family – Page 48 – Karla's Cottage

Bye Bye Fairies, Hello Ghosts!

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, free images, holiday decor, Romantic Gothic Ghosts, swaps, Tutorials, vintage paper/collage art, Workshops, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / September 23, 2012

Isn't this fairy from Linda sweet as can be?

It's sad that the Faery Book Swap is over! I made a couple more pages, as thank yous to some sweet people. And I have extra covers that I hope to list on Etsy or in the Boutique. If I ever get a spare minute to do it!

In the fairy frenzy, I'd made up about 16 pages for the swap, and didn't need them all of course, so I'll have a few of those to list too. But I didn't want to use any of those as thank yous. I thought "thanks" deserved something made special just for it.

I still have my family's books, they weren't mailed because we are going to open them all together when everyone gets here to visit for Romantic Gothic Ghosts.

I'm so glad that Guncle Randy, Sissy, Bobbie Sue and Terry can come out to play with us for the classes! We hope to go to see the annual Lawrence Zombie walk if everyone arrives in time, it will be on Thurs. the 4th and family is flying/driving in from Utah, Florida and Indiana.

Then, Friday is shopping at the West Bottoms district, with all the once a month junk and antique stores, as well as Bottoms Up.

Saturday the 6th will be our ghost filled craft day, with Gypsy spells and ravens. Sunday we plan on hitting the Renfest, all decked out in our fairy attire. A perfect little reunion!! Plus I get to have my blog friends meet my family, that will be nice. I'm glad that we are having a workshop while the relatives are in town.

Along with the thank you pages, I mailed out hand made envelopes stuffed with tidbits. To make these, I looked at a regular envelope to get an idea for the pattern, cut it out from an old book page, folded it up and glued the edges. Simple, and kinda cute. I might need to do more of these!

I've gone straight from sweet fairies to gothic ghosts.

These images (provided in the online Romantic Gothic Ghost class) are printed on transparencies and hung around the room.

And the room is a WRECK! I've started cleaning and decorating, but need to get all the chaos and clutter out too.

I started decorating at the ceiling first, then the cabinet tops around the room. I'm sure most people would have cleaned the whole room, put away the mess and then started fixing up. But I got too excited about making the ghosts and had to do the fun parts first!

See how they are hung from tattered tulle on the ceiling? (I'll have more photos later)

**********

Speaking of photos, I've noticed that no matter how good my camera is, and how well I edit pictures, they NEVER look as good on my blog as they do on my computer files.

I wish I could fix this…. I also noticed that if you click on one to open it in a bigger window, its sharper.

**************

Another instance of backward preparedness- instead of cleaning and making kits, I wanted to make some ghostly images to set around the room. This collage is an old trinket box with a glass lid that Beth gave me. I took out the image that came it in, turned it on its side and made it a shadow box.

A transparency spider image is across the glass, and a ghostly girl is layered over a gothic arch (from the albums full of pictures and images and backgrounds and patterns that were scanned and added to the online class) and glued to the back of the box. I then added some tatted trim and some very old, beat up flowers.

Its very small, and I seriously doubt that it adds a lot to the over all decor of the room. But it was something I really wanted to do.

We had lots of projects made up for the online class that I pulled out to use around the room too. This tag is pinned to my new curtains, hung just for the occasion. The tag is one of the "ready to go" bonus images from the class. All you do is print it and cut it out.

The curtains are from the Sparks Flea, and were $1. When I bought them, they were a hideous, fleshy peach. But I liked the over all pattern and the flocking was cool, so I gambled that dollar and bought them any way, hoping a bowl of dye would take.

It did and now I just love them.! Thing is, though, I bought them thinking I'd cut them apart to use in projects, and to test the dye, I cut a hunk off the bottom of one to dip. I loved it so much, that I dyed the rest of the panels and hung them up, even with a hunk missing at the bottom of one.

In the window, is a banner also made from the Romantic Gothic Ghost online classes. There are tons of projects, decorating ideas, and printable images in the class. I'd forgotten how much there was in it, and had a lot of fun looking through it with fresh eyes.

Everyone coming to the class at the studio gets the online class free too. We still have a couple spots open for our one day party in the studio if you'd like to join us.

You could hold a puppy on your lap while you work…..

