Karla Nathan – Page 220 – Karla's Cottage

Itchy Bitchy

By Karla Nathan / June 24, 2010

My two hours of playing hooky to play with the fairy grand baby turned into two nights of her staying over and two days of entertaining her on my own. Her Daddy's beloved, is in the hospital with a bad kidney infection, so I was watching Sugarwings while her Daddy stayed at the hospital too.

Sugarwings can be a…. challenge. I don't say Hyperactive, I say Enthusiastic. She has a ZEST for life and lives each moment to its fullest. Non stop. She's not exactly a shy and retiring type.

And normally I keep up and enjoy the ride. But this week, with worries about her Daddy's loved one, who is pregnant, I was distracted.

Plus, I am miserably itchy. If you've spent any time in this part of the country in summer, you'll know what a chigger is.

Its the world's most evil creature. A million times worse than any freaking mosquito.

And on top of my chigger bites (they are always along underwear lines, if that tells you anything), I seem to have gotten poison ivy.

My poison ivy rash is not in exposed areas of my body, so I couldn't have brushed the leaves while walking on the trails.

Now, I don't remember running naked through the woods lately. Or even half naked. So, my theory is that I was visited by chiggers, and then must have got the urushiol from the poison ivy plant on my hands from the dogs, who do play in the woods, then scratched my bites and spread the poison ivy rash on the chigger bites.

That should be enough to make any one grumpy. But, it gets better. The Dr. has decided to lower my dosage of Premarin by half.

All I could think of the last couple days, besides worrying about the pregnant mommy and her baby, was swallowing a handful of hormone tablets chased with a giant goblet of Riesling and soaking in a cool bath filled with baking soda (did I mention that the heat index was in the 100s here and Sugawings wanted to play outside the whole time???)

I should have thought of this sooner!

No, really, it was Sugarwings idea. Agnes Rosebud could climb out of her 4 foot high pen, and drop onto her head on the cement floor. So, I had to assemble a dog cage, with a top and bottom so she would stay put.

I covered it with a table cloth and to Sugarwings, it became a fort and she wanted to stay in there and play with the pup.

Even when I'm cranky, she can make me laugh.

Sugarwings is staying with her Hippy Chick Mommy tonight, I get her back at noon tomorrow when her mommy goes to work. So, I thought I'd spend the evening working on the computer, just to find that my printer wouldn't work. After FOUR HOURS of messing with it, I drove to Best Buy and got a new one. I was in no mood to mess with it any longer.

So, the new printer is installed, I listed new stuff in the shop, and mailed packages, Sugarwings is having a fun night with Mommy, and now the expectant mother has been released from the hospital and ordered to be on bed rest. I'm going to make her some soup and check on her now.

She has had some bad news about the baby. We are terrified that there are problems with the new baby girl who is due in November. Please keep my girls in your prayers. Its pretty scary around here.

And I've realized that there is a lot of range in just how bad a bad day can be. I was irritated and grouchy and itchy before and thought that printer issues were about as bad as it was going to get.

Then, the news about the tiny little baby totally zapped me out of it all. My irritations seemed pretty small in the face of the news that our new little girl was in danger. Now, its really a bad day.

A Polka Dotted Princess

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), jewelry, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 22, 2010

Before Sugarwings came over to play with me today, I got a few things listed in the Boutique. The jewels that I found recently are really nice, and in great shape. Someone took such good care of them, that you wouldn't even know they were at least 50 years old.

See what I mean? Nice sparkle to the rhinestones.

This picture is made from one of my teensiest frozen Charlotte fairies, in a vintage frame. I love it when a project can be made from ALL vintage materials. Usually, something, somewhere in it needs to be newer. Like a tag, or a bit of card stock. This little lady is all OLD. And as an older lady myself, I appreciate that about her.

Sugarwings and I have the afternoon to play. Her Hippy Chick Mommy came by to do some laundry and is going to watch DVR-ed episodes of True Blood while she washes her clothes, so that means I get to snag the fairy baby to work in the studio with me.

I'm not sure yet what we'll make. She did ask if we could make a polka dotted dress for her puppy to match her own dress. I'm not much of a sewer, but I think we can paint polka dots onto a hanky and tie it around the pup's neck. Sugarwings isn't very picky, that should make her happy. Especially if we use glitter paint.

