Etsy Goodies – Page 17 – Karla's Cottage

I am slightly crazy about these medallions

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, give away, how to's, paintings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 24, 2007

Another wonderful day- almost 12 hours of uninterrupted studio time! That rarely happens, even for me and I am supposedly, a full time artist.

I got these 3 leather covered books last week when I went estate sale shopping with Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/. I knew they could be good projects, and they cost me under $5 for all three.

Today I turned them into this-

Some vintage wall paper, rub-n-buf, glue, glitter, roses and ribbons and they are all "Silver Bella-ed Up".

I was inspired by the Marie Antoinette Swap that is going on this summer (I didn’t sign up for that one, but loved the look of it). That movie was so spectacular. I still day dream about the colors and pictures in it.

This one is actually a box made to look like a book. The inside was already so pretty, I just added some silver trim over the dark book binding tape and a rose medallion over the hole I punched in the outside of the lid to attach a button shaped crown.

I used one of my anaglyptic wallpaper medallions to glue a rose picture to, cut it out and glued it down. (I used one on the front of the other book too)

I bought quite a few rolls of the wallpaper border for 99 cents each at Goodwill. They’ll make such great projects! I love the medallions, there are so many ways to use them!

Today I glazed some of the paper pink and some umber, then added hand painted pictures to the center of each oval.

I have been seeing the cutest cupcakes every where I look and thought I’d try painting a few. But mostly I painted roses, they will always be my favorite and I can paint those with my eyes closed by now.

I like the way the glaze shows off the texture of the paper.

I made some note cards with a few of the center medallions. There was a box of Christmas cards in a cute shape on clearance at Michaels for $1. They were ugly as they were, so I am gluing my own stuff over their ugly picture. I liked the scalloped edge that they have and I added hole punches to accent the scallops. Then I painted a little green vine down the side.

With this note card, I cut the oval out of the wallpaper, I didn’t use the whole strip. Then I put it down over some vintage wallpaper and added velvet ribbon.

On this oval, I painted a teeny ballerina and made a tag with her. This is one of the giant 8" x 4′ tags that I got cases of at a garage sale. (I’m putting some in my Cottage Collage Kits)

Did I mention that I am totally enamored with this wallpaper??

For this tag, I glued part of an old typed letter in the oval, and added a picture and itty bitty millinery flower over it.

The medallions can be used in so many ways. I will be sticking them everywhere.

I have some for sale on Etsy too, as well as most of the projects I made today, if you don’t see something you like over there, feel free to ask me about it.

I used another one to make a card for my Christmas in July swap partner http://loveofyellowroses.blogspot.com/ (oops, I forgot it was 4 cards, 2 tags!! My friend, Natasha http://natashaburns.blogspot.com/ reminded me).

So I whipped up a couple more cards and some tags for her, and then tweaked the two I made yesterday that were TOO YELLOW. I used some gold and walnut stamp ink to age the edges and that helped. I think they’ll be OK.

Everyone was so nice with their comments and encouragement about the cards, thanks.

That can’t be all I did today, I was in my studio for about 12 hours straight. The day flew by, but it seems like I should have more to show for it!

I guess I painted a heck of a lot of these little ovals. Did I mention how crazy I am about them? I think I might have, and you might be sick of hearing it by now.

But if you aren’t sick of them, I’ll include a painted oval in my give away as part of the COTTAGE COLLAGE KIT drawing for July. Leave a comment (as often as you’d like) to enter.

Tweak or Toss and some Tags with a new Trick!

Etsy Goodies, fairies, give away, Sugarwings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 23, 2007

Christmas in July is the theme for the card swap I am in and I have a partner who looks like she might be a new blogger, or else, I missed her archives. http://loveofyellowroses.blogspot.com/ is the name of hers, so I figure she likes yellow and roses. I don’t do yellow much, but then, maybe I don’t like this card because it is TOO yellow?? I took a copy of a painting I did of Sugarwings, glued it to a too-yellow card, and hand drew some wings onto her and glittered them up.

For the 2nd card (we are supposed to send 2 Xmas cards), I used old Xmas sheet music, (green ink, really pretty) and parts of old Xmas cards (with a yellow rose) to add to it, along with glitter and gold paint. The gold helped disguise the too-yellow card I used underneath it all, but then that doesn’t help the inside or back of the card, does it??? I need to tweak or toss these, they aren’t quite right.

