yorkies – Page 11 – Karla's Cottage

Meet Mr. Wonderful

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, flowers, Food and Drink, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / November 21, 2009

We have a new little friend here at the cottage.

Twinks is fascinated by him.

Mr. Wonderful isn't quite as infatuated with her.

He has decided that as long as Twinkle is near by, the best place to be is out of reach.

But they are working on the relationship.

Today was a great day for getting acquainted, its sunny, bright, and beautiful.

While the two new "frenemies" explored each other's boundaries, I harvested tomatoes for the last time, again. This is the 4th time I cleared out late tomatoes, thinking it was the end of the line for the plants. Vine fresh tomatoes aren't a typical side dish for Thanksgiving in Kansas. But it sure will be this year!

I might even be picking flowers from the garden for the table!

(I am out of town a few days, this was pre-posted on Friday)

Pink roses and fall leaves?

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, holiday decor, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / November 8, 2009

We are having amazing weather here. Its been in the 70s and beautiful, good time for raking up some of leaves that are being tracked throughout the house by my dogs. They are little leaf magnets and must bring in a bushel each every day.

We don't bag or burn, instead I push them off into flower beds or into the woods behind the house to naturally decompose.

We'll also scoop up a few trailer loads and throw over the garden fence to enrich the soil there too. But for now, I am still gathering tomatoes from the garden!

We've yet to have a hard enough frost to kill off the flowers and some of the garden plants. I don't think I've ever had a November when I've had pink roses blooming next to the changing leaves before.

The tomatoes I've brought in aren't all that wonderful, but they are good enough for cooking, so I'm planning home made tomato soup tonight. Maybe with a hand full of wild rice and some spinach thrown in the pot.

I appreciated all your comments about Aunt Caroline's treasures and want to announce the two winners for the bundles of trim.

Suz Reaney

and

Joanna

And since the trims are such a popular thing with so many of you hoping to win some, that I'll offer another bundle for my November Giveaway. These won't be from my Aunt, but are just as nice. I think you'll like them!

I rarely decorate much for fall, just because my house is not typical fall colors, and because it seems to be so busy around here, I don't get a chance. Here is the total of all the autumn decor, post Halloween flowers on clearance for $1.99 a bunch at the grocery store this week.

I kind of like the splash of bright color, and it is reminding me of this November's odd weather. Fall colors against the pale shades just like in my garden.

Tending to my Christmas tree farm

collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), holiday decor, redos, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / October 20, 2009

Progress is being made on the Christmas trees. All are bleached, dyed, and glittered, and a few are foofed.

This year, I am trying something new with the glitter. I used a high gloss poly spray to mist each tree, then rolled it in a snowy glitter. After that, I spritzed it with a spray can of silver glitter/poly, hoping that would seal it.

Now, some of the glitter always flakes off no matter how you put it on, so there will be some molting, but it seems to be working very well.

The cold weather snap is over and yesterday was beautifully fallish. I had the doors and windows open, and sat outside in the rocks to spray trees. Is it ironic that I was enjoying the warm weather so much that I started on a Christmas project?

While I was feeling the holiday spirit, I started on a few putz house remodeling projects too.

It involved repainting some of the more garish colors, adding wallpaper, glitter, fake snow, and some of my teeniest dyed trees. Also, some little vintage characters, snowmen and deer that I glittered up.

These houses are now ready to display as is, or for me to use on some ephemera covered boxes I want to get started on.

My table is looking like Santa's Workshop!

Of course, I don't have any of that cheap elf labor, its all me doing the glittering and gluing. The only helper I know that would work for candy canes is Sugarwings and she has a bit of a heavy hand with the glue… I've known her to use a half a bottle on one bird house, so I doubt if I'll let that little pixie be my assistant on this.

Beth did help me out, though, she GAVE me a lot of the boxes that I will be covering with ephemera and topping with houses, plus a ton of the old bead garlands!!

