give away – Page 17 – Karla's Cottage

July’s Winner and News from Somerset!

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, give away, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, how to's, magazine pictures or articles, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 30, 2007

Forgive me for showing a photo that I have shown before, but I have two bits of news about it-

First, the winner of my July giveaway, the COTTAGE COLLAGE KIT- is

http://raisedincotton.typepad.com/raised_in_cotton/

Thanks everyone for your comments, I love to hear from you. I will have a new bribe, (I mean drawing) for August. Something extra special since it will be my 22nd wedding anniversary that month.

Second– Somerset contacted me to send them my Cottage Collage Kit to feature in a story about kits! How cool. I love that magazine!

I have also been talking to Romantic Country about an article about my bathroom. Another favorite magazine of mine. I do have an article coming out in that one this fall about my home, already. I really like working with them, Harris is a great company.

At Hobby Lobby’s 90% off garden clearance, I found a stack of thin, metal signs for under $1.50 each. I bought ALL of them and have been repainting them in my own style (after sanding and priming)

Here are a couple I did today.

I should be making Christmas decor for my sale in December, but I just simply gravitate toward pink roses, no matter what.

Last week, before accidentally dumping a quart of white paint on my Dorky, I primed and base coated a few pieces of furniture, and today, I finished painting two of these gorgeous chairs I got at a garage sale for $20 each.

I painted flowers on the backs too, because often you see more of the back of a chair than the front, when they are pulled up to a table.

I took photos all along the process so I can post a "how to" this week when www.artsymama.blogspot.com hosts a Artful Blogger Party on Aug. 8th. If you want start to finish steps on how to paint furniture, check back then! Also check back to see what I have to offer for my August giveaway, and thanks again for entering in July!

Teaching a Lesson

antiques/junking, Books, family, Food and Drink, give away, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 28, 2007

I had a teaching day today! It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning, painting roses with a fellow rose lover! I had set up some treats in my "dessert wardrobe" but mostly we were too busy with our paints and brushes to indulge in the cookies.

Actually I had 2 students. Gail brought her 10 year old daughter, Deja to learn how to paint a rose sign too.

I was able to get 2 done myself while demonstrating the flowers.

These are on lightweight, metal, pre-made signs. I liked working with them, it was a change from the usual old wood that I use for my signs.

While I had my brushes out, I finished Sugarwing’s purple pony that I am painting for her first birthday. I added a lot of glitter to it, so it will need quite a few more coats of poly, so the glitter won’t be sharp against her baby soft skin.

Last night while cleaning up my studio to get ready for today’s sign painting, I decorated a candle. I used bits and pieces of paper and trim that were left on the craft table from previous projects and fixed up a candle that had been on sale at Michaels for 50 cents.

What caught my eye about this candle, is that the card stock circle on the top of it, is actually a sticker. Once that circle is peeled off, instead of tossing it, it can be re-used onto something else.

So, I thought it was worth the time to glitter and foof up the cover. Then, I added some vintage trim to the jar rim, and polka dotted glitter on the jar itself.

The pretty angel image I used came from the FABULOUS estate sale that Beth and I went to this week.

My friend, Vicky, invited us to her home early to shop before she was open to the public, and she has the best stuff. She is an artist also, but extremely successful- I’m talking about a 4 story house with an elevator!!! Wow, you don’t see those in Lawrence, KS. She does beautiful work and has a similar taste in decor to me (hers is just on a grander scale).

I bought stacks and stacks of lovely old books from her, suitable for all sort of crafts and ideas. Remember the cabinet I mentioned a while back, that I said I didn’t even use for storage? I do now! It is filled with books from Vicky.

She had some pinks and whites for my kitchen. The Hull pitcher with the roses on it, was only $5.

The creamer was a gift from Beth! She gets boxes and boxes of things from auctions and sometimes brings me flowery things that aren’t her style. She brought 2 flats of goodies for me this time.

This scrap book from Vicky was FILLED with vintage images! For TWO DOLLARS! I will add some of the images to my Cottage Collage Kit giveaway that I will be drawing names for at the end of the month, too.(leave a comment to enter)

Let’s, see, what else did I get. hmmm… This cute topiary type pot (that I will glitter up and decorate for Christmas) was $2 too.

