family – Page 21 – Karla's Cottage

A trip to Universal, that included a bit of a trip, and Homer Simpson checked out my backside

By Karla Nathan / May 7, 2019

What are the odds that when I was in Georgia for the art event, and then spending some time at the Guncles, that my sis, Terry would just so happen to be in Orlando visiting from Utah with her hubby?

Well, actually pretty good, They are season pass holders at Disney and spend a lot of time there. And what are the odds of me turning a business trip to teach at Jekyll Island into an Orlando visit?

If you know me, you know that I cannot resist a trip to the happiest place on Earth!

Terry and Dale invited me to join them at the condo they rented while there, so I added a couple of days onto my trip and took them up on their generous offer. I had my own room, and balcony, and we were just down the road from Disney and Universal.

While I am a Disney Girl, through and through, I do luvs me some Harry Potter too.

By the way, since i was a teen, before even developing my obsession with going to the parks, I adored this song: Disney Girls

Every inch of the two HP themed areas are awe-worthy. I just wish the displays were what they were offering for sale….

Such cool, old stuff. Witchiness and wonder everywhere.

The rest of the park was interesting and I enjoyed walking through and checking it out. While well done, and fun to see, the rides are a little rougher and MUCH MORE SPINNIER than at Disney World. And outside of Hogwarts and Daigon Alley, there isn't the same magic as there is at Magic Kingdom. (well, it is in the name there, after all, right?)

There aren't as many shows, but we saw the animal training show and the Hollywood horror make up show. And at that one, they pointed out that there were differences in the two parks. As the actor heckled a small child and threatened to send a monster after him, he said, "This isn't Disney, we don't have to be nice to kids here"

It was pretty funny, and spot on.

Magic always wins with me. I could have just sat on a bench and absorbed HP Land for days on end without tiring of it. So I know I will go back again sometime.

But I will avoid the rides.

They are not for me there. I should have known that when you are required to put all belongings in a locker before getting on, that they plan on spinning you around so much that they are afraid you will lose all of your stuff.

By the way, the locker rooms are horrid, over crowded, free for alls that are dangerous to try to maneuver through.

I was spun a little bit, no a LOT, too much while visiting Hogwarts. I loved the lines going in and the castle itself, and should have stepped aside then. But no, I wasn't that smart. I have no idea what the ride even was about, I had to squeeze my eyes closed as tight as I could, because if I had a glimpse of that 3-D screen while being gyroscoped in every direction, I was afraid that I would vomit on my own head while upside down.

When I got off, it wasn't much better, I was discombobulated, and had to be escorted and propped up by my dear brother-in-law to a bench. My theory about motion sickness it to ignore it as much as I can/get fresh air/walk around/ think of something else/ do not let it ruin my day.

But as a senior citizen, which I apparently now am, and a vertigo survivor, my theory isn't as helpful as it used to be, and I took a nose dive into that hideously crowded, overheated locker room and face planted into a locker.

Here I am a week later, after I'd found out that the reason I couldn't just walk off the headache and motion sickness was that I'd given myself another concussion. My Dr. said I should get a helmet or bubble wrap if I was going to be landing on my head a lot, I had just gotten over a concussion a few weeks earlier.

So, I made myself an Easter bonnet with bubble wrap. (side note, Easter was a couple of weeks ago, how long is it acceptable to still be sweeping up Easter grass around the house??? That stuff is more insidious than glitter.)

Around the cottage

cottage, family

By Karla Nathan / May 4, 2019

It seems like I take a lot of pictures.

I simply cannot resist capturing special moments.

This person seems to show up in many of them….

See what I mean?

There are also many, many, random photos from around the cottage.

Family pictures make it to the art journals, and many pics end up on FB or Instagram. Sometimes they fall through the cracks and never hit the blog.

But here they are now, with a made up theme to put them all together in one post.

Cinderella’s Carriage

fairies, family, Food and Drink, friends

By Karla Nathan / April 29, 2019

When Karen came to visit me last week, she brought along gifts from our friend, Julie. When we first saw these, we thought they were perfume bottles, then were corrected by Julie. They are actually oil lamps

But to both of us, they were Cinderella carriages!

Karen brought these supplies to use on hers. We both removed the bevelled glass (my amber glass will someday become full moons, with little witches on them) and painted the brass white.

Here is Karen's all prepped and ready for a princess to ride in.

And she even had a princess ready to roll. Ta dah!

Lovely!

We took a lunch break and had pie, (well, a wonderful lunch too, but oh man, that pie!!) at Ladybird Diner.

Karen had read about our local cafe in Food Network magazine, and wanted to check it out while she was in Kansas. I'm always up for a lunch there, the buttermilk fried chicken is my favorite and I don't need much of an excuse to go have some again.

