Sugarwings – Page 41 – Karla's Cottage

A fairy wonderland garden and a Prize Pack Giveaway

celebrations, Etsy Goodies, fairies, family, flowers, give away, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 1, 2008

See why I am glad to be home? I missed my Sugarwings. She had a sleepover last night and we played tea party with her dolls and then this morning she let me semi-French braid her hair. I think her hair grew while I was gone.

After the fairy grand baby left to go home, I listed a few things on etsy, wrapped packages, and got some things ready to mail.

These are the gifts that I am sending out to the 8 winners of the drawing from the pool of card makers.

Sandy, Melissa, and Sherry– I still need your addresses. Jen, Lili, Alice, Irma, and Robin should be expecting something in the mail soon, theirs is on its way.

Thanks again to everyone for their help! And here is a note from my great Aunt Caroline’s niece, Caroline Beth, who hosted the 100th birthday party:

Our Aunt Caroline had the BEST birthday!

Most of the praise goes to all of you who donated your time and effort to show so much love and affection for a lady you’ve never even met. What a heartfelt effort!

Thanks to Karla and her sisters who were "everything" to her on her special day. She’ll talk about this forever and we’ll be delighted to listen.

All of us who were lucky enough to spend the day with Caroline were amazed at her vitality and glowing disposition. You could watch as she gained even more positive energy from her well-wishers. The cards sent a huge burst of appreciation for a life well lived and a lady well loved.

We can’t thank you enough for the blessings, thoughtfulness, and amazing beauty of your creations.

God bless you all.

Carolyn Beth ( another of Caroline’s nieces)

Caroline’s birthday wasn’t the only one we celebrated while in Florida on our Sister Trip.

We got to spend time with my brother-in-law, Randy the Birthday Boy Nathan, who lives in a house filled with antiques, laughter, and fun plus a magical garden full of fairies. 100th_birthday_florida_005

Around every corner there is a surprise in this yard.

Its full of whimsical elements and beautiful blooms.

Not one inch of space goes to waste here. To make it seem larger, there are winding paths that keep you guessing about what is around the corner, and a mirror is hung on the bright red garden gate (I want to try that trick!).

This old iron railing was picked up at a garage sale, and re-purposed to become trellises.

It seemed like everywhere I looked, there was a smiling face looking back at me!

More garage sale finds brighten up this corner. The shiny thing hanging in the foreground is a chandelier found in the trash and taken apart to add some sparkle to the garden, since sparkly things attract fairies.

See, I told you so!

And the fairies have shelter on rainy days, here in this vase turned on its side and tucked under the foliage.

Randy and Kevin’s garden is a vacation in itself! I could spend all week just exploring all the nooks and crannies there.

My sisses and I spent a day crafting with Randy, (that explains the blue, glitter encrusted fingers). Then we spread lady bugs around the garden to eat pests, this lush landscape is not only beautiful, it is chemical free!

Our craft day consisted of making fairy pages for each other. This is what I did for Sissy. She and I both love the smell of Birthday Cake scented candles sold at Kohl’s and have had some serious bonding time while sipping wine and burning a cake candle, so the background of her fairy page is of sprinkled frosting.

Bobbie Sue is deep into genealogy, so the fairy page for her is made from photos of my great grandfather and his brothers glued to a copy of some hand written family history.

And after seeing Randy’s back yard, you’ll understand why I made a fairy gardener on "I love you" paper for him.

My little friend and fellow fairy lover, Adeline Grace, is turning 7 this week, so when I saw a poem in an old book, titled "Adeline" I cut it out and made a faery birthday card for her with the poem glued inside.

The best vacations are ones where I get to make things, so I loved my crafting day, and also my chances to play in the sand and make a "Twinkle".

Ooops, I almost forgot to announce the winner of June’s Garage Sailing Giveaway Prize Pack-

it goes to:

Amy

Thanks to everyone who left a comment and entered the drawing. Remember, all the July comments go toward a prize too!

