Karla Nathan – Page 7 – Karla's Cottage

A bonus bead show

By Karla Nathan / April 22, 2025

While I was in Indy, the gem show was also in town! Great timing!

My Sissy and her two girls took me there and we made a day of it with lunch, shopping, then home to create with and play with our finds. I guess we made a night of it too, we played with beads til bedtime.

I am thinking about a project that requires some neutral tones, so I grabbed these beauties for it. Quartz, citrine (but not the typical canary yellow), and pearls were ideal for what I am making.

I have been on the search for these gold rimmed stones for over a year. I know they can be found online, but for more than I wanted to pay. Plus, I prefer buying my gems in person so I get exactly what I want. There wasn’t a wholesale area at this particular show, but I always ask if there is a volume price.

Some dealers say yes, some no, but you gotta check it out right?

Luckily, if I bought multiples of these, they were half off, even better than I’d hoped. Glad I asked.

When my boy and I were at the gem show in KC, we wanted opals and spent time picking out a few strands, just to find out we had read the sign wrong and what we thought was an “each” price was actually a gram price.

oops

The opals went back to the table instead of home with us. But we regretted not getting at least a few. At the Indy sale, they were priced by strand, so I knew upfront what they cost. Sticker shock was still in effect, but I braved through it and purchased one anyway. They have more rainbow colors in them than what shows up here. I’m looking forward to crafting with Adam and using the opals I splurged on.

This doesn’t look like my typical haul, does it? I usually go for the genuine stones, or find vintage pieces to take apart if I’m using crystals. But for the craft I had planned, these multi colored, multi faceted strands of various shaped crystals were exactly what I went there for.

Rainbow colors were perfect for the sun catchers I was making to take into Good Juju for the spring sale.

I’d brought all the supplies needed to make the ones with ring shapes for a family craft, but for myself, I just wanted the simple ones to hang on a suction cup in a window.

Here are a couple my neices made with the rings.

Silly me, I didn’t get pictures of the rest. The girls made some beautiful pieces.

And did I mention they were beautiful girls? And such fun to be with. I had the best week, and miss them so much already.

While we were together, we tried to plan a beach adventure in October that is still up in the air, but might work out. Although if it doesn’t, I’m every bit as happy hanging out in Pendleton, IN with my family- beading, crafting, laughing, and being silly together. I love the Florida trips, but I love simply being with them even more.

An Indy Visit

dogs, family, friends

By Karla Nathan / April 16, 2025

This doll baby is Keifer and he is a thoughtful, introspective young man with a sweet nature. He’s Sissy’s doodle and is keeping me company while I’m in indiana visiting family. I offered to help my sister move into her new home and have done a bit of unpacking, but mostly I’ve just been enjoying family time with her and the neices.

As well as some doggie snuggle time, of course. Plus, I got to see some life long best friends and catch up over Pinot Grigio and salmon. Why didn’t I take photos? Dang, I was just talking too much. They looked so beautiful, I really should’ve made an effort to take pictures because no one will believe me when I tell them how unchanged these pals are. My heart is still full this morning after our evening together last night and hearing stories about their lives and families.

Ahead this week is antiquing, attending (and most likely over shopping) at the gem show, and a fancy dinner out with the girls.

You know what going to a gem show means, right? Craft days! There are a couple of those coming up too.

Easter decor at the cottage

cottage

By Karla Nathan / April 12, 2025

There are no big family dinner plans for Easter this year, and I was going to be traveling a bit, as was my husband. So I hadn’t thought about decorating.

Then, Beth gifted me these pink crystals for my chandy, and it inspired a redo for spring.

The dining room chairs were still wrapped in pink and roses from valentines, and I debated washing them and changing out the flowers to daffodils. But no, I kept it simple and left them as is. The shiny rose tint can carry over til spring fades away to summer.

They are just fine as is, and as I said, I kept it simple. I was doing a deep and deeply needed spring cleaning, putting away all the other lingering holiday stuff, like the hearts everywhere and some twinkle lights over the windows.

After Christmas, I leave white lights over my curtain rods to pep me up on those long, dark, winter nights and add some sparkle to the cottage. With longer days here now, those could come down.

Along with all the dust they’d accumulated.

