celebrations – Page 28 – Karla's Cottage

A little Zero Dollar decorating, a cute puppy, a give away, and an adorable baby in a flowered hat

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Food and Drink, Sugarwings, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / April 16, 2010

Its been kind of lonely around here for me, Twinks hasn't left her babies for more than a minute or two. I'm used to having her at my feet all day. Right now, she has a few little guys at her feet instead! She's a happy mama, and honestly seems to enjoy her pups. I've had dogs that are good mothers, but for them it was all business. Twinkle likes the company of her babies.

Luckily, I still have this buddy to keep me company. I scored a bumble bee and a lady bug costume at garage sales today for $2.50 each (both still were in the packages and marked $34!). So we dressed up and went for a walk in the woods. I got to be the lady bug. The dress didn't quite fit, so I had to go with just wings and antenna.

(and my clothes, of course, that didn't sound quite the way I meant it. No one wants to see a Lady Bug Grammy naked in the woods)

Does blog surfing inspire you to make changes? I had a colorful, pastel, faux finished guest bathroom that was perfectly fine. But every time I saw photos of gray or white rooms on someone's blog, I'd sigh and wish it was mine. The guest bath seemed to be the easiest place to make a big change with just a few adjustments and very little cash.

So, I mixed up a dove gray for the walls, and a mushroom color for the floor. Then I took down the floral shower curtain and put up some dumpster drapes after repainting the room. I dug these out of a dumpster a few years back and have used them over and over in different areas. There had been 12 panels at one time, and I sold most of them. These are the last three and I'm glad I kept them, they were just what I needed to finish this room on a budget. Since they are lace, and were a bit too long, I just folded them over on the top to shorten them and looped the curtain ring right through the lace.

(they are pretty old and kind of tattered, but I like that look)

After painting the floor that mushroom shade, I realized it would always look filthy. So I splattered some dark flecks around to camouflage any dirt we track in. I might distress it with sand paper a bit too.

The ceiling stayed a soft purple, the door is painted gray like the walls, and the trim is bright, shiny white. I found a rusty ceiling tin piece in the shed and sat it on top of the built in cabinet. It could use some thing else up there, but I'm in no hurry. I redid the room for the cost of the paint, so far, and really don't want or need to spend much more on it. Maybe I'll find something cheap but fabulous at garage sales.

I guess I'm in the spring cleaning mood and ready for some more Zero Dollar Decorating like I was into right after the holidays.

I'll leave you with a few photos from our Cupcake Tea Party, that turned into a walk down the Fairy Berry Trail and to the creek. It was such a beautiful spring day!

Please don't forget that we have the regular monthly giveaway going, a china shard necklace is the prize. Its open to anyone who leaves a comment.

If you want to win a Peat Pot Pretty, please sign up as a Google Friend Connect follower.

Twinkle’s shameful secret???

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, Food and Drink, parties, Sugarwings, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / April 14, 2010

Aren't they sweet? Yorkies are always born black with tan, like an itty bitty Doberman. You don't know until they shed their puppy hair and their adult coat grows in if they will be silver or black. Those are the only accepted colors for this breed. Sometimes as babies, they have a little white patch on their chest, but it turns tan or blond as they get older. There is not supposed to be any white on a full grown Yorky.

So, imagine our surprise when we saw this! My first thought was, "Twinkle, you dirty girl, what have you been doing? Sneaking out the windows at night after your family is asleep???"

This pup does NOT look like a Yorkshire Terrier at all! I've heard that a litter of pups can have different fathers for each baby, but she was not unsupervised at all, and Teddy is her only man.

After checking with Teddy's family to be sure they didn't have a beagle or some other spotted male hanging around, I surfed the web and read about Parti Colored Yorkies. These colored dogs are controversial and not very common. Looks like some people are purposely breeding them as designer dogs, but I don't think they are recognized by the AKC even though they are full blooded Yorkshire Terriers, they don't meed the breed standards.

They can turn up in a litter if both parents have the recessive gene for this abnormal color.

Here is a picture I snagged from one of the Parti-colored dog breeder's sites. I think they are just cute as a bug, and am excited to have one of these little "special" guys!

