February 2012 – Karla's Cottage

Finishing up my Round Robin Pages

bird song art event, Books, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 28, 2012

Most of the pages I made for our Round Robin book, are "low color". But every now and then, I slipped in some floral tones, just because I thought it needed a little something. This page for Beth, is a tissue pattern paper background, glued down nice and wrinkly, then rubbed with an ink pad.

A ruffle of pattern paper was glued across the top, and a swath of lace was added near the bottom of the page. The B for Beth is drawn in glitter, onto a very old, hand written letter in French. I centered it inside a post card, with a circle cut out, layered it onto text from an old sewing magazine from the 20s that I'd covered a tag with.

The ribbons hanging down have glass buttons tied to a couple of their ends.

The theme of the Round Robin was "Her Life in Stitches", and I simply don't sew. All of my pages are glued, while the other women spent time doing lovely stitch work. I tried to use the theme by incorporating some sort of sewing item on each page. I tended to rely on buttons, lace, and ribbons quite a bit, I'm afraid.

Beth is one of the few people I've known who uses both sides of her brain to the fullest. How many ultra artistic accountants do you know? Her head is quite ambidextrous.

So, I thought I'd show both sides of her in her pages, creative and pretty stuff along with the business side.

This one has an envelope and report cards from a business college and is dated 1918. The background is a great old, gold leaf wallpaper.

There are layers of lace, ruffled ribbon, and a bejeweled hem from an old dress, along with a selection of buttons.

The back is kind of plain. Grey wallpaper, with a strip of the gold leaf paper, some lace and a pretty Victorian card.

Since the books all need to be sent off to Somerset soon, (how exciting!!) I hurried and made a few pages up for each person in the swap. All the pages were done in the same day, so a lot of the ideas and supplies were duplicated, but none were exactly the same. Everyone got an initial, Sandra's is done in pearls.

Lisa's too.

My own initials went on the inside of the back cover of my book. Since I'm not a sewer, my book is dedicated to my Mom, who was. Her photo is on both the front and back covers. Under her picture, I layered a page from a journal that I'd found that was signed, "Martha something Downey".

Mom's name was Martha Downey! Not that common of a name, especially with the "e" in Downey. I used the bottom of her photo to cover up the incorrect middle name.

Another unifying element in the pages I made the other day, is this jeweled and beaded fabric. I bought a flapper style dress that was encrusted with beads and rhinestone trim for only 12 bucks! I think everyone who was shopping at the antique mall heard my squeal when I came across that gem. It was tattered and falling apart, so that took all the guilt out of chopping it to pieces.

For this pocket, I cut around the beading pattern, then glued it to a matching piece of card stock.

Its attached to a background of white, flocked wallpaper. When I make a pocket, I always run a bead of glue along the bottom and sides, right at the edges, then slightly bunch it up, before pressing it into place. The bunching gives it a bit of a pouch effect, so that you can put items into it easier. Its not all that noticeable, just enough to be useful.

To fit the stitches theme, I slipped a dress form tag into the pocket. The tag is one that I made for my dress form tutorial, the class is about making a miniature dress form to decorate, but I also included patterns for collage too.

Sandra got a similar pocket from the glorious, gemstone encrusted, dazzling dress.

The tag I added to this pocket is a regular shipping tag, spritzed with two shades of Glimmer Mist, then inked around the edges. I glued a high fashion lady cut from a very old magazine onto it, added some ribbons.

Its been such fun to be a part of this swap and have a different book arrive each month in the mail. I'll miss being a part of it.

Other fun stuff has been coming in the mail too. Laurie Jackson offered to be a Birdsong Two sponsor, not just once,

but twice!

Two boxes full of goodies for my "Peeps" attending our workshop/party in April came from her this week.

Laurie took the time to actually create little gifts for all of the women, plus gave them some vintage goodies to work with, and packaged them up really cute.

But that wasn't the end of it, she also asked the author of this book, that she collaborated on, to send a copy for each lady! I can't wait to peek into one. I can always use some selling tips. I wonder if one of them, is to get off your behind and get busy and do it, not just talk about filling the shop up?