Puppy Snuggles

Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Mayara, puppies!

By Karla Nathan / September 19, 2012

These puppies are growing so fast! Dewdrop is their biggest fan, and her mommy says that she wants to see photos on Facebook of them all the time. She calls them Puppeesh.

Dewdrop is a gentle child and can sit quietly and just snuggle a baby pup.

Of course, being on her loving Pop Pop's lap makes snuggle time even more special.

The babies decided to learn how to play on Saturday and are starting to wrassle with each other. Mostly, it involves chewing on a brother's nose for a minute, putting paws around each other, then napping.

For now, they reside in the living room, inside the wading pool. I keep a box with their (ever changing throughout the day) blanket or towel in the pool, line the pool with newspapers and pee pads, and they have learned how to waddle out to the pads to tinkle. A LOT. Those pads get changed all day long too, buy stock in pee pads NOW.

Usually, the pups live in the pool this way for 5 weeks or so, but with this many, there just won't be space. They will need room to run and play.

I'm thinking about moving my car outside and turning the whole garage into a nursery for when we aren't with the dogs. When we are hanging out with them, they can be in the house, or taking over the studio like a pack of hooligans.

At night, I can bring them back in the house to their pool.

I'm treasuring this time of them being tiny, bottle feedings, and babyhood.

It goes by so fast. Just look at Dewdrop, she's a big girl now.

Or at least SHE thinks so! She and her Gypsy mommy have picked out a pup to keep. They are renting a new home that allows pets, and has a small fenced yard. And a passle of little kids ready to cuddle the baby!

Little Ghosts, a little puppy, and a little fairy princess

antiques/junking, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, puppies!, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 10, 2012

There was a fairy surprise inside the box of swap pages coming from Deb Ganas, a whole pile of fairy garments, wings and slippers.

Dewdrop has a bit of a shoe obsession, so she will glom onto the slippers right away. Look at how funny the barefoot fairy feet shoes are! My husband has recently started wearing barefoot shoes for running, he thinks they are amazing. (his are not this cute) I'll have to clock the girls and see if these make them run even faster. I already can't keep up with Sugarwings, but I doubt if anyone could!

And isn't the package with the pages wrapped so sweetly? I should make sure and get a photo of her artwork too, it's really nice.

So far, a couple of tubs of packages have been mailed out. It will take a while to get through the whole set of swappers, but I've got a great start on it.

And the dilemma of how to wrap them is solved. Each book is swathed in fabric or tulle. Some of them are getting these elfish playing card tags. I only have 52 of those, so its a random selection for the tags.

I've got a few different airy fairy fabrics and tulles to use too, that really makes packing them up more fun. It gets monotonous if every single one is the same.

Of course, no two books are the same either. I'll be sad when I am done assembling them, I love sorting and sifting through to find pages that coordinate well together.

Last week was a short one for the kids. Not only were they out of school for Labor Day, Tuesday was some sort of day off too. So, I was able to spend some time with the big group of grands, and went to a garden center close out, lunch and a movie.

Mexican food, and Para Norman- which was a bit scary but had a wonderful message about accepting the differences in others and not being judgemental. Too bad it had to be taught by a scary, 300 year old Pilgrim Zombie Judge. But I love zombies, so really enjoyed the movie.

Poor Fin, looked at me about halfway through the movie and said, "why did you have to bring us to a scary movie?" And Sugarwings crawled up on my lap to clench me. I hugged Fin, held Sugarwings, asked if they wanted to leave, but both wanted to stay. I'm glad they did, it had an uplifting ending and Norman was a town hero.

We have a family tradition at movies. As the show ends, we go down to the front of the theater and dance to the songs that play during the credits. This time, I was too exhausted from lack of sleep due to puppies, but it was a really good song that I was sorry to miss out on dancing to. Little Ghost from the White Stripes, was so fun that we sat in the parking lot and played it over and over on my Iphone, then sang it all night.

The best part of being a grandmother are those kind of moments. At this stage of life, I know how fast it all zooms by and I like to stop and let the little ones take the time to explore and listen, and absorb the world. If we want to sit on a sidewalk and listen to a song a few times, why not? What is the big hurry to get in the car? Home will be waiting when we get there, we might as well grab onto something fun when we see it.