3 urns for $18 (great for storing wallpaper!), a wrought iron garden bench, and a ton of interesting terra cotta pots (that she gave to me)

And a box full of these wonderful appliques! Her whole house was trimmed out in these, everywhere, all over, even the turret. Yep, her house had a turret. Wow. My kind of sale!

I’m sure I am leaving some purchases out, I just was overwhelmed by the sale, it was all such great stuff. Check out Beth’s blog to see what she got at the sale too. http://bethleintz.typepad.com/

White paint, and a White Dorky

a lapse of memory again, or am I just careless?, antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), give away, Hand Painted Furniture, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 25, 2007

My blog buddy, Natasha http://natashaburns.blogspot.com/ let me know that I messed up on the swap amount AGAIN. It isn’t 2 cards, she reminded me, then the next day, she had to remind me again, it isn’t 4 cards and two tags, it is 4 each. So, I made an extra tag today for her and I am sending it off to Australia as a thanks to her.

I got to play with power tools today! I had to make some signs to paint, so was cutting up some boards I had stored (they used to be my garage! It was the first garage built in the county, ages ago, I HAD to save the boards when we demolished the old building!!)

While I was outside painting boards, I decided to prime and base coat a bunch of things:

4 windows to make into signs

a just her size chair and a little rocking horse for Sugarwings

2 Victorian chairs

a table

a cabinet

and those signs that I cut with the jigsaw

Poor Twinks wasn’t as much of a help as she thought! (see why I call her a Dorkie?)

She ran as fast as she could for the house, and into the breezeway, but got very little paint in there. We got out the hose and sprayed her (and the breezeway) off.

(oh oh looks like I could use my roots touched up soon- why do I show such bad photos of myself???)

There isn’t much to her when she is wet.

I have even more paint on me than Twinks had in her fur. But I always look this way, I have a bad habit of wiping my brush on my clothes, so I pretty much either ruin all my clothes, or just get dressed in paint clothes every day.

A table that I had bought at a garage sale for $1 last month had bad veneer on the top, so after priming and base coating it today, I covered the top in sheet music.

I found some that says "Moonlight and Roses" and "Love is a Rose", so I painted some roses over the music paper. It isn’t done yet, here is sneak peek.

ArtsyMama is having another party! Her tea party on May Day was so fun for me, my first real time to dive into blog world and meet people. Can’t wait for this one, we are asked to give tutorials of projects, so I think I will do one on how to paint furniture. It will be on August 8.

SIX DAYS LEFT TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY- JUST LEAVE A COMMENT AND YOU ARE IN!

I am slightly crazy about these medallions

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, give away, how to's, paintings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 24, 2007

Another wonderful day- almost 12 hours of uninterrupted studio time! That rarely happens, even for me and I am supposedly, a full time artist.

I got these 3 leather covered books last week when I went estate sale shopping with Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/. I knew they could be good projects, and they cost me under $5 for all three.

Today I turned them into this-

Some vintage wall paper, rub-n-buf, glue, glitter, roses and ribbons and they are all "Silver Bella-ed Up".

I was inspired by the Marie Antoinette Swap that is going on this summer (I didn’t sign up for that one, but loved the look of it). That movie was so spectacular. I still day dream about the colors and pictures in it.

This one is actually a box made to look like a book. The inside was already so pretty, I just added some silver trim over the dark book binding tape and a rose medallion over the hole I punched in the outside of the lid to attach a button shaped crown.

I used one of my anaglyptic wallpaper medallions to glue a rose picture to, cut it out and glued it down. (I used one on the front of the other book too)

I bought quite a few rolls of the wallpaper border for 99 cents each at Goodwill. They’ll make such great projects! I love the medallions, there are so many ways to use them!

Today I glazed some of the paper pink and some umber, then added hand painted pictures to the center of each oval.

I have been seeing the cutest cupcakes every where I look and thought I’d try painting a few. But mostly I painted roses, they will always be my favorite and I can paint those with my eyes closed by now.

