antiques/junking – Page 15

Arietty is so Pretty

antiques/junking, Books, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 26, 2012

My friend, Lisa, told me that she was so excited about a movie coming out about the Borrowers, her favorite book from childhood. I vaguely remembered the book, and took another look at it, she was right, its such a fantastic story. I think it spoke to me more as an adult than it did as a kid. I'm trying to read it to Sugarwings, but the fact that it is based in England years ago, makes the language a little too difficult for her.

She held up all of her fingers and told me to read it to her again when she was that many.

But I took her to the movie as soon as it opened and now she rates Arietty right up there with Ariel and Dorothy as her favorite heroines. And I agree. The movie was so beautifully done, I couldn't get enough of the artwork. Even Sugarwings, as lost in the story as she was, kept pointing out how pretty everything was and was asking me the names of the painted flowers.

The next morning after seeing the show, I surprised my fairy grand baby by leaving a pearl topped pin on the breakfast table (after snipping the sharp end off with wire cutters). Arietty sports a pin she found and tucked into her dress, as a sword, and even uses it to save her Mother's life at one point.

We are now writing a series of notes with little gifts to leave for the Borrowers who live in our own walls and have been making up stories about Sugarwings and Arietty playing with the kitties in our garden.

As a thank you to Lisa for sparking my interest in this story that my little one and I both love so much, I made this page for the Round Robin Swap that we are both in, to add to her book.

I took the ideas from the novel, about the teeny people "borrowing" ordinary things from the human beans in the house and re-purposing them for use in the walls to make a cozy place to live. The book describes letters hung sideways on the wall to make vertical striped wallpaper, and pictures of the queen (stamps) hung on the wall along with a ladies watch as a clock.

Arietty's mom adored a picture of the ocean taken from a card, and I came as close as I could by cutting out a picture from an old postcard that featured water.

The dining table is made from a playing card box, the vase is a thimble, and the table cloth is a lace scrap. On the table is a letter written with a quill pen and Arietty's sword/pin.

Popsicle sticks, rubbed with ink make up the floor. When it came to seating at the table, i was stumped because I wanted to use spools like in the book, but was also trying to keep the page flat enough to fit in the book, so I drew some spools on card stock, cut them out and wrapped thread around them.

I had some trouble finding just the right stamps, so I asked Beth if she had any I could use. Here is a sample of her pile of stamps I had to chose from! I was able to pick out not only the perfect pictures, but I love the colors they were too, I think they compliment the other colors I already had in the page.

The other thing I was lacking was a thimble. Not a single one, anywhere in my studio. So, of course, i asked Beth, who has everything.

Not only did she have a selection of regular sized thimbles, she brought out a Monopoly game piece one that is what I ended up using.

While I was in KC visiting Beth, we hit a few estate sales. I bought this old jewelry box for its faded pink interior. At the same sale, I found a pile of keys for a good price and bought a bagful. Beth bought was what left, I hadn't realized she was interested, or I'd have offered to split them.

But while I was looking for stamps at her house, I saw all of these, so didn't feel so bad about not sharing. I envy her piles of goodies!

It was an okay estate sale day, I've seen better. But we had such a good time, I told her she could take me to the Dollar Store instead and I'd enjoy it just as much. It was the company that counted.

Besides the keys and box, and a few other little tidbits, I bought at set of vintage cut glass drinking glasses for $12 and this other new stuff for my kitchen. Sugarwings and Dewdrop will enjoy the little white pitchers at our next tea party. Its time to start showing that littlest fairy how to pour her own cream!

Beth and I worked on bagging up her kits for Paper Cowgirls. I still have mine to do yet. I probably should not have taken the day off to go and play in KC, that was one more thing that was NOT on my list of what I need to be getting done.

But it will all get done somehow. I'm sure of it. Or at least that is what I tell myself…

I'll have some more round robin pages to show you this week. I made quite a few of them this week. The books are being sent to Somerset, so this week, I'll need to label all the pages and pack them up. I'll snap a few more photos as I do.

