holiday decor – Page 7 – Karla's Cottage

Dollar Store Santa Hat Redo

By Karla Nathan / November 28, 2022

This hat is from Dollar Tree, and while I am a huge Disney Fan, it isn’t exactly the look I wanted for the holidays. Typically, I’ll glue a couple flowers onto a red, furry hat or some antler headbands, because you know, Christmas fashion is important, right?

But this year I was inspired by a falling apart, vintage, white mink stole I came across. And of course, the first thing I thought was- “This must go on my Santa Hat!” (I have also been using bits of it on some Sugarplum Fairies that I made)

The fabric on this pink hat is pretty thin, so I snipped off the white band instead of adding to it. I was worried that the weight of the fur would make the existing trim droop.

Since I detest sewing, and how do you sew through a pelt anyways, I used Fabric Tac to add my fur trim. First, I put a piece of cardboard covered in plastic inside the cap so the glue didn’t adhere the front to the back.

I trimmed the fur into pieces to fit around the hat and glued them down, using clothespins to hold them in place.

The adhesive made it just a little stiffer than I might have liked. The Ultimate glue dries nicer, but I didn’t know if that would hold. I wish I’d tried that first. But this is okay, just not great.

I added velvet petals from an old rose I pulled off a vintage hat and centered an Angel in them.

Before attaching the fur, I buffed the edges really good with my fingers to get off any bits of fluff that might have come loose while cutting into it. I sure don’t want tickley pieces landing on my nose while wearing it. It doesn’t seem to be shedding, so I think it’s good.

The original pom pom got cut off and I half assed made one from folded fur, glued together and adhered to the tip of the hat by wrapping gluey ribbon around it tightly.

I might add some bling or more flowers after I try out wearing it, first I want to make sure it isn’t heavy or uncomfortable. I wish I could find a velvet hat to redo, I’d prefer that, but since I do not want to sew, or to spend much, this on is just fine. I’ll enjoy it!

Have a Lovely Thanksgiving!

holiday decor, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / November 23, 2022

Sugarwings and I jumped ahead into Christmas celebrations before Turkey Time.

Again.

We have a Thanksgiving celebration planned with most of the family, after some twists and turns to accommodate my husband’s schedule (he took a consulting job) and travel plans for part of our North Carolina group.

Before all of that, the Grandfairy and I had our first cocoa party of the season and did some crafting too. This is Sugarwings’ clever take on a gingerbread house storage box. We will keep our Nutty Buddies in it.

And why on earth do we consider Nutty Buddies a Christmas treat? Well, they are named after Buddy the Elf, of course.

At least in our minds.

Red and Green aren’t my typical colors, but when it comes to cocoa parties, I’m all for the shades of a traditional Xmas. The teapot was my mom’s, the tray was one my boys set out with cookies for Santa on it, and the tablecloth has been around since I splurged on it at Kmart in the 1980s. Back when we were on a tight budget and most things I decorated with were handmade.

I remember the turmoil of the purchase. This was back when I’d put toys on layaway at Kmart and pay on them for months before Santa swung by to pick them up. Buying a tablecloth was not in the budget.

Sometimes you gotta do something special for yourself, and this bit of floral fabric was a major indulgence that I treasured. And still do.

(By the way, Spray N’ Wash is great at getting cocoa stains out of so called “family heirlooms.”)

A new look for old Christmas ornaments

family, Hand painted, holiday decor, Ryan

By Karla Nathan / November 18, 2022

Sometimes an inspiration comes from one simple idea. Other times things just fall into place as you are going and it all just seems like you planned it out, but you didn’t, it just came together.

I had been gifted this magnificent buffet, with inlaid MOP, burned wood, and a pure white, marble top. It is nicer than any piece of furniture I’d have ever bought for myself, and I wanted to highlight it for the holidays

To honor the lovely wood, I thought I’d go more natural with the tree I usually set in that area.

Well, natural for me at least. They’re still sparkly silver! But the decor is centered around nature and family. Birds from my Mom’s house, hand made bird ornaments from friends, deer, fairies, stars, and lots of pinecones, from the day Ryan and I gathered them together.

