jewelry – Page 12 – Karla's Cottage

50 tiny dancers for 50 years of dancing through life

fairies, flowers, hand painted signs, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / May 4, 2008

Oh no, is Karla going to make us look at 10,000 flowers she just bought??? Is that all this blog is about anymore???

Nope, I won’t do that to you. I just wanted to show you the pretty posies on the top of the birthday present Beth brought to me today.

How perfect is this package for me? Old wallpaper and millinery flowers that are soft and floppy with age topping a hat box!

Even more fun, look inside! Amongst some other trinkets that I love, (Italian rose dish, a vintage millinery catalog, old seam binding, and other pretties) was FIFTY BALLERINAS.

Only Beth would think of something that perfect for my 50th birthday!

She came to help out and keep me company today at Art in the Park.

I can’t imagine a nicer day for it. Sunny, with a slight whispering breeze that was just enough to keep us comfy, not so much that our things blew over or we had to take turns holding onto the tent leg so it wouldn’t blow over.

My greeting cards were my biggest seller today, with Mother’s Day next week, that was to be expected. I also sold china shard jewelry and earrings.

Mostly we spent the day soaking up some springtime. And giggling. Inspired by Joy’s fortune bottles, I decided to decorate bottles as party favors for the birthday party I am throwing for myself. I will add a special fairy note to each one, assigning guests a personal guardian fairy to watch over them.

So, Beth and I spent a big part of the day coming up with helpful fairies and naming them. Here are a few:

“Pinkie Sugar Fly” will guard your windows from bugs flying in through tears in the screens
“Kitty Flitter Flower” watches over you during cat naps to bring you sweet dreams
“Tootsie Twinkle Tulip”is always ready to touch up your toe nail polish before you even know it is chipped.
“Blue Bird Buttercup” sprinkles cookie crumbs for a trail to lead the blue bird of happiness to your door
“May Belle Lina” watches out for smudged mascara under your eyes.
“Flossy Flutterby” picks the spinach out of your teeth before anyone notices it.
“Pearly Pear” keeps an eye out for an earring that is about to slip off your ear.

My pal, Pam sent me this birthday card. I love the sentiment, wouldn’t it be wonderful to be granted 3 wishes? Although, today all I would ask for is that Sugarwings would feel better. My poor fairy grandbaby has a fever and sore throat and I hate to see her sad and down.

Don’t forget, a giveaway will be drawn on the 5th and I have an extra special May giveaway with lots of gifts this month!

The crazy hat lady strikes again

antiques/junking, flowers, jewelry, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / May 3, 2008

You’ll never guess what I bought at the flea market yesterday.

Millinery flowers! Beth asked me how I was going to display my hats, and I told her "I don’t like hats" and that just struck our funny bones, considering I’d just bought 15 of them!

Honestly, I don’t care for the hats themselves, I only buy them for their blooms.

At first, I didn’t think it was going to be a good hat day, but then, I heard the whispers of them calling to me from a large booth of vintage clothing.

The dealer had just returned from Round Top . Her prices were sky high too, $38 for a flowery bonnet?? Yep, those are big time flea market prices, not Kansas prices!

So, I asked her nicely if she had a volume price. I bought 8 hats including the one previously marked $38 for only $64 total. And I didn’t stop there, I found pairs of hats here and there throughout the market for an average of $2.50 each. Which is why I ended up with a pile of FIFTEEN flowering beauties!

I was worse with old photos. I told Beth that she had to steer me away from any more, it wasn’t funny at that point. I didn’t think I could stop, but she was able to help me and I got through the rest of the day avoiding the photo bargains.

Most pictures were $1 each and when I’d gather an armful of ten or so, the dealer would usually name a price averaging about 50-75 cents each.

Which is how I ended up with THIRTY NINE photos.

Sparkling old jewels were priced about the same as the photos at so many tables we stopped at. Of course, if they were priced higher than that we didn’t stop.

I don’t know how many pieces of rhinestone jewelry I ended up with, but with paired earrings at under $1, I might have bought a couple…..

This photo? A drop in the bucket.

And look at the "Princess" jewel box! It was only $4 and I have plans to foof and jazz it up on the exterior. The inside is lovely just as it is! (the pretty as a picture alarm clock is a birthday gift from Beth- lucky me!)

I bought $1 dolls to fix up too. The bust (Marie?) was only $1 and I might paint it white.

The pink skirted tiny dancer is actually a music box that plays "Always" (the song my parents played at the their wedding). Consider this a "before" photo of her, I have big plans for a transformation to come.