The garden center sale was a doozy. These weren't half dead, end of season clearance items, these were lush, thriving, pretty plants. I was thrilled to load up a cart at a dollar a pot, my yard had taken a beating from the heat and the chickens. I discovered that hens have a sweet tooth for begonias and petunias, and all the planters filled with those flowers have been pecked naked.

So, I have some pots to replant for fall and this sale was just what I needed. I want things to look pretty for Romantic Gothic Ghosts in October! If I get this new batch of plants settled in the dirt now, they should be ideal for company that week.

This photo was taken on 9/5, the little ones are opening their eyes and are getting strong enough to try to walk instead of scooch on their tummies.

Decorating a family reunion on a budget

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, how to's

By Karla Nathan / August 31, 2012

For the Faery Book Swappers-

Since the 1st is a holiday weekend, its ok to wait till Tuesday to mail your packages. And please note that it will take me a couple of weeks to make that many books and get them mailed back to you!

My Daddy came from a large family, and every year, we gather at our "Downey Dinner" to reconnect. The 9 siblings take turns hosting, and as the family grows older and parents are passing on, it falls to the cousins to take over hosting duties for the pitch in meal.

This year was my dad's turn, so my sisses and I took over as co-hosts.

Of course, I felt like we needed to foof it up a bit! But we didn't want to spend much on top of our share of the costs that we already had (plates, cutlery, beverages, meat, and the hall rental).

The Downeys are from Southern Indiana farm stock. All nine kids grew up in this little house. So, I thought the theme for the reunion should be kind of down home and country. I chose red and white table cloths from the dollar store, and collected some old canning jars from garage sales.

My niece had a boxful of clear marbles, and we poured a few into each canning jar to weight them down, and then sat the jars on doilies (from my stash) in the centers of the tables.

At Michaels, I found a scrapbook tablet in just the right colors, called "Recollections" in paper sack brown, sepia, and red. There was a touch of forrest green too. It featured love letters and memorabilia, some birds and other pretty little bits to cut out and use as embellishments for our project. It was a little fancier than I wanted, I'd hoped for calico or checks, but these colors were just right, so I went for it.

We decided to make the centerpieces be Family Trees. So, we printed off a pile of pictures in different sizes and started cutting them out, and gluing them to shapes we'd cut from the scrapbook paper. We tried to make sure that all nine sibling's families were represented in the mix.

Then, we walked around to find some branches in Bobbie Sue's yard and discovered that the lilac bushes had branches that worked perfectly. Lots of branchy little arms to tie pictures to.

Next, we punched holes and tied strings to the photos, and they were ready to tie to the sticks.

We got a little carried away with the photos and made extra, so we took everything off the bulletin board in the rented hall and I added a branch and pictures to that too.

After the meal, we announced that everyone could pluck photos from the trees to keep. And when the party was over and clean up time came, there were none left, so I think that everyone enjoyed them.

The Family Trees were a little tall for centerpieces, and I expected to see people moving them aside, but it didn't look like they were much of a problem. And people spent a lot of time looking at them, and there was some extra mingling with everyone going from table to table to check out the variety of snapshots.

My romantic, sweetheart had tied a picture of me from the trees, to his
shirt. He now has it on his computer bag and carried it through the
airport that way on his business trip.

There was plenty of paper left, after making the photo trees, so I decided to make a banner to hang up by the kitchen.

It was a fast and simple project, I cut out 6 large rectangles from paper that looked like it would make a good background, and inked the edges. When there was something pretty on the page like the bird in this one, I cut around it, so it stood out from the side.

Next, I took some of the darker pages and cut out the letters, glued them down and drew around them with red marker.

Two holes were punched in the top and a length of ribbon was run through all the letters.

I made the letters free hand. It wasn't a planned project and I was in a hurry. They are far from perfect, but they did the job.

In the tablet, there were some pages that had this glittery, red "love" on them, so I cut a couple of those out to hang below two of the letters.

I used more scraps to make signs for the beverages. This paper practically decorated itself, all I had to do was cut this out, fold it and write the words on it.

