We’re having a party – Page 11

Friends, fun, and a farmhouse

free images, Travel, wallpaper, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / October 12, 2013

Gorgeous old paper, isn't it?

Suzanne gave us a tour of the 1875 farm house she is redoing and I was wildly enamoured with this wallpaper in the front parlor.

We are a bunch who appreciates old paper, and there was a chorus of oohing and ahhing during the sneak peek into the home.

Each room had layer upon layer, and Suzanne is patiently peeling it away in her labor of love to redo this stately, old charmer.

She was able to pull some of it away in big sheets. And she shared them with us! I was surprised to see how nicely this gold paper came away from the birds and vines below it.

This is probably a more typical outcome. Harder for her, of course, but lovely to see in all of it's crackly, peely, wonderfulness.

As much as I hate to see the aged papers being taken off and disposed of, once she showed us a finished room, I was able to let go of my feelings of loss.

Suzanne had the workers indulge her and finish this room while still doing demo on the rest of the home, so that she would have a place to go and have faith in the project's completion.

Smart plan, huh? It is an elegant and beautiful spot, an oasis in all the demo mess. Although, I hope that chandy doesn't give her too much trouble in keeping the crystals clean.

pictured: Lori Oles, Hope Wallace Kearny, Suzanne Duda, Jennifer Hayslip, Andrea Singerella, and me

The home sits on 22 acres, and Suzanne has a golf cart for buzzing around in.

We took a ride down to the lake, and out into the woods on a curving trail cut through the trees.

There were lots of photo ops. I don't think we missed a single one.

Lots of out buildings are on the property too.

So much work has been done already, and Suzanne has big plans for the home and grounds. She has a lot of people who love her and believe in what she is doing, while backing her up and helping her with the project too.

Including her adorable son who took a break from tearing out walls to snap photos of the group of us. With all of our phones and cameras. He's a cutie, isn't he?

We happened to be in town for her birthday and Jenn picked up a cake, topped with pink roses, Suzanne's favorite. And when you make the roses out of icing, they are my fave too. YUM

Even though it was her birthday, Suzanne fixed us a feast, at a lavishly set table. We stayed at her home the first night, and it was the coziest, lushest B&B you could ever visit. Big, ole. soft sofas, a warm and happy kitchen, everything was infused with Suzanne's over the top, generous soul. She is a dream hostess.

And I plan on stealing her idea for a shutter centerpiece.

Our night was relaxing and full of laughter. Maybe a little wine too… There could have been a couple glasses sipped while she opened her gifts.

Which explains why I didn't get more photos of her beautiful, shabby chic home.

That first night, we were so busy catching up and giggling, that I didn't get my camera out much.

I made up for it the rest of the trip, and was glad to get some "before" pics of the fab farm. I have all my fingers and toes crossed that I'll be invited back someday to see the "afters" too.

Not just because I can't wait to see her vision of her farmhouse fulfilled, (I know it is going to be beyond beautious), but because she is a person that I wished I could spend more time with. What fun weekend, I can only hope to repeat it again someday when all the refurbishments are done on the home.

(you can click on the first image to open in a larger window, save to your computer and print it for use in your art) I'll have photos of the rest of the trip coming soon.

Double the fun

family, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / October 10, 2013

Did you have a chance to see the Wizard of Oz during the limited dates at the 3D Imax? We had to go, of course!!

And I was glad I did. If only to watch Glenda's bubble float through the sky and see her sparkling gown. oh my! I really enjoyed the new look of the movie. Details like the live birds wandering around in the background and the wallpaper in Dorothy's room were something I'd never noticed before.

I'm a sucker for almost anything 3D, and wish I didn't have to drive all the way to Kansas City to see it in Imax. My husband doesn't care for 3D, and Dewdrop is too little, so I usually only go when it is just Sugarwings along with me. She and I are both enthralled by them. And when you couple 3D Imax with a classic movie favorite of ours- woo hoo! What a night. Her mommy (who can recite the whole script in her sleep) came to, so it was Girls Night Out for us.

A BIG Girls Night Out for me, because after I dropped off my kiddos, I hit the town with some friends for a wild night of…

Well, just sitting and talking at a quiet restaurant.

When we discussed where to go for the evening, the consensus was, somewhere that we could hear each other. No place loud.

It was so nice. What an ideal evening. Two nights out in one night.

Happy 7th Birthday Sugarwings!

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, Food and Drink, games, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / August 16, 2013

Sugarwings turned 7, lost a front tooth, and started first grade. It has been a VERY exciting week.

Her mom threw her a party over the weekend, so she could celebrate with a few friends.

