family – Page 18 – Karla's Cottage

Holiday Blessings

By Karla Nathan / December 30, 2019

Our weather on Christmas Eve and Day was spectacular. Upper 60s? In Kansas on December 24th? You just never know, some years are blizzards, others are meant for being outside.

We found a new trail behind the dog park that lead to the river, and on my first steps along the bank, I spied a rock that looked like an angel wing.

Of course I had to make a Beach Blessings angel as a thank you.

Dewdrop harvested some algae to make the wreath and as I placed it in the angel’s arms, I saw a teensy, heart shaped rock to add to it.

We had two days of walking weather, with various family members going along each day. Kansas might not have gorgeous scenery, but I still appreciate our time in the woods when we can get it.

I would love to live somewhere more interesting, with hills or beaches, but I figure a person should make the most of what they have and look for the best in it. I am lucky to live in a town that cares about making trails for its citizens (and dogs). And am also quite lucky to have a few acres of our own woods to enjoy.

And winter walking weather in Kansas was a pretty nice Christmas present!

i should’ve made a bigger thank you angel…

Our Cottage Christmas

celebrations, Dew Drop, dogs, family, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 27, 2019

Could I describe Christmas as both laid back and lively at the same time?

Maybe what I mean is that we had a lot of fun with simple pleasures.

Like princess cocoa parties with melting snowmen cocoa bombs while using Nanny’s china.

Decorating sugar cookies and gingerbread men together.

Taking advantage of the unusually, lovely weather by going for long walks.

In jammies.

We had a build your own calzone/pizza bar, so everyone got their favorites and it was a group effort for Christmas Eve dinner.

I chopped and sautéed most of the toppings the day in advance, then Ryan helped with the rest.

We had a house full for both days, with almost the entire family sleeping over, staying up late to watch holiday movies, using the hot tub to relax, and playing the games that were given as gifts.

I think what made it all so wonderfully sweet was that there was nothing at all formal about it. There was a nice, casual flow about the holiday.

We went light on gifts, with easy meals, took a few walks, had a wonderful time with everyone under one roof.

Dewdrop will be with us for the rest of winter break, so there will be more family fun time to come.

Sugarwings has plans for surprising her lil sis with elf pranks every day. We will see some movies, hang out in the studio to make things with all the new art supplies they got, and of course, snack away on those beautifully decorated cookies.

I hope your holiday was a blessed one too.

Actual grand fairies

Dew Drop, fairies, family, holiday decor, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / December 22, 2019

Making Sugarplum fairies has kept me so busy that I am just now wrapping gifts, today.

My husband is in Chicago at a Chiefs game, Ryan is at work, Sugarwings with her mom, and Dewdrop won’t be arriving with her daddy til tomorrow.

That means I have an empty dining room to spread out gifts and get them packaged up. I just finished my shopping yesterday, on a fun day out with some of the family, letting them choose their own pressies instead of trying to surprise them.

As much as I love surprises, sometimes you just gotta let them do the picking. And even though I’d heard that yesterday was the busiest shopping day of the year, I still preferred strolling through stores with people I love and going out to lunch over ordering from Amazon at home.

It felt more like Christmas that way. Oh, I used Amazon for quite a bit, but a shopping date was like the icing on the Christmas cookie to top off my holiday festivities.

I also made some gifts, like this Sully Sugarplum Fairy for a great niece. It is as pink, glittery, and gaudy as possible for a very sweet lil princess.

I used another photo of her on a card.

This banner is for The Guncles’ nature tree. They can take them apart to use as ornies or hang as is.

I used the painted brown paper table covers from a Snowbird’s Song as a background. I also made use of it as wrapping paper this year.

Speaking of wrapping paper, I’d better get to work. I am sitting at the table having my morning coffee, surrounded by stacks of gifties and rolls of paper.

Holiday Happenings

celebrations, family, friends

By Karla Nathan / December 19, 2019

I never turn down a Christmas invitation and look for as many holiday adventures to cram into December as I can.

