Karla's Cottage – Page 212

All bella-ed up

By Karla Nathan / December 10, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please, do go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, and I will mail your purchases Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This year, I kept it simple. Well, simple for me, that is. I do like stuff….

But this area seems restrained, doesn't it? I hung a simple silver spray painted vine wreath on my gothic arch window frame and hung a tree that I made for Romantic White Christmas Ezine on it.

On the table below the frame, is a gold glittered dish filled with an assortment of shiny tidbits, and a tree that I made at Silver Bella.

My other creation from the two classes I took from Kerry Lynn Yeary sits on another table. (by the way, if you ever get a chance to take a class from her, DO IT! She is delightful.)

I'm so happy to be using my Silver Bella creations all over the house this year.

Of course, I always enjoy my bella classes, but this year seems even more special. I'm extra pleased with what I brought home, because I color coordinated them and made plans ahead of time to use them for Christmas.

This basket was made in Charlotte's class, and I brought lots of gold wallpaper to cover the segments.

The inside is covered in 100 year old, hand made Chinese paper, that I found on the trip to wallpaper heaven. Just what I needed to make this festive!

I added this little girl in a top hat, so I'd have a souvenir of this year's theme, "Hats on Parade".

In Betz White's class we learned how to make felted rosettes. I took the idea and twisted some tattered silk into a rose bud to add to the basket too.

The frame on the left is what I made in her class. Not exactly what we were supposed to be doing, but I used her technique to make the nest, and then I covered the frame in wallpaper, inked the edges, and glued mica over it all. Inside the frame is a vintage Christmas card with a baby picture tucked into it.

(this is all on top of the TV cabinet)

In a previous post I showed you the 5th class, the Tea Cup Fairy. But that is not the end, we got a great bonus project this year!

This frame is from our opening night dinner project, which I had to bring home to finish. I take pride in finishing my projects while in Omaha, but this one I wanted to frame baby pictures in, and I didn't have the new grandbaby yet!

Pictures of my fairy girls went right inside as soon as I could get them printed.

This frame will be a special heirloom for me to pull out every Christmas and show the girls, and talk about what cute babies they were!

My friend, Laurie, gave me this blue ledger paper and I had to immediately glue it down on something and use it right away, I loved it so much. And since this was our opening night project, it is made of blue ledger paper.

I am a big believer in "using the good stuff". Mostly because I am too impatient to save it, I love playing with new 'old' pretties!

Even though the blue isn't as neutral as the rest of the projects, I think it fits in well.

Heck, these girls are so cute, I could have used TP instead of good paper and the frame would have been beautiful. They steal the show!

While speaking of Bellas, here is a gift I got from my new pal, Shel

And if that wasn't enough, look at this cute hat she made too!

You get what you need

holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 9, 2010

I will be away from my desk, and won't be able to answer all comments, but I will enjoy reading them when I get back!

If you have any questions about Romantic White Christmas, you can contact Beth, she'll be happy to help.

Please do, go ahead and shop away in my Boutique and Etsy, I will mail your purchases Monday the 13th (in time for Christmas!).

Also, if you want to enter the 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, please leave a comment HERE before the 12th.

This year, I really, really, really wanted a big white tree. But I didn't plan in advance at all. The day I decided to decorate my tree, I looked around town for a white one. I decided that I'd sold enough dyed bottle brush trees to treat myself to a beautiful, big tree! It seemed fitting that all the Pay Pal money that came from tiny trees should go to a big tree.

Can you tell that this tree isn't so big? And not so white. Its silver, and I've been using it for years. There were NO white trees to be found in the whole city of Lawrence. After going to 4 stores, I got smart and used my magic phone to access the internet (I still can't get used to having that kind of power, it does feel like magic to own an Iphone!). I looked up phone numbers from my car and called around instead of driving to each store.

I even called stores in Topeka (25 minutes away), no luck there either. I was too lazy to drive the 45 minutes to Kansas City, so went home and pulled out my silver tinsel table top tree instead.

(these photos were taken in the dark, so might not be as sharp, I was trying to catch that special Christmas tree glow)

And I am glad it worked out that way after all. I love the added sparkle of the silver.

