family – Page 26 – Karla's Cottage

Our Zombie family

By Karla Nathan / December 28, 2017

Ryan and I are Walking Dead superfans. So, when he wanted a new wallet for Christmas, I decided to special it up by filling the empty photo slots with family pictures.

As zombies of course.

This is my fave. Dorothy adores Ryan, he could be her favorite human, of course she had to be included in his wallet.

None of the pictures are monster poses, I just used some previous pics that I had handy and edited them on Picmonkey.

To me, that made them even creepier than if they'd been staged.

HIs other gifts were a Walking Dead book and a coffee table, that he caught me working on in the studio. I'd found it at a thrift store, but the inlaid wood top had pink nail polish spilled on it.

I sanded down the top only, leaving the legs as is.Then painted the trim grey, coated it all with a dark wax and buffed it out. He loved the table and was telling me how perfect one like it would be for his room, after I told him that I was fixing it up for someone. Which he believed, because I used to do painted furniture for my job. But those pieces were usually white and hand painted with roses. Still, my story worked on him and he was surprised when he realized the gift was for him on Christmas Eve.

Ry was such fun to surprise. He doesn't' expect much, but appreciates everything. What a sweetheart!

He loved the wallet filled with edited creatures too.

While these photos might not exactly be, uhm, tasteful, they are from the heart and he was thrilled that I refinished a table for him and turned our family into monsters for his wallet.

Aren't those the best kind of gifts? The ones that don't take much money, just some time, creativity, and knowledge of what will make someone you love surprised and smiling?

Some holiday fun

celebrations, Dew Drop, dogs, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 24, 2017

My goal for December is to round up all of the Christmas fun I can find, wrangle, or create. I do not say no to an invitation, and I try to do a lot of inviting to others too.

Luckily, I have a couple of partners in my quest for holly jolly joy.

We gathered up all the sisses and a buddy for a night out to see Beauty and the Beast at Theatre Lawrence.

And we have non stop craft-a-thons by the Christmas tree or in the cardboard cottage.

And of course, delicious cocoa parties that come afterwards.

The rule around here is "First one up turns on all of the tree lights", so the house always feels festive.

After the holidays end, and the decor comes down, I think it is the lights that I miss the most of all the decorations. Sometimes, I leave some white lights over the windows thru January as a transition to help me survive the end the celebrating.

For now, I'm still revelling in the joy of it all.
And in the cookies. Maybe the only thing better than white twinkle lights throughout the house is decorating and eating sugar cookies.

Especially in good company!

Hi there, Mr. Claus!

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 22, 2017

We love to visit Santa and have a fabulous brunch at The Nicklaus Club at Lionsgate.

And not just because the napkins are folded like trees.

It is a fun excuse to get dressed up and spend some time with family and that jolly old elf, himself.

This year, the grand fairies made gifts for him, and he liked them so much, he offered the kiddos jobs at the North Pole as elves. I told them that I'd miss them a lot, but it sounded like a good opportunity.

We've been visiting him for years.

Since Dewdrop was just tiny.

Oh, they grow sooooooo fast, don't they?

And the holiday season is gone in a flash.

I'm enjoying every single blessed moment of it! And I hope that you are too.

A s’mores pie Pinterest Fail that was actually a Success

family, Food and Drink

By Karla Nathan / November 8, 2017

The grandfairies spent the weekend with me before Halloween, and decided to do some treat making. We'd seen a pie that had spooky ghost faces on it, made with marshmallows and chocolate.

For a short cut, I used a premade graham cracker crust, and we whipped up a chocolate pudding to fill it. Then, gathered up some different size choc bits to use on top.

The girls made ghost faces on the marshmallows, then we popped it in the oven to melt them together.

I might have let them get a little too brown to look ghostly.

Suntanned ghosts?

But even though the look wasn't exactly what we were going for, we didn't care, we'd gotten plenty of giggling fun from making it.

I'm already planning a redo with snowmen.

Because I'm always happy to have a reason to eat a s'mores pie!

