Karla's Cottage – Page 258

Time flies

By Karla Nathan / October 19, 2008

Silver Bella is getting closer and I am happy to say it looks like I will be ready in plenty of time to take a week off and go to DC with my husband! Right now, all of the things I am making are just "gravy" on top of everything else that is ready to go.

This morning, I took a break and made this bracelet for myself, from some old watches I have been collecting. On one, I took out the ‘guts’ and replaced them with a teeny millinery flower.

Some of the watches were made into pieces to sell to.

This necklace seems appropriate for Silver Bella, doesn’t it look like the watch is wearing a tiara?

This one is much simpler, but still pretty, I think.

That is the end of my jewelry making for 2008, I’m pretty sure. I have all the tools and supplies packed away and am moving on to the next thing, as the year winds down, I’ll be concentrating on holiday decor items.

But while I was still playing jewelry (as Sissy and I always call working with our baubles) I remade the crown charm that I wanted to wear to Silver Bella. I’d made this bird pendant from one of Sissy’s plates at a craft day in her kitchen a couple years back. All I did to it this morning was add some of her special, antique blue topaz stones and the crown dangling charm with pearls.

Maybe I will wear it on a ribbon.

I’ve also made up a few tags, this fairy one is from the label I created for my milk bath salts.

And I am wrapping up vintage trims to take with me to Omaha to sell too. Beth gave me a few of these cute shoe tags and I am twisting trims around those and tying them up with ribbons and flowers.

Have you ever tried printing images on holographic paper? This photo doesn’t do it justice, the paper is so sparkling and pretty. I am using pictures I print on to this to wrap my vintage bits of trim around too.

Sugarwings needed some new duds, and one pair of pjs came with this tag on it. How could I just throw it away?

Well, of course, I couldn’t toss it! I covered it in pink, flocked wallpaper, aged the edges in silver ink and used black crystals for the eyes and nose.

Sometimes, I am as excited about the tags that come on new clothes as I am about the clothes themselves. The tags are great raw materials to make into something, usually good shapes and heavy duty papers.

Yesterday was a perfect Kansas autumn afternoon. We took Sugarwings to the pumpkin patch and ate fresh roasted corn on the cob and hot kettle corn harvested right there from the farm we were visiting. Food doesn’t get much more delicious than that.

Her Hippy Chick Mommy was on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin to decorate at a pumpkin carving party she is going to.

But our little Care Bear was judging pumpkins for their fit as a slide or as a horsey.

Today is just as beautiful as yesterday was, and I need to get outdoors and enjoy what is left of the sunshine! Twinkle and I will be working in the garden, cleaning it up for winter.

October Surprises and how to win them

Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / October 17, 2008

Sissy sent me some beautiful, old blue topaz stones, from an antique necklace she took apart to remake into other designs.

When she sent them, she asked me to save them for something special, not just dump into my inventory of old pieces. So, today, I used a couple of them for Silver Bella necklaces, one for me and one for a special friend who loves this color of blue. I’m sure Sissy wouldn’t mind me sharing with her.

I made a pendant with a rose quartz stone for another pal.

This pendant is for another Bella buddy, who has a unique style. I thought she might appreciate this sparkling silver glass that I soldered and made into a charm.

And of course, I promised to give away a pair of my silver crown earrings along with the black rose linens and white glittered pumpkin, so I made up a pair for that gift.

This is the last of my patina-ed sterling crowns, now I am wishing I had bought more!

One pair will be for the October Giveaway winner.

And I think I will do a second giveaway in honor of Silver Bella. If you are a Bella, please let me know in your comment, and I will draw a winner from all the Bella entries and give the winner one of these pairs of earrings.

Yesterday was a paint day. I had a few more of these little charms left and wanted to get them all painted to add to the ones I am taking to Silver Bella to sell.

Yet another thing I wish I had more of! I really enjoy painting these charms.

While the paints were out, I did something a little silly, I fairy-ed up some old pictures. Well, actually one is a leprechan, one a fairy baby, and one is just tinted.

All feature lots of sparkles, but they don’t show up well in this picture.

(again, I am wishing for that magical, dream come true, fantastic Canon Rebel camera that I want so much but am too cheap to buy)

And here is the pear watercolor I did for the show at Blue Plate Dinners. This show is such a cute idea. The business is one of those make and take dinner places, you go in and fix up meals to freeze and then cook later on. Many of the meals are wrapped in one gallon zip lock bags. So the theme of the art show there is food, but the kicker is that all the artwork pieces need to fit into a gallon bag!

