Karla's Cottage

Its a start!

You still have the 31st to enter the drawing for my December Giveaway, and the 50% off sale in my shops goes through the 1st.

Thanks to all of you who have shopped with me!

I'm getting a jump on my New Year's resolutions and getting some repairs done.  My house has been terribly neglected in 2009.  We replaced the closet door months and months ago, and I just NOW, finally, repainted the door and the trim around it, plus the wall that got dinged up in the process of changing the door out.

I painted the door white, then added glaze to a paper bag brown color, brushed it on and wiped it down with a damp cloth. Quick and easy and such a difference.  Why did I wait months to clean up this area???

My resolution is to not let things slip by me anymore.

(oh, and see the hand weights? They will be getting a lot more use in 2010, that is another resolution!!!)

This corner was never finished when the door was replaced.  Yesterday, I called the guy who did the work and he is coming back on Monday to fix this floor.  While he is here, I have a list a mile long that he is going to do for me.  Little things that have been bugging me around the house, like doors that just don't close right, a cabinet that needs hung.  Yes, my son is a carpenter. But between taking care of Sugarwings, work, and school, I'm lucky to get him to do anything at all.

He helps with housework, cooks, and gives me neck massages all the time (he is also a massage therapist), so I am not complaining. Instead, I am calling in a handyman who will get the list knocked off in one day. 

I'm starting the new year with a whole new outlook.  The fun and chaos of chasing a 3 year old has caused me to neglect my home, and I am not going to let that happen any more.  Things I can't do, don't have time to do and can't get the guys who live here to do are going to be done by our friend, Don, the handyman. 

Some things, I am facing and conquering on my own, like this. Months ago, the screws crumbled and broke off on the knobs of this old cabinet.  Yes, I knew it was coming, they were wonky for a year or two. But I ignored it.   I've been living with a knobless cabinet in my bedroom since summer.

  I am fixing this little problem right now.  Well, this afternoon, at least because there are no screws the right length in my tool kit. There never seems to be the right ones, does there? That is what stopped me every time I thought about fixing it. I had the knobs, just the wrong screws.  So, today, I am taking some glass knobs to the hardware store and getting the right ones. 

 

After changing the screws on the cabinet and mailing some packages, my New Year's Eve will be a quiet one.  We've filled the wheelbarrows with wood, so we can have a warm and toasty house tonight.  I'll probably rent a couple of movies, and curl up with Sugarwings to share some popcorn.

 

Hope your New Year's Eve is a fun one too, and 2010 brings you the accomplishments you want to achieve as well as lots of joy.

(Maybe one of my resolutions should be to NOT go too crazy with picnik editing??? This photo is a tad bit over the top, huh?)

Winter doldrums and shopping therapy

The snow and cold are starting to get to me.  Even though we aren't snowed in anymore, the cold itself seems to be freezing my spirit and slowing me down.  This week between Christmas and New Years has such a feeling of limbo to it anyway, with the cold added, I'm kind of out of it and need to get re-focused.   Maybe a good shopping trip is what I need? Some fun, new junk to play with? I feel like I've overdosed on NEW stuff from shopping too much at real stores instead of junk shops and antique malls while buying my family's Christmas gifts.

I did pop into the Lawrence Antique Mall while downtown on the 23rd to pick up a gift certificate, and found this little girl's gorgeous gown for $18! It came with a full slip too, very lacy and lovely.  I can't wait for Sugarwings to wear it!

Or maybe I need to throw a craft day?  My studio is overflowing, so shopping therapy probably is not as smart as craft therapy.  Maybe if I invited some arty buddies over, I could get myself moving. 

Or I could just get my butt in gear and take down some of the Christmas decor and put it away. Then start on taxes.  YUCK! No wonder I don't want to do anything, the stuff that I need to get done is NOT FUN.

 

Plus, I think I'll leave up my holiday decor for just a bit longer. I got it up late and would like to enjoy it a while.

