Sugarwings – Page 22 – Karla's Cottage

Dew Drop, fairies, family, games, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 23, 2012

I had some much needed Sugarwings time over the weekend, and as always, she brought lots of smiles to our house.

She helped me with some sugar cookies, although she doesn't realize that her batch never made it into the main pile of goodies. I wouldn't call myself a germ-a-phobe, (then again, some people do think that), but I'm always really careful about stuff kids bake. I separate the dough, give her some of her own to work with and do whatever disgustingly fun stuff she can think of to do to it.

I think our littlest fairy will be enjoy baking with us too. Dewdrop got out of the tub the other day, saw me making cookies, and ran naked as fast as she could to her play kitchen to get a spoon, and zoomed to me demanding to help!

Sugarwings and I also played dress up with the wedding gowns I found in a closet and got out to sell at Birdsong.

(bad photo, sorry)

The train was her favorite part of the gown.

She also helped me with my latest obsession, Drawsomething.

She likes to add the finishing touches to my pictures.

On Saturday, I took a break from working on Birdsong set up, and spent the entire day with my handsome husband.

We cleaned our old, beat up pontoon boat and got it ready for the lake. On the way there, we tried to save a few bucks by filling the tank at the gas station instead of paying Marina prices.

He wasn't quite sure it was worth the effort, but did it for me. I'm the cheapskate in the family. But hey, that extra dollar a gallon adds up!

We also ran errands around town, went out for a sushi dinner and saw Hunger Games (my second time, and I'd be happy to see it a third time)

Beautiful weather, accomplishments made, great company, good food, and a handsome man by my side. Not a bad weekend.

He's a pretty hot grandfather, huh?

There was even time to play a few more games of Drawsomething.

Not as many as I would like, though.

If I didn't have Birdsong to get ready for, I think I'd be playing this game way, way too much!

By the time I'm set up for Birdsong, I hope I still have energy left to play, but I have a feeling I'll be doing more of this!!

Well, I’m glad that is over

Music, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 20, 2012

The dreaded demise of Picnik occured and it was no big deal for me. I won't miss it at all since I found Picmonkey,. They are adding gadgets and tricks and making improvements weekly and its already just as good as Picnik ever was. Easier to use, even.

What I do miss, is my Sugarwings. I haven't seen her ALL WEEK, which is unusual for us. Its not easy being without her for that long. So, I have to post a photo of her to make myself feel better.

Its been a long, long, rough week, with many bad things and heartbreaks, but I am not going into the depressing details. I'm not trying to whore out my sadness for comments, so please don't think I'm one of those people. I'm just being honest about life, its an up and down process and some weeks are hardly bearable, some are joyful. That's how it goes.

But this week is ending, a new one is beginning and it will bring Birdsong buddies for me to play with. Things are looking up!

Somebody That I Used to Know – Walk off the… by PayeTaChatte

I've kept busy all week, getting the studio and yard cleaned up, played Drawsomething, and baked, baked, baked. My freezer will be filled with more cookies than a ton of ladies could devour by the time they all arrive for our little arty party weekend. Heck, I might send them all home weighing a ton each.

While I've waited for this week of hell to end, I've kept this song going in the background. I've played the original version, the one from American Idol (with darling Phillip Phillips), and the one from Glee. The only one I don't care for is the one from the Voice. (Yes, I've been watching a lot of TV too….)

You can find all of those versions of this song here.

Things are coming together for Birdsong. Well, it might not look like it, but this is in the process of sorting and organizing.

This side of the room is not quite as far along. But its getting there.

Here comes Peter Cotton Tail, Hopping down the Fairy Trail

Dew Drop, family, holiday decor, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / April 8, 2012

Happy Easter! We celebrated ours early by hosting an egg hunt on the Fairy Berry Trail in the woods behind our house. Our Gypsy and Dewdrop had foofed it up beautifully, and lined the whole trail with pinwheels (from the Dollar Store).

