Food and Drink – Page 22 – Karla's Cottage

A Glittering Gala

antiques/junking, celebrations, Food and Drink, give away, holiday decor, I do tend to run on, don't I?

By Karla Nathan / November 7, 2008

We had a magical night at the Curious Sofa. Or Fofa as Carol and I called it after a funny typo. Well, maybe you had to be there, but it struck my funny bone.

Maybe I found it so funny because at the C. Sofa, every detail is pure perfection.

Deb is extraordinarily talented in the art of display, and there is never a mistake of any kind allowed on her property!

Even things that seem to be imperfect, are NOT. They are either made to look distressed or actually aged to perfection and chosen for that quality like the paneling in this powder room.

Pearl was hard at work greeting everyone at the entrance that was flanked by stacks of firewood. Who knew I was so trendy, I have firewood stacked in my breezeway by the door too! If Deb is doing it, it must be COOL to do!!

We had a fun group, and sat in the rustic cabin display and chatted after exploring the store. Here is Beth, Carol, Gwen and I from left to right. Gwen had recently returned from a buying trip in France and we were drooling as she was telling us all of the details about the trip.

By the way, if you will be at vendor night at Silver Bella, Gwen will have fresh off the boat, French ephemera for sale. Please do me a favor and say "Bon" to Gwen. I promise, she will laugh….

Plus, she has GREAT stuff and you’ll be glad you dropped by to shop! I put in a pre-order for 20 bucks worth of old French postcards. I wanted to be first in line!!

And here is the Queen of Styling, Deb. What a great hat!

This is something I fell in love with! I’m jonesing for that crown.

This big headed girl caught my eye too. I didn’t buy her though, but am kind of wishing I had, now. I got a few trinkets and will show photos of them after I recharge my camera battery.

Notice the books wrapped in old papers? And the fabulous colors of pearls? There is never a jarring note in that store, every inch is coordinated and well thought out.

Deb is an expert at sticking to her palette. She adds hints of color here and there, but it is always faded to a remnant of its original shade.

And there were sparkly things everywhere!

I don’t know what kind of glitter went on these roses to make them look like they were kissed by an early frost, but I want a jar of it. A BIG jar.

Don’t you wish you could pull up a chair to this table for a dinner party? Well, I did, but only because Carol dared me to. I didn’t mess anything up, I just sat and ate my dinner and felt pretty pampered while doing it! All chairs should have angel wings like these do!

And what a dinner it was!!!!! Champagne with Dean and Deluca catered deliciousness.

I tried to not make a pig of myself, (remember I was complaining about the 10 lbs I put on?). But honestly, LOOK at these platters. I had to have some of each.

But this platter is the one that got my heart racing (and not just from high fat treats, but from the beauty of it!). If I only had that Cannon Rebel camera that I wanted so bad, you could see the detail of this. The pink bon bons are covered in glitter. Yes, glitter. The Real Deal. Edible glitter that looks like GLITTER not sugar, because it really really is real glitter!!!!!!!!

Does it show up any better in this picture? I swear, the stuff is magical pixie dust, not just sugar. It is sheer, fine, holographic and as beautiful as the stuff Martha Stewart sells to craft with. Sugarwings and I were on a quest to find the stuff today and Dean and Deluca sent us to this cute little bakery where they sold us some magic pixie dust of our own!

Everything in there looked tasty and rich. Sugarwings was convinced these goodies were snowmen. I tried to tell her that they were tuxedos, but I don’t think she gets the concept of what a tuxedo is.

I am so thrilled to find this pretty glitter, and can’t wait to start sprinkling it around! I have big plans for frosting the rims of the glasses we will serve the Glitter Tinis in at our Glitter Lounge in Omaha! My roomie, Carol and I are having a mini kick off to Silver Bella before the group craft night starts and I think that I will have to sprinkle the magic fairy dust on the Godiva chocolates too.

I will be using this stuff everywhere! Heck, I always have glitter in my hair, on my face, all over my house, grandchild, dog, and husband. I might as well have it in my food too. And on purpose!

Thanks, Deb for such a fun party last night. And for feeding me glitter cakes and starting a whole new obsession for me!

I think that what ever my giveaway for November will be, I will add some pixie dust for the winner to sprinkle onto some of her own holdiay goodies too. Don’t forget, there is a giveaway going on. I know, lets call it a secret surprise goodie bag giveaway! You won’t know what it is until you get it in the mail! But I can guarentee, it will be sparkly.

Flaming Fall Fun

Etsy Goodies, Food and Drink, holiday decor, parties, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / October 13, 2008

Between throwing a party and hauling our boat in from the lake for the winter, I managed to sneak in a few minutes of crafting time.