If you'd like to be a sponsor, please let me know, the ladies will be thrilled to open their gift bags.

Or if you'd like to attend, we have three spaces open. There were only two, but due to an illness, one chick had to leave the nest.

Arietty is so Pretty

antiques/junking, Books, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 26, 2012

My friend, Lisa, told me that she was so excited about a movie coming out about the Borrowers, her favorite book from childhood. I vaguely remembered the book, and took another look at it, she was right, its such a fantastic story. I think it spoke to me more as an adult than it did as a kid. I'm trying to read it to Sugarwings, but the fact that it is based in England years ago, makes the language a little too difficult for her.

She held up all of her fingers and told me to read it to her again when she was that many.

But I took her to the movie as soon as it opened and now she rates Arietty right up there with Ariel and Dorothy as her favorite heroines. And I agree. The movie was so beautifully done, I couldn't get enough of the artwork. Even Sugarwings, as lost in the story as she was, kept pointing out how pretty everything was and was asking me the names of the painted flowers.

The next morning after seeing the show, I surprised my fairy grand baby by leaving a pearl topped pin on the breakfast table (after snipping the sharp end off with wire cutters). Arietty sports a pin she found and tucked into her dress, as a sword, and even uses it to save her Mother's life at one point.

We are now writing a series of notes with little gifts to leave for the Borrowers who live in our own walls and have been making up stories about Sugarwings and Arietty playing with the kitties in our garden.

As a thank you to Lisa for sparking my interest in this story that my little one and I both love so much, I made this page for the Round Robin Swap that we are both in, to add to her book.

I took the ideas from the novel, about the teeny people "borrowing" ordinary things from the human beans in the house and re-purposing them for use in the walls to make a cozy place to live. The book describes letters hung sideways on the wall to make vertical striped wallpaper, and pictures of the queen (stamps) hung on the wall along with a ladies watch as a clock.

Arietty's mom adored a picture of the ocean taken from a card, and I came as close as I could by cutting out a picture from an old postcard that featured water.

The dining table is made from a playing card box, the vase is a thimble, and the table cloth is a lace scrap. On the table is a letter written with a quill pen and Arietty's sword/pin.

Popsicle sticks, rubbed with ink make up the floor. When it came to seating at the table, i was stumped because I wanted to use spools like in the book, but was also trying to keep the page flat enough to fit in the book, so I drew some spools on card stock, cut them out and wrapped thread around them.

I had some trouble finding just the right stamps, so I asked Beth if she had any I could use. Here is a sample of her pile of stamps I had to chose from! I was able to pick out not only the perfect pictures, but I love the colors they were too, I think they compliment the other colors I already had in the page.

The other thing I was lacking was a thimble. Not a single one, anywhere in my studio. So, of course, i asked Beth, who has everything.

Not only did she have a selection of regular sized thimbles, she brought out a Monopoly game piece one that is what I ended up using.

While I was in KC visiting Beth, we hit a few estate sales. I bought this old jewelry box for its faded pink interior. At the same sale, I found a pile of keys for a good price and bought a bagful. Beth bought was what left, I hadn't realized she was interested, or I'd have offered to split them.

But while I was looking for stamps at her house, I saw all of these, so didn't feel so bad about not sharing. I envy her piles of goodies!

It was an okay estate sale day, I've seen better. But we had such a good time, I told her she could take me to the Dollar Store instead and I'd enjoy it just as much. It was the company that counted.

Besides the keys and box, and a few other little tidbits, I bought at set of vintage cut glass drinking glasses for $12 and this other new stuff for my kitchen. Sugarwings and Dewdrop will enjoy the little white pitchers at our next tea party. Its time to start showing that littlest fairy how to pour her own cream!

Beth and I worked on bagging up her kits for Paper Cowgirls. I still have mine to do yet. I probably should not have taken the day off to go and play in KC, that was one more thing that was NOT on my list of what I need to be getting done.

