Karla Nathan – Page 209 – Karla's Cottage

ADHD time in the studio

By Karla Nathan / February 11, 2011

While I had the sewing machine set up to work on goodie bags for Bird Song, I decided to work on a few other little sewing projects. I wanted to make some crepe paper ruffles to have setting out as extra supplies for anyone who wants to use it on their project for my class that weekend.

And guess what? I need some of the ruffles to add to the kits that I am making up for these classes too! I get to teach at Paper Cowgirls!!!!!! Yee Haw! I'm a cowgal!

The classes are June 9th- 11th someplace in Texas. I guess I should be figuring out where.

I'll be teaching these miniature dress forms. I'm busily finding cool stuff to put in the kits for those too. Lots of old papers, millinery, and lace. Each kit will be just a bit different, when you are providing vintage materials, its different than going to the store or ordering a bunch of something online.

There are still a few spots open for Bird Song, if I don't see you there, maybe I will at Paper Cowgirls? Or at Jenn's event in Ashville?Sign ups haven't started yet for Paper Cowgirls or Once Upon a Dream, I'll let you know when they open for registration.

We still have a few spots left for Bird Song. Debbie and Carol have about a billion readers each, so when they mention it on their blogs, those spots will be gone fast. If you want to come, you should sneak in now before the big guns announce it!

PS- Carol has a new site too, have you seen it yet?

Ever notice how one project leads to another? After sewing up the crepe paper ruffles, I decided that the edges of the paper needed to be coffee dyed. So, I dipped it and then thought, why waste the rest of the coffee? Next thing I know, I'm scrounging for ribbons and trims to add to the coffee.

Then, I printed off some old French images that I'd scanned. I had a few extra bags un-embellished from my craft day with Beth and New Karla on Tuesday, so I thought that I would foof them up while the sewing machine was still out.

After printing the images onto the fabric, I dipped it in the coffee too.

I ended up making 10 more bags for another little party that I am having at my house, not the Bird Song event.

Some of the images I used on these bags were from Romantic Gothic Ghosts and Romantic White Christmas workshops that I did with Beth. So much of the ephemera that we scanned for those classes is good for more than just holiday decor.

For these bags, I used the fabric printed images as pockets, then glued on some embellishments and doo dads.

Its been a bit schizophrenic around the studio the last couple of days. Like I said, one thing leads to another and then all of a sudden, I've got a half dozen different things in the works. Like, when I was trimming up wallpaper to scan to print onto the fabric, I thought- why waste the salvage from it???

So, I got out the paper shredder and next thing I know, I"m shredding up all sorts of pieces too little to be good for much else. (they were still laying around from when I made up the kits for Bird Song). So, now, I have packing materials for shipping when I reopen the Boutique.

( I should be working on getting some inventory built up for my grand reopening, huh? Seems more important to have something to sell than shreds of paper to wrap stuff up in, at least it would be if I wasn't a schizo crafter this week! )

Did I mention that I am also writing 3 articles by the 18th, making 70 gifts for Moulin Rouge, and baby sitting my fairy grandbaby all weekend? No wonder you are NOT seeing any pretty Valentines on my posts.

Thanks to these kind friends who offered to be sponsors for Bird Song and help fill the goodie bags! Later on, I'll do a post with photos of what they send in, along with the rest of the goodies from the other sponsors. Its going to be one tasty, stuffed goodie bag, that is for sure!!

Queen for a Day

bird song art event, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / February 9, 2011

Yesterday, I had a studio full of helpers! Beth brought Button with her to work on the gift bags she designed for Bird Song.

But not only did she print out all the bird images on vintage fabric, she brought her friend, Karla, (who I call New Karla, although she and Beth have been buddies since they were just little kids) and the two of them helped me with my taxes.

Both are accountants and claimed that it was fun to sort through my Pay Pal info.

Fun?

It didn't sound like fun to me. It was wonderful to have someone get all the stuff ready for me to pack it up to take to my own accountant. I'd have worked on it for a week, but Karla did it in an hour or so.

But not only that, they brought lunch too.

