holiday decor – Page 33 – Karla's Cottage

A tree top Christmas Party with Little Edy and a giveaway

give away, holiday decor, how to's, jewelry, redos

By Karla Nathan / November 23, 2011

My new, white Christmas tree is up and ready to be decorated! I'll be away for 2 weekends in Dec. and I am a little sad about missing out on tree time. I wanted plenty of time to enjoy the holiday decor, so my plan is to have the halls decked before Thanksgiving. But I needed a new topper, since I have two trees this year and plan on using my other tree in the newly remodelled kitchen this year.

While tidying up Sugarwing's room, I came across this little doll who had seen much better days. Either my fairy grand baby has the same tendencies to hang onto things that need refurbished, or she is the cause of the need for refurbishment…

This doll kind of has a Little Edy/Grey Gardens look about her, doesn't she?

The first thing I did was repaint her eyes and brows.

Then, I popped her into a party hat with the point cut off. At this point she doesn't look like she is going to any kind of party I want to attend. But there is still work to be done.

The party hat is a perfect skirt base for her, its sturdy and I can slide it right over the top of the tree.

I wanted a halo that stood up from her head, so I made a wire ring to hold it. The ring fits around her noggin, and was glued into place before gluing yarn hair over it. The halo itself is a vintage, circle, rhinestone brooch.

To keep the halo standing straight up, I glopped on a bunch of glue where it is wrapped with the wire. That needed covered up, so I added a white millinery bloom over the glue blob.

Her dress is made up of vintage papers, trims, and lace that I glued to her body and the party hat, no sewing for me. The wings are feathers and flocked wallpaper, and she is decked out in some millinery and jewels.

When she heads up to the top of the tree, I'll get a photo of her in her new home. That is if I ever get caught up and get that tree decorated… Right now, its up, the lights are on and its naked as a jaybird. But still festive! I'm happy just to have it there waiting for me. I've wanted a white tree for the past few years, my old one turned yellow and I hadn't found a reasonable priced one to replace it with.

The yellow was not a good "patina-ed with age look" it was a "did a dog pee on your tree?" look. It had to go.

My life is full of white trees right now. I've been bleaching and glittering more batches of bottle brush trees this week. I thought I had plenty of them done, but needed another couple of sinkfuls to fill some special orders. Plus, I like to have plenty to play with and decorate myself too!

Can you have too many? So far, the answer is no, and I seem to have a LOT of them.

And finally, I made up some cuff bracelet kits.

All filled with lacey, velvety, vintagey goodies.

These are priced separate from my Cuff Tutorial. Previous kits included the price of the online lesson, but with these kits, you need to either purchase the $6 class separately or use put them together in your own way. The kits come with the aluminum blanks and all the trims and bits you need to make a bracelet according to my directions in the class.

There are also plain cuffs for sale for you to use if you don't want a whole kit.

They are stocked in the Boutique in two sizes, 1 inch and 1-1/2 inch.

I hope you have a happy holiday weekend planned. We are going all local/free range/ organic this year, and even roasting our own pumpkin to make the pies. I've never done that before, so I might need to have a frozen pie as a back up… If you have any tips, please let me know!

Happy Thanksgiving!

PS- as a Thanksgiving treat (because I'm thankful you read my blog and buy my stuff and I can pretend this is a real job) I'll give away 2 Cuff Tutorials. Please leave a comment letting me know if you are interested.

ps- Have you visited Amy? She makes the best stuff from nothing. She is having a link party and I joined it today.

Angels with no head, angel heads with no body, and bottle brush trees in bottles

holiday decor, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / November 21, 2011

If you have purchased my Mini Dressfrom tutorial, don't forget that there are patterns in there to make angel wings for your lil' gal if you want to make a cherub for the holidays.

This one that I did is a little different than the ones in the class, I didn't have the wires coming out of the topper piece, instead I topped it off with a glass button.

Which goes to show you just how flexible the class is. You can customize your dress form as you'd like.

Or if you don't want to make your own…. this one is for sale…

You can find it here.

Is it weird that I like to make paper clay heads and stick them on something that is not really a body? I've been mixing and matching trees, heads, spools, and bottles and feel a bit like that experimenting neighbor kid in Toy Story who mismatched toy parts.

Although mine more shabby chic not sinister.

This angel rests her head on a spool with a mini wreath on it.

