flowers – Page 11 – Karla's Cottage

In the Guncles’ Garden and some travel woes

By Karla Nathan / April 7, 2013

On my trip to Florida, I didn't even make it anywhere near a beach. As much as I love staring at the ocean, on a quick trip, I'm so happy at the Guncle's house I don't even remember that the Atlantic is nearby.

Their home and garden are so inviting, and they are so welcoming, it's a joy to be there and part of their little family.

After the cold Feb. and March we've had in KS, I was happy just to see some sunshine. While I was there, it was snowing up a blizzard back home. I thought my timing was great for the trip when I heard that. Originally, I had planned to go home on Sunday, but there was such a huge difference in ticket prices, that I changed it to Monday to help out Karen, who was gifting me with the ticket.

And it snowed at home on Sunday, so I thought I'd made the right choice, I had a craft day with Guncle Randy and some time to hug the doggies.

But the snow caused major airline delays on Monday too. I sat at the Jacksonville airport for hours before it was confirmed that I was not getting home that night. My cold had turned into a pounder of a sinus infection and I wanted my own bed more than anything else.

The guncles are the best hosts ever, but I needed to get home somehow and if I stayed overnight again in Jacksonville, I wouldn't be able to catch a flight till the next evening, plus the guys would have to work, so I wouldn't even see them till time to catch a ride to the airport.

Normally, I am pretty tough. But I think, being sick for a few days away from home and trying to pretend I wasn't sick through all the social activities that were too fun to miss, had worn me down. I am embarrassed to say that I called my husband crying when I found out I was stuck at the airport.

What a big baby.

And of course, tears do NOT make a sinus problem feel any better. The pounding became a steady wallopping.

So, my husband got online and found the quickest route home, through nashville, away from the snowy places, then early the next morning, back to KS and home by 8:30 am. He arranged a hotel and shuttle for me too, and I felt much better.

Now, all that is stuff I could do myself with no trouble, but it was sweet for him to take over and take care of me. It's sure nice to have someone who cares enough to take charge when you are down.

And it doesn't hurt to let someone take care of you sometimes. As moms or grammies we tend to always be the ones who take care of everyone else, don't we?

Craft day with Carol Spinski, Debbie Dusenberry, and Amy Barickman, woo hoo!

flowers, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / January 14, 2013

Last Tuesday, Amy, Carol, and Debbie came over for a craft day and lunch. It was a fun day of catching up, creating, and chatting.

Amy's friend, Cindy, came by for a while, it was nice to meet a local Lawrence lady who was a big shot blogger (Skip to my Lou). I had no idea. Wow, 2,000,000 hits a month?? Not only was she a big time blogger, she was sweet as can be, which is appropriate since she has a store called Sweet.

In the kitchen, my dining table was set with a drop cloth cover, white mismatched linens, cream plates, and white salad plates with tiny rosebuds. I added matt white pottery vases with bright roses (on Mondays, my local Kroger marks leftover flowers down to $1.99 so I snaf up armloads, then feel greedy and put back all but two to take up. Happens every time. I see the sale price and start grabbing, then stop myself).

The look of the room inspired me to get out some Valentiney themed and colored papers to add to the all neutral books we were making. I loved the look so much, in the room and in the book I made that I thought it would be fun to have a workshop to create Valentine journals. The details are in the previous post and I'll have some photos coming up in a couple days with more info.

Knowing that
Carol and Debbie were both fans of "low color" style,I'd set out a
studio table full of neutral ephemera so that we could sift through and
pull together pages that we wanted to use in our books.

I'll be providing similar for the books we will make in class. As a matter of fact, I probably won't be putting these away, I'll leave the piles out for us to work with.

At a flea mkt last fall, I scored an 1800s receipt book stuffed with fantastic writing and logos. We all used pages of it in our books that day.

Of course, an afternoon with these three ladies is pretty durn inspiring in and you know that they can put together something scrumptious no matter what supplies they have on hand!

I had some ticking stuck away and pulled it out knowing that Debbie would use it in an interesting way, and she did, fraying the edges of strips to make ribbon, and lining some pages. She generously left the book here to use for ideas during the workshop.

Amy's book is a sweet pink tone.

And she generously left some of her books behind too. These are copies of two of her latest books and she gave them to me to offer as giveaways.

Vintage Notions and Fabric Flowers.