I like the way the glaze shows off the texture of the paper.

I made some note cards with a few of the center medallions. There was a box of Christmas cards in a cute shape on clearance at Michaels for $1. They were ugly as they were, so I am gluing my own stuff over their ugly picture. I liked the scalloped edge that they have and I added hole punches to accent the scallops. Then I painted a little green vine down the side.

With this note card, I cut the oval out of the wallpaper, I didn’t use the whole strip. Then I put it down over some vintage wallpaper and added velvet ribbon.

On this oval, I painted a teeny ballerina and made a tag with her. This is one of the giant 8" x 4′ tags that I got cases of at a garage sale. (I’m putting some in my Cottage Collage Kits)

Did I mention that I am totally enamored with this wallpaper??

For this tag, I glued part of an old typed letter in the oval, and added a picture and itty bitty millinery flower over it.

The medallions can be used in so many ways. I will be sticking them everywhere.

I have some for sale on Etsy too, as well as most of the projects I made today, if you don’t see something you like over there, feel free to ask me about it.

I used another one to make a card for my Christmas in July swap partner http://loveofyellowroses.blogspot.com/ (oops, I forgot it was 4 cards, 2 tags!! My friend, Natasha http://natashaburns.blogspot.com/ reminded me).

So I whipped up a couple more cards and some tags for her, and then tweaked the two I made yesterday that were TOO YELLOW. I used some gold and walnut stamp ink to age the edges and that helped. I think they’ll be OK.

Everyone was so nice with their comments and encouragement about the cards, thanks.

That can’t be all I did today, I was in my studio for about 12 hours straight. The day flew by, but it seems like I should have more to show for it!

I guess I painted a heck of a lot of these little ovals. Did I mention how crazy I am about them? I think I might have, and you might be sick of hearing it by now.

But if you aren’t sick of them, I’ll include a painted oval in my give away as part of the COTTAGE COLLAGE KIT drawing for July. Leave a comment (as often as you’d like) to enter.

Tweak or Toss and some Tags with a new Trick!

Etsy Goodies, fairies, give away, Sugarwings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 23, 2007

Christmas in July is the theme for the card swap I am in and I have a partner who looks like she might be a new blogger, or else, I missed her archives. http://loveofyellowroses.blogspot.com/ is the name of hers, so I figure she likes yellow and roses. I don’t do yellow much, but then, maybe I don’t like this card because it is TOO yellow?? I took a copy of a painting I did of Sugarwings, glued it to a too-yellow card, and hand drew some wings onto her and glittered them up.

For the 2nd card (we are supposed to send 2 Xmas cards), I used old Xmas sheet music, (green ink, really pretty) and parts of old Xmas cards (with a yellow rose) to add to it, along with glitter and gold paint. The gold helped disguise the too-yellow card I used underneath it all, but then that doesn’t help the inside or back of the card, does it??? I need to tweak or toss these, they aren’t quite right.

I am happier with how my tags turned out. I made a few today, just for the fun of it, and, yep, it was fun! These first 3 have some of the 1918 legal papers that I bought used as a basis, along with hand drawn vines or scrolls, as well as glitter, ribbons, and post card bits. Its nice to photocopy post cards to use, so you can save the original, but nothing is as nice as the texture of a real one, so I cut up the originals and try to use all of them, down to the last little corner!

The backs are covered too, but kept simple.

I did a few more tags with some old wallpaper as a basis.

And I learned a new trick!!! I have been having a terrible time with ‘writing’ with glue and glitter. Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ has too, and she posted about it, and got a response from a person named Kathy, who said to use a glue pen to draw with first. So, I ran out to get one (while running what felt like a thousand other errands today, geesh, when is a person supposed to be able to play with glue?? My errands took up hours today).

The glue pens are FANTASTIC!

So easy to control, you can draw with them like a marker, then dust with glitter.

Thanks, Kathy!!!

I am going to list these tags on Etsy at 3 for $10 if anyone is interested.

Also, you still have a week to enter my drawing for a Cottage Collage Kit and it will contain some of the narrow plastic tags and some of the wall papers I used to make these if you want to make some yourself.

