holiday decor – Page 38 – Karla's Cottage

Hippity Hoppity Fairy Berry Trail

celebrations, fairies, family, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 4, 2010

On Saturday, we got our boat out of storage and took it to the Marina for the upcoming season. Sugarwings offered to help and since we weren't going to see her for Easter, the bunny hid a little basket for her on the bank of the lake.

But sadly, her mommy's plans for driving to see relatives in Missouri today changed when Sugarwings woke up with a fever. The two of them came over here instead, where they could cuddle up and watch movies and rest, but still be with family.

While the two of them were all tucked up on the couch, the we took advantage of the spectacular, 80 degree, sunshiny day and got to work on the Fairy Berry Trail. All the fairies came out of the shed where they had hidden for the winter. And the bunny came over to hide a few eggs.

The poor kid had a fever of 104 earlier, but was feeling a bit better, so we carried her down to the woods in her jammies to visit her fairy friends and the other creatures who live on the trail.
At first, she was so happy to see her favorite frog prince, that she didn't even notice the trails of carrots.

But she has spent enough time with her Grammy to always notice the sparkle of glitter and be attracted to it! So, she soon noticed some of the hidden plastic eggs.

She didn't want to eat any of the jelly beans inside because she thought the fairies might be mad at her.

Then, she saw her new play house. My husband is the world's best grandfather and we worked for a long time to put this together today, but forever and ever, the Easter Bunny will get all the credit for building her a "Glitter House" as she calls it.

We mowed a 12 foot area between two trees that were draped in vines. Then, I sprinkled glitter all around on the ground, and set up a little chair and table for her (later on, we'll get a picnic set big enough for all of us).

Then, we gathered fallen branches from all over the woods to build "walls" to make a little room.

Over time, we'll foof it up even more. But for a spur of the moment idea using what was laying around, its pretty fun.

I could possibly go broke if I try to keep the ground glitter covered, so I think we'll switch to mulch. I can't wait to see this with all the leaves budded out, it will really feel like a fairy house in the trees then!

After a few jubilant dance moves in her new play area, our poor little fairy grand baby was worn out and didn't even look for the rest of her hidden eggs. And she never did eat a jelly bean, so we knew she must be feeling pretty bad.

In the short time we had her out doors, her fever spiked back up and she said her back hurt. It got back up to over 104 again, so we took her to the ER, we could tell she was feeling awful. I'm glad we did, she has a urinary track infection and is now on antibiotics.

By the time we got back home, her fever was gone again and she was hungry. I whipped up an impromptu Easter dinner
with chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, asparagus and broccoli, while my husband grilled some ruby trout for the vegetarians of the group.

We were glad to see Sugarwings eat a bit, but she still isn't quite herself. She and her mommy will stay all night tonight and hopefully, she'll be up to hopping down the fairy trail tomorrow.

While its sad that she is sick, and she missed out on a family reunion with her mom, it certainly will be an Easter we never forget. I hope yours was a memorable one too!

ps- No pups yet! Twinkle kept up with us all morning clearing brush in the woods and foofing up the bunny trail. Maybe all that hard work will throw her into labor tonight!

Gifts, gifts and more gifts

family, give away, holiday decor, show and tell, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 2, 2010

Everyone was so complimentary about the shard necklace for the March giveaway, that I thought I'd offer one for the April Giveaway too. It is pink rose china with two dangly beads taken from vintage necklaces.

And by the way, the winner of the March Giveaway is:

Andrea of Freckled Star

I'm giving THREE gifts instead of two for all the friend sign ups, because I really appreciate having friends out there! I'll give away one Peat Pot Pretty for the first 100 sign ups, and then draw again at 150. Thank you to everyone who signed up, you are all still in the hat for the next draw.

The first one goes to:

Dawn of the Feathered Nest

And I'll send the bonus giveaway of a glittered egg to:

Jingle

Vicki's shadow box kit goes to:

Freda

I hope she has as much fun making it as we did making ours on craft day!

So far we have no plans for Easter. I'm hoping that Sugarwings will come over for an egg hunt. She and I have been making eggs all week.

We also made up goodies for the bake sale at her school.