French, German, and other old books were only $1 each

Clear Lucite containers were how much? $1 a piece (wish I’d bought more)

26 Vintage ballerina cake toppers were how much? $1 each

Keys? 2 for $1

Vintage scalloped edge stationery? $1 a box

But of all the things I bought, what is the best? This $4 dotted Swiss dress for Sugarwings.

In the same booth, I found a close match for her baby doll.

I think I’ll ask her to wear them for my birthday party on Monday. (which is my actual birthday, even though I have been celebrating for weeks.)

I’ll draw a name on May 6th for a winner of a birthday gift from me. All comments count towards that and toward my May giveaway, which I think will have to be extra special this month.

In one $5 bag of jewels from the flea market, there was a dainty gold band. I think I will include it with my May prize. Along with the gold band is a white leather Brighton coin purse.

I’ll be adding to the May Prize Pack throughout the month, so stay tuned and keep entering! Any comment, any post.

April’s winner, Clarice had a choice of prizes. She chose a Cottage Collage Kit with vintage wallpaper. She has two daughters that she makes great craft projects with, so I included some extras for them all to have fun with.

Girls Day Out and a birthday giveaway

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, jewelry, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 22, 2008

The sun was shining and today was about as springy as a day can be.

Sugarwings and I decided to have a girly day together. We started with a little shopping spree. She picked out glittery pink shoes at Target ( I wish they had them in my size!)

And a stop at the antique mall turned up the perfect grandma hat for me. (only $6!!! And it has FIVE large pink roses on it) Of course, I wore it the rest of the day.

When we saw these matching dresses for toddlers and their dolls on sale for only $10 at TJMaxx, , we had to snap them up and find a dolly to fit the dress.

Those dresses simply couldn’t stay in the bag, not when they went so perfectly with the new shoes! We changed "the girl’s" clothes in the car before going downtown to stroll in the springtime sunlight and show off our new finery.

Since it was Girls Day Out, the three of us treated ourselves to a ladies luncheon. Over our BBQ (hey, we are Midwesterners, not dainty girls- we like MEAT) we tried to come up with a name for the new baby.

"Baby" and "Good Girl" were the names Sugarwings suggested. Scraps_417

I voted for "Miss Daisy" because after our trip, we decided to go for a ride in the little pink car. I drove Miss Sugarwings and Miss Daisy all over the neighborhood.

These two best friends wanted to make a stop in the park for a bit.

Twinkle was jealous of Sugarwing’s new friend and reminded her who her true best friend really was.

How can a day be more perfect than this???? Well it gets even better!

Ryan surprised us and had dinner cooked and ready when we came home from our spring fling! Chicken, rice and ice cream cones topped off our spring fling! And I didn’t have to cook.

Then, once the fairy grand baby went to bed for the night, I was able to make a little more jewelry.

This bracelet and matching earrings are assembled from vintage religious medallions.

The necklace is a variety of chain sizes, beads and aqua rhinestones, with a pendant of old keys.

And is my day over yet? Nope, now I get to go watch a tivo-ed American Idol featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber. (Don’t even ask me how many times I have been to see Phantom, you don’t want to hear me sing the whole thing either).

And not only that, Cloverfield is out on video, so Ryan and I are having a horror movie night. What a perfect way to end a perfect Girls Day Out!

You know, my birthday is just around the corner. I can’t imagine any party I plan being more fun than today!

I’d like to share my special day with you guys and give away a piece of the jewelry I have been making on my 50th birthday, May 5th.

Any comment between now and Monday May 5th goes into the drawing.

And don’t forget that ALL comments this month are entered into my monthly giveaway.

Hmmm, what will I be sending as a present for April??? hmmm, let me think. I have been on an endless tag marathon lately, maybe a tag?

Or a tussie mussie! In time for May Day flowers?!

I know, I will give the winner a choice!

On Wed. April 30th, I’ll draw a winner for a choice of one of these prizes:

1- a pair of earrings

2- a May Day tussie mussie

3- a Birds and Bonnets Vintage Workshop images tag

4- a Cottage Collage Kit with vintage wallpaper and millinery flowers

Vintage Bling- Day Two and the pliers are flying through the pile of scrap

jewelry, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / April 21, 2008

Spring might actually be here! It hit 70 today and I worked with the studio doors open. I love this time of year before the flies come, when there is a slight breeze to open the house up to have all the winter blahs blown out the doors.

