November 2011 – Karla's Cottage

Hopping into Christmas

By Karla Nathan / November 29, 2011

Beth came over to play yesterday, and between getting doodads and geegaws ready for the kits I'm making up for the mini workshop I am teaching at Kim's home in a couple of weeks, I worked on a few more redos. This snow lady might be the biggest change of all.

Beth nick named her Frostietta.

Here is how she started. See, its such a big change, its in a whole other season.

I found this Styrofoam bunny at an estate sale and bought it for $1 because of all the millinery bouquets tucked around her. But when I got her home, I saw some potential in the styro itself and turned the bunny's bottom into a Frostietta's head.

The ball got a skim coat of paper clay, and a nose out of that too. Her hat is flocked wallpaper and her eyes are two layered vintage buttons.

Next on my list of fix-er-uppers, was a ragged old child's mitten. No wait, the child wasn't ragged, it was an old ragged mitten.

It got stuffed, glittered, and filled with vintage goodies. The banner is cut from an old Christmas card.

This sock is from the same estate sale the other pieces came from, and it got a similar treatment as the mitten. Except it was topped with some millinery from the bunny's butt.

I made another bottle brush tree topper bottle too.

With a Charlotte angel tree topper. She was missing her lower body, so I wrapped millinery petals in glue and attached her to the tree using the petals both as a skirt and a way to glue her down.

Her crown is some sort of little metal piece that I found on the ground and added glitter to it. At first I thought it was from a watch, then I realized that watch gears are flat.

I also made another shoe from Lisa's tutorial. This one is not from my grand baby though, its from the GoodWill. It was a single shoe we couldn't find a mate for, so they gave it to me for a quarter.

At the estate sale I found all the previous things from, I even got a handful of tatting trim to use on the shoe just like what Lisa sells in her kits.

I worked on a few more little things here and there, but mostly got things ready to list in the shop. Its a busy time of year, so any time at all that I get to play in the studio is greatly appreciated. Especially if Beth comes over to hang and keep me company so we can chat while we glue away.

Thanks for all your comments over the Thanksgiving holiday. I drew 3 names to win the cuff tutorial and have already let them know they are winners. The prizes went to:

Terri Gordon

Kate Garfield

and Brenda (dragonlady)

That was fun and easy! In the spirit of kicking off the holiday season, I think I'll give a few more away.

This Thursday I'm heading for Palm Springs for a spa weekend with my handsome husband and some close friends. When I get back I'll draw some more names. But please do mention in your comments if you want to win one. I know that a lot of you already have it, and it might not be to the taste of others. So, let me know if you want in the drawing.

You can enter on any post. And I will be preposting before I leave, so there will be new stories and pictures popping up while I'm away, including a how-to.

There are lots of new goodies in the Boutique and Etsy shop, but anything purchased Wednesday-Sunday will be sent out when I return on Monday.

Thanks for your patience.

There are more white trees and wreaths done and in the shops now too.

I'll leave you with some photos of what's new.

Thankful

magazine pictures or articles

By Karla Nathan / November 27, 2011

Do you ever work with paper clay? I wish I did more often, when I do, I just love the stuff. I use the kind that comes in the black bag, labelled "Creative Paperclay". I've tried other brands, but really like this one.

This fairy is a half doll and her gown holds a painted cage with a nesting, glittered egg.

I'd made the doll's head a while ago, and she was lying on my desk staring up at me, wondering when she'd be given a body. I finally felt guilty enough about making her wait and pulled this look together.

Lately things are going well for me, productively. Not only did I make an avalanche of little snow people, dye and decorate billions of bottle brush trees, and a whole bunch of other crap, I made this college too.

The little painting of a bird in a cage was the prototype for the cover of my Birdsong Tag Book swap last summer. I've had the original sitting on my desk since then, thinking I needed to do something with it.

So, I finally got around to making a college with it. The background is a leather bound, padded lid from an old box, that I painted white and glazed over in tan. I cut a rectangular hole into the center of it, lined that with old wallpaper and rimmed it in tulle-ish netting.

I finished it off with a trim of sheet music as a frame around the opening, and added a strip of frayed velvet, a buckle, some lace and a few curled feathers.

