antiques/junking – Page 29

The Hat Whisperer’s skills have been passed on! And an addition to the May Giveaway prize pack

antiques/junking, family, give away, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 13, 2008

I think it is genetic. My fairy grand baby seems to have inherited my millinery flower finding skills!

We were downtown enjoying being out doors and shopping for a gift for her little Hippy Chic mommy on Mother’s Day, when Sugarwings turned to me and said, "Hats!"

Since we were near the antique mall, I thought it would be smart to pop in and see if she had heard a specific flower calling to her and yes, she did!

This child is a gifted hat whisperer. She found one circled with a dozen of these pretty peachy blooms for only ONE DOLLAR!

We also found this purse. It is much too nice to tear apart for its flowers, I plan on actually using it, even though Sugarwing’s Daddy was horrified at the thought of me carrying it. He was reassured when I told him that I would most likely keep tiny flowers in it on my desk in my studio, not carry it when we go out to lunch downtown like we do every Thursday.

But now that I am 50 and officially eccentric, why not carry it? It is a lovely bag. I just don’t want to tear it up. From the looks of it, it has never been used, and is so perfectly pretty.

I’ve been making use of some of my stash of vintagey blossoms.

These old satin hangers each have a fluffy pink flower and some vintage seam binding added to them and are for sale for $10 each if you are interested, comment or email me and let me know.

I will add one of these embellished old hangers to my May prize pack along with the white leather Brighton coin purse and simple gold band.

Each week of May, I will add another prize for the giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment, any post, as often as you wish, all comments are entered.

I hope everyone had a nice Mothers Day? My family did my favorite things, they pitched in and helped me with stuff that needed done.

Sugarwing’s Daddy repaired my falling down gazebo while she helped me plant some seeds in the garden and Ryan fixed dinner.

Not a bad day at all. Have I mentioned lately how lucky I am??? I never forget it.

Karkie or Karla?? And 7.1 vs 12.1, does it make a differance?

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, I do tend to run on, don't I?

By Karla Nathan / May 9, 2008

Amy Barickman of the Vintage Workshop and Indygo Junction gave me some cool papers to play with and some blank board books by Create & Treasure to use them on.

The papers were canvas and fabric textured and it was fun to experiment with those along with using different settings on my editing software to print Vintage Workshop images in multiple sizes. I also love the trick I learned from Beth, to change the papers to sepia for a romantic and neutral background.

This first book is all neutral with splashes of color from rose pictures.

This book is more colorful, I was going for the pop of some spring pastels with it.

And look how generous I was with my sprays of old velvet flowers! I am so happy with my commitment to my New Years resolution to "use my good stuff and not hoard it"!

This little one is a tag book, I’d never made one before, and really enjoyed the concept. The shape is cute and since it is so small, it was an easy one to pull together.

The background papers we have for our Birds and Bonnets Swap are a big favorite of mine and I used them on this book too.

The framed picture on the front of the book and the cut out one of the kids on this page are both printed on canvas paper.

On my way to Kansas City to visit Amy to take her these samples that I made, (and also to repaint Beth’s antique mall booth yesterday,) I stopped at a garage sale and picked up this little cutey. (it is now listed on my Etsy shop)

At the same sale I bought the pink velvet earring display (complete with vintage clip on earrings) I found these two plates for $1.

But my best purchase of the day was at a trip to Costco. I bought a new camera!

Isn’t this clear and sharp? The two photos of my garage sale finds are on the new camera (Cannon Power Shot SD950 IS 12.1MP)

The other photos posted today are taken with my old Cannon that was a 7.1 MP. Can you tell a difference?

This photo of Beth’s booth is from the older camera too. It really wasn’t a bad camera, but I just wanted a bit sharper image.

Isn’t the color we painted her walls perfect? We spent a long time discussing what she wanted. We decided that "ish" was what she needed. One of those colors you aren’t sure what it is. Greenish, bluish, grayish, depending on how you look at it.

I’m still searching for the color I want to paint my bedroom and I think, this just might be it.

See, this old camera didn’t do closeups too badly.

After we painted the walls the perfect "ish" color, we got to decorate and redo her booth.

