flowers – Page 25 – Karla's Cottage

Crowning Glories and Junker Jo

antiques/junking, Chandeliers, flowers, paintings, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / June 15, 2007

Tiara time is ending, it was a fun break from reality making such a frivolous piece of fluff. I loved working on it, and hope my swapper friend, Barb, http://www.123lavenderlollipoplane.blogspot.com/ enjoys wearing it!

I have been looking at the flickr site http://www.flickr.com/groups/400122@N23/ to check out the tiaras as they are finished, and man, what a sparkling group! I just wish we were all having a party and wearing them together.

Funny how my design morphed as I made the piece. I had gathered up a basket of things I liked to use, and as I crafted it, I switched plans often. I knew for sure that I needed to use lavender as a color because of Barb’s email address: lavender lollipop lane. Besides that, it just kind of came together as I glued things on.

I always work that way, I never sketch or plan. I have walked up to a blank 60 foot wall at a hotel and just started painting a mural, figuring it out as I went along.

Today started with garage sailing. Junker Jo had her annual spring sale and I was right there in the middle of it, watching the chaos as everyone grabbed tags off things and wildly picked out treasures. I don’t believe in fighting over junk, but it can be fun to watch other people go for it!

I got these plastic plant tags, I can see possibilities with scrap booking or collage with these. I got a giant box full. If anyone wants a dozen for a dollar (includes postage), let me know and I’ll pop some in an envelope for you.

I got some sparkling old jewels too for $10. These cameos will be wonderful to remake into a necklace and earrings with some old crystals!

This chandelier has no wiring, and I could fix it, but I like it as it is for my garden. I can stick a candle in it when we are eating dinner on the patio. It was only $5 and the drops are plastic, not glass, but are ideal for garden decor.

I also got an old typewriter ($6), a pressed glass compote with a lid ($2), a box of vintage Christmas ornaments ($1), a mini wooden toy vanity/jewel box ($2), and was sorry to miss out on an old trunk that would have made a great toy box for Sugarwings after I painted it. It was $20 and I was feeling too cheap. I am kicking my self now, should have gotten it.

After garage sailing, Sugarwings and I played in the sprinkler.

My little fairy grandbaby wasn’t over to visit for very long, so I was able to get some painting done. I’d bought a big bagful of wooden outlet and switch cover for only $5 at a Goodwill.

I primed and painted them all white, then added roses to these 3. I think I will list them on Ebay unless someone wants any for $6 each? I’d say $3 for postage, though. There are also plain ones yet, if anyone would like a custom paint job on one.

Don’t forget- leave a comment, enter the drawing for the handpainted charm!

Rockin fairies

fairies, flowers, give away, how to's, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 13, 2007

After my 100th post yesterday, I wondered, will I run out of things to say or to show? Then I realized how easily entertained I am, and I knew I’d always find things I thought were interesting. Now, whether, other people will find it interesting too and keep reading, well, that is another story, isn’t it?

My sons found this rock when they were about 8 and 10, whiel we were on a camping trip. I will never know which boy found it, because they both took credit for the find and half killed each other trying to give it to me. I guess they have always known that I am truly entertained and excited by odd details, like a rock shaped like a heart. It might be the sweetest thing they ever gave to me, (except the fairy grand baby, of course).

Baked potato shaped rocks might not be as wonderful as heart rocks, but this one still deserves a spot in my collection out in the yard.

But a crystal rock is really special! I filled a back pack with these on a hike up in the hills North of Little Rock. What a gorgeous place, we were up on a hill over looking the town, it was serene and quiet, felt very desolate and private, but down below you could see the town of thousands of people. The ground sparkled in the sunlight, there were crystals everywhere. I just wished I wasn’t such a wimp and could carry more.

Have I lost you yet? Hope not, because I want to show the beautiful fairy that I got in the mail today from Heather!!http://prettypetalsboutique.blogspot.com/ It was part of our mini fairy swap, and I promptly hung it up in Sugarwing’s room.

I hung Heather’s fairy in the alcove that I have painted with faux brick.

On the wall, are 2 fairy themed shadow boxes that I made. I found them on clearance at Marshalls for $2 each, because they were so ugly, filled with plastic mini corn cobs, for some reason. So I took out the corn, repainted the frames and added the assemblage stuff.

