paintings – Page 15 – Karla's Cottage

3 years, 700 posts, a swap, some puppies, and a bonus giveaway, all coming up!

Books, celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), give away, paintings, Sugarwings, swaps

By Karla Nathan / February 9, 2010

A year ago this time, I was posting puppy pictures. Here is Twinkle and her one true love, Teddy, with their one year old daughter, Bella (middle). Isn't she a pretty pup? Hopefully, we'll have a few more little dorks running around the house in 60 days or so. I'd better have some puppies, 3 are already spoken for!

Last year this time, I was hosting a Puppy Love Tag Swap. It was such fun, I'm thinking about hosting another, but since I don't have puppies around yet, how about an Alice swap? No, not this little Alice! I mean an Alice in Wonderland tag book swap?

The rules will be very similar to last year's swap. I'll write them up and get back to you for a sign up, I just wanted to plant the idea for now. Anyone interested?

As a Tim Burton and Johnny Depp fan, I'm so excited about the Alice movie coming out soon! The previews have been glorious.

Along with the details, I'll also post some pages from a vintage Alice in Wonderland book that Beth gave me, if anyone wants to print those to use for their tags.

This swap is just what I need to celebrate my 3rd anniversary in blogworld!

3 years and 700 posts are both coming up this week, so I'll have a special gift for you too as a thank you for keeping me company these last 3 years.

If you'd like to win a copy of my book, please leave a comment on any post between now and Valentine's Day. If you'd like to sign up for the swap, I'll have details coming and a separate post coming for that.

All comments all month count toward my regular monthly giveaway, whatever the heck I come up with for this time. I seem to be so short on time in the studio, that I never quite get done what I need, and still haven't got a gift pulled together yet. But I will….

Waste not, want not

fairies, paintings

By Karla Nathan / February 2, 2010

My 5 Romantic Decorating Tips for Valentine's Day are almost set and ready to go. Now, I still need to clean the house to be ready for the TV cameras on Thursday. After Sugarwings gets out of school tomorrow, she and I will be spending the rest of the day spiffing the place up. Then we'll all go OUT for dinner so it doesn't get messed up again!

The tip shown here, is to decorate with candy. I've wrapped some candy bars in scrapbook paper, with heart shaped doilies and some ribbon, then put them in a glass canister. Doesn't everything look better under glass?? Another trick for making items look more important and interesting, is to gather them up together on a tray. So, I've used a simple white platter to display the treats on.

(I'll need to fill up the M&M's- they got snacked on, I'll add some red and white ones, then maybe a ribbon?? What do you think?)

All of the tips I show need to be easy and quick. The segment is only a minute or so, and there won't be time to explain much. I'm trying to go for displays that speak for themselves.

After working on the Valentine display ideas, I sat down to do a little drawing that a friend commissioned. But- the paper I had just wasn't working. Another friend had given it to me, and it looked like really high quality stuff, but when I went to erase on it, it just fuzzed up. So, I was unable to finish the piece as a painting. I hated to waste it, so instead of watercolor paints, I colored it with markers and did a quickie, swirly background.

My poor niece is recovering from an awful surgery, so I thought I'd pack up some scrap booking supplies to send to her to play with while she was down. I decided to use this fairy sketch on the cover of the album I wanted to make for her.

Nothing goes to waste around here! Those props for the photo shoot will certainly be gobbled up and enjoyed after the cameras are done.

Oops, gotta go, LOST is starting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lighting

Chandeliers, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), paintings, parties, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / January 17, 2010

Remember the rugs I want from Curious Sofa? I am still jone-sing for those, but right now, they aren't available in the size I need for the kitchen. My house is big, but my rooms are small, in the old part of the house. And this is AFTER removing some walls!

I found these plain bamboo mats at Old Time Pottery for under $25 each. They are far, far, far from the quality of the ones at Curious Sofa. Those have wider, more solid planks of bamboo, more floor like than this. These are pretty light weight, and are a temporary solution for me.

