August 2012 – Karla's Cottage

Decorating a family reunion on a budget

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, how to's

By Karla Nathan / August 31, 2012

For the Faery Book Swappers-

Since the 1st is a holiday weekend, its ok to wait till Tuesday to mail your packages. And please note that it will take me a couple of weeks to make that many books and get them mailed back to you!

My Daddy came from a large family, and every year, we gather at our "Downey Dinner" to reconnect. The 9 siblings take turns hosting, and as the family grows older and parents are passing on, it falls to the cousins to take over hosting duties for the pitch in meal.

This year was my dad's turn, so my sisses and I took over as co-hosts.

Of course, I felt like we needed to foof it up a bit! But we didn't want to spend much on top of our share of the costs that we already had (plates, cutlery, beverages, meat, and the hall rental).

The Downeys are from Southern Indiana farm stock. All nine kids grew up in this little house. So, I thought the theme for the reunion should be kind of down home and country. I chose red and white table cloths from the dollar store, and collected some old canning jars from garage sales.

My niece had a boxful of clear marbles, and we poured a few into each canning jar to weight them down, and then sat the jars on doilies (from my stash) in the centers of the tables.

At Michaels, I found a scrapbook tablet in just the right colors, called "Recollections" in paper sack brown, sepia, and red. There was a touch of forrest green too. It featured love letters and memorabilia, some birds and other pretty little bits to cut out and use as embellishments for our project. It was a little fancier than I wanted, I'd hoped for calico or checks, but these colors were just right, so I went for it.

We decided to make the centerpieces be Family Trees. So, we printed off a pile of pictures in different sizes and started cutting them out, and gluing them to shapes we'd cut from the scrapbook paper. We tried to make sure that all nine sibling's families were represented in the mix.

Then, we walked around to find some branches in Bobbie Sue's yard and discovered that the lilac bushes had branches that worked perfectly. Lots of branchy little arms to tie pictures to.

Next, we punched holes and tied strings to the photos, and they were ready to tie to the sticks.

We got a little carried away with the photos and made extra, so we took everything off the bulletin board in the rented hall and I added a branch and pictures to that too.

After the meal, we announced that everyone could pluck photos from the trees to keep. And when the party was over and clean up time came, there were none left, so I think that everyone enjoyed them.

The Family Trees were a little tall for centerpieces, and I expected to see people moving them aside, but it didn't look like they were much of a problem. And people spent a lot of time looking at them, and there was some extra mingling with everyone going from table to table to check out the variety of snapshots.

My romantic, sweetheart had tied a picture of me from the trees, to his
shirt. He now has it on his computer bag and carried it through the
airport that way on his business trip.

There was plenty of paper left, after making the photo trees, so I decided to make a banner to hang up by the kitchen.

It was a fast and simple project, I cut out 6 large rectangles from paper that looked like it would make a good background, and inked the edges. When there was something pretty on the page like the bird in this one, I cut around it, so it stood out from the side.

Next, I took some of the darker pages and cut out the letters, glued them down and drew around them with red marker.

Two holes were punched in the top and a length of ribbon was run through all the letters.

I made the letters free hand. It wasn't a planned project and I was in a hurry. They are far from perfect, but they did the job.

In the tablet, there were some pages that had this glittery, red "love" on them, so I cut a couple of those out to hang below two of the letters.

I used more scraps to make signs for the beverages. This paper practically decorated itself, all I had to do was cut this out, fold it and write the words on it.

(a sliced star fruit and some fresh strawberries prettied up the jug of lemonade)

We took an idea from the Clampetts and covered the pool table to use as a buffet for the salads and main dishes. The desserts had a separate table. I knew a lot of treats were coming, so I washed off the piano bench (cleaning the legs and under part extra good) and set it on the table to make more space. And this photo was taken early on, by the time all the goodies arrived, this dessert buffet was full to the brim!

This is just something I thought was funny, yes, I know, weird picture. It looks like the fried chicken is trying to escape from the foil covering it! (or maybe its just waving to the guests as they arrive?)

But you can kind of see the room behind the franken-chicken, and see the red and white tables with the Family Trees on them.

The hall was a nice space, and the perfect size. There were some gorgeous antiques around the room and many of the framed pieces on the walls were attractive. The ones that were not pretty, or old, we took down for the day. I preferred plain white walls to pink and blue wreaths on the wall with our red and white decor.

