flowers – Page 13 – Karla's Cottage

Gathering the Good Stuff and whispering up a load of hats

By Karla Nathan / January 22, 2012

Maybe I've mentioned that I've been behind a bit? Well, I'm getting caught up. Finally, I think I have all the supplies needed to create the necklace for my Birdsong Two project.

Since I was only using vintage beads, I had to scrounge to find enough old necklaces to take apart before I could make my prototype pendant.

Slowly, but surely, I gathered beads, crystals, and pearls in clear, taupe, cream, white, brown and pale pink.

As I accumulated baubles, I snipped them apart, carefully counted and sorted the treasures, and then made up a chart to keep track of how many of each that I had. For every kit, I needed beads in increments of 25, (Plus some for the examples too) so I divided them up into bags of 25, 50, and so on, then did a little sketch of each one, added a description and a number into my ledger. As I sorted, I started a separate bag of beads to set aside for the example, making sure I had the exact number for myself that I have for the class kits.

Yep, it would have been so much easier to order a package of pearls on-line or at Hobby Lobby. But I wouldn't want a necklace made out of those, why would I think my guests would want one? We are going to Use the Good Stuff.

My jaunts to antique malls have been fast and single minded. I've had Sugarwings, her Daddy, his Gypsy and our little Dewdrop staying with me while we nursed the broken wing of our little fairy. They all tagged along with me to get out of the house and the searches were to the point, no time to meander about.

But, who could blame me for spying a floral hat here and there while I was on a desperate hunt for crystals?

Its been Hat Bonanza Bonus Week around here! And I found a handful of necklaces too, old pearls, lots of aurora borealis crystals, and some mother of pearl.

There are probably enough gems in my treasure chest to start crafting my necklace. My chart might seem a bit of overkill for sorting beads, but by nature I am not an organized person. I have to severely train myself to be careful, double count, and make lists. If not, things go in one ear and out my mouth. I'm not even organized enough for the traditional in one ear and out the other style of doing business.

Song Of Love Wreath workshop for Valentines Day

bird song art event, flowers, holiday decor, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / January 3, 2012

Well, I have had some feedback on the Song Of Love, Valentine wreath class that I am offering. Ladies are worried that the date is too close to Christmas and that they had too little warning to make plans. After the holidays,all of us (and our bank books!) seem to be recovering from the hectic times.

So, I decided to switch the date to later in the month.

Saturday January 28th from 10 till 5.

And to lower the cost a bit. $65 instead of $75.

But I'm not lowering the value! I'll still be providing lots of vintage goodness to embellish the wire wrapped and beaded wreath with two ephemera covered, nesting love birds.

We will spend the day together, creating in my studio with lots of pretties and vintagey supplies.

Lunch, beverages, and dessert are included.

It will be a small group, and seating will be limited.

No two finished projects will be the same, you'll get everything you need to complete a wreath, plus fun piles to dig through to personalize your own piece. If you get finished early, plan on hanging out for the rest of the afternoon and making Valentines with us.

I'll have plenty of supplies out for you to play with.

All you will need to bring is a basic tool kit, everything else will be waiting for you.

And if you are one of the people who were considering coming on January 14th, and that date works out better for you, please let me know, I'd be happy to have you then if your plans are already set.

And if you'd like to come for an entire weekend this spring, Birdsong Two signups are open now for previous guests. This weekend we will open registration to new friends.

Plus, don't forget, there is a sale in the boutique and in my Etsy shop. Thanks to all of you who keep Sugarwings and Dewdrop supplied in fairy wings and glitter by supporting my stores!

Use this link

and type in the code:

2012

then hit recalculate, and save 40% in the boutique!

for Etsy, type in the code:

happy2012

to receive 50% off!

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!