Yorkies have the funniest, goofiest, sweetest personalities. And there is something about the way they look at me with that silly expression on their face when they want to tell me something, that first made me tell one of our dogs that she was acting like a dork. Since then, I've always called them Dorkies.

I raise well loved, socialized, cuddled and nurtured babies. They aren't show dogs, they are pet quality dogs, and I do my best to give them a head start on being a wonderful pet. Lots of attention, lots of varied experiences. They play outside, they play with kids, they play with cats, they spend every day with me in the studio while I work, and are about as social and ready to face the world as any pup can be.

(Another pic from that breeder's site)

So, I don't mind that our parti boy isn't to breed standards on color. I don't expect any of my dogs to win any trophies. But I do expect them to adore their new owners and be great companions.

I have a feeling that this parti boy will get tons of extra attention and cuddles and be an even better dog than most of my babies. And I sure hope Twinkle forgives me for calling her a dirty girl.

Plus, we LOVE parties around here. So a parti pup is right up my ally. And we don't mind showing some individuality. He'll fit right in here at the Cottage!!

Our Cupcake and Tea Party was a blast yesterday. As soon as the pups are big enough for company, I'm going to throw another one, and make sure all the puppies get held and played with by the kids.

Sugarwings had a good time at the party. Since we were in the studio, she slipped over to her art table and did a little painting before coming to the table to create her cupcake. Funny, she worked so hard on making it beautiful, she didn't care a bit about eating it. A true artist!!

I'll have more party pictures and more puppy ones too, later on. For now, I need to go see who was voted off on Idol. That show is getting better, I'm glad I didn't give up on it earlier in the season.

Before I run, I wanted to let you know that Peat Pot Pretty C
harlotte Fairy kits are available in the Boutique now. As well as a new shipment of Charlottes!

Celebrating!

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, flowers, Food and Drink, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / April 13, 2010

Time to celebrate! I'm so glad Twinkle and the babies are home safe and settled. She is a happy little mama and won't let them out of her sight. I'm having a party today and will probably keep the babies away from everyone, Twinks is feeling a bit worried since we moved the pups around so much yesterday.

She actually tried to hide them under the porch this morning. So, I am giving her a lot of attention and have her in a quiet spot so she feels like the pups are protected, hopefully she won't run off with them again.

During the all night labor marathon, I stayed up with her and worked in the studio. I don't even know how many of these Peat Pot Pretties with Frozen Charlotte fairies that I made. (as well as 12 kits for you to make your own-6 are spoken for)

Some are going to Somerset Life (yippee!), some to the shop to sell, and a couple I will be giving away as prizes for people who sign up to follow me (Google Friend Connect on my side bar)

But for today, they are centerpieces for a Cup Cake and Tea Party that I am having.

The treat cabinet is filled with everything a kid will need to decorate a mini cupcake (or two).

Since Twinkle is being very nurturing today, I thought I'd try to leave her alone as much as I can, but I knew she wouldn't mind me taking one picture.

cute, huh!?

She is such a pretty girl. I'll have more pictures soon, probably more than you want to see!

Hippity Hoppity Fairy Berry Trail

celebrations, fairies, family, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 4, 2010

On Saturday, we got our boat out of storage and took it to the Marina for the upcoming season. Sugarwings offered to help and since we weren't going to see her for Easter, the bunny hid a little basket for her on the bank of the lake.

But sadly, her mommy's plans for driving to see relatives in Missouri today changed when Sugarwings woke up with a fever. The two of them came over here instead, where they could cuddle up and watch movies and rest, but still be with family.

While the two of them were all tucked up on the couch, the we took advantage of the spectacular, 80 degree, sunshiny day and got to work on the Fairy Berry Trail. All the fairies came out of the shed where they had hidden for the winter. And the bunny came over to hide a few eggs.

The poor kid had a fever of 104 earlier, but was feeling a bit better, so we carried her down to the woods in her jammies to visit her fairy friends and the other creatures who live on the trail.
At first, she was so happy to see her favorite frog prince, that she didn't even notice the trails of carrots.