After eating, we shoved some tables out of the way and set up a corner for group pictures, and I moved the banner over there to hang as a backdrop.

Actually, I didn't move it, I had the Bumbles do it. Whats a Bumble? Remember the animated Christmas special, Rudolf? At the end, the abominable snowman, who Cornelias calls a Bumble, puts the star on the top of the tree. Whenever I need a tall person to reach something for me, I call them my "Bumble".

My sisses and I had a good time co-hostessing the bash. It was just too bad it was such a quick trip, my husband and I packed up and drove 8-1/2 hours back home as soon as the room was cleaned up, so we could get back to the newborn puppies.

I'm glad my sisters are coming out for Romantic Gothic Ghosts! That will make up for having our sister time cut short due to Twinkle's over active birth of nine tiny Yorkies. When they get here, those pups will be running around under foot and will be such fun to play with.

I bought the $19 scrapbook paper with my 40% off coupon, spent $4 on canning jars, and $15 on table cloths. We had the string, ribbon, doilies, clear marbles, and glue already. The only other cost was printing the photos. We did a combo of some from the computer and 11 cent prints from Walgreens.

We didn't have to spend a lot of time on the decor, besides cutting and gluing photos. And we like to have a craft day when we get together any how, so that part was fun.

It was a fast and cheap way to decorate for a family gathering!

Trying to keep up

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), puppies!, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 30, 2012

These guys are the reason I have no new photos edited to show you. Please excuse the camera phone shot. I don't know what I'd do if Aunt Sandy wasn't helping with them.

Its been slightly crazy around here lately, between having grands over, middle of the night puppy feedings, giant wild cats stealing chickens (I ran out into the woods trying to hunt it down, then stopped and wondered what I'd do if I did actually catch it!), constantly cleaning up after Twinkle and her brood, piles of packages coming in for the Faery Book Swap, trying to finish up my covers, throwing a hero dinner for Sandy for saving the pups, and mailing out boxes full of millinery flowers sold in the Boutique, I'm wrecked.

Plus, while it seems like weeks ago, it was really only a few days past that I was co-hostessing a family reunion in another state.

So, of course, today after a midnight and 4 am puppy feeding, I left the morning meal to Sandy and hit the road to go to a flea market today. It was good to play hooky.

Whew, what a week! Actually not even a full week yet.

No wonder I'm tired! And haven't announced the giveaway winner. Which by the way is:

Tish Porter

Pretty babies

celebrations, Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, puppies!, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 28, 2012

I'm back from my trip and Twinkle was a busy girl while I was gone. So was Aunt Sandy! I was glad she was here to take over, having an RN in charge of the difficult birth was a godsend.

The difficulties arose from Twinkle having NINE pups to deliver!

After the second, not much happened. We'd visited our vet for directions earlier, read all the dog birthing info we could, and Sandy watched countless videos on whelping puppies. So, when labor stopped progressing, she knew to take Twinks in to the doc.

A couple more were born there, but the sonogram showed a total of eight babies (a rare number of pups for someone of Twinkle's size). Our vet said that the mama needed to be taken to Kansas City to the emergency vet for a C-section.

All of this drama was happening while I was driving to Indiana. At first, all was going well, but as the prognosis kept changing, I started to think I should turn around. Of course, I was already almost to Indiana about the time we heard that things weren't going well at all and that surgery might be needed.

I talked to the vet over the phone, and was told that if Twinkle had a C-section, she would have to have all the babies taken away from her, they would need to be completely hand raised.

I called friends and family to arrange some help for Sandy, but decided I should also be headed back to be on bottle patrol too.

But when Sandy and Lyric (the owner of the pup's father) got to the ER, those vets had a different story. They thought the babies could be delivered naturally and decided to keep Twinkle over night for observation. And they said there were NINE, not eight!

At this point, I was a bit of a wreck, and before I had a wreck on I70, I decided to get some rest, get a hotel room and make a decision in the morning.

Morning brought great news! Twinkle had delivered all 9 little ones, each healthy and strong!

The ER vets said that they had never seen a Yorkie have that many babies. Our Twinkle is not a teensy girl, but she is also not a giant Yorkie. She is about 9 lbs, which is still a pretty small dog.

Her little body can't support that many youngens. She needed IV calcium and is on supplements too. We still need to bottle feed the babies, but they are also able to nurse and Twinkle can take care of them with our help.

