Karla Nathan – Page 148 – Karla's Cottage

Bottoms Up KC, MO

By Karla Nathan / March 21, 2014

The first Friday of every month, the Old West Bottoms warehouse district in KC is a treasure trove of antique shops. It started out with just a couple, and over time has grown into a bustling district with more than you can even get to in one day. In nice weather, it's almost like a street fair, with sidewalks and empty lots full of flea mkt goods, and food trucks parked everywhere.

Gwen McClure is one of the reasons this whole area is such a big success. Her shop is Bottoms Up and is floor upon floor of high quality antiques.

I always enjoy her own spot there in the mall. She and her sister haul back cargo loads full of finds from France.

Of course, I'm drawn to the ephemera to use in my work.

When I was visiting with her, she offered to sponsor a giveaway for my Birdsong peeps who are coming in June.

She is going to give us a drawing prize of a $50 gift certificate good for shopping anywhere in the shop.

I'd probably be tempted to spend it all on these $3 bags of lace, myself. I can't wait to see what the winner picks out, I hope she brings it with her to Birdsong to show us her purchase.

I've set the date for our gathering so that anyone who wants to can shop in the West Bottoms on Friday before our weekend classes, so I'll be holding the drawing ahead of time and the winner can pick up her prize there.

THANKS, GWEN!!!!!

Sponsors who give us little prizes for the gift bags or something for the drawing will be added to the side bar of my blog until the next Birdsong. Plus, I'll show off your kind gift on my blog.

And you will make the Birdsong peeps very happy! If you want to be a sponsor, please email me at:

karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

There are so many shops in the district, that I haven't even seen them all. My friend, Lori, and I spent most of the day and saw about half.

Not all are open only on the First Friday, some are available every weekend.

(notice all the floral hats? I had a lucky hat day, and came home with SEVEN wonderfully, flowery ones!)

My friend, Sarah, has a booth at Restoration Emporium.

And Lesa Daily had a temp spot set up at Bottoms Up for Easter. She will be there first Friday of April too. Then back again for Halloween. I treated myself to one of her birdies, and chose one with pink polka dots. I loved the bunnies too, but I am very, very fond of her special birds. They have so much personality!

One thing I appreciate about the shopping is that if you need a piece of furniture, you can find almost anything, and often redone and ready to go. Much of it is painted, and in trendy tones. You also can get many crafty items that are well done and in good taste, done with vintage materials. There are great uses of salvaged goods, like this centerpiece too.

Plus, the antiques of course.

Prices run the gamut from one store, or booth to another, but I've usually filled a bag or two (and I am cheap). And a couple times, even a truck. Springtime there is a perfect time to find white wrought iron garden pieces.

Glittered peat pot baskets

holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / March 18, 2014

I've been in an Easter egg kind of mood. This little paper mache one is painted metallic with glitter, inside and out, then decked out in its Sunday best with lots of millinery blooms.

Because, seriously, can you have too many flowers? Even on a tiny egg, I like to pile them on.

This one has a stand made of an old tart tin.

And this has a peat pot nesting spot.

I thought that properly foofed up peat pots would make sweet Easter baskets.

Some I filled.

This one has a nest with a felted chick.

And some I left empty to fill with treats.

They aren't necessarily for Easter only, they could be sweet May Day baskets, too, don't you think?

But when they are all together in a group with the eggs,they sure do make it look like the Bunny is on his way!

These are available in the Boutique.

An antique picture frame redo

antiques/junking, how-to projects

By Karla Nathan / March 14, 2014

A while back, I found the coolest old frame at a flea market. But it certainly needed a redo.

This is how it began. I liked that it wasn't perfect, was a bit beat up and looked its age, but the pictures sure weren't my style, and I like things much lighter.

I've done a lot of painting over the years, and have many how to's listed HERE. For different looks, you paint things in different ways. For this, I wanted it white, but not "clean" white. So, instead of priming, like I suggest in most of the tutorials, I lightly sanded it. When I coated it in white satin latex paint, some of the wood tones bled through.

If I had used a primer, I'd have lost a lot of the wood grain that I wanted to still see. This paint was pure white, but also because I didn't prime, the wood wasn't sealed. The natural oils of the old wood stain caused the paint to darken.