Normally, I collect those old mercury bead garlands all year at garage sales, flea markets, etc, but this year was a bit of a dud. Not much luck on the strings of beads, no matter where I looked. (at a decent price, at least)

There were some left from last year and I did buy 4 strands, but I go through quite a bit of them at the holidays. So, Beth was a great help, but then, she always is.

By the way, Beth is having a wallpaper giveaway, you should go visit her!

She is owed a lunch for her generosity, at least, huh? I think I need to treat her to our favorite place, Pei Wei, on Friday when we hang out together. She is always giving me the best stuff.

We are planning on estate sailing on Friday in Kansas City, then crafting at her house, but it all depends on how this little guy is doing. This is Bookie, you rarely see photos of him, because he is old and likes to spend his days sitting on the porch all alone, or laying on his pillow.

The poor little guy has been attacked, by something, I have no idea what, or when. He is such a loner in his old age, that some days, I hardly see him, he is like a shadow around the house. We have a doggie door and a fenced yard, so he comes and goes as he pleases. So, I'm not sure when he was hurt. I know he was fine on Saturday when I gave him a treat.

But on Monday, I noticed he was covered in blood and was ill!! I rushed him to the vet, and was told that something had bitten his head and that it was infected pretty bad. He had a fever, and his head was horribly swollen. He might have a broken leg too, but was in too bad of shape to be put under for an X-ray.

What could have done this to him?? A possum? A raccoon? Our mean farm cat? That cat hates Bookie, it could be. It has to be something that could get over the fence. It terrifies me to think that there is a creature out there on my property that is attacking my mild mannered, sweet, little, guy.

Dorkiepalooza (this one has gone to the dogs)

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 27, 2009

I thought I'd write a few posts in advance to pop up while I am in Florida. And since I'll be missing my home and family, and the dorkies, I thought I'd have something on here that would pick me up when I look at it on the hotel lobby computer. Thursday's post is all about the garden (and hoping the brand new baby plants survive on their own with out me)

For today's, I went back into my photo files and found some of my favorite dorkie pictures.

These are all taken from various cameras over the years. But I have re-edited them in Picassa. That editing system has really improved some pictures taken with my older cameras too!

Picassa is free, its a quick and easy download from Google. Its simple to use and did I mention it was free???

Photoshop is much better, of course. I've never tried it, but I have seen others use it and have been very impressed with all its tricks. But did I mention that Picassa was free and simple and anyone can use it? No lessons, simply download and start editing?

Everyone of these older photos has really been improved with this editing. Previously, I used the basic editing that came with the computer, so I guess anything would have been an improvement.

Photoshop is something I'd love to learn how to use. Just like I'd really love to learn more about the Canon Rebel camera that I got for my birthday this year. But I have to face facts, and know that there is only so much time in a day and my days are pretty packed.

I adore the photos taken by my friends, Tiffany and Carol. Those two taught me a lot about my new camera when we were together in Macon at En Le Jardin. But they spend at LOT of time on editing (it shows, wow, they have knockout photos!!).

This new editing system has helped me a lot. And I do LOVE my new camera!! But I doubt that I'll never have the time or dedication to become a pro like Tiffany and Carol. I just want some pretty pictures, they don't have to be perfect. So, I'm pretty happy with this new tool, even on some of the older photos taken with a not so great camera.

You might have noticed that I tend to have a ton of photos…. So, I have to be quick with them. I'd say I spend only a couple of minutes at the most on each one.

Maybe because I have this little one in my life? Yep, my time at the computer is quite limited since she has come around, but we're pretty happy with our time together. I'm going to be missing her while I am away!

Bye Bye, Babies!

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / February 23, 2009

Isn't she gorgeous? And talented too! When Bethany comes over here for craft day with her mom, Shawn, she usually gets a lot more accomplished than the rest of us do. Although, for this craft day, we spent a lot of the time cuddling puppies. (photo by Shawn, and I am jealous of her camera)

We had a new friend join us for craft day, this time. Marycame and brought these pretty things. She said she knew I liked "girly" stuff, and boy, she was right. I love these! I've already used some of it in a journal I worked on that day.