We put a cupcake into a teacup and the granola bars on vintage plates. Since I go to so many garage sales in the summer, I never pass up cheap but pretty dishes. They are good for sending leftovers home with people after big dinners, or to use for bake sale goodies too. When I wrap up baked goods like this, I also like to include a list of ingredients for the buyer.

Notice the cute little "Spring" tag and the sweet, stuffed bunny behind it? Those gifts came to me from Freda, so I was really excited when I saw that I had drawn her name to send a gift to!

The pewter bunny was from my pal, Sherry.

There are a couple more gifts I need to show you, its been downright Christmassy around here with all the presents!

Sugarwings got these adorable gifts from sweet swappers who participated in the Alice Tag book swap.

She is a lucky kid, and has so much fun with the thoughtful things that have been sent to her. I wonder what she thinks of it? I can only imagine how impressed I would have been as a kid if my grandma's friends mailed packages to me out of the blue, and its not even Christmas!

This last gift was from Beth. I'm afraid I didn't get a good photo, with the sunlight coming in through them, the curtains don't show up as good as they could. I'll have to try again later, because these valances are worth a second look! She gave me a pair of French net toppers that I have tied together and hung over my studio window for now. I might put them onto a rod later.

I think I'm pretty lucky too. Sugarwings and I both are! Thanks!!

I could use some friends… be my friend and have a chance to win a prize!

holiday decor, housework, parties

By Karla Nathan / March 27, 2010

Have you seen this post of Amy's?

She posted it a couple years ago, and it was so good, I'm glad she recycled it. It gave me an idea for a craft night project that was simple and fast and really cute. I had friends coming over to hang out in the studio and thought I'd offer supplies and a project for anyone who wanted them.

I glued vintage paper on plastic eggs, and my little buddy, Adeline Grace, a friend's daughter, made these. No one else was in a crafting mood. Addie was prolific, and got more and more creative as the night went on. I asked her if I could be her Grandmother, we seemed to have a lot in common.

It was nice of my friends to indulge me and let me make things while we talked, sipped wine and ate treats. And good to catch up too. I've had the most AWFUL week, just a lot of drama going on behind the scenes that you don't want to hear about. An evening to catch up with friends was just what I needed.

And it spurred me to clean up my studio, which I also needed to get done.

Do you ever find yourself starting a project as part of a clean up? I'd got this shelf at a junk store for $3 and wanted to make it over. While I had the spray primer out, I thought I might as well paint this statue too. Someone had added some garish colors to it at one point (so I got it for half price at an antique mall).

Using the steps in my side bar on how to paint furniture (listed under tutorials), I sprayed primer, glazed and top coated them. If you don't count drying time, I'd say that it all took less than 20 minutes to do.

When I first saw the shelf, I knew it would be a great space saver on my desk. It allows me to have more supplies within reach, since I now have two levels.

The desktop is not quite done, I'll rearrange things a bit better when I have more time. I was more concerned about clearing the table tops off for my guests to have a spot to work at.

The big work tables really aren't very attractive and the plan was just to use two smaller tables, then bring in the folding tables when I had company and needed more space. But it has become a habit just to leave all the tables up and keep them covered in clutter. I might rethink that plan after my next two craft days coming up this week.

When there is that much flat, open space, its hard to contain myself. If there is a spot empty, I fill it.

It would be easier to plan craft days if I had the tables stored in the garage and could set them up just when needed. Which is the opposite of what I had been thinking before, that I should just leave them up so they would be ready for guests. Nope, if I leave them up, I have to spend a couple hours unloading them before guests show up!

During clean up, I took a break to blog browse and saw that my friend, Mary, had added Google Friend Connect to her blog. Now, for some reason, I thought those were only on Blogger, not Typepad, so I never added one.

She also is having a bribe gift to readers who sign up. Well, I'm not shy about bribes, so I'll offer one too!

If you sign up to be my Google Buddy, I'll enter you in a drawing to win one of these Peat Pot Pretties with vintage millinery.

Like I said, I've had a VERY rough week. I could use all the friends I can get. Thanks!

