Books – Page 13 – Karla's Cottage

I’m not in Kansas anymore

By Karla Nathan / August 28, 2010

Are you signed up to play along with our Dorothy Tag Book Swap? 6 tags need to be made by Sept. 30th and sent to me. I'll make up a book with 6 tags sent in, plus a cover by me and an Ozzish charm of some kind on it.

Details can be found by clicking on the swap button on the side bar of my blog. The one with Sugarwings' ruby slippers and my witchy socks.

I've pre-written this post to pop up while I'm away and my suitcase is filled with tags to work on while I'm gone. I'll be traveling with my husband, who will be on a business trip. So, while he's working, I'll be back at the hotel sprinkling ruby red glitter everywhere.

I'd better plan on tipping the house keepers.

All of my swap tags are finished, but I still have to complete the book covers by the end of September.

That shouldn't be a problem. I plan on getting them all done this week on the road. The swap is still open, I'm making up lots of covers, there should be plenty.

If you want to join us, please email me. I'll add you to the list and send a confirmation after my trip.

I'm still not done with the charms to tie on the books, though. I had a good start on the lollipops I was making, but then someone tried to help me with them…..

My husband was in the backyard when Sugarwings got dropped off to stay for a bit. He thought I was in the studio and sent her in to surprise me. But, nope! I'd gone through the front door of the house and was in the kitchen. It wasn't until about 10 minutes later that I came outside and he asked me where Sugarwings was.

That kid has spent her entire life waiting for the moment when she is turned loose in my studio without me watching her. She thinks MY stuff is so much more interesting than HER stuff. She dreams of delving into my supplies with no supervision.

She got her wish. Not for long, but 10 minutes was long enough for her to repaint all my lollipops bright red.

I might be switching to magic wands on the tags instead of repainting the lollies.

Usually, when I host a swap, I excitedly open each and every package the minute the mail lady drops it off. But this time, I can't, due to space. I'm stacking up all the boxes to inventory and open after September 18th. That weekend, I have other hostess duties and will need every inch of my studio, so I can't have three tables covered in tags the way I like to pile them up to play with.

I've invited all the local Bellas to come over for a get acquainted- get inspired- get ready for Silver Bella play date. If you are attending Silver Bella, and are kind of local to the Kansas City area and have not heard from me, please contact me. I hope to get a studio full of fun going on that day.

In the meantime, its going to just kill me to see all those swap packages coming in and piling up without opening them!! But I have a feeling that Sept. 19th is going to feel like the biggest Christmas morning, ever! I'll be ripping into them with pent up anticipation.

Hopefully, the swappers will add their photos to the Flickr group, so I can get a glimpse of the goodness coming my way. Please check it out, there are already some nice ones up!

Also, I'd love to have you join Beth and I in our online classes. We're doing step by step instructions with all images provided to print and use to create a series of "Romantic Gothic Ghosts".

Picnic baskets, puppies, pigtails, and poppies

Books, how to's, paintings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 13, 2010

The covers for our Dorothy tag book swap are in process!

I used a page from the old, old book that I had as a background, and added poppies from a vintage greeting card to the bottom, and also used it for the oval shape at the top too. To the oval, I added "Dorothy", cut from the book too. And an emerald. Or a stone that looks like an emerald, at least.

The little girl herself was painted onto water color paper, cut out and glued to the tag, then I did the same with the picnic basket.

(Oh, the hats are from my lastest score, all under $10 each, at my last junking trip!)

After that, I cut Toto from a page in the book, glued him to some words from the story, and used marker on the text to make the dog stand out more, and glued him to a tag. I used a handful of markers to make the background look like a rainbow, and then cut a slit into the basket with an exacto knife to slide the tag into.

Next, the tags went to the copy store, where I had them put onto ivory card stock.

I guess I got ahead of myself when I said that I was all done with my tags and was sad to be finished. I've still got a bit to do….

Since these are on ivory, I had to brighten the whites with white ink.

Then, I used a clear, glimmer ink on all the blue checked gowns.

I outlined the "Dorothy" banner in brown so it would stand out a bit.

