family – Page 48 – Karla's Cottage

Fine Fall Days

Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 9, 2012

These buddies had a good time the other day. Dewdrop's parents came over to plant some trees for me, and instead of helping, this kiddo and I took the pups down the Fairy Berry Trail.

We have not used it as much this year as we usually do. Sugarwings and I have spent lots of time out there having tea parties and picnics in previous years, but this summer was so hot, and then we had the wild cat scare (no sign of him again), so the Fairy Berry Trail was avoided.

Dewdrop was thrilled with all the details. At Birdsong last spring, some of the ladies brought pretties to foof up the trail extra fairy-ish for us. And it really does look cute this season! Dewdrop looked around like it was her first time there, and I felt bad that it was all so new to her.

That trail in the woods is such a part of my heart, I didn't even realize this baby was too little to remember playing out there last spring. But it was fun to see it through her eyes again. She had to point out every single fairy to me.

I'll try to make it up to her before the weather gets too cold. But I am still a little worried about the Big Giant Cat that came through this summer. The trappers expect him back this winter and are returning to try to get him.

Maybe Dewdrop and I will wait till the cat is gone…. We might just play in the yard for now!

Sugarwings and I have been working on the yard. Or lack of yard, I guess I mean.

We spread some straw over the bare spots, hoping they would reseed for next summer.

Of course, we had some helpers.

The babies are growing. Albie Brave and Strong can now sit on command. Dorothy Rosebud can run in and out of the doggie door on her mom's coat tails.

Two Millionth Visitor

celebrations, family

By Karla Nathan / November 5, 2012

No, I'm not talking about the puppies. There were days when 9 pups climbing all over me, felt like a million or so, but I meant my blog- sometime over night, my TWO MILLIONTH visitor came by!

Oh my. I certainly never expected that when I first started my blog and had 3 people a week looking at it.

Thanks so much for coming by to see me. My blog started out as a marketing tool, but has become so much more to me. I've met the best people, and made some lasting friendships.

Definitely blogging has become more than work.

Its my journal, my scrapbook, my musings. I can whine a little about my problems, I can share my joys. Its nice to have a place to show someone what I've been working on, like this painted tee for Sugarwings. She told me that she wished all pumpkins were pink and shaped like hearts, so I created one for her.

Having a blog has led me to capturing photos of the grand fairies that I will always treasure.

I wish I'd had this kind of incentive to snap photos of my own sons when they were little. Of course, no digi cameras back then, I was dirt poor, so film and developing were a luxury.

And where else could I talk about flea market and garage sale finds with people who get it and drool along with me? My husband's eyes just glaze over when I start showing him my purchases. Until he starts to wonder just how much I've spent…

Yep,my blog has been a great marketing tool, but I'd say its the sharing that means the most to me.

Working as an artist, I spend a lot of time alone. But with my blog, I have friends to chat with right here with me, just a click away.

Thanks for keeping me company!

Happiest Halloween

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

By Karla Nathan / October 29, 2012

We had a Halloween party that kind of morphed into a multi-layered event.

At first it was going to be just our Gypsy and I making some masks.

But for most holidays, I try to have a kid's craft day with my friends, so I decided to invite all of them too.

And we decided that maybe it would be fun to have a bonfire also, and invite husbands to hang out there while we made things.

We figured that while we were all together that we should do a pitch in dinner and make a whole evening of it.

Complete with a late night, impromptu tea party in the gazebo with the little girls.

And of course, some puppy cuddling too!

So, I picked up a bunch of supplies for the kiddos.

And found these paper mache masks at Target for only $2 each.

Michaels had these wooden ones for $1.

After dinner, we worked out in the studio off and on between visits to the bonfire for s'mores, or having a game of flash light tag.

I'm always impressed at how hard the kids work when we have these craft parties.

There is a wide range of creativity, and you never know what they will come up with.

There were mini pumpkins for the kids to decorate too. The younger the kid, the more projects you need to have. Older kids and adults can spend all evening on one thing, but the more petite artists like to move from one piece to the next pretty quickly.

We had perfect weather for the night. Wow, what luck! It was nice enough to dine outside, but just chilly enough to enjoy the bonfire too.

And while I preach anti orange and purple for the holiday, its still fun to have some more obvious decor for the kids.

I had plenty of traditional colors in the ribbons and stickers too. As a matter of fact, I had more than enough, so I bagged up leftover stickers and took them to Sugarwing's kindergarten class to use.

I think the little ones had a good time.

I know I did!

Poor Dorothy Rosebud! and bye bye little puppies

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, puppies!

By Karla Nathan / October 25, 2012

Poor Dorothy Rosebud had a horrible Tuesday! She and the rest of the pups still here played out in the front yard in the fence with Aunt Sandy's two Yorkies while Twinkle and I were in the studio.