I often find art supplies in the clearance aisle of non-craft stores. Or goodwill, or the trash, or a garage sale, etc.

The sparkling fairies hanging in the window are from the clearance department at TJMaxx. I spray painted some branches white, added glitter to the paint while it was still wet, and screwed them to the wall over the window.

To the branches, I tied ribbons with teeny flowers on them and added a few fairies for a unique window treatment.

I love the Fat Grandma fairy best! Maybe it is her pink hair?

I got some gardening done today, didn’t just walk around and aimlessly take photos of rocks.

I keep my most used gardening things in a pot in the breezeway on a table I have mosaiced.

The pot was painted by a friend, Vickie Howard. This isn’t her typical work, it was donated to a fund raiser as a center piece and I bought it there. Her work is pretty classy. If you buy a print somewhere like JC Pennys or another department store, it is often her painting used in the frame! Or if you buy holiday paper cups or popcorn tins at Target or Walmart, she was likely the artist!

Today, I got started on my tiara swap. Here are some things I pulled together for it. The black grosgrain vintage buckle already has received a coat of glitter and looks good.

The child’s head band has wire twisted on it to make the crown shape, and has been primed white.

Tomorrow, I am taking the bundle of supplies with me to Beth’s house http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ to work on them together.

Today is her birthday (I will enter you into my drawing for the rose charm- TWICE for each "happy birthday" comment you leave on her blog!!!)

So, tomorrow, I’m helping her redo her booth at the antique mall, then we are going out to lunch and doing some glitter gluing after. We might be able to manage to squeeze in a few estate sales on the way!

Scents, Roses, and a Drawer full of Bubbles!

antiques/junking, flowers, give away, jewelry, paintings

By Karla Nathan / June 11, 2007

99 posts, almost 4 months, 11,912 hits and counting! I had no idea when I started this blog what it would turn into, or mean to me. I thought I’d use it only to show more of my work to clients. (like this rose painting that I did and then turned sepia in photo editing and this yard long rose painting I did on a door panel)

But, I soon learned, that not only did I get to show and sell my work, and have my family living in other states keep up with what I am doing, I was now in a wonderful social network of people who enjoy, crafts, art, junking, and just plain old surrounding themselves with pretty things!For my 100th post, I think I’ll do list of what blogging means to me

I can tell you right now, though- I LOVE GIVEAWAYS!!!!!

Not only winning them (yippee) but doing them. I think I will try to have one going all the time.

For June, I am giving away one of these hand painted charms. Out of the 30 that I made for the charm swap I am in (I LOVE SWAPS TOO), I have these 3 left over. (The other two are for sale $10 each plus $2.50 postage, if you are interested)

Oh, I forgot to show you a few gems from my garage sailing trip with my life long friends who came to visit this weekend.

I found this book to read to my fairy grand baby, for $3.

We will both enjoy the pop up flowers on each page, but I might save reading it to her for when she is better at looking at things with her eyes instead of her mouth.

And CRYSTAL BUBBLES silver ware!!! A huge box full, maybe 3 sets? Or more, I didn’t count them, for mearly five buckaroos.

So many that my drawer barely closes. I will need to weed a few out and save aside for later.

I often get comments about how much I can get done in one day. Well this silverware drawer is one of my little ways of prioritizing my life. Why sort silverware??? I dump the whole basket straight from the dishwasher to the drawer. I’d rather spend time on something else.

The silver ware, the book, all the fun things I bought out junking with my buddies will always remind me of them. Much as a song will bring you back to the first time you heard it, or a scent will remind of of what you were doing when you smelled it.

Michelle Ward http://michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/ brings up that subject in this month’s challenge: "Whats that Smell?"

It is a coincidence for me that this is the challenge for June. I have recently started using scent on my packaging. If you received anything from me lately, and still have the envelope, let me know if it still smelled pretty when it arrived!

I went downtown Lawrence, KS to a cute shop that allows you to make your own scented oils. I mixed up a few old fashioned flower and vanilla ones. For years, I would add a single drop to the inside of an antique dresser before I sold it to combat mustiness and add a happy smell. Now, I am using a drop on the corner of each envelope I send out to someone who purchases my work, hoping to bring a smile to the recipient before they even open the package.