The basket had to have a slit cut into each one to fit the Toto tag into.

After that, I glued an "emerald" under each banner, and sparkled Dorothy's slippers with ruby glitter.

They need to be cut out, and I still haven't found the perfect paper to use for the back of the tags, and the backs do need to be covered, to create a pocket for the Toto tag to be slipped into. I also need to find the perfect ribbon to tie the books together and to add to the dog tag.

Whew! But the project does go fast. And I enjoy doing them all.

Since I couldn't find enough ruby slipper charms for everyone in the swap, I decided to try to make lollipop charms.

So far, so good. I'll have to see how they dry and how they look painted. I'm making them from paper clay, rolled out into a snake, then twirled into a sucker shape and poked onto a vintage swizzle stick, cut into pieces.

After the clay dries, the sticks will be pulled out, dotted with glue and stuck back in. I'll paint them and tie them to the front of the books with ribbon. Well, I hope it goes well, they might be fragile. That's why I've only made these few to see how it goes before I make dozens.

You have no idea how hard it is for me to be practical and stop, to wait and see if it works! I tend to go over board and keep going and going and going. I'm kind of proud of myself for letting this batch dry before filling the world with lollipop charms!

Okay, back to the land of Oz, I have tags to trim and glitz!

Details about the swap are on the side of my blog, click on the button if you are interested in more details and want to join!

Blowing it all away, plus some Oz images and a tag swap deadline extension

Books, celebrations, family, housework, paintings, parties, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 12, 2010

Look what I found on Etsy! I bought all the little plastic shoe charms that I could find, even though they weren't the right colors. I fixed them by using red glitter spray to get them wet and sticky, then tossed them into a bowl of red glitter.

I mean "ruby red" glitter.

The first 50 people in our Dorothy Tag Swap will get one on their tag book. For the rest, I need to come up with something else….

The swap is still open, and I've had a lot of people say that because of Back To School, they are swamped. So…. we are extending the deadline. Instead of Sept. 15th, lets go for the end of the month. You get a couple more weeks to work on them!

Also, we have a flickr group, please join!

Personally, I'm glad to have the extra couple of weeks too! I've been trying to get ready for Sugarwing's Under the Sea Birthday Splash Party.

Yesterday, I painted this mural onto a canvas drop cloth cut down to fit the wall above the bed in her big girl room at her Hippy Chic Mommy's house.

For the party, the mural will be nailed to the side of the house. I'm setting up a tent for kid's crafts and this will be the decor behind it.

Years ago, I used to paint murals for a living. It was a goooood living. But hard. When I'd paint hotels and bars, it usually involved a lot of scaffolding, and that is heavy to move around, plus I have a fear of heights and really detested being up 20 feet high. The worst thing ever is to be on a LADDER on top of SCAFFOLDING! It gave me the willies.

Plus, not a lot of Kansans were open to murals. But gosh, other states love them! When I was painting a public space in Florida, I'd get a ton of job offers and ended up working nights in private homes as well as days on the job I had traveled there for.

My favorite thing to paint was kid's murals. One thing I always did was to make sure that each character in the painting had a buddy. Lots of conversational groupings make the picture more interesting for kids.

Painting "murals to go" sure is easier than doing it directly onto a wall! I liked using the drop cloth, I could work at my own pace, in my own home while playing with the dogs, snacking, watering the garden and taking breaks!

I thumb tacked plastic to the wall of the garage, and then tacked up the canvas over it so the paint wouldn't seep through to the wall behind it. I worked on the scene through out the day and was able to get other stuff done too.

Sugarwings loves Mermaids, I hope she likes this birthday gift from me!

While I was taking breaks from the mural, I repainted this hutch in my studio. Since I am the one who painted it in the first place, I knew that the top coat on it was water based poly. So, it didn't need any pretreatment of priming or sanding. I was able to simply dry brush a couple coats of white satin paint over the existing taupe glazed with brown.

After it dried, I lightly sanded it all for a distressed look. Silly me, I was too lazy to run to the store to get a coarse sandpaper, and now have a sore arm from sanding with with a fine paper. It took way too much work and too many sheets to rough up the hutch! I have a bad habit of not stopping until I am done, and really should have just quit yesterday, until I had a chance to pick up another pack of sandpaper.

