cottage – Page 13 – Karla's Cottage

Around the Cottage in April

By Karla Nathan / April 15, 2020

Because of my knee surgery, I have spent very little time in the studio. When I finally went out there, I was greeted by my pile of blues, ready to build kits for the Texas event, Beauty in Blue, that had to be cancelled.

My creativity level has been on low, so the busywork of packing it all up was a welcome job. I daydreamed about how much more appreciative I will be to attend this next year, after missing so many social events now.

While I am not making many things, I am keeping busy. I am trying to do a project a day, even if it as is simple as freshening the slipcovers and filling vases with blooms.

There have been plenty to pick! Spring has sprung in my yard.

I have been more than grateful for the days of beautiful weather. Spring is always uplifting for me and being outside doing yard work has helped me a great deal.

Planting seeds, clearing flowers, planning a garden, are all ways of looking to the future and a brighter tomorrow.

A springtime walk with a surprise heart

Corona virus, cottage, flowers

By Karla Nathan / April 9, 2020

Ryan and I walk along this pond as often as we can. For the first time, we noticed that the fountain forms a heart shaped splatter. Is it new, or had we never paid attention?

It isn’t from the wind, as I first thought, because it has been like this all week.

Our property has a couple of fields that border I70. My husband keeps bees out there, and while walking up the hill to walk across the bridge, we had a nice view of his set up through the blooming redbuds.

He has a chair nearby and likes to spend time watching them at work.

Only one chair, I’m afraid that I am not a bee watcher.

This view was less pleasant.

We reached the top of the overpass bridge, and were disturbed by the lack of traffic. It was a reminder that our country is not itself right now.

Strangely quiet.

My walk was emotionally charged, with a flow of feelings from the sad reminder of the empty roads to the hopeful heart in the pond.

Of course, these days, our emotions are on high alert. I am trying to stay balanced, while acknowledging the difficulties and fears, still enjoying all of the happy moments of hope that I find.

Fresh bread during lockdown

Corona virus, cottage, Food and Drink

By Karla Nathan / March 25, 2020

When I went to the grocery to stock up before we were told to stay in and avoid crowds, I was careful to buy mostly ingredients I would need for meals, not snacks or pre made things.

Since I regularly bake bread, I bought two bags of bread flour, one of regular. I figured I might be dropping off bread to the porches of family members too.

What did I not get?
YEAST

And apparently, I am not the only one that thought she’d be doing a bit of baking. There was no yeast to be found at that point. I have enough for my household, just not enough for the whole family.

Then, I saw a suggestion online to make sourdough starter. I found a simple recipe and am trying it out. This one is 3/4 cup plus 2T flour and a 1/2 cup water, every day for five days. You stir it together, keep it lightly covered at room temperature. I went with a clean kitchen towel and rubber band as a lid.

I have never made this before, but I am enjoying the science experiment aspect of it, and miss having my little homeschooler here this week to share it with. (She is with her mom)

Also, it is kind of cool that it is living. And needs to be fed. I have named it Sara Jo.

The guy we bought our layers from also raises “Meatbirds” as he calls them, and sent a frozen meatbird home with us. I am hoping to make sourdough biscuits with roasted meatbird to try out the starter in a couple days. Then, will move on to loaves of bread to share.

When I bake, I use a bread maker to mix and knead it. Then, I oil pans, place the dough in, oil the top of the dough and set the pans into my microwave to use as a warming box to proof in.

I have found that boiling a cup of water in the microwave first, and leaving the cup next to the dough promotes a good rise. Also, I think that you get a crustier crust and a more attractive loaf if you bake it in the oven instead of leaving it in the bread maker to cook.

I’ll let you know how the sourdough turns out.

And if you are in the area, are needing chickens to raise or meatbirds to eat, I can give you our guy’s name. He has some friendly little hens. We like our few.

January Decorating

cottage, dogs, flowers

By Karla Nathan / January 24, 2020

After all of the glorious, gaudiness of the Christmas decor at my house, I kind of like my Januaries to be low key. It is a good time to dust, and shuffle things around, and to leave some things simply put away, not even used.