She had been inspired by all the photos in blogland of Round Top and was collecting items to fit the look that we were calling "Texas Chic".

The big difference is in the prices, though! Beth’s things are bargains. By the way, she had tons of cabinet cards in her booth for $1 and under.

She does have cool stuff.

A newish blogger friend who Beth discovered was her neighbor, came by to visit as we were finishing up too. Another Carla, she is the one on the right.

I’ve never met so many Karlas and Carlas as I have since I started blogging. I am considering changing my blog name (but not the URL, you’ll still be able to find it)

My family calls me Karkie and I think maybe I should switch this over to "Karkie’s Cottage"

What do you think? Too confusing? Doesn’t matter? Good idea?

That chandelier in Beth’s booth was a job to hang. It involved both of us on a giant ladder, with lots of giggles and reminded us of the scene in Friends with Joey and Ross trapped on the fire escape.

I know, I know, I have run on for too long again. But I wanted to see more photos with my new camera! These millinery blooms are shot with the Macro setting. (they are for sell on Etsy too)

I had been looking at EXPENSIVE cameras and settled on this pocket sized digital one instead. I have 30 days to return it if I decide it isn’t sharp enough, then I can move on to the bigger and better (and bank account busting) camera.

But I think this one might be good enough for me. Hmmm. Will you all help me decide over the next couple of weeks?

Here is another comparison for you. The flowers and fairy bear are the new camera.

The last two of the necklace and package are the old camera.

This is the package I sent out to the winner of my Birthday Giveaway.

Don’t forget that there is a special giveaway in May too. You can enter by leaving any comment on any post all month.

The crazy hat lady strikes again

antiques/junking, flowers, jewelry, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / May 3, 2008

You’ll never guess what I bought at the flea market yesterday.

Millinery flowers! Beth asked me how I was going to display my hats, and I told her "I don’t like hats" and that just struck our funny bones, considering I’d just bought 15 of them!

Honestly, I don’t care for the hats themselves, I only buy them for their blooms.

At first, I didn’t think it was going to be a good hat day, but then, I heard the whispers of them calling to me from a large booth of vintage clothing.

The dealer had just returned from Round Top . Her prices were sky high too, $38 for a flowery bonnet?? Yep, those are big time flea market prices, not Kansas prices!

So, I asked her nicely if she had a volume price. I bought 8 hats including the one previously marked $38 for only $64 total. And I didn’t stop there, I found pairs of hats here and there throughout the market for an average of $2.50 each. Which is why I ended up with a pile of FIFTEEN flowering beauties!

I was worse with old photos. I told Beth that she had to steer me away from any more, it wasn’t funny at that point. I didn’t think I could stop, but she was able to help me and I got through the rest of the day avoiding the photo bargains.

Most pictures were $1 each and when I’d gather an armful of ten or so, the dealer would usually name a price averaging about 50-75 cents each.

Which is how I ended up with THIRTY NINE photos.

Sparkling old jewels were priced about the same as the photos at so many tables we stopped at. Of course, if they were priced higher than that we didn’t stop.

I don’t know how many pieces of rhinestone jewelry I ended up with, but with paired earrings at under $1, I might have bought a couple…..

This photo? A drop in the bucket.

And look at the "Princess" jewel box! It was only $4 and I have plans to foof and jazz it up on the exterior. The inside is lovely just as it is! (the pretty as a picture alarm clock is a birthday gift from Beth- lucky me!)

I bought $1 dolls to fix up too. The bust (Marie?) was only $1 and I might paint it white.

The pink skirted tiny dancer is actually a music box that plays "Always" (the song my parents played at the their wedding). Consider this a "before" photo of her, I have big plans for a transformation to come.

French, German, and other old books were only $1 each

Clear Lucite containers were how much? $1 a piece (wish I’d bought more)

26 Vintage ballerina cake toppers were how much? $1 each

Keys? 2 for $1

Vintage scalloped edge stationery? $1 a box

But of all the things I bought, what is the best? This $4 dotted Swiss dress for Sugarwings.

In the same booth, I found a close match for her baby doll.

