Karla's Cottage

Nests and fairies and birdies and peeps

While I was in CA, I celebrated my 54th birthday, and it was a joy to be with friends that day.  A group of them took me out to lunch the day before, and Carol treated me to dinner that night.  

My roomie, Lori, even brought me a sweet little gift in bed when I woke up on my birthday.  Now, that is special treatment!!

Lori has some photos in Jenny Doh's new book, and one of them is of me! Well, part of me, at least.

As a thank you to my freinds for making my birthday so nice, I made up some wire nests (from my Twining and Twirling online workshop).

These are all on their way to my thoughtful buddies now.  Just a token to thank them for the great weekend.

(I've added a few nests to my Boutique also)

While we are talking nests, I thought I'd show you my banner from the Birdsong swap I joined. I wish I could have been a part of all of them, but I was a little overwhelmed at the time. There were some really great swaps, I was impressed. And so glad that I was in this one!  I usually try to join one swap whenever I go to an arty event, because I spend so much time oohing and ah-hing when I watch the trades getting opened and end up jealous over the beautiful loot everyone gets.

These letters were temporarily clipped to my curtain rod in the kitchen, but I kind of like them there, and they might hang out that way for a while.

This book is a Birdsong treat that I got from my friend, Tami.   

Its more than perfect, because when I send messages to the Birdsong group, I call them my "peeps".  Plus, I kind of like fairies a bit...

Its an adorable book, that Sugarwings and I fell in love with right away. Cute illustrations,and a fun little story filled with songs and poems and lots of fairies.

 She has been entranced by it, and after I read it to her, she sat and looked at the book for over an hour.

And this is a kid that doesn't sit still much.

The peeps who came to Birdsong were overly generous! Very thoughtful gifts came our way, what a wonderful bonus on top of the great weekend of fun that I had with all the ladies. 

I'll leave you with a scan of one of my favorite pages, and of the cover.  Click to open in a larger size before you save them to your computer to print.

Birdsong Two Shopping

Did I mention that there was shopping at Birdsong too? 

I was floored by the response to the little shopping area we set up last year, so this time, we tried to expand a bit and make it less crowded. And we hopefully handled the frenzy a little better.  Kind Karla was the cashier in another room to help lesson the crowding, Beth, Lisa and I tried to make piles and fill boxes for people, then Beth prewrote out tickets for the Peeps to hand to Karla to pay.

My garage was transformed!

Its surprising how much space was available in a single car garage. Beth, Lisa and I both sold out of that area.

Debbie was supposed to set up in the driveway under a tent, but the weather just was not cooperating with her, so I emptied out the breezeway and that seemed ideal. 

Next year, I think we'll use the breezeway again, it was nice and light and airy.

Any place would look wonderful filled with Curious Sofa goods!

When dinner time drew near, I had to bail out on the shopping activities and attend to supper.

Sadly, the weather didn't cooperate with my plans for all 29 of us to sit down together outside for dinner.  It was breezy and cold.  Funny, after months of freakishly warm weather, we get a cold spell during my party. Oh well, the Peeps didn't seem to mind. 

Here is our menu for the weekend:

Friday am- fresh muffins and coffee

Mid morning- oatmeal scotchies and chocolate peanut butter cookies/ fruit tea

Lunch- Prime rib (baked and sliced by me the day before), turkey breast, ham, and cheese platters/ sunflower seed bread/ citrus coleslaw, pita chips and hummus/ tea/ Belgian chocolate covered peanut butter balls

Mid afternoon- coconut chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies/ coffee and tea

Dinner- Vegetarian lasagna/ bread sticks/ turkey breast meatballs/ with pink champagne cupcakes and lemon cheesecake/ fruit punch/ wine

Saturday mid morning- coffee/ vanilla chai tea/ oatmeal scotchies

Lunch- Breast of chicken salad/ croissants/ twice baked potato salad/ chips and dip/ orange tea/ bird shaped sugar cookies and coconut almond nests

Generosity

Every single bit of Birdsong was just lovely for me. But there were some extra special moments throughout.

I think what really shone through was generosity, thoughtfulness, and kindness.  From the sponsors to the "Peeps" who came to craft, everyone was willing to share their best. 

One example is this needlework apron that Beth created as a gift to give out during her class.

