Karla Nathan – Page 275 – Karla's Cottage

Big changes

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, fairies, jewelry, paintings

By Karla Nathan / December 5, 2007

I think I am done. I might not be, but I think I have all my hand made Christmas items listed on Etsy. I don’t even know how many I listed!

All I know, is that I took a LOT of photos and did a ton of editing and wrote and wrote and wrote descriptions.

I’m afraid most of my backgrounds are all the same, not as interesting as I usually try to make them, but this was a 3 day marathon event!!

I wanted to get all these up on the Etsy site before we went to DC tomorrow, so people could have time to shop for holiday items. Anything sold this week will go into the mail on Monday after I get back.

In between the listing today, I took time to look at apartments online.

Yep, we aren’t just going to DC to visit, we are apartment hunting! Rich has taken a new job that will have him based there, for at least a year.

I was so afraid we’d have to move!!! We are really lucky that it worked out so that we can live there part time and Kansas part time. Actually, my husband will go back and forth a lot more than I will.

How on Earth could we have sold our cottage and left Sugarwings to go live in some big city???? I would have just died to have to leave our wonderful, happy life here behind.

So it is my sweet husband who is making the sacrifice and living way out there, far from Sugarwings. And you can tell how he dotes on her from this photo, it won’t be easy for him to be away for a week or so at a time.

The new company will let him have an office at home for part of the month, and he will spend a lot of time racking up frequent flyer miles.

I think I have mentioned over and over in this blog, how lucky I am. I should spend time in casinos, I really do have a good luck streak going these last few years.

It won’t be easy to have two homes and to be apart that much, but it is a great job that he deserves and we will make it all work.

I’ll still get to have my studio so I can make all of these fun things to list on Etsy. And we’ll still be around for our kids, friends, nieces, nephews, and fairy grand baby. Oh and the garden and Dorkies!!

I’ve been promised a laptop so I can write my blog from way out East and I also plan to take along water colors so I can paint there, at the dining table.

Knowing me, I’ll probably get ten times as much work done in my Kansas studio than I do now, since he will be away so much!

People ask me how I can manage to get so much done- well, I am just really, really fast. And I don’t have a day job, this is it. I get to make pretties all the time!

Didn’t I say I was lucky???

I’ve never liked the name I chose for my blog, I should change it to "lucky me" or something like that. Of course, that could be cursing myself and about then, I’d break a leg or something.

I haven’t always been lucky. There have been major tragedies in my life, lots of ups and downs. That just makes these good times even better.

I’ve been really poor, I’ve broken my back and had years of chronic pain, I almost lost my sweet son to meth addiction and had to fight to get him back.

So, I don’t mean to sound like a Pollyanna, I honestly have many reasons to be thrilled with my life right now and to enjoy every moment to the fullest.

Sometimes you have to wrangle all the happiness you can get out of the world and hold onto it tightly.

I’ll be away until Sunday, and will come back with photos from the trip. See you then!

In the meantime, don’t forget about the party coming up on Wednesday next week. Invite all your readers and any other bloggers you think would enjoy it.

I will have drawings and prizes and will be sure to set some goodies aside for non-bloggers who leave us comments about their own holiday decor as well as other bloggers who link up for the party.

A List a mile long

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, I do tend to run on, don't I?, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / December 4, 2007

I spent as much of yesterday as I could listing on Etsy!

I got quite a few things up (at lower prices so they will disappear) until about mid-day. Then, I had a break and when I went to go back to listing more, the light was gone and I couldn’t get any more good photos.

Natural light makes such a difference in a photo. Like this one of a hand dyed vintage linen bag. Isn’t it pretty how the sun comes in the window from the left side?

I try to never use flash in my pictures of my art work or shop listings.

This bag was done with fiber reactive dyes, I have a huge set of dye colors. Before Sugarwings was born, we had a baby shower that was a tie dye party in the garden. Everyone brought something white and we dipped and dyed all after noon. She has a whole wardrobe full of tie dye clothing, which is perfect for her since her mom is a hippie chick.

Our fairy grandbaby came home from the hospital in a tie dyed ensemble.

I get the dyes out and make something every once in a while. I like to dye my t-shirts that get a coffee stain on the front so I can still wear them.

Today, I am taking all my photos first, then listing throughout the evening. Its a Sugarwings sleepover night, so I can’t say how much I’ll get done…….

