Karla Nathan – Page 283 – Karla's Cottage

A Sterotypical Kansas Day-

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 5, 2007

I had a cleaning day today, and you certainly don’t want to see those kind of photos or hear those stories. We have house guests coming to the cottage again. I swear, if I never had visitors, we’d live in filth, I only clean when someone is coming to stay, and luckily that is pretty regular around here!

I managed to sneak a snippet of time to make up some packages of vintage scrapping goods to sell on Etsy.

These have an aqua theme, with a hint of rose, more blues, and purple. I even had some purple print sheet music to include.

I had a good time picking the pretties out. After doing all that mopping and dusting, I needed a fun break. I can’t stand a day that goes by without some sort of creative activity, even if it is just playing with pretty papers!

I have a vast selection of supplies and know I’ll never get through them all, so thought I’d share a bit of it.

I made up some pink themed ones yesterday and listed them, at $12 each and sold one today. Its always nice to sell something, even if it isn’t a lot of money, it is kind of a confirmation that you were right about the merchandise and someone agrees with your taste!

Oh, that sounds silly, doesn’t it? Maybe the reason I am not a good business person is that very reason, "it isn’t about the money!!"

Yesterday, we went out on the lake for the 4th, and I think that the rest of the town was there, it was the most crowded I have ever seen our sweet little lake.

It was starting to cloud up, but storms weren’t predicted till later. We decided to call it an early day since we had Sugarwings and her mom, our 14 yr old niece and our 9 months and about to pop pregnant 22 yr old niece with us.

We got back to the dock and it was looking bad, so I sent all the girls on up to leave with Sugarwings and her mom, telling them we’d tie up and haul everything up to our car, that they should get indoors.

In the short time it took to pack up, the weather got much worse and all the boats were trying to get off the water as fast as they could, sirens were going off, and the marina was announcing that there were tornado sightings.

As I walked up the dock to the parking lot, I saw a funnel cloud right above us! Luckily, it was dispersing. No touch down, no damage, but I sure thought that there would be wrecks in the parking lot, you should have seen everyone trying to get out and to shelter!

I am pretty proud of myself for not being one of the people who were in panic, but mostly for also not being one of the dumb asses standing there staring and pointing and taking photos. Of course, that means I don’t have a picture to show you here. Sorry.

Everyone figures Kansas is nothing but one Tornado after another, but I’ve only seen 3 funnel clouds since I have lived here.

Maybe I should’ve gotten a picture?

Earlier before the storm, I did take this photo- Sugarwing’s first swim in the lake. She loved it.

I DO have Red, White, & Blue!

antiques/junking, flowers, Food and Drink, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 4, 2007

When I helped my friend Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ redo her booth earlier, I took photos of it, saying that I wouldn’t have any red white and blue to post for July 4th and wanted to use her patriotic display that we made.

So here are a couple of shots of her antique booth. She does have cool stuff.

And then, my match box swap partner http://www.hophopjingleboo.blogspot.com/ sent this piece to me, along with the box full of goodies. I added glitter and punched a star in it to tie a ribbon onto it.

While I was sitting at the craft table, I noticed the stack of matchboxes that I bought for the swap. hey, r,w, & b! (and yes, of course I saved all the matches from the boxes I emptied out)

My glazed pottery jar full of markers was on the work table, and I saw that it was along those lines of patriotic colors too.

I looked around the studio some more and saw a white ironstone cup full of blue bird feathers, sitting on a post card featuring red roses.

I also noticed a collage I had done last year that had this little gal with red roses and blue forget me nots in the center.

The first stepping stone outside the studio has red and blue flowers in stained glass (and whitish cement).

And there are red begonias, white dusty miller, and a blue plumbago outside my door too.

I can’t forget Ole Blue! My ’81 Ford Ranger that has an 8 track player in it and came with a box of country music 8 tracks under the seat when we bought him.

My little red gazing ball has blue flecks in the glass.

Happy 4th! Our coolers are packed and we’re headed to the lake.

Gorious Gifts, Grandbabies, and Gardens

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, Sugarwings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 3, 2007

The fairy grandbaby and I had a great day in the gardens. I had found this bouncy car at a garage sale for $2 and it is perfect for her to sit in while I plant, dig, and do a shot of Miracle Grow here and there.

I’d say my Miracle Grow is working- look at the height of that gladiola!!!