Oops, what about the February giveaway???

a lapse of memory again, or am I just careless?, Books, holiday decor, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage

By Karla Nathan / February 22, 2010

Where is my mind? Here it is February 22nd and I just realized that I never announced a giveaway for this month! Maybe it has something to do with making 75 tag book covers, doing 4 watercolors of fairies, having my fairy grand baby for about 5 days each week this month, or from helping my son move to a new home, or maybe just because I've had a rotten cold and am just not thinking straight.

Some months are busier than others, huh? But at least I didn't forget completely. Since my mind is filled with making Alicey things right now, I thought maybe you would enjoy making some too. So, as a gift for this month, I'm offering a stash of supplies to make Alice tags.

Yep, I panicked and just swept up some stuff from my desk to give you. But, hey, its good stuff! You'll get 4 large tags, 2 small tags, a copy of one of the tags I was making up for the covers, 3 pages from the old book, some red gummed labels, blue flocked wallpaper (which reminds me of Alice's dress), a key with hearts, a heart charm, and some coordinating vintage trim (from my Great Aunt Caroline's stash).

Leave a comment to enter if you'd like to make your own Alice themed tags.

Today, I started to gather up a pile of stuff that had been accumulating on my "to sell" table. I've neglected getting photos done. So, I told myself that I was going to photograph and LIST every bit of it.

Five hours later, and my shop is newly stocked! I even deleted the "sold" items to clean house a bit and make it easier to shop there.

This week, I won't have Sugarwings as many days as I have had recently. I'll miss her, but I honestly need the time to get caught up. I dropped my husband off at the airport today, and I am kind of looking forward to a week alone to be a whirling dervish of activity.

Because, not only do I have a watercolor to get done this week, I need to clean up my house and get ready for a little photo shoot. My good buddy,Carol, who is a talented photographer, will be helping me with it next Monday.

I'd like to come up with something really interesting for the dining room table that will work for the pictures, plus for a baby shower I am hosting the day after the pictures. So, I'm hoping to get some "arty" time to create some centerpieces that will do double duty.

My little helper will be here for a couple days, so I'll still get my Sugarwings fix. I couldn't go a whole week without her. She seems to be adjusting to her new house with her Daddy, and its looking pretty cute. He was lucky to find a cool old house to rent, where he can have a massage therapy room for his business too.

I'll leave you with a few collages of the new goods in the shop. And then, I need to get back to gluing tags. Its exciting to have the whole evening ahead of me, no one to take care of, no dinner to fix, just me and my glue bottle and the TV. I'm almost giddy. I love my family and enjoy them when they are here, but I do treasure my studio time, and haven't gotten much lately.

Little romantic gestures

fairies, holiday decor, paintings, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / February 15, 2010

Did you get roses for Valentine's Day? If not, my boutique is stocked up with new (old of course!) millinery.

We had a nice day. For us, Valentines is a celebration of the anniversary of my husband adopting our boys, so we do a family dinner at a favorite restaurant with gifts to pass out to everyone. We might have been the only group seated at the romantic Italian restaurant filled with tables of couples!

Earlier in the day, I pampered my husband for the holiday, starting with a heart shaped breakfast.

Then, I made up a heart healthy snack mix of dried blueberries, pecans, and chocolate yogurt raisins and left it by his remote control, knowing he'd be happily surprised when he sat down to take a break and watch TV in the afternoon.

When you've been married for almost 30 years, the little gestures are even more important than when you are newlyweds. And small kindnesses like these are what keep you married for 30 years! I much prefer a thoughtful little gesture to something flashy and expensive. And I think he does too.

You can still enter the Alice Tag Book Swap, if you are interested. Details here.

The more the merrier!

I need to run, I'm having a big craft day, tonight and again tomorrow in my studio, so need to get my table cleared off. Its about a foot deep in junk at the moment.

But before I go, I want to thank you for all the well wishes for my 700th post and 3rd anniversary. Oh, and I need to announce the winner of the Grumpy Fairy book.

It goes to Suzanne Duda.

Wishing the Happiest of Valentine’s Days to You!!

celebrations, fairies, holiday decor, paintings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day! Today is not only my 3rd blog anniversary, it is also my 700th post! What are the odds that would happen??? So of course, I am celebrating with a giveaway. Today is the last day to enter to win a copy of my Grumpy Fairy book

This little painting is for Sherry. She has EIGHT grand daughters and has asked me to paint them each as a fairy, like I did for Sugarwings in the Grumpy Fairy book. I've had a lot of request for doing this, but have always turned them down. Now, I think I am ready to take on some commissions….