Every time I think of that day, I have to laugh, it had been so funny for us, freezing, while stuffing pinecones in pockets and inside jackets while the big doodle dog pulled on the leash and I slid down the sidewalk, with Ryan trying to hold me back.
We laughed so hard and joked about it for months, every time we walked by there.
Of course, it was also the day the dog jerked the leash and messed up my shoulder, but we were still laughing and I remember rolling on the wet ice, laugh crying at one point.

I have only been brave enough to walk on the trail where we found those pinecones a couple of times this year. And one time resulted in the same laugh/crying on the ground again. This time, all alone. And the pain from the loss of Ryan is much worse than a torn rotator cuff.

The Christmas after Ryan died, I returned to our spot and gathered up every pinecone I could find. Almost as if I could NOT leave any behind, they were all symbols of Ryan and I and where we used to spend so much time together. So now, I have a lifetime supply of pinecones and they will always be a part of my winter decorating.

This Christmas, I filled the bowl of this garden planter (free at a a garage sale!) with lights and my precious memory pinecones and added a tree filled with hand painted ornaments I’d made for my boy over the years.

When my boys were little, I was a single mom working as a waitress and depending upon my own mom for help. At the holidays, I would paint dozens of glass balls to sell to anyone I could to raise money to buy gifts for my kids. I never left the house in December without a boxful and was even known to approach strangers in parking lots to sell these.

And every season, I painted and dated one for each family member.

The ones I did for my boys were very 80s themed!

Ha, Gremlins and ET!

He loved Frosty and Rudolf. Ryan loved shows all of his life and it’s fun for me to look back through these and realize just how many were based upon his favorite movies that year.

And as he got older, his first car, the horrid, orange, “Punkin”.

I haven’t unboxed the family ornaments in years, they haven’t been my style or fit in with my current trees. And I was saddened to see so many were missing. And I wondered why I quit this tradition. But I am lucky to have these.

Even this heart breaker.

It was a happy Halloween

celebrations, cottage, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / November 12, 2022

At this point, Halloween is long past, withering away in its crypt.

Due to my inability to use my blog, I didn’t get to share the holiday, so I’ll post some highlights now. As I upload these pictures, I am sitting in the glow of my Christmas tree.

But that doesn’t mean much. Around here, the flip is fast. Almost, but not quite like at Disney, where over night on October 31st, the entire park is transformed from one holiday into the other.

We go through more of a Nightmare Before Christmas scenario, where they are jumbled together for a couple days during the switcheroo.

Sugarwings loves the spooky decor and does not want it touched if she is with us. But I needed help with getting the big tree put together and Rich was going out of town. My choices were to ask him to help before he left and have the tree set up, with all the heavy boxes of decorations piled up around the pumpkin and bat filled house or do it myself later.

Of course, I asked for the help! So we had a messy mix of two overlapping decor styles.

I used to wait til thanksgiving weekend to deck the halls. Our motto was, “You Must Respect the Bird” and wait for that holiday to pass before enjoying twinkle lights. But not any more. I have changed it to “You Must Respect the Pumpkin” and don’t even let the jack-o-lanterns start to moulder before I fill the house with joy and light fro the trees.

But no, we don’t totally gloss over Thanksgiving. I de-skull and un-spookify the table, but leave the pumpkins out on it till after the turkey has been consumed. The pumpkins either light up or have glitter, so I am happy with the compromise.

Sugarwings still trick or treats, and since my mind is already on gingerbread and garlands, I asked her to save some candy for building our gingie cottages.

As much as I love spring time weather, and the heat of summer, this has to be my favorite time of year. I dread the coming of cold weather, but love all the hustle and bustle that comes around when the leaves drop and snow starts to fall.

Ugh, did I really just say that!? Snow and falling leaves can be truly despicable (and way too cold).

But I do love the transition into Christmas, so if I have to put up with a chill to get to be surrounded by twinkle lights, we’ll, I guess I’ll just deal with it.

It’s back!

antiques/junking, holiday decor, Web/Tech

By Karla Nathan / November 9, 2022

WOO HOO!!!!

A PHOTO LOADED!

It has been a very, very long time since I could work on a blog post. For the last couple weeks, I have been checking in daily, trying to add a picture and getting a wide variety of nothings, error messages and even a splash of gobbilty gook.

It feels good to have the hosting site up and running again.

