collections – Karla's Cottage

A surprising find full of forgotten memories, a coincidence, and a gift from Beth

By Karla Nathan / January 10, 2026

When I took down the holiday displays, I didn’t change much on my buffet. Mostly the main pieces stayed as is while Christmas glitz was exchanged for flowers.

Instead of Shiny Brites, the swan was filled with coffee filter blooms. I added floral pictures, tucked fake pink flowers and larger coffee filter roses here and there. Sugarwings placed her Lego bouquet into a depression glass parfait cup and we put it on a small pedestal.

That pedestal is actually a lamp base that I’d painted and glued a round mirror onto. I use it a lot, I feel like it shows off anything you set on it.

The biggest addition is this reclaimed painting. On a mini thrifting day, I popped into a Topeka flea market, and was attracted to the frame. I thought it was $12 and figured I could resell it, then noticed my own signature on the bottom!

Yep, this is one that I probably sold at Mission Road Antique mall in Kansas City 20 years ago and it’s made its way to a Topeka mall. I did not remember this piece of artwork at first, then once I thought about it overnight, it came to me. I’d painted a number of things in my mom’s hospital room as I sat with her in her last weeks.

This was one of those.

At the register, I discovered it was $42 not 12 and was a tad bit iffy on the purchase, but went for it anyway. Now I’m glad that I did because it has stirred some precious memories and I think it has earned a spot in my home.

Oh, and at check out I was chatting to the salesperson and told her the story of finding my own painting. She looked closer at the signature, and told me that she used to buy hand painted Christmas ornaments from me and recognized the name.

As we chatted a bit, I completely forgot that I’d just came from the Medspa and had microneedling done. And was wearing comfy, pj-ish clothing. This photo was taken a couple days later so I looked much, much worse that day. My face was bright red, more like Deadpool. I have to wonder what she was thinking?

“Poor Karla used to sell artwork and do well, now she has a ravaged face and is finding her art tossed aside to show up at flea markets.”

Maybe not, I enjoyed our talk and I don’t think she was too horrified by my raw face. And I’m so glad that I found the painting.

Another sweet addition to the buffet is this china frame from Beth. I haven’t decide what to put in it yet. A vintage photo? A picture of my grand fairies? An antique print?

The frame itself is pretty old, you can tell from the back. I feel like it probably should have something of an equal age, but I might be drawn to the idea of the kiddos framed in it.

Talented friends

collections, friends

By Karla Nathan / June 24, 2025

My friend, Shanna, started sharing her mosaic studio and supplies with friends a few years back and it has grown into full fledged club with a large group of members who come together and chat while we create.

Typically, each does an individual project on their own, but sometimes there is a technique they learn together like this “flying carpet” type piece that Lynn has in the show.

I don’t go as much as I’d like, there are often other things going on and I don’t get to join in weekly. And when I do, I sometimes bring another sort of project and treat it as a craft day, since I’m not exactly a mosaic artist. I’ve done a few pieces, but didn’t really have anything I wanted to enter into the show. So I went to support the group and enjoy the art. They were kind to include me in the photos and speeches.

In a roundabout way, I was part of the show. Shan used my painting and Kim Brook’s ceramic flowers as part of a collaboration in this creation. I love the mix of textures with the broken plates, buttons, and glass.

This work from Melissa has an interesting mix too, with the millefiori glass and the idea of using the grout itself as a design element, not just a filler.

And Margie’s? She has incorporated that flying carpet trick to craft a waving flag and added a meaningful quote in alphabet beads. I just love all of her work.

After seeing pieces in various stages of completion, it was striking to see a roomful of finished, professional art on display. I often take the gatherings for granted, as just an opportunity to hang out with friends and get a few hours of creative time. But this group show reminds me of the talent I’m surrounded by and I was properly impressed by what they have all done.

Angels made with vintage half dolls

collections, cottage, fairies, guncles

By Karla Nathan / September 11, 2024

Last winter, I’d made a tree topper fairy for Guncle Randy, using a pin cushion doll. He had a collection of those and brought them to share with me and make some more.

Some we crafted onto empty tp rolls covered in vintage paper to make into tree toppers again, the rest were simply built to hang. Probably on a tree at the holidays?

But not necessarily. We took our bounty of beauties and hung them onto my chandelier to decorate for a birthday luncheon. They aren’t exactly Christmas ornies, they’d just look exquisite on a tree at the holidays.

This one, this queen of all pin cushion royalty, she would rule wherever she was placed. Oh my, what a gorgeous doll she is, no matter what I do with her or how she got jazzed up.

The day before, I’d found this onyx lamp base at a garage sale, it cost under a dollar. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, til Randy sat this woman onto the top of the stone.

Oh my, she found her home!

I started to deck her out for the holidays, but soon realized she needed to be a daily part of my life, so no golden tinsel or shiny brites got added after all.

