Karla Nathan – Page 47 – Karla's Cottage

Summer Style

By Karla Nathan / July 14, 2021

We may live far from the ocean here in the middle of Kansas, but I still need some beachy-ness in my surroundings.

This carnival glass bowl was picked up for $3 on an antiquing jaunt with pals. It felt very oceany to me, so I filled it with shells and a matching candle. Everything sat a bit too wonky, so I removed it all and added moss inside before arranging the shells again.

That helped.

Of course, I didn’t do a before photo of this junky, old tray I had. It had been used to hold kid’s supplies in the studio and was splattered a lot of different colors. So, I painted it white, then drizzled on some beach tones and swirled them about. While the paint was still wet, I sprinkled in some sand and a little hint of glitter.

Typically, I can’t keep anything displayed on this coffee table because Sugarwings takes over that area in the living room and she fills the space up with her own assortment of doodads and accessories. But she is visiting her dad for a few weeks, so I went for it and sat out my tray of pretties.

There are multiple layers of varnish over my swirly paint, so later on when the teen returns and I lose my window of decorating time, the tray can actually be functional to use in the kitchen.

A Handmade Book for Beth

Books

By Karla Nathan / July 11, 2021

A while ago, before my life was All Puppies, All The Time, Beth came over for a craft day. We did some acrylic paint pours and I used one to later turn into a book cover for her birthday.

I left the cover blank so she could embellish it as she wished, or keep it as is.

The interior is neutral, ready for her to fill with her low color style art.

My garage has been set up for pouring paint since early May. I have had quite a few parties with friends and family out there, and am accumulating a good stack of canvasses to cut up and make into book covers. Now that I am puppy-less, it might be time to get some of those paintings turned into something useful.

Lavender

Painting with thread

By Karla Nathan / July 8, 2021

My buddy has been working part time at a lavender farm. So, for her birthday, I attempted a lavender inspired tee shirt for her.

I was going for muted colors and might have lost the feel of the flowers it was supposed to be. But my intentions were good!

Happy 4th of July!

family

By Karla Nathan / July 4, 2021

The last puppy left yesterday, and luckily, I had a houseful of grandfairies and a sunset at the lake to distract me.

Sugarwings will be spending the rest of the summer with her dad, so the emptiness of the house will be hitting me soon.

But for right now, I am relishing the chaos and laughter of having everyone here and feeling quite pleased to have been able to sleep in and not be up with the furry babies at 5:30 am.

Saying farewell

dogs, Goldendoodle Puppies

By Karla Nathan / July 1, 2021

By this weekend, our dog population will have dwindled down to just four, Dorothy (who is getting tons of attention after losing her brother), Molly, Sugar, and Honey.

The pups are starting to leave for their new families.

Sugar is ready to say goodbye. She has been sleeping on the blankets that go to their new homes, and letting me rub toys and blankies all over her to get the scent nicely saturated. But is avoiding anyone trying to nurse. She is over it.

The bags are packed with necessities and goodies to take along.

As hard as it is to say goodbye, I do love seeing the pups meet their new people. They seem to know that person is theirs now.

While it is hard for me to watch them go, it might be even tougher for Molly.

She cannot stand to have them out of her sight. I see a lot of games of fetch in my future to distract the poor girl through her sadness of losing her rollicking, lil playmates.

And who will their mommy hunt tasty tidbits for!? She brought this critter right into the house to them. At least the mice and birds she catches have been delivered outdoors.

I will miss their endless fascination and curiosity. Oh and the enthusiasm! They kept things lively around here. I loved to show them new things to watch their excitement in exploring it.

I loved taking care of them too, the bathing, and brushing, and medicating. I was rubbing Neosporin onto one fluffy boy’s fat tummy after another while sitting out on the patio and visiting the other day and someone asked if I actually enjoyed all of that work.

Yes, I do. It doesn’t seem like work to tend to these babies’ needs. And they are here for such a short time, I try to savor all the moments.

Maybe it is from raising kids, then grandfairies and looking back at how fast it all flew by.

My lessons have taught me to look for smiles and love where I can find them, and treasure each one.

Fresh paint

cottage, dogs, family

By Karla Nathan / June 27, 2021

We have had some cheerful, fun relatives visiting for a few days, just what we needed after the loss of Twinkle and Albert.

