family – Page 61 – Karla's Cottage

Its the Process that Counts

antiques/junking, celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Hand Painted Furniture, magazine pictures or articles, Sugarwings, swaps, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 7, 2010

Lately, one of Sugarwing's favorite games is playing bride. Today I was lucky to find a vintage dress up bridal gown at a flea market, still in its original box! She spied it in the studio immediately and had to marry her puppy as soon as she could shimmy into the dress.

The dress is about 10 sizes too big for her, and kind of fragile. I'm not sure if its the right outfit for my little wild child to play in. Plus, now that she and the dog are already married, she doesn't really need to wear it anymore. It was a quick ceremony, but lovely and heartfelt, so the dress has had its use.

And we have the wedding photos from the day. Of course, she might want to save the gown, hoping that her daughter (or puppy?) will someday want to wear it, but it seems to me that most daughters want to pick out their own gown, and rarely wear mom's.

I might hang on to it for a while, to see if she asks about it again. If she's forgotten about it in a week or so, I have a feeling it will end up in the Boutique.

Another game we had fun with today, was "Find the Picture". My copy of Somerset Home has arrived, and it has the article about my home in it (with photos by Carol Spinski). Sugarwings looked at the pictures in the book and then found the spot in the house where they were taken.

She is much better at that game than my husband is. One time, when his mom was visiting from out of state, he was proudly showing her an article that I had written for Country Victorian and talking about the house and how these photos were of the room upstairs, and those were of the kitchen before we remodeled. I looked over his shoulder and saw that the article wasn't even mine.

The photos weren't even of our own house.

That is why I can do anything at all to my cottage and foof it up any old way I please. My husband doesn't even notice! He could live in a pink cotton candy explosion of a doll house and not know the difference. That gives me full license to foof!

Of course, over the years, there have been a lot of changes and I can't blame him for not being able to keep up with what our house looks like. When I was in the furniture painting and antique biz, the look would change weekly sometimes. If I found something wonderful at a garage sale, it would go right into the house and the piece it replaced would go to the mall.

Now that I don't sell furniture, the revolving door has slowed down. But I do like a change now and then, and mostly get it by repainting and rearranging.

This photo is of my studio a few years back. I've added it and a few more pictures to the Where Bloggers Create Studio Tour (hosted by Karen Valentine) post I did a while back, and added a button to my side bar with a link to that posting, if anyone wants to see some of the past looks I've had in the room.

As a matter of fact, while out junking and scrounging today, I found a new glass door cabinet to fill with supplies, so my studio is getting another mini redo this week too. I'll have some more pictures to add in the next couple of days.

Since I don't have the antique business anymore, I try to keep myself entertained with smaller foofing projects. Gift wrapping has become a big hobby of mine. This is a package sent out this week, it was a Bible Quotes booklet, so I wrapped it in hymnal sheet music and tied a little cross to the ribbon.

No matter how big or small the project is, its "the process that counts". Beth and I quote Jenny Doh to each other with that line a lot since we heard her speak at Kim's event in California. That phrase struck us both, as good words to live by. As an artist, its not always the end product that counts, its the process and the love of creating.

So, if I can't remake a room on a monthly basis anymore (yes, I was pretty bad, Beth called me a serial painter), I can get my fix in the little things I do and love the process, no matter what I am spending my time on.

Simply being creative brings joy. To paraphrase Horton the Elephant, "A project's a project, no matter how small."

If you feel like being creative with me, I hope you'll join us for a small project. 6 tags with a Dorothy theme in a collaborative tag book swap. Email me if you want to join! Just click on the button on my sidebar for more info.

We have 40 some people entered to swap so far, and room for YOU too!

Pretty names

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, paintings, parties, Sugarwings, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 5, 2010

Thanks to all of you who signed up for our Dorothy Tag Book Swap! There is room for plenty more, if you haven't joined yet, please do.

