Karla Nathan – Page 290 – Karla's Cottage

Romantic Log Cabin STYLE

By Karla Nathan / April 22, 2007

What a wonderful trip! Big Cedar Lodge, south of Branson was so luxurious it was almost decadent. But, with the lodge theme, it has a comfy, down home quality about it so it is very relaxing there.

As an artist, my eyes were drawn to all the detail put into making the place beautiful. Here is a close up of some of the iron work on a sign.

And although my personal style is more "Shabby Chic" or "Cottage", I sure can appreciate the rustic yet romantic log cabin style that we were staying in. This iron chandelier was hanging above our bed and there were stained glass windows everywhere.

We all got away to the spa and treated ourselves to massages or pedicures. I chose pedicure because it was a tad bit cheaper than the massage, and I had to keep telling myself not to think how far that much cash would go at a garage sale.

It did seem a waste to spend money on feet like mine. I think I have mentioned that I have Fred Flintsone Feet? But after the hour of spa pampering, these Freds were sparkling, soft, and topped off with Ruby polish. The best part was the little pink slippers that seemed made to fit my feet.

We got out to the "NEW Branson" for the evening and I got to show off my sparkling toes. Branson has changed, not just a country music, all you can eat, hoe down any more. Besides the classy Big Cedar, there was so much to see and do. but I am afraid, that mostly we ate, just not at the big buffets.

Every notice how much better everything tastes on vacation? We supplemented our dinners out with healthy snacks at the cabin, out on the balcony over looking the cedars. But ate quite a few unhealthy (and worth every calorie) treats too.

The big joke of the weekend was the complimentary snacks. We all did voices of what kind of compliments the snacks were paying us. The pretzels were a little twisted, but the cookies were very sweet in what they had to say. And all of us thought the popcorn was a bit cheesy with its comments.

Yes, I guess we were the cheesy ones. But hey, if you can’t be silly with good friends, when can you be?

Now that I am home, I am wrapping up my package to send to my very first swap partner, Karin at http://www.creativechaos.typepad.com/. I hope I have stuffed it with enough stuff. I added a collage magnet that I made to some of the same things I have put into the May Bucket Giveaway (by the way, you can still enter that by leaving a comment!) and some other trinkets. I have some vintage robins’ egg pearl beads, some crystal joools, a silver buckle, velvet millinary flowers, note cards, and a plastic dinasour. Well, that last may sound odd, but- she posted that her sons asked her if she was alive during the Flintstones era. With my own connection to Fred (my feet), I couldn’t resist adding that little symbol. Hope I did ok with it, I just am so impressed by the swaps I see and what people show they received.

Here is the third bucket I painted. I have one for the swap, one for the giveaway and one to sell. Anyone need a blue, hand painted bucket? $10.00 if you are interested. (puppy not inclueded!!!!!!)

Porker Mommies, Dorkies, and Waller Worts

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / April 20, 2007

Another trip? I seem to have something every week, whether house guests or a trip somewhere. We’ve had a houseful 3 weekends in a row, went to Minneapolis last week and today we are heading to a cabin in the Ozarks. I wonder how I manage to get anything done besides have fun….. Well, if you think about it, all I do is fun stuff anyway. Junking, painting, playing with the fairy grand baby, more painting, making jewelry, painting. Not a bad life. Company, trips and painting roses on junk!

Thanks for the inquiries about the green doodads I rescued from the bonfire and painted flowers on. Heather of http://prettypetalsboutique.blogspot.com/ and Becca of http://bluebirdroses.blogspot.com/ have asked to purchase them. I love to save things that were destined to be trash and turn them into a piece of art that someone wants to have in their home. Thanks to Heather and Becca for helping me on my quest to prettify the world by recycling!

Michelle Ward’s crusade challenge this month is interesting, "Say What?" http://michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/. I didn’t do an art journal page and enter, but here are my family phrases anyway. Maybe I’ll get around to illustrating them???? Sure I will. I’ll get my floors mopped too, I’m positive. Any way, thanks again, Michelle for a fun project, even if I only get half way through it!

Porker Mommies- hidden candy, usually bags of chocolate on clearance after a holiday. My family always knows there is a stash of porker mommies somewhere in the house.

Dorkies- what we call our Yorkshire Terriers.

Leash Kids- children of our houseguests who are entranced by our Dorkies and want to drag them all over the house on leashes the whole time they are visiting.The dorkies go along with it, but glare at us over their shoulders as they are drug away.

Waller Worting- Rassling and tickling and snuggling with your small child, usually ending up with one person blowing a razzberry on the other’s tummy and making them giggle so hard they snort like a wart hog.

