This is Bluebird Belle, a beautiful birdie that Lesa will be crafting with us in June.
And guess what? You can transform it into a lantern if you’d like!
Lesa is a genius at design, right? If you’d like more info about the weekend and on how to sign up, please read through this post:
https://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2020/03/bluebirds-song-sign-up-and-details.html
On our long, long drive to Florida, we made a side trip to Helen, GA. We had family to visit, and were excited to see them, not even knowing what a gorgeous, little tourist town they lived in.
We had unpleasant weather, not the best to be pulling a camper along twisty, mountain curves. But the scenery was still spectacular, if spooky.
Being in a truck with three freshly bathed dogs on a long trip, started out as an adventure.
The rain soon turned it into a wet, muddy mess.
Luckily, our family was made up of understanding, dog people. It all worked out.My SIL, Sharon keeps a mop handy for their big dogs too.
She and I got out to explore the town a shop a little.
The town is on a river in the mountains, and I hope to return in nicer weather for some hiking and floating.
On this visit, we stuck to indoor activities, and I found these fantastic, vintage beaded pieces at the local antique mall.
Most of the trip was spent catching up and chatting in their new, hillside cottage. I was touched to see a plethora of things I’d made over the years.
Like this kitchen island.
Way back when I had a furniture business, I was always building pieces out of scraps of this and that.
I used to paint a lot of trays too.
So many trays, boards, signs, cabinets, whatever had a blank space, got all flowered up.
Well, not always flowers. This cabinet was damaged so I added a mouse hole.
She had an old watercolor of mine too.
It was sweet of her to keep these around.
At the moment, I am recovering from knee surgery. If you tried to get ahold of me to sign up for Bluebirds Song, I will be getting back to you soon.
Twinkle came along on the Great Camping Adventure, instead of staying home with Albie and Dorothy for Ryan to watch, as she usually would have. Our 13 year old girl is blind now, and we worried she’d have trouble with the doggie door in the snow while Ry was at work. Or get lost in a corner of the fence. Or not find her water dish.
Funny, she seems to be the happiest that she has ever been, not even bothered by knowing she can’t see. Could it be that she finally let go of her hopeless cause of remaining Alpha after we brought Honey into our home?
At first, she struggled with losing her sight and was timid in her steps. Maybe the blurry shapes she saw confused or scared her?
But once her vision was completely gone, all fear was gone.
So much so, that she gleefully walks into danger. We call it, Magooing. Like Mr. Magoo.
Tinks can still find cozy spots to curl up.
This is a scene we never expected to see. These dogs were mortal enemies. We worked with Honey’s resource guarding and life became calmer and safer, but there was no love lost between them for years. They shared a home, not a pack.
Once Twinkle could no longer see, she began feeling around for a warm soft spot to nap, and didn’t even notice if it was on top of her greatest foe.
At first, Honey would bristle at the intrusion of her space. But then, she seemed to realize that the little Yorkie was harmless, and actually kind of cuddly.
Which is lucky for us, could you imagine sharing such teensy living quarters for two weeks with dogs that couldn’t stand being near each other?
Uhm, you are probably looking at this with horror in your eyes wondering how anyone could spend any time at all in such a small space.
It certainly was NOT “glamping.” And many days the weather wasn’t Florida’s finest, so we were all piled up on each other.
But it was somewhat okay.. should I say fun? Maybe not fun, maybe “enjoyable.” Or probably, “not bad.”
Did I curse at the dogs every time they tripped me? Oh yes.
Then, I got home to our 5,000 sq ft home and was still cursing as I tripped over them in the kitchen. No matter how much space we have, there they are under my feet.
Hopefully I won’t be tripping over them too much, I am having some minor knee surgery this week.
If you would like to sign up to come to Bluebird’s Song I might not be checking emails for a couple of days. But I will answer them in the order they came in when I am once again up and about.
And I hope you do sign up! It will be an intimate group, not as large as my typical gatherings. But there are some spots left.
Please check the previous post for details.
Join us in Kansas, somewhere over the rainbow, where happy little bluebirds fly, and beautiful dreams come true, for classes with Lesa Dailey and myself. Our time will include 2 lunches, lots of treats, and a happy hour party.
This class is limited in size to the amount of vintage albums I have to craft into art journals. No two books are alike, so the selecting of covers will be chosen by guests in the order of class sign ups.
We will be using The Good Stuff, lots of lovely ephemera to create a personalized, one of a kind book.
Lesa will be leading us in making one of her delightful birds. Here are photos of birds I have gotten from her, not the pictures of what she will be teaching. I will let you know as soon as she gets a sample to me.
I do not tell Lesa what to make, she is a designing genius and I leave it up to her!
