Karla's Cottage – Page 179

I found Hat Heaven (and the giveaway winner)

antiques/junking, flowers, give away, junk, Travel, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 21, 2012

Our trip to NC was just perfect.

A highlight was a shopping day with my sis-in-law.

Actually, we had TWO fun afternoons of junking. Our first was at the Vintage Village, and I was captivated the minute we got out of the car.

And the best part of it all was Susanna's Antiques, where I went to meet my blog friend, Jenny.

She and her mom have a cute as a bug shop together- filled with too much to fit in my suitcase…

(yep, my eyes are closed in this photo, of course)

Another friend, Becca, took a break from work, and came by to visit too.

The mall was just wonderful. If I needed a light fixture, I'd be looking there for it. They had the best selection of old chandies at good prices that I have seen in a long, long time.

And the atmosphere of the whole area was just plain fun. I loved all the little cottages and piles of junk out doors amid the plants and flowers. The best part was a fresh fruit stand where we bought ripe Carolina peaches and washed them in a garden hose to eat while we walked around.

I had some great food while on our trip, but those peaches were hard to beat.

Then, I saw the hats. Hats, hats, hats everywhere!!!!!!!!!

Hat Heaven.

If you need floral hats, head to see Jenny. But wait a bit, I cleaned her out for now.

Don't worry, she has plenty of other pretty things to buy.

I don't know why I didn't buy this print.

But I did snag this story book for my grand fairies.

Jenny had some of her work there for sale too, she makes these vintage brooch bouquets for brides.

And how sweet is this? This bracelet was a gift from her.

The next day, my sis-in-law, Sandy, and I went to the flea. There is one every weekend at the fair grounds, and it was a good one. I bought a ton more flowers and hats, as well as bags full of broken rhinestoney jewelry.

I bought so many hats, that I had to pull all the flowers off to make them fit into my suitcase. Sandy was horrified, she collects old hats and thought I was too ruthless. But she ended up helping, and we sat on the balcony of her son's home drinking wine, plucking hats and playing with her little Yorkies.

Now that we are home, Sandy, Dixie, and Daisy have come to stay with us for a while. They'll be good for Twinkle, she misses her Agnes Rosebud.

That is, if she doesn't try to rip their cute, fuzzy heads off. She doesn't like many dogs.

After a few days with family in Raleigh, we drove to the Outer Banks. This was a work trip for my husband, I was just tagging along, which is a nice way to travel. For me at least, my poor husband had to work all day while I goofed off on the beach.

He was able to be done working in time for romantic walks on the beach, and watching the sunset on the sound. Then, stuffing ourselves with locally caught seafood.

We stayed in Duck, NC and it was a very peaceful, quiet beach. I wonder why there weren't more people there? It was beautiful.

Oh, I forgot to announce the winner of my giveaway!! This collage goes to:

Linda Owen Postma

Faerie Book Swap and free fairy images

Books, fairies, free images, swaps

By Karla Nathan / June 17, 2012

(click pictures to open in a larger window, save to your computer to print)

Do you LOVE fairies? We do around here. Of course, its probably because I have a couple of living, breathing, little fairy kids running around pretending to be human grand children.

And of course, there are teensy fairies elves in my gardens, and guardian fairies watching over the house. Not to mention all the woodland fey habitating the Fairy Berry Trail out in our woods.

Fairies come in all shapes, sizes, occupations, styles, and forms. Naughty little trouble makers, angelic helpers, wild and wonderful tree dwellers, water nymphs, and of course the springtime sprites who paint all the pretty flowers to welcome the new season.

And I am delighted by all of them.

If you are too, maybe you'd like to join our swap in honor of the capricious, flittery creatures who are so illusive and lovely?

This is a little different than past swaps I have hosted. This time we'll be by passing tags and using half sheets of standard 8-1/2 x 11" card stock. (Or your choice of materials, cut to approximately this size) The theme is so special, that I wanted to do a "real" book instead of tags.

I will provide a front and back cover, with vintage papers, and my own art work, coordinate 8 pages to send back to you, ring bind the books, add ribbons and a fairy charm.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Here are the guidelines, if you'd like to join:

The theme is fairy, any interpertation you'd like
Size is 5-1/2" wide, 8-1/2" tall (approximately) A bit smaller, larger will work.
Please use card stock, or something sturdy. Please feel free to be creative and use other materials (cloth, felt, tin, chipboard, etc), just nothing too flimsy like plain copy paper.
Make 8 pages front and back, (the back can be simple but please at least cover it in pretty paper, not leave it blank) So that means 8 pages/16 sides total
Sign each page, add your blog name if you have one
LEAVE ONE INCH ALONG THE LEFT HAND SIDE FLAT, no 3-D items along the edge, so I can punch holes. Decorate the crap out of the rest of the page and goober it up as thick as you'd like, but please leave the left 1" for me to bind!
Email karlanathan@sbcglobal.net with your info to join. Please include:

Your first and last name
Your blog name and URL (you don't need to have a blog to participate)
Your email address

Deadline

Tags should be to me by September 1, 2012

In your package, include:

Your first and last name, same as you provided at sign up
A slip of paper with your name, and address, if your mailing address name does not match the first and last name you provided, please alert me
$20 fee for USA, $25 for overseas (these will probably weigh about one pound or so per book)

Here is a button you can post on your blog for the swap.