We started out letting the baby have a few minutes to gather some eggs for her basket at the top of the trail, then the race was on.

Sugarwings was ready to hit the trail in high speed as soon as she got the go-ahead to race away.

She might have been in a hurry to fill her own basket, but took time to stop and help her little sister when her eggs fell out of her basket.

The trail really looks good, better than it ever has. What a gorgeous spring we are having!

Since Sugarwings was going to be at her aunt's for Easter Sunday, she and Fin wrote the bunny a note and asked if he would hide eggs early, and left it out in the woods with a carrot as a bribe. Fin is older and knew that (spoiler alert- if you are a kid, or just a kid at heart, don't read this!) that the Easter Bunny isn't the guy who does all the eggs himself, but he got behind the idea and seemed to forget about that.

Dewdrop was pretty pleased with her first Egg Hunt too. I don't really think that the whole "give the baby a few minutes to find eggs first" was needed. She held her own with the big kids.

And was very fond of the organic jelly beans and gummi bears I'd put into the 150 eggs out in the woods. (I didn't want the parents mad at me for handing out too much candy, but had to put something in the eggs, so settled on a couple organic jelly beans in each, and made sure to have some healthy after school snacks for everyone before we cracked open the eggs and hit the sugar!)

I loved watching the different approaches to finding the eggs. Seems like the bigger you are, the faster you go.

The smallest kids ended up finding the most eggs, because they lingered.

And Dew Drop was happy just playing with the eggs themselves, but when she realized there was stuff in them, it got even more exciting.

Sugarwings must have been watching some old movies, because she was certain that white gloves were required with Easter dresses, and kept hers on the whole time.

but didn't necessarily keep them white…

This gown has been in her dress up closet, along with the garland Aunt Sissy made for her, for years and is one of her faves. Its good to have a piece in your wardrobe that is so versatile and can be worn for tea parties and fairy walks, as well as egg hunts.

I'm looking forward to garage sale season so I can replenish her dress stock. Most of them are 2nd hand to start with and are starting to show it after years of dress up play.

One thing I've noticed over the years, is that as much as the kids like princess gowns, that are meant for dress up, they seem to prefer pretty dressy-dresses. And of course, those are much sturdier than the clothes sold in the toy department too.

And Dewdrop seems to be enjoying dressing up.

In the past, she has been irritated by Grammie trying to put her in fairy clothes, but I have a feeling that its growing on her now.

Not only did our Gypsy add pretties to the trail this spring, I started some plantings out there. Around the fairy tree house, I planted some Virginia Creeper, which I hope with cover the over hanging branches eventually and make it feel more enclosed.

I also planted some variegated and plain vinca, and some ivy. We'd spent a day edging the flower beds up by the house, pulling up vines that were growing beyond their borders and straighting the rocks that lined the beds before we had new gravel delivered. Instead of tossing all those vines, I filled two wheelbarrows up with them and took them down to the Fairy Berry trail to line the walkways.

It feels good to have fresh gravel everywhere! We did the driveway and sidewalks too. And we PAID someone else to do it all. In the past, I've spent weeks with my wheelbarrow and shovel spreading gravel from the pile we had delivered. But I discovered that the labor cost of having it spread was only $250.

Seriously?

I spent weeks of back breaking labor to save $250? I know I'm cheap, but I am NOT that cheap. Its not worth my time (or back) when two guys with rakes and a bobcat can do it in one day!!

And now, everything looks so fresh and clean, like the ground does after a new snow. Of course, it will be a matter of days before weeds peek through, and I noticed this morning that we already have a gopher mound.

I hope your Easter is a blessed one and that your basket is over filled with chocolates!

A nice nest full of fairies and a nasty nest full of squirrels

Dew Drop, fairies, family, Sugarwings, Tutorials

By Karla Nathan / April 1, 2012

As promised, I added directions and pictures to download to create this fairy nest to my 3 Wire Workshop tutorial.