A humming bird moth

flowers

By Karla Nathan / October 18, 2011

My cleome patch is both my best and worst flower bed ever. I love the way it looks when the flowers are tall and in full bloom. But I hate waiting all year for that couple of months of beauty. The rest of the year, it is a patch of dirt. Right in front of the house. I should plant something shrubby and more year round there, but I just love those two months of beauty so much, that I never do.

Plus they attract hummingbird moths. These little pretties are such fun to watch. The first time I saw one, I was sure it was really a hummer. They come out after dark and their wings are in constant motion just like the bird it is named after.

When I saw that I could get inches away from it and not scare it off, I realized it was a bug, not a bird.

Aren't they pretty?

EDIT- This post was written ahead of time, before I left on my trip. I'll have new posts all week while I am away, but might not get to answer all comments or emails, but I will be reading and enjoying them on my Ipad. Thanks for coming by! I hope to add some "Live" posts from the road too.

Sugarwings first flea market

antiques/junking, collections, flowers, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 8, 2011

I want to thank all of you for your concern and caring about Sugarwing's school situation. It broke my heart to see our little fairy so down, she is usually such a sparkling soul. But, I think we are on track now in finding her the right place. She only turned five 2 days before school started, so was the littlest kid there, and frankly, she is not always listening to what people are telling her anyway, so just wasn't ready to listen to a teacher.

It helped to hear all of your stories and advice. It sounds like 5 is often too young to start school, and waiting a year helped a lot of your little ones.

Since she has been out of school for a bit, we've had some good days together. I'd planned on going with Beth to the big Sparks and White Cloud flea that we love so much, but I ended up with this kiddo instead, so had to cancel.

But- I really really really needed a junk day. And not just because it sounded fun, but because I had to scrounge up some more ceiling tins for our kitchen remodel. This was a mission with a purpose!

And I figured that this girl is going to be raised around junk, she needed to learn about how to go about finding and appreciating the stuff. So, I packed her up, rented a movie to put in her Pink Princess Computer (a portable DVD player),filled a bag of snacks, loaded my flea mkt cart, and we hit the road.

Sadly, the snacks and the DVD player didn't mix well. If you spill a box of Chocolate milk into your Pink Princess Computer, its pretty much done for. (this is the same week that our home DVD player bit the dust too. Along with our vacuum cleaner, toilet, modem, home phone, AND our boat has been checked out for the dozenth time by a mechanic, but still died on the lake and had to be towed, then was in a wreck with the towing boat, so I wasn't surprised to see her DVD player break)

When we pulled up to Sparks and got out to shop, she wanted to know where the Bug Store was. I did say, "flea market," right?

She soon found some non-bug and flea related items to enjoy. Like this shopping cart for $1. She insisted that it should be pulled behind her like I pulled my basket.

Then, she found some bugs, and that made her happy too. This time of year, cicadas are plentiful. You don't even have to make a special trip to the market to get them.

This fairy certainly has bargaining skills. She found a disco night light in rainbow colors that was marked $15, held up $3 and the lady smiled and said sure. Another guy gave her 3 plastic ponies for $1, and everywhere else people were giving her stuff. Including free french fries from a food cart, beads to wear, and this great light up butterfly magic wand.

I could get some lessons from her! Now, if only I could train her to find hats and bargain the prices down on them.

We also ran into my friend, Gwen, who runs Bottom's Up, one of the best antique sales around. She gave Sugarwings a pile of flyers to pass out and that kid was determined that anyone within 20 feet of her HAD to take one. She added a quick spin, put her backside in the air and said "bottoms up!" each time, too. I had to convince her that it wasn't necessary to flip up her skirt while doing that after the first time.

This was a trip where I didn't expect to do much shopping. It would be a quick trip down the aisles with my eyes out for tin to redo my kitchen ceiling.

But what to my wandering eyes did appear?? Treasures galore and things I hold dear! (uhm, she and I talk in rhyme sometimes)

I found a few hats, not many, but was glad to glom onto them. They were bonus hats. I didn't expect to have any luck in this department at all.