To see if I really wanted to go into the fairy painting biz, I did a few little sprite cartoons of some of my friend's children.

Of course, these will not be exact portraits, cartoon is the key word here. I have plans for some vintage wallpaper covered mats. When I have it all done and ready to mail, I'll show you the photos I worked from and the finished projects. I'll be interested to see what the moms say. I'll be relying on their feed back to see if I will offer this service in my Boutique. What do you think? Is there a market for this?

Each is a mix of ink, watercolor, acrylic, and glitter. There had to be glitter!

My little Sugarwings has been doing some artwork too. She needed to make 16 Valentines for school, so I turned her loose with my red and pink paints and some glitter gel. She was enjoying the job, but was even more excited to think about the cards her friends were making for her. Their party is Monday after Valentine's, which is lucky, because she was sick on Friday.

Speaking of lucky, I've been getting some wonderful gifts in the mail! An envelope full of vintage die cuts came from Ruth, (who is one of the participants in our Alice Tag Book Swap– its not too late to enter if you want to join us!)

This giant selection of red gummed labels came from Kathy, along with the cute heart collage and the round stacking boxes. I can't wait to gaudy up those babies.

I think that these labels will come in very handy on my Alice swap tags.

Then, I got a package from Sue

that was filled to the top with pretty papers for me and for Sugarwings! Along with lots of fun tid bits for my fairy grand baby to craft with, stickers, tags, and even sticky paper to make your own stickers with. She used some over the painted Valentines she made for school.

There was a set of fairy wings for a doll too! Sweet, huh?

But that is not all! My pal, Tiffany sent a beautiful card from one of her photos and inside it was this Glenda bookmark. Just because. And Jenn sent a cute Valentine, which was a sweet surprise.

And I can't forget to mention the Valentine calendar that my Sissy sent for all of us to copy and use (previous post). I ended up putting a copy in my scrapbook today, but instead of a photo, I added two columns clipped out of the newspaper this week. They are both written by Lori Carson, who was the host for the Romantic Decorating Tips I did for the local news station (here and here). She used the tips for her column too, and gave credit to my blog.

Yep, I'm pretty lucky. Thank you to everyone who comes by my blog to keep me company and to all the great blog friends that I've met. Thank you for 3 years of fun. My blog means a lot to me, and so does your company.

I hope you'll continue keeping me company as I blather on in the future!

A Valentine Calendar for you to print

holiday decor, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 12, 2010

How beautiful is this???? My Sissy made it for you. Click on the image to save it and print it. I am going to put a copy of it in my photo album and use it as a mat for a picture of Sugarwings in her Valentine dress.

My little fairy baby has an ear infection and fever, so we are having a cuddly movie day together, watching her buddies, Pooh, Nemo, and of course, Alice In Wonderland. I need to study up on that one to get ready for the big swap-a-roo.

The swap is still open, details in the previous post, just scroll down. We have about 30 people since yesterday! The more the merrier, I hope you join too.

And please remember you still have time to enter the drawing for a Grumpy Fairy book that I am giving away to celebrate 700 posts and a 3 year anniversary. (comment on any post to enter)

How cool that they are going to be occurring on the SAME POST! You can't plan those sort of things, can you?

Gotta run, there is a tiny little nose that needs help blowing.

Cinamon and Paprika Soap?

antiques/junking, Books, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / February 1, 2010

The ideas for Five Romantic Decorating tips for Valentine are coming along well. Its a VERY short segment on the local Lawrence, KS TV station. So short, that the ideas can't really have any explanation or how-tos, just time enough to see the pretty ideas.

One of my ideas will be an arrangement of heart shaped candy boxes in the kitchen. I'll add something next to it, (photos when I figure that part out…)

This one came about because I bought the red vintage box over the weekend at the Farmstead Style retreat I talked about in my last post. The other boxes are empties I saved from last year's half price, after Valentine's Day candy shopping spree. (the emptying didn't take long) I've foofed them up with old wallpaper, ribbons and flowers.

