Karla Nathan – Page 210 – Karla's Cottage

At Disney

By Karla Nathan / January 24, 2011

So much has happened since the new year, that I haven't had a chance to show you our Disney pictures. You didn't think you were going to escape a doting grammie's photos of her baby on vacation did you?

Sugarwings was thrilled to meet some of her favorites, Mirry Pippins (as she calls her) was way up on the top of her list of great movies, so this was a real treat for her.

And of course any one who wants to hear "Alice in Wonderland" read to her over and over can't miss meeting the White Rabbit. We were walking through the park as he was making his way to the spot set up for him to meet kids and when she spied him, she took off following him just like Alice did. Luckily, there were no big holes for her to fall into.

This was a moment when we could have used Mary Poppin's nanny skills, because Sugarwings saw no reason to stand in a line to give this rabbit a hug. She was determined to get right to him.

One character that she really wanted to meet, was not there. But it looks like there are plans for a Little Mermaid attraction to be built soon. And Ariel was featured in a 3D movie that we saw multilple times. At each showing, Sugarwings had to call out, "Hi Ariel!!!!!"

We got to the park early and it wasn't too crowded yet. It was nice to explore a bit and let our fairy princess run about. Once the place filled up, we had to keep her close. She likes to run, though, so we found a playground in Toon Town for her to play in for a while.

She made a few friends there, mostly boys. She was wearing her dress over her head part of the time and asking boys if they would marry her. I think she thought the filmy net of her skirt felt like a bridal veil.

I hope this isn't how she plans on meeting her prince charming someday…

We ended up carrying her through most of the park. She spent a lot of the day on her Pop Pop's shoulders. I took a few turns of holding her too. It made me not feel as bad about missing time at the gym to haul her 30 pounds around for a few hours.

Plus, I love any excuse to cuddle her.

We only spent one day at the Magic Kingdom, and two nights at the hotel. I think that if we go again, we'll take a bit more time to explore. Saying goodbye wasn't easy for me. I had waaaaayyy too much fun!

An odd trip to Nebraska

family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / January 23, 2011

What a relief to be home. And to a clean house. I took time before we left to spic and span up the joint and de-christmas it. There is nothing nicer than coming home from a rough trip to a welcoming, cleaned up house filled with little dogs happy to see you.

Not only did I de-christmas it all, I rearranged all the funeral flowers too. Kind hearted friends had sent a couple of dozen floral baskets to the funeral and all of them got delivered to my house afterward. So, we distributed them between family and the local nursing home (where Ardell used to live until he met and married his wife who worked there-a long, odd story that you probably don't want to hear).

I don't know about you, but if I lived in a nursing home, I'd be depressed when a truckload of flowers left over from a funeral got delivered. Just a reminder that time is short in those places. Kind of a poke saying
"another one bites the dust".

Or maybe they just enjoy having pretty flowers around and don't think about it like that.

I know that I am enjoying the freshly rearranged flowers. I prefer a less formal look, and took all of the stems out of the baskets, trimmed up the ends and plopped the posies into vases and pots to sit all around the house. Many of the flowers had gone brown, and lots had been given away, but I still ended up with at least one vaseful in each room, the dining room and kitchen each got 3 or 4.

Some people had sent baskets of growing plants too. Those all got re-potted. I also rearranged all the furniture in the living room, but am not thrilled with the new look…. It might need a tweaking now that I am back home and have more time.

Our trip was certainly memorable.

We had my father-in-law's coffin loaded into my brother-in-law's truck. Then, a caravan of us followed the body up highway 75 to Nebraska where Ardell wanted to be put to rest next to his parents.

Seemed simple. And his widow wasn't left with a lot of money, so driving the body ourselves was going to save the cost of having it transported.

But not all goes according to plans, does it?

We stopped along the road after my BIL pulled over, thinking he just needed to stretch his legs, only to find out that his truck was as dead as the passenger it was carrying. had broken down.

We were in the middle of nowhere, on back roads with no cell phone reception, so it was lucky that we had kept together. We were able to pull them with our own truck. We were also lucky that the next small town we came to had a Chevy dealership.

The day was snowy and freezing cold, one of those below zero Nebraska days where the wind whips across the corn fields and right into your bones. So, I'm glad no one had to walk, and that we didn't have to pull them far. It could have been much worse.

There was talk of loading the coffin into the back of our truck and leaving the broken down truck behind to be repaired and picked up the next day, but the garage promised it to us by that afternoon, so we stuck around and killed time while waiting.