And I love the jammed pack, lush look of having lots of ornaments on the branches.

This tree is filled up, top to bottom, and around the back too!

Its also layered, with large, clear balls deep inside the tree and the other ornaments toward the outside of the branches.

If I'd gotton a larger tree, I couldn't have filled it in quite this full.

Isn't it a wonderful feeling when something you didn't really want becomes something you really LOVE?

Lately, Sugarwings has had a case of the "I Wants", so we have been serenading her with the Rolling Stones' "Can't always get what you want". And I think this tree is a good example of what I needed, even if I didn't think I wanted it.

Plus, my Pay Pal account is still full of tree money! That's not bad either. Maybe I'll see what someone else in the family really does need and use the tree money for that instead. It is Christmastime, after all!

I'll leave you with a few more pictures. And wishes for a sparkling holiday season at your home too.

Bookworms partying

Books, collections, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Food and Drink, give away, holiday decor, parties, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / December 7, 2010

Last night, I hosted our book club's holiday party. It happened to fall on a dear friend's birthday, so we got to sing and have cake too. How festive!

Now, I'm trying to remember what books we have chosen for the upcoming year…. I know that one was Cleopatra, I heard a reveiw of it on NPR and was interested in reading it. Lets see… something about freaky cows by a local professor, A Tale of Two Cities, and an apocalyptic book called …. uhm…. Hand Made World? or something like that There are a total of 6, but I can't remember them.

I was most intersted in that last one, I'll have my fingers crossed that there are zombies. I'm sad that the AMC series, Walking Dead is done for the season. Wow. It was like a new horror movie every Sunday night, so well made and scary. Of course, that is what you can count on from AMC, very well made, not always scary though.

We also each brought a wrapped book to trade, and played that game where you can open a gift or steal one from someone else instead. My pal, Shan, brought a wrapped book for me, I was such a loser this year in the reading department that I had nothing to give away. I read too many novels that weren't quite up to book club standards and didn't want to look like I had low class taste.

Not that I was embarrassed, I just didn't want to give a book that no one wanted.

I guess what I mean, is that my books this year were not high quality literature, they were just books that I loved. The only "good" books I read were the same ones that we read in book club last year, so everyone had already read them.

Novels that I enjoyed- the latest Sookie (and can't wait for the next!), the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, the latest from Jennifer Weiner and Sophie Kinsella, and not much else. I used to read at least a book a week. Now, I'm down to about one per month.

TOO MANY GOOD BLOGS OUT THERE TO READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the club books that I read:

Edger Sawtelle

The Worst Hard Times

Something about gay rights at Stonewall

And… well, I've forgotten again. I remembered first two because I loved them so much.

My friend not only brought me a worthy book to give away, she made this stain glass star for Mayara! And tied it to a bottle of wine!!

Its just perfect for my little Star Brite's first Christmas ornament. Hey, that seems to be a good nickname for her….I like that. Sugarwings and Starbrite.

My living room was a bit crowded, with 13 people in it. We all squeezed in anyway and everyone was so nice about it. They all said they would come back next December for our holiday party even if we had to practically sit on top of each other.

My old house has the original living room, and its small. We have a big house, just small rooms in the old part of it. But I have space where it really counts- the studio!! I could have had the party out there, but decided to stick with the main part of the house since it was decorated more.

Plus my studio is knee deep in stuff again.

And I waxed the living room floor! That rarity deserves to be noticed and enjoyed!!

For the party, I set up a coffee service, with home made, fresh whipped cream, shaved light and dark chocolates, orange peels, cinnamon sticks, decaf, and a bottle of 150 year old Grand Marnier.

When I go to schmancy dinners with my husband at restaurants his company owns, they always impress me with the goodies that come with the coffee. You don't need to order dessert there, the coffee treats are dessert enough. So I wanted to set up something similar.

I think I'll do it again for my next craft day. But I doubt if the orange liqour will be as popular at lunch time as it was for this party. Everyone drives in from Kansas City, so there isn't much in the way of drinking going on at craft day.

The cart is a vintage one from my garden that I brought in to use. On the bottom, I set out these glittered letters that were meant to go on a garland that never got made.

Agnes liked it. She thought it was a great place to hide, hoping for food to be dropped down on the floor.

