dogs – Page 21 – Karla's Cottage

I am finishing up my pages, Twinkle is finishing up her pups

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, puppies!, swaps, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 16, 2012

This Faery Book Swap page is a done in a similar way to my other pages: slap down a vintage paper back ground, find a pretty lady or girl in my ephemera drawer, glue on some wings from the 1950s bug book that I got at a garage sale, sprinkle on some glitter, trim and done.

Well, basically at least. All are different in that I used a variety of ladies or girls, papers and trims, but it boils down to all being the same sort of process. Each is unique, but I didn't use any ground breakingly creative skills in assembling them, as you might have noticed as I gave some "how to's" on most of the pages I made.

This one has some hand drawn vines around the wallpaper centerpiece. And I used a sheer fabric, layered between the main decor and the background.

After finding my stride and figuring out shortcuts to make pages, I went a bit bannanas and made quite a few. I like to have extras for the swap, but if I don't need them, I'll be making up a seperate book for the Boutique.

I've also got some extra covers, so will make up some kits to sell too. In case you didn't get in the swap but would like to create your own fairy book.

The back is a pretty page from one of my old children's books, and a touch of lace at the bottom. But ooooh! what lace! Its butterflies!

I used quite a bit of this trimming out the covers too.

Each cover was basically the same design and style too, but all were done with slightly different supplies. When you use vintage materials, you get unique results. My wings are all petals or leaves from old millinery blooms, and the wallpaper is matched up to my wing materials. So are the ribbons and the little flower that I added to either her bodice or hair.

You can tell from this glimpse, that I used lots of different laces to trim the bottoms too.

I am so excited to be getting closer to assembly time! There will be two more posts upcoming with photos of the rest of my pages.

If you are curious about how I pull together a big swap, here is a post from the last one I hosted.

This pic of Twinkle about to pop on Aug. 12th, before the puppies are even due. Believe it or not, she is much bigger now, every day she seems to balloon up even more, and I feel so bad for her. Its hard to figure the due date, because she was over at her boy toy's house for ten days and I hear that they enjoyed every minute of the time together.

The vet says to figure 63 days from the mid point of their romantic interlude. But if I calculate from the first weekend, the due date is now.

I think she might have the pups today, and its Sugarwing's birthday, wouldn't that be perfect?! Her temperature has dropped to 98.5, she seems to be trying to nest under the deck, so we can't let her go out in the yard alone. I've barricaded the doggie door so she doesn't sneak out. She barely fits through it anyway. I might have to grease her belly if she continues to try to get in and out that little door.

Today Sugarwings is six years old. Tomorrow she goes to kindergarten.

For her birthday, I painted her new loft bed. She helped me, its a razzelberry color, with glitter. The ladder that goes up to the mattress is 5 steps, so I numbered them and did one fairy, two worms, 3 lady bugs, 4 butterflies, and 5 flowers on the coordinating rungs.

Sorry the photos suck, they were taken on my phone in a dark garage.

We've had a terrific birthday week, starting with her Mommie's party on Sunday, zoo on Monday, cupcake baking and decorating Wednesday, and a BBQ tonight. We had thought about a water park visit today, but haven't mentioned it to her. I'm glad we didn't, the weather doesn't look great, and I want to stay near the expectant momma.

What's on the menu for the BBQ? All of the birthday girl's favorites, of course! Salmon, french fries, watermelon, chocolate milk, corn on the cob, and spinach. Then, home made cupcakes mixed up by Dewdrop and Sugarwings.

I'll let you know if we have a few extra guests for dinner. I'm hoping to see six little tiny pups coming to the 6th birthday party!

A new pillow and a pup-date on pillow shaped Twinkle

bird song art event, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 11, 2012

Miss Daisy is not the camera hog that Twinkle is. She was a bit shy when I asked her to pose next to the pillow I bought at 4 Corners on Sunday for $7.

Or maybe she loved the soft, downy fluff of it so much that she just wanted to bury her little face into it?

I got her attention and had her look at the camera by making a high pitched screechy sound. Remember the noise that Madison the mermaid makes in the movie, "Splash"? That is my attention getter for most dogs.

Its not necessary for Twinks though. She's always posing for the camera. I hope her puppies enjoy getting their photos taken too, because I'm sure looking forward to sticking them in hats and cups and all over the place to take dozens of pictures of the little cuties when they are ready!