While I am away in Hawaii, I'll have some fresh posts done up ahead of time for you, so please come back. Leave a comment on any post between January 14 and 28th for a chance to win one of two books.

The third will be given away during my workshop on Saturday, Feb. 2nd to an attendee.

How to Create a fairy garden and some mini terrariums

flowers, how to's

By Karla Nathan / January 5, 2013

Its snowy and blowy outside as I write this, and to cheer up some winter blahs, I've added some fresh greens to my home. Sugarwings helped me with it, and while we were at it, we made a few to give as gifts too.

This one is in an antique serving bowl. When making an indoor fairy garden or a terrarium, you can use pretty dishes or bowls and not worry about drainage holes, like you'd need to for an outdoor planter. Just use proper layers and the plants should be fine.

We filled quite a few of these glass ornaments.

After the holiday, I took the ornies off the tree, pulled off the top, and exchanged it for a cork. Then, set the balls on top of candle sticks.

Maybe you can see through the glass and tell what I mean about layers?

Here is how you layer:

1- small rocks for drainage

2- charcoal for keeping the water filtered and fresh

3- soil for a growing medium (use soil meant for the type of plants you chose)

4- plants, with roots down in the soil, then a bit more soil over it

5- moss to keep in moisture

A crystal creamer was properly layered and planted with baby's tears. That is the same plant I used in the balls too. This one is perched under a vintage dome with a tattered velvet base.

Sadly, this one didn't live, I thought the rusted metal tea cup was cute. But it wasn't under glass. I think the baby's tears are too delicate for the dry January air in my house without a covering to hold in the moisture.

If you are planting succulents, use a cactus soil over the rocks and charcoal.

In this one, I added a wrapped wire "garden arch" and pinned a vintage butterfly brooch to it. Below the arch is the plant and an old fairy figurine.

It's accented with millinery blooms that match the sugar bowl it's planted in. The top of the cactus soil is sprinkled with rose quartz chips.

When making a fairy garden, keep scale in mind. Use small plants that compliment any little figurine you add to the mix. Also, try to create a scene with the rocks and plants, like the pathway leading to the pewter fairy in this bowl.

I found some great crystals at a rock shop to use in this one since it was a gift for someone special. Sugarwings and I also gathered up some pretty stones from the yard, but I wanted a few meaningful chunks in there too.

The sign is a bit of brown grocery bag. I cut out a large square, folded and glued it in half, then did that a second time, so that it was sturdy. The second time, I glued it over a bent wire that was stuck into the dirt after writing the message.

Something I noticed while assembling this, was that the cactus soil is very loose and dry. The pieces and plants wobble around easily, since the dirt isn't compact, it doesn't anchor anything very well. So I had to wedge a rock over the base of the fairy to keep her from toppling over.

Behind her, is an extra pretty crystal to help keep her in place too, and her base is buried in the sandy, rocky dirt.

The pathway is made up of peridot and moss agate chips. Sugarwings chose these and sprinkled them over the top of the soil to make the walkway for our fairy.

Tiny bottles of semi precious stones can be found at rock shops for $1 each. I used two for this garden path.

Making a woodland sprite

flowers, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 17, 2012

My home at Christmas makes me so happy!

Joy, Merry, and Happy are words that I have all around the house.

The decor is warm white with hints of pretty, soft colors.

I even have some red, but it's a faded tone.

Every year, when I buy a pink poinsettia, I cut the flowers and make bouquets of them with roses to pop into vases instead of leaving them on the plant. But this year, I had made this planter at a ceramic class and was excited to have something to put in it.

I might buy another pink poinsettia to cut flowers from, they are usually only $3 or so for a small one at Walmart.

Some friends were taking a class from a local artist and invited me to come along. I really didn't have time, and have no background in ceramics, but it sounded like such fun, and I'm glad I made time, it really, really was!

It was an interesting class, and was much easier to do than I expected. Our instructor, Jan, had the clay rolled out and ready to go, we took the slab, wrapped it around either a paint can, jar, or cylinder, and then embellished and added to it as we wished.

Jan is also a painter, and had a lovely gallery of her work in the studio.

It was a cheery place to spend the afternoon with good friends.

All of us went for completely different looks. Shanna had taken ceramics at KU, and showed me how she did her great textures, by rolling lace and other odds and ends onto the clay.

