family – Page 7 – Karla's Cottage

From Fairytale to Haunted Mansion

By Karla Nathan / July 10, 2023

Sugarwings will be SEVENTEEN this August.

SEVENTEEN

How and when did that happen? That also means my blog will soon be 17.

This is the very first photo I posted of that lil sprite.

And this is my most recent photo of this piece of my heart. Before leaving for a summer in North Carolina with Dad, we went to the Omaha Zoo together. And I have to say that trips and outings with this kid are 100% as enjoyable as they were years ago. This person will always be filled with magic, curiosity, and joy in exploration.

Sugarwings has been a good sport about living in a mermaid/fairytale bedroom but confided in me that there was a Pinterest wish board of a Nightmare Before Christmas/Haunted Mansion style that they loved.

At first, I thought that I would redo the room as a surprise, but had second thoughts and decided to include their wishes long distance. And I was glad that I did, we had a good time texting pictures and colors back and forth across the country.

So, I repainted and put the room together, showing the steps by text as they were completed. ( One bit of control that I kept over the process was gathering color samples that I approved myself before saying, “what color do you want.” This way, I got a shade of plum that I was fine with on the walls as opposed to a possible tone that might’ve driven me bonkers.)
Sugarwings also did not want to rip up the murals that were in the room they had used off and on. We have two rooms upstairs that have been switched up over the years from nursery, guest room, Dewdrop’s space, Sugarwings’ dwelling, toy room, etc. We like to redecorate periodically.

This photo is from a few years ago, the bed had been repainted since, but the walls are the same, and my soft hearted sweetie was too sentimental to lose this mural.

The solution was to flip rooms. This one was much smaller and had no closet.

But there was a little walkway into it that had a linen closet. At one time, this was our laundry room, now the washer and dryer are downstairs. We were able to move the linen closet shelves to the mural room’s closet and set up a clothes rod in this area, and there you go.

This new bedroom was now feeling much larger than it would have if I’d had to squeeze in a wardrobe for storage.

Once things were repainted or reconstructed, the fun part began. I went through my Good Juju inventory and shopped for black furniture and odds and ends to decorate with. Sugarwings already had dragons, and a few other things they’d want to use. I arranged everything for now, but I am sure that when the kiddo gets back from NC, there will be some rearranging to suit their own taste.

When Dewdrop was little, she loved Snow White, so I’d made this for her with that theme as a magic mirror. The silver in was scraped off with a razor blade and a picture could be seen inside the mirror.

Now, I’ve given the pink flowers a black wash of paint and removed Snow White’s photo. There is now a skull with a flower crown peeking through the mirror. If this is too creepy, we can easily change it, the picture is just taped on the back. I might’ve gone too far with this, Sugarwings did have more of a Disney theme planned.

But I knew a slightly creepy edge would be appreciated.

I discovered that a coat of black changes many things from shabby chic to gothic. Both are ornamental styles.

Because of the low ceilings and small footprint, this room has a platform bed with drawers underneath. I added a piece of a vintage iron headboard on the wall behind it to make the bed feel more substantial. It had been hanging outside, so was nice and rusty.
I left both white to keep the room from becoming too heavy.

The ballerina bats are some that I sell at Halloween. Simple, plastic bat skeletons with vintage flowers and tutus.

Sugarwings wanted green for sheets because that is a shade from Disney’s Haunted Mansion. And a striped comforter similar to Jack Skellington’s pants. This was as close as I could get in a comforter at a reasonable price. I found it at Ross along with the fluffy rug. The sheets and curtains are Amazon. Besides paint and rid brackets for the closet, everything else was scrounged from the house or repurposed.

I sure miss having that child around, but we will be visiting the North Carolina side of the family soon. And redoing this bedroom has made me feel a little closer to Sugarwings during the separation.

A quick an unexpected getaway

family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / June 8, 2023

I really should’ve gotten more pictures, I was just so relaxed and carefree, I rarely had my camera out.

Plus, it was a very short trip. And a very last minute trip. My sissies had been planning for months, but I didn’t even think about joining in, I knew it wasn’t good timing for me.

Instead, I filled my yard with a flock of flamingos (from a friend) and wished Bobbie and Sissy well on their vacation.

