collections – Page 4 – Karla's Cottage

2012 Studio Tour (Where Bloggers Create) A cottagey art studio

collections, Hand Painted Furniture, studio tour

By Karla Nathan / July 14, 2012

Karen is hosting the Where Bloggers Create studio tour again, and of course, I had to participate! I adore my studio and can't believe how lucky I am to have it.

The blog hop was a good excuse to get the room cleaned up for one thing, and for another, its a bunch of fun to surf through all the links and see all the creative spaces.

The nice thing about a blog party, is that you can take your time, look at a couple here and there, then the list will be waiting for you to come back and check out a few more later.

Beware, this post is a LONG one.

I took over 200 photos of the studio. Don't worry, I'm not posting them all. And I promise, I shut up about half way through and just start posting pictures.

My own studio is all about the things I love. I like to have them out where I can enjoy them, not packed away waiting for some future use. Someday, I might make something with these vintage dresses, but for now, they are curtains.

I'm also all about re-purposing, and salvage. And finding cheap stuff!

This table was a dollar at a garage sale because the veneer was a wreck. I covered the top in textured wallpaper and painted the piece. (you can find custom painting tips and how-tos on my side bar under Tutorials)

The drawer was saved from an old wallpaper chest that had too much water damage to keep. But I love the drawers for holding special tidbits.

Wallpaper chests are one of my favorite storage items. I never pass one up. Even when I come across one that isn't all that pretty, I get it anyway and add different paper to the front of the drawers, like the dark green one with silver paper.

And when my husband got a new desk for his office, I moved his filing cabinet to my studio and covered the drawer fronts with some pretty wallpaper to girly it up a bit. The top is granite, but was actually free! When our kitchen was being remodelled, the guys cut the counter tops wrong and had to replace a piece. They gave me the incorrect one, so I use it as a table top over the file cabinet.

This spool shelf was from a garage sale too, and was cheap as can be. I painted it white, set it on the granite table top and then stuffed it with supplies. This sits right behind my work station so I can wheel my chair around and have everything within easy reach.

The spools of ribbon hang from a ribbon tied to the shelf. It works great till there are a bunch of empty ones, then I have to untie it, to slide them off and put it all back up again. Seems like the empties are always dead center, never on the ends. Still, its worth the effort, I like having the ribbons on display and handy.

This is my desk top. The shelf on it lets me have even more supplies right where I need them, so I don't have to get up and hunt.It doubles my table top storage space, but is low enough that I can chat with friends across the table on craft day.

I'm a big believer in pretty storage! Teapots, floral mugs, old boxes, and other garage sale goodies are put to work all around the room.

This old hanky box is full of ink pads. I like the 99 cent ones from the bin at Michaels. I buy handfuls when I have one of those 25% off your total purchase coupons.

And this little wire plant stand is perfect for keeping a selection of glues and glitters upside down. I store all glue, Stickles, and paints that way, it keeps them fresher and easier to squirt out.

The table itself is not very pretty, but sometimes I'll glue things I like to the edges of it.

This is my glitter storage cabinet.

Because having plenty of Sparklies in life is important!

Besides the large folding tables from the hardware store that I cluster around to use as work spaces, this glass top table is the only new piece of furniture in the room. The rest of the things are from yard sales, auctions, and fleas. I've painted most of them white, like I did this table, so that they have some flow in the room and all the different styles aren't as distracting. Some have rosy wallpaper borders like I added to this one too.

Here is a close up inside. I have plates and bowls filled with different types of jewelry:

clear rhinestones
colored stones
pearly things
porcelain or enamel flowers
buckles
cameos
lockets
figural pieces
hearts
brass charms
and probably some other crap

My friends get tired of seeing me perched over the Dollar Jewelry tables at flea markets, but I find my best stuff while sifting through the piles there.

Its good to have big bowls of flowers nearby too. I tend to buy a lot of hats…. and while most are stored away as is around the room, I do try to pluck a few so that this big punch bowl stays full.