I did a purposely semi-sloppy paint job, didn't get all the edges, left the indentations in the trim dark. But I was careful to always make my brush strokes the same direction as the wood grain so it didn't look messy.

The frame sections weren't typical modern sizes, so I didn't have pictures that would fit without having mats cut to fill out the frames. And since I didn't want the formal look (and expense) of mats, I layered cut out pictures of my fairy grand daughters over sheet music.

This is not a technique I would try on something that was in heavy duty use, like a table top. Unless I applied a ton more elbow grease into the sanding. But for a decorative wall piece, the light bit of sanding was plenty.

Once I was done taking a picture of the pictures, the dorkies insisted that I photograph them. They patiently waited by the bench while I took the frame's picture, then jumped up for their turn as soon as I moved it.

How could I say no to them? Little hams!

Another person’s trash….

bird song art event, holiday decor, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 12, 2014

As I've been gathering up fairy making materials to fill kits for Birdsong, I've taken a few breaks here and there to make a couple of other things too.

Beth came over for a craft day and brought me a bag of her trash. Now, that might sound odd, but she throws away stuff that I am thrilled to get. Like a stack of old books, half started projects, piles of ribbon, doilies, sewing supplies, all sorts of stuff that she cleaned out of her studio.

We thought the little fairies were going to join us for craft day, but they were busy outside all afternoon.

This cardboard box lid was in there. She'd lined it with the bird print on text and some ribbon, then quit. I couldn't leave it like that. I added beeswax to the background, more trim, some rhinestones, a nest and more birds.

It reminded us of that challenge on Top Chef where the chefs go from station to station doing the next step in a dish others started.

I'm setting this aside to use for a drawing prize for Birdsong 4. I'll be using the doilies she brought over to wrap up drawing prizes too. I'm already setting things aside to make up bundles of gifts to pick from when I pull a name out of the flowered hat during our weekend.

And I have a bonus gift too, from Gwen McClure She is giving us a $50 gift certificate to Bottoms Up!

Sponsors who give us little prizes for the gift bags or something for the drawing will be added to the side bar of my blog for a year. Plus, I'll show off your kind gift on my blog.

And you will make the Birdsong peeps very happy! If you want to be a sponsor, please email me at:

karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

This was made with trash from Beth too, or at least some of it. She tried out the hot wax I was using on the bird piece, but didn't like the technique. So, I rescued her waxed French postcard and layered it with lace, flowers, and this baby picture.

The wax was interesting, but I doubt if I'll make much use of it. I am too impatient to get it hot enough, and it was gloppy and hard to work with. I like things I can do without thinking about ahead of time or planning.

Gee, that sounds lazy.

Is it that hard to warm up a pot of wax before I need it????

I've added the baby collage to the Boutique, along with a few Easter Eggs on stands too.

What A Wonderful, Wonderful, Day It Was

celebrations, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / March 9, 2014

If you have a little Oz fan (or a big one like me) in your family, she will need to get to Crown Center in Kansas City to see the 75th anniversary celebration display. And on different weekends, you can meet some of the characters.

We were lucky to be there on Glenda's day to visit.

Her costume was perfect in every detail! I really wanted this necklace she had on.

While standing in the (very short) line to meet the Good Witch, Sugarwings confessed that she was getting nervous and didn't know what to say to her.

But it didn't take her long to get over her nerves. She was thrilled to meet the gracious witch who took plenty of time to greet and visit with each kid.

Down the hall, was the Oz playground. Every single inch of the space was hand painted.

Starting with Auntie Em's old house, all at a crazy tilted angle from the twister.

Complete with the Wicked Witch's feet sticking out from underneath.

If you press the red button and look through the window, you can watch Miss Gulch fly through the storm on her bike. Throughout the exhibit, there were lots of interactive things like that for the kids.

We were some of the biggest kids there. I wore my striped socks and witch hat, but didn't go all out witchy. I still made a friend who believed I was the real thing, though. A little boy followed me around throwing pretend buckets of water at me, so that I'd do a lot of melting. And more than one itty bitty girl thought that Sugarwings was really Dorothy.

