holiday decor – Page 44 – Karla's Cottage

Macho Decor and close quarters

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, family, give away, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, holiday decor, Moving to DC, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 9, 2007

We are home from our relocation trip. I didn’t see much of DC at all, we were in the burbs the whole time apartment and furniture shopping.

At first, I thought it looked like Anytown, USA with all the chain restaurants, apartment buildings and strip malls, but then realized, that the East is very different.

Burbs in Kansas City or St Louis SPRAWL. Outside of DC, they build UP not OUT. The buildings are high and all the people stack up and squeeze in.

I got a bit homesick for the spaciousness of Kansas, but will learn to live with the high paced, jammed in life style there.

We got a bit homesick for the fairy grand baby too, and went immediately to pick her up when we got back from the airport to take her out to lunch. Of course, we’d been out to eat for every meal since Thursday, but there was no food in the house and it is always a good excuse to go pick up Sugarwings and her family and take them out to eat.

We find ourselves coming up with so many of those little bribes, I mean excuses, to see her.

OK, this doesn’t look like my style, but I took my husband into consideration while furnishing the new place. At first we were going to go with rental stuff. then used, but decided to buy some decent pieces for his place because it is going to have to be his home away from home for a long time.

I got a slate top dining table and matching living room tables for the apartment. All the colors are earthy and the look is slightly rustic. No girly roses at the East Coast Bachelor pad.

I shopped like a woman possessed trying to find the cheapest, yet still stylish things I could find in just a day. It will all be delivered on Jan. 2nd when we go back to get settled in.

Do you have any idea what kind of pain it caused me to buy brand new things from a furniture store and have it delivered???? I just don’t do that. I buy the things no one wants and fix them up.

I know that I could have gotten a sofa table for $3- $20 at a garage sale in Kansas instead of $159 there. Really painful.

But here were my concerns:

no time
no truck
no tools

Of course, also my husband wants it all simple and easy to care for and doesn’t give a durn about Pretty.

He doesn’t notice stuff like in this photo of our Kansas living room, a cabinet from a junk shop ($35) repainted and set on top of a small table from a garage sale ($15) that was painted to match.

Or the mirror from the dumpster above it. Or the free lamp given to me by Beth. I foofed its lampshade and painted it, then set it next to some old chippy paint finials that are serving as candle holders ($5).

So- I know how cheaply I can find things and what can be done.

I am still in pain from going to a furniture store and decking out most of the apartment in one swoop.

Oh well, it will work out. It is stuff he likes and will make him comfy there.

Now on to something more interesting. Joy and Roses!!

I’ve decided what to send the winner of my November drawing, Joy. I know I am a bit late, but with the trip and the open house, she was very understanding about it.

I am also behind on Etsy shipping, but will get all of it caught up and in the mail tomorrow. Thanks so much to everyone who shopped there and thanks also for your patience.

I am sending Joy a JOY sign. It is made from the end of a magazine rack that came from the same dumpster that mirror in the earlier photo did.

She seems to be a person who enjoys salvage and sees the possibilities in a discarded piece herself and I thought she might like this hand painted wreath on something rescued. If you’ve read her blog, you know she has a great eye for redoing things herself.

Don’t forget that we will have more gifts during the What do you LOVE about your Holiday Home? party on Wed. the 12th and that all comments are entered into the giveaway for December too. I love to try to match the gift to the winner instead of just naming something that will be given away at the end of the month. Joy will also receive a little pack of ephemera and doodads for projects.

I had sent Natasha some vintage and hand painted ornaments as well as a Noel banner made up of vintage papers for our trade in the Deck the Halls Swap hosted by Monica. I love the way Natasha has displayed the ornaments on a springlike vine to complement the Australian weather at Christmas.

But wait till you see what she sent to me!!

And to Sugarwings too. Of course, Twinkle thinks everything that the baby gets is half hers.

There is a possibility that Twinks will be wearing this cute little crown that is meant to hang on the tree as a gift to the fairy baby. Either one of them would be adorable wearing it!

And look what else she got- a Santa on a Kangaroo! She thought it was hilarious. That kid has a sense of humor that makes her have deep belly laughs when she sees something funny, and this little santa really struck her funny bone.

She was also given a book about Santa’s summer Christmas, so much fun to read to her and tell her about Christmas in other parts of the world.