I thought I’d spruce the place up a bit before they arrived and get a much needed coat of paint on this swing.

While I was at it, I spray painted the old, metal chairs white and used some of the blue paint on a few flower pots around the yard. Those rusty chairs have so many coats of paint on them, I’d say they were more paint than metal. But that wouldn’t be true, because they flake off so much.

Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to be a person with brand new stuff instead of junk…

But new stuff wears out too, right? It needs painted after years of wear. IF it holds up that long. These chairs are probably from the 50s. So, I guess I’ll stick with them.

I guess the swing has been painted a lot too. This is the first time it’s been blue.

It has had many incarnations in white and one in cream. Blue is a pleasant change.

(Little Buddy, on the left has become available again, if you are looking for a mellow ball of fuzzy love to snuggle)

Our family just left this morning, and we missed them already. We went boating, out for a run, did some paint pours, belted out some karaoke, but mostly played with puppies.

It was relaxing to hang out in the courtyard after dinner and watch the pups wear themselves out.

Every family reunion should feature puppies!

He was a good boy

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family

By Karla Nathan / June 23, 2021

Before we could recover from the loss of Twinkle, Albie had a sudden illness and died also.

He was Twinkle’s son from her large litter of nine. Dorothy was from that same batch of puppies, as well as my sister’s Frodo, my pal Shan’s Oscar, and our neighbor’s Scruffy.
So many good babies!

Albie and Dorothy were lifelong besties.

Albie was an odd little guy, a mix of worry and adventure but full of devotion.

He was at the same time, hanging in the background and being first to join in on any activity.

He never wanted to be left out of anything, and was worried that he might be. We went out of our way to reassure him and in the last few years, his confidence grew to the point where he thought he was one of the big dogs, not part of the group of Yorkies.

His nickname was “The River Dog” because he loved kayak trips. We feel that separating him for things like this, and giving him alone time away from the five other dogs was part of helping him find his inner big dog and making his personality bloom.

He spent most of his free time perched on the back of a chair, where he had a good view of what was going on in the house. He liked to be on a chair with us, so he could be nearby, but he wasn’t a cuddler. He watched every move we made, always on alert for what he could do to join in and stay close, but didn’t want to be held.

I think he thought he was our protector and always had to be on guard to keep us safe.

Albie watched over us all, including the puppies.

He was vigilant when there was a new litter, keeping an eye on them, but never venturing too near.

From the very beginning, he was closest to Dewdrop. I think he might have thought he needed to watch over her like he did the puppies.

He might have a worried look on his face in this photo, but he was pretty dang happy. She was one person who he liked being held by. He followed her everywhere when she was at the cottage.

That boy loved coming to work with me in the studio, too. He had a habit of jumping up into whatever chair I just got out of. If I was at the computer, he was on my chair in my work station. When I came back to the table, he’d hop in my desk chair.

When we got Honey, he wasn’t too happy with us and there was a long adjustment period, with the Littles against the Bigs. Eventually, they all became one pack and Albert was right out front when running with the big dogs in the woods. He thought of himself as a leader, although I don’t know if any of the large dogs acknowledged his role as boss. They indulged him, and let him think what he wanted.

But no matter how important his role was in guarding the family and telling the other dogs what to do, he always had time for the girls, and enjoyed the special attention they gave him.

I will miss his subdued enthusiasm in joining everything anyone was doing. His quiet joy in being a family leader. The unending love he had for us all.

When I buried his mommy, Twinkle just a few days ago, he sat by my side the entire time, and watched me put her in the ground. Afterwards he sat there a while, like he was taking care of her, watching over her body like he watched over us.

He never complained, he never demanded. He was 9 lbs of bravery and sweetness, with a little bit of worry and a lot of caring thrown in the mix.

He died very bravely too. Rich had been out of town ten days, and Albert stayed strong until his return. I think he was hanging on to see him.

We held Albie and his sister in our arms together as he slowly faded away, whispering his favorite words to him, telling him how much we loved our River Dog.

I will miss my funny, weird little guy. He was a good boy.

