Food and Drink – Page 22 – Karla's Cottage

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!

Is it a SMALL world? Or a GIANT blogosphere!?

antiques/junking, celebrations, Food and Drink, Moving to DC, parties, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / April 26, 2008

How weird is this???

While I am here in Virginia, I spent a free afternoon in Leesburg to shop and check out The Cottage, a store I’d heard about but never been to, its about 30 minutes from our apartment.

While I was chatting with the co-owner, Ann, Pam walked in and she recognized me. Behind her was Debbie Shue who was in town from NY to teach classes at the scrapbook store where Pam works.

Now, what are the odds that we would run into each other? Pam and Debbie both went to Silver Bella last year, and I know them through that and through blogs. (sorry about the blurry picture, but also, what are the odds that we take dozens of photos and none of the ones with all of us are any good?)

I am from Kansas, Debbie is from New York, none of us were staying in Leesburg, we just all decided to go to a store there at the same time.

If I had stopped for lunch first, or if they had gone to Lucketts before The Cottage, we’d never have met up.

Lucky that we did! Not only was this a cute and cottagey shop that I fell in love with and had a great time browsing through (I’ll post my beautiful bargain finds later), Pam, Debbie, and their pal, Kitty, invited me to hang out with them for the day.

We spent quite a while in The Cottage, and all found fun things to purchase. We visited with Ann, who was nice as could be and seemed to enjoy the coincidence of our meeting as much as we did.

Istn’t this store so pretty? I could have just moved into any of these cozy displays she has set up.

After the Cottage, the three gals asked me to go to lunch with them, and on to some other antiquing.

While out shopping, I came across some of the prettiest hats I’d ever seen, with tons of dainty flowers on each. But- they were a LOT more expensive than what I usually buy. ($15- $28, but LOADED with blossoms)

I decided that the rule about not spending more than $7 on a hat doesn’t apply on vacation or during my birthday week.

Not only did I find a new store I absolutely love and 3 flowery hats that I couldn’t resist, I had a fun day full of laughs, shopping, and lunch, PLUS, Debbie was able to squeeze me into the class she was teaching the next day.

And my new pal, Kitty offered to lend me supplies, since I didn’t have any with me.

I thought I was borrowing scissors and glue, but she showed up with the fullest, most professional scrapbboking kit I’d ever seen. It was a joy just to poke through it all.

Shopping, crafting, great food, fun people, romantic dinners with my husband, I may never go back to Kansas! I love it here!!

My husband surprised me with one of the fanciest schmanciest dinners ever at a private dining club. The Tower Club at Tyson’s Corner.

The service there is so outstanding and detailed, they even had our name on the mints at our place settings!

We were greeted with complimentary champagne for my birthday. I had the Maryland crab appetizer (you just have to order that when you are in this part of the country) and as gourmet-licious as the whole dinner was, my favorite part of the meal was the white chocolate and lemon surprise birthday cake.

"Happy Birthday" was written in dark chocolate on a sheet of white chocolate and the whole cake was covered in curled bits of the white.

A tray of tiny desserts came out with the coffee along with a goodie assortment of coffee mix-ins. Orange peels, cinnamon sticks, real whipped cream and shaved cocoa.

I was so impressed, I almost couldn’t eat it, it was just too lovely. But I did.

I have the BEST husband.

Last night, dinner on the 17th floor with a view over looking the capitol, tonight dinner at Piedmont Country Club with this view out the window. Yep, not a bad kickoff to my birthday week.

I don’t think turning 50 years old is looking too bad at all. I have a pretty lucky life! I am looking forward to the next 50, I plan on living as long and as well as my Great Aunt Caroline that you are all making cards for!

Gifts Galore, The Antique Store, and whining no more

Food and Drink, give away, I do tend to run on, don't I?, Moving to DC, parties, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / January 10, 2008

What a lovely day I had!!

Carol and Beth came over to play. Carol worked on a cute book she was making out of envelopes- great idea. I want to try one too. Beth and I worked on our Sweet Treats and Roses Swap recipe book covers.

But first, we had a light lunch. I made a salad and some prime rib stew (well maybe not so light, huh?) with ruby gold potatoes and a crusty bread from the bakery downtown that uses a wood fired oven.

I took all 3 leaves out of the dining table so it would be cozy, and moved around some of my centerpiece stuff left over from Christmas to give it a new look (Christmas is still not put away yet around here, will it ever be????)