I think I’ll ask her to wear them for my birthday party on Monday. (which is my actual birthday, even though I have been celebrating for weeks.)

I’ll draw a name on May 6th for a winner of a birthday gift from me. All comments count towards that and toward my May giveaway, which I think will have to be extra special this month.

In one $5 bag of jewels from the flea market, there was a dainty gold band. I think I will include it with my May prize. Along with the gold band is a white leather Brighton coin purse.

I’ll be adding to the May Prize Pack throughout the month, so stay tuned and keep entering! Any comment, any post.

April’s winner, Clarice had a choice of prizes. She chose a Cottage Collage Kit with vintage wallpaper. She has two daughters that she makes great craft projects with, so I included some extras for them all to have fun with.

Plucking some blooms

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, swaps

By Karla Nathan / April 30, 2008

Thanks for all of your kind birthday wishes!

I am soaking up all the birthday goodness I can get and enjoying every minute of it.

This cute card is from Robin, as if the clock/frame she made wasn’t enough?!

The picture is so cute. It reminds me of Sugarwings, I am teaching her how to cook, and of course, the beaters are her favorite part of the process!

My suitcase is still sitting in my studio, filled with vintagey purchases from my trip. I am trying to focus on getting ready for Art in the Park on Sunday and ignoring the other stuff piling up around me.

But I just HAD to pull some of it out to play with.

All the photos and birds are from the Cottage and were only $1 each. The cute bird collage is from an artist there too, look at how she has used the snap for an eye!

The hymn book was $2 from Lucketts and the old toy mirrors were $1 each at the thrift store Robin took me to.

The first three hats on the back left are from my trip to Virginia, but the rest are from a day out with Sugarwings yesterday. She and I did a bit of junking and I bought these four floral beauties for $30!

Look at the load of red velvet roses on the middle one in the bottom row- jackpot!

And even though I know I need to get ready for the art show this weekend, I spent the hour I watched American Idol last night sorting flowers.

(Our local Kansas City boy, and my favorite, David Cook is still blowing them all away on Idol, and I think he has a good shot at winning)

The blooms are sorted into boxes by color then I put them into my big storage box that is covered with old wallpaper.

I even made a separate box of an assortment of posies to keep by my worktable, ready to grab when needed.

Getting ALL the flowers pulled off of hats and sorted felt like a major accomplishment, till I turned around and realized I still had a table top full of flowers I was using as a center piece.

I’m starting to think I might have a few too many. Maybe.

Lori and I had been talking about a mini- swap like I did with Lili last week.

But since she sent me that sweet collage of my fairy grand baby, I told her that was already way too much.

So, I bundled up a few pretties and have them ready to send to her.

Still had more than I could use. What to do with all these hats and flowers???

I put Twinkle in one, but she is a little too big. Unless I get some smaller dogs, this isn’t going to be a good use for my hats.

So, I made 5 packets of pink and white to sell on Etsy. It isn’t even a drop in the bucket. I think that once I get past this art show, and the rest of my upcoming 50th birthday parties, I will wrap up some more to list and sell. edit: only two left, these are selling fast

edit: oops, those sold too! I added more to the shop, thank you all so much for stopping by and snapping those flowers up so quickly!

Twinkle was relieved that I decided to sell some.

Today is the last day to enter my April Giveaway, but you still have 5 more days to enter my birthday giveaway.

Any comment, on any post gets entered.

Sugarwing Themed gifts (the best kind of sweetness!)

antiques/junking, Books, Moving to DC, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / April 28, 2008

I just got home from our East coast apartment, and look what was waiting for me in the giant, overflowing basket of mail that came while I was away!

Talented Miss Lori Karla sent this along with her Card for Caroline as a random act of kindness.

Isn’t it the cutest? Such a perfect collage for this picture of my fairy grand baby.

And lucky me, how scrumptious is this???

My Centreville, VA blog pal, Robin made this frame from an old clock for my birthday.

We met up for coffee, the she offered to take me to own of her thrift store faves. (well, maybe I coerced her a bit)

I bought a cart load of goods for $13.90, between that trip and my Leesburg shopping adventure, I completely filled an extra suitcase for the trip home.