(At this point, my bruise was 2 weeks old and not fading much, but by now it is almost 3 weeks and starting to look a bit better. It doesn't hurt, so I forget about it, and am surprised when people ask me if I am ok, or what on earth happened to me. They aren't expecting a story about Harry Potter)

Mine holds two, very special princesses.

With a unique Fairy Godmother on top. Along with a giant, vial of pixie dust. Because at our house, there is no such thing as too much fairy dust to sprinkle around.

I also broke out the very, very special, vintage silk ribbon roses for both of us to use on our royal coaches.

In mine, the clock is about to strike 12, and there are white pumpkins behind the girls.

And the princesses are decked out in very sparkly gowns.

The wheels are vintage rhinestone buttons and earrings.

Mine is not quite finished here, I still had flowers to add.

Thank you Karen, for sharing your treasures from Julie, and thank you Julie, for this gift! It already has a special place in my home.

Crafting the Bunny’s Chapeau

family, flowers, guncles, how to's

By Karla Nathan / April 26, 2019

Although Easter has passed, I still have more to show you from the holiday. I thought I'd tell you how we created Guncle Randy's bunny hat.

We started with a magnificent, pink, wool top hat. Which would have been great as is!

But we wanted it to be even more bunnified. So I tucked Easter grass under the band.

Over the band, I wrapped a white velvet ribbon and pinned it in place, then glued one end of the white ribbon to the other end of the ribbon, overlapping a bit. Our issue was, that we didn't know if the hat would need to be returned to its original glory. I don't sew, I am a die hard glue-er. But- we were not sure if we should let any glue touch the already pretty pink hat.

The white velvet ribbon became the new hat band, placed over the existing band and everything was glued to the white one.

Including the wired ears.

Using The Ultimate Glue, I layered vintage millinery flowers to the ribbon, then to each other, building a full bouquet to add more grass, eggs, and bugs to.

My plan had been to use brighter, less tattered flowers….

But the ones I had packed were lost on the flight, due to a broken zipper on my suitcase!!!! (Along with a crop-o-dile, lace, ribbons, rhinestones, Tim Holtz scissors, more flowers, gel pens, and a bottle of glue)

Well, at least it was a good excuse to buy a new suitcase for the trip home! And a much prettier one at that.

Funny, for a person who lost most of her flowers, I seemed to have plenty left. These were packed elsewhere for me to use in the classes I was going to take at the event. I had forgotten that I had a ton of vintage floral packets with me that I had planned on selling on Vendor Night, so there was no shortage of flowers that weekend. I just didn't get to use the ones I had planned on using on the hat.

But I like the way these look, so it all turned out fine.

The sides and back were decorated too. But less heavily than the front.

It was clumsy to try to glue things to the new band and to each other, not to the hat itself, and it is all put together like a house of cards. But this way, if Randy ever wants to wear a plain, pink top hat, all he needs to do is pull off that white ribbon. Everything will come off in a big bundle.

Luckily, this wire and bead posy was not lost in the luggage fiasco, because it fit perfectly into this old knife handle transformed into a boutonniere holder.

My baby bro and I had a blast making these together. Our collaborated projects are always so much fun!

Guncle Randy’s Fairy King Crown

fairies, family, guncles

By Karla Nathan / April 24, 2019

While in Florida, I helped my baby bro complete his crown for a masked ball coming up on mid-summer’s eve. Terry is making his costume, and he has been working on a “crowning glory” to top it off.

While hanging out and chatting with family, I wove some glittery fronds throughout it, to make a whimsical look, as befitting elvin royalty.

More from Florida, our big night out, and some crappy seashell fairies that made me happy

family, sea shell fairies, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / March 14, 2019

Our trip to Ft Lauderdale was excellent. The hotel was at the beach and within walking distance to shops and great food.

Sugarwings liked to stop to browse on our way to dinner each night, and couldn't bypass anything this color. Her new favorite color (and you know with little girls, "FAVORITE COLORS" are quite a big deal) is blue. But she was drawn repeatedly to mint-ish green blue-ish aqua tones. Maybe it was the influence of the beach?

Our nightly walk down the beach to dine was a highlight of a trip filled with perfect moments.

We were lucky with our hotel, and had a room in an ideal spot. That happened in Orlando too. Have you ever noticed that even if you are at a great hotel, if the room is remote, you aren't as happy with it? Long waits for elevators, struggles getting luggage to it, etc. In Ft Lauderdale, our room was near the stairs that led down one flight to the pool/lounge/breakfast/gym area that had an express elevator right to the beach access. How convenient!

Plus we had a balcony with an ocean view, a major item for the criteria that makes a perfect room.

