fairies – Page 16 – Karla's Cottage

KC Renfest part deux

By Karla Nathan / September 17, 2011

When you enter the park of the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, one of the first things you see is the fountain. Every year, Sugarwings makes a beeline for it, and would probably be happy to spend a good part of the day right there by the water. As much as she loves fairies, she loves mermaids and water even more.

I nick named her Sugarwings before she was even born, I would have gone for a more mermaidish name, if I had waited to get to know her first. But as I've said before, there is just something very WRONG about "Sugartail".

(By the way, thanks for all of your concern about our little fairy. She is now settled back into the Montessori preschool she was in before we took her out and test drove Kindergarten. She is happy to be there, and is in a pre-K program, that should help a lot. )

Kids are always so attracted to these painted wooden pieces that you stick your face in. I am not always a fan of them, but these are extra well done and I love the artist's work.

There is so much attention to detail at the park. From the costumes to the scenery, its just magical. The location helps, its in a hilly little park full of shade trees and cute buildings.

And not really that expensive to attend. We go on the weekends that are buy one get one free with a food donation.

Since we've had a grandchild, I go more than once a season. In the past, it was something I'd attend every two or three years. But watching it through a kid's eyes makes the magic seem so real, that I never get tired of going.

And I never turn down a chance to see some Jack Sparrow style eye candy.

(although, I think this pirate looks a bit more like McDreamy in dread locks than Jack, don't you? Still pretty either way)

Normally, the men in tights are pleasing to the eye too. This year, Robin Hood has some extra junk in the trunk though.

Although, who am I to talk? I wonder if my tiny wings make my butt look even bigger? Maybe I should go for a giant pair next year…

Sugarwings was very taken with the fencing and thought she'd challenge the knights to a duel with her magic wand.

Instead, she was invited up to take a fencing lesson and be part of a duel with a nice foam sword.

There is a petting zoo too, with sheep and goats to feed.

We had a hard working little Cinderella with us, who was ready to muck out the stalls.

The petting zoo was pretty laid back, we were the only ones in there, so the girls took their time and made some friends.

My handsome husband enjoys going so much that he gave up a golf game to join us all. I think he went knowing that some opportunities for baby snuggles would come up. He can't resist them. (and he got to play golf the next day, so he didn't miss his weekly golfing fix)

Yes, just looking at these photos, I'm ready to plan another trip there.

Sugarwings was about a year older than Mayara when we took her for the first time. I can't wait to dress this little snuggle bug in a fairy dress and watch her dance with the sprites.

This year, our Hippy Chick and I got out and danced with the fairies too. Luckily, I am the one with the camera, so there are no shots of me tromping and clomping around out there like an ogre. I'm not much of a dancer, but it was sure fun to do.

I wish I was as graceful as Miss Calliope, she twirled and danced with these ribbons beautifully.

If you ever get a chance to come to Kansas City in the fall, I highly recommend a day at the festival. It goes for 6 or 8 weekends, starting on Labor Day. Each weekend has a different theme, and you never see the exact same thing twice no matter how often you go. Discount tickets are available at Subway and at local grocery stores, plus there are buy one get one weekends with a food donation. We bring in some snacks and drinks to save a little, but the food vendors have tasty treats too and are hard to resist.

Maybe I'll see you there? I'll be the one in the ginormous wings so my butt looks small by comparison.

Scenes from the renfest part 1

celebrations, dogs, fairies, family

By Karla Nathan / September 11, 2011

As it is every season, the Kansas City Renaissance Festival was just magical last weekend. We had family in town visiting, so the whole group went along with us. We didn't all stay together, but got to meet up here and there throughout the day. The park is so big and diverse, everyone wants to see something different.

Its as much fun to people watch as it is to see the shows and events that are offered.

Or should I say, 'dog watch'?

But my eyes, and my camera are always drawn back to my girls.

And what pretty girls they are. This is Calliope.

And Clover. They both came as gypsies like their mom, this year.

Mayara didn't dress up. She came as herself, a smiling little cuddle bug.

