Travel – Page 10 – Karla's Cottage

Disney Magic

celebrations, family, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / March 5, 2019

During my many segmented trip to Florida, Sugarwings and I spent some time at Disney while my husband took off with buddies for a Guys’ Golfing Getaway.

And we made the most of every moment.

We were up extra early to spend time at the park while it was quiet. I love the atmosphere before the herds of mouse eared tourists arrive.

Speaking of mouse ears, these are what Sugarwings bought with our little bonus for turning down Mousekeeping.

If you decline having your room cleaned, and set your own trash outside the door, calling for extra towels as needed, you get a gift card.

She bought the Purple Potion ears with the card, so she was responsible for helping with the room. They were cute and sparkly, but I don’t know how many times those sequins scratched my face when I was getting a hug.

And I got lots of hugs! That was one happy kid.

We splurged one night for the fireworks dessert buffet, and we were both pretty dang happy when we were led to the never ending treat buffet!

I don’t know if I’d pay extra to do it again, but I was glad we treated ourselves on this trip. The park was crowded due to a Princess 5K, and we probably wouldn’t have had such a good viewing point without the special seating.

While the parks were pretty crowded, I felt like we were blessed with some sort of magical pixie dust that luckily led us through our days with no hiccups

Somehow, we stumbled into being at the front of dance parties,

And with up front, personal seating for the parade.

We just happened to be at the beginning of lines to see characters, not even realizing that they were setting up for a line to form.

We also seemed to end up in places where crowds were not. Maybe because we like to linger over decor and details.

We took time to enjoy the little things, like shining a flashlight over your hand on the sidewalks in Pandora to leave a glowing pattern behind.

We took our time as we liked, but then hurried onto the next activity, used the ap to schedule fast passes on the go, and do mobile food ordering.

Some of our timing was planning, some was luck. Often, we came around a corner just as something fun was happening and joined right in.

We didn’t realize we’d be able to see Epcot fireworks from our hotel, that was a pleasant surprise!

A fun photo op was never passed up, either.

Maybe because it was just two of us, it was easier to maneuver the park?

And the fact that we preferred playing with statues to standing in lines made the day easier. We didn’t care about the big name rides. We enjoyed our fast passes, then only went to attractions with no or little waits.

Instead of waiting two hours to be frightened by a Yetti, we joined the Wilderness Explorers and earned badges while walking along shady trails. We always took time to talk to the Cast Members (employees), and got lots of tips about where to go and when.

And when we got back to the hotel too late to suit up and swim, I let her jump in, as is for a few minutes the pool was still open.

I’ve been to Disney World many times, and it doesn’t always go this smoothly. It was one of the higher crowd days, and should’ve been harder than it was.

But our theory of zigging when others zag, taking our time, enjoying what was right in front of us, and planning out what we could, sure made this a perfect visit!

Or was it pixie dust, after all? Possibly, Tinkerbell recognized a fellow fairy and shared her magic to make our days go smoothly?

Making the most of a getaway

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / February 17, 2019

I’m using my mini work trip to teach a couple of pretty projects at the Cozy Castle as the perfect excuse for a Florida vacation. Sugarwings and her Pop Pop are joining me tonight for a trip down the coast to stay on the beach a few days.

After sunning and swimming, we are headed back to Orlando to drop off my Handsome Husband for a golfing weekend with his buddies.

Then, the grandfairy and I are free to run amuck at the Magic Kingdom til it is time to meet up and fly back to Kansas.

Well why not? I was already going to be in Florida anyway… with airline points and companion passes, all flights were free. Hotel points went a long way too, not quite covering the beach stay but helpful. I have a Disney Credit card that racks up points for discounts.

I love wringing as much as I can out of a getaway, and putting the week together like puzzle pieces to see just how much I can squeeze into one flight. And of course, how could I not try to wrangle a trip to Disney in while I’m sooo close to the Happiest Place on Earth?