To foof them up a bit, I drew on them with a brown Sharpie marker. It was an easy, quick project to do, I just sat on the floor and doodled away while Sugarwings and Twinkle played with toys next to me.

The reason I love the bamboo rugs for my kitchen to start with, is that they are low maintenance. If something spills, or mud gets tracked in, just sweep and mop them, and its a speedy clean up. But, I don't have to worry about as much filth showing (and with 3 dogs, a 3 year old, and a lot of grown men in living in this country house, there is plenty of filth!) because they are darker than the horrid light colored tiles we have.

By the way, if you are ever tempted to install cream colored flooring, just whack yourself over the head with one of the tiles instead. DO NOT give in to impulse!! I regret it daily. No matter how clean my house is, those floors always look bad.

(please don't tell Twinkle that the photo is of the rug, not of her, it would break her heart.)

I'm wishing we'd gone for darker tile, or even a really dark stained pine plank…

Soft lighting helps, though! Last night we had a dinner party, and I made use of all my lamps.

The overhead lights got turned off and I switched on all the smaller lamps and lit candles instead. (this rug still needs some Sharpie doodling) There is something about the soft glow coming from the corners of the room that makes me fall in love with my home all over again.

When we built the cabinets, I had electrical outlets added above them. There is one in the corner cabinet too. In that one, I drilled holes to run an extension cord up through, so I could have a little 25 watt lamp on each shelf.

And of course, you can't beat candle light either. I use this old chandelier with no wiring ($4 at a flea market) and the sockets perfectly fit tea lights. Previously, I used candelabras, till I realized that they are always in the way and block the view of the person across the table.

Tea lights don't drip, and burn for just over 2 hours or so, just right for a relaxed dinner with friends.

The snow still has not melted around here, and I have decided to give up on waiting. So I trudged through it to claim these garden chairs I wanted for the breakfast nook. Much better! The hand painted Victorian chairs are now in the studio, and I think this corner is much less sweet. I loved the chairs, and I loved the curtains, but when I got those great new lace panels, I realized that I needed some juxtaposition, or my house would look like a little old lady lived in it.

Well, I might be getting old, but I hope to not let my house reflect it… Some contrast, and some junk help keep a home whimsical and not fussy.

Where all the roses went, and my kitchen through the ages

Hand Painted Furniture, magazine pictures or articles, paintings, redos, show and tell

By Karla Nathan / January 8, 2010

My Zero Dollar Decorating has slowed to a crawl, I seem to have caught a bug of some kind. Or does Cabin Fever also cause joint aches and stomach cramps? Ugh. Its still colder than ever, but all of our cars are freed from ditches and snowbanks. I just am not up to getting out of the house.

People have asked me to show more whole room pictures of the kitchen, I'll take some when I am feeling a bit better. This bug is giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "under the weather" for me! I was feeling bad enough from being cooped up by the cold, I sure didn't need to catch a cold too.

There are a few photos that I had taken of where I moved the deeper, brighter color things from the kitchen to, I'll show those now.

Before, the corner cabinet in the dining room was all done in blue and white. Now, I've added roses to it from the kitchen, on top of all the blues.

The blue bird themed plates and figures, I've collected for a while, as well as the china roses. They are another remnant from my antique mall days, I'd bought them to sell in the booth and they never did. As I was redoing all my shelves, I wasn't surprised to see how many things I own were by default. Stuff I bought to sell and ended up keeping. Its not a bad thing, because I always told myself that I would not ever buy anything merely to sell it, I had to really like it and say it was something I'd add to my own home (because unless you are magic, not everything sells!). It was a form of staying true to my own sense of style, I guess.

Not all of this is inventory that I kept, the large chintz cake plate was my mom's, and so was the aqua wine glass. A gift from family, and some from friends are here too.

This shelf has some sentimental things, a framed quilt square from Grandma Nathan, a hankie from Grandma Downey, two pitchers covered in roses from my favorite flea market (reminders of fun times with my pal, Beth), and the bird I made at Silver Bella in Denise Sharp's class.