Tomorrow, I'm leaving for a few days in Virginia, and this will be my first time leaving Agnes home alone for long. We have a great system for the dogs, they get penned up in the living room where they can get to a doggie door and a fenced in yard. And my oldest son, Ryan lives here too, so he'll be taking care of all the dogs.

She is just getting used to the set up, and is now an expert at running in and out of the swinging door. But I think we'll miss each other.

I've preposted for the rest of the week while I am away. Each day, there will be Christmas decor from another room of my home, so please check back.

All comments will be entered into December's drawing, but if you want to enter ther 1,000,000th Visitor Giveaway, you need to leave it on THIS POST by the 14th

Sugarwings and I made crustini for the party, by cutting leftover bread slices with her holiday cookie cutters, and brushing them with a little melted butter and olive oil, with garlic. Then, we slow baked them till they were crunchy. I'm going to take the leftovers and smash them up to make bread crumbs for my next turkey meatloaf.

Well, I'll be back this weekend, and will be checking messages on my phone, but its just not that easy to answer everyone that way. so please forgive me if I don't get back to you.

And if you'd like to skip seeing the blog posts and see the holiday decor at my cottage, I've loaded it on HGTV's Rate my Space.

I'd love to get your votes!

Here is the living room

Dining room

Kitchen

A new holiday tradition?

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, parties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / December 5, 2010

When my boys were little, we had a tradtion of hanging candy canes on the Christmas tree, one for every day until the big day came. In the evening, we'd take one down, share it and read a story together, sitting by the tree.

This year, Sugarwings thought of an improvement to our holiday rituals. She saw a cup of cocoa with a candy cane in it, on the pages of her Rudolf book, and wanted to give it a try.

Life with little girls gets a bit fancier than with boys. We weren't just going to sit by the tree, we had to create a pretty party!

She and I moved her little table next to her pink, glowing tree (that she decorates and undecorates herself, over and over) and had a hot chocolate party, in the dark while we sang Christmas carols together.

We had French vanilla marshmallows shaped like snowmen, and chocolate mint candy canes to add to our drinks, and pulled out the good tea party dishes to serve it on.

This cocoa party was so fun, we did it again the next night she stayed with me. I make the hot chocolate with organic milk, a little melted Belguim chocolate and some honey, so its a bit of a healthier snack than packaged cocoa. Yes, the marshmallows and candy are full of HFcorn syrup, but hey, its the holiday season and we need to splurge sometimes!

We also discovered that Dorkies love candy canes. And can climb up on the little table to steal them if the treats are left unatended.

A tradition that begun last year was the never ending gingerbread house. When she comes over to stay, she adds to it with more and more goodies and icing. I have to help with the can of icing, but Sugarwings does great with heaping on the candies.

She and I agree that there is no such thing as too much when it comes to decorating. And she also knows this house isn't for eating. I was impressed with how fast she learned not to snack on the house. We have plenty of other treats around, but this is a "pretty" and way too much fun to destroy by eating it. I've told her that if she eats the candy, we won't be able to keep adding on to it, and that solved any issues with sneaking treats off the rooftop.

We might have another new tradition. I've always been a fake tree person, I like pink, white and silver. But there is something quite wonderful about the smell of a fresh cut tree, for sure.

This year, my fairy grand baby kept talking about chopping down her pink tree and gluing it back together. At first I thought it was just a craft project she had in mind… then I realized that she wanted a traditional tree, and wanted to go pick it out and cut it down herself.

So, I found this tiny little seedling growing in my flower bed and gave her the clippers.

There wasn't much to it. She probably could have taken it down with nail clippers.

The little guy is so tiny that I had to support it with a wire. I added a metal star and jingle bell to the top of the wire, the tree wouldn't hold much in the way of decorations itself.

We stuck it down into a flower pot that was on the porch, added some moss and a hint of silver tinsel, then a bow.

Since decorating is an ongoing thing around here, we redid the pot with a teeny vintage glass ball on a strand of tinsel and took off the bow. We liked this better.

