Karla Nathan – Page 283 – Karla's Cottage

Surprises

Etsy Goodies, fairies, flowers, give away, how to's, paintings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 6, 2007

It was hot here in Kansas this weekend. So hot that no one wanted to go out on the boat. We did go to the lake in the evenings, but I spent the daytime in the studio working on some paintings.

While I had paints out, I did a background for an ATCard that

Debra posted a picture to use, as a challenge. I snipped out the angel she posted, glittered it up, added silver paint pen, drew curls in the hair, then added crystals and a vintage posey to my painted background. The angel is on her site if you’d like to do your own.

I got a bit carried away on the wallpaper medallions again! I really enjoy painting those little ovals, and this time I was in fairy mode.

I dooded up some of the borders of the medallions too.

Others, I left simple, but all of them got glittered. (of course)

While I was at it, I did a few more cupcakes with more glitter (of course).

Oh and a few more pink roses. (of course)

And one little ballerina that I added to a large shipping tag with vintage wallpaper, pink tulle, crystals and some posies from old jewelry.

I will list them on myEtsy Shop if you are interested, but it might not be today, so if you want one, feel free to email me. The medallions are $5 for each section, and the ballerina tag is $9.

I will give the angel ATC to the first purchase of two items or more!

My sweet husband did the sweetest thing. He was mowing in the 100 degree heat, and came in to tell me that there was a flower along the mower’s path and wondered if it should be saved. (he didn’t know if it was a weed, or whatever, he doesn’t understand flowers, but cared enough to ask)

I didn’t realize the surprise lilies were up yet, I guess that is why they are called surprise lilies, they come out of nowhere over night!

I’ve heard them called naked ladies too, because of the bare stem. I thought about titling my post "my husband and the naked lady" but thought I’d get all the WRONG hits on it today.

The painting of the house my dad grew up in is finished and I am off to make copies of it for the family reunion.

First I wanted to tell you that I decided what to do for my August give away!!

I will give the winner a choice- if you are an artist and want a Cottage Collage Kit filled with vintage goodness, I’ll send that. If you are not and don’t want the kit, I will make something for you from one of my kits!!! Hows that?

Leave a message to enter, as often as you’d like. I do love me some comments!

Cottage Collage Kits and a Little B&E

antiques/junking, family, give away, paintings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 4, 2007

Today, I packaged up my July giveaway, the Cottage Collage Kit, and got it in the mail to the winner, Carol.

I gave the pack a summery, bright colored theme and lots of vintagey goodness.

*Some of the anaglyptic wallpaper that I glazed

*A piece of the wall paper that I painted roses on

*BUTTONS

*An old postcard

*This cute old plastic rose, that actually has a hair clip attached

*Old photos from my latest garage sale haul

*Polka dotted netting from an old hat

*A snippet of red vintage wall paper that Beth gave to me

(by the way, Beth told me how to use LINKS, instead of adding the entire address! I look SO much more professional now, don’t I?)

*I also included copies of some of my paintings, like the fairy in th teacup, roses, and a few others

*Old yellow ribbon and a big white buckle

*Red and white earrings

*A copy of a sweet little French post card

*And a bunch more.

I had a great time putting the pack together, hope it is something Carol can use!

Don’t forget that I will be having an August Giveaway too. Leave a comment and I’ll enter you. So far, I have buttons, and old photos in it, but there will be more, I need to come up with a theme for it, and when I do, I’ll let you know.

Today I painted this watercolor of lilacs, then one of the home my dad grew up in. It is 90% done, but needs some tweaking.

I don’t know why I don’t do more watercolors, they are so enjoyable to do. This lilac one is a bit different for me, I also used sepia colored ink on it.

I will finish the old homestead painting tomorrow so I can make copies of it to take to my family reunion next week and pass out to any cousins or aunts and uncles who want one. Here is a photo of the house my grandparents raised 7 kids in, it was torn down this summer. I’m lucky that I was able to go and visit and get photos a couple of years ago.

