Karla's Cottage – Page 142

Kansas Sunflowers

family, flowers, photography, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 15, 2014

Outside of Lawrence, halfway to Tonganoxie, there is a sea of gold, stretching out as far as the eye can see.

I've lived in this town for over 20 years and this was my first visit there. How could I have been missing out on walking through the rows of sunflowers? What was I thinking?

While I always thought it sounded pretty and that I'd like to go and see the flowers in bloom, I had no idea that the field would have such an enchanted feel to it.

Lots of families were there, all taking photos, probably a dozen cars full of people. But, the moment you step into the rows of flowers and are swallowed up by the blossoms, you are alone in a world of yellow and green, lost in the rows of looming giants.

How strange, to be ten minutes outside of the city, and amidst at least 50 other people, but feel so isolated and hidden.

But not in a scary way, it is a magical feel. No, an enchanted feeling. That is the only way to describe it.

I grew up in the middle of an Indiana corn field. Walking into the corn, and into the sunflower field is similar, but the flowers are so much prettier and special. I loved playing the corn when I was young, and could lose myself in the stalks, or find a hiding place to lay back reading a book for a few hours with my Irish Setter as a pillow.

The sunflowers had me reminiscing about those days in the Hoosier corn fields, but as much as I enjoyed those times out in my brother-in-law's crop, this was something different. At some points, we were completely hidden away, with flowers topping 8-9'. Other spots, they where shorter, or there was a slight hill to stand on and we could see acres of yellow off into the horizon.

I think my girls shared my excitement. I don't know how you could walk out into the vastness of the field and not feel the magic.

In some spots, there are clearings, that beckoned me to grab a dog for a pillow and bring a good book to hide out with for a while. I could have easily spent hours in one of those little rooms with green walls.

And then, there would be places so dense, we had to back track and find a new route through, and we'd wonder just how far we'd wondered from the car, just to find out that we were actually only ten feet from the road.

And woven all about the stems, were blue morning glories, the color of our Dorothy's gown.

We discovered that sunflowers weren't just to admire, you could also play with them.

By plucking out a few seeds, you can make happy faces, we wanted them to look like they were laughing, so they would feel as happy as we did.

I hope that others walking through the field see our sunny faces and smile back at them.

Sugarwings made a happy face too.

The fields are free to visit, anyone is welcome. The farmers ask that you leave them as you found them, take out your trash, and pay a dollar each for any flowers that you pick. There is a donation box to help the land owner defray the costs of the field.

We paid for the ones we defaced (well, really we "faced" them) and we picked a couple too.

I hope to take Dewdrop there for a few pictures too. I think she'd look cute in a fairy gown. Being dwarfed by the towering blooms makes a perfect backdrop for a fairy photo shoot.

Plus, I just can't wait to get back there myself.

Old Summit Antique Show

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / September 13, 2014

On Friday, I took a day off to go to KC and do some shopping, I mean, help Beth set up her booth at the Old Summit Antique show.

Her booth is always the best deal in town. Great stuff, great prices, all arranged in an attractive way.

She and I used to do shows together on a regular basis, plus shared booth spaces at the mall. I kind of miss foofing up a booth for a sale.

So, every once in a while she invites me along to play with the goods and lets me arrange some of it.

Of course, as fast as it was selling to other dealers (I told you, GREAT prices!) I said we could have just set some tubs on the curb for them to look through on their way in and we wouldn't even have had to unload it, let alone set it up.

But we have fun decorating the space, even if the goods sell so fast, it doesn't matter where we place it.

We tried numerous times to get a good photo of the two of us, but after about 20 of me with my eyes closed, we about gave up.

If you are in the KC area on Saturday the 13th, it's worth a trip to Lee Summit to check out the show. Beth still has a ton of wares, and the show is a high quality production. Mostly primitives, and a lot of seasonal goods too.

Vintage cabinet card photos turned into art journals

Sugarwings, Tutorials, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / September 9, 2014

Wow, it has been exciting for me to see how many of you love to make journals as much as I do! Thanks for the purchases of the tutorial!

On Saturday, I added another book to the class, it is the small cabinet card one in the front, covered in barkcloth. (I also added scans of the cabinet card folders to use as a pattern if you do not have a vintage photo of your own to make one)

You can never go wrong with barkcloth, can you? Especially, a yummy, rosey pattern.