Another thing I got done for the party was to get a start on cleaning the studio. Its such a mess and this is spider web season. Why does my home get so cob webby every single July and August??? This year, it is so bad, I am tempted to leave them, let them spread a couple months and just throw a Halloween party.

While I had the garage cleared out to do the mural on the wall, I used the leaf blower to clean the room. I dreamed of being able to use that to just blow all the cob webs away in the house too. If I were a minimalist, it wouldn't be so bad, but as a collector of junk, I have too many things that would blow away along with the mess.

I did clean the stair way that goes up to my husband's office with the leaf blower. There was nothing that could be ruined or blown away, and I have to tell you, it was a magnificent thing to do. What a great idea! I cleaned the breezeway and my car while I was at it.

Are you wondering what the pictures of poppies have to do with cleaning my house with a leaf blower? Nothing at all.

I just thought that you might like these. I used a lot of these vintage greeting cards with poppies in my Oz tags.

I've also scanned more pages from my 1920s Oz book for you. You don't have to be in the swap to use them, help yourself if you want some.

All you need to do is click on the picture for it to pop up in a larger size,save, and print it.

Some of these are edited into sepia for you, too.

3 Dorothys

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), give away, swaps, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 2, 2010

What a nice weekend we had. Of course, any weekend when Sugarwings comes to stay is a good one. We spent as much of it as possible out on the lake, and I have no pictures from there because my pocket camera is MISSING. I've turned the house and studio upside down searching for it.

I bought the handy little thing so I could take it with me to places where I don't want to haul out the big guns. That Rebel is wonderful, but heavy and I also don't want to get it wet on the boat or beach. I always kept the little Cannon (seems like they have the best lenses for a small camera) in my bag so I could always be ready to snap a shot if something interesting popped up.

I miss it!

And since Sugarwings was mostly naked while we were at home, I didn't take any pictures of her with the big camera. She seems to be in a stage where it is awfully hard to keep her dressed. But the weather is so hot, that I really don't blame her.

When she is here, she is either outside being filthy dirty in the mud and dirt and jumping in the little pool or sprinkler, or else smearing paint and clay all over herself. Not exactly a dainty girl. So naked isn't bad for her, it sure saves on laundry. But I don't think I should post pics of a little muddy girl smeared with neon orange paint running around in her panties.

So here is a dog picture instead!

And here is a naked dog picture.

This is Twinkle's pup, Dorothy. Her name is Josie now, I gave her to my niece and Josie is named after my mom, Martha Josephine.

All yorkies are born black and then start to change colors as the puppy fur grows out. The baby fur is so fine, that it gets all matted up and nasty, and has to be shaved off to let the silky adult fur grow in.

I haven't shaved my little Agnes Rosebud yet, because I'll miss that fuzzy, floppy puppy look. But after seeing how silvery and pretty her sis is, I just might get out the clippers.

This morning, I have been adding goodies to the Boutique.

At a recent flea market, I was lucky enough to find a big box of old flowers. ALL ROSES!

Yes, these are the flowers that the puppy has been laying on in the big bowl.

One more tidbit about Yorky fur, these guys don't shed. So the flowers aren't hairy.

What do you think of this one? Its lovely, but is it old? It seems so perfect. I usually buy hats to take apart, so can date the flowers by the hat itself. These flowers were mostly corsages and single flowers, all in a big box. The others were old, but I'm iffy on this one. Either way, its nice!

I've been going through some of my jewelry supplies too, and bagged up some vintage glass beads and findings to add to the shop.

Along with an assortment of some other fun stuff.

I'll show you some pictures of what's new (well, old- but new in the Boutique) while I ask you about something else.

At the flea where I found the flowers, I also picked up a ragged Wizard of Oz book from 1920. This year is the 75th anniversary of the movie, and the story is a big favorite around my house.

Am I the only Dorothy fan, or would any of you be interested in doing a tag swap similar to the Alice tag book swap that we did earlier this year?

