family – Page 13 – Karla's Cottage

It’s Just Some stuff

Corona virus, cottage, Current Affairs, family

By Karla Nathan / July 28, 2021

Having the puppies leave for their new families is rewarding.

No matter how many times I tell myself this, it doesn’t make it any easier, I miss my puppies! A few days after they went off on their new paths, we had family come to visit. That was a welcome distraction.

Especially when they brought their own cute doggies along.

And of course, I still have this pup.

Who looks all grown up with her new haircut.

We have had one problem after another. So many that they are blending into one another, to form one big blob of problematic messiness. But none too big, just an ongoing onslaught.

I tripped and cracked a rib, one puppy got sick, another got slightly injured, but all are okay. I had a three year old washer break, replaced it with a brand new one that didn’t work, was lucky enough to get that one replaced and the newest one floods my laundry room. I wasn’t shopping for the best deal, or certain options on the machines, I was just taking what the store could get and was glad to get one. But man, none of them were working?

Of course during the pandemic, we are used to shortages and I figure that if my biggest issue is having trouble replacing appliances (I am looking at you, 8 month back order on a dishwasher), I am doing okay.

Our hot tub died on us last year, and one turned up to buy last week. It was not the one we wanted, but it was the one we could get. It worked and we were glad to get it.
I started to climb in the other day for a relaxing soak on my achey rib after pulling weeds in the garden, had my shirt half off when I looked up to see a workman in the tower.

He had a bird’s eye view of a grandma starting to strip. Poor guy.

Our hot tub area is typically private, but a couple times a year, some brave soul climbs the tower to work on it. I am not complaining about that either, that tower has been lucrative to us.

Our desk top Mac needed replaced, I was able to get one, not the one I wanted, but one I needed. iPads were in stock, Rich could replace his along with his broken Rigid drill (whose ID number was blurred and the warranty wasn’t honored). We needed a new microwave, tires for my car, three new outdoor and two indoor faucets replaced. Our camper has developed a weird electrical thing and hundreds of dollars later, is still not right. There are more little broken issues, big issues, sad things, annoying things, but I am trying to look at it from the point of view that somehow it works out and we are lucky to afford the repairs, replacements, and to find something in stock somehow to get that done, even with shortages.

Then, our 7 month old truck broke down in Southern Missouri while Rich was camping. The pandemic shortages became hard to ignore when we discovered it could be up to six months to get the part to fix it. And I spent hours on the phone with rental companies trying to find a way to get a truck to the Ozarks to pick up Rich, Honey, and the RV.

Our local dealership came through and loaned us this shiny, blue savior and I drove 6-1/2 hours to fetch them and scoop them up to bring home.

So far, the GM dealer is treating us very well and we hope to get this solved in a way that we don’t miss the rest of boating and camping season by not having a truck for months.

Except for a sick puppy, who is better, and a sore rib which is getting better, it’s all just stuff right? (Expensive stuff, but just stuff) I know that and have been rolling with it as good as I can.

Believe me, I know that I am speaking from privilege and that my life is good, these are minor things. I’m quick to thank and commiserate with the salesmen, clerks, repairmen, and parts people who are dealing with the brunt of not being able to get the things that are needed. My problems are small.

After losing a son, losing a truck doesn’t seem like much.

But, a series of stresses does add up and I felt pretty dang sorry for myself yesterday. My rib hurt, I’d been in the truck for 13 hours, and I just didn’t want to think about the deeper reasons that there were so many empty shelves and so few choices when shopping. Driving through parts of Missouri where the virus is spreading like wildfire and hospitals are over filled, and seeing that no one is wearing masks was the final straw.

While I work on being grateful for what I have, it is painful to know that the virus is still spreading and the healing our world needs has slowed down and instead things are getting worse again, not better.

Happy 4th of July!

family

By Karla Nathan / July 4, 2021

The last puppy left yesterday, and luckily, I had a houseful of grandfairies and a sunset at the lake to distract me.

Sugarwings will be spending the rest of the summer with her dad, so the emptiness of the house will be hitting me soon.