Funny, that box cover has been on my desk forever too. It just all happened to come together. Its good to get this done, and use up those two items that have been hanging around waiting to become something. I just had to figure out what they needed to be.

This is a project that I had about 90% done and just now finished. I guess I'm in the mood to tie up loose ends. Somerset Apprentice asked me for some pictures, and I wanted to show a variety of different styles of work that I do, so it was a good time to finish these three things.

This wooden box/fairy house had been waiting for some feet. Beth gave me these salt cellars and I added the words inside them and glued them onto the bottom of the box.

The finishing touch that it needed was this brown velvet ribbon and old rhinestone buckle.

I had thought that the box was too plain before and wasn't satisfied. But I'm happy with the feet and the belt now.

Inside is a large Charlotte fairy in her millinery rose nest. All of these pieces have the common theme of "nests" even though they are different styles of work. I'll let you know when they show up in the magazine, its always exciting when those come in the mail, even though I've done dozens of articles, its still a pleasant shock when I see my work published. Its one more thing to be thankful for this holiday weekend!

A Happy and Organic Thanksgiving

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / November 26, 2011

Was your holiday nice? I hope so! Ours was pretty wonderful. I think we had the best turkey dinner ever. My son helped me cook, and it was a lot of work, we went all organic, local, and from scratch. We tried to avoid convenience foods or short cuts. Man, it was tasty! But it did seem like we were in the kitchen non-stop for about 24 hours… Roasting a pumpkin before you can bake the pie isn't the quickest way to fix dinner. And about midnight on Wednesday, I was wondering if if was the dumbest. But those pies and pumpkin cheesecakes were really, really good on Thursday and we were glad we'd stayed up to do it.

Quality ingredients do make a big difference in the end result of the meal though, and cooking side by side with a grown up son is pretty cool too. The whole family pitched in to help, but Sugarwing's Daddy and I were in it for the long haul.

Our fresh, free range turkey was the best ever. I don't know if it was how he cooked it, or if it was the bird itself. We soaked it overnight in a brown sugar/sea salt brine, then he tossed an orange, onion and celery inside the cavity before rubbing it down with a blended slurry of fresh herbs, garlic,olive oil, honey, and S&P, then slow roasting it till it was tender and juicy.

Our local grocery store was selling these herb planters, brimmed with just what a holiday dinner called for. I made good use of them too, stuffing with fresh sage is sooooo good. We used a toasted loaf of whole wheat bread, and added rosemary, thyme, sage, and garlic to the onions and celery that I'd chopped and cooked in veggie broth the night before. We also through in a little olive oil and a cup of chopped kale.

In the past, I don't think I've given kale a chance. But now its a fave. We used dark green, purple, and the pink and white kind in our tossed salad too. Sugarwings and Mr. Finn both helped me with the greens. We tore a head of Romaine up with the kale, and added chopped radishes, pears soaked in lime juice, dried cranberries, sugared pecans, roasted pumpkin seeds, and goat cheese. Letting the kids make the salad themselves and filling the bowl with such pretty colors encouraged them to eat lots of greens (and purples).

The dressing was a half cup of cranberry pomegranite juice, a 1/4 cup of white balsemic vinegar, 1/2 cup of olive oil, S&P, and a tsp of chopped garlic. Fast, simple, and a good compliment to the kale.

To go with all that, we had sauteed fresh green beans with red peppers. And to make sure the meal wasn't too heart healthy, we had a good, gooey, sweet potato and butternut squash casserole that our Gypsy girl made with lots of butter, blueberries, and brown sugar, then topped with marshmallows. I baked the potatoes and squash the night before while the pumpkins were roasting so she just had to work her flavor magic and pop it in the oven to heat up while the turkey was being sliced.

Oh, and of course, there were mashed potatoes too. I try to keep those healthy by using golden potatoes so they look buttery without actually adding any butter. It seems to trick my family. To make them creamy, I use a cup of fat free cottage cheese instead of sour cream.

Dew Drop discovered that she could pull up a chair to the kitchen island and sneak some appetisers while we waited for that turkey to bake. I'd never cooked a fresh, free ranger before and discovered that they seem to take another hour longer than a Butterball turkey does. They also cost about 3 times more.

That part was painful. But I'd already committed to the whole fresh/local food idea before I saw the price tag and it was too late to back out. I'm still cringing at what fresh/local/organic costs for the whole meal compared to canned goods and a frozen bird.

