June 2014 – Karla's Cottage

Travel woes and something very scary

By Karla Nathan / June 29, 2014

Dewdrop rode home from Roots and Bliss with us since her Daddy's car was full to the brim with supplies he'd hauled down for the event.

After only a few minutes on the winding, hilly roads, she let us know that her tummy wasn't happy and she wanted out of the car. Silly me, I gave her the ipad to take her mind off of her problems.

Now, I've gotten carsick enough in the past to know that reading doesn't exactly help the feeling, so giving her the ipad to look at probably wasn't very smart.

Soon, she starting spewing out buckets and buckets of breakfast. We pulled over pretty fast. And luckily, had a car loaded with camping supplies, towels, wash wipes, clean clothes, etc. I was glad to have trash bags too. And paper towels to save the ipad.

All of her toys were, um, saturated…. And she wanted something to snuggle. My mom used to make wash cloth dolls for me when I was sick, I wish I could ask her how she did that. I twisted up a paper towel into a baby in a blanky for Dewdrop, but it just wasn't as cute as what my mom used to make.

Still, it gave her something to snuggle and she was happy to hold it.

This curvy road wasn't the best luck for us. As scary as that spewing baby was, this is worse. On the way to the camp, we had a frightening experience, I was glad we didn't have a baby in the car with us then! As we were heading south, a young woman jumped out into the road, waving her arms and crying hysterically.

We pulled over, to see if she needed help, and she screamed that her boyfriend was trying to kill her. She wanted in the car, but I was leery. I've seen the ravages of meth on a person's body before and she had the tell tale signs of that addiction, but still I wasn't sure. We looked around, didn't see another soul, so dialed 911 and told her to wait by the car.

After we had the police on the line, we got out to see if she was okay. My husband wanted to let her in the car, but I've seen enough horror movies to know that if you are in the middle of nowhere and a stranger wants in your car, you probably shouldn't let them in. And wasn't this the part of the country that Winter's Bone was set in? Or maybe, Cabin in the Woods?

Well, I wasn't heartless, just careful. With the police on the way, we gave her water, food, and listened to her story while we waited by the car for the cavalry to come.

Apparently, her boyfriend was a fugitve from the law, and had kidnapped her and kept her captive in the woods for days, beating her with a baseball bat, threatening to kill her. Then, he drove off with her, they ran out of gas, and she escaped. It was hard to understand much of the story, she was crying so hard, and so frightened. She seemed battered, but didn't look like she had any broken bones. We asked if we should call 911 again and ask for an ambulance, but she said no.

While we waited, and waited for the police to come (we were in the middle of no where!) I gave her motherly advice about guys who are trouble,respecting herself and not letting him back in her life, and handed her some cash. I'm sure she appreciated the cash, I don't know about the advice.

And then she pointed out the boyfriend's car up the hill. As he walked toward it with a gas can!!

That was when we dialed 911 again, and made sure help was coming. They had us ask her if the guy had a gun, she said no, only the bat and a big flashlight he had hit her with. We decided we should drive away with her if he acted like he was coming towards us, but everything happened so fast, we didn't have a chance. After filling up his tank, he zoomed right at us, and luckily, kept on going, probably knowing the police were on the way.

Soon after, they arrived. The officer was very familiar with the loser who beat her, and said they had been hunting for him. I felt bad about not getting the license plate number, but it wasn't needed, they knew the car. I didn't find out if there had been a missing person report on this girl, or how long she had been kept in the woods, she said a few days. I still think she was probably involved with meth, it would have taken more than a few days to look as ragged and bone thin as she was.

What would you have done? My husband said that if I hadn't been there, he would have put her in the car and taken her away to call for help. I just didn't feel safe letting her in. Although, if the boyfriend had a gun, we would have been easy pickings when he showed up, and maybe we'd have been smart to drive away with her instead of waiting there for the police. She kept begging to leave, because she thought he was coming to kill her. And I guess he could have killed us too.

Roots and Bliss

Dew Drop, dogs, fairies, family, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / June 27, 2014

For the solstice, we drove to the Ozarks to go to the Roots and Bliss festival hosted at a campground on the river.