Just in time for the lunch, I received this cute as a button, wire cloche from Crystal as a giveaway prize from her blog!! I always say that every thing looks more important under glass, but now have to revise that to under a "cloche"- it doesn’t have to be a glass one! I also used the wallpaper book that Beth made for me as part of the display, it would dress up any vignette.

So, I have my gift of a new cloche and this great book Beth for made at Christmas. I am feeling pretty special to have gotten such nice presents. Then– Beth and Carol both brought stuff for me!!!!

Beth picked up this candelabra at our favorite auction house last night. (I used to raise peacocks, and love anything with a peafowl on it- but never had a pink one before)

She thinks it is gaudy and apparently everyone else did too, she says no one bid on it. She knew it would be just gaudy enough for me to love.

Carol brought this royal bar of soap (available on her blog, if you want some- it is hand made and smells wonderful!) and these rhinestone embellished white gloves.

Just my style!

But that is not all! Our swap members are sending in the pages of recipes for the Sweet Treats books and a couple of them came with GIFTS for Beth and I. Kathy senrt us the tags and the "Beauty" collage, is from Sarah and it came with a pretty painted card.

The other side of it says:

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old (Kafka)

I think I will keep this as my motto for my 5oth year celebration that is beginning now and going till my birthday in May. It is quite appropriate for me.

Remember, there is a gift for comment # 5,558 (my birthday, May 5, 1958) I also have my one year blog anniversary coming up on Valentines Day. I will need to do something special for that, too. I get so many things, I want to share the good fortune. I love presents, don’t you????

Blog giveaways are so generous. Here is one you should check into if, you have a little person in your life. A choice of hand made pants or a skirt. I think my little Sugarwings would be cute as pie in either! (by the way, thanks for all your input on her photos, #4 was the big winner)

You can enter at Clarice’s and while you are there, wish her pretty young lady a happy birthday. You can also enter a great giveaway at KJ’s, she is throwing herself a surprise 50th birthday party and has presents for us!

Carol, Beth, and I did a lot of chatting, but we did manage to get some work done too. I made a few covers for the swap recipe books. (take a peek at the recipes in so far, here on our flickr page)

This one is from a copy of a De Longpre rose.

And this one is from some floral vintage wallpaper that Beth brought.

Why is it so much more fun to use someone else’s supplies than your own??

This one is on some old shelf liner paper I found in my garage last night when I was searching for supplies to make a magic wand ( pictures later!).

I also prepped a lot of covers, with some vintage wallpapers, ready to embellish and foof up.

Nice, cheerful Valentine reds on these.

Pretty pinks and chocolates here.

And some romantic neutrals with a touch of roses (the lavender one will be going to my pal who shares my 5-5-58 birthday, Barb , who is found on Lavender Lollipop Lane.

Remember how I have been whining about all the shopping I have had to do to set up our apartment outside of DC?

Yesterday, I actually got to pop in to the local antique mall and take a deep breath of that glorious musty antique store aroma and it was heaven! I didn’t buy much, but a few little OLD doo dads sure made me happy after the time I had to put in at retail shops and discount stores and mattress outlets!

But- I think I owe all of you an apology. I did whine a LOT last week about having to shop so much.

With all of the real problems in the world, that isn’t such a big one, really, is it?? Poor me, I had to buy 2 brand new flat screen TVs, 3 rooms full of brand new furniture, and all new kitchen stuff. What a bitch I am!!! Sorry.

But I just like old, or hand made things, and it was hard to get excited about filling a place with new stuff, plus it had to be done so fast, it was a marathon of never ending discount stores, plus, I was sad about my husband and I having to be apart so much.

Oh no, here I go again, whining. Sorry. I know I am LUCKY and I do appreciate what I have. I hope I didn’t offend anyone by my weasly whines.

Twinkle has a go at helping decorate the studio

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Food and Drink, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 19, 2007

Its a relief to be feeling well again and back to getting ready for the holidays!

I am feeling all well now, thanks for all your kind thoughts and wishes!

My flueyness was gone and I was able to go to my cookie exchange party last night. The best part was that I got the dates wrong and made up fudge to take to it last week instead of this.

Which was great, because this week, I would have been sick and couldn’t have done it!

The flu-germ-free fudge was made a week ago and frozen, ready to add tags to before the party.

My Aussie pal, Natasha had sent me some wonderful, old, textured wallpaper that I made simple tags out of, and added a snowflake sticker to and then tied to the dishes of fudge.