While enjoying the fresh air and listening to Twinkle run in and out of the house to chase bunnies, I worked my way through a desktop of jewels and made quite a bit for "Art in the Park" on May 4th.

Lots of charm bracelets and earrings today, and a one necklace (the cameo one pictured).

Then, the mail lady knocked on my door with an arm load of bundled mail and I was done being productive, it was time to play!

Lili sent a package filled with delight from The Netherlands, for our mini swap. All I sent to her was millinery flowers and a few post cards. She went wild and filled a bag with wonderful European goodies for me!

Look at these book pages, won’t they be fantastic collage backgrounds? and these teeny little aqua bows are so dainty and sweet, they remind me of baby butterflies.

Did I mention Rose Wallpaper?????

Everything, every single thing, was delicious and fun and I can’t wait to dig in and create lots of somethings with it all!

Thanks, Lili!

Cards for Caroline’s 100th birthday arrived in the giant bundle of mail too. Cindy sent this cute as a bug one. I like the way she layers and embellishes, don’t you?

Jessica created this iris card, and I wish you could see the detail in person, this little purple flower should be framed. My mom always called iris "flags." I don’t hear that any more. Its a nice, old fashioned term.

Soon, the swap screens will be coming in too. Of course, they are going to Beth’s house, but I will run over to visit and check them all out. I can’t wait!

You can still join if you hurry. Lots of free download images to use, door prizes (well kind of, I guess that is what you’d call them) and great artists in the swap already!

I’m off to flickr to post photos of the cards. Come by and look if you get a chance. http://www.flickr.com/groups/679216@N25/

Artists have been loading their cards there as they make them too, so I always get a surprise when I go to check out the site, new things are added daily.

We have Extended the Deadline for the Swap, I wish I could extend the Deadline for my upcoming art show so I could have more time to goof off, since I can’t, I’ll just whine about it.

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), jewelry, show and tell, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / April 20, 2008

Its show and tell time again, and the subject is a timely one for me. Vintage jewels!

Twinkle has agreed to model this pink jeweled bracelet, and doesn’t seem to be too embarrassed by her choppy haircut, although she isn’t looking at the camera like she usually does.

I have an art show to get ready for and one of the things I take to shows is my redesigned old jewelry.

Thing is, it has been a while since I organized my sparklies and made anything from them, so I had an hour or so of prep work to do to even get started.

Just because I hadn’t been making jewelry, doesn’t mean I wasn’t buying stuff to use as supplies for the last year!

The pieces needed sorted out so I could find what I wanted to put together. I sort by era, style, color and lots of different criteria that mostly boils down to a made up system that doesn’t work anyway. I end up looking through each of the 8 or 9 plastic containers sitting on the desk for that perfect bead that I knew was just there a minute ago…..

So, what did I make today?

A charm bracelet first.

A few necklaces next.

A couple more necklaces, then moved on to earrings. I prefer making earrings, they just fly through my pliers and almost make themselves. Necklaces and bracelets take a lot of time and trying on, measuring the weight of the charms to be sure they hang straight.

Balance is so important when making jewelry. Both visually and weight wise.

I only use sterling or 14kt gf French hooks for the earrings and buy them wholesale through Fire Mountain, for the best prices.

The rest of the pieces are all vintage, including the beads. Sometimes I do use some new semi-precious beads, but I prefer older things.

To tell the truth, it was not a fun transition from my tag marathon to jewels today.

I know I have to make the jewelry for the art show I am going to on May 4th, that is what my clientele expects there (along with hand painted things) and luckily I always sell it well there.

But I am still feeling like making more tags! I did a few this morning and was zipping along, humming to myself and having a great time.

When I got the jewelry out to work on in the afternoon, that is what it felt like- WORK!

Probably, I should shut up and not complain. Poor Karla, had to stop gluing her endless parade of tags and put aside her Vintage Workshop papers to play with sparkly jewels instead.

That isn’t going to get me much sympathy!

So, the papers are on hold, while I put together old jewelry for a few days, then make price tags for it. If you think I am complaining now, wait till you hear me whine about pricing items!

But in the meantime, I will play hooky from all of it and go blog surfing and see what everyone else has for Show and Tell.

Its always a treat to visit other bloggers and see their collections. Hopefully, I won’t run into anyone else who complains and whines about it like I did today.

Before I go, I wanted to announce that "due to popular demand" Beth and I extended the deadline for our swap. So, if you haven’t joined yet, hurry up and come play with paper with us!!