But it will all get done somehow. I'm sure of it. Or at least that is what I tell myself…

I'll have some more round robin pages to show you this week. I made quite a few of them this week. The books are being sent to Somerset, so this week, I'll need to label all the pages and pack them up. I'll snap a few more photos as I do.

The newest Italian Super Model

fairies, magazine pictures or articles

By Karla Nathan / February 24, 2012

Jenn's over the top, dreamy affair in NC last fall was published in this Italian magazine. Jenn deserves all the accolades and world wide attention she got for this, it was amazing.

Woo Hoo! I feel very America's Next Top Model in Italian Vogue! (Yes, I'm a sucker for all of those Top Model shows, ) But I have a feeling I'd be voted off the episode for that stiff pose and lack of "finding the light". And I'm more suited to be an Italian grandma making pasta than a sleek super model.

But hey! This is not something that I ever would have dreamed I'd see and I'm tickled pink about it. A photo of me in a European publication?

pictured: Natasha, Dee, Lori, Jenn, Andrea, and me

That is me in the top left, I was helping decorate for the event and put some of the decorations on my head. I do tend to do that sort of thing. In the bottom right photo, Dee Foust is wearing one of the crowns that I made (shameless plug! Tutorial available here ). That is beautiful Jenn strolling across the meadow in the larger photo.

I have wonderful memories of the weekend in the mountains, with great friends old and new. Thanks again, Jenn!

This pretty weekend was also covered in Sonia's Creating Vintage Charm, an indie magazine that is really well done. I think that the fairy tale interlude is probably being published in a zillion other magazines too, it was pure photo op, all the way through and the talented Tiffany was there to snap it up.

Seriously, there wasn't a spot anywhere that you didn't feel compelled to point a camera at. It was that beautiful.

Sonia and I got to sit together during craft day at Once Upon a Dream and hung out a bit during the weekend. I plan on being a regular buyer of her zine. As much as I love reading blogs, its nice to have an actual magazine in your hands to flip through too.

And she fills it with charm, just like the title.

Funny, this photo didn't make any publications….or Top Model, even though, in my mind I was using all the modelling tips that I'd learned by being a faithful follower of the show.

Of course, I spent my youth watching "I Love Lucy" and that might have sunk in more than "America's Next Top Model" did.

On a completely different subject and one that ticks me off almost as much as losing Picnik, have you heard that Google Friend Connect is closing too? I'm wondering, will I lose the followers on that list? What do you know about it?

If you read my blog on Google Reader, but got there by subscribing on my side bar with Google Friend Connect, maybe you should subscribe directly on Google Reader, or I could just vanish from your list. I really am not sure what will happen. But I'd hate to lose you as a "Friend" even though Friend Connect is gone!

Beth has a good post about it here.

A forgotten drawer of pretties and a not forgotten, but delayed Fairy Swap

bird song art event, fairies, flowers, paintings

By Karla Nathan / February 22, 2012

The other day, I needed some supplies for a quick sketch to determine the style of a mural I am planning, and had to dig through my painting supplies drawer to find the paper I needed.

While I was in there, I took a little time to look at some paintings I have stashed away in the drawer. Some I had plans for, some I just did for the heck of it, the others were the basis of cards or something else that was a one time thing.

Recognize the roses? They were used as part of my blog design. I really should frame those, its one of my favorite paintings.

In the last few years, I have not taken the time to paint like I used to.

Finding a drawer full of paintings that I'd forgot about brought back a lot of memories.

Normally, I finish everything I start, whether I'm feeling satisfied with it or not. Its just a quirk of mine, I keep going till its done. So I was surprised to find this half completed fairy in the drawer. Hmmm, while I have my paints out, I might just have to finish her. Looking at all of these has got me in a painting mood.

On the other hand, I have plenty of other things I need to get done and I do my best to not get sidetracked with projects that are intriguing but not on my list. Durn list! Its pretty long at this point. And adding to it won't make marking things off go any easier. I'm even considering writing the list down, its getting so long and I dont' think my brain can take holding any more on this mental list of things I have hovering above me like a storm cloud.