She had asked for a pinata, and I thought we'd make one together, but time was short, so we enhanced one instead. I found a colorful donkey at Walmart, trimmed its long ears, and used one ear to create a horn.

And of course, it needed glitter. Who doesn't? We spritzed it with glitter spray and while wet, doused it with even more flakes of glitter. Then, a mane and tail were created from curled ribbons.

Much more fitting for the Princess Party than a plain, old donkey! And with every whack, a cloud of glitter floated down onto the kids below.

And I think it was more fun than the one I would have made. This was sturdy cardboard and held up through a ton of whackings. I'd have made paper mache and it would have met an early death.

Her mom proved that you can go gluten, food coloring, and dairy free and still have the most wonderful birthday cake ever. It was rich, moist and wonderful.

The guests loved it.

After cake, there was some fun with a colorful parachute, and then they were off to the park pool.

It was a sweet, little party. Nothing elaborate or expensive. Just plain old fashioned fun.

I think our fairy girl was pretty happy with it.

I know I was!

Craft Day at Gail’s- vintage wallpaper tags

vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / July 19, 2013

Last weekend, my friend, Gail, invited me to a craft day.

I didn't really have a project to bring, so I decided to make tags. I packed a lot of old wallpaper scraps, some other ephemera and card stock. Then, I tore the papers into rough edge bits and strips, then I drizzled glue over the card stock and layered the strips of old paper onto it.

After it dried, I ran it through the Cutlebug using a three part tag set die cut.

This made an interesting background to embellish with some tidbits I'd brought along. I had a handful of lace, a small bag of flowers, some ribbon, two vintage greeting cards, a die cut rose and some ink pads.

When I'm working with wallpaper, I keep a container near me to save scraps. No piece is too small to save, you never know when you'll need an itsy bitsy piece, and why cut into a big hunk for a two inch strip?

Plus, I'm cheap. I don't like to waste scraps of pretty paper if they can be reused. Tags are an excellent way to use up the remnants of a bigger project.

This was an ideal project for craft day. It was easy to pack up and bring, didn't take much thought, and I could chat while I worked. Gail and her daughter-in-law, Marj, had both been to my studio at Birdsong, and I felt like I already knew her grand daughter, Corrine from FB stories and pictures.

But the other ladies were new friends, and the projects ranged from crochet to scrap booking. Everyone brought something to work on while they hung out, that is my favorite kind of craft day.

Gail made us a tasty lunch, and gave me a tour of her cute place. She loves vintage roses as much as I do, and her home was filled with pretty pink blooms.

She also had houseful of things she'd bought from me, back when I used to host antique sales at my house. I knew she'd been a generous customer over the years, but I didn't realize just how much she'd got. It reminded me of visiting my mom's house and how every where I looked, I saw something I'd made or painted.

Gail might just have more of my stuff than I do. I felt right at home!

Thanks, Gail!

More gratefulness

bird song art event, family, guncles, Sugarwings, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / June 14, 2013

More Birdsong photos are on their way. I'm kind of taking my time and enjoying the editing process, reliving the moments. And wishing I'd taken more. Luckily, there are pretty pics from friends too. It's always interesting to see the same event through different lenses. Tami, Mercedes, and Beth have all posted some that I've shared on Facebook.

When Picnic closed last year, I was frantic about what to do to edit my pictures. It has been replaced by many sites just as easy to use. My favorite is Picmonkey. Not free, but well worth the little bit that they charge. It's self explanatory and simple to adjust photos with. And boy, does it make a difference in a picture to take the time to edit it.

On Birdsong Eve, we had a little gathering at a restaurant downtown. All of my pictures were off color and too dark due to the lighting there. Once again, I wished I'd taken more, but I did make time to snap a few. But when I opened them, they all looked like this. Here is a before of Angie and Sugarwings.

With Picmonkey, here is the same photo. It has been cropped, lightened, sharpened, and then I used Orton Effect, and faded that.

This was a bonus gathering for our group, I asked if anyone was going to be in town the night before and wanted to meet up, and we filled the front of one of my favorite restaurants with a flock of 26 Peeps.

This photo is a bit beyond repair, but I liked it so much, I salvaged what I could of it.The evening happened to be my lovely friend, Angie's birthday and she baked cupcakes to bring. She was a vendor at our little shopping extravaganza and is always a welcome addition to any gathering. I hope she can attend classes next time.

Sugarwings passed out cupcakes to everyone, after not taking her eyes off of the beautiful display throughout her dinner. When she finally was allowed to have one, she didn't eat it, she politely asked Angie to take a bite of her own first, because the birthday girl always needs to go first.