I'm not much of a camper, or a festival goer. But I knew that my littles would be there, and that their dad was a major contributor to the event, he'd been working on the venue for the whole previous year.

It was really quite nice to see him in action, and to see the respect and caring that he was shown by the attendees.

I didn't attend any of the workshops, but I liked listening.

And of course, playing with the grand fairies.

And splashing around down in the river.

My only regret is that we didn't bring dogs with us. We might have been the only people there without a pup. Well, not quite, but there were lots of furry friends around.

Funny, many of the dogs had at least one blue eye.

In the last few years, I've started a habit of making fairies on beaches I visit. At this beach, there wasn't much in the way of shells, so I didn't think about it, til I saw that mossy green, heart shaped rock and knew it had to be a bodice for a fairy dress.

Then, saw a skirt shaped rock to match. The head was easy too, then I was stumped with no rock wings or appendages. (oh, maybe "stumped" was a rude way to put it)

So, I cheated, and tucked the beach stones into my pocket for later. When I got back up to the camp, I poked around and found some sticks, and dead leaves that worked out pretty good and I was able to finish my little sprite.

The weekend was visually quite lovely, pretty lights, a winding, candlelit pathway, happy faces every where. Yep, we were very proud of our boy for his part in it all.

There was yoga, from the talented Miss Tree, who has travelled the world to become a master class teacher, and who thought up and started the whole Roots and Bliss idea. I'm glad they were blessed with beautiful weather and a good crowd after all the hard work that they put into the planning.

Sugarwings' mom was a fire dancer, and I was so mesmerized, I didn't even think of taking a photo. But here is the fam before the show started…

Did I mention that we were proud of our boy? And I'm a bit proud of myself for going. I had no intention of doing it. This sort of thing isn't my typical weekend, but sometimes you do need to get out of your regular routine and try something different, don't you?

I prefer books and TV or movies to live music, and get plenty of out door life in my own yard and have never felt the need to camp. So, the weekend was going to be a stretch for me.

At the last minute, I offered to join my husband (he wouldn't have missed it for anything, he'd been out of town and hadn't seen the girls all week. That man would have driven anywhere to see his grand daughters after a week without them). So I gathered my courage and decided I'd sleep in a tent in the wilderness.

Luckily, we got there and found a very nice, air conditioned, cabin to rent for the night and I didn't even have to unroll a sleeping bag.

But I would have done it! I was willing to give it a try.

And trying something different is kind of nice. Especially, when you are surrounded by such nice people.

ps- I'm having a Summer Clearance sale in the Boutique. I've neglected that poor little shoppette too long, I need to clean up, clear out, and refresh it all. You are welcome to soak up some summertime savings and help me get a fresh start, by using this link and getting 50% off everything in the store:

http://www.karlascottage.com/?code=Summersale

(You must use that address to get the special price. Going to the regular address does NOT take you to the 50% discount)

And please know, I will refund excess postage after boxingup your purchase and weighing it.

Meanwhile back at Birdsong- yep, here comes MORE

bird song art event, Food and Drink, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / June 25, 2014

Yes, I know, I'm still blathering on about our party. It is a huge deal for me, and I love every minute of it. Plus,( just ask my family), it takes over my world for quite a while, so it is hard to let it go when it ends.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend is the party night. We drink some wine, eat dinner, shop in the garage, and hang out. I try to keep it all pretty laid back, and fun for me too. So I cook ahead of time, making up huge pans of food in advance, to have frozen and waiting to go into the oven that night, and have the other vendors in charge of shopping.

This year was just a little more complicated when I started to set up the vendor space, because I forgot to use plastic on the walls when I hung a canvas up to paint a banner there this spring. (the wall was a tad bit, uhmm, colorful) I had to repaint before I could fix the garage up and turn it into a store.

I painted the wall a pretty sky blue (leftover from that banner), and wrote "peeps" in Xmas lights on it, then covered it all in a huge piece of lace. After carrying out typical garage junk, and bringing in some rugs, I set up tables with white cloths on them and we filled the room up with vintage goodness.

I'm afraid I didn't get any photos during the sale! These are from set up before the room is done.

But here is a picture of what I bought there. This is a necklace from Lori.