Twinkle’s new dress

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, give away, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 23, 2008

Today I took 3 dogs and a baby to the vet’s office. The Dr. said I was the bravest person since the lady who brought 4 dogs and 3 cats in at the same time.

Actually, they were all very well behaved. Sugarwings insisted that Twinkle wear her new dress and that the naked baby doll came along too, which seemed a little backwards to me. We were quite the site as we came in.

Twinkle seems happy with the new dress, of course, anything that involves her Sugarwings is fine with her. If you’d like to see a video of Sugarwings and Twinkle, go HERE, but please ignore my messy flower beds and weeds in the driveway.

Twinks doesn’t quite get the idea of being a lady when she wears a dress, though. She was in and out of the wading pool most of the day with it on.

While the fairy grand baby spent time pushing her dolly around in the toy stroller, I did a little yard work and redecorating.

This area is the back door of my studio, and I added the big,antique, metal grate (found leaning by a dumpster in an alley) as a welcome mat to the entrance.

Then I set out a couple of folding chairs that I picked up while junking. They are metal, but have a caning pattern to their backs, and are nice, old solid and HEAVY chairs. I got them for $12 each.

I am a fan of white on white, but I think next summer I will repaint this set a cheerful color. You know, I thought the area looked cute this afternoon, but in the photos it seems blah.

This sign I painted is hanging by the door, that helps a bit. Maybe if the chairs and table were the rosey pink of the flowers?

I got the prettiest gift in the mail today, from Jeanne. Just in time for my trip! I like to keep a little notebook in my purse on vacation, to jot down thoughts here and there, or keep track of places I particularly liked.

This palm sized journal will be just perfect, and so stylish!

Thanks, Jeanne!!

In the very few minutes I had today without a fairy grand baby in my arms or at my feet, I listed a few things on Etsy.

This sold right away! I certainly appreciate all of you who shop with me. I will be away for a few days and all purchases made while I am gone, will go out next Tuesday the 31st.

Thanks for your patience!

I doubt if I will get a chance to post again before next Tuesday. I still have things to do before my trip.

When I get back, I will announce the winner of my June Garage Sailing Giveaway Prize Pack, after hopefully adding to it this week in Florida. My brother-in-law is an antique dealer and knows all the best places to shop in Jacksonville.

So far, the prize pack includes all of this…

plus these. Leave a comment on any post if you want to enter.

I will also have photos of my Great Aunt Caroline’s 100th birthday party! I will give the 100 cards to her in a pretty bag (that I have yet to make). I don’t know if she will open them all at the party, or take her time and go through them once everyone is gone for the day. But I will take a photo of her receiving them, and I will make up copies of the flickr address to pass out to all of the guests at the party who might want to look at the photos of the creations there.

I will also draw names for gifts to send out to some of the people who created the cards for Caroline.

All of the cards are on our flickr group page and the names of the artists are listed there.

If you don’t see your name by your card on the flickr site, please, please add it or any other info you would like to have there. Just leave a comment under your card.

I will leave you with a few cards to look at here. When I took the pictures, I tried to use a different vintage wallpaper under each one. They were all so special, they deserved special treatment, and of course, to me, vintage wallpaper is about as special as it gets! See you next week!

Elphie

antiques/junking, how to's, magazine pictures or articles, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / June 19, 2008

Meet Elphie, who seems to like vintage hats as much as I do. Now I know why I buy so many of these, they make great cat toys!

Little Elphaba (named after the witch from Wicked- she is Kansas kitty, after all!) is only 5 weeks old and is nothing but a teeny little puff of fur.

She hides under furniture in my studio and comes out covered in dust bunnies bigger than she is. She walks across my keyboard and doesn’t have enough weight to push any of the keys.

Elphie was meant to be Sugarwing’s kitty, but I discovered that Sugarwings is not a cat person, at least so far. She has no interest at all in this little cutey. She did tell her some long meandering story that involved lots of mentions of "Yeenkle" (Twinkle), so she might have been telling the new cat that she already had a pet.

