February 2011 – Page 2 – Karla's Cottage

Battling the mid-winter blues and dreaming of Spring!

By Karla Nathan / February 7, 2011

The other day, I was cleaning my studio and doing some rearranging, with my spring time art event in mind, and just decided that I couldn't take it anymore, I had to MAKE something. Something quick and simple, but something. This weather has had me down, and not feeling very creative, so I needed a boost and forced myself to create.

Since I'd been cleaning up, there was a pile of papers I'd gathered up on the desk, so I used them up instead of putting them away, and turned them into a mini ephemera book.

I felt a little better about winter after doing something pretty.

Sugarwings came to spend the weekend with me, and both of us are feeling that mid-winter pinch. That cooped up, sick of being inside the same four walls dread. To beat the blues, we built a fort with blankets and curtains over the dining room table.

We discussed building strategy and felt like all white was the way to go, and that we'd call it a snow fort.

The floor got covered with a couple of thick, soft comforters, and we brought in pillows, a flash light, and art supplies.

And treats, of course! We snacked away all day and didn't even have lunch.

Yes, I did say all day. We were in that fort for hours.

We spent some of the time doing cave paintings. We used markers to draw fairies, clouds, hearts, and stars above our heads on the underside of the table.

Hopefully, she'll take my warning about never drawing on anyone's furniture unless an adult says Okay, seriously.

Hopefully, I haven't created an urge in her to marker up every table she sees… But I think that she understood that this was a special place and a special time.

After a couple hours of stories, drawing and snacking, she still wasn't ready to leave the fort. So I snuck out and got a book for myself and a DVD player for her.

This is our book for Monday night's book club and I hadn't had a chance to open it till Sunday afternoon.

So, I borrowed Sugarwing's flashlight and started to read while she watched Ariel. After a while my handsome husband got home, and he crawled in to hang out, and discovered just how cozy the spot was. He ended up taking a nice long nap in the fort while Sugarwings watched another movie.

Her Hippy Chick Mommy came over for Sunday dinner, and we made some Valentines, then the two of them crawled in the fort to watch a 3rd movie. I think that if she had her way, that kid would still be in that fort right now. She did eat breakfast in there this morning.

Thanks for all the sign ups for Bird Song! There are still spots left, if you are interested please email me for a pay-pal invoice. I can't promise you a snow fort while you are here, but please feel free to climb under the tables and draw on the undersides if you'd like.

Details about the event can be found HERE.

And if you'd like to win one of my bargain bag rhinestone bracelets, leave a comment here or on the previous post. I bought a ton of them for dirt cheap and will draw a few names to share them.

How to join us at Bird Song- Hope to see you there!

antiques/junking, bird song art event

By Karla Nathan / February 5, 2011

Well, I think I've got the Bird Song site ready for sign ups! No photos yet of Debbie's project, but a very nice description. And if you know anything about Debbie, you have to know she'll do something excellent. She is so talented and has such a discerning eye for beauty.

If you would like to sign up to attend the classes at my home on April 30th and May 1st, please email me at karlanathan@sbcglobal.net after 8 am Central time Monday, Feb.7 and I will send you a pay pal invoice for $250.

We have space for 20 guests. I'll answer the emails in the order they come in.

More info here:

http://karlascottage.typepad.com/bird_song/

Above is a bit of my kits, just a small part of it. The NEST banners are meant to have options and can be made low-color or with touches of robin's egg. There will be quite a few options for the banner, so everyone can end up with an unique creation.

Have you seen Carol's NEW blog? She is doing two blogs now, so we get double the Carol goodness.

And I am honored to have her teaching at Bird Song! She'll be showing us how to do this fringed tree.

And Lisa will teach this woven piece made with old lace and natural elements. I met Lisa online through our blogs and could tell she and I were meant to be buds. She'll be quite the addition to the weekend, and I'm trying to convince her to stay longer, because she is a blast to hang out with. I love to have a few days in the studio with her just to play with papers.