But the best surprise was that she was having so much fun sitting in the dirt next to me, playing with her bug buddies and new toys, that I had plenty of time to sift through old jewels. There are wonderous treasures to be found there, if you have the patience to look through the ucky stuff too. Beth always gets tired of waiting for me, I could park myself in front of a jewel bucket for an hour, and she is ready to move on. Sugarwings was happy to let the bugs ride on her plastic ponies while I sifted jewels. Next time I go, I'll pack a bag of bugs for Beth. I'm sure that will make her happy.

And later, I ran into a friend who is an ex-kindergarten teacher and she took my little one for a walk while I shopped in her booth and made a ceiling tin deal with her husband.

We didn't stay long, and we probably spent more time sitting down and playing than walking around and shopping, but I'd call her first flea market a big success. She was wheeling and dealing with the best of them, we both found some beloved items, and we had lots and lots of time for rhyming all the way home since the DVD player broke.

ps-Please leave a comment on the previous post if you want a chance to win this Craft Day Giveaway pack from me, Beth, and Mary!

Some of the flowers in the pack are from this flea market day.

Please forgive me for not answering comments this week, our construction is beginning! I guess this phase is more de-construction, the kitchen gets ripped out before it gets put back.

PS again- a photo of my living room was featured on the HGTV site! how nice!

http://www.hgtv.com/living-rooms/charming-shabby-chic-living-room-designs/pictures/index.html?soc=share

Craft Day Giveaway

flowers, give away, swaps

By Karla Nathan / September 6, 2011

A while back, at Craft Day, Beth mentioned a round robin swap she planned with Lisa and asked if I'd be interested in joining. I said I didn't have time, but couldn't stop myself from joining anyway. Its a year long adventure, and only involves making one page a month and sending it on. That isn't too big of a commitment unless you consider the postage. By the time the books are near the end, they could get pretty heavy, and we are sending it around a lot. Only four people are in it, Beth, Lisa, and Sandra, so it goes back and forth a lot.

But worth it. Even though I am cheap, and know that the postage will end up being at least 50 bucks for me by the time I am done. It won't seem that bad, because it will be a little bit at a time! Not $50 at once.

The first month, we do our own cover and one page to get our book started. It goes to the next person who adds a page and then… it confuses me, but Beth is good at keeping me on track and made up an intricate schedule for us to all follow.

The theme is "Her Life In Stitches" Well, I don't sew much, all the rest of the group are good with textiles. I thought, maybe I could make a joke book, and have everyone in stitches, laughing…

But then, I thought, no, I'll dedicate it to my mom and honor all that she taught me. She was an excellent seamstress and while I did not inherit those skills, she taught me a way of looking at things and knowing how to figure out how something is made, step by step. And to have a creative mind while doing it.

I cut the title "Home Arts" out of an 1890s magazine and glued it onto my cover, since I think that suits the topic. My book is beyond sewing, and stitches, but is about the love of home, making stuff, and the art of making a house a creative home.

Beth, Mary, the other Karla and I have been trying to get together more regularly for craft days. We each have our own projects to do, and it just seems like the work goes so smoothly when you can chat and be with friends. Its always ultra casual, some days, I barely kick stuff out of the way so they can get to the table. I know they don't expect a red carpet from me, they are coming to share ideas, gossip and our latest projects, not judge my housekeeping,(or lack of).

Sometimes we share more. Mary brought a stack of old images the other day and let us chose a few. While going through them, I thought about how much fun the whole craft day experience is, and how much it meant to me to have such low maintenance friends, with so much in common. We all drool over the old supplies and half the fun of the day is looking at each others stuff. Everyone likes to share tidbits here and there also. Tips, tools, and actual bits of scrap get passed around.