As a matter of fact, I just hung these snow flakes today!  They are the ones I made from hand crocheted medallions from my late, great, Aunt Caroline.  I mixed a half cup of liquid starch with a hand full of fine glitter, soaked the "snowflakes" in that, then spread them to dry. After they dried, I added some embellishments of millinery, pearls, or crystals to some.

 

Hmm, I'm thinking calling on my friends for a craft day AND doing some shopping will help. If you need some shopping therapy, please don't forget that I have my Boutique and Etsy shops half price until January first!

 
Here's how the sale works:

1- If you see something you want in the shops, go ahead and pay with Pay Pal like normal. I'll refund your 50% discount.

2- If you need to pay by check, contact me for an invoice and I'll mark your purchases sold before someone else nabs your bargains.

3- If you buy from both shops, I'll combine shipping and send you a postage refund for the extra.

4- Sometimes, multiple purchases from my boutique can cause shipping to go sky high. Don't worry, if it grows too much, I'll refund the overpayment.   If I knew a better way to reset the shipping charges, I'd do it. 90% of the time its fine, but sometimes it seems outrageous. But then, I'm a pretty thrifty shopper myself, so get scared off by some of the shipping charges I see online!

By the way, CAN you get to my shop??? A friend says she cannot open it.  Please, please, let me know if you have issues with it!! Thanks!

Feel free to copy this old card and print it if you'd like to use it in your projects!

Janice has a new home and you get a Big Bargain Bonanza of Baubles!

Little Janice is safe in her new home.  A family from Junction City tried to come and pick her up for Christmas, because they had just lost their elderly poodle and the kids were heartbroken. Janice had just lost her owner and was heartbroken too.   It was the perfect match! But the family got into trouble with the beginnings of the blizzard and totaled their truck while coming to get her on Christmas Eve!!

No one was hurt, but the truck was done for.

So, on the day after Christmas, my husband and I made a 3 hour trip (still snowing, and slippery, but not as bad that day) to deliver sad and scared Janice to her new home.

Even though our truck's wiper motor blew out and we had to stop and clean the windshield a lot, I have to tell you, that trip was worth every minute of the time and trouble we took to make it.

The family had a tiny, tiny house, about 2 feet of yard in the front, right off the highway.  It was not a good neighborhood, but the house was spotlessly clean and the kids were polite, sweet and so happy to see their new dog.  The mom said she didn't have much but offered me $6 for gas money for bringing the dog all the way out to them.  

I was so moved, that I had wished that I'd brought a bagful of gifts too. 

What a perfect home for that little pup. Sugarwing's Nanny would be happy to know that the little dog she rescued a few years ago is now, once again, safe and loved.

These photos are some that I edited for a slide show as a farewell for Nanny's service today.  

Losing someone that suddenly, out of the blue really makes me think. Especially after delivering that little dog to a family who apparently had so little, had just lost their transportation but seemed so happy together.  I wish I'd had my camera with me so you could see the way that kid's face lit up when I handed her the dog! 

There is nothing more beautiful than bringing a smile to a little girl!

So, I thought I'd try to bring some smiles to all of you "little girls" out there who read my blog!  Of course, there is the regular monthly giveaway that you still have till New Year's Eve to enter for.  And this month it is an extra special gift, of Amy Barrickman's new book.

 But for even more smiles, I'd also like to offer everything in my Boutique and Etsy for half price till the end of the year.  (except the Grumpy Fairy Book, sorry, the production costs won't allow me to offer that big of a discount for that.)  The sale includes items already marked down, too!

Make your purchases as usual, through Pay Pal and I will send you a Pay Pal refund for the discount.

Also, please note, that sometimes, with multiple items, the shipping can grow a bit high. If it is too high, I refund a portion of it. Also, I will combine the shipping if you order something from each shop.  So feel free to shop away! 

If you are paying by check, email me for a total.  But remember, with Pay Pal, that I will give your discount AFTERWARD as a REFUND.

Thanks so much, all of you who listen to my ramblings and keep me company when the bad things happen and share the good things with smiles.

Lets all have the happiest of New Years!