I like giving treats out in containers that people will use and keep and enjoy, a gift in a gift. For bake sales, I always put my goodies on vintage plates from garage sales, they are so cheap to find around here. As little as a nickle quite often.

I love living in the Midwest!! Mess_014

Every year, I think I am going to go all out and wrap gifts so beautifully and they all will match and be breath taking. But, I never do. I wrapped all these yesterday and towards the end, the were lucky to get stuffed into a bag with a bit of tissue.

What’s my favorite thing in those bags and boxes? This sweet little dress for Sugarwings! Can’t you just picture her playing in the garden and getting all muddy in it this summer?

Maybe we can dress her in a long sleeve onsie and tights underneath it, so she can wear it this winter too.

Our swap is full! And a great mix of artists, bloggers, friends and fun people are in it, we are so lucky to have them join. Thanks everyone!!

Doesn’t Twinkle look like a sweet little angel? That girl thinks that her only job is to pose for the camera.

Well, that and CHEW things. My favorite chair!!!!!!! And now that she has had a taste of it, she won’t let it go. Any tips on stopping a dog from chewing your furniture??? I’ve never had a Dorkie as hard to handle as this one. She chews, she licks, she jumps, she hams it up every time I try to take a photo. She is one tiny,wriggling, bundle of desperate need for attention.

I am still feeling sentimental today. This table was one of my mom’s favorites and was made for her by a friend. No, actually, I think her friend made it, and her husband got it as payment for a poker debt at some bar. Oh well, what ever its origins, it is hand made and she loved it and now I do too!

The drawing was done by my great grandmother in 1906, and is another treasured possession of mine.

Notice the alarm clock?? I found a non-ugly, electric clock on Ebay, finally.

Then it quit working after about 6 weeks. So, I am back to looking, if anyone has any leads, I’d love to hear them.

People are still visiting our "What do you LOVE about your Holiday Home?" party and I am still adding links. Feel free to visit here for some holiday decor ideas and pretty things to see. I don’t even know how many sites I have linked, but I know there was a lot of beauty and warmth out there!

I want to thank Sara (Sadie Olive) for adding my latest magazine to the line up at the left. If you ever decide to have a blog redo, I have to tell you that she is so reasonable, helpful, talented, and easy to work with!

Sara is going to add my next few issues too. I have a collage kit shown in Somerset next month, and another in the next issue.

I am always surprised and thrilled when something gets published, since I am not a professional writer. All my articles have been just lucky strokes for me. A right place, right time, type thing.

Oh, and thanks also to my friend, Gail, who always takes time to visit and comment, has entered my Sweet Treats and Roses swap, PLUS bought this desk from me!! Thanks, Gail!!!

In the few minutes that I have sat here at my computer writing my blog for the day before I go run holiday errands, this sweet angelic little dorkie of mine as done-

THIS.

Oh man, just that much more I need to clean up before I can turn this mess into a dining room for 3 big dinners, at Christmas.

I am having a Christmas Eve prime rib dinner for the immediate family, then have invited about 28 people for Christmas Day Brunch and will have about 18 for Christmas dinner that night. Do you think they will enjoy dining in Twinkle’s decor and my mess from the sale??? I really need to get to work………. but for now, I am going out to lunch and playing with Sugarwings!!

don’t forget every comment is an entry to my monthly giveaway!

Sweet Treats and Roses- a Valentine’s Swap coming up

Books, Food and Drink, holiday decor, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / December 14, 2007

Thank you all so much, for participating in our "What do you LOVE about your holiday home?" party!!

Wow, it was quite the tour of homes. I loved getting a peek into the creative and colorful as well as the traditional and charming decor that you all shared.

I am blown away by the beauty and the response for the get together!

I’ll continue to link as many people who want to join until Christmas. So keep checking back, and take your time looking through a few particpant’s homes here and there for a taste of holiday cheer throughout the season!

I’ll announce my drawing winners tomorrow- for today I have a special announcement.

As Beth and I were hanging out and making things yesterday ( I made this banner), we decided to host a swap!

I LOVE blog swaps!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!!

So, what would be more fitting than hosting one that is full of Valentine LOVE?

Yes, I know it is really early, to be thinking about, it isn’t even Christmas yet! Am I as bad as Wal-Mart, having the next holiday out on display before this one is even over??

There’s no hurry, sign up is until Jan. 2, 200EIGHT.

We were just too excited about our idea to wait till later to tell you about it.

These photos are a hint of what is to come.

The swap involves you making photo copies of a decorated dessert recipe and Beth and I making covers for them and assembling the cook books.