Birdsong had ended up being a family reunion for me as well as an art gathering. Guncle Randy, Sissy, Bobbie, and Terry all came to be a part of it. For me, it was an opportunity for my family to see just what it is that I do. (I don't know if my husband has ever quite figured that out yet) It was wonderful to have them here and to meet my friends and be a part of my world.

And on the other side, it was very special to have so many friends come to see me and be a part of my family for the weekend. Birdsong is a homey, comfy event where all guests are family while they are here, not clients. I hope that they can feel that while they are here.

My family were all soooo helpful. Terry baked and baked and baked, her treats were the highlights of our meals. (and brought her husband to keep my own guy entertained on the golf course all weekend) Guncle Randy nominated himself "Parking B**ch" and directed cars, plus spread his charm around and welcomed everyone. Bobbie and Sissy were hauling trash to the curb and unloading the dishwasher non stop.

My son, Mr. Zen, cleaned up the yard and helped with a lot of prep for the weekend. Then, walked around the room to do some head and neck massage for those who were getting kinks from leaning over the tables and working on projects (and dealing with some of my not-so-great chairs).

Sugarwings had been as excited about the upcoming party as I was, and was constantly wanting to help get ready for it. She was very busy making plans for "Our Birdsong" and wondering what the "Birdsong Ladies" would be like. She was hoping they would show up in beautiful gowns, but we are a bit more casual than that.

When I took down the table that Sugarwings and Dewdrop had been working at all week to make room for the big tables for Birdsong, her little heart was broken. She'd been so sure that there was a place for her to be there and craft along with everyone else.

But, all the ladies made her feel welcome and Auntie Beth did some work with her out on the porch. She forgave me for taking her work table down.

I hope that our friends didn't mind all the family being included. It probably wasn't all that professional of me, but if anyone who knows me or reads my blog, they probably don't expect me to be all that professional.

Once again, I'll have to say how lucky I am that I was able to have the people I love here with me, along with so many kind and generous friends. I can't imagine a better weekend.

Thankful and lucky

bird song art event, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / June 12, 2013

I've been seriously derailed by Empty Nest Syndrome now.

The last of the "Birdsong Ladies" have flown the coop.

Birdsong ended on Saturday, but the fun continued for me a while.

Guncle Randy, Sissy, Bobbie, and Lori were still here. Karen and Sherry stayed to play for the evening too. We snipped and glued till after midnight.

Lori had to be off to the airport on Sunday morning and was gracious to offer to go a little early so we could combine trips and take 2 of my husband's brothers who had been in town to play golf and keep him company while we whooped it up in the studio.

We spent another evening in the workplayroom past midnight with Guncle Randy on Sunday, but had to take him to the airport on Monday.

My sisses and I had a day of shopping in KC after dropping him off, but by then, I was starting to droop. Hopefully, I wasn't too cranky, but man- was I tired! Days of prep, then the blast of excitement (and work) of the event, and so much fun hanging out with family that we kept staying up past midnight, were starting to hit me hard.

I just don't get to see my family often enough, so I did my best to stay awake, but I'd finally hit a wall and gave up. I climbed into my bed mid afternoon with the Puppeesh, and 3-1/2 hours later, I woke up more like myself than one of the walking dead.

That was the best nap of my life. At least the most needed!

So, I was able to enjoy the rest of the visit with my sisses, and we had yet another day to play in the studio, where Beth joined us after a birthday lunch for her downtown.

But the party couldn't go on forever, as much as I'd like it to.

Today, I had to drop my sisses off at the airport and the place seems soooo empty and quiet with everyone gone now.

The quiet has given me a chance to reflect on all of the hustly bustly goings on of this last week.

Time to go over the details while it's all fresh in my head, what to do differently next time, what to add, what to change, what to adjust.

But mostly, just to savor the memories and think about how lucky I am that so many people came to see me and spend time at the cottage.

How lucky I am to have a family that helped me pull it all off and never stopped washing dishes, to have such talented friends who taught classes, and to have so many old and new friends who wanted to be a part of our weekend, who came from all over the country to cut, snip, glue, and laugh with us.

I've got lots of photos of our party to edit and show you. But for now, I think I'll have another little nap. And I'm sure it will be filled with sweet dreams of Birdsong and the lovely people who came to see me here.

A Book of Enchantments

Books, Hand painted, jewelry, parties, Snow White, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / May 8, 2013

The weekend in CA at An Enchanted Affaire was filled with fun and friendship-from so many nice people…

People like Charlotte, who I've known a long time through blogs…

And my husband's sister, Terry, who came along to her first big art weekend…

And goofy gals who I am lucky to meet up with again at various getaways like this…

And tables full of new people to get to know.