Speaking of small children, my only good find on the Big Kansas City Junking Day was a pile of books for my fairy grand baby, Sugar Wings. Here are a couple that look pretty in her room here at my cottage.

Beth, http://bethleintz.typepad.com/gathering_dust/ and I had a good time, though. A day out with a buddy, whether you hit the mother lode of treasure or not, is always fun. Well, that goes right back to what I said earlier- all I do is fun stuff!

I am trying to decide if I want to go horseback riding on this Ozark trip. I used to keep horses here at the old farmhouse cottage, (well, actually out in the barn behind the cottage) and fell off one and broke a few vertebrae. I am a bit shy of riding now, but might muster up the courage to give it a try again. A broken back isn’t much fun, but years of pain taught me to enjoy every minute and make the most of everyday. Probably not a lesson I need to learn again, so maybe I won’t ride this weekend……..

One more thing before I go and pack for my weekend getaway- Kelli at http://www.kellishouse.blogspot.com/ is hosting a show and tell Fridays (just like in grade school!!! It was always my favorite day of the week).

So I am showing my find– this cute vintage toy piano I bought for SugarWings. It was $12 and ugly, I sanded, primed and painted it a pale sage green, then added a touch of crackle for age and texture and finished with a top coat with a hint of stain in it for depth. The fairy grand baby pounds away at it and it seems to be her favorite toy here.

OK, now I am off for my fun weekend. hmm, wonder how I can convince everyone to let me stop at a couple of roadside antique shops on the trip???

Note Cards in the May Bucket

give away

By Karla Nathan / April 19, 2007

Have you seen http://todayscreativeblog.blogspot.com/? Kim Demmon has this site along with her other one http://scrap-to-my-lu.blogspot.com/. On Today’s Creative Blog, she finds good stuff out there in the blog world to let us know about. It is a good guide for who has what and fun to look at. She has kindly offered to feature me this week! Take a peek, you never know what you’ll find there! And thanks, Kim! I appreciate it.

This morning (before my big Kansas City Junking Day with Beth) I made some note cards with copies of my watercolor hydrangea and acrylic antique roses paintings. I mounted them on simple white card stock and left the inside blank, so someone could add a personal message there.

I hope to get more paintings made into cards for the show coming up in Lawrence- Art in the Park. Cards do well, it is the week before Mother’s Day. I sell them for $2.50 each or a 6 pack (assorted or one kind, your pick) for $10.

For now, I thought a few would be a nice addition to the MAY BUCKET GIVEAWAY.

I’m off to meet Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/gathering_dust/ for our junking day! Can’t wait to see what goodies we find!

If only all days went this well!

paintings

By Karla Nathan / April 18, 2007

It has been one of those wonderful days that seem to have extra hours. I didn’t get up early, but here it is only 3pm and I feel like I have got a lot done and still have a chunk of daytime left and energy to do more! Plus, tonight LOST is on. What a good day! I might get take out Tai food and sit in front of the TV after I accomplish a few more things!

What did I do today, so far? Well, after enjoying an hour or so of reading favorite blogs (if only every day could start like that!)~ I added something to the May Bucket Give Away.

Not exactly a big accomplishment, but fun to do! Here it is- a vintage pearl bead necklace in Robin’s Egg Blue. It is a nice heavy one, and knotted between each pearl. I adore the color, and can’t imagine anyone who it would not be pretty on. Although, I’d love to see a redhead win it… that color would look so good with firey red hair.

In the May Bucket Give Away so far:

well, of course, a hand painted floral bucket- a prize in itself?
a china shard pendant on a sterling silver bail
delicate lace trimmed hankie
2 old keys, foofed up a bit with silver paint and a bow
vintage pearls in robins egg blue
NOT THE PUPPY- (unless, I can’t convince her to stop peeing on everything)

I worked on a watercolor of my other Dorkie, Sparkle. Here is her painting. Still wet, and maybe not done. I’ll finish it tonight and get a frame while out junking tomorrow. Yes, I know!! I am not only getting a wonderful day today, tomorrow I get a junking day!!!!!! How lucky am I????

Here is my Sparkle painting so far. Also, I started a rose painting and added a rose to these cool little doodads I found in the burn pile. Should never let a husband clean out the garage, he’ll put great stuff in a bon fire.

I’ll add hooks to the back of the doodads and hang them on the wall. Or maybe I can sell them to someone else who likes pink roses on green doodads on their walls. Any takers? I can mail them right to you, $8 each!

My last big project for today was to haul all of these rocks and arrange them to form a flower bed. I added an old iron headboard that I will plant evergreens behind, and set a chair in front of. This area needs major work after the construction that has been going on here- it was all torn up ( I used to have a cute pond in that spot, sigh) I am off to the garden center for mulch and shrubs and to TJ Maxx to see if they still have the big white iron chair I drooled over last week.