These tags are listed for sale at my Etsy shop now if you are interested. I certainly have been neglecting that shop lately….

The wallpaper they are laying on came in the mail Saturday, isn’t it gorgeous!! I can’t wait to make something with that. Maybe I’ll get to tomorrow, I am having a craft day with some friends.

The weather for our bonfire on Saturday could not have been more perfect!

I think we had about 20 or so for dinner, I pulled a bunch of tables and mismatched chairs together from the patios and studio and set it all up out in the courtyard.

All the rectangle shaped tables were covered in white table cloths, and I put my only fall colored one on a round table in the center of the line.

(you can tell I didn’t waste any time ironing them!)

My centerpieces were a hodgepodge of whatever was around.

This white, glittered pumpkin is one that I have used over and over, it is from Hobby Lobby and I added glitter to it.

The rest of the centerpieces were just vases of flowers I picked from the garden, a few votives,gourds, and some real pumpkins. Simple and easy, no money spent, not much time put into it.

This pumpkin (from a garage sale) I sat in a flower pot and placed on a tray full of gourds and a vase of flowers. It really has a cool glow in the candlelight!

So does my pretty friend, Angie.

Here is the aftermath, once the food was gone and we moved on to the bonfire.

Dinner was simple and easy too. Well, at least it was for me! Everyone brought a side dish, I just made a spaghetti squash casserole (from my garden) and the cupcakes that Sugarwings decorated for me.

My husband grilled salmon and chicken, all I did was set out the food and plates buffet style in the house. I love parties that are effortless. I’m never shy to tell people to bring something with them, for one thing, it is fun to taste all the different things that people make. For another, I want to be able to have fun and be part of the group, not stuck in the kitchen.

(to Beth’s left is her handsome husband, Jeff. Too bad you can’t see his face, he is a cutey. But you can tell he is a cyclist, look at that physique!!)

I don’t know why we don’t use our bonfire pit more often. When we, sadly, had to take down the old barn, we kept the foundation and filled it with gravel, then added a curving gravel pathway back to the area. The big, gravelled space in the clearing of the woods makes a perfect area for a fire.

For parties, I string white lights along the path on one side and set out candles on the other.

The evening was one of those nights when it wasn’t so cold that you HAD to have a fire to stay warm, the fire was more of an accent to stare at and enjoy.

Although the flames did get a little hot when I decided to throw an old chair onto them. We all had to back away for a bit till the heat let up.

My husband thinks I have too much junk and he is thrilled when I surprise him and burn some of it at a party. Well, you do what you can to keep them happy, huh?

Would you like to have a pair of silver crown earrings?

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Food and Drink, give away, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / October 10, 2008

My grandiose plans to tag and pack up all the jewelry didn’t come to fruition. I’ve had Sugarwings as a helper, so just didn’t get a lot done!

There are a lot of things she is good at helping with, but sorting and pricing jewelry isn’t one of them.

Sugarwings is a good shopper. We went out and ran some errands and picked up Halloween themed paper goods for a bonfire I am planning tomorrow night.

She is also a good sprinkler. I handed over the sprinkles container and let her decorate the cupcakes herself.

I was hoping to do some autumn decorating before tomorrow night, but simply haven’t had a chance. She and I picked some hedge apples and squash. That might be it for my fall decor this year! Maybe I will call it "minimalist".

Being busy with getting things ready for Silverbella and having a two year old move in with me have kind of slowed me down a bit.

If you aren’t getting answers from me for you rcomments, please know that I am reading them at nap time, or after her bedtime, and enjoy seeing each and every one of them, I just might not have time to reply.

It’s nap time now, so Twinkle and I have been cleaning up this smoking stand to use for a display at my booth. I need to find a knob to fit the door, and it will be ready to go. It is perfectly aged and crackled up! And just the right size to add height to a table of goods for sale.

I like small cabinets for display. I can set something on top of it, inside it, and underneath too.

I’ve been so busy baby chasing that I forgot I had told you I was going to add to the October Giveaway.

If you remember, there is a set of black and white rose linens and a white glittered pumpkin already in the prize pack.

I think that what is missing from the prize is a pair of earrings. And since so many of you are interested in Silver Bella, but might not be going, I thought I’d offer a pair of the patina-ed sterling silver crown earrings that I am making up to take to that event.

All comments all month count as an entry. And please do continue to comment, sorry I can’t answer them all.

A Kitchen redo and the beginnings of the October Goodie Bag

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, fairies, Food and Drink, give away

By Karla Nathan / October 2, 2008

Sugarwings not only has her own art studio inside my art studio, she has her own kitchen within my kitchen.