There is a glass front buffet (I got for $40 and fixed up) that I store hats in, but it overflowed, and there are hats everywhere waiting to be plucked.

And birds. I have little birdies everywhere. I set them out for Birdsong and haven't had the heart to put them away.

Seems like flowers have found their way to most of my lamp shades. This lamp shade is an old hat itself. I've just punched a hole in the top to attach it to the finial.

And there are bowls of flowers in the cabinets too. They might be needed someday for a project, but in the meantime, I want to be able to see them and love them, and wipe drool off of them every once in a while. I can never get enough old millinery blooms.

The buffet on the back wall is the one full of flowered hats. I didn't get a close up of the hats themselves.

My studio is one big room, almost 1,000 sq ft. (yippee!) One side, is set up for every day work. The other has two dining tables in it that I use for company, they can be pushed together for parties. But normally, when the studio is not cleaned up (which is most of the time) one table is full of things to photograph and add to my Boutique, and the other is covered with sewing things.

See all the hanging birds? I really need to get a ladder out and get those down, or they will be nothing but dust balls soon.

This bench was made by my son from an old head board, and I painted it.

Here is the view from the dining table side of the room into the working side. The tables there aren't very nice, but they are versatile and can be moved to different configurations. Plus, I can spill paint and glue all over them, slice with exacto blades and not care.

There is a central support beam that we turned into a column, and I've grouped storage pieces and old doors around it to create a divider.

The old doors are hinged together and make great fake walls. Especially the screen and glass doors, they divide the space up while still letting the light come through.

I've used old doors to section off my computer/office area.

The doors also provide spaces to hang more stuff! LIke my great Aunt Caroline's clock and portraits of my grand fairies.

The office space sits inside this room built of doors. (the rug is hand painted vinyl flooring)

Sugarwings has her own area, and these hold all of her art supplies. (but she prefers mine)

Behind Sugarwing's supply chests and work table is this closet. Its overfilled with shipping supplies for my store. If I ever disappear from this blog and you don't hear from me, it will be because I opened that door and was buried in an avalanche of packing peanuts.

This table is actually a pretty antique, but I have so much junk on the shelves below it, I made a table cloth to fit it and hide them.

The door is an original door from our farm house that I painted an iris on.

The metal chimney cabinet is filled with old books.

And the wallpaper box is filled with lace.

This room was built as simply as possible, a cement floor, and dry wall. I've stained and painted the floor, and tried to foof up the place with my pretties to make it feel like home, not a big square space.

Adding vintage chandeliers has helped the room not feel as new as it is. Our cottage is around 100 years old, and I didn't want this room to look blindingly brand new when we added it.

I've also tried to keep everything functional while still being things I liked to see around me. Each cabinet has a purpose. Its pretty well organized, and I can find what I want when I need it. Unless I've set it down somewhere as I walk through the room. Then, its hopeless. I usually have piles of projects all around the room, its easy to lose stuff in them.

Well, I've probably done enough blathering. I'll finish with some closeups around the space, and inside some of the cabinets.

And maybe of a friend here and there around the room.

Thanks for stopping by!

Editing in reverse

antiques/junking, collections, Kitchen remodel

By Karla Nathan / September 19, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sugarwings first flea market

antiques/junking, collections, flowers, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 8, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When the heck is Easter anyway?

celebrations, Chandeliers, collections, flowers, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / April 19, 2011

My Easter decor has been up way too long, already. And when is Easter even coming? Its late this year, and I got all geared up for it way too early, back in March.

Mid March even.

Every year, I'm excited to pull out the fluffy bunnies and pastel pretties to welcome Spring. Its kind of a spring cleaning ritual for me, and I like to decorate my chandelier for the season, as I wipe down the crystals on it.

Its always a fresh, clean, exciting feeling to have all the decorations out, but this year, I think it was a bit soon for all this fluff and I'm tired of it before the bunny has even come to hide his eggs.