I am happier with how my tags turned out. I made a few today, just for the fun of it, and, yep, it was fun! These first 3 have some of the 1918 legal papers that I bought used as a basis, along with hand drawn vines or scrolls, as well as glitter, ribbons, and post card bits. Its nice to photocopy post cards to use, so you can save the original, but nothing is as nice as the texture of a real one, so I cut up the originals and try to use all of them, down to the last little corner!

The backs are covered too, but kept simple.

I did a few more tags with some old wallpaper as a basis.

And I learned a new trick!!! I have been having a terrible time with ‘writing’ with glue and glitter. Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ has too, and she posted about it, and got a response from a person named Kathy, who said to use a glue pen to draw with first. So, I ran out to get one (while running what felt like a thousand other errands today, geesh, when is a person supposed to be able to play with glue?? My errands took up hours today).

The glue pens are FANTASTIC!

So easy to control, you can draw with them like a marker, then dust with glitter.

Thanks, Kathy!!!

I am going to list these tags on Etsy at 3 for $10 if anyone is interested.

Also, you still have a week to enter my drawing for a Cottage Collage Kit and it will contain some of the narrow plastic tags and some of the wall papers I used to make these if you want to make some yourself.

Leave a comment on any post to enter, and as often as you’d like (I love comments!)

Mini Spa Day at Home for the New Mom

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, family, flowers, Food and Drink, give away, parties, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 20, 2007

What a nice day! We had a fun Mini Spa Day at home for my niece to celebrate her baby’s two week birthday, then I got to work in the studio, and now my husband is back from his business trip. And I was smart enough to make up extra Cordon Bleu for lunch today and don’t have to cook tonight!

I didn’t actually get to make things today, but I did bundle up some Aqua Themed Cottage Collage Kits for Etsy and got them listed ($14).

And I played with my new purchases from my estate sale shopping with Beth. This vintage wallpaper was being used as shelf paper in a cabinet in a basement, I pulled it out and got 3 large pieces for ONE DOLLAR!!

Velvet ribbons, rick rack, buttons, a sequins all came from the same basement. I added the green ribbon and the mother of pearl button, with a vintage flower to the top of the little jar full of sequins. That is about as creative as I got today, mostly it was unpacking, and packing and finding new homes for everything.

All of these little rhinestone earrings will make pretty snow flakes for Christmas projects and look at these tiny Button Crowns!!!!!!! Oh, I see a Silver Bella project in their future.

And this little clear button is a Scotty, but it is awful close to looking like a Dorky. I never find Dorkies!! The world is filled with Stupid Scotty dogs tho. Oh well, this is cute and like I said, almost a Dorky!

Twinks has claimed the feather pillows as her own. They were only $2 each, that is pretty cheap for a dog bed, but they sure are pretty. Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ says they should go into a hammock. Well, I don’t have one, but it is a good idea.

And look at this rug- I have always wanted one of these. I paid a bit more than I usually spend when out shopping, but it sure is a lot less than buying a new rug at a "real" store or even buying an old one at an antique store. This one is 10′ x 6′ and was $75. Ooh, that makes me cringe to admit I spent that much.

There were 3 of these brass lady-stake things, I only bought 1, for $2. I should have got all three, but was spending like a fool already. Now why did I think that another $4 would break me??

I like it in the flower pot. I don’t know what it is really for, but she seems content in the rose moss.

I found a bunch of ric racs and ribbons for a total of $4.50, quite a few rhinestone buttons for $1, got this cute aqua colored card for only 50 cents, and the trash can was $1.50.

You can’t beat shopping in the basements and garages of estate sales! That is where the sellers put the stuff they think is junk and not worth much.

These leather covered booklet thingys are cute, the one on the right is actually a box, the left one is a note pad, and the middle is a funeral home booklet. All three were $4. I can see all sorts of possibilities with them.

The prettiest pretty of them all today, was Madison Catherine. She is 2 weeks old and seemed to be enjoying her party. We all got to hold her while her mom soaked in the tub.

I lit some candles for the new mom, got out scented lotions and tossed some pink rose petals into the jacuzzi.