Meeting up with friends for lunch and going shopping? Yes, please!

Especially a visit to Angie’s. She lives within walking distance of the museum, where we ate at the courtyard cafe, the made me feel as tho I was dining in Europe.

(I fell in love with that dyed wreath! And have plans to try to dye some of my dried hydrangeas aqua…)

We peeked around the museum and soaked up a smidgeon of culture before heading out to shop.

The displays at J’Dore were inspiring. We hit a thrift store too.

But the best part? Just chatting and catching up over sparkly wine and chocolates at Angie’s pretty apartment in the sky.

The grand fairies and I had a night out to see a Magical Cirque Christmas. It reminded me more of an old school variety show than a typical Cirque extravaganza. The teens thought it was new and different, having not grown up in the age of Ed Sullivan.

Sugarwings loved the corny magician, and while we had a late night for a Tuesday, it was worth all of the sleepy yawns on Wednesday morning.

She and I also attended Matilda at the local theater. There is a kid friendly play there every year at the holidays and we have a happy tradition of going.

Tonight is the last, big bash of the year, a party for her Martial Arts group, with dinner and dancing at the Doubletree. Last year we danced so hard, Sugarwings’ shoes fell apart.

Well, I guess I mean the last outside function, we will be rocking around the Christmas tree with Dewdrop soon!

She will be back in Kansas for Christmas break. I am thrilled to be having our tiniest family member with us again.

I have been on pins and needles with the transportation plans, they have been iffy, but seem straightened out now.

We will be having cocoa parties in front of the tree, dancing North Pole Style together (to a kid’s musical dance party toy that most of the family finds annoying, but that we love), and making gingerbread men together.

Because there can always be a party waiting to happen if you just look for it.

The last Sugarplum fairies of the decade, a look back at the year, and a giveaway

fairies, family, give away, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / December 18, 2019

Oh my, that is true, we are not just near the end of the year, it is the end of a decade!

My year is ending with a blast, I have loved hunkering down in the studio and making Sugarplum Fairy after fairy after fairy.

And I am thankful for all of the people who bought them for me so that I could indulge in my love of crafting these gals.

It has been a mixed year for me. Lots of wonderful moments and people, lots of injury and heartache and worry.

It is odd that a year can be soooo good, but yet so bad at the same time.

Teaching at Karen's Cozy Castle, and at Jenn Hayslip's retreat, seeing family members from far away, and having a studio full of Peeps come to see me a couple of times this year made up for a lot of the problems I have had.

It is hard to be too down about a minor skull fracture, multiple concussions, and other aches and pains when I have so many positives in my life too.

The break up of my son's family and the draining work of getting their house on the market was heart wrenching. But having little Dewdrop come back for Christmas eases that pain. And while my son and his littlest girl now live across the country, I am adjusting. And still have the other 3 grand fairies with me. We are trying to get back to family dinners with the group, and while it is a change to not have two of our people, there is still a lot of love on those nights.

And seriously, how lucky and blessed were we to have an uptick in the local real estate market just as we finished the remodelling of the house we had bought for my son's family and to get out from under that mortgage in less than a week? We worked our asses off to make it happen for weeks, but yes, it did work out.

We could have been stuck with an empty house to take care of and keep up all winter.

My husband's early retirement also threw me for a loop. But we are adjusting and he is the happiest he has ever been in his life.

Life is all about changes and how you deal with them. Honestly, I did NOT deal well with having to do so much to that house to get it sold, and with the family splitting up.

Did I mention that my husband unexpectedly retired that week and that I also had my hormones cut in half at the same time? But I got through it, and did what was needed to make things work.

(I have since found out that my rotator cuff was torn and my bicep tendon was ruptured at the time, so that makes me feel better now about being so whiny while painting ceilings then! I am now in PT for those injuries.)

I have had beautiful trips with people I love (even though I came home with a concussion twice).

I have had dozens of fun and caring Peeps here at the cottage.