If you've already bought the tutorial, just scroll down and you'll find these directions added to the end of the nest and egg how to's. No additional charges, its a bonus! Included is a sepia photo of this family and a hand tinted one with my wings attached. Plus a couple more vintage pictures you could use in the nest instead if you'd rather.

I hope to add some holiday decor ideas and more wreaths in the fall too.

This workshop comes with directions for a wreath, nests, and crowns, all made from wire, with ideas for embellishments. I've added some instructions for decorated eggs too.

Speaking of nests, we had some uninvited guests build a nest in our dryer vent! I heard scampering in my laundry room every morning this week, and it took me a while to figure it out. Squirrels had gotten into the vent pipe from the outside and made themselves at home!

We had to take the cover off, reach in and pull out the nesting materials and replace the cover with one that has a cage over it. They had done a bit of damage, so I'm glad I had a sweet, grown up son around to take care of it for me and get the varmits out of there.

It was a nice day to be out in the yard, and Little Dewdrop kept us company.

Who would have thought that we'd be outside splashing and playing in the water in March? What beautiful weather!

Sugarwings took advantage of the 80 degree day to do some planting and finger painting.

I think she painted the dirt and herself more than her paper.

And these pictures were taken before she even got very messy. (and no, the paint did NOT come out of her pink clothes, no matter how much I soaked and sprayed it.)

Yep, a perfect day to be outside, we turned on the garden hose and let her play in that afterwards- yay, Spring!!

New skills

Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, paper cowgirl, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / February 4, 2012

Congratulations to Agnes Rosebud for catching her first mouse! She might end up being as talented as her mom, who has a voracious appetite for chasing varmits.

Agnes Rosebud isn't the only one learning new skills. Dewdrop got a painting lesson from her big sis this week.

Sugarwings is a bit of an unconventional artist. She is always ready to set the paper aside and try something new. She likes to paint all of her small toys, and anything else that she can get a hold of. I figure, as long as its just watercolors and she is painting her own belongings, that is fine. I'll wash them down and she can paint them again later. She;d rather paint her toys than play with them.

She knows to ask before she starts painting any of my stuff that is within her reach.

Well, most of the time. Every once in a while she needs a reminder. I've not had anything too important turned pink yet, just a few tidbits and supplies.

We bought some markers for window panes, and she has this big window by my garden door that she likes to work on. I can see why she enjoys this canvas, I like to draw on the window with her.

Their father is a bit worried that Dewdrop will take this idea and redecorate the world with it. My thoughts are to teach them when they are little where they can paint and where they can't, but give them some interesting options. He's afraid that she is way too little to know the difference and might just color all of the walls she sees now.

But as a person who used to paint murals for a living, and who painted that faux brick floor that the girls are pictured on, its hard for me to limit them to just paper. Its good to see them coloring outside of the lines and being individuals.

When I teach a class, its hard for me to limit the kits to just exactly what is needed. I like to have a pile of extras for the students to pick through, so they can create a one of a kind piece, and do their own version of "coloring outside of the lines".

So, I'm gathering up a nice selection of goodies for the Paper Cowgirl class I'll be teaching in March, down in Texas. The class isn't full yet, if you'd like to dig through the pile of pretties and make a wreath with me.

Good bye Sparkle

dogs, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / January 11, 2012

Well, little Sparkle was just too sick to hang on. Its heartbreaking to say goodbye, but we knew it was coming, just not this soon. Thanks for your kind words and encouragement for our family right now.

In happier news, Sugarwings is doing well with one arm and its not slowing her down one bit. Even though the Dr. says she needs to be slowed down…. that kid is hard to stop. Her teeth and toes are always ready to help out that left hand when needed and so far, she doesn't seem to mind not using her right hand.

Today, she came out to the studio with me to decorate her ugly, navy blue sling. We played around with gutting a stuffed animal and making that into the sling, but I was worried that I wouldn't get the angle right, and that we should stick with using the one that was provided by the hospital. Now we have an empty plush dog that Dewdrop thinks makes a fine puppet.