But I'm thankful that I have a houseful of grand kids that think purple kale is an exciting thing to see on their plate. I spend a lot of my life in the kitchen, cooking healthy foods for my family and sometimes I complain about how much time it takes to chop and prepare the meals. But I love it that they care about eating well and appreciate the good food.

Its not cheap, its not fast, but maybe we'll end up with longer lives because of it, and that will make up for all the time I've spent in front of the stove?(of course, I will probably also die poor from paying three times as much for food to get it organic)

And with this great newly remodelled kitchen, how can I complain about spending time in it??? Its a joy to have and to work in!

Don't forget, I'm celebrating the holiday weekend by giving away a couple of my online cuff bracelet tutorials. If you are interesting in winning one, please mention that in a comment to enter. I'll draw winners on Monday.

A tree top Christmas Party with Little Edy and a giveaway

give away, holiday decor, how to's, jewelry, redos

By Karla Nathan / November 23, 2011

My new, white Christmas tree is up and ready to be decorated! I'll be away for 2 weekends in Dec. and I am a little sad about missing out on tree time. I wanted plenty of time to enjoy the holiday decor, so my plan is to have the halls decked before Thanksgiving. But I needed a new topper, since I have two trees this year and plan on using my other tree in the newly remodelled kitchen this year.

While tidying up Sugarwing's room, I came across this little doll who had seen much better days. Either my fairy grand baby has the same tendencies to hang onto things that need refurbished, or she is the cause of the need for refurbishment…

This doll kind of has a Little Edy/Grey Gardens look about her, doesn't she?

The first thing I did was repaint her eyes and brows.

Then, I popped her into a party hat with the point cut off. At this point she doesn't look like she is going to any kind of party I want to attend. But there is still work to be done.

The party hat is a perfect skirt base for her, its sturdy and I can slide it right over the top of the tree.

I wanted a halo that stood up from her head, so I made a wire ring to hold it. The ring fits around her noggin, and was glued into place before gluing yarn hair over it. The halo itself is a vintage, circle, rhinestone brooch.

To keep the halo standing straight up, I glopped on a bunch of glue where it is wrapped with the wire. That needed covered up, so I added a white millinery bloom over the glue blob.

Her dress is made up of vintage papers, trims, and lace that I glued to her body and the party hat, no sewing for me. The wings are feathers and flocked wallpaper, and she is decked out in some millinery and jewels.

When she heads up to the top of the tree, I'll get a photo of her in her new home. That is if I ever get caught up and get that tree decorated… Right now, its up, the lights are on and its naked as a jaybird. But still festive! I'm happy just to have it there waiting for me. I've wanted a white tree for the past few years, my old one turned yellow and I hadn't found a reasonable priced one to replace it with.

The yellow was not a good "patina-ed with age look" it was a "did a dog pee on your tree?" look. It had to go.

My life is full of white trees right now. I've been bleaching and glittering more batches of bottle brush trees this week. I thought I had plenty of them done, but needed another couple of sinkfuls to fill some special orders. Plus, I like to have plenty to play with and decorate myself too!

Can you have too many? So far, the answer is no, and I seem to have a LOT of them.

And finally, I made up some cuff bracelet kits.

All filled with lacey, velvety, vintagey goodies.

These are priced separate from my Cuff Tutorial. Previous kits included the price of the online lesson, but with these kits, you need to either purchase the $6 class separately or use put them together in your own way. The kits come with the aluminum blanks and all the trims and bits you need to make a bracelet according to my directions in the class.

There are also plain cuffs for sale for you to use if you don't want a whole kit.

They are stocked in the Boutique in two sizes, 1 inch and 1-1/2 inch.

I hope you have a happy holiday weekend planned. We are going all local/free range/ organic this year, and even roasting our own pumpkin to make the pies. I've never done that before, so I might need to have a frozen pie as a back up… If you have any tips, please let me know!

Happy Thanksgiving!

PS- as a Thanksgiving treat (because I'm thankful you read my blog and buy my stuff and I can pretend this is a real job) I'll give away 2 Cuff Tutorials. Please leave a comment letting me know if you are interested.

ps- Have you visited Amy? She makes the best stuff from nothing. She is having a link party and I joined it today.

