Sugarwings – Page 21 – Karla's Cottage

Kick starting the summer fun season

By Karla Nathan / June 2, 2012

Sugarwings is now a proud graduate of Pre K.

She was so excited to get her diploma that she flew through the air to show it to her mommy.

The celebration was at the playground of her school, and Dewdrop enjoyed playing on the big kid's toys. Her Daddy liked it too.

There were carnival games, cotton candy, and lots of laughs.

We've been having plenty of fun lately, we made a trip to the KC Zoo too.

Personally, its not my favorite zoo. The Topeka one is ideal for small kids, and the Omaha fantasy world zoo is amazingly fun and entertaining with what feels like adventures, not cages.

But the one in KC offers lots of things to ride.

We bought the arm bands that give everyone unlimited access to the merry-go-round, boat, sky chair, train, and tram. But the place is so big that we didn't get to ride all of them even once, let alone over and over.

Mostly, the two little grand fairies wanted to be carried everywhere. Their pal, Sara, was their favorite ride. She was happy to have one or the other little girl in her arms all day.

Daddy did his share of carrying them too.

Doesn't my son look handsome with his newly shaven face? Its been so long since I'd seen him without a beard, I'd forgotten what he looked like freshly "mowed" as Sugarwings called it.

The monkeys were extra friendly and would put their hands up to the glass like they wanted to touch the humans visiting them.

It looks like its going to be a wonderful summer! My favorite time of year.

The Summer of Salads, and Garage Sale Goodies!

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / May 31, 2012

Its the most beautiful time of the year. Garage sale season has begun! I went to a couple estate sales with Beth and the other Karla.

One was a gold mine of crafty, vintagey goodness! My favorite find was this box full of old starched lace Easter eggs for $2.75. The eggs are smashy, but the flowers are wonderful and so are the velvety trims on some of them. I've already harvested the best parts and have them set aside for future creations.

At another sale, I picked up this satin gown for my grand fairy for $2.

Her favorite thing about it, is the big skirt that poofs out like a cloud when she sits on the register in the floor.

On the way to Beth's, I stopped at a garage sale, and found an under the bed, Rubbermaid container full of dress up clothes for the kids for only 50 cents. Which I thought was a pretty swell deal for the carton alone, not to mention the piles of fun clothes inside.

After going through the costumes (M&Ms, clowns, fairies, hula dancers, flappers- it was full!) I found this fairy garland and thought it was kind of nice. On closer inspection, I realized that they were very old pansies pulled off a vintage hat! Yippee!

Those are going to MY dress up pile, not to the kid's. Twinkle was kind enough to model them for me.

This retro chic stove was at one of the estate sales we went to. I'm still in a Tiffany blue mood after my trip to CA, so I was really attracted to it.

There were lots of old bottles, some floral hats, for $3 a piece (yippee again!), not a bad haul.

I especially like this old rat poison bottle, it will be used in my Halloween decor this fall. Doesn't it look like the poison was so compelling that the rats tried to chew their way into the bottle?

Uhm, if you are wondering why my curtains are in a bowl of water, its because I accidentally squirted blueberry juice onto the delicate lace. I hurriedly grabbed a bowl of hot water with vinegar and dish soap in it, and tucked the stained bit into the bowl to soak. It seemed quicker than trying to take them down and wash them.

And I think its done a good job of getting the stain out. I've replaced the soapy water with clean water a couple times to rinse them, I was trying to treat the old lace as gently as I could.

And why was I squirting blueberry juice? Because last week I officially declared this the "Summer of Salads" and started off with a juicy fruit salad.

My goal is to have at least 2 to 3 fresh made salads in the fridge at all times. I chopped fruit, spritzed it with lime juice, and added a sprinkling of Trader Joe's cinnamon sugar, the kind that comes in a grinder.

I also made a carrot salad, using a bag of shredded carrots, a half cup of broken pecans, 3/4 cup big golden raisins, a cup of chopped celery, a pinch of sea salt, and enough dressing to moisten it all. The dressing I chose was a strawberry vinaigrette from Kroger's.

Simple to throw together with the prechopped carrots and bottled dressing, and great to snack on when I have a sweet tooth.

