flowers – Page 22 – Karla's Cottage

the not so romantic side of a Romantic Country Autumn Garden Party IN JUNE

flowers, give away, magazine pictures or articles

By Karla Nathan / June 1, 2008

Today is Present Day! I get to announce the winners of not one but TWO May giveaways!

and

Remember, I ALWAYS have a giveaway going somewhere, some how. All comments are entered into the monthly drawing and the prize is always something different. A new one starts now for June.

What should I have for June’s giveaway? Last month was popular, maybe I’ll do another prize pack.

I know!! It can be a June Garage Sailing Extravaganza Pack! I’ll scour garage sales and find some good presents for you.

Carol and I set up our fall photo shoot for Romantic Country for Fifi, and Sugarwings dropped by to help a bit.

I see a future photo stylist in the makings there!

And you know, we could use all the help we could get. Its not simple to turn a neglected corner of a farm field into a romantic picnic!

Luckily we had a beautiful, perfect day, sunny and no wind. Shooting outdoors is never easy. Diane Guthrie (our photographer) had to run an extension cord across the field so we could set up some lights for a shadowy corner.

The other day in our "dry run" to set up and see what needed to be tweaked, we came up with lots of changes.

One being the planks on the ground under the table legs, so that when we loaded the table, it didn’t slowly sink into the mud and tilt sideways so that things fall off and break (yep, that happened in the dry run).

To create an outdoor room for our Autumn picnic, we hung some curtains from the trees. Vintage French lace curtains from Carol’s stash!

But, halfway through the shoot, they were just not looking right to me on the screen. Great in person, very romantic. But haunted and ghostly in the film, so we had to take some down.

We had hung this Gothic arch window of Carol’s (she has great stuff, check out her website) with more French lace behind it, and that was plenty for atmosphere. Sometimes just a touch of something is all you need. (can you believe that I said that, Miss Gaudy actually said that a touch is enough???)

Oh but, don’t worry, there was some gaudiness! But tastefully done, not over the top like I tend to do, because Carol is magnificent and this article is featuring her creations and ideas.

See the purple brain in the urn? Hmmm, it looks better from the front angle instead of this one. It is a red cabbage is embellished with ribbons and rhinestones and I just thought it was the cutest topiary ever.

I can show you some snippets, but not all of the set up, it will have to be a surprise when the fall issue of Romantic Country comes out.

Carol made these mini crowns from gutter screening, and we set votive cups inside to hold the water and flowers.

Our colors were rich purples, plums, and cream, with contrasting greens.

Neither of us are purple people, but everything looked so pretty together, we might have converted ourselves.

The table was set with such an inviting style, we were tempted to pull up a chair and start the party. But instead we sat on the bumper of the SUV parked in the grass to eat our sandwhiches. After all that work, we couldn’t risk messing the disply up!

The field felt like it was miles from the house ( I guess I was feeling my age today, plus it was so humid that Carol’s glasses steamed up). So, I got out the John Deere and made my hauls back and forth with props the lazy way!

Speaking of lazy, that last load of stuff is still in the wagon, I’d better go get it put away, then treat myself to a relaxing evening with nothing else to do but finish a good book I am near the end of. Maybe in the jacuzzi. With lots of Calgon. And a glass of wine.

Yep, perfect ending to a fun, but tiring day.

Planted Plates and Pansies

collections, flowers, give away, show and tell

By Karla Nathan / May 25, 2008

Hope you are all having a happy Memorial Day weekend? We’ve been busy, with boating, and a party, and the fairy grand baby staying the WHOLE weekend with us. She and I have done yard work all morning (and no, I didn’t tame the wildness of the yard, I merely pulled weeds and cleaned up a bit). After nap time, there will be more boating, so I thought I’d use this small window of time while the baby is sleeping to be a part of Show and Tell Sunday and snap some photos of my china and crystal.

Except, I don’t really have any crystal…

All of my glassware comes from garage sales.

Just about all of my dishes do too. Except the collection of chintz patterned coffee cups, those I buy at Home Goods or TJ Max when I see a pretty rosey one I don’t have. The chandelier cup is from there too, it was on clearance for $1.99.

