dogs – Page 23 – Karla's Cottage

Almost Zero Dollar Decorating!

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), housework, redos, sewing?

By Karla Nathan / August 29, 2011

During my frenzy of de-mousing the house, I gave my bedroom a deep cleaning. Sugarwings was spending the day with me, so it was her job to squirt the wax while I mopped the floor. There is a short period of time when kiddos think that helping clean is more fun than just about anything. Too bad it doesn't last longer. (and you should see how happy she was to hold the black light the time we went on a dog pee search- it was like treasure hunting to her. I wasn't quite as thrilled to find the glowing purple marks as she was. By the way, those black lights are the best tool around when you are housebreaking a puppy!!)

After moving all the furniture and cleaning under and behind it, I wanted to freshen the room up with a new look, but the way this room is laid out, if we want to lay around in bed and watch tv, there aren't many choices for rearranging. So, I did the best I could and moved around some of the mirrors and things on the wall.

The mirror had been in the bathroom before, I switched around a few mirrors and traded them out. Its not as fun as shopping, but it did make me feel less bored with the whole room. I kept the pillar where it is, but took the concrete angel out doors, and set an old vase with silks up on it instead.

The lamp came from the living room, and I pinned a blue millinery rose to it so it would match this room. I have a smaller alabaster lamp on the other side of the bed, so I kind of like having a near-matching set together. (both are from garage sales, years ago for about 5 bucks each)

Zero Dollar Decorating always gives me a lift, sometimes switches and trades are all I need to jump start a room and make me like it again. But, I can't quite call this mini redo that, because I did buy a few things for it.

While I was on my trip to Indiana, I found the alarm clock at an antique store ($11) and the new spread at either TJ Max or Steinmart for $40.

I also bought two indoor/outdoor throw rugs at TJMax for $12 each, but I pointed the camera the other way, so you can't see them here. They are a neutral tan with brown vines.

The most expensive part of the redo was a new sewing machine. I was too cheap to pay $25 for two shams to go with the new spread, plus I preferred using some vintage tablecloths and lace that I had to make some instead.

Half way through the project, I seriously jacked up my 6 year old, low end Singer and couldn't get it to sew anymore. I hate to admit that I am part of America's throw away society, but it would have cost more to repair than replace, so I zipped over to Walmart and got another $89 machine. Hopefully, I'll get another 5 or 6 years out of this one.

The table cloth I used on the top pillows was a little holey, so I patched it with lace, then added rows of sheer trim (a Bird Song Tag Book Swap hostess gift!!). The shams for the other set of pillows were made from curtains that I took down in the bathroom.

Yep, my redos had spilled over to the adjoining bath. Well, when I started moving mirrors around, it hit me that I'd never liked that curtain in there…. When we remodelled, I found it at the Goodwill for $5, it wasn't vintage, just second hand. And it was always too long, I kept thinking that I would hem it and never did, so I just took it down, turned it into pillow shams, and made something else to hang there, while I was on a roll.

My buddy, Lisa, had given me a gorgeous netting and lace bed set that was too nice to use on the bed in a house full of dogs. So, part of it is hung as curtains in the living room, the rest I cut up to make a curtain in here.

Since netting isn't private enough for a bathroom window, I sewed the fabric over some of the table cloth I'd cut up for pillows.

It isn't quite wide enough, so I hung a curtain panel on each side to cover that up. Everything is smoke and mirrors at my house, all made to look better than it really is…

But overall, I'm much happier with the "new" curtains I made. They go well with the Victorian Trading Co. outlet store shower curtains ($20, then dyed with tea, coffee, and Rit)

My husband is of course, just thrilled with more frills. (not really) But he rarely notices what I do to the house anyway, so its fine. He doesn't actually care.

I know I've told this story before, but it was years ago, so maybe its okay to tell it again? My Mother-in-Law was visiting, and my darling was showing her photos of our home in a magazine that had been lying on the table. He was very proud and telling her details about each room as he went through the pictures.

I was a little surprised to hear him so interested, but thrilled to hear him be proud of something I've done- like I said, I don't think he notices things around the house. So, I looked over their shoulders to see which magazine they were looking at.