And to add some natural elements to remind me that spring and growing things will have to return someday, and that winter won't last forever.

Even if the icy cold feels like it is a life sentence…

Last fall, I bought some succulents at a garden center clearance for 99 cents a pot. After stashing them in my husband's office for the holidays, I was happy to see the cheerful greenery and bring it back into the house to brighten up a cold winter day.

This is where we spend way too much time since my husband retired and it has gotten so cold out. He builds a fire, we pile dogs on our laps and drink coffee every morning in front of the fire before we get on with our days.

Part of my move for simplicity, is leaving this table bare and functional for books and newspapers.

The mantle is kinda halfway simple, well for me at least. It seems full, but usually is has a lot more going on. I leave the angel wings up through Valentine's Day and keep the colors mostly muted. But I did add one little, oval painting that reminds me that springtime is real, and that I will get through this freezing season.

Winter is just not my deal. I make up all sorts of excuses to not leave the house and keep errands to a minimum. Now that I have a house husband, it is even more tempting to sit by a fire and ignore the rest of the world. I might even be growing to like winter.

Well, maybe just this cozy aspect of winter. Not the howling Kansas winds and ice. I will never, ever be able to enjoy that.

Hope you are staying warm and coping too!

The halls are still decked

cottage, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / January 4, 2020

Typically, I have all of my holiday decor put away by now.

This year, we had Dewdrop visiting from North Carolina, so I left it up while she was still here.

Then, Sugarwings was staying with us for a couple of days after her sis left.

I can't dismantle a mountain of Christmas crap with a little girl around. The grand fairies are too sad to see it go.

And my house is in total disarray during the process. It takes magical skills to make it all fit where it needs to go. The huge task requires mega amounts of concentration and plotting.

So, I'll enjoy it, as long as I need to. Then go full force in finagling all of this into one small closet. I'm not sure if I will miss it or not. I think I will miss the twinkling lights, but I am possibly ready for the clutter to be gone. I did get the studio cleared of all signs of the holiday, and have enjoyed getting it back to normal and getting some work done out there.

Which reminds me, there will be some new, non Christmas, fairies flying their way to the Boutique soon. Photos to come.

We visited our table again

cottage

By Karla Nathan / October 21, 2019

Matt has the resin poured on our table around the rocks I laid out.

There will be no white under it, that is the frame he needed for pouring the resin.

I thought it was a little more crystal clear than I expected. He said it would be simple to add a little cream swirl coat to the bottom.

He was able to make the legs from lumber left over from the slab. That was good news, we weren’t sure if there would be enough or not.

We are in Florida right now with the grand fairies when we get back, the table will be delivered!

The Grandfather Tree is Almost a Table

cottage, family, redos

By Karla Nathan / October 15, 2019

Over a year ago, my husband's favorite tree fell down. He called it the Grandfather Tree because he took the grandfairies for walks in the woods and stopped to tell stories under it.

We found a guy to slice it up, then stored the stack of pieces that weighed hundreds of pounds in our garage where they were very much in the way. When they were starting to dry out a bit, we found a craftsman to haul them off to a kiln and plane them down.

This is Matt, the artist who is creating a table and mantel for us. Here are the final pieces he has to work with. We have a few more, but these were the best.

His shop is full of pieces he is already working on.

And beautiful piles of lumber waiting to be transformed.

I decided to go with the live edges turned inwards, so if I wanted the table to be more traditional looking for a dinner party, I could cover it with a cloth. Matt built a water tight frame, and layed out the wood for me to come by and do a river rock scene down the center. I had lots of semi precious stones, crystals, and polished river stones in neutral tones.

He will pour resin over it all. It will be translucent with a shimmer of pearl. Of course, the black and white material on the back will be gone, so this will be mostly transparent.

The heart is a gemstone and it will be at the head of the table where my husband sits. Under the table, the grandfairies will be woodburning special messages and we will have a list of all the grandfathers who came before us.