The first store we went in had a sign that said " Antiques" but I found out that was an old sign that the new owner hadn't taken down yet. She said the town used to be ALL antique shops. Used to be. Now there were none.

We did find a thrift shop where everything was 88 cents. Everything! And with plenty of time, you could really dig through the stuff, not just glance over it and leave. Its easy to overlook some nice things at thrift stores if you don't really take your time to look through it.

I got some shirts, and we found Pixie Pie some books, plus spent some time sitting on the floor of the shop reading them to her. Sugarwings wasn't along on the trip, which turned out to be a good thing, she isn't as patient as her cousin is.

The guys played cards, we explored the town, we had some lunch, and we laughed a lot. The situation was feeling pretty absurd to us. But all worked out well, and we were back on the road in about 4 hours.

Ardell was safely delivered to the funeral home, and had a nice send off the next day in Madison on what had to be the coldest day I've ever vountarily went outside in. Arctic and icy, but the Nebraskans didn't seem to notice. I figured that if little kids and a 90 year old aunt could take the wind chill to be there for the short, graveside service, I should buck up and not complain.

It was an interesting stay in Norfolk. Did you know that hotel rooms start at about $38 a night there? And that you can take a dozen people out to dinner for only $120??? That included appetizers, wine, beer, and ribeye steaks too. (we ate at the Grainery Family Diner) If you ever need a getaway, to somewhere friendly, affordable, and with beautiful snowy scenery, I sure recomend seeing Nebraska. Personal service every where you go too. Everyone we met seemed like a next door neighbor ready to lend a hand or advice or a smile.

But I don't reccommend touring the countryside with a cargo load like ours. Leave the dead relatives at home if you decide to go.

If Dorothy was a scrap booker

Books, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / January 22, 2011

Back when I was working on the Dorothy Tag Book Swap, and I was knee deep in all things Oz, I made up a book with all the leftover odds and ends and pages from the two vintage Wizard of Oz books I'd been using for the swap.

Its a little bit different, as I made it, I pretended to be Dorothy putting together a scrap book.

I went through all my old photos and found people who looked like characters in the book and did a page for each of them.

Dorothy is a ceramic silhouette. Em and Henry are a vintage sepia photo.

Each page is themed to fit the person. Hunk (the farmhand who becomes the scarecrow) got burlap behind his picture. And Hickory (Tin man/farmhand) got a heart charm and I used lots of silver toned items around him.

My favorite likeness was of the lion. Look at that guy's face!

Professor Marvel/Wizard got a hot air balloon made out of a rainbow of ribbons and I added elixir bottles from an old ad to his photo.

Nessa Rose, the Wicked Witch of the East (yes, I was throwing in some ideas from Wicked too) got lots of glitter and glam added to her photo.

And I painted her legs sticking out from under the house in this cottage print from the 30s.

The ballerina cake toppers represent the Munchkins.

For Glinda's bubble, I took apart an old alarm clock and used the plastic dome. There are lots of sparkles and glitter on her page too.

Elphaba has been slightly tinted green and has a broom made up of burlap threads and a stick from a shrub growing outside of my studio. Its glued down to a page featuring the melting scene.

As many old photos as I have, there are very few with dogs in them. So, I used a greeting card and some other random charms, plus a hand drawn basket for Toto's page.

The end has a pocket with a tag I created for the swap. And on the very last page, is the label from a 1930s book, signed by the owner of it, a girl named Dorothy. I tried to use as many original elements as I could, and the older the better.

Sugarwings doesn't quite know what to think of the book. I made it for her, but the concept is a bit beyond her for now. She likes it, but doesn't really think I have the right people in it, she'd rather see photos of Judy Garland than a ceramic silhouette of a girl in pigtails.

But, that is just part of teaching her about creating art and about looking beyond the ordinary. I have a feeling that she will grow to appreciate what I am trying to show her.

A new computer and some old pictures and some pictures I’ve NEVER seen before

paintings

By Karla Nathan / January 20, 2011

While I had family members in town who were much more computer literate than I am, I took advantage of their skills and had them help me buy a new laptop.

Its WONDERFUL!!!! I'm using it with a docking station so that I have the same keyboard and screen as before, but can now have the option to be more portable. Plus, this guy is speedy. Wow, I didn't realize how slow my old one was till this new one started whipping through pages at lightening speed!.

There is a slight learning curve with the update to Windows 7, and moving from Outlook Express to Live Mail.