My afternoon break was from some shoppers who called and asked if they could come over to look around. They verified my guess that the reason my sales were down on Sunday was because it was too crowded.

All of them said that they just couldn’t see to shop and wanted to come back and look without the crowds.

I have more people coming in the next couple of days, but I did warn them it wasn’t set up as pretty as before. Actually, the studio kind of looks like a bar the day after New Year’s Eve.

At least my house is still clean! But the baby isn’t here yet. Give it a couple of hours and it will be looking quite lived in.

Which reminds me, I walked into my house from the studio during the home tour to find someone going through my kitchen drawers!!! She was telling her husband that real people did live in the house. Well, what did she think it was?? So, I said, yep, this is MY house and she turned red and walked away. Really funny, I was laughing and thinking maybe I should have cleaned out drawers too??

After the whole thing was over, I saw that the shower curtain had been pulled back too. I guess that means, I should have cleaned the shower. Geez, who would have though that people would be peeking in places like that???? There were hosts around to keep an eye on that kind of thing.

Oh well, they got an eyeful of mess is what they got. I only cleaned what I thought was going to show!! I hope they enjoyed the view of the pile of wash rags and an empty shampoo bottle on the floor of the shower. Did I mention that there were tiny little, muddy dog foot prints on the shower floor? Twinkle loves to play in there.

These photos I am showing are of what I did get listed yesterday. Some have sold already! thanks!

All are listed at lower prices than I have had on similar items before.

This is another photo of some of Beth’s contributions to the shop.

I’m not sure how much of these she sold. I do remember ringing up the little pink angels. The weekend really was pretty non-stop crazy.

Beth and I figured out what was weird about Sunday- with all those crowds, we didn’t get our giggle and gossip time.

Usually if you aren’t selling much, you are all alone at a sale, no crowds. So we hang out and talk and usually have so much fun, we don’t care about sales. But with hordes of people walking through we never got to relax and kick back. It was just weird. But I would do it again, I enjoyed my weekend and sales weren’t bad. And I am donating $500 of the sales to the charity that sponsored the open house tour. They are a free clinic that helps people with no health insurance, and that is a great cause to me. When my son broke his elbow, they were great. He has no insurance, much like many young people his age.

Now, I need to go Christmas shop from my pile of leftovers to find presents for my blog giveaways and for my family.

The rest I need to photograph before we go out of town, we have a trip to DC coming up this week.

So, I’m off to shop in my own studio, then list more things before the baby comes to play. Nothing gets done while she is here, except some tickling, hide and seek, and made up stories about fairies in the woods.

When she is older, I will write some down and illustrate them for her, so she will have books of her adventures in the forest as a fairy with sugar pink wings.

What do you do with the leftovers?????????

Etsy Goodies, fairies, holiday decor, parties

By Karla Nathan / December 2, 2007

Beth and I survived the sale! It was up and down and surprisingly we didn’t do very well during the day of the open house. Hundreds of people came through and all had nice things to say, but I think it was just too crowded and congested for shopping.(Here is a table full that Beth brought)

We had a lot of inventory, hand made or vintage.

And although, sales weren’t THAT bad, there sure seems to be a lot left over!!

See how cute this stuff that Beth made is? Why is it still here?

And I still have a treeful of ballerina fairies.

We had our theories on why the sales were so up and down. Friday was great. All of our regulars from the mailing list came. They always show up when we open and want to be first in line!

Saturday, the weather was terrible, plus there were so many activities going on around town.

On Sunday, the home tour was for 4 hours, with 7 homes to see and people were rushed. The ones who did stay and linger, bought some things. I ended up selling furniture on Sunday and my husband was sweet enough to load it up in one of the trucks from his collection (we have 3 for some reason) and follow the lady home to deliver a dresser.

I should have taken a photo of the packed room, and you’d see what I mean about it being too crowded to shop. We sold a lot during lulls when the room was bearable, but when hordes came through, we simply passed out treats and chatted as they filed through. who would have ever thought that having too many people at your sale was a bad thing?? A lot of women were asking what my hours were so they could come back again when they could shop more comfortably. But I doubt I I’ll be doing this again for a few months.

I’ll be listing a BUNCH of stuff on my Etsy shop tomorrow and at bargain prices too!

I can’t say the day wasn’t a success. People were so kind about my home and had so many nice things to say. And I got my house cleaned up! Every room all at the same time. Of course, it won’t be that way tomorrow……

I had people asking if they could hire me as a decorator. That was flattering.