So, yesterday, we made up a few sample covers to show you.

These first two are mine. All will have a rose theme, but no two will be alike.

All will be made with lots of vintagey goodness to go along with your yummy recipes.

Here is one that Beth made.

How pretty is that???

We will ask that along with your copies (color on card stock) of your treats, you send in a rose themed decorated tag, (one original) that we will tie onto another swapper’s cook book after we add the cover and assemble it.

And look at this one from Beth! I am looking forward to getting one of her covers, that is for sure.

I will be in DC setting up my part time apartment there after the holidays, so please RSVP to Beth at her blog, Gathering Dust.

She and I will be sharing hostessing duties, and you are lucky about that, because she is very organized and I am not. She’ll make sure that the books all get the right amount of pages and get mailed to the right addresses. And are on time.

So, please contact the detail oriented one of our group to sign up.

And speaking of details, here is what she wrote up for us- the Swap Rules are:

Karla & Beth’s Roses and Sweet Treat

Cook Book Recipe Swap

Put your favorite sweet treat recipe on a 5 ½” x 8 ½” piece of paper turned vertically, and decorate the page. (5 ½” x 8 ½” is half a regular sheet of paper.)

Make as many copies as there are swap participants- we’ll let you know the number when the sign ups are complete.

Also make a tag (approx 2” x 4”) decorated in some way with roses.

Send to Karla and Beth. They will assemble the recipes into a “Sweet Treats” Cookbook. Each cookbook will have a unique cover, handmade by Karla or Beth, and a tag decorated by another swap player.

The Details

Recipe Card– 5 ¼” x 8” with the recipe vertical. The books will be bound on the top, so leave at least a 1” margin for binding. The copies should be well made, in color and on card stock.

Sign Up Date- Sign up by emailing Beth, using the email link on the upper left side of her blog. The deadline is Jan 2. We’ll limit the number of players to 40.

On Jan 3, we’ll send a confirmation email to all participants letting them know how many copies to make. (To save on copy costs, you can print 2 per page, and cut the paper in half before sending to us.)

Receive by Date – We’ll need to RECEIVE your copies by January 20^th so we have time to make the covers and assemble them.

Cost- The cost for a padded envelope, mailing and materials is $5. Please include the $5 with your copies and tag.

What You’ll Get

A Sweet Treat Recipe Book with a one of a kind handmade rose themed cover created by Karla or Beth, decorated with a tag from another player. We’ll mail the books by Feb 7, so you’ll have them in time to make sweet treats for Valentine’s Day.

Can you imagine how cool the individual pages will be from all those great artistic crafters out there in blog land?????? I can’t wait to see what you all send in for this!

Here is the button for the swap:

PS- thanks for your interest, we are full now! And we have GREAT players!! thanks to all of them, can’t wait to see what they make!

Oh, Fudge!

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, Food and Drink, give away, holiday decor, Moving to DC, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 10, 2007

It’s almost time for our "What do you LOVE about your holiday home?" party!

I’ll do my post later Tuesday evening and start linking up as comments come in.

Please remember that you have to leave a comment on THAT post, the Holiday Home party, or I will miss you and won’t link.

And what have I decided to send as a prize? Well here is one of them, this great book, Crowns & Tiaras. I’ll have more party door prizes for guests that day too.

I will have separate drawings for bloggers who participate and for readers who leave comments about what they love about their holiday homes too. I just want to make sure some one from each group gets a prize.

Here is one little tidbit I love about my own holiday home. This welcoming pink glow in the breezeway, where I have wrapped pink lights around an iron garden topiary frame and set it into a wicker plant stand. People get an idea of what to expect from the rest of my house when they are greeted by this!

And there is more to love around here, my dorkies of course. All cozied up by the wood stove on a fluffy pillow staying warm while an ice storm rages outside.

The weather makes it a perfect night to stay in and make holiday candy. I am a fudge creator. I make tons of fudge each year to give away. Beth claims that my fudge is the reason she had to join the gym

I make the short cut, simple to do, nothing to it variety, always perfect, and quick. All it consists of is melting a bag of chips into a can of sweetened condensed milk and then beating it till it is fluffy and pouring it into a pan. Best, creamiest fudge ever. And everyone thinks you slaved over it. Oops, my friends won’t think that anymore, will they? My secret is out. I’m bad with secrets, you can tell by the way I run on and on, I tend to blabber about everything.

I bought these ceramic pans at a garage sale this summer for 25 cents each, never used, still in packages from the store! They are oven and freezer safe, and I will fill them with fudge and wrap them up pretty and give them to friends this year.

