Karla Nathan – Page 45 – Karla's Cottage

A Lovely Day with Friends

By Karla Nathan / September 20, 2021

Last week, I drove to Indiana for my 45th reunion and some sister time. On the way, I stopped for a birthday party craft day for a dear friend.

Not only was it a fun day with buddies, great food (and pink cake!), plus making a sweet project, it was also a pleasant way to break up the trip.

The drive is about nine hours with stops, but I split it into two days starting with this gala get together.

Crafting pretty pumpkins, laughing with gal pals, and having a fancy luncheon was a perfect start for my day of travel. I drove to two of my favorite antique malls after saying goodbye to friends, then a few hours further til it was time to take myself out for a crunchy, fried chicken dinner and grab some sleep at a Holiday Inn Express.

Too bad all days on the road aren’t that much fun.

These are the little gifts I wrapped up for the party goers.

Thanks again for the festive start to my vacation, Birthday Girl!

And thanks for sharing your big day with us.

Into the Sunflower Fields

family, photography, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 16, 2021

Sugarwings’ mama has graduated from her midwifery school! After about 16 years of of working full time and continuing her education, (while getting excellent grades throughout), she has her degrees.

She needed some photos in her cap and gown, and the sunflower fields were just hitting their peak.

Perfect timing!

Not only do sunflowers make a beautiful backdrop for pictures, the huge expanse of yellow blooms that rolls off into the distance is magical.

When you first arrive and see the other cars parked, The number of people already there is deceptive.

I usually feel like I’ll have to go way out into the blooms to find a private area for photos.

But no. Once you step inside, you are surrounded and it can feel like you are in your own private, yellow world.

All of the other families who are visiting just disappear. Unless they brought a flying, super baby with them, who can skim across the top of the flowers.

Some years, the weather doesn’t comply and the farmer isn’t as successful. Others, like now, the flowers are massive and the fields are full.

It’s free to visit, but tips are appreciated, and if you pick flowers, you should leave a dollar for each.

I have only taken Sugarwings twice, and what a big difference seven years makes!

Why have I only been a handful of times, when I get so much joy out of going? Well, weather, timing, many things get in the way, durn it.

This time, the weather was beyond perfect. We headed out at about 6pm, on the Thursday before Labor Day. The lighting was ideal, the mystical “golden hour” was adding a soft glow to the air, and best of all, there were no bugs or mud.

Our timing was ideal.

And what a lovely place for a graduate from Kansas to have a photo shoot. We are the “Sunflower State.”

Plus, it just plain, old makes me happy to be there.

My transition mantel decor

Uncategorized

By Karla Nathan / September 12, 2021

At the end of August, I was ready for a new mantel look, but not ready to embrace fall, pumpkins, or Halloween.

I kept it flowery like my garden outside. In the yard, the rose bushes are looking their best, and I am really enjoying those blooms.

This look might be verging on too springlike, but I’m okay with it.

UPDATE:

After creating this landscape, I decided to add it to the mantel in place of the smaller, unframed one.

Another handmade book

Books

By Karla Nathan / September 9, 2021

The paint pours I have been making over the summer are coming in handy for the book covers I’ve put together. This one is so pretty, I haven’t even added to it beyond the clasp.

The spine for this book is metal filigree and the pages are tied in with leather strings.

It is a bit different than my others, I needed something less girly for this one.

Actually, not girly at all, it is for a friend’s father.

I did not have photos to add, but have made it ready to pop some into.

There are envelopes for memorabilia.

And pockets too.

My favorite planter

flowers

By Karla Nathan / September 6, 2021

Quite a few years back, we took out a couple of trees. Being thrifty, we left the stumps, because if you’ve ever paid to have two trees removed, you’d understand why we were feeling the need for thrift.

At first, I used the stumps as platforms to set planters on, but after decaying over time, they started to sink inward.

So I filled the hole that was developing with dirt and plants.

Over time, it kept sinking and rotting til it evolved into losing the entire front part of the stump. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, so I stacked rocks to build a wall and prolonged its use a while longer.

It was honestly much prettier this spring before the baby pups learned how to climb the rocks like a ladder to dig in the dirt. I’m surprised that any of the begonias survived at all. As fall approaches, I’m thinking about switching to mums in this, but I cannot kill the flowers that are still hanging on. Maybe I can transplant them to a new pot.

Because this would look great filled up and blooming bigger.

And this might be my last year to enjoy this particular stump, there might not be much left of it after this winter.

A little bit of paint makes for big changes

Corona virus, cottage, Hand Painted Furniture

By Karla Nathan / September 3, 2021

Well, I forgot to get a before photo, but I’m sure you can picture this dresser in brown. Add a scuffed up top to complete the picture and you’ve got it.

Nice lines, solid, and well made, but past its prime.

After using Goo Gone to clean off some mess left behind by stickers, I started with a coat of Michaels’ brand of chalk paint in gray. It dried streaky (one coat is never enough, is it?)

Next, I put white and gray chalk paints together on a plate and dipped a brush in both at once, then started pouncing it on. When dry, I lightly sanded here and there for mild distressing, and topped coated it with Polycrylic satin.

While my paints were out, I covered the old wooden box in the gray, and the hand towel holder in white, and finished both off with the Polycrylic too.

With these pieces, I actually remembered the befores!

This shot is way before, back before I broke off one arm. Dang it. The old metal it is made of, was too pliable. I hope the other arm lasts, this is being used as a mask holder by the door. I feel like hanging up my mask to air it out is better than laying it down.