Of course, all my stuff is from a garage sale or a dumpster or a flea market, I called it the recycled house. I take things no one else cares about and make them into something pretty.

My husband’s office was open for show today too. I didn’t decorate much up there, just some berry vines on the lights and above the windows.

And to me, this is one of the prettiest things I saw today, my little boy, Ryan.

I took tons of photos and will show more later if you are interested.

Plenty of blog-fodder for the "what do you love about your Holiday Home" party on the 12th!

And don’t forget about our monthly drawing!

I’m a couple days late, but things have been crazy around here. I picked a name from the comments left this month and it is:

Joy

What a fitting name to draw for a holiday prize!!

Joy, please send me your address and I’ll send a giftie to you up there in Canada.

All comments left are eligible for the drawing each month. Thanks to everyone who comes by to visit, I enjoy hearing from you all.

Oh, here are a few more wonderful things Beth brought, and she did sell out with these, I think. And what a cool display she brought for me to hang them on.

I think she’ll be listing some leftovers on Etsy too.

You know, the sale really was fine, and the home tour was fun, I didn’t mean to complain. I am simply so PROLIFIC in what I produce, that sometimes I feel like I am drowning in stuff. I still have a studio full after the sale. But there was just so durn much to start with!!

I was giving stuff to friends who came by after the event to drink a glass of wine and tell me about the other homes they saw on the tour. My last few shoppers were getting extras thrown into their bags for free too. I just wanted it GONE at that point. I am ready to move on and make more stuff, not just keep staring at the stuff I made last week.

I have an idea! Another giveaway. For my Party on the 12th, I will have special prizes. All comments that day will go into a drawing and I’ll use you guys to dump my excess inventory on- ( I mean, I will give gifts to readers and participants that day)

Ready * Set * GO!

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, fairies, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / November 29, 2007

I’m DONE! I’m ready for my sale!!!

I even had time today to cover this cash box in old wallpaper and foof up the keys to it.

I had bought it at a garage sale this summer for $2, and it was a plain, industrial grey color. A little bit of vintage papers, some glue, ribbon, a charm and some old pearl buttons, and I am ready to make change in style tomorrow!

I also made a few more teacup posie arrangements.

Pretty teacups that were slightly chippy got a makeover with oasis glued to the inside, then covering them with moss or shredded papers and gluing in some pretties. I used a variety of goodies inside of them, tiny Christmas balls in silver, millinery flowers, and glittered birds. After putting them in place, I drenched them in white glue and did another light fairy dusting of glitter over the top.

Price tags are done, stuff is arranged. This cabinet is all whites.

I have more than one area done in reds and greens. There are plenty of traditionalists who want the old fashioned Christmas colors. I love them myself, and have fun setting up the displays, but have gone with more pastels and neutrals in my house this year for holiday decor.

The pink poinsettias are my favorite, I love the rich deep pink ones, that are almost the color of an azalea. (by the way- if you think your house isn’t ready to photograph for our "What do you LOVE about your Holiday Home" party on Dec. 12th, here is a good example. There are dirty dishes in this sink, but the angle I took the photo hides them. And the mess on the counter top, just got pushed aside for the picture. Your house doesn’t have to be perfect to show us some pretties in it for the party!!) But I should replace that light bulb before the open house.

Or you can just zoooooom in.

The grocery store had $1.99 roses again this week and I bought 3 dozen (all they had) for my open house.

I also buy pink and white poinsettias ($3 a pot at Wal-Mart) and use them as cut flowers instead of potted.

Yes, these are sitting on the back of my toilet. Is that tacky? Should toilets just be left alone??

I was able to take the 3 dozen roses and 2 poinsettia plants and spread flowers all throughout my home.

Most of the roses were still buds, so I am gambling they’ll still look good by Sunday. I had to arrange all the flowers on Wed. since I’ll be tied up with my sale the next few days.

Actually, I don’t arrange them much. I just plop them into vases. More cottagey than a true arrangement.

Oh-oh, I see some price tags coming lose. I hope I don’t run into many of those situations in the studio for the sale.

Its too bad the price tags have to be so visible, they don’t make a pretty photo. But I like them to be right in your face for shoppers, easy for them to see. Don’t you HATE having to wait for someone to get a key to open a case and flip something over so you can see the price???? Why do people hide their prices so often????

Remember the clearance stockings I bought earlier? I got them all foofed up with glitter, buttons and old jewelry and will be hoping to sell them for $15 each. Seems like a good price for them, I hope the shoppers agree.