Yep, yum. Double yum, I love that stuff. Almost as much as old Rosy wallpaper, but not quite, because I'm just not as mechanically inclined to work with fabric as I am to handle wallpaper.

Which is why Beth posted this hilarious sewing machine illustration for me, knowing that any monstrosity of a sewing machine is a mystery to me.

And why the tutorial I wrote for the journals is about making them with GLUE. Although I an proud to say that I did brave a couple of sewing ideas to show too.

All three of these cabinet card books are done with glue only.

My world is a happy place when I don't have to go near that scary monster of a sewing machine.

Of course, a page like this would be just as nice stitched as it is glued. But I've done something nasty to my machine and the cry hole is all wonky.

(Isn't the title of this article great!? I thought it was appropriate for the tutorial, it is nice to help someone become more arty)

Sometimes all we need is a few tips and some cheering on.

Creating art journals- a new tutorial

Books, Tutorials

By Karla Nathan / September 6, 2014

In this class, you will learn how to build a basic art journal from scratch, using card stock, canvas, and chipboard. I'll be offering a no sew and a couple of stitching options too.

After you learn how to make the book, I'll show you how to use the same techniques in some different styles and how to employ them to alter an existing book two different ways plus a couple of ways to redo a vintage photo album, and a transformation of an old cabinet card too.

As a bonus, once your books are assembled, I'll have some romantically inspired tips on creating closures, and some ideas for getting started on the interior pages too.

Included is a section about doodling, and some hand drawn doodle pages for you to print and add your own color to. Coloring a page like this is a good learning tool for creating a page of your own.

Plus, remember how much we loved to color as kids? It is every bit as fun as an adult!

EXAMPLE

All steps will be written out, plus illustrated with large photos, that also feature steps written onto the pictures. The instructions are complete and ready to read at your own pace, and are available for an unlimited time. I've had my blog on Typepad for over 7 years at this point, and have no plans to stop in the near future. This tutorial, along with the other classes I've taught will be available as long as I have a Typepad blog.

Each segment will be a seperate blog post. You can easily find what you are looking for by accessing the category list on the right hand side bar of the blog. Just click on the title on the side bar to take you to the post you want.

I've also included lots of scanned images from my vintage collection for you to print and use in your own books.

When you purchase the class, PayPal will send a notice to me, and I will contact you with the website address and password within 24 hours.

Here is a button for the class if you'd like to display it on your blog.

The class is $15, and you can purchase by clicking on the paypal button that you will find on this site.

Thanks!

Hat Whispering in Kansas

antiques/junking, flowers

By Karla Nathan / September 4, 2014

At last week's flea mkt, I hit the jackpot on millinery blooms.

At a booth of mostly linens and doilies, Beth found a pile of flowers, and picked a few out. I nervously stood by, hoping there were be some left when she was done.

She had a handful, and I looked at her in disbelief and asked if that was all she wanted.

Yep, she was done.

You're sure, really sure?

Yep. She had enough.

Then, I dove in.

I don't have the control she does. I bought them ALL.

For THREE DOLLARS.

Yep, $3.

Seriously.

All were still in the original packages, so I had to hire a helper to get them all unwrapped. It was her idea to sort them by color too.

I found a few hats on our junkin trip, all under $5 each. Before I came across them, there was only two other floral hats I'd seen all day, and both were over $25, so I'd been worried that I'd lost my touch and wasn't going to score on millinery that day.

It was a relief to know that I had not yet bought out the last of the cheap hats in Kansas.

There was lots of shiny stuff there too. I bought a few giant bags of jewels to sort through, here are some of the keepers. There is another whole different kind of keeper pile, that my assistant found. She was happy to sort jewels with me and got some plastic beads and Easter bunny brooches to wear with her dress up clothes.

She also tried on a hat or two to see how they looked with a twirly skirt.

Pretty dang cute, if you ask me.

Sparks Flea market

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / September 2, 2014

Last week, Beth and I went to my favorite flea mkt. Years ago we never missed it, but in the last few, we've not had the best luck with timing or weather to get to it as much as we'd like.

The weather almost kept us away this time too. I guess the day before we went, it had been pretty stormy there.

The forecast for Thursday was rain early, then again after lunch, so we decided to get up there and try to time the trip for the window of clear sky that the weather man predicted.

I'm glad we arrived when we did. The air was still cool, and parking was decent. Shortly after we got there, newcomers had to park along the highway, way up the road. The normal spots in the fields were a sea of mud. We snagged one of the last close places available.