Waste not want not, and some belated resolutions

Etsy Goodies, fairies, jewelry, paintings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / January 15, 2008

I can’t let anything go to waste! This recipe page was too cute to not re-use some how, and the swap book will already have a copy of it inside, so I turned it into a Fairy picture to hang on a wall.

After taking advantage of the big sale at the UPS store on copies (29cents, not 19, but still good!) I had copies of my fairy painting done.

I used an exacto knife to cut around the hand painted roses and the wallpaper hearts over the recipe, and made a slit to slide in the portrait that was cut to fit.

Then, I made a new banner, with the word "Fairy" cut out of and old fairy tale book and added a ruffle and a sheer organza ribbon to hang it from.

It is now listed on Etsy, but I wonder if I should have kept it and hung it in my studio? I do have a thing for that fairy tale wallpaper I used and have to get over the miser in me who wants to keep my greedy paws on every scrap! SOLD

I also changed one of my book covers yesterday. I had to add this German foil crown that I got in the mail from Speckled Egg. I ordered a bunch of pretty things from her, some brass heart charms, die cuts, more crowns.

One of my belated New Years resolutions is to use more hand painted elements in my paper collage work. Here are the backs of the covers I have done so far. I am finishing the backs of all of them, I do think that is important. If it is pretty wallpaper, I am leaving it, but if it s more simple, I am adding some flourishes.

I painted a few lockets too.

Some I am going to tie to the recipe covers.

The rest, I am using for other projects like this button jar. SOLD

I just listed it on Etsy too.

I thought I had more of the heart lockets, but I could only find a handful to paint. I am trying to be productive and work on what is in FRONT of me (another resolution!) instead of spending all my time hunting around in my stashes for something I think I just Have To Have.

Another resolution I made, just this morning (yes, very belated) is to only use my fabric scissors for fabric. No paper, I want to keep them sharp.

And along those lines, I will not use my regular scissors for cardboard or WIRE. Only for paper. That might be the hardest to keep.

I also resolve to take down my Christmas Tree before Valentines Day. Or at least I sure hope to. I am beginning to avoid my own home and just hide out in the studio to avoid all the dusty, holiday decor. Of course, there are Xmas trees out there too, but I am used to that room being a mess.

This last cover that I made yesterday is a bit different. My friend, Jen, who is in the swap too, came over. We were going to work on the project, but her time was shorter than she planned, so we ate chocolate cake, had coffee and hung out.

I dropped my piece of cake on the floor and broke a favorite plate. But I do that sort of thing a lot, being a klutz. The thing is, I always feel like no one will believe that I didn’t actually eat the whole cake, or the last piece of lasagna or what ever, that I really dropped it. That sounds like such an excuse- like something I’d make up to cover up finishing off the whole thing myself. (I was glad to have a witness!)

Anyway, she did have time to go through my stuff and pick out what she wanted me to put on her cover. I hope she likes it.

Well, now I am off to Beth’s, we are going to work on covers for the swap today, then I am going to do my dreaded shoe shopping while I am in the big city.

Oh- guess what!! Lucky, Lucky me- I won the contest from Remember my Childhood

and won a hand sewn skirt for Sugarwings!! Here is a photo of one of the skirts from her website.

I told her that I’d be happy with any skirt that had pink flowers on it and she could chose one and surprise me with it.

Thanks, Clarice for hosting this giveaway! The fairy grand baby and I will have a dress up tea party and she will wear her new skirt and her pink wings from Carol, and I will of course take tons of photos of her, because I can’t help myself.

Aren’t digital cameras great? You can take all the photos you want, plus you don’t have to have the camera right up to your eye, you can still be a part of what is going on.

Ok, I’d better pack my glue and my sparkly things, I need to go make pretties with Beth! This will be a great day!

Big changes

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, fairies, jewelry, paintings

By Karla Nathan / December 5, 2007

I think I am done. I might not be, but I think I have all my hand made Christmas items listed on Etsy. I don’t even know how many I listed!

All I know, is that I took a LOT of photos and did a ton of editing and wrote and wrote and wrote descriptions.

I’m afraid most of my backgrounds are all the same, not as interesting as I usually try to make them, but this was a 3 day marathon event!!

I wanted to get all these up on the Etsy site before we went to DC tomorrow, so people could have time to shop for holiday items. Anything sold this week will go into the mail on Monday after I get back.

In between the listing today, I took time to look at apartments online.

Yep, we aren’t just going to DC to visit, we are apartment hunting! Rich has taken a new job that will have him based there, for at least a year.