She looks like she is about to pop, doesn't she? But I'm afraid she has a bit to go, poor girl. She already is overstuffed and is huffing and puffing like she is out of breath, getting up all night to go to tinkle, and can't climb back up on the bed by herself. She will be glad when they get here too.

I'll leave you with some shots of what's new in
The Boutique

Beating the heat

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, Hens

By Karla Nathan / August 2, 2012

Despite the heat, our garden is doing well. We have well water, and live over a deep aquifer, so I use the sprinkler a lot to beat the long string of 100 plus degree days.

I've set the chickens in the garden almost daily to get the bugs for us, and they did pretty good till the squash bugs hit the cukes. I've had to hand pick the horrid creatures off the plants, but have also used some organic insecticidal soap.

One thing I have not watered is our yard. This is what the ground looks like! We never did have the best looking grass anyway, so I'm ignoring the lawn and concentrating on keeping the flowers and veggies going. And the poor chickens. We lost one to what we think was heat stroke. So now, we keep a sprinkler going on low in the flower beds so that they can have a place to cool off.

We thought we were going to lose this gal too. One of the dogs got ahold of her, and chewed all the feathers off her rump. No real damage, and I think she looks kind of jaunty with that one tail feather sticking up.

We keep the wading pool full too, mostly for Twinkle. She is very fat and very pregnant and likes to jump in the pool, lay back and relax to cool off. I'm thinking about getting her a raft for it, she loves the one out on the lake.

Well, the forecast says we have a few more days coming with no rain, and more heat. Kansas is typically hotter than Hades this time of year, but not quite this hot. Sugarwings has a couple of swimming lessons coming up before back to school time, I hope its not too hot to hit the pool this week!

If its too hot to play in the pool, we'll be back inside playing dress up with Twinkle again. That is how we spent a big chunk of one hot day last week.

just stuff

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, Sugarwings, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / July 21, 2012

It sure didn't take long for me to mess up the studio again! I've had a fun project in the works, actually a couple of them, that I can't wait to tell you about. I'll get to spill the beans soon, but not quite yet.

During the studio tour, someone asked to see a close up of this table that I have a box full of ribbons sitting on. The veneer on the table was peeling up, so I covered it in textured, paintable wallpaper (not vintage, available at many home decor stores). I then painted and glazed the whole table and the wallpaper to match.

When I cleaned up the studio to get photos for the tour, I thought this bowl tucked away under a small table would be a good place to store lace and trims. Twinkle seems to agree with me… but I might need to rethink this plan.

Although, this is her favorite place to relax. Twinkle has decided that with the heat that Kansas has to offer this year, the lake is the best spot to tolerate it.

Dixie and Daisy, my sister-in-law's little dogs love it too. Twinkle and Daisy bonded over hunting ducks.

Mostly, the garage sales I've been to lately have not been worth the effort to get up early. But I did get this little Dorothy dress at one for $1, and Sugarwings loves it so much, she insists on calling Twinkle, "Toto" and wearing the dress over her bathing suit.

I'll leave you with some photos of what I added to the Boutique before we hit the road for Utah.

We will be home over the weekend, all purchases will go out on Monday.

And if you want to sign up for the Faerie Book Swap, please email me, details here. I'll add you to the list when I return.

A mid summer zero dollar decorating redo

cottage, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, redos

By Karla Nathan / July 8, 2012

Dang, its hot. Feels like it has been hot forever. In Kansas, we typically get a stretch of 100 degree plus days, but not this early in the year. It makes me quake in my boots (or flip flops) just contemplating what July and August will have in store after June blasted us with this heat.

To get the temperature off my mind, I decided to cottage-up my living room a bit. Ithought strewing some roses about would be a cheerful summery thing to do.

I'm afraid this photo doesn't look as cheery as it should, I took it at night, and the windows are dark.

Since my walls and furniture are neutral, its easy to change the whole look of the room with a few accents. Throw pillows, curtains, and knicky knacks make a quick change when you start with an all ivory room.

It probably took longer for me to get the wrinkles out of the old curtains than it did to redo all of this. I popped these rose curtains in the dryer on fluff while I took down the vintage lace ones, and packed away all of the pillows and a few other things from around the room as they were fluffing up.