I've heard in the past, that female dogs in a household would try to kill another female's pups, but Daisy and Dixie are such tiny little, mild mannered dogs, it never occurred to me that they could hurt our babies. I figured that the pups were old enough now that all would have fun wrassling and playing together. Stupid me.

See the huge bruise on her tummy? It goes all the way across her back too.

This wasn't their first time together, but it was the first time unsupervised. And 3 pound Dixie decided she didn't like 1-1/2 lb Dorothy Rosebud.

I found the baby under the porch, covered in mud and vomit, and not moving. I rushed her to the vet, she was crying softly, nonstop and was very listless.

He said she didn't seem to have any internal bleeding and the only thing we could do is keep her comfortable, quiet, and medicated and watch her. Xrays wouldn't show intestinal damage and that is what worried him. If she came down with a fever or her gums turned pale, he said he would recommend surgery.

So, Aunt Sandy the RN, listened to her bowel sounds throughout the evening, and the baby slept on my lap, she was still very still, and crying.

I took her to my son, the massage therapist and energy healer, and he said her bowels were fine, the problem was some tendon damage in her thigh and her hip was out of alignment. After working on her for a bit, she started to feel better, was looking around and stopped crying! She could even walk again.

That guy has some major skills. His fix was a lot better than the surgery the vet suggested for this morning.

Last week, I had tendinitis in my right arm and couldn't do a thing. It even hurt to use my finger to turn pages on my Ipad books. So, Mr. Zen worked on my arm, and I felt a little relief. Then, a couple hours later, I realized that there was no more pain. The repairs kind of sneak up on you, they aren't immediate.

That is what happened with the puppy. She felt a little better right away, after he helped her hip. Soon after, she was looking around and interested in the world again. She is still hurt, but not listless and crying. I'm certain she is recovering.

That boy has amazing intuition in knowing how to find where the pain is and he is pretty good about helping the pain leave. Sugarwings says her daddy is magic.

I no longer have problems with arthritis in my thumb and he can make a migraine disappear too. I was glad to find that he was able to help animals as well. It was heartbreaking to see such a tiny dog in such pain.

I feel awful about letting it happen. From now on, no pups around Dixie and Daisy. And Dorothy can't play with anyone else for a few days, so she is isolated. And Twinkle hates Sandy's dogs, so they are kept separated.

We almost need a chart to figure out who can go to where and when.

Since we have to spend so much time taking care of Dorothy Rosebud, we decided to send the other pups to their new homes. One went to St. Joe, MO to my antiquing friend, Pat. Another went to our next door neighbors! And the night before, 1 left for Indiana and 2 to Virginia.

It will be nice to have one of the puppies right in our own backyard, in the house behind our shed. You know they must be nice people if they can put up with this view and not complain.

So, now we are down to two. Dorothy Rosebud, my poor, hurt baby, and sweet faced Albie, otherwise known as Big Head. He is the one who stopped up the whole works and sent Twinkle to the hospital in the first place, due to his huge size. (named for my husband's grandparents, Dorothy and Albert)

The trouble now, that we made choices and fell in love, is that we found out that my husband will have to be living part time in the DC area again. Since I will be travelling back and forth with him, I worry about taking care of two pups. I'm sure Beth will help with one baby sometimes, but I hate to ask anyone to take on two.

It would be hard to give him up now, but we might have to. I probably wouldn't have even let Twinkle have pups at all if I'd known we'd have such a rough year ahead of us. I'll think on it a few more days. But there might be one more darling pup available soon if we decide we can't keep two. ugh, this is sooo hard– I want them ALL.

Isn't this blankey cute? My SIL, Terry, who was here for Romantic Gothic Ghosts, made a blanket for each puppy to take with them when they left. I made sure the throws were covered in Twinkle's scent before they left with it, hopefully that comforted them after they were in their new homes.

We are now out of blankets from Terry, so that means I might just have to keep this last little boy….

This photo is of Frodo, who went to live at Sissy's house. As hard as it is to see the babies leave, its wonderful to know how loved they are with their new families.

ps- there are new things in the Boutique!!

Family Mega Craft Day

family

By Karla Nathan / October 20, 2012

My family and I had so much fun in Beth's class at Romantic Gothic Ghosts that we continued working on our books all evening and all the next day. Here is a page that Sissy did.

And one from Guncle Randy.

He bought the earrings at the Victorian Trading Company outlet store in KC, and used one with his costume and one in his book.

We'd had big plans for the Renfest on Sunday, but the weather was chilly.

So, instead we had a mega craft day and some of us put on costumes.