God Bless you, even if you are are a Nebraska fan

Boy did we ever get the snow.  My handsome husband spent the day driving around in the  4 wheel drive pick up and pulling stranded people out of the mess. He was having so much fun doing it, that he came home to pick up Sugarwing's Daddy and his cute gypsy girlfriend to go out and be good Samartatins with him. 

We live in a town loyal to Kansas Jayhawks, and my husband grew up in Nebraska, so has a Cornhusker sign on his big red truck.  One guy that he pulled out of a drift said to him, "God bless you, even if you are a Cornhusker fan." 

He wasn't the only person out saving people from the drifts.  Living in the Midwest is pretty nice. Strangers will come out in the cold just to help you if you need it. 

Luckily, we had a little Christmas party for Sugarwings and Pixie Pie before the storm hit, because our big Christmas day event was canceled due to the weather.  We were able to safely get Sugarwings and her Mommy to their family in Kansas City, so they could all be together on Christmas Day, though.  It was very important to get them there, since Nanny passed away this week. Those siblings all needed each other.

 

(As you can tell from Sugarwing's shirt, my husband is also a Jayhawk fan!)

On Christmas Eve, we did our gift exchange and Sugarwings insisted on being Santa and loading the gifts in her new sleigh to deliver them.

The only trouble was, that the red velvet pants that I'd just bought for her, were not quite the right size and tended to slip a bit.  She walked right out of them a couple times, but was not going to let that stop her from delivering Santa's gifts!

Twinks was asked to play "Max" and Sugarwings was the Grinch for a while too. That sled got quite the workout in the house, but when her daddy tried to take her out to use it in the 4 foot snow drifts, she didn't want to have anything to do with it or the cold.

Some of you had asked about the painted tree.  Its on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood, and I had painted it to decorate for my antique booth at the holidays. I put hooks into the wood and sold ornaments off of it. But this year, I brought it into the living room for Christmas. We used it as a backdrop to take some holiday photos of our little girls.

And since there were little girls around, no vintage ornaments were on the hooks this year, they went up on the chandelier out of reach, instead! Hey, I might be a sucker for those kids, but I am not a fool. If I care about something, it goes where no grabby little hands can get it.

 

Its been an odd holiday.  Sugarwing's Nanny passed away, we had a huge snow storm that canceled most of our plans, and so many other people's too. But we made the best of it, and celebrated what and when we could.  Holding those you care about close when you can and grabbing snippets of joy where you can find them is what matters.  Enjoying the funny, little moments like watching a miniature Santa walking right out of her red pants, and helping strangers stranded in a ditch are things that made our Christmas '09 something we'll remember.

Of course that fridge full of food to feed 20 some people who couldn't come to dinner is a reminder too.

Merriest of Christmases to you!

We've had a lovely day here for Christmas Eve, despite the fierce blizzard outdoors.  Due to the snow, I didn't get out today to finish my shopping, but honestly, the few items weren't missed.  We all had each other, and after losing Sugarwing's other grandmother this week, that is even more important.

We've stayed warm and enjoyed each other's company with a day of good food. (vegetarian gravy and biscuits for breakfast and Pad Thai for dinner) The food was especially wonderful today, since I didn't have to cook! My son and his girlfriend took care of all the meals today.  I'm fixing a big meal for dinner tomorrow and we have a large group of family and friends coming (if the blizzard lets up!) so I was happy to have today off.

We're not sure how  many are coming Christmas Day.  I'll fix a Honey Baked ham, chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, corn (frozen fresh from last summer's farmer's market) green bean casserole, and others will bring side dishes too. 

So, tomorrow's meal will be very traditional.

Due to the weather, Sugarwing's hippy chick mommy couldn't make it to Kansas City today to see family, so we picked her up in the 4 wheel drive and have her here with us to stay over night.  We'll brave the bad roads tomorrow to get her and Sugarwings to be with the loved ones they missed seeing tonight, but for now, I am greedily enjoying having a full house and my girls being here with me. 

Although, I've not spent the whole day with everyone, I've been at the computer off and on scanning photos of Nanny's life and editing them for a slide show to play at the memorial service.  Its a relief to have something to do to help. 