A year of seashell fairies, beaches, and sea glass- BLESSINGS and THANKS

celebrations, fairies, family, sea shell fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / December 31, 2018

2018 was a year of oceans and celebrations for me, I took advantage of turning 60 by getting in as many celebratory trips as I could. This heart wrapped flock of fairies, that says "Thanks" and "Blessed" sums it up for me.

The first part of the year was a flurry of making plans, daydreaming over possibilities and destinations. Looking at Disney resort and cruise options, perusing AIRBnB for getaways, talking to sisters and grand fairies about all of the what ifs and where tos, taking our time to get things just right.

All of the details of planning itineraries, booking rooms, and thinking about the fun, was every bit as exciting as taking the trips. I had charts, I had lists, I had logged hours of looking at houses online and scrutinizing photos to see exactly how good the views were from the rooms in the pictures to make sure we had the perfect place to enjoy ourselves on our getaways.

The beach house where I met my lifelong friends at in St Augustine during April to celebrate our 60th birthdays together was so nice, that my sisters and I changed our plans for fall to stay in the same place for a few days then. I found sea glass both times!

Not just sea glass, but a shell that looked like a set of teeth.

Perfect for our Halloween/Hocus Pocus themed vacation!

That ideal view from the beach house we rented also inspired some artwork, and I spent an entire summer learning a paint pour technique.

It was a year of Disney Sister Trips too, while in Florida, I was able to sneak in magical trips to see the mouse. First with sis, Terry, then with the four grand fairy sisters, then with Sissy and Bobbie!

One of the very best memories of the year was waking up to see the sunrise at Cocoa Beach with Sugarwings and making a fairy on the sand together.

How can you beat a day like that?

Believe it or not, you can! We headed to a Disney cruise ship that morning and sailed off to the Bahamas for my birthday and more beach time there. I found un-ending sea glass at Atlantis, and strolled the beaches of Disney's private island with four grand fairies and my handsome husband.

Where I made a Grammie fairy.

We had a quick trip to Florida later on, and I had very little time for wave watching, but did get to go for a walk along the marina in Ft Lauderdale, where I made a riverbank fairy. I found one tiny shell for her to hold.

In October, I found plenty of black shells to make a witch.

Guncle Randy joined my sissies and I in St Augustine, and I made a sprite for each of us.

I'm thankful for my blessings. My beloved husband, sons, grand fairies,sisses, bro, great friends, and wonderful trips together. I think that the message I wrote in the sand will be my words for the upcoming year- "Blessings" and "Thanks"

And I wish a blessed New Year to you too.

PS- I am thrilled to announce that I will be teaching a class in Florida at Karen Hillman's Cozy Castle!!!!!!!!!

Details here

I'll be posting photos and more info soon. I hope to see you in sunny Florida (as you can see, I adore Florida!!) for a day of friendship, creativity, and fun with my ruffly wings and romantically inspired autograph book projects

A North Carolina Birthday Girl

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, Travel, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / November 28, 2018

My husband had a business trip to North Carolina, and while he was there, he offered to snap up Dewdrop from her Asheville home and bring her to KS for Thanksgiving. Since he'd be getting her on her birthday, I couldn't miss the event and had to come along to celebrate with them.

Before we scooped her up, we spent a night in Raleigh and ate a fancy meal at the City Club there.

(That last photo might look as tasty as the others, but is a light fixture, not candy. And the first one? That is candy! Cotton candy pork belly appetizers, wowzers!)

And we had a scenic drive to Boone where we passed through some misty, Christmas tree farms.

We stayed at Banner Elk, with Rich's Mom and brother, at their mountain house with this pretty view.

It changed to this overnight! Even prettier.

After our zig zag trip from Raleigh to Boone to Asheville, we drove to Charlotte and visited a nephew and his sweet baby. They made our Dewdrop feel very special with some birthday surprises.

They even treated us to a night at the trampoline play place. I didn't think I'd be doing any jumping, but once I saw how much fun the rest of the group was having, I had to start hopping around myself, and bounced around for almost an hour and a half, hating to end when it was time to go.

This is my new favorite thing to do!

