Karla Nathan – Page 157 – Karla's Cottage

How to make a tincture of lavender oil

By Karla Nathan / August 6, 2013

The girls and I made some lavender extract/oil recently. We experimented, after I read through lots of online how-tos and picked out the easiest parts from what I saw.

Hopefully, my jimmy-rigged attempt will work out.

This is the first year that my lavender has really taken off, so I had a beautiful bush of it. Well, I don't know if they are condsidered bushes. But this was so large, it practically was a shrub.

I filled a vase with some, then, we set up an assembly line of cutters and crushers to make the oil.

Sugarwings was in charge of the scissors, Dewdrop had the job of throwing the blooms into the bowl. We all took turns using the pestle.

It was then shoved down into a clean, glass jar. (vintage of course!)

We covered it with vodka to soak. (to me, this seemed less likely to cause bacterial problems than soaking it in oil might, although I'm sure if done right, oil is fine) At that part, my husband walked in the door as I nabbed his bottle of Gray Goose, and he was wondering if trying to make this concoction with the help of the two little fairies had driven me to mid-morning drinking.

Once I explained what we were doing, he thought I might be wasting the good stuff (I don't drink vodka, but once the price was explained to me, I quickly looked in the cabinet for something cheaper)

Here is how we are making it, I'll let you know how it all turns out:

1- Trim most of the stems off, but you don't have to take the blooms off completely, just cut the stem off at the base of the buds. (I placed a few cut off long stems in each trash can around the house, as air freshners)

2- Lightly crush the blooms, just to release the oils. Don't smoosh them to goo.

3- Fill a clean, glass jar with the lavender, cover with vodka cheaper than Gray Goose.

4- Tighten the lid, and shake.

5- Shake a few times a day for a week or so, and store in bright light. My bottle looks pretty on the windowsill.

6- Pour the liquid through a sieve into another clean, glass container.

7- I used the sieve as a lid over a big, glass measuring cup and let it sit for a few days so the alcohol could evaporate. Cheesecloth is what you are supposed to use, but this seemed fine.

8- When it is done, I hope to have a concentrated tincture of fresh, organic lavender oil to use in my cleaning supplies and to scent bath products I like to make.

9- Store in dark bottles. Make sure you make a pretty label for your bottle!

You are welcome to use this one if you'd like.

One site I looked at for making herb tinctures seemed good, But I only used parts of it and parts of a few others, so please google tinctures and oils before you make your own too, you might find other ways that suit you better.

Happy Times and Whammy Times

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / August 4, 2013

The Summer Of Whammy is going well. Although little Dewdrop has taken to calling me Gammy instead of Whammy now. And Twinkle has gone from Schminkle to Winkle. Just this little tidbit of change is enough to remind me that they won't be little for long and I need to cherish this time with them.

Taking most of the summer off to be a Fairy Grandmother was a good choice.

We had both girls for a weekend and decided to pack up and go to Omaha because Dewdrop had never been to that zoo.

And it is a world class, wonderful, place to go. The exhibits are more like adventures than cages and it has all been beautifully done. I can't get enough of the butterfly garden or the bayou swamp.

We had lunch in a cafeteria over looking the rain forest. (I can't say that the food was good, but the fairies didn't seem to mind as long as they could watch monkeys while they ate)

Six and 11/12ths is a bit old for a stroller, but for our sanity and hers, we spent the day pushing both kids in a double wide.

We also didn't try to cram in the whole park. We ambled, we took our time, we stopped to climb on statues or look at fountains.

When we stopped at the playground, I over heard a frustrated mom say to her kids, "I didn't spend all this money for you to hang out on a playground, let's go look at the lions." I know she had a valid point, but for us, it didn't matter what we saw or how many exhibits we made it to, it was about Happy Time.

And when someone (I'm not naming names, here) got cranky, we left early. When Happy Times ended, so did we, it was time to drive around in the car till a nap spontaneously occured.

Even with a good nap, after a couple of hours of hotel splash pad/swimming she was BEAT.

So, it was stories, Netflix on the iPad and hanging out in the room. We weren't trying to "get our money's worth" from the trip, we were all about Happy Time.

And boy, did we get plenty of that.

When I was younger, I would probably have pushed my sons to get through the whole zoo. Thinking I'd drove 3-1/2 hours and spent a fair bit of change on the trip, we needed to see it all.

It's nice to be a mellow, old lady and to enjoy what is right there, right now, and know when enough is enough.