The star has a rhinestone jewelry remnant on it. Do you ever use The Ulitmate? I love that glue! After the wire was in the dirt supporting the tree, we thought the star needed something, so I glued this jewel on. It was too late to lay it flat to dry, but that glue is super tacky and held the piece in place as it was.

If you'd like to enter the giveaway for my ONE MILLIONETH vistor (yippee! thanks guys!!) please leave a comment HERE before the 12th, when I will draw a name for the lacey trimmed bag full of holiday cheer.

One in a million!? A giveaway and some winners

give away, sewing?, Sugarwings, We're having a party, Workshops, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / December 4, 2010

This week, I've caught the sewing bug. And I hate to sew. But embellishing ready made bags (vintage postal bags that I've coffee dyed) is simple and fun, and addictive. I gathered up some trims and flowers, sat down to the machine and before I knew it, there was a pile of decorated bags.

These bags were found in Texas at RoundTop, and had Kansas City, Kansas postal labels on them. I bought all that was left in the pile, and am just now getting around to using them.

I've had to make myself stop embellishing, because, I have too many other things that I need to do. These can wait… But I wanna play with these pretties!!

Do you blame me? I just love making them. Of course, I started it all while I had a little helper, the new baby was laying on a pillow under the table while her momma and I sewed. Now that she isn't here, it isn't quite as fun.

So, I can get back to my other duties, I've got an article due, and a few other projects with deadlines. Some of you are asking about my Cottage Art Event at May Day, and I really need to pull those details together. I'll be working on it this weekend. Info coming soon, I hope. Thanks for your interest!

See, how cute she is laying on her pillow under the table?? Of course, it was hard to concentrate on working with so much cuddliness nearby. But we managed to get a lot of work done, anyway.

Aggie Rose seems to be every bit as fascinated by this baby as Twinkle was with Sugarwings. We got Twinks when Sugarwings was 6 months old and they grew up together. I think doing it this way, with the dog a bit older than the baby is better. She is still a puppy, but not as fragile.

Here they are together on the day they met. Twinks adored her girl from the beginning and no amount of ear pulling or squeezing ever bothered her.

Twinkle has taken on so much of Sugarwing's personality, I have to wonder if AggieRose will be like Mayara?

Sugarwings and her pup are both fiercely loving, loyal, and happy, excited girls. Always exuberant and dramatic. Curious, bouncy, and packed with way too much personality to fit into their tiny bodies. So far, Mayara and Agnes both are pretty calm, laid back types. It will be interesting to see if they continue to be a match as they grow up together.

Or is it just odd that a grandmother lumps her baby doll's personalities in with the dogs?

I forgot to announce the winner of my Romantic White Christmas giveaway. This bunch-o-baubles goes to:

Sue Elseth

And my November Giveaway goes to:

Susie Q (no blog)

She will get Mrs. Santa's Slipper from our Romantic White Christmas classes.

For the December Giveaway, I'm not sure yet…. But please leave a comment, all comments all month go into the drawing. Since it doesn't mail out till January, I don't want the prize to be too Christmassy. So, I'll come up with something this month and let you know.

Guess what milestone I just passed? I'd been watching my stats knowing this was getting close, but it came and went before I realized it!

MY ONE MILLIONETH VISITOR!

Wow. When I started blogging, I sure never thought I'd even reach 1,000 people looking at my little on line diary. Thanks so much to all of you who come to visit. I enjoy the comments and the company.

So, since I missed out on seeing who exactly was number 1,000,000- I'll have a drawing here.

I'll fill up one of my decorated postal bags with some treats for you.

Some vintage angels, a brooch, mini bottle brush trees…

A frosted angora rosette…

A tiny test tube filled with mercury glass beads…

And a free entry into Romantic White Christmas ezine.

Deadline?? hmmmm… I'll give you some time. I'll draw a name next week when I get back from my trip to VA. Sunday the 12th. That way, the winner gets the little angels in time to enjoy for the holiday season.

Remember, all comments on all posts count toward the December Giveaway, what ever that will be, but for the 1,000,000th visitor prize drawing, please leave a comment here.

And thanks again for coming to visit!

The ABCs of my day- Airplanes, baby, and contraversy

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, sewing?, Sugarwings, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / December 2, 2010

Our newest fairy baby came to spend the day while her momma and I worked on projects.