Did you notice my newest French netting score!!??? There are two of them, both from Saturday's fun shopping/crafting trip to Platte City. (they are both pillow cases, one was $10 the other $4)

Here is the 2nd piece, I'm lining this terra cotta pot with it. The sheet music, ribbon, and rhinestone buckle were added for the TV segment I mentioned. For that day, I'll put a pot of mini roses in it.

For today, I've filled it with homemade soaps. Book club is tonight, and we are discussing The Geurnsey Literary and Potato Pie Society. In the book, one of the characters makes use of a dead pig by making it into much needed soap, and wrapping up the bars with red yarn to give to the other members.

Well, I didn't have red yarn, or a dead pig. But I made some soap, using glycerin bars from the craft store, melted in the microwave. Instead of pig fat, I added olive oil, and some powdered goat's milk, with a splash of epsom salts.

In the book, the soap was scented and colored with paprika and cinnamon. Sounds awful, huh? But I tried it, and actually, its kind of nice. I hope the book club agrees with me, I'm bringing these as gifts tonight.

Today is crazy and hectic, I have Sugarwings, for an unplanned afternoon, and errands to run before I pick her up. So, this is a quick post. I wanted to let you know that these medals are listed in my Etsy shop now, 4 for $2. I have about 50 of them, so if the shop is out, please email me to let me know if you need some.

I also need to announce the winner of the January Giveaway-

Lisa of Tarnished and Tattered

Who, by the way, has a GREAT blog. I love her style.

Info about the February Giveaway will be coming up. All comments are entered. My giveaways are kind of loosely done. Sometimes people win and didn't even know they entered.

“Be My Fairy Valentine” Bird

antiques/junking, fairies, holiday decor, how to's, show and tell, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / January 30, 2010

What a good day! I attended a class that my Bella pal, Sheila was teaching today at a barn. Yep, a barn. But not any old barn. Yes, there were stalls, and horses and hay, but there was also a full kitchen, two bathrooms, a bedroom, living room, dining nook, and full work space!

No, not a typical barn at all. And the farm dogs were foofy, standard poodles.

The cute as a bug owner, Kelly, has set up the place for her design business and will be using it also for these class events. Along with the class, was shopping. Good shopping. Two of my favorite dealers from Rusty Chandelier had spaces here along with all of Kelly's gorgeousness. Clothes, jewels, and vintage tidbits filled the space, and I spent an hour before the luncheon was served exploring it all and picking out some treasures (photos later).

Sheila taught 3 classes, but Beth and I just signed up for one. And it was a doozy. What a cool idea she had to share! This is Sheila's class example, and she provided everything we needed to complete it just like this.

But I had some changes in mind…. For the bird, I brought ledger paper with pink lines, and made the wings and tail feathers from millinery petals. The eye is a crystal bead that Sheila provided. (I dropped mine, but Beth gave me hers to use) I used the Cropadile to punch an eye hole, then glued the bead inside, so that it was 3-d from both sides. And you can see through it in the light for a little glow.

Before making the wired branches as Sheila instructed, I wrapped the "trunk" in pink velvet ribbon. My theme became "Be My Fairy Valentine", so I used lots of fairy girls, pink flowers, and hearts.

One cool thing about these trees, is that you can take all the goodies off and change them with the seasons. So, next this can be a springtime tree.

There are pink velvet flowers wired onto my branches, so I am all ready for spring!

Sheila provided the oval chipboard, but instead of the photo she offered, I glued on some hand painted roses that I'd brought along.

Two little wooden hearts got covered in wallpaper on one side and that pink lined ledger paper on the other. I snipped a length of a broken pearl necklace off to tie into a loop at the bottom to hold a little rose bud. ( I should have cut the length longer, it was a bit hard to tie with the string that short)

To hang the heart, I twisted a bit of wire into a kind of, heart shaped hook.

The spool and wire were things Sheila gave us, along with instructions on how to make a little nest with three eggs in it. She is a wonderful, patient teacher and took time with each of us individually to explain the wire weaving to make the nests. I'd never tried one before, and really enjoyed learning that part. I can see lots of nests in my future…

The nest I made wasn't for birdies, though, its a fairy nest. I wired this frozen Charlotte onto the top of the spool and made wings for her from little feathers that were in our kit ( I used one under the nest too) and some velvet millinery petals. (Do you think she looks like she is hoola hooping? Maybe I should make her a tutu to cover the wire?)