The third salad was a standard one we always have on hand. Equal parts of chopped cucumbers ( I like those baby sized ones), celery, and tomatoes with sea salt,cracked pepper and some balsamic vinegar with olive oil. This will be even better to make when our garden takes off and we have our own veggies to chop!

No, I'm not making a big bowl of yarn salad. This was something pretty that I saw at Beth's home.

This too.

Even prettier, this is some of the stuff I bought from her! She had piles of things ready to go to her booth at the mall. I of course, dove right in. She has the BEST stuff.

I'll leave you with some photos of what's new in the Boutique.

(yep, I actually got some work done! Its only a handful of stuff, but its a start.)

My own thoughts on blogging and Making a project my own

Dew Drop, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / May 29, 2012

Thanks again for all your comprehensive and thoughtful comments on blogs and the changing blogworld. My theory is that our nitch of blog friends is going to keep on enjoying the blogs and pals they have come to know, as well as exploring new ones they meet through links and mentions on their present faves.

Maybe blogging is not as big as it was, but it did grow with a BOOM when it took off!

And maybe Its not growing like it was, people tire of writing, lose purpose or move onto bigger and better things.

Also, younger groups of tech savy net surfers might not have the patience to visit and read blogs. Maybe for their group, tweeitng and pinning gives them the quick fix they need.

But it looks to me like my peeps, the ladies who "get" each other and have found each other online are not looking to lose contact. I think that there is still plenty of blog love to be shared between us.

Maybe we don't always stop to comment, like we did when we first became involved with blogging, but when there is a sad incident, or a reason to congratulate, or a subject that will make you think, our blog buddies are there to share it and do step in to leave their thoughts. I might have 2,000 plus hits on my blog in one day (not including the people who read it through facebook, google reader, etc.) and still only get 3 or 4 comments. But, when my dog died, and I was heartbroken (still am) so many of you came by to ease my pain.

I have NO plans on leaving. Like I mentioned in my post about this subject, I made time to sit and write my posts, even when I was not back in the swing of real work after so much time away. Blogging isn't work to me, its become a big part of my life. A daily journal almost.

I'll be posting away long after all the readers are gone. My pal Laurie and I were saying that when we are in nursing homes, we'll be writing about making necklaces out of leftover macaroni from lunch, and how to dye things with our chocolate pudding.

Our classes at the event in CA were useful and pretty. I've already got mine in use. Kecia gave us a lamp shade frame and some goodies to foof it up, then turned us loose. I brought some extras from home to add to mine, since I had a spot in mind for it in my living room and wanted a certain look.

And my pal, Lori was ready to share too. She gave me this teensy crocheted basket to tie onto the lace. I glued a button with an "N" on it for Nathan, and filled it with crystal beads.

The fun of the design is adding all the little tidbits here and there to the trailing lace. I brought chandy crystals and backed them with floral wallpaper, and a few other things, like this tiny wooden egg.

And of course, I needed a fairy.

Kecia had a series of shades she had done herself as examples, I wish I'd taken some photos of hers. She is one of the most talented artists I've met in a while and I really enjoyed her booth on Vendor night.

She is also an adventurer and is taking a few weeks to travel from her NJ home to CA and back for Tiffany's. Looks like she'll be able to stop and visit Kansas on her return trip, and I look forward to having her here.

Another class from the event got a slight alteration from me too. I tend to rework the classes with all of my own supplies, and this one was a big change. I had the watercolor sketch for the banner backdrop with me and wanted it to be featured instead of a picture of Audrey on the scrapbook we made, so I turned the book horizontal to make it fit, and changed the color scheme up a bit.

Knowing that we were making a scrapbook, I packed photos of my loved ones, and lots of vintage papers.

The scrap book papers were all black and cream, I covered some of them in my own colors, but still using the shapes and sizes provided, and tying in some of the blacks when I could.

The flowers behind Dewdrop were part of the kit.

And I really liked the shape of this paper. I used the provided piece, and covered the left side of it, added the photo and flowers, then let the rest of the original paper peek out on the right.

There were two other projects over the weekend, I'll show those later. For now, I'll leave you with more scrappy pages from this class.