Bargain Flowers, Rosey Lamps, and Lurking Fairies

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, flowers, how to's, paintings

By Karla Nathan / June 6, 2007

More flowers from the $1.99 clearance bundles! I bought these two days ago, and they still look fresh and pretty. I think I’ll get the better part of a week out of them, what a deal.

These are in the guest bathroom, ready for company. And I even made time to clean the shower after all!

I placed the large bunch in a jug I made YEARS ago at one of those paint it yourself ceramic places. Probably 25 years ago?? Maybe I can call it vintage??? The little kitty planter is definitely vintage, and just big enough for 2 rose buds.

Bookie, my dorkie, is on the wall in a frame my friend made. She thought he was so cute, he was her picture that she displayed in the frames to sell them! I loved it that way, just as she had them on display and kept her photo in it.

One last bouquet of pink roses by the door in my kitchen. I certainly feel like I got my money’s worth from the clearance flowers. There are vases with fresh blossoms in every room of the house now.

Tonight, I made a lampshade to fit this light in the guest room. Actually, I didn’t make it, I embellished it. A plain white shade came with this shiny brass lamp.

I primed and painted the lamp sagey-pale green and wired a sparkly bird to the base.

Then, I took pads of distress ink in pink and ‘old paper’ and rubbed the white shade down to age it a bit and take the bite out of the glaring white.

Next, I painted teeny roses in soft pink with minty green leaves scattered around the shade. All were simply done, the roses are barely a twist of the brush, one color, no detail. Almost like drawing a cinnamon roll. but pink.

After using a hair dryer on the paint, I coated the entire shade with clear acrylic top coat, and sprinkled sheer glitter all over it. Then dried it with the hair dryer again, and glued white fringe to the bottom and beaded fringe to the top with "The Ultimate" my favorite glue.

Hot glue would have been easier, but I always burn my fingers with it. So I used clamps to hold the fringe down as it dried and saved the skin of my finger tips.

The lamp is in place upstairs in Sugarwing’s room. I have it behind a big comfy chair perfect for us to cuddle up in and read together.

Her story books are in an old doll house that I found at a garage sale and painted white. It opens from the top instead of the back like most doll houses. I placed a pot of colorful silk flowers in the back and keep Sugarwing’s books in the front.

Next to our cozy reading chair, we have a bigger doll house to fix up together as my fairy grand baby grows older and wants to work on it with me. Right now, it is merely painted a blush pink with a green roof. I have fairies peeking out of the door and windows watching and waiting for Sugarwings be big enough to come and play.

My guests will be arriving soon, they are driving in from Indiana where we all grew up together. This weekend will be like the slumber parties we used to have through Jr high and High School! Except with alcohol. Well, I hate to admit it, but there might have been some of that in high school too.

Meandering thoughts on roses and Meandering paths in the garden

antiques/junking, fairies, flowers, paintings, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / June 5, 2007

Once again, my local grocery store had $1.99 a dozen roses on Monday! At those prices you can fill a house with them!

Actually, this bright pink bundle contained a lot more than a dozen. I used them in the matte white dog planters here in the guest bathroom and also up in one of the guest bedrooms.

Isn’t that a perfect pink for this room?

I placed a goody filled pot by the bed as a surprise. I added some chocolates too, that seemed to be the finishing touch that it needed.

The other guest room upstairs got pale, blushy pink roses.

The painting on the wall behind the daybed is an old one, not one that I painted myself.

I used the painting for a photo shoot that I did for Romantic Homes, and thought I would sell it after the article, but I just never could. I even had a lady call me from Florida after reading the magazine and offer to buy it.

I have made copies of the picture, maybe I should find some old frames to paint white and pop some prints into them?

I bought white roses for the dining room.

There were bunches of other flowers for $1.99 too. I divided them up and used some with a few of the roses in kitchen window.

That is the one place that I will ALWAYS have fresh flowers. I spend too much time cooking and washing up at the sink to not have something lovely to look at. If there are no markdown flowers and I have nothing to pick in my yard, I will indulge in at least one single bloom to put in the window to enjoy while I chop and peel at the sink!

