Silver Bella – Page 5 – Karla's Cottage

So nice we went there twice

fairies, holiday decor, Moving to DC, Silver Bella, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / October 29, 2008

We love the punkin patch so much, we had to go back for another visit. And I was day dreaming about more jars of the local pumpkin butter, I’d used up what I bought on the last trip to make batches of pumpkin bread.

Sugarwings doesn’t get tired of visiting the pumpkin farm either. She is enthralled by every detail, and we are so enthralled with her that we are happy to sit on the hay wagon and ride it round and round as long as our fairy grandbaby wants to.

Thanks for your interest in the tiaras! I did make more and will have some at Silver Bella.

I should be packing for my trip, I leave for DC tomorrow morning, had Sugarwings all day, ran errands all afternoon, then wrote captions for a story coming out in the next Romantic Country tonight.

Did you see that Fifi was back from France??!! With great photos of her trip and of her patio remodel. She is also asking how readers enjoyed the last issue of Romantic Country. If you read the article Carol and I worked on together, I’d really appreciate you mentioning it to Fifi. It never hurts…. Thanks!!

I am no where near ready for a trip and will probably be doing laundry at midnight. But I did get my early voting done today, Sugarwings went with us and got a fistful of stickers that said "I Voted". She was also telling everyone she saw at the grocery store about it afterwards. But she says "mybomma" instead of Obama.

While I am at our Virginia apartment, I’ll draw the winning names for October and will get the gifts in the mail when I return. you can still enter till the 1st.

Hopefully, I’ll have some down time while there and can update my blog roll too… I’ve been meaning to do that.

I also have a play date while out East! A few blog friends and some fella bellas are going to meet me at the Chantilly Big Flea on Sunday morning. We will be shopping in a pack that day, I can’t wait.

Well, I’m off to do laundry and find something to pack. I tend to spend all of my money on wallpaper and hats, and never have anything decent in the closet. I hate packing.

You know you want one- we all want to be a princess!

fairies, jewelry, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / October 28, 2008

So much for being done and packed up and ready to go to Silver Bella— I decided to make some tiaras, so had to unpack the basic crowns that were tagged and ready to sell!

But who can resist those midnight whispers, the ones that call you to the studio with and idea that you can’t ingore, no matter how you try?

I never can. I am weak willed when it comes to giving into the muse. If she calls, I answer, no matter what time of the day or night.

So, there I was, in the middle of the night plucking tiny velvet blooms from my garden of old hats and adding them along with sparkling pretties to these previously packed and tagged and ready to sell tiaras.

I have 2 more to foof up, (one lavender, one Aurora Borealis) . I also still have a couple more to sell pre-foofed, for you to embellish yourself or wear as is for a more sedate sparkle.

If you are attending Silver Bella, you know that a crown is just about required attire! If you don’t have one yet, these are for sale, and I can deliver it to you in person there.

If you are a princess or a queen who is without a crown, but not going to Silver Bella, one can be mailed to you. If you are interested in bedazzling your own head with one of my creations, here is the price list:

Fairy Ballerina – $30

Butterfly- $25

Velvet Floral Wreath- $25

(plus postage, if needed)

See, a dancing fairy on your head can make even a middle aged grammy with no make up on and wearing clothes covered in paint look good. Well, maybe not. But I felt pretty good with it on!

While obeying the muse, I decorated a couple of those bottle brush trees I was irritated with. Heck, their tags had already fallen off, I had to do SOMETHING with them!

Let me know if you’d like to buy the crown you deserve to adorn yourself with! (If you are wondering why the price is so low for an embellished one, I got a REALLY good deal on the basic crowns and I would rather pass on the savings than mark them up so high no one can buy one!)

Proud to be a Mid Westerner!