The last time we worked with glitter, she had it crusted all over her and kept saying, "I have Project on me!!"

Not that she is fussy. That wild child is usually encrusted with something.

This tag book is listed in the shop too. Its two large tag covers and 5 small tags inside, all wallpapered up and ready to be embellished. I'm including scraps of the papers to finish it with.

Don't forget that I have a Peat Pot Pretty with a frozen Charlotte fairy as June's giveaway prize! Can you believe that June is almost over??? Geez, where did it go. I have two articles to write by July 1st, and am not usually a person who waits till the last minute to do things (well besides taxes, uchk) but the time just got away from me.

My husband is going to be gone all week, so I should be able to get them both done. When he is around, I tend to stop work early to fix dinner or just hang out. And we come up with excuses to see Sugarwings and play with her. I can be more disciplined when I am on my own. Well, kinda- I am playing hooky this afternoon to make a polka dotted dog dress.

And as a prize for the drawing for new followers, I have some of that nice old rhinestone jewelry. I'll draw from ALL of the followers, not just the new ones. I appreciate you signing up, thanks!! When the number hits 250, I'll give away the earrings.

Being inspired by other’s studios

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), parties, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 21, 2010

Thanks for all the nice comments about my studio!

Wow, what a TON of people participating in that party. I've not seen all the blogs in it yet (that's going to take a while) but I sure had a good time peeking into a chunk of them. As much as I adore my own studio, I was experiencing some studio envy
while looking around. There are some fascinating ideas and places out there. The more I looked at, the more I want to see.

I'll be hopping through more as I have time this week. Thanks for hosting, Karen!

And as much as I do love my own studio, sometimes its good to get out and go to another place to work. Beth invited me over on Friday for estate sale shopping and hanging out in her craft room. I'd brought stuff to work on, but she offered me a box of goodies to rifle through and I couldn't resist.

Its so much more exciting to play with new (old) stuff! I think that is why I keep shopping for more to add to my own stash instead of just working with what I have. Because I sure do have plenty, you might have noticed from my previous post!

New supplies are inspiring. So, I bought more goods while at estate sales that day too…

And I also found this wrought iron bench. For now, its setting outside the back door to my studio. I'm not sure if that is where it will remain.

None of the sales that day were over the top wonderful, but we found a little something here and there all morning. At one house, I got a broken vintage crystal necklace.

I divided it up, and listed some beads in my boutique ($2.50 an ounce), and will keep some for myself too. There is more to list from that day's haul, and I hope to have more time to add it tomorrow.

One of Beth's boxes is labeled "images" and is full of some great stuff. I made this tag with a picture from that and really wanted to make a matching set with another girl that was in the stash, but ran out of time so Beth sent it home with me to finish.

What started out as an idea for a tag became an ephemera book instead. Its in an old cabinet card folder and is filled with an assortment of old papers, ready to be used as an art journal.

It should be in the shop soon. But if you are interested now, please let me know. It will be $24.

Playing in Beth's studio got me all fired up to make some stuff in my own when I got home. It was Father's Day weekend and we had a lot going on, but I managed to squeeze in a little bit of creative time here and there between boating and baking with Sugarwings and petting and playing with Agnes Rosebud.

For Father's Day I took Sugarwing's Daddy and my husband to see Toy Story with our little fairy grand baby. I'm a sucker for Pixar, our whole family is. But man, this movie was extra good. I thought the plotting for breaking out of the day care was right up there with something out of Ocean's 11.

And Big Baby could be more terrifying than Chucky.

And the end tugged at my heart so much, with Andy going away to college, that I sobbed. I don't think any mother of a grown up son could have prevented herself from crying at that ending.

Speaking of boys growing up and leaving the nest… I got to visit Button at Beth's. Here he is up on the craft table, bounding across the supplies to come and see me.

Seemed like he was glad to see his baby sis too. This was the first of many play dates for the two little fuzz balls.

This is a long one! A studio tour, two giveaways,almost 3 dozen pictures, and a rambling video

celebrations, collections, I do tend to run on, don't I?, paintings, parties, show and tell, studio tour, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 18, 2010

This post shows my studio over the years. For my most recent redo in 2024, please look at these posts here and here.

