Karla Nathan – Page 216 – Karla's Cottage

Fall into winter decor

celebrations, Food and Drink, hand painted signs, holiday decor, parties

By Karla Nathan / December 21, 2010

The dinner party on Saturday night was such fun. The trick was making all the food the day before, so I could just pop the pans in the oven and let them cook till it was time for the party. No fuss at all, I could relax and enjoy my friends.

In the afternoon before they arrived, I had time to make up some little trees to set out on the table, then give away at the end of the night.

This one has a B for Beth.

If all of this set up looks familiar, its because I've been using the same tablescape all season.

These are the same glittered pumpkins that I used for Halloween. I just removed the most overtly Halloween themed stuff, then added some Fall/Thanksgiving things and then when that holiday was over, I added some Christmas flair to the setting.

Like this green glitter fairy from Walmart for $1. They had them in all colors, but had sold out of everyone but green at my local store. But I think it kind of fits the look of my table and adds a punch of color.

Plus, I'll be able to use them again for spring time decor.

Since the basis for the table scape was all neutral, and lots of nature inspired pieces, it seemed to flow from season to season with just a few changes here and there.

Like tucking in some glittered stars-

A few of my bottle brush trees-

Some art work from Romantic White Christmas-

3 French hens (there is another one somewhere)-

Holiday messages of joy-

And more stars, this one is backed with fringed sheet music.

Way back before everything got cold and wintery, I picked these branches of lavender and hydrangea and put them in water. The water evaporated and the plants dried. I have a feeling that this will be on my table till Spring comes around and I can pick some replacements from the garden.

The treat cabinet got a mini makeover for the party, a few vintage ornaments tucked and hung here and there-

And some hand painted signs that I made a while back.

The two signs don't really fit the style of the rest of the room, but they are so colorful, fun, and holiday-ish that I had to add them. With grandbabies around, Santas and Frosties are a must whether they match or not!

This season, I've gotten a lot of use from my treat cart too.

The glittered letters spelling JOY are still on the bottom shelf, but now I've added a strand of lights to them.

The coffee service has been popular through all my parties this month too. For this one, I set out hot chocolate with candy canes, marshmallows, cinnamon sticks, shaved chocolate, whipped cream, and the bottle of 150 year old Grand Marnier as well as decaf coffee.

Its such a simple thing to do. No cooking, no work beyond shaving the chocolate. (I used a vegetable peeler and a big bar of chocolate) but it packs a lot of style and gets a lot of attention from guests. With a store bought cheesecake and a some cookies that the kids decorated that night, it was a tasty dessert for very little effort on my part.

I like to do things the easy way, but make them look special.

I'm VERY lucky, of course, to have the studio dining tables that I can set up and leave as is for a whole season of entertaining and not have them be in the way. If I'd had to take all this down and set it up each time I had guests, I doubt if I'd have had so much company!

Two more parties to go…. Can't wait! One is the day after Christmas so I get to extend my holiday cheer past the 25th, lucky, lucky me!!

I'm linking with Faded Charm and White Wednesdays for this post.

A Christmas Elf

Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 20, 2010

This is what happens when I ask Sugarwings to pose. Which explains why most of my photos of her are candid shots!

(you can click on the mosaic to see details in a larger picture)

I'm off to send packages, finish my shopping and wrap presents. I kind of feel like Sugarwings looks in the photo collage. Zip-zip-zipping around. Busy as a bee right now.

Holly Jolly

celebrations, fairies, family, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 18, 2010

Sugarwing's school play was cute as can be.

The whole family came out to watch her and Mr. Fin, who sang his little heart out. He was enjoying his moment in the lime light and really got into performing.

Sugarwings, on the other hand, was just having a good time, and sometimes plain old forgot to sing.

This afternoon, I'm getting ready for another holiday party. Can you believe Christmas is almost here??? I don't like to think about it being so soon, because that means it will soon be past too. I want to waller in every moment of the season and soak up all the joy I can. The holidays make me happy as a pig in mud.

If possible, I want to squeeze in another craft day with my local art friends. Last week, some Kansas City buddies came by for a holiday art day and we created these dress forms. Normallly, craft day is individual projects, but this time, we did a group effort and I taught a class on how to build these maniquins based on a Barbie doll model.