But it was really bugging me, that hers was pretty shoddy looking.

So, yesterday, (when I should have been working) I painted the mini kitchenette the same color as my own cabinets (a creamy ivory).

I didn’t repaint the red sink, though, because we fill it up with soapy water to play in and I wasn’t sure that any paint would stand up to that, even that spray made for plastics.

The interior of the fridge was still in really good (and cute as a bug) condition, but the insides of the cabinets were just plain fiberboard, so I painted the shelves too.

My niece (also known as the Imitrex Fairy) sent Sugarwings some Faux foods to play with, and I can’t wait for our little sprite to come back over and see her surprise!

Of course, she probably won’t notice it was painted, or has pretty curtains, but I know she will get busy right away serving up plastic ice cream in her frying pan.

Not much else got done, I had a lot of errands to run. But while watching Top Model, Top Design, and Project Runway, I glittered up and finished a few odds and ends.

Everyone has asked me for ravens, but I am more of a dove person…. I love their pink tummies.

And I created a "flight" of fairies with some little plastic figurines that Carol gave to me. They were a yucky orange fleshy color to start with, so I painted them all white and pink and glittery, then fairyed them up.

Each saucy little gal has a unique hat or crown.

The sculpy pumpkins that Sugarwings and I made got a coat of paint and glitter too.

The silver one in the front is going to Sheila as part of the Sweet September Prize pack.

And the tall white one in the back will be part of the October prizes.

Here is what I have going so far for October. Black and white roses printed on a set of 4 vintage linen napkins and a white glittered pumpkin.

I’ll probably find something else to add as the month goes on.

This morning I listed this pumpkin topped bottle (inspired by Carol’s design for our Romantic Country article) for sale on Etsy.

Here is what I said for the description, instead of writing it twice, I’ll copy and paste from Etsy!

This bottle and crowned pumpkin has a French Vanilla theme, it is all done in tone on tone shades of warm whites. The pumpkin topper is not glued down, if you’d like to actually use the bottle to store something you could. Or you could take the pumpkin top off and store it away after fall is over until next year and display the bottle with out it.

I’ve made the label from old sheet music, book pages and taupe velvet ribbon, accented with a bloom I plucked from an old hat. The neck of the bottle is rimmed with rhinestones and the crown is ringed with more of the same, plus velvet ribbon and a rose pried from old jewelry.

about 8 1/2" tall to the tip of the crown

This is as far as I have gotten on the other glittered trophies. I’m in love with the pink vintage cars!

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!!

Attack of the Seven Pound Monster

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, Food and Drink, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 8, 2008

The house seems pretty quiet now that I have taken my childhood friends to the airport and their visit for our Fabulous Fifty Birthday Celebration has ended.

We had a lively week full of tiaras and champagne!

Because a good bottle of champagne can make any occasion special, even if it is just a dinner of egg salad.

It was a week of simple pleasures, like just sitting on the porch and talking.

Of course, we couldn’t leave the Dorkies out of the party.

Twinks just isn’t the type to let herself be left out of anything. Even though Sandy wasn’t exactly a dog person.

Twinkle couldn’t get it through her fuzzy little head that Sandy wasn’t crazy about her and she wouldn’t leave the poor woman alone all week.

But the dorkies got plenty of attention and even got to model some of the tiaras themselves.

We also did a bit of shopping downtown Lawrence. No luck on finding a prom dress to fit.

My pals aren’t the vintage type, but they were good sports about poking around the old dresses and helping me in and out of the ones I got stuck in.

It wasn’t the first or the last sticky situation these two have helped me with over the last 40 years.

After saying goodbye to my dearest friends, I came home to finish the scrapbook of Sugarwing’s second year. Her Hippy Chick Mommy’s birthday is this week and I wanted to give her a completed album of her baby’s adventures.

On Friday, 8-8-08, there is a big birthday party for all of the August babies. Sugarwings and her Hippy Chick Mommy are both Leos, as well as a few of their friends, so they are having a blow out party to celebrate.

I’ll be packing up my face paints and glitter and going off to join the kids tomorrow.

But the best part is, that Sugarwings and I will be leaving early and she will be staying all night with me. Now, that is something to look forward to, and to keep me from being too down about my child hood friends leaving today!

Why that dress won’t zip

antiques/junking, celebrations, Food and Drink, Moving to DC

By Karla Nathan / July 31, 2008

I still have a few of my little watercolor simple sketches available for $10 each, including postage (US). Thanks to all of you who bought one! shoe and little girl’s dress sold, thanks!