Gosh, on my last post I was talking about the wildness of my gardens, but from the looks of my cabinets, they aren’t much neater.

I am so much more comfortable with a laid back, casual display.

The very top shelf seems to be neater. These pieces aren’t in daily use like the others.

It is important to me to have things pretty, like painting the insides of the cabinets a complimentary pink.

The pink interiors aren’t really that noticeable when the doors are shut, but the color always lifts my spirits when I go to put away my dishes.

For every day, I use an assortment of white, cream and ivory plates and bowls that I have picked up here and there.

Then I have a couple of sets of "good dishes" like this stack of Wedgwood ones from an auction (for $11).

I don’t always put my things away in an order that makes sense. I go more for how pretty they look together, then add little tidbits to the display, like these chipped up porcelain flowers.

And no, I am not too proud to admit that I cook with instant mashed potatoes and prove it by showing a cannister full of them in the cabinet with the Wedgwood plates.

I do have a trick for instant taters, though. I will boil one potato, skin on, and smash it up so that is still slightly lumpy and add that to my instant ones to give them a better texture.

Any china with a rose on it is hard for me to resist at garage sales, even though I am out of room for displaying them all.

And of course, what is a cottage without some Pussy Willow around somewhere?

Well, when you run out of display space indoors, it is time to start hanging plates on the garden fence!

There were quite a bit more out here hanging but over the last few years, they have fallen and I simply haven’t replaced them. I’m surprised these have stayed up through a few rough Kansas winters.

And of course, I plant plates too.

And use them as flower bed borders.

Teacups glued to the arms of an old chandelier make great candle holders. (I did this project for Romantic Country a couple years ago).

As a clumsy, careless, and hurried antique dealer, I always had boxes of broken dishes from moving displays without bothering to clear the shelves first.

So I took up mosaicing to use up the dishes that I regularly crashed.

I’m not the sort of collector who expects or values perfection. Many of the dishes in my cabinets are chipped or cracked or crazed. I think it makes them more interesting (and of course, more affordable!!).

If all I am doing with a plate is using it for decor in a cabinet, I’d much rather have a 25 cent chipped one than a $35 dollar one in perfect condition.

In honor of last week’s Show and Tell Sundays vintage linens, I added an embroidered doily to the MAY GIVEAWAY PRIZE PACK.

For this week’s Show and Tell, I’ll do the same and add a lovely old plate. It seems to just be perfect with the assortment of other prizes, doesn’t it? How could I NOT add it to this bunch of pretties??? (that is if I don’t break it first!)

Don’t forget to "grab for the golden ring" and leave a comment to enter the drawing (all comments, all posts this month count).

Also check out the button on the side bar to see all the Cottage Charm giveaways going on this month. Good luck in the drawings!!

How does your garden grow?

flowers, swaps

By Karla Nathan / May 24, 2008

Its definitely spring here, and my flowers are showing it.

The wisteria on my garden gate are in bloom and bunnies are busily eating the plants I have sprouting up in the garden. I think lining the bottom of the fence with rocks will help, the ground has settled and the fence is a bit too far off the dirt this year.

I’m fixing the problem tomorrow, the rabbits are going to have to settle for just eating flowers, the veggies are off limits!

There was a heavy rain last night and all of the peonies are laying on the ground, and so are many of the iris. Spring flowers can be so fleeting, it is sad to see them meet an early demise.

On the other hand, it means I can fill the house with picked flowers and enjoy them indoors!

Every year, my yard seems to be a little bit more unkempt. I do like the wild-ish country garden look, but this is getting away from me.

Between the baby and the dogs and everything else I try to do, my yard is taking a back burner. With my husband flying back and forth from the East coast, I have inherited the mowing and trimming as well as the flower and veggie tending, so I think I will just have to live with a bit of wildness this year!

Over grown and wild isn’t so bad. I think I will call it "lush" instead.

Our big, old, fat, tom, Kitty Boy is a bit over grown and wild himself.