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, give away, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / October 27, 2008

Sbella_booth_230 Today is a packing and pricing day, the last table top of Silver Bella goodies are going into their boxes! Although, all the tags are falling off the stupid bottle brush trees, how irritating is that? I went with sticky tags on the bottoms, not string tags, because I didn’t want the strings to tangle. Now, I have a pile of loose tags at the bottom of the box.

I’ll have to keep that in mind as I tag the rest of the crap, er, I mean lovely inventory.

I HATE pricing. It is one of the chores that seemed to never end back when I used to host mini flea markets in my yard and chicken coop. For this event, I am doing as many signs as possible, instead of individual tags. I packaged things, like wallpaper journals and millinery flowers with the idea of saving tagging time. I did the same with hand painted charms, tags, vintage greeting cards, and china shard pendants too.

Too bad that idea won’t work for the old Christmas ribbon, some spools are nearly full, others aren’t, so the prices can’t be uniform.

And for small things like this, it is easier to do tags, than to take up space with a sign.

And the decorated bottles are all so different, it just doesn’t work well with them either, they will need to be tagged.

I’ll place a small sign on this basket that says "Embossed and Stamped Tags 3 for $1"

I also have a big picnic basket FULL of odds and ends for $1 each. Doilies, trims, cake decorating tid bits, just a hodge podge of goodies. I’ll set it on the floor because my tables are overflowing.

10′ x 10′ sounds like plenty of space, but I could have used twice that amount. Of course, I also could have been a little smarter and not planned to bring so many cheapo priced things….. and made better use of the space I have…

But- this booth really does represent what I have to sell in my Etsy shop or on my blog and that is what I wanted to accomplish. There will be bargains and surprises and good deals all piled together to dig through. I hope that the booth is enjoyed as much as I have enjoyed putting it together!! And if most shoppers are like me, they will appreciate some good deals and have fun digging through it all.

Dont forget that if you want to win something from my booth, I am having TWO giveaways!

A pair of crown earrings goes to a Bella, and another pair, along with black and white rose linens and a white glittered pumpkin will go to another reader. All you do is leave a comment to enter.

Speaking of Silver Bella vendor night, guess who is going to be there selling after all? Deb of Curious Sofa! Now, that will be a beautiful space to shop in!!!!!!

I am going to be glowing with pride to be part of the Kansas City contingent up in Omaha. With my friend, Gwen, who shops only in France for her wares, Carol the Queen of primitive glamor, and Deb with her unique Curious Sofa style all there and all from KC, those three will be showing off the best that the Midwest has to offer!

Makes me wish I’d gone for a better display instead of just piles of stuff… these three ladies will have the kind of spaces that make you stand at the entance and just say WOW.

Fun with Fabrics

antiques/junking, family, flowers, parties, Silver Bella, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / October 25, 2008

I’ve been playing hooky the last few days. Maybe a case of over confidence? I am so close to being ready for Silver Bella that I am doing fun stuff instead of finishing the work that needs to be done. I hope nothing comes up unexpectedly and I don’t have time to finish after all…

Today was a tie dye day. Normally, we do our dying outside, but the weather was just a tad to cool, so this is what my studio looks like now!

Here is a shirt I dyed last time, its an ombre type style. To get this affect, you saturate the piece with the base color of dye, then splash on colors that blend, starting with lighter at the top, darker at the bottom.

Then hang it to drip for 24 hours while the dye sets. I love the way the colors bleed as it hangs.

Last year, these hoodies were sold at Silver Bella, and I wore mine so much this year that I almost wore it out. It was white to start with and after a year of enjoyment and use, you couldn’t call it white any more. So the dye was a fix to make the shirt "new" again.

I also embellished the faded (from many washings) printed design on the back, with bronze metallic and silver glitter fabric paints.

If my other tie dye creations turn out picture worthy, I’ll show them later. Right now, they are wrapped up in rubber bands and soaking away in plastic bags.

Beth indulged me and took a hooky day shopping on Thursday, we went to the Jr. League Holiday Shop in KC. Hmm. Not my typical type of shopping, and we kept saying that we felt like tourists in another land. Everything was NEW and expensive, not stuff either of us buy!