Hosting this weekend is kind of a selfish thing for me. I'm so looking forward to seeing those of you who can make it here, to spend time in the studio with me and with this great group of teachers that I am gosh durn lucky to have as friends.

Gosh durn? Well today, I beat cabin fever by getting out of the house with a good group of friends and doing some retail therapy. And in the car, we had a cuss word talk. Gol Dang and Gosh durn came up, as well as Jiminy Christmas. One friend said she always knew her Dad was about to explode if he invoked Jiminy.

My bad habit? Freakin. And Durn. I'm a big Durn-er. Oh, and crap. Do you have a favorite faux swear word?

We were shopping at Bottoms Up, the once a month spectacular headed by my Bella buddy, Gwen of French by Design. My huge purchase wasn't old, even though the place is filled with the best antiques to be found in KC.

I got a giant bag of rhinestone bracelets for 20 bucks. These sparklers will be fantastic art supplies. I've already added a bundle of the neutral colored ones to my Bird Song banner supplies.

They are just perfect for the S in NEST!

I bought 60 plus packages of these bracelets, and each package had 2-3 in the bag. I'll share. Leave a comment on this post and I'll give a few away. They are fun to wear, or to cut in half and glue onto a project.

PS- how embarrassing, my last post was full of typos and odd sentences, if you read it on Google Reader. I hit publish instead of preview and once you do that, corrections don't show up on googlereader. It was a bit of a jumble.

Almost ready for sign up!

bird song art event, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 4, 2011

This picture does NOT express how I am feeling right now. Between the cabin fever from this major snow and ice storm, and coming down with a bug that kept me in bed for two days straight, I'm not exactly feeling a pirouette coming on. (well maybe in my tummy)

But I can tell that I am feeling better, I was itching to get up out of bed and visit the studio, even if I didn't feel like doing much but poking around out here. It was still good to get out of the house.

Before the snow and the crud both hit, I snuck out for a mini junking day, and headed to Four Corners and Scranton, KS. Little towns in the middle of nowhere, that have a couple of antique shops that usually have good finds for me. Hat boxes always attract my eyes, I'm constantly hunting them down to pick up and shake to see if loot is waiting inside.

And if I see a particularly pretty one, I buy it for studio storage. This cool Marie Antoinette style one wasn't full of goodies, but I did find a small grass cloth one that was. Plus a few other tid bits. I can't turn down old books with attractive fonts for a dollar a piece, even though I have more ephemera than I'll ever use.

You just never know just how much is enough, though… I seriously try to use what I buy, not hoard it.

I made use of one of the books already. The whole entire thing got torn up and put into the kits I made up for Bird Song, my art event coming up this spring.

Two hats full of white flowers went into the kits too. I'm still so impressed with myself and a tad bit shocked to realize that all my kits are done and ready for April! Its probably because I am soooooo excited about hosting the classes here at the cottage. I'm just too filled with anticipation to wait till later to get things ready.

I'm actually hosting classes here!! Yipppeee! An art event of my own??? With teachers I admire and look up to?

pinch me

You've heard me run on and on and on about the classes I have gone to that were hosted by Jenn and Kim, plus I Silverbella's biggest cheerleader, I LOVE going there. Now, I am in a completely different category than what those ladies are doing, my mini event will be much different. A smaller scale, more laid back, and casual.

What I love about these art weekends, is the atmosphere of having so many creative people together at once. I love seeing what everyone makes, getting ideas from their take on a project, learning and sharing. Its always artfully invigorating.

And I just love to throw parties, if you've read my blog a coupel times, you might have noticed.

So, to combine guests, with a studio play date with blog friends??? Too cool.

Of course, once the site is open for sales (on Monday) I'll be freaking out that no one will come to Kansas to see me…. Be prepared for a case of the nerves to hit me. I'll thank you ahead of time for listening to me nerves. Its always good to have friends to share worries with.