Angels with no head, angel heads with no body, and bottle brush trees in bottles

holiday decor, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / November 21, 2011

If you have purchased my Mini Dressfrom tutorial, don't forget that there are patterns in there to make angel wings for your lil' gal if you want to make a cherub for the holidays.

This one that I did is a little different than the ones in the class, I didn't have the wires coming out of the topper piece, instead I topped it off with a glass button.

Which goes to show you just how flexible the class is. You can customize your dress form as you'd like.

Or if you don't want to make your own…. this one is for sale…

You can find it here.

Is it weird that I like to make paper clay heads and stick them on something that is not really a body? I've been mixing and matching trees, heads, spools, and bottles and feel a bit like that experimenting neighbor kid in Toy Story who mismatched toy parts.

Although mine more shabby chic not sinister.

This angel rests her head on a spool with a mini wreath on it.

I've also been topping bottles with trees.

And stuffing trees into bottles.

Or sticking trees on teensy little pots.

And some bottles have angels as toppers.

This tree is on a spool, all decked out with lots of Good Stuff on it.

And if you'd like to deck out your own tree, I have some plain trees on plain spools too. Ready for you to get creative on.

I'll leave you with some photos of what's new in the Etsy shop and the Boutique.

Sepia and winter white trees…

Red velvety ribbon (a whole roll of vintage trim!)…

A hand tatted little bag…

More decorated trees…

Pink grapes-Pink beads-a Pink doll dress…

A pink carnation…

More pink trees…

And lots more. Thanks for looking!

Born to be loved

Dew Drop, junk, Music

By Karla Nathan / November 20, 2011

Last weekend, we went to see Lucinda Williams, right here in Lawrence. My Handsome Husband and I are big fans and had hoped to get to Dallas to see her but couldn't make it. Last year we caught her show in Chicago, she is worth a trip to go see. We were thrilled to see she was going to be playing in our own town, at Liberty Hall.

Its an old opera house and I always love to go there to see movies. I never tire of the cool paintings on the walls, its a wonderful old building with lots of history.

We went early enough to get some super good seats too. Center front row of the first balcony. Practically looking right into her sad eyes all night.

Here is a little snippet of one of her songs. It wasn't typical lyrics for her, these were rather upbeat. She usually sings about heartbreak, so "You Were Born to be Loved" was a pleasant surprise for me.

That is such a great sentiment. Sometimes it suits junk too, not just lonely people.

I was at Beth's house the other day, after she had been doing some cleaning and downsizing. As we pulled out of her driveway, this little bride's head was peaking out of the trash and I yelled, "Stop the car!" because it looked so funny, I had to take a picture. But when I got closer, I saw that this baby was not trash-worthy and just needed some love. And I was too taken with the doll to get the photo at the right angle that looked so funny from the car, with her head just peeping over the edge of the can.

Sugarwings was thrilled with my save. In her imaginary world, everyone is about to have love's first kiss and become a bride with a long white dress. She is fascinated by weddings and brides, and keeps a photo of my husband and I on our wedding day by her bedside.

There are so many things that I feel like its my job to save and love. Its an obsession. I'd rather alter, restore, or refurbish something that is ruined or just out of date than do practically anything else.

Like this little birdie. It had seen better days, poor guy had ripped wings, missing feathers and a torn up body.

To me, she was just waiting to be saved.

I glued her and her equally tattered sis back together, gave their tummies and cheeks a blush of pink ink, added fresh white feathers, glued mica to their wings and clear glass glitter to the rest of them. The bright orange beek got camouflaged with silver glitter, for a look that will coordinate better with my Christmas tree where they are going to be nesting.

After that, I replaced thier orange plastic eyes with pearl beads on one and black rhinestones on the other.

After that, some jewels and a crown.

There are a few of these crowns for sale in my boutique. They are actually rings and really pretty to wear. I've sold dozens and dozens of them over the years to adorn the fingers of my shoppers.

But, now, I am marking them down to make them a reasonable price to use in projects. I only have a few left, you can find them here if you have a doll or bird or someone else that needs to be shown a little love.

Or if you want one to wear. I wear mine all the time.

ps- there are lots of new things in both shops, and they will be pictured in upcoming posts.