If there is enough interest, I'd enjoy putting one together and scanning some pages from the book for you to use, like I did with the old Alice in Wonderland book that I had.

There are just soooooo many ideas that could be cute tags with a Dorothy theme!! Witches, picnic baskets, Toto, slippers –ruby or silver like the original-, rainbows, gingham, greens, lions, tigers, and bears, oh my- I could go on and on.

What do you think?

I hope there are enough of you who would enjoy making Dorothy tags as much as I would! Let me know, and I'll come up with guidelines and some scans of the book.

Before I go get to work for the day, I need to announce the winner of the July giveaway. The pearl earrings go all the way across the ocean to another Dorothy- Dorthe.

Happy and sparkling

Books, collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, magazine pictures or articles, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / July 9, 2010

My gazebo planter boxes rarely do well. I don't know why. This year, I planted colorful foliage instead of flowers and that seems to be a good fix for the problem.

The violets are wild, and I like the look of them. Its always nice when nature adds her own touch to my gardening!

Of course, adding Agnes Rosebud is always a nice bonus. She's a sweet little posy!

After visiting Carol and Fifi (by the way, she really is FABULOUS!) I stopped at the mall while I was in Kansas City to find some new sandals for my trip to California. The mall is a rare trip for me, I'm a Goodwill, garage sale, and TJMax shopper.

The parking lot I like is covered and out of the heat, but the doors open into Neiman Marcus- or Needless Markup, as I call it. I don't shop there much because I'm cheap. But as I stepped into the door, these jewel encrusted sandals were the first thing I saw and, I had to pick them up and drool over admire the sparkly rhinestones!

Since I was already in love, I was afraid to flip them over and see how much they were, but I sucked up the courage, braced myself and took a peek.At first I thought the tag read $158. And I was not surprised. That's pretty typical there.

But they were only $58! And now they are mine. And for that price, I can still afford a pedicure to go along with them!

Little Aggie Rose takes after her mom, Twinkle and thinks every photo is of her. By the way, Twinkle is posing too, but got cropped out. They both see a camera and start to ham it up.

Yesterday, I took everyone's advice and returned to the salon for a do over. It was a good idea, I much prefer a brighter look, and the hair dresser was sweet as can be about it. No charge, so I gave her a $20 tip.

I was feeling very happy and sparkly inside after the good news about the new baby, so wanted to look sparkly outside too.

My earrings are from Curious Sofa. Hand made
from Victorian buttons, and I just love them. Normally, I make my own
jewelry or wear vintage, but I'm a sucker for anything Debbie has to
sell… I love that store. She's sold my jewelry there before too. Its
an honor to sell there, she has such great taste.(here is some of my hand made earrings, on this page)

So, since I've been splurging, with new shoes, new hair color, and earrings I'd better get some things listed in my own shop and recoup some of the cash I blew.

When I cleaned up the studio last week, I filled a 33 gallon container with stuff I need to photograph and sell.
One tub doesn't sound like a lot, but when a bunch of it is jewelry pieces, it feels like a LOT. The tub is brimming with little things.

So far, there isn't much of a dent in the box.

But I'm working on it. Here is some of what I snapped pix of today. Which doesn't exactly mean that I've got it in the Boutique yet…. but its coming!

The best news EVER

Books, family, magazine pictures or articles, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 7, 2010

The superduper, extra strong, magnifying, scrutinizing, high def sonogram says that the baby is FINE. Fine, just fine. What better news could any grammie get?

Thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes and commiserating stories. It helped to have you guys to "talk" to while I was freaking out.

The baby's mama kept saying that she could feel that the baby had good energy and was okay. I wish I could have been as calm while waiting to find out.

Sugarwings hung out with me while all the testing was going on today, and we mostly played outside in the sweltering humidity. We went for a long walk in the woods and told scary stories about the Big Bad Wolf. I've yet to find anything that kid is afraid of, her favorite part of any story is the scary part.