Today, we go back to Kansas, and it will feel good to get home. Its been a great week, but you know the famous line about Kansas— "THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME".

When I get there, I’ll have a morning to unpack, clean up, stock up the fridge, tend to the flowers, and get ready for guests! Family is coming for a couple days and I will be feeding about 20 people tomorrow night.

As soon as family house guests leave, I need to get ready for my childhood friends to arrive for 5 days of non-stop birthday celebrating. We all turned 50 this year, although I don’t think Sandy will admit to it. So, please forgive me, if I don’t answer emails and comments, I will be happily swamped for a while!

This has been a wonderful, pampering week! Beautiful country clubs to visit, and great food, as well as getting to see blog friends and shop.

This is the view from Treesdale country club’s deck, where my husband took me for our 23rd anniversary celebration.

The dinner was prepared by a former White House Chef, Walter Scheib, who has a book out now about his time serving the Clintons and Bushes. I bought an autographed copy of the book, can’t wait to get time to sit and read it!

He told the BEST stories.

And he made the BEST food!

That guy was a charmer. Cute as can be and funny too.

Chef Walter had a story about each dish and the White House family member who inspired it.

My favorite was Chelsea Clinton’s sweet potato soup. Hilary had asked him to teach Chelsea how to cook before she went away to college so she wouldn’t eat in restaurants all the time and this is a recipe that they worked on together.

This specialty ice cream had a hint of honey and fresh lavender in it. Maybe it was even better than the soup….

There are plenty of reasons right here at this table for me to not be able to zip that dress in the last post!

We ate at Treesdale another night too, and I had Chilean Sea Bass with a truffle infusion. With Key Lime Pie for dessert. I’ve had dessert every night this week, including TWICE on Sunday when Heather served cheesecake for lunch, then I had apple pie after dinner that night.

It will be a huge change for me to go from being fed gourmet meals to cooking for 20 tomorrow night!

And I don’t think I ever want to break this dessert habit that I have gotten into!

The shopping habit and the dessert habit really should be put to an end.

But how could I resist going to Lucketts while I was in Virginia?

Eventually, I am going to have to get out and explore some other towns, I always head straight to Leesburg when I am in the area. Next time I come to our apartment outside of DC, I should try to visit somewhere else.

I was pretty proud of myself for resisting these cute crowns. They were only $12 each, but I thought I had spent enough.

Sightseeing without even buying much is fun at a place like Lucketts.

I’m doing a delayed post for this, writing it Wednesday morning before we head back to home, so it should post on Thursday while I am preparing for guests.

I will be away from the computer for a bit, busily entertaining, snuggling up to Sugarwings, and having a good time, but will pop back in to announce the Christmas in July and the regular August giveaway.

Sweet as Pie

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, Food and Drink, parties

By Karla Nathan / July 28, 2008

Well, this photo kind of sums up my trip so far- Yummy!

This pie is actually a special recipe by Jack Nickolaus, that is only served a couple weeks at year at Firestone Country Club, when the PGA tournament is playing there.

Of course, I had to order some! And yes, it is as good as it looks, creamy, with a coconut crunch.

I don’t and NEVER will play golf, but I can certainly enjoy the beauty of the courses and the gourmet food and pampering service you find at a private club! Firestone was particularly interesting because they were getting ready for the PGA event. There was not a blade of grass out of place anywhere.

We have had a lovely time so far, but one of the best parts was when my husband surprised me with a bouquet of my favorite flowers.

We’d seen Queen Anne’s Lace growing in the ditch beside a restaurant we were stopping at (no, not at a golf course NO WEEDS there!!!)

He snuck back out side and picked some, then had the waitress set them on the table without me knowing.

As much as I adore roses, this lacey weed, will always be the prettiest flower to me. And now even more so.

But I am simply not cut out for a life of luxury and hanging out at country clubs or shopping while my husband works. By day 3 of my trip, I was ready for something to do, and stopped at Michaels to pick up some art supplies for in the hotel room.

The trouble was, I didn’t have my work glasses with me. So, the paintings I did had to be VERY simple, since I couldn’t see the details well.

But, you know, simple is fine, and not every painting needs to be a "serious" one. Watercolors can be quick and cute.

These are all about 4"x 6" and I think will trim down to fit into a 3"x5" matt nicely.

When I get home from my trip, I might list them on Etsy for, what, maybe $10 each?

If you’d like one, feel free to leave a comment or email and I will save it for you, $10, no postage. the dove, long pink gown, teacup with the dark background, and the two pink cupcakes are sold, thanks!

