Karla Nathan – Page 252 – Karla's Cottage

Getting our Glitter on

By Karla Nathan / November 18, 2008

Crikey! I barely got Natasha to the airport in time, we got side tracked by gossiping and by her imitation of a Tasmanian Devil. She was running around the dining room in her pink flowered jammies showing me how the devils move.

Thanks to my sweet husband surprising me by having the gas tank filled, we made it to the airport on time, after poor Natasha having to listen to me mothering her all the way there.

"Are you sure you have enough US dollars left for tips, do you need some ones?"

"I worry about you being short of cash if you are stuck in the airport for a while"

"Do you want some band-aids just in case you get blisters from your new boots?"

She is such a little person to be traveling so far alone and dragging luggage bigger than she is! She brought out my maternal instincts.

Natasha and Heather both came bearing gifts and Miss Sugarwings was happy to meet them and wanted to open all the packages herself, including the boomerang for my husband. She saw the candles I had lit on the table and figured it must be her birthday again.

Sheila and her sister also brought gifts to the dinner party before the Bella get away. These candles are famous in the Kansas City area, for their wonderful scents. And they are even better, topped off with hand made gift tags and wrapped in tulle!

For our party, I made 3 kinds of pasta dishes, and Shawn brought along salads in pasta shells, how cute is that idea?

And an evening isn’t complete without Shawn’s home made marshmallows!!

We ate in the studio, and everyone pitched in and brought something. Those are the best meals.

So I could relax and enjoy the guests, I loaded my inventory for vendor night into the borrowed truck the night before everyone came. But when I decided to take it to the airport to get the girls that morning, I heard a THUNK.

The tailgate flew open along the interstate and I couldn’t get it shut!!!!

I had to fly home (losing some of my vendor goods out the back!! I’m not even sure now what is missing) and get my car and hurry to the airport.

As I was toodling down the turnpike, trying not to speed, I heard a JINGLE JINGLE BANG and I realized that I’d left a huge appliance dolly in the back of the car. No way, that two passengers, each with carry ons and 2 big suitcases each were going to fit in my petiteToyota Scion, which has a pink baby seat in the back. (and is nicknamed the Toaster, or the Lunch Box, it looks like a little toy car)

At that point, I just pulled over along I70, and got the dolly out and left it on the side of the road. So if you were the person that was driving along and stopped to pick up the free dolly, it is me you have to thank for the gift!

After the welcome party in my studio, Heather worked on getting things together for vendor night, she needed a few odds and ends that I loaned to her for her display.

It would have been fun to have more time to play in the studio, but we knew that we’d be having plenty of time to get our glitter on in Omaha!

As we were leaving, I remembered my disco ball, how could I host a Glitter Lounge without one? And even better, this one was hand made by a good friend, Shanna. Hand made is always better!

My BIL was able to fix the truck latches before we left, but the thought of losing our stuff kind of stayed in the backs of all of our minds. We wondered if we’d leave a trail of glittery goods behind us all the way to Omaha and arrive with an empty truck bed.

But all was fine, no worries! We met up with some other Bella pals, Carol and Shelly in St. Joe to shop and took Natasha to lunch at Cracker Barrel to show her some down home American style food.

She liked the grits.

Then, we were off to the hotel to get settled and set up the Glitter Lounge. I mixed pink sugar with the edible glitter to rim the glasses. But the lights were too dim in the room for the champagne to really sparkle, too bad. Although some one told me that they carried their glass into the lobby and people stopped to tell them how pretty it was. The light was much better there!

Have you ever thrown a party and in those minutes before it started, you wondered if anyone would show up? That sick feeling that you’d be sitting alone with your party balloon (or disco ball) and sipping your drink all by yourself?

Well, that happens to me EVERY TIME. Luckily, everyone, plus more guests showed and we had a blast. We crowded about 45 people into that hotel room.

Pictured- Suzanne, Debby, Andrea– I will post more photos later, when friends send some to me.