Edit- this post is my studio from June 2010. A 2013 post is Here , 2012 post is here, and the 2011 studio tour can be found here.

Welcome to the Where Bloggers Create party! This is the view from my desk, cluttery as it might look now, this is really an improvement. It was actually cleaned up this week. There is always a lot going on, no matter how organized I think I'll try to be…

The room is almost 1,000 sq ft. And I love every bit of it!! I've made use of dining tables, spare rooms, garages, driveways, sheds, you name it, over the years I've used it as a studio. So when I got this space, it was a dream come true and I will NEVER take it for granted. I give a little sigh of happiness when I come into the space every morning.

Its one big room, divided up with old doors that I have hinged together, and furniture placed back to back to create walls.

This view is from the same seat, at my desk, but looking to the right, at one of my favorite parts of the room, the TV.

During the day, I listen to NPR on the radio, but evenings and weekends that TV gets a work out. My husband travels a lot, so there are nights that I stay out in the studio till 3 or 4 am watching shows that I have recorded and playing with old papers to my heart's content.

Its important to me to have stuff easy to get to, so the work area is a U shape, with lots of shelving. This is behind my desk and holds a lot of the stuff I use daily.

Having attractive displays is important to me too. I cover a lot of old boxes with pretty papers, or use vintage flower pots, cups, and baskets to store things in.

Just about everything in the room came from garage sales, auctions, or thrift stores except this glass topped table that I used to store my jewelry. Its from TJ Maxx and was only $58. It was already white, I just added a vintage wallpaper border to it so it felt like it wasn't so newish.

I kind of like old jewelry.

I kind of like old hats too.

But its really the flowers from the old hats that I crave, not the hats themselves.

Glass jars with lids make a handy storage display too. So many of the things that I use for my artwork are vintagey things that are pretty as is. So I enjoy having them out where I can see them. Plus, if I tuck things away in drawers, I forget where they are.

Here is a video of part of the studio, if you have a couple minutes to watch it. Its a little long and meandering, plus I tend to babble. Sorry.

This large cabinet holds all my fabric and sewing goods. I got it in pieces, for only $15, and had to rebuild it and fix it up.

It has a large drawer in the bottom that I keep watercolor supplies in, even though I don't paint as often as a should, I do get around to it a few times a year. The framed hydrangeas by the prom dresses is one of my paintings.

So, is this one. Its from the Grumpy Fairy book that I made for Sugarwings. I framed my favorite scene and hung it on one of the French doors that I use as a room divider.

On my previous post, I showed hand painted furniture that I use in the studio. I just don't paint as often as I used to, when I do its smaller pieces like this salvage bit over the door.

Or this plank over the window.

All around the room, I've displayed things that make me smile. Little projects that I have done, things that could be projects some day, gifts from friends, or just odds and ends.

I'll leave you with a few scenes from around the room. Make sure you visit Karen for a full list of the bloggers who are showing their workspaces this weekend. There are about a billion of them. I can't wait to work my way through the list, even if it takes a couple of weeks to see them all. Its kind of like peeking into an open house in an exclusive neighborhood. I just love to see how other people decorate!

Oh, and don't forget, that all comments all month are entered to win a Peat Pot Pretty with a frozen Charlotte fairy.

And if you add your name to the list of Followers, I'll enter you in a drawing for another prize. edit- this giveaway is over now, but I do have a new monthly giveaway ongoing. All comments, all month, on all posts count.

(yes- that is a dog pen in my studio, I just raised 6 pups)

The wallhanging is a gorgeous gift from Beth.

And yes, the guardian angel seems to be watching over co-joined twins, one with an ax in her head.

Okay, I'm getting carried away, this is plenty! Have fun browsing the Where Bloggers Create party. Thanks for hosting, Karen.

Edit- Lucky me!! I am one of three winners from all the wonderful studio spaces shown for Karen's party!! Jo Packham is going to feature the three blogs in
"Where Women Create"

Thanks again, so much Karen, for giving me this opportunity, and thanks to you too, Jo!

I'm adding more photos of the studio to this post, the room changes a lot, so here are some views of the room over time:

Getting ready for a Creative Cottage Getaway with friends coming to play in the studio

Extra tables set up for company

Set up for a photo shoot for a magazine article a couple years ago

The hand painted floor

My Treat cabinet in Romantic Country Magazine with an article I wrote about how to find your personal Valentine's decorating style.