When the curtains were ready, it was a fast redo, because we were due to meet friends on the lake. This was a spur of the moment plan, and I only had about 30 minutes to spare.

Over the years, I've made a few different slip covers for my big sofa cushion, and have collected curtains and pillows at clearance sales and garage sales. I keep a linen closet full of cheap, but pretty extras to switch out when the mood hits me.

This time, I tried draping the bottom of the couch with a bed skirt. The front ruffle shows, the rest is wadded up under the cushion. Hopefuly it will stay in place, it might not.

The look I was going for was an "explosion" of roses. I think I got it… Few match, but I like the way they go together anyway. You can't really tell from the photos, but the brown slip cover on the big cushion has pink roses and blue pailseys on it, so it matches a bit better in person than it seems to in the picture.

This chair was in the studio. After bringing it in, I topped the garden table with a floral drape panel, and added a couple rosey elements to the arrangement on top.

The sheer panel on the other small table (previous photo) is also a curtain. I had three of these panels in my breezeway and they were shredded by raccoons. So, I trimmed off the bottoms that were ragged, used one on the table and the other two in the windows. As long as I don't move the couch, no one will know about the shredding.

Well, I guess that's not true, I just told everyone about the rips…

My china cabinets are over stuffed anyway, so these items won't be missed in it and they add to the flowery feel of the living room now.

It didn't take much, a couple of pieces for each table arrangement gave me the rose garden effect I wanted.

I think I'll hang a framed rose print on the window frame and pin a big, fat millinery bloom in red to the lamp.

In the fall, I'll want to change it around again, so wasn't striving for perfection. Its a temporary, fun look that I didn't take very seriously. I do love my white on white/ivory room most of the time, but I appreciate it more when I change it up a bit sometimes.

So, this redo took about a half hour, using things I had around the house or packed away. The only cost was $2 for the bouquet of roses. My local grocery store has markdown roses for $2 a dozen every week.

Strohm Vineyards, An Omaha Oasis

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Food and Drink, Travel

By Karla Nathan / July 3, 2012

Over the weekend, we visited some of my husband's college friends for a mini reunion. And I can't imagine a better place to stay than Strohm Vineyards.

My buddy, Lori, has always had a good eye for design, and has a beautiful home, a log cabin in the hills a few minutes North of Omaha in Fort Calhoun.

I've always loved staying with them, John and Lori are excellent hosts, and lots of fun. They are do-it-yourselfers who are always adding on, remodelling, and basically working their butts off to make their place better and better all the time.

Lori is a talented junker. She finds the coolest pieces at garage sales and knows how to display them. (the blue chest in the first photo was only $10!!)

And now their homestead, the "Strohmarosa" is even better than ever, with the addition of a vineyard and a new winery building.

The winery has a fledgling B&B too! Upstairs, over the grape room is a cozy space that we hung out in.

If you are looking for a place to stay while in Omaha, and want to feel like you are NOT in Omaha, this is the perfect getaway. It felt more like visiting a resort in California than a farm in Nebraska!!

This is the view from the bedroom window. We spent a lot of time sitting out in the courtyard, listening to the fountain and enjoying the breeze in the evening.

The Strohms rent out rows of grapes to individuals who want to tend them and then make their own wine.

If I lived closer, I'd want to get a row for myself, just so I could sit up here on the hill and soak up the view after working on the vines.

There are cute little seating areas all around the property, this one features a bonfire pit.

I met the Bluebird of Happiness there! Lori has bluebird houses all around the property and everywhere I went, there were happy bluebirds flying by.

Plus Yorkies too!

That is my fault. I gave them this guy, Walker, 14 years ago and he started a dynasty of pups. I got to visit my grand-dog and great-grand dog.

This winery building is new, and they will still be fine tuning and adding on. I think there are plans for renting the space out for events, and they are planting and landscaping around it with out door dining and weddings in mind.

Don't you love the labels on the wine? Their son is a photographer and created the design.

The wine is not for sale yet, they don't have a liquor liscence. I will be first in line to buy a case when they do. There was a sweet, white one that I really liked.

They have set aside a room in their home for wine storage, and that is where we sat down for meals, its also the dining room.

LIke every room in the home and winery, its warm and welcoming.