Twinkle also doesn’t care much for Elphie. I hope I haven’t done the wrong thing by getting a new pet. Hopefully, they will all come to terms with each other and be friends.

My advance copy of Somerset Life came in the mail and I was sweetly surprised to see my magic wands in the issue, as well as the magnet board that I knew was going to be included. In the back, is a photo I took of some (what else??) millinery flowers.

I had last heard that the wands weren’t chosen to be used, it was nice to see them there.

Also, Dawn let me know that the new romantic Country was out and that my article was right next to one about her lovely pincushion.

Both of our projects have how-to instructions if you are interested in making your own.

I always hear that this magazine can be hard to find. And I had to go to two stores to get a copy yesterday too, so was very glad to see the new subscription cards! I plan on filling one out and getting it into the mail right away.

I’m going for the 8 issues at $29.97, that is a bargain, and I’m all about bargains!

Speaking of bargains, don’t forget about my June Garage Sale Goodies Giveaway!

Every comment is entered and I am adding more prizes after going garage sailing this weekend. And who knows, you might open your prize box and have a kitten pop out if I can’t teach her not to walk across my keyboard while I am trying to write an article.

Seeing some more reds and getting an eyeful at the Wakarusa Fest

antiques/junking, Books, family, give away, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 7, 2008

I’m still seeing red! This time, it is tie dye and wild, hippy reds!!

We went to the Wakarusa music festival yesterday, not camping out for 4 days like most festival goers, we just bought a one day pass and took our fairy grand baby out for some good music, sunshine, hula hooping, and dancing. Oh, and FOOD!

I discovered that snow cones are her favorite food on the planet and that she can determinedly try scooping them it with the long plastic straw/spoon, long after the ice has melted away into a puddle of syrup.

Sugarwings traveled in style, in her canopied red wagon, complete with fairy wings on the back.

Sugarwing’s Hippy Chick mommy was one of my favorite things to watch at the fair, she was so graceful and pretty while doing her hula hoop dance.

Can anyone give me an idea on how to load a short video of Sugarwings dancing at the concert?

In the meantime, here is a link to the video on Flickr- its very short if you’d like to watch it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlascottage/2561653016/

I’m not a huge concert fan, myself. I typically listen to National Public Radio instead of music, but this festival was more "event" than concert for me and I had a great time.

The lead singer of the Flaming Lips arrived in a giant hamster ball and crowd surfed while bubbles and confetti were shot out from the rainbow colored stage. And for some reason, giant Tele Tubbies danced away on the stage to every song. During one song, naked women from the audience joined in and danced with the Tele Tubbies. Now that isn’t something you see everyday!

Another thing you don’t see very often is me out garage sailing and forgetting to take my purse!

I didn’t realize until I got all the way across town this morning, that I didn’t have it with me. I guess I was beat from the late night at the Wakarusa fest and wasn’t thinking clearly.

So, I dug into my ashtray where I keep my emergency frozen custard money, and challenged myself to a morning of garage sailing on $8.75.

Not only did I do fine with a limited budget, I came home with change!

Not enough to stop for frozen custard, though.

I bought:

*3 hand made lawn baby gowns

* a delicate embroidered baby’s pillow case

* sweet little pink booties

* a small, old bottle with a glass stopper

* a tiny wooden doll to fix up for Bethany’s art show

* and this cute little child’s toy hutch to fix up for Sugarwings.

I promised that my June giveaway would be garage sale finds that I get this month. So, here is the first of the batch, one of the lovely, old baby gowns I picked up today.

Check back to see what gets added as the month goes by!

And leave a comment, on any post all month to enter, as often as you’d wish.

One more red, and some thank yous- Sarah, thanks for the "Seeing Red" week, it was a fun challenge.

