flowers – Page 20 – Karla's Cottage

The Blue Bird of Happiness has moved in with us at the Cottage

family, flowers, Food and Drink, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 21, 2009

Today felt more like Summer than Springtime, and while I was hit with guilt about not having my bedding plants out yet, I was sure enjoying the perennials and so glad that we have such well established beds that can be completely and totally ignored and still look good (well, that is if you look away from the grass growing in the iris)

It was such a pretty day, we took lunch outside to eat.

Doesn't everything taste even better outside? Especially when served off of a princess plate.

The day was too nice to stay sitting at the table, Sugarwings wanted to explore.

And of course, she had to make sure that Grammy was following her. This is a wooden bridge that I found in a dump 15 years ago (don't ask how I drug it out and got it home myself). I always liked the little bridge, but this fairy grand baby just adores crossing it. She always stops to check underneath of it for trolls.

If only iris bloomed all summer…. I just love this time of year, I'll miss these when they are done, they bloom and fade too fast.

Sugarwings is learning the names of the flowers, she calls quite a few of them iris or snowball bushes, though. She thinks that the peonies are snowballs like the viburnums. I have to agree with her, they do look like big white snowballs.

But the peonies smell better.

The best part of summer coming? We can paint outside! (yes, she is still a paint taster, although it looks like she has moved on from blue to black paint now) Last year, there was a photo of her printed in "Where Women Create" all covered in blue paint.

But now, it is MY turn to be a model!

Yep, I am gracing the pages of a trade magazine that showcases New Holland Tractors, along with my niece, Shelli. Hmm, should I add this to my list of publications that I've been in? Probably not…

As if things weren't happy enough around here, most days, at least- look at this! The blue bird of happiness has come to live with us. Its a gift from Cindy and I just love it. Thanks, Cindy!!

More En Le Jardin with Jenn

celebrations, Etsy Goodies, flowers, parties, show and tell, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / May 20, 2009

Everyone is asking what we made at En Le Jardin. Here is my flower pot, I didn't exactly follow directions…. They are supposed to be covered in chicken wire and then the embellishments added to that, but I left off the wire. I also went a little crazy with the foofs, its about as gaudy as can be, huh?

I'd brought lots of goodies to embellish with, plus we were given loads of treats to use in our swap bags. But when I saw this vintage gift wrap paper that Jenn had out for us to use, I had to go for it. Its actually two different papers, the little ladies were cut out and glued onto the floral paper. All the glue is still wet in this photo, so it looks a bit murky.

The day started out blistery, smelty hot. But then, the sprinkles came, not bad, just a little steamy. We were all having so much fun we didn't even notice, really. But, then the skies let loose! There was something about being under the tent, all together working away while the rain poured down around us that was kind of intimate and cozy.

But not so cozy, that I didn't want to get out and splash around in the "water slide" with Tiffany!

I think that if Tiffany and I were neighbors, we could get into some trouble. That girl is a blast.

Our other project was a fairy ball. Cheryl had the idea of adding the streamers, so Kim and I both used it. Mine is the one in the middle, the left is Kim's and the right is Cheryl's.

Mine is a little different. Instead of a little girl's photo made into a fairy, I used a fairy ballerina perched on top of a faux cupcake. Then, I drenched it in rhinestones and jewels and millinery.

Just like the photo of the planter, this one still has wet glue. The rain might have been fun, but it made the air so humid that my creations were still slightly damp when I packed them up the next day.

Since this was the fairy's nest, I added some pastel eggs to the top of the cupcake too.

Although, what do fairy eggs really look like? These might be pretty pastel colors, but they are a bit blah to have been laid by a little sprite. I should have tied little ribbons onto them and added millinery flowers. (Ouch-that might be a bit painful for the fairy to lay, huh?)

To the top, I added a vintage chenille bee, and one of my plant markers, this one says "Fleurs" in honor of the event.

The day in the tent was remarkable and the craft projects were really interesting. But, my favorite part of the trip was in our downtime, when we chatted for hours. Evenings went on way into the morning hours, and the sharing never slowed.