And a few little glitches like, I can get emails but not send any…. That will be an easy fix,I'm sure. I'll unplug the laptop and take it back to the sweet boys at the Geek Squad who are probably sick of me by now. But I can't go quite yet, my car is trapped in a snow drift and I'm not going anywhere for a while.

So, I've been cleaning out files and poking around trying to learn this new machine's tricks. I had to re-download Picassa and when I did, it went a little wild and added dozens of pictures that I'd never seen before.

I don't know where they came from, but they weren't mine. I've been deleting file after file after file of hot rod cars, pin up girls, and who knows what.

One really weird thing was that there were a lot of photos that looked kinda familiar. But weren't. Like photos of kids that were sorta like Sugarwings. And Yorkies that weren't mine. And pictures of artwork oddly similar to what I do, but that I did not do.

Is my new laptop haunted?

To delete all the photos that didn't belong, I had to go through all of my pictures and clean out ones that weren't mine. While doing it, I found a few that I'd taken but never shown. Like these paintings I did at a downtown Lawrence shop. Once upon a time, I was a muralist and faux painter.

I don't miss all the ladders. It was hard work.

So is shovelling out cars from the snow. Which I'd better get busy on. Uck. Unless I can charm my boys into doing it for me…. There is nothing better than having adult sons!

Thankful

family

By Karla Nathan / January 19, 2011

Well, I think its time things start to get back to normal around here.

I feel like I've been in some sort of limbo, between nonstop holiday fun, then a week's vacation followed by wrapping up and sending hundreds of purchases from my Boutique sale. After barely catching up and getting settled back home, a big snow storm hit and then, the bad news about my father-in-law.

This weekend we will be driving the body up to Nebraska where he wanted to be buried. We are also taking his favorite recliner to the nursing home there, but no, we won't be strapping him into that. Although, I do think he might have enjoyed it.

So, I won't be back into my routine for a bit. Thanks for all your messages and kind words, sorry I haven't been able to answer them all. But I read and appreciated each one.

Its a sad time when someone dies suddenly. Its a realization that hopes are cancelled, relationships will never improve, this was it, all there was. Potentials never fulfilled, reconcilliations never made.

My husband's family is amazing. Caring people with sharp wits and the capacity for deep love. All of them came together to be there for each other to celebrate their sibling love and honor their father.

He was not an easy man and like all humans, had his flaws. But I will love him forever for creating this diverse and adorable group. They are all wildly different people with opposite religious, political, and lifestyle views. But all enjoy each other's company and accept the huge variations of their beliefs.

In his last years, my husband's father learned to show a softer side with these two great grand children. Pixie Pie and Sugarwings got through to him.

Sugarwings knew he loved her and that she could make him smile by singing the Nebraska fight song for him. Her memories of Grandpa Ardell will always be good ones.

Even though our home was filled with laughter and fun with all the relatives visiting, she picked up on her Pop Pop's underlying sadness and when he tucked her in at night, she told him, "When I grow up I will go to school and be a doctor and make sick people better. Then your daddy won't die, Pop Pop."

Yes, families aren't perfect. But there are perfect moments in each. We had a lot of those this week. And I am thankful.

Thanks so much!

flowers

By Karla Nathan / January 16, 2011

Thank you all for your nice messages and prayers. We gave my father-in-law a great send off and had a fabulous family gathering to say farewell. I have to say, that man sure had some wonderful kids. I'm lucky to be a part of such a family.

They came together with lots of love, caring and laughter, and made this week one to always remember. Sometimes the saddest occasions can also be the happiest. When you belong to a group of people like these!

A Good bye

celebrations, family

By Karla Nathan / January 12, 2011

Yesterday, my father-in-law died suddenly.

Today, family from all over the country is flying in. My husband has the best family, and we will have a wonderful gathering, all 7 of the kids, plus most of the spouses, together- talking, laughing, sharing memories.

The group is quite varied. About as many different religions as people. And as many different outlooks on life. But one thing they all have in common is a deep love for each other.

I'll be away from my blog for a few days, and won't be opening up the Bird Song event on May Day weekend for sale till after things get settled. Because I'll be busy enjoying the blessing of this close group of people coming from far away to be be together for this farewell.

Now, I'm off to freshen up beds and do some baking with Sugarwings to make our house welcoming before we start airport runs.