I put $18 on my little ballerina fairy under glass.

Can you see why it has taken me so long to pull this together? I hope the care that went into it shows.

Right now I am off to bed. Well, that is after I watch Survivor. Wish Beth and I luck tomorrow!!

Favorite Things

hand painted signs, holiday decor, paintings, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 28, 2007

I am making headway! Things are coming together for my sale. I even had time to embellish another photo album. This is covered in a great, old wallpaper, ruffles of sheet music and an handpainted oval of anaglyta wallpaper that I did for it.

None of these items are newly done, but I have them hung and priced! That feels like an accomplishment right there.

I had painted the wreath onto my closet door and decorate it for the seasons. Right now, it just is sporting clearance junk I want to get rid of, nothing too special.

I had painted these two bright little pictures and the flower polka frames for an article I wrote, and they really aren’t my style. But the story was about using a round sponge brush to paint the flowers on the frame and I was told to use BRIGHT colors.

These are more my style. I painted all of these last night.

And all of these- too. The ones on the floor still need hooks and wire on the backs. That is the time consuming part. I can paint like a fiend, it is the grunt work that gets me.

Ready for a parade of signs?

Sugarwings stayed all night, so I had to do get these done after she went to bed.

I snuck out to the studio to paint while her Pop Pop was playing with her for a bit, then went in to take my shift of chasing her energetic little body around the house.

Can you see what happened to her clothes when I gave her a hug?? She’d better get used to it. Everyone around me ends up getting smeared with paint sooner or later!

Back to work. Sorry about the photo quality. did I mention I am in a rush to get ready? You can tell by the reflection in that mirror that my studio is a bit of a mess and not finished yet.

Plus there are a few more things that could use a sparkling of Fairy Dust glitter on them yet. I’m sure little Sugarwings will go home with a few sparkles on her to match the paint.

Tiny Dancers and Globs of Glitter

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 26, 2007

Do you ever have days when you are trying to meet a deadline, have tons to do, but get easily sidetracked anyway?

I have an open house as part the local Holiday Home Tour and a 3 day sale in my studio this weekend. There are so many things I need to be doing for it.

But what do I do instead? Give the dogs haircuts and baths.

And go to Goodwill. Where I found this vintage jewelry box!! For 49 cents!! It plays "When you Wish Upon a Star" and the ballerina twirls. I need to cover the exterior in vintage wallpaper. Of course.

There has been some work getting done- I’m still painting ornaments and charms. Although, yesterday I took a movie break and went to see "The Mist". I have always been a huge Stephen King fan, but more of his earlier work than later.

Last night after the movie, I painted about a dozen charms.

Including some especially for Kansans- Jayhawks and Sunflowers.

I have no idea how many hours I have spent making price tags. They seem to have taken over my life. I know that on Thanksgiving Day, I put in 9 hours of tagging!

I looked around and think I am about 95% done with pricing. So, I have today and tomorrow to make more things (and more price tags for them too, I guess).

I made this up real quick this morning, it was a glittered bucket with ugly stuff on it, that I pulled off and exchanged for flocked wallpaper (that I bought from Dede during vendor night at Silver Bella) and a German die cut cherub, some old trim, and a bit of vintage velvet ribbon.

I painted this little fairy ornament last night too. She still needs a dollop of glitter on her.

These ornaments from yesterday could use a shake or two from the glitter jar too. I think that the poly top coat and sparkly glitter just makes them look finished.

Of course, I think everything looks better with glitter.

I won an giveaway this summer from Michelle and she had made this darling little blue bird for me. She told me it was OK to glitter it up, I think she knew in advance that the poor little bird couldn’t escape my glitter shaker!

This little ballerina fairy has been sparkled too. She is standing in a shallow dish, that I have no idea what it could have been meant for, it is an odd shape. The dome was 49 cents at the Goodwill.

She is wearing butterfly wings and crystals, and is perched on an old bulb from a string of Xmas lights. That wasn’t easy to do.

I glued a nest of shredded paper to the bottom of the dish, then added tiny, vintage glass Christmas balls onto the nest, making sure to attach them to the glass below so they would be secure.

Then, I turned the light bulb so that it pointed upwards, and glued the base to the glass and the tiny dancer to the tip.

I think she has a little bit of acrobat in her too. She did a great job of hanging in there while I held her in place while waiting for the glue to dry.