Natasha had everything wrapped up so sweetly. And yes, I saved every pink rosebud!

She made a wonderful wooden banner with a matching snowman in glitter, the pink rose bud "cookie", and the 3 little glitter framed wallpaper pictures to go on to the tree.

And she sent Tim Tams. Which we discovered are the world’s best cookie. And I cant find any more around here, I was hoping World Market wold carry them.

And thats not all. A blown glass angel ornament that I immediately hung on my white and gold tree.

Thanks, Natasha! and Thanks to Monica for hosting. What a fun swap. I made out like a bandit on this one. But I do say that bloggers are the most generous people around and if you get a chance to swap with one- DO IT!!

Little Miss Maddy Cat came by to have her Christmas photos taken at my house to use the painted bench as a back drop. I had some trouble with the red eye on this one, but as cute as she is, it didn’t matter.

She and Sugarwings are starting to interact now that Miss Maddy Cat is getting bigger. Sugarwings leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek and it looks like they are about ready to plan a cousins play date together.

Wow, I’ve ran on long enough. I’d better go and mail those packages. Thanks again to all of the shoppers who went to my Etsy Shop and to Natasha!

A List a mile long

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, I do tend to run on, don't I?, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / December 4, 2007

I spent as much of yesterday as I could listing on Etsy!

I got quite a few things up (at lower prices so they will disappear) until about mid-day. Then, I had a break and when I went to go back to listing more, the light was gone and I couldn’t get any more good photos.

Natural light makes such a difference in a photo. Like this one of a hand dyed vintage linen bag. Isn’t it pretty how the sun comes in the window from the left side?

I try to never use flash in my pictures of my art work or shop listings.

This bag was done with fiber reactive dyes, I have a huge set of dye colors. Before Sugarwings was born, we had a baby shower that was a tie dye party in the garden. Everyone brought something white and we dipped and dyed all after noon. She has a whole wardrobe full of tie dye clothing, which is perfect for her since her mom is a hippie chick.

Our fairy grandbaby came home from the hospital in a tie dyed ensemble.

I get the dyes out and make something every once in a while. I like to dye my t-shirts that get a coffee stain on the front so I can still wear them.

Today, I am taking all my photos first, then listing throughout the evening. Its a Sugarwings sleepover night, so I can’t say how much I’ll get done…….

My afternoon break was from some shoppers who called and asked if they could come over to look around. They verified my guess that the reason my sales were down on Sunday was because it was too crowded.

All of them said that they just couldn’t see to shop and wanted to come back and look without the crowds.

I have more people coming in the next couple of days, but I did warn them it wasn’t set up as pretty as before. Actually, the studio kind of looks like a bar the day after New Year’s Eve.

At least my house is still clean! But the baby isn’t here yet. Give it a couple of hours and it will be looking quite lived in.

Which reminds me, I walked into my house from the studio during the home tour to find someone going through my kitchen drawers!!! She was telling her husband that real people did live in the house. Well, what did she think it was?? So, I said, yep, this is MY house and she turned red and walked away. Really funny, I was laughing and thinking maybe I should have cleaned out drawers too??

After the whole thing was over, I saw that the shower curtain had been pulled back too. I guess that means, I should have cleaned the shower. Geez, who would have though that people would be peeking in places like that???? There were hosts around to keep an eye on that kind of thing.

Oh well, they got an eyeful of mess is what they got. I only cleaned what I thought was going to show!! I hope they enjoyed the view of the pile of wash rags and an empty shampoo bottle on the floor of the shower. Did I mention that there were tiny little, muddy dog foot prints on the shower floor? Twinkle loves to play in there.

These photos I am showing are of what I did get listed yesterday. Some have sold already! thanks!

All are listed at lower prices than I have had on similar items before.

This is another photo of some of Beth’s contributions to the shop.

I’m not sure how much of these she sold. I do remember ringing up the little pink angels. The weekend really was pretty non-stop crazy.

Beth and I figured out what was weird about Sunday- with all those crowds, we didn’t get our giggle and gossip time.

