November 2013 – Karla's Cottage

Romantic Cottage Christmas in the Studio

celebrations, holiday decor, studio tour, vintage paper/collage art, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / November 30, 2013

Seems like I've been full tilt into Christmas for weeks now. With all the fun of getting ready for my holiday workshop, I had my decor up and running way early this year.

I don't always deck the studio, but I sure am enjoying having all the holiday pretties up in here.

The party itself was such a good day. I hope the ladies enjoyed it as much as I did.

On Monday, I've got another group of friends coming over for an ornament making party, and on the 20th, I'm having a family ornie party. So, I'm hoping to keep the room tidy till then.

There is something about a tidy studio, that just fills me with anticipation. Because I know that it wouldn't be all cleaned up, if something fun wasn't about to happen in it!

It's exciting knowing that the room is looking it's best and ready for company!

And having holiday decorations in the room makes it even more fun. I kept the decor simple, but still festive. I exchanged the hanging birds, still up from Birdsong, with some ornaments.

And traded out bird pictures in the old frames for some glittery holiday messages and stars.

And of course, the Treat Cabinet always looks better when filled up with goodies.

But my favorite part?

A room filled with creative souls, laughing and making pretty things together.

I'll leave you with some pictures from the day.

PS, there are still some kits available for the cherub and the tree on a spool in my Etsy shop.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dew Drop, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 28, 2013

I hope you are having a special day! We have been busy bees, making up goodies for ours. While it might take twice as long to get the treats baked with these helpers, they end up tasting twice as good because of all the extra sweetness.

Wishing a sweet day to you too!

Christmas ornament kits

holiday decor, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / November 26, 2013

Our workshop was such fun on Saturday! What a nice group of ladies.

I'll have photos of the day to show you, but today has been crazy. We own a driveway full of vehicles (3 cars, 2 trucks), and are down to one that runs, or isn't loaned out to someone. We've been jumping, towing, trying to find rides, swapping them out, loaning them out, it has been a jumble around here.

The Hippy Chick's car died too, and we loaned her a truck that, of course, died. And our other truck died on the way to fetch her and Sugarwings when they were stranded on the roadside in the cold.

But I wanted to pop in here quickly, to let you know that there were still a few kits from the party left over. I made up extra of three of the projects, and they are going fast on Etsy.

I will be listing some of the angels that I made in preparation for the class, later on, if you are interested in those.

Or there are still kits if you'd like to make one of your own!

There are versions in pink and in gold/neutral tones.

Hopefully, in the next couple of days, I'll get some photos edited of our lovely day making these Christmassy goodies and get a new post up about it.

In the meantime, please check out the ornie kits for sale. Grammie needs a new alternator belt (and a compressor, and a battery, and well, probably a whole new car…)

Reunited

cottage, family

By Karla Nathan / November 24, 2013

Years ago, my Sissy used to make teddy bears. Really, really cute ones. She made all sorts of them and had an agent who sold them for her. But she gave some to family too, and when my boys were just little guys, she made them each one. (I've added the foof, the bears were just plain for the boys, of course)

Now that my sons are adults, and one is a father, the bears have been passed along to the grand fairies. But one has been missing for months. I've looked high and low for it, but it was no where to be found. Who knew what those girls could have done with it? Both kids are busy bees around here, hauling crap from their toy stash to various parts of the house or yard, or even out to the woods.

That bear could have been anywhere, including their mom's house or car.

Then, I decided to give my closet a fall cleaning and reorganize it. (this is my new coat from Victorian Trading!)

When our boys grew up and moved out, we did the smartest remodel project ever. We used an empty bedroom to expand our closet and bathroom, then moved the laundry room right into our closet. Perfect for a couple of empty nesters. We could take clothes right out of the dryer, and turn around and put them on a shelf or hanger. We no longer needed laundry baskets or even a chest of drawers. All of our things stayed right in the same room. It was great!

Till we started having people move in with us. Over the years, we have hosted many, many, many long term guests. Some for weeks, some months, some for years.

An empty nester laundry room isn't quite the same when your nest is over flowing, not empty.

But, back to the long, lost, little pink bear. (yes, my son has always had a fondness for pink, I'm glad he ended up with two, tiny, pink loving daughters)

The fuzzy pink bear turned up during the laundry room reorg!