I'm hoping 20 of you will sign up to come and play with me and Debbie, Carol, and Lisa the last Saturday of April, and May Day Sunday. Of course, its Februrary now, and I didn't leave you much time to sign up. Between the holidays, vacations, flu, family tragedy, and teacher changes, it has not been a quick process to set this up to sell.

Style Evolution party

antiques/junking, magazine pictures or articles, parties

By Karla Nathan / February 1, 2011

Has your look changed over the years? Mine used to constantly change, back when I was working full time as a decorative painter and antique dealer. My home was my workshop and where I experimented.

Now that I don't do either of those professions much, I've stopped the revolving door of furniture moving in and out, but I do still come up with some upgrades here and there.

This was my dining room a few years back, this photo is from Country Almanac, or Country Victorian, I can't remember which magazine.

Here is the dining room now. Less flowery, more neutral. Definitely less country. The hutch in the first photo was a maple one that my mom had, and when she died, I took it home with me and gave it a redo. But it never really fit in with my home, so I gave it to my niece.

Yet another version, this was in Paint magazine. Sometime between the two previous pictures. It was just a little too blue for me. I liked it for a while….

Now, this is a REALLY old version of my dining room (from Country Almanac). It was so different then that it used to be a living room! When we first bought this old farmhouse, we used to move the sofa to the room with the wood stove in it every winter, then switch the living and dining rooms back in the spring time.

I liked the idea of having a portable space, one that you could easily adapt for the seasons. But then, we got a satellite dish and all the TV hook ups and wires changed that concept. It became too hard to switch the entire room, the TV cabinet wasn't easy to move. (with my love of TV viewing, I'd trade a wide screen for versatility any day!)

I can still change the look of the living room for the season just by changing the accessories.

In the spring, I bring out all my rose pattern pillows and curtains, then in the winter, I like to go all white.

Here is a shot of the white version, taken by Carol Spinski when she photographed an article for Somerset Home.

This look was in Romantic Country. Its from when I first discovered white paint and learned how to make slipcovers. I fell in love with light and airy, but burnt out on the over the top floweryness of it all.

I can afford to do the big switcheroos because everything I get for the rooms is dirt cheap. I scrounge and shop garage sales, estate sales, auctions, and have been known to go through a dumpster or two. I find things that need work, are beat up, or on clearance and redo them myself. When I do treat myself to something new, its usually not expensive, like these curtains from Target, or the rug from TJ Max.

And I recycle things from one room to another, this salvaged mantel has been in the dining room, living room and now is a head board in my bedroom. (this photo is from Romantic Country too)

This shot was taken for Romantic Country, almost used twice but rejected at the last minute each time. Funny, I like this look so much better than the previous pictures of my house that were actually used in the magazines.

This was in Country Victorian, I think… there is that mantel again. And the same furniture, different slip covers. I wish I hadn't painted over the border by the ceiling, I kind of liked that.

This used to be what my studio looked like, not too long ago. Twice, I have been asked to be in Where Women Create, but nothing has come of it. I adore my studio and would LOVE for it to be photographed for that publication.

Here is the same corner now. I use the bench (hand built by my son, from an old headboard) at the studio dining table.

I feel pretty lucky to have been in so many magazines, probably about 40 or so at this point. I don't really pursue it, its a hobby. Every once in a while I come up with an idea and run it by an editor. I wouldn't exactly say its a job, even a part time one. Its just a whim, and every time I do an article I think its probably the last time, because I can't believe that I was even chosen to do one let alone dozens.

I'm certainly not a professional writer, or decorator , just one of those people who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Just lucky, huh? Its always fun to do an article, and I really do like having these old pictures chronicling my home's metamorphosis.

If you enjoy looking at before and afters, please check out Jen Rizzo's blog today, she is having a Style Evolution party and the pictures of her home are just to die for. Gorgeous!! She makes me want to redo mine….. hmm…..

By the way, if you'd like to come and visit me and spend time in the studio, sign ups for the spring workshop are coming soo. I'd love to have you come to the cottage! Meeting blog friends is always a good experiance.