With wine themed details everywhere, like this old book.

The weekend went by way too quickly. Omaha is only 3 hours away, my husband and I need to make more of an effort to get up there. I love Old Town for shopping, the zoo is one of my favorite places to go, and we have these wonderful friends there too.

Heck, why did I say you might want to visit Omaha and not feel like you are there? I love Omaha, its got a LOT to offer. Anyone would love a getaway to that city!

Special friends and a special day

Books, celebrations, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), parties, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 12, 2012

Before I left for my North Carolina adventure, I had a little party for some special friends. Kecia, who I met at Tiffanys in CA is on quite an adventure herself. A two month plus trek across the country, hop scotching from one friend, family member, junk shop, to another. She stopped to see me here at the cottage on her way across I70.

And my beautiful friend, Angie, was having a birthday. Two reasons to celebrate!

You know me, it doesn't take much to convince me its time for a party. I love any excuse to set the table and invite friends over.

And with two special occasions, I was raring to go.

I stole my buddy, Carol's tip about using vintage wallpaper as a table runner. And I just happened to have a few rolls to choose from…

Angie had another very important celebration, she is a first time grammie as of a few days ago! So, I broke out the extra special, hoarded, fairytale wall paper from the 20s and made a frame for her to put a baby picture in.

Instead of just having a dinner party, I invited everyone to come for the afternoon and have craft day too, and friends dropped by here and there for whatever time they could make it. Some just for craft day, some just for dinner.

My favorite way to spend a day. Good friends, good conversation and stuff to make!!

I'm still hooked on slopping modelling paste on my collages. So, I made some books with covers all textured up. (this one is in the Boutique)

On this one, I collaged the back too, but instead of texture, I dry brushed paint over the collage, then inked it a bit.

This book needs a slight re-do. I've filled it with pages and pages of old papers, and they are too delicate to turn with ribbon ties. I have to add some rings instead.

Here is the back of this one.

IIt will be a while before I burn out on this technique, I'm super into smooshing the modelling paste around over pretty papers!

Dew Drop's mommy, our Gypsy, made a journal this way too, Beth worked on some stiitching, the other Karla was doing needlepoint, Shanna had some painting to do in an enamelling project, and Angie was foofing up vintage bottles with messages and trinkets.

The great thing about craft day, is that everyone works at their own pace on whatever they feel like, and the conversation flows here, there, and everywhere.

Kecia arrived later in the day, and said she had not had a chance to create while on her trip, so I set her up with supplies to make a book too. I love the layers she put on her cover.

After dinner, when the other guests had gone, she and I went back out to the studio and worked till after midnight finishing our books.

Twinkle bonded with her, and we will both miss her, the visit was much too short!

Poor Twinkle

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers)

By Karla Nathan / April 16, 2012

Thanks for all of your caring comments, emails, and phone calls about little Agnes Rosebud. I'm sorry I didn't answer them all, I just really didn't want to talk about it much, but I did appreciate your thoughtfulness. And thanks for trying to make me let go of the guilt. I'm still just sick about my carelessness.

As much as I miss the tiny pup, her Dog Mom misses her even more. At first Twinkle was in a panic and searched everywhere for her. I hate to say this, and must warn you to skip this next sentence if you are squeamish, but we had to disinter Aggie to show Twinkle where she was. That really did calm Tinks down and stopped her frantic searching.

Then, she was extremely needy for a while, but now, this is all she does. No more scampering around with her little best friend, the two of them at my heels no matter where I am or what I'm doing, both looking up at me with those inquisitive, terrier eyes, wanting to know what fun thing will happen next. Will I sit at my desk? Will I be turning on the TV? Oh, heavens, could I be opening the DOOR????? Could I be eating something that has crumbs??

Yes, they were so funny and so happy all the time, and thought that any move I made was endlessly fascinating. They even appreciated my singing and couldn't wait to hear the next line of any song I made up.

But now, Rosey is gone and Twinkle won't leave her pillow. Its so sad.

I'm not ready for a new dog, a "replacement" dog just doesn't feel right. But even if I'm not ready, I think I need to get a dog for Twinkle. She is lonely and depressed. We'll see. I don't know if I could give my heart to a puppy yet.

We'll lavish lots of extra love on Tinks for now, and I'll keep my eye out for a new pet for her.

