June 2023 – Karla's Cottage

Celebrating a friend’s accomplishment

By Karla Nathan / June 28, 2023

One of my book club buds, Dr. Margie Carr, has spent the last ten years researching a couple block stretch of a neighborhood in Kansas City that housed many successful and influential people over a 100 year period. And now, the book is complete. A bunch of us from the group went to the KC library to hear her first (of many, I hope) talk about her story.

Local residents mentioned inside the covers attended, including this woman who is one of the girls featured on the outside of the cover.

I had not preordered my copy, but was able to pick one up that night. Just in time for a signature from the author!

Not only was it impressive to hear a friend speak about the Kansas City history she’d written about in her book, it was lovely to experience a part of the city I’d never been to. Funny, I travel to other parts of the country to explore them, but rarely get out and look into what my own area has to offer.

This is a parking garage?! Yep.

Where I live in Lawrence isn’t far from KC. And heck, I’m in town all the time to shop, eat, see shows, or work at Good Juju. What I need to is act like a tourist and see some of what I’ve missed.

There is a lot to be seen.

A flamingo of a different color

Garden, Good JuJu, Hand painted

By Karla Nathan / June 25, 2023

A box of flamingos was gifted to me through a friend who’d had them first given to her. They seemed to be just what I needed for my summer display at Good Juju.

But first, the flock needed a group makeover. I sprayed them with a bonding primer, painted them with acrylic craft paints, then wired and glued flowers to their tummies.

Uhm, you might have noticed our grass. Or lack of it, I should say. My husband retired from working at the world’s largest country club company, so he knows grass and the principles of growing a perfectly groomed, lush expanse of it, but we just don’t care that much out here in the country. If I could, I’d have all ground covers, dandelions, and clover without a single blade of grass.

Anyway, back to my feathered friends- ta dah! Previously, I’d had some umbrellas with flowers in my booth, then used those for garden party decor.

After leaving them outside in a storm, they were done for. And of course, I can’t waste anything, so I pulled the flowers off and reused them on these gals.

I don’t know if anyone else notices the displays I create up high, but I sure get a lot of joy in making them.

Croquet? Okay!

Uncategorized

By Karla Nathan / June 22, 2023

When we were invited to a croquet party, I was dubious about joining in. I’m not sporty, have zero depth perception, can’t aim, and hate keeping score.

Oh my, I do not sound fun at all, do I?

Games are not my thing.

But when “proper croquet attire” was mentioned, I was in. I’d watched Bridgerton, and I was ready to put on my best whites and grab my parasol to go be a spectator and have some good food, good friends and a glass of wine.

Before I knew it, I was sucked in, and realized that whacking that ball was more exciting than I thought it would be. Next thing I knew, I was vying for third place to move on to the championship round.

Well, I came in 4th, but my husband let me be his partner and I got to be in the final round with him.

We didn’t win, the title went to our buddy, Jim.

But I did receive two prizes! One for best dressed and for coming in second in the final round.

I think what pushed me over the edge to win for the costume were these magnificent, beaded tenny boppers. I’ve had them for at least 30 years, and only bring them out for very special occasions.

The dress was pretty cool too. I’d bought it to wear to Silverbella (I miss those so much!). That was fifteen years ago, and when I put it on this time, I realized it didn’t fit quite the same.

My poor bust was halfway down below the bodice, so the top of the gown wasn’t filled out right.

Oh well.

As I age, I don’t care too much about where my boobs are or how things fit. Which is good, because I have a feeling it just goes downhill from here. Literally. My chest will not be going back up to fill out any more bodices, this is as good as it gets.

And my sports acuity won’t be improving either. Enjoying what I can, whenever I can is what makes each day worth getting up for. I’m glad I didn’t put the pretty dress away because it made me look droopy. I’m glad I didn’t opt out of playing the game because I’m not good at hitting a ball.

Fun times are a gift that we have to open to enjoy. Or at least be open to.

Playing with dolls

fairies

By Karla Nathan / June 18, 2023

Luckily, my fairies do okay at Juju sales. Not GREAT, but enough that I can indulge myself in making more. I do love crafting a sweet, winged sprite from a dilapidated doll no one wants. Friends have been passing along dollies that their customers haven’t picked up, so that I can play with feathers and lace to recreate the dolls into my winged girls.

This babe in blue has an ocean theme and is decked out in vintage seashell flower jewelry.

I use lots of different kinds of dolls, this pink petal girl was a storybook doll with open and closing eyes. But now, she has a different story.

This one is porcelain, and is draped in French net lace. Redoing her mostly meant cutting away her costume and adding lace, feathers, and flowers. She was basically in good shape. Some are not and often need major repairs.

I collect odds and ends of legs and arms too, in case I come across a doll missing pieces. I don’t try to be a doll doctor and put them back together as they were. I just use a lot of glue to hold them in place. Same with the clothing. I’m not a seamstress, these dresses are fabricated with adhesive.

My very, very favorites are Nancy Anns. I love everything about these and try to save as much of their original look as I can. This one even still had good hair. It’s rare that I get to salvage the hairstyle. Sometimes I can remake the locks by gluing the hair and adding flowers to cover bald spots. Most often, I just pull it off and glue goats hair or dyed wool fluff over the heads.

This lilac dragonfly fairy has wool roving for hair.

This golden fairy’s hair is made from the goat hair “curly locks”. Her wings are feathers painted gold and she has gold glitter polka dots on her gown. I like to add vintage millinery to the back of each to embellish the wings.

Even if I use similar materials, no two turn out the same. Each has her own, sweet personality. And love them all.

