family – Page 51 – Karla's Cottage

Good bye Sparkle

By Karla Nathan / January 11, 2012

Well, little Sparkle was just too sick to hang on. Its heartbreaking to say goodbye, but we knew it was coming, just not this soon. Thanks for your kind words and encouragement for our family right now.

In happier news, Sugarwings is doing well with one arm and its not slowing her down one bit. Even though the Dr. says she needs to be slowed down…. that kid is hard to stop. Her teeth and toes are always ready to help out that left hand when needed and so far, she doesn't seem to mind not using her right hand.

Today, she came out to the studio with me to decorate her ugly, navy blue sling. We played around with gutting a stuffed animal and making that into the sling, but I was worried that I wouldn't get the angle right, and that we should stick with using the one that was provided by the hospital. Now we have an empty plush dog that Dewdrop thinks makes a fine puppet.

She might seem to have a lot of energy right now, and is tough to keep at rest, but she cries out in pain while sleeping, so I know that it must really hurt.

My husband's leg is doing well, and he says it hurts enough to remind him just how dumb he was to be careless with the chain saw.

Okay, enough sadness and fear for a long, long while.

Sparkie Jo (my mom called me Karkie Jo, and I called Sparkle, Sparkie Jo) was a sweet girl, and the most gentle dog you could meet. She had lots of puppies in her life and of all the mama dogs I've ever owned, she was the most loving toward her pups. She treasured and cuddled and spent much more time just playing with them than most mother dogs. She was like that with everyone, always ready to show caring and sweetness.

I choose to remember how lucky we were to have her with us for the ten short years she was part of our family. And also to count myself lucky that Sugarwings and my Handsome Husband were not hurt worse than they were and that we will have them around for many more decades and decades.

Next post, I hope to have some more fun things to talk about. In the mean time, the sale is still on in the Boutique (40%) and the Etsy shop (50%). I haven't had a chance to take it down. You can get some good deals on millinery, doodads, pretties, and other stuff. Tutorials are also on sale!

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family

By Karla Nathan / January 9, 2012

French by Design

Saturday started out Great. Extra Great. So wonderful that I wouldn't shut up about what a Great Day it was.

Seedbox

Beth and I met up to go to Bottom's Up. The BEST antiquing experience in KC. Gwen and Terry find the most intriguing dealers whose displays and talent are crammed to the brim with inspiration and wow.

Raised in Cotton

But best of all, we kept running into friends and spent lots of time chatting and catching up with fellow junking buddies.

I'd had a bad cold and a back ache for a couple of weeks, through the busy holiday time, and kept pushing myself to pretend I was fine and to keep enjoying the jingle bell season instead of letting myself get rested and over it all. Plus, Sugarwings had been sick before Christmas and I'd been traveling, and well, you know how worked up a person can get at that time of year anyway, add a few tasty little tid bits like that and moods can really turn dour and sour when the whole after Christmas let down period kicks in.

Yep, I was down, and tired and not quite myself. I've been trying to get my examples for the Birdsong Two classes done and nothing was clicking, because of my mood.

So, I took some time off from trying to be creative, eradicated all trace of holiday decor from my house, and zipped off to KC to Bottom's Up and to hang with my BFF.

Did I mention that it was a Great Day? And I was so happy, I was obnoxious about it. I desperately needed a day of pure fun.

And not only did I visit with friends, see beautiful old stuff, I BOUGHT a lot of beautiful, wonderful, old stuff. At beautiful, wonderful prices. Yep, Bottom's Up is a top-of-the-line place, but there are deals to be found there too. You can find exquisite, one of a kind, high dollar items, and you can also find exquisite, one of a kind, great deals!

What really made me happy was that I found just the ideas and supplies I needed to make my Birdsong projects for the classes!

Yep, not only did I come up with a plan, I found enough to make 25 kits, plus extras for examples and to practice on.

I hope to get them done soon and get the photos up.