I also broke in through a window (it has been vacant for a long time) and took a look around. I took an old light fixture that was broken and laying on the floor in some trash as a souvenir to fix up and re-wire. My Dad was horrified and was sure the sheriff was on his way, and told him no one would miss it, but it meant a lot to me to have a little piece of the house he grew up in.

As we took off in our get-away car, he told me that the house didn’t have electricity while they lived in it! So much for my little piece of his child hood, that light hadn’t been a part of the house when he was child!

(Yes in my tradition of posting really bad photos of myself, here is one of me breaking and entering)

Eight Random Thoughts with a side of Garden Sauce

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, family, Food and Drink, give away, I've been tagged, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 4, 2007

Bethany at http://bethanyjanehissong.blogspot.com/, tagged me to write 8 random things about myself. A while back, I did the "7 weird things" list, I guess this one is different. So- here goes, 8 off the top of my head things.

First, here is the sketch that Bethany did of Twinkle!! How wonderful, she has some really good sketches on her site, she can certainly capture the personality of her subject. Go take a look!!

Which brings me to #1- I don’t sketch. I wish I did, I love to see pencil drawings. I just don’t do it.

Here is a painting I did today of Sasha, my cousin’s Dorkie who passed away this year.

I kind of draw it out before painting, but not in too much detail. When I do a mural, I don’t draw on the wall first, I just walk up to the wall and start painting.

#2- I am never sure of blog etiquette. I probably should have asked Bethany before I showed her drawing. I hope she knows I posted it in awe and enjoyment of her work and that I wanted everyone to see it and go to her site, that I wasn’t trying to steal it.

#3- I don’t use recipes, I wing it when I cook.

I make things up as I go along, but here is a summary of my garden sauce if you want to make some:

saute an onion, garlic, some banana and green peppers from the garden patch in olive oil, then throw them into the crock pot on low

chop up tomatoes and throw them into the crock pot until it is full

add fresh basil, thyme, and what ever other herbs you have grown that taste Italian-ey, with salt and pepper, some raw sugar and red wine

cook on low for 24 hours or so, bag and freeze. Drink some wine.

Make sure the zipper on the bag is closed tight, or you have to take everything out of the freezer and clean out the shelves.

#4- My niece’s son, Conner, is a ribbon winner in goat raising!

Oh no, I just realized while looking at this photo that the sheep I showed to Sugarwings at the fair yesterday, were not sheep, they were goats. oops

#5- Sugarwings and I spent more time sitting on the floor at the hog barn, yelling into the giant fan than we did walking around the fair. She liked the way the fan warped our voices, so we did a lot of hollering at it.

#6- I love cement people. This one lives in front of my studio, and is wearing some of my garage sale finds from today.

#7- I am really loving wrapping up the packages of stuff I sell on Etsy!

I am not usually a fancy gift wrapper. One year at Christmas, I only used one gift bag for everyone. I stacked up presents in a pile for each person, and kept them in the back room. For every gift, I played "Santa" and went back to the room with the same bag over and over and slipped a gift into it. Our family always opens one gift at a time, so it worked out well.

#8- my fairy grand baby can say everyone’s name but mine. My son says that it is because I am not consistent in trying to teach her what to say.

I tried to go by "Grandmama Karkie" (my family calls me Karkie) but it sounded like ‘grandma McArkie’- so I just went with "Grandmama", but no one in Kansas says it with the right syllable emphasized, and it sounded very country, not elegant. (and I am not exactly elegant anyway)

So, now I am going for Grammy Karkie. Or maybe I’ll see what she comes up with.

I am going to tag: well, Beth, of course! http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ (check out her estate sale finds from yesterday, wow!)

and Amy http://www.myspace.com/primitivezen ,

who kindly sent me this mail art.

Don’t forget to enter the drawing for my August give away! All you have to do is leave a comment and you are entered. I’m not sure what it will be yet, but I can assure you that there will be a photo from this group of 75 I got at a garage sale this morning for only $5 for the whole box!

And BUTTONS! There will be some buttons!!