These two ladies’ creations sure are special to me. Not only do they involve pictures of my sweet little Sugarwings, they are such thoughtful and talent filled works of art.

I just love ’em to pieces!

Not everything is unpacked yet from my trip. Instead of putting away suitcases, I went through the cards for Caroline that came in the mail, and I have to tell you, there are some beauties there!

I’ll get organized and photograph them soon, and have a whole post devoted to just that, along with the list of updated names.

For now, I’ll show you a couple of pictures of the book I made in Debbie Shue’s class on Saturday.

The flowers on the cover are from some of my souvenir hats I purchased on my shopping day with Debbie.

She furnished rub ons and stickers, but I ended up doing doodles and added glitter instead of using them.

Debbie had a great kit with all the papers cut and ready to go. The whole book was assembled in the 2 hour class (that is impressive, that she can time it so perfectly and know just what to show everyone)

I changed mine a bit, and tried to make it part art journal/part scrapbook. I also purchased some Glimmer Mist and tried that for the first time.

I have to tell you, that stuff is FUN! I bought Robin’s Egg and Pineapple and plan on getting a lot more colors.

Don’t forget you can still enter my giveaway for this month.

EVERY COMMENT IS ENTERED for the entire month.

And all comments until May 5th are entered into my special 50th birthday celebration giveaway.

Is it a SMALL world? Or a GIANT blogosphere!?

antiques/junking, celebrations, Food and Drink, Moving to DC, parties, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / April 26, 2008

How weird is this???

While I am here in Virginia, I spent a free afternoon in Leesburg to shop and check out The Cottage, a store I’d heard about but never been to, its about 30 minutes from our apartment.

While I was chatting with the co-owner, Ann, Pam walked in and she recognized me. Behind her was Debbie Shue who was in town from NY to teach classes at the scrapbook store where Pam works.

Now, what are the odds that we would run into each other? Pam and Debbie both went to Silver Bella last year, and I know them through that and through blogs. (sorry about the blurry picture, but also, what are the odds that we take dozens of photos and none of the ones with all of us are any good?)

I am from Kansas, Debbie is from New York, none of us were staying in Leesburg, we just all decided to go to a store there at the same time.

If I had stopped for lunch first, or if they had gone to Lucketts before The Cottage, we’d never have met up.

Lucky that we did! Not only was this a cute and cottagey shop that I fell in love with and had a great time browsing through (I’ll post my beautiful bargain finds later), Pam, Debbie, and their pal, Kitty, invited me to hang out with them for the day.

We spent quite a while in The Cottage, and all found fun things to purchase. We visited with Ann, who was nice as could be and seemed to enjoy the coincidence of our meeting as much as we did.

Istn’t this store so pretty? I could have just moved into any of these cozy displays she has set up.

After the Cottage, the three gals asked me to go to lunch with them, and on to some other antiquing.

While out shopping, I came across some of the prettiest hats I’d ever seen, with tons of dainty flowers on each. But- they were a LOT more expensive than what I usually buy. ($15- $28, but LOADED with blossoms)

I decided that the rule about not spending more than $7 on a hat doesn’t apply on vacation or during my birthday week.

Not only did I find a new store I absolutely love and 3 flowery hats that I couldn’t resist, I had a fun day full of laughs, shopping, and lunch, PLUS, Debbie was able to squeeze me into the class she was teaching the next day.

And my new pal, Kitty offered to lend me supplies, since I didn’t have any with me.

I thought I was borrowing scissors and glue, but she showed up with the fullest, most professional scrapbboking kit I’d ever seen. It was a joy just to poke through it all.

Shopping, crafting, great food, fun people, romantic dinners with my husband, I may never go back to Kansas! I love it here!!

My husband surprised me with one of the fanciest schmanciest dinners ever at a private dining club. The Tower Club at Tyson’s Corner.

The service there is so outstanding and detailed, they even had our name on the mints at our place settings!

We were greeted with complimentary champagne for my birthday. I had the Maryland crab appetizer (you just have to order that when you are in this part of the country) and as gourmet-licious as the whole dinner was, my favorite part of the meal was the white chocolate and lemon surprise birthday cake.