I was fine with not going on this trip, because I’ll be meeting up with them and their daughters in Sarasota next October. I enjoyed listening to all of the planning and was excited for them to be headed to Indian Shores now, but I was fine about not being a part of this jaunt.

Then, I started to feel like I was just missing out too much. Between six months of struggling with getting the Grandfairy’s grades up, with so much of my free time being Homework Police instead of getting to do the fun stuff the kiddo and I typically did together and with drawn out recovery time from my concussion, I was feeling like a shut in.

My husband and I had planned to take a quick trip in the camper with the dogs to see family in North Carolina, but my headaches, Grandfairy requirements, and work needed to get ready for Good Juju made me cancel. (I still need to hang out in a dark room sometimes for Post Concussion Syndrome and a camper full of dogs doesn’t offer that kind of space)

Plus it’s prime garage sale season, the time of year I pick up a majority of my inventory for the year.

So Rich left most of the dogs with me and went without the camper, and took some extra time to see even more people we’d been missing. The day before he was due back I was feeling pretty down, from so many headaches and even worse over the 3 year mark of Ryan’s death. That period between Mother’s Day and May 24th is brutal.

That’s when I decided that I needed a change. Sophomore finals were over. Rich would be back to watch dogs. There aren’t good garage sales over Memorial Day. My booth was set up. The Florida condo had dark, quiet spaces if I needed one. I had points on Southwest and my sisters had an empty room at the beach.

I was gone at 6am the next day.

And I was so glad that I went! I think that a few days of zero stress, lots of sleep, and no work or responsibilities was just the ticket I needed to help break that cycle of headaches.

Not to mention the relaxation of laughing with my sissies, splashing, watching dolphins, and eating seafood.

I didn’t even need the dark room while there.

A tale of tech troubles and many mushrooms

cottage, family, mushrooms

By Karla Nathan / April 25, 2023

Remember my quest to make two hundred mushrooms? I am on my way. Especially if you count three at a time on one display.

Working on fungi this week has been a wonderful escape from my digital woes. OMG, my email issues have been a nightmare. From hours on the phone, re-explaining, waiting to codes, call backs and answers that never come, to finally being able it get into it, but in a round about, not so easy way.

It gave me great joy to chop right into the lacy skirt of a vintage gown to make sweet, lil schroomies! If I am feeling frustration with some of life’s irritations, a dab of creative time can be just what I need to forget my troubles.

Not only was my email messing with me, we had issues with getting tax forms we needed, and were also dealing with a dead phone and a hard to find replacement, then all of the minor little glitches that can pop up in a new phone once it is set up.

Rich lost his phone deep in the woods. He’d found two pounds of morels, but realized his iPhone wasn’t in the pocket where he’d last seen it.

Oops!

So he trudged back through swamps and deadfalls with no luck. Then drove 45 minutes home to get the iPad so he could track the phone. Then re-trudged through the woods and the swamps and the deadfalls to search again, this time, armed with Find My iPhone.

But once again, Oops.

The ipad didn’t have cellular and wouldn’t work without his phone. He drove the 45 minutes back to our house, retraced his steps, this time while carrying my iPhone and a working app. Success! He found it after a full day of looking, or trying to get to the other side of the swamp to look.

He came home very dirty, washed his clothes right away so I wouldn’t get poison ivy from a laundry basket, which I often do after he has been hiking. And you do remember me saying that we had been trying to replace a dead phone? Yep. He was so diligent about getting his woodsy clothes washed that he forgot to check pockets and also washed the phone he had looked for all day that was in the pocket.

It was too funny to be upset about. We invited some friends over to eat fried morels with us, and I spent some time crafting to forget about all of our technology issues. The day off was certainly needed and helped my frame of mind.

We survived The City Museum and can’t wait to risk our lives there again

family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / February 16, 2023

My poor Rich has spent the last 3 1/2 months working in Ohio at a consulting job, with minimal visits home. He only has a couple weeks left and will finally be back with us soon.

We have always celebrated Valentine’s Day as a family holiday, with special memories for us and our boys. This year with Ryan gone and Adam so far away, and Rich working in Ohio, we sadly thought it might just go by without our typical festivities.

Rich had the weekend off, but not long enough to get home so Sugarwings and I met him in St Louis and we had an outing at the City Museum as a slightly early Valentine date, then went to The Hill (the historic Italian district) for a fancy night out.