She might seem to have a lot of energy right now, and is tough to keep at rest, but she cries out in pain while sleeping, so I know that it must really hurt.

My husband's leg is doing well, and he says it hurts enough to remind him just how dumb he was to be careless with the chain saw.

Okay, enough sadness and fear for a long, long while.

Sparkie Jo (my mom called me Karkie Jo, and I called Sparkle, Sparkie Jo) was a sweet girl, and the most gentle dog you could meet. She had lots of puppies in her life and of all the mama dogs I've ever owned, she was the most loving toward her pups. She treasured and cuddled and spent much more time just playing with them than most mother dogs. She was like that with everyone, always ready to show caring and sweetness.

I choose to remember how lucky we were to have her with us for the ten short years she was part of our family. And also to count myself lucky that Sugarwings and my Handsome Husband were not hurt worse than they were and that we will have them around for many more decades and decades.

Next post, I hope to have some more fun things to talk about. In the mean time, the sale is still on in the Boutique (40%) and the Etsy shop (50%). I haven't had a chance to take it down. You can get some good deals on millinery, doodads, pretties, and other stuff. Tutorials are also on sale!

Wigged out for the holidays

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 28, 2011

This is my favorite holiday photo from our weekend. Little Dewdrop snuck up onto the table while her elfish father was fixing dinner. He wore the hat and cape for most of Christmas and I thought it added a festive touch.

We spent a lot of our time in the kitchen, and having it be one, big open space was just great. Now, why didn't we think of this years ago? Its made our house such a cozier place.

We had one wonderful meal after another, and since the kids were staying with us instead of driving back to the woods and going to their yurt each night, we even went all out for breakfast in the mornings. On Christmas Day, our Gypsy made this fluffy, puff of deliciousness for us from a recipe we saw in the Sunday paper that morning.

Poor Sugarwings had been pretty sick all week leading up to the big day, and stayed here with us for most of the time, with her parents having sleepovers with her at our cottage. She rallied by the time Christmas Eve came around, but was still not quite herself.

We were sad to see her so weak and tired, but It was nice to have a houseful for the whole week, instead of just seeing them for the dinner and present times.

This year, between Sugarwings being sick, and me travelling, I was behind on gift buying. I did a whirlwind shopping trip, throwing things into the cart as I buzzed down the aisles. By the time I got home, I wasn't even sure what I had for who, I just hoped it was done. And for some reason, I bought wrapping paper, not bags…. silly mistake! If you wait till the last minute to buy gifts, there is no time for wrapping, those late gifts need to be slipped into bags.

That was NOT the highlight of my week.

But watching these little fairies tear through that paper was.

Dewdrop was very fond of her new toys. She was busy giving all the dollies lots of kisses and hugs.

She wasn't quite sure what to think about the dress up wig that her big sister got though.

I think it added a lot to the festivities, as she wore it to pass out the gifts.

We had two celebrations, all gifts to each other on Christmas Eve, and Santa's presents on Christmas Day. My husband's family has always done it that way, and it has become our tradition too.

I grew up with being able to open one gift the night before, saving the rest for the main event. I was always disappointed that the one preview gift was PJs every single time. I thought it was just plain old bad luck that I always picked the one gift that was not fun at all, when there was a sparkling pile of things waiting under the tree for me.

Of course, now I know that Mom planned it that way, so that I'd have new jammies on for Christmas morning when I woke her up at the crack of dawn. But at the time, I was crushed that once again, I got pajamas, not a Barbie on Christmas Eve.

Now, I am pulling my own version of the jammie trick, and let the girls each have one gift to open after dinner, before bath time and the rest of the gifts. Yep, they each had a new pair of matching PJ's as their sneak peek gift just like I did when I was a kid.

We had a third holiday bash on the day after Christmas, with the rest of the family (at least the ones in this part of the world) over for dinner, and all 26 of us fit into the new kitchen.