She was over here about 5 hours today, and I am shocked that I was able to accomplish anything after playing with her out in the heat. (I'm still hot flashing from having my Premarin dosage cut in half, and the heat has been gruesome. My reaction to it is much scarier than any Big Bad Wolf)

I was able to make these two books in the little snippets of time I could grab here and there. The fairy grand baby went and laid down to watch a movie with my poor sick, husband. Remember how much I enjoyed a day to myself to putter in the studio while he was resting up with a sore throat?? Well, I feel really bad about that now, the poor guy has strep throat and had to be rushed to the Dr. yesterday with a fever so high he was delirious and crazy. He's better today, and appreciated Sugarwing's company.

I was surprised to hear from the Dr. that strep throat isn't that easy to catch and to not worry about the little one catching it unless she was drinking from the same cup. Or getting kisses. So, I let the two of them have some quiet time while I tried to recover from the humidity and hot flashes with a bit of nice air conditioned, peaceful studio time. Creating took my mind off the endless waiting to hear what the Super Duper Sonogram had to say too.

This darker book is made from a cabinet card folder, and filled with ephemera and water color paper pages that I stitched together.

Notice the initials on the tag? I found a brooch with C S on it, ideal for a gift to give to my buddy, Carol Spinski!

Her home is being photographed tomorrow by Fifi and I wanted to make a scrapbook/album for her to put copies of the pictures in. I found some French text about homes to use, and I sure don't know what it says, but its purdy. I thought it was fitting, since the Fabulous Fifi is French.

Looking through my stash, I found old pictures of farmhouses to use as accents.

There was a portrait in this card that I tore out, and I kind of liked the texture the glue left underneath. So, I didn't cover it up all the way, I just inked over the torn cardboard a bit with two colors of brown, and then added my embellishments over it.

The other book is for Fifi. Its more of a notebook, or journal for her trip to the Midwest to photograph farmhouses and also features old homesteads. Its a bit foofier than Carol's book.

I included garden pages from old magazines, and items with a "home" theme. And whenever I do one of these keepsake books, I always add lots of envelopes for tucking things away.

This book is made from one large piece of flocked wallpaper. I folded it in half and sewed all the way around the edges. Then, I turned up the bottom 1/3 to the inside, and stitched that to make a pocket all the way across the lower portion of the interior of the cover.

After stitching the cover together, I gathered water color paper and ephemera to make the pages and sewed them in.

Carol graciously let me invite myself over to say hi during the photo shoot. I've worked with Fifi before, but only over the phone, never in person.

I'm not known to be shy. So, of course, I asked if I could come over and visit and meet Fifi.

I promised to stay out of the way and keep my mouth shut, but offered to help if needed. I've gophered enough times during photo shoots to be helpful if they need someone. And I'm bringing a cake and some flowers. You never know what you might need for styling, and sometimes a piece of cake is just the right touch in a photo, or a simple pot of white flowers is a good filler in the background.

If its not needed, we can just eat the cake. It won't go to waste!

I've also styled enough shoots to know that another opinion isn't wanted, and I'll not bother them with mine. If I'm in the way, I'll say my 'nice to meet yas' and head out after delivering the goodies. But I've also known from shoots that I've done in the past, that sometimes, another body can be nice to have around for running errands, ironing something, trimming back a branch, tying up a loose end, or fetching a glass of water.

I'm a handy gopher.

Another editor that I've done articles for but have never met is Barbara Jacksier. Its ironic that tomorrow while I'm meeting Fifi, I am missing an opportunity to talk to Barbara during a live online chat and meet her!

I hope that you can tune into the chat and ask her some decor info. She
has always seemed like such a nice person, I'm sure she is easy to talk
to. And boy, does she KNOW her stuff!

Here is the info you need to visit her:

She is going to be on their Home Front
live chat as a follow up to her book.

It's Thursday July 8 from 11 AM
til noon. Please spread the word.

The Live Chat link is http://live.washingtonpost.com/home-front-07-08-10.html if that doesn't automatically link click
on www.barbarajacksier.com

Frittering

Books, celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / July 6, 2010

Yesterday, was a lazy one. My husband stayed in bed with a sore throat and we had a gentle rain all day, so all boating plans were canceled. I considered it a free day to do what ever I wanted, by myself. A bonus studio day! But actually, I puttered about and did almost nothing. Which was kind of nice.