Making a kitchen island from odds and ends

antiques/junking, Hand Painted Furniture, how to's, how-to projects, Kitchen remodel, Tutorials

By Karla Nathan / November 6, 2011

When I knew we were going to be remodelling our kitchen, I started making plans for a new island. But I didn't want a "new" one, I wanted an old one, of course. I knew that it couldn't be large, it needed storage space, wheels, and I wanted a granite or marble top.

I couldn't find a piece already like that, so I thought I'd marry an old cabinet with a stone top that I purchased.

Well, after a trip to the local granitorium (I made up that term, but it seems to fit), I realized that a new slab, even for a small piece of furniture was not in my budget after spending a wad of cash on a whole kitchen redo. At first, I tried to pretend that it was just in the "construction budget" but, I had to force myself to face the truth. Just because we were spending a few thousand dollars already, it doesn't mean that a few hundred will disappear into it that vast amount like a drop in a bucket.

What it means, is that I had already spent too much and shouldn't spend a few hundred more.

So, I searched for an old piece of stone at antique stores. I actually found quite a few, for a fraction of the cost of new (even though all of them are billions ?? of years old, the ones from the granitorium are like "new")

The best piece I found was 28" by 38" and came from the teller's window of an old bank in western KS. It was only 50 bucks too!

For a month, I carried those measurements around, hoping to find a piece of furniture to fit them. I went to flea markets, antique malls, and consignment shops and found some hopefuls, but was being cheap.

One day, I stopped at our Salvation Army to look for some warm pants for Sugarwings (did I mention that I am cheap?) and found this not so old, but not new Lane TV cabinet. Its nice, solid wood, and could support the weight of the marble.

Plus, it had a green tag and that was 50% off of green tags day! I got it for $14.

That is about how much I spent on spray primer. This is the BEST kind to use, and its about $7 a can now at Home Depot. But its worth every penny, no matter how cheap I am, because I hate sanding. With this product you do NOT need to sand!

There are lots of tutorials on my side bar about how I paint, if you want to redo something and need to know some short cuts.

You might notice that I sprayed the top. That was a waste, since I was covering it in marble.

I also used too heavy of a coat, because I thought I would be using this as the base coat, skipping the paint step, distressing the edges, and just glazing over it. I changed my mind and painted it white, so could have gone with a lighter coat of primer, since I had paint over it after all.

Once I had it primed, there were still some problems. One was that the back was just fiber board, stapled on. The other was that the wheels had no where to attach because of the shape of the bottom of the piece.

Also, the cabinet was a bit smaller than the marble.

While the contractor was here to finish up a few trim details in the new kitchen, I asked him to do a little trim work on this too.I figured that for the small amount I had into it, I could afford to pay him to help me with the hard part of the redo and still be way ahead on this.

My garage is full of tidbits and doodads. I found a couple of iron brackets and he cut out notches to add them to the side of the cabinet to support the marble that was too long.

And to cover the fiber board, I added an extra piece of ceiling tile leftover from the ceiling job, then had him trim it out for me so that the rough edges wouldn't snag anyone's pants (or slash anyone's leg, that stuff is sharp!)

We added a block of wood under each corner and screwed the wheels to them.

The marble was attached with liquid nails and set into place.

Then, all I needed was some white paint. I decided it didn't need distressing or a glaze. I kind of liked just the pure white.

After it was done, I realized that the brackets were perfect to hold a paper towel roll. So far, the roll is just tied up with a ribbon, I'll be looking for a better way to hold it in place.

Hey, if you are looking for a project for yourself, on a slightly smaller level, my good pal, Mary is doing another glue book class.

A Christmas glue book!

I was with her when she was searching for ephemera to use. We went to a flea mkt together last summer and it was interesting to watch her sift through all the papers, picking and sorting. She is very knoweldgeable about old paper.

Mary and Beth were both here for craft day and I got a glimpse of what Mary was making, and I have to say, its a cool class. Button might not look very enthusiastic about it, but he isn't into ephemera like we are.

Craft day meant working on my Cuff Bracelet tutorial, and Beth was nice enough to make a cuff for me to show, using my guidlines for the construction. Pretty, huh? I love craft day!