Usually if you aren’t selling much, you are all alone at a sale, no crowds. So we hang out and talk and usually have so much fun, we don’t care about sales. But with hordes of people walking through we never got to relax and kick back. It was just weird. But I would do it again, I enjoyed my weekend and sales weren’t bad. And I am donating $500 of the sales to the charity that sponsored the open house tour. They are a free clinic that helps people with no health insurance, and that is a great cause to me. When my son broke his elbow, they were great. He has no insurance, much like many young people his age.

Now, I need to go Christmas shop from my pile of leftovers to find presents for my blog giveaways and for my family.

The rest I need to photograph before we go out of town, we have a trip to DC coming up this week.

So, I’m off to shop in my own studio, then list more things before the baby comes to play. Nothing gets done while she is here, except some tickling, hide and seek, and made up stories about fairies in the woods.

When she is older, I will write some down and illustrate them for her, so she will have books of her adventures in the forest as a fairy with sugar pink wings.

What do you do with the leftovers?????????

Etsy Goodies, fairies, holiday decor, parties

By Karla Nathan / December 2, 2007

Beth and I survived the sale! It was up and down and surprisingly we didn’t do very well during the day of the open house. Hundreds of people came through and all had nice things to say, but I think it was just too crowded and congested for shopping.(Here is a table full that Beth brought)

We had a lot of inventory, hand made or vintage.

And although, sales weren’t THAT bad, there sure seems to be a lot left over!!

See how cute this stuff that Beth made is? Why is it still here?

And I still have a treeful of ballerina fairies.

We had our theories on why the sales were so up and down. Friday was great. All of our regulars from the mailing list came. They always show up when we open and want to be first in line!

Saturday, the weather was terrible, plus there were so many activities going on around town.

On Sunday, the home tour was for 4 hours, with 7 homes to see and people were rushed. The ones who did stay and linger, bought some things. I ended up selling furniture on Sunday and my husband was sweet enough to load it up in one of the trucks from his collection (we have 3 for some reason) and follow the lady home to deliver a dresser.

I should have taken a photo of the packed room, and you’d see what I mean about it being too crowded to shop. We sold a lot during lulls when the room was bearable, but when hordes came through, we simply passed out treats and chatted as they filed through. who would have ever thought that having too many people at your sale was a bad thing?? A lot of women were asking what my hours were so they could come back again when they could shop more comfortably. But I doubt I I’ll be doing this again for a few months.

I’ll be listing a BUNCH of stuff on my Etsy shop tomorrow and at bargain prices too!

I can’t say the day wasn’t a success. People were so kind about my home and had so many nice things to say. And I got my house cleaned up! Every room all at the same time. Of course, it won’t be that way tomorrow……

I had people asking if they could hire me as a decorator. That was flattering.

Of course, all my stuff is from a garage sale or a dumpster or a flea market, I called it the recycled house. I take things no one else cares about and make them into something pretty.

My husband’s office was open for show today too. I didn’t decorate much up there, just some berry vines on the lights and above the windows.

And to me, this is one of the prettiest things I saw today, my little boy, Ryan.

I took tons of photos and will show more later if you are interested.

Plenty of blog-fodder for the "what do you love about your Holiday Home" party on the 12th!

And don’t forget about our monthly drawing!

I’m a couple days late, but things have been crazy around here. I picked a name from the comments left this month and it is:

Joy

What a fitting name to draw for a holiday prize!!

Joy, please send me your address and I’ll send a giftie to you up there in Canada.

All comments left are eligible for the drawing each month. Thanks to everyone who comes by to visit, I enjoy hearing from you all.

Oh, here are a few more wonderful things Beth brought, and she did sell out with these, I think. And what a cool display she brought for me to hang them on.

I think she’ll be listing some leftovers on Etsy too.

You know, the sale really was fine, and the home tour was fun, I didn’t mean to complain. I am simply so PROLIFIC in what I produce, that sometimes I feel like I am drowning in stuff. I still have a studio full after the sale. But there was just so durn much to start with!!

I was giving stuff to friends who came by after the event to drink a glass of wine and tell me about the other homes they saw on the tour. My last few shoppers were getting extras thrown into their bags for free too. I just wanted it GONE at that point. I am ready to move on and make more stuff, not just keep staring at the stuff I made last week.

I have an idea! Another giveaway. For my Party on the 12th, I will have special prizes. All comments that day will go into a drawing and I’ll use you guys to dump my excess inventory on- ( I mean, I will give gifts to readers and participants that day)

Ready * Set * GO!