My daughters were gypsies too. I'd made everyone a fairy ringlet to wear in their hair the night before, but some of them were tossed out of the wagon (along with bottles, papers, and a few assorted other tidbits) by the littlest sprite. She is at that "oh-oh" stage. You know, the one where babies loved to throw things down just to watch them fall?

Pixie Pie was there too.

She even got brave and danced with the fairies around the maypole.

Sugarwings, on the other hand, needs no courage, she thinks she is one of the fairies and runs right to them. She deserts us and joins their group as soon as she sees the fay.

And takes flight! See her feet? She is up in the air, flying off to be with her fairy family.

My sis-in-law treated herself to a gown at the festival. I think the clothes are lovely, but personally, I don't get much shopping done there. Besides the giant grilled turkey legs and cold drinks, I don't buy much. But seeing Terri looking so pretty in this gown made me wish I did.

(her fairy laurel is made of old millinery in peach and gold to match her lovely auburn hair)

Mayara loved this floaty tent.

They have a couple of them hanging from trees, and we always stop to play in them.

While we are in them, I always daydream about making one of my own. I can see how it could be done… Wouldn't a pink one make a sweet play house in my yard? They hang from a hook on a tree branch and sway in the wind, with all the chiffon billowing in the breezes.

There are more festival shots to show you, I'll have part two later this week. Remember, if you want to be in a drawing for the Craft Day Giveaway package of ephemera and pretties, please leave a comment HERE.

Fairy Laurels

fairies, flowers

By Karla Nathan / September 1, 2011

This weekend, we'll be going to the Kansas City Renasiance Festival again. To get all geared up and ready to step back into an enchanted land, I made some fairy headresses.

All of these are in my Boutique. And they were such fun, I need to whip up a few more too.

Each is made a bit differently, there is a crown style, a head band, a tiara, and a laurel.

Each is made with all vintage millinery and some razzle dazzle too.

I'm not sure how many people are coming along for the day. We have family in town, so we should have a good sized crowd of revellers. I sure look forward to going every year.

The park that it is held in, is such a shady, pretty place, with hills and dales and the cutest little buildings. Since it is a permenent location, they can really go all out with the decor, unlike most renfests that are set up in city parks.

Plus, how often do you get a chance to be a fairy for the day? Well, actually…. I can be a fairy whenever I feel like it, and often do. I guess I mean how often can you be a fairy in an acceptable venue? When people expect fairies to pop out from every bush, and don't just look at you wondering why there is an old lady with wings on.

Fantasy Photo Editing tips and short cuts with Picnik part two

fairies, family, how to's, how-to projects, photography

By Karla Nathan / August 19, 2011

On this photo, I wanted softer colors and an over all, dreamier, softer look. (at 53 years old, I can use all the soft effects available for my skin!!)

So, I skipped all the fixes on Edit and went straight to Create. I turned the whole picture Black and White, under Effects at about 20%. Before applying it, I erased the black and white from the eyes and jewelry.

Next, I used Eye Bright on all of the jewelry and the eyes.

Then, under Eye Color, I used the full strength gray to take away the yellow in the flowers, applied it, and tinted them to match the other colors with a purple Eye Color, faded.

Under touch up, I used Blush, in a skin tone on the skin, and faded it away, then did the same with a pink Blush on the cheeks and lips. I added a bit of faded blue to the iris with Eye Color.

One of my favorite tools for faces is under Seasonal, Valentines Day. Its "Heart's Desire" and gives the whole photo a pink tint, with blurred edges. I applied it with its largest size at 53%.

Finally, I used Matte (Effects) in two layers, a pale pink full size, but faded a bit, then a darker pink very small and faded over that. To finish, I added a grey drop shadow.

Sugarwings 5th birthday

celebrations, fairies, family, Food and Drink, parties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 17, 2011

Thanks for your interest in photo editing. I know I said my next post would be more tips and tricks, but I wanted to show you pictures from Sugarwing's birthday party first. The soft color editing tips will be on Friday instead.

We had quite a week with our fairy child. We took the entire bunch of 7 grands and their parents to a water park in Kansas City on Thursday to celebrate a few of the birthdays, then my husband and I snuck our little one away for a weekend at a Holiday Inn water park (we had a free Priority Club room to use) and a day at the zoo in KC too.