Thank you, baby bro, I love her!

Good Juju October Preview and and acting like a grownup

antiques/junking, collections, Good JuJu, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / September 30, 2023

Isn’t this dress to die for? (Ha, see what I did there, a Halloween turn of phrase).

I wish I’d gotten a close up of the lace. It is hauntingly gorgeous, but also delicate. This gown is a display only piece, it would be in shreds if even tried on.

Which is exactly what happened to this satin dress. And it was actually in good shape, but someone in my booth was twisting herself into it over some bulky clothes without trying to be careful. It was torn up under the arms. Well durn.

This probably would’ve made a lovely witchy dress for the right person at Halloween. Now it is also a “display only” a little before it’s time. Oh well. Vintage dresses are always just one tug over the head away from doom.

Plus, there is always breakage in retail. And now it is marked down to reflect its new status. Hopefully someone besides me will appreciate both black beauties for their qualities as is.

For September’s sale, my spot was over the top, nonstop, Spooky Season. I planned on two months of Halloween/fall goods, and that seems to have worked out well.

About half of my inventory that sold was the scary stuff. Since I was in the middle of a remodel in my studio at home, I thought I’d simply plop some fall merchandise in to fill holes and not do a flip like I try to make happen each month.

Because my talented boy got my floor redone in record time, I was able to replace everything in the studio much quicker than I could’ve dreamed of. So that gave me time to give my booth a shake up after all, instead of the refill I’d thought I’d be doing.

And since I am insane I enjoy the redos, packing everything in tubs, setting it aside, moving furniture, puzzle piecing it back together, adding in more. As soon as I am done, I get impatient for this month’s sale to be over so I can move onto my next planned design.

I was able to do half of the booth black with elements of October and the other side of my space in Autumn.

There was even enough time to add a delicious, fruity, fall, vintage wallpaper.

Then to fill that wall with what seems like a few hundred thousand knicky-knacky things. I might have done too much here…

This cabinet is stuffed with a Thanksgiving theme (I did it again, get it? Stuffing!)

I have jewelry at the front on my space. I didn’t get a photo of that.

And owls! More owls. I’d been collecting them all year just for this season. I know owls are popular and sell all year long, but for me, they seemed fitting for this time of year. Plus, I like saving up until I have a collection to display, groupings look good.

I was in the process of redoing this door on the end of the wall when my new neighbor came in and asked whose space it was meant to be. Well, since it had been there the whole time I was renting this spot, I figured it was mine.

It jutted out 10” or so onto her side, and she had hung items on that slice of the back of it, and my things were on the front. It was on a walkway between our two spots. I always used the tiny hallway to hang miscellaneous bits and pieces that didn’t match the themes I had going on, which was handy for me because they were often items that would’ve stood out too much if displayed with my other things. It had been a place for my hodgepodge stuff.

One of the owners was in, and told me that I should move it fully into my area to make it fair, and of course, she was right.

But it would’ve impeded walk space a smidge and that required moving furniture a couples inches and since I was set up, that was a step too much at the point, so I took it down. I have a more narrow shutter to bring in later, a better fit, half the size of the door. That door had been added by the previous occupant, and actually wasn’t my space after all, I just thought it was.

Apparently it was never mine to use, I just assumed it was. Although, after adding the shutter, I’ll still have half of it. And it will be legit this time.

A month ago, the front border of my booth was moved back 18” on one side and if you see how tightly I pack every inch, you know how much that hurt too. I’d always been extremely careful to never, ever go one tiny smidge over the marked line that I had been told was my border when I started. There had been tape on the floor which left a ghostly mark, so I could check myself. I was a bit shocked to find that the whole time, the taped off line had not been as straight as it should’ve been and when measured, it was incorrect.

I am trying to be a big girl (at 65 this shouldn’t be an issue) and telling myself, “Wow, wasn’t I lucky to have some bonus space for over a year?” But my inner, whiny little bitch says, “MINE!”

Working on acting like a grownup at any age isn’t easy, even after all of these years of making the effort. (Atthough, I almost wonder, is it even harder as a senior?)

I need to let go that I’ve lost some of my beloved space and act my age, making the 8-1/2’ I have look as good as I can, not complain about what I don’t have. I took myself for a walk around the block, calmly removed the door, vented to my bestie who always listens and gives a good prospective, then went on with my day.

Oh, but then I vented to you too. I guess I’m still a little whiny. I’ll get over it and hush up about it.

Nobody wants to hear an old lady sounding like a spoiled child.

Studio tour part two, behind some doors

collections, cottage, studio tour

By Karla Nathan / September 26, 2023

It would be impossible to pick a favorite thing about the studio redo. Unless it is the time spent with my boy. Adam drove out from NC for a week of work to transform the cold, hard, cement floor into a cushy, warm vinyl one.

