Karla Nathan – Page 35 – Karla's Cottage

It was a happy Halloween

celebrations, cottage, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / November 12, 2022

At this point, Halloween is long past, withering away in its crypt.

Due to my inability to use my blog, I didn’t get to share the holiday, so I’ll post some highlights now. As I upload these pictures, I am sitting in the glow of my Christmas tree.

But that doesn’t mean much. Around here, the flip is fast. Almost, but not quite like at Disney, where over night on October 31st, the entire park is transformed from one holiday into the other.

We go through more of a Nightmare Before Christmas scenario, where they are jumbled together for a couple days during the switcheroo.

Sugarwings loves the spooky decor and does not want it touched if she is with us. But I needed help with getting the big tree put together and Rich was going out of town. My choices were to ask him to help before he left and have the tree set up, with all the heavy boxes of decorations piled up around the pumpkin and bat filled house or do it myself later.

Of course, I asked for the help! So we had a messy mix of two overlapping decor styles.

I used to wait til thanksgiving weekend to deck the halls. Our motto was, “You Must Respect the Bird” and wait for that holiday to pass before enjoying twinkle lights. But not any more. I have changed it to “You Must Respect the Pumpkin” and don’t even let the jack-o-lanterns start to moulder before I fill the house with joy and light fro the trees.

But no, we don’t totally gloss over Thanksgiving. I de-skull and un-spookify the table, but leave the pumpkins out on it till after the turkey has been consumed. The pumpkins either light up or have glitter, so I am happy with the compromise.

Sugarwings still trick or treats, and since my mind is already on gingerbread and garlands, I asked her to save some candy for building our gingie cottages.

As much as I love spring time weather, and the heat of summer, this has to be my favorite time of year. I dread the coming of cold weather, but love all the hustle and bustle that comes around when the leaves drop and snow starts to fall.

Ugh, did I really just say that!? Snow and falling leaves can be truly despicable (and way too cold).

But I do love the transition into Christmas, so if I have to put up with a chill to get to be surrounded by twinkle lights, we’ll, I guess I’ll just deal with it.

It’s back!

antiques/junking, holiday decor, Web/Tech

By Karla Nathan / November 9, 2022

WOO HOO!!!!

A PHOTO LOADED!

It has been a very, very long time since I could work on a blog post. For the last couple weeks, I have been checking in daily, trying to add a picture and getting a wide variety of nothings, error messages and even a splash of gobbilty gook.

It feels good to have the hosting site up and running again.

Over the last 16 years, my blog has become a part of my life. Not just a habit, or a business tool, much more than that.

I rarely look back through it, unless I amending to see a specific project, or figure out a date about when we went somewhere, or redid a room.

But when I do, I tend to get sucked down the rabbit hole, and find all sorts of tidbits about my life that I’d forgotten. I see things I do not ever remember seeing, let alone creating.

Sweet faces of babies that are now teens, and such fun things we did together.

Writing in my blog has been worth it for the family memories alone. But seeing my creations, friends, vacations, pups, and decor over the years can be a nice surprise.

When I began writing this journal, I had zilch of an inkling that I’d still be doing it this long, or that it would be more than just a business tool.

At this point, I don’t know how many people even read blogs, I no longer read my stats (which certainly aren’t in the thousands a day any longer). And it has become harder to respond to comments, because of some odd change that the hosting site made. But I still love reading the messages.

And I like knowing there is someone out there who cares.

So thank you to those of you who are still with me and have checked back during this outage.
I am quite pleased to have it back again!

Still no ability to upload photos

Weblogs

By Karla Nathan / November 7, 2022

The blog hosting site is still having problems. I haven’t been able to write a new post in weeks, and now that it is sorta posting, it won’t let me upload photos. I did have some pre-posted stories in line ready to pop up, so there were a few new ones available during this time.

I appreciate you for coming by to check in and apologize for not having any new content for you.

Hopefully I’ll have some pics soon. I visited a new friend who has amazing collections. Sugarwings dressed up as some sort of Power Puff Girl for Halloween and looked like a grown up space alien. I hand dyed a forest of bottle brush trees. And redid my booth for Good Juju.

See?! Very important stuff that I have missed writing about!! Haha. I do miss my blog, it has been a big part of my life for 16 years.

Sorry, the hosting site for my blog is still having troubles. Thanks for coming by, hopefully I will have new content soon.

Uncategorized

By Karla Nathan / November 3, 2022

Blog posting dilemmas

Web/Tech

By Karla Nathan / November 2, 2022

Well, Typepad, my blog hosting site is having major issues. Thank you for your patience and for checking back. It has been slow or impossible to open for readers, and I can just now get into it from the publishing side. Although I still cannot uplold photos.

Hopefully, we will be up and running again soon.

Daniel Island explorations during Jenn Hayslip’s Bridgerton Event

Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 31, 2022

While in SC at Daniel Island, my pal, Lori, and I got away for a little walk around the neighborhood.

The streets around Jenn’s home were charming while still being upscale and exclusive.

Everything was beautiful, yet felt like homes you could raise a family in.

The whimsical fall decor caught me eye.

Fun bats!

I am sure that any time of year is a great time to stroll around the island.

But to me, autumn seems just perfect.

