We’re having a party – Page 4

The King and Queen of Hearts

celebrations, family, paintings, Valentine's Day, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 8, 2018

My sister, Bobbie Sue just celebrated her 50th anniversary with her husband and their darling daughters threw them a party, that truly surprised them.

Their last name is Valentine, and my silly sis LOVES goofy photo ops. So, I painted these cut outs for them to pose in as the King and Queen of Hearts.

Other party-ers had some fun with them too.

After measuring my largest suitcase, I cut plastic, corrugated poster board to fit the bag and primed them before painting the royalty with holes cut out for faces. Then, I flipped them over and painted the other side for double the fun.

The fairy and gypsy were done with lots of glitter and metallic paints for a sparkly effect.

The entire evening was a sparkling night of fun! My nieces rented a limo to pick their folks up at their farmhouse, and we all piled in for the ride "out to dinner". But instead of dinner, we went to greet the room full of family and friends ready to jump up and yell, "SURPRISE!!!"

It was all pretty cute, and the kids pulled it off with an amazing skill of twisting the truth around so no one guessed what was coming.

Personally, I was quite impressed with my own ability to spin tales. I possess a super power that until now, has lain dormant. Wow, I am a very, very good liar!!!!! I even had them pull up the online menu of the restaurant we were pretending to go to. And faked plans to visit old friends so I could sneak out and deliver the painted photo op boards.

The twisted untruth about meeting up with old friends, ended up turning around and becoming the real truth, and I got to visit some high school buddies I hadn't seen in years. That was the icing on the cake for this wonderful, but too quick trip to Indiana.

Well, not all of the icing. There was some delectable cake too.

And cousin time, that included seeing a long lost stepsister.

And of course, I never get enough sister time.

Yes, it was a beautiful weekend, and I was thrilled to be a part of the celebration of this love. These two are truly the King and Queen of Hearts.

Elfing around with pinecone pixies

fairies, friends, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 5, 2018

My pal, Tami, once again invited a group of local Peeps to her lovely home for a holiday crafting day. She is always generous with supplies and ideas to share with friends. This time, we were elfing around and making pinecone pixies.

Here are a few of the ones that I made. She provided a basket full of pine cones, and plenty of felt, along with the little wooden balls for heads and other tidbits to put together.

I'd brought this chunk of firewood, deer, and tree to make this display.

But this character looks more like a Yorkie than Santa's helper, doesn't he?

See what I mean?

Or maybe more like this?

We had a holly jolly time making these, and soon the room was filled with the fun lil guys.

It was hard to stop, even though all of mine didn't turn out as good as I would've liked. This poor sprite looks like she has smoker's wrinkles around her mouth where the ink ran. I can almost hear her throaty voice saying, Ho HO, Ho, between coughs….

Her sis turned out a little better. She is sitting on a spool.

Tami's halls were decked, her home is always so tastefully and vintagely festive. I do not know why I didn't get more pictures, dang it. But at least I took this pic, look at this unique and fashionable tree.

Between eating a yummy, pitch in lunch and assembling elves, we also worked on a few other projects. There were some butter pat plates available to work with.

I'm afraid my finished product is rather plain, but the plate itself was so simply sweet, I wanted to keep it pretty much as is.

I also made a little doggie ornie.

And a bottle brush tree snowflake too.

With all of the laughter, warm conversations, and of course- treat snacking, I don't know how I managed to get so many things made.

What a nice day! Thanks, Tami!!

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.

Our respect for the bird is slipping….

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

By Karla Nathan / November 19, 2018

Sugarwings and I LOVE decorating for the holidays, but we try to hold back and wait til after Thanksgiving. Our reminder to each other is, "We must respect the bird!"

Last year, our home was on the holiday tour plus I was hosting a holiday workshop (A Snowbird's Song) and I had a great excuse to ignore our rule and toss tinsel everywhere on November 1st.

And this season, we started our holiday fun a bit early by attending the play, "Elf" at the KU Lied Center. We decided to throw a mini dinner party before the show, and simply had to have appropriate decor to serve our meal, right???? Heck, it wasn't our fault that the date of the play was before Thanksgiving.

