Karla's Cottage – Page 260

You know you want one- we all want to be a princess!

By Karla Nathan / October 28, 2008

So much for being done and packed up and ready to go to Silver Bella— I decided to make some tiaras, so had to unpack the basic crowns that were tagged and ready to sell!

But who can resist those midnight whispers, the ones that call you to the studio with and idea that you can’t ingore, no matter how you try?

I never can. I am weak willed when it comes to giving into the muse. If she calls, I answer, no matter what time of the day or night.

So, there I was, in the middle of the night plucking tiny velvet blooms from my garden of old hats and adding them along with sparkling pretties to these previously packed and tagged and ready to sell tiaras.

I have 2 more to foof up, (one lavender, one Aurora Borealis) . I also still have a couple more to sell pre-foofed, for you to embellish yourself or wear as is for a more sedate sparkle.

If you are attending Silver Bella, you know that a crown is just about required attire! If you don’t have one yet, these are for sale, and I can deliver it to you in person there.

If you are a princess or a queen who is without a crown, but not going to Silver Bella, one can be mailed to you. If you are interested in bedazzling your own head with one of my creations, here is the price list:

Fairy Ballerina – $30

Butterfly- $25

Velvet Floral Wreath- $25

(plus postage, if needed)

See, a dancing fairy on your head can make even a middle aged grammy with no make up on and wearing clothes covered in paint look good. Well, maybe not. But I felt pretty good with it on!

While obeying the muse, I decorated a couple of those bottle brush trees I was irritated with. Heck, their tags had already fallen off, I had to do SOMETHING with them!

Let me know if you’d like to buy the crown you deserve to adorn yourself with! (If you are wondering why the price is so low for an embellished one, I got a REALLY good deal on the basic crowns and I would rather pass on the savings than mark them up so high no one can buy one!)

Proud to be a Mid Westerner!

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, give away, Silver Bella, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / October 27, 2008

Sbella_booth_230 Today is a packing and pricing day, the last table top of Silver Bella goodies are going into their boxes! Although, all the tags are falling off the stupid bottle brush trees, how irritating is that? I went with sticky tags on the bottoms, not string tags, because I didn’t want the strings to tangle. Now, I have a pile of loose tags at the bottom of the box.

I’ll have to keep that in mind as I tag the rest of the crap, er, I mean lovely inventory.

I HATE pricing. It is one of the chores that seemed to never end back when I used to host mini flea markets in my yard and chicken coop. For this event, I am doing as many signs as possible, instead of individual tags. I packaged things, like wallpaper journals and millinery flowers with the idea of saving tagging time. I did the same with hand painted charms, tags, vintage greeting cards, and china shard pendants too.

Too bad that idea won’t work for the old Christmas ribbon, some spools are nearly full, others aren’t, so the prices can’t be uniform.

And for small things like this, it is easier to do tags, than to take up space with a sign.

And the decorated bottles are all so different, it just doesn’t work well with them either, they will need to be tagged.

I’ll place a small sign on this basket that says "Embossed and Stamped Tags 3 for $1"

I also have a big picnic basket FULL of odds and ends for $1 each. Doilies, trims, cake decorating tid bits, just a hodge podge of goodies. I’ll set it on the floor because my tables are overflowing.

10′ x 10′ sounds like plenty of space, but I could have used twice that amount. Of course, I also could have been a little smarter and not planned to bring so many cheapo priced things….. and made better use of the space I have…

But- this booth really does represent what I have to sell in my Etsy shop or on my blog and that is what I wanted to accomplish. There will be bargains and surprises and good deals all piled together to dig through. I hope that the booth is enjoyed as much as I have enjoyed putting it together!! And if most shoppers are like me, they will appreciate some good deals and have fun digging through it all.

Dont forget that if you want to win something from my booth, I am having TWO giveaways!

A pair of crown earrings goes to a Bella, and another pair, along with black and white rose linens and a white glittered pumpkin will go to another reader. All you do is leave a comment to enter.

Speaking of Silver Bella vendor night, guess who is going to be there selling after all? Deb of Curious Sofa! Now, that will be a beautiful space to shop in!!!!!!

I am going to be glowing with pride to be part of the Kansas City contingent up in Omaha. With my friend, Gwen, who shops only in France for her wares, Carol the Queen of primitive glamor, and Deb with her unique Curious Sofa style all there and all from KC, those three will be showing off the best that the Midwest has to offer!