I'm so pleased with the registration for Birdsong Two. Its filling up quickly. I've been away from my computer, so don't have an exact count, but its getting there. (you can still join us the last weekend of April if you'd like!)

Yes, a Great Day was just what I needed, Beth and I went to BU, as well as all the other pop up stores that are only open one weekend a month in the Old West Bottom's region of Kansas City, tucked into warehouses and abandoned buildings. The backgrounds of the stores are always interesting.

Look what we came across at one of the places, I can't remember which. There are LOTS of them now, all within a few blocks. Maybe it was at Bella Patina?

Anyway, its a buffet that I painted years ago and sold at my old antique mall booth.

Its always cheery to see one of my pieces out in the world. And I was feeling so cheery by then, I was almost punch drunk. I think I told Beth that I loved her a few times.

Then, things started to fall apart. I dropped Beth off at her home, just as the phone was ringing to tell me that Sugarwings was in the hospital, not far from Beth's house, luckily I was ten minutes away.

When I got there, I heard the story that she had been at one of those big, indoor play places at a birthday party, and had fallen from the top level, luckily hitting a bouncy slide on her way down before plummeting to the ground.

Her mommy was the hero that day. She couldn't find anyone to help her or to let them out of the play area, through the canvas sides. So, she had to scoop up our little fairy with her broken wing and carry her through the rest of the kid's obstacle course to get her out of the building! Up and down a slide, through the ball pit, etc, she ran while carrying her daughter. No employee came to help her or answered her calls to let them out a short cut.

All of the family gathered as soon as they could at the hospital. Her Daddy's truck wouldn't start, and he took off on his bike to meet my husband to get a ride from Lawrence, leaving his bike in a ditch when he finally met up with his dad and hopping in his truck.

When they arrived, my husband was limping. And wouldn't tell me why, said it could wait till we got our fairy baby transferred to the Children's hospital for surgery.

Apparently, he knew I had needed a fun day out and hadn't called me earlier to tell me that he'd stood on a dead log that broke in half while he was using his chain saw, and that he gashed his leg open with that saw. Well, that is my nightmare come true. I hate those things and have been dreading this for years.

Thank you all for your kind words and prayers while I was staying up at the hospital with our girl, who is much braver than I am. She is feeling better and uses her left hand and her toes to do about anything she wants to.

We are home now, and its hard to keep her quiet. It was a very serious break, and she is not to play outside for a while. Somehow or another, we are supposed to keep that little fireball tranquil a few weeks so she can heal. She has 3 pins in her elbow and some nerve damage in her hand, that the Dr. says should heal within a year. But its important to not bump or move it all around much for right now.

So, we are watching movies, and movies, and more movies. Today we all went to see TinTin in 3D.

I'm doing better now too. That first night, I concentrated on not fainting or letting my thoughts dwell on chainsaws. I was in more than a bit of shock, and didn't cope well with either accident. But both patients are sturdy and doing well. And I think that my Great Day with Beth helped me quite a bit and gave me the boost I needed to cope.

Sadly, while we were staying at hotels near the hospital a couple of days, our little Sparkle's health has deteriorated. Her kidneys have been failing, but now its beyond that. I came home to floors covered in, well, we won't go into that, you've heard enough. I bathed her, sanitized the floors, and called the vet. If you have any well wishes left to spare for my family, I'd appreciate some sent to "Special Sparkle" as Sugarwings calls her. She's frail and not doing well at all.

Thanks again for caring. I was too shaky to read any of my book, and newsprint just blurred in front of my eyes while I was in the waiting rooms. It was nice to have those sweet, caring Facebook and blog comments to read. Some people don't understand and wonder why I care what strangers have to say. But these weren't from "strangers".

Some were from our family, some were close friends, some were blog friends, some Bellas, some art buddies. All were people who cared. And reading those caring words really did help.

Thanks so much.

