August 2013 – Page 2 – Karla's Cottage

Rosy room redos

antiques/junking, cottage, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs

By Karla Nathan / August 8, 2013

While I was taking time off, hanging with the grand fairies and on my home improvement kick, I spiffed up the guest rooms a little.

Not much, just some switching of linens for this room, and bringing in a bedside table. (I really, really hate the carpet, but the room is used a couple times a year, it's not worth ripping it out and putting in wood or laminate, like I'd prefer)

The second attic guest room got more of an overhaul. I hung a cool, old, mosquito net that Lisa had given me, and added a gorgeous net and lace bedspread from her too.

Here is a before. We don't use the room much, and around here, the guest rooms seem to just get leftover bits and pieces put in them. It was okay, but a little blah.

The dark green shutters on each side of the window needed balance and I happened to have a $7, dark green table from a garage sale wasting away, and thought that helped a little when I brought it in. (both are things I thought I'd paint white and never did, but I'm liking the contrast with the rest of the room)

But it made the bed look washed out, so I added some pillow cases I made out of some green and rose curtains from the 40s.

I had a heck of a time getting the netting to hang right, so it wasn't drooping down too much. I decided to use a beautiful hand made bit of wrapping paper from Lori Oles as an anchor to hold it on the wall. It worked, but was too light colored, so I pinned a round piece of floral wallpaper in the center of it.

Then, I broke a ruler in half, wrapped it in torn strips of ivory cloth. I gathered the netting, and nailed the fabric wrapped ruler over it in two places to hold the pleats in place.

The room is hard to photograph since it is so small and has those angled roof lines. The canopy thingamajig looks better in person than it does in the pictures. The bed is kind of cozy looking this way.

I stapled a millinery flower on each side of the ephemera piece, and trimmed Lori's ribbons to dangle a little bit, but not too far.

This room is full of hand painted rose pieces too. I used to have an antique biz and I'd paint furniture. All this is leftovers from that.

Sometimes I think my house only has things that no one else wanted it in. Either stuff I never sold, or things I bought dirt cheap second hand because another person wanted it gone. (except for the lovely gifts from Lori and Lisa, this room is all cast offs)

These shutters are actually a custom order that was never picked up, which is why they were dark green in the first place. And that inspired the rest of the redo. And it wasn't even something I'd chosen to do for myself or the room.

How to make a tincture of lavender oil

flowers, free images, how-to projects

By Karla Nathan / August 6, 2013

The girls and I made some lavender extract/oil recently. We experimented, after I read through lots of online how-tos and picked out the easiest parts from what I saw.

Hopefully, my jimmy-rigged attempt will work out.

This is the first year that my lavender has really taken off, so I had a beautiful bush of it. Well, I don't know if they are condsidered bushes. But this was so large, it practically was a shrub.

I filled a vase with some, then, we set up an assembly line of cutters and crushers to make the oil.

Sugarwings was in charge of the scissors, Dewdrop had the job of throwing the blooms into the bowl. We all took turns using the pestle.

It was then shoved down into a clean, glass jar. (vintage of course!)

We covered it with vodka to soak. (to me, this seemed less likely to cause bacterial problems than soaking it in oil might, although I'm sure if done right, oil is fine) At that part, my husband walked in the door as I nabbed his bottle of Gray Goose, and he was wondering if trying to make this concoction with the help of the two little fairies had driven me to mid-morning drinking.

Once I explained what we were doing, he thought I might be wasting the good stuff (I don't drink vodka, but once the price was explained to me, I quickly looked in the cabinet for something cheaper)

Here is how we are making it, I'll let you know how it all turns out:

1- Trim most of the stems off, but you don't have to take the blooms off completely, just cut the stem off at the base of the buds. (I placed a few cut off long stems in each trash can around the house, as air freshners)

2- Lightly crush the blooms, just to release the oils. Don't smoosh them to goo.

3- Fill a clean, glass jar with the lavender, cover with vodka cheaper than Gray Goose.

4- Tighten the lid, and shake.

5- Shake a few times a day for a week or so, and store in bright light. My bottle looks pretty on the windowsill.

6- Pour the liquid through a sieve into another clean, glass container.

7- I used the sieve as a lid over a big, glass measuring cup and let it sit for a few days so the alcohol could evaporate. Cheesecloth is what you are supposed to use, but this seemed fine.

8- When it is done, I hope to have a concentrated tincture of fresh, organic lavender oil to use in my cleaning supplies and to scent bath products I like to make.

9- Store in dark bottles. Make sure you make a pretty label for your bottle!

You are welcome to use this one if you'd like.

One site I looked at for making herb tinctures seemed good, But I only used parts of it and parts of a few others, so please google tinctures and oils before you make your own too, you might find other ways that suit you better.