And Beth brought me new velvet slippers. With an N brooch on them for "nest" or "Nathan", as well as a book of alphabet fonts for me to scan and print for the NEST banners we are making in Bird Song.

But wait- there's more! Not only did they do my accounting, feed me, bring me gifts and sew bags, they helped me push my son's car when it got stuck in the ice. And did I mention that it was a below zero day?

For once I didn't care how cold it was, it was a GREAT day! Aren't friends the best?? I felt pampered all day long. Especially since I was wearing new velvet slippers in a royal plum color- my feet even felt pampered.

Here is the bag that Beth made as a prototype. She hand stitched hers, but we used the sewing machine to make the 20 some gift bags.

The images she printed on to old fabric were from Dawn, the Graphics Fairy, Mary, and collages that Beth had done herself.

She used old linen from an estate sale, that she stuck to full sized Avery Labels, to run through the printer.

The bags are some that my friend, Andrea has used in the past and recommended on her blog. I Lightly dyed them in a small amount tan Rit dye, then soaked them all day in coffee. When they were dry, I threw them in the dryer to heat set. I like the crumply, aged look it made. And they are so nice and soft, too.

Beth had offered to make ribbon rosettes for each bag, like the one she did on her sample, but I just couldn't let her do it. She'd already done so much work on these.

I started to embellish bags myself with some different things. Old lace, brown velvet ribbon, millinery, jewelry.

Goodies are already starting to pile up to go into the bags for the students! I've got a few sponsors and am making some things myself.

So far, the sponsors are:

Beth

Dawn

Kay Ellen and her mom

Hope

Lonnie

Lisa

And if you'd like to be a sponsor, I'd love to have you! We would need either 25 items to fill gift bags, or a single gift as a raffle prize. Please contact me if you'd like to sponsor. I'll be doing a post showing all the gifts and linking back to the giver's blogs closer to the event.

Or if you'd like to come to the event itself, there are still spaces. Its the last day of April, first day of May and will be here in my studio. Two days of classes with Lisa, Carol, Debbie, and myself for $250 (includes meals)

I filled a bag with old millinery in colors Beth liked as a thank you, but I think I need to take those two helpers out to lunch, don't you? Not only did they do a ton of things for me, they just plain old made my day by being so nice.

There is no better way to beat the winter blahs than to be treated so royally by friends!

Speaking of treats, I need to announce the winners of the rhinestone bracelets that I'm giving away.

Natalie

Charlene

Cindy (who gave Sugarwings the cute dress she was wearing in the snow fort photos)

Rita Zink

Joanne

Battling the mid-winter blues and dreaming of Spring!

bird song art event, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / February 7, 2011

The other day, I was cleaning my studio and doing some rearranging, with my spring time art event in mind, and just decided that I couldn't take it anymore, I had to MAKE something. Something quick and simple, but something. This weather has had me down, and not feeling very creative, so I needed a boost and forced myself to create.

Since I'd been cleaning up, there was a pile of papers I'd gathered up on the desk, so I used them up instead of putting them away, and turned them into a mini ephemera book.

I felt a little better about winter after doing something pretty.

Sugarwings came to spend the weekend with me, and both of us are feeling that mid-winter pinch. That cooped up, sick of being inside the same four walls dread. To beat the blues, we built a fort with blankets and curtains over the dining room table.

We discussed building strategy and felt like all white was the way to go, and that we'd call it a snow fort.

The floor got covered with a couple of thick, soft comforters, and we brought in pillows, a flash light, and art supplies.

And treats, of course! We snacked away all day and didn't even have lunch.

Yes, I did say all day. We were in that fort for hours.

We spent some of the time doing cave paintings. We used markers to draw fairies, clouds, hearts, and stars above our heads on the underside of the table.

Hopefully, she'll take my warning about never drawing on anyone's furniture unless an adult says Okay, seriously.

Hopefully, I haven't created an urge in her to marker up every table she sees… But I think that she understood that this was a special place and a special time.

After a couple hours of stories, drawing and snacking, she still wasn't ready to leave the fort. So I snuck out and got a book for myself and a DVD player for her.

This is our book for Monday night's book club and I hadn't had a chance to open it till Sunday afternoon.