I stuffed a lot of ribbon and velvet millinery posies around the base of it all and globbed a lot more glue on it. It seems to have dried solid as a rock and very stable, but you should have seen my gluey fingers and all the shredded paper and glitter stuck to them while doing this. She kept slipping and sliding down and I didn’t think I’d ever get it all to stay in place.

Did I mention I had a million things to do for my sale? So, add blogging about glitter and price tags to giving the dogs a hair cut and shopping at Goodwill to avoid working.

I’d better get on with it.

Don’t forget, you can still do some shopping from the previous two posts (as well as the ornaments in this post). Just email if you are interested.

And every comment you leave is an entry into my drawing for the November giveaway. the prize will probably be something glittered.

A FEW MINUTES LATER:

I added glitter to these balls, better, huh?

Swept away by shades of pink!

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, paintings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / November 24, 2007

Thanks to everyone who came by yesterday and shopped or visited.

And thanks to Phyllis for hosting the craft fair. Easiest one I have ever done! No packing or hauling or setting up.

Friday’s craft fair items will be available for sale till Thursday the 29th. On Friday my studio sale starts and I will include what ever is left in that. The snowman and the top left ornament are sold

Here are the ornaments that remain from what I got painted yesterday. If you are interested, or need to see a closer picture, just leave a comment or email me. They are $10 (normally $15) each plus $5 shipping for the first, free shipping on all others, or on any included items, just not the albums. (The albums are too heavy to pack in the same box with the fragile balls)

Anything in my Etsy Shop can be combined with the shipping of the craft fair items too.

I didn’t go out in the crazy shopping frenzy the day after Thanksgiving, but I did go the day before to get new shower curtains so the bathroom would be all spruced up for my open house.

I had the floral curtains already, but a plain white shower curtain was under them. I bought a Simply Shabby Chic set of soft white cotton panels at Target and hung them instead. I even took down my clear plastic curtain that was underneath and gave it a good washing in hot water and bleach so I can see through it again. We have such hard water that those things cloud up fast.

I had to replace the curtain for the other bathroom too. I’d painted the ceiling in lavender and pink, and dripped onto the plain white curtain that had been hanging there.

Why don’t I know better? I should have taken it down first, but I get impatient and just want to start painting.

This faux finish is one of my favorites. I did it a while ago and am not tired of it yet. It started as a lilac ceiling and aqua walls. I blended in other pastel colors over these two and made gradual changes in the color as I went down from the ceiling to the floor.

It transitions from the purple to a green, with lots of blues and pinks in the middle.

That watercolor on top of the cabinet is one I did of Dahlia, my first Dorkie. She was such a lively dog, we still miss her. She was a great mom too and always had 7 puppies at a time. That is sure not typical for Yorkshire Terriers.

She was stolen from our yard, and was pregnant at the time. I felt like I’d had 8 dogs taken instead of one.

On a happier note- look what else I found—- A PINK vacuum cleaner!!!

It was only $18 too. Will it be any good? I don’t know, but it’s pink!

Craft Sale day, get out your list for Santa!

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, jewelry, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 23, 2007

Phyllis is hosting an online craft fair today!

Here is my plan for the day:

I’m going to show a few photos of ornaments to start with and all are $10 each, a special price for Phyllis’s craft fair.( Plus shipping. )

Shipping for ornaments will be $5 for the first item, all others free.

I will be painting ornaments all day and will add them to this post as I finish them, or you can email special requests from me. check back later today for more to see!

All the ornaments can be personalized for free. Names and dates can be painted onto to the ball for you. Free personalization and custom order offer is good only Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th.

Sale prices and shipping specials are good all week

ROSE BUSH IN TERRA COTTA POT AND SNOWMAN SOLD

I make all of my earrings from vintage beads and findings.

The French hooks are always either sterling or 14ktgf.

For today, all these sparklies are SALE priced at $10 a pair, Shipping will be $3 or free with other purchases. GREEN EARRINGS TO THE RIGHT, BLUE EARRINGS SOLD

This vintage wallpaper star features old sheet music (a Christmas carol in green ink!) and an old millinery flower. (4 1/2 x 4")

$5 plus $2 shipping if alone (free shipping if included with another purchase) STAR SOLD

These sweet little peat pots are filled with glittered up vintage figures and millinery flowers and hung with old trim, then embellished with old buttons.