Everyone worked on their own projects. 4.0 student, the Hippy Chick, did homework.

Calliope decorated some shoes.

Terry did jewelry. She creates her own chain.

My son worked on some resin and crystal jewels.

While his Gypsy Beloved made wire wrapped fairies.

Beth came over and did needlework and the little girls smeared glitter glue on anything they could while the big girls worked on more pages from the class Beth had taught the day before.

As sad as we were to miss the Renfest, it was nice to have a laid back, easy going, work at your own speed kind of day.

But most of all, it was nice to just be together!

Romantic Gothic Ghost Weekend

family, flowers, holiday decor, Romantic Gothic Ghosts, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / October 10, 2012

Our ghostly weekend was a real treat. I just hope my guests enjoyed it half as much as I did! We had such a lovely group, and it was so fun to have a family reunion along with the class, I'm thrilled that my family got to meet some of my friends and see what I do.

This envelope was in a scrap pack of ephemera that Pam won as a door prize, and look at the date! Our class was exactly 103 years from the day this was written.

Another ghostly oddity of the day, was that every single picture that I took of a person had a glowy smudge look to it. At first I thought all my photos were ruined, then I decided to just go with it and enjoy the ghostly effect, and edit them even more ghostly.

I looked on my lens and saw that there was a real life smudge, not a ghost doing it. I'm lucky that I got any photos at all from the weekend!

The close ups of things around the room weren't too bad.

And except for some halo around the lights, the whole room shots weren't either.

But portraits sure had some spookiness to them.

I loved every minute of the classes. Beth's was so much fun, I had to drag myself away to make lunch.

I served quiche that day, instead of making it up ahead of time, I wanted it fresh as can be, with eggs just gathered, so waited till it was time to go into the oven to make it up.

We also had green salad with cranberries and candied pecans, and a fall veggie mix of squash and sweet potatoes.

And of course, way, way too many desserts! Carmel apple cupcakes, lots of brownies, and these white chocolate witch hat cookies.

I set up an extra table for seating in the living room.

And decorated it with a 25 cent black lace shawl from a garage sale, and $2 bunches of roses that were marked down at the grocery store. I cut them short, and made an arrangement with the stems too. Remember how Morticia and Gomez from the Adam's Family always put the stems in the vase and threw away the flowers? I wasn't up to tossing the roses, but I did arrange the stems.

With a family reunion going on this week too, it was handy to have that table in the living room, I left it up the whole time, and it got used a lot.

Normally, the studio is where we have our family dinners when a big group is here, but this time, the studio was occupied with all of the set up for my Ghoul Friends and the classes.

Sugarwings came to spend the day too, her mom was studying and our fairy girl kept herself entertained while we all worked in the studio. She is getting so grown up!

Before our guests arrived, she wanted to get all dressed up in her wings and her new fairy dress from Aunt Bobbie, because she said, "Grammie's friends think I am a real fairy, so I'd better wear my wings!"

The puppies joined the party too. They missed all the attention after everyone left! I miss all of our friends and family as much as they do. The house seems so empty now that its over.

Time to plan another party…. While the studio is decked out I think I'll throw another Halloween bash and have my buddies bring their kids over for a craft day to make masks.

Dewdrop’s first craft day

Books, Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, holiday decor, puppies!, Romantic Gothic Ghosts

By Karla Nathan / September 27, 2012

Dewdrop came over with her mom to do a practice class for Romantic Gothic Ghosts. The babies came outside to play since it was such a beautiful afternoon. I left the studio door open and made a pen for them right outside.

The little guys played so hard, they tuckered themselves out and just fell asleep where they stood. It looked like the aftermath of a fraternity party.

One even fell asleep with his head in the food bowl.

Dewdrop was perfect at her first big girl craft day. She decided she needed an apron to wear while she worked. Her favorite part was the pockets, she filled them with so much she could barely sit down.

Her Gypsy mama created one of Beth's books for the upcoming class. Beth is providing lots of great materials, and I got out some of the images from the online class too.

(All attendees get the online class included for free. I'll be printing off some of the images for them to use too. And if you are coming, mabye these pictures will give you some ideas on what you might like to bring to add to your own book)

I made a book while Beth made my Raven tea cup project.

It was fun to try the faux tintype technique.

No two books from the class will turn out the same, Beth is providing lots of goodies and tidbits, and some kits will differ.

My book and Dewdrop's Gypsy mama's book looked very different from Beth's.

I can't wait to see all the variations that the rest of the students come up with!

Of course, there were lots of breaks to play with puppies.

I'll leave you with some more of the pages our Gypsy created, she really had some nice ones. She made it her own by adding some gypsy colored ribbons here and there.

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.