I don’t have a green thumb, but I sure try. I have learned that I can cut ivy from my garden and grow it in vases of water, not dirt. So, I always have ivy in pots and vases in the window too. Potted plants don’t live long in my home, but sprigs of ivy or pothos seem to do well in just water.

Speaking of green thumbs, I had some help in the garden today. Sugarwings spent some time eating dirt while I set up a series of soaker hoses in and around the tomatoes.

Marigolds are planted to line the stepping stones that I use in between the veggies.

I started collecting stepping stones years ago. A lot of the garden step stones are cheapy, 90% off clearance ones from Hobby Lobby at the end of the season.

All of these stained glass mosaic stepping stones are from art shows, where I have been able to trade a necklace I made or a print of my paintings for a stone.

I just planted begonias to line the walkway, they are still quite a bit puny. Try to imagine them all full and flowering!

With my lack of a green thumb, that is the only way they’ll get to that point, is by imagination.

This is my favorite, but then, you might have guessed I love fairies.

Plus, I got this at an art show in Pendleton, Indiana where I grew up, so it is sentimental to me.

A friend made this one, I added a bit of paint to age it.

This round one is from Walmart!

I had to dig a trench to help the water flow away from the house. I turned the mucky project into a curving path, and filled the area with rock. then, I lined the path with white dessert plates.

Well, I’ve shown you a painting that is an antique, flowers from the grocery and stepping stones other people have made. I feel like I should show something I did myself!

This is a fairy watercolor using plates as a border like I have done in front of my own home.

I’ve probably ran on long enough, but don’t forget you can enter the charm give away simply by leaving a comment or email this month. And as many times as you’d like to leave one, too, they all count.

Eat with Caroline

antiques/junking, flowers, Food and Drink

By Karla Nathan / June 3, 2007

Thanks for all your votes and input. I Love hearing from everyone, its nice to know I am not just writing this to myself, that there is actually someone out there who sees it!

Remember, you can still win a hand painted rose charm by simply leaving a comment this month. I love comments and don’t mind bribing you to get them!

I had a lucrative garage sailing morning with my sis-in-law, Sharon and her girls. First of all, she is an expectant grandma, and I am a slightly newbie grandmama, so we enjoyed scooping up baby goodies today. I used to drive right on by the sales that were all baby stuff, but now we squeal with joy when we pull up to the curb and see piles of tiny pink dresses and big, colorful, plastic baby paraphernalia that takes up half a room.

I loaded up on pretties for Sugarwings, including a monitor to keep here for when she naps and the foo-fooiest pink dresses ever ($1 each!) I will keep the dresses at my house for her to wear to our tea parties.

I managed to squeeze in some non-Sugarwings purchases too. This tray was $4 and the overnight case was 50 cents. I plan to line it with vintage papers and paint roses on the exterior.

The linens were 10 cents each! (I bought 32) Heck, that is less than bubble wrap. At that price, I should wrap all my packages in linens when I mail breakables.

I always seem to find a new birdie for my collection when I am junking. These pink tweeties were only a dime.

"Eat with Caroline" was a quarter, how could I pass that up?

I don’t know if any of Caroline’s recipes will grace my table, but they sure will adorn my collage work!

We took a break from junking and strolled through the farmer’s market. Because an interesting market like ours, here in Lawrence, KS deserves strolling, not just walking through.

I really liked all the hand painted signs the vendors use.

"Friday Night Bakers" was the prettiest sign. but it was late in the day so there wasn’t much left of the baked goods.

Isn’t the bundle of wheat next to the simple daisies and the yarrow a lovely combination?

Kansas is known for its wheat, but I have never thought of picking it and using it in my flower arrangements.

And look at this flower, it reminds me of Queen Anne’s Lace, but has bigger petals.

I’d love to grow Queen Ann’s Lace, and have tried digging it out of a field of weeds and transplanting it to my garden, but it never lives. Now how hard can it be to grow a weed?? I seem to be a whiz with dandelions and poison ivy in my yard.

