holiday decor – Page 35 – Karla's Cottage

A shiny brite dining room

By Karla Nathan / December 11, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please, do go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, and I will mail your purchases on Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This season, I wanted my dining room to be extra festive.

Using what was already on the buffet, I spruced up the display by adding lots of bright and shiny holiday trinkets, a string of white lights, and slapped some wings on the ladies.

Normally, I'm a fairy wing fan, but for Christmas, I went with white feathered angel wings.

I wish I had a large pair for myself, but I'm afraid they'd burst into flames if I wore them.

This lady's dish became a nest of shiny brites with some shredded tissue and a pile of balls.

Grandma's tinsel tree got planted in a wine bucket that I'd had a glittered pumpkin in all fall.

Instead of a star on the top, I hung a strand of pearls.

All of these basics were there already too. I added the lights, branches, beads, and ornaments to the existing display. (Yes, I'm gaudy all year round, but at the holidays, I really flaunt it!)

As much as I love white, silver, and gold, I still need flashes of color. With all the rose pattern and blue bird dishes in the corner cabinet, I thought some pastel ornaments would look pretty up above.

And how could I not set out all of these, just because they weren't neutral colors?

There are too many things that I have and love that I want to set out and enjoy!

No matter how hard I try, I can't restrain myself. I tried to edit, and keep things simple, and on some levels I am much more streamlined than in the past. I have clusters of decor here and there around the house, not in every single spot.

Also, since I did about 90% of all the decorating one night while Sugarwings slept so I could surprise her in the morning, I had to cut back a bit. I wanted it to be over and done with after that one all nighter.

She and I did a few little projects together, and she has her very own tree to mess around with as much as she wants, so the decorating continues daily. I added these vintage balls to my chandelier on another day too.

Maybe next year my decor can be even more simplified and I can squeeze ALL of it into one night of frenzied foofing.

All bella-ed up

family, holiday decor, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / December 10, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please, do go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, and I will mail your purchases Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This year, I kept it simple. Well, simple for me, that is. I do like stuff….

But this area seems restrained, doesn't it? I hung a simple silver spray painted vine wreath on my gothic arch window frame and hung a tree that I made for Romantic White Christmas Ezine on it.

On the table below the frame, is a gold glittered dish filled with an assortment of shiny tidbits, and a tree that I made at Silver Bella.

My other creation from the two classes I took from Kerry Lynn Yeary sits on another table. (by the way, if you ever get a chance to take a class from her, DO IT! She is delightful.)

I'm so happy to be using my Silver Bella creations all over the house this year.

Of course, I always enjoy my bella classes, but this year seems even more special. I'm extra pleased with what I brought home, because I color coordinated them and made plans ahead of time to use them for Christmas.

This basket was made in Charlotte's class, and I brought lots of gold wallpaper to cover the segments.

The inside is covered in 100 year old, hand made Chinese paper, that I found on the trip to wallpaper heaven. Just what I needed to make this festive!

I added this little girl in a top hat, so I'd have a souvenir of this year's theme, "Hats on Parade".

In Betz White's class we learned how to make felted rosettes. I took the idea and twisted some tattered silk into a rose bud to add to the basket too.

The frame on the left is what I made in her class. Not exactly what we were supposed to be doing, but I used her technique to make the nest, and then I covered the frame in wallpaper, inked the edges, and glued mica over it all. Inside the frame is a vintage Christmas card with a baby picture tucked into it.

(this is all on top of the TV cabinet)

In a previous post I showed you the 5th class, the Tea Cup Fairy. But that is not the end, we got a great bonus project this year!

This frame is from our opening night dinner project, which I had to bring home to finish. I take pride in finishing my projects while in Omaha, but this one I wanted to frame baby pictures in, and I didn't have the new grandbaby yet!

Pictures of my fairy girls went right inside as soon as I could get them printed.

This frame will be a special heirloom for me to pull out every Christmas and show the girls, and talk about what cute babies they were!

My friend, Laurie, gave me this blue ledger paper and I had to immediately glue it down on something and use it right away, I loved it so much. And since this was our opening night project, it is made of blue ledger paper.

I am a big believer in "using the good stuff". Mostly because I am too impatient to save it, I love playing with new 'old' pretties!

Even though the blue isn't as neutral as the rest of the projects, I think it fits in well.

Heck, these girls are so cute, I could have used TP instead of good paper and the frame would have been beautiful. They steal the show!