A closet full of fun

fairies, family

By Karla Nathan / December 30, 2011

With a house filled with helpers staying with me for Christmas, I thought it would be the perfect time to do a little end of the year clean up. We emptied all of the dress up clothes from the girl's closet and hung about 30 hooks all around it, right at their height.

We still need a solution for the pile of hats and other things that we didn't have enough hooks for. For now, they are tossed into a too-small tub. I need a couple of baskets to hold them all.

I didn't realize just how many dress up clothes we had, I just knew that they always ended up in one big pile at the bottom of the closet after all the sprites were done playing with them. Now, they have hooks to hang them up on, and so far, its been much tidier. After the holiday bash, clean up went much smoother in the dress up area.

My favorite place to find fairy princess garb is at garage sales. Most of this closet full of fluff is all second hand, the rest is thoughtful gifts from friends who know how much we love to play with wings and fairy dresses.

You are never too big to be a princess.

Or an elfish prince.

Around here, even the dolls get in the act. For Christmas, our Gypsy gave all the little girls a doll from the Goodwill that she made over into a fairy queen.

The nicest thing happened to my son's Gypsy Beloved on Christmas Eve. She went to the Goodwill to buy supplies to make gifts for her 6 little ones and a guy stopped her in the parking lot to give her a $100 bill.

What a thoughtful Santa!

And she made Dewdrop this sock monster doll, with sockies the little baby has out grown, and a onesie that I had painted for her.

I made some creatures myself, these gifts were sent to the Guncles.

I'd seen the cutest little birds with pine cone hats that I knew Guncle Randy would love, and of course, I decided I could make my own instead of buying one. The elf and the birdie are both paper clay.

If you need some vintage goodies to trim out your own creations, don't forget there is a sale in both of my shops right now.

Everything is 30% off in the Boutique if you use THIS LINK.

And the small print says: The only catch is, that I won't be doing any mailing for a few days. You might not recieve your box till after New Years.

And if you click on the website directly, you can't get the sale price, its only available from THIS LINK

When you fill your shopping cart, you need to type in the words- happyholidays – then hit "recalculate" to get the special price. Its simple to do.

For Etsy, use the same code word- happyholidays -to get 30% off there too.

And by the way, a Very Happy Holidays to you all!

Wigged out for the holidays

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 28, 2011

This is my favorite holiday photo from our weekend. Little Dewdrop snuck up onto the table while her elfish father was fixing dinner. He wore the hat and cape for most of Christmas and I thought it added a festive touch.

We spent a lot of our time in the kitchen, and having it be one, big open space was just great. Now, why didn't we think of this years ago? Its made our house such a cozier place.

We had one wonderful meal after another, and since the kids were staying with us instead of driving back to the woods and going to their yurt each night, we even went all out for breakfast in the mornings. On Christmas Day, our Gypsy made this fluffy, puff of deliciousness for us from a recipe we saw in the Sunday paper that morning.

Poor Sugarwings had been pretty sick all week leading up to the big day, and stayed here with us for most of the time, with her parents having sleepovers with her at our cottage. She rallied by the time Christmas Eve came around, but was still not quite herself.

We were sad to see her so weak and tired, but It was nice to have a houseful for the whole week, instead of just seeing them for the dinner and present times.

This year, between Sugarwings being sick, and me travelling, I was behind on gift buying. I did a whirlwind shopping trip, throwing things into the cart as I buzzed down the aisles. By the time I got home, I wasn't even sure what I had for who, I just hoped it was done. And for some reason, I bought wrapping paper, not bags…. silly mistake! If you wait till the last minute to buy gifts, there is no time for wrapping, those late gifts need to be slipped into bags.

That was NOT the highlight of my week.

But watching these little fairies tear through that paper was.

Dewdrop was very fond of her new toys. She was busy giving all the dollies lots of kisses and hugs.

She wasn't quite sure what to think about the dress up wig that her big sister got though.

I think it added a lot to the festivities, as she wore it to pass out the gifts.