This will be my project for Sunday. Although I have to warn you, all will differ, as I am using old books to build the kits.
I will provide a very, very vintage album, disassembled, painted, waxed, and buffed, ready for you to craft into a book. I have many old albums, in different styles, and choice of the books will be in order of sign ups.
Also, if you would rather have a book cover as is, no paint, please request that ahead of time, so I can leave some plain.
Each kit will be of equal value and style, but they will vary according to the book itself.
Lesa's class will be most of the day Saturday, with a break for lunch.
Then in the later part of the afternoon, we will have some fairy fun, with happy hour crafting. There will be a special Bluebird Sangria, and blue fairies with some tasty snacks.
If you prefer to make a fairy from a picture of someone you love or of yourself, I can edit a photo for you. Or you can choose from a collage sheet that I will provide. Your fairy can hang, or be used in your book.
Your art journal kit will include pre-folded and prepped pages, ready to tie in, and vintage mats to use for collage or to frame a picture. I'm doing the boring part ahead for you, so you will have all the pieces ready to assemble, and have time left over to decorate interior pages.
You will get:
I am cutting apart a treasured, hand pieced tablecloth of netting and old lace, everyone will get a section of this to use.
As well as gorgeous bridal lace with sparkling sequins and beads.
Cost will be $350 and can be split into two payments completed by May 1.
I will keep track of the order in which you respond, and that will determine who gets which album to work with.
Please email at
Karlanathan@sbcglobal.net
to ask for a paypal invoice or an address to mail a check.
Refund policy- Kits will be sent to you at a cost of $65 for Lesa's, $80 for the book, and $25 for the fairy plus postage, and the rest refunded in full. I know that many are worried about upcoming travel restrictions and wanted to make sure you were covered if that occurs. If you can't come to the class, you will at least have a project mailed to you to work on at home.
Our gathering is held during KCMO’s First Friday weekends, so you might want to treat yourself to shopping at the fabulous Old West Bottoms Antique District on Friday while in the area.
PS- I will be having surgery on Friday March 6, so please understand if I don't get back to you right away. Emails will be answered in the order they come in for sign ups. Thank you!!
Here are some of the albums I have that are in the original condition.
There are various colors and styles, all quite lovely. Some are velvet, some celluloid, some leather.
When I paint the red velvet ones, they turn a pretty color of pink.
This is Lesa's project from A Snowbird's Song last November.
I will leave you with some close ups of the album covers.
Here is one that I turned into an updated photo album that was left as is.
And this one was painted.
All are slightly damaged and tattered due to age. I look at that as an opportunity to use more lace on them!
I took advantage of being in Florida and made a day trip to Orlando. My sis, Terry and her fun husband were there on a spur of the moment trip.
It was pretty dang cold out for that part of the country, so we thought we would try something different. Instead of going to a park, we had a sightseeing day.
And we based our wanderings around whatever reservations we could get for meals. If you know much about Disney, you might know about the big hoopla around making reservations for meals 180 days in advance. They book up that quickly, especially character meals.
I’ve discovered that people hoard those reservations and make as many as they can, deciding at the last minute which to keep.
You can usually snag a good one with the 24 hour window there is to get refunds on deposits when cancelling.
We were lucky to get into tea at the Grand Floridian for lunch and dinner at Storybook Woods with Snow White.
Along with the Evil Queen.
Both restaurants are in hotels, not in a park, so no ticket was required. But we still got to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks over Wilderness Lodge when we arrived to dine with Snow and Dopey.
The rest of the day was spent riding the skyline and monorail to sightsee at hotels along the way.
I’d never seen the Grand Floridian before and loved all of the details.
Of course, Disney is all about the details and art. This giant mosaic is at the newest hotel, the Riviera.
Keeping with our laid back attitude, we took a break at the Riviera in the kids’ craft room. Dale got some hot chocolate, we watched a movie on the big screen, and I did the day’s project.
It was a lesson in doing an animation cell, where you paint on the back of the clear plastic, then flip it over when done. This is what the back of mine looked like.
We took the time to watch a bride arrive for her wedding, a teeny girl dressed as a princess get a photo shoot, we meandered through lobbies, gift shops, and looked around Disney Springs.
You never know what sights you’ll see when you slow down and take the time to look.
Like a biker paying tribute to Walt, or a cross eyed Elsa made of crystals.
I can’t say that I have ever had a bad day at Disney, but this lazy, no plan, wandering around day, sure was extra special.
We have only had minimal beach time so far, but when we made it to the shore, it was the best!
Some trips required jackets and were quite short.
But even a chilly, brisk walk on the beach is uplifting to the soul.
The dogs agree.