I can’t wait to see it all in place, this will be a fun one. The art will all be sold for under $100 each, so there will be some afforable things to buy. The husband of one of the owners is a well known and wonderful artist himself. He has asked a lot of his freinds to particiapte in the show, there will be a lot of really good art there!

I’m going to Blue Plate this afternoon to drop off my pear painting and to make some calzones while I am there. My family is HOOKED on the calzones. Sugarwing’s daddy is coming to help me, I plan on making a freezer full.

In case you didn’t remember what the rest of the October Suprise was (well I guess it isn’t a surprise if I show you, huh?) here is a photo.

Here is a Prize Recap:

If you want to win the October Surprise of:

4 black and white rose patterened napkins (vintatge)

a handmade sculpy white glittered Pumpkin

and a pair of silver crown earrings

All you do is leave a comment, on any post any time all month, every comment is entered.

If you are a Bella and want to win a pair of crown earrings, just leave a comment letting me know that you are attending Silver Bella this year and I will draw a name from that group and bring the earrings with me to the event to give to you there. (by the way, if you enter this one, you are automatically entered in both)

Hey, remember HGTV’s Rate My Space? That site is addictive. I honestly try not to look at it very often because there are way too many great ideas to see and I get caught up in surfing it.

But its fun, so I added some photos again, this time of my stairway redo. I’d appreciate it if you dropped in to rate me!

It is here:

Karlas Cottage Vintage Rose Stairway

An indoor hurricane during craft day

Uncategorized

By Karla Nathan / October 15, 2008

Yesterday, I had a few friends over for crafting. Shawn brought these wonderful treats, her homemade marshmallows. She also brought a pot of Italian Wedding Soup. I wonder if I could get her to drop by a couple days a week with goodies like that if I planned more craft days……

This is Shawn with her sweet little girl, Bethany, who made lots of things as gifts for all of us throughout the day. (like the tag necklace her mom is wearing)

Sugarwings was there for most of the day too, but she was an overwhelming force of nature. I was so busy chasing her that I wasn’t able to get the camera out till after she had left in the afternoon, I was worn to a frazzle by her antics.

I told the other bloggers that were here that I wouldn’t be surprised to read on their blogs today: "The truth about Sugarwings and what really goes on at Karla’s Cottage".

Shawn is wearing a tiara I gave to her, she will be wearing it for Silver Bella, because she offered to drive up from Kansas City to help me with my booth!! How sweet of her, I am so relieved to have someone help me schlep all the junk from the truck and (hopefully) wrap up the packages as things (hopefully) sell.

Beth and Shawn both brought their Cuddlebugs and I was able to emboss and ink a bunch of tags then add vintage ribbons and crown stamps to them.

That was a simple project that I could do while tending to the tiny, two year old hurricane that was ripping through the studio all day.

Beth was in a similar frame of mind, we were doing mindless work, of wrapping up packages of things. She was getting ready for a sale she will be setting up next month and wanted these packs of pretty colored old tags ready for that.

Beth wrapped up ribbon to sell too. It was just a good day to sit and talk and put things together.

I’ve been looking around for a crown stamp that I liked and had no luck. Shawn had one with her and I used it on some parchment card stock sprayed with glimmer mist to make these small, square tags. I was just going to make some to use on packages, but they came out so cute, I decided to bring some to Silver Bella to sell at my booth. I wish I had used the dotted Swiss Cuddlebug embossing plate more, it is my favorite one.

Marilyn and Shawn both got some Halloween pieces made, Marilyn was working on a book, and Shawn was making ATCs

Look at what they brought as gifts for all of us! Marilyn is also a quilter and she made this patchwork scrapbook, filled with wonderful papers, and Shawn gifted everyone with a "Fright Night" collage.

Today, I am putting aside Silverbella packing and babysitting and being social to do some "real" artwork. Well, at least I hope it turns out good enough to be called real art!

I have a deadline to get a watercolor still life done for a show I am supposed to be entering. So, I’m off to paint a pear.

ps- Since I haven’t been adding new things to the Etsy shop much due to other committments, I decided to at least mark some stuff down. Check HERE for sale prices. I hope to add more to the shop this weekend. Well HOPE to at least! Thanks so much for shopping there!

Table #2 packed and ready to go!

Etsy Goodies, holiday decor, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / October 14, 2008

Progress is happening with my preparations for Silver Bella!

I have table #2 set up, priced and PACKED up!!

These photos are a rough draft. I don’t know why I show bad photos…. but I do.

I think this table is plenty FULL. Of course, it is a foot shorter than the one I will actually be using up in Omaha at the event, so that will help the display a bit.

The doll house shelf was great for height, and I can fill it will lots of pretties, it is a unique display piece.