While speaking of Bellas, here is a gift I got from my new pal, Shel

And if that wasn't enough, look at this cute hat she made too!

You get what you need

holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 9, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please do, go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, I will mail your purchases Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This year, I really, really, really wanted a big white tree. But I didn't plan in advance at all. The day I decided to decorate my tree, I looked around town for a white one. I decided that I'd sold enough dyed bottle brush trees to treat myself to a beautiful, big tree! It seemed fitting that all the Pay Pal money that came from tiny trees should go to a big tree.

Can you tell that this tree isn't so big? And not so white. Its silver, and I've been using it for years. There were NO white trees to be found in the whole city of Lawrence. After going to 4 stores, I got smart and used my magic phone to access the internet (I still can't get used to having that kind of power, it does feel like magic to own an Iphone!). I looked up phone numbers from my car and called around instead of driving to each store.

I even called stores in Topeka (25 minutes away), no luck there either. I was too lazy to drive the 45 minutes to Kansas City, so went home and pulled out my silver tinsel table top tree instead.

(these photos were taken in the dark, so might not be as sharp, I was trying to catch that special Christmas tree glow)

And I am glad it worked out that way after all. I love the added sparkle of the silver.

And I love the jammed pack, lush look of having lots of ornaments on the branches.

This tree is filled up, top to bottom, and around the back too!

Its also layered, with large, clear balls deep inside the tree and the other ornaments toward the outside of the branches.

If I'd gotton a larger tree, I couldn't have filled it in quite this full.

Isn't it a wonderful feeling when something you didn't really want becomes something you really LOVE?

Lately, Sugarwings has had a case of the "I Wants", so we have been serenading her with the Rolling Stones' "Can't always get what you want". And I think this tree is a good example of what I needed, even if I didn't think I wanted it.

Plus, my Pay Pal account is still full of tree money! That's not bad either. Maybe I'll see what someone else in the family really does need and use the tree money for that instead. It is Christmastime, after all!

I'll leave you with a few more pictures. And wishes for a sparkling holiday season at your home too.

Bookworms partying

Books, collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Food and Drink, give away, holiday decor, parties, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / December 7, 2010

Last night, I hosted our book club's holiday party. It happened to fall on a dear friend's birthday, so we got to sing and have cake too. How festive!

Now, I'm trying to remember what books we have chosen for the upcoming year…. I know that one was Cleopatra, I heard a reveiw of it on NPR and was interested in reading it. Lets see… something about freaky cows by a local professor, A Tale of Two Cities, and an apocalyptic book called …. uhm…. Hand Made World? or something like that There are a total of 6, but I can't remember them.

I was most intersted in that last one, I'll have my fingers crossed that there are zombies. I'm sad that the AMC series, Walking Dead is done for the season. Wow. It was like a new horror movie every Sunday night, so well made and scary. Of course, that is what you can count on from AMC, very well made, not always scary though.

We also each brought a wrapped book to trade, and played that game where you can open a gift or steal one from someone else instead. My pal, Shan, brought a wrapped book for me, I was such a loser this year in the reading department that I had nothing to give away. I read too many novels that weren't quite up to book club standards and didn't want to look like I had low class taste.

Not that I was embarrassed, I just didn't want to give a book that no one wanted.

I guess what I mean, is that my books this year were not high quality literature, they were just books that I loved. The only "good" books I read were the same ones that we read in book club last year, so everyone had already read them.

Novels that I enjoyed- the latest Sookie (and can't wait for the next!), the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, the latest from Jennifer Weiner and Sophie Kinsella, and not much else. I used to read at least a book a week. Now, I'm down to about one per month.

TOO MANY GOOD BLOGS OUT THERE TO READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the club books that I read:

Edger Sawtelle

The Worst Hard Times

Something about gay rights at Stonewall

And… well, I've forgotten again. I remembered first two because I loved them so much.

My friend not only brought me a worthy book to give away, she made this stain glass star for Mayara! And tied it to a bottle of wine!!

Its just perfect for my little Star Brite's first Christmas ornament. Hey, that seems to be a good nickname for her….I like that. Sugarwings and Starbrite.

My living room was a bit crowded, with 13 people in it. We all squeezed in anyway and everyone was so nice about it. They all said they would come back next December for our holiday party even if we had to practically sit on top of each other.

My old house has the original living room, and its small. We have a big house, just small rooms in the old part of it. But I have space where it really counts- the studio!! I could have had the party out there, but decided to stick with the main part of the house since it was decorated more.