I am almost 5’3", here I am standing in the flower bed next to the gladiola and holding it up to the back of my head and trying to snap a photo to show how high the plant is. I’d say it is at least my height.

and yes I know my fingernails look awful- I’ve been gardening and don’t wear gloves. plus I have an ugly rash. I have been sick from a tick bite and am on antibiotics for it. Maybe I shouldn’t show these kinds of photos???

At least Sugarwings is pretty in this picture! Our poor front yard is a mess, we have a construction project on the road in front of the house and it is so torn up, it is hard to get a mower over to that spot. This flower bed just goes wild. I haven’t done much to it in years, planted hardy native plants and let it go.

We worked in the herb beds together, after going to the garden center and getting a lot of 99 cent plants that were on clearance.

Sugarwings and Twinkle are totally in love with each other. That dog never leaves the baby’s side. Of course, the baby often has tasty things smeared on her too.

See my old wheelbarrow in the back? Kim at http://deardaisycottage.typepad.com/ has one like it with flowers planted in hers, but I use mine to do yard work.

The planter boxes on my gazebo are starting to fill out. I kept them simple this year, just some inpatients, begonias and ivy.

This is the first time I have ever bought the hanging planters ready to go, I usually make my own. But Walmart had them on sale for $5.88 each, how can you put one together for much less?

I have 3 planter boxes on the gazebo, but they don’t match. I find them at garage sales and kind of like that they are all different.

A friend made the mosaic birdhouse for me in trade for a little fairy watercolor I did.

The garden center also had these glow in the dark hose guards on sale too.

(yes, Sissy, I bought some for you and Bobbie Sue too!)

I bought a glow in the dark hose guard for Sugarwings to put in front of her house too, but I think she wanted the big ball instead.

Well today might have been about as nice as a day gets. I could be the luckiest person around.

And speaking of lucky– look what I got in the match box swap that Natasha http://natashaburns.blogspot.com/ hosted. Deb at http://www.hophopjingleboo.blogspot.com/ was my partner and she sent me a big box full of delightful things!! I am starting to feel like a chintzy partner, I haven’t sent that much out, and always get such generous packages from everyone. Heck, for the tiara swap, Barb http://www.123lavenderlollipoplane.blogspot.com/ even sent my fairy grand baby a gift!!

Look at some of these treasures from Deb!!!

One side of this medallion was her logo, the other side has my name.

I hung it in my dining room china cabinet on the carnival glass dish that was my mom’s.

And look at the box itself, she used the large size (of course I used the small one and feel bad) and added to it, so that you wouldn’t even know right off that it was made from a matchbox.

I wonder if I should even continue swapping? I need to beef up my packages. I have been on the skimpy side too much, do you think I am getting a bad rep out there in blogland and no one will trade with me after this?? Karen of http://www.creativechaos.typepad.com/ was my first partner and she went over board too. An unbelievable may basket came from her.

Anyway, Deb, thanks so much, I am overwhelmed, it is such a great box of goodies. Love it!! And everyone should go to her site and see the bunny swap slide show she has, way cool.

Well, I’m off to take a nap before dinner, a day with a fairy grand baby can be a wonderful and exhausting thing. Plus, the Dr. says I have some sort of rare blood infection from this tick bite and I just don’t feel like myself. I think that is why I was so grouchy while trying to do some red, white, and blue bookmarks. It wasn’t the color, it was the ehrlichiosis!

Rose, French Vanilla & Robin’s Egg!

how to's, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 2, 2007

I usually enjoy most projects and look forward to getting started on them. But when I realized that the bookmarks for this swap needed to be patriotic, I was worried. I don’t "do" red, white, and blue! I do rose, french vanilla, and robin’s egg!

My buddy, Beth, http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ who has the most well stocked and fantastic craft room full of supplies you’ll ever see, gave me all this to work with. She has an overflow of stuff and is talking about making packs to sell on Etsy. She has done that in the past, but now is redoing her craft room and really needs to make space. You can contact her on her blog if you need anything, I’m sure she has it!!!

I still struggled and felt bad about what I was putting together. The whole idea that it had to be flat, was hard, I am a big believer in gooberey-glittery-encrusted pieces.

So, I compromised and used 3-d on the tassley parts.

I got out some old red velvet that was a rotted cover of an album in its past life, and covered a couple book marks with that.

Then, they started to get too 3-d and maybe not as patriotic? Although an American Beauty rose might fit into the category.