I was impressed with Wizard's giant head, and all the details of the Emerald City, from the green lighting to the floor painted with emeralds.

And behind the curtain, the mechanics of making the giant head come alive, with buttons, levers, and pumps for the kids to control.

I've been to Crown Center for a kid event one other time and this same room was all hand painted every bit as cool and done up as a fairy tale land.

It's been too long since I revisited, I need to become a regular there with my girls, this place is so cute. We want to go back on the weekend that Dorothy is there to greet everyone, and I hope that Dewdrop gets to come along then.

We missed her this trip, I know she'd love it as much as we did.

And did I mention it was all free? This is set up in a downtown mall, owned by Hallmark (headquartered in KC) and there are lots of other attractions there for kids, plus shopping, movies, and food.

We ate at the Crayola Cafe, and surprisingly, had a very good meal. I was especially glad to see the heathy eating tips aimed at kids on the menu. And a side of "apple fries" which was an apple cut up like french fries and flavored with cinnamon, crispy and fresh, not fried at all.

There was also a lot of activities (free) in the Crayola gift shop.

As well as art supplies to buy. We got a couple little things, and also bought this Dorothy dress and ruby slippers at a shop there, but if you don't want to spend money, they even provide a place for you to eat a bagged lunch you can bring for yourself.

We were glad to see that there were dresses to buy, because we'd had a Dorothy emergency that morning. Sugarwings has had a progression of Dorothy dresses from infant size to 5, and we realized that she'd outgrown her latest one. I looked everywhere downtown Lawrence to get one for the day, with no luck. She had to wear a Toto tee shirt and a gingham apron.

But being the sunny child she is, she was fine with it.

My husband said she looked like a laundress.

The dress was a big improvement and she was thrilled to get it. But she is pretty much thrilled with anything and everything.

Which is why every day is an adventure with her, no matter where we are heading.

A new queen of the castle?

Dew Drop, dogs, kitties

By Karla Nathan / March 6, 2014

We have a new family member. Dewdrop was very sad that when her mommy moved, they left her kitty behind. I hear it was actually the neighbor's cat, but she thought it was hers. So, I dropped by the shelter to see who was there, and this little kitten (that looked just like my cat when I was a child) was waiting for me.

Plus she was wearing a collar with a name tag that said "JOY". Sugarwings' middle name and one of my favorite words.

I knew she belonged with us.

She wasn't so sure. The minute I opened her crate, she ran and hid under this wall, to a boxed off area under the porch

. For two days.

I slid her food underneath the wall until she was ready to come out and get to know us. In the meantime, we laid on our tummies and looked at her with a flashlight while talking to her softly and sweetly.

The only thing that enticed her to come out was our ancient, tough old farm cat who hates almost everyone and all animals live in fear of.

For some reason, he adores her. She rubs all over him, purring and happy. Once he got her to come out, she started becoming our friend too.

But not the dogs' friend. That might take time. We hold her and let them observe. She will curl up and sleep, completely ignoring them but they remain hyper-vigilant, ears cocked, eyes staring.

For now, she seems quite content with living in the breezeway and coming in when we can hold her and protect her from the dorkies. But poor Dorothy Rosebud, she can't seem to realize that non-stop barking out the window at her is NOT required.

Joy Joy Angel Joy Nathan (named by Sugarwings) doesn't seem to mind the barking. In one week, she has gone from terror filled and hiding, to taming the meanest cat on the block and dismissing all the yapping that comes from the dogs.

I have a feeling that she is going to rule the place soon.

I've tried putting them altogether with me, and all of a sudden, the dogs lose their bravery. See how Twinks keeps her distance? And the Puppeesh hide behind me? None of them will even look at her if she is close. But man, if she (and her hissy voice) are across the room, they are fascinated.

It's been quite the show around here lately.

Making kits

bird song art event, how to's, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 3, 2014

One down, one to go! I've been slugging away on making Birdsong 4 kits for my first project, this mobile, titled, "Songs and Wings."

When I saw this phrase in an old book, I knew it would be ideal for the mobile.

Strips of vintage lace, soft ribbons, and hemp twine dangle from a hand made wreath and each will feature a little treasure or two.