More presents came in the mail today!! These are from Kim Caldwell, one of our swappers. She sent me some goodies from her event, An Artistic Affair. I saw photos of her passing out these bundles of lavender tied up in old hankies and thought how sweet they were, and now, look, I have one of my own!

Once again, I want to thank everyone who participated in the swap, and let them know how much I appreciate all their hard work and time and generosity. Also for the cards for my Great Aunt Caroline’s 100th birthday. I haven’t forgotten all of you, I am working on photos of all the cards still pouring in and will show some photos as soon as the swap is caught up and mailed out.

Remember, every comment gets entered into both drawings I am having. You can read the details in my previous post.

Now, I am off to a party tonight!

Lots of reasons to say thank you

Etsy Goodies, fairies, family, flowers, give away

By Karla Nathan / May 14, 2008

I have added some of my paintings to my Etsy shop this week. These are reproductions of floral watercolors I did, that I have adhered to canvas boards and then crackled and aged.

These prints are $25 each and are 8" x 10", so are ready to pop into a standard frame, or can be leaned on a shelf, or set on an easel as they are.

The hydrangea print is sold, but since these are reproductions, I can print more up if you are interested, let me know and I will make up more. The crackle comes out a little differently on each one, that stuff has a mind of its own.

In this summer’s Romantic Country, I will have a "how to" article on doing this technique if you’d like to give it a try yourself.

The 100 cards for my Great Aunt Caroline’s 100th birthday are still coming in and I will soon catch up and photograph them all and do a whole post showing the latest ones.

This one is from my pal, Lili in the Netherlands. Can you imagine what my aunt will think when she sees 100 cards from all over the world? Thanks again, to everyone who is participating and helping Caroline celebrate this milestone.

Another thank you I have to add is to Vicki. I won her giveaway and she sent a bonanza of goodies for me to craft with! (this doesn’t show them all) Thanks Vicki!

The hat box in the picture is one that I found while at the antique mall with my little Mini Hat Whisperer. It was $6 and in pretty good shape. I can’t ever have too many of these for storage!

Do you remember that I said I would add to my May Giveaway Prize pack every week?

I changed my mind and added MORE today!

To the white leather Brighton coin purse, the gold band and satin hanger with the millinery flower, I added a vintage ballerina cake topper, a vintage greeting card and a sweet little pearl pin.

You have to love the faces of those old ballerinas. Oh my.

Were the painters drunk? Those painted on lips remind me of little old ladies putting on their red lipstick with tremors. Or me putting on lipstick with no mirror.

My Sissy can put on lipstick without a mirror anytime, and I can’t for the life of me. I showed her once how bad I was at it at Applebees when we went out for a glass of wine after sitting by our mom’s bedside in the hospital.

It became a joke for all of us, that we would close our eyes and apply lipstick all over our mouths (yes, in public) and laugh like 6 year olds. Here is a photo of Sissy, Bobbie Sue, and me, Karkie Jo looking festive at Sissy’s 60th birthday slumber party.

Sissy made us into fairies and turned the photo into a birthday card for my 50th. (notice that even when she tries to put her lipstick on badly, Sissy’s still looks pretty good! Well, at least compared to me, or do I just have a really big mouth?.)

I know you are all tired of my blathering on about my birthday, but one more story-

Yesterday, Sugarwings and I were at the grocery store and saw that the Mother’s Day flowers were marked down to $1.99 a bundle. So, we bought an arm load (I should have had a cart, imagine me carrying all these bunches of roses and a wriggling baby through the store).

I made up bouquets and dropped them off to my friends who had come to my birthday party as a thank you.

It was like a belated May day, I set the flowers on doorsteps, rang the bell and left them as a surprise as I drove away.

And thank you also to Paula Kay for the cute little bag! I just wish you lived close enough for me to drop some flowers off on your porch as a thanks!

Garden helpers and purple posies

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, flowers, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 7, 2008

Another beautiful Spring day around here. I am spending it in the studio working on a project for Vintage Workshop. (but with all the windows and doors open to enjoy the day!)

I downloaded images from Vintage Workshop last night. Once I got started, I got a bit carried away and ended up spending hours playing around with different sizes, color settings, etc. I now have such a big stack of images to use, I could fill 3 books instead of the one I planned on making!