Teaching at one of these is the best way to meet people, I was flitting from one end of the room to the other, pausing to talk to everyone at the tables.

Here is part of my table. I took classes as well as teaching this time, and asked to have "newbies" sit with me if they wanted. It was fun to get to know some different people. At most events, I sit with my same friends every time (and really LOVE that) but I realized that I'd met them all at these kind of places and I should open myself up to meeting some more new friends.

Good idea!!

This is another one from the class I taught. Being up and moving around during class made for a good time to get photos of everyone at work. Normally, during class, I'm so involved with the project, I don't get to see what everyone else is doing.

Hopefully, the ladies enjoyed the class. The first half of it was pretty much busy work, tons of gluing paper to card stock to create the background of the book.

After making the pages, we crafted the cover and assembled the book.

It looked like most people at least got that much done, not many were able to start decorating, though.

But I provided an overflowing kit full of goodies, so they had plenty to play with later when they were ready to start embellishing.

If I teach this again, I think it would be better in an all day class, so we can do the decorating of the interior of the book too.

There were lots of examples for interiors, and many ladies took photos inside of my own books for later on when they finish theirs.

Here are some completed covers by the students.

Here is another.

When they started working, I'd told them that it was absolutely impossible for any two of them to have the same book when they finished, even if they tried their durndest.

With vintage supplies, and a big page of collage images to chose from, the completed books were bound to be filled with variety!

Since my book was titled, " A Book of Enchantments" I decided that I needed a few enchantment spells to add to it. So, I wrote 4 little poems about finding joy, happy dreams, a true prince, and hope. They are printed on vellum and are part of the embellishment package.

(by the way, I made extra kits, if you want to buy one for $65, there are a few left. Many ladies bought a second while there, so I think that means they liked them)

EDIT: my email is down, if you could leave a comment or contact me on FB, I'll check those to see if anyone is ordering kits. They are selling, but there is still a few left.

Kim had asked all the teachers to provide a prize for the drawings, so I brought this assemblage.

It was won by my pal, Natalie, another teacher.

I LOVED HER CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I used a smokey quartz and ruby on my own creation.

I'll leave you with a few more photos from my class, and still have some more pictures of the event to show you later.

A very special surprise

guncles, Travel, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / March 30, 2013

What a great trip I just had. Even with a bad cold that got worse daily (I hope I wasn't sprinkling germs on everyone like fairy dust every place I went) and a trip delayed by weather that left me stranded one night.

The utterly delightful, Karen Hillman, wanted to do something extra nice for her pal, Judy, to celebrate her 50th birthday. So she arranged a surprise arty party for her at the Cozy Cottage in Mt. Dora.

The place is a real life doll house!

It's full of air, and light, and joy, all designed by Karen.

All whites and pastels and filled with embellished sweetness.

It looked like Judy was certainly surprised by Karen's gift. What a hard secret to keep for the months she and Judy's family had been planning this.

We were all touched to see how happy Judy was.

Not only did I get to make some new friends and have a lovely day at the cutest home on the planet, I got to visit my Great Aunt Caroline's former hometown, that had lots of special memories for me, and I was able to spend an entire weekend with Guncle Randy, and go to his home in Jacksonville before flying home.

Karen was kind to include my baby bro in the festivities. I knew he would hit it off with the ladies and fit right in for the classes. He's a lot of fun.

I'll have more pics of the class and the rest of the trip coming up. Every where I turned was one photo op after another. Beautiful backgrounds and smiling faces galore!

Mt. Dora is a town that I used to visit with my sisters to go see our Great Aunt Caroline. So everywhere I looked, something reminded me of them. And even the birthday cake was topped by the same fairy image that Sissy used for our Fairy Book Swap

Craft day with Carol Spinski, Debbie Dusenberry, and Amy Barickman, woo hoo!

flowers, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / January 14, 2013

Last Tuesday, Amy, Carol, and Debbie came over for a craft day and lunch. It was a fun day of catching up, creating, and chatting.

Amy's friend, Cindy, came by for a while, it was nice to meet a local Lawrence lady who was a big shot blogger (Skip to my Lou). I had no idea. Wow, 2,000,000 hits a month?? Not only was she a big time blogger, she was sweet as can be, which is appropriate since she has a store called Sweet.