So many fun Bellas came, I was so happy to see them, and so glad to have such a COOL room mate who came up with this idea to throw a party.

But there was a problem, I told a friend the wrong room number, 2 floors off, then couldn’t find her to tell her the right room. I was asking everyone I saw if they knew where Jenny was, and then kept running down to the 5ht floor to see if she was knocking on the wrong door. I felt like such a witch for inviting someone and sending her to the wrong place. I’m sorry, Jenny! You were missed!!!!

That first night, after toasting the event with bubbly, we had a group class.

Sewing.

ugh.

But it was fun anyway, even if I am the world’s worst sewer. I realized how negative I was being and apologized to everyone at our table, and then borrowed some glue to finish my project. Everyone else seemed to be so good at embroidery, and I was so out of my element.

My poor Mom, (or Mum as I feel like saying, after a week with the Aussie Chick) must have been turning somersaults in her grave while I attempted to sew my project!

I discovered that globs of mica glitter can camouflage lots of embroidery mistakes.

My other projects turned out better, and I will show them later.

Including the special surprise gift that I made for my November giveaway! Remember, all comments enter you to win this, along with a bit of edible glitter for your own Glitter Lounge party over the holidays!

wow

Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / November 17, 2008

See that ear to ear grin on my face? That is how I felt all weekend! My cheeks hurt from so much smiling. Oh my goodness, who knew that so many good times and wonderful memories could get jammed into such a short period of time?

There are a few hundred photos to go through and edit, but I wanted to quickly post a few and stop in to say hi. The fun is still going on here, Natasha is around until tomorrow morning. I hate to see her visit come to an end.

Every minute of the event was jammed packed with fun and sparkle. I want to thank all the Bellas who joined Carol and I in the Glitter Lounge for our kick off party. What a way to begin a beautiful weekend!

As much of a blast as the whole time was, there is just no place like home, and it feels good to be back in my cottage. I feel about like Twinkle does here in this picture, ready to stretch out and relax. I’ve gotten by on a couple hours of sleep here and there, and plan on a long soak in the tub and an early bedtime tomorrow night.

I have a feeling that when my head hits the pillow, it will be filled with glittery dreams….

Packing it Up, and more about the SPARKLY SURPRIZE GIVEAWAY

celebrations, give away, parties, redos, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 11, 2008

The bag I needed to pack my supplies in turned up! But after a summer of being filled with sunscreens, picnics, and carried to the lake, it looked a bit rough.

To cover some blotchy spots and stains, I squirted the canvas with glimmer mist. Is is washable? Who knows? Will I have blue running down my arms if I get caught in the rain while carrying it? Could happen.

I also added silver Stickles glitter and a few crystals. So, if the color runs away, at least the sparklies will stay around!

Hey, did you see that Hobby Lobby sells Stickles now! Yippee!

While there, I picked up a few things for the trip. I feel like I am getting ready for the first day of school, with all of these new supplies! I treated myself to all these new goodies, it just makes it even more fun. There is nothing like the feeling of opening a brand new box of crayons (or color crins, as we always called them) and seeing those sharp points that have never been put to paper yet!

Sugarwings gave me one of her new glue sticks. I thought Belle was appropriate for the occasion!

The hotel we are staying at has a free breakfast, so I will be well fed in the mornings, but thought it wouldn’t hurt to have some easy to grab food with me when there isn’t much time between classes for lunch.

What else goes in the bag? Trinkets that sparkle, a book of wallpaper samples, some French sheet music, jewelry tools, mats, and doodads.

Last year, I took a lot of extras with me and was glad I did. This year, the instructors have asked us to bring some extras along.

Plus, it seems like there are a lot of items called for this year, like books, frames, game boards, etc.

This ballerina pin and card are coming along just because I like them. I have no idea if they will fit into the theme of any of the classes!

