flowers – Page 2 – Karla's Cottage

More from April’s set up at Good Juju

By Karla Nathan / April 9, 2025

This month, my mushrooms are tinted in pretty Easter egg colors.

Soft pinks, shimmery greens, sky blues, and silky lavenders.

And while you’d think I had more than plenty of my dyed roses, whelp, nope. I made more of the smaller ones to fit onto mini pots and white glass jars.

Of course, there are fairies too.

And more roses.

I redid my “ballerina corner” with some new dancer themed finds.

Doesn’t this great lamp go perfectly with my spring time pink tones?

This is the time of year when sweet little birdies start adventuring out into the garden.

Where they build their nests and lay some eggs.

Spring makes me so happy, I just couldn’t stop filling my booth with as many mementos of the season as I could possibly squeeze in.

Do you know the best part? I get to do this all over again for May!

A blooming patch at my booth

flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 2, 2025

The theme at my Good Juju booth for March is all about blooming.

I had hand dyed over TWO THOUSAND coffee filters to make these roses. I used a little more than half, so that means I can make some more. These are my latest addiction and I had to force myself to stop.

Because I seriously have plenty.

Or do I?

How much is enough?

A garden wedding in the Appalachians

family, flowers, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / September 23, 2024

Where can I find a chandelier crystal this size? I was mesmerized by it.

Although that exceedingly large, rainbow filled, spectacular prism of light was not the only detail that caught my eye at this old, Victorian home.

The gardens were charming, too and made an ideal location for the wedding of the homeowners. Both of their personalities shone through each design choice.

Especially the sentimentality and love for family that they both share.

One corner of the dining room was filled with photos of the couples’ families. This is the bride’s great grandmother.

The bracelet the bride wore was also worn in that portrait. And her ring? It is two wedding rings from their parents melted down and recreated into this new piece by her mother, a metal smith.

Constant reminders of the pair’s love of art, are sprinkled through the house and grounds. Paintings from professional artists who are family members and friends, collections of hand crafted coolness, and creative DYIs done in preparation for the wedding and to fix up the home.

Their dedication to an artful life stood out to me in the small things too. Like placing star shapes around the picnic table as a resist before power washing it, leaving a two toned, star sprinkled table afterward.

Hydrangea booms tied together into heart shapes lined the driveway.

Centerpieces were constructed of bowls of moss with figurines perched on top.

At the lovebird’s table, the moss was topped with- lovebirds. Tiny, and subtle, but fitting in with the theme of the night.

And did I mention that she made her skirt? It had major sparkles going on, with 3D flowers that don’t show up well in my photos, but sure did in person.

While I was busy oohing and ahhing over the multitude of great ideas, sweet details, and artwork that caught my eye, I still noticed one big thing that stood out more than anything else.

Happiness.

It was a crowd full of people that loved Mark and Allie, people who were so happy for them.

Mother’s Day Traditions

family, flowers

By Karla Nathan / May 18, 2024

Mother’s Day weekend was jam packed here at the Cottage. I hit two mornings of light but fruitful garage sales, made gemstone bracelets for gifting, and had a sweet little dinner party, where Sugarwings helped cook for what we call “The Council of Mothers”.

The kiddo also came by on Saturday to help with wood splitting. It’s a job I rarely have to be a part of, thank goodness, because it is very unpleasant. But it needs done, and we were short on crew. Most grandkids have moved away, Ryan is gone. Rich always paid his helpers for the afternoon, and I got out of the job since there were plenty of assistants.

But now, it’s just Sugarwings, Rich, and I to do it. Not only is it a rough activity, it’s heart wrenching to think about all of the past helpers who are no longer around to pitch in.

Finding two hearts in the sections of logs was a reminder of them.

Especially Ry.

He was so strong, tossing those stumps meant nothing to him. He never enjoyed the job, but didn’t complain about helping out. For years, he was our champion on wood splitting day.

The rest of the weekend was mostly yard work. Mother’s Day officially kicks off tackling our spring to do lists in the garden and courtyard. That tradition started when the kids were just little and would spread mulch and do other beautification projects for me.

This year, I power washed for a few hours while Rich cleaned out the storage shed. Then we set up the patio furniture, umbrellas and pots. I planted annuals and Rich got the vegetables into the garden soil.

We might have done more than a week’s worth of work in those two days, and I was feeling it. After dinner Sunday evening, I told everyone I was sorry I had to be a party pooper, but I was going to bed. When I got there, I slept twelve hours straight. Mother’s Day wore me out, especially without Ryan’s strength helping us with the heavy jobs.

But the yard looks good! He’d have been proud of it. Ryan not only had a great work ethic, he loved to see what others did. When he’d get home from cooking at the nursing home, he’d want to walk around the yard with us and compliment what we accomplished.

The older I get, the harder a full weekend of yard work gets, and a Mother’s Day of being lazy sounds better and better. But Ry Guy was on my mind and in my heart all day and that gets me through all of the jobs that need doing.

Mini redos and pussy willows

antiques/junking, flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 25, 2024

Is this just weird, or is it cool? I had a pair of old skates, and I liked them as is, but thought they might be even more interesting separated and used as an art piece.