More Corners of the Cottage Garden and an abundance of BUTTONS

antiques/junking, Books, Etsy Goodies, flowers, give away, hand painted signs, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 3, 2007

The Cottage Yard Tour: part two

I thought I’d show a few more photos of my yard and the exterior of the cottage. This is the back door to my studio, I painted this sign to set out when I had my studio set up as an antique shop once a month. Because of the horrid road construction, I had to stop having my sales, but I liked the sign and keep it by the back door. It is painted on a board I salvaged from the barn we had to take down. I wish I could paint my whole house that pretty blushy pink color!

I bought a stack of these ornate iron pieces at Hobby Lobby’s 90% off garden clearance a few years ago. They make great hose guards, and add interest around the beds. This one is in a raised bed guarding the thyme.

I built all the shutters on the house myself, out of boards I salvaged from an old garage we tore down. I’m also big on hanging "wall art" on the outside of the house, like this round iron piece from an old cook stove.

This large terra cotta piece hangs on the back of the house. It has been up there for about 16 years now and is starting to get a patina on it.

A tiny convex mirror in an ornate frame hangs on the outside of the patio fence.

On the inside of the fence, I hung this ceramic fruit basket over the bench.

I like to tuck little odds and ends into flower pots. This one has an angel made from a table leg (garage sale 75 cents) and an onyx ball nestled into the plants.

A friend of mine makes hand blown glass Christmas ornaments, and I buy a lot of irregulars from him at a very reasonable price. I use them all around the yard in planters.

My bird bath is made out of stacked stones around a metal base. The pots next to it are new and I don’t have them planted yet. I am going on vacation for a few days, so will wait till I get home, so I’ll be able to baby the new plants.

And here is Kitty Boy, the barn cat. But we no longer have a barn, he was heartbroken when we tore it down. I keep a velvet chair in the chicken coop for him to cozy up on now.

And of course, around here NOTHING goes to waste. The barn wood was all saved, we used as much as we could to panel my husband’s office.

I built this bathroom vanity in my husband’s office myself! The frame of it, under the siding looks pretty crooked, but it doesn’t show. I cut the Formica top pretty crooked too, but I covered it with barn wood trim and it doesn’t even show.

This is a painting i did of our yard the year we bought the place. The old barn sat where my garden is now. We left the foundation and put the garden right inside it. Over 100 years of manure and compost make the best tomatoes!!

The other barn painting in Rich’s office is of his grandfather’s barn. I am much more comfortable with a paint brush than I was with the nail gun and power saw while building the vanity!

People ask how my husband can live in my rose strewn home with all the pink everywhere, but he has this man-cave of an office with the barn siding, pool table and gym equipment, so he is pretty happy up there.

I also believe in lots of sitting areas in the yard. I keep chairs and benches everywhere. They used to be for show, but the older I get the more I sit and rest while working in the yard!

Speaking of sitting, I spent the better part of the evening sitting and sorting all these buttons I bought today. Some went into this pretty jar I got from Phyllis at http://shabbyinthecity.blogspot.com/. Others are sorted by color into small lidded dishes.

Why on earth does anyone buy so many buttons that it takes an evening to get just half of the sorted? Who knows?? They were a bargain, and pretty, and I just know I’ll use them for something! I’ll add some to my Cottage Collage Kits for Etsy too.

And why did I buy more old books, a stack of postcards and some jewelry? Well, I paid very little for them and am SURE that I will use them for something pretty, sometime!!!

Look at the colors of these cards, and see the art palette and roses on the one on the top? Had to have it, it was only 50 cents! And look at the font on the sheet music, so delicate. That will make a gorgeous background to some project, and also was under a dollar for the book of music.

I got the sweetest, unexpected mail too. A thank you card from Benny who is 3. I took him for a boat ride on Sunday and he drew a fish for me as a thanks for the trip.

Then, I got a post card from Carole of http://scoundrelsandrogues.blogspot.com/ from her Hawaiian vacation! And if that wasn’t enough kindness in the mail, I got mail art stuffed with goodies from Karen at http://bluemuf.blogspot.com/.