I added pdfs of images from my 1920 Wizard of Oz book to the previous post, where you will find details about the swap. Even if you don't join in, please use and enjoy the images. I'll be posting more images in future posts as I get them scanned.

Maybe they will give you some ideas… I hope something gives me a few. I jumped into this swap without a single idea for a tag!

Maybe because I am still knee deep in mermaids, its hard for me to switch over to Oz.

This is for playing "Pin the Shell on the Mermaid" at Sugarwing's 4th birthday party. I painted it on foam core board, and added lots of glitter. (why doesn't glitter ever look glittery in photos??) We'll tie a bow on a shell and stick a thumb tack to the ribbon, then kids can try to get the shell on her necklace.

Today while looking over the list of kiddos attending, I was struck by how pretty all the names were.

Look at these unique names!

Leandra Joy

Gaea

Baila

Lillie

Madison

Sarah

Adeline Grace

Lizelle

Finn

Clover

Calliope

Amadeus

Cohen

Today, I also finished my air clay mermaid, to go with the ones I made in Jenny Hernadez's class. I'll use these fishy gals as decor on the buffet, not out with the kids' stuff.

There are some other shell decorations for the party, that I have a feeling the little ones won't appreciate as much. So I'll be using the shell art that I got from Kim on the grownups table. The kids get Ariel and pirates.

ttp://artisticbliss.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/a-few-spots-still-left-.html

Finally, I might be getting burnt out on making mermaids. When I got to the base of this, I was sick of it, and just glued wide satin ribbon around the box, with a smaller ribbon and a shell brooch over it. I'd spent enough time on it already, so finished it quickly. The boxes under the ones I did in Jenny's class were loving covered in vintage wallpaper and properly foofed. This one is just "completed" and that was enough!

There is still a banner to be painted for the party too. I want to do an under the sea themed canvas for Sugarwing's new room. She and her Hippy Chick Mommy just moved to a new place, and I wanted to do a painting for her as a gift. I'll nail it to the side of my house for the party, it will go with the theme.

My little fairy baby loves mermaids, even more than fairies. I nicknamed her Sugarwings before she was old enough to know what her likes and dislikes were going to be. But "Sugartail" just doesn't sound very wholesome, anyway.

That little girl loves to play in water, summertime and garden hoses are great for her. Poor Agnes Rosebud isn't as fond of watersports. You can tell by the look on her face that she knows that a cup of water is about to be poured on her again, and she is resigned to it. You can almost see the plan forming on Sugarwing's face too.

And its not such a bad thing on a hot day to be a bit wet.

By the way, have you seen "Dispicable Me" ? The cutest little orphan is named Agnes! Maybe this will become a trendy name. I hadn't heard that it was a popular one, have you? My dog is named after my grandma.

The little girl from the movie kind of looks like my Agnes Rosebud too. Here she is, its about 4 seconds, so look fast.

A silly way to spend a day

fairies, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 21, 2010

Isn't this a gorgeous pendant? I liked it on this bust so much that I thought about keeping it there, but I took the listing photos anyway, and will add it to the Boutique.

Along with a few other trinkets.

Hmmm, odd picture? My son found these rocks out in Western Kansas, I'm not sure what they are, but they are unique. Some of them are large and have caves in them, others look like little peanuts. Or, to Sugarwings and I, they looked like people. So we drew faces on the peanutty little rocks with black markers.

Some of the little stones looked more like dogs than people.

Sugarwing's Daddy brought a pile of these rocks and left them heaped up by my garage last year. I don't know why. I figured he had some plan for them and just ignored them. But today my fairy grand baby and I sat down to look at them and realized just what a gold mine of fun they were.

It was her idea to add the glitter. A lot of glitter.

I tied ribbons to a stick to make a flag. We built our "castle" near a weed that was growing through the rocks so our people could have some shade.