Lots of the attendees have been posting photos, if you'd like to see more, Jenn has a really good sampling on her blog. She has complied photos from our Flickr site and used some from different photographers. From her blog you can follow links to other people who have posted pictures, if you'd enjoy seeing more. I gotta tell you, the details that went into the weekend were pure perfection!

And while talking about details, I have to tell you how much I am loving my new camera!!!!!!!! Tiffany and Carol both gave me priceless tips on how to use it better.

They convinced me to be brave enough to venture on from the point and shoot options, which I figured would be all I could handle and since I refuse to read how to manuals, thought I'd be stuck with just doing that. I learn much better from Show and Tells, and these two always took time to show me.

Look at the center of this partial roll of vintage crepe paper! yep, I LOVE that camera!!!!

I've been adding a few odds and ends to Etsy and to the Boutique. I'm plugging away at it. I have a goal, to get 50 items back in Etsy, mostly craft supplies. As far as the Boutique goes, I really don't know what works well for it. I'll experiment with inventory levels and see what works best. I know I prefer fuller to emptier myself, but I'll see.

Look what I saw today, on the Vintage Workshop newsletter- a project I did for Amy last year:

NEW DOWNLOAD COLLECTION –
Garden Collage

The Vintage Workshop would like to introduce a new type of multi-image collection called Elements . These collections will contain a series of coordinating elements including single images along with background images. The number of images in an elements collection will vary. Elements collections will still come in two versions – the resizable Designer's Choice and the pre-sized Click-n-Cut (all backgrounds in click-n-cut version are sized 8.5” x 11”).

The first collection in this series is Garden Collage – emt100. This collection contains four vintage seed packet images, two sheet music backgrounds, and four different vintage wallpaper backgrounds.

The sample note cards shown here use images from our new Garden Collage collection. Use these as inspiration to create your own projects.

Click here to view more garden imagery.

April Showers and a May Flower Giveaway

antiques/junking, flowers, give away

By Karla Nathan / May 2, 2009

Yesterday, Beth and I headed to Sparks and White Cloud to the flea market we never miss twice a year. There have been times when it has been chilly, other times when we feel like we have heat stroke. We've gone when it was drizzling a bit too.

But yesterday, when we left, the forecast was for a 60% possibility of thunderstorms all day and it was raining so hard I could barely see the road.

And I kept driving anyway. And I decided I will never again tease my husband when he gets all bundled up to go to an outdoor sporting event in blizzardy weather. I had always thought he was crazy. But now, I get it. The pluses out weigh the minuses, and it was worth it to me to brave the weather, just in case there was a break in it and we could do some fun shopping.

Luckily, the weather cleared! We had some minor drizzle here and there, and our shoes were muddy from walking in the fields, but the day was GREAT. We always have a blast there, and say that it isn't just shopping, it is an event. So we figured it was worth the risk of getting a little wet.

And if the only thing I bought all day was these posies, it would have been worth getting really muddy. (but of course I bought more. Much more.)

These were marked $4 each. I asked (very nicely) how much it would be if I bought all of them, and was thrilled to hear that they could go for 50 cents each if I bought the bowlful. I always say, it never hurts to ask.

Since, I was at Sparks all day yesterday, I wasn't able to list more wallpaper yet. I did add a few packs to my Boutique the night before and many have already sold out. Today, I had Sugarwings to keep me busy, and tomorrow I am helping at a fund raising garage sale for some friends. I hope to add more packs and will let you know when I do.

Isn't this vintage greeting card beautiful? It is actually on a flocked paper background! I had 3 of them, one I kept for myself and two I made up wallpaper packs to coordinate with.

Well, that garage sale is going to come pretty early tomorrow, I'd better get to bed, now that I finally have Sugarwings tucked in. She is at a stage when she thinks she'd rather stay up and play, not go to bed, and sees no reason why she shouldn't just do what ever she wants. So, tucking in has become a marathon event around here.

Before I go, I want to announce the April Giveaway winner:

Marilyn

And don't forget that I have a gift for you for my birthday, May the 5th. Any comment between May 1st and 5th is entered.

A mini tutorial just in time for May Day and Mother’s Day

flowers, how-to projects, Miss Frenchie's

By Karla Nathan / April 20, 2009

For some reason, I didn't do much shopping at Miss Frenchie's myself. I missed out on some great items, and am kicking myself about some vintage lace curtain panels thatDebbie had. I guess that when I go to a show, I am in a selling mode, not a buying one.