So I went back to the first two I started and worked on them some more, made the backs nicer. They are on their way to my swap partner, http://beachyscapecodcupboard.blogspot.com/ . It ended up being a good thing for me to do. I get so set in my comfort zone that I don’t try enough new things. So even though I got a bit cranky and it wasn’t going well, I learned from the challenge, and want to thank http://shabbyinthecity.blogspot.com/ for hosting it.

But of course, the minute I was done, I painted some soft pink roses to get me out of my red/white/blue funk! This is one of the frames I got at a garage sale a couple weeks ago, that started out gold with a print I didn’t like in it. I primed and painted it ivory, glazed the frame in umber, glued down a page torn from an old book with French words in it, then painted the roses over the text.

Redos

redos

By Karla Nathan / July 1, 2007

I finally found a place to use the giant garage sale mirror that I bought for under ten bucks and repainted. I have a mantel as a headboard and thought, a giant mirror over a mantel is just perfect. Thing is, I painted it a little too white, I will have to tone it down a bit. I hadn’t planned on it going there.

Here is another angle of the room. I redid it just about a year ago. All in one day, took every single thing out of the room, (well, except that huge cabinet, I painted around it and stood on it to paint that corner of the ceiling. It weighs 900 lbs!)

Then I repainted the whole room, ceiling and all, and I changed out the bedding, and other stuff. It took me from 10am till 2am to do it all. But I like to finish what I start, down to the last detail.

If you are thinking the bed looks like it could use more throw pillows, why, yes, I have them. But my husband went camping last night and took the matlesse covered pillows to the lake. Yes he is the same guy that used mop handles and old broken pieces of wood to tie up tomato plants in my pretty garden. And the same guy who showed all those magazine photos to his mother, and was telling her about what I did in the house- without realizing that it wasn’t even pictures of our home, or even an article that I had written!!!

He is sweet and lets me redo a lot, but he never understands why. Or notices when.

I still like this incarnation of our bedroom, after about a year, so I might have it a bit longer. I like that it has cleaner lines and is more tranquil than before.

I was looking through old pictures to work on thatRomantic Country article yesterday and came across some previous bedroom photos from magazine shoots.

This was Country Almanac, way way back, maybe 6 years or more?

My Mother made the quilt for me. I was at at thrift store that sold clothing by the bag for $3. So I bought a sack of dresses and asked mom to do a crazy quilt, using the lace, ribbons, buttons, all the trim on the dresses as it was.

Here is the next incarnation, it was also in Country Almanac.

This is a little snippet of the photo that will be in Romantic Country this fall. I can’t show all of it, it has not been published yet. All three of these pictures were taken by Bill Mathews and styled by Gloria Gale.

A Winner for the drawing for June and a Winner of a Smile

give away, jewelry, paintings, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 1, 2007

It is almost midnight and Little Miss Sugarwings doesn’t seem to understand the ‘sleep’ part of having a sleepover. When I tried to explain it to her, this is what I got.

She laughed at me.

So, I tucked her back in, gave her a bear to hold and turned out the lights. I am out in my studio with the baby monitor on, listening to her singing along to the nature sounds of a toy that is supposed to make her sleepy. So, I’ll make this quick and do a drawing, then go back in and sing along with her if she really doesn’t want to go to sleep. What are grannies for if not for staying up late and singing with?

The winner is:

http://shessewpretty.typepad.com/ Betty!!

There are 3 charms to choose from, please take your pick.

Tomorrow I will start a new drawing for the month of July. hmmmm, the question is what will it be??? Thank you everyone for all your kind comments and friendly chatting this month. I’ll be bribing you next month for more!! All you need to do to enter is leave a comment, any comment, as many times as you want.

Maybe a comment about what the next drawing gift should be???

I hear someone singing my song, I need to run!

Procrastination, Power Tools, and Pictures from the Past

hand painted candelabras, Hand Painted Furniture, magazine pictures or articles

By Karla Nathan / June 29, 2007

What did I say this morning when I posted the pictures of my loot from the trip to St Louis? "I should be working" Well I should be now too instead of posting again…. But I did get some stuff done today-

Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ and I did a little design redo job, then went to her house to use power tools! I brought my compressor and nail gun over to help her finish the base boards for her new craft room. The floor they put in is like linoleum, it is a vinyl type product. Looks like wood, doesn’t it? Very practical for a work room and looks good, plus it went down in squares and they were able to do it themselves.

I have to write an article for Romantic Country this weekend, but think I am too tired tonight to start. I at least made an affort to go through the stack of past photos and found the ones needed for the story.

I came across some older ones that I liked and thought I’d post them.