I also got some jewelry listed on Etsy. Did I mention that when I packed up for the art show I was in last weekend, I forgot to pack up all the new jewelry I had made just for the show???

Anyway, it is now available on Etsy. I’ll be listing more as the week goes on, so far there are two necklaces and one bracelet.

Why does listing seem like more work than making the item to start with??

Today, I might be indoors working, but yesterday, I had a perfectly beautiful afternoon outside planting flowers with all my little helpers.

We planted a lot of purple, I have an upcoming photo shoot with Carol for Fifi at Romantic Country in a few weeks and will need fresh flowers to pick.

The article we will be doing is supposed to be for fall, but it will be shot outdoors in the spring.

So, I planted a lot of cool season flowers that bloom Spring and Fall both: Pansies, stock, violets, and ornamental cabbage.

Being the thrifty soul that I am, I know it is much cheaper to pick your own flowers then to buy an arrangement.

And the smaller the plant you start with the cheaper it is. So, I bought flats of annuals, and set them out now. They have time to grow and will be ready to pick and arrange when it is time for the pictures in a few weeks. Right now it all looks a bit spindly, but with a little sunshine and some time, these will be perfect for our theme.

Sugarwings and I took a ride on the John Deere out on our 10acres, scouting out a good spot for the photos. (Twinkle ran along behind us the whole way)

I am thinking this is a lovely spot for an outdoor picnic. Do you think it will be picturesque enough, once Carol does her magic and brings all of her tables and props?

50 tiny dancers for 50 years of dancing through life

fairies, flowers, hand painted signs, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / May 4, 2008

Oh no, is Karla going to make us look at 10,000 flowers she just bought??? Is that all this blog is about anymore???

Nope, I won’t do that to you. I just wanted to show you the pretty posies on the top of the birthday present Beth brought to me today.

How perfect is this package for me? Old wallpaper and millinery flowers that are soft and floppy with age topping a hat box!

Even more fun, look inside! Amongst some other trinkets that I love, (Italian rose dish, a vintage millinery catalog, old seam binding, and other pretties) was FIFTY BALLERINAS.

Only Beth would think of something that perfect for my 50th birthday!

She came to help out and keep me company today at Art in the Park.

I can’t imagine a nicer day for it. Sunny, with a slight whispering breeze that was just enough to keep us comfy, not so much that our things blew over or we had to take turns holding onto the tent leg so it wouldn’t blow over.

My greeting cards were my biggest seller today, with Mother’s Day next week, that was to be expected. I also sold china shard jewelry and earrings.

Mostly we spent the day soaking up some springtime. And giggling. Inspired by Joy’s fortune bottles, I decided to decorate bottles as party favors for the birthday party I am throwing for myself. I will add a special fairy note to each one, assigning guests a personal guardian fairy to watch over them.

So, Beth and I spent a big part of the day coming up with helpful fairies and naming them. Here are a few:

“Pinkie Sugar Fly” will guard your windows from bugs flying in through tears in the screens
“Kitty Flitter Flower” watches over you during cat naps to bring you sweet dreams
“Tootsie Twinkle Tulip”is always ready to touch up your toe nail polish before you even know it is chipped.
“Blue Bird Buttercup” sprinkles cookie crumbs for a trail to lead the blue bird of happiness to your door
“May Belle Lina” watches out for smudged mascara under your eyes.
“Flossy Flutterby” picks the spinach out of your teeth before anyone notices it.
“Pearly Pear” keeps an eye out for an earring that is about to slip off your ear.

My pal, Pam sent me this birthday card. I love the sentiment, wouldn’t it be wonderful to be granted 3 wishes? Although, today all I would ask for is that Sugarwings would feel better. My poor fairy grandbaby has a fever and sore throat and I hate to see her sad and down.

Don’t forget, a giveaway will be drawn on the 5th and I have an extra special May giveaway with lots of gifts this month!

The crazy hat lady strikes again

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

By Karla Nathan / May 3, 2008

You’ll never guess what I bought at the flea market yesterday.