Every one was so nice, it just reminds me that I need to come up with a giveaway for August! Stay tuned, I’ll think of something nice and am open to suggestions. Leave a comment to enter, there will be some sort of prize at the end of the month!

Now, I need to get back to my simmering tomato sauce. I am cooking sauce to freeze. I’m making it from the garden produce. Lots of fresh herbs, tomatoes, peppers and onions, straight from my backyard!

Construciton woes

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers

By Karla Nathan / August 1, 2007

The road in front of our house has been torn up for about 14 months now.

Actually, it looks much better now than it did. For a while, we had a construction trailer and a porta potty at the end of our drive.

Our yappy little dorkies think it is wonderful to have all these guys out in front of the house to bark at. These workers also like to leave their fast food trash laying out, so that a trip up the hill with me to our relocated mail box, means a snack bonanza for the dogs.

Here is the view from the foot of my driveway. My blog buddy, Carlene, http://carlenefederer.blogspot.com/ , was showing the ocean view from her vacation condo, and it got me thinking about my own views.

My views really are improving, although it is hard to tell from these pictures. It has been nasty for the longest time. But we are down to one crew only right now! We did have the county working on the bridge, TMobile putting up a tower, and the city working across the street.

The tower is done and really isn’t as bad we thought it might be from up close. Living through the construction was the hardest part.

I think the view for the neighbors is much worse that it is for us, we don’t even see it, only the fence at the base, the top is way up over the trees. Yes, I know it is ugly, but the checks that come every month pay our mortgage!! Yes,I know it is ugly, but when the mortgage is paid off, the monthly checks will help fund our retirement. I try to see dollar signs when I look at it, instead of shiny metal towering over me.

But after a year of this road torn up and the front of the yard gutted, I have gotten pretty good at ignoring ugliness.

I try to look at how lush our garden is this year and how big the tomatoes are.

And at how pretty the wisteria is and how well it is growing.

Here is a side view of the cottage.

I just have to ignore that it is August in Kansas and unless I want to water the lawn and gardens every day and get nothing else done, I’ll just have to live with some wilty plants and some brown grass. I try to notice how nice the gazebo looks and I concentrate on watering th plants hanging in it. There is only so much one person can do to keep things up in a big yard.

This is the back of our house, as seen from my garden. Yep, I know there are weeds growing in the gravel of the driveway.

But look at how big my forsythia has grown and at all the firewood we have cut and ready for winter!

Another casualty of mid-summer in Kansas, the poor flower beds around my chicken coop are a bit sad and run down. But the greenery and vines are doing great, and I give the flowers enough water to keep them alive to start flourishing again when the summer cools down into fall.

I’ve planted enough hardy native ground covers so that it doesn’t look too bad when I don’t have time to tend to it all. And I try to use vintage finds from garage sales to liven up areas, like this old suitcase I painted white, and filled with dirt to plant in.

And I’d rather think of the peeling paint on this gate in the front of the house as rustic, instead of an eyesore. Eventually, I’ll get out there with the paint brush to spruce it up, but maybe not this season.

Behind the chicken coop, the rose of Sharon is blooming and brightens the area up, even though the aqua paint on the door has a peeling problem too. I found the awning along the road in the trash, brought it home and hung it on the coop.

And thank goodness for old fashioned creeping myrtle! It stays green and happy, all year, making this path way on the side of the house welcoming even on the hottest days. I don’t even bring a hose over here, all the plants on this side of the house are native varieties that take care of themselves.

When I did the landscaping on this old farm house, I tried to keep it easy to maintain. Lots of gravel pathways (I personally hauled 11 tons of gravel with a wheelbarrow over the course of a summer), perennials that don’t take much care, and lots of little vignettes to add character when the flowers aren’t at their peak.

A frog planter with chippy paint (rustic and charming, not messy and needing work, right???) hides in the euonymous.

I found this old arched bridge in a land fill and dug it out to make a path across a flower bed full of day lillies, myrtle, and spirea.

A rusting stove lid hangs on a fence.