Which really wasn't all that big of a deal in the morning when we got there. With all the excitement of hitting the booths, we wouldn't have minded a trek from the car.

But as the morning wore on, and the Kansas humidity from all the storms mixed with the heat of the day as the sun started to beat down, we were thrilled to not have to hike to the car. We were starting to feel like this poor fellow and decided we had shopped enough.

He'd taken up the best shady spot around, so we decided to head out.

It's a unique place. You don't often see shoppers walking their goats in many other antique venues.

We were satisfied with our purchases for the morning and ready to go. With age comes wisdom, and we were old enough and smart enough to leave before the weather got to us.

Back in the day, we'd have stayed til everyone closed shop and we had no where left to shop, no matter how blisteringly hot the day was.

We had time for a nice, long lunch in an air conditioned restaurant on the way home. And a stop at a couple of antique malls too.

Air conditioned, of course.

Seasons

swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 31, 2014

One of the blessings of living in the Midwest is the changing seasons.

Of course, when winter's turn is coming, I sometimes think of the changing seasons as a curse more than a blessing.

But only on those extremely cold days when it hurts to go outside. And even then, if you aren't forced to leave the house, those frigid days can be pretty nice, with a fire going in the wood stove and a good book to read.

For me, you can't beat springtime. Not only is it the "year's awakening" like this snippet I cut out of an old book says, it is just plain old cheerful. Winter can be gloomy, no matter how nice it is to read by the fire. Not many days of real life are conducive to goofing off and reading a book, plus, you have to go outside to get that firewood to build the cozy fire in the first place.

But spring? Cheerful, happy, and bright.

Still, would I love it so much if it wasn't so fleeting? Having the seasons change keeps things interesting, it marks time passing.

So, yes, the changing seasons are a blessing to me.

So much so, that I did 2 sets of pages for the Journal of Nature's Blessings in honor of the seasons.

One nice thing about this swap, it is open to a lot of interpretations. I'm very intrigued by the options and can't wait to see the pages rolling into my studio to see what choices the artists made to represent their own ideas of Nature's Blessings.

This theme can be very personal, and meaningful to the artists. I'm thrilled that we have so many people joining us in this swap (and yes, there is still room for more).

I hope to have time to make more page sets. I like to have a few extras around, plus some to swap, some to keep. I really think I'll need to keep a set of the season pages.

Not all redos are all that pretty

cottage, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 28, 2014

Sometimes, practical just has to win out over pretty.

I loved this cabinet that I fixed up to use for the grand fairies' clothes, in our laundry room/closet. Our walk in closet has a washer and dryer in it, making it easy for me to put away my own stuff. All mine and my husband's things just hang or go on a shelf right there in the laundry room.

When the girls came along, I was not going to get back into the habit of hauling laundry up and down the stairs again. After a taste of total convenience, there was NO WAY that I'd be going back to schlepping baskets around.

So, I decided to add storage to the closet just for them.

But- as they got bigger, their clothes got bigger, and the cabinet seemed smaller. The shelves were dark and over stuffed. There was no room to hang any of their dresses.

Even though it looked nice, it just wasn't working.

So, I picked up this rack at Target. Everything fits on it soooo much better, and I can find thier matching clothes without a major search party and a flashlight.

I don't like the way it looks.

But, I sure like the way it works.

Sugarwings decided that the space behind it would make a great changing room for her. She uses a a couple of wooden clothes pins to hook a vintage table cloth onto a hanger on one side and the rack on the other. To get in and out, she unhooks the hanger side and pins it the table cloth back onto the rack.

And of course, if you move a piece of furniture, it kind of starts an avalanche of moves… I replaced a vintage, radio cabinet with the larger one from the closet, to have more space for the grand fairies' games and electronics, which cut down on some clutter, but now, where will the replaced cabinet land?

And so it begins, the furniture shuffle. If I was smart, I'd snap a photo and do a craigslisting for the smaller cabinet right NOW. Or load it in the truck and take it to Salvation Army, instead of creating a kerfuffle of moves with other pieces in the house.

We'll see…

A Pinkie Pie Birthday party and some home made sidewalk chalk

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / August 26, 2014

August is a busy month for us. My husband and I have an anniversary, The Hippy Chick and Sugarwings both have birthdays, and of course, back to school time. Which still irks me, that it comes so early. Am I showing my age by thinking back to school should be after Labor Day?