Thanks to Rhondi for belatedly adding me to her porch party. I had been left off the links and thought I must smell bad or something, because I seem to be getting left off of party links lately!! She was kind enough to add me in to the party today. Even though, everyone was showing beautiful porch pics and all I had was a burr covered dog in a gazebo.

And thanks to everyone who inquired about my Friday Flea Market items in the last post, and to those of you who bought some pretties!

The table cloth and some hand made vintage wallpaper books are still available.

Here is what the covers look like, I was feeling Flocky when I made them!

Ruby tunes and colors stuck in my head

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, flowers, paintings, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / June 3, 2008

Sarah Duckett of Sadie Olive is asking us to See Red, and she is calling today, Ruby Tuesday. And now I will be humming that tune till tomorrow. As well as seeing red everywhere I go.

Sarah is the genius who designed my blog layout using all of my favorite paintings. I loved it that she took this watercolor of mine and turned it on its side, toned it down, added pink and made it look like vintage wallpaper for the sidebars of my blog!

See, GENIUS!

Red isn’t too easy to find around here at my cottage. Most flowers I have planted this year are coordinated in pink, white and purple. But here is a chippy old red bird in my birdcage planter, and a coleus that has a touch of red in the leaves.

This planter was a birthday gift from my friends, and has some red blooms that brighten up my entryway.

And of course, the French doors to my art studio are a rosey red. Ruby Tuesday was a good day for me to join in the party, ruby reds are more appealing to me than Chinese or orangish based reds.

This old curtain was lurking in my shed and I used it to wrap a pillow on the seat of this old vintage rocker.

And I am seeing RED after Twinkle took off after a bunny, into the woods and came out looking like this. One burr tangled up on top of another burr. I see an entire evening of picking this little stickers off of her ahead of me tonight.

A good sized portion of my day already went to weeding the garden. All of that work will pay off when these plants start producing. See the red on the little plastic tag in front of the tomato cage? That is a promise of goodness to come! I think it is my favorite red of the day!

Although, this red handled scoop isn’t bad either. I used it to spread more pre-emergent so that maybe I won’t have to do as much weeding later on.

This red air compressor might not be a thing of beauty, but it sure made my life easier today. I used it to blow all the filth off the fans that I had stored in the shed for the winter.

It worked so well, I’d love to bring it indoors and clean the whole house with it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful just to blow away the dirt?

Here is a bit of red watercolor paint on my palette. Sugarwings helped me with a painting last night during our sleepover.

UPCOMING GRAMMY BRAGGING ALERT!

She was lost in her project for about an hour. For a baby not quite 2 yet, that is quite a good amount of time to stay on a task.

I was actually able to work on my own painting while she worked on hers and we chatted about our pictures.

Mine isn’t done yet, now that the fairy grand baby has gone home to her Hippy Chick mom and her Daddy, I will be able to get the rest finished.

The pup is Zacharia Beauregard, my brother-in-law’s long haired dachshund. Sugarwings and I had a bit of an argument, she is sure this is Twinkle. I told her it wasn’t and she got irritated with me.

It was a friendly disagreement, but I did see a glimpse of what life with a two year old is going to be like. They think they are always right, don’t they?

Back to my painting, and humming… good bye Ruby Tuesday….

Two Sugarwings Fairies!!!

antiques/junking, collections, Etsy Goodies, fairies, give away, paintings, Sugarwings, swaps

By Karla Nathan / May 28, 2008

The swap panels are coming along nicely.

There are only about 400 or so to punch holes in and ring together.

But honestly, it isn’t monotonous or boring at all. I look at it as a chance to examine and admire each artwork.

Since Beth and I sorted them according to colors, styles and themes, they are already in piles ready to be assembled in groups that coordinate nicely.

Its kind of like doing one of those Flickr mosaics.

Or more like doing dozens of those Flickr mosaics!

I’m happy with the way they are looking, and hope everyone agrees that it was worth our time to match up sets of four instead of randomly hooking them together.