Kansas Picker Buddies

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / September 22, 2011

My pal, Angie and I had the BEST junkin day. Her parents are big time collectors and have a barn full of great stuff. I needed some ceiling tins for my kitchen redo and they had a pile for me to go and pick up. We stopped at thrift stores along the way, including one in Tonganoxie.

Tongie happens to be where the owner of the Peruvian Connection lives. And she donates samples of the clothes to that thrift store. I bought this cotton sweater dress and sweater (brand new) for $15 each. Of course, they won't look like this on me…. The dress is sheer and lacy, I'll wear it like a sweater over black leggings and a tee shirt. If I ever go anywhere that I need to dress it up, I can wear it over a black slip and it will be a completely different look.

The thrift had lots of goodies for us, and I got a ton of dress up clothes for the grands for about $1 each, lots of nice princessy garb. We hit an antique mall in Leavenworth and I found a few tidbits too. That city used to be have a lot more shops, but not any more. The 2nd hand shops make up for it though. I found a couple of children's books from the 1800's for only 15 cents each. Who even marks things 15 cents any more???

Sugarwings was glad. She and I have been reading the cool, old Goldilocks story over and over. But the story is a bit different, instead of Mama Bear, it is Medium Sized Bear and she is a he. I wonder if that is the original version?

Of course, shopping at thrifts means wading through this kind of weirdness too. This could be even more wrong than Mama Bear now being a man.

Luckily, romantic rabbits weren't all we found. I came home with a pile of tins too. I have 20 of this design and 20 more of another style. I think they'll be pretty together on the ceiling.

We also got Crunch Cones!!! How often do you see those any more? This was an old fashioned, walk up dairy bar. The kind that closes soon after Labor Day. I'm so glad it was still open, it has been years since I found Crunch Cones anywhere. What is that topping made of anyway? Its not nuts, its not coconut. Its just crunch I guess.

Angie's parents have a barn that would make American Picker's Frank and Mike drool.

A little side rant here: Mike and Frank aren't always my cuppa tea, but at least they are educated and pass on some info during the show. I feel like I learn a bit watching them. But I do get tired of gear head stuff and mantiques.

On the other hand, the two Daisy Duke wearing actresses on Picker Sisters seem clueless about what they are buying and are just too fake for me. They seem way too full of themselves and their cleverness for me to watch any more episodes. The stuff they buy can be found in any junk pile and I don't think they need to travel all over to find it. I think they'd save a lot on gas if they just looked in a junkyard or landfill near where they live. (thank goodness the new fall TV shows are here and I am no longer desperate for entertainment. No more Picker Sisters for me)

Mike and Frank would know that Angie's folk's barn is full of The Good Stuff and they'd enjoy the treasure hunt. Right down to old, collectible cars buried under tarps.

Including a silver Jaguar.

I was intrigued by this cabinet full of great chippiness and alligatored paint.

These two are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Her dad is a Charmer with a capital C. He has a story for everything and a fun way of telling it.

And her sweet mom fed me lunch, with home made angel food cake for dessert. To a person without a kitchen, a homey meal is a real treat and very much appreciated.

They are planning a yard sale to clean out the barn soon, and I was invited back to get an early pick. Can't wait! There is everything in that barn. You name it and he has multiples of it.

I even got a few hats from Angie's mom earlier, I hope she has some at the sale. I've been on a millinery binge lately, I've had lots of luck finding bargains everywhere. My hat whispering skills have been on over drive lately. Angie had a few to sell to me too.

She has recently opened a new shop in North Lawrence, the "Now and Then Boutique".

She and her partners are having a grand opening on Sept. 23rd and 24th (that's tomorrow!!!)

Angie makes everything she touches just lovely and has inherited her Dad's keen eye for Good Stuff. If you are nearby, I hope to see you at the opening!

Editing in reverse

antiques/junking, collections, Kitchen remodel

By Karla Nathan / September 19, 2011

This isn't easy, but I'll say it again. He could be right. My husband says I have too much stuff. And when it was time to put it away before the kitchen got demo-ed, I was agreeing with him whole hearted-ly. I was ready to pitch it all.