Funny, that such a silly thing made such a fun morning for me. I hope it was for her too. And I'm glad that I didn't nag at my son to "do something with those durn rocks or get rid of them!" like I had been tempted to do a few times over the last year or so.

She and I might have some of the peanut people come and live in our mini fairy garden too.

I am in CA playing mermaid with my arty friends and spa-ing it up, so this was written before I left, and I will not be able to answer emails or ship purchases until I return.

Please do leave comments, though, I love reading them. And each is an entry for the July Giveaway, a pair of genuine pearl and sterling silver earrings.

The best news EVER

Books, family, magazine pictures or articles, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 7, 2010

The superduper, extra strong, magnifying, scrutinizing, high def sonogram says that the baby is FINE. Fine, just fine. What better news could any grammie get?

Thanks for all of your prayers and well wishes and commiserating stories. It helped to have you guys to "talk" to while I was freaking out.

The baby's mama kept saying that she could feel that the baby had good energy and was okay. I wish I could have been as calm while waiting to find out.

Sugarwings hung out with me while all the testing was going on today, and we mostly played outside in the sweltering humidity. We went for a long walk in the woods and told scary stories about the Big Bad Wolf. I've yet to find anything that kid is afraid of, her favorite part of any story is the scary part.

She was over here about 5 hours today, and I am shocked that I was able to accomplish anything after playing with her out in the heat. (I'm still hot flashing from having my Premarin dosage cut in half, and the heat has been gruesome. My reaction to it is much scarier than any Big Bad Wolf)

I was able to make these two books in the little snippets of time I could grab here and there. The fairy grand baby went and laid down to watch a movie with my poor sick, husband. Remember how much I enjoyed a day to myself to putter in the studio while he was resting up with a sore throat?? Well, I feel really bad about that now, the poor guy has strep throat and had to be rushed to the Dr. yesterday with a fever so high he was delirious and crazy. He's better today, and appreciated Sugarwing's company.

I was surprised to hear from the Dr. that strep throat isn't that easy to catch and to not worry about the little one catching it unless she was drinking from the same cup. Or getting kisses. So, I let the two of them have some quiet time while I tried to recover from the humidity and hot flashes with a bit of nice air conditioned, peaceful studio time. Creating took my mind off the endless waiting to hear what the Super Duper Sonogram had to say too.

This darker book is made from a cabinet card folder, and filled with ephemera and water color paper pages that I stitched together.

Notice the initials on the tag? I found a brooch with C S on it, ideal for a gift to give to my buddy, Carol Spinski!

Her home is being photographed tomorrow by Fifi and I wanted to make a scrapbook/album for her to put copies of the pictures in. I found some French text about homes to use, and I sure don't know what it says, but its purdy. I thought it was fitting, since the Fabulous Fifi is French.

Looking through my stash, I found old pictures of farmhouses to use as accents.

There was a portrait in this card that I tore out, and I kind of liked the texture the glue left underneath. So, I didn't cover it up all the way, I just inked over the torn cardboard a bit with two colors of brown, and then added my embellishments over it.

The other book is for Fifi. Its more of a notebook, or journal for her trip to the Midwest to photograph farmhouses and also features old homesteads. Its a bit foofier than Carol's book.

I included garden pages from old magazines, and items with a "home" theme. And whenever I do one of these keepsake books, I always add lots of envelopes for tucking things away.

This book is made from one large piece of flocked wallpaper. I folded it in half and sewed all the way around the edges. Then, I turned up the bottom 1/3 to the inside, and stitched that to make a pocket all the way across the lower portion of the interior of the cover.

After stitching the cover together, I gathered water color paper and ephemera to make the pages and sewed them in.

Carol graciously let me invite myself over to say hi during the photo shoot. I've worked with Fifi before, but only over the phone, never in person.

I'm not known to be shy. So, of course, I asked if I could come over and visit and meet Fifi.