From the same article. I now use this cabinet for storing my shipping supplies.

Yep, this is actually in the studio! It was set up for an open house and sale that day.

This gazebo type structure is now where I have my computer and desk sitting. The tulle and lights didn't last, spiders and dust seemed to be very attracted to them.After a few months it was starting to look kind of haunted.

Another photo shoot set up. The room is no longer used for this, at one time, I sold hand painted furniture, and used this space for displaying the pieces and having sales.

This was also for a photo shoot. Now, I use the table for my sewing machine. When I have guests for a dinner party, I feed everyone in the studio instead of the house, we can seat over 25 people out there, if I move things around and organize a bit.

The stained glass door, is not really stained glass, its paint. The door was taken from the kitchen of our old farm house before we remodeled.

But usually, I just have a dozen or so guests and push the two dining tables in the front of the studio together.

My fairy grand baby and I love inviting friends over for cupcakes and tea.

Sugarwings loves the room as much as I do.

This is the front door of the studio, since this was taken, I've painted the doors bird egg blue and added hydrangeas to the hand painted shutters (they used to be bi-fold doors, found at a garage sale for a couple dollars).

My husband and I like to have our morning coffee out here on the porch. Its also nice to sip a glass of wine on during a thunderstorm.

I love every inch of my wonderful studio space and know just how lucky I am to have it. Thanks for coming by to visit!

June Giveaway and Inside the Treat Cabinet

collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), give away, Hand Painted Furniture, paintings, show and tell

By Karla Nathan / June 17, 2010

On Tuesday night, I had a little dinner party. It was an iffy day, sometimes too hot, sometimes too wet, so I set up a tent for shade in case the rain stayed away and we could eat outside.

Luckily, no rain, and the shade from the little pop up tent was ideal for dining outside in the evening after the heat of the day had passed.

Which made Twinkle and Agnes Rosebud pretty happy, they'd stay outdoors every minute of the day if I'd let them.

Since the day was unpredictable and I was afraid we wouldn't be able to eat outdoors if a storm came up, I cleaned my studio just in case we had to move indoors with our plates. I have two dining room tables in the front half of my workshop, that are usually piled up so high with crap, I mean, great stuff that you can't even see the tables.

The area usually only gets cleaned up for company, which is kind of sad. I wonder why I can't keep it nice for just me?

Anyway, its clean now and since it won't stay that way long, I thought I'd make the most of it and get some studio pictures.

This is the Treat Cabinet. (Lacking in treats at the moment.) I fill it up with goodies when company comes for dinner, or on craft days. If I'm out in the studio alone, that just is not a safe thing to do. If I had a full treat cabinet, I'd never get any work done.

Recently, I've decided to use the top shelf of the wardrobe as wallpaper storage, quite a bit of my collection fit up there.

This cabinet was meant to be a closet or wardrobe. It has the one shelf at the top and a bar for clothes. I added tables to set the goodies on, and cut a hole in the back to run an extension cord through for lighting.

Picking a vintage wallpaper to cover the back was tough. First of all, I wanted it to be kind of neutral- not a lot of color. Second, I wanted rosy. I chose this toile rose pattern because I think it would look good with lots of different displays when I change things up a bit.

The space under the table cloths makes great storage for cups/napkins/etc.

This is a new addition to the Treat Cabinet. My pal, Suzanne Duda, gave me this foofed up, old suitcase pocket. I thought it was ideal to use for serving pieces. I slipped a couple large cups inside it, one to hold plastic forks, the other to hold napkins, so they wouldn't all just fall into the bottom of the pockets.

Behind the cups, I slid the paper plates.

A few years back, I used to paint furniture and sell it at a Kansas City antique mall. Some days I miss doing that, but not very often. I didn't realize how hard I was working until I quit doing it. Its nice to concentrate on small items that fit into an envelope now instead!!

There are a few pieces of painted stuff still around the house, and even more in the studio. You can probably tell that the room is a bit of a hodge podge of what ever I had.

The two dining tables usually have either recently made items, or stuff for sale, or things I just bought set out on them.