The house seems really quiet now with everyone gone. I've kind of gone into hibernation, with a good book and a box of kleenex (I caught Sugarwing's cold). I've not even checked out the post holiday sales yet, and don't know if I will. Although I keep thinking about all that clearance price Russell Stover chocolate…. out there, just waiting for me, all marshmallowey on the inside and shaped like chocolate Christmas trees.

But I'm kind of enjoying being snuggled up with a book and staying home in my jammies. I think I'll pass on the sales and go have another slice of that white chocolate peppermint cheesecake that I made instead. By the time I leave the house, the only thing that will fit me will be my elastic waist jammies.

If you are into holiday sale prices and don't want to leave your comfy home either, I have a sale in my Boutique and now on Etsy too. And yes, it covers tutorials, millinery, charlottes, and all of the other vintage goodness in my shops.

Everything is 30% off in the Boutique if you use THIS LINK.

And the small print says: The only catch is, that I won't be doing any mailing for a few days. You might not recieve your box till after New Years.

And if you click on the website directly, you can't get the sale price, its only available from THIS LINK

When you fill your shopping cart, you need to type in the words- happyholidays – then hit "recalculate" to get the special price. Its simple to do.

For Etsy, use the same code word- happyholidays -to get 30% off there too.

And by the way, a Very Happy Holidays to you all!

Fumpity Fump Fump

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, flowers, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings, videos

By Karla Nathan / December 12, 2011

We were out shopping the other day and Sugarwings saw this sign on a stand and in her mind, it was the perfect microphone, so she started to serenade all the shoppers. The kid seems to have inherited my singing voice. And also the joy of singing out, loudly.

Its a short video if you want to watch it, and my favorite part is where she is distracted by something shiny and walks away just as she sings "look at Frosty go".

This year, the holiday month seems to be racing by faster than I can keep up.

Its happening too fast and will be over before I know it! So, I'm slowing down and making myself take in every minute of it. Sugarwings has been spending a lot of time with me and she agrees that we need to make the most of our days. We've had a hot cocoa party every night that she sleeps over, lit only by the lights of the tree.

We make an event of it, setting the table with our best china, filling our favorite tea pot with hot milk, and passing around tiny bowls of shaved chocolate, mini marshmallows, and peppermint sticks. Not only are we getting a delicious bedtime snack, we are learning about manners, polite conversation, and building memories to treasure.

We are watching all the holiday specials that we can cram into our time together, without losing out on time to create and cook too. As much as I love holiday baking, its even better with her.

There has been a ton of cookies and fudge being whipped up, as well as a gingerbread house we had to put together with hot glue before we could decorate it.

I'm trying to show Dewdrop about the joys of baking too, she held the mixer for us last week. Its a start! Soon, I'll have two little helpers.

With her Daddy being so busy getting the Yurt weather proof and ready to live in for the long, cold winter, and her Hippy Chick Mommy studying hard for her first semester of nursing school finals (I'm proud to say that she is an A student!), I've been lucky enough to have lots of holiday play time with my fairy girl.

Sometimes, we invite guests to the parties too, like Luna Moona, her Raggedy Ann doll.

Last week, Dewdrop came to her first bedtime cocoa party and I have a feeling, she will be a regular at them with us next year. She adores anything that has to do with food.

And for some odd reason, Sugarwings has been setting an extra place at the table for my sisters. She is fascinated by them and talks about them a lot. I guess she knows how much I love and miss them, even though she has only met them a handful of times in her short life and they live far away.

Yes, its been a sweet December!

Kitty’s Rescue free image to download

Dew Drop, fairies, family, free images, kitties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 14, 2011

Thanks for all your well wishes on the additions to our family!

This book just happened to be sitting on my desk and I thought it was quite appropriate to our situation. Although the little girl clutching the cat at our house isn't quite this lady like. She's every bit as happy to have a kitty to hold and cuddle, though.