She's pretty proud of her two wrist bands from the parks and refuses to take them off.

She also had a sleepover with me on Sunday night, and since I got to have her most of Monday, we decided to throw a party. A fairy tea party luncheon with Pixie Pie.

We got up early on Monday morning and started baking cupcakes, then made mini pizzas by rolling out the dough and cutting it with a star shaped cookie cutter. The stars were topped with Trader Joe's marinara sauce, cheese, a broccoli nose, red pepper slice smile, and green pepper eyes.

I'd show you photos, but when a soon to be 5 year old works the cookie cutter and makes the faces, they aren't always recognizable as smiling stars. They just kind of looked like pizza blobs. But she loved them anyway.

Next, we set the table with pretty dishes and linens, got the tea pots out, and put on our fairy dress up gear.

It wasn't quite time for Pixie Pie to arrive, but Sugarwings was pretty excited and wanted to sit at the table and wait there for her.

Waiting can be the hardest part.

We were trying something new that day, some all natural rock candy sugar. It made the tea even more fun to stir.

When her cousin arrived, the girls scampered up the stairs to get her all decked out in her fairy wear too.

I think that Sugarwings is wearing my all time favorite selections in this picture. She layered herself in multiple skirts and a lady bug costume, along with great ruby slippers from Aunt Sissy. Of course, the water park wrist bands just make the outfit.

Did you notice that Pixie Pie is soon to be a big sister? Her mom is due any minute, and is expecting a boy. I hope he likes tea parties.

After lunch, I turned them loose with cupcakes, icing tubes, and sprinkles and let them go. It quickly became Sprinkle Palooza, we were knee deep in tiny, tasty, tidbits that made crunchy sounds when we walked through the kitchen.

When I was a young mother, I never let my poor boys go wild with the sprinkles like this. I was probably on too tight of a budget to allow such waste and on too tight of a schedule to clean up the mess. And too tightly wound myself to be able to relax and just enjoy the show of sprinkles and icing flying everywhere.

Its so nice to be a grammy. I can't imagine anything better. I wish I'd been as happy go lucky with my sons as I am with these girls. I have to say, all the arthritis and creakiness and backaches and wrinkles are worth it. Getting older is getting better. I love being a little old lady.

Oh, the boys and I had fun when they were little, of course. I was the master of finding free things to do. If there was a grocery store grand opening, we were first in line to get a balloon and free hot dog and play any carnival games they offered. We hiked, we swam, we pinched pennies and saved up to have special treats. But life was harder then, I was a single mom with three jobs for a while, times were tight, time was scarce and money even more so. I spent more time worrying than playing and didn't realize how fast it would all zoom by.

But with Sugarwings, I'm old enough to know how precious and limited these times are.

Sugarwings might be a bit spoiled by all she gets to do and the places she gets to go, but she doesn't act like it, she is the most appreciative kid around. She always has a big smile and an "oh my goodness" or "thank you, Grammy!!!", or a "thats sooooo cuuuute" ready whenever we do something special. And she flings herself at us with unlimited joy and wraps us in her arms. Her middle name is Joy and it is perfect for her. She overflows with it.

And we still are careful about spending, all of her dress up clothes are from garage sales and goodwill stores. We buy sprinkles by the truckload, but mostly with 40% off coupons at Michael's.

She might be a bit over indulged by grand parents who are smitten with her, but honestly, I think that I am the one being indulged, not her. I love every minute of it.

Its hard to believe she is five now. I've been invited to walk to school with her on her first day tomorrow with all of the rest of the family, and I'm just not sure that I can do it. I might just sob thinking about how fast she is growing up.

But I also can't wait to go through each and every stage of it all with her. Today she was planning her future wedding. She will either marry a blue M&M or Prince Navine. I sure hope that when that day comes, I get to help design and set up her reception. And I also hope that we are still best friends then like we are now. Because it will be here before I know it, I can almost hear those wedding bells.