We had two celebrations, all gifts to each other on Christmas Eve, and Santa's presents on Christmas Day. My husband's family has always done it that way, and it has become our tradition too.

I grew up with being able to open one gift the night before, saving the rest for the main event. I was always disappointed that the one preview gift was PJs every single time. I thought it was just plain old bad luck that I always picked the one gift that was not fun at all, when there was a sparkling pile of things waiting under the tree for me.

Of course, now I know that Mom planned it that way, so that I'd have new jammies on for Christmas morning when I woke her up at the crack of dawn. But at the time, I was crushed that once again, I got pajamas, not a Barbie on Christmas Eve.

Now, I am pulling my own version of the jammie trick, and let the girls each have one gift to open after dinner, before bath time and the rest of the gifts. Yep, they each had a new pair of matching PJ's as their sneak peek gift just like I did when I was a kid.

We had a third holiday bash on the day after Christmas, with the rest of the family (at least the ones in this part of the world) over for dinner, and all 26 of us fit into the new kitchen.

The house seems really quiet now with everyone gone. I've kind of gone into hibernation, with a good book and a box of kleenex (I caught Sugarwing's cold). I've not even checked out the post holiday sales yet, and don't know if I will. Although I keep thinking about all that clearance price Russell Stover chocolate…. out there, just waiting for me, all marshmallowey on the inside and shaped like chocolate Christmas trees.

But I'm kind of enjoying being snuggled up with a book and staying home in my jammies. I think I'll pass on the sales and go have another slice of that white chocolate peppermint cheesecake that I made instead. By the time I leave the house, the only thing that will fit me will be my elastic waist jammies.

If you are into holiday sale prices and don't want to leave your comfy home either, I have a sale in my Boutique and now on Etsy too. And yes, it covers tutorials, millinery, charlottes, and all of the other vintage goodness in my shops.

Everything is 30% off in the Boutique if you use THIS LINK.

And the small print says: The only catch is, that I won't be doing any mailing for a few days. You might not recieve your box till after New Years.

And if you click on the website directly, you can't get the sale price, its only available from THIS LINK

When you fill your shopping cart, you need to type in the words- happyholidays – then hit "recalculate" to get the special price. Its simple to do.

For Etsy, use the same code word- happyholidays -to get 30% off there too.

And by the way, a Very Happy Holidays to you all!

A new holiday tradition?

celebrations, Dew Drop, fairies, family, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 26, 2011

We had a Fairy Merry Christmas, and I hope that you did too. On the Day Before the Night Before Christmas (the title of one of our favorite songs around here), we had the girls here for a sleep over.

They decorated bottle brush trees in the studio, then decided to fix up the Gingerbread house for the fairies that live on our Fairy Berry Trail through the woods.

It got a whole new set of furniture, made of graham crackers.

After the painting/gluing in the studio and the icing/sprinkle excitement in the kitchen, we decided a bubble bath was in order. I poured them all (plastic) flutes of sparkling juice and filled the tub with Sugar Plum Fairy bath salts.

Calliope said that she felt like a princess. That gave us the idea to surprise them all with a princess party after their soak. The Hippy Chick ran upstairs and found some dress up clothes that were appropriately royal and had them laid out for the girls to slip into when they were done bubbling.

Of course, our girls lean toward the fairy side of "fairy princess".

Our tiniest sprite got to play a little dress up, but fell asleep before the other festivities began.

It was girl's night at the hot chocolate party.

One of the fun parts of the party is mixing your cocoa just the way you like it. We serve warm milk in teapots, and pass around Giradelli chocolate, mini marshmallows, shaved white chocolate with peppermint, candy canes, and for the moms, some Kaluha.

It was special. I'm lucky to have all these little girls to play dress up with. They are pretty sweet.

and now for the winner of my Christmas Secret Surprise Giveaway! Its a hand painted and decorated box with a nesting, ephemera covered bird on it. Pretty for the holidays, but not so Christmassy that you can't leave it out all winter. I'll fill it with some home made bath salts and send it to…..