Some of it really will have to go. This corner cabinet will not fit into the new configuration, so it has already left to go to my sis-n-law's home.

The crap inside it that I can't live without now has a home in this cabinet.

Yep, the china closet stuff went to the bathroom. Odd. But it seems to work.

And the white pottery above the windows needs to be changed too. I'm a bit tired of it there. But still love the collection. So, its in the bathroom cabinet too. I moved all my blue bird dishes, my china birds, and the white flower pots, and squeezed it into the big glass door cabinet in the bathroom.

The rest of it is all packed away, to figure out later. I'm considering using all of the floral pitchers above the window. The billions of plates will have to go. Somewhere.

I'm going to miss my hand painted ceiling. But I will LOVE having a vintage pressed tin ceiling!!

The blue carnival glass that was my mom's was too dark to tag along with the other things that got moved, and won't work in the new kitchen either. So they went to live in the guest room, as part of a display of photos of my mom.

The white pottery seemed to go well with the birdies in their new home too.

Its not that much different than what was in there before, just fuller.

The bathroom type supplies, (tissue packets, Qtips, bars of soap, cotton balls, etc ) are all hidden inside glass containers with lids. There were already some flower pots in there, and there were lots of shells and pearls tucked in here and there.

Looks like I need to remember to buy bath salts to fill the jar.

Gosh, I'm just not sure. It is probably too much. I tend to over fill everything. I am going for a more "edited" look in the kitchen/dining room. Why should I double up in another room to make that happen? Maybe I should edit everywhere…

Of course, I could just be high on breathing in dry wall dust and not thinking clearly. Right now, I'm at that point in a redo when I am wondering what on earth I am doing anyway. Sanity is the first thing to go when the walls start coming down.

I'll have more updates as the kitchen progresses! In the meantime, you have till Tuesday the 20th to leave a comment on this post

to enter a drawing to win the craft day giveaway from Beth, Mary and me.

Sugarwings first flea market

antiques/junking, collections, flowers, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 8, 2011

I want to thank all of you for your concern and caring about Sugarwing's school situation. It broke my heart to see our little fairy so down, she is usually such a sparkling soul. But, I think we are on track now in finding her the right place. She only turned five 2 days before school started, so was the littlest kid there, and frankly, she is not always listening to what people are telling her anyway, so just wasn't ready to listen to a teacher.

It helped to hear all of your stories and advice. It sounds like 5 is often too young to start school, and waiting a year helped a lot of your little ones.

Since she has been out of school for a bit, we've had some good days together. I'd planned on going with Beth to the big Sparks and White Cloud flea that we love so much, but I ended up with this kiddo instead, so had to cancel.

But- I really really really needed a junk day. And not just because it sounded fun, but because I had to scrounge up some more ceiling tins for our kitchen remodel. This was a mission with a purpose!

And I figured that this girl is going to be raised around junk, she needed to learn about how to go about finding and appreciating the stuff. So, I packed her up, rented a movie to put in her Pink Princess Computer (a portable DVD player),filled a bag of snacks, loaded my flea mkt cart, and we hit the road.

Sadly, the snacks and the DVD player didn't mix well. If you spill a box of Chocolate milk into your Pink Princess Computer, its pretty much done for. (this is the same week that our home DVD player bit the dust too. Along with our vacuum cleaner, toilet, modem, home phone, AND our boat has been checked out for the dozenth time by a mechanic, but still died on the lake and had to be towed, then was in a wreck with the towing boat, so I wasn't surprised to see her DVD player break)

When we pulled up to Sparks and got out to shop, she wanted to know where the Bug Store was. I did say, "flea market," right?

She soon found some non-bug and flea related items to enjoy. Like this shopping cart for $1. She insisted that it should be pulled behind her like I pulled my basket.

Then, she found some bugs, and that made her happy too. This time of year, cicadas are plentiful. You don't even have to make a special trip to the market to get them.