Its interesting to see how different everything comes out, when we were all doing the exact same thing. Except for this dress form, she was made with a vintage doll as the model and kind of came out potato shaped. But we added a couple of ruffles and gave her some curves and I think that she turned out lovely. (I've picked up a few tips from years of watching What Not To Wear!)

Since tis the season, some of us decided to transform them into angels. Mine is going to be part of the table decor for my dinner party tonight.

I'd better get busy… We have 15 for dinner and I'm arranging chairs at the studio tables. I've had the Christmas music blaring all afternoon while I finish up a few little things I've been making. But now its time to get the party details in line. Lettuce to wash, appetisers to make, wine to chill.

I made up the food yesterday, veggie lasagna, stuffed mannicotti, and meatballs. Ready to pop in the oven. I also made 4 batches of Christmas cookies and have goodies out for kids to decorate them tonight. Don't you think a freshly decorated cookie tastes better than just about anything else? And kids love to do their own.

I'm off to work! Hope your weekend is a jolly one too.

Angels, fairies, and snow princesses

celebrations, fairies, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, parties, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 16, 2010

We had a Kid's Holiday Party yesterday and the little ones indulged me with a little dress up play and modelling.

I tried to make the photo part quick so they would think it was fun, then got them back to the main event- goodies, and art projects.

We had hot cocoa with all the fixins, eggnog, brownies, pumpkin bars, veggies, and rollups. It was an early out day for school, so the party was from 2-5, so these weren't meant for dinner, just after school snacks.

We had a couple different projects to do too. I picked up a dozen Santa hats from the dollar store, and a bagful of half price holiday floral pics from Hobby Lobby. There really is a lot of fun stuff on those wire picks, jingle bells, flowers, pretend candies, glittered leaves, etc. I just took some wire cutters and separated all the big sprigs into individual pieces, easy for gluing on to the hats and set out a few other fun tid bits for them to have at too. There is always plenty of extra goodies around the studio to share.

They got to make some chip board ornaments too, and all the mommies each made a couple of those for their trees too.

We ended up not getting photos of all the kids. The boys weren't as interested in posing, and my fairy grand girls were busy with playing and artwork. I can catch them later for pictures, though.

A few years back, I painted a Christmas tree mural on plywood and had cup hooks on the tree branches to sell ornaments off of at antique shows. Now, I bring the mural in from the shed and set it in my living room for the holidays. With a few other props in front of it, it made a good backdrop for the pictures.

This morning, I've been doing some editing to the pictures. I LOVE PICNK!!!!!!!!

Playing with hand tinted photos is almost as much fun as painting, but easier and quicker! And way, way too addictive.

I should be out doing some Christmas shopping instead of playing with pictures.

But can you see why I love doing it so much, when I have such gorgeous little models to work with?

I'll get some prints made and maybe these can be some of my Christmas gifts this year.

Its been a hectic, busy, Christmas packed couple of weeks. Before the trip, I had my book club bash, then while we were in Virginia, we were treated to a holiday office party dinner out with my husband's co-workers.

Since I've been back, I have had Sugarwing's school play, craft day, and his little kid party. Plus a couple of Sugarwing Sleepover nights, and those are a party in themselves….

Tomorrow is a party at a friend's and Saturday I'm having another dinner party.

And do I have presents purchased and wrapped? Heck no.

I thought about shopping while in Virginia, but my family is not easy to buy for. I can't just pop into JCPenny and buy a gift for any of them. They like specialty items, dance costumes, art supplies, hand made stuff, or recycled goodies. So, I've put it off.

Those hand made items are going to be biting me on the butt if I don't get moving on them…. I have hopes to do some small paintings for the kid's rooms.

Waiting till the last minute, then throwing one party after another might not have been the smartest holiday plan…

I'm afraid that by the time I get done with all my parties, and its time to do that last minute gift rush, I'll be feeling like Sugarwings was last night after the party!

(no editing can help this little model, I'm afraid- she partied hard)

Did I mention that there was face painting at the party too? I painted the kids' and they reciprocated by painting mine.

My hair is still a bit crisp from the paint.

One of the few gifts that I bought and have ready to give, has to be returned! I bought matching fairy gowns for Pixie Pie and Sugarwings at Tuesday Morning for $10 each, and Pixie Pie showed up wearing the same dress for the party!

She looks so beautiful in it, I just knew it was the perfect dress for her. But now, what do I give her?