I've also been topping bottles with trees.

And stuffing trees into bottles.

Or sticking trees on teensy little pots.

And some bottles have angels as toppers.

This tree is on a spool, all decked out with lots of Good Stuff on it.

And if you'd like to deck out your own tree, I have some plain trees on plain spools too. Ready for you to get creative on.

I'll leave you with some photos of what's new in the Etsy shop and the Boutique.

Sepia and winter white trees…

Red velvety ribbon (a whole roll of vintage trim!)…

A hand tatted little bag…

More decorated trees…

Pink grapes-Pink beads-a Pink doll dress…

A pink carnation…

More pink trees…

And lots more. Thanks for looking!

Zombie Invasion

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / October 31, 2011

We live in a great town, it has everything, a good school system, community arts, a vibrant downtown, loyal Jayhawks, great food, and zombies.

Yep, real live zombies. Not the dead kind.

We went downtown for dinner, and snagged a street side table to watch the annual parade.

At first, Sugarwings was enjoying the site as the zombies arrived and made their way to the start of the parade.

But soon, we were in the middle of HUNDREDS of the walking undead.

That is when she dove under the table.

I have to admit, it was pretty freaky.

I thought about joining her under there!

But she could see we were having a lot of fun with the parade and we'd been talking about costumes and how zombies aren't real, so she came out and joined us for dinner.

But she did stay on her Pop Pop's lap.

The food was great, the weather was perfect, what a great night to sit outside and eat a big ole juicy steak as blood drenched corpses walked by.

This was a fund raiser for the Humane Society.

It was $15 to join the parade, and I'd love to know how much the shelter made, there was a huge turnout.

Zombies of all ages participated.

Brides seemed to be very popular.

And the local costume stores must have sold out of fake blood.

We saw the Skipper and his Lil Buddy, Santa, Batman, Superman, you name it, that zombie was there.

And many were ready to stop and chat at our table.

Some of the acting was really impressive.

And some of the costumes were almost too scary.

One little zombie boy stopped and gave our Sugarwings a flower. She was really warming up to it all by then.

Soon, she was hiding under the restaurant's menu board and jumping out to scare people herself.

But her bravery didn't last, one zombie pulled the same trick on her, jumped in her face and growled. The poor kid was terrified after that and just sobbed.Luckily the parade was over and it was time to go home.

I felt so bad for her. She'd been having so much fun watching the hoarde go by, til that one girl jumped into her face.

My mom raised me to love horror movies, and my boys watched them growing up too. Sugarwings has always been attracted to the scary characters in every fairy tale and story, she is a big fan of flying monkeys, witches, and trolls.

But I don't know if zombies will be very high on her list of faves.

We'll see. If she takes after me, she'll be fond of them.

Ariel, Ursala, and some odd witch thing

family, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / October 29, 2011

Ariel and Ursala the sea witch were also guests at our Halloween party last weekend.

Sugarwings has been a huge fan of Ariel since before she could even talk. Dorothy and Ariel have been a in tie for her affections for her entire life, she has loyally loved both forever.

I found this dress at TJMaxx for $9, because it was part of a whole princess set, but was missing the rest of the pieces. I bought it because I knew we could always use another pink princess dress, not even knowing it was meant to be Ariel's. Lucky find, because our little princess was thrilled.

They kind of look alike now that Sugarwings has the firey hair do, don't they? Of course, by the end of the evening, her hair was a tangled mess, and the red spray had it sticking up every which way, her face was all dirt, and her gown was too. She looked like ghoulish Ariel after playing flash light tag in the woods and sword fighting with the boys for hours.

And we have one pink chair from where she rested after getting worn out. Happily, it was the recliner in my husband's office. I hate that chair. You know, recliners can be pretty ugly, but a little bit a pink helps makes it look like it really belongs in my house.
After playing fairy dress up all weekend in Asheville earlier in the month, I was still in the mood for getting my fairy gear on. But since it was Halloween, I took it up a notch and added green/blue eyeshadow to my face and lots of glitter.

And some witchy socks, too. No one knew what I was supposed to be, and I really didn't either. A witchy fairy? That is probably close.

We all love dressing up. I'm lucky to have this little sea sprite to play dress up with anytime we want to.

Its been a while since I had a chance to do any creating. So, I was happy to have some time to make this Halloween tag. Its a good example of "Using the Good Stuff". All the supplies are filled with vintagey goodness.

