holiday decor – Page 11 – Karla's Cottage

Fluttery wings and a book full of sweet nothings, two classes two ways- in Florida and Kansas

cottage, holiday decor, Valentine's Day, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / January 4, 2019

Are you up for some romantic crafting projects? I have two opportunities for you to join me in creating ruffled, lacey, crepe paper wings, adorned with vintage millinery along with a charming autograph book, inspired by a very old and uniquely shaped signature book. The book will be made from the ground up, you will learn how to construct the covers from chip board and paper.

One set of classes is being hosted by the lovely, Karen Hillman, in Deland, Florida. She will serve a luncheon to us in her impressive and gracious style and we will create both the angelic wings and distinctive booklet.

Info on how to sign up is here: Cozy Castle Events

Did I mention it was Reninger’s Antique Extravaganza weekend?!?!

While the flea market adventure isn’t exactly part of the workshop, I highly encourage you to attend it and shop to your heart’s content at one of the South’s top fleas. The classes are on Saturday, and the market is in full swing Friday thru Sunday, just down the road in the delightful town of Mount Dora.

I used to spend some time in the area back when I’d visit my Great Aunt Caroline (who lived til the day before her 102nd birthday!), so I became familiar with the joys of antiquing there, way back then. I fell head over hills for the hidden gem in the heart of Florida, and have filled my suitcase many times with precious goodies from shopping sprees while visiting.

The signature book and angel wings have a romantic feel to them, but are not necessarily Valentine decor. I hung some wings in the cottage for Christmas one year, and decided to leave them up for Valentines', then liked them so much, they stayed up year round. Who doesn’t need a sweet reminder of heavenly blessings nearby?

The book also, can be filled with sweet nothings and love notes, or used as a mini scrapbook, art journal, diary, or simply enjoy as a display piece and reminder of a day of creativity with other talented friends. Here is a page from my inspiration book (a gift from the Guncles that Karen and I both freaked out over and wanted to copy). I will be including a vintage calling card and other pretties for each kit.

Karen’s gathering will take place on February 16th, which makes it even more special to me. It is my mom’s birthday and she adored her Aunt Caroline. I’m excited to be spending her day in an area she loved.

I've been busy hand dying crepe paper and sewing it into yards and yards of ruffles for you.

No two kits will be exactly the same, since vintage materials will be used. I'm supplying roses for each set of wings, in your choice of color. Tiny vintage flowers will top the album also. Crepe paper is available in cream and white or pink.

The classes at my home will be on Saturday, January 26. You can choose to make the wings in the morning, the book in the afternoon, or stay the day and do both. Lunch is included.

Both cottage workshops are $55,

but if you sign up for the set,

you’ll save $5 on each

for a total of $100 for the day.

(I hope you will stay all day, I’m looking forward to spending it with you!)

We will have a Valentine themed luncheon and the Treat Cabinet will be stocked with chocolatey, yummy, sweetness. If you’d like to be part of this party, you can email me at karlanathan@sbcglobal.net for an invoice. And please let me know if you’d like white, pink, or red for your wings.

I could possibly do blue or lavender if you wish also. Ask for your fave and I'll see what I can find for you. My cottage does hold a couple of hats to choose from….

And if you like to go to the Florida and Kansas versions? First of all, I’d be thrilled! Second, I can make you two different colored kits.

How to Make a Holiday (or everyday) Felted Gnome

fairies, holiday decor, how-to projects, Tutorials

By Karla Nathan / December 28, 2018

For quite a while, I've been wanting to make a furry, lil, gnome guy. Then, my Sissy sent me photos of some she collected for her holiday display and I was freshly motivated to make one for her as a gift (and a few more too)

I chose to give these a holiday theme, with the mica flaked caps, mercury ornament noses, and tinsel trim, but of course, gnomes aren't just made to hang out with Santa's elves, they can be enjoyed year round without the festive additions. A nose can be a wooden ball, or a pom pom. You can leave the tinsel or glitter off. (Oh, but why leave them un-glittered??? Glitter is a daily adornment around here, not just a holiday foof!)

I started with a styrofoam ball, a rectangle of felted wool, and a pom pom.