I thought you might enjoy being a part of it too, and would like involved with the sharing. So, I asked Mary if I could have a stack of her images to pass along. She was generous with them and gave me a good pile. I wrapped up a selection of them with velvet ribbon and added a few millinery blossoms from myself. Beth says she'll throw in a treat from her supply stash too. I'll let you know what it is when I get it from her. But you know she has good stuff!

(oh, and in case you didn't know it, Mary Queen of Glue Books, is hosting a glue book swap)

Here is one of the images from Mary's ephemera stash, and you don't have to do anything at all to get it. Just click on it, open in a larger window and save it to your computer. It will be all pixely if you try to print it as is, so please do open the larger version.

If you'd like to win our Craft Day Giveaway, please leave a comment on this post. Deadline is Tuesday Sept. 20.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the newest listings in the Boutique. Lots of autumn toned millinery!

Fairy Laurels

fairies, flowers

By Karla Nathan / September 1, 2011

This weekend, we'll be going to the Kansas City Renasiance Festival again. To get all geared up and ready to step back into an enchanted land, I made some fairy headresses.

All of these are in my Boutique. And they were such fun, I need to whip up a few more too.

Each is made a bit differently, there is a crown style, a head band, a tiara, and a laurel.

Each is made with all vintage millinery and some razzle dazzle too.

I'm not sure how many people are coming along for the day. We have family in town, so we should have a good sized crowd of revellers. I sure look forward to going every year.

The park that it is held in, is such a shady, pretty place, with hills and dales and the cutest little buildings. Since it is a permenent location, they can really go all out with the decor, unlike most renfests that are set up in city parks.

Plus, how often do you get a chance to be a fairy for the day? Well, actually…. I can be a fairy whenever I feel like it, and often do. I guess I mean how often can you be a fairy in an acceptable venue? When people expect fairies to pop out from every bush, and don't just look at you wondering why there is an old lady with wings on.

Breezy

flowers, hand painted signs, redos

By Karla Nathan / August 27, 2011

While I had my son here, and we both had paint brushes in hand, I asked him to tackle the breezeway with me. I've hated the too bright green it was painted for YEARS. I had painted it on a whim, I'd had a beloved puppy die in my arms after months of nursing her along and trying to keep her alive, and needed something cheerful and bright around me. I also wanted something physical to do to keep myself busy after burying her.

Typically, I don't have a lot of bright colors in my house, unless they are seasonal accents. But, this was an outdoor room, and I thought it was the perfect place for a splash of color.

Instead, it only reminded me of my dead dog.

And it was not fun to paint, since it is clap siding and can't be done with a roller. And I knew that the green would be hard to cover, so I just kept putting the job off.

The new color I finally chose is much more tranquil, and is a much calmer backdrop to the stuff I had in the room already. I left everything just as it was, the only change in the whole room is the wall color. Well, and I switched out the seat cushion, it had been a hot pink. The blue velvet is a cushion that my mom made about 30 years ago.

The bench was hers too. I've painted it numerous times since I've had it. In her possession, it was maple.

The room feels a lot bigger in this pale gray/blue. And I'm so glad we got this done. It makes me smile every time I walk through it.

I was ready to get this room cleaned up and new looking after our recent raccoon attack. Those coons ripped my curtains to shreds, and I wanted to replace them, but wanted to make sure the curtains went with the new color I chose.

Instead of shopping at the store, I shopped at home in my linen closet and found a stack of white on white, striped sheers that I used to have in my kitchen, so my only cost for the redo was a gallon of paint/primer in one (Behr). This kind of paint offers great coverage, and mostly did the job in one coat with a few touch ups here and there.

The white curtains also helped create the breezy feeling this room now has. And under them are new, aluminum screens to hopefully prevent more coon invasions! If that doesn't work, we'll have to go to chicken wire over the windows. Or razor wire….