So, I borrowed Sugarwing's flashlight and started to read while she watched Ariel. After a while my handsome husband got home, and he crawled in to hang out, and discovered just how cozy the spot was. He ended up taking a nice long nap in the fort while Sugarwings watched another movie.

Her Hippy Chick Mommy came over for Sunday dinner, and we made some Valentines, then the two of them crawled in the fort to watch a 3rd movie. I think that if she had her way, that kid would still be in that fort right now. She did eat breakfast in there this morning.

Thanks for all the sign ups for Bird Song! There are still spots left, if you are interested please email me for a pay-pal invoice. I can't promise you a snow fort while you are here, but please feel free to climb under the tables and draw on the undersides if you'd like.

Details about the event can be found HERE.

And if you'd like to win one of my bargain bag rhinestone bracelets, leave a comment here or on the previous post. I bought a ton of them for dirt cheap and will draw a few names to share them.

How to join us at Bird Song- Hope to see you there!

antiques/junking, bird song art event

By Karla Nathan / February 5, 2011

Well, I think I've got the Bird Song site ready for sign ups! No photos yet of Debbie's project, but a very nice description. And if you know anything about Debbie, you have to know she'll do something excellent. She is so talented and has such a discerning eye for beauty.

If you would like to sign up to attend the classes at my home on April 30th and May 1st, please email me at karlanathan@sbcglobal.net after 8 am Central time Monday, Feb.7 and I will send you a pay pal invoice for $250.

We have space for 20 guests. I'll answer the emails in the order they come in.

More info here:

http://karlascottage.typepad.com/bird_song/

Above is a bit of my kits, just a small part of it. The NEST banners are meant to have options and can be made low-color or with touches of robin's egg. There will be quite a few options for the banner, so everyone can end up with an unique creation.

Have you seen Carol's NEW blog? She is doing two blogs now, so we get double the Carol goodness.

And I am honored to have her teaching at Bird Song! She'll be showing us how to do this fringed tree.

And Lisa will teach this woven piece made with old lace and natural elements. I met Lisa online through our blogs and could tell she and I were meant to be buds. She'll be quite the addition to the weekend, and I'm trying to convince her to stay longer, because she is a blast to hang out with. I love to have a few days in the studio with her just to play with papers.

Hosting this weekend is kind of a selfish thing for me. I'm so looking forward to seeing those of you who can make it here, to spend time in the studio with me and with this great group of teachers that I am gosh durn lucky to have as friends.

Gosh durn? Well today, I beat cabin fever by getting out of the house with a good group of friends and doing some retail therapy. And in the car, we had a cuss word talk. Gol Dang and Gosh durn came up, as well as Jiminy Christmas. One friend said she always knew her Dad was about to explode if he invoked Jiminy.

My bad habit? Freakin. And Durn. I'm a big Durn-er. Oh, and crap. Do you have a favorite faux swear word?

We were shopping at Bottoms Up, the once a month spectacular headed by my Bella buddy, Gwen of French by Design. My huge purchase wasn't old, even though the place is filled with the best antiques to be found in KC.

I got a giant bag of rhinestone bracelets for 20 bucks. These sparklers will be fantastic art supplies. I've already added a bundle of the neutral colored ones to my Bird Song banner supplies.

They are just perfect for the S in NEST!

I bought 60 plus packages of these bracelets, and each package had 2-3 in the bag. I'll share. Leave a comment on this post and I'll give a few away. They are fun to wear, or to cut in half and glue onto a project.

PS- how embarrassing, my last post was full of typos and odd sentences, if you read it on Google Reader. I hit publish instead of preview and once you do that, corrections don't show up on googlereader. It was a bit of a jumble.

Almost ready for sign up!

bird song art event, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 4, 2011

This picture does NOT express how I am feeling right now. Between the cabin fever from this major snow and ice storm, and coming down with a bug that kept me in bed for two days straight, I'm not exactly feeling a pirouette coming on. (well maybe in my tummy)

But I can tell that I am feeling better, I was itching to get up out of bed and visit the studio, even if I didn't feel like doing much but poking around out here. It was still good to get out of the house.