After cleaning, I switched out hearts for birds, bunnies, and eggs on the hutch.

While still using the same background trays, runner, and rose patterned china.

This hutch has been such fun to redo for the seasons. I’d bought it at Juju years before I was a vendor there, from a guy who I didn’t know at the time, but is a good friend now. So I love the piece even more, knowing that I got it from a friend.

It has two surfaces to display on plus two small, glass door cabinets all backed with beveled mirrors..

The handles on the doors are ideal to hang a banner from.

On the dining table, I added an egg wreath from Goodwill. Now, typically that thrift shop’s prices have gotten so high that you’ll often see an original store’s price tag on the bottom of something and it’s lower than the Goodwill price.

But you never know.

So I keep up the hunt and sometimes I find an affordable treasure. This one was $4 because the color of the tag matched that day’s half off special.

Not much changed at the cocoa station. It was de-hearted from remnants of Valentine’s Day and some jelly beans were poured into the candy machine.

It has since been refilled because I love jelly beans.

I set out a couple chicks, postcards, and was done.

That was it, nothing in the rest of t home. Although, with each day getting nicer and nicer, I think it’s time to bring in armloads of flowering branches and set those out. And I really should take down the velvet drapes and hang the soft floral ones.

Oh well, there is only so much time in a day. I’ll enjoy the stuff I did have time for, especially since I hadn’t planned on doing any of it.

It’s a bonus.

More from April’s set up at Good Juju

flowers, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / April 9, 2025

This month, my mushrooms are tinted in pretty Easter egg colors.

Soft pinks, shimmery greens, sky blues, and silky lavenders.

And while you’d think I had more than plenty of my dyed roses, whelp, nope. I made more of the smaller ones to fit onto mini pots and white glass jars.

Of course, there are fairies too.

And more roses.

I redid my “ballerina corner” with some new dancer themed finds.

Doesn’t this great lamp go perfectly with my spring time pink tones?

This is the time of year when sweet little birdies start adventuring out into the garden.

Where they build their nests and lay some eggs.

Spring makes me so happy, I just couldn’t stop filling my booth with as many mementos of the season as I could possibly squeeze in.

Do you know the best part? I get to do this all over again for May!

An Easter Garden Tea Party Eggstravaganza at Good Juju

Garden, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / April 5, 2025

The coffee filter roses are still gracing my booth at Good Juju, but some have been turned into a gardeny gown.

She goes nicely with my flower garden theme for this month.

Ive gathered up a lot of cement pieces and floral things to make the space feel like springtime in my cottage courtyard.

This Angel isn’t concrete, but fits the look. She’s a terracotta type material that I painted.

Maybe the theme is garden tea party.

At Easter time.

And there is possibly an egg hunt going on while the tea is being sipped.

I don’t think the eggs would be too hard to find, the space is packed with them. In trees…

In baskets…

In nests…

Covered in velvet and lace…

Decopauged…

And in cages.

I guess I could call it an Eggstravanaza.

Easter bunnies

fairies, Good JuJu, sewing?

By Karla Nathan / April 2, 2025

My friend, Beth, gave me some quilt scraps. I’m not a sewer, but I was still drawn to making some quilted bunnies. Basically, it was as simple as cutting out rabbit shapes and stitching them together and stuffing them. The pretty fabric did all the hard part.

This hare took zero sewing, I got it at an estate sale, cut off the old clothing, and crafted new, lacy duds using glue instead of thread. That’s much more my style than sewing.

There isn’t a before picture, but here is the country style dress she previously had on.

She might have a frowny face, but I think she appreciates the glow up.

The bunny’s dress is a lot like the ones I make for my fairy dolls. Gluing is so much more up my alley than stitching.

Royal blue

Good JuJu, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / March 30, 2025

This is different for me, a sports themed display. But my own way, pretty things to decorate your home for a baseball party, and pretty blue jewelry to add to your own look.

Im not exactly a fan of games myself, but I appreciate how much my adopted town supports its team.

For a giggle, I put in a tray of mood rings. If other fans are anything my husband, moods can fluctuate as viewers watch the score of a game fluctuate too. It would be fun to wear a mood ring and keep track of the colors going back and forth.

Isn't this is such a lovely blue?

I added crowns too.