Beachy Blessings

fairies, family, sea shell fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 28, 2022

My time in Siesta Key was way too short. It always is. But it seemed even more so since I had four days while my sissies stayed on for a full two weeks! After I got home, I could see all of their fun without me in photos on FB.

I could’ve used a couple more days there. Between arriving in the afternoon, getting food and supplies, then settling in, and then needing more supplies that we missed the next day, first days are typically hectic when staying at a condo.

Plus, with being gone ten days I was feeling the pressure of not getting any work done, so I brought supplies. In the first few days, I made four dozen Sugarplum Fairies.

I was a bit resentful that I had to work so hard on vacation, but I reminded myself that creating at a table over looking the Gulf, and taking breaks to go on the beach, while talking to my sissies as I worked did not suck.

Overall, I am blessed that my job consists of making pretty things. And making pretty things while at the beach makes me feel even more blessed.

Adding a sunset over the water to my day? It is hard to count that many blessings. They just keep racking up.

For a moment, I complained that I finished my work just in time to go home. Then I reminded myself that as a slightly, over reaching, workaholic, I probably would’ve just started another project.

I mean, hey, I still had supplies with me, didn’t I?

Enjoying the present while dreaming of what’s next

Food and Drink, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / October 25, 2022

While I am enjoying my Halloween/fall decorations, I am writhing with impatience for getting out the Christmas ones.

I love Christmas and all of the twinkling lights, gingerbread houses, pretty ornaments, big trees, little tress, tiny trees, candy, baking, cookies, presents, oops, I got carried away, didn’t I?

I do love it all.

Still, my outlook on life is not to wish away time I have right now by looking too far ahead. I try to enjoy what is in front of me, and not let anticipation for what’s next stop me from being present.

I tell myself that it is okay to be excited about an upcoming trip, holiday, party, or even tv series. But NOT okay to ignore what is happening right now. Which can be hard to do.

This fall, I sat out a few things, but mostly let Sugarwings go at it. They got out the bucket of decorations and did whatever they wanted with them, starting up in my husband’s office where our big tv is. We were gathering there to watch Hocus Pocus 2, and made up special party trays for it.

The food was yummy and the kiddo’s decor was fun. We also thought the movie was pretty dang cute. It was even better with pumpkin colored lights and plastic spiders in a darkened room.

Right now we have a dining table filled with pumpkins, real and lit up. And I am enjoying Sugarwings’ exuberant design skills.

And I am doing my best not to long for the twinkly lights of the Xmas tree.

Luckily, I get an early fix! Good Juju is coming up on the first Friday of November. I am going to be going all out on my holiday decor there. That will hold me over til after Halloween so I can keep my promise to myself of not wishing away the present with dreams of the future.
Which is tough because those lights sure beckon to me.

Some Precious North Carolina Time

family, sea shell fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 22, 2022

My recent trip was a buffet of travel. Visiting family in Charlotte/Asheville mountains/ scenic downtown Charleston and a dress up art event in Jenn’s spectacular home/ then sister beach time in Florida.

All I was missing was some snowy venues or desert time.

My boy treated me to breakfast at his favorite spot in Asheville to start off our visit and after dripping sweet potato gravy down my shirt, we had a full day of exploring thrift shops, riverbanks, and downtown.

He and I can both spend hours just looking at rocks by the water and that is just what we did.

I had hoped to visit one of the construction sites where he has been creatively doing his woodwork art installations, but time was short.

But then, any time I get one on one with my son is too short. It has possibly been years since we have had this kind of time together.

While in NC, I got to visit the latest family members to become Ashevillians. Our oldest grandfairy and her mama now live in the area. And I was there for Dewdrop’s first day at a new school after she and her mom moved across town.

She already met a new friend on the bus. That kid is such a social butterfly, I fully expected as much. But was still relieved to hear it.

While there, I decided that I definitely need more time in NC. Not only is the sand full of semi precious stones like garnets, mica, and quartz- the state is full of very precious family members.

And I found a boulder shaped like a throne.
I belong there!

Back in business

Etsy Goodies, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage

By Karla Nathan / October 19, 2022

This week, I am in the process of reopening my Etsy shop and Boutique.

It never officially closed. But in 2019, I was busy with my art event and lots of travel. In March of 2020 I had surgery and then Covid hit. Everyone else with online shops sold tons of stuff, but between surgery recovery, home schooling, and just keeping our family together (plus horror stories about the PO), I didn’t even try to stock up.

Just as things were improving, we lost Ryan. I did not care about anything after that.

It has been a couple of years now, and getting the booth at Good Juju has been helpful for my creativity.

So much so, that I over produced. As I tend to do anyway. When I saw that there were unsold items after the two day sale, I realized I’d made enough to stock a booth for a month, not two days.

I also realized that I missed my online stores. I cannot say that the tedious parts are enjoyable, the hours of computer time that it takes to fill the pages. But I do love the packaging and wrapping of the items and sending them out to their new homes across the country.

In my time away, technology left me behind. There were some re-learning curves and some changes. That took me a bit of figuring out, but once I got into the groove, I started listing items like I hadn’t even had a break from doing it.

This old dog learned new tricks!

Basically, it was the same thing, there were just some improvements here and there, some buttons were in a different place, or had been replaced by newer processes. But I have it down now and hope to keep both spaces up to date with new inventory.
I have already had the pleasure of wrapping up pretties to send out! Thank you to my shoppers.

Author name: Karla Nathan