We’re having a party – Page 12

Romantic Gothic Ghosts Workshop at Karla’s Studio

bird song art event, holiday decor, parties, Romantic Gothic Ghosts, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / July 25, 2012

Beth and I are planning some classes at my studio, a one day event, a bit more casual than Birdsong was. She'll teach in the morning while I get lunch ready, then its my turn to have an afternoon class. Both will be very much in tune with the online Romantic Gothic Ghost online projects we did a couple of years ago.

That online class is still available for $25 or you can get it free when you come to our classes at my home.

Projects for the day are still to be announced, we are in the midst of prototypes. I can promise that they are going to be moody and romantic, a lovely piece to decorate your home with for Halloween, with no garish purple or orange to be seen.

Lunch, complete kits full of vintage goodness, dessert, and drinks will be included, as well as the bonus online class. And we'll schedule some time for coffee and muffins before the work day begins so everyone can get acquainted.

Saturday Oct. 6, 2012 from 9am-6pm

Cost is $100

Email me if you'd like to pay by check, or click here, and scroll to the bottom of the post to get to the pay pal button.

Classes at my home are very casual, tee shirt and jeans type things, not dressy at all. But feel free to be a little witchy for Halloween if you'd like. My Sissy is coming and she will be all witchied-up. I might be too.

Also, I've got to warn you, that we will be surrounded by werewolves. 1-2 lb ones, though, so not as dangerous as most. Twinkle's puppies will be at the age where they will be scampering about underfoot all day. Feel free to snuggle one on your lap while you work if it looks like its getting tired. Sometimes little werewolf cubs need more rest than they think, and should be encouraged to nap.

But only if you are strong willed enough to ignore the tempting price tags tied around their necks. Yep, puppies will be for sale…..

It did my heart good to have some Birdsong friends sign up as soon as I announced this on Facebook Tuesday!! It matters a lot to me that people who have been here before are looking forward to coming back.

This class will have limited seating, and will one day only. If you are coming in town for it, its a great weekend to be in the KC area. The Old West Bottoms area of Kansas City is opened up with tons of once a month junk and antique stores, and the Renfest is going on too. I LOVE both. (Our class is on a Saturday, and I plan on being at Bottoms Up on Friday, and the Renfest on Sunday myself.) more info about both can be found here
All food served will be homemade, with fresh ingredients. I usually cook pretty healthy and low fat, but I make up for the calorie savings with some decadent desserts.

Beth and I would love to see you there. Hope we do!

Happy Birthday to Beth

junk, kitties, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 17, 2012

We got back from our trip just in time for me to celebrate Beth's birthday with her.

She is notoriously hard to shop for, because she is the world's best shopper. If she wants it, she'll find it.

So, I prettied a box up with vintage wallpapers, made her a necklace, and filled the box with tibbits I thought she'd enjoy working with. Because its always fun to get new arty supplies!

I asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate and she said she was going to her regular, twice a month auction. Years ago, I used to go with her to this auction, but since I closed my antique mall booth, it became too dangerous for me to attend. I have a history of always buying the heaviest thing in the whole place every time I go, and since I no longer drive a van, or have a booth to put big heavy pieces into, I just don't need to buy that kind of junk. Even though I can't seem to stop myself.

This time, I proudly constrained my urges to buy big things, and just picked up a few smalls that I didn't need.

It helped that the auction goods that were offered that night kind of sucked.

Big time.

The auctioneer even seemed bored with the offerings and started playing games with it all, like seeing how high he could stack them.

This is a stack I couldn't resist, even though it wasn't very heavy. I paid $17 for all of these Oz books. And I bought a flat of Oz dolls for Sugarwings. Beth mentioned that it wasn't complete, there was no Dorothy. But I assured her that we might have a couple around here to fill out the set. Lil Sugarwings is a bit of a Dorothy fan.

While the goods for sale weren't all that good, the company was, and we laughed and chatted all night. I packed a birthday picnic to feast on and pretty paper plates and napkins to serve it on. It ended up being such fun, I was wishing I had a birthday coming up to spend there.

Its good to be home, and I have plenty of vaca photos to show. But for now, here is what greeted me when I returned, our new cat. She was a stray that decided to adopt us, and Sugarwings has named her Sweet Sweet Sweety. (that name is said really fast with some jumping up and down, each time it is said)

She is a pretty cat. Or he is a handsome cat, I'm not sure yet which.

Twinkle is not around right now, she has gone to see her boyfreind for a week or so. Looks like our vacation ended just in time to get her over to see him, so we'll be having some puppies in August! Maybe about on Sugarwing's birthday, August 16th.

Happy Birthday to my handsome husband

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

By Karla Nathan / June 14, 2012

For my husband's birthday, I had some help whipping up homemade blueberry pies.

It was pretty exciting. But anytime Sugarwings does some baking, its a joy-fest.