My herbs grow in an iron planter that used to be a hot water tank.

I keep my garden chemicals in a metal cabinet that I also found in the trash and repainted with roses. And I hand painted my deck with big green leaves, trying to keep it unobtrusive.

Oh, my I have run on too long. I can show more of the "making the best of what you have" cottage yard tour tomorrow if anyone wants me to. Or should I move back on to some more pretty things?

Also, I have been tagged by http://bethanyjanehissong.blogspot.com/ to come up with 8 random things about me. I think I have run on long enough, tho, I’ll think about it and do that one later.

A Sugarwings Day

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 31, 2007

I had a Sugarwings day today. No creating art, just creating fun. We read stories, went for walks, did some shopping, and she played with her new toy. Is there a kid on the planet that doesn’t love these Fischer Price push toys?

This cutey sure loved it!

And speaking of cute- You HAVE to check out Little Miss Twinkle’s portrait by the talented Bethany Hissong at http://bethanyjanehissong.blogspot.com/. Wonderful, huh??? She really captured her personality. And look at the sketch of the pig-tailed little girl while you are there, so adorable.

And speaking of artists– Remember me telling you about my friend’s estate sale, at her fabulous home? Here is some of her work, on these cards.

If you have ever bought holiday paper cups or plates at Target or Walmart, or a needle craft pattern at Hobby Lobby, chances are you have bought some of her work. Her name is Vicky Howard and her art is everywhere, and should be, it is so pretty.

I do own one of her originals, not her typical work, though. She and I were on a committee to decorate the tables at a big fund raiser for a kid’s art organization here in town, and we made painted flower pots as centerpieces. They were then sold that night to add to the other money raised.

I bought two pots from her, this one I use to keep my gardening tools in on a mosaic table in my breezeway.

Speaking of that estate sale– I hadn’t shown a photo of this wrought iron garden bench I bought from Vicky. She gave me the patina-ed terra cotta cherub, she is a sweety. Actually, both are sweeties, Vicky and the cherub.

I also bought this oval vintage painting at the sale last week. It is actually on ceramic. The frame too, it is all one piece. Unique, huh?

I have another Sugarwings day tomorrow, can’t wait!

July’s Winner and News from Somerset!

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, give away, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, how to's, magazine pictures or articles, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 30, 2007

Forgive me for showing a photo that I have shown before, but I have two bits of news about it-

First, the winner of my July giveaway, the COTTAGE COLLAGE KIT- is

http://raisedincotton.typepad.com/raised_in_cotton/

Thanks everyone for your comments, I love to hear from you. I will have a new bribe, (I mean drawing) for August. Something extra special since it will be my 22nd wedding anniversary that month.

Second– Somerset contacted me to send them my Cottage Collage Kit to feature in a story about kits! How cool. I love that magazine!

I have also been talking to Romantic Country about an article about my bathroom. Another favorite magazine of mine. I do have an article coming out in that one this fall about my home, already. I really like working with them, Harris is a great company.

At Hobby Lobby’s 90% off garden clearance, I found a stack of thin, metal signs for under $1.50 each. I bought ALL of them and have been repainting them in my own style (after sanding and priming)

Here are a couple I did today.

I should be making Christmas decor for my sale in December, but I just simply gravitate toward pink roses, no matter what.

Last week, before accidentally dumping a quart of white paint on my Dorky, I primed and base coated a few pieces of furniture, and today, I finished painting two of these gorgeous chairs I got at a garage sale for $20 each.

I painted flowers on the backs too, because often you see more of the back of a chair than the front, when they are pulled up to a table.

I took photos all along the process so I can post a "how to" this week when www.artsymama.blogspot.com hosts a Artful Blogger Party on Aug. 8th. If you want start to finish steps on how to paint furniture, check back then! Also check back to see what I have to offer for my August giveaway, and thanks again for entering in July!

Sunday Morning Dog Barf

collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, housework

By Karla Nathan / July 29, 2007

Its a beautiful Sunday morning at my Kansas Cottage, no road construction sounds thumping away in front of my house, a light breeze is blowing and the sun is glowing.