And what did I do with it? I tucked it into a package that I was packing for a very nice customer. Its fun to surprise people.

I hope your Halloween is filled with the spirit of fun too!

(don'cha love picnik?-what fun for Halloween!)

Happy Easter!

celebrations, family, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 24, 2011

We are having a quiet Easter this year. Well, quiet meaning that we aren't having a big family gathering and dinner for dozens this time. Sugarwings spent the weekend and that isn't exactly quiet.

Saturday morning started with egg coloring. And I guess you'd have to say that she and I aren't what you'd call tong users when it comes to dying eggs. We prefer getting our fingers in the colors instead of using the dippers that come with the kit, and we like to use paint brushes to spiff up the shells.

Not just the eggs get colored either. When you have all those lovely dyes in front of you, and only a couple dozen eggs to dip, it hurts to waste it all. So we did some experimenting and found that the egg dye is beautiful on the unfinished wood of a bird house. (We had picked up this princess castle bird house at Michaels)

And it makes stuffed rabbits pretty too.

Not to mention Dorky heads. Yep, little Agnes Rosebud started it. She jumped up on my lap and put her nose in the dye to see what it was. Of course, how could we resist painting the top of her head with a paint brush dipped in purple?

Hope your holiday is a Hoppy one too.

Sorry I won't be answering emails or comments, but I will be taking time to read them. And I'll chose a name from commenters to give a Birdsong memento to later on.

When the heck is Easter anyway?

celebrations, Chandeliers, collections, flowers, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / April 19, 2011

My Easter decor has been up way too long, already. And when is Easter even coming? Its late this year, and I got all geared up for it way too early, back in March.

Mid March even.

Every year, I'm excited to pull out the fluffy bunnies and pastel pretties to welcome Spring. Its kind of a spring cleaning ritual for me, and I like to decorate my chandelier for the season, as I wipe down the crystals on it.

Its always a fresh, clean, exciting feeling to have all the decorations out, but this year, I think it was a bit soon for all this fluff and I'm tired of it before the bunny has even come to hide his eggs.

Most of it is stuff I love, and more springlike than Easterish.

Usually I use my springy decor for the whole season, and just add the vintage bunnies, lambs, chicks, etc to it for the holiday itself. But I guess I didn't realize I was more than a month early for all the bunnies and their pals, and added the pastel guys way too soon.

Why is it that I adore having Christmas decorations up for as long as possible but not Easter? And last fall I had pumpkins (white glittered ones) every where for months and loved it. I never got tired of either.

But I'm ready to rip the ears right off the rabbits by now.

Yet, at this point, I need to just ride it out. Easter is finally just around the corner.

Plus, Sugarwings loves it all so much. She wouldn't like seeing Grammie go postal on the holiday decor.

One thing I really am enjoying is Picnik's "bunny tone" editing tool. Pretty, huh? I loved this photo of Sugarwings and my handsome husband, but it was blurry and dark. Using Picnik turned it into a keeper.

I have a feeling that when I get to fill Sugarwing's basket and hide her eggs, that my Easter Joy will return. But for right now, its a struggle to not gag when I see a china lamb.

Maybe I need some Cadbury eggs therapy. Nothing like an infusion of that elusive, annual treat to make a person appreciate Easter time!

Please pardon me for not visiting with you. I'm busy as an early bird chasing worms trying to get ready for my Birdsong art workshop coming up.

Happy birthday Dorkie babies! (and Diane too!)

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Food and Drink, holiday decor, how to's, parties

By Karla Nathan / April 12, 2011

Today is Agnes Rosebud and Button's first birthday, so I invited Beth and some friends over for a craft day and birthday cake.

The four legged guests had a very special treat- left over grilled trout covered in homemade organic yogurt. I made up "cupcakes" of fish in festive papers, then iced them in the yogurt and added a colorful pick.

(I wish I could remember who gave me the cute vintage puppy image to use- its on the hats and the cupcake picks)

Spring is finally here! I spent a giant, achy chunk of the weekend working in the yard, doing clean up and planting flowers. So, since the patio was looking spiffy, all of us sat outside on the porch to have our pitch in lunch between craft projects. (and between working on taxes- its great to have two accountant friends come by and help out when tax time rolls around!)