While here, he got the work done in record time so we were able to have some fun adventures while we had him in the same state for a while. And he accomplished so many other giant, or little helpful tasks.

He repaired the basement foundation (very big!)

Tuck pointed the rest of the foundation

Hung chandeliers and branches on my ceiling

Repaired my desk chair

Replaced all of the weather stripping throughout the house

Fixed a water damaged threshold

Trimmed up some damaged siding and screwed the downspout into place so it wouldn’t happen again

Helped haul and reposition all of the furniture back into the studio once the floor was done, into a puzzle piece layout that made the most of my square footage

And that was just in the spare time he had since the floor was finished so quickly.

Basically, he wandered around the house and figured out what needed some tweaking or redoing, and just fixed it. He was busy all day long and into many evenings the whole week he was in Kansas. Sugarwings was thrilled to have her daddy around, and so was I. It’s not that often that a mom gets a complete week of one on one time with a grown son, especially one who is a master craftsmen and fixes everything that he sees wrong.

I had a vision of exactly how I wanted my tagging/shipping area by my desk, but the pieces didn’t quite fit. Adam stopped to cut small bits of wood to adjust heights and made this come together for me.

Having all of the items I need for price tags, printing, and shipping is going to make getting inventory ready to sale a breeze. I might hang a curtain over the bottom of the table though. The piles under there kinda take away from the streamlined look I wanted.

While adding my goodies back into the room, I spent time thinking about how to store them in a better way. Instead of piling all the fabric into this cabinet, I separated by type or color and used cardboard boxes and a basket to make dividers.

The loveliest fabrics and lace panels were put behind glass.

Instead of keeping my beloved wallpaper in a hard to get to stack, it’s now in multiple, easy reach containers.

Some things were left as is. I’ve always liked having this glass topped box of jewelry on a table near my work area. These are mostly pieces meant for gluing onto projects.

The stacked, plastic boxes of beads and findings to make jewelry are all stashed in this cabinet. I’d covered the back wall in a pretty wallpaper, but then didn’t like seeing the chaos of the plastic bins. So I got out more wallpaper and taped it up on the inside of the glass to hide the supplies.

This is a table that I hope to keep cleared for making jewelry. The tall cabinet is filled with books and behind its wallpaper covered door is tools.

Many of the things inside this piece are in the same spot they always were, just the cabinet is moved. Same with all of my little wallpaper covered chests. I can still find most things, the cubbies they are in haven’t changed. Old habits are hard to break, so I did my best to reuse the same boxes for the same stuff, just in a better way.

My paintings, family fairy pictures, and gifts from friends are gathered into one inspiration board type spot instead of scattered around the room.

This is the storage area back in the corner behind the screen. I’ll be bringing stack of painted furniture in to fill it up and possibly overwhelm this space. But at least it will be out of the way and in its own spot.

These shelves are filled with breakables and stuff that doesn’t easily fit in tubs. It’s all inventory for the antique mall. I also use clear plastic tubs to store stuff for my booth, and stack them up in the garage. As I buy goodies at garage sales, I sort them into color or season and put them into the clear bins. Now, if I could just train myself to tag them first…

All of the items for sale online go into a cabinet next to the computer so I don’t mix it up with my other inventory. I hope to get this piece stocked up for the holidays now that I have finished this huge reorg of my studio.

Of course, there is a dog bed and basket of toys by my desk too. Molly and Dorothy like to hang out with me there.

Molly always needs her toys nearby.

Thanks for looking around with me! Now, I’m going to go enjoy that room that we worked so hard to recreate.

Not just a new floor, a whole new look and organizational system in the studio

Chandeliers, collections, cottage, studio tour, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / September 22, 2023

I have officially moved back into the finished studio!

And I adore each and every little nook and corner.

Not only is the new wall color calming and serene, the new floor warm and easy on the feet, the area seems so much more spacious.

Mostly, it is the same stuff rearranged into a more peaceful set up. Previously, my computer area was a dark, crowded hole because I wanted it out of sight. Now it is laid out so that everything is attractive and still workable.

Inventory for the antique mall had taken over the room. Now, I’ll be (hopefully) containing it in this corner, behind screens and pretty doors.

The lighting has had some big changes. My workspace is now in front of the window, which helps a lot. I’d had stacked furniture for good juju there and it had completely blocked any sunlight from streaming in, so that stuff is now located in the back corner storage area that doesn’t even have a window to block.

All of the table lamps’ and chadies’ lightbulbs have been switched out to clear, white, daylight LED bulbs. Which means I have an boxful of mismatched off white and soft white bulbs that I won’t be using. At my age, I need all of the clear, clean light I can get.

My son added two chandeliers on hooks above my work zone. I covered the cords in branches and floral vines.