I was diligent about getting my book done, I knew that I wouldn't get back to it once I got home and it had been way too long since I'd made a grandchild photo album. And yes, it was finished before the weekend ended! While swap night was going on, I sat at my table spot to cut and glue away the evening.

Nests and fairies and birdies and peeps

bird song art event, Dew Drop, fairies, family, free images, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 26, 2012

While I was in CA, I celebrated my 54th birthday, and it was a joy to be with friends that day. A group of them took me out to lunch the day before, and Carol treated me to dinner that night.

My roomie, Lori, even brought me a sweet little gift in bed when I woke up on my birthday. Now, that is special treatment!!

Lori has some photos in Jenny Doh's new book, and one of them is of me! Well, part of me, at least.

As a thank you to my freinds for making my birthday so nice, I made up some wire nests (from my Twining and Twirling online workshop).

These are all on their way to my thoughtful buddies now. Just a token to thank them for the great weekend.

(I've added a few nests to my Boutique also)

While we are talking nests, I thought I'd show you my banner from the Birdsong swap I joined. I wish I could have been a part of all of them, but I was a little overwhelmed at the time. There were some really great swaps, I was impressed. And so glad that I was in this one! I usually try to join one swap whenever I go to an arty event, because I spend so much time oohing and ah-hing when I watch the trades getting opened and end up jealous over the beautiful loot everyone gets.

These letters were temporarily clipped to my curtain rod in the kitchen, but I kind of like them there, and they might hang out that way for a while.

This book is a Birdsong treat that I got from my friend, Tami.

Its more than perfect, because when I send messages to the Birdsong group, I call them my "peeps". Plus, I kind of like fairies a bit…

Its an adorable book, that Sugarwings and I fell in love with right away. Cute illustrations,and a fun little story filled with songs and poems and lots of fairies.

She has been entranced by it, and after I read it to her, she sat and looked at the book for over an hour.

And this is a kid that doesn't sit still much.

The peeps who came to Birdsong were overly generous! Very thoughtful gifts came our way, what a wonderful bonus on top of the great weekend of fun that I had with all the ladies.

I'll leave you with a scan of one of my favorite pages, and of the cover. Click to open in a larger size before you save them to your computer to print.

Thoughts on blogging

family, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / May 23, 2012

Lately, its been really hard for me to get back in the swing of things. I'm so out of my normal routine that I can't seem to find my way back into it.

Its been a LONG time since I've taken care of my Boutique, and that poor little neglected Etsy shop… the poor thing, it is just going to whither up and die if I don't add something soon.

For the whole month of April, I was working on getting things set up for Birdsong, then had the event itself and my double the fun vacation at Tiffany's then onto Disney with the grand fairy.

Since that, I've limped back into production slowly, and not so surely. My days have been more catch up than getting ahead. I'm happy to say that I finally made something new, at a fun craft day with Beth a few days ago, and I actually listed some supplies in the Boutique.

These are new buckles that I oxidized to create a vintage looking patina on.

I've done the same with some pink rhinestone chain.

And some aurora borealis chain too. Its not much, I really need to get photos of the piles of stuff waiting to be sold posted onto the site.

But honestly, I've been just puttering my way through the weeks, not getting a lot done. Mostly goofing off stuff, like I think I'm still on vacation. We've gone to the zoo, had tea parties, I've done yard work, edited trip pictures, messed around with rearranging the studio, wrote in my blog, visited friends, sat in the yard and watched the new chickens, just fun little things.

My blog is supposedly "work" for me. Its how I sell things. But, if I don't have things to sell, its not really working, its just hanging out!

Which brings me to this- my buddy, Carol, gave a talk at Tiffanys. She spoke about blogging, business, and related topics.

Here are some things that came up in the interesting discussion with the crowd. Is blogging dead? Do people even read them any more?

If you blog, should it be all business? Some thought posts should be direct and short, and stick to a subject. That people only cared about photos, or only about Pinterest, not blogs. But where do you get the photos for Pinterest if there are no blogs, I wonder?

Others said they hate blogs that try to push shopping on you. That they feel used if a blog is just used for self promotion.

The way I see it, if I don't use my blog to sell some stuff here and there, I have no excuse to keep one and will have to get a (god forbid) REAL job (gasp!).