(a sliced star fruit and some fresh strawberries prettied up the jug of lemonade)

We took an idea from the Clampetts and covered the pool table to use as a buffet for the salads and main dishes. The desserts had a separate table. I knew a lot of treats were coming, so I washed off the piano bench (cleaning the legs and under part extra good) and set it on the table to make more space. And this photo was taken early on, by the time all the goodies arrived, this dessert buffet was full to the brim!

This is just something I thought was funny, yes, I know, weird picture. It looks like the fried chicken is trying to escape from the foil covering it! (or maybe its just waving to the guests as they arrive?)

But you can kind of see the room behind the franken-chicken, and see the red and white tables with the Family Trees on them.

The hall was a nice space, and the perfect size. There were some gorgeous antiques around the room and many of the framed pieces on the walls were attractive. The ones that were not pretty, or old, we took down for the day. I preferred plain white walls to pink and blue wreaths on the wall with our red and white decor.

After eating, we shoved some tables out of the way and set up a corner for group pictures, and I moved the banner over there to hang as a backdrop.

Actually, I didn't move it, I had the Bumbles do it. Whats a Bumble? Remember the animated Christmas special, Rudolf? At the end, the abominable snowman, who Cornelias calls a Bumble, puts the star on the top of the tree. Whenever I need a tall person to reach something for me, I call them my "Bumble".

My sisses and I had a good time co-hostessing the bash. It was just too bad it was such a quick trip, my husband and I packed up and drove 8-1/2 hours back home as soon as the room was cleaned up, so we could get back to the newborn puppies.

I'm glad my sisters are coming out for Romantic Gothic Ghosts! That will make up for having our sister time cut short due to Twinkle's over active birth of nine tiny Yorkies. When they get here, those pups will be running around under foot and will be such fun to play with.

I bought the $19 scrapbook paper with my 40% off coupon, spent $4 on canning jars, and $15 on table cloths. We had the string, ribbon, doilies, clear marbles, and glue already. The only other cost was printing the photos. We did a combo of some from the computer and 11 cent prints from Walgreens.

We didn't have to spend a lot of time on the decor, besides cutting and gluing photos. And we like to have a craft day when we get together any how, so that part was fun.

It was a fast and cheap way to decorate for a family gathering!

Pretty babies

celebrations, Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, puppies!, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 28, 2012

I'm back from my trip and Twinkle was a busy girl while I was gone. So was Aunt Sandy! I was glad she was here to take over, having an RN in charge of the difficult birth was a godsend.

The difficulties arose from Twinkle having NINE pups to deliver!

After the second, not much happened. We'd visited our vet for directions earlier, read all the dog birthing info we could, and Sandy watched countless videos on whelping puppies. So, when labor stopped progressing, she knew to take Twinks in to the doc.

A couple more were born there, but the sonogram showed a total of eight babies (a rare number of pups for someone of Twinkle's size). Our vet said that the mama needed to be taken to Kansas City to the emergency vet for a C-section.

All of this drama was happening while I was driving to Indiana. At first, all was going well, but as the prognosis kept changing, I started to think I should turn around. Of course, I was already almost to Indiana about the time we heard that things weren't going well at all and that surgery might be needed.

I talked to the vet over the phone, and was told that if Twinkle had a C-section, she would have to have all the babies taken away from her, they would need to be completely hand raised.

I called friends and family to arrange some help for Sandy, but decided I should also be headed back to be on bottle patrol too.

But when Sandy and Lyric (the owner of the pup's father) got to the ER, those vets had a different story. They thought the babies could be delivered naturally and decided to keep Twinkle over night for observation. And they said there were NINE, not eight!

At this point, I was a bit of a wreck, and before I had a wreck on I70, I decided to get some rest, get a hotel room and make a decision in the morning.

Morning brought great news! Twinkle had delivered all 9 little ones, each healthy and strong!

The ER vets said that they had never seen a Yorkie have that many babies. Our Twinkle is not a teensy girl, but she is also not a giant Yorkie. She is about 9 lbs, which is still a pretty small dog.

Her little body can't support that many youngens. She needed IV calcium and is on supplements too. We still need to bottle feed the babies, but they are also able to nurse and Twinkle can take care of them with our help.

Since Sandy wasn't completely on her own with with care and feeding of the pups, and Twinkle could keep them warm and clean, Beth, our Gypsy, and Lyric could come by to help, I decided to go on to Indiana for the reunion.