I was so afraid we’d have to move!!! We are really lucky that it worked out so that we can live there part time and Kansas part time. Actually, my husband will go back and forth a lot more than I will.

How on Earth could we have sold our cottage and left Sugarwings to go live in some big city???? I would have just died to have to leave our wonderful, happy life here behind.

So it is my sweet husband who is making the sacrifice and living way out there, far from Sugarwings. And you can tell how he dotes on her from this photo, it won’t be easy for him to be away for a week or so at a time.

The new company will let him have an office at home for part of the month, and he will spend a lot of time racking up frequent flyer miles.

I think I have mentioned over and over in this blog, how lucky I am. I should spend time in casinos, I really do have a good luck streak going these last few years.

It won’t be easy to have two homes and to be apart that much, but it is a great job that he deserves and we will make it all work.

I’ll still get to have my studio so I can make all of these fun things to list on Etsy. And we’ll still be around for our kids, friends, nieces, nephews, and fairy grand baby. Oh and the garden and Dorkies!!

I’ve been promised a laptop so I can write my blog from way out East and I also plan to take along water colors so I can paint there, at the dining table.

Knowing me, I’ll probably get ten times as much work done in my Kansas studio than I do now, since he will be away so much!

People ask me how I can manage to get so much done- well, I am just really, really fast. And I don’t have a day job, this is it. I get to make pretties all the time!

Didn’t I say I was lucky???

I’ve never liked the name I chose for my blog, I should change it to "lucky me" or something like that. Of course, that could be cursing myself and about then, I’d break a leg or something.

I haven’t always been lucky. There have been major tragedies in my life, lots of ups and downs. That just makes these good times even better.

I’ve been really poor, I’ve broken my back and had years of chronic pain, I almost lost my sweet son to meth addiction and had to fight to get him back.

So, I don’t mean to sound like a Pollyanna, I honestly have many reasons to be thrilled with my life right now and to enjoy every moment to the fullest.

Sometimes you have to wrangle all the happiness you can get out of the world and hold onto it tightly.

I’ll be away until Sunday, and will come back with photos from the trip. See you then!

In the meantime, don’t forget about the party coming up on Wednesday next week. Invite all your readers and any other bloggers you think would enjoy it.

I will have drawings and prizes and will be sure to set some goodies aside for non-bloggers who leave us comments about their own holiday decor as well as other bloggers who link up for the party.

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!

Silver Bella part 2 of MANY to come- you’ll have to stop me when you’ve had enough!

antiques/junking, give away, jewelry, Silver Bella, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / November 12, 2007

I still haven’t unloaded the car from my trip to Silver Bella, but at least all the glitter has been shaken from my suitcase and my clothes are put away.

I am the world’s biggest TV junky and had gone 4 days without. Last night was a pure veg out in front of the TV with Dexter and Larry David.

Today is a studio rearranging day that I can’t quite concentrate and work on.

So, I’ll take quick break from puttering and tell more about Silver Bella.

It was so fun to be able to deliver my October giveaway prize in person- wish that happened more often!

And yes, Jessi is as much fun in person as she seems to be on her blog. (And don’t forget, EVERY comment on my blog is an entry into the monthly drawing)

Here I am with Jessi, Natalie, and Jennifer, more of my blogger friends that I got to see in person.

I was all decked out in my Bella-wear. Tiara, crown shirt (blinged up), 2 vintage crown necklaces, official Silver Bella blinged up hoodie and toting an official Silver Bella tote.

I said that I if I were at Disney World, I’d be that person who was walking around dressed in Mickey Mouse wear from head to toe. I looked like the ultimate tourist/consumer who couldn’t say "no" to a souvenir! And who didn’t have the sense to not wear them all at once.

But the weekend wasn’t all play, there was WORK too. Well, that was more like play!

Each teacher prepared kits for us to make their projects. This one was Jenny and Aaron’s. They painted the scene, then copied it for us to reproduce ourselves.

It was a light hearted, fun kit to put to put together, and I was able to add my own touches, which all the teachers encouraged.

Here is a close up of mine, with a swirly snowy sky done with a ball point glue pen and clear glass glitter.

I also added a vintage reindeer brooch to mine, and switched the ruffle from the white crepe paper (I’m just not a fan of crepe paper) to old wallpaper that I brought along.

I also used a gelly roll stardust pen to outline the windows.

I tried to take a photo of each of my five projects next to the kit they were made from.

And here it is, in place hanging on the wall of Sugarwing’s room.