$4 each

plus $5 shipping (free shipping with other purchases)

6 PEAT POTS SOLD, BUT I HAVE a few more MORE email me if you are interested.

Also for sale today-

Any of the albums from this post: http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2007/11/twinkly-sparkly.html If you’d like to see more photos close up, please just ask.

These are prepurchased albums, that are made with really pretty papers inside. I have embellished them with vintagey goodness and lots of old wallpaper!THE PINK AND YELLOW ROSES ALBUM BEHIND THE BABY ONE IS SOLD

$35 each, plus shipping of $9

(I’m sorry, they can’t be shipped with the hand painted glass balls or the peat pot pretties, but anything else you purchase can be added to the box at no charge.

Hand painted charms with vintage beads are available today also.

$15 each, with $3 shipping

These can be shipped free with other purchases

BLUE BIRD SOLD

Thanks for shopping with me today, and make sure you check out the other locations that Phyllis will have listed. My friend, Beth, has some great stuff to check out too.

We all appreciate you buying HANDMADE!!

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday, like I did. We had a wonderful family day, and I didn’t have to cook it!! I made fudge (my specialty) and noodles, then brought the wine and pop. How easy is that????? A first for me, and I could easily make it a habit.

Aren’t Sugarwings and her Hippie Chick mom some of the prettiest things you’ve ever seen? My son is a lucky man to have them as his family. I’m thankful he has added them to our family.

OK, I am off to go paint ornaments. I’ll add some soon. This will be a loooong post.You’re used to that from me!

(Don’t forget about the party on the 12th.)

LATER: I have been painting a few ornaments in my breaks from making price tags for my upcoming sale here in the studio. Here are the newest, still wet ornaments.

Well, not the prettiest display to show them on, is it?

Upside down egg cartons work well for a drying rack .

I just painted 3 balls with butterflies and 7 mini ones with a tiny rose.

The small ones are only $5 each, but I’m afraid the same shipping applies.

But remember, the shipping is discounted with mulitple orders!

I’m off to paint more and will add them when they are done.

MORE!

Here are a few more ornaments. 3 rose topiaries and one rose bouquet.

What am I working on now? Cupcakes! But they are still wet and arent’ glittered yet.

UPDATE:

I’ve had a nice day. Made some pasta, watched some Tivo (30 Rock and House, not a bad way to spend an hour) and then painted a few more balls.

I’ve had some special orders to fill, which I enjoy, and got a few ornies painted for my gift shop this week.

All of these will be available until my gift shop opens on Friday. If you see one you need, let me know. I can do special orders on Saturday too, but after that, I won’t have time till my sale and open house are over.

Thanks, Phyllis, this was fun!

Twinkly, Sparkly Gifts and LOTS to be thankful for

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, how to's, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 21, 2007

Its not even Thanksgiving yet, and I am getting Christmas presents!

Earlier, a reader, Kathryn, played secret Santa and sent a box chocked full of goodness.

Now, my "brother from another mother" Barbara (we have the same birthday, plus a lot of other similarities) has sent these sweet silvery snowflakes to me.

With my dorkies’ names on them!!

I thought maybe they’d make great dog tags, but Twinkle didn’t agree and wouldn’t pose. Sparkle will do anything if I tell her she looks pretty. (a girl can get into trouble leading her life that way)

Thanks, Barb!!!

Another ‘kind of’ gift was some cards from Amy who through in a few extras with my order.

I can never get enough vintage cards.

The card addiction isn’t as strong as the wallpaper one, though. I’ve been battling the urge to buy more wallpaper, I wonder if there is a 12 step program for that?

But, I can rationalize my purchases of vintage paper, since I really do use it, and lots of it.

I covered these photo albums with some the other night.

I took new albums made with handmade papers, (on clearance from Tuesday Morning) and embellished the fronts of 8 of them.

At first, I was covering the backs too.

And inside the front covers.

Then, about midnight, when I did these two, I started only adding a tag to the inside cover.

And then, only a bow and some vintage posies.

But then, by 2am, they were only getting the fronts decorated!

They were made with such lovely papers to start with, that I think this is enough, my additions to these two were pretty ornate anyway. Or am I simply justifying my decision to go to bed instead of doing more to them??

These are laying on my faux brick floor in the studio. I painted the bricks with a kitchen sponge, torn to a brick shape (always tear sponges you paint with, it makes a more attractive edge).

I covered this table top with vintage wallpaper too.

It had bad veneer, cracking and peeling up. This isn’t a perfect fix, but makes it usable. After the glue dried, I put a coat of water based poly over it, so it should be durable.