Before the snow and the crud both hit, I snuck out for a mini junking day, and headed to Four Corners and Scranton, KS. Little towns in the middle of nowhere, that have a couple of antique shops that usually have good finds for me. Hat boxes always attract my eyes, I'm constantly hunting them down to pick up and shake to see if loot is waiting inside.

And if I see a particularly pretty one, I buy it for studio storage. This cool Marie Antoinette style one wasn't full of goodies, but I did find a small grass cloth one that was. Plus a few other tid bits. I can't turn down old books with attractive fonts for a dollar a piece, even though I have more ephemera than I'll ever use.

You just never know just how much is enough, though… I seriously try to use what I buy, not hoard it.

I made use of one of the books already. The whole entire thing got torn up and put into the kits I made up for Bird Song, my art event coming up this spring.

Two hats full of white flowers went into the kits too. I'm still so impressed with myself and a tad bit shocked to realize that all my kits are done and ready for April! Its probably because I am soooooo excited about hosting the classes here at the cottage. I'm just too filled with anticipation to wait till later to get things ready.

I'm actually hosting classes here!! Yipppeee! An art event of my own??? With teachers I admire and look up to?

pinch me

You've heard me run on and on and on about the classes I have gone to that were hosted by Jenn and Kim, plus I Silverbella's biggest cheerleader, I LOVE going there. Now, I am in a completely different category than what those ladies are doing, my mini event will be much different. A smaller scale, more laid back, and casual.

What I love about these art weekends, is the atmosphere of having so many creative people together at once. I love seeing what everyone makes, getting ideas from their take on a project, learning and sharing. Its always artfully invigorating.

And I just love to throw parties, if you've read my blog a coupel times, you might have noticed.

So, to combine guests, with a studio play date with blog friends??? Too cool.

Of course, once the site is open for sales (on Monday) I'll be freaking out that no one will come to Kansas to see me…. Be prepared for a case of the nerves to hit me. I'll thank you ahead of time for listening to me nerves. Its always good to have friends to share worries with.

I'm hoping 20 of you will sign up to come and play with me and Debbie, Carol, and Lisa the last Saturday of April, and May Day Sunday. Of course, its Februrary now, and I didn't leave you much time to sign up. Between the holidays, vacations, flu, family tragedy, and teacher changes, it has not been a quick process to set this up to sell.

Style Evolution party

antiques/junking, magazine pictures or articles, parties

By Karla Nathan / February 1, 2011

Has your look changed over the years? Mine used to constantly change, back when I was working full time as a decorative painter and antique dealer. My home was my workshop and where I experimented.

Now that I don't do either of those professions much, I've stopped the revolving door of furniture moving in and out, but I do still come up with some upgrades here and there.

This was my dining room a few years back, this photo is from Country Almanac, or Country Victorian, I can't remember which magazine.

Here is the dining room now. Less flowery, more neutral. Definitely less country. The hutch in the first photo was a maple one that my mom had, and when she died, I took it home with me and gave it a redo. But it never really fit in with my home, so I gave it to my niece.

Yet another version, this was in Paint magazine. Sometime between the two previous pictures. It was just a little too blue for me. I liked it for a while….

Now, this is a REALLY old version of my dining room (from Country Almanac). It was so different then that it used to be a living room! When we first bought this old farmhouse, we used to move the sofa to the room with the wood stove in it every winter, then switch the living and dining rooms back in the spring time.

I liked the idea of having a portable space, one that you could easily adapt for the seasons. But then, we got a satellite dish and all the TV hook ups and wires changed that concept. It became too hard to switch the entire room, the TV cabinet wasn't easy to move. (with my love of TV viewing, I'd trade a wide screen for versatility any day!)

I can still change the look of the living room for the season just by changing the accessories.

In the spring, I bring out all my rose pattern pillows and curtains, then in the winter, I like to go all white.

Here is a shot of the white version, taken by Carol Spinski when she photographed an article for Somerset Home.

This look was in Romantic Country. Its from when I first discovered white paint and learned how to make slipcovers. I fell in love with light and airy, but burnt out on the over the top floweryness of it all.