"Happy Birthday" was written in dark chocolate on a sheet of white chocolate and the whole cake was covered in curled bits of the white.

A tray of tiny desserts came out with the coffee along with a goodie assortment of coffee mix-ins. Orange peels, cinnamon sticks, real whipped cream and shaved cocoa.

I was so impressed, I almost couldn’t eat it, it was just too lovely. But I did.

I have the BEST husband.

Last night, dinner on the 17th floor with a view over looking the capitol, tonight dinner at Piedmont Country Club with this view out the window. Yep, not a bad kickoff to my birthday week.

I don’t think turning 50 years old is looking too bad at all. I have a pretty lucky life! I am looking forward to the next 50, I plan on living as long and as well as my Great Aunt Caroline that you are all making cards for!

Count down to the big birthday bash, but Oh-Oh, what bash?????

antiques/junking, celebrations, Etsy Goodies, parties, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / April 18, 2008

Once again, I got very little done today. Sugarwings and I snuck out for lunch and a trip to the nature center to look at snakes and fishies.

Before I left, I did make a few tags, I wanted to try something new, I kind of made a big collage sheet, glued tags to the back of it and cut them out, so that they were parts of a crazy quilt type pattern.

The first step was to print my Vintage Workshop images for the swap Beth and I are co-hosting, after editing them in sepia tones.

Since I use an ink jet printer, I always spray my copies with matt finish clear coat before I work with them, so the ink doesn’t run.

I made multiple copies of the same images in various sizes and cut off the white edges so they wouldn’t show in the collage.

Here is my collage sheet, everything is glued to one of the wallpaper patterns printed on 8 1/2 x 11 paper.

And if you think my odd collection of tags that I glued to the back is kind of unusual, you are right.

I save all tags that come on stuff I buy, and cover them in paper. Yep, there is a tag from a garden trowel, a file box, and a pair of jeans, among typical shipping tags.

After they are glued into place, I cut around them with an exacto knife.

This was a pretty quick process, I did a whole passel of tags in one swoop!

After cutting them out, I darkened the edges with a walnut ink pad, and started to embellish the tags with millinery flowers, crystals, velvet ribbons, jewels, and some complimentary wallpaper.

Beth had shown me some brown and blue things she was working on and I loved it so much, I wanted to try to keep my palette simple, with just these colors too.

This one is done with the same collections of images, but printed in color instead of sepia. I’ve really had a good time with the printer and changing settings to try new tricks.

If you want to play with Vintage Workshop images too, you can join our swap. Everyone gets the pictures from the 3 collections we are working with for the Birds and Bonnets screes, plus one free download of your choice for signing up!

Did I mention there were also lots of prizes? I’ll be giving out some of these tags, there are purses, and gift certificates, and who knows what all we’ll be giving away. We like presents!

Join up fast, the clock is ticking!!

Here is what the backs of the tags look like. Some were done with the left over patch work pieces cut to fit, others are of a single pattern. Mostly, I was using what ever scraps were on the table.

The blue velvet is from the bow on an old hat.

I stopped to visit a friend’s shop today after taking the fairy grand baby home, and look at the goodies I found! For $24 I bought these photos, 4 rolls of old ribbon, and a bagful of blooms!

And these are perfect blossoms, I love working with the tiny ones.

Since I had way too much ribbon (well, honestly I have to admit that it does happen, I keep buying more than I will ever use!)- I made up some packets of it to sell on Etsy.

I listed 5 of them, if you are interested.

I made one more stop at an antique shop where I had a fascinating discussion about flocked wallpaper with the store owner. He thinks he knows where he can score some for me.

I feel like an addict with a new dealer.

He sold me this grab bag of jewels for $12, as a "taste". I’ll be going back, I can’t stop myself.

Yesterday’s post was my 300th and I didn’t even realize it! Blogging has become such an everyday part of my life, I don’t even notice the landmarks anymore.

Another landmark coming up for me is my 50th birthday. I am throwing myself a party, but have no details yet. I should have planned it sooner.

It will be a hectic week, I have to pick my husband up at the airport, go to the best flea market in the area, participate in an art show, have a family birthday celebration and throw a big party for myself too.