The next morning, our thoughtful nephew made some Mickey shaped pancakes to keep the party going for the birthday girl before we flew home to deliver her to her family who had been missing her for way too long.

We will be seeing her again at Christmas, and while I'm heartbroken not to have her daily, I'm very happy to be able to visit with our North Carolina relatives when we do the kid-switcheroo. It was a lovely trip.

On the way to the wedding, a wonderful side trip!

friends, Travel

By Karla Nathan / November 26, 2018

When we went to The Other Karla's son's wedding, Beth and I made a stop in Des Moines to visit some of our Birdsong Peeps and have a crafting sleepover at a rustic, charming, and cozy, Airbnb barn. Our Peep, Nora, generously made up kits of felted wool for us to create these fab trees.

Beth and I sorta crashed their party, they'd made plans to go up to the flea market and stay at this charmer, and we asked to be included. They graciously let us stay with them. This was our room.

It had a uniquely curved, metal ceiling.

Okay, I'm going to have to use "charming" again, because that is what the whole place was.

We missed the dinner they shared, but were there for the tasty, overnight oatmeal breakfast.

Our dinner was at an Iowan diner where we had the local special, loosemeats.

After a night of laughing and crafting, we headed out for the Junk Jubilee.

And it was so festive!!! I loved the holiday decor everywhere. I thought this would be an ideal spot to get a selfie to show the room and the cute display at the entrance, but as you can see, our heads block most of it.

I think I could use a selfie lesson.

Overall, I sincerely think this is one of the best fleas I've been to, pricewise. It was also set up with gorgeous displays, the dealers made major efforts to have enticing booths.

Plus we ran into Peeps everywhere! (don't ask me why I don't have photos of them, pure carelessness, I guess- too busy hugging and being happy to see old friends to remember my camera!)

Thank you Tami, Gail, and Nora for your hospitality, and thanks Beth, for hauling me along on your trip. It was a raucous roadtrip. At our age, we don't get enough of those.

From inside my travel journal

Books, Travel

By Karla Nathan / November 16, 2018

Our sister trip to Florida included lots of craft time. I pack my portable printer and we slap photos into the books I made for us along with doodles, scraps, and other memorabilia of the day.

This is a drawing I did for Bobbie's pages, with highlights of her Disney time. She is a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean, so I drew a Capt. Jack for her, and he is holding her cell phone with its Hocus Pocus cover to take a selfie with a giraffe (in honor of taking animal pictures from our balcony at Animal Kingdom), Timon (who has heart pupils because I teased her about flirting with the character at the park), and a flamingo wearing MIckey ears, because she loves those birds.

And here are the three of us as Sandersons stating, "We will put a spell on you if we remember what we were planning to do"

It references lots of fun moments from the week, including our names for the week, Bibbity (Sis) Bobbity (Bobbie, of course), and Boo, (me). My face is painted witchy pink, from our night at the guncles'.

Sis is wearing her Gundren clothes, Bobbie's hair is meant to be both from Hocus Pocus and an ice cream cone shape.

We posed for mermaid shadow selfies on the beach, and I found a shell that I thought was a heart at first, then realized that it was really a tail fin. So, I glued it to my shadow.

Here is Sissy at the Beast's restaurant.

I used paper from Michaels and words cut from the Disney Springs map on this page.

And made a broom for this picture of us in front of the castle after watching the Hocus Pocus show.

This rug was part of the carpet in our room, I cut out Bobbie on it, and glued it over a napkin that looked like a starry sky.

(Her name is Valentine, so I thought the cut out phrase was appropriate.)

At the Bippity Boppity Boo salon, we were frosted with fairy dust. For my book, I added glitter over the sprinkles.

I used a trading pin, and pictures from the map for this picture of Sissy dancing at Animal Kingdom. Then, I cut out names of the places we visited there and glued them onto the page.

For our photo in front of the stain glass window at the Beast's castle, I layered rose papers and added a charm that looks like the enchanted mirror from the story.

