Karla's Cottage – Page 154

For every before and after, there is an in between

celebrations, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / November 20, 2013

Saturday is my party!! I feel like a kid waiting for my birthday, I'm so excited. I sincerely enjoy throwing these little arty bashes, and when you add Christmassy decor to it, I'm plain old giddy about it.

My kits are together, but the room is still a mess. I've skipped over and tripped over piles of stuff to take a break from the boring part of getting ready to do some of the fun stuff, the foofing.

And when I say "tripping" I mean it. The room is a wreck. But- it is an organized mess. Those Trader Joes bags on the table? Each one is full of 20 kits for each of the ornaments we will be working on. It might look like chaos in here, but it's all coming together, and my stacks and piles have purpose. Soon, they'll be packed up and piled elsewhere, or used, or arranged, or something, and it will all be ready for company.

But I am not the type of person who can do all the grunt work at once. I need little pick me up, fun breaks. So, I'll trim ribbons, cut paper, and print images to pack up a kit, then I'll sneak over to hang a banner or pretty up a corner of the room.

The clutter will be cleared from the tables eventually, the dog pee pads will be picked up and tossed out, and the floor mopped, but having my pretties up on the walls around me as I do the drudgery part makes it more bearable.

Although, I might be sorry I am taking my time and preparing the room in the fun way instead of the practical way. Last night, the handle snapped off of my kitchen sink faucet!

No repairing, this needs replaced. Now, I'm off to Home Depot and have to clear the whole counter top and under the sink. A bit of a time suck, when I have a lot to do in the studio. I might have to be a firmer taskmaster to myself to get the room ready for Saturday.

On the other hand, it is nice to know that a lot of the pretty part is done and waiting for guests. I can always shove a bunch of stuff in the garage and the room will pull itself together quickly if need be.

Wish me luck….

Varieties of pretties

Dew Drop, jewelry, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 18, 2013

My son has been making these "alchemy" pendants with semi precious stones and other properties, and hopes to get an Etsy shop going soon for himself. They sold very well at the Renaissance Festival and have a lot of meaning behind them. He's versed in what crystal combos do, although I don't exactly understand, I enjoy seeing him being creative and leading his Zen lifestyle.

Plus, they are pretty. I do understand that aspect of them!

I do love me some pretty!

At Victorian Trading Company's outlet store in KC, I loaded up on it last week with Beth.

This velvet coat came home with me for less than half of the catalog price, plus came with a $20 gift certificate that I spent on a whole big pile of clearance items along with that apothecary jar in the previous picture.

See the skirt under the coat? It's not a skirt, it's a ruffle at the bottom. Kind of like a skirt dickie for a coat. I can feel dressed up even when I'm not. And I rarely am. I'm the type that wears slippers outside. But hey, don't these slippers look like boots? They are warm, cute and were only eight bucks at the outlet store.

Do you watch Big Bang Theory? I love those guys. And Wallowitz's colorful outfits, each with a dickie under his shirt. So I have been calling this my Wallowitz coat.

Part of my $20 gift rebate haul was a $3 card making kit, that Sugarwings went bonkers over. She made cards, slipped them into envelopes, and gave them to everyone. She was a regular, one person, Hallmark machine.

I also got a free, crystal wreath brooch, cup cake wrappers, a cute coffee mug, and way too much candy.

And all of it, pretty as can be, piled up on my dining table.

But the prettiest thing on the table?

Sugarwings decided to act out some sort of play going on in her imagination by crawling up on the table and swooning away till her prince charming came along. Of course, a Grammie will indulge such funny, foolishness instead of shooing her off the table.

Then again, Grammies are the type that like to indulge little fairy girls a lot. We bought some Crayola window markers that dry in a crystallized design and I let them draw all over my windows with them.

Happy Birthday Dewdrop

celebrations, Dew Drop

By Karla Nathan / November 16, 2013

Little Dewdrop is turning 3 today. Oh my!

She still lets me call her "baby" even though she insists that she is a big girl.

Here she is, only a few hours old.

And I wonder if her love for playing dress up began way back in her first week, when we played fairy with her?

She seemed to enjoy the game.

For a long time, she adored dressing in any pink dress at all.

But recently, she has become fixated on this pink "fincess" (princess) dress. It's the one that she wants to wear daily, no matter what. There have been days when it is hard to get it off of her to get into the laundry.

Of course, if you know me, you know I don't mind. I love being surrounded by pink princesses!

Sidetracks

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

By Karla Nathan / November 13, 2013

Yep, I know, I know, I need to make kits for the Romantic Cottage Christmas workshop November 23rd.