Since Sandy wasn't completely on her own with with care and feeding of the pups, and Twinkle could keep them warm and clean, Beth, our Gypsy, and Lyric could come by to help, I decided to go on to Indiana for the reunion.

It was not an easy decision. But it was our late father's turn to host the dinner, it was up to my sisses and I to be the hostesses in his place. I had a car full of supplies and table cloths, my sisters had taken vacation days that had been requested way in advance, and my husband was flying in on Saturday to attend and drive home with me.

Sandy was a trouper and went into full on RN mode, staying up around the clock to make sure those puppies were full and cared for. She was much better than I would have been, she devoted herself totally to the newborns.

I had a great time with my family, and the reunion was wonderful. I was able to relax and enjoy it, knowing that all the dogs were in good hands and that I'd be home with them soon to snuggle (and stay up all night feeding them myself soon enough!)

We cut our trip short and drove straight back to KS as soon as the big family dinner ended and we got cleaned up, getting home in time for a midnight feeding.

Monday night, we had our own big family dinner with the grands over to see the puppies and to thank Sandy for being a hero and saving all the babies. Everyone raised their cup to toast Aunt Sandy and thank her for all she did. I owe her more than a steak dinner, she was a huge help during a rough time!

Thanks, Sandy!! And congrats, Twinkle!!

And good bye sleep for a while… these 6 boys and 3 girls will keep us hoppin.

Gatherings and Ghosts

celebrations, holiday decor, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / August 27, 2012

Last week at garage sales, there was a lady selling tons of holiday decor. I bought a few punkin things for about 25 to 50 cents each. They were the typical bright orange that you see, with some warm autumn tones, but not my style.

So, I sprayed them with white primer, let them dry, brushed on Elmer's Glue, and sprinkled glitter on them.

The tea cup was from the same day of garage sailing, and I thought it was just perfect to use together with the glitzed pumpkin as a centerpiece for Romantic Gothic Ghosts. (there are a few seats left if you would like to come to the party too!)

This little bit of pretty illustrates what I mean when I say you can decorate for Halloween and not go garish. I love to set out holiday themed things, but just am not a fan of the tradtional purple, orange, and neon colors that you usually see.

This glittered candle ring is another one that I changed, and I can see myself using it all fall, not just at Halloween. I'll show it in action when I get around to setting out my fall pretties.

I found all of these dishes while out garage sailing too. For pennies apiece. I was thrilled with them! It was a joy to find some decent sales, this summer I have been disapointed in the caliber and amount of sales to go to. I hope I find some fun bargains while on my trip too, my sisses and I usually have a junking day together.

And this looks like it will be good shopping, have you heard about "The Gathering"? Its a shopping/crafting day in St Joe hosted by my new blog friend, Jennifer.

She had asked me to teach that day, but I had too much going on, with trips, puppies, Fairy book pages, etc. I hope to run up and explore for the day, it sounds interesting. Carol is speaking! And my pals, Nora, and Sheila will be teaching. Claudia will be selling her vintage wares, among others too- it should be fun.

Jennifer was kind enough to swap gifts for the events. She sent one of her delectable candles to me so I can give it away at Romantic Gothic Ghosts, and I sent her a gift for the Gathering.

For her party, I sent one of my Wire Workshop nests, along with a code for the online class. I don't know if she will give them away as a set or as two gifts.

At Romantic Gothic Ghosts, I'll have a few door prizes to give away, but it will be a pretty laid back affair. I'm not asking for sponsors. I'll probably make a few little gifties as door prizes, and was thrilled that Jennifer offered a gift.

Birdsong is an easy going event too, but this one will be even more so. I'll be cooking for the group, but am planning do ahead meals, so that I can relax and have fun and be part of the party myself.

Beth and I brainstormed about some treats to serve. Pumpkin cheesecake and carmel apple cake both came to mind as delicious fall desserts. Once we started thinking about desserts, it was hard to make our minds go to the main dish. Is there a meal that says "Fall" to you?

She came to spend a day with me while I was on puppy watch (this was written back on 8/20, so at that point I have no puppy info yet, Twinkle is still a roly poly girl)

Beth put on her nurse's hat to help deliver just in case she was needed. I have no idea why she had a vintage nurse cap handy. But then, she has everything and anything vintage, so I am not surprised. And doesn't she inspire confidence while wearing it?