Kansas City will be lacking Curiousity

antiques/junking, free images

By Karla Nathan / January 10, 2011

Yesterday, I just had to go and say good bye to the Curious Sofa. It was Debbie's last day and I figured there wouldn't be much shopping left, but that isn't why I wanted to go anyway.

I just wanted to say so long to one of the prettiest shops I've ever been in. Debbie has decided that she is ready for a change and is happily moving on. She has tons of customers who love her and I think all of them turned out to get one last purchase from Curious Sofa.

Knowing that her clearance sale had been a success, I still was shocked when I arrived and saw this! Nothing left but sold items waiting to be claimed, extension cords, and work room supplies like the microwave and blender.

Yet, with all the inventory gone, the shop still held its beauty.

Even though the store was bare bones, it sure wasn't some spooky Halloween skeleton! With everything moved out, I could really appreciate the care that Debbie put into creating the whole atmosphere.

Each bit of wall and ceiling held evidence of her vision. That woman is so talented that even with her inventory sold, her shop still was an inspiration to see.

No matter what her next adventure in creating will be, I have full faith in her success. She has the dedication to detail that makes everything she touches make her audience say "ooooh".

I feel really lucky that she will be coming to my studio to teach one of the workshops for our Bird Song retreat on May Day weekend.

(details about the event coming soon- I'm not quite done with getting the website up for sales yet, thanks for waiting. There will be 20 spots to sell, its going to be a cozy, casual weekend at my home)

While I wasn't expecting to shop at Curious Sofa, I was lucky to find a few old photos left over from the big exodus, as well as one lonely post card sitting on a shelf by itself.

The card's picture seemed appropriate for the situation, a road leading off to the distance and a person walking away, with the words, "A bright and happy new year" printed below. I hope that this is a what awaits Debbie, as she walks away from her well loved shop toward greener pastures.

I've scanned the card for you, so you can have a souvenier of Curious Sofa too. Click on it to open in a larger window, then save that bigger image to your computer to print.

Fairy Friends

Travel

By Karla Nathan / January 8, 2011

Sugarwings is still talking about her visit with Vivvie. When I told her that we were going to see some of my friends and one of them had a little girl who liked fairies, Sugarwings said, "I'm a fairy!"

She was sure that Vivvie would like her, and she was right. They hit it off right away and were immediately busy sharing markers and drawing fairy pictures together.

We met up with Jenn and Suzanne for lunch at Country Club of the South in Atlanta.

One of the many joys of blogging is making friends from one end of the earth to the other. People that I never would have ever met if not for blogs, but that I have so much in common with and who I enjoy tremendously.

And these two belles are a good example of why I love blogland. Not only are they interesting to read, and very talented, each has become a true friend in real life.

Remember the New Years crowns that I made? They were for the two fairy friends to wear for lunch. But in making them, I didn't take into consideration just how dainty thier little heads were and the star I glued to the front was too big for the crown to bend around their heads right.

Sweet little Southern Belle, Vivvie gave it a polite try anyway and modelled for us. Sugarwings just said NO. Maybe Jenn can reuse the tidbits I glued onto the crown to make something else for her little girl. Or she can just soak the glue off the bunny plate and use it for tea parties.

Sometimes a quickie project goes well, other times it just doesn't. This one was something I was happy with. A quickie thank you card for the Gunkles.

I snuck into Randy's studio and made use of his supplies to draw a bird and nest onto two sided scrap book paper to make the card.

I had planned ot leave it on his desk to surprise him next time he sat down to create. But both guys work such long hours, it could have been a while before he had a chance to place in the workroom. I sat it in the kitchen instead. I wanted to be sure they knew I appreciated their hospitality, we enjoyed our stay there so much.

And also, thank you for all the shopping in my Boutique! I'm glad to clear out before my redo. The shop will be closing soon while I have the marvelous HOPE redo it for me into an easier format to shop from.

Don't forget, the sale in the Boutique has been extended. 40% for a while longer! Make sure you use THIS LINK to get to the store for the discount.

At the Gunkles/ 40% off in the Boutique/ and a May Day announcement

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / January 7, 2011

Any trip we make to Florida has to include a visit to the Gunkles. (Gay Uncles) They have a home filled with magical decor, vintage treasures, sweet puppies, and lots of love.

Plus great food and laughter!

The guys are such good cooks, we never take them out to dinner as a thanks for having us stay with them. Instead we get fresh seafood for them to fix for us. This time lobster! Last time we were there, we had lobster tail on the grill with some fish too. When Sugarwings saw it cooking, she asked what the fish was and Gunkle Kevin told her it was flounder. So, she looked at the lobster tail and asked if that was Ariel.

