one)

Okay- back to bags, thanks for listening to me and my mini rant– I made this hobo sack for the oldest of the grandgirls. The fabric is from a pair of Goodwill jammie bottoms, already in a patchwork pattern of India print cottons.

Here is the back of the bag. I cut the pockets out of the pants and added them to the bag, along with a few extra trims. A grreat short cut way to make a funky, fun bag for a young girl.

The second sis gets a smaller version from the same fabric, with one of my angora roses (learned in Betz White's class) pinned to it, and a ruffle made of embroidered doilies.

I took what I learned from the Silver Bella class, and added my own twist. My roses are more opened up and have extra petals. I changed her pattern to make it look more the way I wanted the roses to turn out and now, I feel like I can feel good about making these myself. I'm using her idea, but my own pattern, and have added to it, plus put it together differently.

This is from Betz' class.

And this is MY take on her class.

Yes, I learned how to make them in Betz White's class. But I've taken the techique and used what I learned to create something that looks like I made it myself.

EDIT:

Well guess what??? The rosettes are from a free tutorial that Betz posted HERE,

and she says she got it here.

And that person got it from Martha!!

Well, doesn't that just fit PERFECTLY with what I was saying earlier?????

Share the love, share the tips, lets all learn from each other and pass it on!

The pocket on it is made from some scraps and the ruffle at the top came from a package sent to me by Robin -I had to save the wrappings, since it was so pretty. Sugarwings got a bag too, with lots of pink rosebuds. We are going to fill all the gift bags with little presents and give them to the kids for Christmas.

My husband was horrified that I was making one for the 5 year old grandboy too. He thought it was a purse. We said no way, its a toy bag. I tried to make it macho by using corduroy (the leg of a pair of pants) and a man's tie as the handle and the pocket.

The pocket is pretty cool, it was Gypsy Beloved's idea to turn the tie over, and use the backside of it as a pocket. You know how ties are open on the back at the point? The tip of the tie is now a flap that folds over and closes by sliding into the little tab that is on the back with the name of the store on it. This one said "Dillards" but I covered that up with a pinking shear trimmed bit of the India cotton, and added a little plastic airplane given to me by my dear friend, Lisa.

She sent a giant box of goodies to me out of the clear blue! (pictures later)

In all I made 7 bags in the 9 hours we spent hanging out with our sewing machines, chatting, creating and baby snuggling. And I don't even enjoy sewing. But this was fun to do.

I am linking to Tea Rose Home's show and tell today.

Please check back Saturday for a giveaway announcement!