Tomorrow, Beth comes over for the day to finish and pack up the rest so we can get them in the mail.

A number of them will be late, though. Amy Barrickman wants to have a large selection professionally photographed for her newsletters and possible other publications.

We’ve had so many gorgeous ones come in, it will be hard to chose a few to send to Amy, so we are giving her a box full and letting her decide.

There are prizes going out to a LOT of swappers. Not based on their art (we love it all!) but by random drawing.

6 gift certificates from Vintage Workshop

2 clutches made by Beth and I with Vintage Workshop images

This lightweight cotton scarf, hand made by Beth and dyed by me

And a slew of tags I made from the images Amy provided

We’ve informed a couple of winners, but not all prizes are drawn yet.

I feel like I won a prize, look at the score I made today on a quick junking trip!

Sterling silver mini tiaras covered in crystal rhinestones, ready for me to foof and doodad up even further. I can’t wait to make these even more gaudy!!

Also, vintage trims and more cabinet cards. I KNOW I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO BUY ANY MORE PHOTOS. But when they are 50 cents or so, how can I not??? (the tiaras were $4 each and are going to be the most gaudily gorgeous things ever!)

Well, not as gorgeous as my fairy grand baby. Nothing is, in my book.

And look what I got, from my pal Lili! Isn’t she just adorable??? Thanks so much, Lili, I just love it!

I have my little fairy baby hanging on a chandelier in my art studio and can’t wait for her to come and see it there. She always notices my light fixtures and has a comment on them. I like to hang extras from them to surprise her, since she appreciates it so much.

Do you remember this photo of little Sugarwings at the zoo?

Today, after taking my husband to the airport at FIVE THIRTY IN THE MORNING– ugh- and going to the gym- double ugh- I sat down and painted a quick watercolor of this picture.

I ‘fairied" her up a bit more and added glitter. No respectable watercolorist adds Stickles glitter to their work, but hey, who needs to be respected? I’d rather be sparkly!

By the time this baby is in school, I’ll have enough paintings and collages of her to fill all the walls in my house.

If I had any sense at all, I’d spend my time on commissions instead of painting my own baby over and over!

Or instead of buying hats all the time. But, at least I pulled a few more flowers (and cherries!) off of a few and listed them on Etsy. And some on Ebay too. I hadn’t done Ebay in months. It isn’t hard to do, I just don’t enjoy it like I do my sweet little Etsy shop.

Thanks to all of you who help keep my shop going, I couldn’t do it, if I didn’t have you all shopping there. Yuck, I’d have to go and get a real job and not have time to waste on blog writing and reading all the other fun blogs out there!

That is why I am so happy to do giveaways. I owe you!!

So remember, you still have till the end of the month to enter to win the birdhouse for the Cottage Charm giveaway. And check out my previous post for the pics of my other giveway prize pack for May.

Swap Central

give away, Sugarwings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / May 23, 2008

In honor of the generosity of our Birds and Bonnets Vintage Workshop Swap, I’ve added more prizes to my May giveaway.

A little round tag that I made using Vintage Workshop images (from the flower girls collections), then tied up with a snippet from a vintage hankie, and a sprig of old millinery flowers are now included with the other prizes.

(don’t forget there is a solid gold vintage band in the presents!)

Speaking of flower girls, look who was in a wedding! Sugarwings walked down the aisle picking up the petals her cousin was tossing down.

During the rehearsal, she remembered her turn and curtsey, but got a little distracted by trying to pick up all the petals to do it for the actual ceremony.

On Thursday, Beth and I had a great time sorting and tagging the panels for our swap. Even though I was late, at my own house!

I left the door unlocked in case Beth got here before I made it back from picking my husband up at the airport. Good thing I did, his flight was delayed and I was waiting for him for a couple of hours. Beth knew to let her self in, grab a can of pop, turn on the TV and start working on the tags without me. Isn’t it nice to have friends that can make themselves at home and are as much family as a friend?