But I've been having too much fun playing with all the supplies I have out to create the kits How on Earth could I resist taking an extra set of wings and turning them into a little ornament on their own?

So nice, I did it twice.

I've been experimenting with different ribbons and lace to see which makes the best wing texture.

I've decided this lace makes the prettiest wings. And was the easiest to work with.

Of course, we'll have lots of different lace and trims to try that day if the participants prefer something other than what comes in the kits.

And yes, there will be kits, eventually. I have all the Tart Tin Trees wrapped up and ready to go, in neutral and pink so my guests will have a choice. (I love having extra choices, the fun part of a workshop is seeing how varied one project looks done in different ways)

But, gosh, where there are little remnants lying on my table, I can't resist turning it into something.

I have been way too distracted by shiny things this week!

While cutting up this beyond wonderful, pink flock wallpaper, I couldn't let the scraps go to waste. Some I cut into die cut shapes to use later, but if there were any snippets too small for that, I used them to wrap around the spools for my little trees.

I treasure each little, left over, bit too much. To me, the old paper is too precious to let anything usable go to waste.

And I love a good excuse to get out of the task at hand…

But now, back to work. I really do enjoy putting kits together, and an excuse to stop and play just extends the fun. I refuse to look at it as procrastinating. It's too much fun to be labelled in a negative way!!

Romantic Cottage Christmas projects

holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / November 10, 2013

This week, I've been getting all my projects completed and gathering up supplies for Romantic Cottage Christmas.

The palette is silver, gold, and white with an option for pink if preferred.

I've got some tiny trees in aqua too, so I guess that is also a choice.

And I drew up some collage sheets with holiday graphics to use.

One of my favorites, is this Holiday Treat Jar, topped with a praying angel. Her wings are flocked wallpaper on one side and layers of ruffled lace on the other.

She has such a sweet face, I fell in love with this old photo at a glance.

This angel doesn't have any problems in the sweet department herself. What a darling! Lots of flocked paper and lace for her too.

And of course, as The Cherub sways on the tree, her backside will show, that has to be prettied up too.

The kneeling angel also will have a nicely finished back view.

I figure that the Mini Tart Tin Trees and the Bottle Brush Spools will each be shorter classes, probably less than an hour. So, we will have time to personalize and embellish both angel projects.

There will also be beads and crystals to add to the little trees. I do like to see the finished products show the creator's own personality, so I like to have lots of extras out for everyone to play with.

The Good Stuff, of course!

I will be making up plenty of kits. They will be for sale after the class on 11/23. Or if you'd rather come and visit here in the studio, I still have room for a few more guests.

We would love to have you join us!

All supplies for 4 projects are included, along with lunch, goodies, and beverages for $100 per person.

Please email me if you'd like to attend.

magazine pictures or articles, photography

By Karla Nathan / November 8, 2013

This is what I was working on right before I had to spiff up for the Where Women Create photos in the studio.

Tiny trees in process, everywhere. But the room was tidy as can be, I set up folding tables and rolled up the rug and tried to contain the messes I was working on.

During the "try not to mess it up stage" between cleaning the studio for a shoot, getting sick and postponing, then trying to keep it nice for a couple weeks for the next shoot, I even had a mini craft day. Beth and Karla came over, and Beth made elf shoes from Dawn's tutorial.

There wasn't a lot of space to work, since I was trying to keep all chaos contained as much as possible. But tiny shoes don't need a big workspace.

It was the third date Carol and I had set for the photos, I'd cancelled two times due to illnesses. That means I had to get the room ready THREE times.

And the every day nature of my studio isn't exactly pristine. I've learned that the more space I have, the more I fill. When one table is uninhabitable, I move onto the next!

While it was a struggle to keep the room semi neat while waiting for the date with Carol, it was so worth it. She got some lovely pictures. (not these, hers are saved for the publication and are much better than what I take)

I'm enjoying the temporary tidiness, but it won't last long. I'm in the midst of whipping up prototypes, then kits for our projects on November 23rd, at Romantic Cottage Christmas.

(this fairy and angel are from my online Mini Dressform tutorial, not for the upcoming class)

Now that the photos and article are turned in to the editor, and all my trees are glittered up, I'm ready to focus on the upcoming class. I've been day dreaming about Christmas cookies and other treats…. I guess I should be thinking about the workshop projects instead.

If you are in need of mini, glittering trees, I have some in my Etsy shop. Not a lot yet, but if you don't see what you want, just ask me, as you can see, I have plenty.

Where Women Create

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), magazine pictures or articles, photography, studio tour

By Karla Nathan / November 4, 2013

What a fun day!