Plus this bird, she is so wrong she is right. I wonder if some crafty lady in the pre-glue gun days, added the feathers to this poor figurine or if it was meant to be this way? I see things like this and am oddly attracted to them, wondering if someday, my own embellishments that I am making to things now will be looked kindly upon in the future by someone at a garage sale with a quarter to spare?

The blue mirrors that are in this cabinet remind me of my sisses, who both collect blue mirrors too. The carnival glass and the cobalt teapot were both my mom's and those items were the original reason behind even having shelves filled with blue and white. Funny, how a couple of pieces of sentimental things can influence a whole room.

The photo on the left is of my husband and I about to share a smooch, and the frame on it is an old blue mirrored one. The photo (with a glare on it) on the right is my Mom's high school picture. Sugarwings has been made into art by my friend, Lori, and Beth created the vintage wallpaper covered journal.

I'm not exactly the sort of person to have a traditional hutch filled with wedding china. My stuff is a miss match of things I like, hopefully pulled together in a way that's attractive. But most of all it makes me smile when I see it. I am the sort of person who, really, really enjoys her stuff and likes to see it out and about.

Again, no one wanted these paint by number roses. I had them for sale here and there and there was never a taker for them. I even tried to give them away a couple times. Am I the only person to appreciate fine art? Actually, these bring back lots of memories of paint by number sets I had as a kid and adored.

And I do think they are pretty. Especially grouped with all of these blooms.

I'll leave you with some previous transformations of my kitchen, these photos are all from magazine articles I've been in. Some are from before we got the new cabinets, and some are from before I discovered pastels….

(I wish I hadn't sold this table!)

(My mom's carnival glass inspired the painting on this table, its sold too)

How do you paint a table with a leaf in it and still have a pattern on it?

First, paint the whole table without the leaf. Then add one leaf, and paint it so that the edges match up to each side of the table. If you have another leaf, match it to the first leaf and the edge of the table on the other side.

Okay, better stop now, I'm getting to the really old ones that were more country than cottage and they make me cringe!

Extreme Cabin Fever and MORE Zero Dollar Decorating

antiques/junking, collections, fairies, housework, how to's, paintings

By Karla Nathan / January 7, 2010

The weather just keeps getting worse. Luckily, I escaped for an afternoon on Tuesday to go see my pal Carol, of Raised in Cotton. If I hadn't gotten a little break from being housebound, I'd be bouncing off the walls instead of just repainting them!

Its colder and there has been more snow, so even though it was cold on Tuesday, it was the best day to get out. I couldn't go anywhere today no matter how much I might want to. So, I've been working away on my Zero Dollar Decorating to stay sane. I touched up all the paint on the dining room walls, and repainted the base boards with a quick brush of glossy white.

Then, I brightened the room up with a wall of mirrors that I shopped for from the bedroom and studio. The picture in the glorious gold frame went into the bedroom to replace the large mirror.

Next, I tackled the corner cabinet in the kitchen. It had been painted pink inside like the other cabinets that I redid earlier. Plus, I hadn't rearranged anything in it for years. It looked pretty cute when I set it up, ages ago, but over time, it got cluttery and too much as I'd stick treasures in here and there after hitting garage sales.

My kitchen is getting a de-rose-ing. I told Beth I was deflowering it and she said that maybe that wasn't the best term to use.

I still LOVE roses and all my little pretties, so this is more of a shuffle, some went to the dining room, and some to the studio, and some will be listed to sell in the Boutique, if I ever get back to work.

This weather has affected me mentally. I seem to be in some weird limbo, waiting for my real life to get back on track. Extreme cold weather always sets me off like that. Its an odd sort of cabin fever, I start hating staring at the same walls and want to change them and everything inside them. Combine that with the post Christmas let down, and weeks of these horrid temperatures, instead of just days of it, like we are used to in Kansas, and I have gone berserk from it!