Speaking of sweet things born to be loved, this little fairy is perfect as is.

She had her first birthday last week! At first she was a bit leery of the flames on the cupcakes.

But once she had some help getting them blown out, she was very much into her treat. She got to help a little bit in making the icing for the cupcakes, I had her hold onto the mixer with me.

Before I know it, she'll be big enough to join Sugarwings and me at one of our favorite past time, baking. For now, she's pretty happy with being our taste tester.

Snowy little friends

fairies, how to's, redos

By Karla Nathan / November 18, 2011

Aren't these guys cute? I had other things to do, but couldn't help myself, I was drawn to making them. Yes, I have kits to assemble for the cuff tutorial, and trees to photograph for the Etsy store. But do you blame me for being distracted from my chores? I had such fun transforming these little wooden ornies.

I forgot to get a photo of them first, but found this one online to show you kinda how they started out. They are those semi-vintage (late sixties or so) wooden people from Germany that are painted bright colors.

When I was shopping with my sisses in Indiana, I found a big bag full of these and debated whether I should buy them or not.

Because they do start out garish in too shiny, primary colors.

But the shapes were so cute, I knew that they had some potential.

And I just love to take on a whole bunch of something. Little things that get me on a roll, and I can experiment and decorate each one a little different. I tend to to a whole bunch of most things that I do.

Each of these was basically done the same, it was the tiny details that differed.

First, I sprayed them with Zinsser Bullseye Bonding Primer, then glazed them with a mink brown paint.

Then, I painted the faces, and added some pink detail on a few of the people.

After that, they got a coat of glitter.

Which reminds me, have you tried Martha's new glitter paint? Well, I love most of what she makes, especially her fine glitter. But this paint isn't worth it, even with the Michael's 40% coupon. Its too thin, and to get the coverage that they show in the store on the sample you need at least 4, probably more, coats of paint. Who has time for that??? It dries slow and if you try to recoat it too soon, it just smears.

So, while the thin, glittery paint was still wet, I sprinkled it with Martha's regular glitter, for a more solid coat of shimmer.

Once they had the clear and white gold glitters where I wanted them, I added some mica here and there.

That is when the fun part started! I got to add beads, crystals, scarves, teensy weensy little hats made of ephemera, and other sweet pretties.

Aren't they the happiest little guys? I already miss working on them. I saved a few for Sugarwings and I to work on together, but for the most part I'm finished with them.

Most are for sale ($6 a piece) some in the Boutique and some in the Etsy shop. I've kept a few for myself or for tying onto Christmas presents too.

Round Robin

swaps

By Karla Nathan / November 16, 2011

Last spring at craft day, Beth asked Mary and I if we wanted to join a round robin book project with her and Lisa. She kind of knew that Mary would say no, she is all glue book, all the time. Why not stick with what you are an expert at? She is smart to do that.

Which reminds me, she has one of her expert lessons available again now if you want to learn from the master!

Okay, back to the subject. Beth probably didn't expect me to say yes, either. I tend to over extend and do too much, then do nothing but complain about it, so she probably hoped I'd say no since she is the one who has to listen to the complaints.

But I love her work, and Lisa's work and thought it could be fun. (it is!)

I kind of cheated and worked ahead, we were supposed to make one page a month for a year. I made up four pages right away, one for each of us, so that when my turn came, I just had to slip the premade page in the box and send it on. For my first four pages, each are similar, they are all paper doll dresses with vintage lace skirts or real doll dresses.

Right now, I have Sandra's book, she joined us as our 4th. All of us have admired her work over the years.

This is the page that Lisa made for it.

Won't these be amazing when they are done next year??? I'm so glad I joined, even if Beth has to explain the schedule to me every month and I complain about the postage. Its worth it. These books are going to be treasures when they are done!

There are some new things in the works, ready for the shop, but this is a busy week with the little fairy grand kids, with Dew Drop's birthday and Sugarwings spending time here at the cottage with me an extra day this week. This snow bird is listed.

And these guys will be on their way soon.

And over at the Etsy shop, its sure begining to look a lot like Christmas. Frosty little pastel trees are being added to the shop daily.

Thanks to all of you who are shopping with me!