Makes me wish I’d gone for a better display instead of just piles of stuff… these three ladies will have the kind of spaces that make you stand at the entance and just say WOW.

Fun with Fabrics

antiques/junking, family, flowers, parties, Silver Bella, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / October 25, 2008

I’ve been playing hooky the last few days. Maybe a case of over confidence? I am so close to being ready for Silver Bella that I am doing fun stuff instead of finishing the work that needs to be done. I hope nothing comes up unexpectedly and I don’t have time to finish after all…

Today was a tie dye day. Normally, we do our dying outside, but the weather was just a tad to cool, so this is what my studio looks like now!

Here is a shirt I dyed last time, its an ombre type style. To get this affect, you saturate the piece with the base color of dye, then splash on colors that blend, starting with lighter at the top, darker at the bottom.

Then hang it to drip for 24 hours while the dye sets. I love the way the colors bleed as it hangs.

Last year, these hoodies were sold at Silver Bella, and I wore mine so much this year that I almost wore it out. It was white to start with and after a year of enjoyment and use, you couldn’t call it white any more. So the dye was a fix to make the shirt "new" again.

I also embellished the faded (from many washings) printed design on the back, with bronze metallic and silver glitter fabric paints.

If my other tie dye creations turn out picture worthy, I’ll show them later. Right now, they are wrapped up in rubber bands and soaking away in plastic bags.

Beth indulged me and took a hooky day shopping on Thursday, we went to the Jr. League Holiday Shop in KC. Hmm. Not my typical type of shopping, and we kept saying that we felt like tourists in another land. Everything was NEW and expensive, not stuff either of us buy!

But then, we came across Deb Dusenberry’s Curious Sofa booth like a beacon of light in the darkness we found her beautiful displays of fab finds!

See why I was so happy? Her style is so perfectly perfect. That woman has an eye for beauty, I love everything she does.

And while there, I found out that Deb is driving up from KC to go to the Silver Bella vendor night, so I made sure to invite her to visit Carol and I in our "Glitter Lounge". Carol (who is a good buddy of Deb’s) and I are stocking our room with wines and chocolates and inviting friends up to hang with us there. (Last year, after Silver Bella vendor night, we had a cocktail in the lounge, then a slumber party in Heather Bullard’s room. This year, Heather isn’t coming, so Carol and I will be having the girly night in our room instead.)

After eating enough free samples of gift basket style food offerings to justify our tickets to the Jr. League show (every other booth there had jam and crackers or spinach dip and pretzels), Beth and I escaped the newness of the holiday mart and made a run to Mission Road Antique Mall where Beth has a booth. We did a redo on her spot (sorry, no good pics of that, too bad, she has GREAT stuff- but there are pictures on her blog) and it was joy to play with vintage goodies after an afternoon of walking through booths of brand new goods!

Remember me telling you about the art show at Blue Plate Dinners that I painted a pear for? We went to the opening last night and what a cool event! The art was all food related and displayed in one gallon zip lock bags.

Quite a few friends of mine had artwork in the show, so it was fun to hang out with them for the evening.

Notice anything odd about my picture? Well my hand is a bit colorful from the tie dying.

Most people didn’t even comment, they are so used to seeing me covered in something, glitter, paint, dye, etc. that it would cause even more comment if I showed up somewhere pristine…

Vicki gave me a blog award, how sweet. I always appreciate the kind thoughts behind those, I am sorry I don’t always follow through with them. For this one, I am supposed to list 6 things that make me happy, so I thought this photo summed up most of them-

1- Sugarwings!!!

2- flowers

3- summertime and sunshine

4- pretty colors

5- a day with the family

6- spending time in this town I am so lucky to live in, downtown Lawrence has so much to offer.

Autumn Gathering

jewelry, magazine pictures or articles, paintings, parties, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / October 23, 2008

Today there is an autumn gathering at Artsy Mama’s, and even though I don’t do much in the way of fall decor, I had to participate, just because Kari throws such fun parties!

To battle the fall chills, I trade out my summer curtains for some heavier wwight, velvet ones, and bring out a warm quilt.

The crazy quilt thrown over the arm of the sofa was made by my mom, so I get a double dose of warmth from it, one from the actual quilt and the other from warm memories of my mom’s hugs.

(That small chest being used for a coffee table is full of Sugarwing’s toys. I guess I should cover the inside of the wire screen, the toys are peeking through!)

One of my favorite garage sale finds this year is the vintage, framed white witch for $2. She is set out on the table for Halloween, but I might just keep her around a while.

