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.

Thoughts on blogging

Lately, its been really hard for me to get back in the swing of things.  I'm so out of my normal routine that I can't seem to find my way back into it.

Its been a LONG time since I've taken care of my Boutique, and that poor little neglected Etsy shop... the poor thing, it is just going to whither up and die if I don't add something soon.

For the whole month of April, I was working on getting things set up for Birdsong, then had the event itself and my double the fun vacation at Tiffany's then onto Disney with the grand fairy.

Since that, I've limped back into production slowly, and not so surely.  My days have been more catch up than getting ahead.  I'm happy to say that I finally made something new, at a fun craft day with Beth a few days ago, and I actually listed some supplies in the Boutique.

These are new buckles that I oxidized to create a vintage looking patina on.

I've done the same with some pink rhinestone chain.

And some aurora borealis chain too.  Its not much, I really need to get photos of the piles of stuff waiting to be sold posted onto the site. 

But honestly, I've been just puttering my way through the weeks, not getting a lot done. Mostly goofing off stuff, like I think I'm still on vacation. We've gone to the zoo, had tea parties, I've done yard work, edited trip pictures, messed around with rearranging the studio, wrote in my blog, visited friends, sat in the yard and watched the new chickens, just fun little things. 

My blog is supposedly "work" for me.  Its how I sell things. But, if I don't have things to sell, its not really working, its just hanging out!

Which brings me to this- my buddy, Carol, gave a talk at Tiffanys.  She spoke about blogging, business, and related topics.

Here are some things that came up in the interesting discussion with the crowd.  Is blogging dead? Do people even read them any more?

If you blog, should it be all business? Some thought posts should be direct and short, and stick to a subject. That people only cared about photos, or only about Pinterest, not blogs.  But where do you get the photos for Pinterest if there are no blogs, I wonder?

  Others said they hate blogs that try to push shopping on you.  That they feel used if a blog is just used for self promotion. 

The way I see it, if I don't use my blog to sell some stuff here and there, I have no excuse to keep one and will have to get a (god forbid) REAL job (gasp!).

Even though I show photos of whats new in the  shop (when I get off my behind and add something to the shop, that is), I try not to cram it down the reader's throat. And its hard for me to stick to just business, although I think my family would prefer that I did.  Or to keep it short and simple.

What do you look for in a blog?

Do you think blogs are on their way out?

How do you read them, if you do- Facebook, Googlereader? 

 

I had some much needed Sugarwings time over the weekend, and as always, she brought lots of smiles to our house.

She helped me with some sugar cookies, although she doesn't realize that her batch never made it into the main pile of goodies. I wouldn't call myself a germ-a-phobe, (then again, some people do think that), but I'm always really careful about stuff kids bake.  I separate the dough, give her some of her own to work with and do whatever disgustingly fun stuff she can think of to do to it.

I think our littlest fairy will be enjoy baking with us too. Dewdrop got out of the tub the other day, saw me making cookies, and ran naked as fast as she could to her play kitchen to get a spoon, and zoomed to me demanding to help!

Sugarwings and I also played dress up with the wedding gowns I found in a closet and got out to sell at Birdsong.

(bad photo, sorry)

The train was her favorite part of the gown.

She also helped me with my latest obsession, Drawsomething.

She likes to add the finishing touches to my pictures.

On Saturday, I took a break from working on Birdsong set up, and spent the entire day with my handsome husband.

We cleaned our old, beat up pontoon boat and got it ready for the lake.  On the way there, we tried to save a few bucks by filling the tank at the gas station instead of paying Marina prices.

He wasn't quite sure it was worth the effort, but did it for me.  I'm the cheapskate in the family. But hey, that extra dollar a gallon adds up!

We also ran errands around town, went out for a sushi dinner and saw Hunger Games (my second time, and I'd be happy to see it a third time)

Beautiful weather, accomplishments made, great company, good food, and a handsome man by my side. Not a bad weekend.

He's a pretty hot grandfather, huh? 

There was even time to play a few more games of Drawsomething.

Not as many as I would like, though.

If I didn't have Birdsong to get ready for, I think I'd be playing this game way, way too much!

By the time I'm set up for Birdsong, I hope I still have energy left to play, but I have a feeling I'll be doing more of this!!