Deborah Woodrow

And remember, if you have Christmas gift cash to buy yourself a gift, come on by the Boutique. Everything is 30% off if you use THIS LINK.

And the small print says: The only catch is, that I won't be doing any mailing for a few days. You might not recieve your box till after New Years.

And if you click on the website directly, you can't get the sale price, its only available from THIS LINK

When you fill your shopping cart, you need to type in the words- happyholidays – then hit "recalculate" to get the special price. Its simple to do.

Merry Christmas!

celebrations, fairies, family

By Karla Nathan / December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas! I hope your holiday is filled with lots of singing, dancing, and joy!

And big hugs from someone you love.

(Info about the secret Santa gift drawing and the 30% off sale in the Boutique can be found in the previous post, if you scroll down, but that is enough "business" for now. I'm off to get in on some of those hugs!)

Fumpity Fump Fump

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, flowers, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings, videos

By Karla Nathan / December 12, 2011

We were out shopping the other day and Sugarwings saw this sign on a stand and in her mind, it was the perfect microphone, so she started to serenade all the shoppers. The kid seems to have inherited my singing voice. And also the joy of singing out, loudly.

Its a short video if you want to watch it, and my favorite part is where she is distracted by something shiny and walks away just as she sings "look at Frosty go".

This year, the holiday month seems to be racing by faster than I can keep up.

Its happening too fast and will be over before I know it! So, I'm slowing down and making myself take in every minute of it. Sugarwings has been spending a lot of time with me and she agrees that we need to make the most of our days. We've had a hot cocoa party every night that she sleeps over, lit only by the lights of the tree.

We make an event of it, setting the table with our best china, filling our favorite tea pot with hot milk, and passing around tiny bowls of shaved chocolate, mini marshmallows, and peppermint sticks. Not only are we getting a delicious bedtime snack, we are learning about manners, polite conversation, and building memories to treasure.

We are watching all the holiday specials that we can cram into our time together, without losing out on time to create and cook too. As much as I love holiday baking, its even better with her.

There has been a ton of cookies and fudge being whipped up, as well as a gingerbread house we had to put together with hot glue before we could decorate it.

I'm trying to show Dewdrop about the joys of baking too, she held the mixer for us last week. Its a start! Soon, I'll have two little helpers.

With her Daddy being so busy getting the Yurt weather proof and ready to live in for the long, cold winter, and her Hippy Chick Mommy studying hard for her first semester of nursing school finals (I'm proud to say that she is an A student!), I've been lucky enough to have lots of holiday play time with my fairy girl.

Sometimes, we invite guests to the parties too, like Luna Moona, her Raggedy Ann doll.

Last week, Dewdrop came to her first bedtime cocoa party and I have a feeling, she will be a regular at them with us next year. She adores anything that has to do with food.

And for some odd reason, Sugarwings has been setting an extra place at the table for my sisters. She is fascinated by them and talks about them a lot. I guess she knows how much I love and miss them, even though she has only met them a handful of times in her short life and they live far away.

Yes, its been a sweet December!

Tourist time

family, Food and Drink, Travel

By Karla Nathan / December 7, 2011

Wouldn't this be a good idea for gift giving? It would be sweet to slip a gift into a box that is a gift itself.

I made this box for another reason, but it kind of got me thinking of the possibilities.

Of course, I haven't even done my Christmas shopping yet, so I should probably stop thinking about what I'll put the gifts in and start thinking about what I'll buy instead!

There was a teensy bit of time to shop while I was in Palm Springs last weekend, but it was more sight seeing than shopping.

If I'm in an area where the stores are Rolex, Coach, and other high dollar specialty stores, chances are pretty durn slim that I will be buying my family any holiday gifts there.

These guys simply aren't the type to wear a watch that costs thousands of dollars.

Not that I am the type to buy one, anyway.