I did start this little collage.

And I put together this mini art journal. I listed it in my Boutique this morning for $12.50 if you are interested.

That's about it, for 8 hours in the studio! I frittered away time blog surfing, and just poking around, organizing some supplies and watching a few episodes of the Tudors that I had recorded. I'm going to miss that series, I've always been attracted to that time period. Showtime did a good job with Henry, next they are tackling the Borgias. I can't wait for that one!

I used to loved historical romances. When I was in my teens, I read the ones written under the name Victoria Holt and just about adored those. Later on, when I found out that she had written about all the kings and queens of Europe under the name Jean Plaidy, I quickly devoured those. And there were a LOT of them. Here is the list.

And here are the Victoria Holt titles. Just looking over that list brings back so many memories of the time of my life when I was hooked on all of her writing.

There is another long list of books under the name Phillipa Carr. Which for some reason I never read many of. I think that once I out grew the Holt novels and discovered the more historical Plaidy novels, I didn't care to go back to read light romances any more.

Its been ages since I've read any of those, but I have enjoyed the Tudor/Bolyn series by Phillipa Gregory. I hear she has started on the Plantagenets now, and look forward to reading those.

Seems like I don't bother to read as much as I did when I was young. I had a 2-3 book a week habit back then. Now, I rarely find something that pulls me in and makes me finish it as fast as I can. It could be that its just too tempting to flip from blog to blog and spend my free time reading those.

But for the trip to California next week, I've been stock piling some good reads for the plane and the beach. The Worst Hard Time (for bookclub), and the new Jennifer Weiner to start with.

When I'm home, I just seem to be too distracted to read a lot. I always have one open, but it sometimes takes me a week or two to finish it. I do love TV… that cuts into book time.

And yesterday, puttering around the studio took up most of the day. I had some packages to wrap up, and was having way too much fun filling boxes that I was sending out. This one is for a friend. I was sending her a little something and ended up adding more and more since I was using a flat rate box, I thought it should be full!

This little person is another reason why I don't get lost in books like I did in the past. I read more "Hop on Pop", the "Grumpy Fairy" or "Miss Mary Mack" than I do anything else.

On the 4th, we got to visit one of Twinkle's puppies. Remember the parti colored guy? He is HUGE! He is almost double the weight of Agnes Rosebud, and he was the runt of the litter.

We had Sugarwings for most of the day on the 4th. She and I baked cupcakes for America's birthday and had a parade with sparklers while belting out patriotic songs I couldn't remember the words to. Then, we went downtown to a party in the park with live music, games, and food.

But we didn't stay for dinner, my handsome husband (that is him behind the fairy grand baby. Cute, huh?) took me out to a restaurant and a movie while Sugarwings stayed at the park with her mommy.

It was a pretty good holiday weekend, over all. I hope yours was too?

Taking better pet photos

Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), how to's, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 3, 2010

Here is another little video of Sugarwings and a puppy. When I ask her which puppy she has, you can't hear the answer very well, but she says "This one". Well, dur, Grams.

There is an ad in the paper to sell two of the remaining 3 pups. (the last one will go to Beth, she says any of them are fine with her) Here is Dorothy, who will be bigger than the others, and is chocked full of personality. Her tail is in constant motion, she can't contain her happiness.

This little guy, has an explorer's view of the world, he is the one who is always off deep in the bushes looking for something exciting.

And this fella has a darker face, his coloring is a bit different than the rest of the group. He is a snuggler.

Of course, this little beauty isn't for sale, I'm keeping Miss Aggie Rose. She is modeling one of the items I just listed in the Boutique, a vintage rhinestone bracelet. I have a feeling that Agnes will be every bit the camera hog that her mom is.

Thanks for all the compliments on the puppy pics. I do love my camera, a Cannon Rebel XSi, even though I've never learned how to use all the bells, whistles, tricks and doodads on it. I'm afraid I'll always be a point and shoot kind of photographer.

I use my pocket sized Cannon for some of the pictures too, and I think it does very well also.