I set up a special chair for Brooke to sit in for lunch, and tied up the back of it with a bundle of flowers I got in my first swap from Karin at http://www.creativechaos.typepad.com/

We ate salads with feta, cranberries and almonds, then had cordon bleu with spinach fettuccine and a side of broccoli. (the broccoli got mushy but the rest of the meal was good)

The new grandma brought a Tiramisu, who needs broccoli when you can have that?!! I picked a gladiola from the garden for Grandma Gladys who loved Brooke so much and would have loved to see her baby. She was with us in spirit today.

Brooke wore the crown I received in the tiara swap from Barb at http://www.123lavenderlollipoplane.blogspot.com/.

I have one more thing to list on Etsy, then I am going in to have a plate of leftover cordon bleu. I wish I had leftovers everyday, man I hate to cook dinner.

Please leave a comment if you want to enter the drawing for a Cottage Collage Kit!

A Bounty From Beth, Baubles and Blooms

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, flowers, jewelry, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 19, 2007

Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ had so many great things for me today in our swap!!!! Old wallpapers, a cool box full of stuff, pictures, post cards, a how to paint roses book (love it) a scrapbook, old lace rolled up on a clothes pin, cards, Valentines, and three mini bottles to decorate. She suggested I make "purse fairies" to put in them, so I’ll always have a fairy with me.

And look! Old photos of lovely ladies!

I know I tend to go on about being a Lucky Person, but I do think I am lucky to have a friend like Beth. Not only does she have cool stuff (and she shares it)- we can talk for hours about anything or nothing and have a great time together.

When we are old, we’ll still be buddies like these guys.

I’m afraid we didn’t get around to making our Silver Bella projects today, we got caught up in Estate Sales in Kansas City and couldn’t stop.

I bought these two necklaces that are along the lines of what I collect. I rarely find them for such good prices anymore, so don’t buy very often, these were $20 and $25! (they are sitting on a table that I faux finished)

So, we got to talking about jewelry, (along with gossiping about our blog friends and what they are all doing and who said what and who showed what on their site this week).

Beth showed me these pieces that she got from her Grandma. Even better, hers are sentimental. But, I have never seen her wear them, she isn’t a jewel person.

I, on the other hand, AM a jewel person! Love the old stuff, or hand made things from old pieces. Here are some I pieced together myself with old bits that I collect.

I really like this green one, but I never wear green. Sometimes I wear the necklace with a black tee shirt and jeans since I don’t own green clothes.

The pink Chzeck glass necklace is the first I bought, and it is just as I found it, didn’t need any redoing at all. It is my favorite and started the whole obsession with these glass stones. I wear this one all the time, it seems to match everything I have!! When I bought it, I was worried that I had spent too much, and felt bad about buying something so expensive for myself for no reason, and 20 years later, I am still wearing it, and am so glad I got it! And it wasn’t that much, only $45, but at the time, that was quite extravagant and I almost didn’t get it. All of the others cost under $30.

Sissy gave me the round purple pieces that I used to make the chain for this one. She made earrings for me from them too, and they are my one of my favorite things. I don’t own purple clothes either, but I do wear this color jewelry a lot with white or black tee shirts (I have boring clothes).

These two I bought at a flea mkt this spring, and will probably clean up and sell instead of keep. I have plenty! And I work at home, and usually wear paint clothes, so don’t always have a place to go to wear jewelry.

Although I did have somewhere to go tonight! I was invited to a Lawrence Art Guild party at a friend’s house.

She had the most beautiful, wild, rambling gardens!

I spent some time chasing down this butterfly.

Pam has a funky old wooden ladder that she uses to brace her holly hocks.

I loved the chaos of the garden, it all seemed so natural and unplanned, but she has a degree in horticulture, so I do think that she spent time planning it!

We had a nice evening of sipping wine, exploring the gardens (oh there are lots more than these!) and talking art with friends.

Sister Swaps, Buddy Swaps, and some Freebies for you

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, family, flowers, Food and Drink, give away, how to's, paintings, parties, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 18, 2007

I have had the best day! I missed having time on my own in the studio in the last couple of weeks. Now, I loved the guests and I loved the trip and babysitting the fairy grand baby is a beautiful way to spend time, but man, I missed my studio!!

I worked all day (well, since noon at least, I had errands to run this morning) and my husband is out of town, if I want to, I can power up with a power bar and work all night too.

I am in the Art Doll Hat swap hosted by http://craftingbycandlelight.blogspot.com/ and have been making plans for that, but also, my sis and I decided to swap art doll hats, both using the same picture.