I got up at 6am (not like me) to go Garage Sailing this morning, spent the middle of the day in the garden, then cleaned the basement. Which in our 100 year old house, is more of a cellar. Nasty. But after that was done, we went to a movie, then out on the lake to watch the sunset from our boat (and eat cheeseburgers with sweet potato fries from the Marina). Not a bad way to end a day. Although, it didn’t end there, I have a dozen people coming for biscuits and gravy tomorrow morning and a dinner party and house guest tomorrow night (with a day of boating in the middle). So, groceries and baking came after the lovely sunset. And of course, BLOGGING! Now, off to clean bathrooms for company and then finally, to bed. Night, night

To Frame or Not to Frame, that is the question.

flowers, give away, jewelry, swaps

By Karla Nathan / June 1, 2007

Thanks to everyone who helped out with advice! Overwhelmingly, the frames have the vote. But, here is a close up in case you want to re-think it.

3 ways of doing the charms are shown here:

1- plain

2- dangling frame

3- plain with vintage pink crystal

I think my problem with the frame is that it is kind of big, and slightly cheesey, too shiny, maybe?? And see how the rose paintings sway inside of the frame?

Well, the photo in the catalog I ordered them from looked so much better! I’m sure there are ways to age them, a little sand paper and a soak in an oxidizing liquid might make them more appealing to me. But, I do tend to be overly picky, maybe that is not necessary.

Here is what I did with one empty frame, I used it on a page in the scrap book I am making for my sister-in-law, Sandy. I added gold paint and glued a gem into the jump ring.( I went back and glued another tiny jewel in the other jump ring hole after I saw this picture)

Speaking of cheesey, not every page in a scrap book is a winner. This one is a bit much. I just gaudied after slapping down the picture by trimming it in gold paint and plopping some Michaels clearance stickers in the corners. Sometimes it is nice to just do some quick & simple pages and not worry about being ‘arty’!

My BFF, Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ came over today to work on charms together. She is in the same swap and we thought we’d hang out while we worked on them. She is in the tiara swap too. I’m really looking forward to that one! We’ll get together to make those too. It is always good to have another person to bounce ideas off of.

I should have taken a better photo of her charms, instead of just this one of the one on her nose.

Here she is in action. Looks like she is in CRAFTING NINJA MODE.

We are signing up to go to the Silver Bella classes in Omaha during November!!!! I’ve never done anything like that before, am more of a do-it-yourselfer than a class-taker. But I think it will be a blast and I hope to meet some blogging friends there.

If you want to join us, it should be a lot of fun, and we can take that sharp knife away from Beth if it frightens you.

We like to get together for projects as often as we can. The shirt she is wearing is one we did last summer. I threw a tie dye baby shower for Sugarwings, and everyone brought something white to dye. I ended up with a life time supply of fiber reactive dyes because I bought so many, wanting one in every color to use that day!

So every once in a while, we do a craft day with them. She and I both complain about how many shirts we ruin with Coffee splotches, and this is a good way to save a stained tee shirt. Tie dye camouflage!

I’m a coffee dribbler and about half of my shirts are dyed over. I’m wearing one in the photo above, with Sandy and I surrounded by stickers and gaudy gold paint.

You can still enter my charm/swap giveaway! I made 30 of them and only need 22. So for any comment left in the month of June, I’ll enter you to win one. And if you like them framed, that is how I will send yours to you.

I also have some to sell if anyone wants to buy one. They are teeny little paintings of a rose on a piece of textured watercolor paper attached to a metal charm then protected with diamond glaze. With or without a frame as you would like, with or with out a vintage crystal bead, as you would like. But no two are the same, all are hand painted. Some have hydrangeas with the roses, some have daisies too, but most are a single rose. Heck, I can custom paint one for you how ever you’d like too. They are fun to make.

$10 each plus $2.50 postage

I might need better photos. I am not having a very attractive photo day. Oops, no offense, Beth, that isn’t how I meant it!!

Another Giveaway, Another Charm

flowers, give away, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / May 31, 2007

I’m no longer confused by my charm swap, the kind hostess, Mary, http://mymothersdaughter-maryb.blogspot.com/2007/04/anyone-up-for-charm-swap.html explained that we still need to make 22 charms even though she hasn’t heard from everyone. If there are extras, she’ll send them back.

So this afternoon, I painted 25 thumbnail size roses on watercolor paper, (and added 3 teeny fairies too, wonder what that is for??).

