August 2025 – Karla's Cottage

Hand painted seasonal banners for Good Juju

cottage, Good JuJu, holiday decor, parties

By Karla Nathan / August 27, 2025

The banners are hung!

Yes, multiple banners! The original one in this photo stays where it is, right behind the new ones that are hung on a pulley system so they can be lowered and switched.

For now, it’s Haunted Cottage for September and October First Fridays.

Painted onto the backside of the Haunted Cottage is a Christmas Cottage.

All I have to do is roll it down with the simple pulleys, flip it over and haul it back up.

It’s tempting to paint a whole slew of these canvases and switch them up continuously. This Halloween/xmas one will do me til January, and I can go right back to my original one if I want to. That would be the practical thing to do…………….

Surprise!

Food and Drink, friends

By Karla Nathan / August 24, 2025

My good buddy, Jen, had a birthday surprise party planned by another great pal, Shanna. She came up with the idea of making a donut tower and adding flags consisting of pictures of Jen’s artwork on picks to hold the treats in place.

Shan rents studio space at a venue that allows members to make use of a communal area when needed (we meet up there for a weekly mosaic club).

The room is already filled with tables and chairs, plus there is bright colored art all around. We brought in vintage tablecloths and banners to hang. And I’d just redone my booth at Good Juju for Halloween, so I’d packed up all the paper roses and white wisteria that I’d used in it previously.

I brought two bags full of flowers to spread around the room adding a rosy splash color.

The meal was scrumptious, you gotta love a pitch in dinner. They remind me of the annual family reunions we had in southern Indiana. Everyone goes all out to make that one, special dish to share, so you get the best of the best recipes, right?

Well, sometimes. I’m afraid my contribution was a bit simple. But the dip did include fresh tomatoes from our garden and was in a pretty compote.

The birthday girl was properly surprised (she thought she was running an errand for the Art Guild, then going out to dinner), the meal everyone shared was great, I got to see people I hadn’t talked to in ages, and we had a blast decorating together before guests arrived. It could not have been a better evening.

An Augtober Birthday

family, Food and Drink, Halloween treats, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / August 20, 2025

Welcome to Augtober!

I have been neck deep in Halloween decor getting ready for September’s First Friday weekend at Good Juju.

So when Sugarwings’ birthday rolled around, I was already full on Fall in August. And that kid loves spooky season, they keep their Nightmare Before Christmas tree up in the bedroom all year.

It was a natural progression to turn the birthday party into a Summerween bash with themed foods. Including a dirt and worms buffet.

The birthday celebrant spent all week using a silicone mold to make chocolates, enough clear ice cubes for water glasses, and plenty of fruity ones for our signature mocktail of the evening.

Plus drawing faces on the outside of the cups, filling them with layered ice creams, wrapping and freezing them so they’d be ready to serve for guests.

We dined on Monster Mac n Cheese.

Watermelon shaped with cookie cutters.

With crescent wrapped mummy dogs as the main dish at a fancy, sit down, adult dinner party with some friends.

Oh, and a Jack-o-lantern spewing out guacamole.

Why is Jack green instead of orange? At Summerween, you carve watermelons instead of pumpkins.

I was prepared to buy six small melons for us to cut up as a party activity, then we discovered that Walmart carries foam ones. With pink insides!

I’m sure the hens were disappointed to not get a ton of extra fruit, watermelons are their fave. But this way, we got keepers that could go home as party favors with the guests. And the foam punk-melons didn’t attract fruit flies like the real ones do.

After dessert, the kids, well, not kids, maybe young adults? Had a scary movie marathon and sleep over in the office/den upstairs which Sugarwings had decorated with tissue paper ghosts hanging from the ceiling.

Watching my Grandfairy turn 19 was a mix of emotions, but after seeing this get together, I knew that no matter how old, this person will keep their fun loving, silly side and always be my adventure buddy.

Around the neighborhood in the Old West Bottoms of KC

friends, Good JuJu, Travel

By Karla Nathan / August 16, 2025

Typically, when I go to the West Bottoms, I’m working at Good Juju.

Or popping quickly into another open shop during First Friday weekend. And that is rare. But the other day, Beth and I decided to check out a restaurant nearby and do a bit of exploration after a crew meeting.

The old buildings covered in graffiti and chippy paint have an allure that made us want to take some equally alluring photos of ourselves, making use of the gritty, textured backdrops.

I see photo shoots going on in the area all the time for senior pics, engagements, or just for fun. And after walking around the neighborhood, not just driving by, I can feel the attraction to the ambience of the weathered paints.

See, doesn’t the background make us look like tik tok beauty influencers?

One thought that kept recurring to me, was how did anyone reach some of these areas with their spray paints?

Some of the graffiti was arty, some fun, all interesting. But over all, I prefer the natural wear and tear that time provides on the surfaces.

The local businesses had some interesting details that they added too.
Like this restaurant we chose, called The Ship, with a whole ocean/cow town theme.

Yep, ocean/cow town.