This animal paper from Michaels was ideal for Animal Kingdom!! It is two layers, one as a background, then I cut out the animals that got covered up and glued them over the photo too.

As much as I love vintage papers, for scrap books, it is nice to use some actual scrap book paper, because you can always find something to fit the them. I also like using maps and brochures from places I visit.

On this Halloween crafting page, I cut out a label from a pack of supplies that says, "Halloween Crafts". So, sometimes, it is worth it to use the trash too.

Sparkle papers and textures are great too. I've glued shells and a vintage stir stick (found on one of our shopping days) to this one.

This one is a fave, it is a photo of our grandma, her mom and sister that I doctored up.

Oh, and here are a couple pics of the cover too!

Seashell Fairies in St Augustine, and a Beach Blessings Angel in Cocoa Beach

family, sea shell fairies, Travel

By Karla Nathan / November 10, 2018

The beach house I rented with my life long buddies for our birthday get together was so nice, I rented it again with my sisses!

And like I did in April, I also made a seashell fairy for each of us as a thank you to the beach.

Each expresses the joy that I found while strolling along the sand.

Aren't they happy little sprites?

And of course, I had to make a boy fairy for Guncle Randy, who joined us for some crafting.

The shells were plentiful, the weather was beautiful, the company was ideal,

I had much to be thankful for.

There was even sea glass! And this shell/tooth thing…

Which was perfect for a Winnifred Sanderson bit of fun.

Staying on the Atlantic side, meant no sunsets over the water, but one morning, I was up in time to catch the tail end of a sunrise. I was pretty impressed with myself for that.

This was the balcony view, at our Cocoa beach place. We hopped around and stayed at 4 different places in our ten day trip.

Beach Place Guest House had some fantastic landscaping, it was just too bad that the red tide made it too hard to breathe for us to spend much time outside to enjoy the well sculpted views.

The shells at Cocoa Beach were harder to come across. This was the total of what I found, but it was just enough for this one little girl.

I crafted a blessings angel for that beach, in hopes of healing the red tide.

As well as a witch, just because I'd found these broken bits of shell and one looked like a jaw, so really wanted to make something with it.

Hidden Mickeys everywhere- And thank you, Disney for the upgrades!

family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / November 4, 2018

One thing (among many) that I love to do at Disney is hunt for Hidden Mickeys. This flamingo island, seen on the safari is a great example of how these little tricksters hide in plain sight.

The island itself is a Mickey!

Here is another example, I didn't even notice them until I glued this photo of Orleans Riverside hotel into my journal. See them lurking on the fence railing? About knee cap height.

Sometimes they are right there in in your face, like the citrus in the water jar at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Or under your feet, like the carpet in the halls of Jambo House.

Sometimes they are subtle like the grates outside Animal Kingdom.

Or very prominent, like this pumpkin.

Our room at Orleans was full of them! On the lamp…

The shower curtain…

The tile in the shower…

I'm sure there were more that I missed. It was a great room. And an upgrade. When I saw where our reserved room was on the map and realized that it was very, very far from the parking lot, plus upstairs. I knew it might be hard on my sisses to get to it after a long day at Disney Springs.

I asked if there was anywhere that we could change to, hoping we might have easier access from our car and was offered a free upgrade to this Princess suite. And it was really cool. The headboard scene has embedded lights that mimic the swamp scene with the fireflies in Tiana's movie. The portrait is 3-D.

This wasn't our only upgrade. Back in April when I was planning the trip, the room we wanted at Jambo House wasn't available for two nights, so we were given a suite instead of a double queen room for the same price.

It was wonderful to be overlooking the animals beneath our balcony, plus having a nice, big room to spread out in.

Every room I've stayed in on Disney World grounds has been comfy, clean, and well kept. The themed rooms are extra wonderful, and not really that much more expensive, but I rarely splurge on them, since not that much time is usually spent in the room itself. But after staying in these two, beautifully themed, specialty spaces, as free upgrades from the lower priced rooms I'd booked, I'm thinking that next time, I will certainly spring for the nicer rooms, they were so fun.