Beth has been selling these old ledgers, and I bought a few to fix up.

Last week, I made one for myself, with postal rates, birthdays, addresses, and passwords in it. For this one, I didn't write in an page titles, but will customize it for free for up to 6 categories for whoever buys it. I am listing this book in my Boutique today.

Its a bit more expensive than my stuff usually is, but this is all GOOD STUFF, great papers and really old. Plus, a lot of time and thought went into the planning of it. I wanted it to be lovely as well as functional.

The old handwriting in the pages is so nice, so I wanted it to show, but had to figure a way to keep it and still have the pages ready to be written on by the new owner. So, I have used a variety of papers, such as this glimmer misted 8" tag, with ribbons tailing out the bottom of the book, and some water color paper. On other pages, I have used old stationery, or wallpaper to cover the words.

This page makes use of the stationery paper, as well as one of the girly cards from Mary.

There are lots of hand drawn embellishments too. I've done them in glittery or metallic inks.

Most of the hand drawn pretties are vines, swirls and butterflies.

Some pages are left plain, some have ephemera glued down, others have the hand drawn elements.

And I have even included a hand painted tea cup filled with roses.

There are a total of 14 pages (28 counting both sides) so I won't show them all.

While I was cutting up vintage wallpaper for the project, I cut up a few extra pieces and listed some packs in the Boutique.

Then, I listed a few more bits of last week's loot on Etsy.

Thanks to all of you who came by to shop and get some of these collage goodies!

I've got more to list in the shop soon, but right now am busy getting caught up on real life. After craft day, all of a sudden, I caught a cold. One minute, I was fine, the next, I was sneezing, blowing my nose and feeling awful. So I spent a day in bed, and slept for most of it. I had to, there was nothing on TV till Oscar time, and my head was throbbing too much to read.

Oscars were a bit anticlimactic. My favorite part was a red carpet interview with Miley Cyrus who talked about her movie, saying she hoped to be nominated next year for it. I laughed out so loud that I scared the dogs.

Nothing can make you feel better than a good laugh. Puppies are usually pretty good for a laugh too. I've been out in the studio with the lone pup that is left today and she has been pretty entertaining.

What am I going to do when they are all gone?? I'd better go get some cuddling in while I still can, only a few days left with my last little one.

(these photos of pups are from Shawn and her magnificent camera too) It dawned on me, that I could have bought my dream camera with the puppy money I got from Twinkle's babies. Man, what was I thinking when I promised it to Sugarwing's college fund??? Oh well, I am sure that is a much better way to spend a chunk of cash. Investing in the baby's future can never be a mistake.

Giveaway reminder- yes, there is a present for February! All you need to do is leave a comment. I don't know what it will be yet, so lets call it a SUPER SURPRISE!

Swappers are still adding posts about their Puppy Love Tag Books. you can see Ele's here.

Chasing Sugarwings

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

By Karla Nathan / February 20, 2009

Whats better than hugging a fuzzy puppy on a sun shiny day?

How about a whole armload of them?

Yep, not much is better than snuggly puppies.

These guys are becoming such fun, and I am losing them! We are just getting to the good part, where they come running at the sound of our voices and want to play. Even though Sugarwings tends to be a little rough (she's only 1-1/2), these babies were still following her every move when we took them all outside to play today. They are either really brave, or really stupid, because they keep coming back for one more, too-tight squeeze from her.

Two more girls leave on Sunday, then I will only have one until the 28th when her new family arrives to get her. Trouble is, she is my favorite, and a week alone with just her is going to make it even harder to give her up!!

Well, once all the girls are gone, I will have more time for actual work. Right now, a lot of my studio time is spent playing with pups.

I did sort out more of the loot from yesterday and make a couple of little crowns.

One box had a bunch of these old metal trim pieces, and I can see all sorts of tiaras being formed with these!

Soon, everyone in the studio will be sporting their own crown. Hmm, I still have a couple of days to make puppy crowns, don't I? Or as Sugarwings calls them, "corns".

This is some more of the loot that I am keeping for projects myself. I'm not sure what I'll make, these bits and pieces are all great materials, though!