(Or berserker,if you are a Kevin Smith fan)

Sorry, didn't mean to run on with my weather complaints. Back to the photos….

Here is the after.

It is still nice and rosy, but is toned down and cleaned up. The sides are covered in the tone on tone silk wallpaper that I had in my stash. Funny, it is the first vintage wallpaper I have ever bought, and I got it 20 years ago to cover the walls of my dining room and never used it. I'd stuck it away in the closet and found it a couple years ago when I realized that old wallpaper was a wonderful art supply. And now, here it is, used on my home after all.

I like to mix my china cabinet shelves up a bit and display more than just china. A framed old print (that I tried to sale at Miss Frenchies and Silverbella, but no one wanted! I'm glad now- sometimes I think that my home is full of nothing but things that I bought to sell and got stuck with), an old Haeger pot filled with silverware, ready to set out for a buffet, a collage I did at Silver Bella, and of course, some fairies and birdies.

For me, fairies and flowers in with the dishes makes for a much more interesting look.

The wallpaper is stapled up, instead of glued. Because I know that I am fickle. It doesn't look perfect, but with so much in the cabinet, who can tell?

Its just background. A nice, neutral, but pretty background!

The plates in the back corner are on a stair shaped stand, which is just what I need for my love of layering. I also like to hang things on the cabinet walls, pictures, cherubs, plates, etc.

Adding cake stands helps with layering too. I try for a variety of heights, and make lots of groupings instead of just lining up a matching set of plates. When my mom died, my sister got her set of Wild Rose dishes, and instead of keeping it for herself, she broke up the set and gave each of us a place setting. Mine is on this shelf, with a lot of other pale pink rosey dishes.

I went for an over all sense of "white", even though other colors were used as accents.

The lamp on that shelf was a quick project. I got it for 50% off of $5 at one of my favorite antiquing joints a while back and it was out in my studio waiting to see what it would become. Well, it didn't take much to transform it. In under 5 minutes, it had a whole new look.

1- switched the shade to an older one that I'd picked up at a garage sale a few years back.

2- pinned a rhinestone brooch to the shade

3- cut a page from a vintage French text book to fit the body of the lamp

4- drizzled glue on the book page, then rolled it around the lamp and burnished it down with my fingers

I really doubt that it took more than 2 or 3 minutes to do.

After the corner cabinet, I tacked the cabinet tops. Over the years, I'd collected tea pots, and over the years, as my tastes have changed, I edited the collection. My last redo had mostly rose patterned tea pots lined up on the cabinets. This time, I got rid of most of them, except a few plain white ones (I guess you can't see them in this photo, they are at the other end). I wanted to go very neutral and have much less up above. Now you can see the vines I'd painted on the wall years ago. I'd had so much crap up there, those were hidden.

They were also hidden by filth. Ugh, it was NASTY up there. All pottery got popped into the dishwasher, and I tried to clean the walls, and ceiling (yes, I told you I was going stir crazy with cabin fever- I WAS WASHING CEILINGS!!) but the greasy, dusty coating that was on everything was too awful to come off with my environmentally safe Windex. I had to use elbow grease and baking soda with a pot scrubber. And we are not people who fry much of anything. Where does all that grease come from???

That grease was another reason to put much, much less junk up there!

In this photo you can see a couple of the white pots that made the cut. I redid the narrow shelves between the cabinets too. I'd had decorated bottles, rosy shakers, and green depression glass there before.

Well, I could run on and on and on, telling you about my shuffling and reshuffling. I've been at it nonstop. You know how you take something from one room to another, then you have to redo to cover the hole that you made when you first moved that piece? Yep, that is the vortex that I have fallen into.

I switched the dining room picture with the mirror from the bedroom, and then had to dig around and find a different bedspread that matched better in there. Lots of those kinds of problems came up. But I am getting a new look with the same old stuff from other rooms, closets, or out in the studio, and keeping myself semi-safe from the ravages of cabin fever.