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, fairies, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / November 29, 2007

I’m DONE! I’m ready for my sale!!!

I even had time today to cover this cash box in old wallpaper and foof up the keys to it.

I had bought it at a garage sale this summer for $2, and it was a plain, industrial grey color. A little bit of vintage papers, some glue, ribbon, a charm and some old pearl buttons, and I am ready to make change in style tomorrow!

I also made a few more teacup posie arrangements.

Pretty teacups that were slightly chippy got a makeover with oasis glued to the inside, then covering them with moss or shredded papers and gluing in some pretties. I used a variety of goodies inside of them, tiny Christmas balls in silver, millinery flowers, and glittered birds. After putting them in place, I drenched them in white glue and did another light fairy dusting of glitter over the top.

Price tags are done, stuff is arranged. This cabinet is all whites.

I have more than one area done in reds and greens. There are plenty of traditionalists who want the old fashioned Christmas colors. I love them myself, and have fun setting up the displays, but have gone with more pastels and neutrals in my house this year for holiday decor.

The pink poinsettias are my favorite, I love the rich deep pink ones, that are almost the color of an azalea. (by the way- if you think your house isn’t ready to photograph for our "What do you LOVE about your Holiday Home" party on Dec. 12th, here is a good example. There are dirty dishes in this sink, but the angle I took the photo hides them. And the mess on the counter top, just got pushed aside for the picture. Your house doesn’t have to be perfect to show us some pretties in it for the party!!) But I should replace that light bulb before the open house.

Or you can just zoooooom in.

The grocery store had $1.99 roses again this week and I bought 3 dozen (all they had) for my open house.

I also buy pink and white poinsettias ($3 a pot at Wal-Mart) and use them as cut flowers instead of potted.

Yes, these are sitting on the back of my toilet. Is that tacky? Should toilets just be left alone??

I was able to take the 3 dozen roses and 2 poinsettia plants and spread flowers all throughout my home.

Most of the roses were still buds, so I am gambling they’ll still look good by Sunday. I had to arrange all the flowers on Wed. since I’ll be tied up with my sale the next few days.

Actually, I don’t arrange them much. I just plop them into vases. More cottagey than a true arrangement.

Oh-oh, I see some price tags coming lose. I hope I don’t run into many of those situations in the studio for the sale.

Its too bad the price tags have to be so visible, they don’t make a pretty photo. But I like them to be right in your face for shoppers, easy for them to see. Don’t you HATE having to wait for someone to get a key to open a case and flip something over so you can see the price???? Why do people hide their prices so often????

Remember the clearance stockings I bought earlier? I got them all foofed up with glitter, buttons and old jewelry and will be hoping to sell them for $15 each. Seems like a good price for them, I hope the shoppers agree.

I put $18 on my little ballerina fairy under glass.

Can you see why it has taken me so long to pull this together? I hope the care that went into it shows.

Right now I am off to bed. Well, that is after I watch Survivor. Wish Beth and I luck tomorrow!!

Favorite Things

hand painted signs, holiday decor, paintings, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 28, 2007

I am making headway! Things are coming together for my sale. I even had time to embellish another photo album. This is covered in a great, old wallpaper, ruffles of sheet music and an handpainted oval of anaglyta wallpaper that I did for it.

None of these items are newly done, but I have them hung and priced! That feels like an accomplishment right there.

I had painted the wreath onto my closet door and decorate it for the seasons. Right now, it just is sporting clearance junk I want to get rid of, nothing too special.

I had painted these two bright little pictures and the flower polka frames for an article I wrote, and they really aren’t my style. But the story was about using a round sponge brush to paint the flowers on the frame and I was told to use BRIGHT colors.

These are more my style. I painted all of these last night.

And all of these- too. The ones on the floor still need hooks and wire on the backs. That is the time consuming part. I can paint like a fiend, it is the grunt work that gets me.

Ready for a parade of signs?

Sugarwings stayed all night, so I had to do get these done after she went to bed.

I snuck out to the studio to paint while her Pop Pop was playing with her for a bit, then went in to take my shift of chasing her energetic little body around the house.