There were a few little souveniers I picked up for myself, though. One of these great "Miss Frenchie's April in Paris" candles from Debbie, and from Beth, this Eiffel tower. I might glitter it up. When I get caught up. If that can ever happen.

Part of getting caught up was cleaning up around the house a bit, (with me away 4 days in a row, and life going on without me to pick up after it, the house got a little – no a lot- messy). And I have neglected my yard getting ready for this sale, so I took a couple hours today to tidy up and hit dandelions with Round Up. I adore that stuff. I should own stock in the company I use so much of it.

The bundles of pansies and violas that I used as props at the sale needed to be potted, so I planted them, and used the moss I'd had for the sale too.

People at the sale seemed to be taken with the bundles of pansies, and I got a lot of inquiries about them. So, I thought I'd do a mini tutorial for you. With May Day and Mother's Day both around the corner, these are a handy and inexpensive little gift.

Start with a 4 pack of bedding plants and try to get a good one, with lots of blooms on it.

Remove from the pots and soak the roots in water. (you can add root starter if you'd like)

Wrap the wet root ball in a paper napkin.

Wrap the wet napkin-ed roots in a piece of Saran Wrap, making sure you have it covered well, so it won't leak.

Select paper to tie up the plant in. I used pages torn from an old book titled "Art in Every Day Life" because I liked seeing those words across the top of the package.

You could use scrapbook paper, lace paper doilies, gift wrap, just about anything you'd like.

I chose a wide, ivory ribbon to tie around my plants. Raffia, rickrack, lots of things would work.

Since I was going to a show and needed greenery for my tables, I made up quite a few of these. There was no leakage, and 5 days later they were still in good shape to plant.

These bundles look so pretty and it is a nice presentation that takes little time or money. Sometimes, I add one to a gift bag to stick out of the top. Its like a bouquet with a bonus, because they can be planted later and enjoyed for a long time!

I’m a Flower Fairy!!!

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, flowers, paintings

By Karla Nathan / March 18, 2009

I'm a Flower Fairy!!

Have you seen this yet??!! Wowee! I am so excited to be going to it! Jenn Hayslip has invited us to stay at her Southern Belle's Palace (that is how I picture her home and I am pretty sure that I am correct about that). Here is the site with details, the event looks like it will be amazing.

There is a button for this on my left side bar.

And did you notice this button on the right hand side bar? Along with the hand painted knobs?

I've decided to add these links to my tutorials, so you have a short cut to them if you ever need the info. Hopefully, I'll be able to add some more as time goes by.

For now, there is: How to Paint a Chadelier and How to Paint a Nest

This hodge podgey post is meandering around, huh?

Luckily, I heard the whisper of these flowers calling to me this weekend and followed it to this jackpot! Well, some were a gift from a friend (who knows me VERY well) and some are the ones I had to hunt down. I KNEW there were flowers waiting for me downtown at a store that I used to find some in all the time. That shop hadn't had any new (old) hats in months and months, but I felt like I needed to run downtown and check.

Yep, the Hat Whisperer strikes again! I found a gold mine of flowers.

Here is a bit of the detail from one of those murals that kicked my butt yesterday. I'm glad I kept at it and got them all done, today is chilly and wet. It was worth the exhaustion to get them finished while the sun was shining.

These two will be the backdrop of my booth at Miss Frenchie'ssale on April 17th. I am still tired today from the job, and very discouraged at how exhausted these two paintings made me! They measure about 5' x 6' and really weren't that complicated to do. I don't know why the job did me in so much.

After all your encouragement in the comments about not being old and that 50 is the new 30, I guess I will stop blaming my age and blame the sun! I am not old, I had heat stroke. There, that sounds better.

I also went to the beauty shop and got my hair done today. That helped too. My hair has not looked so good for a while and that doesn't do much for the old (oops, I'm not going to use that word) self esteem. I was telling Beth that my hair was looking like June Allison's. And not in the days when she was a pixie like star in films with Van Johnson, but when she was doing adult diaper commercials. Not a good look.