A client came by to pick up and pay for some artwork. She is always hard to deal with (before I wrote this about her, I asked if she reads blogs, she doesn’t know what they are, so I can feel free to say how nasty she always is to me.) Why do I paint for her again, after bad experiences? Well, I like to paint. And she does pay me. although, not a lot, I am very reasonable because I am fast. She always complains and has me redo everything. And not in a nice way. This time, she got the watering cans and said, "You will have to paint something on the back, I will be facing it the other direction". No, "I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this before you painted it" No, "I’ll pay you for your time". No "please or thank you". I should have charged her more, but instead, I decided to be gracious, and added a sprig of geranium to the back while she waited. I feel like unkind people should be shown how to act properly, and try to set a good example.

And anyway, I want people to be happy with what I paint for them. Even if some people just don’t seem to know what ‘happy’ is. Sour puss, crabby, nasty, person. Oh, well, that wasn’t very gracious, was it?

Thinking Award

give away

By Karla Nathan / April 17, 2007

I have to thank Karla (the other Karla) http://sugarbeardesigns.blogspot.com/ for the THINKING AWARD. How surprising, I am not thought of as a thinker. More of a doer without thinking it out first type. I am the one who decided at 3 am when my hardwood floors were newly sanded and ready for a topcoat the next morning, that they should be drawn on. And then found a sharpie and started to draw, with no plan. I liked it and kept drawing. Some of my best decisions were made with no thought at all. "Just do it and make it pretty" is my motto.

But, I have been doing some thinking about which 5 people I want to pass the award on to. First is Beth Leintz my great buddy and mentor in all things vintage or ebay or glued. She is an accountant who has moved onto more interesting things and found the artist inside of her. (Although, she is a bit of an artist with numbers too, that girl is sharp). http://bethleintz.typepad.com/gathering_dust/

The rest go to some of my favorite blogs:

Carlene who is so creative and writes with wit http://carlenefederer.blogspot.com/

Mrs. Staggs who makes me think and day dream about being in Merriville http://ahappymiscellany.typepad.com/

Vickie http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com/ who always has an interesting and intricate project going

And Heather http://prettypetalsboutique.blogspot.com/ who was one of my first blogger friends and who has such a pretty way of looking at things!

Now, each of you get to pick 5 thoughtful or thought provoking bloggers to nominate!

I have had friends ask me how to Leave a Comment for the DRAWING. Well, just click on "comment" at the bottom of any post. If you have trouble, just email me and I will enter you in the give away.

Yesterday was a beauty, spring is back!! I got to work outside a bit, but mostly I got to paint garden signs, here are a few I got done, as well as a couple more May buckets I am doing. The left over Easter Eggs ensure that I paint something sweet. Or that my butt will grow as I sit and paint.

China Shard Pendant for the Give Away

give away

By Karla Nathan / April 16, 2007

OK, since this is my first give away, I am not sure of the rules, so I decided to make some up. (I always feel important when I get to make rules!)

RULES

1- You can enter as many times as you like

2- Every time you leave a comment I will enter you again

3- I will keep adding things as I come up with good ideas for goodies. I’ll post photos of the new pretties as I come up with them.

4- If I get over 100 entries, I’ll have a 2nd prize to improve your odds!

5- You can leave any comment, on any of the posts to be entered.

6- If you have a friend that enters and says they referred you to this site in their comment, I’ll enter your name again.

7- I will find a really pretty hat to use for the drawing. Something with flowers, I am sure.

8- PUPPY NOT INCLUDED!

Here is my latest addition to the May Bucket. In its past life, it was a Homer Laughlin plate. I do tend to chip, break, demolish a lot of pretty dishes. I never break one purposely if it is in good shape, but hate to waste anything, so I re-purpose all chipped ones. This plate is now made into some pendants.

I banded the edges with foil tape and soldered it with lead free solder. The bail it hangs from is sterling silver and the blue cyrstal bead is circa 1940s.

A First Time Give Away and a First Time Swap

give away

By Karla Nathan / April 15, 2007

After winning the Spring give away from http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com/, (how lucky was that??) I decided I need to have one of my own. I also jumped in and entered the swap world for the first time. http://www.artsymama.blogspot.com/ has a May basket swap arranged and I am excited to be a part of it. My swap partner is another fave blogger of mine- www.creativechaos.typepad.com, and I am every bit as excited to make something as I am to see what she makes for me.