I look forward to seeing the piles of pretty pixie pages flying into my cottage!

Mail your sprite-ish art to:

KARLA NATHAN

1754 E 1200 RD

LAWRENCE, KS 66049

Faerie Swap Book Update, And an explanation of the costs

The Faerie Swap book covers are coming along fine. Here are 77, almost finished ones. They still need a magic wand and some lace trim.

I've been trying to do them assembly line style, gluing all the wallpaper backs on, sanding and inking the edges, cutting out and adding the fairy with her vintage millinery wings, then the wallpaper circle with the title, then some glitter.

Whew.

It was going very well and I was pleased to see I was almost through the stack.

But the stack looked kind of small.

Then, I counted and realized that the copy store had only made 60 copies, not 100. So, back to the copy store for 40 more and start the process over again.

Now, I 'm working on the back cover. The very back is flocked wallpaper on the outside with some other pretty paper on the inside. I haven't decided which yet.

I bought chip board to use for a sturdy backing. I'm covering 50 in paper, then cutting them in half.

I plan for 100, my smaller swaps have gone way over that, but this one is more involved. We are not quite to 100 yet, so you still have time to join. Click on the side bar button if you want more info.

Some of the charms I ordered to tie onto the rings have arrived! I've got some other ones coming. I'll be tying pretty ribbons onto the binding ring and dangling charms from them.

I've had people asking me why I am charging so much to join the swap, when postage won't take $20.

So, I thought I should explain. First of all, I have to buy charms, chip board, wallpaper, glue, more glue, ribbons, ring binders,card stock, ink, and glitter. I have to pay for color copies, plus use my own stash of wallpaper, flocked paper and millinery.

It adds up for 100 books. And the postage will be higher than previous swaps I've done, these books are much larger than little tag books.

I put in hours, and hours, and hours of time to this. Starting with the watercolor of the fairy, so that there is an original design on the cover, not just an image I got from the internet.

Plus, all the sorting, and book making, then the days of making labels to send out the packages, plus the ink and paper for my printer.

Now, its true, that not all the money goes to purchases, some goes to my time. But it doesn't cover the extent of time that I put into the work. I'd make a lot more if I was taking photos of my things to sell and adding them to the Boutique. Or making something arty to add to it instead of this.

But I love swaps and its so fun to see my studio swamped in pages and pages of your art work!

So, I enjoy doing it, but I simply could not do it if I didn't charge, it takes away too much time from my real work. I hope you don't think I'm trying to gouge you on the price. Honestly, I'm not getting ahead on this. If you think I've over charged you, I hope this explains the costs behind the price.

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.

Pools Of Light

how to's, jewelry, paintings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 15, 2012

My sissy is a vintage jewelry expert. She collects a wide variety of beautiful pieces and I've learned an appreciation about the subject from shopping with her or looking through her vast, luscious piles and stacked boxes of precious pretties.

I've long admired her "Pool of Light" beads, without really knowing what they were,thinking just pretty little crystal ball type dangles.

So, when Beth had some junk jewelry for sale and had some of these little marble thingies in it, I was quick to snap them up to make my own necklace with.

Then I did some research about the balls, here is one thing I found:

For thousands of years this optically clear quartz has been used as gemstones because of its enchanting ability to absorb and affect light in the way that it does. Images viewed through genuine rock crystal balls appear to be reversed or upside down. They are brilliant, luminous and will be a conversation piece wherever worn. These literal works of art are finely crafted and are from turn of the century.

I also found out that they were very expensive. And felt a bit guilty about buying them from her for a couple bucks. But I'd already made a necklace for myself, and one for a birthday coming up for some one else.

And I did NOT want to take off my necklace!!

So, I made a necklace for Beth too, using pieces I thought she'd like, including an old luggage tag from the Santa Fe railroad.

And that didn't seem like enough, so I foofed up a box for her too. Its an old jewelry box, and to the top, I added text that included the word "prism" (seemed fitting) and a die cut rose. Over that, I smeared modelling paste, let that dry and added ink.

To the interior, I glued text to the inside lid, and a tiny die cut rose over that.