I can’t think of a more pleasant way to spend a sunny Sunday than scrubbing dog barf out of my rugs.

I love to collect these old hooked rugs, but they are hard to keep clean, they can’t just be thrown into the washer. I live with a houseful of men and three dogs, so these rugs get dirty. Since I had to wash the dog mess out of one, I thought I’d bring all the brown looking kitchen rugs out to liven them back up.

To clean them, I line them along my slanted sidewalk and spray them with a hose.

This might sound weird, but I really enjoy watching the dirt wash away and the rugs slowly turn back to their vibrant colors. It is almost the feeling I get when painting and watching the picture develop under my brush. I know, wierd, but hey, ife is all about the simple pleasures!

Now, back to my Sunday paper and coffee on the porch.

Teaching a Lesson

antiques/junking, Books, family, Food and Drink, give away, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 28, 2007

I had a teaching day today! It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning, painting roses with a fellow rose lover! I had set up some treats in my "dessert wardrobe" but mostly we were too busy with our paints and brushes to indulge in the cookies.

Actually I had 2 students. Gail brought her 10 year old daughter, Deja to learn how to paint a rose sign too.

I was able to get 2 done myself while demonstrating the flowers.

These are on lightweight, metal, pre-made signs. I liked working with them, it was a change from the usual old wood that I use for my signs.

While I had my brushes out, I finished Sugarwing’s purple pony that I am painting for her first birthday. I added a lot of glitter to it, so it will need quite a few more coats of poly, so the glitter won’t be sharp against her baby soft skin.

Last night while cleaning up my studio to get ready for today’s sign painting, I decorated a candle. I used bits and pieces of paper and trim that were left on the craft table from previous projects and fixed up a candle that had been on sale at Michaels for 50 cents.

What caught my eye about this candle, is that the card stock circle on the top of it, is actually a sticker. Once that circle is peeled off, instead of tossing it, it can be re-used onto something else.

So, I thought it was worth the time to glitter and foof up the cover. Then, I added some vintage trim to the jar rim, and polka dotted glitter on the jar itself.

The pretty angel image I used came from the FABULOUS estate sale that Beth and I went to this week.

My friend, Vicky, invited us to her home early to shop before she was open to the public, and she has the best stuff. She is an artist also, but extremely successful- I’m talking about a 4 story house with an elevator!!! Wow, you don’t see those in Lawrence, KS. She does beautiful work and has a similar taste in decor to me (hers is just on a grander scale).

I bought stacks and stacks of lovely old books from her, suitable for all sort of crafts and ideas. Remember the cabinet I mentioned a while back, that I said I didn’t even use for storage? I do now! It is filled with books from Vicky.

She had some pinks and whites for my kitchen. The Hull pitcher with the roses on it, was only $5.

The creamer was a gift from Beth! She gets boxes and boxes of things from auctions and sometimes brings me flowery things that aren’t her style. She brought 2 flats of goodies for me this time.

This scrap book from Vicky was FILLED with vintage images! For TWO DOLLARS! I will add some of the images to my Cottage Collage Kit giveaway that I will be drawing names for at the end of the month, too.(leave a comment to enter)

Let’s, see, what else did I get. hmmm… This cute topiary type pot (that I will glitter up and decorate for Christmas) was $2 too.

3 urns for $18 (great for storing wallpaper!), a wrought iron garden bench, and a ton of interesting terra cotta pots (that she gave to me)

And a box full of these wonderful appliques! Her whole house was trimmed out in these, everywhere, all over, even the turret. Yep, her house had a turret. Wow. My kind of sale!

I’m sure I am leaving some purchases out, I just was overwhelmed by the sale, it was all such great stuff. Check out Beth’s blog to see what she got at the sale too. http://bethleintz.typepad.com/

A Tussy Mussy Fest

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, Hand Painted Furniture, magazine pictures or articles, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 27, 2007

Thanks for all the nice comments about my $1 table. Here it is all finished. I put a dark oak stain and poly over the top to protect the paper and to age it a bit. Then I added gold rub-n-buf to the edges. I should stain the legs too, to deepen the paint color and make it richer, but I didn’t want to deal with all the spindles and carvings! I figure it is OK as it is and I kind of like the contrast with the darker top.