Funny how much my home can change in a couple of years. I don’t have any of those walls those colors any more, and the mantel is now my headboard.

The framed quilt square was done by my Grandma Nathan, there was a bag of them in her closet when she died, I framed them up and gave them to family members. That is one item I will always have, I am sentimental about family things.
I no longer own a single piece of the furniture in these three pictures! I gave the hutch to my niece, it used to belong to my mother, so I wanted to keep it in the family.

Lets see, a few years later, out of these 3 photos, I still have:

the cement cherub

the quilt (mom made it)

some of the dishes

Things do tend to change a lot around here.

Bill Mathews was the photographer for these pictures, he does lovely work. They were styled by Gloria Gale. I can’t remember which magazines they were in, probably Romantic Country or Country Almanac.

A Drawer full of Dorkiness and some other goodies

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, paintings, Travel, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 29, 2007

First of all, can anyone tell if my blog opened any quicker??? I did some tweaking.

I should be working, but thought I’d show some of my loot from my trip before I get on with my day.

Aren’t these 3 ladies something? Hey, it was suggested that we do a Halloween bag swap!! Good idea. And maybe I will save this photo for my bag, I think these old crones could easily be witches!!

My husband had to work a few hours at Columbia Country Club in Missouri, about half way to St. Louis. (and no, that isn’t a polite way of saying he was playing golf, he really had to work). So, I shopped at a mall there. It is far from my favorite place to go, and I really had to make an effort to stay there long enough to stretch out my time, there wasn’t a lot of great stuff. But I found all this!

Those bottles will be fun to decorate and fill, and I got a lot of old photos for under $1 each.

The best purchase (and Twinkle’s fave) is this set of old drawers covered in wallpaper. How handy will that stylish storage be???

Since I slept in the car most of the day, I was up late after we got home. I painted some more of the outlet covers that I had got in the big bag from Goodwill last month. Only 4 left to paint. I am selling them on Etsy and have sold a couple from this blog. These are not listed yet (the 2 switch plates are sold) so all of the outlet covers are available if anyone wants one. I’ll be listing them later this week, or email me here if you’d like one.

I’m off to work, have a decorating/rearranging job to do today with Beth. http://bethleintz.typepad.com/

Feeling like a Queen and having the Crown to go along with it

Chandeliers, fairies, Food and Drink, give away, jewelry, paintings, Sugarwings, swaps, Travel

By Karla Nathan / June 28, 2007

Look where I have been! the Chase Plaza in St Louis has to be the best hotel EVER. Pure luxury. I feel quite quennly when I stay there.

These two photos are of the lobby, one from each direction. I am happy to just stand there in the hall like a rube and stare at all the marble, granite, chandeliers that are bigger than my living room, and the gorgeous architecture. I’ve stayed there many times, but I never get over my awe of the place.

The rooms are newly remodeled, but I loved it when they still had an 80s vibe to them too. Now they are updated, streamlined and sumptuous.

The restaurants are as over the top as the lobby, and "Eau" is our favorite when we are in town.

I felt like I was visiting "Top Chef", I even ate an amuse boocsh or however that is spelled. It is French for a one bite appetizer to delight your mouth. Mine was delighted. I’ve seen them served on Top Chef, so felt like I knew all about them. This one was a strawberry brushetta.

See? Delightful!

And the salads were so pretty. Mine had truffles.

There are 3 restaurants in the lobby along with a movie theater. When the movies are over, an attendant offers you chocolate on a silver tray as you leave.

The pool is right outside one of the restaurants and I love to lay by the water with a good book (this time it was a Stephanie Plum novel) order lunch with a strawberry margarita.

And sometimes I just put down the book and gawk. I never get tired of the beauty of that magnificent, old building.

Yep, I’m a rube.

I should have packed my tiara! This is one location where I would have felt properly dressed to have one on!

Barbara http://www.123lavenderlollipoplane.blogspot.com/ sent me this beaut, and not only was this wonderful piece of queenly head wear in the package, she sent presents!!!!!!!!

A hat box, vintage laces, a sweet fairy for me and a fairy framed mirror for little Sugarwings!!!

The generosity of blogger/swappers never fails to amaze me. I think she really over did it. Thanks, Barb!

I got this photo from Sissy, she has been making gift bags. She doesn’t have a blog, and makes such pretty things, I had to show you sicne she couldn’t. I am thinking about seeing if anyone wants to do a gift bag swap? But later on this summer. Or, hey, it would be a good one for getting ready for the holidays, wouldn’t it? Let me know if you think we should do a holiday gift bag swap later on!