But then, we came across Deb Dusenberry’s Curious Sofa booth like a beacon of light in the darkness we found her beautiful displays of fab finds!

See why I was so happy? Her style is so perfectly perfect. That woman has an eye for beauty, I love everything she does.

And while there, I found out that Deb is driving up from KC to go to the Silver Bella vendor night, so I made sure to invite her to visit Carol and I in our "Glitter Lounge". Carol (who is a good buddy of Deb’s) and I are stocking our room with wines and chocolates and inviting friends up to hang with us there. (Last year, after Silver Bella vendor night, we had a cocktail in the lounge, then a slumber party in Heather Bullard’s room. This year, Heather isn’t coming, so Carol and I will be having the girly night in our room instead.)

After eating enough free samples of gift basket style food offerings to justify our tickets to the Jr. League show (every other booth there had jam and crackers or spinach dip and pretzels), Beth and I escaped the newness of the holiday mart and made a run to Mission Road Antique Mall where Beth has a booth. We did a redo on her spot (sorry, no good pics of that, too bad, she has GREAT stuff- but there are pictures on her blog) and it was joy to play with vintage goodies after an afternoon of walking through booths of brand new goods!

Remember me telling you about the art show at Blue Plate Dinners that I painted a pear for? We went to the opening last night and what a cool event! The art was all food related and displayed in one gallon zip lock bags.

Quite a few friends of mine had artwork in the show, so it was fun to hang out with them for the evening.

Notice anything odd about my picture? Well my hand is a bit colorful from the tie dying.

Most people didn’t even comment, they are so used to seeing me covered in something, glitter, paint, dye, etc. that it would cause even more comment if I showed up somewhere pristine…

Vicki gave me a blog award, how sweet. I always appreciate the kind thoughts behind those, I am sorry I don’t always follow through with them. For this one, I am supposed to list 6 things that make me happy, so I thought this photo summed up most of them-

1- Sugarwings!!!

2- flowers

3- summertime and sunshine

4- pretty colors

5- a day with the family

6- spending time in this town I am so lucky to live in, downtown Lawrence has so much to offer.

How can you tell if your nose is broken?

fairies, give away, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / October 21, 2008

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Actually, no, not at all, I am not ready for bad weather, I am a warm weather lovin person and hate the thought of winter approaching!!! To me, that is all fall is, a warning that snow will be here way too soon!

And today was a gloomy autumn day, so I will apologize in advance for my photos not being very clear, there simply was no light in the studio.

Since the weather was ominous, with hints of cold and winter, I decided to make a shabby chic snowlady. Her arms are snips of millinery flower branches, instead of twigs and of course, her buttons are vintage rhinestones.

And look who I caught sneeking in from the garden to get away from the cold weather!

Luckily, I had a gilded cage ready and waiting for her. I’d found this little terrarium at a garage sale for a dime and all it needed was a bit of vintage foofing to make it appropriate to house a fairy.

Hmm, I can’t remember if I showed these two bracelets I pieced together this week. Pardon me if I am repetitive!

But I was whacked in the nose by a head butting baby today and can’t think straight with my face throbbing.

Does it look broken to you? My husband thinks I am exagerating, and honestly, I am feeling like a whiny wimp about it. I might take an advil and go to bed early tonight.

Today was a long one. Sugarwings was happy and sweet, just being a two year old, and I was being a 50 year old. Not always the best mix, energy wise.

We did work in the studio together, I finished up some odds and ends and she painted mermaids.

For now, she is enamoured with Ariel and tells anyone who will listen to her "I want Mooormaids, ALL the time." If we’d let her, she’d be parked in front of that DVD with a goofy grin on her face all day long.

Don’t forget, comments from Bellas get entered into a seperate drawing for a pair of crown earrings, and all other comments are thrown into the hat to win the October Surprise, (which isn’t really a surprise at all.)