I can afford to do the big switcheroos because everything I get for the rooms is dirt cheap. I scrounge and shop garage sales, estate sales, auctions, and have been known to go through a dumpster or two. I find things that need work, are beat up, or on clearance and redo them myself. When I do treat myself to something new, its usually not expensive, like these curtains from Target, or the rug from TJ Max.

And I recycle things from one room to another, this salvaged mantel has been in the dining room, living room and now is a head board in my bedroom. (this photo is from Romantic Country too)

This shot was taken for Romantic Country, almost used twice but rejected at the last minute each time. Funny, I like this look so much better than the previous pictures of my house that were actually used in the magazines.

This was in Country Victorian, I think… there is that mantel again. And the same furniture, different slip covers. I wish I hadn't painted over the border by the ceiling, I kind of liked that.

This used to be what my studio looked like, not too long ago. Twice, I have been asked to be in Where Women Create, but nothing has come of it. I adore my studio and would LOVE for it to be photographed for that publication.

Here is the same corner now. I use the bench (hand built by my son, from an old headboard) at the studio dining table.

I feel pretty lucky to have been in so many magazines, probably about 40 or so at this point. I don't really pursue it, its a hobby. Every once in a while I come up with an idea and run it by an editor. I wouldn't exactly say its a job, even a part time one. Its just a whim, and every time I do an article I think its probably the last time, because I can't believe that I was even chosen to do one let alone dozens.

I'm certainly not a professional writer, or decorator , just one of those people who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Just lucky, huh? Its always fun to do an article, and I really do like having these old pictures chronicling my home's metamorphosis.

If you enjoy looking at before and afters, please check out Jen Rizzo's blog today, she is having a Style Evolution party and the pictures of her home are just to die for. Gorgeous!! She makes me want to redo mine….. hmm…..

By the way, if you'd like to come and visit me and spend time in the studio, sign ups for the spring workshop are coming soo. I'd love to have you come to the cottage! Meeting blog friends is always a good experiance.

Accomplishments

paintings, Tutorials, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / January 30, 2011

This was a nesting weekend for me. My husband is out of town, Sugarwings is with parents, nothing was on TV that I wanted to see, and I had nothing but studio time! (but I have to confess I couldn't go the whole weekend without snuggles, I had to sneek over to my son's house to hold the baby Sis-star for a while)

So, I made up two more banners for my Bird Song event this spring.

My plan for the class is to provide a packet of supplies, and patterns and ideas. Plus instructions for the different ideas, of course.

I want everyone to have choices for their project. I'll have lots of examples made up and plenty of pretty papers to work with.

It will be such fun to see what everyone comes up with. One of my favorite things to do when I attend a class is to walk around the room and see all the ways one single project can turn out.

With this one, the variations will be countless! I can't wait to see what our 20 students make.

Thanks for your patience in waiting for me to get the ball rolling on this class. Sign ups are SOON.

Thanks also for your kind words about my worries for Sugarwings. I appreciate all the private emails and messages about your own kids. We always hurt more for our little ones than for ourselves, don't we?

After making up all the banner bits, I got busy typing up instructions and drawing the patterns. I hope I don't get a stiff neck from patting myself on the back too much, but I just have to brag about how early I am getting this done.

I've got all the stacks of vintage paper, wallpaper, tags, chip board, millinery flowers, turquoise bird egg beads, moss, and tons of other goodies laid out on my table ready to make up the kits.

MONTHS ahead of time!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, there is lots of back patting going on around here.

Not only that, but I did a quickie, little painting for the Moulin Rouge event I am attending in March too. Here is a corner of it.

I'm so proud of myself that I am taking the night off now, to go sit in front of the TV with a good movie and a plate of rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. There is nothing like vegging out in front of the TV with food I didn't have to cook, after a couple of days of hard work.

Pheobe in Wonderland

Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / January 29, 2011

Have you ever seen this movie? Its a couple years old, but I just heard about it recently. The tiny actress who plays Phoebe is Dakota Fanning's sister, Elle and she reminded me so much of Sugarwings that I teared up many times while watching it.