I went with a woodland fairy look, so I stepped outside to pick leaves to roll onto the clay like we did the lace.

For the holidays, I'm calling her and elf, not a fairy.

We came back a week later to glaze, and that sure can be a crap
shoot, can't it? I was going for "white velvet" on the base with
metallic gold on the textures.

The gold was more espresso than metallic.

So, I added some Rub'n Buff with my fingertip to accent the veins in the leaves and some of the other areas. I used bronze, silver, and gold. Those helped quite a bit. I've used it
on furniture before, but wouldn't have thought of doing it on a clay
pot. Jan had a selection of colors of it for us to try.

Jan is offering the class again next spring. I plan on being one of the first to sign up to make another head!

Happy Thanksgiving!

celebrations, family, flowers, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 23, 2012

Did you have a good holiday?

Ours had its missteps here and there, like any family gathering. But for the most part, it was a lovely day.
A 20lb fresh, organic turkey baked with garden herbs and olive oil went into the oven early and I got to hang out and play with the kids. I thawed corn that we froze this summer, baked bread and pies the day before, made mashed potatoes early and plopped them into a crock pot to stay warm, and I was FREE.

Setting the table is part of the fun, so I don't count that as any of the work of getting ready. Plus, I did it pretty simply, like the rest of the day, a few pretties in the center of the table and moving some furniture around to set up a second table, and it was done.

Ten of us went to see a matinee of Wreck it Ralph, which made me cry. That was a cute movie, and so much more than I expected. I don't care for video games, so didn't really want to go, but promised little Finn that I'd take him. I'm glad I did.

Afterwards, we played outside and in the studio. Perfect weather and perfect company. Who cared that we were doing this a day early? Everyone had the day off on Wednesday, and the date itself didn't matter to any of us.

All who came brought side dishes, that only needed warming up once they arrived. That was a delight! Every time I took a lid off a pan to see what was inside it was like a mini surprise party, and each one made me so happy. I love pitch in dinners, its so much tastier to try everyone else's favorites.

And I didn't spend all day in the kitchen.

This year, we tried to start a new tradition. Usually, I coerce everyone to say what they are thankful for before we eat. This year, I decided to do a "blessing tree", so diners could write their thankful thoughts onto a paper leaf and add it to the tree.

That way, those who didn't feel like speaking up could still contemplate their blessings and think about the reason for the day, beyond just snarfing turkey.

Sugarwings, Finn and I went out on the Fairy Berry Trail to gather up some leaves to use as templates.

I put all the kids to work producing enough leaves for the whole group.

Each person got a leaf and a glitter pen to write on it.

I made the mistake of using a base that was too light weight for the tree and it toppled a few times, but no harm, even when it dove into a candle.

If this is going to be a tradition, next year, I'll get a better pot for the tree. Maybe even bring in a living potted tree…

This is Sugarwing's leaf. (before the glitter got so thick you couldn't read it). I think it says it all, don't you?

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.

A Passel of Pups

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, puppies!, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / September 21, 2012

I'm growing very fond of this little pup. Sugarwings calls her The New Agnes Rosebud. I told her that Agnes was very special and one of a kind, this pup deserves her own special name. If I keep her, she might have Rosebud as a middle name to honor Aggie Rose, though.

Agnes was my grandmother's name and our dog was named after her. My husband asked if we could name one after his grandmother, Dorothy. Dorothy!! One of Sugarwing's all time favorite people! Dorothy Rosebud should work just fine. I could call her Dot.

The babies are learning how to play. Its pretty funny when we call "puppies!", they bounce around and try to come to us and climb out of their pen. They look like burnt popcorn jumping around in a pan.

Its hard to get a group shot, there is so much motion, it becomes a blur.

But the chaos doesn't last long, a couple minutes of play wears them out and they are soon sound asleep.

We are still bottle feeding the herd. I've tried dishes and they get more on themselves than in. So, I cut a larger hole in the nipple and fill the bottle with a cereal, formula mix. They love it, and one feeding is usually about 4-5 bottles.

Aunt Sandy is feeling better now, she has had a sore back and couldn't work for a few months. Now, she is back at work with long days on the surgical floor as an RN, so I'm on my own for feedings for a while. Its more efficient (and cuddlier) to use the bottle, but soon, I'll have to train them to use a bowl. Or a trough.