While it looks like I might have had a totally frivolous day, making party hats and fish cakes for dogs, we got a lot accomplished too. Taxes got filed for my son, Ryan, The Other Karla learned how to knit, Beth made book covers, Connie and Diane made cards, Shanna made an Easter Basket, and I finished a swap for Birdsong.

Plus, it was a beautiful Spring day to spend with friends, so the work didn't even feel like work, it was just plain fun.

Plus, we had a second birthday to celebrate, it was Diane's special day too. I whipped up a double duty gift for her, this tussie mussie is used as the wrap for the roses I gave to her and also works as a birthday hat.

To make it, I printed a pretty page of French text on card stock, curled it up into a cone, stapled it in place and trimmed the edges off straight. Then, I inked the opening with black ink, and punched a hole in each side to pull a ribbon through to use as a chin strap or a hanger.

After that, I added rose that I cut out in a oval shape to the front center of the cone, and pulled some pretty lace through the cone, so that it dangled out the small hole at the point. Then, I glued that into place, and wrapped the point in ribbons and lace.

Before the party went to the dogs, we had ice cream cake for the two legged guests. I experimented with making an ice cream cake, and boy, was it fast, easy and delicious!

Here's how:

In a round casserole dish, I simply layered thin slices of strawberry pound cake with Breyer's Vanilla Bean ice cream and fresh pureed strawberries.

Then, I smooshed it down into the pan, covered it, and froze it over night.

To get it out of the pan today, I sat it in a shallow bowl of hot water, till it loosened from the casserole dish, then plopped it over upside down onto a cake stand and sprayed canned whipped cream all over it and added sprinkles.

I think I might make this in lots of different ways. Think of all the goodies you could layer in ice cream and freeze. This summer, I'll keep my eyes open at garage sales to find a nice shaped mold to make these in too.

Aren't birthdays the best days?

Begosh, Be-gone! I’m on my way to Cali

holiday decor, Travel

By Karla Nathan / March 16, 2011

Happy St Patrick's Day!

I'm on my way to Cali to take part in Kim's Moulin Rouge event, so will miss seeing my little Hippy Chick Momma hula hooping her way through downtown in the parade while Sugarwings cheers her on. I'd love to see the look on that fairy's face as her mommy goes by in the parade.

But I have a feeling that I'll be having plenty of fun of my own. I can't wait to meet up with all my friends and get to gluing and creating!

Please understand if I don't return comments. And all purchases from the Boutique will be sent next week.

But I will bring you a souvenier! Well, one of you, that is. Leave a comment on any post while I am away and I'll have a drawing when I get back. For a surprise present. Maybe something from the Long Beach Flea market? We'll see….

My funny Valentine

family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / February 16, 2011

Did you have a good Valentines Day? We sure did, we had Sugarwings for the night and my husband whisked us away to see a romantic chick flick. Gnomeo and Juliet. And it was really pretty cute. First of all, I have a thing for yard gnomes. No, not a romantic thing, I just like them.

And second, the music was all Elton John. Can't beat that.

On the way home we scooped up some to-go food and served it on the good dishes when we got back to the cottage. After, Sugarwings and I whipped up a quick, festive dessert.

We skewered mini marshmallows onto red toothpicks, melted a hand full of Belgian chocolate chips in the microwave for a minute, then dipped the marshmallows in and quickly rolled them in sprinkles.

It took minutes to do, and she could do most of it all by herself. Plus they were tasty! The trick is to use the good chips. What a difference it makes to upgrade from Toll House chips.

In the last year, I switched over to the Belgian chips and they are make any thing I bake better. They cost a bit more, but are such better quality. If I am making cookies, I put the chips in a blender and chop them up, so they go further. I only use half as much that way.

I hope your Valentines Day was a sweet one too!

At the Gunkles/ 40% off in the Boutique/ and a May Day announcement

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / January 7, 2011

Any trip we make to Florida has to include a visit to the Gunkles. (Gay Uncles) They have a home filled with magical decor, vintage treasures, sweet puppies, and lots of love.

Plus great food and laughter!

The guys are such good cooks, we never take them out to dinner as a thanks for having us stay with them. Instead we get fresh seafood for them to fix for us. This time lobster! Last time we were there, we had lobster tail on the grill with some fish too. When Sugarwings saw it cooking, she asked what the fish was and Gunkle Kevin told her it was flounder. So, she looked at the lobster tail and asked if that was Ariel.