While we are talking about gifts, I need to announce the winner of the 1,000,000th visitor giveaway.

Thanks so much for leaving all the kind comments about my milestone! I wish I had a gift for you all (but as you just heard me complaining about- I don't even have gifts for my family for Christmas yet!)

This gift goes to:

Pat Spone (no blog) Pat, please send me your address and I'll get your gift in the mail.

Holiday goods

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), holiday decor, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage

By Karla Nathan / December 13, 2010

We are back from our trip, and had a lovely time. So good, that my jeans don't want to zip up.

We wined and dined, and I was pretty lazy. I thought I'd get out and shop but I didn't. Instead, I hung out in the room, read two books and made up a few dozen felted nests and rosettes.

I'm going to extend the drawing for the 1,000,000th visitor gift drawing. I kept getting the date wrong when I mentioned it in previous posts. Some said the 12th, others said the 14th. Sorry! So, we'll have the drawing after midnight on the 14th

Just leave a comment on this post.

Felted nests and rosettes was a great project for a hotel room. All I had to pack for it were a couple sweaters, scissors, glue, and pearls. There were moments when I missed my studio and would have liked to have access to more stuff, but on the other hand, I enjoyed the challenge of making use of what I had on hand.

Like brewing a quick cup of coffee to dunk the sweater in to give the nests a tone on tone look. The hotel room smelled great with coffee sodden sweater bits draped over the heater vents.

There was also a swath of silk in my bag, and I made up a few roses from that. Using such a fine fabric really changes the results. Its not as easy, the silk soaks up the glue too easily. But its worth the effort.

Some of these will be glued to barrettes for the grand fairies' hair. Others will be used in some collage work.

Once we got home from the airport, we went straight to pick up Sugarwings and got to keep her for 2 nights!

So, since I've been back, I've not got much done… except playing with my fairy baby. Its been COLD, so we stayed put indoors at the play dough table, or baking goodies. We also cut fabric scraps, sewed them up, filled them with beans and created a bean bag toss game with the pink bucket she uses for her watercolors.

(you don't want to see them, neither of us have that great of sewing skills)

But while she played with Pop Pop here and there for the weekend, I skipped out to the studio on my own and decorated a few bottle brush trees, got all my packages ready for today's mail, and added a few new goodies to both shops.

Silly me, trying to sell holiday goods on Dec. 13th….

But there is still time to mail them, so I thought listing some holiday stuff was better than packing it up till next year and storing it till I could sell it then.

If I had been on the ball, I'd have listed all the holiday stuff 2 months ago, but life is too short and there are too many other things that are more fun to do than taking pictures of estate sale Santys.

(not a good attitude for a person whose job it is to take pictures of stuff and try to sell it, huh?)

But mostly, I think that I am so much in the middle of all the holiday cheer myself, that it doesn't feel too late to try to move holiday inventory. I'm still decorating little bottle brush trees.

I wish I had time to make more. I'd like to just sit and glue mercury glass beads onto these little trees all day long.

But I was smart enough to add some non-christmas goods to the shops too.

And Somerset sent back a few things that they had published, so I added those too.

Like this altered book. There is only space for 3 photos on my website, but there are more of the book itself on this post.

I had a hard time pricing this book. I really try to keep my work affordable, but with over 20 collaged pages, and lots of hand drawn detail, this book got a bit pricey. Until I figured out that it was being sold for under $4 per page, then it didn't sound as high!

Tomorrow, I'm having friends over for craft day, and look at this room. Tonight is Sugarwing's school play, so I'll be up late after that, attacking this room with a shovel to get ready. (funny, looking at this photo, what bothers me most are the two brown lamps that don't match the room. Someone gave them to me, I want to paint them white and change the shades)

The play should be really good. Sugarwings tells me that there is a forest and a rocket and bunnies. I can't wait.

The dogs have made their share of a mess in the studio too. Agnes Rosebud looks like she might feel a bit guilty for adding to my work load. Twinkle doesn't care. She is the one who learned how to jump up on my table and throw fun stuff down to the floor for the puppy to play with.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of what is new in the shop. Thanks again for your understanding about my lack of returned emails and comments. Since we've been back from the trip there hasn't been a lot of extra time. But, I've read each and every one from my magic phone and was happy to hear from you! Thanks again!

Pink and more pink

holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 12, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please do, go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, I will mail your purchases Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

Sugarwings has a pink tree of her own, eye level, for her to decorate and redecorate to her heart's content. It can keep her busy for the longest time.