We had a great craft day, but no puppies.
My crafting was more prep work. This is a dress that I'd purchased the last time Beth adn I went shopping together.

It's made up of row after row of beautiful old lace! So I spent the afternoon cutting it up, into strips to pack into kits for upcoming classes. I also packed up stuffing and millinery flowers for the ravens we will be making for Romantic Gothic Ghosts.

I kind of enjoy making kits. Its just plain fun to play with the vintagey supplies that go into them. Expecially when I have a good friend around for laughs.

Family Reunion Fun Times Two

celebrations, fairies, family, parties

By Karla Nathan / August 26, 2012

This photo is from my Sissy, of her page for our swap book. Its just gorgeous, done with beautiful things. She says she used "the Good Stuff" like I always harp about! The fabric under the sheet music and on the fairy herself is cut from a beaded 1920s flapper dress. I saw the gown last time I was at her house, its truly wonderful. I can't wait to see this page in person.

Here is the back. Pretty, huh?

I probably wouldn't be an artist if I hadn't had my two big sisters. As a kid, I always loved Bobbie Sue's paintings. And as an adult, Sissy showed me many tricks and had beautiful examples on how to make life prettier by adding lovely details to your surroundings.

This photo is from my trip to see them last year. I've pre-posted this, and will be visiting my sisses in Indiana for a family reunion as you read it.

On our last visit, we went on a junking jaunt East from Pendleton on Highway 40.

We usually have a good junkin day every time I go to Indy. Sometimes just hitting Goodwills, other times antique malls, doesn't matter where we go or what we do, its always fun to be together.

Bobbie Sue and Sissy are both coming to Romantic Gothic Ghosts! So is Cousin Paula, Guncle Randy and two of my husband's sisters, Terry and Sandy. It will mean a lot to me for my family to meet some of my blog friends and see what I actually do for a job. If you can call it a job…

We often do crafty days too. This time, we'll be making centerpieces for our Downey Dinner, family reunion. My Daddy had 8 brothers and sisters, and every summer the remaining sibs and all the families gather for a big pitch in. Hosting responsibilities rotate down the line from the oldest orginal member to the youngest. This year is our Dad's turn, so it falls to my sisses and I to host in his place.

Normally, everyone shows up, sets out the food in the rented hall as is, that's it. But, since we get to plan it this year, we are making centerpieces and using table cloths. Nothing elaborate, just something to brighten the room up.

I have red and white, throw away table cloths, to keep things simple for clean up. And we are making family trees as centerpieces. They will involve a branch in a canning jar, with photos from last year's reunion and some old pictures from decades ago tied to the branches.

The photos will be cut with decorative punches, glued to colorful scrapbook paper, and tied up with twine. I'll toss a doiley or two under each canning jar to make it even homier.

This will be our crafty day project with the family a couple days before the reunion. I'm filling a box with supplies and we'll all make a few hanging pictures for the trees. I think it would be nice if relatives could pluck pictures they like from the centerpieces to keep as momentos. Some might even be cute Xmas tree ornaments for the holidays in the right homes.

When I get back, I'll be finishing up some other projects then its time to go into full Faerie Book Swap mode. (this page is my sister-in-law Sandy's.)

People are still joining! And since I made plenty of extra covers, there is room. If you think you can have the pages to me by Sept. 1, feel free to enter. Isn't it nice to be a part of an easy going, do what you want, type swap?

I hope the swappers all enjoy it as much as I do! oooh, I can't wait to get home and see the piles of pages that come while I am away!

Happy birthday Sugarwings!

celebrations, Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, Mayara, puppies!, Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 24, 2012

Sugarwings' birthday was such a fun day for us. We went to lunch at T. Rex to see the dinosaurs, but at first, Dewdrop wasn't sure if we should go in. Once she realized that there were cute little baby dinosaurs there, she was fine.( I don't know why the restaurant keeps the biggest, scariest one of all right inside the door to greet everyone. I guess they want to test the kids right up front to see if they can withstand the atmosphere before they waste table space incase the little ones have to leave before the food comes? If the kids can get past the giant monster at the door, they must be brave enough to sit and eat there.)

Sugarwings has always loved it there. Dewdrop took some convincing, but not much, She was careful to not look at the bigger ones, but was happy to give hugs and kisses to the colorful, cartoony beasts.