Over the last 16 years, my blog has become a part of my life. Not just a habit, or a business tool, much more than that.

I rarely look back through it, unless I amending to see a specific project, or figure out a date about when we went somewhere, or redid a room.

But when I do, I tend to get sucked down the rabbit hole, and find all sorts of tidbits about my life that I’d forgotten. I see things I do not ever remember seeing, let alone creating.

Sweet faces of babies that are now teens, and such fun things we did together.

Writing in my blog has been worth it for the family memories alone. But seeing my creations, friends, vacations, pups, and decor over the years can be a nice surprise.

When I began writing this journal, I had zilch of an inkling that I’d still be doing it this long, or that it would be more than just a business tool.

At this point, I don’t know how many people even read blogs, I no longer read my stats (which certainly aren’t in the thousands a day any longer). And it has become harder to respond to comments, because of some odd change that the hosting site made. But I still love reading the messages.

And I like knowing there is someone out there who cares.

So thank you to those of you who are still with me and have checked back during this outage.
I am quite pleased to have it back again!

Enjoying the present while dreaming of what’s next

Food and Drink, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / October 25, 2022

While I am enjoying my Halloween/fall decorations, I am writhing with impatience for getting out the Christmas ones.

I love Christmas and all of the twinkling lights, gingerbread houses, pretty ornaments, big trees, little tress, tiny trees, candy, baking, cookies, presents, oops, I got carried away, didn’t I?

I do love it all.

Still, my outlook on life is not to wish away time I have right now by looking too far ahead. I try to enjoy what is in front of me, and not let anticipation for what’s next stop me from being present.

I tell myself that it is okay to be excited about an upcoming trip, holiday, party, or even tv series. But NOT okay to ignore what is happening right now. Which can be hard to do.

This fall, I sat out a few things, but mostly let Sugarwings go at it. They got out the bucket of decorations and did whatever they wanted with them, starting up in my husband’s office where our big tv is. We were gathering there to watch Hocus Pocus 2, and made up special party trays for it.

The food was yummy and the kiddo’s decor was fun. We also thought the movie was pretty dang cute. It was even better with pumpkin colored lights and plastic spiders in a darkened room.

Right now we have a dining table filled with pumpkins, real and lit up. And I am enjoying Sugarwings’ exuberant design skills.

And I am doing my best not to long for the twinkly lights of the Xmas tree.

Luckily, I get an early fix! Good Juju is coming up on the first Friday of November. I am going to be going all out on my holiday decor there. That will hold me over til after Halloween so I can keep my promise to myself of not wishing away the present with dreams of the future.
Which is tough because those lights sure beckon to me.

My year of embracing orange and a redo-rescue

antiques/junking, cottage, holiday decor, redos

By Karla Nathan / September 25, 2022

For the first autumn of my adult life, I’ve been drawn to fall colors. It kind of coincides with my attraction to the mix of warm woods that I’ve now blended in my house along with the existing whites and creams.

For decades if was just the whites. But I sure am enjoying the wood textures we have added. Also the dark leather chairs by the stone hearth.

Did it start with this dining table? Maybe. I’ve added quite a few touches of wood around our house since.

The hutch is painted white, but has a natural top. This has been my new, go to move. There are a few pieces with this paint on the bottom, wood stain on the top look in the last few years.

But orange? That is brand new for me. And I like the pops of brightness that color brings to the season.

For a while now, I have loved red accents on a white background at Christmas. Having a neutral background means that I can switch things up lot lot with just a few changes of color splashed around the room.

This over blown monstrosity was at a garage sale for one dollar, and typically, I’d have walked right by it. Or paused to wonder how the basket would look spray painted white (probably very nice, filled with roses).

It is actually a very nice shape and looked good with a pot of mums as is.

Instead, I decided to accept the orange and see what I could do with it.

It had a lot of big, velvet pumpkins inside, two I added to the urns in the top pic. The rest I set aside along with about 50% of the crazy, over the top amount amount of leaves and berries and bows.

The abundance was pared down to a more reasonable amount in the basket, and I still have a lifetime supply of leaf and berry picks to use for something else.

So that makes three more palatable arrangements and a leftover bag of supplies for $1, plus the 50 cents each I paid for the urns at the same garage sale.