One thing I really like about it, is that I can turn it on its side and all the little ‘rooms’ become spaces I can pack the stuff in to take.

But, instead of just wrapping the pretties and packing them into the ‘rooms’ I put all the goods into cardboard boxes first.

That way, when I go to set it up, I can remove the boxes and turn the shelf upright, then start loading the shelves directly from the boxes.

If I had packed directly into the ‘rooms’ I’d have had to unpack all the little stuff onto the floor or somewhere in the way while I turned the shelf upright. I’m glad I thought of that.

Well, actually, I’d already packed it, when I thought of it, and had to re-pack it. But I’m glad I did ! It will save time when I have a short period to get the truck unloaded and the booth set up.

Oops, as I look at this hat full of vintage cards, I realize that I forgot to make a price sign for the cards.

Wonder what else I have forgotten??

This display is a jewelry cabinet with a glass door, that I painted, and laid on its back instead of standing up.

I have tussie mussies and pastel trees sprinkled around the table top, and lots of little things here and there.

I tried to have a variety, and a good price range. There are things as low as 50 cents. Now why is it worth my time to pack, price, and drag something that is only 50 cents all the way to the sale??? Oh well, those quarters add up I guess, and also, there are some cool little things that I liked and figured other people would too. So, I am bringing them, whether it makes sense or not!

For vintage Christmas ornaments and little doo dads, I bundled up and packaged some things together in gift bags, perfect for little hostess or teacher gifts, and priced them at $3 each.

Yep, I have some bargains!

And I made up another box full of my millinery blooms.

It feels good to have two tables completed and packed away, priced and ready to set up! One table was jewelry, this was pastels and pretties, the third will be neutrals and whites. I hope to get to it later this week.

Today is a craft day with a few blog friends, so I’d better go and clear some crap off my work tables before the baby gets up and I don’t have a chance to do it and no one has a place to craft at!

Flaming Fall Fun

Etsy Goodies, Food and Drink, holiday decor, parties, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / October 13, 2008

Between throwing a party and hauling our boat in from the lake for the winter, I managed to sneak in a few minutes of crafting time.

These tags are listed for sale at my Etsy shop now if you are interested. I certainly have been neglecting that shop lately….

The wallpaper they are laying on came in the mail Saturday, isn’t it gorgeous!! I can’t wait to make something with that. Maybe I’ll get to tomorrow, I am having a craft day with some friends.

The weather for our bonfire on Saturday could not have been more perfect!

I think we had about 20 or so for dinner, I pulled a bunch of tables and mismatched chairs together from the patios and studio and set it all up out in the courtyard.

All the rectangle shaped tables were covered in white table cloths, and I put my only fall colored one on a round table in the center of the line.

(you can tell I didn’t waste any time ironing them!)

My centerpieces were a hodgepodge of whatever was around.

This white, glittered pumpkin is one that I have used over and over, it is from Hobby Lobby and I added glitter to it.

The rest of the centerpieces were just vases of flowers I picked from the garden, a few votives,gourds, and some real pumpkins. Simple and easy, no money spent, not much time put into it.

This pumpkin (from a garage sale) I sat in a flower pot and placed on a tray full of gourds and a vase of flowers. It really has a cool glow in the candlelight!

So does my pretty friend, Angie.

Here is the aftermath, once the food was gone and we moved on to the bonfire.

Dinner was simple and easy too. Well, at least it was for me! Everyone brought a side dish, I just made a spaghetti squash casserole (from my garden) and the cupcakes that Sugarwings decorated for me.

My husband grilled salmon and chicken, all I did was set out the food and plates buffet style in the house. I love parties that are effortless. I’m never shy to tell people to bring something with them, for one thing, it is fun to taste all the different things that people make. For another, I want to be able to have fun and be part of the group, not stuck in the kitchen.

(to Beth’s left is her handsome husband, Jeff. Too bad you can’t see his face, he is a cutey. But you can tell he is a cyclist, look at that physique!!)

I don’t know why we don’t use our bonfire pit more often. When we, sadly, had to take down the old barn, we kept the foundation and filled it with gravel, then added a curving gravel pathway back to the area. The big, gravelled space in the clearing of the woods makes a perfect area for a fire.

For parties, I string white lights along the path on one side and set out candles on the other.

The evening was one of those nights when it wasn’t so cold that you HAD to have a fire to stay warm, the fire was more of an accent to stare at and enjoy.

Although the flames did get a little hot when I decided to throw an old chair onto them. We all had to back away for a bit till the heat let up.

My husband thinks I have too much junk and he is thrilled when I surprise him and burn some of it at a party. Well, you do what you can to keep them happy, huh?