Her tree is in the kitchen, where we seem to spend a lot of time. So, I went with the pink theme she already started and pinked up the rest of the room.

She is really into favorite colors right now and likes to ask everyone what theirs is. She and I both always answer PINK!

There used to be a lot of pink in the room year round, but lately, its been getting more and more neutral, but with pink accents. But this time of year, I can let my pink flag fly!

Really, its a small area that I decorated this way, but the color is so vivid, it really packs a wallop.

And I can't help but smile when I see it.

Hmm, maybe I could use a bit more pink in my world year round after all.

Being walloped with smiles isn't such a bad thing.

Isn't that a yummy millinery bloom? I stuck it in a goofus vase with a handful of old mercury glass picks. A floral arrangement that will last all season.

But I always need some fresh flowers in the kitchen too. Its the one room where it matters most to me.

The local grocery store used to put their older blooms on clearance for $2, but stopped recently. Now they are $4- $6 a bunch, so it still not painful to the grocery bill to add them. Every Monday they mark down the flowers that didn't sell the week before, and I try to get in early enough on Monday to pick some up.

You can tell these are a little brownish around the edge here and there, but for $4, I'm not picky. And this is only half of them, I divide the dozen up and use them in other vases.

This picture was taken at night, so isn't as clear as it could be….

I've wrapped a strand of big white lights with two golden, ivy vines from Hobby Lobby. To that, I tied large, pink, metallic poinsettia leaves (vintage) and dangled a few small, pink shiny brites.

To that, I tied some of my little fairy girls that I used as decorations for the baby shower last month.

Most of my decor this year was quick stuff and will be easy to put away. THIS was not. I'll be sorry I did it about January when I go to take this all down. Too many things wired together! There will be some whining around here when its time to pack up.

Sugarwing's pink tree sits underneath this and I love the way her tree's pink glow is reflected off the metallic leaves.

And she enjoys the fairies. So, its worth it!

A shiny brite dining room

holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 11, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please, do go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, and I will mail your purchases on Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This season, I wanted my dining room to be extra festive.

Using what was already on the buffet, I spruced up the display by adding lots of bright and shiny holiday trinkets, a string of white lights, and slapped some wings on the ladies.

Normally, I'm a fairy wing fan, but for Christmas, I went with white feathered angel wings.

I wish I had a large pair for myself, but I'm afraid they'd burst into flames if I wore them.

This lady's dish became a nest of shiny brites with some shredded tissue and a pile of balls.

Grandma's tinsel tree got planted in a wine bucket that I'd had a glittered pumpkin in all fall.

Instead of a star on the top, I hung a strand of pearls.

All of these basics were there already too. I added the lights, branches, beads, and ornaments to the existing display. (Yes, I'm gaudy all year round, but at the holidays, I really flaunt it!)

As much as I love white, silver, and gold, I still need flashes of color. With all the rose pattern and blue bird dishes in the corner cabinet, I thought some pastel ornaments would look pretty up above.

And how could I not set out all of these, just because they weren't neutral colors?

There are too many things that I have and love that I want to set out and enjoy!

No matter how hard I try, I can't restrain myself. I tried to edit, and keep things simple, and on some levels I am much more streamlined than in the past. I have clusters of decor here and there around the house, not in every single spot.

Also, since I did about 90% of all the decorating one night while Sugarwings slept so I could surprise her in the morning, I had to cut back a bit. I wanted it to be over and done with after that one all nighter.

She and I did a few little projects together, and she has her very own tree to mess around with as much as she wants, so the decorating continues daily. I added these vintage balls to my chandelier on another day too.

Maybe next year my decor can be even more simplified and I can squeeze ALL of it into one night of frenzied foofing.

All bella-ed up

family, holiday decor, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / December 10, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please, do go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, and I will mail your purchases Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This year, I kept it simple. Well, simple for me, that is. I do like stuff….

But this area seems restrained, doesn't it? I hung a simple silver spray painted vine wreath on my gothic arch window frame and hung a tree that I made for Romantic White Christmas Ezine on it.

On the table below the frame, is a gold glittered dish filled with an assortment of shiny tidbits, and a tree that I made at Silver Bella.

My other creation from the two classes I took from Kerry Lynn Yeary sits on another table. (by the way, if you ever get a chance to take a class from her, DO IT! She is delightful.)