My husband says we should keep two of them, since we are NEVER breeding pups again after the stress of what Twinkle went through.

One baby goes to the father's family, one to Dewdrop, one to my husband's assistant, and at least one to us.

That still leaves a passel of pups to sell, larger than most Yorkie litters! I'm not sure if I want two or not, I'm greedy about puppy time and would like to have just one to raise as my own so I can have her all to myself. If she has a litter mate, she might bond with him more than with me. Yes, I am greedy.

Although, Twinkle is a great dog, I really should keep as many mini Twinks as I can, or some day I'll be sorry. She has a great heart and is about as loyal and loving as a dog can be.

Notice the plants behind her? They are in the whiskey barrels I bought last spring, to turn the stumps into planters. The vines have really taken off and I've been happy with the result. Much cheaper than having stumps removed!

And the $1 solar lights from Walmart have been so pretty all summer. I bought the very plain ones, but now the fancier ones are on sale for $1 each, so I got a dozen of those for next year. My niece has some and says that hers have worked well for 3 years now, which is good to know. I'd not tried them before.

Speaking of cheap, I was at the garden center snapping up more clearance flowers, and they were snipping off the left over caladiums to pack the bulbs away for winter. There was a wheelbarrow full of leaves and Sugarwings asked if she could make a bouquet of them. She loves to pretend she is a bride and always needs bouquets.

The nice lady gave her an arm full, and one to me too. I put them in water when we got home, and they look every bit as fresh a week later. I wonder how long they will last this way? I'm loving them.

Sparks and White Cloud

antiques/junking, flowers

By Karla Nathan / September 2, 2012

For the Faery Book Swappers-

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

During all the puppy and other chaoses around here, I've managed to still squeeze in some junkin time. Beth, the other Karla and I set out for Sparks and White Cloud on Thursday. Its my favorite place to shop!

It was blasted hot, like its been most of this season, but that didn't stop us. Well, kinda, just not all the way. It did cut our day short. There was a period when we were all feeling a bit woozy and sick from the heat and decided we needed to sit in the air conditioned car with a cold drink and think about whether we'd lost the will to go on or not.

We'd spent maybe 3 hours in Sparks, and figured we could handle a quick trip to White Cloud too. They aren't completely set up on Thursday, so there wouldn't be much there.

We were pretty tired, hot, and sick of crowds. There were tons of people there, lines to walk through some booths. I'd never seen it so densely packed with shoppers. It made me kind of sad to see our flea market hidey hole found out by hordes of others!

I'm glad we pulled up our big girl panties and braved the second stop, I found this 1800s ledger book, with over 200 pages of receipts in it! I paid much more than I usually do for supplies, but I was travelling with two accountants who pointed out how it was only pennies per page, and that didn't sound so bad after all. It was cheaper than most scrapbook paper.

It was my lucky hat day too. I must have bought 8 or 9, all creams, whites and pinks. All for $5 and under too.

And lace! Lovely, lovely lace!! A friend was selling old, old lace for $1 a package and I bought $40 worth. that is a LOT of lace, but wow, what a deal. I'll be using a lot of it to finish off the Faery Book Swap and will save some for Kim's Snow White gala in April. I'll be needing a lot for those kits.

This is for An Enchanted Affaire too. I found this 1940s lace dress for only $3, and it holds volumes of delicate lace for my kits!!

It came with a red satin lining, which is a separate dress. That will be going to the little girls for their dress up closet, after I cut it off short enough for them to wear without tripping over.

Sparks never disappoints in the sparkly department either. I was there the second day and still found all these gems on dollar tables. There were also old books for 50 cents, photo albums with great mats, and a few other goodies. We weren't there long, but we were there long enough to score big.

During my Indiana trip, I hit a few jackpots too. More hats! More jewels also.

And a gorgeous 1950s wedding gown to cut up for the Snow White kits. It cost a bit more than the $3 red dress, but the $30 I spent for it was well worth it. There is a lot of great, old lace to use. And don't both of them look perfect with the red flocked wallpaper I've got for the project too?

Usually I shop all along I70 when I take an Indy trip, but I needed to get back to the little ones. And how nice it was to be home and be with them! Cute, huh? I"m so glad I left the tails this time and didn't have them docked. Look at the blur where this teensy girl is giving her nice long tail a wag.