Happy Times and Whammy Times

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / August 4, 2013

The Summer Of Whammy is going well. Although little Dewdrop has taken to calling me Gammy instead of Whammy now. And Twinkle has gone from Schminkle to Winkle. Just this little tidbit of change is enough to remind me that they won't be little for long and I need to cherish this time with them.

Taking most of the summer off to be a Fairy Grandmother was a good choice.

We had both girls for a weekend and decided to pack up and go to Omaha because Dewdrop had never been to that zoo.

And it is a world class, wonderful, place to go. The exhibits are more like adventures than cages and it has all been beautifully done. I can't get enough of the butterfly garden or the bayou swamp.

We had lunch in a cafeteria over looking the rain forest. (I can't say that the food was good, but the fairies didn't seem to mind as long as they could watch monkeys while they ate)

Six and 11/12ths is a bit old for a stroller, but for our sanity and hers, we spent the day pushing both kids in a double wide.

We also didn't try to cram in the whole park. We ambled, we took our time, we stopped to climb on statues or look at fountains.

When we stopped at the playground, I over heard a frustrated mom say to her kids, "I didn't spend all this money for you to hang out on a playground, let's go look at the lions." I know she had a valid point, but for us, it didn't matter what we saw or how many exhibits we made it to, it was about Happy Time.

And when someone (I'm not naming names, here) got cranky, we left early. When Happy Times ended, so did we, it was time to drive around in the car till a nap spontaneously occured.

Even with a good nap, after a couple of hours of hotel splash pad/swimming she was BEAT.

So, it was stories, Netflix on the iPad and hanging out in the room. We weren't trying to "get our money's worth" from the trip, we were all about Happy Time.

And boy, did we get plenty of that.

When I was younger, I would probably have pushed my sons to get through the whole zoo. Thinking I'd drove 3-1/2 hours and spent a fair bit of change on the trip, we needed to see it all.

It's nice to be a mellow, old lady and to enjoy what is right there, right now, and know when enough is enough.

Seriously, you painted your shoes?

how to's, paintings, show and tell

By Karla Nathan / August 2, 2013

I love pretty shoes, I long for and dream of pretty shoes. But my feet don't cooperate. I have what is known as "Freds". Something more suited for stopping a prehistoric car than slipping into high heels.

Buying shoes is traumatic for me. I can shop for 6-12 months, try on hundreds, and not find a pair that fits. Or I think maybe a pair will do, bring them home and only be able to wear them once or twice before giving up. Not only are these feet hard to fit, I'm a bit picky on comfort.

Actually a LOT picky.

My feet have to feel good if I plan on feeling good myself.

My closet is full of brand new shoes only worn once. Goodwill loves me for all the new shoes I donate after purchasing them with a heart full of hope, thinking that THIS will be the pair that not only fits, but looks pretty too!

So, when these extremely comfy, 6 year old Danskos started looking too ratty to wear, I was sad. They weren't torn up, or stretched out, just stained and scuffed. I'd worn a vintage shoe clip on them that tarnished the leather and wouldn't clean off. The shoe clips kept sliding around and not staying in place, and had to go.

Plus, the sides were kind of discolored. Overall, not a good look. But they were shoes that I could walk around an amusement park for hours and still felt good!

That is a shoe worth trying to salvage.

I got out some acrylic craft paints.

The shoes were not a glossy finish, so I figured it would hold well. They are a brushed suede, which took the paint nicely. The trick was to go with colors that would blend with the original leather if scraped. Also, to go lightly, not to use a thick glob that might peel.

First step, was to clean them with an old toothbrush, including the suede sole.

After that, I painted a slightly heavy coat over the black marks with a color to match the leather. But only heavy there, not on the rest of the shoes. Then, I left it to dry.

Next, I used the same base color in a light, watered down wash, on all the leather, making sure to get around the buckle and under the straps. This was done with a small, rough, brush to work the paint down into the leather.

Over that, I did a metallic faux finish with copper and pearl.

I've been wearing them, and so far so good.

Not a pretty picture, huh? See why I call them Freds? Mr. Flintstone and I have a lot in common.

If I were to buy perfectly fitting shoes, I'd need to go to the little boys department and try on size 3 triple wides. If you've ever done that, you know there aren't many pretty choices. When I was a kid, Mom bought me "corrective" shoes. Which is a code word for Butt Ugly.

As close as I can find to corrective shoes in the adult world is Easy Spirit. Sometimes an extra wide, pretty one turns up. And some European (code word, expensive) shoes fit pretty good, like the Danskos I redid. They are often wide, always well made and hold up for years.

But I have never, ever, found a lovely pair of delicate heels that my feet would enjoy. I guess that I'll be treasuring whatever fits and keeping them as good as I can for as long as I can.