Seriously, you painted your shoes?

how to's, paintings, show and tell

By Karla Nathan / August 2, 2013

I love pretty shoes, I long for and dream of pretty shoes. But my feet don't cooperate. I have what is known as "Freds". Something more suited for stopping a prehistoric car than slipping into high heels.

Buying shoes is traumatic for me. I can shop for 6-12 months, try on hundreds, and not find a pair that fits. Or I think maybe a pair will do, bring them home and only be able to wear them once or twice before giving up. Not only are these feet hard to fit, I'm a bit picky on comfort.

Actually a LOT picky.

My feet have to feel good if I plan on feeling good myself.

My closet is full of brand new shoes only worn once. Goodwill loves me for all the new shoes I donate after purchasing them with a heart full of hope, thinking that THIS will be the pair that not only fits, but looks pretty too!

So, when these extremely comfy, 6 year old Danskos started looking too ratty to wear, I was sad. They weren't torn up, or stretched out, just stained and scuffed. I'd worn a vintage shoe clip on them that tarnished the leather and wouldn't clean off. The shoe clips kept sliding around and not staying in place, and had to go.

Plus, the sides were kind of discolored. Overall, not a good look. But they were shoes that I could walk around an amusement park for hours and still felt good!

That is a shoe worth trying to salvage.

I got out some acrylic craft paints.

The shoes were not a glossy finish, so I figured it would hold well. They are a brushed suede, which took the paint nicely. The trick was to go with colors that would blend with the original leather if scraped. Also, to go lightly, not to use a thick glob that might peel.

First step, was to clean them with an old toothbrush, including the suede sole.

After that, I painted a slightly heavy coat over the black marks with a color to match the leather. But only heavy there, not on the rest of the shoes. Then, I left it to dry.

Next, I used the same base color in a light, watered down wash, on all the leather, making sure to get around the buckle and under the straps. This was done with a small, rough, brush to work the paint down into the leather.

Over that, I did a metallic faux finish with copper and pearl.

I've been wearing them, and so far so good.

Not a pretty picture, huh? See why I call them Freds? Mr. Flintstone and I have a lot in common.

If I were to buy perfectly fitting shoes, I'd need to go to the little boys department and try on size 3 triple wides. If you've ever done that, you know there aren't many pretty choices. When I was a kid, Mom bought me "corrective" shoes. Which is a code word for Butt Ugly.

As close as I can find to corrective shoes in the adult world is Easy Spirit. Sometimes an extra wide, pretty one turns up. And some European (code word, expensive) shoes fit pretty good, like the Danskos I redid. They are often wide, always well made and hold up for years.

But I have never, ever, found a lovely pair of delicate heels that my feet would enjoy. I guess that I'll be treasuring whatever fits and keeping them as good as I can for as long as I can.

A fairy play room part 3, a hand painted mermaid bed, with no sanding

cottage, fairies, Hand painted, Hand Painted Furniture, how to's

By Karla Nathan / July 31, 2013

As I was telling you last time, we did a few changes in the fairy grand daughters' room. And of course, one change leads to another. A fixed up area makes its surrounding areas look left out and forgotten.

Sugarwings loved that we were redoing her room, but as she looked around, she said, it would be nice to have a pink bed. And pink curtains.

Well, I think I have some sheer pink curtains packed aways somewhere, I'll need to dig those out. But for now, I've been redoing her bed.

Very few things in my home are brand new. But sometimes when you need something, you need it now, and don't have a few months to find the perfect vintage piece. So, we bought this bed for our little fairy when she outgrew her tiny bed, and had declared herself too big to sleep there anymore.

Little did I know, she was just making a play to sleep downstairs on the sofa… and didn't sleep in her new bed for a year after I got it. I guess I could have searched for the perfect vintage piece after all.

Anyway, it was creamy white and was fine, but not to the taste of Sugarwings, who thinks the entire world should be pink and has taught Dewdrop to ask for pink in everything too.

First step, NO sanding. I hate to sand. I use Glidden Gripper bonding primer under my interior wall paint and never have a problem with peeling.

There are multiple posts about how I paint furniture, you can get step by step instructions here.

I chose Ballerina Pink from Glidden to paint the whole thing.

After the base coat, I added a blue background in the oval and color to the trim, plus some roses on the sides. I was too lazy to paint the foot board, it is just base coat pink, no flowers on it.

This little girl loves mermaids and has been a huge fan for almost her entire life. If I had it to do over again, her whole room would be an under the sea theme. But then, Dewdrop would feel left out because she loves fairies and "honies" (My Little Pony, or unicorns). And I like the fairies that are already there.

Since the room is such a jumble of choppiness and different things going on anyway, I went with mermaids in the woods with the fairies for her. We'll just call it a fairy tale theme and not worry about the details.