Here comes Peter Cotton Tail, Hopping down the Fairy Trail

Happy Easter!  We celebrated ours early by hosting an egg hunt on the Fairy Berry Trail in the woods behind our house. Our Gypsy and Dewdrop had foofed it up beautifully, and lined the whole trail with pinwheels (from the Dollar Store).

We started out letting the baby have a few minutes to gather some eggs for her basket at the top of the trail, then the race was on.

Sugarwings was ready to hit the trail in high speed as soon as she got the go-ahead to race away.

She might have been in a hurry to fill her own basket, but took time to stop and help her little sister when her eggs fell out of her basket.

The trail really looks good, better than it ever has.  What a gorgeous spring we are having!

Since Sugarwings was going to be at her aunt's for Easter Sunday, she and Fin wrote the bunny a note and asked if he would hide eggs early, and left it out in the woods with a carrot as a bribe.  Fin is older and knew that (spoiler alert- if you are a kid, or just a kid at heart, don't read this!)  that the Easter Bunny isn't the guy who does all the eggs himself, but he got behind the idea and seemed to forget about that. 

Dewdrop was pretty pleased with her first Egg Hunt too. I don't really think that the whole "give the baby a few minutes to find eggs first" was needed. She held her own with the big kids.

And was very fond of the organic jelly beans and gummi bears I'd put into the 150 eggs out in the woods. (I didn't want the parents mad at me for handing out too much candy, but had to put something in the eggs, so settled on a couple organic jelly beans in each, and made sure to have some healthy after school snacks for everyone before we cracked open the eggs and hit the sugar!)

I loved watching the different approaches to finding the eggs. Seems like the bigger you are, the faster you go.

The smallest kids ended up finding the most eggs, because they lingered.  

And Dew Drop was happy just playing with the eggs themselves, but when she realized there was stuff in them, it got even more exciting.

Sugarwings must have been watching some old movies, because she was certain that white gloves were required with Easter dresses, and kept hers on the whole time.

but didn't necessarily keep them white...

This gown has been in her dress up closet, along with the garland Aunt Sissy made for her, for years and is one of her faves.  Its good to have a piece in your wardrobe that is so versatile and can be worn for tea parties and fairy walks, as well as egg hunts.

I'm looking forward to garage sale season so I can replenish her dress stock. Most of them are 2nd hand to start with and are starting to show it after years of dress up play. 

One thing I've noticed over the years, is that as much as the kids like princess gowns, that are meant for dress up, they seem to prefer  pretty dressy-dresses.  And of course, those are much sturdier than the clothes sold in the toy department too.

And Dewdrop seems  to be enjoying dressing up.

In the past, she has been irritated by Grammie trying to put her in fairy clothes, but I have a feeling that its growing on her now.

Not only did our Gypsy add pretties to the trail this spring, I started some plantings out there.  Around the fairy tree house, I planted some Virginia Creeper, which I hope with cover the over hanging branches eventually and make it feel more enclosed.

I also planted some variegated and plain vinca, and some ivy.  We'd spent a day edging the flower beds up by the house, pulling up vines that were growing beyond their borders and straighting the rocks that lined the beds before we had new gravel delivered.  Instead of tossing all those vines, I filled two wheelbarrows up with them and took them down to the Fairy Berry trail to  line the walkways.

It feels good to have fresh gravel everywhere! We did the driveway and sidewalks too. And we PAID someone else to do it all. In the past, I've spent weeks with my wheelbarrow and shovel spreading gravel from the pile we had delivered.  But I discovered that the labor cost of having it spread was only $250. 

Seriously?

I spent weeks of back breaking labor to save $250?  I know I'm cheap, but I am NOT that cheap. Its not worth my time (or back) when two guys with rakes and a bobcat can do it in one day!!

And now, everything looks so fresh and clean, like the ground does after a new snow. Of course, it will be a matter of days before weeds peek through, and I noticed this morning that we already have a gopher mound.

I hope your Easter is a blessed one and that your basket is over filled with chocolates!

Sprucing up the Fairy Trail

The girls pitched in to help me get ready for Birdsong.  Its still early yet, but the weather was so good, we decided to spiff up the Fairy Berry Trail.  I hired these two as my Fairy Designers for the job.

In the fall, I put away the decorations we use on the trail out in the woods, so the girls loaded the wheelbarrow full of pretties and head out into  the woods to replace it all and foof up the trail.

Of course, they needed to be dressed properly for the job!

This will be the first year that Dewdrop is old enough to play out on the trail, I hope she likes it. 