And here are the necklaces that Lori and Andrea gave to me. I've always adored cameos. And when Andrea told me to chose a necklace from her vendor table, I had to go for the one with the large bird that matched the bracelet kits she had.

I've been very inspired by both of them, and have been on a jewelry binge since they left. Here is a necklace I made from Andrea's kit.

She included some very nice pieces, and I had some beads that matched nicely, and was able to add a bit more chain and doo dads to make it longer.

Weeks before our weekend kicks off, I start baking and filling the freezer with treats. I try to be very prepped in advance, so I can have fun once the party starts.

Do you know how hard it is to live in a home that has a freezer full to the brim with treats???? Sometimes, when my husband would be out of town, and I'd still be up late in an empty home, watching TV or reading, I could hear the sound of those cookies calling my name from the freezer in the garage.

Cookies can be very loud after midnight. They never shut up, when they know you are home alone and it is late at night.

Believe it or not, there were still cookies left in the freezer when the guests arrived. I don't know how they survived, but some did.

These were made with alphabet stamps I found at TJ Max. I didn't notice till I was half done making them that I'd loaded "PEFPS" instead of "PEEPS" into the cookie cutters. I was able to transform that F into an E with a knife point for some cookies, but many were already baked, so got served as "pefps".

We ended up with way too much food. Besides the misspelled cookies, I made what Suzanne called a "bird bath full of apple deliciousness". I had kind of a huge bowl of it to serve. Part of the problem, was that there was a storm right before I went grocery shopping, and the power was out! I had to push an over loaded 500lb cart in the darkness and browse by the light of my cell phone flashlight ap.

I wasn't as careful of a shopper as I could have been. But I think it's better to have extra than not enough.

And boy did we have extra.

One thing that people seemed to like was the corn. I'd fixed chicken pasta, and needed a side dish. And I wanted something fresh, easy to make, and kind of Italian.

Here is what I did:

I cut the corn off of two dozen ears the day before, and stored it in ziplock bags in the fridge to save space. When you are feeding 35 plus people for multiple meals, fridge space is a big issue.

My son chopped a bag of carrots in the food processor while my sis sauteed 3 diced red peppers in olive oil. Then the carrots were sauteed. All of that went into a bag in the fridge too.

The next day, I emptied all the bags into a giant pot (I made way too much, thinking that 24 ears of corn for 35 people was okay, but I probably only needed half that much), added butter, sea salt, white pepper, and fresh thyme.

Then, I had anyone who walked through the kitchen taste it. We all kept thinking, more thyme, more thyme, more thyme, maybe more salt? By the time we all added thyme, it was pretty durn tasty.

And wasn't I lucky that making something up on the fly worked out? I'd never tried carrots with corn and thyme, but we all loved it. If it had sucked, I'd have been in trouble, since I had a vat of it and a bunch of hungry crafters!!

Summer Fun with Dewdrop and Sugarwings

Dew Drop, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / June 23, 2014

The grand fairies and I have big plans for summer. We are going to make chalk, play dough, and all sorts of things. I've been busy pinning lots of fun ideas for us to experiment with.

We've tried this one already. But it got a bit out of hand… The Pinterest Recipe was for a few cups of sand, some glitter, cornstarch, and water.

We used 50 lbs of sand, and probably too much water. Plus a bunch of food coloring. It was FUN!

I saved the sand in a tub with a lid so it could be revisited later for more fun, but it got smelly after a few really hot days. Oh well, that is why its called an experiment, you try things, you learn something about it, you try again.

Instead of 'moon sand' we got a sparkling swamp. And girls that sparkled too. Someone dunked their hair in the glitter swamp and I think it might still be washing out.

And I seriously wonder if the silver glitter will ever be completely be gone from the hot tub… maybe I shouldn't have let them go for a "hot pool" swim after this experiment.

A fairy tea party for grandma

bird song art event, cottage, fairies, family, Food and Drink, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 21, 2014

The day after Birdsong ended, my week was just gearing up! We had family in town visiting, and a new kitten joined our family. His name is Terrance Snow Bell Song Bird Nathan. (Terrance was in the Tinkerbell movie)

The monsoons resumed, and the girls made use of the piles of umbrellas we'd had out on the porch earlier.