We were not all together as a big group, and it wasn’t exactly on the 14th, but it helped, and was quite special.

The City Museum is crazy.

Completely, totally, beyond crazy.

See that iron slinky? It’s made for humans to climb through. For floor after floor.

And speaking of floors, there are pits every where. Most aren’t lit up, they are just black holes meant for kids to disappear into. Some come out around the corner, others lead to the basement. And there are dozens of them. The gift shop sells miner’s helmets for kids to wear to explore the tunnels.

Other crevices lead to slides, stairs, or to bubbles inside of an aquarium. You just don’t know where you will end up if you slip into one of these black holes.

It has to be one of the most imaginative, creative places a kid could have to play in, it is well done and just beautiful too. But I can’t believe it is safe.
I was so glad I had never been there when the grand fairies were tiny. My mind would've exploded trying to keep my eyes on them.

It was one of those rare times in life when you thank god you have a teenager.

It was funny to me that this area was gated off. What, kids are not allowed to play in the giant box fan? Why not, it seems safer than some of the other areas.

We didn’t even see a fraction of it, there are billions of nooks and crannies, a rusty, ten story slide with a rickety spiral staircase, and a whole sharp, pointy, rusty, sky high climbing grid outside as tall as the big building.

Everywhere you looked, there was something clever, funny, intriguing, or deadly.

It goes on for floor after floor with interactive spaces, play areas, and death traps. (Sooooo many tiny holes for kids to skitter away into) AND SO DANG COOL!

And an aquarium. And it’s a museum. Not just a twisted playground aimed to tease all phobias.

There were actual museum cases with artifacts surrounding one playground.

And genuine architectural elements everywhere. Not to mention murals and mosaics galore. And a bug/animal skeleton room with specimens behind glass. We spent a long time in the craft room making art too.

And in the art museum looking at displays.

There were tons of details about the old building it is in.

And odd details like walls made out of baking tins.

If I lived any closer, I’d have a season pass. There is no way to see it all in one day.

My January Set Up for Good Juju

family, Good JuJu, holiday decor, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / January 3, 2023

My booth this month is all about winter, and a bright spot in the cold months, Valentine's Day.

One wall is all hearts, roses, with pink mushrooms and wings. I'd hoped to put up cabbage rose wallpaper, but ran into a snag. Oh well, next month.

But honestly, you don't really see much of the wall anyway, huh?

Another areas are neutral and white.

Which is always a favorite of mine to do.

Well, the roses make me happy too, but I think that the neutral tones are more popular at this venue.

But I can't always just stick to neutrals, there are other cool items that I find that I know there is a market for. Luckily, my space can be chopped up into chunks where I can do different themes.

And my new, tiny, wing wall is a great place to highlight a grouping. Here are examples of the ruffled wings (also for sale) and kits to make your own.

Over the holiday, I did some kitchen table crafting. We had supplies out for decorating gingerbread houses, cookies, Sugarwings had polymer clay, Dewdrop had bracelet, and I made dozens of wings and hearts from wire and lace. The family was coming and going, but mostly staying put because of the bone chilling cold. I wasn't caring about clutter or mess, I just enjoyed the big group and spent time crafting away in the middle of them.

I had the best of both worlds. Time with family and time to make things!

I don't even know how many I churned out. After wings, I started on pink and red mushrooms. As a person who typically spends a lot of time alone in the studio, I sure was happy to have so much company while working. My son even joined in and bent wire for me. It has been sad to go from a bustling houseful of loved ones to me in my studio alone again. Sugarwings is still on winter break, so I am not totally alone, I've got my buddy.

A Family Together Christmas

celebrations, family, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 27, 2022

Like it was for so many of the people across the country, the weather was a big challenge this holiday. Luckily, we did fine, unlike so many stranded at airports, stuck on icy roads, or barricaded up in cold houses with no heat.

Our discomforts were minor. My husband’s flight home was cancelled, but he was able to drive. Our pipes froze, but only the kitchen. After some insulating and blasting a space heater toward them, 24 hours later, we had water.

I’ve been horrified thinking about all the people stranded at airports. And even worse, on the snowy highways.