Can you see what happened to her clothes when I gave her a hug?? She’d better get used to it. Everyone around me ends up getting smeared with paint sooner or later!

Back to work. Sorry about the photo quality. did I mention I am in a rush to get ready? You can tell by the reflection in that mirror that my studio is a bit of a mess and not finished yet.

Plus there are a few more things that could use a sparkling of Fairy Dust glitter on them yet. I’m sure little Sugarwings will go home with a few sparkles on her to match the paint.

Tiny Dancers and Globs of Glitter

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 26, 2007

Do you ever have days when you are trying to meet a deadline, have tons to do, but get easily sidetracked anyway?

I have an open house as part the local Holiday Home Tour and a 3 day sale in my studio this weekend. There are so many things I need to be doing for it.

But what do I do instead? Give the dogs haircuts and baths.

And go to Goodwill. Where I found this vintage jewelry box!! For 49 cents!! It plays "When you Wish Upon a Star" and the ballerina twirls. I need to cover the exterior in vintage wallpaper. Of course.

There has been some work getting done- I’m still painting ornaments and charms. Although, yesterday I took a movie break and went to see "The Mist". I have always been a huge Stephen King fan, but more of his earlier work than later.

Last night after the movie, I painted about a dozen charms.

Including some especially for Kansans- Jayhawks and Sunflowers.

I have no idea how many hours I have spent making price tags. They seem to have taken over my life. I know that on Thanksgiving Day, I put in 9 hours of tagging!

I looked around and think I am about 95% done with pricing. So, I have today and tomorrow to make more things (and more price tags for them too, I guess).

I made this up real quick this morning, it was a glittered bucket with ugly stuff on it, that I pulled off and exchanged for flocked wallpaper (that I bought from Dede during vendor night at Silver Bella) and a German die cut cherub, some old trim, and a bit of vintage velvet ribbon.

I painted this little fairy ornament last night too. She still needs a dollop of glitter on her.

These ornaments from yesterday could use a shake or two from the glitter jar too. I think that the poly top coat and sparkly glitter just makes them look finished.

Of course, I think everything looks better with glitter.

I won an giveaway this summer from Michelle and she had made this darling little blue bird for me. She told me it was OK to glitter it up, I think she knew in advance that the poor little bird couldn’t escape my glitter shaker!

This little ballerina fairy has been sparkled too. She is standing in a shallow dish, that I have no idea what it could have been meant for, it is an odd shape. The dome was 49 cents at the Goodwill.

She is wearing butterfly wings and crystals, and is perched on an old bulb from a string of Xmas lights. That wasn’t easy to do.

I glued a nest of shredded paper to the bottom of the dish, then added tiny, vintage glass Christmas balls onto the nest, making sure to attach them to the glass below so they would be secure.

Then, I turned the light bulb so that it pointed upwards, and glued the base to the glass and the tiny dancer to the tip.

I think she has a little bit of acrobat in her too. She did a great job of hanging in there while I held her in place while waiting for the glue to dry.

I stuffed a lot of ribbon and velvet millinery posies around the base of it all and globbed a lot more glue on it. It seems to have dried solid as a rock and very stable, but you should have seen my gluey fingers and all the shredded paper and glitter stuck to them while doing this. She kept slipping and sliding down and I didn’t think I’d ever get it all to stay in place.

Did I mention I had a million things to do for my sale? So, add blogging about glitter and price tags to giving the dogs a hair cut and shopping at Goodwill to avoid working.

I’d better get on with it.

Don’t forget, you can still do some shopping from the previous two posts (as well as the ornaments in this post). Just email if you are interested.

And every comment you leave is an entry into my drawing for the November giveaway. the prize will probably be something glittered.

A FEW MINUTES LATER:

I added glitter to these balls, better, huh?

Swept away by shades of pink!

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, paintings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / November 24, 2007

Thanks to everyone who came by yesterday and shopped or visited.

And thanks to Phyllis for hosting the craft fair. Easiest one I have ever done! No packing or hauling or setting up.

Friday’s craft fair items will be available for sale till Thursday the 29th. On Friday my studio sale starts and I will include what ever is left in that. The snowman and the top left ornament are sold

Here are the ornaments that remain from what I got painted yesterday. If you are interested, or need to see a closer picture, just leave a comment or email me. They are $10 (normally $15) each plus $5 shipping for the first, free shipping on all others, or on any included items, just not the albums. (The albums are too heavy to pack in the same box with the fragile balls)

Anything in my Etsy Shop can be combined with the shipping of the craft fair items too.