The centers of the tables are filled with things that just kinda make me smile…

By the way, I do have a giveaway chosen for June! And the month is only half way over, too. All comments all month still count.

And here it is-

I'll be giving away a Peat Pot Pretty with a frozen Charlotte fairy. These will be featured in Somerset Life, I'm writing an article about it next week, which is always an honor!!

Leave a comment if you'd like a chance to win one!

I'll leave you with a couple more pics of some hand painted pieces in the studio.

And for more peeks into the room, please come back on June 19th, I'll be a part of the Where Bloggers Create party hosted by Karen Valentine.

While the room was cleaned up I made a little video of the space.

How I spent my summer vacation

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Sugarwings, Travel, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 15, 2010

Bringing puppies with us on the trip was such a good idea. I went back and forth up to the last minute on whether or not I should take them. I talked to a friend about babysitting them, I wrote everyone who had shown an interest to see if they wanted to buy one CHEAP before I went out of town, I fretted and fussed and worried about them getting too hot in the car or peeing everywhere in my sis's home.

Sissy said she'd be disappointed if I didn't bring them, and I hated the thought of missing the last bit of time with them before they were moving on to new families, so I decided to pack them up.

It was the right decision. We spent a lot of time outside enjoying Sissy's lovely garden and patio, and the pups could run and play with Sugarwings.

And since I had litter box trained them (smartest thing I've EVER done!!) they were safe to leave at home, penned up with their box nearby while we went out and explored.

We took our fairy girl to the June Jamboree in Pendleton, IN. It was an event I impatiently waited for all year when I was growing up there. I really thought she'd love it too. And yes, she had fun and rode some rides, but my little nature girl was much more interested in the park and waterfall we walked through to get to the rides. Walking along the creek and watching the waterfall was mesmerizing her so much that we had to convince her to come along to the flashing lights and carnival music up ahead.

Smart kid.

She is realizing at a young age that true happiness comes from the simple things.

We also spent time in Mounds State Park. When I was a kid, we were taught in the Indiana history books that it was an Indian burial grounds. Now they know that the mounds were built for some equinox reason.

Its been 30 years or more since I've been there, and I'd forgotten what a beautiful place it was. Sugarwing's Daddy, Mr. Zen Master really loved it there.

Leave it to my family to go hiking in white clothes and barefoot. But aren't they pretty that way?

Yes, very pretty. What a sweet, happy couple these two are.

White didn't work out so well for me. My sisses and I went to Sephora while out shopping and I leaned up against a sample lipstick display and ended up with a series of pale pink through plum polka dots along my skirt.

Any hints on how to remove lipstick from white cotton?

That is, if there are any of you left out there to answer after making you look at all my family vacation photos. I promise, next post will have some arty or old stuff in it.

Lucky charms

antiques/junking, collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, flowers, Sugarwings, Travel, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 14, 2010

We had a great trip to Indiana! Traveling with 3 puppies and one 3 year old made the drive challenging, but unique. Instead of stopping for typical roadside breaks, we needed to find spots for all the little ones to stretch and play. Lunch was a quick trip to Trader Joe's in St Louis to pick up a picnic, then take it to a city park to eat it and play for an hour or so.

And for one break, we found a giant field of clovers to run in.

Adam's loved one has magical four leaf clover hunting skills. I've spent a life time trying to find just ONE. She says its all in the way you look at them. I consider myself a lucky person, and I have sharp eyes, but I can't find a lucky clover for anything. And I search!!

Its been a quest of mine since I was a little girl. Other goals, I've had to leave behind. Like trying to go one full mile on a pogo stick. I spent an entire summer when I was about 8 years old on that one, and had to give it up. Or the summer I tried to learn how to do a back flip into the pool. My body just doesn't do those and I gave up that dream too.

I'm not giving up on the clover search, and now I have a Clover Master to teach me her skills.

My poor little car was filled to the brim on the way there, and we had to half unload it every time we got the pups out.

But it was not too full to add some purchases along the way! My hat whispering skills were in fine form and I found so many (cheap!) along I70, that I am almost embarrassed to tell you about it.

These are just a few that I have unpacked so far. The rest are in my suitcase with all the dirty laundry and I am avoiding that. Its hard enough to admit a vacation is over, doing up the laundry and unpacking is just too much to face.