After getting the name tags attached, (which Beth did 90% of, since I was late) we spent a lot of time compiling groups of panels that seemed to go well together.

While everyone had the same 3 sets of images to use, there was a wide variety of styles and themes that were used by the artists.

Instead of just picking up four random panels to put together, we thought it would be much better to coordinate the artwork to 4 complimentary panels per screen.

So, the piles are grouped according to which ones we think will flow well together. These 3 photos are of a few of our groupings that we will use to assemble the screens.

I put one together to see how it would look, here is one side.

And here is the other. I can’t say front or back, everyone did such a detailed and beautiful job finishing both sides!

And I have to thank everyone for their generosity in taking such time to create the panels and participate in our swap! Also, there were some wonderful artworks, gifts, doodads, treats, and tidbits included with the packages- just look at these!

It was quite overwhelming to open all the packages and see the thougthful hostess gifts!

Can you believe all of this???

THANKS!!!!!!!!

We could have spent all day, just playing with our new toys.

We had fun going through them all, and I think I managed to get everything in the photos.

We also had a great time looking through each of the panels as we put the name tags on them.

It was so impressive to see the range of styles and imagination that went into the creations.

I am going to try to get photos of a few more completed screens this week, then next Thursday, Beth and I will get together again and start hole punching and assembling.

Luckily, I have a large studio, because this is all laid out in it till next week!

Two dining tables and a card table full of pretty panels waiting to be put together, packed up and sent to their new homes.

Don’t forget, that I have TWO Giveaways going on right now, not just the May prize pack I showed at the top of the post.

I’m also offering this vintage wallpaper covered bird house as part of the Cottage Charm giveaway. Click on the button in my side bar to find other blogs giving away cottagey gifts on May 31st.

A Fairy Tea Party for some little Friends

celebrations, fairies, Food and Drink, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / May 21, 2008

Tuesday was Fairy Tea Party Day at my cottage. A little friend came by to visit on my birthday and asked if she could come and stay and play in Sugarwing’s room sometime, she was so cute, I thought she might enjoy coming over for a girly tea party.

Little girls seem to love my house. They are the ones who really "get it" and don’t think it is too much like a lot of people do!

Little girls, like my little buddy, Adeline Grace, definitely don’t think it is too much!

I placed a vintage hat by each place setting and told the guests to take a seat by the hat they wanted to wear.

Even the moms were good sports and indulged me by wearing a floral hat.

Sugarwings chose a hat to match her blue, blue eyes.

She had more fun stirring sugar into her (caffeine free) fruit tea than drinking it. So I let her add a LOT of sugar to the teacup.

Isn’t that what Grammies are for?

My niece, Shelli, gave me some pretty little picks with crystals on them that were just perfect for this party. I rolled a tiny ham slice around a sweet pickle and stuck the pick through that, a little tomato, and a black olive (to wear on our fingertips).

I wanted all the food to be fairy sized, so I made the brownies in cupcake papers.

I realized afterward that the reason I never see brownies as cupcakes is because the paper is pretty much permanent. So, I peeled it off , along with half the brownie, flipped the treat over and iced the bottom to cover the mess.

I served them on rose patterned butter pat plates.

I used teapots to hold flowers picked from my garden and layered lots of old tablecloths, runners, and doilies on the table for spring time color.

At each place setting, there was a child’s toy teacup with a single pansy in it and a vintage pixie next to that.

While out garage sailing on Saturday, I got this box of toy tea stuff, along with the 10 butter pats in a box for $2. Perfect timing, I think the tiny tea cups were just right to add to the table!

Sugarwings just woke from her nap, and was surprised by the party. Since the food was ready, she only had time to slip into her wings and a hat, no party dress for her this time.

I put on my favorite floral gauzy dress that I have been wearing for about 20 years now. Luckily, it is a loose dress and ties in the back to give an illusion of still having a waistline all these years later.