I'm so happy to be using my Silver Bella creations all over the house this year.

Of course, I always enjoy my bella classes, but this year seems even more special. I'm extra pleased with what I brought home, because I color coordinated them and made plans ahead of time to use them for Christmas.

This basket was made in Charlotte's class, and I brought lots of gold wallpaper to cover the segments.

The inside is covered in 100 year old, hand made Chinese paper, that I found on the trip to wallpaper heaven. Just what I needed to make this festive!

I added this little girl in a top hat, so I'd have a souvenir of this year's theme, "Hats on Parade".

In Betz White's class we learned how to make felted rosettes. I took the idea and twisted some tattered silk into a rose bud to add to the basket too.

The frame on the left is what I made in her class. Not exactly what we were supposed to be doing, but I used her technique to make the nest, and then I covered the frame in wallpaper, inked the edges, and glued mica over it all. Inside the frame is a vintage Christmas card with a baby picture tucked into it.

(this is all on top of the TV cabinet)

In a previous post I showed you the 5th class, the Tea Cup Fairy. But that is not the end, we got a great bonus project this year!

This frame is from our opening night dinner project, which I had to bring home to finish. I take pride in finishing my projects while in Omaha, but this one I wanted to frame baby pictures in, and I didn't have the new grandbaby yet!

Pictures of my fairy girls went right inside as soon as I could get them printed.

This frame will be a special heirloom for me to pull out every Christmas and show the girls, and talk about what cute babies they were!

My friend, Laurie, gave me this blue ledger paper and I had to immediately glue it down on something and use it right away, I loved it so much. And since this was our opening night project, it is made of blue ledger paper.

I am a big believer in "using the good stuff". Mostly because I am too impatient to save it, I love playing with new 'old' pretties!

Even though the blue isn't as neutral as the rest of the projects, I think it fits in well.

Heck, these girls are so cute, I could have used TP instead of good paper and the frame would have been beautiful. They steal the show!

While speaking of Bellas, here is a gift I got from my new pal, Shel

And if that wasn't enough, look at this cute hat she made too!

You get what you need

holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 9, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please do, go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, I will mail your purchases Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This year, I really, really, really wanted a big white tree. But I didn't plan in advance at all. The day I decided to decorate my tree, I looked around town for a white one. I decided that I'd sold enough dyed bottle brush trees to treat myself to a beautiful, big tree! It seemed fitting that all the Pay Pal money that came from tiny trees should go to a big tree.

Can you tell that this tree isn't so big? And not so white. Its silver, and I've been using it for years. There were NO white trees to be found in the whole city of Lawrence. After going to 4 stores, I got smart and used my magic phone to access the internet (I still can't get used to having that kind of power, it does feel like magic to own an Iphone!). I looked up phone numbers from my car and called around instead of driving to each store.

I even called stores in Topeka (25 minutes away), no luck there either. I was too lazy to drive the 45 minutes to Kansas City, so went home and pulled out my silver tinsel table top tree instead.

(these photos were taken in the dark, so might not be as sharp, I was trying to catch that special Christmas tree glow)

And I am glad it worked out that way after all. I love the added sparkle of the silver.

And I love the jammed pack, lush look of having lots of ornaments on the branches.

This tree is filled up, top to bottom, and around the back too!

Its also layered, with large, clear balls deep inside the tree and the other ornaments toward the outside of the branches.

If I'd gotton a larger tree, I couldn't have filled it in quite this full.

Isn't it a wonderful feeling when something you didn't really want becomes something you really LOVE?

Lately, Sugarwings has had a case of the "I Wants", so we have been serenading her with the Rolling Stones' "Can't always get what you want". And I think this tree is a good example of what I needed, even if I didn't think I wanted it.

Plus, my Pay Pal account is still full of tree money! That's not bad either. Maybe I'll see what someone else in the family really does need and use the tree money for that instead. It is Christmastime, after all!

I'll leave you with a few more pictures. And wishes for a sparkling holiday season at your home too.

Bookworms partying

Books, collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Food and Drink, give away, holiday decor, parties, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / December 7, 2010

Last night, I hosted our book club's holiday party. It happened to fall on a dear friend's birthday, so we got to sing and have cake too. How festive!