(The wallpaper covered box is full of old corsages. I got a bag filled with them for $11.)

So, I maybe my lucky charm isn't a four leaf clover its a millinery flower?

All the puppies are settled into their new homes now. We are down to Agnes Rose, who I am calling Rosebud instead of Rose now. She is just too little to be a big flower, she's just a bud.

I'm adjusting to the fact that we actually KEPT one. A couple days ago, she was one of the pups, now she is MY dog.

Well, that point is debatable. Someone else claims Agnes Rosebud.

They kept each other company for most of the drive home.

My fairy grand baby’s room

fairies, family, flowers, Hand Painted Furniture, paintings, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / June 13, 2010

While I am away from my computer for a few days I thought I'd leave you with some photos of the cottage. I'll be back on Sunday, and will have trip photos as well as some new listings to add to the shop (well, hopefully, I'll have some successful shopping while away!!) Any orders while I am gone will be sent out on Monday the 14th.

This is Sugarwing's room. She's pretty proud of the fact that she is big enough for her own night light (shaped like a tea pot) next to her bed. Her closet doors are painted with a mural of fairies in the flowers, and our dog, Sparkle.

Since she only comes to stay, and doesn't live her full time, the closet didn't need to be filled with her regular clothes, so it holds all of her dress up and play clothes. I'm always on the hunt at garage sales and thrift stores for fairy wings and princess dresses that are cute and cheap.

The ceiling and the area above the shelf are both painted like the sky. The shelves hold a collection of fairies and pixies, and little bird houses covered in vintage wallpaper for them to live in.

Her princess bed is vintage, I found it at an auction, and painted it white with pink glaze (instructions on my short cut paint technique are on my side bar under "tutorials")

Since the room is upstairs in an old house, it tends to get stuffy, so we had to add a window air conditioner. It doesn't exactly look great there, but it keeps her comfy.

There are white sheers on the windows, then above them, I screwed painted and glittered branches to the wall and tied trailing ribbons to them. We've clipped little butterflies and dragonflies to the ribbons and dangled fairies from the branches.

When Sugarwings was tiny, these pastel pails hung over her changing table and held her lotions. Now they hold fairy dolls that readers have sent to her.

I painted the fairy to look down at her on the changing table and she used to love to coo and talk to her while getting diapers changed.

I've painted LOTS of murals in nurseries over my lifetime and one thing I always make sure of, is that the pictures are interactive for the kids. In places where the baby spends time, like the changing area or crib, I was careful to add something of special interest for them to see. And in the rest of the room, all the creatures had friends. No matter what the theme was, fish, dogs, teddys- they all were in conversational groups.

One night when my fairy grand baby was just learning to string sentences together, we were laying on the floor of her room playing and she said "Grammy has pretty stuff". I told her, no baby, this is all YOUR stuff, this is YOUR room. She was speechless for a moment, probably for the only time in her chatterboxing life.

I think she likes her space.

A cottage tour

flowers, housework

By Karla Nathan / June 11, 2010

I will be away from my computer for a few days, but have some
fresh posts scheduled for while I am away. I won't be able to answer
comments, and all packages will be mailed on Monday the 14th.

But please
do leave a comment if you'd like to be entered in the JUNE GIVEAWAY.

Before I had everyone come to visit for my Creative Cottage Girls Weekend, I actually cleaned my whole house. All of it! at once!

While it was spiffed up, I took advantage of the tidiness and snapped some photos. I thought that I'd post them while I was out of town. This is the back door of my studio. I found this table (at a garage sale) made from an old grate that matches the round grate that I use as a welcome mat.

The shutter is an old one that I painted for a design show house that I was part of a few years back. Its been out in the shed, because I don't have a lot of red and black around here. But I kind of like it in this outdoor spot.

A month or so ago, I did a major over haul on the bathroom and posted about it then. But it got a few more switcheroos recently. Some of the mirrors that were in the dining room got moved into the bathroom. Not a big change, just some bigger mirrors.

Its a small room with no windows, so an assortment of mirrors is good for making it feel bigger and lighter.

On the side of the built in cabinet, I hung 2 old bird pictures from a flea market, that were under $1 each and a $2 framed picture that I got at Bottoms Up market.