Carol came out to shoot my studio for Where Women Create. After me cancelling on her TWO times due to illnesses. One nasty sore throat bug and another was when I swallowed a string from a grilled tenderloin, and ….. well, it's an odd story and ended up with my esophagus being scratched, then irritated, then dilated at the hospital through a scope… but anyway, finally, I was able to reshedule Carol's visit to Lawrence.

It wasn't easy, she is a busy lady (and rightfully so). And the editors gave us a deadline extension, so all should be set for the January edition.

Unless I broke Carol's camera. She did her best to get some portraits of me for the article. But posing isn't my strong suit. She had great directions for me to follow, but when I am told to do something with my body, I seem to be totally incapable of doing it, and do the opposite instead. You should see me in something like aerobics. I'm the one turning right instead of left and hopping back or into the next person. No grace, no skill. Kind of the way I dance.

Which is about as good as my singing…

When she asked me to drop my shoulders, lean forward, cross your legs, put your weight on your back foot, relax my forehead, lower my chin, all it sounded like to me was, "pretend that you are Quasimodo."

Carol had me laughing, so most looked like this, or if it was any good at all, my eyes were closed, of course.

I watch America's Next Top Model, but it didn't seem to help. To "smize", you need your eyes open.

I offered to throw in a few booty tooches.

But do you know who is a good poser? Tinks.

That dog was a real ham, and a hard worker too. Whenever there was a "hole" that needed a styling fix, we plopped in the dog. And she was pleased a punch to help out.

When we tried to get photos of the two of us together, Twinkle followed Carol's direction, cocked her head, smiled, kept her eyes open. Too bad she had eaten a pile of cat poo earlier, her breath wasn't too sweet when we were up close and personal for the shots.

By the end of the day, she was worn out from all the hard work and was done with helping out. She'd filled holes in several shots and I think made for some really cute vignettes.

We were all tuckered out at the end of the day, and finally stopped for a lunch break about 3. I picked a couple handfuls of greens from the garden and warmed up some soup I'd made for Sunday dinner. It had started out as vegetarian chilli, but I kept adding to it. Our garden had too many goodies still growing in it that I wanted to use. I even added pureed pumpkin, and it was pretty durn tasty.

Isn't soup always better the second day?

I've got a billion or so photos that I took with my camera, but I feel like I've shown my studio a billion or so times. You might think they are all kinda redundant. I guess if I don't get any other pictures taken this week, I'll show them. I mean, these are new and different angles and not boring at all….

Details about the winter workshop, Romantic Cottage Christmas, here at the studio are on my side bar.

If you'd rather come to see the room in person, I'd love to have you join us!

Nathan Family Fairy Food Forest Fall Update

family, flowers, Food and Drink, Nathan Family Fairy Food Forest

By Karla Nathan / November 2, 2013

I hate to see the garden season come to an end.

This year was special with the creation of the Fairy Food Forest that my son and our Gypsy designed and grew.

We had some delicious meals plucked from its mounds.

And fresh flowers popping up all over. The wild flower mixes held varieties that attracted good bugs to eat the bad ones, and some plants were meant simply for bugs to eat, to them them away from a plant we might have wanted to eat ourselves.

This year was just a start. My son says it is a five year plan. This was the basics, more trees and edible shrubs will be going in next spring.

And our baby trees will grow tall and produce for us.

There are swales down one side, that trap rainwater so that it is saved in the garden, not washed down the hillside to the creek. Next spring, more swales and trees will go in on the other side.

I'm hoping for more arching structures of vines too. Peas, then beans, then cucumbers all climbed these one after each other. I think the veggies liked the arches as much as I did.

The kids loved planting and picking food too. Both girls knew they could eat tiny, current tomatoes and mini strawberries whenever they saw one ripen. The yard was organically planted, so no nastiness needed to be washed off before popping a tasty treat into their mouths.

It was nice to see little girls playing outside in the dirt and eating produce right off the plants.

Our kitchen garden, fenced off from bunnies, was a success too. We are still pulling up carrots and beets.

And we have about 4,000 cardoon plants. Those seeds really took off and I'm not quite sure what to do with them.

Sadly, we got very few large tomatoes this year, although we had small, salad sized ones daily. I'd have liked some big, slicing tomatoes for sandwiches and some for making sauce to freeze too.

The raccoons seemed to like the few big tomatoes that ripened. Unless I picked them green and brought them in to finish, the animals beat me to them.

Even with a guard gnome.

This week, we had our first hard freeze. Before we'd even had a light frost. In Kansas, you just never know. Last Thanksgiving, I was picking fresh tomatoes. Some years, we are done before October.

Before the cold snap came, I was able to get these farewell pictures taken, and my kids planted some cool weather crops that weren't even affected by the freeze. We fixed a big bowl of salad greens up last night. It was lovely to have fresh lettuce at Halloween.