Plus my studio is knee deep in stuff again.

And I waxed the living room floor! That rarity deserves to be noticed and enjoyed!!

For the party, I set up a coffee service, with home made, fresh whipped cream, shaved light and dark chocolates, orange peels, cinnamon sticks, decaf, and a bottle of 150 year old Grand Marnier.

When I go to schmancy dinners with my husband at restaurants his company owns, they always impress me with the goodies that come with the coffee. You don't need to order dessert there, the coffee treats are dessert enough. So I wanted to set up something similar.

I think I'll do it again for my next craft day. But I doubt if the orange liqour will be as popular at lunch time as it was for this party. Everyone drives in from Kansas City, so there isn't much in the way of drinking going on at craft day.

The cart is a vintage one from my garden that I brought in to use. On the bottom, I set out these glittered letters that were meant to go on a garland that never got made.

Agnes liked it. She thought it was a great place to hide, hoping for food to be dropped down on the floor.

Tomorrow, I'm leaving for a few days in Virginia, and this will be my first time leaving Agnes home alone for long. We have a great system for the dogs, they get penned up in the living room where they can get to a doggie door and a fenced in yard. And my oldest son, Ryan lives here too, so he'll be taking care of all the dogs.

She is just getting used to the set up, and is now an expert at running in and out of the swinging door. But I think we'll miss each other.

I've preposted for the rest of the week while I am away. Each day, there will be Christmas decor from another room of my home, so please check back.

All comments will be entered into December's drawing, but if you want to enter ther 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, you need to leave it on THIS POST by the 14th

Sugarwings and I made crustini for the party, by cutting leftover bread slices with her holiday cookie cutters, and brushing them with a little melted butter and olive oil, with garlic. Then, we slow baked them till they were crunchy. I'm going to take the leftovers and smash them up to make bread crumbs for my next turkey meatloaf.

Well, I'll be back this weekend, and will be checking messages on my phone, but its just not that easy to answer everyone that way. so please forgive me if I don't get back to you.

And if you'd like to skip seeing the blog posts and see the holiday decor at my cottage, I've loaded it on HGTV's Rate my Space.

I'd love to get your votes!

Here is the living room

Dining room

Kitchen

A new holiday tradition?

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

By Karla Nathan / December 5, 2010

When my boys were little, we had a tradtion of hanging candy canes on the Christmas tree, one for every day until the big day came. In the evening, we'd take one down, share it and read a story together, sitting by the tree.

This year, Sugarwings thought of an improvement to our holiday rituals. She saw a cup of cocoa with a candy cane in it, on the pages of her Rudolf book, and wanted to give it a try.

Life with little girls gets a bit fancier than with boys. We weren't just going to sit by the tree, we had to create a pretty party!

She and I moved her little table next to her pink, glowing tree (that she decorates and undecorates herself, over and over) and had a hot chocolate party, in the dark while we sang Christmas carols together.

We had French vanilla marshmallows shaped like snowmen, and chocolate mint candy canes to add to our drinks, and pulled out the good tea party dishes to serve it on.

This cocoa party was so fun, we did it again the next night she stayed with me. I make the hot chocolate with organic milk, a little melted Belguim chocolate and some honey, so its a bit of a healthier snack than packaged cocoa. Yes, the marshmallows and candy are full of HFcorn syrup, but hey, its the holiday season and we need to splurge sometimes!

We also discovered that Dorkies love candy canes. And can climb up on the little table to steal them if the treats are left unatended.

A tradition that begun last year was the never ending gingerbread house. When she comes over to stay, she adds to it with more and more goodies and icing. I have to help with the can of icing, but Sugarwings does great with heaping on the candies.

She and I agree that there is no such thing as too much when it comes to decorating. And she also knows this house isn't for eating. I was impressed with how fast she learned not to snack on the house. We have plenty of other treats around, but this is a "pretty" and way too much fun to destroy by eating it. I've told her that if she eats the candy, we won't be able to keep adding on to it, and that solved any issues with sneaking treats off the rooftop.

We might have another new tradition. I've always been a fake tree person, I like pink, white and silver. But there is something quite wonderful about the smell of a fresh cut tree, for sure.

This year, my fairy grand baby kept talking about chopping down her pink tree and gluing it back together. At first I thought it was just a craft project she had in mind… then I realized that she wanted a traditional tree, and wanted to go pick it out and cut it down herself.