But for right now, I am relishing the chaos and laughter of having everyone here and feeling quite pleased to have been able to sleep in and not be up with the furry babies at 5:30 am.

Fresh paint

cottage, dogs, family

By Karla Nathan / June 27, 2021

We have had some cheerful, fun relatives visiting for a few days, just what we needed after the loss of Twinkle and Albert.

I thought I’d spruce the place up a bit before they arrived and get a much needed coat of paint on this swing.

While I was at it, I spray painted the old, metal chairs white and used some of the blue paint on a few flower pots around the yard. Those rusty chairs have so many coats of paint on them, I’d say they were more paint than metal. But that wouldn’t be true, because they flake off so much.

Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to be a person with brand new stuff instead of junk…

But new stuff wears out too, right? It needs painted after years of wear. IF it holds up that long. These chairs are probably from the 50s. So, I guess I’ll stick with them.

I guess the swing has been painted a lot too. This is the first time it’s been blue.

It has had many incarnations in white and one in cream. Blue is a pleasant change.

(Little Buddy, on the left has become available again, if you are looking for a mellow ball of fuzzy love to snuggle)

Our family just left this morning, and we missed them already. We went boating, out for a run, did some paint pours, belted out some karaoke, but mostly played with puppies.

It was relaxing to hang out in the courtyard after dinner and watch the pups wear themselves out.

Every family reunion should feature puppies!

He was a good boy

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family

By Karla Nathan / June 23, 2021

Before we could recover from the loss of Twinkle, Albie had a sudden illness and died also.

He was Twinkle’s son from her large litter of nine. Dorothy was from that same batch of puppies, as well as my sister’s Frodo, my pal Shan’s Oscar, and our neighbor’s Scruffy.
So many good babies!

Albie and Dorothy were lifelong besties.

Albie was an odd little guy, a mix of worry and adventure but full of devotion.

He was at the same time, hanging in the background and being first to join in on any activity.

He never wanted to be left out of anything, and was worried that he might be. We went out of our way to reassure him and in the last few years, his confidence grew to the point where he thought he was one of the big dogs, not part of the group of Yorkies.

His nickname was “The River Dog” because he loved kayak trips. We feel that separating him for things like this, and giving him alone time away from the five other dogs was part of helping him find his inner big dog and making his personality bloom.

He spent most of his free time perched on the back of a chair, where he had a good view of what was going on in the house. He liked to be on a chair with us, so he could be nearby, but he wasn’t a cuddler. He watched every move we made, always on alert for what he could do to join in and stay close, but didn’t want to be held.

I think he thought he was our protector and always had to be on guard to keep us safe.

Albie watched over us all, including the puppies.

He was vigilant when there was a new litter, keeping an eye on them, but never venturing too near.

From the very beginning, he was closest to Dewdrop. I think he might have thought he needed to watch over her like he did the puppies.

He might have a worried look on his face in this photo, but he was pretty dang happy. She was one person who he liked being held by. He followed her everywhere when she was at the cottage.

That boy loved coming to work with me in the studio, too. He had a habit of jumping up into whatever chair I just got out of. If I was at the computer, he was on my chair in my work station. When I came back to the table, he’d hop in my desk chair.

When we got Honey, he wasn’t too happy with us and there was a long adjustment period, with the Littles against the Bigs. Eventually, they all became one pack and Albert was right out front when running with the big dogs in the woods. He thought of himself as a leader, although I don’t know if any of the large dogs acknowledged his role as boss. They indulged him, and let him think what he wanted.

But no matter how important his role was in guarding the family and telling the other dogs what to do, he always had time for the girls, and enjoyed the special attention they gave him.

I will miss his subdued enthusiasm in joining everything anyone was doing. His quiet joy in being a family leader. The unending love he had for us all.

When I buried his mommy, Twinkle just a few days ago, he sat by my side the entire time, and watched me put her in the ground. Afterwards he sat there a while, like he was taking care of her, watching over her body like he watched over us.

He never complained, he never demanded. He was 9 lbs of bravery and sweetness, with a little bit of worry and a lot of caring thrown in the mix.