Ghosts and Giggles

Dew Drop, family, holiday decor, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / November 1, 2017

The company my husband works for owns a club in KC, which hosts an annual Halloween party for kids, that I love even more than the kiddos do.

Corny and cute, and full of Halloween fun, it's just adorable.

We decorated pumpkins, watched a magic show, ate ghoulish food, got some balloon animals, and went through a haunted house in the locker room. Well, through most of the haunted house, we backed out about half way through when we encountered a WEREWOLF!

Although, I did try to explain to the little ones that the employees of the club dressed up as the characters, and the werewolf was probably someone who drove the beverage cart and was actually a BEERWOLF.

But that was still a little too spooky, so we backed out and headed to the buffet to dine on fa-boo-lous foods.

I was a green haired witch, (the only adult not working there who was in costume, but hey, does that really matter?) and when I took a bite of the "witch's fingers" (french fries), I was accused of cannibalism by my tablemates.

There was a ton of candy to trick or treat from too. And little goodie bags filled with puzzles and coloring books.

I had the grandfairies for the weekend, so we made a day of the event by designing and making our own costumes from things found in the dress up closet. This vintage prom dress had some holes in it, which got flowers hot glued onto as patches, and we added straps with colorful ribbons and safety pins. A few more flowers were added to the wreath for her crown, it used to be a fairy garland that she'd worn to the Renfest..

I didn't think about the Day of the Dead theme being "cultural appropriation." That is a real problem in the world, but from all the people I've spoken to and the reading I've done, it can be a gray area in many cases.

My Hispanic buddy, Romeo, told me that he finds other ethnicities using Sugar Skulls offensive if it is done in a belittling or cartoonish manner. But if created in an appreciation of the beauty and heritage, he approves. And I can promise this wasn't chosen as a joke. As an artist, I was excited about producing my own version. And as a daughter who lost her mother, I was comforted by the culture of honoring the dead. A friend spoke to me about that after my mom died and I don't know if she ever realized how much her conversation meant to me.

Hopefully, I haven't offended anyone out there? If so, please know that wasn't my intention.

I hope you had a lovely Halloween, I know we did, although it was too cold to attend the annual Zombie Walk for me (and that was heartbreaking, but not so much that I'd brave the bad weather for it).

Now, time to deck the halls!!!!!!!!!!!

The ghouls are gone, bring on the bling!

We Must Respect the Ghouls

family, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / October 23, 2017

Since I was gone for a Sister Trip to Florida and have a lot to do to get ready for A SnowBird's Song, which is Christmas themed, I am doing my best to skip fall.

Well, at least fall decor. I've tried to go as minimal as possible. The grand fairies have painted and crafted Halloween pictures and hung them all over the house, but I am not getting out my typical autumn decorating pieces.

I've still taken them to the pumpkin patch, and have done some other celebrating the season, like craft parties at Michaels'.

But I'm very, very proud of myself for not pulling out the pumpkins and spooky goodies from storage to fill up the house.

The girls and I ADORE the house at Christmas and chomp at the bit every year, waiting impatiently for Thanksgiving to pass before hauling out the glitz and sparkle. Our mantra is, "We must respect the bird!" and we don't put up a tree till the turkey leftovers are all put away.

This year, I need to have the halls decked by November 9th, so, our new motto is, "We must respect the Ghouls!" No tinsel till after Halloween. Which is pretty early, and I decided it is just too much to set out our Halloween and Thanksgiving pretties, just to turn around and switch them out as soon as the trick or treaters are done.

The grand fairies have not liked this plan. But they are easily bribed with Christmas cookies, which we have been baking ahead and freezing for the event. This will be quite an extended holiday for us. But if it means an extra season of Christmas cookies, then I'm all for it!

What we do for fun in Kansas in the fall

family

By Karla Nathan / October 17, 2017

We love this pumpkin patch, Pendleton's Country Market.

And we especially LOVE the corn pit.

Even though I might still have corn lurking in pockets, shoes, and underwear.

Forever.

Scenes from my vacation journal part THREE

Books, family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 11, 2017

The last part of the cartoon I did on our trip is Sissy all in aqua.

She LOVES aqua.

And shopping.

Lots of shopping for things that are aqua.