Leave a comment on any post to enter, and as often as you’d like (I love comments!)

Mini Spa Day at Home for the New Mom

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, family, flowers, Food and Drink, give away, parties, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 20, 2007

What a nice day! We had a fun Mini Spa Day at home for my niece to celebrate her baby’s two week birthday, then I got to work in the studio, and now my husband is back from his business trip. And I was smart enough to make up extra Cordon Bleu for lunch today and don’t have to cook tonight!

I didn’t actually get to make things today, but I did bundle up some Aqua Themed Cottage Collage Kits for Etsy and got them listed ($14).

And I played with my new purchases from my estate sale shopping with Beth. This vintage wallpaper was being used as shelf paper in a cabinet in a basement, I pulled it out and got 3 large pieces for ONE DOLLAR!!

Velvet ribbons, rick rack, buttons, a sequins all came from the same basement. I added the green ribbon and the mother of pearl button, with a vintage flower to the top of the little jar full of sequins. That is about as creative as I got today, mostly it was unpacking, and packing and finding new homes for everything.

All of these little rhinestone earrings will make pretty snow flakes for Christmas projects and look at these tiny Button Crowns!!!!!!! Oh, I see a Silver Bella project in their future.

And this little clear button is a Scotty, but it is awful close to looking like a Dorky. I never find Dorkies!! The world is filled with Stupid Scotty dogs tho. Oh well, this is cute and like I said, almost a Dorky!

Twinks has claimed the feather pillows as her own. They were only $2 each, that is pretty cheap for a dog bed, but they sure are pretty. Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ says they should go into a hammock. Well, I don’t have one, but it is a good idea.

And look at this rug- I have always wanted one of these. I paid a bit more than I usually spend when out shopping, but it sure is a lot less than buying a new rug at a "real" store or even buying an old one at an antique store. This one is 10′ x 6′ and was $75. Ooh, that makes me cringe to admit I spent that much.

There were 3 of these brass lady-stake things, I only bought 1, for $2. I should have got all three, but was spending like a fool already. Now why did I think that another $4 would break me??

I like it in the flower pot. I don’t know what it is really for, but she seems content in the rose moss.

I found a bunch of ric racs and ribbons for a total of $4.50, quite a few rhinestone buttons for $1, got this cute aqua colored card for only 50 cents, and the trash can was $1.50.

You can’t beat shopping in the basements and garages of estate sales! That is where the sellers put the stuff they think is junk and not worth much.

These leather covered booklet thingys are cute, the one on the right is actually a box, the left one is a note pad, and the middle is a funeral home booklet. All three were $4. I can see all sorts of possibilities with them.

The prettiest pretty of them all today, was Madison Catherine. She is 2 weeks old and seemed to be enjoying her party. We all got to hold her while her mom soaked in the tub.

I lit some candles for the new mom, got out scented lotions and tossed some pink rose petals into the jacuzzi.

I set up a special chair for Brooke to sit in for lunch, and tied up the back of it with a bundle of flowers I got in my first swap from Karin at http://www.creativechaos.typepad.com/

We ate salads with feta, cranberries and almonds, then had cordon bleu with spinach fettuccine and a side of broccoli. (the broccoli got mushy but the rest of the meal was good)

The new grandma brought a Tiramisu, who needs broccoli when you can have that?!! I picked a gladiola from the garden for Grandma Gladys who loved Brooke so much and would have loved to see her baby. She was with us in spirit today.

Brooke wore the crown I received in the tiara swap from Barb at http://www.123lavenderlollipoplane.blogspot.com/.

I have one more thing to list on Etsy, then I am going in to have a plate of leftover cordon bleu. I wish I had leftovers everyday, man I hate to cook dinner.

Please leave a comment if you want to enter the drawing for a Cottage Collage Kit!

Sister Swaps, Buddy Swaps, and some Freebies for you

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, family, flowers, Food and Drink, give away, how to's, paintings, parties, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 18, 2007

I have had the best day! I missed having time on my own in the studio in the last couple of weeks. Now, I loved the guests and I loved the trip and babysitting the fairy grand baby is a beautiful way to spend time, but man, I missed my studio!!