To the front of the small spool, I added another wallpaper covered heart.

Before the class this morning, I glued a rhinestone heart to the front of this locket and made a tiny collage to put into it.

The fairy hanging behind it, is an old photo that I painted on. Then I covered the back in rose wallpaper, added ribbon and flowers to the bottom, and punched a hole to hang a crystal from (that Sheila had in our kits, she really provided some fun baubles for us).

This is also a locket, with a mirror on the other side. This is something that I hung as is. I added a framed ribbon rose by my friend, Natasha, too.

The tree was so much fun to make, that I almost can't wait to make more stuff for it and change the theme already! I will be first in line to head out to the countryside for the next Farmstead Style experience, let me know if you want to come too!

Again, I need to thank you all for making the wallpaper FLY out of my boutique! I've added a few more here and there and have tried to keep it stocked up, but some packets that are sold out won't be replaced. I did replace some scrap packs and added this selection. Hopefully, later in the week, I'll have a chance to add some more.

But I have to work on a little segment for our local cable news channel for Thursday. Which means cleaning my house for the cameras, and showing 5 projects about Romantic Decorating for Valentines Day. So, maybe the wallpaper will have to wait. My house is a wreck again. Didn't I just spend a solid week cleaning and redoing??????

Speaking of time flying, where did January go??? But, you still have a little time to enter the January Giveaway drawing for a little painted and glittered cardinal!

God Bless you, even if you are are a Nebraska fan

celebrations, family, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 26, 2009

Boy did we ever get the snow. My handsome husband spent the day driving around in the 4 wheel drive pick up and pulling stranded people out of the mess. He was having so much fun doing it, that he came home to pick up Sugarwing's Daddy and his cute gypsy girlfriend to go out and be good Samartatins with him.

We live in a town loyal to Kansas Jayhawks, and my husband grew up in Nebraska, so has a Cornhusker sign on his big red truck. One guy that he pulled out of a drift said to him, "God bless you, even if you are a Cornhusker fan."

He wasn't the only person out saving people from the drifts. Living in the Midwest is pretty nice. Strangers will come out in the cold just to help you if you need it.

Luckily, we had a little Christmas party for Sugarwings and Pixie Pie before the storm hit, because our big Christmas day event was canceled due to the weather. We were able to safely get Sugarwings and her Mommy to their family in Kansas City, so they could all be together on Christmas Day, though. It was very important to get them there, since Nanny passed away this week. Those siblings all needed each other.

(As you can tell from Sugarwing's shirt, my husband is also a Jayhawk fan!)

On Christmas Eve, we did our gift exchange and Sugarwings insisted on being Santa and loading the gifts in her new sleigh to deliver them.

The only trouble was, that the red velvet pants that I'd just bought for her, were not quite the right size and tended to slip a bit. She walked right out of them a couple times, but was not going to let that stop her from delivering Santa's gifts!

Twinks was asked to play "Max" and Sugarwings was the Grinch for a while too. That sled got quite the workout in the house, but when her daddy tried to take her out to use it in the 4 foot snow drifts, she didn't want to have anything to do with it or the cold.

Some of you had asked about the painted tree. Its on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood, and I had painted it to decorate for my antique booth at the holidays. I put hooks into the wood and sold ornaments off of it. But this year, I brought it into the living room for Christmas. We used it as a backdrop to take some holiday photos of our little girls.

And since there were little girls around, no vintage ornaments were on the hooks this year, they went up on the chandelier out of reach, instead! Hey, I might be a sucker for those kids, but I am not a fool. If I care about something, it goes where no grabby little hands can get it.

Its been an odd holiday. Sugarwing's Nanny passed away, we had a huge snow storm that canceled most of our plans, and so many other people's too. But we made the best of it, and celebrated what and when we could. Holding those you care about close when you can and grabbing snippets of joy where you can find them is what matters. Enjoying the funny, little moments like watching a miniature Santa walking right out of her red pants, and helping strangers stranded in a ditch are things that made our Christmas '09 something we'll remember.

Of course that fridge full of food to feed 20 some people who couldn't come to dinner is a reminder too.