Most of it is stuff I love, and more springlike than Easterish.

Usually I use my springy decor for the whole season, and just add the vintage bunnies, lambs, chicks, etc to it for the holiday itself. But I guess I didn't realize I was more than a month early for all the bunnies and their pals, and added the pastel guys way too soon.

Why is it that I adore having Christmas decorations up for as long as possible but not Easter? And last fall I had pumpkins (white glittered ones) every where for months and loved it. I never got tired of either.

But I'm ready to rip the ears right off the rabbits by now.

Yet, at this point, I need to just ride it out. Easter is finally just around the corner.

Plus, Sugarwings loves it all so much. She wouldn't like seeing Grammie go postal on the holiday decor.

One thing I really am enjoying is Picnik's "bunny tone" editing tool. Pretty, huh? I loved this photo of Sugarwings and my handsome husband, but it was blurry and dark. Using Picnik turned it into a keeper.

I have a feeling that when I get to fill Sugarwing's basket and hide her eggs, that my Easter Joy will return. But for right now, its a struggle to not gag when I see a china lamb.

Maybe I need some Cadbury eggs therapy. Nothing like an infusion of that elusive, annual treat to make a person appreciate Easter time!

Please pardon me for not visiting with you. I'm busy as an early bird chasing worms trying to get ready for my Birdsong art workshop coming up.

Well, some is better than none, right?

collections, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, Travel, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / March 15, 2011

There were lots of good intentions of getting a ton of wallpaper cut…. but it just didn't happen. But what I did get cut is as pretty as can be.

Sometimes I just have to admit that there is only so much time in a day. Yesterday, Sugarwings and Pixie Pie came to play and I had to chose between getting my work done or being a grammy. I think you know what won!

Oh well, its not like the paper will spoil. I can cut more later when I am not pressed for time.

While I was working, it seemed like I had really cut up a lot, but once it was all ironed and packaged, it was much less than I thought it would be. I guess because I cut such big pieces this time, a hefty 14 x 17".

A lot of people were asking me for larger pieces, and I wanted to do a variety of sizes, but well, I've already mentioned that I was distracted by something shiny- two little sparkly fairies!

For now, I have about a dozen or so packs listed in the Boutique. And I have hopes of making up more packs when I get back from my trip to Moulin Rouge.

All purchases from the Boutique and from Etsy will be shipped a couple of days after I get back. Thanks for being patient!

There is also some other new stuff listed for sale, like this banner made of vintage gift wrap and old game cards (from my friend, Mary)

While I didn't get as much wallpaper packed up as I wanted to, I made up for it by cutting up what felt like a million or so pieces of old gift wrap. While I had it out, getting it ready to sell, I just had to make a few things with it too.

Like this mini notebook.

Its pretty stuff, isn't it?

I'll leave you with some more photos of what is new in the shops. And please check back, even though I'll be away, I'll have some new posts for you.

Now, I'm off to pack for Moulin Rouge. I'm not quite sure what to bring. I think I'd look more than a bit ridiculous as a can can girl. More of a can't can't old lady.

Oh well, I'll throw on one of Sugarwing's feather boas from her dress up pile and go kick my legs up any way. This is one old grammy who doesn't care about looking ridiculous!

How to paint a cement floor

collections, how to's, how-to projects

By Karla Nathan / February 25, 2011

The other day, I drove into Kansas City to spend the day with Beth. Whenever I go to her house, I always start peeking around to explore her latest finds. I had some time to kill while she finished something up, so I entertained myself by poking through her stuff. You know you have a good friend when you don't think twice about wandering around her house and making yourself at home.

I could poke around for days and not see it all.

And this isn't even in her craft room. This is a small portion of the stuff piled in the guest room, waiting to be tagged and sold or photographed for Ebay and Etsy.