Its this set of linen napkins, a white glittered pumpkin and another pair of crown earrings.

Thanks for being understanding about me not being able to answer all the comments, now that Sugarwings is here more.

October Surprises and how to win them

Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / October 17, 2008

Sissy sent me some beautiful, old blue topaz stones, from an antique necklace she took apart to remake into other designs.

When she sent them, she asked me to save them for something special, not just dump into my inventory of old pieces. So, today, I used a couple of them for Silver Bella necklaces, one for me and one for a special friend who loves this color of blue. I’m sure Sissy wouldn’t mind me sharing with her.

I made a pendant with a rose quartz stone for another pal.

This pendant is for another Bella buddy, who has a unique style. I thought she might appreciate this sparkling silver glass that I soldered and made into a charm.

And of course, I promised to give away a pair of my silver crown earrings along with the black rose linens and white glittered pumpkin, so I made up a pair for that gift.

This is the last of my patina-ed sterling crowns, now I am wishing I had bought more!

One pair will be for the October Giveaway winner.

And I think I will do a second giveaway in honor of Silver Bella. If you are a Bella, please let me know in your comment, and I will draw a winner from all the Bella entries and give the winner one of these pairs of earrings.

Yesterday was a paint day. I had a few more of these little charms left and wanted to get them all painted to add to the ones I am taking to Silver Bella to sell.

Yet another thing I wish I had more of! I really enjoy painting these charms.

While the paints were out, I did something a little silly, I fairy-ed up some old pictures. Well, actually one is a leprechan, one a fairy baby, and one is just tinted.

All feature lots of sparkles, but they don’t show up well in this picture.

(again, I am wishing for that magical, dream come true, fantastic Canon Rebel camera that I want so much but am too cheap to buy)

And here is the pear watercolor I did for the show at Blue Plate Dinners. This show is such a cute idea. The business is one of those make and take dinner places, you go in and fix up meals to freeze and then cook later on. Many of the meals are wrapped in one gallon zip lock bags. So the theme of the art show there is food, but the kicker is that all the artwork pieces need to fit into a gallon bag!

I can’t wait to see it all in place, this will be a fun one. The art will all be sold for under $100 each, so there will be some afforable things to buy. The husband of one of the owners is a well known and wonderful artist himself. He has asked a lot of his freinds to particiapte in the show, there will be a lot of really good art there!

I’m going to Blue Plate this afternoon to drop off my pear painting and to make some calzones while I am there. My family is HOOKED on the calzones. Sugarwing’s daddy is coming to help me, I plan on making a freezer full.

In case you didn’t remember what the rest of the October Suprise was (well I guess it isn’t a surprise if I show you, huh?) here is a photo.

Here is a Prize Recap:

If you want to win the October Surprise of:

4 black and white rose patterened napkins (vintatge)

a handmade sculpy white glittered Pumpkin

and a pair of silver crown earrings

All you do is leave a comment, on any post any time all month, every comment is entered.

If you are a Bella and want to win a pair of crown earrings, just leave a comment letting me know that you are attending Silver Bella this year and I will draw a name from that group and bring the earrings with me to the event to give to you there. (by the way, if you enter this one, you are automatically entered in both)

Hey, remember HGTV’s Rate My Space? That site is addictive. I honestly try not to look at it very often because there are way too many great ideas to see and I get caught up in surfing it.

But its fun, so I added some photos again, this time of my stairway redo. I’d appreciate it if you dropped in to rate me!

It is here:

Karlas Cottage Vintage Rose Stairway

Table #2 packed and ready to go!

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / October 14, 2008

Progress is happening with my preparations for Silver Bella!

I have table #2 set up, priced and PACKED up!!

These photos are a rough draft. I don’t know why I show bad photos…. but I do.

I think this table is plenty FULL. Of course, it is a foot shorter than the one I will actually be using up in Omaha at the event, so that will help the display a bit.