Kitty’s Rescue free image to download

Dew Drop, fairies, family, free images, kitties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 14, 2011

Thanks for all your well wishes on the additions to our family!

This book just happened to be sitting on my desk and I thought it was quite appropriate to our situation. Although the little girl clutching the cat at our house isn't quite this lady like. She's every bit as happy to have a kitty to hold and cuddle, though.

This is scanned at high resolution, if you'd like to print it to use in your art, please click on it to open in a larger window, then save that one to your computer and you'll get better results than saving it directly from my blog.

No, we didn't adopt an eight legged cat, Sugarwings is carrying them both.

Everywhere she goes.

And it surprises me that the cats seem to like it. If she sets one down, it will follow her around till it gets picked up again.

Little Dew Drop is not as interested in the kittens, I think she is more of a dog person. She likes the new family members, but is more fascinated by Twinkle and Agnes.

Plus, she has other things on her mind, like learning how to walk and celebrating her first birthday this week!

My goal of adding new stuff to both shops every day kinda slipped from my grasp.

There was no school on Friday and Sugarwings kept me hopping. That and the new kitten/lost kitten/ new kitten/ found kitten excitment that we had. Then, along came the weekend including a concert, a fun craft day with Beth, a big family dinner, and before I knew it, I'd missed three days of getting photos posted in the shops.

But I did get a chance to make some new things!

These decorated 1" wreaths are in the Boutique.

And their ready to be decorated cousins are in my Etsy shop.

There are lots of trees added to the Etsy shop, I got to work on listing some Monday afternoon. The white ones are always popular.

And so are the eensy teensy ones.

There are still a few million trees filling up one of my work tables ready to be sorted and packaged and sold, but at least that is a start.

Some of my paper clay fairies are now in the shop too. This one is made on a vintage cake topper.

And this one sits on a wallpaper covered box.

Her eyes are vintage crystals taken from an old necklace. I pushed them into the wet clay, then added a black sequin crystal pupil, and painted the rest of the eye. They really have a nice sparkle when the light hits them.

I'll leave you with some photos of more new stuff listed. There is more to come too. I'm wrapping up purchases today and will have more photos taken to list goodies after that gets done.(thanks so much to you shoppers out there!) I also need to get pictures of all the new things I've been making. It sure felt good to get some time to sit at the worktable and mess around with all my toys!

A Tail of Two Kitties

kitties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 12, 2011

We have a new member in our family. This 3mth old kitten came to live with us the other day and was a purrfect addition to our home (oh, sorry, I just had to do that)

Sugarwings was thrilled with him, and his previous family included a 2 year old girl who carried him everywhere, so he was used to being overly cuddled and even seemed to look forward to it. Plus, I hear he is already a proven mouser! Which is what I was hoping for.

He has a sweet temperament, and is very mellow. Just ideal for a household like ours, we needed someone easy going if anyone was going to be added.

But it was the love at first sight between these two that made me so glad to have him here.

They had a fun packed evening together, and at bed time she was not going to let go of him. But it seemed to be mutual, because after the fairy child dozed off, the kitten was still holding on to her.

That is when I made my mistake.

His previous owner said he was an outdoor cat and didn't use a litter box. So, I took him out of her arms and set him outdoors for the night.

He wasn't out there the next morning.

He wasn't out there at all through the whole day.

We looked everywhere and even sent the dogs out to hunt him. Twinkle was even more obsessed with him than Sugarwings, so I figured that that if he was out there she would sniff him out.

Notice anything different about this picture? Twinkle's obsession continues, but the cat's nose is now black, not pink.

Sugarwings sobbed after school when I told her that her kitty was missing.

So, of course, we went to the pound to find her another one!

When we got home, look who was waiting for us.

Yep, we are now a two cat family. Three, counting the big ole, mean tom that lives outside. I think that big meanie drove the new kitty into hiding for the day.

These two DO NOT live outside after the turmoil of losing the first one. My guilt was so overwhelming over that, I'll guard them with my life this time. I can't deal with my fairy grand baby's big blue eyes looking at me through tears for being careless with her beloved pet.

The pound suggested keeping the cat we got from them indoors for at least two months before letting it explore outside. I'm hoping I can deal with my itchy nose for that long. I was planning on having one outdoor cat that came inside to play sometimes, not two indoor cats.