Millinery flowers! Beth asked me how I was going to display my hats, and I told her "I don’t like hats" and that just struck our funny bones, considering I’d just bought 15 of them!

Honestly, I don’t care for the hats themselves, I only buy them for their blooms.

At first, I didn’t think it was going to be a good hat day, but then, I heard the whispers of them calling to me from a large booth of vintage clothing.

The dealer had just returned from Round Top . Her prices were sky high too, $38 for a flowery bonnet?? Yep, those are big time flea market prices, not Kansas prices!

So, I asked her nicely if she had a volume price. I bought 8 hats including the one previously marked $38 for only $64 total. And I didn’t stop there, I found pairs of hats here and there throughout the market for an average of $2.50 each. Which is why I ended up with a pile of FIFTEEN flowering beauties!

I was worse with old photos. I told Beth that she had to steer me away from any more, it wasn’t funny at that point. I didn’t think I could stop, but she was able to help me and I got through the rest of the day avoiding the photo bargains.

Most pictures were $1 each and when I’d gather an armful of ten or so, the dealer would usually name a price averaging about 50-75 cents each.

Which is how I ended up with THIRTY NINE photos.

Sparkling old jewels were priced about the same as the photos at so many tables we stopped at. Of course, if they were priced higher than that we didn’t stop.

I don’t know how many pieces of rhinestone jewelry I ended up with, but with paired earrings at under $1, I might have bought a couple…..

This photo? A drop in the bucket.

And look at the "Princess" jewel box! It was only $4 and I have plans to foof and jazz it up on the exterior. The inside is lovely just as it is! (the pretty as a picture alarm clock is a birthday gift from Beth- lucky me!)

I bought $1 dolls to fix up too. The bust (Marie?) was only $1 and I might paint it white.

The pink skirted tiny dancer is actually a music box that plays "Always" (the song my parents played at the their wedding). Consider this a "before" photo of her, I have big plans for a transformation to come.

French, German, and other old books were only $1 each

Clear Lucite containers were how much? $1 a piece (wish I’d bought more)

26 Vintage ballerina cake toppers were how much? $1 each

Keys? 2 for $1

Vintage scalloped edge stationery? $1 a box

But of all the things I bought, what is the best? This $4 dotted Swiss dress for Sugarwings.

In the same booth, I found a close match for her baby doll.

I think I’ll ask her to wear them for my birthday party on Monday. (which is my actual birthday, even though I have been celebrating for weeks.)

I’ll draw a name on May 6th for a winner of a birthday gift from me. All comments count towards that and toward my May giveaway, which I think will have to be extra special this month.

In one $5 bag of jewels from the flea market, there was a dainty gold band. I think I will include it with my May prize. Along with the gold band is a white leather Brighton coin purse.

I’ll be adding to the May Prize Pack throughout the month, so stay tuned and keep entering! Any comment, any post.

April’s winner, Clarice had a choice of prizes. She chose a Cottage Collage Kit with vintage wallpaper. She has two daughters that she makes great craft projects with, so I included some extras for them all to have fun with.

Gardens of Velvet and Silk

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, flowers, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 6, 2008

It doesn’t look like I am the only one who is crazy about millinery flowers.

I use them all the time, seems like I can’t make anything anymore without adding a posey or two!

If I haven’t actually used them in the composition, I love to twist them up into the ribbons that I hang the piece from.

I started out very greedy and hoardish with them. But now, with my (sorry, I think I mention this a LOT, but it is a major issue with me) New Years resolution to use my good stuff and enjoy it, I have generously used these flowers in globs and bunches and garlands as well as just simple accents.

(all of the projects pictured are listed in my Etsy shop)

If you love old hat blooms as much as I do, you’ll have fun today browsing through blogland and checking out the gardens of velvet and silk that are part of Sugar Sugar and Little Pink Studio’s show and tell.

This is definitely one of my obsessions. And I store them in a vintage wallpaper covered box, to compliment another of my collection compulsions.

And in a wallpaper covered drawer.

With a little glass full on my desk within easy reach if I need one quickly!

Not to mention the ones scattered here and there on my desk from past and present projects.