Tish made these colorful flowers for each attendee and matching bright aprons for the teachers. Nora had custom candles made, and embellished each one, Ellie had preserved roses boxed and shipped to share.  This is just a couple examples of how generous our Peeps were!

And of course, everyone gave their best work in the beautiful swap projects they shared with each other!

Beth's childhood friend, the "other" Karla (who just happened to move to KC recently and is now my good friend too) volunteered as "kitchen bitch" as she called it, and helped with that plus cashiering for the sale. I prefer to call her a "kitchen angel", she was a magnificent helper!

My pal, Debbie, showed up with these pink glittered cupcakes. Years ago, I went to her holiday open house at Curious Sofa where I know she talked to hundreds of people.  I fell in love with these sparkly concoctions she was serving and she was thougthful enough to remember that after all this time.

  The Peeps showered me with gifts, like this basket of homemade treats, vintagey goods, and prettys all the way from Iowa.

Not to mention a pile of pressies for my fairy girls.

Who loved every one of them!

Dewdrop was especially thrilled with her new baby. And we all had a few fun hands of cards with Sugarwings' new Fancy Nancy deck.

We had some of the nicest people here, and when you have that kind of attendence, you can't help but have a good atmosphere in the room.

Everyone was willing to share a laugh and a smile. That is the best gift of all. 

I will be in CA attending Kim's Tiffany event, then meeting Sugarwings and my handsome husband for a couple days at Disney! I've pre-written some blog posts for while I am away, so please stop by. 

For now, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the Peeps hard at work on their creations last weekend.

Happy May Day!

Happiest of May Days to you!

I always thought of May Day as a very special holiday.  I remember when I was a  little girl and hearing stories about my older sister being a May Day Queen when she was a kid. That stuck in my mind as being an extraordinary thing. Like I was part of a royal family.

Maybe even a princess myself!?

Well, on Saturday, I sure did feel like a princess!

After classes at Birdsong, i suggested a walk on the Fairy Berry Trail. I was surprised that so many people agreed to go, usually its not as interesting to the adults as it is to me and to the kids.  I love to walk out in the woods.

When we got to the head of the trail, I realized why they were all willing to go with me, they had a REAL surprise waiting!

All along the trail, were bright colored, extra touches!  Bird houses, signs, fairies, ribbons tied to branches, whirly gigs, butterflies, and on and on! They went all out decorating the trail and had kept it all hidden from me.

After years of watching home decorating shows and ridiculing the home owners for all spouting the same phrases of "Oh My God" or "Or My Goodness" over and over again at the reveals, I always knew that if I were on one of those shows, I would certainly have something more interesting or creative to say.

But- when the Fairy Berry Trail reveal happened, I said the same old thing. And said it over and over and over.   I was so shocked and surprised and pleased, I just said, "Oh My Goodness" again and again!

These Texas and Colorado Peeps were the "surprisers".  And what a wonderful surprise it was.

 

Now I know how the little fairy grand babies feel when they walk out in the woods and see all the hidden treats the fairies have left for them. Its like a treasure hunt to walk along the trail and find new cuteness around each bend.

(yes, I have my eyes closed, no surprise, I usually do in pictures!)

I owe some big thank yous to the Peeps who decorated the trail, as well as to all the sweet friends who came to spend the weekend and make such special memories for me!

It was a fun bunch of ladies!

I can't wait till next spring when we can kick up our heels and have another weekend full of Birdsong fun!

I will be in CA attending Kim's Tiffany event, then meeting Sugarwings and my handsome husband for a couple days at Disney! I've pre-written some blog posts for while I am away, so please stop by.

Flocks of fun

 

What fun!  I loved every minute of our Birdsong weekend from the silly ones, to the crazy ones.  From the sweet ones to the touching ones. There were tons of laughs, fun projects and great friends.

the ladies (or Peeps, as I like to call them) were asking me if #3 was in the cards for next year.  Well, heck, yes!  How could I say no, if they will come here to play with me at the cottage, I'd love to have them.

Our 25 Peeps flew in from all over the country, and it meant a lot to me that they were using their vacation time and budget to visit us in Kansas.