Even though I show photos of whats new in the shop (when I get off my behind and add something to the shop, that is), I try not to cram it down the reader's throat. And its hard for me to stick to just business, although I think my family would prefer that I did. Or to keep it short and simple.

What do you look for in a blog?

Do you think blogs are on their way out?

How do you read them, if you do- Facebook, Googlereader?

Tea Party Time

Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / May 21, 2012

Sugarwings and I decided to throw a tea party. Laurie had given her some tiny cookie cutters and we wanted an excuse to bake!

I kept her home from PreK to bake treats, make sandwich roll ups, dips, and veggie trays then set the table pretty with me. We had a great time planning and preparing.

She also learns about counting from gathering the cups and saucers, as well as how to set the table. So I didn't feel too bad about her skipping school, we had lots of learning opportunities throughout the day.

She was so excited about the party, she changed her dress 4 times.

We'd invited about 20 people, but not all could make it. And some forgot to come, but I don't think my fairy girl even noticed, since she was face first into the sugar bowl most of the meal.

It was a special day for me with her, soon she'll be a kindergartner and I won't have the option to pull a skip day with her any more. But…. Dewdrop was sure into the tea party herself. I have a feeling that my party days are just beginning!

Welcoming the hens to their shabby chic chicken coop

Hens, kitties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 19, 2012

The ladies seem to be adjusting to their new home and are happy to be here. They came from a larger group of chickens, and I think they will like their extra space and room to roam. Ariel appreciates the mirror.

They've been up on their perches too, and even like the chandeliers. I'll have to get a picture of them on one.

Sugarwings tends to think of the coop as her playhouse, but it hasn't been covered in poo yet.

Soon, it will be much less appealing to hang out in.

Ariel, Small World, Unicorn, and Mator don't use their nesting boxes yet, though. The eggs (yep, we already have egg production starting the first day!) are nested under the table holding the boxes instead of in them.

We started with 4 Rhode Island Reds, and have room for lots more, so will pick up a variety of different kinds of birds later on. We found these on Craigs List for six bucks a piece, and the farmer met us halfway from his place in the country to drop them off.

I'd really like to get some that lay those pretty blue/green eggs.

And I look forward to the time when I can let them have the whole yard to play in and find bugs. For now, they are penned in till they adjust.

The other animals will need some adjustment time too. Twinkle and the cats have been pacing along the fence trying to find thier way in to properly greet the new arrivals. I have a feeling that Twinks will need to be locked up whenever the ladies are having a promenade around the yard.

Or the birds won't be surviving very long. I'm not sure about the cats. Can a cat take out a hen? I know they want to.

We were told that our coop could hold 50 chickens comfortably, but we aren't interested in doing that. Maybe 10-12 at the most. I don't want so many that I can't get to know them!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Hens, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 13, 2012

When I got back from California, there was a delightful surprise waiting for me as a Mother's Day gift! Our Gypsy and Dewdrop completely cleaned up my studio and garage from the chaotic mess left behind from Birdsong!

She even took photos of them at work for me. And it looks like they turned the day into a party, drinking ginger ale from the plastic wine flutes I'd bought for the event.

Before I left on my trip, I was drained and exhausted from the prep and work, and excitement of Birdsong and I just wasn't up to cleaning up before my flight. Then, I was even more tired from a week of fun on the trip and dreaded facing the rooms as I'd left them.

It was the best gift ever to get home and see how thoughtful my girls are!! They cleaned, swept, and put all the furniture back in place. I don't know how the two of them managed to bring the big dining room table from the garage to the studio on their own.

Not only that, but she saved up some floor sweepings while she worked. Its funny because when Beth and I cleaned the room to get ready for Birdsong, Beth told me that there was enough detritus on the floor to make a whole project. And after the party, there was apparently even more.

Because that is just what our Beloved Gypsy did! She used the feathers, glitter, moss, ephemera, ribbons, lace and beads to create a wire wrapped fairy for me.

Now, that is a true souvenir of the weekend! And one of the sweetest Mother's Day Gifts ever.

But that isn't all, today is shaping up to be quite the Mom's Day. My family made an early morning run to a farm to buy us some hens! Yep, the ladies are finally here.