A nice memory recreated and a giveaway

flowers, Tutorials

By Karla Nathan / August 18, 2012

A while back, I saw some doily bowls on Becky's blog. They reminded me of the baskets my sissy used to make 30 plus years ago, she hand crocheted them, then stiffened the fabric. I'd had a pile of doilies set aside, thinking I'd do this last Easter and never did it. I thought they'd be pretty spritzed with pastel Glimmer Mist and filled with a pretty egg.

Becky used starch to stiffen hers, I can't remember what Sis used. I chose to use school glue.

Since I wanted a narrow, basket shape, I used glasses to drape my doilies over. First, I got them good and wet, then wrung them out. Next, I squished and squeezed them in some Elmer's and simply plopped them over the glasses.

I put down a paper towel, then realized it was silly. The dripping glue might stick to a paper towel, but it wouldn't adhere to the counter top.

After letting them get partially dry, for an hour or so, I fiddled with the folds and gave the bottom (actually the top when it's done and flipped over) a nice ruffle effect.

See, how I kind of pulled out on the lace to give it some shape? When they were wet and drippy, they wouldn't hold this ruffle, but when partially dry, they were easy to manipulate.

To turn it into a basket, I added a pipe cleaner wrapped in lace and twisted it on. Of course, I had to glue on some millinery blooms too!

Around the "waist" of the piece, I wove a narrow piece of lace in and out, then tied it in front and added a bit of sparkle. I'm afraid its pointing down in the photo, it needs a tweak.

Next, I lined it with an old silk hanky, and a piece of oasis foam, and turned it into a nest for one of my ravens for the upcoming Romantic Gothic Ghost class at my studio.

I was experimenting with the pattern and made a velvet raven, but I think I prefer the felted wool ones.

This is a felted one. It just seems more substantial. Plus a LOT easier to sew. I'm not much of a sewer. I can't believe I am even doing a class that involves needle and thread. But it really is quick and easy to stitch up, or I wouldn't even consider it. The velvet on the other hand, was trickier to do. I'll have some available if students prefer the elegance of a velvet raven. Anyone is probably a better sewer than I am, so it might go better for them.

But back to the doilies. Sissy had crocheted handles on hers, and used them as Easter baskets. Becky's tutorial shows hers as bowls with candles. I thought I'd try one as is, fresh from the cup I dried it on, no embellishments and they are pretty as is with candles.

Especially in groupings.

Its been a long time since I had a giveaway. If you want one, leave a comment, and I'll draw a name when I get back from Indiana and my family reunion.

Or on the dining table.

The one in the very first photo has a lace ribbon woven through it and a rhinestone earring added to the lace. I also lined it with a hanky, then stuck three big, millinery roses inside. I have more of the roses in packs added to the Boutique too, if you need some.

Here is a bit of what else is new in the Boutique.

Beating the heat

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, Hens

By Karla Nathan / August 2, 2012

Despite the heat, our garden is doing well. We have well water, and live over a deep aquifer, so I use the sprinkler a lot to beat the long string of 100 plus degree days.

I've set the chickens in the garden almost daily to get the bugs for us, and they did pretty good till the squash bugs hit the cukes. I've had to hand pick the horrid creatures off the plants, but have also used some organic insecticidal soap.

One thing I have not watered is our yard. This is what the ground looks like! We never did have the best looking grass anyway, so I'm ignoring the lawn and concentrating on keeping the flowers and veggies going. And the poor chickens. We lost one to what we think was heat stroke. So now, we keep a sprinkler going on low in the flower beds so that they can have a place to cool off.

We thought we were going to lose this gal too. One of the dogs got ahold of her, and chewed all the feathers off her rump. No real damage, and I think she looks kind of jaunty with that one tail feather sticking up.

We keep the wading pool full too, mostly for Twinkle. She is very fat and very pregnant and likes to jump in the pool, lay back and relax to cool off. I'm thinking about getting her a raft for it, she loves the one out on the lake.

Well, the forecast says we have a few more days coming with no rain, and more heat. Kansas is typically hotter than Hades this time of year, but not quite this hot. Sugarwings has a couple of swimming lessons coming up before back to school time, I hope its not too hot to hit the pool this week!

If its too hot to play in the pool, we'll be back inside playing dress up with Twinkle again. That is how we spent a big chunk of one hot day last week.