It was her very first craft day!

She rested on her pillow under the sewing table with the fabric scraps and dog toys and seemed pretty happy just to hang out with us.

Ace Hardware has 6 foot banquet tables on sale for $29 each, so I bought three for my May Day celebration and art event here in the studio next Spring. Since I still had my studio dining tables set up for Thanksgiving and was loving the table scape and not ready to disassemble it, I just set up two of the new tables for us to stitch at, and that worked out great.

During our Thanksgiving dinner, we had started talking about Magnolia Pearl and a few of us decided we wanted to make some bags like hers.

So, this craft day became sewing day. Here is my new purse, a colorful confection of left over bits and pieces. I was going to go all neutrals, but fell in love with a swath of dyed velvet and a magenta silk ruffle, and had to use those, whether this purse will match anything I own or not!

Adam's Beloved brought a grab bag of old clothes and scraps to cut up and she had the best stuff to play with. The velvet was from a long skirt that had been torn along the side.

She scours thrifts for old clothes to reuse and had a great assortment.

She is making a Gypsy diaper bag for the baby. Here is the flap all pinned and ready to sew on. The bag itself is made of patch worked velvets. Both of us were inspired by Magnolia Pearl for our own bags, but I made a few others that were not as elaborate too.

Well, this one is still pretty elaborate, its got some MP influence going on too.

You notice I said that Miss Robin inspired us? Who has NOT been inspired by an admirable artist? We studied her look and used the ideas to make our own creations. I'm a big believer is sharing ideas and tricks, techniques, and styles. And I think that anything you create using something you've learned or seen should be your OWN creation.

Take what you've learned or seen and make it in your style. We all do it, its not stealing. None of us has a monopoly on an idea. Just because I make wallpaper covered journals, or decorated bottles, or fairy Charlottes doesn't mean that I think I own the idea! I started making jewelry with vintage pieces in the 80s and I certainly don't think I have a monopoly on it. I'm thrilled to see it everywhere now that it is so popular, and I am smart enough to know that I am not the one who popuarlized it to start with too.

A friend was flipping through a magazine the other day and stopped at a page to ask if I'd done the art. I thought maybe I had, then took a look and saw it was someone else with an idea much like the one I had published a year earlier. Was it stolen? NO! It was their take on it. Or maybe they had never even seen my article, but if they had, then GOOD, I hope they learned a little something from what I did.

And if you ever take one of my classes or are inspired by one of my pictures, I'd be sooooo flattered if you got your project published. But I do hope that you put your own spin on the piece. Its one thing to follow step by step instructions and then claim them as your own, its another to learn a technique and then make something with it.There is not one thing wrong with learning by doing step by steps, of course. I taught myself to paint by copying painings I liked. Plus I teach online classes and I know that its perfectly okay to do the patterns and steps to create and learn.

. Its one way of learning. But once you learn a technique, try challenging yourself by adding to it and doing something that says YOU with it.

No students should try to market the exact same class and patterns that anyone sold to them, BUT- if you learn a trick or get an idea from my class, and make your own project to market from that idea, then GOOD FOR YOU!! That means I am a good teacher, so YAY ME!!

I certainly will never say that no one who takes Romantic White Christmas classes can never, ever teach a class about an altered shoe or a garland. Geez.

Which brings me to the lovely, gracious, classy Dawn, who tackled this in her blog this week. She stated her opinion with no name calling or bad blood, like I said, Classy. My pal, Lisa, is a passionate artist who puts a lot of herself into her creations. She used tips learned from another artist and did well with what she learned. Isn't that what every teacher wants? I'd say that is the mark of a successful class! She did NOT reproduce the items in the exact way, she made her own creations.

As far as classes go, why take one if you are not going to use what you learn in your own work?

I don't want to get too serious or contraversial, but I care about Lisa and know her work. And I loved Dawn's post, its worth you popping in to read.

Also, I am honored to have Lisa and Dawn teaching at my event this spring, along with Carol. I dearly love their styles and look forward to how much fun I'll have with them here at the cottage with me!

Since I just mentioned that I have been making necklaces from old pieces forever, I had to show you this!