And so did Dewdrop. She and her dad drove down from North Carolina to see us, and get a bit of Florida sunshine.
Uhm, at least that was the plan…
Our camper is TINY.
Or should I say tiny?
We have two adults, two big dogs and one little Twinkle living in it. Add a cold, relentless rain and two more people? Since one was a little fairy with a bad cough, it simply wouldn’t work.
The solution? We found the only hotel with an indoor pool that had a single room left (it was Daytona 500 weekend, and not only were the hotels full, they were doubled in price).
And we could check in at 9am so we had a place to get the kiddo out of the rain and take advantage of the free breakfast that morning as well as check out day. (Two free breakfasts that I didn’t have to make in the camper took away some of the ouchiness of paying twice the cost of a room that night.)
Did I mention how teensy weensy the camper is?
A meal outdoors is nice, but indoors, impossible. it was even nicer after Guncle Randy gave me a box of lace curtains from an estate sale, and our “dining room” had a bit of privacy.
I have never done anything interesting to the interior of the camper, it is not only on the extra small side, it is dark and gloomy too.
If we decide to do more of this, I see a makeover coming.
And do I think I want to do this again?
Yes, I think I do…
Camping is a affordable way to travel with our dogs. Bad weather complicates things, but that can happen on any trip. You just have to adjust and make the most of it, and I feel like we have made this work.
After being here almost two weeks, I’ve got lots of ideas on how to do it better next time.
Such as not bringing as many clothes with me. Traveling with dogs means hitting the washer and dryer a lot, so I shouldn’t need to bring that much along and take up valuable packing space.
I was doing laundry quite often. (Thanks, Guncles! They live near by and welcomed the whole crew, dogs, laundry and all.)
And feeding us royally!
While the kids were here, we stayed in Guncleland a few days and helped rebuild their deck.
The family bonded over hard labor, good food, laughter and togetherness.
And it was a welcome break from what I was calling, “The Crappy Camper”
So was exploring old town St Augustine.
It hasn’t been a perfect trip, but there have been moments of perfection.
Yes, I’d do it again.
Our Great Camping Adventure is going wonderfully. We have had so-so weather some days, and others perfectly lovely. On the extra nice days, we have headed to the beach for walks with the dogs.
While there, I was inspired to make seashell pups instead of my typical fairies or angels. The first one I made washed away with the tide, which felt rather pleasing to see. I liked watching my little creation float off.
It felt like making an offering to the sea.
So I looked around to find a few more bits of shells to whip up another, this time arranging them up higher on the sand.
This one is Twinkle the Yorkie.
And here is Sugar the doodle.
Uhm, you will just have to take my word for it that this is Honey the golden.
Not an anteater.
Maybe I should stick to fairies?
The dogs are loving the beach as much as I do, so I attempted the little shell critters as a beach thank you from them.
No, my camping trip wasn’t to Paris…but I still worked on pages in my Paris themed journal.
The books themselves are what I will be making for my class at a Midnight in Paris.
I don’t know if there will be time to work on the interiors of the books during class, but I wanted to have some examples of what it could possibly be used for.
It will be more of an art journal than travel journal for me.
But of course, they can be used in anyway the students would like.
I simply enjoy working on pages, no matter what the theme or use of the book will be.
But day dreaming of a trip to Paris is always fun to do.
We are spending our Valentine’s Day in the tiny trailer at St Augustine Beach. But before I left, I enjoyed the holiday pretties that I’d made at my friend’s valentine get together and had them on display out in the studio.
I’d crafted this pipe cleaner heart from the inspiration of Lori Oles’ Christmas project during A Snowbird’s Song.
Hers was a ball made from pipe cleaners and filled with flowers. I reshaped the ball into a heart.
At the craft day, Tami provided furry pipe cleaners and printed faces for us to make dolls.
I made a white kitty.
And a little girl.
While my home was light on the displays of holiday pretties, what I did have out was special to me.
Baby Bro, Guncle Randy, surprised me with this gorgeousness more than a week before the trip, so I had time to enjoy them before our adventure. And the few tidbits that I’d made with friends were filled with memories of a fun day.
My pal, Tami, invited a group of us over for a Valentine Craft Day.
I enjoyed the ambience of all of the decor even more than usual since I am not doing anything for the holiday myself. I will be in the camper in Florida for Valentine’s, and there isn’t a spare inch in it for any decoration at all.
When I return, I will be having knee surgery, so I was afraid I would not feel up to clearing hearts and roses from my home after our trip.
Tami transforms her home for each holiday or season and I am always impressed with her displays.
And her hospitality!
Thank you for the beautiful, eye candy, Tami!
And for the actual peanut butter heart shaped candy too- Yum!