And not only did they come in from all corners, most of this bunch were 2nd timers, or friends of last year's Peeps.  I know I've said it before, but that really means a lot to me.  I hope to see our fledglings from this year back again too, they were a lovely addition to the group.

Twinkle loved it too. She got more than her fair share of attention.  We both miss everyone now that they've gone, but I have to tell you, I'm ready to lay down right on the floor next to this pup for a few days!  I'm worn to a frazzle.

I'll be back with more photos of the weekend as soon as I recover. 

 

Birdies, birdies everywhere!

Earlier this week, while avoiding getting the studio cleaned up for Birdsong, I took a break and did some birdie decor.

This chandelier is one that I got years ago when I was the designer for the music room in a show house. It didn't sell, and I was kind of glad, its really unique, made up of actual musical instruments!  I painted it (I'm not fond of brass) and covered the light tube thingies (what are those called, by the way?) in sheet music, then drilled holes and added crystals.

Now, for my Birdsong friends, I've turned it into a giant nest of little clip on birds meant for the Christmas tree.

This chandy has been graced by a bird made by my pal, Mercedes.

You can't throw a stone without hitting a bird in the studio now.

This arty party is very casual and laid back. I don't buy tons of decorations to fit the theme.    I try to keep it simple so that I can enjoy the weekend as much as the guests do, and am not stressed out. 

I happened to have a boxful of birdies, and it was fun to take a break from more serious prepwork to nestle these little creatures around the room.  Most are so little, that they won't have a big impact, but I hope they add to the over all atmosphere of the weekend.

This is the bird I am using on some of my glue labels.  I thought maybe you'd like to save and print it. It comes from old French advertising cards.

Sweet things arriving

Pretties are still arriving in the mail from Birdsong sponsors! We've had some generous donations to the goodie bags. The latest are this pack of vintage supplies from Mitzi and a sampling of Sealah tapes from Kay Ellen and her mom, Jodee.   

And I got a pretty too! My pal, Dawn sent one of her sweet little needle books to me.  It was a nice pick me up last week when I was having a bad day.  Beth brought me some thougthful, "I'm sorry your dog died" gifts too, but I haven't have got a photo yet, my studio is in turmoil and is topsy turvey getting ready for Birdsong.

 Tomorrow the ladies will be arriving for Birdsong, I just can't wait to see them all!  I'll have lots of photos for you soon.

Birdsong 2 Classes

Birdsong weekend was a LOT of work, but I planned ahead, baked ahead and froze treats, and even made up a written time line for what I needed to do when. I'm not normally that precise, but I found that it sure made it easier for Beth and Karla to pitch in and help if all the info wasn't up in my foggy brain.  They could look at the time line and help with chores.

Being organized kept me on track too, and I was able to have plenty of time to relax, enjoy the group, and even have some time to create.

 This is Lisa's class project.  I was excited about doing it, but wanted to use some of my own elements, as well as change out the fairy kids to my little Dewdrop.

And look at what perfect paper Lisa had in her stash for this class!  "Gypsy Song", just what I needed for a Dewdrop creation.  Her mommy is quite the Gypsy.

Beth's class was a fun one too, although I didn't get to sit down to work on it then, she was generous enough to bring the kits a week early and we both sat and made up some collages from them.

My two are on the left, hers on the right.  We gave them as door prizes during the classes.

One of the classes I taught was a made from scratch mushroom with a Charlotte fairy living under it.  I'm not sure whose this one is, but didn't it turn out nice?

I pulled a dumb move at one point during class. Suzanne was holding up a mushroom/fairy concoction and I asked her if I could take a photo of her with it, telling her how pretty it was.  Well, after posing, she politely told me that it was my own class example that I had complimented!

We all howled for a while over that one.

My last class was a necklace, and I was very pleased to see so many of them completed for the artists to wear home that night!  There were a lot of beginners in the class and I know it was a little complicated, but I was proud of their results.

I will be in CA attending Kim's Tiffany event, then meeting Sugarwings and my handsome husband for a couple days at Disney! I've pre-written some blog posts for while I am away, so please stop by.

Beth's Nature Journal Swap

Don't you love a good swap?

This is the group of pages I received as a gift from the Nature Journal that Beth hosted at last year's Birdsong. 