It was NOT our house. He just thought it was since there were pink roses and chippy paint in the photos.

In this photo from earlier this year, you can kind of see the old curtains on the window. Just enough to see what I mean, about them being a bit too long. They hung down all the way to the rose trim around the tub, the new ones (next picture) are a better length.

(that rose tile is one of my favorite things about the room. While tile shopping, I saw it at a store in Topeka, but it was discontinued. They happened to have a few pieces left in the back room and sold it to me for 75% off. I had enough to put around the tub, plus one extra that I keep thinking I'll make a shelf out of.)

Here is the bedroom from a couple years ago. No, I didn't change much, but just enough to keep me from being sick of it. I'm easily pleased.

Here is another older photo.

Maybe it is more "edited" now. I was going for serene. To cut down on clutter, I also draped a small table topper over an extension rod in the built in cubby above the drawers. It was just a dust catcher, I had stuff sitting in there, not anything functional or really all that cool. Just a couple urns and a photo. I like it better covered up.

I like the whole room better now. I just hope that the bedding stays ivory. The first time it rains and the dogs jump up on it, might be the end of it. White might be smarter, it can at least be bleached to stay white… wish me luck.

Painting furniture with no sanding, some short cut tips

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), how to's, how-to projects, paintings, Tutorials

By Karla Nathan / August 22, 2011

I've done a few other furniture painting tutorials (you can find them on my side bar, along with a lot of other how-tos), but those were mostly whites, creams, grays. Not everyone lives with "low color" like I do, a lot of people like some flash. I know my family does, they all think my neutrals are boring. So when I paint something for them, its usually bright and cheerful.

So, I thought I'd give you some tips for using deeper colors.

Our Hippy Chick was given this two piece set by her dad, it used to be his mom's. It looks okay as is, but dull for a fairy's bedroom, and this was meant to go in Sugarwing's room at her mommy's house.

Its been painted a number of times, looks to me, like the latest was a 1960s antiquing technique.

When I don't know who painted a piece or what they used on it, I always coat it with a BONDING primer, so my own paint will have good adhesion. If I painted it myself and know that it was latex with no poly top coat, I skip the primer and just paint it as is. But since so many things I paint are garage sale or flea market pieces, I have no idea who used what on it and I use primer in case.

Over the years, I've tried many of the brands of primers. Currently this is my favorite water clean up one.

There are gobs of primers out there, be sure that you are using a Bonding primer, that says it will stick to glossy surfaces, do NOT use dry wall primer, that is a completely different thing. Kilz will not work unless you also sand.

I NEVER ever sand or strip the piece before I paint it. Life is too short!

Now, if you are painting something really tough, like laminate or a high gloss laquer, maybe a quick sanding wouldn't hurt, just to give it some tooth. But for most furniture, a bonding primer will be just fine with no sanding at all, as long as the piece is clean.

For darker or deeper colors, use a gray undercoat to prime with. The white one is too glaring and will take more coats to cover it.

Speaking of coats, use good paint. Wall-mart paint is cheaper, but you use more because you are going to use more coats. More time, more work, more paint.

A quality paint saves you quite a bit. This Behr is my fave, it comes in many colors and usually only takes one coat.

For this, I let Sugarwings pick out the color herself. Its a Disney shade that is carried by Home Depot.

I chose Satin finish, that should hold up to little fingers and heavy use with no top coat. This is a good paint that will last.

After cleaning the furniture, decide if you want to change the hardware, if so, you might need to fill in the holes with putty, let dry, sand and then repeat. After the piece is painted, you drill new holes to match the new hardware.

If keeping the knobs, do you want contrast or do you want to paint over them? If this was going to be a cream colored piece, I'd have liked the contrast of the aged brass. But for a kid's room, I wanted the pulls to blend in. So I left them in place and just primed and painted right over them. (when I was all done, I dry brushed another shade over them so they would have a little more interest)

Pull out any drawers, and set them up on their backs to paint. It will save dripping.

Don't ever paint the sides, or the bottom of the drawers, or they will stick like crazy! I like to wax the sides of each drawer, for an easy opening and closing.