Now, the classes all sound really interesting and I’m sure they will be great to take. But- the photos of the projects are more like sneak peeks, and it is honestly hard to tell just what they will be like when done. At least for some of the artwork.

Sadly, I didn’t join in any of the swaps this year. But my friend, Valita offered to trade some wallpaper and photo album mats for vintage crystals! I jumped right on that.

So, her trade is packed, as well as some special orders and gifts that I am bringing.

Tomorrow, Heather and Natasha arrive! I decorated some little boxes for the presents I made for them, as welcome gifts. While I was gluing paper, I fixed up this mini chest of drawers for my roomie, Carol.

If she hadn’t agreed to share a room with me, I might not have decided to go to Silver Bella because the costs were just too high. I owe her! So, I made her a thank you gift and then fixed this up to package it in.

When I clean house, I tend to get side tracked. While mopping the dining room to be ready for house guests, I just got to thinking how much I hated the table top. It was a blah wood, that was dinged up and cups left rings on it every time we used it.

I love the table and chairs, and really didn’t want to repaint the whole set.

That problem was solved by painting the table top kind of to match, but not too matchy-matchy. I used metallic champagne paint that I had left over from a previous project, then a gold glaze over it, blending while the paint was still wet.

I like the shimmer the metallics make, and am glad I stopped to do this. It was so much more fun than mopping the floor.

Lets see, supplies packed, house cleaned, table painted, gifts made, truck loaded with my wares, and these wine charms made to give as party favors tomorrow night.

I think I am about ready to go!

These are wine charms that Gwen, Carol and I made up earlier for the Glitter Lounge. I still need to pack the pink sugar with edible glitter to rim the champagne glasses for our party. The Godiva chocolates are in my bag, and ready to be sprinkled with glitter too!

I also need to pack my clothes. Ugh. The worst part. Did I mention that 10lbs snuck up on me?

After packing, I need to run to the post office and mail this silk outfit to my Sissy. She left it with me to tie dye for her and I want to mail ti before I go out of town. I hope she likes it, it started out a butter yellow, and now looks kind of mermaidy. Silk takes the dye different than the cottons I am used to, so it was a bit of an experiment.

This formerly white shirt goes to her too. I have a raspberry dyed shirt for myself to wear this weekend too.

I’d better get to packing it, I still have a dinner party to get ready for too.

I don’t know when I’ll get to post again. Hopefully after the party tomorrow night, but maybe not till after Silver Bella.

I promise to bring you a souvenir! This month’s SPARKLY SURPRISE GIVEAWAY will include some of the edible glitter to sprinkle on your holiday treats, and something, who knows what? from my weekend in Omaha.

Leave a comment to enter!

And please excuse me, if they don’t get answered. I’ll be away, then have company, then need to get caught up, unpacking and re-opening my shop. I will read and enjoy each and every comment, but I am sorry I won’t be able to answer.

Homework

fairies, paintings, Silver Bella, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 9, 2008

Isn’t this mat wonderful? I bought a book full of them this summer – and full of old photos too!

I finished the little sketch that I had started 20 years ago and just stumbled across the other day. My sissy reminded me that it is of our Grandma Smith. Although, after I added to it, it doesn’t seem to look as much like her, I might have slimmed her face down a bit too much with the shadows.

Oh well, I still think it will be a good picture to use for the "Portrait Rustique" class that Kim Kwan is teaching at Silver Bella. We were told to bring a photo, a mat and a frame. I’ll bring some others in case this isn’t quite right, or I am not in the mood to use it. Gotta have choices when its time to sit down and make something!

While at it, I got some more "home work" done.

For Sally Jean’s soldering class we need to bring prepared artwork in three sizes: 1×1", 1×1 1/2", and 3/4×2".

I printed a bunch of my original paintings and a few old pictures on the printer’s ‘contact sheet’ setting. Then, I glimmer misted some old book pages and started gluing little pictures to it.

All of the little pictures got enhanced with sparkly inks.

Some got painted backgrounds.

And a couple got millinery blooms.