And I am getting lots of little problems solved. Like this ceiling tin that was covering the bad patch job. It has new screws, is up tightly, and now I've got it faux finished to match the ceiling.

At this rate, my New Years's resolution for 2010 will be completed before January is even over. And not in the typical way, where you give up. I'll run out of things to fix or redo around the house!!

There is more I want to do while I am trapped here in the house, but I think I am at the end of what I can do with with I have, and keep it Zero Dollar. I need a gallon of paint and some hardware before I go any further, and both cars and all three trucks are stuck in the driveway.

But today, I have Sugarwings. We've been climbing up and down the ladder that is in the kitchen and sitting in the dark closet playing with flashlights.

Now, its time to go and bake muffins, so I'd better run.

Zipping around

celebrations, fairies, family, holiday decor, Moving to DC, paintings

By Karla Nathan / December 21, 2009

This guy has been zipping around our house all afternoon, racing from one wall into another, never giving up and never slowing down. That's kind of how I've felt this week getting ready for Christmas! Not only did I have the regular, shopping, wrapping, baking, etc, we had the added pleasures of unpacking a 14 foot U-Haul trailer.

My husband gave up his apartment in Virginia, he will still office there, but will hopefully be home more, and only have hotel rooms a few days a month out that way. So, we had to make space for all the things he brought back home. Just as I was enjoying my pretty holiday decorations and thinking how peaceful and nice it all looked, he brought in boxes and bags and 2 extra TVs and extra mattresses and who all knows what.

So much for tranquil and pretty!

He works for a golf course company, and every year I paint a Christmas card for him to send out. In between unloading boxes, and wrapping gifts, I whipped up this little snowman and elf for him to use this season.

While I had my paints out, I painted this long sleeve tee shirt for Pixie Pie. I hope to paint a matching one for her cousin and buddy, Sugarwings.

The cartoon of the two of them together tickled me so much, I repainted it onto an ornament to mail to their great grandma.

Then, I painted on of Sugarwings alone for her special ball for 2009.

This is the one that I made for myself. I have a fondness for little pink putz houses and wanted one that felt like those.

For my brother Randy and his husband, Kevin, I painted their 3 dogs playing in the snow.

Max got a tree frog.

Addie's is a princess kitten.

It was nice to sit down and paint for a couple of hours while I watched the Survivor finale. There hasn't been a lot of sitting around lately! Today I shipped packages to family far away, and tonight, Sugarwings and I are making candy. Tomorrow is a big party, a craft day with friends, so after candy making, I need to clean the studio.

I'd better be racing off and get busy!

Over the top? Of course!

celebrations, collections, holiday decor, paintings

By Karla Nathan / December 19, 2009

Can you believe that Christmas is less than a week away???? I am loving my white lights and decorations so much, I'm already sad thinking about having to take them all down. Next year, I am getting my glitz on earlier, so I can enjoy it for longer!

I went with a much smaller tree this year, a little silver one that I think might be just the right size. It sets on a table top and below that, I've set a display of little trees and a bird cage full of lights.

For a tree skirt, I used the table cloth that I got from my Great Aunt Caroline's home. Her mom, my great grandmother, made it with squares cut from a WW1 silk parachute and hand crocheted squares.

The silver tree has so much sparkle to it, that I know I will never do a green one again! I've loved the white tree that I used in the past, but this one is even better. And since it is so small, I can overload it like crazy!

The table it sits on is in front of a mirror, so that the back of the tree shows. I used plenty of decorations on that side too. Which saved me from a problem I have had in the past, a front heavy tree from so many things loaded only where they can be seen on the front side! One year, the big old tree came crashing down because of that! I have always had to tie my tree to the curtain rod with fishing line so that never happened again.

That won't be a problem this year, since the tree is so balanced! The mirror idea worked out so well, that next year, I will hang an even bigger mirror behind the tree. Or maybe a wall filled with mirrors?