Guncle Randy, Karen Hillman, and Crafting Queen Regina were in charge of dinner, while my husband grilled chicken. He had rigged up multiple umbrellas and tarps to grill under, and didn't give up, no matter how soggy the day got.

After a quiet-ish day of hanging in the studio and running people to the airport, we had a big family feast. And the next morning, the grand fairies threw a tea party for Great Grandma Joan who had come to visit them.

They had been talking about her visit for months. And had big plans for the tea party. I'm so glad that I didn't listen to my tired body, and that I rallied for this. It meant a lot to the little ones and a person like Joan deserves being the guest of honor at a fairy feast.

She is a dear lady.

Karen and Randy had whipped up a baked squash dish and a pan of roasted potatoes for our dinner the night before. I remade the leftovers into an egg casserole, made home made cinnamon rolls, asparagus wrapped in ham, and fruit salad (left overs too). Just about everything was a reconfigured dish.

The cinnamon rolls were even topped with extra raspberry icing I'd made for the cake I served for dessert on Sunday.

Did I mention that I bought WAY too much food for Birdsong? Luckily, I had a hoard of hungry nephews drop by to visit me on their way to a white water rafting trip. I filled their cooler with cookies and picnic food.

The little girls set the table for me, tea parties are a great learning experience for tiny fairies. Between their enthusiasm (and the smell of fresh baking bread) we had a table full of guests for our party. At first, it was just going to be a handful of us, no one else could make it.

Festivity can be contaigious, and even my Handsome Husband got into the feel of the event. He went and put on a jacket and tie for the party.

With his cargo shorts.

Regina, Guncle Randy, and Karen all delayed thier trip to Kansas City to stay and toast Great Grandma Joan with herbal tea.

I think this photo is hilarious. The breezeway was pretty much trashed, from Birdsong, a big dinner the night before, and the box of empties from the parties hadn't gone out yet. But it just goes to show that you don't have to make everything perfect to have a good time.

If I'd had to completley clean up from the previous parties, I doubt if I'd been able to squeeze one more occasion out of my hospitality drained soul. So, I just ignored the remnants of it all and partied-on.

From the look on this little fairy's face, a bit of mess wasn't even noticeable to her.

Sugarwings took this photo of us saying goodbye.

It was a fun way to see eveyone off and say thanks to the family and friends who had helped me so much all weekend.

And yes, there are more Birdsong pictures, I warned you, didn’t I?!

bird song art event

By Karla Nathan / June 19, 2014

Our first class was Lori Oles' shadow box.

Her kits were beautifully wrapped up, huh?

And lucky me, she gifted me with the finished example!

My class the first day was a little fairy in a swing. ( I think this is Tamantha's)

If I were to award prizes for the fairy who looked the most like her maker, who do you think would win?

(yes, I know the planter behind Linda makes it look like she is wearing a floral hat. I had to line myself up to get the photo that way, how could I not give her a rainbow flower top hat when it was right there behind her just taunting me with the possibility?)

Lisa is probably tied for first place with Linda.

Tami's favors her too.

Some crafters combined my class with Lori's class and added the fairy to the shadowbox.

The wool roving we worked with looked so much like cotton candy, that I heard more than one table mention that they had a craving for it.

So, I fetched the cotton candy machine!

Sugarwings dropped by to visit just in time to be my cotton candy making assistant.

And to sample the sparkling pink lemonade. She now thinks that Birdsong is all about the treats. Well, it kind of is, I bake and bake to prepare for it.

Andrea Singarella was the first teacher of the day on Sunday.

While the morning teacher does her class, I am busy prepping for lunch. This year I was smart enough to get most of it done way ahead of time so I could pop in the room to visit. Still, it all went by so fast for me, it was kind of a blur. I really wish I could visit with everyone even more.

Andrea had us making bracelets. Once again, beautiful kits, huh?

Even her tools were pretty.

My Sissy's were too. Hers had some sparkle going on.

My second class was this mobile. Which is hard to photograph.

This photo is from the night before it all began, after getting the studio ready for company.