(the bird cage stand holds a simple chandelier that I've epoxy-ed tea cups to after taking out the wiring and the lighting parts. I keep tea light candles or fresh flowers in the cups, depending on my mood)
Even before I painted over the pea green explosion on the walls, I have considered this my pink and green room. And I figured I'd have to do some redecorating and moving things out when I repainted. I was thinking that nothing would match any more. But I am quite taken with the soft blue back ground, against all the pink florals. Plus, there are hints of blue here and there that I never really noticed when the room was green, like in the pillows, the broken plates in the birdbath that I made, and in the flowers painted on the bench.

There is very little blue in the mosaic table, but that doesn't really bug me. I still think it fits the room fine.

I'd planned on repainting the shutters on the door too, but I'm liking the black and roses with the blue. It seems like a nice contrast, and not too matchy.

(the shutters were bi-fold doors from a garage sale for a couple bucks. I took them off the hinges and painted them up, the other half of the set is on the front door to my studio)

After a while, I just might paint everything that is black now, a medium gray, with sepia glaze over it. But for now, I'm satisfied. The gray is a maybe, and if I decide to do it, will be a good project when I'm feeling the need for another fresh-up.

Do you ever play with Rate My Space on HGTV's site? I have fun with it. You can lose a lot of hours browsing from one room to another… anyway, if you want to check it out, you can start with this room, and give it a rating for me!

Next post, I'll show you a few more of my changes around the house. I've been productive lately!

Thankful for family

family, flowers, Travel

By Karla Nathan / July 19, 2011

Our family getaway to Utah was very special. It was good to see nieces and nephews we rarely get to visit and to catch up on laughs with some of my husband's sibs.

We'd never been to his sister's newer home, and it was a beautiful place to stay, full of original artwork that was right up my alley.

I never got tired of walking through the house and admiring the paintings. Especially the fairy themed ones.

They also had family portraits that were so beautiful, they held as much magic as the sprite and fey paintings did.

Even the pets were represented in oil. What a dreamy place! The artist of many of these works is Lynn Lupettii and I have to say, I'm quite a fan.

But the magic wasn't all just paint, we muggles spent some time visiting Hogwarts too.

Quite a few of the group headed to the theater about 5 am on Thursday to watch a Harry Potter marathon that ended with the midnight showing of the latest flick.

Due to flight delays, I didn't get to join them quite that early, but I made it for movie #4 and was surprised at how fast 3 am came and it was all over with. We had blankets, a ton of snacks and food and drinks, and it was such fun to be part of the large crowd saying a fond farewell to Harry. The very last movie was just as moving to me as the book was. I sobbed again just like when I read the happy ending to the series. Even knowing what was coming up, I still cried like a baby when**************************.(sorry, don't want to mess up the end for you, but I can't quite believe there are Harry fans who haven't read the book yet!!)

Its one of the best series endings I've ever read. Heck, I have tears in my eyes now just thinking about it.

But the real, honest magic of the trip, was Utah itself. Everywhere we went, there was beauty. And not much is more beautiful than Thanksgiving Point.

Its kind of a botanical gardens, but it is very user-friendly and almost like taking the kids to the park for the day. A very special park!

(this photo of Grandma Joan is NOT doctored up, the colors were that vibrant there!!!)

Kids are allowed to run and play, and even to roll down the big hill. The grass was a thick, cushion of plush green, nothing like around my house. Better than any golf course I have seen too. Plus NO CHIGGERS! Its been years since I have sat down in the grass out of chigger fear. I was so drawn to this lawn that I even tried rolling down the hill with the little girls.

Since I weigh quite a bit more than the kids, I took off rolling a bit harder and faster than they did, and after about 2 turns, was dizzy and ready to stop. But gravity had other plans for me, and it felt like an hour on a roller coaster later when I finally stopped, although it was probably only a few feet. It made me so dizzy that I even feel slightly nauseous looking at this photo, although the picture doesn't really capture just how steep it really was.

This park reminded me of Disney-world with no rides. It was over the top, and the detail was amazing.