I feel so blessed to have had my people with me, all cozied up in our warm house.

We made bath products, gingerbread houses, sugar cookies and SO MANY DINNERS.

Sugarwings made sculpy characters like this gruesome zombie gingerbread guy. Dewdrop made bracelets. I made lace Angel wings.

There was snuggling.

Laughing, lots of laughing with the little ones

We decorated the dogs for the holiday too.

Dewdrop decorated herself.

None of the hats or antlers fit little Dorothy, so she was slipped into an elf hat.

My favorite part, though? The two littlest grand fairies, who are not so little any more, put on swimsuits and had a pool party in the jacuzzi tub. With rubber ducks, while singing Christmas carols. It made me so happy to hear their giggles and songs.

With the family spread across the country, and the littles growing up, I know that these big gatherings have a shelf life.

I count my blessings every time my house fills up.

The elves are drunk

fairies, family, Food and Drink, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 17, 2022

Some of these elves are from my childhood, others have been collected over time. I’ve always loved the little sprites and one of my favorite memories at the holidays was being allowed to play with the three mouse head elves on the tree.

Why were the elves mice? That wasn’t a question that I ever thought of back then.

When the Elf on a Shelf craze started a few years back, I bought the grand fairies a couple new ones. We didn’t really play the spy game with them, they were mostly cuddled, loved, and included in holiday activities. Like a favorite stuffy.

Now that Sugarwings is a teenager, the elves are getting into trouble that kid surprises me with various drunken elf scenes and messes.

I bought some of those chocolate liqueur candies and the elves think I purchased those just for them.

I never know where I’ll find a drunken elf getting into trouble.

One seems to be the instigator.

They try to make up for it by doing something sweet.

Bad Girls Christmas

family, friends, holiday decor, jewelry, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / December 14, 2022

Our annual Bad Girls’ Christmas was again hosted by Angie, in her serene palace in the sky. It’s on the 8th floor and overlooks the KC Plaza, a wonderful view.

She is a caring hostess with attention to every detail. Everything there is always just perfect there. Well, everything but my blurry photos.

This one was a bit blurry too, but you can still see the fun!

She lives near Kaufman Gardens so we walk over to see the holiday displays. It feels good to be surrounded by blooms on a chilly, winter day.

I brought gifts, Beth loves buttons.

Angie always picks up autumn leaves.

She went all Julia Childs on us and served Beef Bourgignon, and oh man, it was good. But I’m afraid everyone had to listen to me do my (very poor) Julia imitation too many times.

I am blessed with the friends I have. And I know how lucky I am. When Rich and I were first married, his job uprooted us a lot. And I had two small boys, one who struggled pretty severely with some disabilities. Those guys both kept me busy, and between always being new in town, and needing to be with the kids, I didn’t meet many people.

Ryan grew into a delightful, caring, witty man, but his childhood was not easy for him. I think that his little body could not keep up with his mind, and his frustration about making himself understood, or to do what he wanted caused a lot of turmoil.

Speaking of Ryan, I felt like I had a surprise visit from him! An article I was reading mentioned street view on Google maps, and I’d never looked at our home there. So I pulled it up, and there he was- mowing the field and getting some sunshine.

At first it was shock to see him, but after a moment, I felt a warmth of happiness, almost as if I’d looked out the window and caught a glimpse of him.

After finishing a scrapbook of my pictures of Ryan, I came across something I wanted to add to it with another photo on it. Then it hit me.

I would never take another picture of my boy.

So finding this one online was a Christmas gift!

He is always with me, and in my heart. But I sure miss seeing him on that mower. Or walking down the sidewalk. Or gleefully throwing his head back in laughter.

Losing a loved one, plus having had those early years of struggle, and loneliness without close friends, makes me even more appreciative of having good friends now.

I treasure our times together.

A new look for old Christmas ornaments

family, Hand painted, holiday decor, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / November 18, 2022

Sometimes an inspiration comes from one simple idea. Other times things just fall into place as you are going and it all just seems like you planned it out, but you didn’t, it just came together.

I had been gifted this magnificent buffet, with inlaid MOP, burned wood, and a pure white, marble top. It is nicer than any piece of furniture I’d have ever bought for myself, and I wanted to highlight it for the holidays

To honor the lovely wood, I thought I’d go more natural with the tree I usually set in that area.