Next, I layered hand writing from a ledger page, that had been waxed, so had a nice, transparent quality, and scraped it away from the rose under it, and glued a teensy millinery posey under that.

While my jewelry tools were out, I made this necklace too, as well as some earrings for a pal.

Its inspiring to have beautiful baubles to work with, so I was on a roll.

I did a bit of painting that day, too. I'm not done with this one, I'm adding some 3d wings to her too.

Last day to enter the drawing for the bird themed collage! Drawing is Saturday.

I'll leave you with some photos of newer listings in the Boutique.

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!

Beads, Baubles, and peas

Food and Drink, give away, jewelry, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 10, 2012

This is the last of the four Tiffanys projects that I made in Cali. It was in my pal, Lonnie's class.

I brought quite a few of my own supplies, including the blue enamelled flower along with me, but she provided high quality, pretty things to work with too.

As a matter of fact, between what she gave us in the kits and what I brought, I was able to make two necklaces in her class. I didn't really master the techniques she was teaching, I kind of went off on my own, but she was a good teacher and had a great way of doing her examples that made it easy to follow.

One of the necklaces that I made will be for me to keep, and the other is a birthday gift for a dear freind.

This post was written before I went to Raleigh and Nags Head, and as I am writing it, I am snacking on the latest dish from my Summer of Salads.

Its a pea salad, that you can make with fresh, farmer's mkt peas, or frozen ones right from the bag.

about a 1/2 bag of peas
1/2 a sweet red pepper, chopped
about 1/2 cup of chopped purple cabbage
1/2 a sweet Vidalia onion, chopped
1/2 cup of fat free feta cheese crumbles
6 boiled eggs, chopped (mine were straight from the hen house!)
sea salt, garlic powder, and pepper to taste
olive oil based mayo, enough to moisten (I don't like a lot of dressing, so added mine a couple spoonfuls at a time till it looked right)

Another salad for the week was a simple fruity one.

one honey dew, cubed
one quart of strawberries, halved
juice of one lime
drizzle of agave syrup
a splash of pomegranate juice
two sprigs of mint leaves

My latest obsession is mint sprigs. Especially in this concoction-

one can of lime selzter water
a 1/4 packet of drink powder
pour over a pretty glass filled with ice
add a pink straw
top with mint leaves

I sure don't miss Diet Coke when I have one of these in my hands. I used to think that those drink powder packets were silly. Why not just buy a drink already made up? They are meant for bottled waters, and I really thought it was ridiculous to buy a drink twice. The water, then the powder.

But, I got a sample of them, and took some along on my last trip and they are nice to have around and taste pretty good. Especially if you use club soda with them, and only a tiny part of the packet at a time, I usually get four drinks from one. And since I usually mix my soda with juice anyway, it doesn't feel extravagant to mix this in like it would if I used it in a bottle of water.

Please remember to leave a comment if you want to be entered into the drawing for a collage giveaway.

And if you know of any good junking areas around Raleigh or Nags Head please email me with some shopping ideas!

karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

Discoveries

give away, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / June 9, 2012

Since Sugarwings and I will be spending a lot of the summer together, I needed to find some things for us to do that didn't involve baking and eating cookies.

Although lately, "cookie" is her favorite word and she yells it out when she is happy, instead of "yay" or "wow" or "yippee". (does anyone use the word, yippee, any more, anyway?)

So last week, we set out to discover the Discovery Zone in Topeka.

There are lots of hands on (and noses on), sciencey things to do there.

As well as full rooms set up as different professions, and all the toys and tools needed to pretend to work there.

Kind of like a trade school for preschoolers.

There was even an exam room where Dr. Sugarwings could take my blood pressure, then cram a big plastic thermometer into my ear.

But our favorite part was this big acrylic room where you paint right onto the walls.

The whole place was really something, and only a 20 minute drive away. I can see us spending a lot of time there this summer on days too hot or too wet to play outside. And its only 6 bucks to get in.

The place had a lot to offer, she was able to make friends and play with other kids. There were a lot of activities that needed an assistant (like the grain elevator) and that encouraged cooperation. I sat aside and let her play with other kids while I read a book on my magic phone when I wasn't required to be a patient or place an order in the bakery. We both had a great time!

I am away right now, tagging along on a business trip with my husband to Raleigh and Nags Head. But please do leave a comment, all comments are entered to win one of the collages that I made from Beth's Birdsong class.

And if you know of any good junking areas around Raleigh or Nags Head please email me with some shopping ideas!

karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

Hooked on books

give away, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 7, 2012

This book is the project we made in Jeanne Oliver's class at Tiffanys. It began with a vintage paper collage, and was painted and textured, then we used inks, paints and who knows what all over the top of that! It was a never ending layering process. I really enjoyed doing the textures. Years ago, when I was a muralist and faux finish artist, I used joint compound all the time. Its been a while since I worked with that kind of textural material and I realized that I missed it while working on this.