Maybe by the end of the weekend, we were all a bit slap happy with the last class?

Possibly so. When Suzanne told me that her mobile was going to be bridal themed for her upcoming wedding, I got this veil out for her and Guncle Randy had to model it for us.

As did the beautiful bride.

She hung her tags from the vintage veil after everyone got a chance to play dress up in it.

This was a great class to end with, because it was pretty laid back. Everyone made the tags and crystals that they wanted, and we added them to a simple wreath with lace and ribbon.

It was kind of relaxing to make tags and pretty things. I tried to make sure there were plenty of goodies in each kit, plus extras for them to play with. I like it when no two projects turn out the exact same way. And we are a big believer in extras here. After Andrea's bracelet was finished, those with extra time could make earrings too.

I have a few more pics of the weekend coming up. I am really enjoying looking through them all and reliving the great time I had. Thanks again to everyone who came to see me!

Birdsong 4 Peeps

bird song art event

By Karla Nathan / June 17, 2014

Since our party is called Birdsong, I began calling my friends who attend, "my Peeps".

And what a fun bunch of chicks they are!

Well, not all are chicks.

And some literally are chickens.

The event is a success because of the nice people who attend.

I love my Peeps!

This year's party got off to a soggy start. There was a monsoon as everyone was arriving, so the guests and the room were soaked. I'm afraid that the temperature in the room was hard to manage as the heat rose outdoors and the sogginess turned into humidity.

But it takes more than bad weather to knock the smiles of these guests. Everyone was kind and understanding about the problems. And the next day, with more normal (what exactly is normal for Kansas, anyway???) weather, we were fine.

We were able to put the new patio to good use.

I'm thrilled with the way the cement turned out. No more chair legs sinking a foot into the mud and gravel when someone sat down! That is a plus when you are entertaining.

Not only were the Peeps fun to be around, they were generous. Thoughtful sponsors sent us gifts to put in the "tweet" bags, and attendees also brought tons of presents to share with each other.

We were able to have not just a goodie bag and one drawing item per person, but were able to put all the names back in the hat after everyone got a prize and draw again for a few more.

Tami won Beth's annual Birdsong Embroidered Apron for the second year in a row. And the fact that she wasn't beaten up by the envious non-winners is even more proof that extremely nice people attend our party!

Angie’s Birdsong Eve Birthday Bash

bird song art event, wallpaper, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 15, 2014

Some of the nicest ladies came to see me last weekend for Birdsong.

Many come from out of town, and my buddy, Angie, was kind to invite them all to her shop for a birthday celebration the night before our event began.

She invited us to her elegant antique store, and served up pizza with style while we chatted, caught up with each other's news, did some shopping, and a little project with Beth.

Beth packed up her legendary vintage supplies and set the group up with a fun project.

To celebrate Angie's birthday, my family and I made some cupcakes. Lavender is her fave, so we picked some fresh blooms from the garden, made an oil infusion with them, strained it and added that to the white cup cake mix.

yum

Now this is my fave too. It was subtle, not a strong lavender. And when we saw how easy it was to do, I decided I want to harvest all my plants to do this with, and freeze the herb infusion to use year round.

My sister-in-law, Terry, and my son both spent Friday baking and chopping with me. I couldn't have got it all done without them, or without Sissy who stayed up till midnight peeling apples for the carmel apple cobbler.

(Sissy had some advice too, too bad I didn't listen. She kept telling me, "Karkie, those are plenty, you don't need that many apples." But I just kept peeling away. I had WAY too many.)

Birdsong itself is very laid back and casual. It was nice to have a reason to spiff up a bit and have a night out before it all began. And what a pretty atmosphere to have a party in! Her shop is so nice. (so is she)

And she set out a donation box for the Ballard Center and raised $300 for families in need.

While this evening is not an official part of the event, it was a welcome addition and I was so pleased that Angie offered to have us all over for her special night.

And it was soooo fun for Beth to share her stash of goodness for everyone to play with and warm up for the weekend's crafting.

It was kind of her to share her collage skills and time with our Peeps.

And it was extra nice for me, because I was "off the clock." I could relax, visit, and enjoy the evening before we got started on Saturday. I am lucky to have friends who pitch in and do such thoughtful things, aren't I?