Way, way, back in the corner, squished under a cabinet, she was hiding out! I squealed when I found her.

(please do not ask how often I clean behind or under things. You don't want to hear that, just know that I was quite brave to reach my arm under the cabinet to explore what was lurking under it)

To celebrate the bear's reunion, I cleaned them both up and brought them out to the studio to hang out for a while, before they are once again cuddled up by the two grand fairies and drug into games of hide and seek and who knows what else.

Cagey

holiday decor, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / November 22, 2013

When I am planning a class, I always make more than one example of the project. When I made the little wire birdcages, I probably made two thousand or more, since they were pretty complicated and I wanted to streamline them before writing up instructions for the online class. Online versions have to be extra careful since the student isn't in the same room to easily ask questions like at an art event workshop.

So, as I was spiffing up the studio and getting ready for company and for the holidays, I came across those two thousand plus cages- here, there, and everywhere around the room.

Instead of packing them away to make room for holiday things, I decided to use them as holiday decorations on my mini tree.

Of course, the tree is pretty tiny, and they take up most of it, but I like the look. I think I'll put some on my big tree in the house too.

Wouldn't they be cute with a few tiny shiny brites in the cage?

Since I have a few thousand of them to use….

For every before and after, there is an in between

celebrations, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / November 20, 2013

Saturday is my party!! I feel like a kid waiting for my birthday, I'm so excited. I sincerely enjoy throwing these little arty bashes, and when you add Christmassy decor to it, I'm plain old giddy about it.

My kits are together, but the room is still a mess. I've skipped over and tripped over piles of stuff to take a break from the boring part of getting ready to do some of the fun stuff, the foofing.

And when I say "tripping" I mean it. The room is a wreck. But- it is an organized mess. Those Trader Joes bags on the table? Each one is full of 20 kits for each of the ornaments we will be working on. It might look like chaos in here, but it's all coming together, and my stacks and piles have purpose. Soon, they'll be packed up and piled elsewhere, or used, or arranged, or something, and it will all be ready for company.

But I am not the type of person who can do all the grunt work at once. I need little pick me up, fun breaks. So, I'll trim ribbons, cut paper, and print images to pack up a kit, then I'll sneak over to hang a banner or pretty up a corner of the room.

The clutter will be cleared from the tables eventually, the dog pee pads will be picked up and tossed out, and the floor mopped, but having my pretties up on the walls around me as I do the drudgery part makes it more bearable.

Although, I might be sorry I am taking my time and preparing the room in the fun way instead of the practical way. Last night, the handle snapped off of my kitchen sink faucet!

No repairing, this needs replaced. Now, I'm off to Home Depot and have to clear the whole counter top and under the sink. A bit of a time suck, when I have a lot to do in the studio. I might have to be a firmer taskmaster to myself to get the room ready for Saturday.

On the other hand, it is nice to know that a lot of the pretty part is done and waiting for guests. I can always shove a bunch of stuff in the garage and the room will pull itself together quickly if need be.

Wish me luck….

Varieties of pretties

Dew Drop, jewelry, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 18, 2013

My son has been making these "alchemy" pendants with semi precious stones and other properties, and hopes to get an Etsy shop going soon for himself. They sold very well at the Renaissance Festival and have a lot of meaning behind them. He's versed in what crystal combos do, although I don't exactly understand, I enjoy seeing him being creative and leading his Zen lifestyle.

Plus, they are pretty. I do understand that aspect of them!

I do love me some pretty!

At Victorian Trading Company's outlet store in KC, I loaded up on it last week with Beth.

This velvet coat came home with me for less than half of the catalog price, plus came with a $20 gift certificate that I spent on a whole big pile of clearance items along with that apothecary jar in the previous picture.

See the skirt under the coat? It's not a skirt, it's a ruffle at the bottom. Kind of like a skirt dickie for a coat. I can feel dressed up even when I'm not. And I rarely am. I'm the type that wears slippers outside. But hey, don't these slippers look like boots? They are warm, cute and were only eight bucks at the outlet store.

Do you watch Big Bang Theory? I love those guys. And Wallowitz's colorful outfits, each with a dickie under his shirt. So I have been calling this my Wallowitz coat.