Do you see the resemblance? But mostly it was an attitude and the mesmerized, happy look on her face when she was watching something she loved. My little Fairy Grand Baby has that look. And the ability to be totally lost in the wonderland of her imagination. Also, the tousled hair, and mis-matched clothes. Just adorable.

But sadly, Sugarwings also has a hard time dealing with others sometimes. Not OCD and Tourettes like the girl in the movie, but still some problems that are getting harder for her as she gets older.

The other day, she broke my heart by telling me that she is different from everyone else, and can't do anything right. At four years old??? With all the love and attention and understanding that we surround her with, she is already feeling like this before she has even started kindergarten?

Yes, my heart still hurts from hearing her words and knowing that life isn't going to be a breeze for her. Luckily, the very things that make her different will also be what makes her strong and will get her through.

She has an amazing imagination and overflows with joy and boundless energy. Her emotions are strong, she is loyal, artistic, smart, and loving.

It will be up to her extended family to make sure that she finds the right learning environment that takes advantage of her skills and lets her be her own wonderful self.

Sorry, first I write a post about cleaning a closet and now I tell you how sad this movie made me, these aren't the kind of posts you come here for, huh? I promise to come up with some pretty pictures and a happy tale soon.

But honestly, life with Sugarwings, while it might be a roller coaster, is a happy tale. I have faith that she is going to be spectacular. And I want her to know that too and believe in herself.

Someday, when she is grown up, I hope she reads my archives and knows that Grams always believed in her.

A Case of the Januarys

family, Hand Painted Furniture, housework

By Karla Nathan / January 28, 2011

Each year, after taking down the Christmas tree, I feel like my house needs… something. There is something about going from full on glitz and glamour to just plain back to normal that is a little sad. Plus, the weather doesn't help. Being cooped up and staring at the rooms day after day doesn't help. Things that bug me just a little start to bug me a LOT when there is no escape from them.

Last January, I spent a lot of time neutralizing and de-pinking my kitchen, and rearranging all my pretties in their glass fronted cabinets.

This year, I thought I'd gotten off the hook easy. After taking down the tree, cleaning the rooms and simply shifting a few things from here to there, I thought I was done and past it all. I was so busy with the funeral and guests that I almost made it to the end of January without taking on a do over anywhere in the house.

I was content with my simple clean up and and it was nice just to have the tree and most of the Christmas foof hidden away for the year.

But then, I ended up watching Sugarwings for a few days while the flu attacked at her Daddy's house. And while she was here, a bug got her too. Not the bad, spewing one that was going on at her Daddy's, just a cough and fever. Enough that she was down, but not out. Lots of cuddle time and movies. But, still, I was cooped up in the house, staring at the things that bugged me.

Since I needed to stay near my sick fairy grand baby, and couldn't really start anything big, I decided to tackle the dreaded closet.

One door leads to the bath, the other to the bedroom where Sugarwings was tucked into my bed watching our new favorite movie, "Percy Jackson and the Olympians." She and I watched it together twice and when she said she wanted to see it again, I simply had to get up and do something else.

So, Twinkle, Agnes Rosebud and I started tossing stuff out of the closet.

The room was too awful to show a before picture. It was crowded, and you couldn't even see the floor. I had baskets, furniture, and who knows what cluttering it up.

Where the rolling hamper sits now, was a tall chest filled with too many old clothes. I threw out 3 garbage bags of clothes not good enough to donate, and packed one boxful to take to the thrift store.

Now, why did I have all those? And why would I even think they were fit to wear?

Its easy to cling to things that I might need…. but I realized that I never would need them. And really, really shouldn't wear them even if I did think that I needed them. I had a wardrobe intervention on myself. Kind of like this summer when I emptied out that old shed. Man, it felt good to get rid of stuff that was cluttering up my life.

Oh, I kept plenty of comfy tees and hoodies, because I am smart enough to know that I won't ever dress "nice" around the house, or to most places I go. But I got rid of enough old clothes that I didn't need and should never be seen in, that I was able to do away with a whole dresser and make the room more open and pleasant.

Then, I arranged all my clothes by color, just like they do at my favorite store, Goodwill. And I recycled all the wire hangers.