All are left on the page, since it will be easier to transport and harder to lose that way.

Good idea, because today I am such a loser. I am turning in circles looking everywhere for stuff I have misplaced. One thing I can’t find is a big travel bag to pack all my supplies in. Now there are only so many places that could be, and so far it is in none of them.

Hopefully I won’t lose all these little pictures now that they are ready to pack. I’m bringing a big assortment, plus extra small prints just in case, I never know what I’ll need, or what I will lose on the way there….

Taking the leap

Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 8, 2008

Yesterday was "Spoil Sugarwings Day". Since I had to run to Kansas City to find the edible glitter (which is great!! I baked cookies last night and they are shimmering little masterpieces), I decided to stop at Rainforest Cafe to treat the fairy grand baby to a lunch with the monkeys and elephants. She loved it all, her favorite thing there was a light shining on the wall that made rainbow. She held her Dorothy doll up to it, and said "look, Dororthy, a Rainblow!" and of course, started singing to her.

On the way out of the mall, we saw this contraption and it grabbed her attention.

Yes, I let a two year old bounce 15 feet into the air strapped onto this lift. She LOVED it and squealed "YaaaY" at the top of her lungs the whole time.

Dozens of people stopped to see what the yelling was about, some stayed to watch a while. She’s not a quiet kid, she lets loose with some lung power when she is having fun.

Sorry, the photos aren’t very clear, but this fairy was flying up and down pretty fast. I wish I could have captured the joy on her face when she took the first big leap.

You can learn a lot from a two year old. Let go of your fears and make that big leap, jump into all life has to offer and have some fun trying new things!

And keep your eyes open, you never know when you’ll see a rainblow.

A Glittering Gala

antiques/junking, celebrations, Food and Drink, give away, holiday decor, I do tend to run on, don't I?

By Karla Nathan / November 7, 2008

We had a magical night at the Curious Sofa. Or Fofa as Carol and I called it after a funny typo. Well, maybe you had to be there, but it struck my funny bone.

Maybe I found it so funny because at the C. Sofa, every detail is pure perfection.

Deb is extraordinarily talented in the art of display, and there is never a mistake of any kind allowed on her property!

Even things that seem to be imperfect, are NOT. They are either made to look distressed or actually aged to perfection and chosen for that quality like the paneling in this powder room.

Pearl was hard at work greeting everyone at the entrance that was flanked by stacks of firewood. Who knew I was so trendy, I have firewood stacked in my breezeway by the door too! If Deb is doing it, it must be COOL to do!!

We had a fun group, and sat in the rustic cabin display and chatted after exploring the store. Here is Beth, Carol, Gwen and I from left to right. Gwen had recently returned from a buying trip in France and we were drooling as she was telling us all of the details about the trip.

By the way, if you will be at vendor night at Silver Bella, Gwen will have fresh off the boat, French ephemera for sale. Please do me a favor and say "Bon" to Gwen. I promise, she will laugh….

Plus, she has GREAT stuff and you’ll be glad you dropped by to shop! I put in a pre-order for 20 bucks worth of old French postcards. I wanted to be first in line!!

And here is the Queen of Styling, Deb. What a great hat!

This is something I fell in love with! I’m jonesing for that crown.

This big headed girl caught my eye too. I didn’t buy her though, but am kind of wishing I had, now. I got a few trinkets and will show photos of them after I recharge my camera battery.

Notice the books wrapped in old papers? And the fabulous colors of pearls? There is never a jarring note in that store, every inch is coordinated and well thought out.

Deb is an expert at sticking to her palette. She adds hints of color here and there, but it is always faded to a remnant of its original shade.

And there were sparkly things everywhere!

I don’t know what kind of glitter went on these roses to make them look like they were kissed by an early frost, but I want a jar of it. A BIG jar.

Don’t you wish you could pull up a chair to this table for a dinner party? Well, I did, but only because Carol dared me to. I didn’t mess anything up, I just sat and ate my dinner and felt pretty pampered while doing it! All chairs should have angel wings like these do!