I worked all day (well, since noon at least, I had errands to run this morning) and my husband is out of town, if I want to, I can power up with a power bar and work all night too.

I am in the Art Doll Hat swap hosted by http://craftingbycandlelight.blogspot.com/ and have been making plans for that, but also, my sis and I decided to swap art doll hats, both using the same picture.

So, here is what I made for her. Sissy loves to collect, wear, hoarde, and buy tons of jewelry, so I decked out my doll in jewels.

She likes holographic papers too, so I used a gold holographic party hat for a base. The over skirt is my favorite scrap booking paper, a blue with roses. Over that is a bit torn off of an old curtain I found in a dumpster, I thought it tied in with the upper part of the dress in the picture.

I added some gold glitter to compliment the holographic base.

The crown/hat on the doll’s head is also scrapbook paper that is glittered up with a rhinestone button added. The button was given to me by my great aunt Caroline who just turned 99 this week.

I gave the doll some vintage flowers to hold and wrapped them up in ribbons to match her dress. I hope that Sissy likes the hat better than the Dorkies did. Twinks refused to wear it and Sparkle wore it grudgingly.

Here is the doll that Sissy made for me, look at that great skirt! And the magic wand!! I love it!!

Lets see, what else did I get done today? I made mailable art for Michelle Wards challenge this month. http://michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/ I wasn’t going to participate this month, because it isn’t my style, but I saw envelopes I really liked at http://pennyrabbitart.typepad.com/penny_rabbit_art/2007/07/gpp-crusade-mai.html and thought I’d try the spray paint technique.

Here is the front, (and I bought pretty stamps to use too). Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/gathering_dust/2007/07/beginner-mail-a.html is also doing this challenge, and she is offering to give hers away. Part of the challenge is to actually use them in the mail.

So, if you want one (ask Beth for hers, she might still have some) or ask me. I’ll mail them to the first 4 people who ask for one. Who knows, maybe there will be a little something tucked inside them??? Also, leave a comment if you want to enter July’s drawing for a Cottage Collage Kit.

Speaking of Beth, she and I are doing a crafting day tomorrow in her new studio. We are also swapping bags of paper goods.

Trouble is, SHE HAS EVERYTHING. What do you trade to someone who has the best selection of craft goods on the planet???

A letter from the School for the Feebleminded written in 1931. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she already has one.

I also got two rolls of this textured, paint-able wallpaper border at Goodwill today for 99 cents each. I cut off a length with 3 medallions, glazed it in umber, and added roses to the middle oval. I included a couple single ovals too, she can add a picture, or who knows what, these are COOL for collage work!

Ipacked up some odds and ends of old papers for Beth and while I was at it, I made up more Cottage Collage Kits for Etsy. These four are all neutral colors.

I included some of the glazed wallpaper pieces, papers from 1913-1930, a millinery flower, old buttons, pictures, lace, quite a bit actually. I haven’t listed them yet, if you want one they are $14 plus shipping. Oh, I made up 3 aqua themed packs too. It is surprising how long and involved that process is.

Then, I set the table for Friday’s Mini Spa Day at Home for the new mom. Yes, I know I am early, but I won’t be using the table and setting it up is so fun.

People have mentioned to me that maybe the new mother shouldn’t soak in the tub. But, she and her mother are both RNs, so I am not worried about it, they know what is safe to do. I have an assortment of bath enhancers, she can decide for herself if she wants to use one or not, or just enjoy the jacuzzi as it is. I like to use the Vaseline Intensive Care Bath beads. I think it is pretty gentle, but I’ll leave it up to my guest. Thanks for caring about her and warning me.

Well, I need to pack up a bag of stuff to take to Beth’s to work on tomorrow. We are doing Silver Bella stuff!! Yay, Bellas!! Can’t wait.

Cherubs, Dolls, Fairies, and a real life Dollbaby

Etsy Goodies, fairies, give away, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 17, 2007

What a nice day I have had. I spent most of it with the fairy grand baby, then took my niece to see Harry Potter. On the way home, I rented a copy of Miss Potter to watch tonight, and thought maybe I should eat a Pot Pie with it. But I am way too full of popcorn from the matinee to even think about dinner.