I painted a mermaid in the center of the oval. She adores Ariel, but I went anti-disney. Plus, I wanted a sweet little girl, not a teen.

And I know, I should have added a crown, but didn't feel like going back to do it later when I thought of it. At that point, my paint plate had dried out over night and I wasn't up to mixing up the colors again. You can't just slap a crown on, you have to blend it in with the right shadows and make it look like it is actually sitting in her hair.

When she (sob!) gets too old for mermaids, it will be easy to paint over this oval and change up the bed for a more grown up look.

Over everything but the portrait and the flowers, I painted on and wiped off white glaze. I mixed one cup of clear glaze with one 2oz. bottle of white craft paint. I made sure I got it down in the cracks and crevices really good, and wiped it off the high points.

Now, where are those pink curtains at? I'd better go look through the closets, I know they are hiding somewhere.

A fairy play room part 2

cottage, fairies, Hand painted, Hand Painted Furniture, Snow White

By Karla Nathan / July 28, 2013

A few weeks ago, I showed you some photos of the little fairies' room after I added part of the canvas mural I'd done for An Enchanted Affaire.

After thinking about it, and talking to Sugarwings, we decided that more of the mural needed to go in the room.

Here is the whole thing, set up at the event. I'd designed it so that the right side was a darker side of the forest and the main interest was to the left.

We cut off the sunlit meadow side and put it behind Dewdrop's tiny little bed.

Later, I went back and painted the vent to make it blend in.

This was the section left over to use by Sugarwings' bed. For one thing, the center tree is just blah, it wasn't meant to be a focal point. For another, the flowers were too red, and so was the cottage.

So, I livened up the central tree with more branches and some lighter toned leaves.

And pinked up the cottage. (sorry, the crooked photo makes it look like the house is melting)

One of the smaller trees in the distance got some vining roses.

And the blue bird got bluer. Basically, I wanted the whole thing a bit lighter and brighter since it was going to be part of a little girl's room now.

All the red flowers became pink ones, and a fairy with a flock of bumble bee friends was painted in right where Sugarwings could visit with her when she laid down to sleep.

My poor, old, eyes! This girl was only about an inch or so tall.

After repainting the forest, I looked around the room to see what else we could do.

I changed out the bedspreads with some lighter weight ones for summer. The girls also now have a vintage, pink high chair to use when it's feeding time for the teddy bears. Dewdrop had outgrown the chair and I was wondering what to do with it. Giving it to them to play with has been a hit with them.

I'm not sure about the droopy wrinkles in this part of the canvas, but the kiddos don't mind.

Just like they don't care about the choppy look the room gets from it's various wall treatments. From a design standpoint, this could have been done much better, and I know that the original mural on the closet walls doesn't go with the canvas ones that we hung in there.

But it has some sweet fairies on it, so the theme still fits, even if the style doesn't.

At least the ceiling still matches, I painted it like a sky before Sugarwing's was born. When she was still just a wish, not quite a person yet.

Speaking of wishes…. my little one loved the redo, but was wishing for a pink bed. So, what do you figure I did about that?

Part three of the saga up next!

A Sea Fairy, and a bad trip that was better than it should have been

fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / July 25, 2013

My husband travels a lot on business. I used to tag along sometimes, but he often travels with coworkers, or the timing is wrong, or I've got too much going on, so I just don't get to go as often as I used to. But I do pester him about when he will be headed to the Outer Banks again and hint that I'd like to be there when he goes.

An opportunity came up this week to go with him on part of his trip, and he flies so much that I get a free buddy pass to go anywhere he heads to on Southwest, so I packed my bag and headed out for a couple of days oceanside while he worked.

The day started off with a delayed flight.But not too bad, we knew we could still make our connecting flight.

Apparently it wasn't delayed long enough. As soon as the plane took off, the baby sitting behind us filled his diaper up. If the plane was a couple minutes later, the poor kiddo could have been changed before boarding. And the delays were due to storms, so a bumpy flight means everyone stays in a seat belt, which means mom and dad can't take the baby to the lavatory to change him. He was MAD and screamed to let us all know. But he smelled worse than he sounded.

The whole day was turning kinda smelly on us. I got lost at the airport (embarrassing and really, really dumb), but we made our connection. We landed safely before a big storm hit, but the storm caused a delay in unloading the luggage. A 3-1/2 hour delay. Could have been worse, at least we got to land.

There was no internet and I couldn't download a book to replace the one I'd just finished on my iPad, so I had to buy a real book to read while waiting for bags. Which ended up being a happy accident. This was a fun beach read.