And what a dinner it was!!!!! Champagne with Dean and Deluca catered deliciousness.

I tried to not make a pig of myself, (remember I was complaining about the 10 lbs I put on?). But honestly, LOOK at these platters. I had to have some of each.

But this platter is the one that got my heart racing (and not just from high fat treats, but from the beauty of it!). If I only had that Cannon Rebel camera that I wanted so bad, you could see the detail of this. The pink bon bons are covered in glitter. Yes, glitter. The Real Deal. Edible glitter that looks like GLITTER not sugar, because it really really is real glitter!!!!!!!!

Does it show up any better in this picture? I swear, the stuff is magical pixie dust, not just sugar. It is sheer, fine, holographic and as beautiful as the stuff Martha Stewart sells to craft with. Sugarwings and I were on a quest to find the stuff today and Dean and Deluca sent us to this cute little bakery where they sold us some magic pixie dust of our own!

Everything in there looked tasty and rich. Sugarwings was convinced these goodies were snowmen. I tried to tell her that they were tuxedos, but I don’t think she gets the concept of what a tuxedo is.

I am so thrilled to find this pretty glitter, and can’t wait to start sprinkling it around! I have big plans for frosting the rims of the glasses we will serve the Glitter Tinis in at our Glitter Lounge in Omaha! My roomie, Carol and I are having a mini kick off to Silver Bella before the group craft night starts and I think that I will have to sprinkle the magic fairy dust on the Godiva chocolates too.

I will be using this stuff everywhere! Heck, I always have glitter in my hair, on my face, all over my house, grandchild, dog, and husband. I might as well have it in my food too. And on purpose!

Thanks, Deb for such a fun party last night. And for feeding me glitter cakes and starting a whole new obsession for me!

I think that what ever my giveaway for November will be, I will add some pixie dust for the winner to sprinkle onto some of her own holdiay goodies too. Don’t forget, there is a giveaway going on. I know, lets call it a secret surprise goodie bag giveaway! You won’t know what it is until you get it in the mail! But I can guarentee, it will be sparkly.

Over the Rainbow

paintings, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 6, 2008

Today is a Sugarwings Day, she and I have been painting rainbows (for her Dorothy doll) and having fairy tea parties. This kid knows all the words to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and will burst into song at any rainbow she sees. Trouble is, you can’t understand much of what she is saying, you just hear the word "rainbow" here and there in the song. I think she sings in Fairy Language.

Wow, thanks for the kind hearted responses to my mean comment! I really appreciate them all. I know that there is a big problem in the world with pet over population, but I think the problem leans more towards puppy mills than people like me who have a few little babies that are adored and coddled!

And by the way, there is already a waiting list for Twinkettes, these puppies will have wonderful homes.

I cleaned my studio last night after Sugarwings went to bed and came across this half done drawing, that must have been started 20 years ago and forgotten. Looks like I had a good start, I wonder why I stopped? Maybe I’ll do something with it now.

After looking through the "Where Women Create" magazine, I felt the need to spiff up a bit! I don’t know when my studio will be photographed, but I wanted to be ready. I think that anyone who reads this first issue of the magazine will feel the same way and want to dig in and redo something in their work areas. The pictures are very inspirational!

The changes I made to my room are the tables. I brought this white table downstairs from the library, where it really wasn’t being used at all, and put away a folding table that I can pull out and set back up when friends come to craft days.

Since this wooden table was shorter than the folding table, I finally had space for this little $3 green table from a garage sale and the chippey pink cabinet from the Sparks and White Cloud flea market.

At first, I was going to paint the table white, but I kind of like it green, since the chair has a green patterned slipcover. What do you think?

Well, I’m off to Curious Sofa’s pre-open house party! Don’t worry, there will be tons of photos!!! I feel pretty lucky to get an invitation to go to this party. Well, actually, I am tagging along with Carol, she is the one invited.