You could also use a wooden ball for the head, or a smaller styrofoam ball. You can exchange the felted wool for regular felt or other fabric, too. In the picture of the gnome trio, above, the red and blue are felt, the pink and tan is a wool sweater I got at Goodwill and felted. Either works.

Although, I noticed that my favorite glue in the world, The Ultimate, doesn't do as well on felt as it does on natural fabrics and I switched to FabricFusion instead.

To begin, I sliced the bottom off of the large ball with a serrated knife, to make a flat surface that allowed the critter to stand up.

Then, I covered the ball with glue (NOT THE FLAT BOTTOM PART) and wrapped the fabric around it.

I pinch pleated and folded the top down, pressing it into the glue.

With scissors, I trimmed excess, top and bottom.

Next, I glued the smaller ball to the top as a head.

On mine, I added the beard and hair (made of wool roving, found at Hobby Lobby or Walmart) at this point. I discovered that it would be easier to decorate the torso before adding the beard, because I was holding the hair out of the way to attach buttons and a belt.

So, if you want the body decorated, do that first. I'm afraid it doesn't really show much, if you have a glorious beard flowing down his belly, so the belt and buttons are sort of optional.

To add them, simply cut a string, ribbon, bit of twine, or whatever you'd like to use, to fit around his midsection. Glue in place, and top with something to emulate a belt buckle. I chose a small rhinestone cluster. Then, add a row of buttons made from either actual buttons (the smaller the better) or beads, or crystals. Do 3 dabs of glue down the center of his body, and place the baubles into the glue and you are done.

The beard is wool roving (or dacron if you'd rather) is pressed into glue on his face, and then arranged to look beard shaped. Don't be stingy with it, these guys are just about lost in the hair. Add some around the back of his head too, but not as much or as long as the beard on his face.

I'm all about no-sew projects. And no-measuring too. I found that the felted wool worked perfectly with gluing, but the regular felt did better with a bit of stitching. It wasn't too much, so I struggled my way through it, thinking I was being really brave about facing my nemesis- the dreaded thread and needle- when my pal, Beth, took it away from me and quickly sewed it up. I have a feeling that she really wanted to sew my mouth shut too, but settled for just fixing the hat for me.

I like hats that are tall, and have a bend in them. To get the bend, I glued a pipe cleaner inside the triangle I had cut to make the hat.

The triangle was cut extra big, and then held in place on his head to see about what size it should be, trimmed to fit and then put together (with glue or stitching). After, I glued it to his head.

Here is a back side of the red gnome to see how much hair I gave him.

As you can see, the face is mostly hat and hair.

He has a small, vintage, shiny brite bead as his nose.

This hat has a rim that is actually the seam of the felted sweater, which was a serendipitous accident. I just happened to be using up little remnants of the material and this is what I had.

The arms are little rectangles glued in half and added to the body. I cut out mitten shapes and stuck them into the sleeve opening. Mittens are as simple as an oval with a thumb. If you aren't comfortable with that shape, a plain oval works too.

Left on their own, the arms will stand straight out. You can glue something, like this mini tree to one.

On this one, I glued a puppy charm onto his sleeve and glued it to his beard, so he looks like he is hugging his pet.

I've added mica flakes of glitter to their hats. And trimmed some in tinsel, some in other glitter. You can add a tiny jingle bell, or bead, or tinsel to the tip of the hat too.

(I gave the blue one some iridescent sea shells because he is a beach gnome for Sissy)

The red one for Guncle Randy, the Pet Butler, is also holding puppies and has a sequin trimmed hat.

All of these gentlemen have a lot of personality and charm. And are easy to personalize by your trimmings and color choices.

Merry Christmas!

cottage, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 25, 2018

I hope your day is a blessed one.

The Cottage Living Room at Christmastime

cottage, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 22, 2018

My holiday foofiness was hung around the cottage early enough that I've had plenty of time to enjoy it this season. But with Christmas just around the corner, I'm already starting to be sad about seeing it packed away.

Maybe I will leave the lights and ice garland over the window? It can be a "winter decoration" instead of a Christmas one.

For now, I'll be savoring it all for the time left with the sparkle and glitz.

It certainly makes me happy to see.

Maybe what I need is something new to set out in January, something to look forward to?