We walked around the shopping center, and let the kids run around on the Yellow Brick Road sidewalks. It was a favorite pastime for Sugarwings when she was little. Now that she is turning 6, I wanted to take her there again before she was too big to enjoy it.

Hopefully, she'll never be too old to be silly with Grams.

And honestly, she is happy anywhere she goes. Her idea of fun is just exploring. It can be along a yellow sidewalk that takes her imagination to Oz. or just sitting in the grass meeting whatever bug crawls by. It all entertains her.

Dewdrop had a good time on our day out too. And I was pleased to spend time with my boy, remembering when he was a little guy and running way ahead of me wherever we went, just like his daughter does now.

A pretty table cloth, a pitcher of Chocolate milk so that the kiddos could pour their own refills, and letting the baby join the big kids table all made a special meal for the birthday girl that night for dinner.

We also covered a big chair and tied balloons to it, creating a birthday throne when cake and ice cream time came. Then, her cupcake was served on a musical, wind up cake plate that plays "Happy Birthday", but not very good. Its kind of old and wonky, but still a fun tradition for us.

It was all I could do, to not be teary all day. I can't believe she is six now.

The last few years have zoomed by!

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment HERE.

Fairys and Happy Thoughts

fairies, swaps

By Karla Nathan / August 23, 2012

Can you take a few more Faery Book Swap pages from me?

While looking through a box of postcards on my shelf, I came across one that said "Fair Days and Happy Thoughts"

With just a little bit of tearing and glue, I changed it to Fairys And Happy Thoughts.

I used some of the remnants of the post card, a letter, leftover bits of lace, and some other bits and pieces from my desk to collage a background around the words.

Over that, I added a Victorian scrap little girl, and gave her butterfly wings and some flowers.

The pansies were on thick paper, so the layers of them give the piece some nice thickness.

The back is a continuation of the same theme, Cleaning Scraps off my Desk. I tore strips of leftover scraps to make a collage, then added a calling card and lace. I covered up the original name on the calling card and added my own, as a signature.

I hope everyone is remembering to sign the backs of your pages???? Swappers will want to know who created the pages they get in their books!!

All of the charms I ordered to tie onto the books have arrived safely. I have 3 different ones to use, and will have a couple on each book.

The padded envelopes are ordered, the rings are here. I bought enough rings to do two per book, but I'm not sure yet if that is how I'll do it. I might go with one ring in the top corner, like the Birdsong books that Beth made. I like that look, mostly because I hang my books on hooks or nails in the studio and they look pretty displayed that way, from one top hoop. I'll a few together and see what I think. Its still up in the air right now.

In the past, I've wrapped tag books in vintage text from books in the theme of the swap. But these Faerie Swap books will be larger (oh my poor studio, when I start laying all of these out!!) and book pages won't fit around them.

I probably should order some tissue paper.

Sweet, Ruth Flowers sent me a big bag full of pretty ribbons that I can use to tie to the books and attach the fairy charms. I've got some more that I will be using too, but these colorful snips will be a nice addition to my stash. Its going to take a lot of ribbon!

Isn't the page she made beautiful?

And look!! Wendy sent an adorable, fairy cupcake as a gift!!

Thanks, Wendy and Ruth! Wendy did her pages all different. I did mine that way too. Some people make them all the same, its okay either way, they all go to different people. If you want to see more of Wendy's you can go to her blog.

I know I wasn't going to open any more packages till after the 1st, but I just have to peek a little… I'm letting myself open one here and there. Soon, I'll be getting 10-15 arriving at once, and it will be easier to pile them up. For now, when they trickle in one at a time, its too tempting to not see what is in the box.

And boy, has it been fun to see them! You will LOVE the artwork that has been showing up on my doorstep.

More later, I'll be away in Indiana for the big Downey Dinner, family reunion, but have posts prewritten for you to read while I'm away.

To enter the Giveaway, please leave a comment on THIS post.

Yep, still making fairy pages!

Books, fairies, swaps

By Karla Nathan / August 20, 2012

How could I not keep making fairy pages for the swap when I come across perfect images like this one!? I only need 8 pages to trade myself, but I think that I'm up to 15 now.

This vintage advertising card was so pretty, all she needed was some wings, she was already a fairy like lady.

I put the whole card onto an old letter, and added lace behind it, and a die cut of flowers over it. Slipped some wings on her, and glittered them up.