We didn't know we'd have Sugarwings and her mommy in the morning, so we creatively had Santa come during her nap today.  But at three years old, I doubt if she'll be wondering why there is nothing under the tree in the morning.  She's had her fill of gifts today! And when they both get to Kansas City after the storm lets up, I think there will probably be a few pressies waiting for her there too.

Its been an odd, and unconventional holiday so far. But a loving one.  I hope yours is warm and cozy and full of love too!

Christmas Eve

We are certainly having a white Christmas here! An ice storm is brewing, and lots of snow is expected over that.  The house is rattling and shaking with the storm, but we are warm an snug inside with the fire blazing and the oven filled with pies baking.

Janice has found a home, we had quite a few calls from my Craigslist ad.  Someone who lost an elderly pet just this week wanted a cuddle bug of an older dog to try to fill the void for them.

Pixie Pie and Sugarwings have been a big help in the kitchen getting ready for Christmas.  We've still not told our Fairy Baby about the loss of her Nanny.  The service will be on Monday, so we are letting her have a happy holiday for now, since plenty of sadness will be coming her way after the weekend.

Thank you all for your thoughtful messages, and I will pass along all the hugs you offered.

A home for the holidays?

Thank you so much for all of your kind condolence messages about Sugarwings losing her Nanny.  Her other grandmother was also a big part of our fairy baby's life and our little one will miss her.

We appreciate all of your sweet comments.

 

Sugarwings isn't the only one who will miss her Nanny.  This furry cuddle bug was a rescue dog in need of love just a couple years ago.  Amy (Nanny) took her in and gave her a new life of love and caring.  Now, this little sweetie needs a home again. 

If you know of anyone looking for a small dog who likes to hug, please let me know.  This Lhaso Apso is an older gal and is pretty quiet and laid back. She is used to kids (Sugarwings) and has had  a rough life but hasn't let it get her down.  She is kind hearted and loving.  (also housebroken and used to apartment living)

She will be staying with us for a bit until we find her a home, but hopefully not for long. Twinkle seems to hate her for no reason, and this poor thing is pretty scared of her.  After all she has been through, she doesn't deserve that kind of treatment.  She should be somewhere that she feels at home and safe.

A loss

Today, Sugarwings lost her other grandmother. Unexpectedly, suddenly, and sadly.  A simple surgery last week, that had supposedly gone well, turned into sepsis that took her in a matter of hours.

No one has told our little fairy baby yet.  Would she even understand at 3, what all of this means?  For now, her Mommy has been staying with us, we spent the early morning hours  at the hospital  in case we were needed for support.  But honestly, what can you do?  Me, I feed people.  I made a big breakfast when we got back to the house.

And what else can I do?  For me, making things helps.  I had planned a craft day with good friends and decided to keep our plans.  Sugarwing's "Nanny" had once given me a bag full of colorful feathers from a dear bird she had loved.  So, today's projects made use of the feathers in honor of her.

Using pom poms spritzed with Glimmer Mist, and the feathers that Nanny had carefully saved, I made this parrot to give to our sad little Hippie Chick.   Not that she needs a memento of her mom to remember her, not that she is in the mood for holiday decorations, but I guess because it meant something to me.  I had Sugarwings make a bird for her with the feathers too, for me, hands on cooking or making something shows love. And creating something with Sugarwings  is even more so.

I'll leave you with a few photos of the birds I made today. 

Good bye, Nanny. Your daughter and your fairy grand baby will miss you.

Zipping around

This guy has been zipping around our house all afternoon, racing from one wall into another, never giving up and never slowing down. That's kind of how I've felt this week getting ready for Christmas!  Not only did I have the regular, shopping, wrapping, baking, etc, we had the added pleasures of unpacking a 14 foot U-Haul trailer. 

My husband gave up his apartment in Virginia, he will still office there, but will hopefully be home more, and only have hotel rooms a few days a month out that way.  So, we had to make space for all the things he brought back home.  Just as I was enjoying my pretty holiday decorations and thinking how peaceful and nice it all looked, he brought in boxes and bags and 2 extra TVs and extra mattresses and who all knows what.