We have had a lot of celebratiing going on.

So much so, that some days we had to double up on parties. Sugarwings' school's open house was the same night that we went out to celebrate her mom's birthday.

My social calender has been jam packed. A good buddy has the same birthday as the Hippy Chick and turned 50 this year, so we have had a brunch for her and a Girls' Night Out too.

I feel very blessed with all of the special occasions to attend. And to have friends and family around me to celebrate with. My sister also has a birthday this week, but is too far away for me to be there when she blows out the candles.

I miss being there to give her a birthday hug, but I also know that I'm very lucky to have my sisters in my life and that we are extremely lucky to be so close, even while being so far apart. I hope that Sugarwings and Dewdrop will always have this closeness. Whenever they spat (which is a LOT) I always tell them that a sister is a forever friend.

Not that it helps. When someone takes a toy from your hands, or screams in your face, it is hard to feel overwhelming friendship and appreciation at that moment.

The party that our Hippy Chick threw was full of friendship and fun. She let Sugarwings choose the theme, Pinkie Pie, and added lots of pink polka dotted balloons to the park by her house. Simple, colorful, and cute. With old fashioned games that inspired lots of laughs and running.

She provided some fun little giveaways, and made a gluten/dairy free cake with fresh strawberries. Sugarwings and I made some side walk chalk to give to her friends too.

There isn't much to making it, but I think we could have done it a better way. Maybe this post should be titled, "How NOT to make Sidewalk Chalk"

Here is what we did wrong. First, no recipe, no measuring, and no thinking it out. I kind of figured I'd wing it. And I was wrong, it would've been better if I'd paid attention.

First of all, I had no idea that plaster of paris would dry so fast. Our plan was to add the glitter to it, stir in some water, then pour it into a mold and swirl in food coloring to each piece of chalk in the molds.

Well, it was thick as burnt and lumpy gravy within seconds. Seconds! I did not use enough water. I found that if you use more water, it takes days to dry, but it is better than having it dry before you can get it in a mold because your mixture didn't have enough liquid.

And it sets up permanently. This bucket, after soaking for a week, is still coated with plaster. I thought it would wash away if I soaked it, but no, the bucket is ruined.

If you are making this, use something you want to throw away, like a Dollar Store bucket, not your favorite pail.

So, here is how you should do it:

Put on gloves

Add two cups of plaster of paris to a throw away bucket
Mix food coloring into one cup of water (we didn't do this, I figured out afterwards that it would be better to stir the food coloring into the water ahead of time, instead of adding it to the mix later)
Have your silicone molds nearby and ready to pour the mixture into ( you can also
pour the mix into small plastic bowls, and after they dry, break the chalk into chunks)
Dump a whole container of fine glitter into the plaster of paris, mix well
Slowly stir in water
Pour into the molds, let sit for a few days
Remove the chalk from the molds and let them sit for a few more days. Ours took over a week to set up when we did it this way, but the chalk was really nice. And the silicone molds made cute shapes.

PS- happy birthday, Bobbie!

Around the cottage

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 24, 2014

Summer ends too quickly for me. Especially this year, we have had fall like temps that make me believe that summer has really ended, not just that school starts way too early.

On Sugarwing's first day of second grade, we could see our breath, it was so chilly! That is NOT typical Kansas weather in mid August. Usually we are cursing the cracked, dry, brown earth that is baking in the heat.

Now, I'm not complaining about not feeling like I live in a smelting pot, I just am discombobulated by the freaky weather and am going to start thinking about pumpkin pie before it is even time to harvest our tomatoes.

We have made use of this untypical August cool air by taking lots of bike rides and hitting the walking trails. During one walk, we paused for a selfie, and snapped it just in time to catch Twinkle in the act of side swiping Sugarwings and I both with her tongue.

Besides working on Nature's Blessing journal covers, I've not had much of a chance to get creative, instead, I've been hanging with the grand fairies and working in the yard. All the work that normally gets put off til cooler, fall weather has been tempting me to be out doors, doing it now instead.

Oh, I've had time for a few little redos, like fixing up this frame from an estate sale, and I've been in a deep cleaning frenzy in the house for some odd reason.

The frame was sprayed with bonding primer (zinser)

Washed with watered down, coffee colored paint.

Then, wiped with a paper towel. I plan on sanding it for a distressed look, then popping in a pretty picture of a grand fairy.

Of course, I'll have plenty of those to choose from!