While I was in St. Louis, I didn’t spend all my time eating, laying by the pool or gawking at the big city sites. I spent a couple of hours working one morning. I did this little chubby cheeked fairy painting and also a commissioned pet portrait.

This is the beginning stage of the painting. Whenever I do a portrait, the first thing I paint is the eyes. If you can capture life in the eyes, you know it will be a good likeness. If not, I throw it away and start over.

Here is the finished product along with the photo I was using to work from.

I always wonder what the housekeepers think when they come in and see the suite transformed into a watercolor studio. Or sometimes, I take jewelry to work on while I am at the hotel. I just can’t stand to not get any work done at all for more than couple of days!

Thanks for all your input on my blog being slow. Typepad says that maybe I should try doing excerpts, but I don’t want to do that. They also said to try not having as many postings listed on the first page. I’ll be keeping all but a few in the archives and see how that goes. Please let me know if that helps?

Today is the 28th, so only two more days to enter the giveaway for the hand painted rose charm. (and yes, I counted all the "happy birthdays to Beth "http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ )

On Saturday I also have to write an article for the fall issue of Romantic Country and have little time to get it done, so my drawing might be late that day. So you’ll have all day to enter. And I will start a new drawing on Sunday! Maybe a matchbox full of goodness?

As much as I loved living in the lap of luxury in St Louis at the Chase Plaza, it was good to get home. We went straight to see Sugarwings and took her out to dinner. I think she wore more than she ate. I still thought she was cuddly, even covered in some sort of goo that she was eating. I couldn’t get enough hugs after not seeing her for a few days!

More is Better!!!

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, flowers, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 25, 2007

Why would I just make one of something when I can make a bunch?? Seems to be how I live my life, "More is Better!" should be my motto.

I really enjoyed the matchbox swap and just had to make up the rest of the package of matchboxes into something pretty.

I used vintage papers, ribbons,

and added some hand painting or drawing to each one, along with some 3-d bit of something nice to the tops.

And yes, they are filled up with trinkets and trivial little goodies.

Oh, and did I mention Glitter? Yep, there is glitter.

All 4 sides of the sleeves are decorated and the entire tray is painted, with glitter sprinkled inside the tray.

The bottoms are cute too.

Every one contains:

a page from a mini almanac from the 1800s

a bit of old wallpaper

a die cut flower from an old page of English die cuts

a stamp sized copy of an old portrait picture

some jewels

2 genuine amethyst beads

a vintage button or two

a large, tear drop shaped, moonstone quartz bead

some teeny bezels to add something to, and one bezel with an old bead added to it already

a charm frame to use in your crafting

The almanac page in the moon inspired box is about the eclipse of 1893.

All of them are a bit different, but have a similar amount of work and comparable amount of trinkets inside.

I’ll be listing a few on Etsy, but if you’d like to own a hand crafted, tiny treasure box you can contact me through this blog or email. They will be priced at $10 each.

And of course, "more is better" with Dorkies too! I took my 3 and my brother-in-law’s 2 dorkies out on the lake last night.

Oh my god, did I really just post a photo of myself in a bathing suit??? I must be crazy. I guess I am so covered up in furry little dogs, no one will notice my middle aged body.

Back when I was in my 20s and probably looked OK in a bathing suit, I never would have allowed a photo of myself in one to be seen. It is a relief to be older and comfortable in my own skin, even if it is starting to sag and crinkle up.

"More is Better" but 5 dogs in a boat is a lot. They are:

Sparkle, Twinkle, Arty, Bookie, and Ruby. Hopefully next year, Arty and Twinks will ‘hook up’ and we’ll have a few more puppies around!!!

I have a list of people waiting for Dorkie babies. We usually give a couple away to family and friends from each batch, but it has been 4 years since our last litter. So, the list of people waiting for a dog is getting long. Twinkle had better be as prolific with her puppies as I am with my art projects!

SIX DAYS LEFT TO ENTER THE DRAWING FOR THE HAND PAINTED CHARM, leave a comment if you want to enter!

Ps- does anyone have trouble opening my blog? Kim at Daisy Cottage says that she does and my neice told me that it opens slow for her. Any other problems with it?

Also, should I try to do shorter posts? I do seem to run on and on and on. Like I said, "More is Better" has always been my motto, but I wonder if I get a bit carried away and no one has time to look at what all I put out there?

I’ll be back on Thursday, we’re going to St Louis for a couple of days!

Author name: Karla Nathan