I didn’t go out in the crazy shopping frenzy the day after Thanksgiving, but I did go the day before to get new shower curtains so the bathroom would be all spruced up for my open house.

I had the floral curtains already, but a plain white shower curtain was under them. I bought a Simply Shabby Chic set of soft white cotton panels at Target and hung them instead. I even took down my clear plastic curtain that was underneath and gave it a good washing in hot water and bleach so I can see through it again. We have such hard water that those things cloud up fast.

I had to replace the curtain for the other bathroom too. I’d painted the ceiling in lavender and pink, and dripped onto the plain white curtain that had been hanging there.

Why don’t I know better? I should have taken it down first, but I get impatient and just want to start painting.

This faux finish is one of my favorites. I did it a while ago and am not tired of it yet. It started as a lilac ceiling and aqua walls. I blended in other pastel colors over these two and made gradual changes in the color as I went down from the ceiling to the floor.

It transitions from the purple to a green, with lots of blues and pinks in the middle.

That watercolor on top of the cabinet is one I did of Dahlia, my first Dorkie. She was such a lively dog, we still miss her. She was a great mom too and always had 7 puppies at a time. That is sure not typical for Yorkshire Terriers.

She was stolen from our yard, and was pregnant at the time. I felt like I’d had 8 dogs taken instead of one.

On a happier note- look what else I found—- A PINK vacuum cleaner!!!

It was only $18 too. Will it be any good? I don’t know, but it’s pink!

Craft Sale day, get out your list for Santa!

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, jewelry, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 23, 2007

Phyllis is hosting an online craft fair today!

Here is my plan for the day:

I’m going to show a few photos of ornaments to start with and all are $10 each, a special price for Phyllis’s craft fair.( Plus shipping. )

Shipping for ornaments will be $5 for the first item, all others free.

I will be painting ornaments all day and will add them to this post as I finish them, or you can email special requests from me. check back later today for more to see!

All the ornaments can be personalized for free. Names and dates can be painted onto to the ball for you. Free personalization and custom order offer is good only Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th.

Sale prices and shipping specials are good all week

ROSE BUSH IN TERRA COTTA POT AND SNOWMAN SOLD

I make all of my earrings from vintage beads and findings.

The French hooks are always either sterling or 14ktgf.

For today, all these sparklies are SALE priced at $10 a pair, Shipping will be $3 or free with other purchases. GREEN EARRINGS TO THE RIGHT, BLUE EARRINGS SOLD

This vintage wallpaper star features old sheet music (a Christmas carol in green ink!) and an old millinery flower. (4 1/2 x 4")

$5 plus $2 shipping if alone (free shipping if included with another purchase) STAR SOLD

These sweet little peat pots are filled with glittered up vintage figures and millinery flowers and hung with old trim, then embellished with old buttons.

$4 each

plus $5 shipping (free shipping with other purchases)

6 PEAT POTS SOLD, BUT I HAVE a few more MORE email me if you are interested.

Also for sale today-

Any of the albums from this post: http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2007/11/twinkly-sparkly.html If you’d like to see more photos close up, please just ask.

These are prepurchased albums, that are made with really pretty papers inside. I have embellished them with vintagey goodness and lots of old wallpaper!THE PINK AND YELLOW ROSES ALBUM BEHIND THE BABY ONE IS SOLD

$35 each, plus shipping of $9

(I’m sorry, they can’t be shipped with the hand painted glass balls or the peat pot pretties, but anything else you purchase can be added to the box at no charge.

Hand painted charms with vintage beads are available today also.

$15 each, with $3 shipping

These can be shipped free with other purchases

BLUE BIRD SOLD

Thanks for shopping with me today, and make sure you check out the other locations that Phyllis will have listed. My friend, Beth, has some great stuff to check out too.

We all appreciate you buying HANDMADE!!

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday, like I did. We had a wonderful family day, and I didn’t have to cook it!! I made fudge (my specialty) and noodles, then brought the wine and pop. How easy is that????? A first for me, and I could easily make it a habit.