Fantasy Photo Editing tips and short cuts with Picnik

fairies, family, how to's, how-to projects, photography

By Karla Nathan / August 15, 2011

While I was in Indiana, my sisses indulged me and we played Fairy Dress up. Bobbie Sue's husband used my camera to get some photos, and as cute as they were, I thought they could use some added magic. (By the way, my sister lives on a highway and we were in her front yard wearing our fairy gear. Its good to have family that likes to have fun and doesn't get embarrassed when cars drive by and honk when we are being silly)

Here is how I did it, if you are interested. I use only Picnik, which is free. But some of my choices are from the premium selections, so they cost $24 a year. Much cheaper than buying Photo Shop, quick, easy and simple. I can't figure out Photo Shop myself, and Picnik is so self explanatory its easy to learn.

I don't spend much time per photo either, never more than 5 minutes each. I take a lot of pictures, and enjoy editing them, so don't have a lot of time to spend on each, or I'd never get anything else done if I didn't keep it quick.

Click on any photo to see it in a bigger window.

(for the picture of me flying, I tilted it, with Rotate to make it look like I was flying off, the other steps are similar to the ones below)

First, go to "Edit" and auto fix, then slightly sharpen. Next I do auto colors, and then cut the saturation in half.

Go to the "Create" section and in there, find "Touch Up"

I use Wrinkle Remover to get rid of the red car in the background. It took three applications to get enough strength of the blur to cover it. I ran a circle of Wrinkle Remover all around the edges of the photo to make it match too.

I clicked on the gray eye under Eye Color and used that all around where I'd blurred the edges. You can only do one color at a time. Save each and move on to the next.

Eye Color was used again to tint all the magic wands, wings, orbs, and hair embellishments, as well as the wings. After tinting, I faded the colors by sliding the bar till I liked the strength of the color.

Over that, I used Eye Bright, then lightened it a great deal, so the wings and orbs had a bit of a glow.

But that wasn't quite dramatic enough, so I used Eye Bright at full strength on the lightening on the orbs and highlights of the wings one more time.

To make the fairie's skin glow more, I used Dodging, still under the category of Touch Up.

Over the blurred background, I did a faded blue Eye Color, then went to the Featured section and added a solar layer, and faded it down.

Next, I used Ortonish under Editing, and faded it half way. Over that is Bokah Stars from Fourth of July under Seasonal. I like to make the stars tiny, and do two or three layers of them, in different sizes.

To finish, I used Matte under Effects, in blue first, then faded, and over that, pink, faded and smaller.

This picture has nice light coming through over my shoulders, so I decided to accent that.

I made it really colorful, not my typical style, but fun and fairy-ish.

Here are the steps:

Auto Fix
Sharpen
tint orbs pink with Eye Color
lighten and brighten orbs and wings with Eye Bright
Eye Bright full strength on all jewelry and again on the orbs
full Saturation (under Effects), before applying, I erased the Saturation from all skin tones
Lomo-ish (under Effects) to darken the edges and make the center glow
Eye Bright on wings and around the orbs
Dodging to lighten the faces
Drop Shadow in pink

For my next post, I'll show you some softer colors and ideas.

Home from some family fairy fun

antiques/junking, fairies, family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / August 13, 2011

Its soooooo good to be home. But I'm still not caught up. I wish I really was a fairy and could wave my magic wand to make everything get done!

While visiting my sisses in Indy, we had some fairy dress up time together. I probably play dress up with them as much as I do with Sugarwings. There is nothing like having family that never out grows their playfulness!

Although, there is an age range when not everyone finds it as much fun as we do. But the kids indulged us and let their fairy grandma grant them wishes with her wand while I took their picture. A couple of the girls even put on some fairy wings and posed for me too. But look at little Jaythan's face, he is the one sitting in the grass in a white shirt. Poor kid, he must be wondering if Mamaw is going to be taken away and locked up somewhere. He is worried she has snapped!

Yes, I complained about being busy, busy, busy since I got home, but I did take time to edit some of the photos. A person needs to have their priorities straight.

Plus, picnik is a super fast, easy way to edit. While doing a couple of the pictures, I took an extra bit of time to write out the steps on how I did it. I'll be posting a couple of tutorials next week with the step by steps if you are interested.

My trip was just great. Its the first time I drove there by myself in years and I was a bit worried about it, but I had a wonderful time. I was having so much fun talking and singing to myself and planning projects in my mind that I didn't even turn on the audio book that I'd downloaded. Sometimes, 10 hours alone can be quite therapeutic. I think I needed that.