So, here is what I made for her. Sissy loves to collect, wear, hoarde, and buy tons of jewelry, so I decked out my doll in jewels.

She likes holographic papers too, so I used a gold holographic party hat for a base. The over skirt is my favorite scrap booking paper, a blue with roses. Over that is a bit torn off of an old curtain I found in a dumpster, I thought it tied in with the upper part of the dress in the picture.

I added some gold glitter to compliment the holographic base.

The crown/hat on the doll’s head is also scrapbook paper that is glittered up with a rhinestone button added. The button was given to me by my great aunt Caroline who just turned 99 this week.

I gave the doll some vintage flowers to hold and wrapped them up in ribbons to match her dress. I hope that Sissy likes the hat better than the Dorkies did. Twinks refused to wear it and Sparkle wore it grudgingly.

Here is the doll that Sissy made for me, look at that great skirt! And the magic wand!! I love it!!

Lets see, what else did I get done today? I made mailable art for Michelle Wards challenge this month. http://michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/ I wasn’t going to participate this month, because it isn’t my style, but I saw envelopes I really liked at http://pennyrabbitart.typepad.com/penny_rabbit_art/2007/07/gpp-crusade-mai.html and thought I’d try the spray paint technique.

Here is the front, (and I bought pretty stamps to use too). Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/gathering_dust/2007/07/beginner-mail-a.html is also doing this challenge, and she is offering to give hers away. Part of the challenge is to actually use them in the mail.

So, if you want one (ask Beth for hers, she might still have some) or ask me. I’ll mail them to the first 4 people who ask for one. Who knows, maybe there will be a little something tucked inside them??? Also, leave a comment if you want to enter July’s drawing for a Cottage Collage Kit.

Speaking of Beth, she and I are doing a crafting day tomorrow in her new studio. We are also swapping bags of paper goods.

Trouble is, SHE HAS EVERYTHING. What do you trade to someone who has the best selection of craft goods on the planet???

A letter from the School for the Feebleminded written in 1931. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she already has one.

I also got two rolls of this textured, paint-able wallpaper border at Goodwill today for 99 cents each. I cut off a length with 3 medallions, glazed it in umber, and added roses to the middle oval. I included a couple single ovals too, she can add a picture, or who knows what, these are COOL for collage work!

Ipacked up some odds and ends of old papers for Beth and while I was at it, I made up more Cottage Collage Kits for Etsy. These four are all neutral colors.

I included some of the glazed wallpaper pieces, papers from 1913-1930, a millinery flower, old buttons, pictures, lace, quite a bit actually. I haven’t listed them yet, if you want one they are $14 plus shipping. Oh, I made up 3 aqua themed packs too. It is surprising how long and involved that process is.

Then, I set the table for Friday’s Mini Spa Day at Home for the new mom. Yes, I know I am early, but I won’t be using the table and setting it up is so fun.

People have mentioned to me that maybe the new mother shouldn’t soak in the tub. But, she and her mother are both RNs, so I am not worried about it, they know what is safe to do. I have an assortment of bath enhancers, she can decide for herself if she wants to use one or not, or just enjoy the jacuzzi as it is. I like to use the Vaseline Intensive Care Bath beads. I think it is pretty gentle, but I’ll leave it up to my guest. Thanks for caring about her and warning me.

Well, I need to pack up a bag of stuff to take to Beth’s to work on tomorrow. We are doing Silver Bella stuff!! Yay, Bellas!! Can’t wait.

Cherubs, Dolls, Fairies, and a real life Dollbaby

Etsy Goodies, fairies, give away, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 17, 2007

What a nice day I have had. I spent most of it with the fairy grand baby, then took my niece to see Harry Potter. On the way home, I rented a copy of Miss Potter to watch tonight, and thought maybe I should eat a Pot Pie with it. But I am way too full of popcorn from the matinee to even think about dinner.

I found the German die cut cherub that I thought I had lost when packing up for the trip, isn’t she a pretty one? And I had the price wrong, she was only $2, frame and all.

While going through things that should be sorted, sold, or something, I came across this little box of vintage doll clothes.

I might keep some of the most lacey ones for making fairy dolls and sell the rest on Etsy. I am sure there are plenty of doll makers who could use them. Aren’t they sweet? I’d say they must be handmade. Look at the beading on the little pink one!

And the tiny little handmade flowers on these.

They are enough to make me wish I was a doll collector. But honestly, I collect enough stuff!!!!!!!