I promised to stay out of the way and keep my mouth shut, but offered to help if needed. I've gophered enough times during photo shoots to be helpful if they need someone. And I'm bringing a cake and some flowers. You never know what you might need for styling, and sometimes a piece of cake is just the right touch in a photo, or a simple pot of white flowers is a good filler in the background.

If its not needed, we can just eat the cake. It won't go to waste!

I've also styled enough shoots to know that another opinion isn't wanted, and I'll not bother them with mine. If I'm in the way, I'll say my 'nice to meet yas' and head out after delivering the goodies. But I've also known from shoots that I've done in the past, that sometimes, another body can be nice to have around for running errands, ironing something, trimming back a branch, tying up a loose end, or fetching a glass of water.

I'm a handy gopher.

Another editor that I've done articles for but have never met is Barbara Jacksier. Its ironic that tomorrow while I'm meeting Fifi, I am missing an opportunity to talk to Barbara during a live online chat and meet her!

I hope that you can tune into the chat and ask her some decor info. She
has always seemed like such a nice person, I'm sure she is easy to talk
to. And boy, does she KNOW her stuff!

Here is the info you need to visit her:

She is going to be on their Home Front
live chat as a follow up to her book.

It's Thursday July 8 from 11 AM
til noon. Please spread the word.

The Live Chat link is http://live.washingtonpost.com/home-front-07-08-10.html if that doesn't automatically link click
on www.barbarajacksier.com

Frittering

Books, celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / July 6, 2010

Yesterday, was a lazy one. My husband stayed in bed with a sore throat and we had a gentle rain all day, so all boating plans were canceled. I considered it a free day to do what ever I wanted, by myself. A bonus studio day! But actually, I puttered about and did almost nothing. Which was kind of nice.

I did start this little collage.

And I put together this mini art journal. I listed it in my Boutique this morning for $12.50 if you are interested.

That's about it, for 8 hours in the studio! I frittered away time blog surfing, and just poking around, organizing some supplies and watching a few episodes of the Tudors that I had recorded. I'm going to miss that series, I've always been attracted to that time period. Showtime did a good job with Henry, next they are tackling the Borgias. I can't wait for that one!

I used to loved historical romances. When I was in my teens, I read the ones written under the name Victoria Holt and just about adored those. Later on, when I found out that she had written about all the kings and queens of Europe under the name Jean Plaidy, I quickly devoured those. And there were a LOT of them. Here is the list.

And here are the Victoria Holt titles. Just looking over that list brings back so many memories of the time of my life when I was hooked on all of her writing.

There is another long list of books under the name Phillipa Carr. Which for some reason I never read many of. I think that once I out grew the Holt novels and discovered the more historical Plaidy novels, I didn't care to go back to read light romances any more.

Its been ages since I've read any of those, but I have enjoyed the Tudor/Bolyn series by Phillipa Gregory. I hear she has started on the Plantagenets now, and look forward to reading those.

Seems like I don't bother to read as much as I did when I was young. I had a 2-3 book a week habit back then. Now, I rarely find something that pulls me in and makes me finish it as fast as I can. It could be that its just too tempting to flip from blog to blog and spend my free time reading those.

But for the trip to California next week, I've been stock piling some good reads for the plane and the beach. The Worst Hard Time (for bookclub), and the new Jennifer Weiner to start with.

When I'm home, I just seem to be too distracted to read a lot. I always have one open, but it sometimes takes me a week or two to finish it. I do love TV… that cuts into book time.

And yesterday, puttering around the studio took up most of the day. I had some packages to wrap up, and was having way too much fun filling boxes that I was sending out. This one is for a friend. I was sending her a little something and ended up adding more and more since I was using a flat rate box, I thought it should be full!

This little person is another reason why I don't get lost in books like I did in the past. I read more "Hop on Pop", the "Grumpy Fairy" or "Miss Mary Mack" than I do anything else.