The left has been stuffed with tissue, then the old paper and a photo of old timey skaters were glued to the tissue, not to the skates themselves. The millinery bloom is simply wired to the shoestrings that way, it can all be removed if this skate needs to be reunited with its mate. The right is waiting empty to see if it should be foofed up or left as is.

Here is another mini redo. It’s a styrofoam head that I painted to look like cement. The trick is to throw some grout into the paint.

While I had the mixture stirred up, I repaired this statue. (The tall one) it had a crack, so I filled that with silicone, then repainted with my grouty mix.

Currently, we are visiting an ill family member in Georgia, having a mini reunion, then heading to Florida for more family fun.

Between this trip and my stays in Indiana, I haven’t gotten a lot of crafting accomplished. I managed to flip my booth to be set up and ready for Good Juju First Fridays, spring clean my house, then pack for our latest adventure.

Of course I packed art supplies! While it was Rich’s turn to drive, I did some sketching, hoping to have time to add color to these drawings later. For spring, I’m putting most of my sweet birdies onto pussy willow branches.

Since I was a kid, I’ve those bushes. We had one in our yard back then, and I used to name the tiny puffs, and sit under the shrub to talk to and pet them.

Yes, I was a weird child, and desperate for a pet to call my own,. With the raging asthma I had back then, pussy willows and stuffed animals were as close as I got to having one.

Over the years, I’ve planted a few of these fluffy bushes at different homes we owned, then sold. At our current cottage (32 years) I do not have one and honestly do not know why not. As soon as I get home, one will be going into the ground. Heck, while I’m at it, I should plant a bunch of them.

That is, unless I hop right back into the car and go to Indy to watch the eclipse!

A little chance to do some painting

flowers, Hand painted, paintings, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / September 4, 2023

A friend posted a back to school photo of her and her mini me. It was a perfect little snapshot of joy.

I loved it so much, I just had to do a quick mixed media sketch of it. I will be gifting this to her next time I see her.

While my paints were out, I decided to do a rose painting for a kind soul who had gifted me with boxfuls of treasures during her de-stashing. I could never express my full gratitude for her generosity enough. I hope she knows how much it was appreciated.

I wracked my brain to figure out what to send as a thank you. Because of her major clean out, I thought she probably wouldn’t want more “stuff”, but a card was not enough. After perusing her IG, and seeing how much she loved gardening, so I am hoping that this flower will be something she likes.

Magic at the Hawk and Hawthorn

family, flowers, Food and Drink, Garden, guncles, Travel

By Karla Nathan / July 24, 2023

Hawk and Hawthorn (about 20 min north of Asheville on top of a scenic mountain) is my new favorite vacation spot.

The Airbnb is set upstairs of a newly renovated, charming old house and the patio over looks the farm.

Bonus- the view includes the barn/event center.

Double bonus for me- my son lives there.

He is their onsite trim carpenter.

He and his buddy just built this outdoor kitchen for tent campers. Spaces are available through Hipcamp, and campers have access to the barn for yoga, bathrooms, cooking, and more.

I think how much you can hang out in the barn depends on scheduled events. They had just held one, and this mushroom display from it was still set up. I spy a couple of my schroomies in there too!

They host workshops, festivals, retreats, music, etc. Our visit was Sunday thru Friday, so it was pretty low key.

We had full use of the facilities and after harvesting our food to fix in the apartment kitchen, we walked it across the field and up the hill to dine in the beautiful barn.

It had just started to rain and was getting dark. We ate while listening to the drops on the metal roof and the curtains swayed in the breeze.

I am not sure how many times I used the word “magical”, probably way too many, but it was justified.

Our meal was trout that the kids caught with their grandfather that day and deliciousness we gathered from the vast gardens.

I would say that the term, “magical”, had to be correct. There had to be some magic in the head grower’s touch. Look at the size of this corn! All the veggies were lush and vibrant, over the top with health and vitality.

It made me think that my Kansas garden back home was a sad comparison.

We picked fresh produce daily. And had flowers in our salads, and even cooked into chewy brownies.

And I got to forage for chanterelles! It was my first successful mushroom hunt.

We walked through what felt like an enchanted land of moss and streams to find them. While on the hunt, my boy taught me tricks about different types and what to look for.

He is always on the lookout and you never know when he will abruptly pull over the car to spring out and return with a handful of berries to share. He spots tasty treats everywhere he goes.

At the farm, there are baby bunnies to hold and goats to visit. There is a fresh mountain spring set up with pipes to fill your containers.

Pretty and rustic areas to enjoy, trails to explore, and vistas so lovely, all you want to do is sit back, sip a glass of wine and take it all in.

Plus-NO CHIGGERS! It felt oddly uncomfortable to walk through tall grass without bug spray. In the back of my mind, I kept worrying that I’d be up all night itchy and miserable.

But I got used to not needing a thorough spritz before going outside. And I was not homesick for any midwestern bugs that typically torture me all summer long.

There is cool art everywhere, including on these shirts.

The dragon was by our front door.