The doll house shelf was great for height, and I can fill it will lots of pretties, it is a unique display piece.

One thing I really like about it, is that I can turn it on its side and all the little ‘rooms’ become spaces I can pack the stuff in to take.

But, instead of just wrapping the pretties and packing them into the ‘rooms’ I put all the goods into cardboard boxes first.

That way, when I go to set it up, I can remove the boxes and turn the shelf upright, then start loading the shelves directly from the boxes.

If I had packed directly into the ‘rooms’ I’d have had to unpack all the little stuff onto the floor or somewhere in the way while I turned the shelf upright. I’m glad I thought of that.

Well, actually, I’d already packed it, when I thought of it, and had to re-pack it. But I’m glad I did ! It will save time when I have a short period to get the truck unloaded and the booth set up.

Oops, as I look at this hat full of vintage cards, I realize that I forgot to make a price sign for the cards.

Wonder what else I have forgotten??

This display is a jewelry cabinet with a glass door, that I painted, and laid on its back instead of standing up.

I have tussie mussies and pastel trees sprinkled around the table top, and lots of little things here and there.

I tried to have a variety, and a good price range. There are things as low as 50 cents. Now why is it worth my time to pack, price, and drag something that is only 50 cents all the way to the sale??? Oh well, those quarters add up I guess, and also, there are some cool little things that I liked and figured other people would too. So, I am bringing them, whether it makes sense or not!

For vintage Christmas ornaments and little doo dads, I bundled up and packaged some things together in gift bags, perfect for little hostess or teacher gifts, and priced them at $3 each.

Yep, I have some bargains!

And I made up another box full of my millinery blooms.

It feels good to have two tables completed and packed away, priced and ready to set up! One table was jewelry, this was pastels and pretties, the third will be neutrals and whites. I hope to get to it later this week.

Today is a craft day with a few blog friends, so I’d better go and clear some crap off my work tables before the baby gets up and I don’t have a chance to do it and no one has a place to craft at!

Would you like to have a pair of silver crown earrings?

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Food and Drink, give away, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / October 10, 2008

My grandiose plans to tag and pack up all the jewelry didn’t come to fruition. I’ve had Sugarwings as a helper, so just didn’t get a lot done!

There are a lot of things she is good at helping with, but sorting and pricing jewelry isn’t one of them.

Sugarwings is a good shopper. We went out and ran some errands and picked up Halloween themed paper goods for a bonfire I am planning tomorrow night.

She is also a good sprinkler. I handed over the sprinkles container and let her decorate the cupcakes herself.

I was hoping to do some autumn decorating before tomorrow night, but simply haven’t had a chance. She and I picked some hedge apples and squash. That might be it for my fall decor this year! Maybe I will call it "minimalist".

Being busy with getting things ready for Silverbella and having a two year old move in with me have kind of slowed me down a bit.

If you aren’t getting answers from me for you rcomments, please know that I am reading them at nap time, or after her bedtime, and enjoy seeing each and every one of them, I just might not have time to reply.

It’s nap time now, so Twinkle and I have been cleaning up this smoking stand to use for a display at my booth. I need to find a knob to fit the door, and it will be ready to go. It is perfectly aged and crackled up! And just the right size to add height to a table of goods for sale.

I like small cabinets for display. I can set something on top of it, inside it, and underneath too.

I’ve been so busy baby chasing that I forgot I had told you I was going to add to the October Giveaway.

If you remember, there is a set of black and white rose linens and a white glittered pumpkin already in the prize pack.

I think that what is missing from the prize is a pair of earrings. And since so many of you are interested in Silver Bella, but might not be going, I thought I’d offer a pair of the patina-ed sterling silver crown earrings that I am making up to take to that event.

All comments all month count as an entry. And please do continue to comment, sorry I can’t answer them all.