I’ve been making calls to various places to figure out where I want to have the party, because I just don’t think I want to try to fit in cleaning my house to the rest of that schedule.

I’d like to do something special and unique, but the fact that I forgot to plan anything till 2 weeks before, kind of puts a dent into that idea.

Here are some suggestions from Beth for the event. Do you have any ideas?

Ps- most of these are private jokes, that probably won’t even make any sense to you, but hey, it is my birthday and they entertained me, so I am showing them!!!

Chuck E Cheese
Skateland
Cruise the Kaw
Rent Saturday Night Fever
Build a Bear party at the mall
Dairy Queen
Rent a red convertible
BBQ party catered by Vermont St BBQ
kegger & a bonfire
grown up sophisticated cocktail party
party with ballon animal man
rent a stretch hummer and party while cruising the Flint Hills
antiquing in Texas
OK, antiquing in Sparks
all you can eat desserts at Andres
call yourself queen for a day and make everyone curtsy before you
glamour shots
paint ball party
Outward Bound experience (don’t invite me!)
ask Padma and Tom if the Top Chef crew can cater your party
fly to Paris on the Concorde
change your name to Karkie
ok, just change your blog name to Karkie
rent an inflatable bounce house for a party
do whatever Oprah did- I think she devoted a whole magazine to it
have a party and make everyone wear bunny ears
put you business card in 500 helium balloons with a message that tells the finders that if they comment on your blog, you’ll enter there name in a drawing
start training for a triathlon
rent a chocolate fountain
paint your house pink
OK, just help your friend paint her booth
square dancing party in your barn—oops, too late
snipe all the good wallpaper auctions ending about 10 days before your birthday, so you get a butt load of wallpaper on your birthday
Weiner roast with marshmallows

Off with her head!

antiques/junking, collections, Etsy Goodies, fairies, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 8, 2008

One of my favorite bloggers, Lori is hosting "Doll Day" and I just had to play along, even though I didn’t really think of myself as a doll person.

Of course, there is always, Sugarwings, she is my doll baby!

This new one that I have plans to doodad up is an obvious choice to photograph, she is quite the doll.

Then, I thought, well, thats all to that story.

While I was cooking lunch (crusty baked chicken strips), Sugarwings opened the china cabinet and reminded me about all of the dollies in there, she loves to take sneaky and grabby peeks at them any chance she gets.

I took pictures of a few of these guys, but thought, no these aren’t dolls, they are figurines. No matter how much the fairy grand baby and I enjoy playing with them.

Since they are right on her level and she can open doors, many of these little fairy and pixie creatures are down to only one wing, or have chipped toes.

But since everything I own is from garage sales or auctions and much of it chipped already, that doesn’t bother me too much.

And I broke this one all by myself with no help from Sugarwings at all.

I can glue her head back on and make a necklace to cover the seam.

Or leave her as she is and make a box with her and call it "Marie Antoinette AFTER the Guillotine"?

That sparked my memory and I realized I have HEADS! Doll heads! These are from a junking trip with my sisses in Greenwood, Indiana last summer. I bought a boxful of these old pieces ($24) to fix up and sell, but kept them as they were and set them in my bathroom cabinet.

And this elegantly coiffed head is from my shopping trip last weekend, she was only $1. I don’t think she is old.

This doll head (wearing my fairy grandmother tiara) is from a junking stop on the drive to Silverbella last November. Beth and I ran into Carol there and the 3 of us shopped together.

Sugarwings also reminded me that she had a few dolls up in her room. I like to buy old bears and dolls for her at garage sales so we can tuck them in to the cradles and doll beds I fixed up for her.

I found this cradle for $2, cleaned it up and painted it with roses.

Do my fairy ballerinas count too? No, I guess they aren’t technically dolls, they are meant to go onto cupcakes.

This one is on clearance in my Etsy shop right now.

Here is a selection of some of the things I marked down. If you go to the shop, and look over on the right hand side near the top, where it says "sections" you can click on "clearance sale priced" and see the 28 things that are on sale right now. I was in a mood to clear some things out.

