fairies – Page 3 – Karla's Cottage

Seashell fairies and hearts at Walton Rocks Dog Beach

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, sea shell fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / March 24, 2022

Our first beach stop on the never ending zig zag of a trip was Ft Pierce, which I’d never been to.

I will have to admit that Ft Pierce isn’t high on my list of cities that I love in Florida. But- this trip was about the dogs, and the dog beach there was off leash, which isn’t always easy to find (Jupiter and Ft De Soto also have off leash beaches, and those are spectacular, but we couldn’t get reservations nearby).

The KOA we stayed at was new and quite nice. So, yes, I guess this city was a good place to be.

And while the beach wasn’t the powder sugar of Siesta Key, that I love so much, the shelling was just my style. HEARTS galore!

And so many broken bits and bobs to make into fairies and a mermaid. These are not the typical shapes of shells that most people look for on the beach, there weren’t a lot of perfectly pretty shells. Because the shore was a bit rocky, the waves beat up stones and shells to create the ideal pieces for the kind of things I like to find on beaches.

I did happy dances up and down the shore, finding hearts everywhere I went. On many beaches, my main hold up in piecing together a fairy is often the head. I look for smoothed out, oval shapes and they usually are the last part to find. Some fairies take an entire week of shelling in certain cities, others come together quickly, like the three that I made in Ft Pierce.

There were hearts up by the parking lot too.

While I say that Ft Pierce isn’t my favorite city to go to, I reckon I should weigh my needs. For that week, and what we wanted, it was ideal. Lots of space for dogs to run and play, heart shapes and fairy pieces everywhere, plus a clean new campground to park our tiny home on wheels.

So yep, maybe I do love Ft Pierce? The town itself is a bit on the low end of the tourist scale, but there are nearby cities to run to if I needed to pick anything up. This is not a place I’d go to stay at a hotel on the shore with family, but for what we wanted, it couldn’t be better.

We could walk forever and be mostly alone with the dogs.

And an ocean view, is always a precious thing to have.

Other cities might have softer sand and less rocks, but being able to let four dogs run and play in the surf, to walk for miles without crowds, and to have a view of the crashing waves as we strolled?

Priceless.

An elfin makeover

cottage, fairies, holiday decor, redos

By Karla Nathan / November 23, 2021

This is the after from my mini redo. I had the cottage halls decked and thought I was done, but decided this area wasn’t quite what I wanted it to be.

This is the before. Cute stuff, but for my home, there might have been a tad too much red. And it’s was too busy with lots of small things lined up.

So I fetched this hunk of gorgeous-ness from the studio, glittered up some elves, and moved a few of the guys to another location.

This cabinet was a gift from a Peep, and it is such a lovely piece. It was just what I needed to take away the cluttery feeling of so many tiny figurines together.

The glue is still wet on this fella’s rhinestone buttons. Aren’t these sprites sweet in silver and gold glitter?

I used cream chalk paint over the high gloss red glaze, and sprinkled glitter or mica onto the paint before it dried.

The red felt pants on the other gnomes had a wash of white paint over the bright fabric to made it look pink as it dried.

I had debated whether or not to mess with this, since all the decorating was done, but decided that I’d enjoy it more if I made a few little changes.

And I do!

A mosaic seashell fairy

fairies, family, sea shell fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 25, 2021

We tried a new beach this year, Indian Shores. While it was relaxing and beautiful, it wasn’t the best location for picking up shells. But there were tons of teensy ones that I gathered by the scoop full and sorted into dark and light to make a mosaic fairy portrait.

While the Sprite was crafted in a new way, the same heartfelt gratitude for my beach visit went into it. I loved my short visit at Indian Shores with long walks each morning at the beach’s edge, and laughing with family as we sat in the sand.
This beach deserved a thank you fairy, no matter how hard it was to find shells. I was determined.

I wasn’t there long, but was able to divide up my limited time between my sissies and nieces so that I got some one on one with each.

And we gathered together to watch as many sunsets as we could.

The perfect end to the peaceful days.

North Carolina Riverbank Fairies

dogs, fairies, sea shell fairies

By Karla Nathan / August 25, 2021

One morning in NC, I took the dogs for a walk along the stream that flowed through our campgrounds. The glimmer of sparkling, mica rocks caught my attention, so we paused to gather up fairy materials.

Molly has been going to puppy school and this fairy building adventure showed me just how well the training has paid off. It isn’t easy to hold two leashes and arrange rocks into a little sprite at the same time. She made it easy, though. There was no pulling or impatience on her part at all.

And little, 6lb Dorothy was a doll herself. I whipped up a fairy quickly and they didn’t get in the way one bit.

Well, at least not until I had finished.

Then, Molly gave the fairy a “hug”.

I 💚 North Carolina

fairies, family, Hearts, sea shell fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / August 10, 2021

It was hard to say good bye to NC (and to my kids there).

