Karla's Cottage – Page 22 – by Karla Nathan

Guncles in Kansas

cottage, family, Food and Drink, guncles

By Karla Nathan / September 13, 2023

We had a Guncle-riffic visit last week. They spent half the time with us, the other half with close friends in KC. Their last night in Lawrence included a birthday party for that couple, who are family to the guys.

Now, down on Sweet Cherry Lane in Jax, the tablescapes and delicious food are legendary. Randy keeps his dining table set on a regular basis and then goes even more all out when guests arrive.

And the food, oh my.

So while they were visiting, I had Randy help me set my table.

Our big craft project had been to restyle some violins.

So we incorporated those along with some violin sheet music.

We had a small group at a large table, and only needed to decorate half of it. Kevin makes the best German chocolate cake, so that got center stage on the other half.

Dinner was a luscious lemon chicken. And the company? The best!

I’ll have some close ups of the violins in my next post.

Generosity and Joy

collections, jewelry, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / September 10, 2023

I cannot begin to tell you my absolute dumbfounded joy when I was gifted with boxes of beauty.

Where to even begin? This is just a portion of the bountiful gorgeousness that came my way.

I will let the photos speak for themselves.

Thank you, Liz!

A Marie Antionette make over on a cabinet and some tips on distressing paint

Hand Painted Furniture, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / September 7, 2023

This cabinet was a bit of a steal, it’s big and spacious, just what I needed for my studio makeover. Sturdy, but needed some love.

Inspired by all of the period tv shows I watch about kings and queens of Europe, I wanted to use Marie Antoinette colors on it.

And to age the brand new blush, soft blue, and gold I’d just added.

I add grout to my paint, and use a crackle medium sparingly, not all over. This is a piece of furniture not faux gator skin, I sincerely dislike overly fake crackly paint jobs.

And when I “distress” the paint, I go for it heavily with a sander to save my poor, old, tired hands. Daintily roughing up corners with a scrap of sandpaper is hard on the finger joints.

So I give it a blast of the sander, which of course, leaves a trail.

That is a simple fix. I touch up the zigs and zags with a rough brush dipped into the paint color that I just sanded.

Much better, no tell tale marks from the sander, just some skips in the paint that show the underlying wood.

After that, it gets a coffee colored glaze painted on and wiped off.

I still need to find two knobs for the drawer. And I will rub a bar of soap or a candle along the drawer runners to make it slide easily.

After it was done, it reminded me of something….
I remembered that I had some gorgeous old wallpaper in these colors!

Perfect!

I didn’t even care that I’d already gone to the trouble of painting the interior. I was happy to cover up that work with this pretty paper.

And I am looking forward to seeing it in place in my newly redone studio.

A little chance to do some painting

flowers, Hand painted, paintings, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / September 4, 2023

A friend posted a back to school photo of her and her mini me. It was a perfect little snapshot of joy.

I loved it so much, I just had to do a quick mixed media sketch of it. I will be gifting this to her next time I see her.

While my paints were out, I decided to do a rose painting for a kind soul who had gifted me with boxfuls of treasures during her de-stashing. I could never express my full gratitude for her generosity enough. I hope she knows how much it was appreciated.

I wracked my brain to figure out what to send as a thank you. Because of her major clean out, I thought she probably wouldn’t want more “stuff”, but a card was not enough. After perusing her IG, and seeing how much she loved gardening, so I am hoping that this flower will be something she likes.

Good Juju First Fridays in September is looking spooky!

Good JuJu, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / August 31, 2023

Good Juju is this weekend, First Friday is here.

I am going full on fall/ Halloween.

And I love, love, love a holiday theme!

I’ve been gathering black and white, or fall colored items all year.

And I have enjoyed every minute of putting it all together even with the extreme heat wave we have been in. The warehouse Juju occupies isn’t cooled between sales.

Dealers are given keys and can go in any time to work on their space.

So I am not complaining. I love the freedom of taking my time, and being able to do what I want.

Plus, I’ve always been a summer person, I typically don’t mind the heat.

When winter comes and I’m toiling away in a freezing warehouse, now that is a different story.

No space heaters are allowed in the winter, so I wear layer upon layer, and go in for short periods of time. Which makes it harder since I have a forty minute drive.

Oh well, I’m a tough old broad. I can take it. Only because I love decorating my booth so much.

Although, there has been a new development this summer with the heat.

Since my concussion, I do not seem to handle temperature changes like I used to. On hot days, a walk from the car to a store can give me a headache.

Oh well, probably just temporary. Or is it possibly age related? I did hit 65 this spring.

Anyway, back to the booth- personally, I don’t find clowns scary, but some do, so I have a Scary Clown section.

It includes a pig clown. Which would be scary if it wasn’t so cute.

There are dolls, doll heads, and headless dolls…

Potions…

Spiders and Witches…

Bats…

Poison toadstools…

Skeleton brides…

Books to write your spells in…

And some pretties too. Cause a witch has got to look her best in her special season.

Hand Crafted Witchy Brooms and some instructions on how to

Good JuJu, holiday decor, how-to projects

By Karla Nathan / August 28, 2023

My husband makes walking sticks from grapevine growing in our woods. It needs to age and dry a year or so, then can be used. He said I could use a few, and after finding dried, curly and glittered straw flower arrangements at a garage sale, I knew I wanted to make witch brooms.

Each one was decorated with velvet and crinkled ribbons, a genuine stone charm, some vintage bling, and feathers.