It was not an easy decision. But it was our late father's turn to host the dinner, it was up to my sisses and I to be the hostesses in his place. I had a car full of supplies and table cloths, my sisters had taken vacation days that had been requested way in advance, and my husband was flying in on Saturday to attend and drive home with me.

Sandy was a trouper and went into full on RN mode, staying up around the clock to make sure those puppies were full and cared for. She was much better than I would have been, she devoted herself totally to the newborns.

I had a great time with my family, and the reunion was wonderful. I was able to relax and enjoy it, knowing that all the dogs were in good hands and that I'd be home with them soon to snuggle (and stay up all night feeding them myself soon enough!)

We cut our trip short and drove straight back to KS as soon as the big family dinner ended and we got cleaned up, getting home in time for a midnight feeding.

Monday night, we had our own big family dinner with the grands over to see the puppies and to thank Sandy for being a hero and saving all the babies. Everyone raised their cup to toast Aunt Sandy and thank her for all she did. I owe her more than a steak dinner, she was a huge help during a rough time!

Thanks, Sandy!! And congrats, Twinkle!!

And good bye sleep for a while… these 6 boys and 3 girls will keep us hoppin.

Family Reunion Fun Times Two

celebrations, fairies, family, parties

By Karla Nathan / August 26, 2012

This photo is from my Sissy, of her page for our swap book. Its just gorgeous, done with beautiful things. She says she used "the Good Stuff" like I always harp about! The fabric under the sheet music and on the fairy herself is cut from a beaded 1920s flapper dress. I saw the gown last time I was at her house, its truly wonderful. I can't wait to see this page in person.

Here is the back. Pretty, huh?

I probably wouldn't be an artist if I hadn't had my two big sisters. As a kid, I always loved Bobbie Sue's paintings. And as an adult, Sissy showed me many tricks and had beautiful examples on how to make life prettier by adding lovely details to your surroundings.

This photo is from my trip to see them last year. I've pre-posted this, and will be visiting my sisses in Indiana for a family reunion as you read it.

On our last visit, we went on a junking jaunt East from Pendleton on Highway 40.

We usually have a good junkin day every time I go to Indy. Sometimes just hitting Goodwills, other times antique malls, doesn't matter where we go or what we do, its always fun to be together.

Bobbie Sue and Sissy are both coming to Romantic Gothic Ghosts! So is Cousin Paula, Guncle Randy and two of my husband's sisters, Terry and Sandy. It will mean a lot to me for my family to meet some of my blog friends and see what I actually do for a job. If you can call it a job…

We often do crafty days too. This time, we'll be making centerpieces for our Downey Dinner, family reunion. My Daddy had 8 brothers and sisters, and every summer the remaining sibs and all the families gather for a big pitch in. Hosting responsibilities rotate down the line from the oldest orginal member to the youngest. This year is our Dad's turn, so it falls to my sisses and I to host in his place.

Normally, everyone shows up, sets out the food in the rented hall as is, that's it. But, since we get to plan it this year, we are making centerpieces and using table cloths. Nothing elaborate, just something to brighten the room up.

I have red and white, throw away table cloths, to keep things simple for clean up. And we are making family trees as centerpieces. They will involve a branch in a canning jar, with photos from last year's reunion and some old pictures from decades ago tied to the branches.

The photos will be cut with decorative punches, glued to colorful scrapbook paper, and tied up with twine. I'll toss a doiley or two under each canning jar to make it even homier.

This will be our crafty day project with the family a couple days before the reunion. I'm filling a box with supplies and we'll all make a few hanging pictures for the trees. I think it would be nice if relatives could pluck pictures they like from the centerpieces to keep as momentos. Some might even be cute Xmas tree ornaments for the holidays in the right homes.

When I get back, I'll be finishing up some other projects then its time to go into full Faerie Book Swap mode. (this page is my sister-in-law Sandy's.)

People are still joining! And since I made plenty of extra covers, there is room. If you think you can have the pages to me by Sept. 1, feel free to enter. Isn't it nice to be a part of an easy going, do what you want, type swap?

I hope the swappers all enjoy it as much as I do! oooh, I can't wait to get home and see the piles of pages that come while I am away!