Gunkle Randy sets up elegant dining in the back garden. This year, they'd had a freeze and told us that it looked awful. To me, they were wrong, any time there is something blooming and some green left in January, its quite beautiful to me! Plus the layout and design of the yard is so interesting and full of little surprises stashed amidst the plants. Its always a treat to sit out in the gunkle's garden.

Even better when there is a big plate of fresh seafood in front of me.

He makes a mean mac and cheese too. With chopped peppers, onions, white wine and dijon.

This little guy didn't care for Sugarwings, but the other dogs cuddled up to her. Bella, the Bichon especially took a liking to her.

So much so, that the two girls decided to draw with markers on each other's heads. Well, at least that was Sugarwing's story. That Bella drew on her head too. They both did it to each other.

We'd brought WASHABLE markers that were supposed to be invisible unless used on the special Color Wonder paper that came with them, but the Crayola company needs to change the label to say that the colors will show up on dog fur too. And that they don't wash out. At least not all the way.

Just ask Yella Bella.

Ollie managed to avoid any of the marker play. He's not a puppy like Bella, he was interested but kept his distance while the two girls drew on each other.

One of the best things about the garden was the fruit trees.

Nothing tastes better than fresh orange juice and lemon-aide that you get to make yourself.

I ate way too much good stuff while staying there. After the holiday treats and the vacation food, I'm afraid to wash my jeans. You know, how you wear them a couple days and they stretch out to fit nice and comfy, but if you wash them, they shrink up and become way, way too tight? It might be a while before I can wash mine again, if I want them to zip.

Christmas goodies were everywhere we went on the trip. And decorations were still up all over. I was so glad that Randy and Kevin still had theirs up, they have such a flair with decorating, and their house is so festive.

Its extra special to get to be at a family member's home while it is all decked for the season.

Although, I am sick of my own holiday foof and ready to see it go, I loved being at my bro's home and seeing his.

When I got home from the trip, I walked into a house still overflowing with not only my Christmas decor, but the holiday mess from opening gifts and having lots of company. I didn't have a chance to clean before I left, and it was a shock to come home to such clutter after staying at Randy and Kevin's perfectly clean and decorated house.

(all of these photos are from their lovely home)

Not only was my house messy, it was dusty and just felt deserted. I vowed to never go out of town and leave a dirty house behind again. Its worth the extra effort to pick up and spiff a bit before leaving. The end of a vacation is sad enough without being depressed about coming back to an unwelcoming house.

And it hasn't helped that my furnace bit the dust while I was gone. The house was freezing cold too. There is a repairman here now, and I've got my fingers crossed that its a simple repair and that we'll have some heat soon.

Luckily, the studio has a separate furnace, so I'm staying out here till the main part of the house warms up. Its a good excuse to avoid cleaning it or taking down the Christmas decorations too. I'm not ready to face all of that yet.

So,I'm hanign out in the warm and toasty studio and I'm slowly but surely packing up all the purchases made during my BIG clearance sale. Thanks so much for shopping with me!

I'm going to extend the sale for a few more days. If you want anything for 40% off in the Boutique, please use this link to go there to shop.

There are big plans for redoing my Boutique and the less I have in it, the easier it will be to redo. I'll be making new labels and categories, so will be starting from scratch.

I'm also working on setting up the sale site for my "Bird Song" art gathering on May Day weekend. I've had lots of inquiries and promise to have the sign ups ready soon. Sadly, we've lost Dawn of the Feathered Nest, she had to drop out as a teacher.

But, the timing was good for asking my friend, Debbie Dusenberry to join in her place. Her fabulous store, Curious Sofa, is closing this weekend, and she will be branching out into different ventures (and you can still shop online with her). I'm so thrilled that she agreed to do a class at my workshop!!!!

Things are really hectic for her at the moment, so I told her not to worry about photos of her project yet, just a YES was all I needed from her. I have a feeling that anyone who signs up for the classes will agree with me. We'll all be happy to learn from her, no matter what she teaches!

Thanks for all of your interest. Its going to be the BEST, with Lisa and Carol as teachers too, I'm feeling pumped about the weekend!! Plus, Beth and Mary Green will be setting up vintage goodies for sale.

As soon as I get project ideas settled and menus priced, I'll open it up for enrollment.

Author name: Karla Nathan