On the way, I shopped a bit, but not much. This has been the year of NO JUNK around here. How sad. I miss my junking trips. We were too busy in Indy to get out much either, we had some Very Important Family stuff to do, so barely shopped, and most of it was not vintage. We did hit one Goodwill, where I found an amazing old, old skirt to take apart for the fabric.

I got home in time for my son and his family to fix us a big anniversary dinner and spend the evening on Tuesday night. Since I knew they were coming, I limited my stops at antique malls on the drive home.

We even got to have Sugarwings stay all night, that was the best welcome home I could get and was worth zipping right on by antique stores along the way to get home in time to see her.

For years, I've been searching for a pretty alarm clock for by my bed. One that didn't need to be wound up. There are plenty of those to be found, but few electric ones. In Columbia, MO I came across this beaut. Also the gorgeous beaded fabric under it. It was originally a dress, but is in shreds, so is great for cutting up to make crap out of.

There were some pretties to add to the Boutique too. And believe it or not, I actually took photos and got them listed. Its has been way too long since I took care of my business. Its not a lot, but its a start.

While I was at it, I grabbed a couple of things that I'd made months ago and never had time to list. There are TWO TUBS of stuff that has piled up, waiting for me to take pictures of and try to sell, and I simply have not gotten to it.

Yesterday, instead of working, we took all 7 of the grand kids and their parents to a water park to celebrate some birthdays, and this weekend, I have Sugarwings. But- I'll be forcing myself to stay on task in the next week, and hope to have more listed between a few other projects I have lined up.

Wish me luck, I plan on spending an hour each day on nothing but the Boutique and Etsy, then making things the rest of the day. Well, except some Sugarwings birthday time. She and I have a date for Smurfs, I think.

When I got back from my trip, Direct TV was out. No TV, no saved DVR programs. I thought about not even getting it fixed until I was caught up on my work, but then I started to shake and experience withdrawal symptoms and had to make the call within minutes of finding out I was TV-less.

Already, I missed out on the finale of Falling Skies and So You Think You Can Dance. But luckily, I saw True Blood at Sissy's house. Ooooh, that is a heartbreak diverted.

Well, instead of complaining about not getting any work done, I'll go do some. Please check in Monday for editing tips if you want to play hooky from work and goof off with picnik like I did!

Oh, and the winner of the dress form online tutorial is:

Sherry

And THANKS so much to all of you who are buying the class! Its just about my only income since I've neglected my store so much. I appreciate your support and I hope you love making the dress forms as much as I do. I'll be adding a Halloween dress form idea to the class, soon (free to those of you who already signed up) as a thanks.

Speaking of Halloween, don't forget, that if you purchased our online tutorial, "Romantic Gothic Ghosts" you can still use that class and all the cool papers we downloaded for you. If you didn't get all of the projects made last year, now is the time to make some for this upcoming spooky season.

Or if you didn't take the classes yet? You can still purchase it. There are tons of patterns, how-tos, ideas, decorating, and goodies for you there. All in a low-color romantic style.

You can see some of it here Just scroll down, the Romantic White Christmas class is at the top, the Halloween one is below.

Who is this woman???

fairies, family, give away, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 8, 2011

Can you guess who this photo is of?? If you guessed Karla Nathan, I just don't know if you are right or not.

Someone named Carla Ross, on Facebook, says it is her. She is using it as her profile picture. I'm a bit freaked out about the whole thing. I reported it to Facebook, and heard nothing back. I left her quite a few messages, asking her to remove it, and heard nothing back.

Yep, I'm more than a bit freaked out about it.

I've changed my profile photo to this one, and changed my password too. Honestly, I don't think there is much more I can do. Except hope that Carla Ross is just camera shy and borrowed a photo, and that she isn't really some weird, creepy, guy out to steal identities.

Now. onto a much more pleasant, happy subject- Romantic Homes has a blurb about my wallpaper obsession collection on page 26-27.