And it was short, which was good, because our beach time got shortened too. My husband got a call cancelling our trip, he had to fly to a different city the next afternoon!

Due to the first flight being late and the second one holding our bags hostage for hours, we only had a partial evening after drivng from Norfolk to Kitty Hawk. But we found a restaurant with a covered patio serving frosty margaritas with fresh seafood and live music. Plus, the singer sounded a bit like Rob Thomas. Very nice.

Then I had a walk on the beach the next morning until check out time came along at the hotel. Having grown up spending lots of time in Sarasota, FL with my grandma, I developed a love as deep as the ocean for all things beachy, so a few hours on the sand is much better than none at all and was worth the trip.

My plans were to walk up the coast and gather a bag full of shells. But as I went along, I noticed that the shells were all broken. And looked like toenails.

When I saw this one, I thought it looked like a witch's toenail. And bent down to take a closer look. I started to notice that all the shells while broken, were still really nice.

They were like beach glass, buffed and shined, with smooth edges. As if they were ready to be placed into a jewelry setting. I even found some hearts here and there, not just toenails.

And I could be wrong, but I think some of this is beach glass. What do you think?

These were not the shells I'd gone seeking, but I was liking them. Just like this wasn't the vacation we'd planned, it was still nice to get away and see the sea.

Then, I came across this broken shell, which should have been sharp, but was buffed smooth by the waves. And I knew what I wanted to do with the shells I'd been picking up on my walk.

All of my collected bits and pieces were just waiting to become a sea fairy. I'd picked up all the right components for a flower petal skirt, and a perfectly shaped head. (I hope she doesn't mind that I gave her cankles and clown feet)

I was tempted to pack her back up and bring her with me to reassemble in Kansas, but she seemed to belong there, so I left her in a fairy ring, hoping some little girl would find her and be excited.

Most of the time, there are happy little surprises lurking for all of us, if we look hard enough and can get past only seeing our troubles. I sure had to remind myself a few a lot of times during that trip. I had some grumbles here and there, but in the end, it all worked out.

How to make playdough with glitter

fairies, family, how-to projects, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 24, 2013

We recently made some playdough. And it was pretty easy to do, plus for DYI-ers like us, a lot more fun than just opening a can.

Here is what was in it:

2 cups flour

2 cups warm water

1 cup salt

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon cream of tartar (optional for improved elasticity)

Mix all in a saucepan and cook. At first I was dubious, it looked like crumbly pie crust gone bad. But all of a sudden, as it cooked, it turned into playdough. One minute, I was ready to toss it out, the next, it looked and felt like the real stuff.

At that point, we added scent. Sugarwings chose mint extract. I voted for orange or vanilla, but she won.

That is usually how it goes around here.

Once it cooled, we mixed in food coloring. I heard you could use Kool-Aide, but that isn't something we keep on hand and this was a spur of a moment idea. So we tried the expensive, paste kind of food coloring that comes in so many pretty colors.

A couple were okay, but most turned it odd tones. The plum shade made a yucky shade of brown. Well, yucky till we decided it looked like gingerbread, it's all in how you look at it.

After that, we tried the cheapo, 4 pack of liquid colors. It was quite messy, but the color was truer.

(all the liquid food coloring washed out of her clothes, wore off her skin, but some of the paste coloring stained the white table. I've not made much of an effort to get it off, bleach will probably do it. Or another coat of white paint?)

After we worked the color throughout the dough, we piled on the glitter. And LOTs of it. This was a fine one, not too heavy, so it didn't feel gritty when you played with it.

(Make sure you don't use the glass stuff, sorry, I know that is obvious, but I felt like I had to say it, I've seen that dangerous stuff used in some stupid places)

The sparkles are very pretty in it. And the texture was really nice. The smell was wonderful, but between the talk of gingerbread and smell of mint, we had to whip up a batch of real gingerbread and throw ourselves a Christmas in July party.

The darker the color, the better the glitter showed up. And Sugarwings likes adding color, so we had some pretty dark ones.

We've had the stuff wrapped up in zip lock bags and everything is as nice this week as it was last. I don't know if I'd store it too long, with no preservatives in it. It could go moldy. At least, that is my guess.

Sewing a vintage slipcover

cottage, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers)

By Karla Nathan / July 21, 2013

Lately, I've been on a home fix up kick. Just little things, like new pillows and touching up paint. (yes, those a doggie pee pads on the other side of the couch, those little brats are hard to train! They'd rather use a pad than go out their dog door. And they think rugs are pads… so no rugs)

Sometimes cleaning up means more messing up. I could go out to the studio to sew, but since I was making sofa cushions, it was more convenient to bring the sewing machine into the kitchen.