On the 4th, we got to visit one of Twinkle's puppies. Remember the parti colored guy? He is HUGE! He is almost double the weight of Agnes Rosebud, and he was the runt of the litter.

We had Sugarwings for most of the day on the 4th. She and I baked cupcakes for America's birthday and had a parade with sparklers while belting out patriotic songs I couldn't remember the words to. Then, we went downtown to a party in the park with live music, games, and food.

But we didn't stay for dinner, my handsome husband (that is him behind the fairy grand baby. Cute, huh?) took me out to a restaurant and a movie while Sugarwings stayed at the park with her mommy.

It was a pretty good holiday weekend, over all. I hope yours was too?

Happy 4th! and unhappy hair

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, holiday decor, jewelry, Sugarwings, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / July 3, 2010

We've had a bit of much needed rain, but not enough to spoil any fun. Yesterday, we had a family cookout and a trip to the lake.

Sugarwings has taken off like a little mermaid this summer, and swims circles around us in the water (with a life jacket). Just a week ago, she was clinging to us like an octopus when we'd get in the lake together. Now, she is dog paddling all over the place and we have to try to keep up with her to keep her in sight!

We aren't the only ones trying to keep up with her. Little Agnes Rosebud is always following her around the yard.

That pup doesn't seem to mind the treatment she gets from Sugarwings and keeps coming back for more playtime, even though she is the toy.

Have I introduced you to Clover yet? She is one of our expected grand baby's big sisters. And she is a kid who LOVES to play dress up. I can see lots of fun times ahead for the two of us. Sugarwings likes to put on a pretty gown, then go play and get dirty in it. Or strips down naked and throws the dress in the wading pool. She is okay with the game, but it is just a small part of her play time. I think she indulges me sometimes because she knows I like it so much.

Clover takes it much more serious than that. To her, dressing up is the main event.

In a couple of years, she and I will have to teach the new baby girl to appreciate the fine art of dress up.

Please keep the new baby in your thoughts, she will be having a high def sonogram on Wednesday to find out more about her development. We need her to be strong and healthy for future dress up games!!

Bottoms Up was a blast yesterday. Well, anytime I get to visit junking buddies is a good time. Carol and I went straight to Beth's booth where I filled up a bag (and she gave me a discount on top of her already great deals, thanks Beth!) I'll have some pics of the loot later.

Then, we headed up to see our Texas friends, Linda and Ludmil of Willow's Nest and shop a bit with them before exploring the show.

Seeing Linda's glorious white hair makes me want to embrace my gray and go natural. Especially since I hate my new hair color. It is supposed to be highlighted and blond, but looks more mousy brown in the photos.

I rarely care about how my hair turns out at the beauty shop. I'm old enough to know I can do something different next time and can enjoy a look that might not be exactly what I wanted since I know its only temporary anyway. Too short grows out. Too dark can be lightened. I just wait till next time.

But this time, I just am NOT happy at all. It just feels blah. And I am not in the mood for blah.

I am going back for a redo and asking for a blonder look. When a trip to the salon costs about $140, I'd like to get the color I asked for. What do you think? Would you go back for a redo and complain? I'll do it politely of course!

Here are some of my favorites from Willow's Nest. I treated myself to a sparkling little shoe that Linda made. They remind me of Dorothy's slippers from the Wizard of Oz. In the books, the shoes are silver, they were only ruby in the movie.

I hope you have a wonderful Independence Weekend!

If you travel, be sure to buckle up!!

I'll leave you with a few new bits in the Boutique. I'm trying to add to it a little each day this week. Mostly vintage and flea market goods, but I will have some altered books coming this week too.

Simple Summer Centerpiece

family, flowers

By Karla Nathan / June 26, 2010

Today, Sugarwings and I picked some parsley and dill that had started to flower. I try to keep my herbs pinched back so they grow lush and full, but sometimes it just gets away from me.

And I'm kind of glad that I let it go this time, they had some pretty blooms. A bit like Queen Anne's Lace, one of my favorites.