I found the German die cut cherub that I thought I had lost when packing up for the trip, isn’t she a pretty one? And I had the price wrong, she was only $2, frame and all.

While going through things that should be sorted, sold, or something, I came across this little box of vintage doll clothes.

I might keep some of the most lacey ones for making fairy dolls and sell the rest on Etsy. I am sure there are plenty of doll makers who could use them. Aren’t they sweet? I’d say they must be handmade. Look at the beading on the little pink one!

And the tiny little handmade flowers on these.

They are enough to make me wish I was a doll collector. But honestly, I collect enough stuff!!!!!!!

I do like to take old dolls and repaint them and turn them into fairies.

But these elfish babes are not dressed in real clothes, I glue bits and pieces of stuff together to make their dresses (I hate to sew). Maybe the doll clothes would be wasted on me. Although, I can see a couple of them framed as part of an assemblage.

What I like best about making fairies, is adding the tiny details, like this button "crown" on her head.

Speaking of little dolls, I am celebrating my newest niece’s 2 week birthday on Friday by having her mother over for a mini spa at home day! Her sister and I will watch the baby while she soaks in the tub and relaxes, then we will fix the new mommy a special lunch and give her a pedicure. It will be Madison’s first "Girls Day Out". I had thought about trying to surprise the mama, but then realized if she was soaking and relaxing, she might want to bring fresh clothing, and we need to plan around the baby’s feedings. So I told her about her mini spa day and she is looking forward to it. I think I’ll bake up a casserole or two for her to take home for the weekend, also.

And while I am talking about treats, remember to enter my July drawing for the COTTAGE COLLAGE KIT giveaway. Here are a couple cards I will slip into the packet of vintage papers.

All you have to do is leave a comment to enter, as many times as you would like.

By the way, Beth is having a great giveaway too! (actually she is having two!) http://bethleintz.typepad.com/

There’s No Place Like Home, but Okoboji isn’t bad

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, flowers, give away, Sugarwings, Travel, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 16, 2007

It feels good to be back in Kansas!

We are back from our family reunion at Fellenwarth Beach, Lake Okoboji, Iowa. I felt like I took a trip back in time, or was on the set of Dirty Dancing at the Kellerman Lodge! This place was built in that era and has been updated, but still had that old fashioned feel. (but no Patrick Swayse, drat)

There was the cutest little amusement park next door, called Arnold’s Park. Sugarwings rode on her first carousel horsey and her Uncle Ryan won a prize for her in the bottle toss.

She had her first taste of ice cream.

At first she wasn’t sure what to think, and the cold didn’t make her very happy.

But once the flavor hit her taste buds, she decided Ice Cream is the best!!!

It wasn’t the cheapest place to stay, and I’m afraid that we made it even worse by pulling our boat up there, along with my BIL bringing his boat. If the nation experiences a huge gas shortage this week, it is because we used it all up in those two trucks. We could have spent a week in Florida at the beach for what we spent on a long weekend in Iowa.

But seeing relatives from all over the country made it worth it. It was great to be there for Little Joan’s 75th birthday (oh, and she liked the photo album I put together for her.)

I snuck away with baby brother, Randy and his husband, Kevin for a bit and we did some junking. Both of them are avid antiquers and that Kevin has a great eye and so much knowledge about what he sees. I just look for what is pretty, he knows values, and the history of what we come across.

I only had an hour or so to shop and there were SO MANY antique places up there. I was hoping to take more time junking, but just couldn’t be selfish during family time. But I did find lots of cool old papers, this album full of anniversary cards was $8, the kids books were $2, the kitten post card with glass eyes (how cool is that??) was $1.

I found a few other little pretties,

the white dog salt shaker- $2
shell vase $1
an oval frame with a German die cut cherub – $4 (and I seem to have packed that away somewhere in the vast luggage that isn’t unpacked yet)
But my best find, was these two cardboard courthouse record keepers, from 1917-1930.