Matt is making tapered, square legs from the leftovers of the wood, and I will paint them a distressed white.

This has been over a year in the making, but at this stage, things are moving fast. The resin is poured and the table is ready for the sanding and polishing. I will have it delivered in time for A Snowbird's Song. This will seat about 12, so I will put my existing dining table (that seats 12 also) in to the hearthroom for the party, and will add another table in the living room so everyone will have a place to sit and enjoy their meals.

My watercolor bluebird class for our workshop

bird song art event, cottage, paintings, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / September 14, 2019

Having never taught watercolors before and being extremely overworked, overwrought, and tired, recently- I was worried about this bluebird class.

But I shouldn't have been! The attendees did a wonderful job. I was so proud of them and very impressed. They each got a hand drawn page to paint after we used a big, blank page to get some practice done on.

Everyone's turned out just lovely. And after painting them, they popped the pictures into mini frames to embellish with a rhinestone cluster.

Nora even "branched out" and painted this sweet bluebird.

Honestly, it was one of my favorite classes. I had a wonderful time showing some painting tricks to friends. And it made me wish I had more time to paint. It was a lot of fun.

I'll leave you with some photos of the studio, all spiffed up and ready for company.

By the way, if you would like to see puppy pictures, please check them out here: https://karlascottage.typepad.com/cottage_doodles/

Doing your best and accepting your limits

cottage, family

By Karla Nathan / August 16, 2019

A couple weeks back, I took it upon myself to touch up some peeling paint on the garage. First, I power washed it, and saw that more paint was loose than I had thought….hmm…

No worries, It was still just a small part of the building.

But then I realized the reason it had peeled was that the wrong paint had been used. Not the exterior paint that was on the house itself! Which was a slightly different color and that meant all of the garage and the shed next to it needed redone. Not touched up.

So I power washed and scraped some more, and started priming and painting.

And painting.

Just when I thought I might start crying because it was all so overwhelming, I had a little talking to with myself and changed my attitude.

Painting a building isn’t fun, but life is what you make it, right? This job needed done, and I am dang lucky that I am capable of doing it at my age. I hope I will continue to be doing tough jobs around the farm for as long as possible.

Although, the job would have been easier if I was slightly taller, or less afraid of heights so I could balance on the top of the ladder.

Instead of getting help to finish, I think I will leave this bit at the peak undone as a marker of how strong you can be when you need to be. And how sometimes doing your best is all you can do.

My family is going through some rough patches right now and time up on the ladder was also time to think. And to know that my best and my strength is all I can offer.

Farmhouse style inspired fresh paint- but with glitter!

cottage, redos

By Karla Nathan / July 22, 2019

On my drive to Indiana to see my family, then on to get Dewdrop with a visit at Lori's on the way, I did a little antiquing. It felt good to break up the trip with some stops along the way.

In the middle of Missouri, I saw these curtains but didn't buy them.

On the rest of the trek, they lingered in my mind. I have a thing for barkcloth with roses!

At my pal, Lori's house, I fell in love with her vintage, farmhouse-ish color palette. And I wanted some gray in my home after admiring her use of the color.

So, fingers were crossed that the curtains would still be waiting for me in Missouri, and yep, there they were.

When I got home, I slapped up some of the coveted gray paint (with glitter added), spread some fresh white paint on the ceiling to brighten up the room, and hung the curtains. I thought I would do a major rearranging of the things on the wall, but except for changing out a couple of paintings for some that had roses to match the curtains, I left the configuration of mirrors on the wall as is. They are too handy and useful the way they are. I could have changed it for the sake of changing, but then, the grand fairies wouldn't have mirrors just their heights and I wouldn't be able to tilt the mirrors to see the back of my head.

So, even though these had been hung like this for years, I left them where they were. Why move them if I was enjoying them there?

The glitter is much more prominent in person. I wish it showed up more in the photos. I am loving the soft, subtle shade of gray and its flash of sparkle.