And I found some cute lil baseball charms to hang onto the blue bracelets.

For the Super Bowl, I’d made a few Cheifs color pieces of jewelry that were well received, but I didn’t do a big display like this royal blue one.

I hope it goes over well!

Acorn nests

mushrooms

By Karla Nathan / March 26, 2025

How cute are these?

I found shaggy acorn caps at the dog park and filled my pockets with them. As soon as I got home (I was excited!) I filled them with a pinch of moss and a tiny egg.

They are scattered around my booth for spring, but I especially like them with the mushroom display.

They add a woodsy touch.

Trashy but it worked

Hens

By Karla Nathan / March 22, 2025

Our chickie babies are adorable. Their set up?

Not so much.

The cuties live in our breezeway, that is basically a covered walkway. The walls are left with a gap at the floor for run off when it rains. But also for old air to whoosh in when temps drop. With a forecast of blizzard strength winds and cold coming through, I had to protect those babies. While they are tiny, they need to be kept at 90 degrees and drafts can kill them.

So the gaps got pool noodles from Dollar Tree stuffed into them.

Which helped a lot, but the back door had no weather stripping and we were expecting 50-60 mph winds.

That sounds a bit drafty, huh?

So I gathered up my precious plastic bags (our town passed a law not allowing them in stores. But I find them so useful for many things, that I’ve hoarded a few). In bigger gaps, I used some bubble wrap, but in most spots the bags were ideal. I stuffed them into the leaky areas all around the door with a butter knife.

Not pretty.

But the peeps are!

Well under their red heat lamps, they might look more demonic than pretty in photos.
For now, they are sweet, tiny fluffs of cheeps, and I just love them to pieces. They will eat from my hand and run up and down my arm, feeling weightless and tickley.

Fingers crossed that they stay healthy and happy. We’ve had good luck raising babies, just to become fond of them and face heartbreak when they get slaughtered by creatures wanting a snack.

The worst part is that the wild animals massacre as many as possible. I understand they need to eat, but why not pick off one to fill their bellies? Why kill every bird in the yard at once and leave the carcasses behind?

This year, I bought way more birdies than we needed, hoping for safety in numbers. The plan wasn’t to get so many, but when I was choosing those lil fluffs, I went a tad bonkers, wanting two of each kind along with the planned dozen we had come to get. Let’s hope we can raise them to be as sweet and friendly as our last girls and that we can do a better job of keeping them safe.

What we made while my son visited

jewelry

By Karla Nathan / March 19, 2025

Here is one of my boy’s creations from our beading nights.

We headed to the gem show with a plan this time. First stop, our favorite pendant lady. We picked out set stones then filled our bags with beads to match from the other vendors.

This one is some sort of agate that looks like a window into another world. It has a polished, clear dome that you can see down into. I wish I could’ve gotten a better photo, and that I could’ve bought more of them.

This mother of pearl pendant has a similar look, but in a completely different way. The agate was naturally clear, the MOP has been layered with a faceted quartz over it to create the window effect.

I put this “doublet” on a double strand of tiny garnets and finished it with silver findings the jump rings are hearts! This is for my Sissy, garnets are her birthstone. And there was a store we would visit in Florida on our sister trips with Bobbie that specialized in these layered stones.

While my son was doing beadwork based on the Fibanocci theory (his stones were placed in a very planned sequence!) I decided that mine would be simple strings of one color to hold the pendants that I’d bought.

These are for the Spring Good Juju sale. Along with tons of lovely blues that I’ll be selling for ladies to wear with their Royals shirts when they cheer on the local team.

A lot of my time was also spent in re-organizing my beads. There is a slight chance, well honestly, a very BIG chance that I got carried away with my purchases… I had to make room for my new preciouses.

While I typically buy only genuine stones or take apart vintage necklaces for my creations, this time I picked up a lot of new crystals. I’ve had sun catchers on my mind and wanted to give them a try. Since the gem show is only in town twice a year, I went all out and bought a pile, hoping my idea plays out.

We had hoped to make them while Adam and Quelyn were here, but simply ran out of time. I’ve never made these before, but when I get my curiosity tickled, I go all in. I doubt this haul of shiny beads will go to waste.

But I do wish the kids were here to make them with me.

Author name: Karla Nathan