I liked it in there because it went well with my cottage print collection.

And of course, with the doll house too.

That is the only project I have unpacked so far. I am trying to get ready for the local TV show that is coming this week. The host will be here tomorrow for a pre-interview, and the shoot is Thursday.

Here is my roomie with her finished one too. She really wasn’t demented like the photo seems. She might have just been on glitter overload by then.

Oh, and here is one other thing that is unpacked, because it was in my suitcase not in the big shopping bags that have filled the back of my Scion. (or the Brave Little Toaster as Heather Bullard calls it after our antiquing trip to Brass Armadillo with one of our great teachers and a sweet lady, Jennifer. These rings (and a handful of others I HAD to buy) were black and dingy and over looked. I bought 8 for $7 each, all are vintage, most are sterling and one was 14 kt gold!

A few of us had some time to kill on Saturday afternoon, so drove the Brave Little Toaster (my family calls it the Refrigerator, but I guess it will answer to the name of any appliance) to Brass Armadillo, about 20 minutes from the hotel.

It was one of many highlights of my trip. Jennifer is fascinating and as down to earth and friendly as can be. Heather is hilarious and just too much fun. And of course, you know I love Beth.

And I was in on the birth of the next big design that will be sweeping the country. Jennifer found this vintage pillow and has plans to remake it in her Sis Boom fabrics and you know you will be buying one because it will be so cool.

I’ll have LOTS more of Bella stories, crafts and pictures if you aren’t tired of me going on about it yet.

In the meantime- don’t forget that I am having a virtual blog party on DEC. 12. It will be a Wednesday and we will all link and show each other what we LOVE about our HOLIDAY HOMES.

The Writing is on the Wall

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), hand painted signs, jewelry, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / October 5, 2007

I finally found some charms that are exactly what I was looking for to paint on! These come in a pack of 3 at Jo Ann’s and I only bought a few packs to try them out.

Now that I know how much I like painting them, I’ll need to get more! I’ve listed 3 on Etsy today, at $12 each, if you are interested.

They are dainty, about the size of a postage stamp. It takes a teeny brush to get the details in.

Its funny that I was painting such tiny things last night, because I had just taken Sugarwings for a walk and we happened to walk by a school where I had done some mural work, the opposite of the teeny little pictures.

We popped in to look at the mural so I could take a photo. (Yes, these are my normal clothes, I am always covered in paint!)

What is cool about this large wall, is that over the faux finish, I added words naming qualities to strive for as an inspiration wall for the students (this is in the study room).

In the flash of the camera, many of the words show up, but they are painted in a way, that you have to move around to see them, they only show as the light hits them just right. I used transparent, metallic paints and it is a really interesting effect.

I liked to think that this wall symbolized need to strive to attain goals, and that these traits represented by this text had to be earned, they weren’t that simple to grasp.

Plus, I thought it was a pretty way to do it!

On the way home from my son’s house after dropping off the little Fairy Grand baby, I stopped at a garage sale.

Junker Jo sets up a beautiful sale, and it is all great stuff at good prices.

I bought a couple things. This English pitcher was only $3 and so was the salvage piece. I plan on painting it, it will make a great sign.

Today I did get a few signs painted for my holiday show.

Although, I seemed to be having writers block on good phrases to use. Maybe I’ve made so many signs over the years, that I am feeling repetitive.

Any body know any French phrases that would make a pretty sign? Keep in mind I don’t speak French, and it wouldn’t be funny to trick me into writing dirty words on the signs, the Holiday Sale is for charity!!!

We are having unseasonably warm weather around here. So I took advantage of it by going out to the lake with Sugarwings and Sparkle today while I babysat.

The wind made the water a bit choppy, so we didn’t stay out on the boat long, but we had a great time with the wagon up by the Marina. Sugarwings got to break in her new $1 garage sale life jacket, and wasn’t too happy about the bulkiness of it.

I had some people inquiring about the desk in my newly rearrange office that I showed a few days ago. It is buried in my Etsy listed inventory. but sure is a pretty piece, isn’t it? It is the original blue that I got it in, but I did add a touch of white wash to make the roses show up more.

Tomorrow I am face painting at a fair in a nearby town that is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

I did some practicing on Sugarwing’s cheek this afternoon. If this is an example of the work I’m going to be producing, I shouldn’t be charging for it!

Hopefully, I’ll have some less wiggly kids to paint up tomorrow. Or I am in trouble.

Well, the baby is gone for the day and I am exhausted. Grandmama needs a nap.