Well, natural for me at least. They’re still sparkly silver! But the decor is centered around nature and family. Birds from my Mom’s house, hand made bird ornaments from friends, deer, fairies, stars, and lots of pinecones, from the day Ryan and I gathered them together.

Every time I think of that day, I have to laugh, it had been so funny for us, freezing, while stuffing pinecones in pockets and inside jackets while the big doodle dog pulled on the leash and I slid down the sidewalk, with Ryan trying to hold me back.
We laughed so hard and joked about it for months, every time we walked by there.
Of course, it was also the day the dog jerked the leash and messed up my shoulder, but we were still laughing and I remember rolling on the wet ice, laugh crying at one point.

I have only been brave enough to walk on the trail where we found those pinecones a couple of times this year. And one time resulted in the same laugh/crying on the ground again. This time, all alone. And the pain from the loss of Ryan is much worse than a torn rotator cuff.

The Christmas after Ryan died, I returned to our spot and gathered up every pinecone I could find. Almost as if I could NOT leave any behind, they were all symbols of Ryan and I and where we used to spend so much time together. So now, I have a lifetime supply of pinecones and they will always be a part of my winter decorating.

This Christmas, I filled the bowl of this garden planter (free at a a garage sale!) with lights and my precious memory pinecones and added a tree filled with hand painted ornaments I’d made for my boy over the years.

When my boys were little, I was a single mom working as a waitress and depending upon my own mom for help. At the holidays, I would paint dozens of glass balls to sell to anyone I could to raise money to buy gifts for my kids. I never left the house in December without a boxful and was even known to approach strangers in parking lots to sell these.

And every season, I painted and dated one for each family member.

The ones I did for my boys were very 80s themed!

Ha, Gremlins and ET!

He loved Frosty and Rudolf. Ryan loved shows all of his life and it’s fun for me to look back through these and realize just how many were based upon his favorite movies that year.

And as he got older, his first car, the horrid, orange, “Punkin”.

I haven’t unboxed the family ornaments in years, they haven’t been my style or fit in with my current trees. And I was saddened to see so many were missing. And I wondered why I quit this tradition. But I am lucky to have these.

Even this heart breaker.

It was a happy Halloween

celebrations, cottage, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / November 12, 2022

At this point, Halloween is long past, withering away in its crypt.

Due to my inability to use my blog, I didn’t get to share the holiday, so I’ll post some highlights now. As I upload these pictures, I am sitting in the glow of my Christmas tree.

But that doesn’t mean much. Around here, the flip is fast. Almost, but not quite like at Disney, where over night on October 31st, the entire park is transformed from one holiday into the other.

We go through more of a Nightmare Before Christmas scenario, where they are jumbled together for a couple days during the switcheroo.

Sugarwings loves the spooky decor and does not want it touched if she is with us. But I needed help with getting the big tree put together and Rich was going out of town. My choices were to ask him to help before he left and have the tree set up, with all the heavy boxes of decorations piled up around the pumpkin and bat filled house or do it myself later.

Of course, I asked for the help! So we had a messy mix of two overlapping decor styles.

I used to wait til thanksgiving weekend to deck the halls. Our motto was, “You Must Respect the Bird” and wait for that holiday to pass before enjoying twinkle lights. But not any more. I have changed it to “You Must Respect the Pumpkin” and don’t even let the jack-o-lanterns start to moulder before I fill the house with joy and light fro the trees.

But no, we don’t totally gloss over Thanksgiving. I de-skull and un-spookify the table, but leave the pumpkins out on it till after the turkey has been consumed. The pumpkins either light up or have glitter, so I am happy with the compromise.

Sugarwings still trick or treats, and since my mind is already on gingerbread and garlands, I asked her to save some candy for building our gingie cottages.

As much as I love spring time weather, and the heat of summer, this has to be my favorite time of year. I dread the coming of cold weather, but love all the hustle and bustle that comes around when the leaves drop and snow starts to fall.

Ugh, did I really just say that!? Snow and falling leaves can be truly despicable (and way too cold).

But I do love the transition into Christmas, so if I have to put up with a chill to get to be surrounded by twinkle lights, we’ll, I guess I’ll just deal with it.