I'm always attracted to doggie brooches and at first really liked this one. Then I took a closer look, what is going on with the poor creature's mouth? No wonder his eyes are popping! But still cute.

I like the blue fur. I think this dog has been flocked.

This is a pile I could really delve into. Can't you picture a collage in that old watch? It could be like a mini shadow box.

Recently she hit pay dirt at an auction and got a lot of watch bits and pieces. Hmmm…. if I invited myself over for a craft day, I wonder if she'd let me play with some of them?

Beth and I are driving to Texas together for Paper Cowgirls in June and are trying to figure out if we have enough space in the car to take along stuff to sell on vendor night. We'd share a table, so wouldn't need a lot of inventory each. Heck, if she just threw a couple of these boxes from her guest room into the back of the car, the shoppers would be thrilled.

We both drive Scions and they are shaped like a little box on wheels, so have lots of space in them for a small car. But by the time you pack suitcases, tools for the classes, my class kits, etc., things do start to fill up.

I think that we can make a couple of tubs of vendor goods each fit into the car though. I'd want to take some millinery flowers and wallpaper packs. Not anything that takes up much space.

Guess what!? My class at Paper Cowgirls is filling! The site has it marked as full, but there is actually a space or two left due to some sort of paypal button error. So, if you tried to sign up for my class but didn't get in, let me know and I'll see if there is a spot still there.

The reason why I went to Beth's in the first place was to help her with her booth at Mission Road Antique Mall. Years ago, that is where we met- we were neighbors with booths across from each other. Then, we started to share spots as well as each having a place of our own there too.

I was pleased to see that my old booth still had the hand painted floor that I did.

The mall owner let me pull up the carpet in my space and paint over the concrete below. I've done this in homes too, back when I was a full time painter. I've also tried this look on wooden floors and used the same steps. One area that did NOT work was an outdoor patio. And that was because of the temperature fluxuation here in Kansas. The winter freezing and summer heat, caused contracting and expanding that ruined the paint job.

Here is how I do it:

Cut the carpet in strips with a box cutter. Change the blade often, a dull blade makes the job much harder. Pull up the carpet.
After the carpet was gone, I cleaned the space well, getting up any fuzzies left behind from the rug. I didn't bother to sand down the glue marks, I just painted right over them. I kind of like the texture it gives the floor.
Before painting, always use a good bonding primer. Bonding is the key! Not just Kilz. You have to always read the labels, there are a lot of primers out there and they are made for different uses. A bonding primer lets you paint right over any surface without sanding and allows your paint to adhere and grip where you want it to. Look for the words "bonding" or "will stick to glossy surfaces". I prefer water based primers such as Glidden Gripper.
I painted the cleaned floor with a base coat of latex house paint, over the primer, and then did the art work with acrylic craft paints. I used a dark brown for the base, and a sponge roller to create the stone texture in lighter colors over it. Then splatter painted over the rocks before adding the details.
Top it with polyurethane. For the top coat, make sure you have plenty of ventillation, and stay off of the floor for a couple days.

As you can see, this floor has held up great, and it has been there for years, surviving shoppers and lots of furniture being moved around over it.

Here is a link to one of my very early posts, with another cement floor tutorial in it, complete with the arty steps:

Pond Scene on Guncle Randy's floor

Retail therapy

antiques/junking, bird song art event, collections

By Karla Nathan / February 17, 2011

Thanks for all your well wishes, Sugarwing's arm is just fine and my cold is fading. I woke up this morning trying to figure out what was different, then realized that I was breathing through my nose again! What a wonderful feeling.

I had a day of shopping therapy, I think I owe my recovery to that. I followed a spur of the moment whim and took myself to the Rusty Chandelier and Jesse James in St. Joe, MO and found a lot of little treats, mostly for upcoming classes.

But this OLD lace jacket was a splurge just for me. Its not practical, and will probably shred and fall apart as I wear it, but I convinced myself it was worth it. And I think I was right. It was only $22, and after it falls to pieces, I can always salvage it for art supplies.