I don’t know why I didn’t get any photos inside our cozy studio apartment, maybe because there was so much to see and do outside.

The tranquility was just what we needed, the rest of the trip was so stressful. Serious family illnesses, an auto wreck, all were overwhelming.

Thank goodness for the peace and welcome we found at the Hawk and Hawthorn.

It was MAGICAL.

Once again, that was wine in the teacups

celebrations, cottage, flowers, Food and Drink, friends, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 15, 2023

To celebrate Angie and Beth’s birthdays, we made plans for a day out, and I offered to make brunch first. But then, Angie picked up an estate sale to do, and between that and all of her other obligations, her time off for a whole day disappeared. Our date switched to lunch and I decided to serve it in the gazebo to make it special.

Hmm, not the best picture of us, but you get the idea.

We had wine in our teacups, and drank it with our pinky fingers crooked while wearing floral garden hats and speaking in a British accent, of course.

I draped a little, round table in layers of clothes, and brought out the floral china.

The weather cooperated with perfection, but just in case, I added a fan and extra sun umbrellas to the space.

Teapots were filled with $1 flower bundles (our local Kroger always marks them down after the weekend) and I made place cards with “Angela” and “Elizabeth” instead of Angie and Beth to be extra fancy.

But “Karla” doesn’t come with a fancy option.

So I used the name my dad, Hubert, had written on my original birth certificate.

“Huberta”

As in Huberta Josephine Downey.

Yep, that was my name. My mom changed it to Karla Jo. Not nearly as much to roll off the tongue. I think I could’ve grown up as a Bertie, or Birdy? Instead I was always Karkie Jo.

The silk flower umbrellas from my April Showers Bring May Flowers theme at Good Juju got another go round as garden party decor. I’ve left them up outside a while, they somewhat survived a 24 hour deluge. I’m not sure how many more uses I’ll get out of them, but I have enjoyed every bit of our time together so far.

We had dipped strawberries and lavender honey dark chocolate for dessert.

I fixed honey butter toasted croissants, individual quiches, and fruit salad.
Even though it was their birthdays, Angie brought sparkling soda and Beth brought a salad.

Happy Birthday to two of the funnest people around!

April Showers Bring May Flowers but DO NOT try to spray paint your umbrellas

flowers, Good JuJu, how to's

By Karla Nathan / March 19, 2023

At Good Juju, I want to make use of ALL my space, floor to ceiling. My plan is to hang various items up high to make seasonal displays. For Spring, I decided to go with umbrellas.

My first thought was to spray paint used umbrellas and add greenery.

Well…

After going through two cans of spray paint that ended up runny, not covering up the underlying color, and just looking like a drippy, blotchy, poorly done mess- I soon discovered how bad that idea was.

Umbrellas seem to be made of a material that repels liquids.

Who’d have thought of that?

Well, I was trying to be thrifty about it and was happy to get free umbrellas from a friend, but do you know how much spray paint costs? That was not going to be a cheap way to do it.

After looking on Amazon and other places and seeing that affordability was not going to be applicable to this project, I almost gave up the idea. Then, I found five, white paper umbrellas at a thrift store for a couple bucks each!

So, I started looking for fake white roses and greenery, and was attacked again by sticker shock. I once again was about to give up on my plan. Then friends brought me grocery bags of flowers they’d gotten at estate sales and didn’t need.

Plan April Showers was back on track!

I was also given a naked, vintage umbrella in bits and pieces. The handle was so pretty, I just had to put the thing back together.

So the skeleton was rebuilt with duct tape, wire, and string. It will never open and close, but none of this set does after adding the flowers to them.

The one with the great handle was so nice, I thought it deserved vintage florals and pretty fabric, so I spent a lot of time on it, as well as plucking an entire rose covered hat to finish it with.

Sadly, I was careless with my glue and when you hold it up to the light, you can see the clear blobs of dried glue on the transparent fabric.

None of the results are anything like my plans. I was going to take down the stained glass window, and have just greens in white umbrellas hanging. But since that didn’t work out and I went with what was available, I think I like the colorful display even more!

Distractions

flowers, paintings

By Karla Nathan / February 6, 2023

While putting away my endless forest of Christmas trees, I decided to clear space in an upstairs closet to stash a tree that just did not want to go into the under stairs storage. I came across some old paintings. This drawing was done about fifty years ago from a family photo I found at my mom’s. But I have no idea who the people are and the piece was in the back of the closet for decades. So I’m taking it into Good Juju to try to sell.

It can honestly be categorized as vintage!

There was an ugly painting lurking in the closet too. It was flowers with a hummingbird and butterflies. I looked at it and thought, decent frame, pretty colors, just needs work. So I thought I’d “touch it up”. Haha, so much for that! A few hours later, it was entirely covered with a landscape.

There is not an inch of the original painting left. It did not get a makeover or touch up, it got a cover up. It’s still not done, the flowers in the foreground are just roughed in.

But I had a fun day – much more fun than cleaning out closets. The distraction of painting means that there is still a half cleared storage area that needs attention. Maybe next January when I need to find a space to cram a tree into.