Would you like to have a pair of silver crown earrings?

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Food and Drink, give away, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / October 10, 2008

My grandiose plans to tag and pack up all the jewelry didn’t come to fruition. I’ve had Sugarwings as a helper, so just didn’t get a lot done!

There are a lot of things she is good at helping with, but sorting and pricing jewelry isn’t one of them.

Sugarwings is a good shopper. We went out and ran some errands and picked up Halloween themed paper goods for a bonfire I am planning tomorrow night.

She is also a good sprinkler. I handed over the sprinkles container and let her decorate the cupcakes herself.

I was hoping to do some autumn decorating before tomorrow night, but simply haven’t had a chance. She and I picked some hedge apples and squash. That might be it for my fall decor this year! Maybe I will call it "minimalist".

Being busy with getting things ready for Silverbella and having a two year old move in with me have kind of slowed me down a bit.

If you aren’t getting answers from me for you rcomments, please know that I am reading them at nap time, or after her bedtime, and enjoy seeing each and every one of them, I just might not have time to reply.

It’s nap time now, so Twinkle and I have been cleaning up this smoking stand to use for a display at my booth. I need to find a knob to fit the door, and it will be ready to go. It is perfectly aged and crackled up! And just the right size to add height to a table of goods for sale.

I like small cabinets for display. I can set something on top of it, inside it, and underneath too.

I’ve been so busy baby chasing that I forgot I had told you I was going to add to the October Giveaway.

If you remember, there is a set of black and white rose linens and a white glittered pumpkin already in the prize pack.

I think that what is missing from the prize is a pair of earrings. And since so many of you are interested in Silver Bella, but might not be going, I thought I’d offer a pair of the patina-ed sterling silver crown earrings that I am making up to take to that event.

All comments all month count as an entry. And please do continue to comment, sorry I can’t answer them all.

Playing Store

jewelry, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / October 9, 2008

Country Living has a sneak peek at their Silver Bella article coming up in the next issue. You can see a slide show of 15 pictures here.

And here is a sneak peek of my Silver Bella booth.

I cleared a dining table in my studio to use for a practice set up of my jewelry displays.

Setting all of this up, reminds me of when I was a little girl and loved to play "store". I’d line up my toys and pretend they were for sale, and my pony tailed Barbie was my coworker as we wrote up receipts for all the purchases.

This isn’t quite the final product, I’ll be tweaking it tonight, then will pack it all up and have the jewelry portion of my merchandise set to go!

The table I am practicing on is a foot short than the tables we will be renting at the Market Faire, but it is close enough to give me an idea of what to bring.

My displays are going to be ready to go, just pull out of the packing box and set up.

I’ve enlisted the help of all the lovely ladies out in the studio to be my models.

Actually, this hand painted charm, isn’t jewelry, it is more of a tag.

And the necklace on this lady is vintage but not hand made. I will have both, and really should have them separated better when I do the final set up.

This lady might be better holding bracelets than necklaces. She is pretty dainty and has a tiny neck.

Do you remember this elegant belle? I bought her from Beth, and she will fit right in at Silver Bella, she will sell pearls for me.

I know red isn’t my color, but this is still a nice way to sell pendants. I hope the dark red isn’t too jarring for the rest of the space… I’ll have lots of pastels, white, and silver.

And I know it wouldn’t be that hard to recover this display, but it just isn’t high on my list of priories. Do you think it will matter?

Prolificity

holiday decor, jewelry, magazine pictures or articles, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / October 8, 2008

Have I mentioned that I work fast? Last night during the debate and the discussion afterward, I made these earrings and bottles.

I’d found some cute little sterling silver crown charms, but they didn’t look as good in person as they did online when I found them. So I soaked them in a patina solution and aged them a bit.

After making so many pairs of crown earrings that I was starting to go cross eyed, I decided to use them for some other things too.

Like this bottle’s necklace.

And what do you think of my bottle toppers? Beth was selling some of this Victorian glass fruit and of course, my mind went directly to using it for stoppers.

It was a bit pricey for this use, but worth it, I think. So much more interesting than a cork!!!

On Monday, before Sugarwings came for her sleep over, I worked on making some more price signs for my Silver Bella booth.

To save time, I am doing simple pricing, with a sign that states the price of an entire species of craft. No individual tagged items, or at least not many.

So, I am trying to have multiples of items to sell. No two will be alike, of course, but lots of things in the same genre.

Wallpaper folders are complicated to make, but I love the results. My Sissy had made a folder for me using a cabinet card as a pattern and I got the idea from that.