Agnes Rosebud

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers)

By Karla Nathan / April 14, 2012

Sweet little Agnes was killed by a car last week, on her 2nd birthday. I miss her terribly.

Yorkies are a fiesty little breed, and often think that they are big dogs. Well, not this sprite. She always knew she was a teensy thing and wanted to be near me to watch out for her. I let her down by not making sure she was safe, we were in the driveway, carrying stuff to the garage and she ran down the drive way, and right out in front of a car.

Here she is on last year's birthday.

A few months ago we had four little furry kiddos, Bookie was put down in the fall, due to canine dementia. Sparkle's kidney's failed while Sugarwings was in the hospital after surgery for her broken arm.

But those two had led very full, very happy lives. Tiny Ages Rosebud was just at the beginning of hers.

This picture is when she was about three weeks old.

There is something extra special about raising a puppy from the day they were born. I've had lots of dogs in my life, and know they give boundless love, whether they are a full grown stray, or a rambunctious baby when you get them. But I've had two dogs that were born here and that makes such a strong bond. Agnes never knew any other home and I was her "person" from the moment she could waddle out of her nest and into my hands.

Being everything to a pet is a big responsibility, we had a deal that I didn't keep my end of. She gave me her full and complete heart, and I was supposed to keep her safe and treasured for a lifetime.

She was certainly treasured, but I failed to keep her safe. We have 10 acres and I tend to let the dogs run around outside with me, never alone, but I do let them out when I'm in the yard and let them visit their neighbor, Holden, who Agnes had a big crush on.

She'd never had a leash on in her whole two years. I always knew she wouldn't leave, that she and Twinkle would not run off, they'd visit their friend behind our house, they'd sniff for bunnies, they'd joyfully run back to me to tell me with bright eyes and pouncing little bodies, all about where they'd been.

I took for granted that they'd both always come back.

I shouldn't have. Since a stranger picked up Twinkle a couple years back and she was gone for over a week till returned, I vowed to be a better pet owner and I really tried to always keep my eye on them, and they did not ever go outside without me. If kids left doors or gates open and the dogs were loose, I'd throw a little hissy fit and tell them to be careful.

But I spend a lot of time outdoors, and the dogs always go with me. Never with a leash. And this time, she dashed out to the street. I didn't protect her.

A home for the hens

cottage, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Hens

By Karla Nathan / April 10, 2012

Everyone around here is excited about the rehab of the chicken coop!

This old building has been through many transformations, and as good as I can guess, this will be its third time to serve as a home to a flock of birds. Its also been a woodworking shop, an antique store, a dog run, a hang out for my Jr High school age boys, and lately, a storage shed..

Now, back to being a chicken coop!

When I used this for an antique store, we ran electricity out to it, put on a new roof and painted it all a barely there, blush pink. I think the ladies will enjoy nesting in that flattering color. They will feel so pretty in the ambient lighting and soft pink walls.

(we still need to hang the feeder, right now, its just sitting under the bench. If we tried to feed them there, they would argue over access to the goodies. And it needs to be hung up so it doesn't get pooped in as much. They will be pooping in it no matter what, but higher is better)

We've provided a couple of mirrors so they can check themselves out. I hear that chickens enjoy looking at themselves.

There are also lots of roosting materials, an old lawn chair, and branches screwed to the walls all around like a jungle gym.

The old painting on the wall is simply for their enjoyment.

A couple of chandeliers that no longer work were hung up for more roosting, and for lighting, I hung a ceramic lamp with a cracked base that was laying out in the shed.

The bench we built to set the nesting boxes on is just the right height to store bales of straw. They slide right under it, and don't leave space for the hens to roost (and poop) on the straw.

No ETA on when the girls will be moving in. But we are set and ready to welcome them to their new home.

The building has two sides, the long, narrow one that the ladies will be calling home, and a big square room next to it that the cats like to hang out in.

This side is where we keep lawn furniture in the winter, supposedly. But other things tend to accumlate too.

I've valiently tried to not let things pile up in here, but I'm glad I let a few things slip, because this is the place I raided to find the pretties for the coop. Nothing nice, just some old beat up stuff too nice to toss and I'm glad it had piled up there for me to dig through!

I'll let you know what the girls think of it all when they move in.