In Orlando, our room at the Carribean beach Resort, was distant from the main building, but right by the pool, bus, and the snack bar. Since at that part of the trip it was just the grand fairy and myself, I was glad to have a room near the snack bar. After she was asleep, I could step out of my door and refill my never ending Disney mug and not worry about her. Or get coffee in the morning while she dozed.

The location of a hotel room isn't always a choice when you travel, but I always try to get it targeted to the best spot I can. It makes the trip even better for me if I can.

Our days ran together in Ft Lauderdale, going from the pool to the ocean to the pool to our stroll down the beach to find seafood at night. It was so relaxing and wonderful that we didn't want to even leave the resort area.

We had reservations one night at a City Club owned by the company my husband works for, and we practically had to drag ourselves out of our casual fog of beachiness to make ourselves go there for the evening.

And we were so glad that we did!

The Tower Club was on the top floor of a downtown building and we had great views.

And they gave us each a white rose. We carried the blooms with us as we walked around after dinner. Since we were checking out and moving on the next morning, Sugarwings found a couple of little girls to hand our flowers to. I think she enjoyed sharing them as much as she enjoyed carrying them for a while.

The food was even better than the view from the windows.

But the dessert???

Oh my!

The chef sent us these cupcake topped sampler parfaits.

I'm glad we had the chance to show our little wild child another side of life. To put on a pretty dress, take an Uber, and go to a top notch restaurant in the city.

We all loved our special night.

Every bit as much as our time on the beach.

Even though the shells I came across weren't the best I'd seen at other beaches, I was still able to cobble together a thank you fairy.

Sugarwings scrounged up a few more shells for me and we made another one too.

While the fairies themselves were kind of crappy in comparison to other sprites we have crafted before, the joy behind them was no less. And as we walked away, my husband spotted a circle of kids around the fairies in the sand and talking about them.

Which makes them right up there on my list of the best fairies ever! I leave them in hopes of a child finding them, and as a thank you blessing to the beach. I rarely see anyone notice them, so it was extra special this time to know that someone had.

Uhm, is your hair purple?

celebrations, family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / March 8, 2019

Last fall, when I visited Disney World with my sisters, I was surprised to bump into my husband’s uncle and his family.

This year, we had a similar co-inky-dink, by finding out through FB posts that a nephew was there at the same time for his Princess’ 4th birthday!

Does this mean that our family magically comes together in strange ways? Or simply that we are bad at communicating and the only way we will see each other is to accidentally bump into relatives in large, public places?

Whatever the reason we met up, I was thrilled.

We were at the end of our trip, and only had a few hours of overlap time where we could visit before our afternoon flight.

Then fate stepped in again.

Our flight was CANCELLED.

Which caused Sugarwings to miss a day of school, and my husband to miss prep for a big call he needed to be on, but me?

Did I use the word thrilled already?

Yep, that is how I felt! These guys live far away and we rarely see them. My husband has been able to watch the baby grow up, because he had to make business trips to their city

I’ve only had a few visits with her, so she barely knows me.

I crafted this scrapbook for her, in hopes that a birthday at Disney was a memorable event for her, and we’d be associated with those memories.

Their family was staying at….

The FOUR SEASONS.

A bit of an upgrade from the Carribean Beach Resort where we were.

Not that I ever would complain about Carribean Beach, we have had some wonderful trips staying there, Sugarwings and I were in heaven with our girls weekend,and consider it a favorite hotel.

But there aren’t many places that compare with the Four Seasons.

We joined them for the afternoon by the pool (many pools), and ended up being gifted with a gorgeous suite. The only problem with it, was that we had to get up at 4am to fly home, and that wasn’t nearly enough time to revel in the luxury.

From the balcony, you can see fireworks from three Disney parks.

The pool area was ideal for kids, there was also a lazy river and some big slides.

I made the mistake of wearing my tie dye, hippy hat into the lazy river, and proved that riff raff like myself doesn’t belong at fancy places.

Pink and purple dye ran down my face and shoulders, ruining multiple towels before I realized that I was leaking color everywhere.

If anyone asked where I got purple highlights, I’ll just say they are from the Four Seasons Spa.

Thank you, Damon, for the special day, and to Sully for spending her birthday with us!

Disney Magic

celebrations, family, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / March 5, 2019

During my many segmented trip to Florida, Sugarwings and I spent some time at Disney while my husband took off with buddies for a Guys’ Golfing Getaway.

And we made the most of every moment.

We were up extra early to spend time at the park while it was quiet. I love the atmosphere before the herds of mouse eared tourists arrive.

Speaking of mouse ears, these are what Sugarwings bought with our little bonus for turning down Mousekeeping.