I can get so much done in a day, because I know how to "stop" on a project and not keep fussing with it. Sometimes OK is OK!

My buddy, Beth, http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ came over this after noon for a Tussy Mussy Fest. She was going with a Halloween theme, and made this cone with some great papers she found at Hobby Lobby.

I used all vintage wallpapers on the outside of mine, and old sheet music inside. This cone has one of my hand painted medallions on it, some vintage velvet ribbon, and millinery flowers.

Neither of us signed up for the Tussy Mussy swap, but thought it would be just as much fun to get together and make a few.

I will list these on Etsy, but might keep one just to enjoy here in the studio, they look so good on my pink glass doorknob! That knob is from Anthropology, that store can be PRICEY but has great clearance prices on hardware. I got these half price knobs for $20 each. I wouldn’t have paid $40 for them, but I sure would have thought about it!

We used party hats as a base for the Tussies, (I got a pack of 8 at the Dollar store, Beth had cool Dora the Explorer ones). She and I made cones a few years back for a magazine shoot and didn’t use party hats, it took us forever to come up with a pattern that worked.

This photo from the shoot was taken by Bill Mathews and styled by Gloria Gale. It was in Victorian Decorating, maybe 3 years ago? What a fun shoot, we made up a bunch of crafty things then went to this glorious Victorian mansion and spent the day setting up our projects for photos. The house is a museum and every time we touched something of theirs we had to wear gloves, it was a bit intimidating, but a unique place to hang out for the day!

If you are going to make a tussie mussie, I’d recommend using a party hat as a base, quicker and easier, they come out really nicely shaped, and the perfect size.

I had a teeny snippet of old wallpaper that I hated to waste. Beth quoted Pam Garrison to me, something about vintage wallpaper being too precious to waste a single scrap.

So I turned this blue scrap into a paper doll dress and made a tag out of it. I thought the shape looked like a dress when I saw it laying on my table. So I drew and cut out a little girl to put into it. (The paper doll tag is sitting on my $1 table’s painted sheet music top).

My blogging buddy, Heather, http://prettypetalsboutique.blogspot.com/ ordered a couple of my medallions from Etsy! She was one of the first people I met when I started blogging and was so helpful to me, I wanted to send her a little thank you with her order. I made a tag for her, and a mini card to go in the package too. I used one of the legal letters from 1917, isn’t the handwriting pretty? I think is says something about past due taxes, but we’ll ignore that part.

My studio is back to normal-so messy and piled up with stuff I can’t find anything!

Before Beth arrived and the Tussie Mussie Fest began, I was painting a rocking horse for Sugarwing’s birthday. I got it at a garage sale for $2 and am painting it her favorite colors, with flowers and butterflies. It is almost done, I am a quick painter. I’d say I’ll have maybe 2 hours into the project.

I can’t believe my baby will be a year old already. I wanted to make something for her and start a birthday tradition. It will be nice to make a gift every year, then add some money to a savings account we will hold for her till college. I hate to buy too many toys, or clothes that she doesn’t really need.

(yes, I just posted another bad photo of myself)

After the Tussie Mussie Fest, Beth and I went to an AMAZING sale, then came back home for a Panera Bread style tomato salad (with herbs and tomatoes from my garden) and some grilled chicken that I had been marinating while we crafted and shopped. Not a bad day. She even stopped to buy a loaf of Panera bread to go with the salad.

I still have some cones to fiddle around with and add prettys to, and a car to unload. Oh my, you wouldn’t believe this sale we were at! It will be so much fun to unload this stuff!!!!

Maybe I’ll find something cool in my new goods to add to the Cottage Collage Kit giveaway- leave a comment to enter, I’ll be drawing a name in a few days.

Author name: Karla Nathan