Our Gypsy Beloved found it at a thrift store and brought it to me because it reminded her of me. I took one look and remembered making it in 96, as a holiday special order for someone 14 years ago!

How serendipitous.

(by the way, my style has changed a bit over the years, but I still like this one)

Okay- back to bags, thanks for listening to me and my mini rant– I made this hobo sack for the oldest of the grandgirls. The fabric is from a pair of Goodwill jammie bottoms, already in a patchwork pattern of India print cottons.

Here is the back of the bag. I cut the pockets out of the pants and added them to the bag, along with a few extra trims. A grreat short cut way to make a funky, fun bag for a young girl.

The second sis gets a smaller version from the same fabric, with one of my angora roses (learned in Betz White's class) pinned to it, and a ruffle made of embroidered doilies.

I took what I learned from the Silver Bella class, and added my own twist. My roses are more opened up and have extra petals. I changed her pattern to make it look more the way I wanted the roses to turn out and now, I feel like I can feel good about making these myself. I'm using her idea, but my own pattern, and have added to it, plus put it together differently.

This is from Betz' class.

And this is MY take on her class.

Yes, I learned how to make them in Betz White's class. But I've taken the techique and used what I learned to create something that looks like I made it myself.

EDIT:

Well guess what??? The rosettes are from a free tutorial that Betz posted HERE,

and she says she got it here.

And that person got it from Martha!!

Well, doesn't that just fit PERFECTLY with what I was saying earlier?????

Share the love, share the tips, lets all learn from each other and pass it on!

The pocket on it is made from some scraps and the ruffle at the top came from a package sent to me by Robin -I had to save the wrappings, since it was so pretty. Sugarwings got a bag too, with lots of pink rosebuds. We are going to fill all the gift bags with little presents and give them to the kids for Christmas.

My husband was horrified that I was making one for the 5 year old grandboy too. He thought it was a purse. We said no way, its a toy bag. I tried to make it macho by using corduroy (the leg of a pair of pants) and a man's tie as the handle and the pocket.

The pocket is pretty cool, it was Gypsy Beloved's idea to turn the tie over, and use the backside of it as a pocket. You know how ties are open on the back at the point? The tip of the tie is now a flap that folds over and closes by sliding into the little tab that is on the back with the name of the store on it. This one said "Dillards" but I covered that up with a pinking shear trimmed bit of the India cotton, and added a little plastic airplane given to me by my dear friend, Lisa.

She sent a giant box of goodies to me out of the clear blue! (pictures later)

In all I made 7 bags in the 9 hours we spent hanging out with our sewing machines, chatting, creating and baby snuggling. And I don't even enjoy sewing. But this was fun to do.

I am linking to Tea Rose Home's show and tell today.

Please check back Saturday for a giveaway announcement!

Gotta love the KC gals!

antiques/junking, Books, jewelry, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage

By Karla Nathan / December 1, 2010

Is swoony a word? If not, it should be. This article is very swoony!

Its in the latest Joan d' Arc. This was a gift from Carol, now, that is a good friend, huh??? I'm lovin this book!

This one too, a gift from the uber talented Amy Barickman.

I'm planning on packing both in my bag when I hit the road next week with my husband to visit Virginia. The trip will be different now that we no longer have a spare apartment or car out there.

It will be more like a vacation, staying at a hotel and not cooking and cleaning. Yippee! I'll be needing this great reading material while I am there.

Of course, its dangerous reading books like these while staying in a hotel room. Both will be inspiring me to create and decorate.

Kansas City gals got it goin on. First, Amy comes out with yet ANOTHER book for us to drool over, then Gwen's Bottom's Up antique show just keeps growing and growing and getting better all the time. Beth will be there with her to die for bargains, and dealers from my favorite mall in the world, Rusty Chandelier are going to be bringing their GREAT stuff this time too!

To top it off, Curious Sofa is having a sale. There is no where prettier at the holidays than at Debbie's.

I've been sprucing up my own store too. This is the new banner I made for my Etsy shop and I'm making an effort to add to it every couple of days.

Today I added these itsy bitsy little trees, they are only about an inch high.

The Boutique has some new, old, books.