But she has spent enough time with her Grammy to always notice the sparkle of glitter and be attracted to it! So, she soon noticed some of the hidden plastic eggs.

She didn't want to eat any of the jelly beans inside because she thought the fairies might be mad at her.

Then, she saw her new play house. My husband is the world's best grandfather and we worked for a long time to put this together today, but forever and ever, the Easter Bunny will get all the credit for building her a "Glitter House" as she calls it.

We mowed a 12 foot area between two trees that were draped in vines. Then, I sprinkled glitter all around on the ground, and set up a little chair and table for her (later on, we'll get a picnic set big enough for all of us).

Then, we gathered fallen branches from all over the woods to build "walls" to make a little room.

Over time, we'll foof it up even more. But for a spur of the moment idea using what was laying around, its pretty fun.

I could possibly go broke if I try to keep the ground glitter covered, so I think we'll switch to mulch. I can't wait to see this with all the leaves budded out, it will really feel like a fairy house in the trees then!

After a few jubilant dance moves in her new play area, our poor little fairy grand baby was worn out and didn't even look for the rest of her hidden eggs. And she never did eat a jelly bean, so we knew she must be feeling pretty bad.

In the short time we had her out doors, her fever spiked back up and she said her back hurt. It got back up to over 104 again, so we took her to the ER, we could tell she was feeling awful. I'm glad we did, she has a urinary track infection and is now on antibiotics.

By the time we got back home, her fever was gone again and she was hungry. I whipped up an impromptu Easter dinner
with chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, asparagus and broccoli, while my husband grilled some ruby trout for the vegetarians of the group.

We were glad to see Sugarwings eat a bit, but she still isn't quite herself. She and her mommy will stay all night tonight and hopefully, she'll be up to hopping down the fairy trail tomorrow.

While its sad that she is sick, and she missed out on a family reunion with her mom, it certainly will be an Easter we never forget. I hope yours was a memorable one too!

ps- No pups yet! Twinkle kept up with us all morning clearing brush in the woods and foofing up the bunny trail. Maybe all that hard work will throw her into labor tonight!

The Tiniest Dancers

antiques/junking, celebrations, fairies, family, parties, Sugarwings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 23, 2010

When I found these teeny little ballerinas, I was just charmed by them. At barely an inch, they are just as dainty and sweet as can be. I didn't get many of them, just a few to add to the shop along with some of their big sisses, and a few for me to use too.

It was a girly day for the Boutique. I added fairies, ballerinas, Charlottes and Alices.

Don't you just love the badly painted faces of the OLD cake topper ballerinas? So ugly they are cute.

This shipment of Charlottes is of all eensy weensy little girls. Each is every bit as dainty as that tiny ballerina, at about 1 inch long.

I scrubbed at a couple to see if the dirt comes off, and most of it will. But I am leaving it on, in case the new owner likes "patina" as much as I do.

They are just so tiny and sweet.

Kind of like these two, the sweetest little dancers ever.

We had a little tea party so Pixie Pie and Sugarwings could open the gifts that were sent to them by Debra Ganas. They loved them!! Thanks, Debra!!

Sugarwings loves her cuddly dog. But I made a mistake in my Swap Book notes and only wrote down that there was a gift for Sugarwings next to the giver's name, not what it was, because it wasn't open at the time. So, I won't know what is from who!

How rude of me. I'm sorry.

She has a couple more to open, and tomorrow is my Sugarwings Day, so she and I will spend some time enjoying the thoughtfulness of the givers.

You know that feeling after a holiday, or big event when all of a sudden, its over and you wonder what you are going to do with your time? That is kind of how I am feeling right now, I miss the Alice Tag Book Swap!

So, today I made up a book of my own tags, plus a few kits if anyone would like to make a book.

March giveaway does really exist and some Tag Book Tendinitis

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, give away, jewelry, Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / March 17, 2010

Happy St Pats! There is a great parade downtown Lawrence, but I had to skip it today. Sugarwings went with the rest of the family and I stayed home to rest.