I do like to take old dolls and repaint them and turn them into fairies.

But these elfish babes are not dressed in real clothes, I glue bits and pieces of stuff together to make their dresses (I hate to sew). Maybe the doll clothes would be wasted on me. Although, I can see a couple of them framed as part of an assemblage.

What I like best about making fairies, is adding the tiny details, like this button "crown" on her head.

Speaking of little dolls, I am celebrating my newest niece’s 2 week birthday on Friday by having her mother over for a mini spa at home day! Her sister and I will watch the baby while she soaks in the tub and relaxes, then we will fix the new mommy a special lunch and give her a pedicure. It will be Madison’s first "Girls Day Out". I had thought about trying to surprise the mama, but then realized if she was soaking and relaxing, she might want to bring fresh clothing, and we need to plan around the baby’s feedings. So I told her about her mini spa day and she is looking forward to it. I think I’ll bake up a casserole or two for her to take home for the weekend, also.

And while I am talking about treats, remember to enter my July drawing for the COTTAGE COLLAGE KIT giveaway. Here are a couple cards I will slip into the packet of vintage papers.

All you have to do is leave a comment to enter, as many times as you would like.

By the way, Beth is having a great giveaway too! (actually she is having two!) http://bethleintz.typepad.com/

Temporary Studio Makeover and a Dog full of Glitter

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, family, flowers, Food and Drink, give away, Hand Painted Furniture, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 11, 2007

Entertaining at the cottage is going well this week. We had 21 for dinner tonight and my studio was set up as a dining room, all the kids craft projects and my work was hidden away.

I have discovered that when you are feeding a bunch of people, it doesn’t pay to plan too exactly, you need to go with the flow. Tonight I made the mistake of setting a big table up for all the adults, and a couple smaller tables for the kids. But of course, people just sat wherever they wanted and adults had kid silverware and kids had white table clothes under their BBQ! Oh well, you do what you can, but the most important part of a dinner is making everyone comfy and not bossing them around, so they can sit where ever they want. It is casual here at my cottage. People fix thier plates at the stove and carry them to the table. I keep it as simple as possible so I can enjoy the day too.

Flowers from the gardens, along with some china flowers from a flea market are on the table in a variety of vases, with votive lights in teacups for atmosphere. Very few of the chairs match each other, and neither do the salt and pepper shakers. The room itself is a bit of a hodge podge of stuff.

Here are a couple of my guests, Emma (who is so dainty and tiny, I call her a Mini M & M) and her baby sister, Rosebud, who seems to have glitter all over her somehow.

Speaking of glitter, if you look carefully, you can see just how much glitter Twinkle and her "trainer", Luke, have on them too. Click on the photo to enlarge it to see better.

Don’t forget to enter the drawing for a Cottage Collage Kit! Just leave a comment to enter.

Stolen Moments and Quickie Crafts

Etsy Goodies, fairies, how to's, Sugarwings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 10, 2007

My friend, Karla http://sugarbeardesigns.blogspot.com/ bought one of my cottage collage kits, how sweet of her. So I had to add some extras to it before I mailed the package. I made her a bookmark/tag from the plastic garden tags that I found, and then gathered up a few little things I thought she’d like.

How did I manage to have time for this while we are having a reunion? Well, the kids and I decided to make some bookmarks from a kit.

So between my panda and my monkey, I squeezed in a pink tag for Karla!

My charms from the swap hosted by http://mymothersdaughter-maryb.blogspot.com/ arrived! The hostess herself made 3 of them, and all are wonderful little treasures. Of course, I am prejudiced towards the ones from friends:

Beth of http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ and http://mizsmoochielips.blogspot.com/index.html. I haven’t had time to go through and enjoy all of them yet, I didn’t bring in the mail till after midnight, then we all sat up and talked for a while. I am stealing a few blogging minutes while my husband is picking up more guests at the airport and everyone else is asleep. Yes, I know I should go and unload the dishwasher! but I can do that while we all stand around the kitchen and talk!

Everyone wonders how I have time to blog with all these guests, but I am pretty quick. I write off the top of my head, like I am talking, and I am a bit of chatter box, so it is natural. Not much thought goes into what comes out of my mouth.

One more super quick project I did yesterday- my darling Mother-In-Law, Little Joan, is having her 75th birthday. She is extremely hard to buy for, since her needs are so few. But this year, she became a great-grandmother 3 times!