This fairy certainly has bargaining skills. She found a disco night light in rainbow colors that was marked $15, held up $3 and the lady smiled and said sure. Another guy gave her 3 plastic ponies for $1, and everywhere else people were giving her stuff. Including free french fries from a food cart, beads to wear, and this great light up butterfly magic wand.

I could get some lessons from her! Now, if only I could train her to find hats and bargain the prices down on them.

We also ran into my friend, Gwen, who runs Bottom's Up, one of the best antique sales around. She gave Sugarwings a pile of flyers to pass out and that kid was determined that anyone within 20 feet of her HAD to take one. She added a quick spin, put her backside in the air and said "bottoms up!" each time, too. I had to convince her that it wasn't necessary to flip up her skirt while doing that after the first time.

This was a trip where I didn't expect to do much shopping. It would be a quick trip down the aisles with my eyes out for tin to redo my kitchen ceiling.

But what to my wandering eyes did appear?? Treasures galore and things I hold dear! (uhm, she and I talk in rhyme sometimes)

I found a few hats, not many, but was glad to glom onto them. They were bonus hats. I didn't expect to have any luck in this department at all.

But the best surprise was that she was having so much fun sitting in the dirt next to me, playing with her bug buddies and new toys, that I had plenty of time to sift through old jewels. There are wonderous treasures to be found there, if you have the patience to look through the ucky stuff too. Beth always gets tired of waiting for me, I could park myself in front of a jewel bucket for an hour, and she is ready to move on. Sugarwings was happy to let the bugs ride on her plastic ponies while I sifted jewels. Next time I go, I'll pack a bag of bugs for Beth. I'm sure that will make her happy.

And later, I ran into a friend who is an ex-kindergarten teacher and she took my little one for a walk while I shopped in her booth and made a ceiling tin deal with her husband.

We didn't stay long, and we probably spent more time sitting down and playing than walking around and shopping, but I'd call her first flea market a big success. She was wheeling and dealing with the best of them, we both found some beloved items, and we had lots and lots of time for rhyming all the way home since the DVD player broke.

ps-Please leave a comment on the previous post if you want a chance to win this Craft Day Giveaway pack from me, Beth, and Mary!

Some of the flowers in the pack are from this flea market day.

Please forgive me for not answering comments this week, our construction is beginning! I guess this phase is more de-construction, the kitchen gets ripped out before it gets put back.

PS again- a photo of my living room was featured on the HGTV site! how nice!

http://www.hgtv.com/living-rooms/charming-shabby-chic-living-room-designs/pictures/index.html?soc=share

Sweet babies

antiques/junking, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Mayara, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 31, 2011

Miss Pixie Pie, is now a big sis! She has a cuddly little brother at her house now. We got over to see him a few days ago and I was able to get some snuggles. There is nothing on earth like holding a new born baby, is there?

We took the big sister home with us for a while to play with her cousin and give her parents a little break. The girls spent a lot of the evening just filling water cans. Its good to have well water, and not worry about water bills, water is such easy entertainment for kids this age.

Afterwards, they were a little shivery, so I fixed them hot cocoa. Not something we have very often in the summertime, so they were both pretty excited to get some. It was fun to have hot chocolate in the summer in the same way it is to have pancakes for supper sometimes.

After getting dry and warm, they helped me make dinner. I like to give the kids a hunk of bread dough and some bowls of cheese and broccoli for them to create their own bread sticks. Our fairy grand kid can play with dough for so long, we almost don't get it into the oven in time to have it done for supper. Pixie Pie was a bit more efficient than her cousin, she got hers done and ready to pop into the oven right away, so I just gave her more and kept her going on it. That kid doesn't mess around, she got them all whipped up in no time, while Sugarwings was still reconstructing the shape of her dough ball for the dozenth time.

Speaking of cooking, my gift for the new mom and dad might seem a bit odd, but instead of buying baby clothes or toys, I like to pack up a big bag full of convenience items. Paper plates, cups, plastic forks, etc. to hopefully save them some time while they are caring for the new baby. Its a hectic time, and its not always easy to get dishes done while caring for a newborn.

Cause watching a little one can sure wear you out!