Pretty stones

Corona virus, cottage, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, flowers, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / June 19, 2021

When Twinkle passed, I brought her home from the vet’s office to show her to the other dogs. I knew they would look for her if I didn’t. You might think it’s odd, but we showed Ryan’s body to our pets too. They were overly excited about a room filled with paramedics and other professionals during a pandemic when they hadn’t been around many people, so it wasn’t exactly a moving moment.

But at least they knew why Uncle Ryan wasn’t around for ear scratches and walks any more.

It would’ve been easier to have Twinkle cremated, my husband was out of town and it was 100 degrees that day. But I hated to think of the other dogs always looking for her and not knowing where she was.

I buried her next to Ryan’s memorial tree.

A dear friend and her daughter had engraved and painted rocks for me and I’d been planning on placing them by this oak. I am glad I hadn’t done it yet, they were just what I needed to top Twinkle’s grave.

I used some of the rocks in planters too.

Ryan is never out of my thoughts, but I still like to have little trinkets and mementos of him around me.

To Twinkle, with love

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 16, 2021

Twinkle was born on Valentine’s Day and was my sweetheart of a dog. Sugarwings was just big enough to grab her and giggle when the pup came to live with us, and from the very beginning, that little dog never complained about how rough she might be treated. She kept running back for more, more, more.

Tinks was the perfect pet for a rough housing kid. She might have seemed fragile, since she was a Yorkie, but that dog was one tough chick. She was always there just waiting to be included in any game her girl wanted to play with her.

They could spend hours together splashing in the water hose or digging in the mud together.

As babies, they shared toys, beds, and as Sugarwings would insist, no matter how hard I tried to keep the milk away from the dog, the little girl shared her bottle with the little dog.

Twinkle was devoted to us all, and one of her favorite words was ‘work’ which she knew meant we were going to to studio together, where she’d climb into this bowl of lace I kept on the floor. Since she decided it was hers, not mine, I changed out the art supplies for a pillow and let her keep it.

She raised her children to love napping in the bowl too.

And she had a lot of children!

She was a great doggie mom. She was meticulous in caring for her babies, still holding 8 year old Dorothy down to give her a good cleaning every evening, up until poor Twinks wasn’t healthy enough to be the caretaker.

She was a dog who lived to love, and was devoted to us all. She was curious and excited about life, up for any adventure even if it was just a trip to the laundry room to check on the load of clothes in the dryer.

And she loved to pose. When she’d see my camera in my hand, she didn’t consider that I might be wanting a photo of a project or something to list in my shop. She KNEW that the picture had to be of her. I sometimes had to pretend to take one of her, so she would relax.

The only thing she didn’t like was Honey. You can tell by the way she refuses to look at the camera, that she wasn’t too happy about us getting a new puppy. Twinkle thought that she was one of our kids, since she was raised with the grand fairy, and didn’t think we needed to get a dog.

There were some battles for a couple of years between the two. But by the time Honey had her own puppies, they’d reached a truce. Twinkle was allowed to wash those puppies and nanny them.

Honey must’ve appreciated the vast experience that Tinks had to offer.

But it wasn’t until the last couple of years that they actually became friends. Twinkle had gone blind and discovered that Honey’s thick tail made an ideal bed.

The first time she waddled over to it and laid down Honey seemed shocked.

Then snuggled up to her.

Since then, the truce was done and they became family.

Over the years, one of her favorite things was going boating.

The words ‘boat’ or ‘“lake’ would send her running to the car, ready for a day on the water.

Twinkle was more than just a dog to me, she was my friend.
And a very good friend, not just to me.

A little bit of painting

dogs, Goldendoodle Puppies, paintings

By Karla Nathan / June 12, 2021

While the cuddle bugs have kept me very busy, I still have managed to do a few creative moves. I spent time pour painting again, and tried something very different. I enjoyed crafting this circle of women so much, I think I could repeat the theme with winged fairies in pastel colors too.

I’ve been doing puppy portraits too.

And I turned some pours into landscapes. Although this one looks alien.

This one is soothing.

And here is a masterpiece! Although, I haven’t sat it out yet, 8 of the 9 pups were spoken for by the time I got the sign ready. I used this sign on a door in my yard for Sugar’s first litter and sold most of the pups this way.

It needed repainted a bit because of changes and touched up from storing it, but was a minor task to fix up. Now, I need to set it outside and see if I sell that last, sweet boy.

Author name: Karla Nathan