Oh, and the leaves!! I adore the leaves too!!!

There are always hats around for playing dress up with for Twinks and Sugarwings.

Aparently this one isn’t quite the right style for her.

The hats aren’t bought to keep as is, I buy them just for the flowers, but store them intact and pluck one here and there as I need it.

Up until lately, I had tossed the naked hats when I was done with them, but then decided they would be perfect to save for the fairy grand baby and I to decorate together when she is older.

Won’t it be fun to invite all of her little friends over for a tea party and give them each a hat and a pile of foof to add to it? I can just see the glue, glitter and doodads flying everywhere in my studio from all the little girls designing their wearable works of art!

These are my latest acquisitions. The perfectly aged, ROSE wallpaper covered hat box was $3, and the hats were $3 and $5. I almost passed on both hats, the pink one didn’t have many flowers on it, and the orange one was hideous.

But then, I thought about it, and realized that the pink one’s few flowers were definitely worth the $3 price, plus PINK is the best color to find!

And I made myself look past the hideousness of the orange hat, and plucked off all the creamy colored flowers, realizing that I had a bargain!

And after taking off the ugly (or so I had thought) orange ones and getting them away from the uncomplimentary tone of the green leaves, I saw that they were actually a very pretty sherbet shade.

Not a bad haul on that one $5 hat.

My favorite flowers to find will always be the dainty white ones.

And I never turn down a big velvety red rose. Although, so far, I have not used any in a project. They just make me smile when I come across them while digging through the blossoms to find just the right one to finish a project.

Because you know, it just isn’t done till I add a flower!

Hmm, I think that my giveaway for April should include some of these in some way. Remember, every comment during the month is entered to win.

I Heart Lawrence, KS

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, flowers, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 5, 2008

Sunshine! Wow, I had almost forgotten what it felt like. What a long and rough winter we’ve had. I don’t think it is quite done with us yet, but I am taking advantage of today’s nice weather and planting some pansies.

There was no way I was going to wait any longer. The grocery store has their pansies out on the sidewalk and I can’t pass by them to go in for a gallon of milk and a case of Coke Vanilla Zero without stopping to daydream about warm weather.

Then, Target had garden tools with pink handles in thier Dollar Spot. How could I resist?

Pansies are pretty hardy, they should do well. And their little faces sure do brighten my own every time I walk by them planted by my front door.

Yesterday was delightful also. I went downtown (Lawrence, KS has a lively, active and entertaining downtown area with lots going on) and we went to visit one of the big Jayhawks that I painted and mosaic-ed with another artist a couple years back.

I could possibly be the only person in this entire town who isn’t planning on watching the big KU game tonight. The downtown atmosphere was pulsing with excitement.

I may not be a basketball fan, but I do love my town and know how important the game is to it.

My husband is a HUGE fan, and is in DC right now, so I bought Sugarwings a KU shirt (pink, of course) and took some photos to send to him before the game.

When I got the pictures back, she was so cute, I had to make some scrap book pages.

As a non-typical fan, I couldn’t just do a sporty page. I used vintage wallpaper, some old sheet music (one song about basketball, the other about the state flower of Kansas, the sunflower).

And since I am a lazy scrap booker, I made a pocket on one page to put multiple photos into, instead of trying to think up ideas for using all of them on the pages.

I used KU colors, of red, blue and yellow, but had to do it in flowers and ribbon.

When I make scrapbook pages, I tend to not worry too much about making it perfect. Edges are a bit crooked and things aren’t lined up exact. Mostly, I just want to get the photos into the book and get something attractive on the pages with them.

If I worried too much about it, I’d never get them in the books, and having fun memories in the albums is the main goal.

And anyway, that baby is so cute, no one notices what I do to the page, people who look at albums are more interested in the pictures of her, and the backgrounds are just that- backgrounds.

I’m off to enjoy more of this pretty day and walk out in our woods with the dogs. Of course, that means I will probably be picking cockle burrs off of them this evening but hey, I wasn’t planning on watching the big game on TV tonight anyway!