So, I found this tiny little seedling growing in my flower bed and gave her the clippers.

There wasn't much to it. She probably could have taken it down with nail clippers.

The little guy is so tiny that I had to support it with a wire. I added a metal star and jingle bell to the top of the wire, the tree wouldn't hold much in the way of decorations itself.

We stuck it down into a flower pot that was on the porch, added some moss and a hint of silver tinsel, then a bow.

Since decorating is an ongoing thing around here, we redid the pot with a teeny vintage glass ball on a strand of tinsel and took off the bow. We liked this better.

The star has a rhinestone jewelry remnant on it. Do you ever use The Ulitmate? I love that glue! After the wire was in the dirt supporting the tree, we thought the star needed something, so I glued this jewel on. It was too late to lay it flat to dry, but that glue is super tacky and held the piece in place as it was.

If you'd like to enter the giveaway for my ONE MILLIONETH vistor (yippee! thanks guys!!) please leave a comment HERE before the 12th, when I will draw a name for the lacey trimmed bag full of holiday cheer.

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, flowers, holiday decor, Silver Bella, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art, Workshops, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / November 29, 2010

Well, my halls are all decked and our cottage is festively foofed. My husband says it looks like Christmas threw up all over the place. We've had Sugarwings quite a bit over the weekend, so not much else has gotten done but play with her. All the Christmassing happened while she was asleep (I decorated trees till almost 4am). No photos yet, I'll be getting some soon. When I recover.

So, while she is in school today, I'm busily getting caught up on cleaning up my Boutique (deleting sold goods and adding a few new things, marking some other stuff down) and adding more goods to Etsy, as well as fine tuning the Romantic White Christmas Ezine.

Beth and I had a new post every single day while the classes were ongoing. Now that they have been completed, I had to go back and rearrange it all so that it started with the first posts, not with the newest posts. You know how a blog runs from newest first to oldest last? That is how the classes were set up. Which was great while we were adding daily.

Now that they are all up and running, I needed to put them into an easier format to read as a class. We learned some lessons while doing our first class, the Romantic Gothic Ghosts, and made this Ezine a little easier to tweak at the end than that one was.

(all of these pictures are of the little "extra" projects we included in the classes that aren't listed on the sign up page)

We also added catagories for each posting, so that you can click on the lesson you want to look at and go directly to it.

It looks to me like it is pretty easy to follow and find your way around. I'd love some feed back from anyone who has signed up.

If you are in the class, and have posted any of your projects on a blog or flickr, I've got a place to add a link on my blog roll to your pictures. Please send me an email with your info if I can link to you.

On Friday, I avoided the huge crowds of early shoppers and headed to a flea market with Beth instead. There was a lot of millinery available, but most a higher price than I like. I got a couple of hats, then found a few more at one of my favorite antique shops, plus I'd picked up a few on my trip to Omaha for Silver Bella.

Agnes Rosebud seems to like old flowers as much as I do… I've listed some flowers in the shops, and have big plans for making this with others. There is a banner I am working on that will need a few, and I'm hoping to make a purse tomorrow.

And there will be plenty of sparkle to chose from for the purse! Got this bagful at the flea too.

I like to save the tiniest flowers for projects like these.

Itty Bitty flowers are so sweet on these Christmas trees I decorated (they are in my shops now).

My favorite bloom of the bunch has to be this rose, pure velvet!

Well, I'd better get back to listing things. There will be some new items added this evening too, I'm getting more photos done now while the light is good and will post some trinkets in the shop later.

The chocolate and sepia trees are already listed. How nice that the first ones I made were such a hit, I had to whip up a few more.

This set is Neopolitan: milk chocolate, creamy strawberry, and French vanilla.

I'll leave you with a few more pics of new goods. And if you want something from both shops, I do combine shipping and always refund any excess that is more than a couple dollars over actual postage.

Tea Cup Fairy

fairies, holiday decor, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 26, 2010

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Ours was quiet and laid back, not bad at all. I cooked the turkey the day ahead, and let it warm in the crock pot all day in its juices. What a time saver, and what a moist bird! We had a late meal, and everyone brought side dishes, so it was pretty easy. Lots of free time for baby hugging!

This is one of my favorite projects from Silver Bella, a tea cup fairy from Beth Quinn's class.She provided a frame for the dress and the head, plus all the silk strips. I added lots of different strips to mine too, I wanted all whites, ivories and lace.