Isn't it silly to be missing it before it is even put away? It could be that I'm already missing my Dewdrop, who will only be home for a short time to celebrate with us. And missing all of the fancy, cocoa parties, outings, and gatherings.

Honestly, I just LOVE the entire season soooooo much, that I hate to see any of it go! Next year, I really need to plan a Snowbird's Song art weekend again, so I can squeeze even more festiveness out of wintertime.

The countdown is on

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 19, 2018

Our family is on the countdown to Christmas and trying to fit in as many festivities as we can.

Sugarwings and I went to see the plays Elf, Rudolf and Annie…

checked out the holiday displays at Legoland… (although, Dorothy and Toto were faves, even if they weren't Christmassed up like the rest of the bricks)

we’ve sipped cocoa by candlelight and the twinkling of the tree…

are going to go to see the Nutcracker movie…

and have been making as many holiday crafts as we can.

We had a gathering to craft with friends too, and the group took a field trip to the Lecompton Territorial Museum to see the Midwest’s largest display of vintage Christmas ornaments.

Lecompton was important during the Civil War and is a town full of history.

And great, old ornaments!

In between, I’m trying to get things wrapped to place under the tree or in the mail and flying off to loved ones. Trying is the key word there- heck,I’ve not even finished shopping, let alone wrapping.

I hate to see the whirlwind wind down, I’ve been loving every minute of it.

But before you know it, Christmas will be here. And that means Dewdrop will be back from North Carolina to join in on our fun!

A Book Club Christmas party

Books, cottage, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 16, 2018

I couldn't remember if it was my 4th or 5th annual holiday book club party, so I looked back at my blog (which is my journal, and the only way I ever know when I did what) and saw that I'd started hosting these in 2011!

Here are some past parties:

This year, I was inspired by a pot of glittered, blue poinsettias to tend toward being a little more colorful than the typical gold and white color scheme of past parties. Our white tree has multiple settings for color choices. On a daily basis, I set it on white and twinkling. But the minute Sugarwings walks in the door, she resets it to rainbow. I thought I'd use her favorite setting for this night too.

Aren't the flowers wonderful? I always buy a pot of poinsettias, and try to purchase the one with the most blooms, and normally choose ones with just white. This year, I saw a glittered, ocean blue plant, and had to go for it. Especially since it had over a dozen flowers on it. (or to be correct, I think you are supposed to say "brackets" for these plants, not flowers, right?)

I always cut the blooms off and put them in vases, instead of leaving the plant as is. They last quite a long time and I can spread them around the house, using them in many spots.

And lately, I"ve been finding crystal wine glasses on sale for pretty cheap and they have been multicolored too. So, heck why not go with it? It ended up being a change that I really enjoyed.

I even added some pink and blue shiny brites to the gold and silver ones on the chandelier for the night and like it so much, I've leaving them for the season. They look nice with Sugarwings' favorite light setting on the tree, too.

Since the party was for the book club, I added some vintage books to the tablescape.

Dinner was a rainbow spiral pie (that suited the colorful room, didn't it?), baked parmesan chicken, greenbeans with potatoes and mushrooms.

And two kinds of homemade bread.

I had such a lovely time with these bright and interesting ladies.

After dinner, we draw names for gift wrapped, used books that everyone brings to swap.

I ended the night, looking around the room, and enjoying how clean and festive the house looked. I adore the holiday decorations and seeing all of the lights, but our cottage isn't always as tidy as it should be.

While decking the halls, I do a deep cleaning and at first everything looks sparkly and spiffy. Since I do the decorating early, messes have a chance to encroach December passes and having a party midway through the month is a great excuse to get a fresh start and bring back that sparkling feeling. It isn't often that the whole place is all cleaned up and shiny at the same time. We have 5 dogs, heat with wood, and have a craftaholic kid who creates clouds of paper flying around her like she is Edward Scisssorhands.

As I said goodnight to my husband, I commented on how happy I was to have had such a pleasant evening and to have clean, pretty surroundings.

Then, I woke up about 1am to a dog crying hysterically to go out. And then to be let right back in. And again a couple of times that night. I drug myself out of bed each time, half awake, not realizing that she had such a tummy ache that she'd made a mess, and paced around, walking through it.