Also, I paint the interior of each drawer, just to make them feel clean and fresh.

If you are doing decorative work after the paint dries, acrylic craft paint works fine. I made simple stripes in multiple sizes with different sized brushes, and polka dots with a round sponge. Then painted some flowers on the bottom drawer, added vines to the doors, and accented the trim with various shades.

I am not a perfectionist. I like old furniture to look like old furniture. If its been painted a few times in its life, I like that to show. I don't sand it down before painting, or between coats. If you like the perfectly smooth look, you'll need to sand.

When painting around glass doors, make sure you scrape the glass off with a razor blade within a couple days of doing the job, or the primer will be hard to get off.

If you are painting a two piece set like this, let the paint "cure" for a few days before stacking them.

Any questions? Feel free to contact me.

Tools you'll need:

bonding primer
quality paint
opener
drop cloth – unless like me, you don't worry about your workspace floor! You can see mine has seen some painting over the years
a wet rag is nice to keep handy
paint brush
small sponge roller (for big, flat areas, this sure speeds things up)

How to make a magic mirror

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), how to's, how-to projects

By Karla Nathan / August 11, 2011

Sugarwings has a birthday coming up. And the next day, she starts kindergarten.

Oh my.

How did she get to be 5 so fast? I can't believe she will be in school.

I wanted to get her something special for her 5th birthday, so when my friend gave me a mirror that didn't sell in her garage sale, it inspired me to create this magic mirror for the birthday girl.

Now, the evil queen's mirror really was more glam and golden than what I came up with, it was actually more like the way this mirror started out. But I was going for light and cheery, more Snow White than her stepmama.

So, I took the back off, and removed the mirror, and painted the frame.

I used the spray, bonding primer that I love, and always use. It goes on like a dream (shake it well!)

Over that, I used acrylic craft paint to do a base coat of deep pink on the flowers, then dry brushed some lighter pink over that.

It looks a bit messy, but its all about the layers. This is a quick process, you don't have to be an artist to smoosh some colors onto 3D flowers like these.

And messy is good. You don't need to be precise.

Like I said, its all about the layers. I used dark pink, then light pink, then some yellow in the centers, and purple around the centers. On a couple flowers, I did even more purple.

Over all but the yellow, I brushed another coat of light pink.

Each layer is messy and fast.

Then, I got my brush extra wet, and brushed green onto the scrolls and leaves, wiping off a bit here and there with a paper towel.

I did the same with pink on the inner rim, then made polka dots by dipping the wooden end of the paint brush into the paint and spotting it on.

(if I was doing a mirror like this for myself, not for a child, I would distress the raised areas with sand paper, then glaze over it with a brown color and wipe it off)

After that, I tackled the mirror. A glop of paint remover/stripper went right in the center and I let it sit for about 15 minutes, then scraped at it with a razor blade (while wearing gloves)

Then, I scrubbed at it with the stripper on my steel wool pad.

When done, I sprayed it with the garden hose to clean off the stripper.

Then, I downloaded a picture of Snow White from Google Images and tinted it sepia. She is usually wearing red, yellow and blue, which was too bright for this project and Sugarwing's bedroom.

So, I printed it on matt photo paper, and added a touch of blue to the eyes and dark pink to the lips with markers.

After that, I taped it to the back of the mirror so that it peeks through the clear spot on the glass, and replaced the back on the mirror.

Around the top, I wrote, "Mirror, mirror on the wall- who is the fairest of them all?" and at the bottom, wrote, "You Are"

This was done in a waterbased craft paint meant for glass. Read the labels of the bottles at your craft store if you want to paint on glass or a mirror. You want to make sure that it holds up to cleaning. Regular acrylic paint will wash off.

Once I give this to my fairy baby for her special day, I'll get a photo of her looking into it.

But for now, shhhh! Its a surprise!!

Flawed but lovely

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Mayara

By Karla Nathan / August 9, 2011

When I looked through my photos from this day, I almost dumped this one. Its pretty blurred. But there was something about it that I still liked, so I edited it a bit, grayed the image and kept it. It seems to capture little Sparkle's sweetness.