My book is different than the others, I went with a (surprise!) Fairy theme and hand painted a fairy, flowers, and butterfly on the cover. I was going for more lacy and romantic than funky and cute.

The technique was so addicitve, that when I got home, i was looking around for stuff to blob modelling paste or joint compound onto.

This collage is the one I am having a giveaway for. (leave a comment if you are interested, all comments on all posts are entered in the drawing)

Beth was teaching a 3-d style collage at Birdsong, and we did a practice class the week before, to make up a few of these. (no two alike, she had a GREAT stash of supplise to work with)

It was pretty before, but I like it even more now that I added the textures, then inked over the edges of those a little too.

Here is the other one I did with her. This one does not have the added paint or modelling paste over it.

Good class, huh? She has agreed to teach another one with me too. We hope to do something in my studio for fall, along the lines of our Romantic Gothic Ghosts online workshop. But in person, not online. Maybe a Sat. in late September. Or early Oct?

Back to the Journal from Jeanne's class.

I took the book with me to Beth's for a craft day and really had no plans. But decided to start covering the pages with old papers as a start. Beth had carved out a little niche for me to sit in among the piles of fantastic ephemera she has collected adn told me to help myself.

So, I challenged myself to randomly pick up pages and odds and ends from what I could reach without leaving my chair and covered quite a few pages before realizing the book was going to be really thick. So then, I began removing every other page to make it less bulky, and covered the remaining pages.

When I got home, I started adding family photos, and other tidbits I'd saved, like this card my Sissy made.

And this bit of lace that was given to me last year by someone in my swap (by the way, I do have another swap plan in the works, details soon)

Sometimes the background pages I'd randomly used really fit the pictures.

Like this calandar page where I circled Sugarwing's birthday.

Other times, the papers were just background. I tried to take the theme from the color or tone of the pages to coordinate my photos to.

But mostly, it was gorilla scrap booking. I was slapping them in as fast as I could.

Sometimes it worked out well. I didn't realize this old magazine page was from a December issue till I'd glued a holiday photo down, to what I thought was just a neutral background. Lucky mistake!

If you are wonderfing why there is such an over abundance of Sugarwings in this book, its because I was way, way behind on doing a scrapbook, and these are mostly older photos I'd been stockpiling.

The Dewdrop photos are mostly tiny baby pictures. I have another stash of more recent photos that need to go in the next book I do.

Some of these photos are three years old, before Dewdrop was even around!

On this one, I added a flower plucked from the hat that my fairy baby is wearing in the picture.

I'll leave you with a few more pages. I think I've rambled on enough for now.

(this paper was not in Beth's stash, it is a painting Sugarwings did for me for Grandparent's Day!)

Cooking up some paintings

Food and Drink, give away, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / June 5, 2012

Sugarwings and I decided to make our own paint. I'd heard you could make it with food coloring, cornstarch and water, but had no instructions.

But how hard could it be? So we gave it a try.

Each batch turned out a little different since we aren't the measuring types.

Our colors might have been a bit more festive if the head chef wasn't so thrilled with squirting out the food coloring. She practically emptied each color in to the first batch, which produced a deep black.

Using more cornstarch made a pastey paint that you could kind of mold, and was fun to squeeze. Less made a more paintable liquid.

Mix water, cornstarch, and food coloring in a saucepan, cook till thick. I used about a cup of water each time, maybe a 1/4 cup of the cornstarch, but it varied.

We used paper cups leftover from our Halloween party to pour the paint into, then set it in the freezer to cool off fast so we could get to work playing with it.

While it cooked, we thought it looked a lot like pudding. Of course, as soon as we were finished, we just had to make some pudding too! We decided to make the pudding into a fudgesicle ice cream cake while waiting for the paint cooled off.

We mixed the fresh made, chocolate pudding with a cup of vanilla ice cream. Half of that went into a glass bowl, over a layer of granola.

Next, a layer of vanilla icecream, then more granola. And a drizzle of Trader Joe's carmel sauce, then the rest of the pudding.

We slipped it into the freezer, then after dinner, sat the bowl into a pan of hot water for a moment to loosen the treat, and flipped it over onto a cake plate. It was as pretty as it was tasty!

I'll let you know if the paint comes out of the side walk next time it rains…. It did dry lighter than it was than wet, so I have a feeling that there will be a gradual fading away.

I kind of hope it doesn't. I like her little green hand prints all over the driveway. Of course, she has already left her prints all over my heart.

PS- a new friend, is planning a shopping/crafty class weekend in Sept. Its in St Joe, and you know, that city is filled with great junkers and wonderful stuff for sale. I'm always up for any reason to visit there. More details later…