Since I am trying to get ready for Silver Bella, I have skipped over fall pretty much. Last year, I was participating in a Christmas Home Tour and that kept me hopping, so autumn was over looked then too. Maybe next year, I can go whole hog, but for now, I will just enjoy all the elaborate displays I see in blogland.

Remember when I said I was all done making jewelry for the year and put all the supplies away? hmmm, my crafting whims don’t seem to follow the schedules I set for myself. I ended up painting these charms yesterday, so that means, the crystals, jump rings and tools need to come back out again!

Yesterday was also "Fun with Buttons Day" here in my studio. I painted a few to see how that went, and I think that they did fine. I lightly sanded some Mother Of Pearl buttons before painting them, then topped them off with paper glaze.

Other buttons were turned into magnets.

This ceiling tin message board was featured in Somerset Life, I am taking it to Silver Bella, and added some more magnets to it to sell.

They range from $1.50- $4 and as I was pricing the button magnets, and some other $2 and $3 items, I was wondering to myself just how much crap I had to sell to make this show worth doing if I was selling so much of the inventory at such low prices??? Oh well, it is the thrill of making it and the fun of setting up and talking with everyone as they look through it all that makes it all worth doing.

Here is a magnet that isn’t a button, it is a vintage box that I had some beads in. Won’t it be cute on someone’s fridge with a surprise tucked in it? I glued two magnets to the back of it, so it would be sturdy enough to use.

While I was gluing away, I replaced some missing rhinestones on the lid of this old pill box.

And of course, that wasn’t enough! I lined it with flocked wallpaper and fitted the inside with a crown.

The sweet little birdy in the martini glass got a crown too. Hers is one of the gutter screen crowns I made from Carol’s design for the Romantic Country article we did together.

Yum, this says fall to me! We brought in green tomatoes from the garden to finish ripening and so far, they are turning as we had hoped!

Sorry I didn’t have much more in the way of Harvest decor to show you, but I can promise tons of it if you go visit Kari and follow her links to parties across blog land!

If you are here for the party and are new to my blog, please check the previous post for details about my giveaway. I have presents to give out and all you need to do is leave a comment on any post to enter.

Enjoy the autumn pretties out there!

ps- thanks to everyone who commiserated with me about my poor nose. It doesn’t seem broken, just slightly green and lumpy today and feels much better!

And speaking of giveaways- look at this gown!!

Details here.

How can you tell if your nose is broken?

fairies, give away, Silver Bella

By Karla Nathan / October 21, 2008

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Actually, no, not at all, I am not ready for bad weather, I am a warm weather lovin person and hate the thought of winter approaching!!! To me, that is all fall is, a warning that snow will be here way too soon!

And today was a gloomy autumn day, so I will apologize in advance for my photos not being very clear, there simply was no light in the studio.

Since the weather was ominous, with hints of cold and winter, I decided to make a shabby chic snowlady. Her arms are snips of millinery flower branches, instead of twigs and of course, her buttons are vintage rhinestones.

And look who I caught sneeking in from the garden to get away from the cold weather!

Luckily, I had a gilded cage ready and waiting for her. I’d found this little terrarium at a garage sale for a dime and all it needed was a bit of vintage foofing to make it appropriate to house a fairy.

Hmm, I can’t remember if I showed these two bracelets I pieced together this week. Pardon me if I am repetitive!

But I was whacked in the nose by a head butting baby today and can’t think straight with my face throbbing.

Does it look broken to you? My husband thinks I am exagerating, and honestly, I am feeling like a whiny wimp about it. I might take an advil and go to bed early tonight.

Today was a long one. Sugarwings was happy and sweet, just being a two year old, and I was being a 50 year old. Not always the best mix, energy wise.

We did work in the studio together, I finished up some odds and ends and she painted mermaids.

For now, she is enamoured with Ariel and tells anyone who will listen to her "I want Mooormaids, ALL the time." If we’d let her, she’d be parked in front of that DVD with a goofy grin on her face all day long.

Don’t forget, comments from Bellas get entered into a seperate drawing for a pair of crown earrings, and all other comments are thrown into the hat to win the October Surprise, (which isn’t really a surprise at all.)

Its this set of linen napkins, a white glittered pumpkin and another pair of crown earrings.

Thanks for being understanding about me not being able to answer all the comments, now that Sugarwings is here more.

Time flies

Sugarwings

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?