The whole weekend, I kept seeing things Sugarwings would have loved, and I missed her terribly. I knew she'd have had a good time with her 2nd cousins.

And this park was a perfect setting to play fairy. She'd have been deep into her imaginary world if she'd been there.

I can just picture her having a conversation with this dragon. Its the base of my sis-in-law's mailbox! Her home is filled with dragons and fairies and gnomes.

The back yard was two levels, with a curving downhill path following a series of waterfalls.

The pool at the base of the falls was lit up and misty. Of course, Sugarwings is what we politely call a "hands on" child. It would have been an non-stop challenge to keep her out of the waterfalls.

But I was pretty content to sit out there to enjoy the veiw adn the sound of trickling water. In Utah, we had zero humidity, and could open our windows at night and listen to the creek as we slept. Not like the 110 degree heat index we have today in Kansas.

That fountain alone would have been worth the trip! I had to change from the upstairs deck to the downstairs porch back and forth, I couldn't make up my mind which had the best view.

Still, the very best part was getting to spend time with my husband's sweet family. What nice, generous people they are. It was a lovely trip.

I know how lucky I am to have a husband I love so much, but I'm also lucky that he has a family that I love too.

Next post, I'll announce another winner of my online dress form tutorial. If you have already purchased one of the $15 classes, (thank you!!), then I'll send you a kit of vintage goodies instead if I draw your name.

Leave a comment if you want to be entered, you still have a couple of days to enter while I am waist deep in Bird song swap tags!

A whimsical mantel redo

fairies, family, flowers, guncles, Travel, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 28, 2011

My Guncle weekend was just wonderful, as I knew it would be. Kevin bought my plane ticket as a birthday gift to Randy, lucky, lucky me!

It all went by too fast, we played all weekend, and got sillier as the days passed by.

Jacksonville is great, but we were having too much fun to get out and explore. We stayed in the craft room, garden or kitchen except for a quick run to pick up more seafood to cook or craft supplies to work with.

We got a bunch of these little wooden birds at Michaels and foofed them up for part of a redecorating project we wanted to do. This one is perched on a grapevine wreath that we turned into a nest for the display.

When I arrived, the guys mentioned that they were ready for a mantel makeover. Here is a Before shot of that corner.

And Ta-da! Here is the whimsical after. We turned the fireplace into a magical fairy land, by shopping around the house, arranging some silk flowers, and making a few little tidbits to add here and there.

After taking everything down, so we could start from scratch, we decided to remove the fireplace screen too. The logs are wrapped in mini lights, and we perched fairies with red glass wings, and some other fun creatures inside, then tucked lots of greenery all around.

Out in the garage, I found a couple of large, metal bread racks, one in this great red, the other with chippy white paint. We leaned these up against the ornate mirror that was hanging over the mantel, then started tucking things behind the racks and hanging other stuff on them.

Kevin just happened to find a big bagful of marble eggs at a garage sale that morning, and we nestled them all around, in mossy nests. (we were pretending they were fairy eggs)

He also found two of these old bird books, one we used for display, the other we greedily tore apart and made things out of in the craft room.

The guys had lots of fairies, elves, and sparkly creatures around the house and in the garden for us to add.

I'd brought them a Nest banner that I'd made, and we hung it right in the center.

At Christmas, Randy had made a glittering nest in this top hat, and for summer, we redid it with the little Fairy Frog Prince that I'd brought to him for his birthday.

And this magnicficent art deco piece is a light fixture that Kevin found along the road in the trash!! Randy arranged some flowers in it, since it neede rewiring before we could turn it on.

Yes, we know that its busy, and there is a lot going on. But to us, that just made it all that much more fun. More treasures to discover each time you looked through the display, more magic to enjoy.

Neither one of us really get "editing".

For me, it was such a blast to get to shop his house for all the goodies we used. And to do something so bright and playful, since my house is all pastels and creams. Plus, I got to play with my baby bro, and there isn't much better than that!