Sometimes I think that seeing things written down makes them easier to tackle and less intimidating.

Writing directions and photographing step by steps for the Twining and Twirling Tutorial, 3 Wire Workshops was NOT on my list. I do tend to get sidetracked and have now spent three days on creating that blog site. Well, at least I got a lot of nests made for Birdsong while I was at it!

Speaking of Birdsong, I got the loveliest gift in the mail from Mercedes!

She had hoped to come to our weekend party in April and couldn't make it after all. She found this box of spun cotton tiny birdies and a vintage date book filled with birdie illustrations, and sent them to me. I will share some of them with the attendees, and add Mercedes to our Sponsor list on the side bar of my blog.

If you'd like to sponsor something for the drawings or goodie bags, please contact me.

Another new sponsor is Gail Schmidt of Shabby Cottage Studios. She has donated two $25 gift certificates to her shop for door prizes at Birdsong. Her shop is filled with things that the winners will be thrilled to shop through! Here are some of her sites:

www.shabbycottagestudio.com

www.shabbycottagestudio.net

www.creativeworkshops.ning.com

www.shabbycottagestudio.etsy.com

Thanks, Mercedes and Gail!

Oh, and the sketch I needed to do for the bigger project, that got me started digging through the drawer of watercolor memories? All done. If I had a list written down, I could cross this off of it! Here is a snippet of the picture, I don't want to give away the whole surprise.

On my mind since before Christmas, was hosting a Fairy Swap. I want to do a book of fairies, and I still plan on doing it. But so many things came up in my family since the holidays, I never got it planned for this winter. Now, here comes spring and I'm on the countdown to Birdsong.

I could probably squeeze in time to do a swap, despite that looming list- but its the space that the packages take up that is stopping me. Could I squeeze those in?

I will be turning my studio into a classroom for 25, and a hundred piles of fairies spread out over it might not fit very well with the students!

As I have done for Alice, Dorothy, and Birdsong swaps in the past, I'll paint a cover for the theme, copy it, and then embellish each cover by hand and add some nice vintagey pieces.

But for this one, I'm planning something Bigger and Better. Details to come, lets plan on May, okay? I think the fae prefer springtime any way, don't you? Their little wings would be frosty now.

So, please bear with me, I do plan on hosting this swap, and am excited to do it, sorry that I have to wait!

Some twists on a new tutorial

bird song art event, Tutorials

By Karla Nathan / February 20, 2012

My quest to make nests has turned into something much bigger. At first when I started working on making 20 plus nests for Birdsong, each took me over an hour to figure out. As I moved on and figured out a few things they went faster and got cuter and cuter.

So, while I was at it, I decided to take some pictures as I worked and do a tutorial.

And since I'd gotten so many inquiries about the wreath class I am doing, I decided to add that too. And one of the things people ask me about most is the fairy crowns that I do. Since all 3 of these are done with the same basic ideas, I decided to lump them all into one Wire Workshop that I am calling, "Twining and Twirling".

In these, you get all my tips and tricks, hints and how tos. As well as patterns for the leaves on the wreath and down loadable French text to print and use to cut the leaves out of. Also to decoupage the bird in the wreath, or eggs in the nest with too.

There are lots of pictures, and instructions, examples, and ideas. And I'll probably be adding more to it as time goes by. If you are one of the hundreds of people (thank you, thank you, thanks so much!!!) who bought my dress form tutorial, you already know that as holidays came along, I did extras for the occasion and added them to the existing tutorial for no charge. I already have some ideas for Easter that I want to play with and will tell you about on the tutorial.

You can click on the button to check out the sign up page. The cost is $20 for all three workshops. They will be set in blog form, and are up indefinitely. As long as I have a TypePad blog, and I don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon.

By the way, everyone who is attending Birdsong Two, has already got a free entry to the workshop to try it out. There are three spots left for our party at the cottage in April, if you are thinking about coming, this online workshop is a little bonus you'll get for signing up!