The backside is another page of the letter, with a butterfly postcard.

The card is embossed, and flocked.

This image was in the same box as the other, purchased at Bottom's Up last week. I got a huge pile of old die cuts and cards for $20. This one was torn, but was perfect for this page, I tore it a bit more, added glittered butterfly wings, a millinery bloom for a hat, and lace across the torn bottom edge.

Her background is a page from a children's gardening book.

The back is a page from the same book, and some more lace. I love that there is a place to write the name of the book's owner on this page when I mail it out!

This little hen hugger was in the same box.

I placed her over sheet music layered with a piece of curtain fabric left over from when the raccoons tore into my breezeway. The curtains were shredded at the bottom, but too pretty to throw away, so I saved what I could.

I glittered the chicken, gave the fairy some dragonfly wings and a millinery laurel for her hair. I almost added fairy wings to the chicken till I realized that, dur, chickens come with wings already.

She reminds me of Sugarwings carrying around one of her pet Rhode Island Reds.

Since the Fairy's gown looks like velvet, I added red velvet ribbon to the bottom of the page. Then, more lace, some flowers, and an old brooch.

Here is the back, sheet music, inked up with three colors of ink pads, and a vintage card in the center.

I have a couple more to show you in the next posts. Hopefully I will stop making these and get to work on some other stuff. But this theme is soooo fun, I just keep coming up with more and more ideas and would rather make these than get other stuff done. Like the BORING task of making the back covers of the book. Ugh.

There have been some rough days around the cottage recently and sitting down to make something pretty was a big help to me. Filling my world with pretty things helps to forget about the ugliness sometimes, doesn't it?

I'll be in Indiana for my family reunion, but will pre-post on my blog. All orders from the Boutique will be sent out when I return.

And I completely forgot that I wanted to make some pages with this image too! I need to do a few more, I guess.

You still have time to make some if you want to join too. Details on the side bar button to the right.

Pages are due on Sept.1st. But please keep in mind that it might take me more than a week to assemble, pack and label approximately 100 books. If you are running late, contact me before you spend money overnighting your package!!! I hate to see you overnight something and then have it sit here on my desk for 10 days.

But try not to be late, that does make it harder for me. Just please contact me if you are a couple days behind.

PS- if you want to win a giveaway of one of these doily votives, please leave a comment on the previous post.

A nice memory recreated and a giveaway

flowers, Tutorials

By Karla Nathan / August 18, 2012

A while back, I saw some doily bowls on Becky's blog. They reminded me of the baskets my sissy used to make 30 plus years ago, she hand crocheted them, then stiffened the fabric. I'd had a pile of doilies set aside, thinking I'd do this last Easter and never did it. I thought they'd be pretty spritzed with pastel Glimmer Mist and filled with a pretty egg.

Becky used starch to stiffen hers, I can't remember what Sis used. I chose to use school glue.

Since I wanted a narrow, basket shape, I used glasses to drape my doilies over. First, I got them good and wet, then wrung them out. Next, I squished and squeezed them in some Elmer's and simply plopped them over the glasses.

I put down a paper towel, then realized it was silly. The dripping glue might stick to a paper towel, but it wouldn't adhere to the counter top.

After letting them get partially dry, for an hour or so, I fiddled with the folds and gave the bottom (actually the top when it's done and flipped over) a nice ruffle effect.

See, how I kind of pulled out on the lace to give it some shape? When they were wet and drippy, they wouldn't hold this ruffle, but when partially dry, they were easy to manipulate.

To turn it into a basket, I added a pipe cleaner wrapped in lace and twisted it on. Of course, I had to glue on some millinery blooms too!

Around the "waist" of the piece, I wove a narrow piece of lace in and out, then tied it in front and added a bit of sparkle. I'm afraid its pointing down in the photo, it needs a tweak.

Next, I lined it with an old silk hanky, and a piece of oasis foam, and turned it into a nest for one of my ravens for the upcoming Romantic Gothic Ghost class at my studio.

I was experimenting with the pattern and made a velvet raven, but I think I prefer the felted wool ones.

This is a felted one. It just seems more substantial. Plus a LOT easier to sew. I'm not much of a sewer. I can't believe I am even doing a class that involves needle and thread. But it really is quick and easy to stitch up, or I wouldn't even consider it. The velvet on the other hand, was trickier to do. I'll have some available if students prefer the elegance of a velvet raven. Anyone is probably a better sewer than I am, so it might go better for them.