This year, I color coordinated all my projects and made them holiday themed to use in my home, and tonight I am getting the house all decorated, so I'm pulling out the Bella goods and enjoying them.

So far, I've only got a few things out. I want to wait till Sugarwings goes to sleep, then surprise her in the morning with a house all decorated for the holidays! She's snuggled up with Pop Pop and a story right now, after a busy evening of building a gingerbread house. (World Market has some cute kits on sale for $8, chocolate houses with peppermint decor)

Its not quite her bedtime yet, and I am trying to be inconspicuous, but am itching to go. Luckily I have my Silver Bella goods to play with until the fairy baby is tucked in for the night.That hs held me in check for a little while.

I spent the afternoon at a flea market and all the vintage Christmas on display has got me worked up and raring to decorate. Its kind of like chum in the water starting a shark feeding frenzy. Seeing all the faded silver tinsel has set off a holiday frenzy for me.

I was in such a hurry that I broke the teacup fairy!! The cup fell off and smashed, but I glued it all back together like a puzzle, and made bandaids of paper to cover the cracks on the inside and hold it together.

Then, I glued a bunch of millinery petals down the back to cover the repairs, and wrapped a lace "shawl" around her shoulders to cover the rest of the cracks.

I think I like it better now than before I broke it. Although, when it hit the floor, I sure didn't think it would work out better than before.

Isn't she cute? Okay, I off to tuck my little one into bed so I can unleash the frenzy and get decorating!

A foray into film

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), holiday decor, Tutorials, videos, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / November 20, 2010

Yesterday, Beth came over for a puppy play date. Well, actually, we were working on Romantic White Christmas, but the dogs thought it was all about them.

We rearranged the furniture in my bedroom to make use of the mantel that I have as a headboard. The pups curled up on my bed and kept an eye on what we were doing as we foofed and decked the halls.

All of the projects we had made for the classes were brought out and displayed, then photographed for a talk on the basics of holiday display. (tomorrow's post on the Ezine)

We've tried to make sure that there is a new post everyday on that blog, and that we give lots more than just the projects listed. There are lots of extras, downloads, freebies, and ideas.

If you are in the class and would like to show what you've made, I've set up a Flickr page for us.

Also, if you have posted a creation from the Ezine on your blog, please let me know and I'll set up a link page to it.

While it was all set up on my mantel, we made a video of the projects. Using the Flipcamera editing software was a bit of a learning curve for both of us, but once we got going, it was much more simple than we thought.

I'm looking forward to doing some baby videos now!

You might have noticed that I still haven't shown Silver Bella pictures?? I'm still not unpacked yet!

Except for a couple of little things. I did unpack this lovely old print for my dining room. Its from our shopping excursion to St Joe on the way to Omaha.

And this purchase was from Sunday at Brass Armadillo with some Bellas.

They could almost be the same lady in the print, huh?

I am linking with:

Tinsel and Company

and

Common Ground

A Tulaya tutorial- or how do you say that name???

Books, celebrations, family, give away, holiday decor, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / November 18, 2010

Just breath taking, aren't they? I'm starting to feel the need for a baby fix, I haven't seen her yet today. Its been almost 20 hours since I got to hold her…

Look at all that dark hair! I just want to kiss the top of her little head.

Everyone has been asking me about her unique name. So, here is the story. Her momma's family has a Hungarian Gypsy background and a tradition of a 2nd middle name. Apparently, you never say all the names out loud at once. No matter how mischevious the child is being!!

A lot of thought and love went into her name.

Here is the pronunciation:

My- R- uh * Two- lay- uh

Mayara means "holy trinity"-

ma= divine mother Mary

ya= universe

ra= divine father

Tulaya is from some ancient city full of fairies. And Zen refers some how to the sign on the Mayan calender that she was born under.

A big name for such a teensy, 7lbs 4 oz, cuddle bundle, huh?

I still don't have a nickname for her… I'm leaning toward TuTu, but after sitting in on listening to the parents find a proper 3rd name, I'm kind of liking Sugar Star. Goes well with Sugar Wings, and she was almost named Star instead of Zen. (I was voting for Starla, kind of half star, half my name but both of them looked at me like it was a joke.) Heck, maybe that is my nick name for her!! Sugarwings and Starla? How does that sound? Oh well, just talking out loud at this point, I need to get to know her.

Any thoughts?