But it was fun to look.

It was fun to be a tourist and go sightseeing. At the stores as well as out and about. We took the tram up the mountain side, 8,500 feet up to catch the views one morning.

And drove to Temecula to do a little wine tasting after that.

My brilliant husband had a great idea, that I'd never have thought of. He said we should go to the lounge, sit down and sample there instead of standing in line to belly up to the counter in the crowded tasting rooms.

The four of us got to try a good selection from the winery, relax in comfy chairs, and share a cheese plate. That was much nicer than standing up at the counter in the crowds of other testers.

Isn't this a cute display for the holidays?

And I loved seeing poinsiettas growing outside! The weather wasn't perfect, we needed our coats, but it was still warmer than Kansas and I really enjoy seeing all the flower beds full and blooming in the sunshine out in California. Its probably my favorite part of the trip, because back home, my garden is brown and crunchy with a hint of green slime where the last plants froze and are rotting.

The whole trip was just beautiful. But its good to be home and have a couple of days with Sugarwings and Dewdrop. They both stayed over night the last couple of days, so I'm just now getting back to work. That was a great way to ease out of the vacation and back into the real world.

Two days of llittle girl cuddles was a welcome extension of my time off!

Now, its back to normal and back to work.

And thats not bad either! Its good to be home and I'm happy to be back in the studio.

A Happy and Organic Thanksgiving

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / November 26, 2011

Was your holiday nice? I hope so! Ours was pretty wonderful. I think we had the best turkey dinner ever. My son helped me cook, and it was a lot of work, we went all organic, local, and from scratch. We tried to avoid convenience foods or short cuts. Man, it was tasty! But it did seem like we were in the kitchen non-stop for about 24 hours… Roasting a pumpkin before you can bake the pie isn't the quickest way to fix dinner. And about midnight on Wednesday, I was wondering if if was the dumbest. But those pies and pumpkin cheesecakes were really, really good on Thursday and we were glad we'd stayed up to do it.

Quality ingredients do make a big difference in the end result of the meal though, and cooking side by side with a grown up son is pretty cool too. The whole family pitched in to help, but Sugarwing's Daddy and I were in it for the long haul.

Our fresh, free range turkey was the best ever. I don't know if it was how he cooked it, or if it was the bird itself. We soaked it overnight in a brown sugar/sea salt brine, then he tossed an orange, onion and celery inside the cavity before rubbing it down with a blended slurry of fresh herbs, garlic,olive oil, honey, and S&P, then slow roasting it till it was tender and juicy.

Our local grocery store was selling these herb planters, brimmed with just what a holiday dinner called for. I made good use of them too, stuffing with fresh sage is sooooo good. We used a toasted loaf of whole wheat bread, and added rosemary, thyme, sage, and garlic to the onions and celery that I'd chopped and cooked in veggie broth the night before. We also through in a little olive oil and a cup of chopped kale.

In the past, I don't think I've given kale a chance. But now its a fave. We used dark green, purple, and the pink and white kind in our tossed salad too. Sugarwings and Mr. Finn both helped me with the greens. We tore a head of Romaine up with the kale, and added chopped radishes, pears soaked in lime juice, dried cranberries, sugared pecans, roasted pumpkin seeds, and goat cheese. Letting the kids make the salad themselves and filling the bowl with such pretty colors encouraged them to eat lots of greens (and purples).

The dressing was a half cup of cranberry pomegranite juice, a 1/4 cup of white balsemic vinegar, 1/2 cup of olive oil, S&P, and a tsp of chopped garlic. Fast, simple, and a good compliment to the kale.

To go with all that, we had sauteed fresh green beans with red peppers. And to make sure the meal wasn't too heart healthy, we had a good, gooey, sweet potato and butternut squash casserole that our Gypsy girl made with lots of butter, blueberries, and brown sugar, then topped with marshmallows. I baked the potatoes and squash the night before while the pumpkins were roasting so she just had to work her flavor magic and pop it in the oven to heat up while the turkey was being sliced.