Here is a preview of my gift for the drawing. I plan on filling it up with some more goodies, and still need to put a top coat on it. I just sat down to paint the bucket and the paint is still wet, but I do get ahead of myself sometimes.

So, if you’d like to have a cute little pink bucket with hand painted flowers on it and some goodies (to be determined) inside of it- let me know! Leave me a comment and I will add your name to my drawing.

The drawing will be May 15th. Hope to hear from you!

Lucky Friday the 13th!

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers)

By Karla Nathan / April 14, 2007

Yesterday was my lucky day! As I was wondering if I should do some sort of give away, my name was being drawn by http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com/ and I won her prize!! I guess that means, it is my turn to give back, so I will come up with something arty and hand painted and let you know. Thanks, Vickie, for the wonderful surprise!!

Even more good luck yesterday- I got a new puppy. She’s 7 weeks old and is spoiled already. She came from a home that was full of little girls who couldn’t get enough of snuggling with her. Good thing, because here at my cottage, my fairy grand baby is doing some cuddling with the puppy and the puppy seems to take right to her and stays with her. They are destined to be best friends.

Our other female Dorky (Yorkshire Terrier) is named Sparkle. I am thinking Twinkle might be a good name for this little girl. I’ve also thought about flower names. It might take a few days to find just the right name, but Twinks isn’t bad.

We put a glittery little belled collar on her and she is jingling from one end of the house to another. Its lively around here, babysitting for Sugarwings and chasing the new puppy.

I have a brand new white velvet chair that the store I bought it from guarantees that if it doesn’t come clean, they replace it for 5 years. With these two around, we will be testing that promise to its limits.

One more really lucky thing that happened on Friday the 13th, my grocery store had clearance roses for $1.99 a dozen!! Now how lucky is that? I wanted to buy them ALL. I bought a couple dozen for myself and some to share with friends.

Candelabra with Hand Painted Roses for Ebay

hand painted candelabras

By Karla Nathan / April 13, 2007

Still being inspired by Carlene’s posting of her chandelier collection, http://carlenefederer.blogspot.com/, I thought I’d share another collection of mine- candelabras. I love to find both old light fixtures and candle holders to spruce up and add glitz too.

This one is from Sparks and White Cloud flea mkt (coming up soon, can’t wait!!). I painted it a clean white, added crystals and made lamp shades. I have two electric ones, both I bought to sell, but kept. Bad, bad habit of mine.

This one is in my living room. I have painted roses on it, glazed it with a bronze metallic finish, and added pearl beads, and glass leaves that I found on a Victorian bud vase.

Pearls are also added to the candelabra in my dining room. The paint is a creamy tan color, no glaze over it.

This is the only one that didn’t get a coat of paint. I liked the drama of the gold, I have lots of hints of gold and silver in the bedroom that this candelabra is sitting in.

Last, here are three that I have re-done, all differently. One, white and distressed with round crystal drops, one silver paint with umber glaze and red crystals, and the last one, is really duded up the most.

It is ivory, with pink roses painted on it, then antiqued with an umber glaze. Over that, I have added touches of metallic gold wax, then draped it in vintage pearl beads and 4 crystal drops salvaged from a chandelier.

This is a close up of the hand painted roses and the antiqued finish. I have decided to list this one on Ebay, because, just how many do I need???? Well, I don’t want to answer that, I probably don’t need ANY, I just want tons and tons. Which, actually, I think I might have tons.

Well, if I haven’t run on too long already, I want to mention a giveaway on http://www.parteagoodiesgiveaway.blogspot.com/ that looks extra nice. I am just intrigued by all these giveaways and swaps. I still consider myself new to all of the blogworld-ish goings on, and the generosity and sharing is just wonderful. I have been wondering how to participate. I’d love to do a give away myself.

My birthday is in a few weeks. Maybe I will give away a gift for my birthday? How do I let people know about the present I want to give? I do have an art show the weekend of my birthday, so I will be making a lot of new things. I can set aside my favorite for the gift. Any advice from any of you who have done give aways? I’d appreciate it.

Dizzy from the Re-dos??

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / April 11, 2007

Oh it feels good to be home again, we drove through a blizzard all day to get home from Minneapolis! The weather was too bad for me to sweet talk Rich into stopping at any roadside antique malls so I could browse while he waited outside with a book, or doing emails on his Blackberry.

I was thinking about him not recognizing his own home in the magazine (posted on April 8, Clueless but Cute), and I have decided that maybe it isn’t his fault. Here is a photo of my living room for an article I wrote for Paint Magic Oct 2005.

This photo was taken maybe a year later.

(Both photos taken by Bill Mathews and styled by Gloria Gale)

Well, maybe he is right to be confused?

Author name: Karla Nathan