Well I guess this is a sorta before shot. I caught myself as I started to paint it. This is a perfect little cabinet to keep by the door, the deep drawer holds things that I don’t want cluttering up the top of the dresser.

The two, small containers of paint went a long way, neither is empty. I’m typically not a fan of chalk paint, but it can go quickly for a project since there is no need for a primer and it dries so fast you can rapidly start on your second coat. And if you don’t mess with wax, using a clear coat instead, it is a pretty easy way to go.

And talk about drawers! Wow, this new (old) dresser holds so much, I still have an empty drawer to fill up yet. So far I am using two for dog supplies, leashes, etc, one for clean masks, one for garden gloves, mittens, and winter hats.

Oh, that’s right, I still have TWO to fill.

Yea, I know it isn’t meant to be a kitchen piece, it should be in a bedroom. But it works in this spot so well, that didn’t matter to me. It is exactly what I needed for right here.

Farewell, Summer

dogs, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 31, 2021

It has been hot around here, more than usual for a KS summer, but also, green and vibrant. It has been a wet summer too, without the typical blowing dust that the heat usually brings. Our garden and flowers are still thriving.

More so than I have, even though I try to not let the extra hot days get to me, because I know I will miss summer and wish for some extreme heat when the seasons change and the cold creeps back.

The dogs and I have spent as much time outside as we can. Molly has spent the summer learning to perfect the art of digging.

She has some impressive skills.

We have been attending adolescent puppy classes and she did well there too. I enjoyed the classes so much that I hope to sign up for the next step in classes.

I’d love to master some dog training skills myself and am considering keeping litters an extra month for further training. I’ve also contacted the local shelter to offer myself as a foster home for litters (no answer so far).

This probably makes me sound like a crotch edgy, old lady, but why the heck does school start so early? “Dagnabbit, back in my day” schools began after Labor Day. Sugarwings’ school starts up mid August, and I’m never quite ready to lose her company so soon.

But there they go, off to high school! (With a grown up, hairstyle!)

My hair got a makeover too.

Although, between the humidity and my lack of hot iron skills, it only looks good the day I get it done at the beauty shop. Maybe with Autumn arriving, it will cooperate more, most of the summer, I’ve sported a frizzy mass of messy, limp curls.

Or just lake hair. Which might not look great, but feels pretty good.

A framed stained glass mosaic by Shanna- Thanks, Shan!

cottage, friends, Hearts, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / August 28, 2021

This lovely surprise was created by my good friend and Artist, Shanna Wagner. I love everything she makes, but this one is even more wonderful because it is jam packed with meaning.

I can just picture his reaction, if he’d seen this. He had an appreciation for artwork. And for kind people.

The heart in the center is a fused piece she made in her kiln.

It is surrounded by roses, iris, hydrangeas,

and two bluebirds of happiness!

It was made to fit this antique frame, that is just perfectly wonderful itself.

And it is created to hang either in a window to let the sunlight through, or on a wall, with lights behind it.

Ryan loved red roses and purple iris. Funny, I’d known him forty years before I knew how much he enjoyed flowers. We’d stop to look at them along our walks. There were iris growing by the pond we liked to circle, over and over, and he commented every time when the purple iris were in bloom.

There was so much I learned about my boy in his last few years, I wonder what else I’d have discovered if I had more time with him?

Shan isn’t just generous with her art, she is with her time, home, and materials too. She invites friends into her studio weekly to have a mosaic day. Here is my piece in progress.

I saved the vases that flowers were delivered to us in after Ry Guy died. I hope to cover them all in mosaic glass to use throughout our home and his apartment. And I know that he would have said, “Wow, Mom, that is cool!”

While there is much I will never get to discover about him, I love it that I know enough to hear his voice in my head, picturing what I know he would say to me about something like these mosaics.

North Carolina Riverbank Fairies

dogs, fairies, sea shell fairies

By Karla Nathan / August 25, 2021

One morning in NC, I took the dogs for a walk along the stream that flowed through our campgrounds. The glimmer of sparkling, mica rocks caught my attention, so we paused to gather up fairy materials.

Molly has been going to puppy school and this fairy building adventure showed me just how well the training has paid off. It isn’t easy to hold two leashes and arrange rocks into a little sprite at the same time. She made it easy, though. There was no pulling or impatience on her part at all.

And little, 6lb Dorothy was a doll herself. I whipped up a fairy quickly and they didn’t get in the way one bit.

Well, at least not until I had finished.

Then, Molly gave the fairy a “hug”.

A memory book

Books, friends, Ryan, tributes, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / August 22, 2021

When Ryan died, I cut up a canvas that hung on a wall of his apartment and turned it into a book cover. Filling the pages of that book meant weeks of happy memories as I sorted through photos and wrote down stories.

There were also many slow tears dropped onto the paper.

And other times when the sobbing was so hard, I found myself needing to lay down on the cement floor of the studio, in the bits and pieces of fallen scraps and trimmings.

That photo album has become a treasured piece for me.

Since crafting his book, two close friends lost family members too, and I made books for them.

And this week, I put together this album for another friend’s birthday.

She lost her mom a couple years ago. At that time, I wasn’t making these memorials, but after seeing their meaningfulness, I wanted her to have one.

Each book that I build is a mix of photos (usually taken from Facebook), blank pages to add more pictures later, note paper to write on, with pockets and envelopes to store tokens and trinkets.