Further meandering around, here is something I listed on Etsy today after getting back from having my new do done. This vintage doll dress in a vintage frame on vintage wallpaper, is decked out with vintage jewels and vintage lace and was made by vintage me. (sorry, I am still feeling OLD, no matter what I say about heat stroke and exhaustion, and how un-June Allison-like my new hair style is, I am feeling OLD)

Last night, I soaked in the jacuzzi and then crawled into bed to fall asleep while watching Australia. I was pretty tired, but that movie could have put me to sleep, even if I wasn't. Today, I'd better perk up, because Sugarwings is coming over and I'll need to start chasing her around.

She keeps me young! It takes some energy to run after that little flitting fairy.

Don't forget, you still have the rest of the month to enter my March Giveaway for this springtime floral necklace! All comments, all month count.

My friend, Gretchen is having a giveaway too. I've been lucky enough to get one of her necklaces, and know you would love one too. Please tell her I said hi, when you go to enter her drawing.

I’m a Winner too!!!!!!!!!!

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, flowers, give away, how to's, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 2, 2009

AND THE WINNER IS—ME!!!!!!! Well, it sure feels like I am a big time winner, you should see all the pretties that have come in the mail to me this week!

Honestly, these are wrapped too pretty to open. Sugarwings and I will have a dress up tea party together and wear our floral hats and open the pile of pressies together when she comes over at the end of the week. For, now, I am enjoying the lovely wrappings!

So many of our Puppy Love Tag book swappers have sent in lovely gifts, I just don't know where to start in thanking everyone. Tons of generosity and thoughtfulness is filling up my mailbox along with all the beautiful tags!

These gifts are a sweet bonus to the fun of doing the swap. I am slightly overwhelmed. Well, more than slightly… Bowled over is more like it.

But I absolutely do not want to give you the wrong idea, that gifts are required or expected when you send in your packages of tags!! Or any other swap I host.

So, I want to thank ALL of the swappers who joined in to trade tags, and let you know how much I appreciate the effort that each and every one of you has made to put these cute books together. And yes, they are going to be really cute. I love the ones I have seen so far!

And I have to say, if you have never hosted a swap before, you should give it a try. Anticipating the mail lady's arrival each day, opening up the boxes and packages to admire the tags, meeting all these talented artists, it has just been a blast.

The reason I like this swap so much, is that it is collaborative. It does mean extra work for me, but it is worth it to see all the creations all togther and in person. I don't care for one on one swaps, (even though I was paired with GREAT swappers and got cool returns on what I sent in, when I have done some!!) I've heard horror stories of swaps gone bad, but with this type of swap, if one person doesn't come through with their portion, no one is left in the lurch without a partner. (like I said, it didn't happen to me, but I have talked to people that it did happen to)

The deadline for tags to be in is Feb. 5th and I will be showing you some pictures of the books as I put them all together. I'd say about half are in already, so I should have an avalanche of packages coming in filled with tags in the next few days!

In the middle of receiving the first 30 or so bundles of tags, I got these gifts in the mail from two different blog contests that I won! The millinery flowers (YUM!) are from Andrea and the sugared house is from Side of the Road. Thanks, ladies!

Oh, but you are probably interested in who won the January prize from me, huh? I keep running on about me and my gifts, well, here is one for you- and it goes to:

Mahala

And hey, she is a Puppy Love swapper!

Don't forget, we are still having the Name That Puppycontest going till Feb. 5th, so leave a comment on the previous post if you want a chance to win a milliefiori heart charm and name one of my furry little buddies.

This heart is a leaded and beveled glass one that I foofed and spiffed with vintage wallpaper and a red velvet flower. I'm going to list it in my Boutique tonight.

Today was mostly paper work and boring crap, no time to make anything at all, but I did get a few millinery craft packs listed on the boutique.

Oh, and I fixed up this gumball machine that I found at the Goodwill a few days ago. I've never been an orange fan, but that was an easy change.

All it took was a can of "Ballerina Slipper" pink spray paint, sandpaper and white acrylic paint. After a coat of sprayed on pink, I roughed it up with the sandpaper, and dry brushed a hint of white over the top. Its now filled with yogurt raisins and sits in the studio so that Sugarwings and I can have a snack when we need a boost of energy during those big play dough projects!

