flowers – Page 21 – Karla's Cottage

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.

Putting together a baby shower while babysitting a grumpy baby

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, flowers, Food and Drink, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / August 16, 2008

For a while today, I didn’t think I’d be able to pull off tonight’s baby shower!

Sugarwings spent most of yesterday and today with me, and while she was very helpful making birthday cupcakes for her mommy yesterday, today, she was a bit of a challenge.

That is not like her at all, and had me worried. I hope it is just a phase she is going through.

But I kept things very simple for the party and served ready made foods, like a mix of pink jelly beans in a cut glass dish.

And a basket full of mixed nuts with dried fruits.

Then, Beth brought a cheese cake and someone else made brownies and treats. All I had to do was set the table, make some herbal tea/punch and open wine.

Setting the table looks much more complicated than it is. I layered pink flowered table clothes (the baby is a girl!), and borrowed one of Sugarwing’s vintage doll cradles that I had painted roses on to hold the plates and napkins.

The plastic silverware is sitting in her fluffy bunny basket (from Easter) that is lined with a floral napkin.

I snipped a few flowers from my garden and tucked the blooms into child’s tea cups and popped a little ballerina in with the flowers. Since I didn’t have time to go to the store and buy flowers, these little rose buds and a handful of pink baby’s breath from my yard were the only bouquets I had.

I’ve found that, making myself be creative with what I have is much better than going out to buy something ready made. At least it is cheaper!

A few nesting tea cup birds from my Etsy stash of stuff for sale, and some birdies I got from Robin and Lori, and I was done.

I wrapped up a few more packets of bath salts to give as party favors.

Then, placed a doll crib in the living room to fill with presents.

Oh- and I also hung some pink glittered birdies from my Sissy on the chandelier along with a tussie mussie from my friend, Heather. I love the long, dangling ribbons on the cone, and might just leave it there for a bit and enjoy it.

Of course, the fun part was when the doll bed was filled with pretty pink presents for the expecting momma to open! (she was a good sport and wore the party hat I made for her too, even though it was kind of top heavy, but I think that at nine months pregnant, she is used to being off balance by now!)

Sparkle joined the party and spent most of her time on Aunty Beth’s lap.

Beth gave Shanna the cutest gift. She is planning on knitting a blanket for the newborn, but it wasn’t done yet, so she made a tiny one and wrapped it around a dolly as an IOU.

I gave Shanna my all pink version of the Sugarwings and Twinkle book, and added a hand painted cupcake to the teaparty page, along with a teacup that I drew onto rosebud paper and cut out.

I wanted it to have some special touches.

Here are a couple of the names that are being considered for the new little girl due this week:

Lizzelle and Audry– How pretty!! I like them together, Audrey Lizzelle.

Tomorrow is Sugarwing’s 2nd birthday, and I certainly hope she is back to being herself again so she can enjoy her party. It is so sad to see her unhappy and grumpy. I feel like we’ve been given a changling and someone is hiding our sweet little fairy girl!!

A rare treasure

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, flowers, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 11, 2008

You were all so thoughtful in cheering me up, thanks for your well wishes!

I am usually pretty upbeat, but I think I was suffering from vacation overload! I went from weeks of family and friends and travel to an abrupt stop and was feeling it. Isn’t that what makes blog friends so nice to have? They are always there to visit and company is only as far away as the keyboard.

Today’s sketches even went a bit better. Sometimes, sitting at my desk to work on my latest project can cure any worry or ill, but other days, it is just hopeless. And if it isn’t going well, I need to just walk away from the table and give it a break.

Yes, today was a good one, I was happy with the drawings, I heard from Fifi that the story Carol, Diane and I worked on turned out well and is set for the next issue of Romantic Country. Of course, she hadn’t given me any reason to think they wouldn’t use the article, but I am always reassured when the type is set and the magazine is final. Things get shuffled sometimes and it is good to know this didn’t.

Then, I heard from Jo Pakham that she could be interested in my studio for "Where Women Create". Of course, nothing is settled, it was only an inquiry, but I was flattered to be asked. I’ve heard a lot of positive buzz about this new publication, and I am honored to be considered.

I’ll spend part of next week taking a shovel to the room to make way for some sample photos!

I also kept to my deal with myself and listed more on Etsy today, another altered fairy and some flocked paper packs.

As if today wasn’t already a nice day, look what I found when I went out to do some yard work-

Surprise lillies everywhere! I adore these pink blooms that pop up over night sometime mid-August.

The fragrance outside my studio door caught my attention before I even saw the flowers. I picked an armful to bring in and scent my home too.

But there is more- Sugarwing’s Daddy came by to visit, just to hang out and talk. As close as we are, that just doesn’t happen as often as it used to, grown sons hanging out, one on one, just for the fun of it, is a rare treasure!

New blog title: Crazy, Obsessed, Shopaholic, Bargain Hunter’s Crowded Cottage

antiques/junking, collections, Etsy Goodies, fairies, flowers, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 17, 2008

Some one stop me!

I have been on such a roll with the bargains this week, that I can’t quit looking for them. And they seem to LEAP out at me.

I heard the call of the hats yesterday, and asked a friend if she wanted to take a spur of the moment, quick trip with me to go and buy hats.

We only had a couple hours, knowing it was late in the day and the stores would close, but we went anyway, and I was glad I did.

This loot was $1 a single flower and $7 for the loaded hat!

And even though, I have plenty of buttons after last weekend’s garage sale, how could I pass this up?

The ironstone bowl is worth at least $15, let alone filled with buttons!

Not only that, but SORTED and cleaned buttons.

The bowl has already come in handy, on my desk filled with these trims that I bought too.

There are some really nice pieces in here, lots of old beading and delicate laces. These were only $1 a zip lock bagful.

Those trims were the first thing I played with after I got home, I couldn’t wait to do something with them!

These tussie mussies are made of vintage flocked wallpaper, lined with old, French paper, then encrusted with some of the fancy trims, jewels, and flowers that I bought yesterday.

These are gifts. I won’t say who for yet, but the hint for the new owners is in the themes I used to make them:

birds*fairies*pretty flowers

This trim was my favorite, so dainty and old. There was quite a bit of it, too.

I was glad to discover when I cut into it to use it on the tussie mussie, that all the beads stayed in place and didn’t run every where. I had been worried about using it, but it was wonderful to snip and glue down.

And yes, I bought more vintage jewelry. Just when I think I have cleaned out all the old jewelry bargains in the state, I find even bigger and better deals.

Can you believe that a lot of this was in the ten cent box?

Some of it was a dime, some of it was sold in bags full for $3 – $4 a bag.

Yes, I bought all the bags! I’m not even showing all the jewels I got, because I am starting to overwhelm myself with all this bounty.

These were 50 cents each.

I’ve not used beaded trim pieces much in the past, but I will have fun making use of these black ones at Halloween, won’t they be great on witch hats?

This is an example of how much was in one $1 zip lock bag. I can see some Silver Bella projects in the future of that silver velvet string!

There was a big bundle of towels and doilies for $5.50, which at first I thought I didn’t need. But then, I remembered that I had planned on buying dish towels at Target later this week.

So, why would I pay $3 a towel for plain ones at Target, when I can get a big bundle of beauties for $5, with extras thrown in at an antique store??

These gals were $1 each, and soon will be covered in flowers, beaded trims, and sporting fairy wings.

Now, if I can just stop shopping long enough to stay home and make some stuff with all of this!!

By the way, thanks so much for all your purchases from me this week. I appreciate it! (Plus it makes more space for me to go shopping again myself!)