I can’t mail them till I get back though.

The whole trip has just been the best, and Karlapalooza was such fun! In case you were worried, you’ll be happy to hear that Lori found her hat full of flowers and it is a beautiful one, lots of old velvet blooms!

And isn’t she cute as a little pixie, herself?

I’ll have more flea market photos later, and pictures of Sweet Heather’s sweet house. By the way, Heather has to be about one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. She was a joy to talk to.

We had a fun day of chatting and shopping, with Heather’s mom, Kitty, and her friend, Stephanie, then Heather fixed a tasty lunch at her home for us. There will be photos, I promise. Her home is as warm and welcoming as she is.

And if you are looking for a macaroni salad recipe, I’d say ask Heather! Hers was really good.

Like I said before, a YUMMY TRIP!

Happy Fourth!

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 5, 2008

Happy 4th of July weekend! I hope you are all having a good one. Mine is filled with Sugarwings, boating, yard work and pickle making.

This is my first ever attempt at canning, and it seemed to be way too easy. There must be some botulism lurking somewhere in these jars, because it just seemed too simple to do.

My biggest problem in canning was getting the labels right. These are too big, I’ll need to make more if I do more pickles this week.

And what do you do with a baby while you are trying to make pickles and she wants to help?

We sat up her art table in the kitchen and gave her some cucumber stump "stamps".

I cut the end of a cuke, carved a design in it with a knife, then let her ink it up with her washable markers.

They really made pretty stamps, with a watercolor effect. And it kept the fairy grand baby pretty happy while her daddy and I chopped and pickled.

This year, fireworks were shot off over Lake Clinton where we keep our boat. The air was cool, the stars were out, and the water was calm, a perfect evening for watching the exploding colors in the sky.

We parked far away from the dozens of boats tied up together, so it was like a private light show of our own.

Now, off to do some yard work and take advantage of this unexpected mild weather, not typical at all for July in Kansas!

A Fairy Tea Party for some little Friends

celebrations, fairies, Food and Drink, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / May 21, 2008

Tuesday was Fairy Tea Party Day at my cottage. A little friend came by to visit on my birthday and asked if she could come and stay and play in Sugarwing’s room sometime, she was so cute, I thought she might enjoy coming over for a girly tea party.

Little girls seem to love my house. They are the ones who really "get it" and don’t think it is too much like a lot of people do!

Little girls, like my little buddy, Adeline Grace, definitely don’t think it is too much!

I placed a vintage hat by each place setting and told the guests to take a seat by the hat they wanted to wear.

Even the moms were good sports and indulged me by wearing a floral hat.

Sugarwings chose a hat to match her blue, blue eyes.

She had more fun stirring sugar into her (caffeine free) fruit tea than drinking it. So I let her add a LOT of sugar to the teacup.

Isn’t that what Grammies are for?

My niece, Shelli, gave me some pretty little picks with crystals on them that were just perfect for this party. I rolled a tiny ham slice around a sweet pickle and stuck the pick through that, a little tomato, and a black olive (to wear on our fingertips).

I wanted all the food to be fairy sized, so I made the brownies in cupcake papers.

I realized afterward that the reason I never see brownies as cupcakes is because the paper is pretty much permanent. So, I peeled it off , along with half the brownie, flipped the treat over and iced the bottom to cover the mess.

I served them on rose patterned butter pat plates.

I used teapots to hold flowers picked from my garden and layered lots of old tablecloths, runners, and doilies on the table for spring time color.

At each place setting, there was a child’s toy teacup with a single pansy in it and a vintage pixie next to that.

While out garage sailing on Saturday, I got this box of toy tea stuff, along with the 10 butter pats in a box for $2. Perfect timing, I think the tiny tea cups were just right to add to the table!

Sugarwings just woke from her nap, and was surprised by the party. Since the food was ready, she only had time to slip into her wings and a hat, no party dress for her this time.

I put on my favorite floral gauzy dress that I have been wearing for about 20 years now. Luckily, it is a loose dress and ties in the back to give an illusion of still having a waistline all these years later.

The looseness comes in handy, since that ever expanding waistline takes up more space than it did when I bought the dress.

Adeline Grace had me paint a picture of Twinkle as a fairy on her cheek, and I added a pink butterfly to mine.

Painting backwards in a mirror is tricky, so when I paint my own face, I always do something simple, like a butterfly since it looks the same pretty much from back to front.

Don’t forget that I have TWO giveaways going right now, and that every comment enters you in both drawings. Click on the Cottage Charm button in my side bar to go to the list of other cottagey style blogs participating in that giveaway too.

I know I’ll be entering them!