Sugarwings was in charge of the tablescape and made up this Candy Cane Forest, from the story.

Cocoa parties are a big part of our Christmas celebrations, and Buddy the Elf loves cocoa too. Typically, we do not have our first cup until the tree is up and lit. We made an exception, and served hot chocolate with organic candy canes and marshmallows in both vanilla and peppermint. She made a banner from one of Buddy's quotes.

He does have some of the best quotes.

While she crafted a candy cane forest, I hot glued some felt and feathers into elf hats to wear that night.

I was kind of surprised that we were the only group decked out for the theme, but was proud of my girls for rocking the look.

We served finger foods and things we thought elves would like, although we didn't go whole hog with Buddy's list of elves' favorite food groups:

1- Candy

2-Candy Canes

3- Candy Corn

4- Syrup

We decided to compromise on our respecting the bird rules and leave our tablescape set up. I dodged a bullet on breaking the rule even further by being very busy, and having a couple of trips come up to prevent me from pulling more yule goodies out of the closet.

But I'm twitching with the need to tear into the storage closet and fling lights and ornaments from one end of the house to the other!

A Woodland Fairy Themed Birthday Party

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

By Karla Nathan / September 1, 2018

Sugarwings hosted her 12th birthday party at her family's Kismet Farm. She, her sister, and I set up the cake table, and I brought a few of my things to use, as well as a stack of paper butterflies I'd gotten at an estate sale for a couple of bucks.

(I wish I'd gotten a photo of the cake her mom made, it was really something special! That lady has a magic touch with cake decor)

To go along with the woodland theme, the kids and I walked to the treeline and we gathered grapevine hanging from the trees, to craft fairy crowns and dream catchers from them.

There was a nature walk and scavenger hunt, time to play on a swing, then a picnic.

The kids got to do a circus workshop and learn some tricks.

And of course, we had marshmallows to roast for s'mores!

Our Hippy Chick brought a pile of hula hoops too.

But in my opinion, the best part of a party is to just let the kids play outside and have all the fun they can make for themselves.

There was camping for those who wanted to sleep overnight in tents, so the party favors were LED glow sticks and flashlights to play with after dark.

Walmart has these mini lights for $1 each.

We also gave out necklaces that Sugarwings and I made, using paint pours.

The cake table was outside against the covered patio wall, and we hung odds and ends of fabric remnants and curtains behind it, then layered old tablecloths and burlap onto it. The butterflies were pinned to the fabric and it was a pretty simple set up to create and to take down. I brought serving pieces that I already had, along with the $2 pack of butterflies, so we didn't put any money into the decor at all.

I didn't get a photo of the table with the cake or punch on it, but the cake was so cute. And the punch was berry juice mixed with lemonade. Sugarwings and I sliced up fruit and froze it into bowls of lemonade to make pretty ice that wouldn't dilute the punch as it melted.

What a nice evening!!

A Woodland Scavenger Hunt for a Birthday Party

celebrations, family, flowers, games, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / August 31, 2018

My son and his family now have a 13 acre home in the woods, and I think Sugarwings loves it out there more than anyone. So, when it was time to plan a party for her 12th birthday, this is where she wanted to have it. She suggested a nature walk as part of the activities and I made up a scavenger hunt list (spelling her name) for the kids to take on the walk.

Her dad mowed the trails ahead of time, and we walked along them to explore the woods.

It is a pretty time of year and there was a lot to see along the way.

Sugarwings stapled the list to sandwich bags for the participants to fill with their finds.

I was struck by how beautiful the trails were, and what a wonderful piece of property he'd found. He has been working on cleaning it up and making it a retreat for yoga, permaculture, and other workshops in the future and I'm looking forward to seeing this land become a growing business as well as a home.

And to watch the grand fairies grow up in the woods.

Even more so, after seeing how some of the "city kids" who came to the party reacted to being there. Many seemed unsure of how to handle themselves walking along a trail and few were able to find the items on the list.