This one had a knothole that I placed a vintage eyeball button on, with a bit torn from a tattered, sequined gown underneath.

The old jewels I used weren’t in perfect condition, but that is why I chose them. They look like they’ve been flying through the air on a broom for decades, right?

My set up for Good Juju’s First Friday weekend was already complete (and Halloween themed). But I made these work, by hanging one up high, one on the top shelf, and one nestled into a corner. Not the best for showing them off, but I wanted to get them in there case I could sell them this week.

I can show people photos on my phone if they want to see more about the brooms that are up high. And I’m happy to get them down if needed. I know it’s not the best situation, but I only have 8-1/2’ and I fill it up over the brim.

This one is made from the base of the straw arrangement and stands on its own, so it is the one on the ground.

I really would enjoy making more, and in a half size so I could sell them online. But for one thing, I’m starting a major studio redo and have no time. For another, these guys are HARD to make!

Here is the process:

Trim the straw to the length you need

Divide up the straw into small bundles

Add strong glue to the tiny bundle of straw about 4” from the top, then tightly wrap that area in wire

Keep wrapping bundles until you have more than enough to cover the stick

I had the end of my straw at the base of the stick for stability

Wire and glue each bundle together to the stick until the broom is full

Glue and tightly wrap twine around your wired areas

Put screws through large washers and screw them into the wood through the twine area, so the weight of the stick doesn’t make the straw pull away when you stand it up

And now the fun part- cover up the twine/wire/screw area with something pretty and start decorating.

Free download to make a FALL banner

free images, holiday decor, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / August 24, 2023

For this banner, I thought I’d try a new trick (new to me at least).

I scanned vintage text, edited letters onto it, then printed them on card stock. Using a circle punch, I cut them out and added ink to the edges.

Since straight lines and mathematical shapes aren’t my thing, I’m always looking at craft store clearance aisles for banners. I’ll pick one up whenever I see it cheap and stash it away for when an idea strikes.

So I went to my cabinet of shapes and goodies to look for a premade banner that seemed fall-ish.

Burlap! Yep, that’s the one. And it was long enough to make three banners of four letters. ( Sorry, sold the third before it was photographed).

After cutting out the letters and gluing them on, I decorated each segment with vintage lace and velvet ribbon and tied them to a string. Easy as pie. A wonderful, warm apple pie for fall.

If you’d like to create one of your own, here ya go. Click on the image to open into a larger window, and save from that.

And yes, there are two separate Ls instead of using the same background twice. I think it’s more attractive that way. The old papers are pretty cool, you should possibly save the part you cut off to make into something else. (My scraps became mini witch hats).

Next up, I hope to make “BOO”. But I’m tight on time, I’m starting a major studio redo. I might be waiting to do “JOY” or “MERRY” instead. If I do, I’ll share letters if you’d like to make one too.

I spend a lot more time on these things than I probably should

antiques/junking, Chandeliers, Good JuJu, hand painted signs

By Karla Nathan / August 20, 2023

For the September sale at Good Juju’s First Friday weekend, I conjured up some witch’s hats to hang in my entry. They are hung with black chandeliers and the frames I already had up there.

The frames help give the giant, up high slice of my real estate some more “umph”. I think the hats would just disappear with out the frames behind them.

When I plan such things, I need to remind myself just how big this area is. Previously, I hung some teensy birdcages which was a complete waste of time. These witch hats teeter on the edge of time wasting too, I shoulda made them larger.

For the August event, I finally made a sign with my name on it, but once I had the hats dangling, it didn’t look right.

So I replaced it with this fall wreath that I’d picked up for a buck. That seemed to go with the rest of the look much better.

My first inclination was to write the word “haunted” on a piece of paper and tape it above Cottage. I thought it would be funny.

But honestly, I just don’t like the sign itself. My writing is a mess and makes the sign look amateurish. I need to rethink and redo the words before I rehang.

The “KarlaNathan.com” was left up there, the black and white simplicity of it seemed to go well with the rest of the design. But I do want a nicer Karla’s Cottage to add, so back to work.

Sometimes I wonder at my choices for how I spend my time. Does this even matter?

Crowning Glory

Good JuJu, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / August 17, 2023

I have been making more crowns. They don’t sell in droves, more of a steady trickle, but at least I move a few each Good Juju first Friday weekend. Enough that I get to make more.

The one this kid is wearing is kinda steam punkish.

And this guy is sporting a rose quartz stone on his noggin.

Lucky finds

mushrooms

By Karla Nathan / August 13, 2023

You can tell when it’s time for the season to change by the color of my mushrooms.

When I found an extremely tattered, vintage dress in this burnt velvet, all I could think was Halloween Mushrooms! And I might have slightly shrieked that out loud at the estate sale.

There might have been some exclamations of delight when I found this tree too. I kinda love it.

Another beyond wonderful find? A box of geodes for a buck. Sugarwings was in charge of whacking them with a hammer so I could have chunks of sparkly rocks to add to the base of my schroomies.

Ahhhh- just what they needed.

Due to my trip out east, I missed two weekends of garage sales. We arrived home in the middle of a major heat wave, so there went another weekend of yard sale shopping. But the few that I’ve managed to get to have provided some fun stuff, like these cloches. Not old, but just right for my creations.

My pal, Beth, and I always say, “Everything looks better under glass.” It you are a dealer and having trouble selling something, sit it under a dome. Well, that might not work for chairs and such, but you know what I mean.