Oh, and of course, there were mashed potatoes too. I try to keep those healthy by using golden potatoes so they look buttery without actually adding any butter. It seems to trick my family. To make them creamy, I use a cup of fat free cottage cheese instead of sour cream.

Dew Drop discovered that she could pull up a chair to the kitchen island and sneak some appetisers while we waited for that turkey to bake. I'd never cooked a fresh, free ranger before and discovered that they seem to take another hour longer than a Butterball turkey does. They also cost about 3 times more.

That part was painful. But I'd already committed to the whole fresh/local food idea before I saw the price tag and it was too late to back out. I'm still cringing at what fresh/local/organic costs for the whole meal compared to canned goods and a frozen bird.

But I'm thankful that I have a houseful of grand kids that think purple kale is an exciting thing to see on their plate. I spend a lot of my life in the kitchen, cooking healthy foods for my family and sometimes I complain about how much time it takes to chop and prepare the meals. But I love it that they care about eating well and appreciate the good food.

Its not cheap, its not fast, but maybe we'll end up with longer lives because of it, and that will make up for all the time I've spent in front of the stove?(of course, I will probably also die poor from paying three times as much for food to get it organic)

And with this great newly remodelled kitchen, how can I complain about spending time in it??? Its a joy to have and to work in!

Don't forget, I'm celebrating the holiday weekend by giving away a couple of my online cuff bracelet tutorials. If you are interesting in winning one, please mention that in a comment to enter. I'll draw winners on Monday.

Kitty’s Rescue free image to download

Dew Drop, fairies, family, free images, kitties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 14, 2011

Thanks for all your well wishes on the additions to our family!

This book just happened to be sitting on my desk and I thought it was quite appropriate to our situation. Although the little girl clutching the cat at our house isn't quite this lady like. She's every bit as happy to have a kitty to hold and cuddle, though.

This is scanned at high resolution, if you'd like to print it to use in your art, please click on it to open in a larger window, then save that one to your computer and you'll get better results than saving it directly from my blog.

No, we didn't adopt an eight legged cat, Sugarwings is carrying them both.

Everywhere she goes.

And it surprises me that the cats seem to like it. If she sets one down, it will follow her around till it gets picked up again.

Little Dew Drop is not as interested in the kittens, I think she is more of a dog person. She likes the new family members, but is more fascinated by Twinkle and Agnes.

Plus, she has other things on her mind, like learning how to walk and celebrating her first birthday this week!

My goal of adding new stuff to both shops every day kinda slipped from my grasp.

There was no school on Friday and Sugarwings kept me hopping. That and the new kitten/lost kitten/ new kitten/ found kitten excitment that we had. Then, along came the weekend including a concert, a fun craft day with Beth, a big family dinner, and before I knew it, I'd missed three days of getting photos posted in the shops.

But I did get a chance to make some new things!

These decorated 1" wreaths are in the Boutique.

And their ready to be decorated cousins are in my Etsy shop.

There are lots of trees added to the Etsy shop, I got to work on listing some Monday afternoon. The white ones are always popular.

And so are the eensy teensy ones.

There are still a few million trees filling up one of my work tables ready to be sorted and packaged and sold, but at least that is a start.

Some of my paper clay fairies are now in the shop too. This one is made on a vintage cake topper.

And this one sits on a wallpaper covered box.

Her eyes are vintage crystals taken from an old necklace. I pushed them into the wet clay, then added a black sequin crystal pupil, and painted the rest of the eye. They really have a nice sparkle when the light hits them.

I'll leave you with some photos of more new stuff listed. There is more to come too. I'm wrapping up purchases today and will have more photos taken to list goodies after that gets done.(thanks so much to you shoppers out there!) I also need to get pictures of all the new things I've been making. It sure felt good to get some time to sit at the worktable and mess around with all my toys!