In the kitchen, my dining table was set with a drop cloth cover, white mismatched linens, cream plates, and white salad plates with tiny rosebuds. I added matt white pottery vases with bright roses (on Mondays, my local Kroger marks leftover flowers down to $1.99 so I snaf up armloads, then feel greedy and put back all but two to take up. Happens every time. I see the sale price and start grabbing, then stop myself).

The look of the room inspired me to get out some Valentiney themed and colored papers to add to the all neutral books we were making. I loved the look so much, in the room and in the book I made that I thought it would be fun to have a workshop to create Valentine journals. The details are in the previous post and I'll have some photos coming up in a couple days with more info.

Knowing that
Carol and Debbie were both fans of "low color" style,I'd set out a
studio table full of neutral ephemera so that we could sift through and
pull together pages that we wanted to use in our books.

I'll be providing similar for the books we will make in class. As a matter of fact, I probably won't be putting these away, I'll leave the piles out for us to work with.

At a flea mkt last fall, I scored an 1800s receipt book stuffed with fantastic writing and logos. We all used pages of it in our books that day.

Of course, an afternoon with these three ladies is pretty durn inspiring in and you know that they can put together something scrumptious no matter what supplies they have on hand!

I had some ticking stuck away and pulled it out knowing that Debbie would use it in an interesting way, and she did, fraying the edges of strips to make ribbon, and lining some pages. She generously left the book here to use for ideas during the workshop.

Amy's book is a sweet pink tone.

And she generously left some of her books behind too. These are copies of two of her latest books and she gave them to me to offer as giveaways.

Vintage Notions and Fabric Flowers.

While I am away in Hawaii, I'll have some fresh posts done up ahead of time for you, so please come back. Leave a comment on any post between January 14 and 28th for a chance to win one of two books.

The third will be given away during my workshop on Saturday, Feb. 2nd to an attendee.

Holiday parties galore!

celebrations, family, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 19, 2012

We had a big weekend, with lots of holiday fun. Friday night, our Hippy Chick and the two little grand fairies went with us to dinner and to see "Rise of the Guardians". Dewdrop loved it, because the "night mares" that the Boogey Man created were horses. She is a huge pony fan, and yelled out "go Honies!!" every time she saw one of these spooky creatures in the movie. To her, they were the heros.

Afterwards, we drove around to look at Christmas lights. One home here in Lawrence had an elaborate display set to music, complete with a video of a life size Santa eating milk and cookies in the upstairs window. At first, we thought they actually had Santa up there, it was realistic as can be. Then, the video started to loop and we started to clue in on what was going on. All of a sudden, the size of the picture changed and his whole head filled the window, that part was a bit creepy and unexpected.

Then, on Saturday, we had a holiday pitch in dinner and craft party. And on Sunday, we had breakfast with Santa at one of the clubs my husband works at.

For the craft party, a friend had a bagful of clear glass balls she wanted to use up and we were challenged to find ways to create with them. So, I experimented with a few ideas, and filled a couple of tabletops with supplies for everyone to play with.

Some became snowmen, some had fairies or family member's photos inside.

I also had boxes that everyone could decorate and either top with a snowman head, or leave as is.

Another friend brought clothespins for the kids to make into toy soldiers.

Here is a snowman that Addie made.

Everyone's projects turned out quite different, which is one of the fun things about these kinds of parties.

Dinner was great too, pitch ins are my favorite. Every time I look into a pot or bowl someone else brought, it's like a little surprise party for my tummy. I love food that I didn't fix myself!

My studio didn't get much in the way of decor for the holidays this year. I set out some of the things that I'd made for sale, which is an excellent way to decorate, because hopefully, when the season is over, the stuff is gone and there is nothing to put away.

Well, that is if things go as planned. But, these wings will still be in vogue for Valentine's Day, so I'm not worried if I have a couple left.

Our weather is once again freakishly un-winterlike this year. So after making their projects, most of the kids played outside. Sugarwings soon turned her princess gown into something that looked like it had been dipped in Hershey's syrup, she had so much wet, gooey mud on herself.

After she and her little friend got cleaned up, we settled them in front of Frosty the Snowman on TV and gave them some hot chocolate to warm themselves up. It might have been warm outside for winter, but not really warm enough to play in the water and mud.

The husbands watched the KU game and played pool, we made things in the studio, and kids divided up their evening by crafting and playing outdoors. I think they even explored the Fairy Berry Trail in the dark.

Yep, it was a good weekend! I even managed to get about 75% of my Christmas shopping done.

But please, don't mention wrapping. ugh.

I will be away from my computer till Sat. the 22nd. Sorry, I can't get new orders from the Boutique or Etsy out in time for Christmas. Next shipping date is Dec. 27th. Wishing the happiest of holidays to you!!