She has no idea that over two thousand people checked online to hear about her birth. What a lucky little girl to have so many people who cared about her. Thanks so much to all of you who came by to wish us well and congratulate us. We're extremely happy!! And after all the worries, its wonderful to hold such a healthy little baby in our arms. (well, except for the little tummy ache she has, that is)

Here are the random names I drew for the angora roses and nest brooches I made while waiting for the baby's birth:

Stephanie who has a brand new baby too!

Debby

Shawn (no blog)

Seven winners for 7 pounds of baby.

The felted flowers are from a class at Silver Bella. This was one I was whining about and was sorry I had signed up for, and almost dropped at the last moment. But, I was so glad I went!! It was outside of my comfort zone and color palette, but I got so much from the teacher, Betz White. She was an interesting woman and since it was a small class, she sat right down with us and told stories about Martha Stewart's show.

Here is what the class project was supposed to look like, but I changed mine up a bit, and found variation on the roses that looked more like my own style.

I can't tell you how to make the roses themselves- they aren't mine to share, but she has a book and I have to tell you that they are so simple, you'd LOVE making them! Buy the book!!! You'll be glad you did.

I can share my variation with you. I cut my sweater strip kind of curvy and scallopy, then pushed in on the center once it was made. After that, I added extra petals to the bottom, for a more full blown rose look.

EDIT: the rosettes are NOT in the book! Betz got them originally from Martha Stewart and from this blog.

Here is what my completed frame looked like. Betz was nice enough to tell me how she did nests too.

(the vintage Christmas card opens up, I'll put a baby photo in it)

I've got plans to make one for each person who signs up for my May Day celebration and classes here at the studio next spring. Won't these be ideal for pinning to the goody bags???

This week has been crazy/exciting. There are still lots of other Silver Bella photos to share, but I've been busy with baby stuff this week. I've been trying to help out with the big kids (oh man, now all of a sudden my little Sugarwings is a big kid????!!!!). I'm giving them rides back and forth to school, and last night had a sleepover with 3 of them. Sugarwings has stayed with me all week too.

Yesterday afternoon, I cooked and baked for the new parents. A good friend is going through chemo, so I fixed her some meals while I was at it. I made vegetarian white lasagna with fresh mozzarella, stuffed manicotti with tomatoes from the garden, black bean burritos with peppers from the garden, and a big fresh spinach salad. Then, some home made granola and muffins for snacking on too.

These last few photos are of new items in the Boutique and Etsy shops. This box is made from the papers available for downloading in the Romantic White Christmas class, using Beth's directions for making her Pretty Pixie. (I changed it up a bit)

Beth and I are doing some videos for the workshop tomorrow, and we are having some goodie bag giveaways on it too.

It was nice to have some "normal" time today to take photos and list things for sale. The last couple of weeks have been quite extraordinary! All wonderful, but still, I enjoyed a having a plain old, boring day today after all the excitement lately.

Welcome to the Pastel Jungle

family, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / November 8, 2010

They're done! 240 bleached, hand dyed, and glittered trees are ready for the holidays in all of their sparkly festiveness.

Some are in the Etsy shop, more will be listed soon. I have them sorted and photographed into 15 different packages of sizes and colors, so it will take me a while to get them all online for sale.

Plus, its SILVER BELLA WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So far, I've not got much done to be ready. Packed? nope. Supply list looked? nope. I'll throw some stuff in a bag Wednesday morning and just hope I didn't forget anything.

I did sit down and make this necklace to wear. It was a bracelet that I made during the French General class at Silver Bella in the past. But, I never wore it. So, I redid the piece to make it a necklace.

It only took a little tweaking, and adding the chain. I slipped on a few more charms and rearranged the ones there. Because on a bracelet, you want them all evenly spaced, with the big ones spread out. With a necklace, it hangs differently and you need the heaviest and longest at the center.

Every charm on here has a special meaning. Well, so-so special. Some are slightly generic, but still chosen for a reason. It reminds me of someone or someplace, or was from the original French General class.

And I have some very good baby update news! My Guru son's Gypsy Beloved was in labor all night AGAIN, with no baby appearing for all the effort and pain. So, today they went to the doctor. She and the newest little gypsy fairy are in good health, all is well. This on and off labor is not distressing the child. They are still planning a home birth with just the two of them. I'm much more relaxed about the event now than I was before.

Please forgive me for not answering comments or emails. I'm a bit swamped right now, have been babysitting the fairy grand baby instead of getting ready for the trip!

But do leave a comment, you'll be entered into the November Giveaway. And I love to read them, too!