My ornaments are a little of everything. Lots of clear glass balls, vintage gold and silver balls, hand made things, bits and pieces of jewelry, keys, and sentimental things from the past. I have birds on the tree that were mine when I was a kid, and also a couple boxes of Martha Stewart clip on gold and silver birds that look old, but are actually from KMart, two years ago.

The little lamp shades are from a friend's shop. They clip right onto a light bulb.

There are boxes of ornaments that didn't get unpacked this year, my precious hand painted ones for each family member are still packed away. I will add to the collection again, I paint and date one for all of us every Christmas. But this year, I thought maybe Sugarwings was still a bit grabby and was worried about breakage. But she has not bothered the silver tree one single time, since she has her very own little pink tree to work on to her heart's content.

If you would like to make some of the sheet music stars, I have a how-to from last year HERE.

By having neutral furniture and walls, I can change the room to any color scheme by switching out curtains, pillows and accessories. For the holidays, I went with all white. But there is a big splash of color in the painting that I brought in.

For my antique sales in the past, I had cut an 8'x4' sheet of ply wood into an arch shape and painted a winter mural on it. I used to sell vintage ornaments off of hooks that I put onto the painted tree. But for now, I thought I'd haul it into the living room for the season.

Yes, its over the top. But that's kind of what I like about it!

PS- the Somerset Life issue that I showed you in my last post won't be out until January.
This copy is an advance one. I still haven't had a chance to look at it, and I can hear it calling my name to relax and sip eggnog by the fire and read it….

Bookie

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, paintings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / December 11, 2009

Poor Bookie. He just had his 14th birthday and isn't doing so well. See how he lists to the side? That is permanent. I wonder if he's had a stroke? We've bought him a space heater and the guy rarely leaves his pillow by the warm air now. He is only sitting on the couch to please me, and desperately wants to get back to his pillow.

Its so sad to see our pets age. To me, he'll always be a baby, but actually, he's a little old man. And smells pretty bad too. Sometimes I have to poke him two or three times to see if he is still alive, and I am dreading the day when the pokes don't get him to move. On the other hand, I will be relieved to think of him falling asleep on his favorite pillow by the space heater and drifting off to comfort. I can tell he is just not been himself for yeas, but lately, it seems much worse.

I've gotten used to Bookie hiding away, apart from the family and have let him go his own way. But opening up the boxes of hand painted ornaments from years past and seeing his happy little face, in a younger, happier time made me realize just how much he had changed.

You know, this isn't the post I started to write, it was going to be photos of my holidayed up living room. But I think I'll save that one for another day, and go hold my little stinky guy for a bit and tell him I'll always love him while I still can.

Treating the Treat Cabinet to a redo

flowers, paintings, redos, show and tell, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 20, 2009

There was a little detour on my way to getting the wallpaper ironed, cut, and sold… I decided to spiff up my studio for Thanksgiving dinner. The treat cabinet was treated to new (old) wallpaper in one of my favorite toile rose patterns. I thought about indulging myself and using one of the glorious new papers that I bought at Wallpaper Heaven, but decided to go with this, since it was more neutral. I can change the colors of table clothes, and decor inside this much easier with this background.

Plus, this goes well with my hand painted roses on the outside of the doors.

Years ago, I got this cabinet by trading $20 piece from a garage sale. Its been a lot of colors and styles since then!

My son helped me rearrange the furniture so that the cabinet was in a location near an outlet and now all the goodies will be illuminated! The room is much more functional this way too, more space to set up tables for dining or for crafting!

This is a before shot, with all my Silver Bella inventory spread out waiting to be transformed into Miss Frenchie inventory. I gave up and shoved it all in the garage for now and will deal with it after Thanksgiving.

(see the pile of wallpapers, waiting for me to get them ironed and cut?)

The treat cabinet is on the far left, in this picture.

I don't have a completely done After shot for you, but here is one mid-way. Even with all the clutter spread out, the room seems more stream lined with the furniture moved around, doesn't it?