I have had a nest full of puppies to cheer me up with snuggles at the end of a long day of repainting a house we were afraid we were stuck with, but were not.

I had the joy of running through the waves with Sugarwings, splashing through Disney in the rain and laughing with all four girls, making seashell fairies on 4 beaches to leave as thank yous for the beauty of the trip.

I have had people let me down, but others show so much caring that I could get past the hurt of the let downs.

And I have had the joy of making all of these Sugarplum fairies. What a happy way to end the year. I was so thrilled to see that they sold so quickly, and while this is kind of late to be adding more to the Boutique, I had a lot of happiness go into making each and every one whether they sell or not.

2019 has been eventful.

These fairies might seem like a silly little thing to be so emotional about, but a lot of healing went into the creation of them.

I would like to share the cheer. Please leave a comment if you want to be entered to win a fairy of your own.

(You can also enter on FB and IG)

Beach babes at Siesta Key

family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / December 15, 2019

On my annual Sister Trip to Florida, we were joined by all but one of both of my sister’s kids, thanks to Sissy’s generosity.

Sissy also brought everyone bags from Gudren, and wanted a photo of us together holding the colorful bags.

So we decided to go all super model, and pose with scarfs blowing in the breeze as we leapt into the air.

Uhm, we are not super models.

But we know how to have fun.

Maybe Sissy is model material. I love this photo that I took of her.

And this one. I channeled my inner Tyra Banks and told her to find the light.

We always try to use the ocean backdrop to get some good sister pics each year.

And this time, we were able to get more family shots.

And I got to spend time with people I rarely see.

I love having all the silly photos as souvenirs of the trip.

And the fun pictures.

As well as our traditional, casual, sister pics.

There was even a pretty, great niece there to snap photos of.

There were gorgeous skies to use as backdrops.

Although it can be hard to focus on faces without the light blowing out behind them.

Sometimes the faces are shadowed if I get the water or sky correct.

Mostly, we are just so happy to be together, we constantly have our cameras out to capture the short time we have with each other.

Because we know that, in a blink it is over.

Happy Thanksgiving

celebrations, Dew Drop, family

By Karla Nathan / November 27, 2019

As years pass and circumstances change, so do family holidays. I did not expect to have a big Thanksgiving dinner this year, but was happily surprised when we could get everyone together the Sunday before.

After getting back late Friday night from my Florida Sister Trip, I woke up to Dewdrop and her dad here for visit.

We celebrated with a breakfast cocoa party in front of a Christmas program. Then started whipping up and prepping for a family dinner on Sunday.

We only had a few days with her, so got as much squeezed into that time as we could. We weren’t together on her birthday, so took a trip to Target for her to choose a gift.

We snuck in as many cuddles as we could, went to see Frozen 2, had a couple of dance parties, and crafted. The poor kid got sick while here, so much of the time she was napping and watching movies.

They are headed back east today, and it might be a while til I see her again. I feel thankful that she was here, no matter how long.

At the airport Friday night, this tree was available to add a leaf with your thankful messages to it. I wrote one that said, “people I love”

And I wasn’t surprised to find that many of the leaves expressed similar sentiments. Family was repeated many times. I hope that all of those travelers writing about their family were on their way to see them and be together.

Thanksgiving Day itself will be a quiet one this year for us, but the date on the calendar isn’t what counts. I am lucky I had a family day, and some time with my little one.

I will take that any day of the year.

Seashell fairies in Clearwater Beach

family, sea shell fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / November 4, 2019

Our trip to Florida was extra special with the four grand fairies along. It has been a very rough time for us lately and we wanted to have a big celebration for Khya’s 18th birthday to let the kids know how much we care.

Although it ended up being a bigger “bash” than I thought it would be…

We’d had the balcony doors open to enjoy the ocean, and beautiful weather, and I didn’t realize that the housekeeper had just shut it right before I ran out onto the patio. Oops.

Instead of going out the door, I bounced off of it. I spent the rest of the week pretending it didn’t hurt, so I could enjoy the wonderful trip with my sweet girls.