Not so clean anymore….. I didn't even get a full 24 hours of spotlessness.

Mopping and sanitizing after a sick dog isn't nearly as much fun as cleaning and spiffing to get ready for a party.

The Plaza Lights- from a very special viewing point

celebrations, flowers, friends, holiday decor, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / December 13, 2018

Our pal, Angie lives in an apartment overlooking the KC Plaza with a glorious view of the holiday lights.

The view inside is pretty dang great too. Angie arranged a delectable feast of loveliness for us after a day out together, lunching, shopping, and laughing.

The city looked magical from her window.

It was a day filled with pretty things.

And fun photo ops.

With some silliness thrown in.

I wore my favorite, new Santa shirt (AGAIN, it seems to be my uniform for December along with my decade old, red velvet coat), and found a set of placemats to match it. But since they cost more than the shirt did, I didn't buy them. Actually, besides lunch, and a bag of old fashioned, hard candies, I didn't do much purchasing. Just browsing and enjoying the over the top, holiday displays the stores had out.

We went to the Kaufman center to see the trees and flowers, which are a major mood enhancer this time of year. When the Kansas landscapes are grey, brown, dreary, and dead, it is heartening to see flowers in bloom. I bent over and got some deep whiffs from the pots of white stock and the sweetness of the blooming plants really made me happy inside.

I'm rarely a red or green person, and don't decorate my home in these colors for the season, but I do love pops of these festive shades in jewelry or clothing in December. So, I made myself some silver earrings with red and green semi-precious gemstones. While I was at it, I made enough to pass out to friends too, and took some to lunch that day for Beth, Karla, and Angie to choose from.

In the past, I've painted ornaments as little gifties for friends, and it was nice to see that Angie has some of them on her sparkling tree.

Her home is perfectly coordinated, and she has such a gentle touch with decorating, it is always an honor to see something I'd made in her home.

She crafted gift bags filled with everything we'd need for a winter's night of relaxation at home. (Wine, chocolate, and a good book!) and topped the package with this sweet collaged image.

It was a special day, ending with an even more special evening. I'm blessed to have good friends who could take a day off to simply enjoy the season with me.

An ugly little tree gets a makeover

holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 10, 2018

Beyond ugly, huh? I saw this at the flea market and couldn't walk away, because under the hideousness, there was good stuff lurking.

First of all, this is big time, VINTAGE.

Second, lookie at the OLD tinsel!! I love that stuff and it is becoming hard to find some this ancient to work with.

And of course, tiny, shiny brites cannot ever be ignored, right????

Yep, I bought and stripped the monstrosity. It was only $15, and in my guesstimate, there was that much on it in pretty bits to reuse.

Not to mention the faded, old tree itself. It is so old, the branches have become a taupe color, which you can see through to the original dark green here and there.

The tree itself is such a cutie, that I kept the decor on it simple. I plopped it into a white McCoy pot, and left the star on the top as is, then draped it in vintage pearl necklaces. A glass bird is clipped to a branch to coordinate with the flock of feathered birdies I've added to the mantle where the tree is sitting.

In the last couple of years, I've covered the paintings that hang over the mantle because they were too springlike for Christmas. This year, I left them up and incorporated the bird and roses of the artwork as a theme in the garland draped below.

Because I was too lazy to go to the effort of getting out a tall ladder and tacking up the burlap over the paintings. Because I wanted a new look.

Here is how the room looks with the burlap and wings up.

The pink mercury glass beads look nice with the pink roses in the paintings. And I'm always happy to have some birdies flitting about.

A better photo of the mantel itself would have been a good idea, huh? You can see the fireplace in the background of this kitchen picture, though.

Kinda.

Elfing around with pinecone pixies

fairies, friends, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 5, 2018

My pal, Tami, once again invited a group of local Peeps to her lovely home for a holiday crafting day. She is always generous with supplies and ideas to share with friends. This time, we were elfing around and making pinecone pixies.

Here are a few of the ones that I made. She provided a basket full of pine cones, and plenty of felt, along with the little wooden balls for heads and other tidbits to put together.

I'd brought this chunk of firewood, deer, and tree to make this display.

But this character looks more like a Yorkie than Santa's helper, doesn't he?

See what I mean?