This is scanned at high resolution, if you'd like to print it to use in your art, please click on it to open in a larger window, then save that one to your computer and you'll get better results than saving it directly from my blog.

No, we didn't adopt an eight legged cat, Sugarwings is carrying them both.

Everywhere she goes.

And it surprises me that the cats seem to like it. If she sets one down, it will follow her around till it gets picked up again.

Little Dew Drop is not as interested in the kittens, I think she is more of a dog person. She likes the new family members, but is more fascinated by Twinkle and Agnes.

Plus, she has other things on her mind, like learning how to walk and celebrating her first birthday this week!

My goal of adding new stuff to both shops every day kinda slipped from my grasp.

There was no school on Friday and Sugarwings kept me hopping. That and the new kitten/lost kitten/ new kitten/ found kitten excitment that we had. Then, along came the weekend including a concert, a fun craft day with Beth, a big family dinner, and before I knew it, I'd missed three days of getting photos posted in the shops.

But I did get a chance to make some new things!

These decorated 1" wreaths are in the Boutique.

And their ready to be decorated cousins are in my Etsy shop.

There are lots of trees added to the Etsy shop, I got to work on listing some Monday afternoon. The white ones are always popular.

And so are the eensy teensy ones.

There are still a few million trees filling up one of my work tables ready to be sorted and packaged and sold, but at least that is a start.

Some of my paper clay fairies are now in the shop too. This one is made on a vintage cake topper.

And this one sits on a wallpaper covered box.

Her eyes are vintage crystals taken from an old necklace. I pushed them into the wet clay, then added a black sequin crystal pupil, and painted the rest of the eye. They really have a nice sparkle when the light hits them.

I'll leave you with some photos of more new stuff listed. There is more to come too. I'm wrapping up purchases today and will have more photos taken to list goodies after that gets done.(thanks so much to you shoppers out there!) I also need to get pictures of all the new things I've been making. It sure felt good to get some time to sit at the worktable and mess around with all my toys!

A Tail of Two Kitties

kitties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 12, 2011

We have a new member in our family. This 3mth old kitten came to live with us the other day and was a purrfect addition to our home (oh, sorry, I just had to do that)

Sugarwings was thrilled with him, and his previous family included a 2 year old girl who carried him everywhere, so he was used to being overly cuddled and even seemed to look forward to it. Plus, I hear he is already a proven mouser! Which is what I was hoping for.

He has a sweet temperament, and is very mellow. Just ideal for a household like ours, we needed someone easy going if anyone was going to be added.

But it was the love at first sight between these two that made me so glad to have him here.

They had a fun packed evening together, and at bed time she was not going to let go of him. But it seemed to be mutual, because after the fairy child dozed off, the kitten was still holding on to her.

That is when I made my mistake.

His previous owner said he was an outdoor cat and didn't use a litter box. So, I took him out of her arms and set him outdoors for the night.

He wasn't out there the next morning.

He wasn't out there at all through the whole day.

We looked everywhere and even sent the dogs out to hunt him. Twinkle was even more obsessed with him than Sugarwings, so I figured that that if he was out there she would sniff him out.

Notice anything different about this picture? Twinkle's obsession continues, but the cat's nose is now black, not pink.

Sugarwings sobbed after school when I told her that her kitty was missing.

So, of course, we went to the pound to find her another one!

When we got home, look who was waiting for us.

Yep, we are now a two cat family. Three, counting the big ole, mean tom that lives outside. I think that big meanie drove the new kitty into hiding for the day.

These two DO NOT live outside after the turmoil of losing the first one. My guilt was so overwhelming over that, I'll guard them with my life this time. I can't deal with my fairy grand baby's big blue eyes looking at me through tears for being careless with her beloved pet.

The pound suggested keeping the cat we got from them indoors for at least two months before letting it explore outside. I'm hoping I can deal with my itchy nose for that long. I was planning on having one outdoor cat that came inside to play sometimes, not two indoor cats.