Due to my carelessness, I didn’t swim much. But I enjoyed lounging by the pool or ocean and watching the kids play from my one good eye.

And even with my sad, uneven vision, I had some gorgeous views!

When my son married Khya and Avahni’s mother, we took the girls to Florida as a welcome to the family trip.

Now that the marriage has ended, we wanted those two to know that they are our grand daughters forever, and we flew them off to Florida again to show them we are still family, no matter what.

I also wanted Dewdrop to have some happy memories of her last weeks with us.

She has moved back to North Carolina now, and will not be living with us in Kansas every other year. Her daddy wanted a new beginning and left to live in the mountains.

This trip was my attempt to hold on to those that I loved, but I think my heart may be more beat up than my face.

I never get tired of Disney, but it is even better with grand fairies!

family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 31, 2019

We had quite a trip for Khya’s 18th birthday and Dewdrop’s farewell party.

All of the kids were “the perfect age” for Disney. Some old enough to be on their own for roller coasters, no one needed a stroller, all could stay out late.

There was some rain, but not enough to bother us. But enough to make the crowds lighter.

My husband even joined us for most of a day at Animal Kingdom.

And while he is not a fan of the parks, he seemed to have a good time.

We took a ride on the new skyline just to enjoy the views.

The other two days were a later start, not going to Magic Kingdom til the special event, Halloween party at 4 pm.

The lazy days by the pool were ideal. I am used to being at the parks from open til close, and having long, lingering days to enjoy til it was time to visit Mickey, might be my new favorite way to go.

While I was spending a lot of time pretending that my skull wasn’t pounding in time to the African drums, I still was honestly having the best days ever.

Lines were short, the weather was comfy, and I had my four girls nearby.

Who knows what the future holds, with Dewdrop living in North Carolina full time, Sugarwings growing up, the big girls’ mom and my son splitting up?

But I do know that I love them all so much, and I will always be here for them when they miss their Grammie.

My husband has retired, our budget is changing, the kids are moving on, our family is divided. Some people have shown how little they care when times are tough.

But I have had a blessed time and know how lucky my life has been. It wasn’t so much that I got to go to Disney with them as much as I got to share special memories and time.

No matter what changes are ahead, I will always have that.

Mickey’s Halloween Party

family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 30, 2019

We went to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party while in Florida. Dewdrop was Cinderella, Sugarwings – Tiana, and myself – a fairy godmother. The blue one, Merriweather.

I made the hat, added sparkling tulle and a vintage blue rose.

But, with my black eye and vintagey dress that was a blue/gray, I am afraid I looked more like a Haunted Mansion ghost than a fairy godmother.

The headband wasn’t great on my achey head, so I ditched it.

While not everyone guessed Tiana, the grand fairies were clearly royal.

Even though the hairstyles didn’t last after a wild night of spinning on teacups.

That party is such fun, we went twice. It is a ticketed event from 7pm-midnight, but you can enter the park at 4pm. Crowds are less than regular park days because the tickets are (slightly) limited. Our first night was a little rainy, and seemed much less crowded. Many rides were only five minute waits. But the shows got rained out.

It didn’t rain the entire time, but got a little heavy toward the evening. We had ponchos, and powered through. The weather was warm, not hot, it really wasn’t bad to be rained on. I think it was more pleasant than the days I have been there when it was 100 degrees or higher.

It certainly wasn’t too chilly for Dole Whips!

We also had Jack Skellington pops. And there were generous trick or treat stations where they gave out handfuls of candy bars.

My luggage was much heavier after packing all of that loot.

Since the Villains Spectacular was rained out on our first day, we watched it twice on our second trip.

Sugarwings and I ended the night at the Monsters Inc Ball, dancing til midnight, while the others rode Space Mountain.

As the two of us left for the bus ride back, she was pensive and snuggly. I had told her that with her grandfather retiring, this might be our last trip. She thanked me for taking her and said that she didn’t know what her future career would be, but she would be sure to make enough money to take her grandkids to Disney.