(artwork by Tiffany)

The puppies are up and running now, well kind of. If you'd like to see a video of them on Flickr to help inpire a name for them, please check it out here. But please keep in mind, that I thought the camera was off when it really wasn't and the second puppy video has me talking baby talk to one of them (and sounding like a doof).

Twinkettes??

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers

By Karla Nathan / November 4, 2008

There is no place like home! It feels good to be back, so good that I have not been working on being ready for Silver Bella (countdown is one week from tomorrow till Natasha and Heather get here!).

Instead, I have played with some of the stuff I bought at the Big Flea in Virginia, and foofed up this bottle brush tree, and went to spend a long morning getting caught up with friends over coffee.

When you hear me whining about not having enough time to get ready, please remind me of the time I wasted spray painting my pumpkins and sticking jewels onto them.

Orange is not my color, and since Silver Bella is around the corner, I thought it would be fun to have silver, crowned and bejeweled pumpkins by the door next week for my dinner party in honor of my Bella guests.

Whats that fuzz ball in the front?

Thats Sparkle, I am making her hang out with me, even though she’s old and would rather be laying on a pillow thinking about what she’ll be eating next. (sounds like what I’d like to be doing, actually)

Twinkle, my normal buddy, who never leaves my side all day, is on a DATE. I left her at her boyfriend, Teddy’s house while I was out of town and I haven’t picked her up yet.

Hopefully, this is what we’ll be seeing soon, Twinkle with a bunch of little Twinkettes following her around!

Of course, only in my dreams are the puppies rhinestoned and pink….

Did you remember to vote today? I am looking forward to watching John Stewart and Stephen Cobert tonight with their top notch election coverage.

Fun with Fabrics

antiques/junking, family, flowers, parties, Silver Bella, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / October 25, 2008

I’ve been playing hooky the last few days. Maybe a case of over confidence? I am so close to being ready for Silver Bella that I am doing fun stuff instead of finishing the work that needs to be done. I hope nothing comes up unexpectedly and I don’t have time to finish after all…

Today was a tie dye day. Normally, we do our dying outside, but the weather was just a tad to cool, so this is what my studio looks like now!

Here is a shirt I dyed last time, its an ombre type style. To get this affect, you saturate the piece with the base color of dye, then splash on colors that blend, starting with lighter at the top, darker at the bottom.

Then hang it to drip for 24 hours while the dye sets. I love the way the colors bleed as it hangs.

Last year, these hoodies were sold at Silver Bella, and I wore mine so much this year that I almost wore it out. It was white to start with and after a year of enjoyment and use, you couldn’t call it white any more. So the dye was a fix to make the shirt "new" again.

I also embellished the faded (from many washings) printed design on the back, with bronze metallic and silver glitter fabric paints.

If my other tie dye creations turn out picture worthy, I’ll show them later. Right now, they are wrapped up in rubber bands and soaking away in plastic bags.

Beth indulged me and took a hooky day shopping on Thursday, we went to the Jr. League Holiday Shop in KC. Hmm. Not my typical type of shopping, and we kept saying that we felt like tourists in another land. Everything was NEW and expensive, not stuff either of us buy!

But then, we came across Deb Dusenberry’s Curious Sofa booth like a beacon of light in the darkness we found her beautiful displays of fab finds!

See why I was so happy? Her style is so perfectly perfect. That woman has an eye for beauty, I love everything she does.

And while there, I found out that Deb is driving up from KC to go to the Silver Bella vendor night, so I made sure to invite her to visit Carol and I in our "Glitter Lounge". Carol (who is a good buddy of Deb’s) and I are stocking our room with wines and chocolates and inviting friends up to hang with us there. (Last year, after Silver Bella vendor night, we had a cocktail in the lounge, then a slumber party in Heather Bullard’s room. This year, Heather isn’t coming, so Carol and I will be having the girly night in our room instead.)