Happy birthday Sugarwings!

celebrations, Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, Mayara, puppies!, Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 24, 2012

Sugarwings' birthday was such a fun day for us. We went to lunch at T. Rex to see the dinosaurs, but at first, Dewdrop wasn't sure if we should go in. Once she realized that there were cute little baby dinosaurs there, she was fine.( I don't know why the restaurant keeps the biggest, scariest one of all right inside the door to greet everyone. I guess they want to test the kids right up front to see if they can withstand the atmosphere before they waste table space incase the little ones have to leave before the food comes? If the kids can get past the giant monster at the door, they must be brave enough to sit and eat there.)

Sugarwings has always loved it there. Dewdrop took some convincing, but not much, She was careful to not look at the bigger ones, but was happy to give hugs and kisses to the colorful, cartoony beasts.

We walked around the shopping center, and let the kids run around on the Yellow Brick Road sidewalks. It was a favorite pastime for Sugarwings when she was little. Now that she is turning 6, I wanted to take her there again before she was too big to enjoy it.

Hopefully, she'll never be too old to be silly with Grams.

And honestly, she is happy anywhere she goes. Her idea of fun is just exploring. It can be along a yellow sidewalk that takes her imagination to Oz. or just sitting in the grass meeting whatever bug crawls by. It all entertains her.

Dewdrop had a good time on our day out too. And I was pleased to spend time with my boy, remembering when he was a little guy and running way ahead of me wherever we went, just like his daughter does now.

A pretty table cloth, a pitcher of Chocolate milk so that the kiddos could pour their own refills, and letting the baby join the big kids table all made a special meal for the birthday girl that night for dinner.

We also covered a big chair and tied balloons to it, creating a birthday throne when cake and ice cream time came. Then, her cupcake was served on a musical, wind up cake plate that plays "Happy Birthday", but not very good. Its kind of old and wonky, but still a fun tradition for us.

It was all I could do, to not be teary all day. I can't believe she is six now.

The last few years have zoomed by!

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment HERE.

Sweet little chicks and cactus flowers

family, Hens, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 23, 2012

Ever have one of those days when lots of bad or stressful things happen, but you still feel like you had a good day?

Lets see, today I woke up with a sore back and realized that the bed frame had broken and I was sleeping downhill (time to lose some vacation pounds?), then had to go on a opossum hunt through the wild, over grown flower beds in my jammies and high heels (they were the quickest shoes I could grab, since they were still on top of my suitcase from the party and I had to get the critter before it got my chickens!). The beast didn't get a bird, and I lost its trail, but searched high and low, trying to find where it scurried off to. By the way, I was wearing a vintage cotton night gown, the best of bed head styles, and carrying a big pink shovel. That opossum was right to run, I looked crazy.

The dogs did nab a hen later today, but didn't harm her, just her feathers. It was quite traumatic. And its over 100 degrees again today.

Ryan's car broke down, twice. Once, it was out of gas, the second time the battery ran down. Sugarwings and I missed a movie we were headed to when we had to help him instead. He pushed his car to work for blocks uphill, in this heat. We drove off thinking all was well, and it wasn't, I don't know why he didn't call us back!

There was a disagreement with a family member and I'm not one to loose my temper, I'm more of a cheek turner. But today I blew. Not proud of that one.

We made a loaf of bread and the paddle didn't turn, so I had baked flour with wet crusty edges. Not a big deal, but just one more thing today. And did I mention that it was 107 degrees again? The heat is unbearable.

But there was a bloom on our cactus, a gift from a grand child and sits in a pot painted by one of the little fairies.

It kind of stands for the day I've had, lots of problems and cactussy moments, but some how the day bloomed anyway. Having a happy little Sugarwings by my side all day kept me from feeling bad about all the issues that could have gotten me down.

She's my sunny, little cactus flower. Its impossible to have a bad day when I'm with her.

Instead, I enjoyed the good parts of the day. Here are the good points of the day that outweighed the bad ones:

Watching Sugarwings pretend to be in a parade through the grocery store whille holding 2 dozen pink roses on sale for $5.

Dewdrop running into my arms and showing me that she could do all of the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Seeing Ryan handle his car problems with a good attitude and being proud of the man he grew up to be. He has lots of LD issues and was a very short tempered, frustrated child. He is a fine man now and I'm proud of him.