Gunkle Randy sets up elegant dining in the back garden. This year, they'd had a freeze and told us that it looked awful. To me, they were wrong, any time there is something blooming and some green left in January, its quite beautiful to me! Plus the layout and design of the yard is so interesting and full of little surprises stashed amidst the plants. Its always a treat to sit out in the gunkle's garden.

Even better when there is a big plate of fresh seafood in front of me.

He makes a mean mac and cheese too. With chopped peppers, onions, white wine and dijon.

This little guy didn't care for Sugarwings, but the other dogs cuddled up to her. Bella, the Bichon especially took a liking to her.

So much so, that the two girls decided to draw with markers on each other's heads. Well, at least that was Sugarwing's story. That Bella drew on her head too. They both did it to each other.

We'd brought WASHABLE markers that were supposed to be invisible unless used on the special Color Wonder paper that came with them, but the Crayola company needs to change the label to say that the colors will show up on dog fur too. And that they don't wash out. At least not all the way.

Just ask Yella Bella.

Ollie managed to avoid any of the marker play. He's not a puppy like Bella, he was interested but kept his distance while the two girls drew on each other.

One of the best things about the garden was the fruit trees.

Nothing tastes better than fresh orange juice and lemon-aide that you get to make yourself.

I ate way too much good stuff while staying there. After the holiday treats and the vacation food, I'm afraid to wash my jeans. You know, how you wear them a couple days and they stretch out to fit nice and comfy, but if you wash them, they shrink up and become way, way too tight? It might be a while before I can wash mine again, if I want them to zip.

Christmas goodies were everywhere we went on the trip. And decorations were still up all over. I was so glad that Randy and Kevin still had theirs up, they have such a flair with decorating, and their house is so festive.

Its extra special to get to be at a family member's home while it is all decked for the season.

Although, I am sick of my own holiday foof and ready to see it go, I loved being at my bro's home and seeing his.

When I got home from the trip, I walked into a house still overflowing with not only my Christmas decor, but the holiday mess from opening gifts and having lots of company. I didn't have a chance to clean before I left, and it was a shock to come home to such clutter after staying at Randy and Kevin's perfectly clean and decorated house.

(all of these photos are from their lovely home)

Not only was my house messy, it was dusty and just felt deserted. I vowed to never go out of town and leave a dirty house behind again. Its worth the extra effort to pick up and spiff a bit before leaving. The end of a vacation is sad enough without being depressed about coming back to an unwelcoming house.

And it hasn't helped that my furnace bit the dust while I was gone. The house was freezing cold too. There is a repairman here now, and I've got my fingers crossed that its a simple repair and that we'll have some heat soon.

Luckily, the studio has a separate furnace, so I'm staying out here till the main part of the house warms up. Its a good excuse to avoid cleaning it or taking down the Christmas decorations too. I'm not ready to face all of that yet.

So,I'm hanign out in the warm and toasty studio and I'm slowly but surely packing up all the purchases made during my BIG clearance sale. Thanks so much for shopping with me!

I'm going to extend the sale for a few more days. If you want anything for 40% off in the Boutique, please use this link to go there to shop.

There are big plans for redoing my Boutique and the less I have in it, the easier it will be to redo. I'll be making new labels and categories, so will be starting from scratch.

I'm also working on setting up the sale site for my "Bird Song" art gathering on May Day weekend. I've had lots of inquiries and promise to have the sign ups ready soon. Sadly, we've lost Dawn of the Feathered Nest, she had to drop out as a teacher.

But, the timing was good for asking my friend, Debbie Dusenberry to join in her place. Her fabulous store, Curious Sofa, is closing this weekend, and she will be branching out into different ventures (and you can still shop online with her). I'm so thrilled that she agreed to do a class at my workshop!!!!

Things are really hectic for her at the moment, so I told her not to worry about photos of her project yet, just a YES was all I needed from her. I have a feeling that anyone who signs up for the classes will agree with me. We'll all be happy to learn from her, no matter what she teaches!

Thanks for all of your interest. Its going to be the BEST, with Lisa and Carol as teachers too, I'm feeling pumped about the weekend!! Plus, Beth and Mary Green will be setting up vintage goodies for sale.

As soon as I get project ideas settled and menus priced, I'll open it up for enrollment.