And look at these little velvet posies! I love old flowered hats, (I might have mentioned that a couple times here and there) but I love VELVET flowers best of all. Especially the teeny ones like these. I do tend to spend extra when I find flowers this great. This hat was a bit over the budget line for what I usually allow myself to spend on flowers, but these were such wonderful flowers!

And there are lots on here. So, for $20, I think I'll get my money's worth out of it.

And since I got a couple of other hats for much cheaper, I figure it all averages out.

The cabinet that I keep my hats in is overflowing at this point, but the levels do go down. So, I never turn down hats when I see them at good prices. Once I get my boutique re-opened, I'll list packages of flowers for sale. And I use them. By the handful.

I live by the credo, "Use the good stuff!" Because why put all of your artistic effort into making something and using half ass goods in the project? I believe that a good piece of work deserves good supplies going in to it.

Or am I justifying an obsession? Maybe I buy too many hats…

Nah.

My pal, Lisa, made a joke on her blog about the guests at Bird Song guessing how many hats I own to try to win a prize. Actually, I think it would be a good idea to do.

After a day in the studio, I'll have all the students guess how many hats are in the room, and give one of the hats as a prize to whoever is closest. It will be like that game where you guess how many beans are in a jar. (which I am usually really good at, I've won that game more than once when I enter a contest)

When I got back from shopping, a package was waiting for me! From Kay Ellen Hammer. Her mother invented this great double tape, and they sent 25 rolls of it to give away at Bird Song too. Our goodie bags will each have a pack in them! Thanks Kay Ellen and Jodee!!

While in St. Joe, I also found a stack of old pamphlets from the government for farmers. They were published in the 30s and dealt with everything from how to grow strawberries to how to treat TB at home. I bought about 40, non-disease ones.

And I am stocking up on vintage ribbon for the classes I'll be teaching this year. I believe that my students deserve to use the good stuff too!

By the way, we have a few spots left for the May Day weekend event at my house. I'd love to see you there. Meeting blog friends is always a treat. If you are interested, email me for an invoice. Details can be found HERE.

EDIT- One spot left!

I'm going to be adding a link for all the Bird Song attendess who have blogs, onto my links page "pretty places". Today, I cleaned it up a bit and made it look spiffier and easier to read.

Links are how we all get to know each other in blogworld, and I am always happy to share. If you'd like to exchange links with me, please let me know and I'd love to add you to my page.

Bookworms partying

Books, collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Food and Drink, give away, holiday decor, parties, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / December 7, 2010

Last night, I hosted our book club's holiday party. It happened to fall on a dear friend's birthday, so we got to sing and have cake too. How festive!

Now, I'm trying to remember what books we have chosen for the upcoming year…. I know that one was Cleopatra, I heard a reveiw of it on NPR and was interested in reading it. Lets see… something about freaky cows by a local professor, A Tale of Two Cities, and an apocalyptic book called …. uhm…. Hand Made World? or something like that There are a total of 6, but I can't remember them.

I was most intersted in that last one, I'll have my fingers crossed that there are zombies. I'm sad that the AMC series, Walking Dead is done for the season. Wow. It was like a new horror movie every Sunday night, so well made and scary. Of course, that is what you can count on from AMC, very well made, not always scary though.

We also each brought a wrapped book to trade, and played that game where you can open a gift or steal one from someone else instead. My pal, Shan, brought a wrapped book for me, I was such a loser this year in the reading department that I had nothing to give away. I read too many novels that weren't quite up to book club standards and didn't want to look like I had low class taste.

Not that I was embarrassed, I just didn't want to give a book that no one wanted.

I guess what I mean, is that my books this year were not high quality literature, they were just books that I loved. The only "good" books I read were the same ones that we read in book club last year, so everyone had already read them.