Playing Store

jewelry, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / October 9, 2008

Country Living has a sneak peek at their Silver Bella article coming up in the next issue. You can see a slide show of 15 pictures here.

And here is a sneak peek of my Silver Bella booth.

I cleared a dining table in my studio to use for a practice set up of my jewelry displays.

Setting all of this up, reminds me of when I was a little girl and loved to play "store". I’d line up my toys and pretend they were for sale, and my pony tailed Barbie was my coworker as we wrote up receipts for all the purchases.

This isn’t quite the final product, I’ll be tweaking it tonight, then will pack it all up and have the jewelry portion of my merchandise set to go!

The table I am practicing on is a foot short than the tables we will be renting at the Market Faire, but it is close enough to give me an idea of what to bring.

My displays are going to be ready to go, just pull out of the packing box and set up.

I’ve enlisted the help of all the lovely ladies out in the studio to be my models.

Actually, this hand painted charm, isn’t jewelry, it is more of a tag.

And the necklace on this lady is vintage but not hand made. I will have both, and really should have them separated better when I do the final set up.

This lady might be better holding bracelets than necklaces. She is pretty dainty and has a tiny neck.

Do you remember this elegant belle? I bought her from Beth, and she will fit right in at Silver Bella, she will sell pearls for me.

I know red isn’t my color, but this is still a nice way to sell pendants. I hope the dark red isn’t too jarring for the rest of the space… I’ll have lots of pastels, white, and silver.

And I know it wouldn’t be that hard to recover this display, but it just isn’t high on my list of priories. Do you think it will matter?

Prolificity

holiday decor, jewelry, magazine pictures or articles, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / October 8, 2008

Have I mentioned that I work fast? Last night during the debate and the discussion afterward, I made these earrings and bottles.

I’d found some cute little sterling silver crown charms, but they didn’t look as good in person as they did online when I found them. So I soaked them in a patina solution and aged them a bit.

After making so many pairs of crown earrings that I was starting to go cross eyed, I decided to use them for some other things too.

Like this bottle’s necklace.

And what do you think of my bottle toppers? Beth was selling some of this Victorian glass fruit and of course, my mind went directly to using it for stoppers.

It was a bit pricey for this use, but worth it, I think. So much more interesting than a cork!!!

On Monday, before Sugarwings came for her sleep over, I worked on making some more price signs for my Silver Bella booth.

To save time, I am doing simple pricing, with a sign that states the price of an entire species of craft. No individual tagged items, or at least not many.

So, I am trying to have multiples of items to sell. No two will be alike, of course, but lots of things in the same genre.

Wallpaper folders are complicated to make, but I love the results. My Sissy had made a folder for me using a cabinet card as a pattern and I got the idea from that.

But I glue two vintage papers together to make them covered inside and out, and these papers can be fragile to use. Also, I try to make sure they are interesting from all angles.

Including the backs.

Then I fill them up with ephemera, coordinating wallpaper and old book page scraps to match the design of the folder.

While I had ephemera and glue out, I made a few post card Christmas ornaments.

Only 3 so far. If I don’t get more made, I will have to price them individually instead of using a sign!!!

These are some jewel cases that I bought at a flea market earlier this year. The insides are a perfect pink, and one has a rose, the other says Princess!

But the outsides were kind of blah.

To spiff up the exteriors, I added velvet ribbons, rhinestones and old velvet flowers.

If only that would work on me. Seems like the opposite is true with me, the older I get, the less froofy stuff I can wear. Not fair!!!

Not like I would ever have worn this any way. Who could?? I think it was either a Halloween costume or dance recital dress. I hope it wasn’t real clothing….

Being a cheapskate, I was attracted to the the fact that it was only $2 but covered in about $40 worth of sparkly things!

Sparkly things that looked like they would be easy to pick off.

But aren’t.

Sometimes it sucks being a cheapskate. Now I HAVE to pick them all off or I will feel like I wasted my money. All two dollars of it.