A Modeling Career for Sugarwings and an answer to the MEAN comment

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), holiday decor, magazine pictures or articles, Silver Bella, Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / November 5, 2008

Wowwee! Have you seen this yet? Somerset has done it again, this magazine is just so, over the top, good! Kudos to Jo Packham, the editor.

The quality of the photos and stories are every bit as good as the book that preceded it. Impressive. Here is a link to Jenny Doh’s blog with her post about this issue.

Now, I am really overwhelmed to think that my studio (!?) will be featured in a future issue of this publication. Heck, my head might not even fit through the doors of the studio after that, this is a cool thing to be in!

I’m extremely proud to be included in this issue, for this little corner on the back page. A photo I took of Sugarwings helping me face paint at a birthday party was used.

She is not wearing a shirt, so I am hoping this won’t be a big career move for her. I’d rather not see her featured topless in any more magazines as an adult.

And yes, I KNOW I should be cleaning and getting ready for company, packing up supplies for my Silver Bella classes, but I ended up making more bottle brush trees, and while cutting apart the strands of old mercury glass beads, I decided to bottle a few of them.

If I don’t end up selling these, I think they’d be cute as a bug in my kitchen replacing the spices on my rack during the holidays!

The teeny blue ribbons and gold and white labels are some that I got in a mini swap with my Dutch pal, Lili. Sbella_booth_256

Sugarwings ended up spending the evening with me, so I stopped gluing goodies to trees and took the advice of my friend, Valita, who said I should sell bottle brush tree decor kits at Silver Bella.

I bagged up some trinkets to add to trees, each bag is different and most are best suited for the taller trees, although I’d say that if you were decorating a bunch of little trees, the stuff could be spread out among a few. The old clip on earrings (that I cut the backs off of) are great to use as ornaments on a bigger tree, but work better as a single tree topper on the tiny trees.

This tree is one of the larger ones, so it could handle a handful of old earrings glued to it.

Tomorrow, Beth, Carol, and I are going to visit Deb and check out the Curious Sofa Holiday Open House. Deb has quite a way with display, this should be fun! Plus, dinner after with my two buds will be a nice way to spend an evening and avoid cleaning my studio.

And I seem to be very fond of dinner lately… I gained TEN POUNDS since I turned 50 six months ago. Is this what being old does to you? A complete shut down of the metabolism?????

By the way, I got my very first MEAN comment yesterday by someone who thinks Twinkle should not be having puppies.

This person left an purposely incorrect email address, so I couldn’t answer her. So, I’ll say it here-

Yes, I know that there are LOTS of dogs and cats without homes in the world, and I have taken in my share of them plus donated time to our local shelter, as well as donating art to fund raising auctions and free murals that I painted on the walls of the building.

Just because I raise pure bred Dorkies doesn’t make me a bad, uncaring person. These babies will go to people who will love them and give them good homes.

I believe in helping the less fortunate dogs, and have been the mastermind behind some adoptions of homeless dogs, numerous times. But I still like my Dorky babies and will always have them around. They bring joy to me and to many others.

Just like I believe in recycling and buying as much as I can second hand to help lower my own carbon foot print, but that doesn’t mean I am not going to buy something brand new and shiny here and there too.

I heat with wood as much as I can, turn off lights, put on a sweater instead of turning up the heat, run as many errands as I can at once so I won’t waste gas. I do what I can to save the planet. But that doesn’t mean I won’t drive across country to take a trip or spend a day driving from garage sale to garage sale.

I guess what I am trying to say, is that I believe in being a responsible inhabitant of our planet, and I do try to do good things. But life is give and take. You cut back here and there, help out when you can, but you have to live it and splurge on the things you enjoy.

Twinkettes??

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers

By Karla Nathan / November 4, 2008

There is no place like home! It feels good to be back, so good that I have not been working on being ready for Silver Bella (countdown is one week from tomorrow till Natasha and Heather get here!).