So, instead of just pinching it back, we cut long stems of the fragrant blooms and brought them into the dining room.

I tend to have a lot going on in my house, decoratively (and emotionally!) so I really enjoy the simple look of a white pot full of blooming parsley on the table.

Thank you to everyone who offered prayers and encouragement about the expected baby and her possible difficulties. We are trying to not worry too much until more tests tell us that we need to. For now, we are thinking happy thoughts her way.

Itchy Bitchy

family

By Karla Nathan / June 24, 2010

My two hours of playing hooky to play with the fairy grand baby turned into two nights of her staying over and two days of entertaining her on my own. Her Daddy's beloved, is in the hospital with a bad kidney infection, so I was watching Sugarwings while her Daddy stayed at the hospital too.

Sugarwings can be a…. challenge. I don't say Hyperactive, I say Enthusiastic. She has a ZEST for life and lives each moment to its fullest. Non stop. She's not exactly a shy and retiring type.

And normally I keep up and enjoy the ride. But this week, with worries about her Daddy's loved one, who is pregnant, I was distracted.

Plus, I am miserably itchy. If you've spent any time in this part of the country in summer, you'll know what a chigger is.

Its the world's most evil creature. A million times worse than any freaking mosquito.

And on top of my chigger bites (they are always along underwear lines, if that tells you anything), I seem to have gotten poison ivy.

My poison ivy rash is not in exposed areas of my body, so I couldn't have brushed the leaves while walking on the trails.

Now, I don't remember running naked through the woods lately. Or even half naked. So, my theory is that I was visited by chiggers, and then must have got the urushiol from the poison ivy plant on my hands from the dogs, who do play in the woods, then scratched my bites and spread the poison ivy rash on the chigger bites.

That should be enough to make any one grumpy. But, it gets better. The Dr. has decided to lower my dosage of Premarin by half.

All I could think of the last couple days, besides worrying about the pregnant mommy and her baby, was swallowing a handful of hormone tablets chased with a giant goblet of Riesling and soaking in a cool bath filled with baking soda (did I mention that the heat index was in the 100s here and Sugawings wanted to play outside the whole time???)

I should have thought of this sooner!

No, really, it was Sugarwings idea. Agnes Rosebud could climb out of her 4 foot high pen, and drop onto her head on the cement floor. So, I had to assemble a dog cage, with a top and bottom so she would stay put.

I covered it with a table cloth and to Sugarwings, it became a fort and she wanted to stay in there and play with the pup.

Even when I'm cranky, she can make me laugh.

Sugarwings is staying with her Hippy Chick Mommy tonight, I get her back at noon tomorrow when her mommy goes to work. So, I thought I'd spend the evening working on the computer, just to find that my printer wouldn't work. After FOUR HOURS of messing with it, I drove to Best Buy and got a new one. I was in no mood to mess with it any longer.

So, the new printer is installed, I listed new stuff in the shop, and mailed packages, Sugarwings is having a fun night with Mommy, and now the expectant mother has been released from the hospital and ordered to be on bed rest. I'm going to make her some soup and check on her now.

She has had some bad news about the baby. We are terrified that there are problems with the new baby girl who is due in November. Please keep my girls in your prayers. Its pretty scary around here.

And I've realized that there is a lot of range in just how bad a bad day can be. I was irritated and grouchy and itchy before and thought that printer issues were about as bad as it was going to get.

Then, the news about the tiny little baby totally zapped me out of it all. My irritations seemed pretty small in the face of the news that our new little girl was in danger. Now, its really a bad day.

How I spent my summer vacation

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Sugarwings, Travel, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 15, 2010

Bringing puppies with us on the trip was such a good idea. I went back and forth up to the last minute on whether or not I should take them. I talked to a friend about babysitting them, I wrote everyone who had shown an interest to see if they wanted to buy one CHEAP before I went out of town, I fretted and fussed and worried about them getting too hot in the car or peeing everywhere in my sis's home.