Remember the Frozen Charlotte flu that knocked me out of commission a couple of weeks ago? It turned into pleurisy. But on top of that, I seem to have some tendinitis in my left arm, from making over 70 tag books and typing out the labels. Funny, when you are over 50 and call the Dr. to say that your chest and left arm hurts, everyone starts to panic.

But, I knew it wasn't a heart attack, I could just tell. But my Dr. wouldn't see me to say what it was, I had to go to the ER. And since my stubborn, doctor's office hating, husband has high cholesterol issues and a family history of heart problems, I knew that if I refused to go in to get checked, he would use this as an excuse to not get checked himself if a future chest pain ever came up for him.

Since I KNEW it wasn't my heart, I finished all the tag books (from the tags that were already here, I am expecting a few more yet) and got them to the PO before I went to the ER. The pain had been around for more than 24 hours, I figured that if it was an emergency, I'd already have been dead.

So, the tags are in the mail, I am feeling better, but am supposed to rest up. I might take a couple of days off from typing, this hurts!

Sometimes it sucks to get old. Things hurt more. And linger longer.

Just ask poor old Bookie and Sparkle, they know how I feel. Those two hardly ever leave their pillow by the space heater. But I did coax them out to pose in their St Pats finery.

I'm going to take today and tomorrow off to get cozy and rest up while I recover from Frozen Charlotte Flu induced pleurisy and Tag Book Tendinitis. I've got some reading to do for book club and need to go see Alice in Wonderland.

Before I go, I wanted to show you the giveaway for March. Yep, its once again past mid-month by the time I remembered to announce my month long contest….

This is a china shard pendant that I've made from a vintage plate, a rose quartz cab, two rose quartz beads, and vintage crystals. This giveaway is retroactive, all comments all month, all posts go into the hat.

Now, back to my ibuprofen. I hope you all find a lucky four leaf clover and a pot of gold today!

Oh Baby, Baby! Twice the fun as just one.

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, Food and Drink, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / March 10, 2010

Surprise! Today is a surprise baby shower for our sweet as can be, friend, Andrea. She is expecting a little sister for her two boys.

So, a group of us are helping her celebrate by sending her some hand made girly gifts to Hope, who lives near Andrea and is gathering all the presents and surprising her with a shower.

My gift is a little cartoon painting of her two sons as elves, holding a newborn fairy girl.

Its done in watercolor with ink. And I added some pearl paint to the baby sister's wings, with a hint of glitter.

Her gift was sent wrapped in vintage paper, and I used very little tape, so she could reuse it for a project. Don't you hate getting some cool old paper and having it ruined by the tape?

Here is a section of the paper that you can click on to enlarge if you'd like to print it to use.

Please visit the other shower "guests" and see what pretties they have made! Here's a list of who is attending the shower today.

And of course, what is a baby shower without some yummy treats? I made a carrot cake up for yet another baby shower. Tuesday, we celebrated Shawn's upcoming addition with a Craft Day Baby Shower Tea Party at my cottage.

As a surprise, I made a fairy picture of Shawn's daughter, Bethany holding a new baby brother.

We really wanted an Alice theme for our tea party, but since I had the photo shoot the day before, my time was short. I was able to make a mini effort to Alice up the table. The party favors were little Charlotte babies that came along with a pig picture cut out of a vintage book. Since Alice was holding a bundled baby that turned into a pig.

And I cut out little "drink me" notes to put by all the tea cups.

Beth was the Mad Hatter (or Russel f
rom Survivor?) and I was the March Hare.

Shawn and Bethany came with Rabbit Ears too.

Shawn has more photos of the day here.
Shawn's baby is due after Twinkle's babies are coming, so I told everyone we had to squeeze in one more craft day and make it a baby shower for Twinks. (if you live nearby and want to come, let me know!)

For Shawn's gift, we bought her an album and each created a page for it. Her husband is an aquarium enthusiast, so I thought that a fish theme would be good for my page. I made a pocket out of watercolor paper that I painted like to look like water, with little purple fishies in it. I cut out fish shaped tags for her to glue photos to, and slid them into the pocket.

Next, I painted some colorful fish and grasses on watercolor paper and cut them out to glue onto the pocket for a 3-D effect.