I tried something a little different with the pies. We filled a shell with fresh berries, then topped it with a mixture of butter, organic brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour. We drizzled a little water over it, added a heart cut out of pie dough, and baked it. The berries' juices mixed with the topping as it melted into the pie, and it was really yummy. It left a slight, crispy top, but not the same as a crumble, because I used very little flour in it.

Along with the pies, I made fried chicken,(catfish for the vegetarians too) mashed potatoes, gravy, corn (fresh from the cob) green beans, coleslaw and rolls. Plus a strawberry cheesecake.

whew.

4 and a half hours in the kitchen, I made it all the old fashioned way, like my grandma and mom used to. What a lot of work. How on earth did they cook like that on a regular bsis???

It was a good party, and the kids gave Pop Pop a book to read to his littlest grand fairy, plus he got plenty of hugs and cuddles, so he had a happy birthday.

They made him some flower pots, and he got a mint plant and lime tree to grow his own garnishes for cocktail hour.

He's one hot grandpa, isn't he?

ps- you can still enter the drawing to win this collage by leaving a comment

Special friends and a special day

Books, celebrations, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), parties, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 12, 2012

Before I left for my North Carolina adventure, I had a little party for some special friends. Kecia, who I met at Tiffanys in CA is on quite an adventure herself. A two month plus trek across the country, hop scotching from one friend, family member, junk shop, to another. She stopped to see me here at the cottage on her way across I70.

And my beautiful friend, Angie, was having a birthday. Two reasons to celebrate!

You know me, it doesn't take much to convince me its time for a party. I love any excuse to set the table and invite friends over.

And with two special occasions, I was raring to go.

I stole my buddy, Carol's tip about using vintage wallpaper as a table runner. And I just happened to have a few rolls to choose from…

Angie had another very important celebration, she is a first time grammie as of a few days ago! So, I broke out the extra special, hoarded, fairytale wall paper from the 20s and made a frame for her to put a baby picture in.

Instead of just having a dinner party, I invited everyone to come for the afternoon and have craft day too, and friends dropped by here and there for whatever time they could make it. Some just for craft day, some just for dinner.

My favorite way to spend a day. Good friends, good conversation and stuff to make!!

I'm still hooked on slopping modelling paste on my collages. So, I made some books with covers all textured up. (this one is in the Boutique)

On this one, I collaged the back too, but instead of texture, I dry brushed paint over the collage, then inked it a bit.

This book needs a slight re-do. I've filled it with pages and pages of old papers, and they are too delicate to turn with ribbon ties. I have to add some rings instead.

Here is the back of this one.

IIt will be a while before I burn out on this technique, I'm super into smooshing the modelling paste around over pretty papers!

Dew Drop's mommy, our Gypsy, made a journal this way too, Beth worked on some stiitching, the other Karla was doing needlepoint, Shanna had some painting to do in an enamelling project, and Angie was foofing up vintage bottles with messages and trinkets.

The great thing about craft day, is that everyone works at their own pace on whatever they feel like, and the conversation flows here, there, and everywhere.

Kecia arrived later in the day, and said she had not had a chance to create while on her trip, so I set her up with supplies to make a book too. I love the layers she put on her cover.

After dinner, when the other guests had gone, she and I went back out to the studio and worked till after midnight finishing our books.

Twinkle bonded with her, and we will both miss her, the visit was much too short!

My own thoughts on blogging and Making a project my own

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

By Karla Nathan / May 29, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And of course, I needed a fairy.

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

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

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

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

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

The flowers behind Dewdrop were part of the kit.

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

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

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

Tea Party Time

Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / May 21, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tiffany Blue

hand painted signs, Travel, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / May 17, 2012

The best part of going to these art events, like Tiffanys, is the people.

Great people, great friends. I might only see them randomly at various arty weekends, but we pick right up where we left off and continue the fun that started at the last party.

I've met some people who I consider very close friends, not just acquaintances or work friends at these places.

I have great memories of this latest trip, and many pretty pictures to show you. But since the people I meet there mean so much to me, this post has not come easy.

I share more than laughs with these ladies. I care about them. And I cherish our times together.

So I don't want to be flip and go on and on about how wonderful it all was.

Believe me, it was WONDERFUL, Kim is an over the top, talented hostess who attends to every detail. The teachers and classes were lovely. The decor amazing. The women were the best.

But there was also heart break this time.

My long time, Bella buddy lost her husband in an accident while we were there.

I'm glad she was surrounded by some of her closest friends when she got the news. The ladies she was with that day were good people who had sturdy shoulders to cry on, and strong hearts to offer support.

I do have more pictures to show you, and it was a lovely weekend. But my heart aches for her now.

She should be proud and thankful that the night before her husband's accident, she was saying very nice things about him and not complaining as many of us tend to do when we are idly talking about our husbands. Not a negative word left her mouth when she talked about the two of them restoring a cabin together and about his job as a fireman.

Lots of us might (me included) might throw in a snide or complaining comment about a husband's design choices, forgetfulness, or who knows what when talking about doing a project like that together or be crabby about the long hours he works at his job.