Now, I'm trying to remember what books we have chosen for the upcoming year…. I know that one was Cleopatra, I heard a reveiw of it on NPR and was interested in reading it. Lets see… something about freaky cows by a local professor, A Tale of Two Cities, and an apocalyptic book called …. uhm…. Hand Made World? or something like that There are a total of 6, but I can't remember them.

I was most intersted in that last one, I'll have my fingers crossed that there are zombies. I'm sad that the AMC series, Walking Dead is done for the season. Wow. It was like a new horror movie every Sunday night, so well made and scary. Of course, that is what you can count on from AMC, very well made, not always scary though.

We also each brought a wrapped book to trade, and played that game where you can open a gift or steal one from someone else instead. My pal, Shan, brought a wrapped book for me, I was such a loser this year in the reading department that I had nothing to give away. I read too many novels that weren't quite up to book club standards and didn't want to look like I had low class taste.

Not that I was embarrassed, I just didn't want to give a book that no one wanted.

I guess what I mean, is that my books this year were not high quality literature, they were just books that I loved. The only "good" books I read were the same ones that we read in book club last year, so everyone had already read them.

Novels that I enjoyed- the latest Sookie (and can't wait for the next!), the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, the latest from Jennifer Weiner and Sophie Kinsella, and not much else. I used to read at least a book a week. Now, I'm down to about one per month.

TOO MANY GOOD BLOGS OUT THERE TO READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the club books that I read:

Edger Sawtelle

The Worst Hard Times

Something about gay rights at Stonewall

And… well, I've forgotten again. I remembered first two because I loved them so much.

My friend not only brought me a worthy book to give away, she made this stain glass star for Mayara! And tied it to a bottle of wine!!

Its just perfect for my little Star Brite's first Christmas ornament. Hey, that seems to be a good nickname for her….I like that. Sugarwings and Starbrite.

My living room was a bit crowded, with 13 people in it. We all squeezed in anyway and everyone was so nice about it. They all said they would come back next December for our holiday party even if we had to practically sit on top of each other.

My old house has the original living room, and its small. We have a big house, just small rooms in the old part of it. But I have space where it really counts- the studio!! I could have had the party out there, but decided to stick with the main part of the house since it was decorated more.

Plus my studio is knee deep in stuff again.

And I waxed the living room floor! That rarity deserves to be noticed and enjoyed!!

For the party, I set up a coffee service, with home made, fresh whipped cream, shaved light and dark chocolates, orange peels, cinnamon sticks, decaf, and a bottle of 150 year old Grand Marnier.

When I go to schmancy dinners with my husband at restaurants his company owns, they always impress me with the goodies that come with the coffee. You don't need to order dessert there, the coffee treats are dessert enough. So I wanted to set up something similar.

I think I'll do it again for my next craft day. But I doubt if the orange liqour will be as popular at lunch time as it was for this party. Everyone drives in from Kansas City, so there isn't much in the way of drinking going on at craft day.

The cart is a vintage one from my garden that I brought in to use. On the bottom, I set out these glittered letters that were meant to go on a garland that never got made.

Agnes liked it. She thought it was a great place to hide, hoping for food to be dropped down on the floor.

Tomorrow, I'm leaving for a few days in Virginia, and this will be my first time leaving Agnes home alone for long. We have a great system for the dogs, they get penned up in the living room where they can get to a doggie door and a fenced in yard. And my oldest son, Ryan lives here too, so he'll be taking care of all the dogs.

She is just getting used to the set up, and is now an expert at running in and out of the swinging door. But I think we'll miss each other.

I've preposted for the rest of the week while I am away. Each day, there will be Christmas decor from another room of my home, so please check back.

All comments will be entered into December's drawing, but if you want to enter ther 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, you need to leave it on THIS POST by the 14th

Sugarwings and I made crustini for the party, by cutting leftover bread slices with her holiday cookie cutters, and brushing them with a little melted butter and olive oil, with garlic. Then, we slow baked them till they were crunchy. I'm going to take the leftovers and smash them up to make bread crumbs for my next turkey meatloaf.

Well, I'll be back this weekend, and will be checking messages on my phone, but its just not that easy to answer everyone that way. so please forgive me if I don't get back to you.

And if you'd like to skip seeing the blog posts and see the holiday decor at my cottage, I've loaded it on HGTV's Rate my Space.

I'd love to get your votes!

Here is the living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Author name: Karla Nathan