Because I always need to make room for more!

I bought these beveled glass panels at an antique mall this weekend, and got 6 of them for a dollar.

I am making collages in them and adding copper to the back and hope to get my soldering iron out this week to finish them and put hooks onto them.

I also went to an auction with Beth this weekend and bought way too many plates! But I love plates with the double handles and plan to loop some ribbon through those handles and hang the whole stack of plates along the soffet in my studio.

Beth gave the silver ladle to me, it was in a box of stuff she got and wasn’t something she wanted (plus she is good about sharing, very good!)

I might use it as a glitter dipper. And I have a feeling the lidded candy dishes will be filled with buttons soon.

One more doll before I go get Sugarwings up from her nap.

This guy pretends to be the biggest, roughest, meanest barn cat you’ve ever met. He breezes in every couple weeks from wherever he prowls when he isn’t around here and acts like we owe him big time for showing up.

But honestly, he is nothing but a fluffy old doll baby himself.

Oh, and PS-

JAYHAWKS ARE NUMBER ONE IN THE NATION! Yay Lawrence!

The Rest of the Studio and a Bucket of Buttons

antiques/junking, redos, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 31, 2008

Over at Sugar Sugar, there is a button challenge. I’ve enjoyed looking at the linked site’s bountiful displays of beautiful buttons, but the best is Beth’s. (now we need to see Susie’s seashells or hear Hilda’s horn, I do tend to over do the alliteration, huh?)

All the buttons on the challenge tour are so nicely displayed and there are even tips on washing the collections.

Washing? I dump mine into containers, dig out a handful here and there to use in projects or to send in packages. Hmmm, they are supposed to be washed?

I am hugely ignorant of button value. I was floored when Beth sold a set of 3 buttons for $150 on Ebay!!!

I just use mine, gluing them onto pretty pieces I make. I wonder how many valuable ones I have glued onto a collage and sold the whole thing for $5-10? Story of my life. If you ever buy something from me, examine the button, it might be worth a lot more than the piece itself!!

Thank you for all the kind comments about my studio.

I am CRAZY about my studio and know just how lucky I am to have it. I’ve had to store supplies under a bed, and set up card tables in crowded corners in the past. It is pure joy to have all this space to spread out into now.

Heck, at near 1,000 sq ft this studio is larger than the 90 year old house was when we bought it, and started adding on to the building.

There are benefits to living in Kansas where land is cheap and prices are low!

I thought I’d show you some more of the room and how I use the space.

Of course, there is a spot for Sugarwings and her best pal, Twinkle. Or as she calls her "Yeenkle".

The space is one large open room, that I have divided up with old doors hinged together, and with large pieces of furniture. The desk sits under a gazebo I made from 4 porch columns ($6 each at a junk shop) and a miss matched bunch of 8 white wrougth iron corner brackets.

Right next to Sugarwing’s area is my office. (I’d like to recover the chair, but don’t know if I am up to the task)

This old hutch in the office area holds all of my mailing supplies and collage kits listed on Etsy and waiting to go to their new homes.

That office hutch sits back to back with this giant piece (known as the crying cabinet because it about caused a nervous breakdown at the auction Beth and I found it at- that is a long and whiny story you don’t want to hear).

I have two large closets in the room. One is full of shipping boxes and bubble wrap, the other is for utilities. The door with the iris was an original kitchen door in the farm house. I added the flowers with stained glass paint.

Here the door is from the other side, with the sunlight shining through the glass.

This storage room is in the back corner of the room and is where I keep my paints, tools, seasonal storage and just JUNK.

At the other end of the storage area, I keep completed projects I am sick of looking at and jewelry I have made and the displays I sell it from.

This odd assortment of furniture and a screen is what I have lined up to make the wall that forms the storage area behind it.

The more I look at this the more the black cabinet bothers me. I really think I need to paint that…

And what do I watch on TV while I work? Dragon Tales, what else? Although prefer the Hoobs and Tiddlypeeps.

My studio will never look totally pulled together, because I have so much stuff in it. I love all the little details, like ballerina fairies on the candelabras. What is a studio without fairy candelabras???