For me, the trick to good animal (or child) photos, is to get down on their level. With the 1 pound baby dogs who have 3" long legs, that can be a hard to do. Sometimes, I am laying on my belly in the gravel trying to get the right angle. Then, the other pups tackle me and try to play tug of war with the camera strap.

Also, have a good background. Don't just snap a picture of Fido (does anyone really name their dog Fido anymore?) in front of Dad's Lazyboy, or the kitchen trash can, or a garish dog blanket. The photo might be of your PET, but the background is a big part of it!

I don't always clean up the yard before pictures, so you'll see a garden hose, or some of Sugarwing's toys sometimes. But, I do try to angle the camera away from clutter, or kick some of it out of the way.

Pose your pet. It takes practice for the animal, and LOTS of snaps of the camera to get one good picture. I set them where I want them to be, pet and love on them a bit so they are comfortable, then take about 20 or so pictures to get one good one. And remember to still bend down to their level with the camera! A straight on shot is so much better than one looking down at the animal.

EDITING! I use Picassa and Picknik and adore them both. Both are simple and easy and make a huge difference in your pictures. Crop, crop, crop, cut out all the extras and bring the focus to the pet.

I crop and tune on Picassa, then upload to Picknik. On that site, I do the auto-fix, and sharpen. Then hit the creative area and play with all the buttons. It sounds complicated and time consuming, but I promise it is not. I never spend more than a couple minutes per picture.

I'll leave you with some photos of what's new in the Boutique.

A vintage paper covered mini birdhouse/fairy house.

A mini collage sampler book.

It was Beth's idea to call it a "sampler" because it didn't really have a theme, beyond coordinating colors.

It was also Beth's idea to make these. She brought cabinet cards to share with everyone at my Creative Cottage Girls Weekend, and showed us how to turn an old photo holder into a book.

I kept the photo theme going with mine by using old pictures on the inside and outside of the covers. The rest is watercolor paper, blank and ready for its new owner to use it as a scrapbook, photo album, or art journal.

Oh! Before I forget, here is something fun! Lisa is having a challenge. I'll be playing along and hope you will too.

Some Art Therapy

Books, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / April 23, 2010

How funny is this!? I love looking for messages in these word verifications, but usually they are 'almost' words, not real ones.

Thanks for your well wishes for my little snipping. It went well, and was done in the ENT's office with local Novocaine. I've had sleep studies done and was told I don't have apnea, but I have such horrendous snoring, my poor husband can't sleep at all.

The Dr. seemed to think that the little dingle dangle in the back of my throat was too long, and that trimming it might cure the chain saw noises that come from me all night long.

Typically, this wasn't covered by insurance! It is considered cosmetic. It was about $500 cash upfront, and if it works, will be totally worth it.

At first, I felt perfectly fine. And the next morning too. I went to the gym, out to coffee with friends, and shopping to replace our dishwasher AND microwave.

I have a theory that if you spend any money on an appliance, other appliances get jealous and demand that you spend some on them too. I never have just one break, its always in twos or threes.

When I got home, I was worn out and spent the rest of the day watching movies and laying around sipping my liquids.

Today, I feel worse! I thought all was completely fine. But I have a feeling that this is not from the mini surgery, its from poison Sugarwing kisses. She is in the middle of another snot-fest and I probably have picked up a cold from her.

She will be here this afternoon when she gets out of school and if both of us are still not feeling our best, I'll probably rent some more movies and we'll lay around together and hold puppies while we watch TV.

She isn't allowed to watch TV on school days, but since its Friday and I've got a sore throat, I'll make an exception. Because I watch her so much, I have to be careful to respect her parent's wishes and be part of raising her the way they want, and not just be a spoiling Grammy. But there are days when I have to just be Grammy and not day care, so we will break a few rules just because its Grandma's house.

This is a book I started on my all night vigil while Twinks was trying to have her pups. I thought it was all done, but it seemed to lack something. I figured out that it needed a purpose. It started out just as vintage images of women. But I wanted it to be useful too. So, I've added pockets, notes, pages, and envelopes all throughout.

It seems more complete this way. It would make a nice art journal or diary now that there are spaces for additional materials and text.