And thanks to all of you who filled up shopping carts at Etsy!

This is another collage/assembly kit that I added to Etsy today.

Details, of the kit.

I hope to add more of the vintage loot packs to Etsy, but right now, I hear Sugarwings getting up from her nap.

She's worn me to a frazzle today, too bad the nap wasn't a little bit longer, I've enjoyed my little break in front of the computer. That is one BUSY kid!!

Nesting (how to paint a bird’s nest)

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), how-to projects, paintings, swaps, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / February 18, 2009

The babies are starting to leave me. Today, little Glitter went to her new home, she is living now with a reader of this blog who happens to be in Kansas City. Glitter was the pensive pup, who was always happy to watch a while before joining in the rough housing with the other girls. Micah, the tiny little firecracker who had the most energy of all, is with her new family too. Tinker Bella has gone to live with Teddy's family.

There are still 3 little furry bundles of joy to keep me company while I work in the studio, but not for much longer. Its going to be quiet around here after they go…

Today, I've been busy at work in the studio painting drawer pulls. I had a boxful, some from Beth,some that I harvested from dressers when I fixed them up and changed out the handles to glass knobs. The first step in the redo was to prime them with a can of Zinzer spray primer. Then, I painted them white with acrylic craft paint.

Are you up for a how-to? I thought I show you the steps in painting a nest. First, start with a nest shape blob in dark brown.

Next, add two vaguely egg shaped blue blobs.

Add white highlights to the eggs.

Switch to a thin, liner brush and outline the eggs in the same dark brown used for the back ground of the nest.

Now, switch back to a small, round brush and load it with yellow and tan.

Add some of the yellow tan color, in lines that follow the shape of the nest.

Repeat with a layer of olive green.

This is all about the layers. Let each previous layer peek through the next. Don't go at this with a heavy hand, let your layers of color build up, just as a bird would have built it with layers of sticks.

Now is time to switch back to the thin, liner brush. Using the dark brown, follow the shape of the nest again with your strokes. This time, be a little messy, with "twigs" sticking out all around.

Repeat the last step with white or ivory.

Fine tune the nest by outlining some strokes with the dark brown on a liner brush, here and there as needed

To finish, brush on a water based clear coat, or spray with a can of poly. I prefer the brushed on method myself. It might look like this was a lot of steps, but really, it goes fast and unsure, shaky lines make even better twigs than perfect lines! So give it a try, a nest is a simple thing to paint.

Introducing Little Star, Millie, Tinker Bella, Trinket, Micah, and Glitter

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), swaps, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / February 5, 2009

Oh my, we sure had some entries for the Name the Puppy contest! Hundreds of cute names came in. Thanks so much, I enjoyed reading all the names and wished I had a dozen more pups to name. (but that would also mean a dozen more to mop up after too, so maybe not)

It was hard to select winners, so many were so good! But here it goes-

This little girl is Little Star and was named by Sugarwings.

Meet Millie, named by Carla for one of my favorite things in the world, millinery flowers.

And of course, I had to have a BELLA, but even better, how about Tinker Bella??? Don't you love that?? The winner for this one is Cheryl.

Sissy was the winner for this girl, her name is now Trinket.

The teeniest, tiniest puppy of them all is going to be called Micah. As in a shiny little flake of glitter! How perfect for her. The winner for this name is Jingle.

And Adeline Grace suggested Glitter. That seemed to suit this itty bitty princess.

All of the girls are modeling the heart charms that will go to the ladies who named them. If you are a winner, please send me your address, unless you are in the Puppy Love swap, and I will just add your charm to the package when I mail them out this weekend.

The last two babies are nestled into more gifts from Puppy Love swappers! Can you believe the goodies?? Tomorrow, the fairy grand baby and I are having our dress up Tea Party and opening presents together. She is very excited, especially when she saw the Tinkerbell tag on one of her packages.

Twinks can't bear me taking photos of her babies and not her, so I indulged her with this shot. I'm redoing a high chair for Sugarwings, here it is in progress. Of course, don't let Twinks know the picture is of the chair, not her.