After eating enough free samples of gift basket style food offerings to justify our tickets to the Jr. League show (every other booth there had jam and crackers or spinach dip and pretzels), Beth and I escaped the newness of the holiday mart and made a run to Mission Road Antique Mall where Beth has a booth. We did a redo on her spot (sorry, no good pics of that, too bad, she has GREAT stuff- but there are pictures on her blog) and it was joy to play with vintage goodies after an afternoon of walking through booths of brand new goods!

Remember me telling you about the art show at Blue Plate Dinners that I painted a pear for? We went to the opening last night and what a cool event! The art was all food related and displayed in one gallon zip lock bags.

Quite a few friends of mine had artwork in the show, so it was fun to hang out with them for the evening.

Notice anything odd about my picture? Well my hand is a bit colorful from the tie dying.

Most people didn’t even comment, they are so used to seeing me covered in something, glitter, paint, dye, etc. that it would cause even more comment if I showed up somewhere pristine…

Vicki gave me a blog award, how sweet. I always appreciate the kind thoughts behind those, I am sorry I don’t always follow through with them. For this one, I am supposed to list 6 things that make me happy, so I thought this photo summed up most of them-

1- Sugarwings!!!

2- flowers

3- summertime and sunshine

4- pretty colors

5- a day with the family

6- spending time in this town I am so lucky to live in, downtown Lawrence has so much to offer.

The wallpaper pact

antiques/junking, collections, flowers, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / September 2, 2008

Obsess much, Karla?

I went to help Beth redo her studio a bit today. After we got it all tidied up, we got to play in it and get it all messy again!

Our goal was to empty a small box full of wallpaper scraps she wanted used up. She has a new Cuttle Bug (I call them Cuddle Bugs) and I went a bit crazy making tags with it. This photo shows just a drop in the bucket, there are tons more.

I didn’t seem to be able to stop. Or leave. I was one of THOSE guests. 8 hours later, there I sat in the studio cutting "one more" out.

I made use of the embossing plates too.

She gave me the vintage shoe tags, as well as the wallpaper in the background.

We have a "Wallpaper Pact". When one of us gets a new pattern of paper, we always share. That keeps us from being jealous and resentful of each other.

The pink paper in the background of this is part of the pact too.

And the tags? Beth gave these to me, what a cute way to wrap up some ribbons. And VELVET ribbons are my faves!

While spiffing up the studio, we looked around her basement for items to foof with. And of course, I just had to do some shopping. If you ever go over to Beth’s house, ask to see the bargain basement first! I bought a lot, but the light is fading now, I’ll take some more pics tomorrow of all the stuff once it is in place in my own studio.

One studio display idea we came up with while checking out the bargain basement was this birdcage/ribbon holder. At first, I found an old, naked lampshade and wanted to hang it from the stand, but it was too wide.

Then, we dug up this cage and it seemed perfect to hold ribbons by the desk. Its also good to clip papers to, almost like a bulletin board.

We brought up this child’s hutch from the bargain basement, too. It made a handy shelving unit for supplies near the desk.

The room is 10 x 10, but she has made an efficient use of the space, by using tall shelving and making use of vertical spaces.

She is sooooo organized! Look at all the labels! I envy her ability to find anything, any time she needs it.

This is my favorite corner, probably because of all the ice cream colored wallpaper. the back of the hutch is lined with a patchwork of the vintage paper and the doors of the lingerie cabinet are covered in it too.

We almost made our way to the bottom of the scrap box she wanted to use up, but not quite. I didn’t do anything arty, I just pasted, cut and embossed all day, kind of mindless and soothing. I called it all back ground work, stuff I can embellish and make into something nice later on.

When I got home, an envelope had arrived from Phyllis with this sheet music in it!! I’ll have to copy it and make it into some sort of price tag or label for my vendor booth at Silver Bella.

And I don’t think I’ve shown you this little beauty, have I? Wow, isn’t this birdie darling? It was a gift from Heather, who makes the prettiest things.

Her package arrived for our Pre-Bella Get Acquainted/Get Inspired Swap. This is a gal who loves old wallpaper as much as I do. Take a look at the paper bow she made for the presents she sent.

If you’d like to see more of the swap, I set up a Flickr site, open to the public.

I’ve photographed all the packages that came in from the Bellas as well as the goods inside. Yummy, yummy, they are really quite something!