There she is in the background searching for more aqua stuff while Bobbie and I are goofing off. (at her feet in the drawing, are some of the many aqua shoes she tried on)

She was on the hunt for a golden, Blue Heron too. Since she didn't find one, I put one on her overfilled, exploding suitcase.

I put her in an aqua skirt as a fairy on this page.

And the tiny spider at her feet? One night after dark, we walked down to the surf. We flipped on a flashlight to see a spider by our toes, timed with a wave coming ashore and we both jumped as high as we could and squealed.

The pink sky is for all of the pretty sunsets we watched.

Sunsets in Siesta Key are a major event, with people lining up to watch, ready to ooh and ahh.

With or without spiders.

Scenes from my vacation journal part TWO

Books, family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 9, 2017

Now, where was I? Oh, yes, the next sister, and her flamingo suitcase, Bobbie.

You might notice that Bobbie likes Flamingos.

She likes them A LOT.

This is just a few from her vast collection. And she shared with us too, I also own a flamingo coozie. And that solar powered dancing bird?? Mine! She even found a bottle brush Christmas flamingo for me. I've had to arm wrestle Dewdrop for it, she wants it for her own Xmas tree.

This pretty cup was a gift from her too. It is black when empty, then turns colorful when filled with hot coffee.

Bobbie is a genealogist and loves lots of photos to document events. She has a great camera and makes sure she gets a ton of photos. So, in the cartoon, her camera is around her neck.

And the hat? Inspired by this lampshade.

The creepy clown was someone we encountered while shopping.

(The colorful costume I am wearing? That is a mermaid tale that Bobbie gave to me, I was showing off my walking skills in it. The hat is a mermaid bag that I repurposed.)

And the ice cream? Well lets just say that there might have been some frozen deliciousness consumed on the trip…

Scenes from my vacation journal part ONE

Books, family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 7, 2017

When I make a travel book, I like to draw cartoons of funny or memorable things that happened on the trip. This one was inspired by Bobbie telling me that I looked good in my "Suitcase"… she meant Swimsuit…

It is probably one of those, 'you had to be there' stories, like the rest of the cartoon, but I'll explain the picture anyway.

The mermaid holding up Tarot cards is from going to this angel card reader in Treasure Island.

We've been to her before and she is really something.

Hmm, you might be wondering about the guy behind me? I'm in the purple suitcase holding the arm.

Yes, an arm.

A saleslady made the mistake of taking the arms off of a mannequin to remove her dress, as I was sitting on a bench outside the shop.

Of course, I had to pick it up and wave hello with the arm!!!

And of course, my eyes are closed in the photo Bobbie took.

But back to the odd guy with the blood dripping off of a screwdriver…

The reason we go to Sarasota is because our Grandma used to live in Bee Ridge Trailer Park and we went to that area on vacations in our youth. Every time we return, we try to find Grandma's trailer and the park has changed so much, that we never felt like we could pin it down. This time, I was sure I'd found the right one, but that the cool, silver trailer had been painted white. The newest owner (grandma hadn't lived there since the 70s) saw us eyeing the place and came out to find out why.

I asked if I could go inside to see if it looked familiar. He said ok, but needed to get his screwdriver?

Didn't faze me at all, I traipsed in and started to explore.

Apparently, the screwdriver was to open a stuck door, not to kill me. But my sister had 911 ready to dial.

AND IT WAS GRANDMA SMITH'S TRAILER!!!!!!!! 50 years older, repainted a few times, a bit run down, but yep, I recognized it. And we were rewarded for finding it with a beautiful rainbow.

The crying flamingo?

There were two of them in the courtyard of our condo and I decided to bring one along with us on a day trip. When I got her out of the back of the car, there was a puddle under her head, it looked like she was crying.

Maybe because she missed her sister? Or because she thought she'd been kidnapped and was scared?

At least no one threatened her with a screwdriver.

Rosey and Pinky, also came out to play together sometimes. Seriously, she had nothing to cry about.

The little, fairy is my sea shell sprite with a crab shell pinafore.

I'll explain some of the other inside jokes in my next post.