Part of my $20 gift rebate haul was a $3 card making kit, that Sugarwings went bonkers over. She made cards, slipped them into envelopes, and gave them to everyone. She was a regular, one person, Hallmark machine.

I also got a free, crystal wreath brooch, cup cake wrappers, a cute coffee mug, and way too much candy.

And all of it, pretty as can be, piled up on my dining table.

But the prettiest thing on the table?

Sugarwings decided to act out some sort of play going on in her imagination by crawling up on the table and swooning away till her prince charming came along. Of course, a Grammie will indulge such funny, foolishness instead of shooing her off the table.

Then again, Grammies are the type that like to indulge little fairy girls a lot. We bought some Crayola window markers that dry in a crystallized design and I let them draw all over my windows with them.

Happy Birthday Dewdrop

celebrations, Dew Drop

By Karla Nathan / November 16, 2013

Little Dewdrop is turning 3 today. Oh my!

She still lets me call her "baby" even though she insists that she is a big girl.

Here she is, only a few hours old.

And I wonder if her love for playing dress up began way back in her first week, when we played fairy with her?

She seemed to enjoy the game.

For a long time, she adored dressing in any pink dress at all.

But recently, she has become fixated on this pink "fincess" (princess) dress. It's the one that she wants to wear daily, no matter what. There have been days when it is hard to get it off of her to get into the laundry.

Of course, if you know me, you know I don't mind. I love being surrounded by pink princesses!

Sidetracks

holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / November 13, 2013

Yep, I know, I know, I need to make kits for the Romantic Cottage Christmas workshop November 23rd.

But I've been having too much fun playing with all the supplies I have out to create the kits How on Earth could I resist taking an extra set of wings and turning them into a little ornament on their own?

So nice, I did it twice.

I've been experimenting with different ribbons and lace to see which makes the best wing texture.

I've decided this lace makes the prettiest wings. And was the easiest to work with.

Of course, we'll have lots of different lace and trims to try that day if the participants prefer something other than what comes in the kits.

And yes, there will be kits, eventually. I have all the Tart Tin Trees wrapped up and ready to go, in neutral and pink so my guests will have a choice. (I love having extra choices, the fun part of a workshop is seeing how varied one project looks done in different ways)

But, gosh, where there are little remnants lying on my table, I can't resist turning it into something.

I have been way too distracted by shiny things this week!

While cutting up this beyond wonderful, pink flock wallpaper, I couldn't let the scraps go to waste. Some I cut into die cut shapes to use later, but if there were any snippets too small for that, I used them to wrap around the spools for my little trees.

I treasure each little, left over, bit too much. To me, the old paper is too precious to let anything usable go to waste.

And I love a good excuse to get out of the task at hand…

But now, back to work. I really do enjoy putting kits together, and an excuse to stop and play just extends the fun. I refuse to look at it as procrastinating. It's too much fun to be labelled in a negative way!!

Romantic Cottage Christmas projects

holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / November 10, 2013

This week, I've been getting all my projects completed and gathering up supplies for Romantic Cottage Christmas.

The palette is silver, gold, and white with an option for pink if preferred.

I've got some tiny trees in aqua too, so I guess that is also a choice.

And I drew up some collage sheets with holiday graphics to use.

One of my favorites, is this Holiday Treat Jar, topped with a praying angel. Her wings are flocked wallpaper on one side and layers of ruffled lace on the other.

She has such a sweet face, I fell in love with this old photo at a glance.

This angel doesn't have any problems in the sweet department herself. What a darling! Lots of flocked paper and lace for her too.

And of course, as The Cherub sways on the tree, her backside will show, that has to be prettied up too.

The kneeling angel also will have a nicely finished back view.

I figure that the Mini Tart Tin Trees and the Bottle Brush Spools will each be shorter classes, probably less than an hour. So, we will have time to personalize and embellish both angel projects.

There will also be beads and crystals to add to the little trees. I do like to see the finished products show the creator's own personality, so I like to have lots of extras out for everyone to play with.

The Good Stuff, of course!

I will be making up plenty of kits. They will be for sale after the class on 11/23. Or if you'd rather come and visit here in the studio, I still have room for a few more guests.

We would love to have you join us!

All supplies for 4 projects are included, along with lunch, goodies, and beverages for $100 per person.

Please email me if you'd like to attend.