All of my family spends so much time connecting to nature that it didn't occur to me that some kids were uncomfortable in it and happier on their iPhones than running through the trees.

One thing I noticed that made me happy, was that every kid did find a "TREASURE" from the list on the bags. They might not be used to woodland walks and seeing the details in nature, but they could still connect enough to know that an acorn, a rock with sparkles on it, or an empty snail shell was truly a treasure to find and keep.

And it made me so happy to know that our grand fairies, while they love screens and devices, like most of us in this world, still love being in the woods and the magic of finding a leaf with a hole in it and peeking through that peephole.

Once Upon An Easter

We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / July 20, 2018

Jenn Hayslip is having another of her wonderful events! And guess what? I've been invited to teach a class!

And not only does it involve so many of my favorite things, like vintage, eye candy, sweetness… a gathering of creative friends… and a getaway filled with art…

ITS AT THE BEACH!!!

I don't know if I've mentioned it…... but I'm slightly obsessed with beaches.

Which is why I've been painting them so much this year. Jenn is hostessing this party on Jekyll Island, a place I've always wanted to go. I hear it is just gorgeous there. Of course, when Jennifer plans something, every tiny detail is pure gorgeousness even without the back drop of something like this.

I hope I'll see you there? I can promise you that it will be quite special. Everything she does is. My talented buddies, Andrea Singarella and Karen Hillman are also teaching. This will be a confection of pastel prettiness!

My husband had a birthday too.

celebrations, family, paintings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 18, 2018

While I have been celebrating my 60th from early April to mid June, my poor husband only got one day of partying for his.

He made up for it by mentioning his age (57) from the time I turned 60, until he turned 58 a month later. Hmm, yes, I heard that, Rich!!

I wanted to do something special for him, since he put up with all of my celebrating of my own holiday.

We spend a lot of time out on Lake Clinton, near our home. And we have a favorite area, a quiet cove that is ideal for swimming and picnicking. So, I took dozens of photos the last time we were there, and did this painting from them.

At first, I framed it. Then, took a look at it on the wall and thought it looked like a little old lady painted it. (which I realized that I am)

Once I popped it out of the frame, I liked it better.

Here is our cove from another angle. We are often the only people there when we go. Lake Clinton is a beautiful spot and I am always surprised at how quiet it is.

Although, we do our best to liven up that cove!

We have even convinced our son, Ryan to come out on the lake with us this season. He hasn't been as fond of the place as the rest of us, over the years.

For Rich's birthday, we packed a picnic and headed out to our cove to have dinner. It was only one party for him, as opposed to the 7 or so I had…. But I think he liked it. And I hope that he will enjoy the painting.

Around here, there are a lot of paintings, but I tried to make this one special for him.

And you thought I was done celebrating? Ha!

celebrations, friends, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 16, 2018

My husband is becoming overwhelmed by the length of my birthday celebrations. His birthday has come and gone, while I am still living mine up.

Seriously, I thought I was done too, then my Birdsong pal, Tami, included me in her own birthday party. She, Nora, and I are all turning 60 this year and at her recent craft day gathering, she toasted the three of us, plus others' special days too.

Not only that, she created these lovely crowns for our trio of 60 year olds. (Mine is too far back on my head to show in this, but you can see it in the close up, above. Gorgeousness, huh????)

Tami supplied projects for the day too. There was an assortment of lids to turn into note holders, and clip boards to foof up.

As it always is, her craft day was filled with laughter and creativity. Thanks, Tami!!

When your friends know you well

celebrations, friends, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 13, 2018

Back in May, I threw myself a birthday dinner party and invited some of my long time, good friends. We'd met through our love of art, and even though our art endeavors have gone different directions over the last 20 years or so, we still have a love of each other.

They collaborated on a charm bracelet for my 60th, with pieces charmingly filled with memories of our times together and of my favorite things.

There is sea glass (one of my obsessions), a heart signifying family, diacrylic glass from a group project we did, birthstones for my kids, and see the bakery stand? I love to serve cupcakes on a tiered stand, not just on a plate.