Plus, plenty of stems leftover to fill this caldron (also from a garage sale).

All filled with my new enjoyment of autumn tones. I won’t be changing over my entire decor to pumpkin colors, but I am liking the hints and peeks of them I have scattered around.

Under a magic spell

Good JuJu, holiday decor, Romantic Gothic Ghosts, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / September 22, 2022

I really, really, really loved making things for Good Juju for Halloween!

I have collages, dolls, witchy hats, jewelry, mushrooms, ballerina bats (yes, that’s right, ballerina bat skeletons), signs, painted pumpkins, and my possibly fave- magic potion bottles.

For years, I have been tossing any vintage items I find that seem fitting for this season, into a drawer. It was quite full of tempting treats to turn into my fun creations.

I found it so inspiring to have an eclectic mix of ephemera and goodies to dig through.

No two came out the same, since I was working with so many originals bits of vintagey goodness. I had some photos that I’d copied, but the rest is all aged.

While I was at it, I whipped up a few hand made pumpkins too.

Here are some used as bottle toppers.

I went overboard.

A bit.

As I do.

There is probably enough inventory for next year too. I should add some to my online shop, but I will be teaching at Jenn’s fantastic event in Charleston mid October, so might not have time to get any listed in time for Halloween.

Now it is time to halt my spooky endeavors and switch to Christmas.

Which isn’t a problem, I adore creating sparkling pretties for that holiday too.

It is hard to put away all of the supplies for October, and to stop myself from making way, way, too much of this stuff. I’ve been on a roll.

Knowing me, I will be every bit as much obsessed with as happy to make things for the next holiday.

I’ve been saving up Christmas ephemera and supplies too. I have a feeling that crafting with those is going to be taking over my life soon.

I’m excited just thinking about it!

And it is extra nice to have a reason to make things, after quarantine and Ryan’s death. I hadn’t had much inclination to create in volume like this.

How to make zombie dolls

Hand painted, holiday decor, how to's

By Karla Nathan / September 7, 2022

Recently, I asked around for dolls to turn into witches, and got a number of vintage ones from a friend, as well as finding some while junking. Some were ideal to turn into witches, some were just too nice. The ones in excellent condition with perfect hair will be Christmas angels, and the ones that were a little scruffy became my Halloween witches.

But the beat up beyond repair gals?

ZOMBIES!

Witches can be cute, but zombies need to be creepy. So anyone missing limbs, or with big cracks was ideal to use.

Adorablely cute dolls made sweet witches.

But a crack like this is hard to get past.

I discovered that the cracked face on these old dolls could peel off like the shell of a boiled egg.

Underneath was a rough, porous material that needed just a little sanding to make sure the glue was off before painting.

With appendages, I cracked off some of the “shell” and painted those like wounds.

Same with the torso. I left most of the hard layer on and painted the edges to look like cuts.

After painting the doll, I use old, tattered doll clothes along with some vintage elements to dress her. The clothing gets some tears and cuts plus dirty and bloody paint splotches.

I glued her legs on at odd angles so she would look stiff, like a zombie shuffling around.

All of the dolls were fun to recreate into new looks, but I have to admit, I really got into the zombies!

The Witchie girls were a similar process, but I made sure to use smooth skinned dolls without cracks. If the skin tone was discolored or stained, I painted them green.

They were hard to stop working on, I could’ve made dozens. I can’t wait til it’s time to make the angels too. But for now, I’ll just make a pile of witch hats to sell, the ones I took to the mall were gone quickly. I sold a couple dolls, but mostly, they just got photographed a lot. I think that means people were going to try to create their own? Well, if so, here are the steps to follow.

Juju Preview

antiques/junking, Good JuJu, Hand painted, holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 30, 2022

In my last post I mentioned that I got my booth set up at Good Juju before my trip to Indy. I have more to add, and hopefully will get it there before the sale this Friday and Saturday.

My Halloween theme is in full force, with pumpkins and witches everywhere.

I especially love these old sign letters that I found on a junking morning with the Guncles. I’ve made BAT, EEK, BOO, and CROW with them.

And of course, more mushies in fall and Halloween colors. Thank you to everyone who bought my tutorial to make their own. Please send pics when you do!

If you’d like to make one, you can find them here.