Because I like to spoil my "peeps".

Galentines Day with the Gal Pals

family, Food and Drink

By Karla Nathan / February 18, 2012

My husband was out of town for Valentine's Day, but I kept myself busy by planning THREE parties in one day. The dogs were my official greeters when guests came to the door, and I needed their help. When I opened the door to say hi, I realized that I had laryngitis!

Luckily, it wasn't an all day thing, my voice has been coming and going a lot since then, but I manage to keep talking no matter what.

I had one group of friends over for brunch, and another for afternoon crafting in the studio. We called it Galentines Day, had some goodies, and a lot of fun.

These little Valenine treats were simple to make, by the way. I like to serve easy things that look a lot more complicated to make than they really are.

For these, I cut puff pastry with a heart shaped cookie cutter, and baked them ahead of time.

After they cooled, I spread a bit of cream cheese onto them, topped it with a slice of fruit and drizzled melted chocolate over it all.

That evening, I got to spend with the kiddos. Any day I hang with them is one jam packed with lots of love!

Craft day was good for me. I'd lacked time or oppurtunity to be creative for a while and had hit a dry spell. so, a day in the studio with gal pals and time to just make stuff was exaclty what I needed. And I cranked stuff out, after I loosened up and got going.

First I started with something really simple, these vintage ceramic shoes were already cute to start with, and I just glued some crap to them to foof 'em up a bit. These kind of are along the style of Lisa's wonderful tutorial, but there isn't nearly as much to these little ceramic shoes.

Then, I moved on to something a little more complicated. It was nice just to be gluing and thinking about where things go. This is a teensy little box that a bar of hotel soap came in. The legs are bingo tiles and the Charlotte fairy is only 1" tall. (she is in the Boutique now)

I made a few more things that day too, but haven't got photos of them yet. I did get some pics of some things to add to the shop, I'll leave you with a selection of whats new. I hope you are having a great weekend and still enjoying your Valentine goodies.

Mothers and Daughters

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family

By Karla Nathan / February 16, 2012

Today is my Mom's birthday and like always, she has been on my mind a lot. I learned a lot from her, and wish that I'd learned more. We were very much alike, yet oh, soooo different in many ways.

She was a sewer and for a while owned an upholstery shop. I can't stitch a straight line, but at least I absorbed a lot of knowelgdge about how it was done by sitting under her sewing table for hours as she worked when I was a kid. I know the basics on how to do any of it, but its the actual needle and thread work that stumps me.

She took pride in perfect stitches and even knew exactly how many per inch she hand sewed into her quilting or upholstering.

But me? If I pick up a piece of thread, it automatically starts twirling itself into a million knots. So, I transferred her love of creating to paint and other craftiness. Sewing has always eluded me.

Even this crazy quilt that she made is not as random as it seems. I remember her showing me the individual blocks that she was putting together with mathematical precision.

She taught me to take joy in hard work. That a job worth doing is worth doing right. That a clean house feels, and smells good and is worth the effort it takes. Now, I certainly don't take it to the levels she used to, this is a lady who used to vacuum under the bird feeder out in the yard. I've never gone so far as to vacuum the grass, but I do like my home tidy and comfortable.

Mom taught me never to be afraid to tackle anything. Any big job can be broken down into smaller parts, tackled one at a time, just like her quilts were patched together square by square.

Twinkle thinks this picture is about her, like every photo I take. Even if I'm taking a close up of something on a table, she is posing under the table thinking that the camera must be about her.

Mom made this quilt for me too. Its one of my favorite patterns, Log Cabin. You can't see the detail in the center, but its a hand stitched drawing of iris. In person, it shows up nicely, but the camera doesn't do it justice.

In honor of my mom's birthday, I put this quilt on Sugarwing's new Big Girl Bed. Maybe she'll feel my mom's love wrapped around her the next time she crawls in.

I chose this bed because of the ovals. Don't they look like frames, just waiting for a painting? I have plans to add some pictures soon. Lately, there has been too much going on and I think I might have mentioned, and maybe whined a bit about the fact that I am NOT caught up.