Especially when we returned to a sweltering, soggy, heat wave in Kansas.

The mild, mountain weather almost made me forget what humidity felt like.

Oh, but I had a very quick reminder on our return!

As much as I hate having Dewdrop and Adam living so far away, I certainly understand why they do.

I fell in love with the region too.

How to make a little fairy diorama

cottage, fairies, family, how-to projects, Tutorials

By Karla Nathan / April 19, 2021

There were more fairy family photos to add to the mantel from our wing making event that Miss Tree gifted us with at Solstice.

Now, I think I have us all represented over the fireplace. I’ve used a variety of ways to display them from frames, shadow boxes, in bottles, hanging, and more.

I ran out of space for more frames, so thought I’d craft a mini diorama for my son and Dewdrop.

The first step was to cut out, glitter and decorate the people I wanted to use.

Next, I cut an arch shape from two sided cardstock. No pattern, just a roughly arch shaped piece because I knew it would be covered.

I glued Adam to the arch and then glued the arch to the inside of a mayo jar lid.

To strengthen and support the arch, I added a strip of more cardstock to the back.

Some grosgrain ribbon covered the lid up.

I filled the inside of the lid with blobs and globs of Ultimate glue, stuck a bent pie cleaner where I wanted Dewdrop to stand, then filled the lid with moss.

Dewdrop was then glued to the pipe cleaner and clamped til dry.

To stabilize the pipe cleaner, I glued pretty rocks onto the moss. They also worked as weights to keep the piece upright.

You can see behind Dewdrop into the lid in this picture. I added flowers and leaves around the archway and a few flowers into the moss too.

Ta-dah!

This isn’t a very refined, or perfected project just a quickie not meant to last a life time. But it suited my purposes for a way to add more family fairies to my display.

This is my springtime mantel and I like it so much, it might be up all summer. I think I even see a few spots where I could squeeze in a few more sprites…

One last sea shell fairy

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, sea shell fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / April 4, 2021

Isn’t this oyster shell the perfect little pinafore dress for this sprite? It even has a pocket! And I was so happy to find the striped booties, ready to be slipped onto her tiny feet.

Farewell, Florida! Seashells at St Augustine Beaches

dogs, fairies, sea shell fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / March 30, 2021

We sure enjoyed the St Augustine beaches!

We were able to drive on the sand, and could haul a day’s worth of tents, dog kennels, chairs, etc. so we had everything we needed with us.

With three dogs, we couldn’t have carried it all and managed them too. At other beaches we chose to take the pups for long walks then leave. Being able to have a vehicle near where we wanted to hang for the day completely changed how we could spend the days.

Oh, those dogs still got plenty of walking, too. And we had all the comforts and shade we needed to enjoy our books in the sea air. We had lots of time for relaxing and making seashell fairies!

More Fairy Family Photos- IN FLIGHT!

fairies, family

By Karla Nathan / March 21, 2021

The fun from the wings we made with Miss Tree just keeps on coming.

It is special to have an opportunity to play dress up, and go into the woods like sprites.

We even attempted to fly like real fairies.

Some were pretty durn good at levitating.

Others, not so much…

Everyone jumped on the count of three, and you snap the photo at one or two to catch them airborne.

I preferred pretending to fly, not actually jumping up. (By the way, this is a dress I bought way back in the 90s. I wonder if it is considered vintage now? I buy what I love and wear it forever, and clothes never feel dated to me)

And everyone was kind to pose in ways that I can cut the photo up to make banners or captured fairies.

Won’t this one be sweet in a jar?

And this one framed?

These three can fly beautifully, cut out and hanging from a banner.

My husband even participated and said he enjoyed it. He’s a bee keeper and Katie made some cute bee wings for him. But I am not allowed to post those. You’ll have to take my word for it, he was adorable.

I ❤️ these people

cottage, fairies, family, flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 14, 2021

The wing project the Miss Tree gifted the family with at Winter Solstice is a gift that never ends. Not only did we have day after day of fun with creating the wings, I made captured and framed fairies for the mantel from one of our two adventures in fairy dress up parties.

She has become a master wingmaker (Katie, you need an Etsy shop!) and crafted these for my son, to look like oak leaves.

He and Dewdrop were here for a much too quick visit, and while at the cottage, he took the time to remake my garden entryway. The vines put up years ago had started to fall, and most of the twinkle lights had given up their glow.

More native grape vines were gathered in the woods and he came up with the idea of forming a heart instead of just a random design.

See how he incorporated the scrolls of the fence to complete the point of the heart?

I’ll have more pictures of our dress up night, and of the projects I make with the photos later on. Because like I said, the wing party from Katie just keeps on giving. I can’t wait to add more fairies to my fireplace mantel.

Plus pics of the fabulous heart with blooming vines growing around it this summer! Won’t that be lovely?

Thank you, Katie and Adam, for the beauty you bring to my world.