He died very bravely too. Rich had been out of town ten days, and Albert stayed strong until his return. I think he was hanging on to see him.

We held Albie and his sister in our arms together as he slowly faded away, whispering his favorite words to him, telling him how much we loved our River Dog.

I will miss my funny, weird little guy. He was a good boy.

Pretty stones

Corona virus, cottage, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, flowers, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / June 19, 2021

When Twinkle passed, I brought her home from the vet’s office to show her to the other dogs. I knew they would look for her if I didn’t. You might think it’s odd, but we showed Ryan’s body to our pets too. They were overly excited about a room filled with paramedics and other professionals during a pandemic when they hadn’t been around many people, so it wasn’t exactly a moving moment.

But at least they knew why Uncle Ryan wasn’t around for ear scratches and walks any more.

It would’ve been easier to have Twinkle cremated, my husband was out of town and it was 100 degrees that day. But I hated to think of the other dogs always looking for her and not knowing where she was.

I buried her next to Ryan’s memorial tree.

A dear friend and her daughter had engraved and painted rocks for me and I’d been planning on placing them by this oak. I am glad I hadn’t done it yet, they were just what I needed to top Twinkle’s grave.

I used some of the rocks in planters too.

Ryan is never out of my thoughts, but I still like to have little trinkets and mementos of him around me.

To Twinkle, with love

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 16, 2021

Twinkle was born on Valentine’s Day and was my sweetheart of a dog. Sugarwings was just big enough to grab her and giggle when the pup came to live with us, and from the very beginning, that little dog never complained about how rough she might be treated. She kept running back for more, more, more.

Tinks was the perfect pet for a rough housing kid. She might have seemed fragile, since she was a Yorkie, but that dog was one tough chick. She was always there just waiting to be included in any game her girl wanted to play with her.

They could spend hours together splashing in the water hose or digging in the mud together.

As babies, they shared toys, beds, and as Sugarwings would insist, no matter how hard I tried to keep the milk away from the dog, the little girl shared her bottle with the little dog.

Twinkle was devoted to us all, and one of her favorite words was ‘work’ which she knew meant we were going to to studio together, where she’d climb into this bowl of lace I kept on the floor. Since she decided it was hers, not mine, I changed out the art supplies for a pillow and let her keep it.

She raised her children to love napping in the bowl too.

And she had a lot of children!

She was a great doggie mom. She was meticulous in caring for her babies, still holding 8 year old Dorothy down to give her a good cleaning every evening, up until poor Twinks wasn’t healthy enough to be the caretaker.

She was a dog who lived to love, and was devoted to us all. She was curious and excited about life, up for any adventure even if it was just a trip to the laundry room to check on the load of clothes in the dryer.

And she loved to pose. When she’d see my camera in my hand, she didn’t consider that I might be wanting a photo of a project or something to list in my shop. She KNEW that the picture had to be of her. I sometimes had to pretend to take one of her, so she would relax.

The only thing she didn’t like was Honey. You can tell by the way she refuses to look at the camera, that she wasn’t too happy about us getting a new puppy. Twinkle thought that she was one of our kids, since she was raised with the grand fairy, and didn’t think we needed to get a dog.

There were some battles for a couple of years between the two. But by the time Honey had her own puppies, they’d reached a truce. Twinkle was allowed to wash those puppies and nanny them.

Honey must’ve appreciated the vast experience that Tinks had to offer.

But it wasn’t until the last couple of years that they actually became friends. Twinkle had gone blind and discovered that Honey’s thick tail made an ideal bed.

The first time she waddled over to it and laid down Honey seemed shocked.

Then snuggled up to her.

Since then, the truce was done and they became family.

Over the years, one of her favorite things was going boating.

The words ‘boat’ or ‘“lake’ would send her running to the car, ready for a day on the water.

Twinkle was more than just a dog to me, she was my friend.
And a very good friend, not just to me.

He cared so much about things that made me happy

celebrations, family, Hearts, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / May 26, 2021

We had lovely remembrance moments for Ryan. On Sunday, some exceptionally wonderful friends brought over dinner and wine.