Making it and coming up with the design was so much fun. Packing up all the elements, was a little more complicated. Have you ever done kits? It is a process that takes a lot of time and care. And when they are made with vintage items, a lot of planning has to go into them, to make sure that all elements are of equal value and style, because these pieces are one of a kind.

Here is how I make up kits. First, as I create the piece, I keep a log of what I am using next to me on the desk. For instance, If I glue on a snip of velvet ribbon, I make sure to add that to the list. So that when the student is making her kit, she will also have some velvet ribbon to use. (don't you hate it when the teacher's finished piece is soooo cool because of all the great supplies she used, and then she gives you second rate knock offs of what she used herself? I've been there, and I've felt ripped off!)

Normally, I eyeball things, not measure. But when making a kit, I have to stop and figure out about how long that strip of lace was, or how much wire did that loop take, so the kit will hold the correct amount. And it is better to error on the side of too much rather than too little.

After the project is done and the list is made, I start working my way through it. I'll begin with one element, prep those, bag 'em up, put 'em in a box, then move on to the next item.

Once my box is full, over the course of a few days or so, I'll start bundling.

Once I have the correct amount of every single item that went into the original, I start "trick or treating". I'll open a kit bag, and go from pile to pile adding one from each stack to my bag.

While the design is still fresh in my mind, I write out instructions. As I type out the how to's, I save space on the paper to doodle some illustrations. Then, these and the collage sheets go to the copy shop, and when ready, get slipped into the bags as I wrap them up and add a label or decoration to the complete kit.

Usually, the bag is decorated with something worth saving and using in the project. A pretty bow, a flower, something along those lines.

I always make an extra kit up for myself. Since I try to be ahead of schedule and get these done months before the event (I get a creepy crawly feeling if I do anything last minute) I often have to open my own kit a couple weeks before the event to re-acquaint myself with what went into it.

I'm pretty happy to have these boxed up and ready to roll. If my arm wasn't aching from repetitive movents, I'd be patting myself on the back right now!

Here comes Pretty Cottontail

holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 1, 2014

Lately, I've been working on building kits for Birdsong, but I just had to take a little break to create something JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT. Just because I wanted to make something.

I'd found this styrofoam, hollow egg at a flea mkt, years ago and came across it in the cabinet while looking for something I needed for the kits I was gathering together. At that point, I simply had no choice but to stop everything else I was doing, and sit down to remake this thing.
The interior of it was filled with a scene that included a bunch of this kind of stuff. The outside of it was covered in pale blue fabric and crispy, cheap lace. Ugh. I should have got a photo of the whole thing, but you are probably glad that I didn't, it wasn't all that pretty to see.

I remade some of the pieces from its center into this. The horses are saved for something else. I thought it would be cuter with a bunny pulling the cart. The wheels were painted and put back on, but I added mother of pearl buttons over them, to match the MOP paint I used on the carriage.

The egg itself got all of the lace ripped off (I'd love to know what fantastic glue had been used on it, that stuff really held!), and I decoupaged right over the fabric with pages torn from an old French book. That was a little harsh for me, so I brushed over the words with cream, then with white Mother of Pearl paint. And over that, some fine, clear glitter.

It's pretty from the back too, but simple.

When I started on it, the plan was jelly bean colors. Hmm, that didn't happen, did it? It turned into a soft, low color piece, which is often how things go with me. I love the tones of vintage lace and old pages, and lean towards using them even when I planned on doing something else.

To me, it makes the piece less Easter-y, something that you could display year round if you wanted to.

What will the bunny be bringing to you this year? If you'd like one of these pieces in your basket, you can find them here.

Explorations

cottage, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / February 27, 2014

It's been a long, long, coooooold winter. But before the last big blast of unrelenting cold, we had a break, one beautiful day not only above freezing, but NICE. Sunshiny and warm. Springlike! So nice that Sugarwings and I stepped outside to take a peek at the sunshine and never went back in the house. We were still wearing jammies and didn't even care.

We decided to explore the back part of our land, we have about 10 acres, but only use about a third of it. The rest is hard to get to. requiring us to cross a couple of creeks and I don't like battling the weeds and underbrush during the summer growing season. In the winter, the brush has all died back and it's possible to walk through the woods without getting all tangled up but it's usually too cold for me to want to check it out.