I'd been collecting old drapes and fabric for years and finally got around to redoing my couch cushions with them. I'm not a big fan of sewing, but I can make a simple pillow case for my cushions and pillows, and get a whole new look for the room with some garage sale fabric and a straight stitch.

I don't really measure, I just lay out the fabric, put the pillow on it, cut around, then turn the fabric inside out, pin together and run it through the machine, hoping the bobbin lasts through the session. I use whatever color of thread was last put on because I am a total loser at changing threads and bobbins.

It's far from a pro job, but I'm usually okay with the results. The whole job took me a couple of hours and less than $60 in materials.

Some of the fabric was too bright, even though it had to have been at least 50 years old, so I flipped it over and used the backside for a more faded look. I also bought pieces that were far from perfect, and just cut around the holes or stains and used only the good parts.

The pink silk brocade on the seat cushion is from an entire roll of old fabric that I'd found at an antique mall for $9. I doubt if I could buy a yard of cloth that nice for that kind of price at JoAnn's or any where else, brand new. The roll was in good shape too.

And funny, after I found this, I ran across a half roll of a slightly darker version of the same cloth at the Salvation Army ($5)! So, I used it to coordinate with the lighter brocade and the different floral pattern curtains I'd been gathering. I used it on the backside of all the pillows.

It doesn't show much, but looks nice when you sit on the couch and it peeks out when the pillows are mussed around. Which, with two little girls and three dogs in the house, they usually are.

While I was at it, I moved the furniture around. Then a week later, I put it right back where it used to be.

I think the new pillows look better with the bark cloth drapes behind them than with the emphemera covered wall.

The dogs don't care, as long as I point a camera in their direction, they are happy. Especially if it involves being on a soft pillow.

Do you ever have little things around the house that bug you, but you try to ignore? Since I hung these curtains (years ago), I'd been irritated that some of the clips were dark brass and some were painted cream. I finally grabbed a brush, and stood on the buffet with a capful of paint and quickly made them all match.

It only took a couple of minutes. Now, why did it take years to do??

Craft Day at Gail’s- vintage wallpaper tags

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

By Karla Nathan / July 19, 2013

Last weekend, my friend, Gail, invited me to a craft day.

I didn't really have a project to bring, so I decided to make tags. I packed a lot of old wallpaper scraps, some other ephemera and card stock. Then, I tore the papers into rough edge bits and strips, then I drizzled glue over the card stock and layered the strips of old paper onto it.

After it dried, I ran it through the Cutlebug using a three part tag set die cut.

This made an interesting background to embellish with some tidbits I'd brought along. I had a handful of lace, a small bag of flowers, some ribbon, two vintage greeting cards, a die cut rose and some ink pads.

When I'm working with wallpaper, I keep a container near me to save scraps. No piece is too small to save, you never know when you'll need an itsy bitsy piece, and why cut into a big hunk for a two inch strip?

Plus, I'm cheap. I don't like to waste scraps of pretty paper if they can be reused. Tags are an excellent way to use up the remnants of a bigger project.

This was an ideal project for craft day. It was easy to pack up and bring, didn't take much thought, and I could chat while I worked. Gail and her daughter-in-law, Marj, had both been to my studio at Birdsong, and I felt like I already knew her grand daughter, Corrine from FB stories and pictures.

But the other ladies were new friends, and the projects ranged from crochet to scrap booking. Everyone brought something to work on while they hung out, that is my favorite kind of craft day.

Gail made us a tasty lunch, and gave me a tour of her cute place. She loves vintage roses as much as I do, and her home was filled with pretty pink blooms.

She also had houseful of things she'd bought from me, back when I used to host antique sales at my house. I knew she'd been a generous customer over the years, but I didn't realize just how much she'd got. It reminded me of visiting my mom's house and how every where I looked, I saw something I'd made or painted.

Gail might just have more of my stuff than I do. I felt right at home!

Thanks, Gail!

Creating

vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / July 19, 2013

If you are visiting for the Where Bloggers Create Studio Tour, you can see my pictures here

So you don't think I've done nothing but goof off, here are a few things I've been making.

This collage is done on a book cover.

And this one in a jewelry box.

This is a frame that had a few die cut roses in it. I covered it with modeling paste, scraped some off, added lace and images, ink, and embellishments.

Part of my Summertime Adventuretime is about creating for just the plain old heck of it.

Not to make something to sell or to teach.

Just to connect with the joy of making it.

Author name: Karla Nathan