If you decline having your room cleaned, and set your own trash outside the door, calling for extra towels as needed, you get a gift card.

She bought the Purple Potion ears with the card, so she was responsible for helping with the room. They were cute and sparkly, but I don’t know how many times those sequins scratched my face when I was getting a hug.

And I got lots of hugs! That was one happy kid.

We splurged one night for the fireworks dessert buffet, and we were both pretty dang happy when we were led to the never ending treat buffet!

I don’t know if I’d pay extra to do it again, but I was glad we treated ourselves on this trip. The park was crowded due to a Princess 5K, and we probably wouldn’t have had such a good viewing point without the special seating.

While the parks were pretty crowded, I felt like we were blessed with some sort of magical pixie dust that luckily led us through our days with no hiccups

Somehow, we stumbled into being at the front of dance parties,

And with up front, personal seating for the parade.

We just happened to be at the beginning of lines to see characters, not even realizing that they were setting up for a line to form.

We also seemed to end up in places where crowds were not. Maybe because we like to linger over decor and details.

We took time to enjoy the little things, like shining a flashlight over your hand on the sidewalks in Pandora to leave a glowing pattern behind.

We took our time as we liked, but then hurried onto the next activity, used the ap to schedule fast passes on the go, and do mobile food ordering.

Some of our timing was planning, some was luck. Often, we came around a corner just as something fun was happening and joined right in.

We didn’t realize we’d be able to see Epcot fireworks from our hotel, that was a pleasant surprise!

A fun photo op was never passed up, either.

Maybe because it was just two of us, it was easier to maneuver the park?

And the fact that we preferred playing with statues to standing in lines made the day easier. We didn’t care about the big name rides. We enjoyed our fast passes, then only went to attractions with no or little waits.

Instead of waiting two hours to be frightened by a Yetti, we joined the Wilderness Explorers and earned badges while walking along shady trails. We always took time to talk to the Cast Members (employees), and got lots of tips about where to go and when.

And when we got back to the hotel too late to suit up and swim, I let her jump in, as is for a few minutes the pool was still open.

I’ve been to Disney World many times, and it doesn’t always go this smoothly. It was one of the higher crowd days, and should’ve been harder than it was.

But our theory of zigging when others zag, taking our time, enjoying what was right in front of us, and planning out what we could, sure made this a perfect visit!

Or was it pixie dust, after all? Possibly, Tinkerbell recognized a fellow fairy and shared her magic to make our days go smoothly?

Making the most of a getaway

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / February 17, 2019

I’m using my mini work trip to teach a couple of pretty projects at the Cozy Castle as the perfect excuse for a Florida vacation. Sugarwings and her Pop Pop are joining me tonight for a trip down the coast to stay on the beach a few days.

After sunning and swimming, we are headed back to Orlando to drop off my Handsome Husband for a golfing weekend with his buddies.

Then, the grandfairy and I are free to run amuck at the Magic Kingdom til it is time to meet up and fly back to Kansas.

Well why not? I was already going to be in Florida anyway… with airline points and companion passes, all flights were free. Hotel points went a long way too, not quite covering the beach stay but helpful. I have a Disney Credit card that racks up points for discounts.

I love wringing as much as I can out of a getaway, and putting the week together like puzzle pieces to see just how much I can squeeze into one flight. And of course, how could I not try to wrangle a trip to Disney in while I’m sooo close to the Happiest Place on Earth?

Snowday Adventures with the Pack

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / January 16, 2019

We had the most perfect snow!

No roads were closed, the temps barely got below freezing, there wasn't a hint of wind. I could get behind winter if snow days were always like this.

We had a great time in the woods with the dogs, and I really enjoy watching the interplay between the pups. They are slowly, but surely becoming a "pack", not just a bunch of dogs that live together.

While Albie isn't exactly lovey dovey with the Bigs, he participates in outdoor hunts with them and they have a routine, where he checks underneath the roots, while they scout out the upper level.

He is pretty proud of being one of the big dogs and works hard to keep up.

Actually, he is pretty much on the sidelines, and they don't even acknowledge his help. I don't think he notices, he feels like he is in on all of the action. Twinkle, on the other hand, knows she isn't invited and watches from a few feet away when something important needs to be dug up or chased.

Albie never misses a move, and keeps a close eye on what is happening, in case he is called upon.

He may be delusional, but he is happy.

Over time, we have come a long way with the relationships. And now, on the other end of the learning curve that time created, Twinkle is becoming a Senior dog, and losing her vision. Out in our woods, we have to keep an eye on her so she doesn't wander off and can't find us.

Not that we would ever consider leaving her behind! These walks in the woods are her happiest times.

She isn't the only one who loves them!

Me too.