But I glue two vintage papers together to make them covered inside and out, and these papers can be fragile to use. Also, I try to make sure they are interesting from all angles.

Including the backs.

Then I fill them up with ephemera, coordinating wallpaper and old book page scraps to match the design of the folder.

While I had ephemera and glue out, I made a few post card Christmas ornaments.

Only 3 so far. If I don’t get more made, I will have to price them individually instead of using a sign!!!

These are some jewel cases that I bought at a flea market earlier this year. The insides are a perfect pink, and one has a rose, the other says Princess!

But the outsides were kind of blah.

To spiff up the exteriors, I added velvet ribbons, rhinestones and old velvet flowers.

If only that would work on me. Seems like the opposite is true with me, the older I get, the less froofy stuff I can wear. Not fair!!!

Not like I would ever have worn this any way. Who could?? I think it was either a Halloween costume or dance recital dress. I hope it wasn’t real clothing….

Being a cheapskate, I was attracted to the the fact that it was only $2 but covered in about $40 worth of sparkly things!

Sparkly things that looked like they would be easy to pick off.

But aren’t.

Sometimes it sucks being a cheapskate. Now I HAVE to pick them all off or I will feel like I wasted my money. All two dollars of it.

12,000

family

By Karla Nathan / October 7, 2008

Have I mentioned before that collect coincidences? I keep a file (with photos) on my computer of odd co-inky dinks. But this is my favorite one of all!

Anyway, yesterday I knew that I was near my 12,000th comment and was watching to see who it was going to be so I could send a surprise prize out to that person as a thank you.

When I checked my emails, this is what I saw-

A new comment from “Rich” was received on the post “400th Post and a slew of giveaways including "Karla and Carol’s Romantic Country Celebration Giveaway" ” of the weblog “Karla’s Cottage”

It was from my husband who is in DC. He’d never left a comment before.

And guess what number he was?

I guess he’ll get a nice prize when he gets home tomorrow.

The ZONE

antiques/junking, Chandeliers, Etsy Goodies, fairies

By Karla Nathan / October 5, 2008

Aren’t these yummy colors? I just listed two packs of these luscious old trims in ice cream colors.

It seemed fitting to add these Neapolitan colored old buckles to the shop too.

I hope some the same person buys both, I just think a project made with these would be so pretty. all are sold, thanks, and yes, the buckles went with the trims!

You probably don’t hear me mention thread and needles much around here, but yesterday I actually got some out and sewed this old millinery bloom to this vintage silver bag!

My mom would have been so proud of me! I used thread instead of glue.

Supposedly, yesterday was my tagging and organizing day, but I ended up making stuff too. (and I did get some tags made, by the way)

Ever had one of those days when you just are in the zone? I had no interruptions, no phone calls, no family around. So, I was in my studio from about noon till 11pm. I didn’t even eat, I just focused.

Those days don’t come by very often. Good thing, because the day after, I feel like I have a hangover from it all and can’t get anything done at all.

Aging sucks. A super productive day means a lazy day coming up next.

Let’s see, how did those zone hours go? I made these two fairy dancers, finished up and tagged 6 wallpaper journals, bagged and tagged a lot more millinery blooms, drug out my Christmas decor items that are for sale, dug through vintage Xmas cards, and sorted some jewelry.

Well, that doesn’t sound like it was worth missing dinner for does it? It felt like I got more done than that….

There was some blog hopping, and Ebay shopping involved in my day too. As well as a few little things here and there, clean ups and touch ups and so on.

Basically, the day just flowed. It was great. One thing after another, I was like a machine cranking out work and completing jobs left and right.

Before I got swept away with studio fever, I hit a couple of garage sales and did a little shopping.

I found this doll house/bookshelf at a local cool junk store.

Great Silver Bella display, huh? It will add much needed height to my table tops, and I can turn it on its side and use it for a box to pack stuff in to get them up there.

And how cute is the back of it?

I was thinking about covering the shelves in vintage wallpaper, but I will most likely be giving the piece to Sugarwings for her dollies when I am done with it. 2 year olds and vintage papers don’t mesh well.

See this note, "just because"? It was from Scrappi Jessi and was a package with the cutest and most thoughtful presents. "Just because" she is a punkin!

Two cute ornaments were in the box, and both went immediately onto the chandelier that hangs over my computer.

This chandelier is filled with mix matched colored crystals, and lots of sentimental things. A picture of my mom on a glittered star, tags and gifts I have received, a stuffed Dorkie from Sissy, my collection of K’s, a picture of my fairy grand baby on an ornament from Barb, a wooden angel from Beth.

If I keep adding to it like this, soon, all the pretties will drown out the light!