family – Page 27 – Karla's Cottage

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

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.

Festival Faces

family, paintings, Sacred Circus

By Karla Nathan / September 6, 2017

There is a 50% off sale in the Boutique!!! To access the bargain prices, type in

LABORDAYSALE

at the checkout, and hit "recalculate" and watch the amount drop in half.

I'll be out of town and away from my computer and out of touch for a few days, so shipping will be next week. Please remember that the postage prices will be adjusted when I get the actual total from the USPS as I box the goodies up to send to you and I will refund excesses.

www.karlascottage.com

At the Darkening of the Sun festival my kids performed at, I was asked to help with the face painting.

The theme was tribal that night, and they didn't want to appropriate native designs, so we went with an Avatar/tribal look, with lots of blue.

I probably painted a dozen or so faces, and am afraid it was done so fast, I barely got photos. I thought I'd get them after the show, but the light was bad and people were busy.

(that is our Hippy Chic in the background, doing hair for the show, she is a master braider)

Here is one of our practice looks before the show and I had more time to do it, plus had white. I didn't have any white with me for the performance, which I think made the designs not as vibrant from the crowd.

But the troupe has asked me to do butterfly faces in the future for an act Sugarwings has in mind, where the aerialists start out as eggs, and morph from caterpillars to cocoons to butterflies.

I'm excited about that, I love butterflies. And it is nice that they are asking me to help again. I loved doing it, even with the rush with less than perfect results, they were ok with what I did.

I was afraid I'd let them down.

We used eye shadow for the shading and eye liner for the designs. I think I'll have to throw in some white paint too for more distinction.

The makeup help up well, so much so that with no hot water, a lot of the performers woke up in their tents the next morning with the look intact.

I was curious about how that effected the sun screen situation…. When they went up on the hilltop in the bright sun to watch the eclipse, did they end up with a sunburn in a tribal pattern?

I've got plenty of shots of Sugarwings in her makeup, since she hangs around on our laps as much as she can.

And Sylvan's face was done first, so the light was good and the line of performers hadn't gathered yet for me to work on them, so I took some of her.

Avahni was the only other picture that I took.

I gave Sugarwings my leftover paints and she has been face painting everyone who will sit still for her. Maybe she and I will go into business together.

Sacred Circus at Darkening of the Sun

celebrations, family, Sacred Circus

By Karla Nathan / September 3, 2017

There is a 50% off sale in the Boutique!!! To access the bargain prices, type in

LABORDAYSALE

at the checkout, and hit "recalculate" and watch the amount drop in half.

www.karlascottage.com

Our kids were performing in Missouri, inside the path of the full eclipse.

We love watching their performances, and hanging out with the grand fairies, so we packed up our little camper (I call it the world's biggest rolling suitcase, instead of the world's smallest camper) and headed toward the Darkening of the Sun.

Most of the family goes early to set up the village and rigs. So we had little ones all week, for back to school and Sugarwings' birthday too.

Which was pretty nice for us.

There is a ton of work to be done, this group doesn't just show up, do some tricks and leave, they set up an entire world of their own inside the music festival. They've got two 23' high rigs, that get covered in parachutes for shade, and multi colored lights for rainbow fun. There is a geodesic dome for sound therapy, and another big tent for workshops and then there is a vending area too.

It is all done artistically, and comes out quite beautiful when they are done.

As I walked through the venue, I realized that these guys had transformed the entire event into something really spectacular.

I'd been to festivals they throw themselves, so had seen their set up before, but had not really seen just how much they do at other people's events. (this photo is just part of the set up)

Of course, they also bring some great entertainment to fill those tents!

The show just gets bigger and more exciting every time I see it.

They have the two rigs with aerialists in each, fire dancers, hula hoopers, a guy on stilts, and dancers floating about, as well as my son spinning his songs.

Plus, there are workshops all weekend for attendees of the festival, who get to show off what they learned on the last night. It is adorable to see they little ones up there feeling proud of their accomplishments and being part of the circus.

All of the parents and grand parents out in the audience, enjoy that showcase as much as I do, I'm sure.

Well, it is all great to watch!

Next to the Sacred Circus was the main stage, and my husband spent a lot of time there. His favorite performer was the headliner, so he was pretty happy. Even happier when he had a fairy to perch on his shoulders to watch with him.

Of course, times without a kiddo climbing on him over the weekend were few and far between.

I'll leave you with some more photos from the parties. This is my son with his crystal singing bowls. (I'd love to sneak one away and fill it with water, fish, and a fountain for my back yard, these bowls are beautiful up close)

I'll leave you with some photos of the party.

Miscellaneous tidbits of what’s been going on, and where the heck did summer go?

dogs, family

By Karla Nathan / August 27, 2017

Summer has snuck out on me somehow and I feel like I've missed most of it. It simply went by too fast.

Don't ask me what happened to my days. Besides what I've already posted about, trips, painting, raising pups, I made a few things here and there.

Like this collage with hand painted flowers, modeling paste, and very old papers.

Many Thursdays were spent at craft day with friends.

After a long time of not getting to see him, my little buddy, Fin was around again for a couple of visits, and we went to the KC and Topeka zoos, and got to hang a bit.

I didn't get to spend nearly the amount of time I wanted to on getting ready for A Snowbird's Song. Some things got done, but I still have a set of kits to make.

I spent quite a bit of time in the garden and tending to flowers.

This silly doodle might have kept me hopping too.

As a matter of fact, I have a feeling that raising puppies and then keeping this girl is why I feel like summer slipped away. Those babies ate up a lot of my time.

As well as a rocking chair, some shoes, the cords to the strings of lights on the gazebo, multiple flower beds, and much, much more.

Now, the kids are back in school, and summer is winding down.

But I am not ready to call it over. Pumpkin lattes are being advertised, autumn decor is popping up everywhere, but seriously, it is still August, it is not fall yet. I'm not giving up on my favorite season, just because the kids are in classes again. There is still some fun to be had!