So much for tranquil and pretty!

 

He works for a golf course company, and every year I paint a Christmas card for him to send out.  In between unloading boxes, and wrapping gifts, I whipped up this little snowman and elf for him to use this season.

While I had my paints out, I painted this long sleeve tee shirt for Pixie Pie.  I hope to paint a matching one for her cousin and buddy, Sugarwings.

 

The cartoon of the two of them together tickled me so much, I repainted it onto an ornament to mail to their great grandma.

Then, I painted on of Sugarwings alone for her special ball for 2009.

This is the one that I made for myself. I have a fondness for little pink putz houses and wanted one that felt like those.

For my brother Randy and his husband, Kevin, I painted their 3 dogs playing in the snow.

Max got a tree frog.

Addie's is a princess kitten.

It was nice to sit down and paint for a couple of hours while I watched the Survivor finale. There hasn't been a lot of sitting around lately!  Today I shipped packages to family far away, and tonight, Sugarwings and I are making candy.  Tomorrow is a big party, a craft day with friends, so after candy making, I need to clean the studio.

I'd better be racing off and get busy!

 

Over the top? Of course!

Can you believe that Christmas is less than a week away???? I am loving my white lights and decorations so much, I'm already sad thinking about having to take them all down. Next year, I am getting my glitz on earlier, so I can enjoy it for longer!

I went with a much smaller tree this year, a little silver one that I think might be just the right size.  It sets on a table top and below that, I've set a display of little trees and a bird cage full of lights.

For a tree skirt, I used the table cloth that I got from my Great Aunt Caroline's home. Her mom, my great grandmother, made it with squares cut from a WW1 silk parachute and hand crocheted squares. 

The silver tree has so much sparkle to it, that I know I will never do a green one again! I've loved the white tree that I used in the past, but this one is even better.  And since it is so small, I can overload it like crazy!

The table it sits on is in front of a mirror, so that the back of the tree shows. I used plenty of decorations on that side too.  Which saved me from a problem I have had in the past, a front heavy tree from so many things loaded only where they can be seen on the front side!  One year, the big old tree came crashing down because of that!   I have always had to tie my tree to the curtain rod with fishing line so that never happened again.

That won't be a problem this year, since the tree is so balanced!  The mirror idea worked out so well, that next year, I will hang an even bigger mirror behind the tree.   Or maybe a wall filled with mirrors?

My ornaments are a little of everything.  Lots of clear glass balls, vintage gold and silver balls, hand made things, bits and pieces of jewelry, keys, and sentimental things from the past.  I have birds on the tree that were mine when I was a kid, and also a couple boxes of Martha Stewart clip on gold and silver birds that look old, but are actually from KMart, two years ago.

The little lamp shades are from a friend's shop. They clip right onto a light bulb.

There are boxes of ornaments that didn't get unpacked this year, my precious hand painted ones for each family member are still packed away.  I will add to the collection again, I paint and date one for all of us every Christmas. But this year, I thought maybe Sugarwings was still a bit grabby and was worried about breakage.  But she has not bothered the silver tree one single time, since she has her very own little pink tree to work on to her heart's content.

If you would like to make some of the sheet music stars, I have a how-to from last year HERE.

By having neutral furniture and walls, I can change the room to any color scheme by switching out curtains, pillows and accessories. For the holidays, I went with all white.  But there is a big splash of color in the painting that I brought in.

For my antique sales in the past, I had cut an 8'x4' sheet of ply wood into an arch shape and painted a winter mural on it. I used to sell vintage ornaments off of hooks that I put onto the painted tree.  But for now, I thought I'd haul it into the living room for the season.

Yes, its over the top.   But that's kind of what I like about it!

PS- the Somerset Life issue that I showed you in my last post won't be out until January.
This copy is an advance one. I still haven't had a chance to look at it, and I can hear it calling my name to relax and sip eggnog by the fire and read it....