I also sprayed all of the fronts and backs of the photo albums with poly to protect them. Of course, I did it AFTER I had added rhinestones and flowers, so had to cover those up. I’d say if you were doing this, spray BEFORE you doodad them up.

I will have these albums available for sale on Friday during Phyllis’ online craft sale.

I plan on working on some projects throughout the day and adding the pictures as I finish pieces. I’ll have special prices that day for people who want to shop at home for handmade pretties instead of fighting the crowds at the mall!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I know what I am thankful for.

I’m lucky enough to have great blessings in my life, and lots of love.

Life hasn’t been easy, getting to this point.But the struggles were all worth it.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Stairway to Heaven

Etsy Goodies, hand painted signs, how to's, parties

By Karla Nathan / November 19, 2007

Natasha is throwing a prom! I guess it is Spring in Australia, and the weather here today was downright Springy too, about 74!! A perfect evening for a magical night at the prom.

I thought I’d start with proms through out my life.

Here is my sister, Bobbie Sue, posing before she leaves for her prom.

That’s me, Karkie Jo Downey, the one missing a shoe. Next to my sister, is my god-mother, Bootie, the sweetest woman on the planet.

My mother made all of the clothes for us girls. I remember thinking that Bobbie’s dress was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

And it doesn’t look like I have changed much over the years, at least in attitude.

That is my mom behind me, does it look like I wear her out? Poor woman.

For some reason, we seemed to think it was more scenic outdoors for the pictures. Oh, yes, the outside of a trailer park is always such a pretty place!

That is my 1st car next to me, a 1963 Chevy Impala.

My mother made this dress too. I wanted something other than the pastels and frothy things everyone else was wearing that year. I drew what I wanted and she made it from the sketch.

Maybe she should have told me it was a bit naked for my age? Everyone else at the prom that night was ruffly and I was slinky.

She made a little lace jacket for the dress, so that covered me up a bit! But the lace emblem on the front of the halter? That was peek-a-boo, the satin was cut out and the lace was over the hole.

But hey, when you are trailer trash and are going to Ride the Stairway to Heaven (everyone’s prom theme that year) with the cutest boy in the school, you need to be a little sleazy, huh?

Didn’t work. He was voted Prom King, and he spent most of the evening dancing with the little blond cheerleader who was voted Queen. My heart was broken. (Did I mention that he drove a green MG convertable and his eyes were the same color as the car?????)

While I was looking through old photos to find the prom pics, I noticed one thing about myself. I have always loved roses! This dress that I wore for my senior picture is something I would wear today! (well if I still had a waist, that is). And both prom dresses had a little lace rose on the front.

I recently bought this pink dream of a dress, and have it as part of my set up for the upcoming sale in my studio.

If I don’t sell it, I think it will go into Sugarwings dress up clothes for tea parties with Grandmama Karkie. I used to love wearing my sister’s old prom dresses when I was little. I think my fairy grand baby will have a good time with the dress up clothes I am accumulating for her.

Thanks for the prom party, Natasha! It was fun taking a stroll up the memory lane stairway to heaven.

In honor of the prom party, I listed this ball gown on Etsy today.

I worked outside a while today too.

With the weather in the 70s, I couldn’t stay indoors, even though I have a ton to do before my open house and sale.

I cut branches from some fir and pine trees in the woods and wired them to this arch and over the front door of the house. When I was done, I was a bit like Chevy Chase in one of my all time favorite movies, Christmas Vacation, sap sticking to my fingers, and, then me sticking to everything I touched.

Then, I spray painted this sled white and set it out on the porch to sell at the open house. I hope to get more signs painted and use this as a display for them. I will also just pound nails into the siding and hang them all over the house.

Did I mention that I used to be trailer trash? I think I might still have that in me, a bit!

To fill an old basket, I decided to sparkle up some dried hydrangeas.

It was easy to do, (well, except for the wind blowing them. I had to hold on while spraying, but I was already sticky from the sap anyway)

First, I sprayed the blooms with clear poly, and sprinkled on glitter, then sprayed again to keep it in place.

Speaking of the open house, I need to get back to work on it. And don’t forget the Blog party on the 12th- "What do you LOVE about your Holiday Home?"

And don’t forget Phyllis’s craft fair next week too. I plan on making things all day and showing them on the blog as I finish and offering them for sale.

Have fun checking out the proms!

Author name: Karla Nathan