Sounds oddly random, like the owners threw a bunch of themes written on slips of paper into a hat and plucked two out, then said, okay, this is it.

The place was hopping, with a live country band and 20-30 yr olds dressed up in their best cowgirl outfits whooping it up on the dance floor.

I'm afraid we were more sightseers than patrons. At my age, a loud bar is interesting to peek at, but not where I want to sit and talk during dinner. Maybe we can go back on a night when there isn’t live music. I did mention my age, right? Ha! Getting me to stay out after dark in Kansas City is a rare occurrence. I enjoyed our night out (we drive to a tapas place, and I didn’t get home til after ELEVEN PM), but the odds of dining out at night in KC again soon aren’t great.

Jammy time in front of the tv calls out to me pretty early on most evenings. But it’s good for the soul to get out and explore sometimes. I recommend a walk through the Bottoms to get out of your own rut if you’re in one as deeply as I am.

How to make Goblin wings

Good JuJu, holiday decor, how-to projects

By Karla Nathan / August 12, 2025

Guncle Randy gave Sugarwings a skelly, and I asked to borrow it for booth decor. But first, she needed some foofing up. Jewels and a skirt helped, but this gal needed wings.

I wanted wonky, messy wings, more hobgoblin than fairy. I used coat hangers to form them, and left them slightly crooked. Then wrapped them in shiny duct tape, in a bulky, not too perfect way.

I roughly cut out a piece of cellophane, sprayed it with adhesive, and then folded it over a wing.

After firmly pressing both sides together, I used a heat gun to finish the adhesion by melting the front to the back. I let the heat gun burn holes through the wings here and there too. Then jaggedly trimmed off the excess and hit those raw edges with more heat to curl up.

They looked pretty good, but I wanted them more sinister than sparkly, so misted their edges with black spray paint.

This went so well that I decided to make a few more pair to sell too. I think the skeleton looks complete now. I’ll wire them into place and hang her from my ceiling.

A haunted cottage painting

Good JuJu, paintings

By Karla Nathan / August 6, 2025

Before we even had August’s sale at Good Juju, I was making big plans for September and October’s events.

The back wall of my space is brick, and I cannot hang anything on it, so I had previously hung a big Karla’s Cottage banner down from the ceiling beams to fill the space. Well, I got to thinking that I need a Karla’s Haunted Cottage sign for Halloween, but the spot is pretty hard to get to,

After consulting some people whose minds think in a more engineering way than mine does, we came up with a pulley system to hang seasonal banners without going to much fuss to change them!

I immediately got to work painting a 6’x8’ canvas drop cloth with a spooky theme. Now that it’s done, I’ll flip it over and paint a gingerbread cottage on the back of it. I’m excited about all of the possibilities.

A drop cloth is nine bucks, I need about 8 hours to prime and paint it, and can do artwork on both sides. Heck, I’ll be wanting to switch them out every month!

Hmm, my time might be better spent making things to sell, not just display. But dang, this was fun to do.

Redos in Guncleland

guncles

By Karla Nathan / August 2, 2025

The Guncles have a newly revamped guest room that feels Ike a Floridan getaway. Light, airy, comfy and filled with soft, summer colors. Good for our guests, but rough on the poor guys- they had a water leak that caused them to rip out the entire space and redo it a couple days before Sharon, one of our Nathan sisses, arrived on Sunday, and we took her spot on Monday when she left for a Disney visit.

And while the rush job might have left them feeling like this guy, they pulled it off in a grand fashion and we all had a lovely, new room to enjoy.

There is a bit more decorating for them to do, and I look forward to my next visit to see what details they have added. I enjoy the luxe design choices in their home, with elegant furnishings, fine antiques, and whimsical surprises around every corner.

And it makes me happy to wash dishes in the kitchen and see Ryan’s picture on the wall behind me reflected in the mirror on the shelf above the sink.

It’s a welcoming home, filled with laughter, extravagant meals, and happy dogs. The guys generously let us bring our pack of hounds, and even watched them three days so we could take a cruise.

Last time I visited, Randy and I decorated for Valentine’s Day. This time, we pulled out a smidgen of his vast supply of fall decor and spread it around the house.

Of course, there was crafting time too. Besides making crowns from filigree metal ribbons, I turned this vintage photo into a witch to put on the mantle.

For now, our decorating was mostly autumn themed, he will add Halloween elements later.

But we did sneak in a few little witchy bits.

And possibly a few ravens.

Randy had so many pumpkins, garlands, and blossoms, as well as owls, and more, that decorating was a breeze.

What makes a big difference in pulling off a redo is not only the items you’re setting out, but the infrastructure you have to work with. He had cloches, compotes, lights, crystal bowls, well, he has anything you’d need to elevate a vine from Michael’s and make it look classy.

Picture this pumpkin and vine on this table without the elegant cloche and crystal compote.

Not quite the same, right?

Yep, they have a beautiful home with great stuff in it. And I always have a blast when they let me “play dress up” with all of it.

Thanks for the fun, guys! I miss you already.