Aren’t Sugarwings and her Hippie Chick mom some of the prettiest things you’ve ever seen? My son is a lucky man to have them as his family. I’m thankful he has added them to our family.

OK, I am off to go paint ornaments. I’ll add some soon. This will be a loooong post.You’re used to that from me!

(Don’t forget about the party on the 12th.)

LATER: I have been painting a few ornaments in my breaks from making price tags for my upcoming sale here in the studio. Here are the newest, still wet ornaments.

Well, not the prettiest display to show them on, is it?

Upside down egg cartons work well for a drying rack .

I just painted 3 balls with butterflies and 7 mini ones with a tiny rose.

The small ones are only $5 each, but I’m afraid the same shipping applies.

But remember, the shipping is discounted with mulitple orders!

I’m off to paint more and will add them when they are done.

MORE!

Here are a few more ornaments. 3 rose topiaries and one rose bouquet.

What am I working on now? Cupcakes! But they are still wet and arent’ glittered yet.

UPDATE:

I’ve had a nice day. Made some pasta, watched some Tivo (30 Rock and House, not a bad way to spend an hour) and then painted a few more balls.

I’ve had some special orders to fill, which I enjoy, and got a few ornies painted for my gift shop this week.

All of these will be available until my gift shop opens on Friday. If you see one you need, let me know. I can do special orders on Saturday too, but after that, I won’t have time till my sale and open house are over.

Thanks, Phyllis, this was fun!

Twinkly, Sparkly Gifts and LOTS to be thankful for

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, how to's, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 21, 2007

Its not even Thanksgiving yet, and I am getting Christmas presents!

Earlier, a reader, Kathryn, played secret Santa and sent a box chocked full of goodness.

Now, my "brother from another mother" Barbara (we have the same birthday, plus a lot of other similarities) has sent these sweet silvery snowflakes to me.

With my dorkies’ names on them!!

I thought maybe they’d make great dog tags, but Twinkle didn’t agree and wouldn’t pose. Sparkle will do anything if I tell her she looks pretty. (a girl can get into trouble leading her life that way)

Thanks, Barb!!!

Another ‘kind of’ gift was some cards from Amy who through in a few extras with my order.

I can never get enough vintage cards.

The card addiction isn’t as strong as the wallpaper one, though. I’ve been battling the urge to buy more wallpaper, I wonder if there is a 12 step program for that?

But, I can rationalize my purchases of vintage paper, since I really do use it, and lots of it.

I covered these photo albums with some the other night.

I took new albums made with handmade papers, (on clearance from Tuesday Morning) and embellished the fronts of 8 of them.

At first, I was covering the backs too.

And inside the front covers.

Then, about midnight, when I did these two, I started only adding a tag to the inside cover.

And then, only a bow and some vintage posies.

But then, by 2am, they were only getting the fronts decorated!

They were made with such lovely papers to start with, that I think this is enough, my additions to these two were pretty ornate anyway. Or am I simply justifying my decision to go to bed instead of doing more to them??

These are laying on my faux brick floor in the studio. I painted the bricks with a kitchen sponge, torn to a brick shape (always tear sponges you paint with, it makes a more attractive edge).

I covered this table top with vintage wallpaper too.

It had bad veneer, cracking and peeling up. This isn’t a perfect fix, but makes it usable. After the glue dried, I put a coat of water based poly over it, so it should be durable.

I also sprayed all of the fronts and backs of the photo albums with poly to protect them. Of course, I did it AFTER I had added rhinestones and flowers, so had to cover those up. I’d say if you were doing this, spray BEFORE you doodad them up.

I will have these albums available for sale on Friday during Phyllis’ online craft sale.

I plan on working on some projects throughout the day and adding the pictures as I finish pieces. I’ll have special prices that day for people who want to shop at home for handmade pretties instead of fighting the crowds at the mall!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I know what I am thankful for.

I’m lucky enough to have great blessings in my life, and lots of love.

Life hasn’t been easy, getting to this point.But the struggles were all worth it.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Not Bella-ed-Out Yet!

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, fairies, holiday decor, I do tend to run on, don't I?, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 18, 2007

Did you think I was all bella-out? Nope, here is more!

I was only in one organized swap, silly silly silly me.

Take my advice, if you go to Silver Bella, sign up for as many swaps as you can.