Since she has spent a big chunk of her life living in a yirt in a woodland, so playing outside in the trees has been an every day thing for her!

The trail is looking prety, lined with pinwheels down its whole length.  We are hoping to plant some vines and flowers out there this year too. And spiff up the tree house (to the left).

A nice nest full of fairies and a nasty nest full of squirrels

As promised, I added directions and pictures to download to create this fairy nest to my 3 Wire Workshop tutorial.

If you've already bought the tutorial, just scroll down and you'll find these directions added to the end of the nest and egg how to's. No additional charges, its a bonus!  Included is a sepia photo of this family and a hand tinted one with my wings attached.  Plus a couple more vintage pictures you could use in the nest instead if you'd rather.

I hope to add some holiday decor ideas and more wreaths in the fall too. 

This workshop comes with directions for a wreath, nests, and crowns, all made from wire, with ideas for embellishments. I've added some instructions for decorated eggs too.

 

 Speaking of nests, we had some uninvited guests build a nest in our dryer vent!   I heard scampering in my laundry room every morning this week, and it took me a while to figure it out. Squirrels had gotten into the vent pipe from the outside and made themselves at home!

We had to take the cover off, reach in and pull out the nesting materials and replace the cover with one that has a cage over it. They had done a bit of damage, so I'm glad I had a sweet, grown up son around to take care of it for me and get the varmits out of there. 

It was a nice day to be out in the yard, and Little Dewdrop kept us company.

Who would have thought that we'd be outside splashing and playing in the water in March? What beautiful weather!

Sugarwings took advantage of the 80 degree day to do some planting and finger painting. 

I think she painted the dirt and herself more than her paper.

And these pictures were taken before she even got very messy. (and no, the paint did NOT come out of her pink clothes, no matter how much I soaked and sprayed it.)

Yep, a perfect day to be outside, we turned on the garden hose and let her play in that afterwards- yay, Spring!!

Galentines Day with the Gal Pals

My husband was out of town for Valentine's Day, but I kept myself busy by planning THREE parties in one day. The dogs were my official greeters when guests came to the door, and I needed their help. When I opened the door to say hi, I realized that I had laryngitis!

Luckily, it wasn't an all day thing, my voice has been coming and going a lot since then, but I manage to keep talking no matter what.

  I had one group of friends over for brunch, and another for afternoon crafting in the studio. We called it Galentines Day, had some goodies, and a lot of fun.

These little Valenine treats were simple to make, by the way.  I like to serve easy things that look a lot more complicated to make than they really are. 

For these, I cut puff pastry with a heart shaped cookie cutter, and baked them ahead of time.

After they cooled, I spread a bit of cream cheese onto them, topped it with a slice of fruit and drizzled melted chocolate over it all.

That evening, I got to spend with the kiddos. Any day I hang with them is one jam packed with lots of love! 

Craft day was good for me. I'd lacked time or oppurtunity to be creative for a while and had hit a dry spell.  so, a day in the studio with gal pals and time to just make stuff was exaclty what I needed.  And I cranked stuff out, after I loosened up and got going.

First I started with something really simple, these vintage ceramic shoes were already cute to start with, and I just glued some crap to them to foof 'em up a bit. These kind of are along the style of Lisa's wonderful tutorial, but there isn't nearly as much to these little ceramic shoes.

Then, I moved on to something a little more complicated.  It was nice just to be gluing and thinking about where things go.  This is a teensy little box that a bar of hotel soap came in.  The legs are bingo tiles and the Charlotte fairy is only 1" tall. (she is in the Boutique now)

I made a few more things that day too, but haven't got photos of them yet. I did get some pics of some things to add to the shop, I'll leave you with a selection of whats new.  I hope you are having a great weekend and still enjoying your Valentine goodies. 

Mothers and Daughters

Today is my Mom's birthday and like always, she has been on my mind a lot.  I learned a lot from her, and wish that I'd learned more.  We were very much alike, yet oh, soooo different in many ways.

She was a sewer and for a while owned an upholstery shop. I can't stitch a straight line, but at least I absorbed a lot of knowelgdge about how it was done by sitting under her sewing table for hours as she worked when I was a kid.   I know the basics on how to do any of it, but its the actual needle and thread work that stumps me. 

She took pride in perfect stitches and even knew exactly how many per inch she hand sewed into her quilting or upholstering. 