Beth Leintz

On Swap Night, I was regretting that I hadn't signed up to join in. I just KNEW how cool they'd be, and they were even better than I'd expected.

Sharon Morrison

Imagine how thrilled I was when a few weeks later, the ladies sent me these pages for my own, special book!

Beth Leintz

So, generous, and so beautiful!

Laurie Jackson

I thought the work was pretty impressive, and asked Beth if she'd do the swap again for this year's Birdsong.

                                                 Suzanne Wingfield                                                                                     

Since so many of the guests were part of last year's gathering, we thought it would be nice to have newbies to the event do a regular swap, with the complete book and cover, but last year's participants could simply swap additional pages for their existing books.

Kathy Hoylman

It has been very rewarding for me that so many of the people who came last year are returning this spring.  Some are even bringing friends or relatives.

Cammi Dilsaver

Of course, I am not anywhere near being ready for the upcoming festivities! I'm working on a banner that I needed to get painted for something else right now.

Its 13' x 8' and I tried to spread it out in the studio, but just didn't have the space I needed. Since the garage had to be cleaned out for Birdsong anyway, my son and I spent most of last Saturday clearing the room and making space to work on the banner. We brought the sewing machine out to the garage so I could hem the edges of the canvas, then covered the wall with dropcloths.

The material will go up over the dropcloths and will be ready to paint.

Can you tell the dropcloths have been used and reused a few times?  Their las incarnation was as ghosts at the Halloween party, if you look closely, you'll see a couple of ghosty faces painted on them, one upside down and one sideways.

Now, the tricky part is to keep the garage cleaned until the end of April so I don't have to do it twice! 

Debra Covey

Last year, we used the garage as a shop.  On Swap Party night, we had some shopping available for everyone, and that room was packed!  This year, we'll be doing the same thing, but I think we found a way to make it easier for the shoppers, we'll have the cashier station in the breezeway so there won't be a line of purchasers backed up in that little room.

Lisa Stanton

Don't ask me what I'll have for sale!!! I have no idea.  I'll probably gather things up from around my studio as I clean the room up to arrange tables and get it set up for Birdsong.    If I was smart, I'd have price tags in my pocket to slap on items I need to clear out of the way.  That should be a good sized pile of stuff to sale!  My studio is jam packed at the moment.

Swap Night parties are a highlight of any arty gathering for me. Even if I haven't joined in on very many, I love watching all the excitement and doing my share of oohing and ahhing as the creations are unveiled.

I did sign up to be in my pal, Laurie's swap, a banner to spell the word "sing".  There is also a charm swap and a matchbox swap as well as Beth's Nature Journal.  Thanks to all of the swap hostesses who are so gracious with their time!

Sponser gifts for Birdsong are still coming in!  My friend, Tami stopped by and delivered these in person. It was so nice to have some visitors! Especially when they are bringing a big box of pretties with them.

Making a new home for the hens

Yay, Birdsong is full!  Last week, I had a flurry of inquiries and it filled up fast.  Sponsor gifts are coming in for it, this sweet package came from Tricia.

I'm quite impressed with the care that people put into hand making pretty things for our gathering!

There will be chockful goodie bags as well as drawing prizes. I plan on having enough individual gifts so that everyone will win one. Maybe two...

Most of my prizes are ready to go, I've got a few more to make. But this weekend, I got side tracked with yard work and baby sitting fairies, while the guys built a chicken coop.

We have an old shed in our yard that has had a number of incarnations, but started off originally as a chicken coop. Its been a club house for Jr. High aged boys, a wood working shop, an antique store, a peacock pen, storage unit, and now back to its roots, its going to house hens again.

Being a pack rat pays off sometimes. We had a pile of old chain link panels out along the back of the property and were able to piece them together to make the chicken run.  All we had to buy were a few fasteners.  We even had a roll or two of chicken wire stashed away in the shed.

Looks kind of haunted, doesn't it? I hope it doesn't frighten the birds too much. What do you call a hen that is afraid of ghosts?

A chicken.

This is the back of the building, its divided in two, and this side will still be storage. Not exactly air tight...but its good enough to toss lawn chairs into for the winter.

I'll leave you with some pictures of a few newbies in the Boutique

This last journal is acutally a kit, and comes with a selection of papers, ribbon, lace and pretties to further embellish the book with.