You would not believe some of the gorgeous creations that were given in trade!

I was lucky enough to get into a few side swaps to, besides my ATCs. Rebbecca, and Julie and …… and oh my, you know I am bad about this. All my notes and business cards are packed in the box with all the swaps and are all mixed up.

But that doesn’t mean I love all of them any less! I am going to add hangers and make ornaments for a special table top tree, all Silver Bella themed with the ATCs.

Thanks, Bella Buddies!

On the other hand, here is a mystery solved. Remember the beautiful box full of gifts I got in the mail and didn’t know where from, was afraid I’d forgotten a swap or a giveaway?

Well, the gifter wrote to tell me, that is what it was, a gift. How sweet and kind. She was trying to be a secret Santa, but didn’t want to worry me and make me rack my brain to figure out what I had forgotten!

Thanks, Kathryn!!!

My Silver Bella tiara found a home in the bathroom cabinet on the doll head I bought on the trip to Omaha.

We named the little dolly "Bella Donna"

On the shelf near Bella Donna sits my swapty gift from Dede, who by the way, said she wanted to be the "Blotto Bella" and was a blast the whole weekend.

She let me pick ornaments, and I chose "Naughty Bella"

Which is a good name for me since I was bringing a strange man into our room at 3 am.

Maybe I should tell the rest of that? My roomie, Beth, went to bed early and I stayed up late with my new Bella Buds, Carol, Heather, the other Karla (yep, there were two there), and Stacey. and we giggled like school girls till way too late in Heather’s room.

Did you know that if your key card is in your pocket with your cell phone, it loses its magnetic abilities to open doors? So I was locked out. The room was in Beth’s name. I couldn’t get a new key, but the manager said he’d let me in if I could describe the room and my luggage.

I told him he couldn’t wake up Beth, I was trying to sneak in! But it was the only way, he insisted.

So, I described my stuff as all the bags on the floor overflowing with purchases from Vendor Night, supplies for classes, all the stuff from the antique mall I’d gotten, and all the swaps, stacked and piled up on the floor from the TV cabinet to the front door, so that you could barely get in the room. He stepped inside, took one look and realized it had to be my room. Then, I promptly tripped over a paper bag and made a lot of noise, but Beth still slept through it.

I am continuing to burn the midnight oil getting ready for my sale in two weeks. I’ve been up till 4 am the last two nights.

I glittered all these Ballerinas that I bought at Vendor Night and added butterfly wings that I got there too.

They are hung on a Bethany Lowe tree I picked up on the trip.

Sometime around 2am I was making these cones. The base of them is a 90% off clearance Tussie Mussie that I ripped all the tacky things off of and embellished myself with vintagey stuff.

Most of the embellishments were from our trip too. Either leftovers from class, goodies from Vendor night, or from the shopping along the way. Beth was so nice to me on the shopping part of the trip. I don’t get out to junk as much as she does, so she was calling it my "Pity Trip" and giving me first choice on all the goods!

Look at the pretty ribbon on this one. it is from Rebecca’s class. Did she just get some old seam binding wet and crumple it, do you think?

Wish I could have gotten more than 3 of these cones for 50 cents each, they were great to work with.

One more purchase from our drive up to Omaha. I bought another Bethany Lowe tree for my living room.

I’m going with an all white theme, for Christmas in that room. Well ivory and cream really. Multi whites. I’ll show more during our

What do you LOVE about your holiday home? party

I’ve been so busy Bella-ing, redoing the blog (well Sadie Olive did all the actual work, but it took up a lot of my time too) and then getting ready for the upcoming sale at my home, I haven’t done much Etsy listing.

I did list this, the background is an invoice from Acme Coal Mining. I loved that 1917 paper! I wondered if Santa got his coal there.

I’m sure that is where Wiley Coyote and Bugs Bunny did, every exploding device or weird thing that they bought was from Acme.

(this sold to Louisa who had this wallpaper in her home growing up! I sent her all the scraps I had of it so she could make something too)

Now, I am going to be good, stop running on, and go list something else on Etsy. I am crazy about this old wallpaper too. I had made a banner from it also and that sold to Bethany. And that is all I had of this wallpaper. It is so rich and deluxe, but in small doses, I can’t quite picture it filling a room.