I am so bummed by the charm pieces I ordered to put them on. When I ordered them online, I thought I was getting a solid piece, but they are two pieces, the centers come out and swing free in the frame.

And of course, I ordered about a million of them at once, thinking that the photo of them was perfect and I’d want to make a TON of these things, and just ought to order them all at once to save postage. Now I have all these charms and don’t like working with them.

There are a lot of extra steps involved since I can’t simply pop the paintings into the tiny frames and cover them with diamond glaze. I have to take the pieces all apart first, and now will have to reassemble them. But- I think I like them better WITHOUT the dangling frame. What do you think?

I have the diamond glaze coat on them and sprinkled a hint of glitter over it. The glaze is still wet in the photo here, it looks cloudy yet. I am always too impatient to wait for things to dry.

I’ve never been in a charm swap before, I want these to look nice. So here’s an idea, give me your advice and have a chance to win one!!

Here is a close up, still cloudy, because it is wet- but what do you think? Should I hang them in their frame or leave them as is? Vote or leave a comment this week and I’ll enter you in a drawing to win one of the extra ones I made today!

Sisters Junking Day in Indy and MORE $1.99 roses!

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

By Karla Nathan / May 29, 2007

What’s one good thing about being back a day early from vacation? Being at the local grocery store for the Monday markdowns on flowers! $1.99 bundles of roses are almost enough to come home early for. (But I also got a day with Sugarwings!)

I bought the roses in a lavender pink color, and got a $1.99 bundle of snap dragons to match. Then it just so happened that the color of the flowers looked so beautiful with the mail I happened to be opening- look at my presents!! I received a bundle of pretty cards and papers from Vickie at Stampin’ Up and a dainty little rose scented candle that came all the way from Norway and http://brittarnhildshouseinthewoods.typepad.com/brittarnhilds_house_in_th/. She gave the candle as a prize for her Caring Bloggers Rose Day and I was lucky enough to win it. But, I think I have mentioned before that I am a lucky person. Thanks to you both for the pretties!!

Here is a pile of the loot I found on my Sisters Junking Day in Indy.

Southport Antique Mall was HUGE, it had wings, upstairs, downstairs, back alleys, hidden rooms, and felt like a maze that went on forever. Why aren’t all antique malls built that way????

I accidentally left with the clothespin that was used to mark my pile of purchases. It said "Carolina" on it, and I had just been in N. Carolina a couple days ago, seemed fitting. My niece was given a clothes pin that said Loo Loo, but she insisted it was 007 007. Bobbie Sue had one that was just a number 3, so I asked if they would trade it in for a pretty name. She got "Peace" in place of #3, much better!

A favorite find was the cute jar with the pink lid, that was full of rhinestone buttons for $6.

I found 2 of these albums, for $12 each. Both in decent shape, but one a bit better than the other. I will probably make one into an art journal and use the 2nd for parts.

The dish with pink flowers is actually tin! very pretty. I also got a big bundle of china flowers for $12. I never really like the plastic stems on these things, and often just use the buds in mosaics. Not sure what this bunch will be yet.

We had a mini shopping trip the day before, a stop at Goodwill and a spin through TJMaxx. I found new towels at the Maxx, Sissy found the new sheets and the chocolate bars wrapped in pretty papers, as well as the 3 sisters mug.

She found the blue skirt with pink roses (a Ralph Lauren) at the Goodwill along with the pink basket. I got the soap dish at the thrift and plan on painting it ivory to use in my kitchen to hold the sponge by the sink.

I’m jealous about the basket Sissy bought, it was just the right size to fit 3 Dorkies in. I loved the skirt too, but my sis is about a size minus zero and that skirt would have ripped in half just holding it up to my hips.

Tonight I started working on my vacation scrapbook. (Walgreens has a special now for 15 cent prints by email, ready in an hour). I thought I’d turn some little nieces into fairies, this first one is Hannah. I was lucky enough to be in Indiana while she was having her nursery school graduation and got to attend. Hannah and her friends sang and danced for the crowd and it was so cute, I laughed till I cried.

Her cousin, Mikaela is a couple years older and loves pink and princesses and fairies. She makes an elegant little flying sprite. Their grandparent’s last name is Valentine, so I added some hearts in the pictures.