I'll have some photos of Ariel, Small World, Unicorn, and Mator soon. (guess who just got back from Disney and was full of great names for the new pets?) But for now, I'm off to enjoy my special day and hang out with my loved ones.

I hope that your day is a special one too.

Delightful Disneyland

Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / May 11, 2012

This little angel doesn't look exhausting, does she? Oh, but she kept us running!

She was worth the chase, and I loved our trip to Disneyland.

Especially since we went off season, and on a Monday. NO LINES. And I mean NONE.

We loved Ariel's ride so much that we just stayed on it and kept going round and round, we didn't even have to get off and get back in line. Because there were NO LINES! wow, I was happily surprised by that.

All of the characters we met were happy to see us and spent some time conversing. Alice really liked the white rabbits on Sugarwing's dress.

Before our trip, I bought a few cutey pie dresses on sale at TJMax for about $10 each, with some leggings and light sweaters for layering to keep up with weather changes. That was the right choice, and I thought she looked adorable. Even with the dresses pulled up over her head most of the time. At least they all had underskirts.

But the highlight of the park for our kiddo? Ariel, her hero. We made reservations at Ariel's Grotto for lunch, and the morning leading up to meeting the world's most wonderful princess was filled with anticipation.

Finally, lunch time came, after hours of Sugarwings telling us she was soooo hungry, trying to convince us that we should go straight to the restaurant at about 9am. And 9:15, 9:16, and so on.

Meeting her idol was everything she had hoped it would be.

And was followed by meeting a few of the "lesser" princesses, who while weren't as dreamily ideal as Ariel, were all beautiful and she was happy to meet them.

Our own princess was so exicted by Belle, that she did a twirl for her and whacked her elbow on the wall. Belle was kind enought to kiss her arm and make it feel better.

Cinderella sat down to chat.

Sugarwings didn't see any reason to let her lunch get cold just because royalty was visiting. She got a laugh from each princess who came by, just by being her own sweet, silly self.

She sure kept us entertained.

From her insistance that her Lego race car had to be the tallest one ever.

(even tho it would only roll a couple inches)

To her zest in chasing down every character that she saw. (Even though it was a bit like being outside with Twinkle when she sees a bunny and takes off. Zoom, she was GONE. )

Good thing the park wasn't crowded, and we could easily follow her.

And her joy in the small things, spot lights, statues, flowers, etc. This kid would have been fine not going on a single ride, she was happy with just poking around and looking at all the details. She played with this spot light on the carpet for about 30 minutes while her tired, old grandparents enjoyed the break and sat on a sofa in the air conditioning while clips from our favorite movies played on the giant screens.

I'd never been to Disneyland in CA before, and it won't be my last time. I enjoyed the small, compact size of it, and the fact that everything was in walking distance. No boat to the tram to get to the parking lot to drive to the hotel like you have to endure at the Florida park.

We could easily walk to the hotel mid-day to take a break and rest, then walk back later on for more fun.

We stayed at the original, recently remodelled, Disney hotel and it felt upscale and pampering.

I was also thrilled with the quality of the food. We had great meals Downtown Disney and in the parks too. We'd packed lots of organic, healthy snacks to carry with us, so bought very little in the way of junk. A couple little treats here and there, just because it was a vacation. But mostly, we sat down at good restaurants and ate grilled fish, or chicken, and lots of veggies.

By bringing our own snacks, we saved a lot of cash and could spend more at restaurants and eat much healthier. And it was nice to take the time to have a sit down dinner with a glass of wine after traipsing through the park all day.

Yep, it was all the best.

The only thing that could have made it better, would have been to have the rest of the family with us. I hope we can take them sometime, fun is best when shared.

PJ Day

Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 26, 2012

Recently, Sugarwings had pj day at preK.

She had a pair of brand new JayHawk jammies that her Pop Pop picked out for her and couldn't wait to show them to her friends.

Cute, huh? Of course, around here, lots of days end up being pj days. If my husband is out of town, I sometimes work in my jammies all day. They aren't as cute as hers, I tend to go for old tees, but its a comfy way to work!

And at the end of a jammie day, no matter how little I've gotten done, it still feels impressive to accomplish much at all since I look like such a lazy butt.