Hopefully, Sugarwings and Dewdrop will learn from me, just as I learned from Mom, to love having a pretty home around them, and taking joy in making it that way. Whatever talents they have as they grow up, I want them to know that you can tackle any job if you do it one block at a time and that nothing is too big to face if you are willing to do the hard work to achieve it.

And that hard work is much easier to face if you find something to laugh about while you are at it!

My mom was FUN. I hope all of my kids and grands think I am too.

Twisting some skills

bird song art event, paper cowgirl

By Karla Nathan / February 15, 2012

Birdsong Two, AKA- "So nice, we're doing it twice," still has a couple of openings if you are thinking about coming to the cottage to see us. Sadly, one friend from last year, had to drop out due to a back injury. And there are two other spots still to fill, so grab a couple of gal pals and head to KS to see us!

Its very meaningful to me that most of the attendees were here last year too. So, I wanted to do something special for them. I've started working on some ideas for the gathering. This nest is made of wire, very much like the wreaths I'll be teaching at Paper Cowgirls down in Texas, coming up very soon.

Here is a detail of the wreath, see the similarities? Once I figured out how to do this natural look/grapevinish wire trick, I've used it a lot. I've made crowns and fairy laurels with this style of wire twisting too.

One thing I've learned, is that working with wire is sure a lot easier with the right tools. I bought a heavy duty wire cutter since I've been cutting so much of it. I had 18 people in the holiday wreath class at Kim's gathering, and I'm making 28 of these nests. Hopefully, I'll have a few people at the Paper Cowgirls class. So far, sales for my class are tanking. Its a good thing I don't have a big ego, or I'd be embarrassed. Its hard to find something that embarrasses me, or that I won't talk about freely.

I wonder if it is the photos that I sent to use on the Paper Cowgirls site? Everyone seems to think its just grapevine. I'm sure the class doesn't look like much, but there really is a lot to it, with creating the wreath itself,twisting the wires and adding beads, covering the dove in old papers, curling and adding feathers, making a nest of ephemera, cutting lace leaves, dying and inking the leaves, etc.

Hopefully, a lot of useful techniques will be learned. Or does this project just suck? I like it, and have taught it a few times and everyone seems to enjoy it and get a pretty piece from the class.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I'll still have a great trip to Texas with my BFF, Beth and get to hang out with Lisa and Cindy and Karen and Dawn, and all the other fun, fun, people I am looking forward to seeing!

A Heartful of Blathering and Babbling

family, kitties

By Karla Nathan / February 14, 2012

We finally got a snow this year. Not that I missed the cold, bad roads, and frozen toes that come along with it. But I do know my garden needs the moisture for a healthy spring, and we need the hard freeze for a bug free season ahead.

But the white stuff came as a surprise to Panda Bear and Rainbow Bright Joy Nathan. Sister wasn't quite sure if she should head out the door to see what it was about or not.

But Brother took a running leap right into it and soon she joined him, and my snowy, pristine, backyard wonderland was turned into a scene of mangled carnage. There wasn't a drift or smooth spot left. You'd think they'd been huffing cat nip, not snow flakes, they went crazy playing out there.

Too bad they only get one day of winter. For Valentines Day, we warm up again. Not quite to the level of the false spring we've had most of this winter, but not bad.

I can live with a One Snow Winter. It wouldn't be terrible if this is all we get for this season!

Valentines Day is special to me. Well, I do tend to LOVE most holidays and get sentimental about them all. But this date is even more important because its the anniversary of my sons' adoption.

And the anniversary of the beginning of my blog. I had friends over for brunch the morning of my first blog post,and I took a tiny, little, dark photo of the table and wrote about it. Wondering if anyone would ever see it or find me in my little corner of the internet.

(these pictures are all new stuff in my shop, and in the Etsy store,)

And no, I don't think anyone did. But I'd taken the first step and put myself out there. Months later, I'd made lots of blogging friends, and I can't imagine not having this blog to blabber and blather on in.