The same with this one. There just wasn't enough light for a non-photographer like me to get a good photo with no flash on. But it was such a sweet picture of the littlest fairy baby.

It makes me think about how many things I love that are flawed, but still beautiful in my eyes. Vintage, pre-loved, chipped, distressed, all are adjectives that make me happy.

Perfection is over rated!

This photo, too, was blurred. I used "soften" and a black and white tint, then a faded white matt on the edges. The photo itself might be blurry, but the faces of my girls are so happy, that I had to save this picture too.

Sometimes, using soften and toning down the colors makes a blurred photo have an "I meant to do that" attitude.

When this posts, I'll still be out of town, and won't be answering emails.

But please do leave a comment, it will enter you in the drawing for either a free online dress form class, or a kit to make the dress form if you've already paid for the $15 class.

Packages will be shipped after I return, but if you order the dress form class, I can send the password to you on my Ipad, from Indiana.

Slowed down for summer

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 7, 2011

Last week, Beth, Mary, and our other Karla came by for craft day. Of course, Button came along with Beth to play with Agnes Rosebud. Here they are in Beth's supply tote.

I hear that at home, Button rules the house. But when he comes to see Grammie, he gets a little shy and hangs out on his mom's lap as much as he can.

Mary worked on her glue book, Beth and Karla did needlework, and I dithered. Seems like I am spinning my wheels lately and not getting much of anywhere.

I hope to knuckle down and get something accomplished after my Indy trip. Is it the heat? Something has sapped the productivity right out of me.

Its much more fun to be playing out in the sunshine with the sprinkler and Sugarwings.

That could be the problem. Or, it is that I have so much I need to do, none of it is taking priority, I am just feeling swamped? Which isn't like me. The heat kinda makes me feel like I'm wading through molasses.

I do always seem to have too much on my plate, but I'm good at mental lists and working my way through things as they need to be getting done.

Hopefully, the trip away from the piles of to-do work will refresh my mind and get me focused.

Isn't that why we take vacations?

Or could it be that I've had so many trips that I can't quite get caught up when I get home any more?

Oh well, it all gets done somehow. And I'm lucky to get to spend a few days with loved ones. See you when I get back!

Please forgive me if I don't answer comments while gone. My sisses and I will be junkin, making stuff, and hanging out, non-stop this week.

But please do leave a comment, it will enter you in the drawing for either a free online dress form class, or a kit to make the dress form if you've already paid for the $15 class.

Packages will be shipped after I return, but if you order the dress form class, I can send the password to you on my Ipad, from Indiana.

Angels and pups in the Guncle’s Garden

dogs, fairies, family, guncles

By Karla Nathan / June 30, 2011

While I was down in Jax, we took a break from creating, crafting, and eating delicious seafood, to hang out in the garden with my furry niece and nephews. Yes, those are angel wings on that little white fur ball. And they suit her perfectly, she is a sweet heart. And she wasn't the only one to play dress up….

This is the newest member of the family, Perry the Party Pup. Or Zippy the Circus Poodle. He's got some wild jumping skills and I think he could have a great career in the circus if he decided to join one.

And here is beautiful Bella. She's still just a pup too, so between the two of these guys, its pretty lively around the guncle's house.

I was glad to see that she was no longer "Yella Bella" and that the yellow marker that Sugarwings decorated her with last January didn't leave a permanent stain.

Darling, serious Zackie, who loves to pose.

And here is the whole, handsome family, all together.

Sadly, it happened to be mosquito mayhem in the garden that weekend, so we weren't able to stay out there long and enjoy all the hidden treats and gorgeous blooms.

But we did spritz some bug spray on and play out there a little while.

Randy indulged me in posing as a sweet angel in the paradise of his backyard. He looks every bit as good as Bella did in the wings, huh?

There is nothing like having family that you can be silly with and have endless fun doing silly things with.

Aren't I lucky to have married his brother and have him as part of my family now? And then he married the sweet, Kevin and I have two of the best brothers-in-law that anyone can ask for.

Kevin is the one who bought me a plane ticket to bring me down to visit. What a sweet thing. Thanks guys, it was the best!!