I loved having a party to attend!

The Early Bird Gets the Earworm, Birdsong recap #1, of about a gazillion, there were a LOT of pictures and fun things to tell about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bird song art event, studio tour, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / June 13, 2014

I don't even know where to start. I had the BEST week! Birdsong itself was only a couple of days, but with all the pre and post activities and visitors, it was a week for me.

I guess the place to start is at the prep and set up?

I love decorating and getting ready for the guests.

Making name tags, hanging banners, covering the tables.

In the past, I've used white plastic table cloths, or white craft paper to cover the tables. This year, I bought rolls of white gift wrap at the dollar store, and have to say, it was not only the cheapest way to hide my marred up, marked up, messed up tables, it was the best way to do it.

The gift wrap was heavier duty, and lower cost than any other cover I have used. I always draw on my table covers, and previously, used quotes about birds. This time I used song lyrics. Which was pretty, but oh my goodness, those were whirling through my head non stop.

When I get an "ear worm" song stuck in my head, I tend to just go with it and sing along. But this was a cacophony of tunes, from the Beatles' "Blackbird" to Stevie Nicks' "Rhiannon". I also used "I'm Like a Bird," and a couple others that are still humming along in my brain.

I also spruced up my folding chairs a little better. Before, I slipped a pillow case over each one. This made the room look more uniform, but it was a bit sloppy. I always thought I'd cut them off and stitch them up to fit, and finally, for the 4th Birdsong, I finally did.

It was such a quick project, I don't know why I waited so long to do it. All I did was cut off the bottoms and the corners, turn them inside out and do a fast zig zag around them. They remind me of tea cozies, so I call them my chair cozies.

I also wrapped some drop cloth fabric around some of the other chair seats. That was pretty quick too, instead of stapling, I just wrapped the seats like little presents and finished them off with Sealah tape.

Last year, I'd hung some branches from the ceiling, and liked them so much, I think they just might be permanent. I've changed what I dangle from them throughout the year. For this gathering, I hung some birds and the cages we made from this class.

On one wall, I have a grouping of framed wallpapers. It's a perfect spot to switch up for occasions too. For this one, I added vintage bird pictures, some things I'd made or gotten in swaps.

And this party was the perfect excuse to redo my table top display. I took all the clutter from the top of this one, and redid it with fresh clutter. It's now home to all the examples from our fairy class.

PS- If you'd like a fairy kit, I made a few extra.

Please email me at: karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

to order one for $40 plus postage. They come with illustrated instructions and plenty of supplies for foofing the girls up.

My decorating time was also deep cleaning time. Throughout my whole house, as I spiffed up a room, I delved into refolding linens, cleaning out closets, filling boxes of things to send to Goodwill or to add to the sale in the garage. I even sorted through every single tool in the garage and redid that area too.

Most of my decor was using what I already had. These angel wings got a spritz of blue Glimmer Mist, and I wrapped lace around the dress form and added some birdie brooches from my jewelry box.

That keeps costs down for the event. I don't spend more than a few bucks on things like the table covers, all of my decor is done with clutter and crap I have lying around pretties from my studio.

Another new idea for this year, was to add seating in the living room for meals.

There isn't enough space in the dining room for those who didn't want to eat outside.

Although, we got pretty lucky with the weather. We had a miserable, drenching start to the weekend, with a monsoon as everyone got out of their cars. But after that, the clouds cooperated and we were able to make use of the new patios.

I'm so in love with the new backyard! Even after all the stress and hard work of getting them done in time for Birdsong. I think that the remodeling was so hard that all the other work felt like a breeze. After all of that, I was thrilled to just be rearranging things in the studio and sprucing up for the guests. That patio about did me in.

I'll leave you with some more pre-Birdsong pics and will be back with more photos of the weekend in a couple days.

And I miss them already!

bird song art event

By Karla Nathan / June 9, 2014

What a fun weekend we had! The nicest people come to Birdsong. I already miss them. Luckily, I had some extra time with a few of them last night and this morning, and now I have my Sissy and Randy for a bit too, along with a couple of other Peeps. It's shaping up to be a GREAT week.