She spoke with pride about his work and with happiness talking about their project.

The minute I heard the news about her loss, I had to call my own loved one right away and tell him how much I appreciated him. You never know when it could be too late. Or when your last conversation about someone was not a flattering one.

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!

Pretty, pretty, pretty, I love Kim’s house! plus a Boutique sale and a giveaway

Food and Drink, give away, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, Travel, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / December 23, 2011

Everything at Kim's was pure perfection, she has major decor, design, and detail skills.

And the ladies who came to spend the day were such fun! I hope they enjoyed my two classes as much as I enjoyed sharing the tips with them.

There were gifts galore too. Kim gave us all the table decorations she used to foof our seats, I already have these wings on display in my own holiday decor.

And the generous attendees all included me in their swaps, even though I didn't have time to participate. (photos to come, you'll be impressed with their work!)

Kim's house was sooooo pretty. I said that word so many times, that I sounded like a broken record. Or a dimwit with a pitiful vocabulary.

Can you blame me? Pretty was everywhere.

Kim was attempting to show me around when I arrived, when I caught a glimpse of her studio through the open doorway and I was magnetically pulled into the prettiness of the room, with no hope of stopping myself. I just had to explore that space.

But it wasn't just the studio. The whole house is that great. This is the bedroom that Jessi and I shared, Kim's daughter, Kate, gave up her room for the whole weekend.

My main project was a wire wrapped wreath, with lace leaves and a nesting dove. I brought a table full of "extras" for everyone to play with. Ribbons, lace, beads,glitters, etc. When I teach a class, I think its only fair to include everything you need in the kits.

But- its good to have an option to personalize the piece and have some bonus goodies to dig through.

Don't we all love to dig?

Everyone's project was unique, no two just the same. Just the way I like it!

We also played with paint, and I explained some of the techniques for short cut painting tips that are on the side bar of my blog. I'll have some pictures of that later, as well as a bigger sample of the work. Kim and I painted her nightstands using the same steps that we did on the small wooden boxes that I brought for the class.

When I arrived, she had a pristine, newly painted, chalk board door.

And I had the honors of supplying its first drawing.

Kate has tamed a feral cat and it adores her. So, my thought was to add the kitty to the picture, and have it play with the ribbons dangling from the wreath that we were making that day.

I have more photos to share after Christmas, but for now, I really need to get shopping and wrapping! Sugarwings has been ill since I got home and a lot of my time has gone to snuggling instead of prepping for the big event this weekend. I hope Santa can find my chimney, because no one in this house should count on gifts from me…. I'm not prepared!

Speaking of gifts- don't forget that you have till Christmas to win a special, surprise gift from me. Any comment this week, any post counts.

Also, if you have Christmas gift cash to buy your self a gift, come on by the Boutique. Everything is 30% off if you use THIS LINK.

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.

Merry Christmas!

Zombie Invasion

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / October 31, 2011

We live in a great town, it has everything, a good school system, community arts, a vibrant downtown, loyal Jayhawks, great food, and zombies.

Yep, real live zombies. Not the dead kind.

We went downtown for dinner, and snagged a street side table to watch the annual parade.

At first, Sugarwings was enjoying the site as the zombies arrived and made their way to the start of the parade.

But soon, we were in the middle of HUNDREDS of the walking undead.

That is when she dove under the table.

I have to admit, it was pretty freaky.

I thought about joining her under there!

But she could see we were having a lot of fun with the parade and we'd been talking about costumes and how zombies aren't real, so she came out and joined us for dinner.

But she did stay on her Pop Pop's lap.

The food was great, the weather was perfect, what a great night to sit outside and eat a big ole juicy steak as blood drenched corpses walked by.

This was a fund raiser for the Humane Society.

It was $15 to join the parade, and I'd love to know how much the shelter made, there was a huge turnout.

Zombies of all ages participated.

Brides seemed to be very popular.

And the local costume stores must have sold out of fake blood.

We saw the Skipper and his Lil Buddy, Santa, Batman, Superman, you name it, that zombie was there.

And many were ready to stop and chat at our table.

Some of the acting was really impressive.

And some of the costumes were almost too scary.

One little zombie boy stopped and gave our Sugarwings a flower. She was really warming up to it all by then.

Soon, she was hiding under the restaurant's menu board and jumping out to scare people herself.

But her bravery didn't last, one zombie pulled the same trick on her, jumped in her face and growled. The poor kid was terrified after that and just sobbed.Luckily the parade was over and it was time to go home.

I felt so bad for her. She'd been having so much fun watching the hoarde go by, til that one girl jumped into her face.

My mom raised me to love horror movies, and my boys watched them growing up too. Sugarwings has always been attracted to the scary characters in every fairy tale and story, she is a big fan of flying monkeys, witches, and trolls.

But I don't know if zombies will be very high on her list of faves.

We'll see. If she takes after me, she'll be fond of them.