I was able to gather all of the wallpaper cabinets together for a bigger statement. And they are convenient, right behind my rolling chair so I can glide over and grab supplies out of the drawers.

Rolls of wallpaper are no longer in the big cabinet once used for treats and storage. That giant piece is now in my breezeway, filled with outdoor cushions that I used to have to stash here, there, and everywhere.

The wallpaper is divided into five different containers and (sorta, but not quite yet) separated by color or style.

Pretty curtains that had been jammed into drawers, now are folded up behind glass so I can enjoy them.

Mt main goal was to find the very best options for all of the stuff that had taken over, and store it away into an intentional way. Labeled, or plainly in view. Because I tend to lose or forget I had things.

A place for everything and everything in its place!

Most of the cabinets are filled with functional supplies. But I did indulge a bit with just pretties. The one on the left holds my scrapbooks.

And my hutch still has a few collections behind the glass doors.

Although, about a third of the hutch is now used for supplies, not just pretties.

I’ll show you more details in my next post for now, I want to go and play in my new studio.

A musical interlude

antiques/junking, collections, guncles

By Karla Nathan / September 16, 2023

A few years back, Guncle Randy and I redid a couple violins and fell in love with the process. He has been on the search for more instruments for us to recreate.

After finding another violin for himself, he came across TWO more that his brother, Mark had. Mark and his partner, Allie had found them tossed away and snatched them out of a landfill.

How nice that they offered them to us to use. Allie wanted us to Halloween one up for her, and we were thrilled to have THREE to play with.

The one Randy wanted for himself had glowing wood grain that he didn’t want covered up, so his stayed natural.

Mine got painted white. (Big surprise)

With a crackle finish here and there.

I used crackle on the black one for Allie too. It didn’t show up much til it was accented with silver wax.

We used lace as texture too.

I didn’t get a full photo of mine, but will show one when I get it hung in the house with my previous creation. Allie says hers will go onto her mantel. And Randy’s will be wired into his Xmas tree.

This was our work space.
we moved all of the furniture to one side of the room to have it ready for my son to install the new floor. Randy and I had a small table hidden in the forest of cabinets. And we were lucky to have the guys here to help move stuff so the room was ready when Adam arrived to start on it.

I’ll leave you with some close ups of the musical trio.

Generosity and Joy

collections, jewelry, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / September 10, 2023

I cannot begin to tell you my absolute dumbfounded joy when I was gifted with boxes of beauty.

Where to even begin? This is just a portion of the bountiful gorgeousness that came my way.

I will let the photos speak for themselves.

Thank you, Liz!

Oops

Chandeliers, collections, Good JuJu, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / March 22, 2023

Maybe you remember a few posts back, where I said I should be slapped for even thinking I might need more space at the mall?

Welp, I went for it anyway.

I keep telling myself it is only 3×3’, not a big deal. And it is only for my jewelry, vintage, handmade, and new silver.

Was it a good idea? Who the heck knows. I might be, well I probably am crazy to take on more.

I was excited about the whole decorating aspect of it and happy to have a reason to steal the awning from our chicken coop. But did I really need a second spot at the mall?

As if that generous dollop of insanity wasn’t enough, lookee here. I’m also making bath products to sell there.

My Treacherous Journey

collections, fairies, studio tour

By Karla Nathan / January 24, 2023

Before our January sale at Good Juju, I made some Sweetheart Fairies.

I’d found a boxful of vintage, handmade heads a few years ago and had just been waiting for inspiration to figure out what to do with them.

I had absolutely loved making angels from old dolls at Christmas, but was out of the vintage dolls, so couldn’t make more. Then I remembered the big glass bowl of doll heads in my studio.

Since I have been vending at an antique mall, I’ve started collecting furniture to fix up. Which meant I needed storage. I had to give up a corner of my studio to stack the pieces until needed, and to camouflage the area, I cordoned it off with hinged together doors.

Well, I hate it. But it was needed. And worked out okay, even though it ruins the natural light from the big window and is an eyesore. I have covered the doors with gowns, but it kinda feels even bulkier this way. I should take these down and paint or wallpaper the doors to make the room feel less crowded.

The cluster of tables and dressers behind the barricade also blocks everything back in the corner behind the stacked junk furniture.

And that is where the heads were.

Getting to them was quite the scramble, and I could only squeeze through and grab a handful at a time.

Making the Sweetheart Fairies has become a slight obsession, so I find myself navigating the maze and reaching my way too short arm through a gap to snag another handful of heads on a regular basis. I should just move some furniture, get the bowlful of doll parts and keep them in a more convenient place.

But that would be too easy.

The bodies are wire and wool roving, and I dress them up in bits and pieces of vintagey goodness. Most of these sold at the last sale, but I braved the treacherous trail through mountains of precarious piles and snatched another handful of heads.

More to come!