We sat on the patio, and we all cuddled pups before I spread some ashes on the Uncle Tree and gave an egoogley (Zoolander for eulogy).

The Sugarbabies thought the get together was all about them.

Well, typically, everything is. But my pals were very kind and considerate about honoring Ryan.

It was a small, but meaningful group.

Ryan’s legal time of death is the 24th, but we feel like he died the night of the 23rd, so we did something both days for him.

On Monday, we tried to get as many of the family as we could together for a walk on Ryan’s favorite trail, dinner at a place he loved, and squeezed in between all of that, an 8th grade concert.

The day we found him, we had planned a big, family walk on the trails he loved.

But that didn’t happen.

We took a walk there a year later in his honor, and I brought some ashes to sprinkle. I wasn’t sure where I would do it, until I saw this perfectly mossy heart!

I can almost hear the excitement in his voice, if he’d been with me when I found it. He cared so much about things that made me happy. We often took time to stop and exclaim over tidbits that I found, or just to watch the red wing black birds in the pond.

“He cared so much about things that made me happy.”

That sums up a lot about Ry Guy. I was beyond blessed to have a person in my world who wanted me to smile.

One year today. No words

family, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / May 24, 2021

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…

An Estate Sale in Ottawa, KS that opened some floodgates for me

family, junk, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / April 17, 2021

My friend, Angie called me to say she had someone cancel on her and she could use a couple hours of help at an estate sale she was running.

(304 E 11th Street in Ottawa, half price on Saturday the 19th)

While there were plenty of vintagey goods, practical items, and tons of tools for sale, the star of the day was the house itself.

Throughout the day, I explored all of the excellently preserved details of this pristine old house. It made me feel nostalgic for my mom’s house in Sioux City, IA. Hers was from the same era and style, also had that great woodwork and arched entryway doors.

Mom’s home didn’t have the original potties, though. This house had delicious tiling and the baths were updated but not gutted and redone. The rose and black might have been my fave.

(Delicious might not be a good word to describe a bathroom, but, honestly, that color is pretty dang tasty!)

But, no maybe this room is my favorite color combo- the soft green with a hint of lilac? How springy and delightful!

The woodwork throughout was magnificently crafted too. And filled with French doors. My mother took her French doors off and stored them in the basement for some odd reason. Maybe so my crazy, wild boys wouldn’t ride a tricycle through them.

They weren’t the only kids raised in that place, it was also the childhood home of Ann Landers and Dear Abby. I have a feeling the advice sisters weren’t as rambunctious as my kiddos, but then not many were.

Luckily, this was marked NFS, or it would’ve been in the back of my pickup, and I do not need it.

I sure WANT it.

The basement was filled with the original workings of the old place, and that again brought back memories of Mom’s house on Nebraska Street. There was a laundry chute here just like the one my sons threw all of their toys down.

Visions of two year old Adam dropping trucks down onto four year old Ryan’s head in the basement were bittersweet. And I laughed out loud with tears in my eyes as I recalled running down the hall and screaming, “Noooo! The dog cannot go down the chute!” Just in time to save that poor little schnauzer.

It has been a rough week for me, I definitely needed this day out to work with Angie. The added bonus of spending the day in a home that brought so many forgotten times rushing back was good..

May is coming up, and it is filled with land mines for my heart. My birthday and Mother’s Day were dates that Ryan never failed to make me feel treasured on.

Then the end of May brings the anniversary of his death.

It is still April, but the mere thought of May has been wringing tears out of me while anticipating the calendar page about to turn.

And horrifically, some dear friends recently lost their son. I spent a week making a journal/album for him and feeling their pain with each drop of glue I used.

On top of that, I’ve had someone I trust turn on me and flip my view of our relationship up and twist it around.

Memories can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. All I can do for now is roll with the emotions, enjoying the stories that play in my mind while missing my boy.

Bad things happen, sadness continues to occur, but I need to hang out to those good memories and think about those funny little boys with the giant pile of toys under the laundry chute in the basement.

Or I will never survive this. Those memories need to be my lifeline.