This is one of the photos they used. I was squeamish about doing my own photos for them, since I am not a real photographer, I'm just a picture taker. My camera is a nice one (and I LOVE it), but not a great one, and I don't use big girl editing like photoshop, just picnik. I'm good enough for blog pictures and scrapbooks of fairy babies, so was really worried about doing a magazine shoot, even a mini one.

(that bench was built by my son, from a Victorian headboard that I painted)

I'm still plugging away on the tag book covers. My God, what is wrong with me, that I offered to make 135 covers????????????????? By the way, the swap is at full capacity now, thank you to those who joined.

I promise I am not really cursing you all as I glue trim onto yet another in the never diminishing pile of tags. They will get done. I know they will. I can do it. right?

That is, if I live through this weekend… I am babysitting the tiniest fairy grand baby for the first time.

For 3 days while her parents are teaching their zen and energy stuff at some festival. I will have Sugarwings too, and she is a full time handful when she is here, so it could be exciting. Did I mention that the baby is still breast feeding and has never been without her mommy over night?

Maybe I will have to use this as my new facebook picture after doing 135 tag covers and watching the girls for the weekend. I'm feeling hagard just thinking about it.

Honestly, it will be a good experience for us to have both girls together. And we need to spend more time with our littlest one, she hasn't been over as much. I remember lots of late nigths cuddling baby Sugarwings and rocking her when she couldn't sleep. This will be my first shot at it with her sis-star.

Wish me luck!!!!!!

Oh, I almost forgot- the winner of the dress form tutorial is

Kim Caldwell

That was such an easy giveaway, I think I'll do it again!

Leave a comment if you want a chance to win.

I'f you've already purchased the $15 online class, and you win the drawing, I'll send you a kit. ( I really do have kits made, I simply have not photographed and listed them yet. It has been crazy around here.)

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!!

A whimsical mantel redo

fairies, family, flowers, guncles, Travel, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 28, 2011

My Guncle weekend was just wonderful, as I knew it would be. Kevin bought my plane ticket as a birthday gift to Randy, lucky, lucky me!

It all went by too fast, we played all weekend, and got sillier as the days passed by.

Jacksonville is great, but we were having too much fun to get out and explore. We stayed in the craft room, garden or kitchen except for a quick run to pick up more seafood to cook or craft supplies to work with.

We got a bunch of these little wooden birds at Michaels and foofed them up for part of a redecorating project we wanted to do. This one is perched on a grapevine wreath that we turned into a nest for the display.

When I arrived, the guys mentioned that they were ready for a mantel makeover. Here is a Before shot of that corner.

And Ta-da! Here is the whimsical after. We turned the fireplace into a magical fairy land, by shopping around the house, arranging some silk flowers, and making a few little tidbits to add here and there.

After taking everything down, so we could start from scratch, we decided to remove the fireplace screen too. The logs are wrapped in mini lights, and we perched fairies with red glass wings, and some other fun creatures inside, then tucked lots of greenery all around.

Out in the garage, I found a couple of large, metal bread racks, one in this great red, the other with chippy white paint. We leaned these up against the ornate mirror that was hanging over the mantel, then started tucking things behind the racks and hanging other stuff on them.

Kevin just happened to find a big bagful of marble eggs at a garage sale that morning, and we nestled them all around, in mossy nests. (we were pretending they were fairy eggs)

He also found two of these old bird books, one we used for display, the other we greedily tore apart and made things out of in the craft room.

The guys had lots of fairies, elves, and sparkly creatures around the house and in the garden for us to add.

I'd brought them a Nest banner that I'd made, and we hung it right in the center.

At Christmas, Randy had made a glittering nest in this top hat, and for summer, we redid it with the little Fairy Frog Prince that I'd brought to him for his birthday.

And this magnicficent art deco piece is a light fixture that Kevin found along the road in the trash!! Randy arranged some flowers in it, since it neede rewiring before we could turn it on.

Yes, we know that its busy, and there is a lot going on. But to us, that just made it all that much more fun. More treasures to discover each time you looked through the display, more magic to enjoy.

Neither one of us really get "editing".

For me, it was such a blast to get to shop his house for all the goodies we used. And to do something so bright and playful, since my house is all pastels and creams. Plus, I got to play with my baby bro, and there isn't much better than that!