But back to the doilies. Sissy had crocheted handles on hers, and used them as Easter baskets. Becky's tutorial shows hers as bowls with candles. I thought I'd try one as is, fresh from the cup I dried it on, no embellishments and they are pretty as is with candles.

Especially in groupings.

Its been a long time since I had a giveaway. If you want one, leave a comment, and I'll draw a name when I get back from Indiana and my family reunion.

Or on the dining table.

The one in the very first photo has a lace ribbon woven through it and a rhinestone earring added to the lace. I also lined it with a hanky, then stuck three big, millinery roses inside. I have more of the roses in packs added to the Boutique too, if you need some.

Here is a bit of what else is new in the Boutique.

I am finishing up my pages, Twinkle is finishing up her pups

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, puppies!, swaps, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 16, 2012

This Faery Book Swap page is a done in a similar way to my other pages: slap down a vintage paper back ground, find a pretty lady or girl in my ephemera drawer, glue on some wings from the 1950s bug book that I got at a garage sale, sprinkle on some glitter, trim and done.

Well, basically at least. All are different in that I used a variety of ladies or girls, papers and trims, but it boils down to all being the same sort of process. Each is unique, but I didn't use any ground breakingly creative skills in assembling them, as you might have noticed as I gave some "how to's" on most of the pages I made.

This one has some hand drawn vines around the wallpaper centerpiece. And I used a sheer fabric, layered between the main decor and the background.

After finding my stride and figuring out shortcuts to make pages, I went a bit bannanas and made quite a few. I like to have extras for the swap, but if I don't need them, I'll be making up a seperate book for the Boutique.

I've also got some extra covers, so will make up some kits to sell too. In case you didn't get in the swap but would like to create your own fairy book.

The back is a pretty page from one of my old children's books, and a touch of lace at the bottom. But ooooh! what lace! Its butterflies!

I used quite a bit of this trimming out the covers too.

Each cover was basically the same design and style too, but all were done with slightly different supplies. When you use vintage materials, you get unique results. My wings are all petals or leaves from old millinery blooms, and the wallpaper is matched up to my wing materials. So are the ribbons and the little flower that I added to either her bodice or hair.

You can tell from this glimpse, that I used lots of different laces to trim the bottoms too.

I am so excited to be getting closer to assembly time! There will be two more posts upcoming with photos of the rest of my pages.

If you are curious about how I pull together a big swap, here is a post from the last one I hosted.

This pic of Twinkle about to pop on Aug. 12th, before the puppies are even due. Believe it or not, she is much bigger now, every day she seems to balloon up even more, and I feel so bad for her. Its hard to figure the due date, because she was over at her boy toy's house for ten days and I hear that they enjoyed every minute of the time together.

The vet says to figure 63 days from the mid point of their romantic interlude. But if I calculate from the first weekend, the due date is now.

I think she might have the pups today, and its Sugarwing's birthday, wouldn't that be perfect?! Her temperature has dropped to 98.5, she seems to be trying to nest under the deck, so we can't let her go out in the yard alone. I've barricaded the doggie door so she doesn't sneak out. She barely fits through it anyway. I might have to grease her belly if she continues to try to get in and out that little door.

Today Sugarwings is six years old. Tomorrow she goes to kindergarten.

For her birthday, I painted her new loft bed. She helped me, its a razzelberry color, with glitter. The ladder that goes up to the mattress is 5 steps, so I numbered them and did one fairy, two worms, 3 lady bugs, 4 butterflies, and 5 flowers on the coordinating rungs.

Sorry the photos suck, they were taken on my phone in a dark garage.

We've had a terrific birthday week, starting with her Mommie's party on Sunday, zoo on Monday, cupcake baking and decorating Wednesday, and a BBQ tonight. We had thought about a water park visit today, but haven't mentioned it to her. I'm glad we didn't, the weather doesn't look great, and I want to stay near the expectant momma.

What's on the menu for the BBQ? All of the birthday girl's favorites, of course! Salmon, french fries, watermelon, chocolate milk, corn on the cob, and spinach. Then, home made cupcakes mixed up by Dewdrop and Sugarwings.

I'll let you know if we have a few extra guests for dinner. I'm hoping to see six little tiny pups coming to the 6th birthday party!