They were jammed packed with correspondence, typewritten, and hand written!!

I’ll be adding some of these pages to the July Cottage Collage Kit giveaway. There are some wonderful pieces in the boxes, I can’t wait to have time to sift through them all. (the boxes were $15 each, but I was only going to buy one and then my BILs surprised me with a second one, how sweet)

Back to normal life, houseguests are gone, the vacation is over. I have so much unpacking to do and errands to run.

I went to the store to get soap to do up the mountain of laundry I brought back from Iowa, returned our books on tape that we listened to on the drive, and of course had to get some of the $1.99 bunches of flowers that are on sale every Monday. And Peaches were on sale for 88 cents lb. If they are good, I’ll go get more and make a pie or two.

Then, I swung by the Vet’s office to get my pile of Dorkies, and all of us worked outside, watering the garden and flowers. The little dorkies are all as happy to be home as I am!!

Where is all the stuff hiding???

antiques/junking, give away, Hand Painted Furniture, how to's

By Karla Nathan / July 11, 2007

My fairy grand baby has loved meeting her Wyoming cousins, and we are all looking forward to the rest of the week together up at Lake Okoboji in Iowa. I probably won’t be posting for a few days, I’ll check in if I can, but most likely won’t have access. You can still enter my drawing if you want to leave a comment, you can enter to win a Cottage Collage Kit, with vintage papers and other pretties.

People have been asking me what I do with all my stuff in the studio when I set up the room for a family reunion.

I hide it all!

This little silver metallic colored wash stand that I painted is full of doll making supplies and trims, the cosmetic case is more lace and doiles, and the wicker basket holds all my original greeting cards. (this piece was free, Beth, http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ gave it to me and I fixed it up.)

And of course, all these baskets are full of supplies too.

I have all my jewelry making goods in the (free from my niece) wardrobe drawers, with mosaic materials in the side door of it.

Drawing and collage supplies are on the shelves ($15 at a garage sale, then I repainted)- and you really don’t want to see behind that screen! ($3 at at garage sale) That area is where the avalanche of junk is hiding.

My sewing machine is in this cute little $5 cabinet that I painted and added a ceiling tin top and a wooden wreath to, and the candy dish is full of seed packets. (and that is my typewriter sitting on the shelf, not sure what I am going to do with it yet)

Two sets of Home Depot basic cabinets ($50 each) are stacked up and placed back to back then filled with more and more junk.

This is all scrap booking goods packed away into these drawers. The dresser was $20 at an auction, it didn’t have a bottom drawer, but I like it this way. I used to keep a tv on top and the video equipment on the open space.

I have stuffed this french vanilla painted wardrobe (that I paid $15 for and rebuilt) full of vintage fabrics and water color supplies. There are more fabrics in the German trunk above it. I don’t really sew, but I sure am a sucker for gorgeous old fabric. Someday….

This glass doored hutch holds some inventory that I am eventually going to sell. I thought I’d set it out and enjoy it until I found new homes for it, instead of storing it in boxes. (This hutch was only $50 at an auction!)

You probably won’t believe this, but this narrow chimney cabinet is empty! Not a thing in it, but I did cover the shelves in old paper, then glaze them in umber, and edge them in vintage lace.

I paid $5 for it at a garage sale, but don’t really need it. I just have a soft spot for storage pieces and cabinets!

This buffet sits near the head of the table, but has nothing to do with food service. It is full of fairies and fairy houses that I made, and vintage jewelry. (it was $75, but needed work too)

So, this room isn’t perfectly set up as a dining room, it still has a studio feel to it, but I really can seat a lot of people at tables in the center of the room, and it is nice to be able to all sit together even if we are surrounded by inventory and supplies!

I’m off to start the dishwasher again. I didn’t have to cook tonight, my brother-in-law made chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes and black bean salad! I had 2nds.

I contributed a carrot cake from a mix, that I dumped a can of mandarin oranges, red grape raisins, flax seed, sunflower seeds, extra brown sugar, cream cheese, yogurt and an extra egg into. I kind of cook like I craft, off the top of my head and what ever sounds good at the moment.