Novels that I enjoyed- the latest Sookie (and can't wait for the next!), the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, the latest from Jennifer Weiner and Sophie Kinsella, and not much else. I used to read at least a book a week. Now, I'm down to about one per month.

TOO MANY GOOD BLOGS OUT THERE TO READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the club books that I read:

Edger Sawtelle

The Worst Hard Times

Something about gay rights at Stonewall

And… well, I've forgotten again. I remembered first two because I loved them so much.

My friend not only brought me a worthy book to give away, she made this stain glass star for Mayara! And tied it to a bottle of wine!!

Its just perfect for my little Star Brite's first Christmas ornament. Hey, that seems to be a good nickname for her….I like that. Sugarwings and Starbrite.

My living room was a bit crowded, with 13 people in it. We all squeezed in anyway and everyone was so nice about it. They all said they would come back next December for our holiday party even if we had to practically sit on top of each other.

My old house has the original living room, and its small. We have a big house, just small rooms in the old part of it. But I have space where it really counts- the studio!! I could have had the party out there, but decided to stick with the main part of the house since it was decorated more.

Plus my studio is knee deep in stuff again.

And I waxed the living room floor! That rarity deserves to be noticed and enjoyed!!

For the party, I set up a coffee service, with home made, fresh whipped cream, shaved light and dark chocolates, orange peels, cinnamon sticks, decaf, and a bottle of 150 year old Grand Marnier.

When I go to schmancy dinners with my husband at restaurants his company owns, they always impress me with the goodies that come with the coffee. You don't need to order dessert there, the coffee treats are dessert enough. So I wanted to set up something similar.

I think I'll do it again for my next craft day. But I doubt if the orange liqour will be as popular at lunch time as it was for this party. Everyone drives in from Kansas City, so there isn't much in the way of drinking going on at craft day.

The cart is a vintage one from my garden that I brought in to use. On the bottom, I set out these glittered letters that were meant to go on a garland that never got made.

Agnes liked it. She thought it was a great place to hide, hoping for food to be dropped down on the floor.

Tomorrow, I'm leaving for a few days in Virginia, and this will be my first time leaving Agnes home alone for long. We have a great system for the dogs, they get penned up in the living room where they can get to a doggie door and a fenced in yard. And my oldest son, Ryan lives here too, so he'll be taking care of all the dogs.

She is just getting used to the set up, and is now an expert at running in and out of the swinging door. But I think we'll miss each other.

I've preposted for the rest of the week while I am away. Each day, there will be Christmas decor from another room of my home, so please check back.

All comments will be entered into December's drawing, but if you want to enter ther 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, you need to leave it on THIS POST by the 14th

Sugarwings and I made crustini for the party, by cutting leftover bread slices with her holiday cookie cutters, and brushing them with a little melted butter and olive oil, with garlic. Then, we slow baked them till they were crunchy. I'm going to take the leftovers and smash them up to make bread crumbs for my next turkey meatloaf.

Well, I'll be back this weekend, and will be checking messages on my phone, but its just not that easy to answer everyone that way. so please forgive me if I don't get back to you.

And if you'd like to skip seeing the blog posts and see the holiday decor at my cottage, I've loaded it on HGTV's Rate my Space.

I'd love to get your votes!

Here is the living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Bella Playdate in the Cottage

celebrations, collections, Food and Drink, Silver Bella, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 19, 2010

Yesterday was just the BEST. I had a roomful of Bellas here to get to know each other before the big event in November. It was a small group, but the attendees are so spread out across the country, that its not easy to get a lot together at once. Julie drove down from Chicago, and Lori came up from Arkansas, which really meant a lot to me, for them to make that much effort. Jamie, Carol, and Nora are all kinda local, they are from the Kansas City area.

The best part of the day? Being able to talk about Silver Bella all day long and not having anyone roll their eyes at me. All of these people are as excited to go as I am, and none of them are sick of hearing about it like everyone else around me is.