The packages are coming in fast and furious now! I hope to make up the tag books over the weekend.

This tag swap has made me pay attention to the wall behind the bench in my studio. I've had a bad habit of hanging whatever I just found at a garage sale, or just painted, onto any old nail that was already there, over the years. But, standing at the table, sorting tags and facing the wall, made me realize how blah and unattractive it was.

Natasha, Heather and I had a discussion once about framing wallpaper as art, the three of us love it so much, we all thought it was lovely enough on its own to be framed. I finally got around to doing just that. I'm still foofing and not quite done. I want to add more small frames of wallpaper to the center of the big frames. Maybe hung on velvet ribbons? Or I might still go with the sepia photo idea. Or old post cards? But I do LOVE just wallpaper. Ooh, I could add some Millinery flowers!!!!!!

Good thing the puppies don’t hold still much

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Miss Frenchie's, Sugarwings, swaps, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / February 4, 2009

Today is the last day for naming a puppy. There sure have been some good ones, choosing will be hard. Some are almost too good to give to a puppy that will be leaving me in a few weeks! There are names in the list that I want to give to a dog that I will keep forever!

Beth and I had a fun craft day yesterday, and she brought a Valentine ribbon to tie around this little one's neck. Of course, the minute I put her (the dog, not Beth) back in the Puppy Pond, she was turned into an object of tug-o-war and her sissies pulled off the ribbon and are still playing with it today.

Besides making up little heart shaped "Puppy Love" tags for the swap, I spent the craft day covering anything that didn't move with vintage wallpaper.

In honor of Miss Frenchie's sale (April 17th), I lined the drawer of this shelf with a page from an old French dictionary.

And speaking of Miss Frenchie's, here are some new additions to our group there, as well as new additions to the blog world! Three Shabby Chicks have a beautiful new blog, go by and tell them I sent you to say hi! They only have two posts up so far, but you can tell by looking at them, that they will have pretty things to come.

Back to my quest to paper the world- isn't this old silverware box great with the top wallpapered? The interior is a perfect match for the pink of the roses too.

Maybe I should name this pup "Vanna White" she is great at showing off the products.

Beth and I debated over these metal boxes I covered. We both thought it needed something. I decided that they should be left as is for now, what they need is a label stating what is stored inside. And for now they are empty. But the vintage cards I glued to the front have the PERFECT place to write on when they do find a purpose. I think I will take these to Miss Frenchie's sale too. I used more of the French dictionary pages here too. I wonder if I should come up with a pretty word in French to add to the labels before I take them in to sell? Or leave them blank for the new owner to label themselves?

What do you think?

Know any pretty French storage type words??

These bits and pieces of old sewing goods and trims were just listed in the boutiquetonight, while I listened to Lost. I got a good over view of the program, but will go back and watch it on TIVO later tonight, and of course I will watch Idol on TIVO too. Yes, pathetic soul that I am, I watch it TWICE in a night.The first time, I am usually working and listening (and tonight, it was while opening some of that package avalanche I have been expecting) so I watch it a 2nd time to actually sit down and see what is going on.

Top Chef is looking good too. Gotta love Wednesdays! And of course, Thursdays. Although Mondays aren't so shabby either.

OOOOOOHHH, that reminds me!!!!!!! Did you hear about Rachael Ashwell??? She is declaring bankruptcy. I hope all works out for her business, I'd miss all the gorgeousness.

Of course, I have plenty of gorgeousness right here. Little Miss Sugarwings is awful nice to look at. She is being sweet and cuddly tonight, her Daddy, isn't feeling well, so she is snuggling up to make him feel better. And to keep them company is a fluffy puppy that came in a red felt Valentine purse from Stephanie Oyler. Thanks, Stephanie, she really is enjoying it!

Stephanie's gift was part of the avalanche of swap goods (this is about half the stuff!). You can't tell from this photo, but I am being very organized with this swap. Even Beth, the account, said she was proud of me for keeping track of everything.