I wonder how long it will be til we are picking apples off this tree?

At the base of it, the kids have planted companion plants. It's a whole different look than what you'd expect from an orchard. I'm learning a lot about it all, but I still have issues with what looks like weed problems to me.

I did my best to pull up grasses and baby trees, as well as some other pesky things that I knew we didn't plant. My son said it was unnecessary. You just "chop and drop", cut off the tops and leave them on the soil for nutrition.

I was worried about seed heads on the things we didn't want growing there. He says it isn't an issue.

But I wonder how the good things know to reseed and the bad don't? Seems to me like grasses need to go before they go to seed. But he explained that, over time, the fruit and nut bearing trees and shrubs and other forest components work together and fill in so that things you don't want don't grow. Or if they do, it's just a bit here and there. Apparently, it's not a perfectly manicured look. It will be wild and unruly, and well, look like a forest.

For now, while the trees and all the plants are small, we are using the mounds for our garden veggies too. But as time goes on, they won't work there and we'll have to move them back to the "kitchen garden".

All of it has been quite the learning curve for me. Luckily, our Gypsy has a thumb so green, it's practically neon. And my son has a deep love of growing food for his family.

The bounty is barely beginning. Thinking about the years to come is quite exciting!!

What is the best part about the long descent from Fall to Winter? Thinking about the holidays!! I hope you'll join me here at the Cottage for my Christmas workshop where we will make 4 projects in one day. Details in the previous post.

ps- if the weather and the garden cooperate, I'll be serving fresh greens from the food forest at our holiday luncheon on November 23!

A Romantic Cottage Christmas

celebrations, holiday decor, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / October 30, 2013

On Saturday, November 23, I will be hosting a gathering in my Lawrence, Kansas studio to create dainty decor for your holiday home. All supplies will be included for you to finish 4 sparkling projects. A homemade lunch, and goodies will be served, as well as beverages throughout the day.

We will be working with many of my favorite, vintage supplies and of course, using The Good Stuff. You will only need to bring your tools, I'll provide the rest. You'll receive a kit for each pretty we make, plus I'll have a table of extras set up for you to personalize and embellish to your heart's content. There is no such thing as too much when the holidays roll around! Glitter and sparkle galore will be the theme of the day.

This is an all day workshop, two projects in the morning and two after lunch, from 9am-5pm.

Cost is $100 Please email me for a paypal invoice if you'd like to join us for the day. If you'd rather to pay by check, just let me know.

karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

Limited space is available, (and I will try to make up extra kits to sell online for those of you who are too far away to jump in your sleigh and come visit in person.) But I do hope to see you here at the Cottage! I'll have it all foofed and tinselled up for our special day.

ghosts and giggles

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / October 30, 2013

We did some early Halloween celebrating at the county club's Ghost and Giggles event. It's such a cute evening out, they have games set up for the kids, a clown, balloon animals, and great food.

And creepy names for the foods, like Mummy Fingers, Monster Eyeballs, and Frank's Green Goo. Dewdrop was excited to get her plate till I started to recite the names for her. We call her the world's hungriest baby, but she wasn't going near her food when she thought it was really monster stuff.

The clown's show made up for the scary decor and spooky food titles. She was mesmerized.

Sguarwings was so excited by it all, she was mostly a blur, darting from one event to the next.

The club had piles of candy out for kids to help themselves, and I was pleased to see that our little fairies didn't try to load up on it. I filled my pockets with Smarties…. I didn't see the girls even go near the treats table. Maybe the spooky skeleton kept them away.

They were much more interested in the bowls of toys that were also self serve. Sugarwings treated us to a puppet show with her loot.

I went as a witch. My son said I looked so good that someone might just drop a house on me.

He didn't go with us, he had a DJ job that night, and went as Thoth and fabricated this mask for his costume.

Sugarwings wanted to wear the Halloween costume that her mommy bought for her, but I asked her to save it for her school party and trick or treating, so it would be special then. I didn't tell her that I wanted her to wear the princess gown I'd bought for the Renfest so I could get some of my money's worth out of it.

Not that it was too pricey, TJ Max and Marshalls have elaborate, well made costumes for a decent price, her gorgeous, velvet dress was $32. It was a very good quality. So was Dewdrop's and hers came with a cloak too.

But even at only thirty bucks each, I felt like I needed to get two events out of the dresses!

This year's party seemed a bit subdued. When I mentioned it to my husband later, he said it was because of the KU game that night, not a lot of people made reservations.

A game instead of dressing up like a witch, and watching a magic show with a couple of pink princesses? What was everyone thinking? That never would have occurred to me.