Or maybe more like this?

We had a holly jolly time making these, and soon the room was filled with the fun lil guys.

It was hard to stop, even though all of mine didn't turn out as good as I would've liked. This poor sprite looks like she has smoker's wrinkles around her mouth where the ink ran. I can almost hear her throaty voice saying, Ho HO, Ho, between coughs….

Her sis turned out a little better. She is sitting on a spool.

Tami's halls were decked, her home is always so tastefully and vintagely festive. I do not know why I didn't get more pictures, dang it. But at least I took this pic, look at this unique and fashionable tree.

Between eating a yummy, pitch in lunch and assembling elves, we also worked on a few other projects. There were some butter pat plates available to work with.

I'm afraid my finished product is rather plain, but the plate itself was so simply sweet, I wanted to keep it pretty much as is.

I also made a little doggie ornie.

And a bottle brush tree snowflake too.

With all of the laughter, warm conversations, and of course- treat snacking, I don't know how I managed to get so many things made.

What a nice day! Thanks, Tami!!

Thankfulness, hugs, and gingerbread

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / November 23, 2018

I can't imagine a nicer Thanksgiving. Kia helped me prep quite a bit the day before and we had a pretty laid back Thursday, with all of the chopping done ahead of time.

We even baked a double batch of gingerbread cookies on Wednesday, which made for a fun morning of playing with icing and sprinkles before getting dinner in the oven.

After cookie masterpieces were created, we popped a little turkey into the oven (for the few of us that were not vegan) and headed out to the woods to enjoy the sunshine and the last of the fall colors.

We didn't go far, just out in our back yard, we have ten acres that have a few trails through the trees.

While out there, we visited the fallen Grandfather Tree, which we have harvested to make slabs. In the future, it will be a dining room table.

For now, it is fun to climb on.

And jump off of.

The grandfairies found a few fun places to climb around.

And Avahni showed off her fire fighter training by carrying people around.

Dororthy enjoyed it.

Twinkle isn't as fond of the hugging.

But the girls are.

After a festive dinner with lots of toasts and laughter, we started decorating gingerbread again, this time some premade houses.

Every year, I get a couple for the littlest grandfairies to pile up sky high with globs of candies, but didn't even think about getting them for everyone to play with.

But after watching the Halloween baking shows with Ryan, he and I thought we should probably try our hands at making some houses ourselves.

I certainly had plenty of toppings! We do NOT eat these, they are just for display, so we use candy that has been around longer than Dewdrop, back when Sugarwings first crafted a house. And I buy the 25 cent, clearance decorations after Christmas to save up and use too.

The only fresh stuff we have is for the cookies that we eat, and they are dye free, organic goodies.

Oh, yes, I do buy fresh fondant to play with too. You have to have that soft and pliable, it doesn't save like hard candies do.

The big girls like the fondant as much as the little ones do. Thia made a unicorn with hers.

This looks like it will be a holiday tradition around here, we had such a good time with it, that there is already talk of gingerbread birdhouses for Easter. And maybe even some more houses at Christmas dinner? Although, we usually spend the evening playing games that the kids get as gifts from Santa after dinner on that day, and decorating cookies in the afternoon.

I am truly blessed to have a family who can enjoy a relaxing day together, while pitching in to help with cooking so that the day wasn't all about slaving away in the kitchen and dozing in front of a game on TV.

And I was thrilled to have them want to make Gingerbread Houses! I'm not really a Thanksgiving person, for me, it is just the gateway to the holiday season, it is hard to hold back and not start rushing headfirst into Christmas before Thanksgiving is over.

This season, I decided there was no reason to hold back and went for it. I was glad to have my trees up, and the twinkling lights strung for atmosphere. And loved having these houses to do, even though they are a traditional Santa thing, not a turkey thing.

(with a side of Turkey!)

The kids were calling the meal, our "Healthgiving" Dinner, we kept all of the items freshly made, with no processed foods. With everyone helping, that wasn't hard to do. There were circus tricks on the aerial rig, a walk in the woods, crafting, massage therapy, and we all took turns giving a Huzzah! for what we were feeling grateful for.

The laughter, warmth, and hugs were much appreciated.

What a nice holiday! I hope you had a happy one too.