I have a check list on the table where I mark if the address was included, then I slip the address itself into an envelope and mark down if the postage was included and put the money on the pile of dollars. Tags get counted and marked off the list, then go into the large wire basket. All ribbons and tissues and boxes and bubble wrap are "harvested" for reuse. I recycle!

On the wall, is another project I started today. Remember the soffit in the studio that I covered in rose and floral wallpapers? On this side of the studio, I decided to feature flocked, neutral colored papers in old frames I painted different shades of white. Its not done yet. I might add some sepia toned photos. And more small frames to fill in.

Well, it is time for the Top Chef judging table and I have to be able to look into Tom's eyes for this. I've got a slight crush on Chef….

Oh, quickly before I miss Chef's eyes- Beth brought me these wrought iron pieces!! Love them!

Name that Puppy

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), give away, Sugarwings, swaps, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / January 29, 2009

Ready to Name the Puppy? We have six little Dorkie Princesses, and 5 of them need to be named. One is already called "Little Star" (as in Twinkle Twinkle). I'm asking your help in picking names for the rest.

Keep in mind, their Mommy is named Twinkle, their auntie is Sparkle and their owner is Sugarwings. That might be a little hint about what kind of names we like around here. Well, actual that I like. My husband doesn't really care for standing on the porch and calling "here Twinkle, here Sparkle!"

For inspiration, here are some close ups of the little fuzz balls.

And the contest rules:

1-ON THIS POST leave a comment with a name choice.

2-You can enter more than once, but please enter separate names in separate comments, and only on THIS post.

3-I will pick 5 names that I like for prizes. If there are duplicates, I will write the names of the commenters onto slips of paper and have Sugarwings draw the winner.

4-A very pretty hat will be used to hold the slips of paper!

5-The prizes are glass, heart shaped, millifiori charms.

Deadline? Hmmm, how about one week from today?

That is Thursday, February 5th.

There has been a lot of interest in helping me with names, so please, if you have mentioned one previously, add it to THIS post!! You have given me some good ones already, so I'd like for you to have a chance to win a prize for helping out.

Prizes are fun for me. I have to tell you, I get so much back from my readers, that I just feel like I want to do something in return. So I try to always have some gifts for you, such as my regular monthly drawing and other little giveaways here and there.

There will be a prize for Valentine's Day, also, since that is my TWO YEAR blogaversery. Has it only been two years?? And what did I do with all my time before I discover the blog world?

My 500th post is coming up soon, as well as my 15,000th comment. Oops, scratch that, I just looked to see how close it was and I passed it!! Thanks everyone for all your kind comments, I do love to hear from you, even though I don't always answer, or I do answer and the email gets bounced back to me. There are a few of you out there who have never gotten the email answers I send and you still keep commenting, even though you must think I am rude. Thanks for coming back anyway!

I'm also close to 500,000 views. My gosh, what a surprise. Who ever thought, 2 years ago when I started this ramble, that any one at all would even look at it. Thanks so much to those of you who come to visit and keep me company here. Working as an artist can be a solitary adventure, it is nice to know that company is always just a click away when I need a break.

Tell you what, I will go back and see who was # 15,000 and send her one of these pretty little hearts too.

Be right back…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

I'm back, and the winner is:

Diane

Here is her comment:

Diane, please contact me with your address. And thanks so much to all of you who comment. I always like to hear from you.

Here is a reminder of the prize for January. There will be some more Valentine themed gifts coming for the 500th post and the anniversary too.

I have some gifts that I was sent as part of the Puppy Love swap to show you too. Swappers are generous souls and not only are they sending me pretties, but Sugarwings has some to open too!

My fairy grand baby is head over heels, crazy about the puppies herself. She has adopted them as her "babies" and likes to give them rides in her carriage. Which is better than squeezing them with joy, this is a nice compromise that the puppies appreciate.

Thanks again to everyone who has left such nice comments and to all of you who come by to visit. Also to those of you who take the time to join in my swaps and make them so much fun. Now, start thinking up puppy names!