Where else can you ride a magic carpet in your hotel room? This one was printed into the flooring.

And the whirlpool bubble bath was much appreciated for tired feet after tramping through the parks.

We were very lucky to be given not one, but two upgrades on our trip. There were other moments of Disney Magic, including being directed to the front of a line at one point, and many other kindnesses. I've heard that each "castmember" (employee) at Disney is supposed to gift someone with an extra each day. It seems to me like there are more than that, because I've seen so many instances of these extras over the years.

Lucky me!

Thank you, Disney World!!

Speaking of luck, how unusual is it to run into family members at Animal Kingdom Park??? Yes, we were all at Gorilla Falls Trails taking some quiet time to birdwatch, and surprise! There was Carol and Jim with Carrie and her kids.

Wow!

Ghoulish Guncle Goofiness, and some bootiful Halloween decor

celebrations, family, guncles, holiday decor, Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 29, 2018

During our Sister Trip to Florida, we took a jaunt up north to Jax and the Land of Guncles.

Where we were met with the typical Guncle charm and hospitality, and an added dose of creepiness.

We were greeted by this sign.

Their welcoming home was in its full, Fall glory.

With ghouls, goblins, witches, and more.

So, we decided we needed to fit in with our surroundings and got out the face paints.

I went Pink.

Sissy got some purple witchiness going on.

While Guncle Randy embraced his inner warlock and went full on, goblin green.

Lovely Lily didn't need to change colors, she has a pretty, autumn glow year round with her auburn hair.

The guys had the house foofed up to the hilt.

It is always an honor to see my artwork making it into some of their displays.

Randy's art was prominent too.

Here are pages from a Romantic Gothic Ghost art journal he did.

The house was creepy, cool, and very well done.

Our pal, Regina, made this banner.

No detail was neglected.

I'll leave you with a few more pics from our fun night there.

A Hocus Pocus Trip and a Sandy Winifred Sanderson with Seashell Teeth

celebrations, family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / October 26, 2018

Our sister trip to Florida was Sanderson Sister themed all the way.

So, when I found these "teeth" on the beach, I had to make myself into Winifred with the seashell in my mouth.

(And looky!! I found SEA GLASS too!! It was a treasure trove of unique goodies from the sea on Vilano Beach)

When I was done playing with the shell teeth, I used them to make a sandy Winifred Sanderson.

There were also a ton of black shells, which lent themselves well to making a sea witch. Her broom is a palm frond. I'm afraid black shells don't photograph well, it really did look cuter in person.

Our whole trip was Hocus Pocus themed, and we started off at Disney to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and watch the Sanderson Sister Villain Spectacular.

The lighting on the castle was pretty durn spectacular!

To save wear and tear on our backs, we rented a stroller to haul our extras around in (you never know when you'll need a jacket or an umbrella at Disneyworld) and for a name tag, I wrote in

"Sanderson"

Of course.

And I witchied up our magic bands with Sharpies and glitter nail polish. (Why wear a plain band when you can transform one easily with a waterproof sharpie?)

We needed a Spell book to carry. I painted canvas bags for each of us with the witches' book on one side.

The other side had our name and a witch hat.

All three were a bit different, but all had plenty of glitter. I think we left a trail everywhere we went.

I was thrilled with every second of the Halloween Party and hated to see it end at midnight. I'd love more than anything else to go back for the upcoming Christmas party and take my grand fairies.

But as my husband says, it is excessive to be flying to Disney every few weeks….

Even though there is a Christmas party that just happens to fall on a day she is out of school for a 3 day weekend, and I have free airline ticket points and enough Disney Credit Card points for the park tickets, and could take the free Disney transportation… we would just have to pay for hotel and food, and heck a person needs to eat wherever you happen to be, right????

Sooooooooo tempting, but- he is right. I think it is bordering on greedy, and spoiled to even contemplate a return so soon. Still, it is fun to think about.

(by the way, the Chase Disney credit cards give you a $200 gift card just for signing up. And a percentage back to spend on anything Disney, including movie tickets at AMC)