But on this warm, winter day we could also walk right across the frozen creeks. It was an odd feeling to be outside on a day toasty enough to not need a jacket, but still walking on solid ice.

In the first photo, you can see the log that makes the bridge over the creek, which is how we usually cross. I'm not a fan of it, so was glad to slip and slide across the ice instead of dangling over the water on that log. As a person with no sense of balance at all, walking on ice isn't easy, but it's easier than clinging to that dead tree and scooting along it an inch at a time.

Sugarwings found lots of club houses out there. Here is a ring of trees on a hill that we are sure that the fairies planted just for us to play in.

Now that we have a John Deere Gator, my husband has major plans to drive across the creek, harvest firewood to bring back, and also clear some trails. I hope that we'll be spending more time back there as the seasons turn, now that we will have better access.

I love that we "reclaimed" part of our land to create our Fairy Berry Trail. Especially as the girls get older. They will enjoy exploring out there.

It would feel good to have use of the whole property. Sometimes there have been years when we haven't even crossed the creek to visit our own land.

The winner of a copy of Where Women Create is

Pallas.

Please send me your address, Pallas, and I'll get it out in the mail. Thank you to everyone for taking the time to enter. I enjoyed your comments.

The ugliest pictures I have ever posted or how to make roving from angora goat hair

how-to projects

By Karla Nathan / February 24, 2014

My niece has a friend who raises angora goats and at our Valentine Fairy making party, she asked if I'd like some angora to use for the doll hair. Oh my yes!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't quite realize what I was getting myself in for when I said yes. The "raw" fur didn't exactly look like these perfect pink curls.

This photo is of the finished product. The long, angora soft, curls are wonderful, and quite pretty. But I have to warn you, the rest of my photos aren't as nice to look at.

Of course, I didn't realize that it came complete with all this, this, well, we will call it detritus…. that had to be picked out.

Some hay, no big deal. Some burrs, a few sticks, sure, no problem. A bit of unidentifiable something or another. Sure, I'll dig that out. I won't even think about it maybe being a poo clot.

Actually it wasn't bad at all. I started out being very careful and conservative, and as I went along I became more ruthless. Instead of picking out the little bits, I tore away hunks around the little bits.

After that, it gets rinsed. And rinsed. And rinsed, a handful at a time. The instructions said to do it outdoors with a hose. I didn't have that option in our below zero weather, so used my sink. I was pretty surprised to see how easy it was to do and how little mess it was. The stuff clumps to itself and doesn't go all over the place. The clump stays politely where you set it while it is being rinsed.

Next, I tied up all the picked and rinsed hair in a net bag that had held onions.

The bag went into a pot of almost boiling water, that I added a ton of dish soap to. Then, I set it in the sink with a lid on the pot, stirring every once in a while and letting it soak for an hour.

At this point, the whole counter top and the sinks got bleached and scrubbed. Like I mentioned, it wasn't messy. The hair sticks to itself and didn't clog drains or float away. It stays where you put it. It was mostly the germs I was going after when I cleaned up.

After that, I rinsed it, then put the bag back in the pot with equally hot water, no soap, to soak again.

While it was still wet, I took it to the studio and dyed it with fiber reactive dyes. I was going for hot pink and raspberry colors along with some blond.

Parts of it look great, but the color did fade as it dried where the hair was more gray to start with.

And some of it was clotted, and clumped, not soft like wool roving, so I cut those out. I think that maybe it was supposed to be pulled and treated somehow, but I didn't want to disturb the nice, curling parts that were silky, so I just used what I liked and not the rest.

Much of it, where the gray was too strong to cover, will be good to save for witch or crone hair. Or to make a grammie fairy? But some of it was sweetly curling hot pink.

All in all, an interesting experiment. I've been told that I can get more hair from her if I'd like, but I'm not sure if I like the gray goat color. If it was white and I could dye it pastel shades, it would be ideal for my Birdsong fairy class. But for the gray that I ended up with, it isn't a color I'll need much of. I think this bagful will do.

PS- if you'd like to sign up for a chance to win a copy of Where Women Create, please leave a comment on my previous post I'll announce the winner on my next post.

Author name: Karla Nathan