The cuffs I made were used as napkin holders, then were the party favors that I gave out as a thank you for them all coming to see me.

Lunch was a pitch in, and my husband grilled salmon for us, which was really sweet of him and kept it so simple for me. I wanted to relax and have fun with everyone and not spend all my time in the kitchen. It worked out great that way. I set the table and marinated the salmon the night before, so I didn't have much to do but enjoy my guests while they were here.

Carol came early with her super dooper camera and took photos of the table to send into Somerset. They had a call for dinner party ideas, and since I was serving artists, I decorated the table all in things from my studio- old lace, pearls, rhinestones, sheet music, and millinery flowers.

With Carol doing the photos, the editor will have to love it. Carol makes anything look good!

Plus, she is a hoot. This is a person that can really make you laugh.

There were laughs to be had all day. And since Silver Bella's theme this year is hats, we all played in my stash of millinery after working on projects and chatting.

Lori and I came up with the BEST plan for my own head for the event. It involves me foofing up one of her cast offs from the day. Which is perfect for me, I love to recycle things other people don't want, especially art by the talented, Lori Oles! I'll be thrilled to wear her "trash" on my head that night!

Its soooooo nice to have the studio all cleaned up and cleared out. I feel like I am getting over the nightmares I had after watching Hoarders. Now that the room isn't so cluttered, I'm recovering from the horror of that show.

I doubt if I'll ever watch it again, though!

At each person's place at the studio, I laid out some little treats and supplies for them. I found this great die cut of a little girl in a top hat, and copied it onto some of my favorite old wall paper. It went so well with the Silver Bella hat theme that I had to share it.

Now that the guests are gone, I need to fold up the extra tables and put them away before I fill them up with clutter. I've noticed that the more space I have the more I use. And having one or two tables filled with my crap is plenty. All extra tables need to be stored away until company comes again!!

But its so tempting to leave them up…. Think of how much I could spread out.

Here is one table that I wish was always in my studio! Sugarwing's Daddy, Mr Zen, came over the night before the party with his massage therapy table and gave me a treatment. No more back pain! That guy is really talented.

Sugarwings was here for the day while her parents worked, and she kept popping in to visit,and see what we were making, and visit the cookies in the treat cabinet. I promised her some craft time as soon as everyone left, and for a four year old, that is hard to wait for. Throughout the day, she came in to see if it was her turn yet.

So, at the end of the day, I took off my apron and let her wear it – not for crafting, this one is nicer than any dress I own! And it fit her for a dress, so she wanted to play Bride in it.

I won this gorgeous hunk of fabric as a door prize at Kim's event this summer.

Doesn't she look pretty in it?

She stayed for a sleepover and we did get some crafting time in. After removing the elegant apron, she got to be elbow deep into glitter and glue.

Yep, a great day, from beginning to end.

Around the studio

collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 26, 2010

Recently, I posted a picture of this hutch that got repainted. A reader asked me for close ups to see how it was decorated inside. Well, its a bit of a jumble inside, no real decorating plan went into it, I'm afraid.

Since it is in the studio, its more storage than anything else. It holds things that I've made, or stuff that I want to make into something else.

It houses my Sugarwings Themed Art Obsession Collection too.

As well as all things Dorky. I like vintage dog things, and Yorkies are hard to find, so there are a few Scotties in the collection that I pretend are little Dorkies.

There is a large section that is crown related too. Mostly just stuff i like. Things that make me smile.

This cabinet is also in my studio, its my newest piece. I got it pretty cheap, and just love to have glass doors on a cabinet. If I don't see what I have, I forget its there. Especially with supplies in the studio.

Its important to me that my studio is pretty, a place I want to visit, not just to work, but just to be happy in. I'm always adding and changing things here and there. And decorating for the seasons, too. Here is the banner I made for "Romantic Gothic Ghosts".

If you'd like to make one yourself, (all images and directions are provided) please check out the class!