For the back side of my page, I used sparkle scrapbook paper over reversible scrap book paper that I folded into a pocket page. I do like pockets in photo albums. The little card with the old fashioned baby picture opens up, so that Shawn can add a small picture there too.

But that isn't all the babies, or all the gifts! Our other friend, Holly, is expecting her 3rd son. I wanted to send a little something to her and since I am on a Charlotte roll, I thought I'd use one of them. Although her child is a boy, so we won't say Charlotte, we'll say Charles.

The carriage is made from a box that I have cut down and covered in flocked wallpaper, then lined with white velvet, and trimmed with ruffled ribbon. The wheels are mother-of-pearl buttons.

And geez, as if this post wasn't already long enough, I need to let you know that I've restocked the crown rings in my Boutique.

Also, I will be emailing everyone who asked me to save a Peat Pot Pretty with Fairy for them, and will have a couple left to add to the shop too. Thanks so much!

And congratulations, Andrea, Shawn, Holly, and Twinkle on this spring's new crop of little ones!

Wishing the Happiest of Valentine’s Days to You!!

celebrations, fairies, holiday decor, paintings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day! Today is not only my 3rd blog anniversary, it is also my 700th post! What are the odds that would happen??? So of course, I am celebrating with a giveaway. Today is the last day to enter to win a copy of my Grumpy Fairy book

This little painting is for Sherry. She has EIGHT grand daughters and has asked me to paint them each as a fairy, like I did for Sugarwings in the Grumpy Fairy book. I've had a lot of request for doing this, but have always turned them down. Now, I think I am ready to take on some commissions….

To see if I really wanted to go into the fairy painting biz, I did a few little sprite cartoons of some of my friend's children.

Of course, these will not be exact portraits, cartoon is the key word here. I have plans for some vintage wallpaper covered mats. When I have it all done and ready to mail, I'll show you the photos I worked from and the finished projects. I'll be interested to see what the moms say. I'll be relying on their feed back to see if I will offer this service in my Boutique. What do you think? Is there a market for this?

Each is a mix of ink, watercolor, acrylic, and glitter. There had to be glitter!

My little Sugarwings has been doing some artwork too. She needed to make 16 Valentines for school, so I turned her loose with my red and pink paints and some glitter gel. She was enjoying the job, but was even more excited to think about the cards her friends were making for her. Their party is Monday after Valentine's, which is lucky, because she was sick on Friday.

Speaking of lucky, I've been getting some wonderful gifts in the mail! An envelope full of vintage die cuts came from Ruth, (who is one of the participants in our Alice Tag Book Swap– its not too late to enter if you want to join us!)

This giant selection of red gummed labels came from Kathy, along with the cute heart collage and the round stacking boxes. I can't wait to gaudy up those babies.

I think that these labels will come in very handy on my Alice swap tags.

Then, I got a package from Sue

that was filled to the top with pretty papers for me and for Sugarwings! Along with lots of fun tid bits for my fairy grand baby to craft with, stickers, tags, and even sticky paper to make your own stickers with. She used some over the painted Valentines she made for school.

There was a set of fairy wings for a doll too! Sweet, huh?

But that is not all! My pal, Tiffany sent a beautiful card from one of her photos and inside it was this Glenda bookmark. Just because. And Jenn sent a cute Valentine, which was a sweet surprise.

And I can't forget to mention the Valentine calendar that my Sissy sent for all of us to copy and use (previous post). I ended up putting a copy in my scrapbook today, but instead of a photo, I added two columns clipped out of the newspaper this week. They are both written by Lori Carson, who was the host for the Romantic Decorating Tips I did for the local news station (here and here). She used the tips for her column too, and gave credit to my blog.

Yep, I'm pretty lucky. Thank you to everyone who comes by my blog to keep me company and to all the great blog friends that I've met. Thank you for 3 years of fun. My blog means a lot to me, and so does your company.

I hope you'll continue keeping me company as I blather on in the future!

3 years, 700 posts, a swap, some puppies, and a bonus giveaway, all coming up!