Earlier in the week, we were lucky enough to have BOTH grands over for the night. Mayara is just getting big enough to come over and spend some time, now that her mommy is not nursing as much. She was so sweet. If I held up her dolly, and ask her to give it some love, she'd plant a big ole slobbery kiss on its head.

These girls are all pretty sweet too, I splurged big time and took them to the groomers for a make over, complete with matching bows.

Our neighbor, Holden thought they looked lovely.

Even with all the cute babies around here, I've been managing to get things done. I went to a flea mkt with Mary, and met up with Beth who was selling there. As sweet as all the kids are, it was pretty durn nice to have a grown up day with junking!

By the way, Mary is hosting her first swap and its a doozy. Its for glue book pages, and she'll provide the book covers, ring binders, plus an ephemera pack to get you started on making your book grow with more art when you get it back.

Our remodelling project has been finalized too.

Its good to finally get all of that settled and mark a date on the calender to start it.

Although, that means, that I have to start packing up my kitchen. Ugh.

On the other hand, it means that I get to pick out flooring and shop for something to build into a kitchen island. I know what I want, now I just need to find it.

I've been adding some things to the Boutique over the weekend, and a few to the long neglected Etsy shop too.

I hope to add more, but then I always say that, don't I?

This weekend we have family in town to visit, and will be going to one of our faves, the Renfest. After that, I have 3 days to get everything in my kitchen and dining room packed up and out of the room so the work can begin. So, who knows if I'll get more added to the shop. Maybe after the packing up is done.

I'll have more additions to the shop to show you in the next post, this one has run on long enough.

Home from some family fairy fun

antiques/junking, fairies, family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / August 13, 2011

Its soooooo good to be home. But I'm still not caught up. I wish I really was a fairy and could wave my magic wand to make everything get done!

While visiting my sisses in Indy, we had some fairy dress up time together. I probably play dress up with them as much as I do with Sugarwings. There is nothing like having family that never out grows their playfulness!

Although, there is an age range when not everyone finds it as much fun as we do. But the kids indulged us and let their fairy grandma grant them wishes with her wand while I took their picture. A couple of the girls even put on some fairy wings and posed for me too. But look at little Jaythan's face, he is the one sitting in the grass in a white shirt. Poor kid, he must be wondering if Mamaw is going to be taken away and locked up somewhere. He is worried she has snapped!

Yes, I complained about being busy, busy, busy since I got home, but I did take time to edit some of the photos. A person needs to have their priorities straight.

Plus, picnik is a super fast, easy way to edit. While doing a couple of the pictures, I took an extra bit of time to write out the steps on how I did it. I'll be posting a couple of tutorials next week with the step by steps if you are interested.

My trip was just great. Its the first time I drove there by myself in years and I was a bit worried about it, but I had a wonderful time. I was having so much fun talking and singing to myself and planning projects in my mind that I didn't even turn on the audio book that I'd downloaded. Sometimes, 10 hours alone can be quite therapeutic. I think I needed that.

On the way, I shopped a bit, but not much. This has been the year of NO JUNK around here. How sad. I miss my junking trips. We were too busy in Indy to get out much either, we had some Very Important Family stuff to do, so barely shopped, and most of it was not vintage. We did hit one Goodwill, where I found an amazing old, old skirt to take apart for the fabric.

I got home in time for my son and his family to fix us a big anniversary dinner and spend the evening on Tuesday night. Since I knew they were coming, I limited my stops at antique malls on the drive home.

We even got to have Sugarwings stay all night, that was the best welcome home I could get and was worth zipping right on by antique stores along the way to get home in time to see her.

For years, I've been searching for a pretty alarm clock for by my bed. One that didn't need to be wound up. There are plenty of those to be found, but few electric ones. In Columbia, MO I came across this beaut. Also the gorgeous beaded fabric under it. It was originally a dress, but is in shreds, so is great for cutting up to make crap out of.

There were some pretties to add to the Boutique too. And believe it or not, I actually took photos and got them listed. Its has been way too long since I took care of my business. Its not a lot, but its a start.