Too bad I didn't think of that before, because I had to go back and try to pull things up, cut around them or move them to add some things. Some pages were easier to change than others. This one was already a layered transparency, all I did was lift up the lady's picture and glue a folded piece of old stationary underneath it, so there is a hidden space for writing.

Some pages are still just decorative, not functional. I've tried to make sure that at least half the pages have a purpose.

It has been a good project for me to get lost in, first when I was worried about Twinkle, and then today when I am not feeling quite myself. It wasn't anything on my list to get done, but it is something that I really enjoyed working on and was a wonderful distraction. Sometimes, you just need to MAKE something, for the joy of making it.

Party prep

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, I do tend to run on, don't I?, jewelry, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / March 25, 2010

We are counting down the days till puppy time, poor Twinks looks about ready to pop! She still has some time to go, and it looks like she is going to spend those days resting.

The whole time I am in the studio, she curls up in this dog carrier/purse. She barely fits anymore, and I'd hate to have to sling it over my shoulder with her (and that tummy full of pups) in it at this point.

It was given to her when she was a puppy herself by a friend, and I used to carry her around in it. It has become her dog bed under my work table. Now that her birthing time is getting closer, she rarely leaves the bag.

Or maybe she just hides in it to escape the chaotic mess that my studio has become?? I feel like hiding when I look at it too. I have two craft days and an Easter Egg party coming up, one tomorrow, so I might need to rent a back hoe to clean this quickly.

Here is something I have learned about having a nice, big studio to work in.

THE MORE TABLES I SET UP, THE MORE STUFF I LEAVE OUT.

Its really sad, because I enjoy having a pretty place to work in, and I'd never let my house get to this point. My home always looks lived in, but not scary like the studio. I like things pretty and peaceful. But out here, things just pile, and pile, and pile. Till I force myself to do something about it.

I knew I'd let it go too far when Sugarwings lectured me about covering up her Play Doh table with packing materials. We talk a lot about her not messing with my stuff, and I was in the wrong to over flow into her area. And I sure heard about it too.

It may look like utter chaos, but there really is a working order to it… at least that is what I tell myself. I'm sure that is what all the people on "Hoarders" say to themselves too.

So, today, I've spent the morning clearing away the last of the Alice themed goods. I've listed the remaining 4 tag covers (I think I'd made about 100!) in the Boutique and all of the materials I used while working on the tags and books are stowed away.

Then, I finished up making Peat Pot Pretties with Charlotte fairies from all of those materials that were still out. I've listed these two and have a few more to photograph. Soon, I hope to gather up what I need to make up the kits that you have asked for to make your own. Maybe after I face the taxes….

There was a big pile of flea market finds that I was trying to get photographed and listed, and that is done now too.

The trouble with cleaning up, is that I can't just put things away. I have to finish up whatever I had them out for in the first place. And use up the scraps. So, of course, when I come across something like an old candy box that was torn, I had to make tags out of it. If I'd packed it away, then it would have just become clutter and would have looked like I was saving torn up trash. Then, I really would have felt like a Hoarder!

So, I made tags from the box. And took photos, and listed them. (I'm patting myself on the back big time over that) I used tidbits laying around on my desk. That is such a much more fun way to clean than to just pack it all away. Plus, its a challenge to limit myself to using what is on the desk, not getting anything new out.

And then, when I get to the place when there is not much left to use on the desk, I can get back to the rest of the clean up.

I'm kind of looking forward to it. I have all day and all night by myself, till as late as I'd like to stay out here and putter and clean. I'll watch the Idol results and Runway while I work and eat granola bars for dinner.

Although, so far, this season of each has been kind of blah to me… Still a fan, but just not as excited about either this time around. I'm still hanging on to LOST too, but I kind of feel like every time they give us one of the so called, promised "answers" its still a question. So, is Richard right, is the island Hell, or was that just his way of seeing it, because of his background??

And please remember, if you want a chance to win this month's giveaway- the shard and rose quartz pendant, you can leave a comment on any post, you don't have to go back to the one where I ann
ounced the MARCH GIVEAWAY.

Okay, back to work for me. But first a quick trip to the PO and the gym.