There are sentimental things too, like this "wishes" tag that my Sissy sent to me.

And a lot of my labels are made from gifts other artists have given me. This fabric covered piece is from Beth, as part of a birthday card she made a few years back. I saved the cover and turned it into a box label.

The birdie adorned box was a gift from my first swap partner, Karin.

It holds Valentine ephemera.

Of course, there is a picture of Sugarwings. This is her Easter picture, instead of putting it in the scrapbook, I decided to stick it into the corner of this De Longpre print that I found at a garage sale for $10.

My Sweet Treats and Roses recipe book sits near my desk too.

The cabinet it sits on holds my sewing machine (which rarely gets used) and its top is a ceiling tin that my son added for me. That sure changed the look of this piece that I found in the trash and fixed up.

As a matter of fact, most of this furniture was free or dirt cheap. Trades, trash, or cast offs from family that all got fixed up. My main splurges in this whole studio are the 3 folding tables that I actually use for work space. I’d say that $58.00, 6 foot table is the most expensive thing in the room.

That is, if you don’t count my collection of wallpaper. I’ve probably spent more on that than I have furniture.

Well, I seem to be organized now, I hope I can make it last. I love my new storage pieces, the trick will be using them instead of making piles everywhere.

Wish me luck!!

ps- birdhouse decorators are still adding their links to our party post on March 27th, if you want to see more, check out the lastest comments.

ppss- I will draw a name for the winner of March’s giveaway tomorrow, you still have time to enter!

Chocolate and Roses

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / March 12, 2008

I’ve been in a pink and brown mood lately, roses and chocolate, what a perfect combo.

And when little Miss Sugarwings came to visit, look what she was wearing!

She looked so grown up in her brown corduroy jacket with little pink rosebuds on the collar.

I love those colors accented with blue too. I know, trendy trendy, but I have ALWAYS loved them. I remember a favorite outfit as a kid, brown shorts that I would wear one day with a pink tank top and the next with a blue one. And back in the 70s when everything was earth tones, I had a brown and white couch and all my accessories in the room were blue. I simply couldn’t handle just the earthy shades, I needed that soft, pretty blue to make the combo work for me.

These colors have been on my mind a lot this week, since I have been redecorating in my house and thinking about blue shades to paint the bedroom adjacent to the pink and brown master bath.

And when I sat down to make something in my studio, I guess thoughts of these colors stayed with me.

I filled this pink flowered Limoges cup with a brown china egg (hand painted years ago by someone’s grandma) with a pink rose on it, lots of pink, blue, and white millinery flowers and a sweet little vintage butterfly.

It is for sale on Etsy now.

And remember the old hats, little figures, buttons, and the oval print I found while out junking this week? I used something from all of them to create this Marie Antoinette inspired box. I just had to, it was fate! I’d bought all of this stuff, then the movie was on TV that night!! (Isn’t Marie Antoinette one of the prettiest movies ever?? One eye candy scene after another)

The base is one of those unfinished craft boxes from Michaels. I poked holes in the top to wire the china figure in place, after covering the top of the lid in vintage wallpaper.

To hide the wires on the inside of the lid, I covered it in text from an old French book. I used another French book to cover the bottom of the box and line the interior walls. (I don’t speak or read French, so if you do and this is about boogers or warts or something ugly, please don’t tell me and ruin my illusions! I think it LOOKS pretty!)

The outside of the box was painted white and rubbed with an umber and a pink stamp pad, then trimmed out in vintage pink ruffle ribbon and some old brown silk ribbon.

I haven’t had much time for studio work, my fairy grand baby has been here 3 days in a row. We’ve been to the indoor pool, to the park, and out shopping. Then she helped me take down some Christmas decorations I still had up.

At least I got them down before Easter! Oh well, you can’t do everything, there is only so much time in the day.

All of you who comment about how much energy I have and how much I get done, need to know that I am selective about what I do and have priorities. I’d much rather sit in my studio and make tons of pretties than put away dusty holiday decor up in the guest room. I’d rather rip out a stairway and redo a room than work on my taxes. Oops, I really shouldn’t avoid that one too much longer. Maybe I need to have a look at those priorities!