While I was at it, I grabbed a couple of things that I'd made months ago and never had time to list. There are TWO TUBS of stuff that has piled up, waiting for me to take pictures of and try to sell, and I simply have not gotten to it.

Yesterday, instead of working, we took all 7 of the grand kids and their parents to a water park to celebrate some birthdays, and this weekend, I have Sugarwings. But- I'll be forcing myself to stay on task in the next week, and hope to have more listed between a few other projects I have lined up.

Wish me luck, I plan on spending an hour each day on nothing but the Boutique and Etsy, then making things the rest of the day. Well, except some Sugarwings birthday time. She and I have a date for Smurfs, I think.

When I got back from my trip, Direct TV was out. No TV, no saved DVR programs. I thought about not even getting it fixed until I was caught up on my work, but then I started to shake and experience withdrawal symptoms and had to make the call within minutes of finding out I was TV-less.

Already, I missed out on the finale of Falling Skies and So You Think You Can Dance. But luckily, I saw True Blood at Sissy's house. Ooooh, that is a heartbreak diverted.

Well, instead of complaining about not getting any work done, I'll go do some. Please check in Monday for editing tips if you want to play hooky from work and goof off with picnik like I did!

Oh, and the winner of the dress form online tutorial is:

Sherry

And THANKS so much to all of you who are buying the class! Its just about my only income since I've neglected my store so much. I appreciate your support and I hope you love making the dress forms as much as I do. I'll be adding a Halloween dress form idea to the class, soon (free to those of you who already signed up) as a thanks.

Speaking of Halloween, don't forget, that if you purchased our online tutorial, "Romantic Gothic Ghosts" you can still use that class and all the cool papers we downloaded for you. If you didn't get all of the projects made last year, now is the time to make some for this upcoming spooky season.

Or if you didn't take the classes yet? You can still purchase it. There are tons of patterns, how-tos, ideas, decorating, and goodies for you there. All in a low-color romantic style.

You can see some of it here Just scroll down, the Romantic White Christmas class is at the top, the Halloween one is below.

Flea bitten

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / May 13, 2011

Tomorrow, I'm having Beth and a couple other friends over for a craft day. Thinking about that, made me realize that I never posted any photos of the last day that we got to hang out together, which was at our favorite flea, Sparks and White Cloud.

We go every Spring and Fall, and have for years. No matter how many times I go, I never get over the oddness of the towns. Is there anything there when the flea mkt is not set up? I see a few houses in Sparks and even more in White Cloud, but it still has that air of abandonment.

This old place makes me think of Kansas back in the days of the wild West. I always want to go in and order a sasperilla, except saspirilla tastes nasty when its fresh anyway, I'd hate to sip a 150 year old glass of the stuff and it looks like its been that long since this business was open.

Some of the old structures are used for store fronts for the weekend, the rest just sit empty. To me, there is an over all ghostly feel to the towns.

This window has looked like this for years. I don't know if the previous shopkeeper was trying to send a message with this array, or if he just walked away and this inventory happened to be left over.

Could he be asking Jesus to raise his business from the dead?

I know that people do live in White Cloud, because of the pets that are roaming the streets. This is Fred, the 3 legged dog.

Maybe he is 3 legged because he lives in a town with no leash laws and he loves running in the streets?

These towns are lovable to me because of all their oddities, but its really the junk that I go for. The dealers have great prices and stuff that I love.

You never know what you'll find there. Or what new friends you'll meet.

Hmm, I think Elsie the cow is checking out my rack.

Its always a party! Where else can you find a cool, $1, faded, pink lampshade and feel perfectly comfortable wearing it on your head?

I heard someone saying that this flea has made it to the top of some list about the best bargain flea mkt in the country. I don't know where the list was or who made it though. Could just be some old coots talking around the funnel cake stand making up lists. But I do think that the prices are durn good there and I'm always happy with my finds.

Especially what I get on the dollar tables. There was one dollar table that I spent over 50 bucks at.

Even if I don't buy a ton of stuff, I'm kept entertained all day by the ambiance of the place.