I've always loved this big china cabinet, but it was facing the front door and was never really that noticeable in the room. Now, it is front and center.

Actually, that "I've always loved it" is a lie. When I bought it, I freaked out. It was one of those auction moments of pure panic when I realized that I bought a giant monstrosity that was too heavy for me to move, needed a complete makeover, was too big to fit in my van, and I was in trouble.

During the bidding fever, I was so excited to get this for under $50, that I wasn't thinking about what I'd do with it. After trying to remove the glass shelves and scratching the window in the door, and not being able to budge the giant, heavy thing by myself, I actually started to cry right there at Gold River Auction hall.

Luckily my sons bailed me out with the old farm truck. And luckily the old farm truck made it all the way to Kansas City and back.

Now, I love it!

The top shelf of the treat shelf just holds a set of dishes from the same auction ($22). I really should get rid of them, there is no space in the kitchen for them and I could use storage space in the studio for MORE WALLPAPER!

The jar of pink M&Ms with the crown topper was a gift from fellow Bella, Suzanne. She was the Frozen Charlotte Fairy at Silver Bella and was passing out these sweet dolls on tags all around! (not only was Suzanne generous, she is one of the funniest people you'll meet, and hanging out with her was a highlight of my trip)

The cottage print fan was a gift from Beth. She knows I collect pictures with a cottage and flower garden. I daydream about living in a home like that, and strive for that meandering, overfilled garden look here at my own farmhouse style cottage.

Beth also knew I'd love this print and brought it to me. So, I thought I'd share it with you. Its saturated colors will be beautiful in a project, so feel free to download and print it! If you get a chance, tell Beth thanks.

My plan for it, is to frame and hang it in the treat cabinet, the colors compliment the old picture of the little girl already hanging there.

Notice that I didn't finish the wallpaper inside the cabinet? I got close to the corner… I have to admit that I didn't match up my repeat either. I don't need perfection, sometimes good enough is plenty good for me.

The painting is a vintage watercolor that didn't have a frame. I taped it to a white framed mirror.

This project from last year's Silver Bella is hung over a mirror in another part of the studio. I love the reflection and light of having lots of mirrors, but get sick of seeing myself in them. This is a good solution!

Back to work for me. But remember, all comments count toward the November Giveaway bundle of trims.

Ghostly gowns, grumpy fairies and a dog two ways

Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, flowers, paintings, Sugarwings, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage

By Karla Nathan / October 24, 2009

Its done! I have the Grumpy Fairy book hand glittered and ready to sell. I've actually listed it in my Boutique and it is available now, if you would like one.

The story is illustrated with my watercolor and ink paintings, then each picture is layered over vintage flocked wallpaper in coordinating colors.

The pages are printed onto high quality, gloss card stock and it is bound in white. I really like the colorful, but soothing palette of colors and took a lot of joy in pulling it all together.

The fairy on the front cover is hand glittered, and I've added a touch or two inside the books too.

You had to guess when you saw this wreath on the bed in the first photo, that this picture would be coming, didn't you??

Beth came along to keep me company today while I glittered books. She worked on some Christmas ornaments in sepia while we chatted. But first, I helped her with photos of these glorious gown she is listing on Ebay. We have had some cold weather, but no hard frost yet, so the flower bed in the center of my drive way is still blooming a bit. We thought it made a pretty setting for the prom dresses.

YUM!

Isn't the skirt on this one about as frothy as a concoction can be?

After taking the pics, we had some fun with Picnik, and made this one ghostly. It was done in "ghostify".

This photo was retouched with "vampire scope", but I don't think it is actually spooky, just a cool look. I hope that these applications are available after Halloween, too, I really like this one. I used it on the ruffles above too.

I'd better get back to glittering. Too bad I can't just photo edit that in….

And remember, if you want to win one of my Grumpy Fairy books, I'll be giving one away next weekend as the gift for my October Giveaway.

All comments, all month count. And I also want to thank so many of you for the kind, kind words you sent my way. I needed that.