And so is Kansas at this time of year. There is a reason we are called the Sunflower State! Now, about January, when things are bleak and gray, you won’t hear many praises for the views around here, but September can be quite spectacular.

“I’m Melting!!!!!!!!”

antiques/junking, collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 30, 2008

Beth and I went to our favorite flea market on Thursday and besides some dripping with sweat, soggy photos of friends, this is the only picture I took all day. It was way, way, way too hot.

You know how people in the Midwest say, "it isn’t the heat, it is the humidity"? Well, on this day it was both!

By the way, I won’t be posting the soggy friend photos, not if I wanted to keep the friends, that is! We were all just miserable with the heat, and I felt like the Wicked Witch of the West, melting away.

I kept saying all day that the heat wasn’t bothering me. I was having fun and doing fine, even though I was a stinky, soaking, mess.

But, when I realized we were too hot to eat and we hadn’t even had to make stops at the nasty port-a-potties, I figured we might be a bit dehydrated. I still thought I was fine, but that night when I got home, I felt like I had been hit by a truck and was sick all the next day.

The day was still a ton of fun. We were finding great stuff at great prices, and even though we left early, I was happy with my haul.

I bought 18 hats. One was over $10, quite a few were only $1, but most were in the $3-$5 range.

See why I was braving the heat??? Some of my regular spots for finding millinery didn’t have any at all! Beth says I have created my own shortage by buying up all the hats in the Kansas area, like Howard Hunt did with the silver market years ago.

For those of you who were asking me about more Halloween colored flowers for crafting, I was able to get one orange and one black hat. And the orange one was pure velvet, just wonderful!

These are all the flowers off those two hats, so I will be adding maybe some white and purple to the bags and making up bundles to list.

When I am at a flea market, I always scan for hats and old jewels, and usually vintage photos. But as much as I use my flowers and blingies, I rarely use the photos. And yet, they are so plentiful and inexpensive, I keep buying and buying them.

I begged Beth to stop me if I tried to buy cabinet cards. I told her that "friends don’t let friends over spend on photos."

So, when I saw this album, she did her best to try to stop me.

But it was FULL of photos. And not just old guys, it was mostly families, babies and ladies! And those are the pretty kind to find.

Not only that, but half of the mats looked like this!

And did I mention that it had more than 30 photos in it and the whole thing was only $20?

It was definitely bargain day at Sparks and White Cloud, KS.

Darling little plastic critters 2 for a quarter, and a pretty pink runner with a hand crocheted border was $1, so was the vintage doll dress (that maybe one of my dolls waiting to be transformed into a fairy will be wearing soon??)

Pretty trims, and a jar with a great lid were a bit more, but worth it.

I’m not sure what this was meant to be, but I liked it. I think at one time it might have held a glass perfume bottle.

Did I mention that I found some jewels? And this cute as a bug, blue jewelry box was $1.

I’m not a purse person, but when I see one this cute for under $1, I sure am. Apparently the person selling it must have thought that since the fabric was disintegrating, the bag wasn’t worth anything. I felt that just made it more interesting.

And I found a chalk ware DORKY! Dorkies are hard to find. Scottie dogs seem to have the market on dog jewelry and doodads. When I find a little, antique, Yorkshire Terrier, I am always thrilled. And this one was $3. (she is already wearing a tiny crown made by Carol and is sitting on my desk)

Beth and I ran into Carol there at the flea, too. She was there with Deb. Both of them gave up a bit earlier than us, the heat got to them too. But we ran into them again later at a nice, cool, air conditioned antique mall on the way home and got to visit a bit then.

There are quite a bit more things that I bought that are all in "before" condition. Bottles for a project with Carol,, displays to fix up and use for Silver Bella, trophies that will be glittered and foofed, but since I have run on and on for long enough, I’ll wait and show these later after they become something a little less grungy.

Now, some grunge is good, like these two pink cabinets. The tall, wooden one was my most expensive item of the day, it was $30, the doll trunk was only $1. They will both be Silver Bella displays too, because I can actually pack the items to be displayed right inside of them for the trip to Omaha.

My favorite purchase of the day? I’d seen this broken metal lady on Beth’s blog last week and she brought it to me. Here it is in her post. I called her the Lady of the Begonias.