Books, celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), give away, paintings, Sugarwings, swaps

By Karla Nathan / February 9, 2010

A year ago this time, I was posting puppy pictures. Here is Twinkle and her one true love, Teddy, with their one year old daughter, Bella (middle). Isn't she a pretty pup? Hopefully, we'll have a few more little dorks running around the house in 60 days or so. I'd better have some puppies, 3 are already spoken for!

Last year this time, I was hosting a Puppy Love Tag Swap. It was such fun, I'm thinking about hosting another, but since I don't have puppies around yet, how about an Alice swap? No, not this little Alice! I mean an Alice in Wonderland tag book swap?

The rules will be very similar to last year's swap. I'll write them up and get back to you for a sign up, I just wanted to plant the idea for now. Anyone interested?

As a Tim Burton and Johnny Depp fan, I'm so excited about the Alice movie coming out soon! The previews have been glorious.

Along with the details, I'll also post some pages from a vintage Alice in Wonderland book that Beth gave me, if anyone wants to print those to use for their tags.

This swap is just what I need to celebrate my 3rd anniversary in blogworld!

3 years and 700 posts are both coming up this week, so I'll have a special gift for you too as a thank you for keeping me company these last 3 years.

If you'd like to win a copy of my book, please leave a comment on any post between now and Valentine's Day. If you'd like to sign up for the swap, I'll have details coming and a separate post coming for that.

All comments all month count toward my regular monthly giveaway, whatever the heck I come up with for this time. I seem to be so short on time in the studio, that I never quite get done what I need, and still haven't got a gift pulled together yet. But I will….

A couple of tiny ballerinas

celebrations, Food and Drink, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / January 26, 2010

Sugarwings went to her first ballet class yesterday.

Before the class began, she practiced her moves by copying some poses she saw in photos out in the

hallway of the Art Center.

We are so lucky to live in a town with a resource like this. Our art center is vibrant, busy, and there is always something fun going on. When it was being built, I was on the committee to chose installation artists (I had NO idea what I was doing, I just picked what I liked, and tried to not feel intimidated by the real artists on the committee.)

One of the selected artists was a good friend of mine, Shanna Wagner, who also teaches at the center. She did this stained glass mural in the stairwell, and it was such a huge project, that she enlisted friends to help out. My bit is the yellow/orange area to the lower right.The piece is breath taking in person. I just love going to the Art Center and seeing it.

Speaking of breath taking, the speed that the wallpaper is flying out of the shop is astounding! Thanks, guys!!!

Today, I added a few snack packs of scraps. I have some more to photograph, but some packs are already sold out. These small pieces are perfect for little artworks, like tags or ATCs.

Its nice to have scraps to use for mini projects instead of cutting up a large piece for a 2 or 3 inch bit.

The packs were what I worked on for a while when friends came over for Craft Day. That and some photo albums that should have been put together a year ago, I've gotten a bit behind on my photos…

I wish every week had a craft day in it! Those days are the best. Although, I think Beth was doing an expose on the REAL Karla's Cottage while she was here. Keep an eye out for incriminating photos on her blog. I told her to go for it, I've shown some pretty bad messes around here. And when you see a photo of something pretty, that means that the other side of the room is a disaster because I've kicked everything over there out of the way, or else it is just cropped out.

See what I mean? Here is the same view, uncropped with the clutter showing around it. I have a feeling that Beth found worse, though.

About half way through the day, Marilyn mentioned that it was her birthday yesterday! Luckily, we were prepared for any emergency around here, and I whipped out a cupcake and topper with a candle.

We also styled a photo of Beth's project for Mary's Artist Class. Notice a third dessert pictured? Yes, it was a day of treats. Homemade marshmallows by Shawn, and brownies from the birthday girl, cheesecake from me and cupcakes from Beth. Sometimes, pitch-in lunches can be slanted in one direction, can't they? Shawn also brought a deli tray and I made soup, so we weren't totally relying on sweets for lunch. Although, that doesn't sound too bad, either.

There are still a few days left to enter this month's giveaway. I'm offering a foofed up love bird made out of a vintage cotton fiber cardinal. There are a few in the Boutique also, in case you win one and it needs a feathered friend.