Home again Home again, Jiggitty Jog- I ate too much on vacation and now I’m a fat hog

Chandeliers, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, flowers, paintings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / May 28, 2007

It feels so good to be back in Kansas!! The trip was great, but of course, when you live here, there is no place like home!

Twinkle was worn out by the end of the trip, so many new toes to nibble and new yards to explore.

I’ll miss having my morning coffee on Sissy’s porch. She has such unique features in her garden. The morning sun sparkled through the crystals she draped over this candle holder hanging by the deck.

This white flower at the corner of the deck would open up wide every morning, then close throughout the middle of the day. It would reopen in the evenings while we were outside sipping our wine. Does anyone know what kind of flower it might be??? She says it just came up, she didn’t plant it, but that if it is a weed, she doesn’t care.

Last time I visited her, I brought one of my "Magic Mirrors". It is an old frame (whitewashed) that held a curved glass. I had a mirror cut and placed under the glass for a magical effect.

Reflected is one of her many angel collections on top of an antique wardrobe. You can also see a fairy watercolor I did for her a few years ago.

Here is a close up of the watercolor. I guess it would be more accurate to call it a mixed media piece, I used a shimmering, white metallic acrylic paint to make the fairies glow and there is glitter sprinkled over the page too.

My sister also had a copy of a watercolor I did of the barn my grandparents owned.

I am always flattered when I go to visit and see my work hanging on the walls of relatives. It is nice to know they have enjoyed the gifts. (unless they only hang them while I am visiting, and take them down as soon as I leave??)

This monochromatic watercolor is hanging in my brother-in-law’s home up in the North Carolina hills. It is a painting I did of the home his dad grew up in.

And at my sister-in-law’s home on the river in Tennessee, she had this yellow iris hanging in her kitchen. Both of these were done so many years ago, I had completely forgotten them.

My sister-in-law, Sandy has a fantastic home too! She lives out in the middle of nowhere, in a home nestled into a valley. It is built on the river and has a wrap around porch where we spent much of our time.

I could have sat and watched the river from her porch all week. But we did take time to eat loads of fresh veggies right from their garden, go into town to antique, visit a local winery and do some mega wine tasting, visit a Mennonite farmer’s market, and then race around on their 4 wheeler through the woods.

Sparkle enjoyed the view off the deck too, but didn’t care for the 4 wheeler.

The town that Sandy lived in was full of cute shops, but I just didn’t have much luck in shopping that day. Some days are good for shopping, others are made for just going "feeling" (as my mother used to call it when she went shopping but didn’t buy anything.)

Sandy has a doll collection that her son has always hated, he says that they ‘freak him out’. She was kind enough to start to pack them up before he arrived for the weekend from Charlotte where he is starting a new job.

I told her she couldn’t pack them up, he’s a grown man and if he was scared of dolls, then that was just a good excuse for us to mess with him. I arranged all the dolls on top of the cabinet and had them staring down at his bed in the guest room. That wasn’t quite enough, so I gave them some knives. One doll was hidden under the pillows of the bed, and another stared up from underneath the bed on the floor. He was properly freaked, I think. And Sandy and I giggled like little girls.

The entire trip was fun. In N. Carolina we hiked in the Grandfather Mountain area. Notice how far back I am with my camera taking this shot? That is as close as I ever get to the edge of anything up that high! I hate heights. I was comfortable back on the trail looking out through the trees at the view, but wouldn’t venture out any closer.

My brother-in-law has a house he built himself up on a mountainside. It was a house full of happy kids, animals, and laughter. Our time there was rustic and beautiful and full of life.

I can’t imagine a better trip. It was like a sampling of 3 different styles of B&Bs. First, Sandy’s river side ranch in the valley with its grand porches. Then, Mark’s cabin up on the mountain with its rustic charm. After that was Sissy’s magical cottage full of glitter and flowers. But best of all, was that these weren’t really B&Bs, but family homes full of our loved ones. It was a special treat to be able to go and stay with all of them.

But as wonderful as it all was, we had to cut the trip short a day to get home and see Sugarwings. We missed her too much.

There is just no place like home. Especially when you have a tiny little fairy girl waiting there for you!