Once again, that was wine in the teacups

celebrations, cottage, flowers, Food and Drink, friends, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 15, 2023

To celebrate Angie and Beth’s birthdays, we made plans for a day out, and I offered to make brunch first. But then, Angie picked up an estate sale to do, and between that and all of her other obligations, her time off for a whole day disappeared. Our date switched to lunch and I decided to serve it in the gazebo to make it special.

Hmm, not the best picture of us, but you get the idea.

We had wine in our teacups, and drank it with our pinky fingers crooked while wearing floral garden hats and speaking in a British accent, of course.

I draped a little, round table in layers of clothes, and brought out the floral china.

The weather cooperated with perfection, but just in case, I added a fan and extra sun umbrellas to the space.

Teapots were filled with $1 flower bundles (our local Kroger always marks them down after the weekend) and I made place cards with “Angela” and “Elizabeth” instead of Angie and Beth to be extra fancy.

But “Karla” doesn’t come with a fancy option.

So I used the name my dad, Hubert, had written on my original birth certificate.

“Huberta”

As in Huberta Josephine Downey.

Yep, that was my name. My mom changed it to Karla Jo. Not nearly as much to roll off the tongue. I think I could’ve grown up as a Bertie, or Birdy? Instead I was always Karkie Jo.

The silk flower umbrellas from my April Showers Bring May Flowers theme at Good Juju got another go round as garden party decor. I’ve left them up outside a while, they somewhat survived a 24 hour deluge. I’m not sure how many more uses I’ll get out of them, but I have enjoyed every bit of our time together so far.

We had dipped strawberries and lavender honey dark chocolate for dessert.

I fixed honey butter toasted croissants, individual quiches, and fruit salad.
Even though it was their birthdays, Angie brought sparkling soda and Beth brought a salad.

Happy Birthday to two of the funnest people around!

Seashell Fairies and a sand portrait

sea shell fairies

By Karla Nathan / June 11, 2023

Previously when I have gone to Indian Shores, I hadn’t been too impressed with shelling opportunities. I’d had to scramble to find a handful, and my sissies had even had to drive me to other beaches to collect a few.

This visit was different. It wasn’t exactly the shell capitol of the world, but I also had no trouble gathering up a few to make fairies.

Like everything else on this last minute, quick getaway, everything was Just Right. I saw lots of dolphins from the balcony, had so much beach time in ideal water conditions, even found the perfect beach umbrella and chair left in the condo closet.

Did I mention that I swam within a few feet of a manatee?

And that my headaches were better?

It was just the best time with sisters, I was so glad that I went.

Before leaving for the airport on Saturday, I went for one last walk and saw a pile of seaweed washed up on the beach. I used them to make a quick portrait in honor of Ryan. If I’d had longer, I think I’d have looked for better shells for his eyes, but if I walked away, the seaweed blew off. It was pretty windy, I had just moments to do this.

I can just hear Ryan if he’d seen this. “That’s cool, mom” was the phrase he always used. He loved watching me create and always appreciated it.

I miss having him over my shoulder while I do them.

A quick an unexpected getaway

family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / June 8, 2023

I really should’ve gotten more pictures, I was just so relaxed and carefree, I rarely had my camera out.

Plus, it was a very short trip. And a very last minute trip. My sissies had been planning for months, but I didn’t even think about joining in, I knew it wasn’t good timing for me.

Instead, I filled my yard with a flock of flamingos (from a friend) and wished Bobbie and Sissy well on their vacation.

I was fine with not going on this trip, because I’ll be meeting up with them and their daughters in Sarasota next October. I enjoyed listening to all of the planning and was excited for them to be headed to Indian Shores now, but I was fine about not being a part of this jaunt.

Then, I started to feel like I was just missing out too much. Between six months of struggling with getting the Grandfairy’s grades up, with so much of my free time being Homework Police instead of getting to do the fun stuff the kiddo and I typically did together and with drawn out recovery time from my concussion, I was feeling like a shut in.

My husband and I had planned to take a quick trip in the camper with the dogs to see family in North Carolina, but my headaches, Grandfairy requirements, and work needed to get ready for Good Juju made me cancel. (I still need to hang out in a dark room sometimes for Post Concussion Syndrome and a camper full of dogs doesn’t offer that kind of space)

Plus it’s prime garage sale season, the time of year I pick up a majority of my inventory for the year.

So Rich left most of the dogs with me and went without the camper, and took some extra time to see even more people we’d been missing. The day before he was due back I was feeling pretty down, from so many headaches and even worse over the 3 year mark of Ryan’s death. That period between Mother’s Day and May 24th is brutal.

That’s when I decided that I needed a change. Sophomore finals were over. Rich would be back to watch dogs. There aren’t good garage sales over Memorial Day. My booth was set up. The Florida condo had dark, quiet spaces if I needed one. I had points on Southwest and my sisters had an empty room at the beach.

I was gone at 6am the next day.

And I was so glad that I went! I think that a few days of zero stress, lots of sleep, and no work or responsibilities was just the ticket I needed to help break that cycle of headaches.

Not to mention the relaxation of laughing with my sissies, splashing, watching dolphins, and eating seafood.

I didn’t even need the dark room while there.

Springtime work for Autumn pieces

holiday decor, redos

By Karla Nathan / June 4, 2023

It might seem early, but if I don’t start on Halloween crafts now, and Christmas ones by mid summer, I won’t be ready. Last year, I got a very late start, and was getting up at 5am to put in such long hours that I hardly had time to enjoy the holidays myself.

This year, I’ll be ahead of the game!

Here is the before picture of this wedding couple. The first picture posted is the after, with them transformed into two ghost brides wearing vintage finery.

I just wasn’t feeling the groom. But I did like the idea of doing one bride in black.

Each have a bat charm on their bodice, curly, white angora hair, and some of my favorite, old lace.