The looseness comes in handy, since that ever expanding waistline takes up more space than it did when I bought the dress.

Adeline Grace had me paint a picture of Twinkle as a fairy on her cheek, and I added a pink butterfly to mine.

Painting backwards in a mirror is tricky, so when I paint my own face, I always do something simple, like a butterfly since it looks the same pretty much from back to front.

Don’t forget that I have TWO giveaways going right now, and that every comment enters you in both drawings. Click on the Cottage Charm button in my side bar to go to the list of other cottagey style blogs participating in that giveaway too.

I know I’ll be entering them!

Hats, and Papers, and Bears, OH MY! Plus a Cottage Charm giveaway

antiques/junking, collections, Etsy Goodies, give away, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 19, 2008

Kim is hosting her 2nd annual Cottage Charm Giveaway and of course, I had to participate!

I have a lot of crap, I mean hand made creations, lying around my studio and I should dump them somehow, I mean give them away to readers.

So, if you would like to win a cottage style bird house, just leave a comment any time (and as many times as you’d like) between now and the end of the month.

Your comments will count towards this giveaway as well as my regular monthly prize. Which really isn’t all that regular, since I am so in love with May and am adding to the prize pack every once in a while.

Check out Kim’s site for a list of other giveaways all over blogland. There will be some good stuff out there waiting to go to a new home!

Our trip to the Topeka Zoo yesterday was delightful. Its a cute little zoo, just the right size for a toddler’s visit.

I saw a lot of these type of expressions on Sugarwing’s face, she was so excited to see the animals.

This photo might just have to become the basis for a fairy painting of her.

When I go to the zoo, or an amusement park, or any other tourist spot, I rarely photograph the place itself. I like pictures of the people I was with (and of course lots of Sugarwings!)

I don’t want to fill my photo album or scrap book or computer storage with stock photos of giraffes. The look on the baby’s face as she sees her first giraffe means a lot more to me.

Before leaving to go to the zoo, we all met downtown to have lunch. As we walked toward the restaurant, I heard the faint, but persistent call of the millinery flowers.

So, I told my family I’d meet them in a minute, and ran down to the antique mall to find this pile of hats, for $4-$6 each!!

I didn’t even miss lunch, when I got there, they had saved me a fajita.

I know you are asking yourself, what is that under the hats? Is that the elusive PINK flocked wallpaper?

(I refuse to believe that you are really saying, "there is a serious problem with this crazy lady and her hat problem. AND HER WALLPAPER PROBLEM.")

You are right, it is FLOCKED vintage papers in beautiful shades of pink, ivory and tan!

I’ll be making up some packs to sell on Etsy if I can force myself to share. I could be a little bit stingy about this stuff.

This one, I simply cannot call vintage, it is only from the 80s and I get irritated by that label on stuff that is not OLD.

I bought this paper to line a cabinet for Sugarwings. She is the worlds biggest Care Bear Fan.

She is so crazy about Care Bears that I added a pink rainbow bear decal to the window of my car, so she could see it from her car seat. And I am not a decal or a sticker person.

Before you start to think that all I do is shop for flowers and wallpaper, or play with the baby, I want to show you a project I actually made!

Yep, I sat at my desk and made something, it seems like it has been a while since I had a chance to do that. I spent most of the day working away on cleaning the studio, listing supplies on Etsy, and watering all my new plantings outside. But I did take time to use some of my favorite things and make this piece.

It has hand painted roses, vintage flocked wallpaper, pink pages from an old French book (from my pal, Lili), velvet millinery flowers, an old earring with rhinestones, seam binding ribbon, and sheet music. Wow, I don’t think I could have possibly squeezed in one more bit of any of my obsessions onto this gaudy little dumpling of vintage goodies.

Its rosey red and faded pink, I like those colors together. A little different, but nice.

One more thing before I go, in case you haven’t made up your mind that I might be crazy.