Instead, I have played with some of the stuff I bought at the Big Flea in Virginia, and foofed up this bottle brush tree, and went to spend a long morning getting caught up with friends over coffee.

When you hear me whining about not having enough time to get ready, please remind me of the time I wasted spray painting my pumpkins and sticking jewels onto them.

Orange is not my color, and since Silver Bella is around the corner, I thought it would be fun to have silver, crowned and bejeweled pumpkins by the door next week for my dinner party in honor of my Bella guests.

Whats that fuzz ball in the front?

Thats Sparkle, I am making her hang out with me, even though she’s old and would rather be laying on a pillow thinking about what she’ll be eating next. (sounds like what I’d like to be doing, actually)

Twinkle, my normal buddy, who never leaves my side all day, is on a DATE. I left her at her boyfriend, Teddy’s house while I was out of town and I haven’t picked her up yet.

Hopefully, this is what we’ll be seeing soon, Twinkle with a bunch of little Twinkettes following her around!

Of course, only in my dreams are the puppies rhinestoned and pink….

Did you remember to vote today? I am looking forward to watching John Stewart and Stephen Cobert tonight with their top notch election coverage.

Meeting up with blog Friends at the Big Flea

antiques/junking, jewelry, Moving to DC

By Karla Nathan / November 3, 2008

This trip to Virginia sure has been a fun one! Coincidently, Valita, a friend from Silver Bella last year was going to be in the DC area too. We met up with Robin, a friend I’ve hung out with here before (and who makes the best Play Dough ever), and a new pal, Sue. A non-blog friend wrote to us and was nice enough to take some time away from shopping with her sis to meet up with us too.

We met up at the Big Flea in Chantilly, VA, and although it was more high end than I usually shop, it was fun place to meet and we all managed to find some goodies.

I’m used to paying under 50 cents for vintage greeting cards, but I saw a few that were special enough to be worth the price of 3 for $5 to me.

And of course, I always am on the hunt for old jewels. I found a few, not that there weren’t plenty there, but I limit myself to the $1 price range for old jewelry.

Robin and Sue who have shopped the Big Flea before told us that it is normally 2 buildings full instead of just one, and more bargains can be found.

These little candelabras were a great price, only 50 cents each. Can’t you picture them glittered and sparkly?

I was on the hunt for old mercury glass beads to decorate my bottle brush trees with. The price ranges from booth to booth were really something! I was happy to find three strands in colors I liked, as well as some holiday decor in pretty pastels.

If you ever get an opportunity to get together with blog pals, I highly recommend it! Every time I have met someone whose blog I read, I have had a great time, they are usually people that I have a lot in common with and feel like we are already friends before we even see each other.

I’m really looking forward to having Natasha and Heather as house guests soon. And I am hoping to host a dinner party in their honor the night before we head off to Silver Bella.

Speaking of blog friends, I have been trying to update my blog roll (on my side bar, under "Pretty Places"). I haven’t finished, but have been so busy Leaf Looking, meeting Bloggers, going to movies (Zack and Miri- Kevin Smith always goes too far, but still is funny and I think Seth Rogan is a comic genius), out to dinner, antiquing, and of course watching my shows, (there is no way I can’t spend Sunday night without Vampire Bill) that I haven’t had time to do much to the blog roll like planned.

At least I have space to list more people and promise that I will later on when I can get to it! I may be a TV junkie, but I am also an avid blog reader and my blog roll has never reflected who I actually visit, so I am revamping it as I have time.

Tonight I fly home to my fairy grandbaby, so I’d better go try to smoosh all this junk into my carry on.

PS- I have shut my Etsy shop down until after Silver Bella, it was just too neglected and empty for now. I promise a big restocking and lots of pretties added when I return! Thanks for your support of the shop, I really appreciate it, and HATE to have it looking sad and pitiful, so will open it again when it is worth looking at!!

Author name: Karla Nathan