Picking a bag of fresh veggies from the garden, and popping a sun warmed tomato in my mouth

Watching the hens play in the sprinkler to beat the heat.

Taking a meal to a friend who hasn't been feeling well. I wish I saw her more often and I really should try to help more, I'm glad I made time today.

Laughing with my sister-in-law, Sandy who is living with us. Its good to have a freind around to share a silly thought with now and then. I also appreciated having her here to listen to me grumble about all the problems today and to accompany me on the oppossum hunt.

Getting a funny text from my husband who is quite proud of breaking a bed after being married 30 years.

Feeling Twinkle's puppies move for the first time. I love to try to count the bumps in her belly to guess how many will be born.

Seeing how sweet Sugarwings was about missing her movie. She is not a grumbler when things don't go her way. That made me want to not grumble about my peeves either.

Baking a second loaf of bread that turned out crustily wonderful on the outside and soft and almondy on the inside- just in time to have for dinner. As a matter of fact, a slice of that would make a nice bedtime snack too. Except I have no bed, I'll be sleeping on the couch till we get that bed frame repaired.

Oh, and I have a Project Runway recorded and ready to watch, that is the icing on the cake to top off this day.

Happiest of 80th birthdays to Little Joan

celebrations, family

By Karla Nathan / July 22, 2012

Little Joan's birthday was a heck of a bash. Our Utah relatives are wonderful hosts and threw a lovely party for her special day.

The entrance to the hall featured a floral swag with this welcoming sign.

And there were albums filled with old family photos to flip through. I always love vintage pictures, but when they are of relatives, it really does make them more special. I should copy and use some for my work, just to help my husband's confusion. Because every time I use make something with an old image in it, he looks perplexed and says, "who is that? Do we know them?"

Imagine how relieved he would be if I told him, that yes, we knew the people in the art!

Here is Joan with her sisters. She is the itsy bitsy one on the end.

She is still a little bitty lady.

With a lot of fun packed into that tiny little package!

A feathered guest at a fancy wedding

Dew Drop, family, Hens, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 17, 2012

Thanks for all of your visits during the studio tour, I know I've shown the room dozens of times before, so I wondered if anyone would even care to see it again. I tried to post photos of different parts of the room than in the past, but some of it was a bit repetitive.

Sugarwings was with me almost every day last week, and luckily we had a break in the weather and were able to enjoy the outdoors for a change. Although, I'm not sure if the cooler air was really cool enough for gloves….

We like to sit in the garden, under an archway covered in vines. In the past, I used to trim them, but now, we let them grow wild and crazy, so that we have an enclosed area to play in. Its shady and cozy. When we sit under the low hanging branches, we feel like we are hidden away in a world of our own. Its a good spot for picnics, hiding from ogres, and for weddings.

We had a special guest at this garden wedding. One of our cuddly, Rhode Island Reds decided to join us in the arbor clubhouse.

These sweet, little hens are becoming part of the family. Its so fun to have them follow us around the yard, curious about what we might be doing in case it involves crumbs of any kind.

Of course, ask me about mid- January when I have to slosh through drifts of snow to go take care of the birds a couple times a day, if I still love them as much.

The chickens are NOT doing their job of eating enough of the bugs. So far, they've been great with grasshoppers in the flower beds, and we've not had to use any pesticides at all in our veggie garden. But they haven't eaten a single chigger from the yard. We are all suffering from chigger attacks, and Sugarwings and I have tried to play only on the paved or gravel areas to avoid getting chewed up.

We are hoping to buy some Guinea fowl, they are champion chigger eaters, but we can't find any full grown hens around to buy.

Every time I wake up at 3am scratching, I swear I'd pay a fortune to own a couple chigger eating birds. Anyone know where I can find some?

We don't like the idea of spritzing the little fairy grand babies with bug spray at all. Especially since I coat my ankles with it and still get bitten.

But this year is the worst I've ever seen for pests. I suspected it would be when we had such a glorious, mild winter. As much as I hate snow and cold, it serves a purpose, and does help keep the bugs down.

So, I'll try to remember that when I feel like complaining about going out to take care of hens in the cold this winter. It probably won't shut me up, though, I most likely will still grumble about the cold.