Remember the fall themed photo shoot I have coming up this spring with Carol? I decided to try painting some leaves, to make the trees look more fall-like. So, here is a tiny sample, and it seems to work.

I used a red spray paint meant for florists, so I doubt if it will kill the trees. I only painted a couple of leaves to see how it went, don’t you think they look like autumn?

Linens and Things

antiques/junking, collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), give away, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 18, 2008

Today is Show and Tell day again and I have to thank Little Pink Studio and Sugar Sugar for coming up with yet another topic of obsession. At first, when I saw the subject was antique linens, I thought I wasn’t a collector. But, then a quick glance around my house and I realized they are everywhere. I guess I don’t think of them as a collection as much as just part of my decor.

Most of what I have are doilies that I buy in bags or boxes at garage sales for a couple bucks a bagful. I tuck them here or there around the cottage, layering them and bunching them up. Nothing too perfect looking, I don’t want them to feel fussy or Victorian-ish.

I like to mix the styles of doilies when I layer them.

And I use all shades of white, but really prefer the darker ones, in more of an ecru.

I also am big on using old embroidered tea towels and hand towels. And I actually use them, not just set them out for display.

The texture of the fabric is so absorbent, and really feels good to dry your hands on.

Tea towels and old linen napkins are actually cheaper to buy than a brand new dish towel from Target, and they are so soft! I rarely pay more than 50 cents for one, and they are so much nicer than any new towels.

Another thing I never turn down at garage sales are old shawls. I have a few around the house that I use over table tops, and each were just a couple of dollars at estate or garage sales. I don’t care if they have holes in them, I think it just adds to the allure.

Every once in a while, I shake them out or throw a bunch in the bath tub and hand wash them, but basically, I just let them gather dust like everything else in my house. We try to change the furnace filters once a month, and buy decent ones that trap dirt, plus keep the house fan running all the time to circulate and clean the air. That helps, as well as hitting stuff with a feather duster sometimes.

I can live with a little dust as long as my floors are clean and junk is picked up. Clutter gets to me, and I have to constantly battle piles of crap and toys, so I pick my battles. Dust isn’t worth the fight for me!

One time when I was at my favorite auction with Beth, I bought a big box of linens for $3 and 2 of these edged bedspreads were in it. I used them as bed skirts in my room and in the guest room.

I rarely pay much for the things I find, so, when I do see something that I really love and it costs a bit more, I don’t feel bad about splurging. This table runner is actually a curtain that I bought last time I was in Leesburg, at the Cottages. It was $30 (yes, very rich for my blood!) but was so perfectly tattered and elegant at the same time and seemed to be just what I needed to complete my new dining room redo, that I had to go for it anyway.

And I was glad I did.

OK, I just told you about how dirty and dusty I am, now I will show you how messy and unorganized I am by opening the door to the linen cabinet of clutter and chaos. I know I said I don’t like clutter, but if I can shut a door on it, that isn’t so bad.

In honor of today’s theme, I reached into the linen cabinet of clutter and chaos and pulled out a pretty little embroidered doily to add to the May Giveaway Prize Pack. It now includes:

1- a vintage cake topper ballerina

2- a vintage GOLD band

3- white leather Brighton coin purse

4- embroidered doily

5- pretty pearl pin

6- vintage greeting card

7- Bath and Bodyworks lotion

8- satin hanger with a millinery flower

Every comment all month is entered, thanks for visiting!

A bit of vintage linens thrown across this ugly swing might help it out. Or probably not. Its just plain ugly. But, it is nice to have on the upper deck outside my husband’s office. When he works at home, he sometimes sits out here and swings while he is on the phone doing business.

Sugarwings and Twinkle make it look a lot better too!

Enjoy visiting the other sites that are showing their linens today. I look forward to seeing them all too, but will have to check them out later, I am taking my fairy grand baby to the Topeka Zoo today.

But that is one thing that is so nice about blogs, I can come back later tonight and look through the show and tells at my leisure.