What I noticed while doing this, is that I dress myself kinda the way I do my house. My keepers were lots of neutrals with soft pinks, a few flowers and lace, and a touch of aqua blue.

The space is also our laundry room. When we were newbie empty nesters, we thought it was a brilliant plan to remodel one of the kid's rooms into a larger master bath for us, and turn it into a laundry room at the same time. It is really a nice concept. As I pull clothes out of the dryer, I hang them up or put them on a shelf, there are no laundry baskets to tote into the other room, and we have more space in our bedroom because we don't need clothes storage in there. (except for Sugarwing's clothes- which I am too lazy to carry upstairs in her bedroom, we keep them in our room).

But, that was before we had one son and his family move in and out a couple times, another son move in permanently, and various other relatives come and go. A laundry room off the master isn't as easy to share as one somewhere else in the house.

We have two walls of built in shelving, (hand made by Sugarwing's Daddy, who also built my kitchen) and this section of shelving was just the right width to slide in this small chest of drawers that I painted years ago. My boy built the shelf above it to pull out and use as a folding table. Its one of my favorite features.

The room is not very pretty. It was done on a tight budget, we didn't even finish the floors, I simply painted the sub-floor white. I guess I could fill all the open shelves with matching wicker baskets and hide away the laundry paraphernalia, but I don't think it is worth my time or the expense. I did wrap an old crocheted table cloth around my ratty, rolling hamper, but that is about the extent of foofing that I did and that only took a minute, and was free to do.

For now, I am thrilled just to have it cleaned up and feeling spacious. The trick will be to not fill it back up with junk again.

Yes, I know, this was not the prettiest of blog posts… but to me, that cleared out, naked floor in the walk in closets is one of the most lovely sites I've seen in a long while! I'm glad I was struck with a case of January-itis and got this project done.

By the way, Sugarwings is better now, and back home with her father. Her poor, little Sis-star has her first fever though and we are hoping she doesn't get the spewing flu.

I'm back to the studio working on more fun projects, but every time I go in the house, I take an admiring glance at my closet.

Pixies, and fairies from leftover snowmen

show and tell

By Karla Nathan / January 26, 2011

While on the trip to Nebraska I was able to get started on gift bag goodies for my Bird Song event in the Spring. The theme is nature and birds, so I thought these nest brooches made from felted sweaters and beads would be ideal to pin onto the gift bags that dearest Beth is helping me make.

Yesterday, she brought some examples of ones she made over here but, silly me, I forgot to get photos of them. We are having another craft day next week to make the bags and do taxes. There is nothing better than a BBF who is an accountant when tax season comes along. I'm not asking her to actually do the taxes themselves, but she is invaluable in helping me sort numbers and get stuff ready.

I didn't get to do much shopping while in Nebraska, but I did make a side trip to 2nd Chance in Omaha and scored a couple of hats covered in blooms. The other is small, white velvet flowers, just what I needed for the kits I am making for my class project for Bird Song. I'm making up overstuffed kits filled with vintage goods, enough so that no one will have to bring anything at all for the project, and they will have plenty of choices to personalize what they are making.

The students will have many options for making my project their own. I'm giving them plenty of ephemera and extra tid bits so that no two people will have the exact same creation.

No, this isn't our project for the weekend. This was my funeral craft project. Doesn't everyone have the family make crafts at funeral gatherings?

For Christmas, I'd made up a bunch of paper clay snowmen heads for all of us to work on while dinner cooks. But the day was hectic and most people were running late, so we never got around to making them. Instead of saving them for next year, I thought we'd make the heads into fairies and pixies.

So, while the house was filled with family staying with us for the funeral, some of us decorated these paper clay guys. For pixies or gnomes, we left the carrot noses as they were originally on the snowmen. For fairies, I snipped off and sanded the noses down smaller.

Most of the heads were sat on boxes that we decorated, some on spools. This one is just a decapitated head so far. I might build a paper clay body for her. Or maybe she'll just get a decorated spool.

Or maybe she'll just sit on my desk like this for a while. As a reminder of all the things I need to get done and can't quite catch up on. Oh, no, that would be depressing. I'd better finish her instead and let her be a good luck charm!

Author name: Karla Nathan