Sissy said she'd be disappointed if I didn't bring them, and I hated the thought of missing the last bit of time with them before they were moving on to new families, so I decided to pack them up.

It was the right decision. We spent a lot of time outside enjoying Sissy's lovely garden and patio, and the pups could run and play with Sugarwings.

And since I had litter box trained them (smartest thing I've EVER done!!) they were safe to leave at home, penned up with their box nearby while we went out and explored.

We took our fairy girl to the June Jamboree in Pendleton, IN. It was an event I impatiently waited for all year when I was growing up there. I really thought she'd love it too. And yes, she had fun and rode some rides, but my little nature girl was much more interested in the park and waterfall we walked through to get to the rides. Walking along the creek and watching the waterfall was mesmerizing her so much that we had to convince her to come along to the flashing lights and carnival music up ahead.

Smart kid.

She is realizing at a young age that true happiness comes from the simple things.

We also spent time in Mounds State Park. When I was a kid, we were taught in the Indiana history books that it was an Indian burial grounds. Now they know that the mounds were built for some equinox reason.

Its been 30 years or more since I've been there, and I'd forgotten what a beautiful place it was. Sugarwing's Daddy, Mr. Zen Master really loved it there.

Leave it to my family to go hiking in white clothes and barefoot. But aren't they pretty that way?

Yes, very pretty. What a sweet, happy couple these two are.

White didn't work out so well for me. My sisses and I went to Sephora while out shopping and I leaned up against a sample lipstick display and ended up with a series of pale pink through plum polka dots along my skirt.

Any hints on how to remove lipstick from white cotton?

That is, if there are any of you left out there to answer after making you look at all my family vacation photos. I promise, next post will have some arty or old stuff in it.

Lucky charms

antiques/junking, collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, flowers, Sugarwings, Travel, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 14, 2010

We had a great trip to Indiana! Traveling with 3 puppies and one 3 year old made the drive challenging, but unique. Instead of stopping for typical roadside breaks, we needed to find spots for all the little ones to stretch and play. Lunch was a quick trip to Trader Joe's in St Louis to pick up a picnic, then take it to a city park to eat it and play for an hour or so.

And for one break, we found a giant field of clovers to run in.

Adam's loved one has magical four leaf clover hunting skills. I've spent a life time trying to find just ONE. She says its all in the way you look at them. I consider myself a lucky person, and I have sharp eyes, but I can't find a lucky clover for anything. And I search!!

Its been a quest of mine since I was a little girl. Other goals, I've had to leave behind. Like trying to go one full mile on a pogo stick. I spent an entire summer when I was about 8 years old on that one, and had to give it up. Or the summer I tried to learn how to do a back flip into the pool. My body just doesn't do those and I gave up that dream too.

I'm not giving up on the clover search, and now I have a Clover Master to teach me her skills.

My poor little car was filled to the brim on the way there, and we had to half unload it every time we got the pups out.

But it was not too full to add some purchases along the way! My hat whispering skills were in fine form and I found so many (cheap!) along I70, that I am almost embarrassed to tell you about it.

These are just a few that I have unpacked so far. The rest are in my suitcase with all the dirty laundry and I am avoiding that. Its hard enough to admit a vacation is over, doing up the laundry and unpacking is just too much to face.

(The wallpaper covered box is full of old corsages. I got a bag filled with them for $11.)

So, I maybe my lucky charm isn't a four leaf clover its a millinery flower?

All the puppies are settled into their new homes now. We are down to Agnes Rose, who I am calling Rosebud instead of Rose now. She is just too little to be a big flower, she's just a bud.

I'm adjusting to the fact that we actually KEPT one. A couple days ago, she was one of the pups, now she is MY dog.

Well, that point is debatable. Someone else claims Agnes Rosebud.

They kept each other company for most of the drive home.