Sadly, we weren't able to have our big, family adoption celebration on Sunday night, our littlest fairy was so ill that she had to go to the ER for re-hydration. Dewdrop is better now, but it sure was sad to see someone soooo tiny, feel so bad. She was pale and fragile, not her normal bouncy, in charge self.

Dewdrop is doing fine today, and we'll do some sort of celebration when we can. In the meantime, I'm hosting another little Valentine's Day brunch just like I did 5 years ago. Then, in the afternoon, is a craft day with Beth and Mary. I think that I'll take a trick from one of my favorite characters, Leslie Knope, and call it, "Galentines Day".

A festive day of treats and fun with the gals!

I'm counting my blessings this year and am enjoying all the loves in my life.

My handsome, hardworking husband who sweeps me off my feet and leaves me breathless, and who surprised me with flowers on Sunday

My cute little fairy grand babies who I can giggle and be silly with.

My sweet boys, who I love so much and who were lucky to have such a great dad come into their lives.

My girls who are loving mothers to those sweet fairies I adore.

My gal friends who keep me sane, friends I can share both woes and laughter with.

My blog buddies who have given me a place to blather and babble, for 5 years now and who have visited me over a million and a half times. I tell ya, when I wrote that first little, dark post without much to say, I had no idea I'd be talking online years later to bunches and gobs of people, and to actually get to make great friends online and in person with so many of them.

Yep. My heart is full.

Thanks everyone, for five fun filled years of blathering!

Oh, and the winner of my chalk board topped heart shaped box is:

Judi Storm

A little late update

celebrations, holiday decor, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage

By Karla Nathan / February 11, 2012

Three days before Valentines Day, I finally updated my shop with a few heart, pink, and red themed items. I took the photos a while back and had them all ready to add, and then… well, I guess I just got too busy with other things.

Poor little Sugarwings had a rough week and needed some Grammy time. Not to mention, we threw a Valentine Bash this week too.

The poor kid had a UTI with high fever, got on antibiotics just in time to feel better for getting her cast off. All is well with the arm, but its delicate and she needed some babying afterwards. And I'm always looking for an excuse for a Movie and Cuddling Day.

Then, as she was ready to go back to school, another high fever came on. She'd gotten an ear infection while still on antibiotics for the UTI.

Back home at Daddy's house, Little Dew Drop came down with a double ear infection along with buckets of snot that could be flung much further in one tiny little sneeze than you could ever imagine.

Its been a rough week for those girls, so Sugarwings has spent some time over here with me and of course that means my heart wasn't into working on the Boutique and adding inventory.

Today I finally had some time to work but almost ditched adding these things because they are not very timely for a holiday that is coming in a couple of days.

Still, not all of the things were purely Valentine. Yes, there are lots of hearts, and most of the items are pink or red, but they are still lovely for use anytime. Even the 1961 Valentine Ideals book is full of images that would be pretty to use year round.

Any way, its not like they will be dated after February 2012. I don't exactly order things from a wholesale company just for the upcoming holidays.

Its all vintage, and just gets older for each holiday that passes it by!

Plus, I have categories in the shop for different holidays and my plan has always been to keep them stocked year round, and just haven't quite got around to keeping them all full yet. This is a start!

So, I'm choosing to not look at this as a failure to get my work completed on time. I'm looking at it as one thing crossed off the list, no matter when it got done, hey, its DONE.

And the way things have been going around here lately, that is impressive. I'm still lagging in everything.

Now, both little girls are on antibiotics for their little ears and I hope are feeling better by now. We are having our family Valentine celebration on Sunday, and it would be nice to see them back to their old, bouncy, happy selves by then.

Valentine's Day is the anniversary of my husband adopting our boys, so we always have a family party for it. This year its also my 5 year blog anniversary, so I am having a giveaway to celebrate that too.

This box is covered in ephemera and topped with chalk board paint. If you'd like a chance to win it, please leave a comment on my previous post.