By the way, just a reminder that I'm having a sale in the Boutique and on Etsy- FREE shipping on all millinery for the month of May!

Also, I'm missing all the commotion and excitement of Birdsong and was wondering if a swap would cheer me up… anyone interested in a Birdsong Tag Book Swap?

What’s in the cabinet?

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / April 15, 2011

Thanks for your kind words about my redo that I showed last week. I had some people asking for close ups of what was in the cabinets and asking about the cabinets themselves.

They are a set of old gun cabinets, that were really plain. When we remodelled the bathroom by stealing space from an unused bedroom (we used the rest of the bedroom to make our closet larger and add a laundry room to it), were- sized the bathroom to fit this piece (actually, its 4 pieces) and added trim to make it look built in.

Technically, I do think that it is built in, now, huh?

I dry brushed 3 shades of white over it, after adding the trim pieces and covered the back with sheet music.

The shelves are filled with things I like. Vintage fairy pictures (the oval one was $2 at my favorite flea mkt), dried hydrangeas, shells, bottles, and other tidbits from my life.

As I arranged my things, I thought of each window as a frame and the things I sat on the shelf as a composition in the frame.

But by using similar colors and themes throughout, I hope that all the displays look cohesive.

I also used lots of lidded glass pieces as storage for bathroom type items, Q-Tips, mini tissue packs, cotton, etc.

Then, some of it makes no sense at all. Just things that I liked all piled onto a plate.

Hello Dollies!

antiques/junking, bird song art event, celebrations, parties, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / April 7, 2011

On Saturday, we had a create-a-thon in the studio.

They helped me work out kinks in my upcoming class for Paper Cowgirls.

Pictured are the creations of:

Me * Suzanne * Andrea * Jenn * Heather * Lori

For my dressform, I wanted to experiment with wallpaper instead of text. It was a little harder to do (stiffer paper) but I like how it turned out. I also kept mine simple, using only things that will be given to the students in the kits.

Its very frustrating to take a class and find that the teacher's example can't be made with what she gives you, isn't it?

While I was in the grips of decopauge fever, I covered this little bird too. It was just a white bird from the craft store, and Agnes Rosebud had eaten its head half off, so I did a bit of a redo on the poor little guy.

A room full of pros is a wonderful thing when you are figuring out ideas. And with this bunch, I wasn't exactly "teaching" them, it was more like all of us working on the same thing at the same time. I just gave them a few directions and they took off.

Those ladies gave me as many ideas as I gave them. I find that is true of any artful gathering. You get as much info from your tablemates as from any instructor.

Lori showed us how to make some wax paper flowers that were recently featured in Somerset Life. See how different they all turned out too?

The flowers are in a "vase" that I bought at Bottom's Up for $10. Its just some salvage bit of part of something else, but that is one of my favorite kinds of purchases. I'll use it a lot.

Beth spent the day working on the covers for her journal swap for Bird Song, but did get to make a flower too.

She got quite a few covers done, and no two were alike.

The group not only gave me good tips for my Paper Cowgirls class, they had lots of good ideas for the seating and studio arrangement for Bird Song.

I'd kind of oversold the event and was trying to figure out how to seat everyone. Suzanne had a wonderful idea and I've already rearanged the furniture as she suggested. I did that as soon as I got back from taking them to the airport.

Since I had more requests even after the class was overstuffed, I talked to the teachers, Carol, Lisa, and Debbie, and all of them agreed to give up their seats to students. So, now, I've gone from too full, to having a couple extra spaces.

Interested? Please let me know.

Now my studio seems lonely after having such a fun bunch here. I've packed up and mailed the last batch of purchases too big to fit in my guest's suitcases, and got those in the mail. Can you guess whose box this is? Yep, Jenn Hayslip, bunny queen. She scored big time on the bunny front while here. (by the way, she has spaces available for her romantic, prairie fairy tale if you'd like to get away on an arty adventure. We'll all be there too!)

And I was thrilled that everyone shopped my studio too. It was nice of them, and I know it is never easy to randomly shop around with stuff not priced. It was sweet that they made the effort.