I've added The Secret of a Happy Day (full of angels!), Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. There is also The Lord is My Shepard, but I forgot to take a photo of that one somehow, I'll have to add it later.

I think this looks like a shooting star, don't you?

And this brooch is crown shaped.

And there are sparkling buttons along with the books and baubles.

And a sweet little vintage deer on a wallpaper covered box under an archway of millinery.

I'll leave you with some photos of whats new, then I'm getting back to work. Tomorrow I have Sugarwings and what doesn't get done today, just doesn't get done!

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, flowers, holiday decor, Silver Bella, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art, Workshops, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / November 29, 2010

Well, my halls are all decked and our cottage is festively foofed. My husband says it looks like Christmas threw up all over the place. We've had Sugarwings quite a bit over the weekend, so not much else has gotten done but play with her. All the Christmassing happened while she was asleep (I decorated trees till almost 4am). No photos yet, I'll be getting some soon. When I recover.

So, while she is in school today, I'm busily getting caught up on cleaning up my Boutique (deleting sold goods and adding a few new things, marking some other stuff down) and adding more goods to Etsy, as well as fine tuning the Romantic White Christmas Ezine.

Beth and I had a new post every single day while the classes were ongoing. Now that they have been completed, I had to go back and rearrange it all so that it started with the first posts, not with the newest posts. You know how a blog runs from newest first to oldest last? That is how the classes were set up. Which was great while we were adding daily.

Now that they are all up and running, I needed to put them into an easier format to read as a class. We learned some lessons while doing our first class, the Romantic Gothic Ghosts, and made this Ezine a little easier to tweak at the end than that one was.

(all of these pictures are of the little "extra" projects we included in the classes that aren't listed on the sign up page)

We also added catagories for each posting, so that you can click on the lesson you want to look at and go directly to it.

It looks to me like it is pretty easy to follow and find your way around. I'd love some feed back from anyone who has signed up.

If you are in the class, and have posted any of your projects on a blog or flickr, I've got a place to add a link on my blog roll to your pictures. Please send me an email with your info if I can link to you.

On Friday, I avoided the huge crowds of early shoppers and headed to a flea market with Beth instead. There was a lot of millinery available, but most a higher price than I like. I got a couple of hats, then found a few more at one of my favorite antique shops, plus I'd picked up a few on my trip to Omaha for Silver Bella.

Agnes Rosebud seems to like old flowers as much as I do… I've listed some flowers in the shops, and have big plans for making this with others. There is a banner I am working on that will need a few, and I'm hoping to make a purse tomorrow.

And there will be plenty of sparkle to chose from for the purse! Got this bagful at the flea too.

I like to save the tiniest flowers for projects like these.

Itty Bitty flowers are so sweet on these Christmas trees I decorated (they are in my shops now).

My favorite bloom of the bunch has to be this rose, pure velvet!

Well, I'd better get back to listing things. There will be some new items added this evening too, I'm getting more photos done now while the light is good and will post some trinkets in the shop later.

The chocolate and sepia trees are already listed. How nice that the first ones I made were such a hit, I had to whip up a few more.

This set is Neopolitan: milk chocolate, creamy strawberry, and French vanilla.

I'll leave you with a few more pics of new goods. And if you want something from both shops, I do combine shipping and always refund any excess that is more than a couple dollars over actual postage.

Tea Cup Fairy

fairies, holiday decor, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / November 26, 2010

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Ours was quiet and laid back, not bad at all. I cooked the turkey the day ahead, and let it warm in the crock pot all day in its juices. What a time saver, and what a moist bird! We had a late meal, and everyone brought side dishes, so it was pretty easy. Lots of free time for baby hugging!

This is one of my favorite projects from Silver Bella, a tea cup fairy from Beth Quinn's class.She provided a frame for the dress and the head, plus all the silk strips. I added lots of different strips to mine too, I wanted all whites, ivories and lace.

This year, I color coordinated all my projects and made them holiday themed to use in my home, and tonight I am getting the house all decorated, so I'm pulling out the Bella goods and enjoying them.