Making more space and making money stretch

antiques/junking, Chandeliers, fairies, flowers, give away, holiday decor, I do tend to run on, don't I?, magazine pictures or articles, paintings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / October 2, 2007

I have been hearing that Romantic Country has been hard to find for a lot of people. I’ve seen that with these Harris Publications before. They have great magazines and people love them, but it takes some searching to find them sometimes.

So, today, I am mailing a copy to my sweet and tiny little mother-in-law out in Utah and my genteel and gracious great aunt down in Florida (who is turning 100!!). I made them each a book mark with their initials. I used some pretty scrap booking paper and brass charms but didn’t delve into my stash of vintage wallpapers and old ribbons. I knew they would just think it was old stuff and would probably appreciate the new papers more.

I redid the little corner of my studio that I call my office this week.

The rug is a linoleum remnant I painted for a magazine article "how to" story a couple of years ago. I switched from a larger table to this petite one and now the rug shows more. I’d almost forgotten it was there.

I use doors that are hinged together to make the partition that creates the space, and even though the doors have windows, the spot is dark. So I repainted the big hutch from black to pale, icy blue, and added another chandelier.

The table lamp is from last weekend’s garage sailing, $2.50- with the shade!!

Its hard for me to make an office a pretty spot, too many functional things, electronics, papers, BILLS, that I need to keep out.

Of course, the piles of Etsy stuff on the little blue desk doesn’t help the clutter, does it?

I might have mentioned a couple (or a thousand) times that I like fairies. I make my own from old dolls, or paint them, or transform vintage photographs into little fairy kids, but I also buy store bought ones.

TJ Maxx has these sparkly babes in with their Christmas decor for $5 each. I added these warm colored ones to my fall centerpiece in the dining room.

The velvet rose is from a bundle of the quarter ones I got at a garage sale, I glued it and some moss into a creamer from another garage sale that was only 15 cents because it was chipped.

My house doesn’t usually have fall colors. but I wanted to do something to celebrate the season and still be true to my own palette and style.

Fresh flowers are always welcome here. These are from last MONDAY at my local grocery store’s $1.99 clearance bin.

A vintage table cloth with roses in autumn colors, that Beth was selling for $3, and just gave to me instead, a basket from garage sales last week for 50cents, some of the vines and flowers (with lots of sparkle to them) from garage sales for a quarter a stem, and an 80% off after Christmas spray of glittered fruits from Hobby Lobby are part of the display.

I also added a gold carnival glass dish that was my husband’s grandmother’s and filled it with china roses that I collect for mosaic projects. Oh, and a bag of white pumpkins for $2, and a beaded pumpkin for $1. All of this, for what it normally costs to buy a flower arrangement!

Even though the flowers from last week’s sale bin are still thriving, I bought a dozen roses for $1.99 yesterday. Look at the deep reds and the wonderful striping of greens and yellows!!

The grocery store had a pot of white hydrangeas for $1.99 too. I hope to plant it outside as soon as we get a good break in the weather.

But for now, the pot looks good on my studio porch with the fall display there.

I might have saved a ton on flowers, but I went slightly overboard at TJMaxx on the fairies.

I bought one in every color they had for the baby’s room.

Even though I am decorating for the Christmas Parade of Homes, I don’t think these will come down after the holidays, they look like fairies that should live here year round to me.

One more bargain, before I go make things. I’d hate to only have 2 book marks and a rearranged room to be all I accomplish today.

My friend was having a yard sale and I bought this desk from her for $30. If I had bought it from a stranger, I would have offered $25, but very politely, I am never pushy or rude when I wheel and deal!

This attic room is in its beginning stages, you don’t want to see the rest of it yet.

And one more "one more thing" this is what I sent to Priscilla, who won the Sept. giveaway.

The tag is one that I made by cutting up my Romantic Country party invitation. I thought it looked fitting for her, as a Flea Market Queen.

I added her initial and a charm that I had made with old papers.

The charm can be worn as a pendant if she’d like.

I hope she enjoys her throne.

Please leave a comment to enter the Oct. giveaway. Maybe I will keep it as the Sept. one was, custom fit to the winner?