So, tonight, I make 14 batches of fudge. I have to have plenty to give away and to feed the family when I host lots of holiday get togethers! I have a 6’4" nephew who is a size 28 waist and can really pack away the peanut butter chocolate fudge. He’ll get a batch all of his own.

Yesterday I showed the 3 slate tables I bought for our Eastern apartment, but didn’t show why I got them.

The tables are to remind my husband of our home here, they match this floor in our entry way.

I laid this tile myself. I don’t know how to use a wet saw (and am afraid of those anyway, I nicked a knuckle on a power saw once and still get the heebie jeebies thinking that I could have lost my right hand!)

Since I couldn’t cut the pieces, I made a mosaic with small stones and 4" tiles throughout the 12" tiles. It really was pretty easy to do, except for the kink in my back from crouching on the floor so long.

I also did some of the trim in this area- it is barn wood we tore out of our 100 year old barn that couldn’t be saved. (That is how I caught my knuckle on the power saw. ) I sure prefer less dangerous projects like painting, or gluing wallpaper!

Twinkle just can’t understand why she shouldn’t be in every photo, so I just humor her.

This snowman tree is from Paula Kay’s home. She was a door prize winner at our last party and sent me a photo of the tree she created this year.

I am really looking forward to our party tomorrow. If you’d like to take a peek at the last one we had, it is here: http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2007/09/what-do-you-lov.html

Here is a photo of something my neice loves about her holiday home- Baby, her cat peeking out of the tree. Twinkle just wishes she could do that with ours.

Hope to see you all Wednesday!

What Is Lurking out in the Pet Cemetery behind my cottage????

family, Food and Drink, I've been tagged, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / October 31, 2007

Ghouls just wanna have fun!

Welcome to the Halloween Blog Party!! It is sponsored by a group here and they have their scary tunes going, I have them playing in the back ground while I write to get me in the mood.

My niece, Shelli, made this ghostly cake. Enjoy a piece while you mingle at the party!

And Sissy has been crafting again! Look at this creation, I just want to move right into this cottage.

There is even a crystal ball waiting for me on the table. Have I ever mentioned my fortune telling hobby? I call myself Madame Karkina and wrap the nearest table cloth around my shoulders like a shawl and pretend to read palms. (It is usually after a couple of glasses of wine.)

That is a picture of Sissy as a witch next to the black cat.

And speaking of familiars- oops, I mean pets-

did I ever mention this?

Yep, I have a pet cemetery on my 10 acres, right along I70. It used to be a bit of a land mark around here, but as it rusts and the trees grow up around it, you don’t notice it along the highway any more.

Yesterday was such a pretty fall day that Sugarwings and I got dressed up and went back to the punkin patch for another visit.

I went as a princess and she was a pink butterfly. (I am wearing big sunglasses to hide from the paparazzi and trying to teach her the princess wave- also known as the beauty queen wave: ELBOW ELBOW WRIST WRIST WRIST).

Her grandfather didn’t wear a costume. As usual, he just dressed as a handsome husband.

Aren’t they so cute together? This might be my favorite photo of the two of them.

Tonight for trick or treat, she will be dressed as Dorothy and Twinkle will be Toto. I have a feeling I will be posting photos…. Sweet2btreat2bread

I was tagged by Michelle to name 3 blogs I like to read. That is HARD to do, I am a blog-aholic and love to peruse the boundless bounty of blogs.

So, I’ll just list who I looked at this morning, these are some good ones:

Bethany has hand made felt goodie bags for Halloween

Heather always has some of the prettiest photos around, and she is showing some Silver Bella themed kits she will be selling

the queen always has great photos too, and right now there is a wonderful vintage Halloween masked ball print to see.

And of course, I always check out my buddy, Beth to see what wry and witty things she has to say or what fab finds she got at the last estate sale. Right now, she has an infestation of creatures creeping around her place and hiding in all the nooks and crannies.

One last Halloween Witch, looking really really scary before I remind you this is the last day of the

October Drawing. I will wait till the 2nd to announce the winner so you can leave comments on THIS POST till then. (COMMENTS FROM ALL MONTH COUNT TOO)

The prize is a Cottage College Kit with vintage wallpaper OR a hand made item from one of my kits.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Of course, you know what that means tomorrow is?? The biggest candy bargain day of the year! I will fill my shopping cart with 75% off chocolate and start the count down to Christmas weight gain early.