So far, I've only got a few things out. I want to wait till Sugarwings goes to sleep, then surprise her in the morning with a house all decorated for the holidays! She's snuggled up with Pop Pop and a story right now, after a busy evening of building a gingerbread house. (World Market has some cute kits on sale for $8, chocolate houses with peppermint decor)

Its not quite her bedtime yet, and I am trying to be inconspicuous, but am itching to go. Luckily I have my Silver Bella goods to play with until the fairy baby is tucked in for the night.That hs held me in check for a little while.

I spent the afternoon at a flea market and all the vintage Christmas on display has got me worked up and raring to decorate. Its kind of like chum in the water starting a shark feeding frenzy. Seeing all the faded silver tinsel has set off a holiday frenzy for me.

I was in such a hurry that I broke the teacup fairy!! The cup fell off and smashed, but I glued it all back together like a puzzle, and made bandaids of paper to cover the cracks on the inside and hold it together.

Then, I glued a bunch of millinery petals down the back to cover the repairs, and wrapped a lace "shawl" around her shoulders to cover the rest of the cracks.

I think I like it better now than before I broke it. Although, when it hit the floor, I sure didn't think it would work out better than before.

Isn't she cute? Okay, I off to tuck my little one into bed so I can unleash the frenzy and get decorating!

The happiest of Thanksgivings to you all!

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, flowers, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 24, 2010

I probably don't even have to say how thankful I am do I??? You guys all know that there were worries about the baby long before she came, and her poor momma was having a rough time. I couldn't be more thankful that both are happy and well now.

And I'm so thankful to have a new litle fairy to add to my flock!

Not only do I have my own two little grand fairies, and great niece Pixie Pie to play with, I've also grown to love Adam's Beloved's little ones. And no one appreciates a make believe game of dress up more than Miss Clover. What would I do without her in my life?

And this little sprite-let? I can't tell you how much I love her. She is quite the handful, and keeps us hopping, but the moment she leaves to go to back to her parent's home, all we can think about is when we get to see her again, no matter how tired we feel after playing with her. There is so much personality packed into that tiny little body that she wears out anyone near her, but it is a wonderful exhaustion. Kind of like a day of gardening, when the sun is shining, there is a cool breeze, and your flowers are blooming and looking great. The day was a lot of work, and you are ready for a rest, but the feeling is a good, satisfied tiredness, a happy one.

My fingers are crossed that her baby sister will take on some of the qualities of her second middle name, Zen. I don't know if I can chase two kids with the bounciness of Sugarwings….

But I'll do my best. Grand babies have a way of keeping you young, all these little ones are bringing out the kid in me. I love seeing things through Sugarwing's eyes. Today, a lonely leaf blew across the parking lot of the grocery store and she told me a long story about his family that he was trying to get back home to.

Tiny little things that I would walk right by with my own 52 year old sensibilities become magical, beautiful things when I look at them with a 4 year old's perspective. We amble every where we go and are always on the look out for a fuzzy bug, or a twig that might really be a wand with special powers. Simply walking across the back yard can be an adventure when I have this little person with me.

Yes, a lot to be thankful for. A handsome, funny, husband who was told at his checkup today that he was in tip top condition.

Two sons who tried their best break me in their teenage years, but grew into strong, kind hearted men that make me proud.

Sugarwing's smart and sassy Hippy Chic mommy who is my baby girl now. And Adam's Beloved Gypsy who is a kind and gentle soul, with a lovely outlook on life. I hope she considers me her mom too.

Sisters, and neices that I love like the best of friends and best friends that I love like sisters.

And a house full of Dorkies. There is nothing more cheerful than a stampede of tiny little feet running to greet me when I come in the front door.

Oh, and how can I leave out my STUDIO!? Its a dream come true, after a life time of using dining room tables, folding tables, or whatever corner I could find to set up my stuff?

Please forgive me for being schmaltzy. But this is a time of year when I get sentimental. I'm still a little teary from watching the touching scene in Glee last night…. New babies do that to you too, its easy to tear up and get emotional when there is a newborn in your life. When my kids were little, I thought it was the hormones that made me cry at TV commercials, but now I know its just the nearness of a little cuddle bundle that does it to me.

I hope all of you get a chance to count your blessings tomorrow. In between all the hectic meal prep and clean up, take a moment just to look around at faces you love and breathe in the happiness.

Happy Thanksgiving!