The redecorating that I started after Christmas was mostly a lot of editing and lightening up. I've removed most of the colorful things from the downstairs of the main part of the cottage and gone all neutral.

I'm finding it very calming. And with a houseful of puppies, a couple of elderly dogs, and a 3 year old, calming is not bad.

When I repainted my dining room furniture and redid a buffet that had been in my son's room as a dresser, I showed you some photos of what I'd done. But here is a final look, with it all pulled together and cleaned up. You won't see that often around here.

Well, mostly cleaned up, kind of looks like I was in the process of cleaning, see the mop? Which reminds me, have you tried the Mr Clean Magic Eraser mop?????? It is beyond wonderful. I have light floors that are always all dog tracked and dirty. This mop cleans the tile with one light sweep across the floor better than all the scrubbing and scouring with my old mop ever did.

This is the last of our peonies for the year, I already miss them!

Most of the peony bushes that I have are white with a blush of pink. They were planted years ago by the farm wife who lived in this home way before we did. I owe her a thank you!

Finally, I have found the right chairs for Sugarwings' table!! These are pastel, old, and just the right amount of chippy. I sanded them up so more paint wouldn't chip off, then sprayed them heavily with poly to baby proof them, and painted her table white to coordinate. (lots of poly on it too) I'm thrilled to have her plastic and vinyl Disney Princess table and chairs gone now. There was always something disturbing about dining off of Cinderella's breasts.

Notice the rug? Its bamboo and can be mopped. Which is good because I have a dog about to turn 17, is senile, and he can't be trusted to know where he is peeing. No other rugs are allowed in the house because of him. Probably more than you wanted to know about my house… But I am diligent about keeping the dog pee cleaned up and gone. I clean the floor with vinegar and orange peel, so unless I am just fooling myself, the house doesn't stink.

I'm pretty paranoid about that, but besides keeping that old guy corralled most of the time, there isn't much I can do about it.

Next post while I am with my sisses and away from the computer will be Sugarwing's room.

Reunited

Uncategorized

By Karla Nathan / June 9, 2010

I will be away from my computer for a few days, but have some fresh posts scheduled for while I am away. I won't be able to answer comments, and all packages will be mailed on Monday the 14th.

But please do leave a comment if you'd like to be entered in the JUNE GIVEAWAY.

Sugarwings and I were happy to have an afternoon with the pups on Monday after unpacking from the weekend trip to Omaha. A friend found this hand made vintage princess gown at a thrift shop and our fairy princess had it on all evening, doing plenty of curtsies to the puppies and calling herself "my highness".

Remember that I had prizes for the Oz names that readers entered for the Name the Puppy contest? Well, since I changed Glinda's name to Aggie Rose, I thought I should send a prize to my cousin Paula who suggested the name Agnes, after our Grandma Downey. When she first suggested it, I told her that I wouldn't waste that name on a pup we were sending on to another home. But since we decided to keep one, I just had to use it and sent her a little "dog tag" as a thank you.

There hasn't been much creating time lately, with the busy weekend away, and now a trip to Indiana to see my sisses. Sugarwings, her daddy. and his loved one are coming along, but we aren't sure about the pups. My Sissy says they are welcome, but I'm afraid that 4 babies might be a bit overwhelming for her.

We're not sure if we can leave them behind, though… Sugarwings and I are slightly obsessed with them. You might have noticed.

I certainly cannot leave them at a kennel. A friend could come by to check on them twice a day and Ryan will be here to check on them at night, and dump their litter box. I mostly worry about them being lonely, those guys are used to attention all day long.

My husband thinks I am a bit silly over the whole thing, but I take the puppy responsibility very seriously. Having a litter of babies is a commitment to nurturing them until they go to their new homes as well as finding just the right homes for them.

One will leave next Tuesday and another goes to Beth soon. Of course we
will still get to keep our teensy Agnes Rose, having her will help us
when we have to say goodbye to the others. There is still one available if you are interested… Did I mention that they are litter box trained????

While we had Sugarwings in Omaha at the zoo, circus and water park, her Hippy Chick Mommy took advantage of the time on her own and took a trip to a music festival. When her mommy got back tonight, that fairy girl flung herself into her mom's arms, she was so happy to see her.

Sometimes the best part of a trip is getting home.

Author name: Karla Nathan