So, I took this album (from a garage sale for $1.50, and still in its wrapper!!) and jazzed it up a bit.

I kept the pages as they were and added a few personal touches,such as the "great grandchildren" on the front, as well as braided some eyelash yarn and ribbon, and attached a hand painted charm to them.

This went inside the front cover.

Sugarwings was her very first great grandchild (and what a great one she is!!)

The album is the kind with die cut frames, so she can just slide the photos into the ready made places. I will add a few of Sugarwings and Madison Catherine. Little Joan isn’t crafty, or scrap booker, but she will easily be able to keep this album up, since it is practically on auto pilot. As her grandkids have babies, there are places ready for their pictures.

These are a bit fuzzy, but since I am on borrowed time, its all I can do! I hear a car door now, that means there are travelers arriving that need hugs!! Gotta run——

ps- don’t forget to enter July’s Cottage Collage Kit drawing by leaving a comment

I decided what to offer for the July Giveaway!

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, fairies, family, give away, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 9, 2007

Well, we have a houseful of people, kids, and dogs (Twinkle is still being "trained" by Luke), so I am not able to do any craft or art work. But I did manage to put together a few more Cottage Collage Kits (or scrap packs) to sell on Etsy.

Here you can see Twinks getting a lesson in going down the blow up slide in the wading pool. Luckily, she seems to be enjoying all of the so called "dog training". Her feet haven’t touched the ground since the kids arrived.

This visit has been so busy, that we all forgot that we were supposed to have an ice cream buffet last night!! There is a lot going on, when kids forget ice cream!

Once the kids were tucked in, and the guys were settled into a card game, I went to the studio to play with paper (my cleaned up studio!)

I made up bundles with over 30 items in them, including sheet music, vintage wallpaper, copies of my art, pages from old books, a page from a steno manual, a millinery flower, some posies, old buttons, vintage gift wrap, and on and on.

Its so fun to pick through my stash and try to find goodies I think someone might enjoy using.

This tone on tone wallpaper is actually silk.

Anyway, I listed 6 of these on Etsy last night for $14 each. I got to thinking, that maybe a similar one would also be a good giveaway for July. So, if you are interested in a variety mix of a Cottage Collage Kit, leave me a comment and I will enter you in the drawing at the end of the month.

Here is one of the old wallpapers, pretty, huh?

These are from packs I made last week with a blue theme, that have already sold out.

I’ll be sifting through my goodie cabinets and finding some pretties to add to the giveaway, when I get a nice packet together, I’ll show a photo.

Now, I’d better go and see how Twinkle’s training is going!

Madison

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, family, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 7, 2007

Remember how I waited till the last minute to clean my studio and turn it into a dining room for company? Well, something else came up and it still isn’t done.

But it was a very good excuse for not cleaning, Madison (named for Madison, Nebraska- hometown of the Nathans) was born tonight! We spent most of the afternoon and evening at the hospital waiting for our niece to give birth.

The whole family was there waiting for her arrival. We played cards, laughed, made bets on who’s family would have the first baby, ours or the other people waiting that we made friends with. (We won!!) We had baby races with Sugarwings and another baby there with her family.

Finally, Madison came, and we all went back to see her. Sugarwings is enthralled by her new cousin.

So, do you think I’d clean the studio when I got home??? Nope, I fixed up a spice rack that I got today at a garage sale for $1 (including all the bottles) so I could use it to hold all the glitter that I bought today at the same sale (a bagful of glitters, sequins, buttons, and bows for $2).

I used a lot of the goodies I got in the mathcbox swap from Debra at http://www.hophopjingleboo.blogspot.com/ including the doll baby at the top (appropriate for today!). Whenever I glitter something up, I will think of Madison and the day she was born.

Hey, organizing the glitter was a very important part of cleaning up the studio!! How can you have guests over if your glitter is in plastic bottles and laying around helter skelter???

Well, maybe I should try cleaning up a bit now. No more excuses.

PS- All of the vintage paper packs I had listed on Etsy have sold, but I will be making up more soon.

ppss- Thanks for all the feedback on the loading speed of my blog. I’m glad to hear it is faster. If anyone is still having trouble, would you please let me know

pppsss- I really will have a give-away this month. I am counting all comments made in July and will let you know what the drawing is for as soon as I figure it out! (open to suggestions!)