But me? If I pick up a piece of thread, it automatically starts twirling itself into a million knots. So, I transferred her love of creating to paint and other craftiness. Sewing has always eluded me.

Even this crazy quilt that she made is not as random as it seems. I remember her showing me the individual blocks that she was putting together with mathematical precision.

She taught me to take joy in hard work. That a job worth doing is worth doing right.  That a clean house feels, and smells good and is worth the effort it takes. Now, I certainly don't take it to the levels she used to, this is a lady who used to vacuum under the bird feeder out in the yard.   I've never gone so far as to vacuum the grass, but I do like my home tidy and comfortable. 

Mom taught me never to be afraid to tackle anything.  Any big job can be broken down into smaller parts, tackled one at a time, just like her quilts were patched together square by square.

Twinkle thinks this picture is about her, like every photo I take.  Even if I'm taking a close up of something on a table, she is posing under the table thinking that the camera must be about her.

Mom made this quilt for me too.  Its one of my favorite patterns, Log Cabin. You can't see the detail in the center, but its a hand stitched drawing of iris.  In person, it shows up nicely, but the camera doesn't do it justice.

In honor of my mom's birthday, I put this quilt on Sugarwing's new Big Girl Bed.  Maybe she'll feel my mom's love wrapped around her the next time she crawls in.

I chose this bed because of the ovals. Don't they look like frames, just waiting for a painting? I have plans to add some pictures soon.  Lately, there has been too much going on and I think I might have mentioned, and maybe whined a bit about the fact that I am NOT caught up.

Hopefully, Sugarwings and Dewdrop will learn from me, just as I learned from Mom, to love having a pretty home around them, and taking joy in making it that way.  Whatever talents they have as they grow up, I want them to know that you can tackle any job if you do it one block at a time and that nothing is too big to face if you are willing to do the hard work to achieve it.

  And that hard work is much easier to face if you find something to laugh about while you are at it!

My mom was FUN.  I hope all of my kids and grands think I am too.

A Heartful of Blathering and Babbling

We finally got a snow this year. Not that I missed the cold, bad roads, and frozen toes that come along with it. But I do know my garden needs the moisture for a healthy spring, and we need the hard freeze for a bug free season ahead.

But the white stuff came as a surprise to Panda Bear and Rainbow Bright Joy Nathan.  Sister wasn't quite sure if she should head out the door to see what it was about or not.

But Brother took a running leap right into it and soon she joined him, and my snowy, pristine, backyard wonderland was turned into a scene of mangled carnage. There wasn't a drift or smooth spot left. You'd think they'd been huffing cat nip, not snow flakes, they went crazy playing out there. 

Too bad they only get one day of winter. For Valentines Day, we warm up again.  Not quite to the level of the false spring we've had most of this winter, but not bad.

I can live with a One Snow Winter.  It wouldn't be terrible if this is all we get for this season!

Valentines Day is special to me. Well, I do tend to LOVE most holidays and get sentimental about them all.  But this date is even more important because its the anniversary of my sons' adoption.

And the anniversary of the beginning of my blog. I had friends over for brunch the morning of my first blog post,and I took a tiny, little, dark photo of the table and wrote about it.  Wondering if anyone would ever see it or find me in my little corner of the internet.

(these pictures are all new stuff in my shop, and in the Etsy store,)

And no, I don't think anyone did. But I'd taken the first step and put myself out there.  Months later, I'd made lots of blogging friends, and I can't imagine not having this blog to blabber and blather on in.

 

Sadly, we weren't able to have our big, family  adoption celebration on Sunday night, our littlest fairy was so ill that she had to go to the ER for re-hydration.  Dewdrop is better now, but it sure was sad to see someone soooo tiny, feel so bad. She was pale and fragile, not her normal bouncy, in charge self.

 Dewdrop is doing fine today, and we'll do some sort of celebration when we can. In the meantime, I'm hosting another little Valentine's Day brunch just like I did 5 years ago.  Then, in the afternoon, is a craft day with Beth and Mary.  I think that I'll take a trick from one of my favorite characters, Leslie Knope, and call it, "Galentines Day".

A festive day of treats and fun with the gals!

I'm counting my blessings this year and am enjoying all the loves in my life.

My handsome, hardworking husband who sweeps me off my feet and leaves me breathless, and who surprised me with flowers on Sunday

My cute little fairy grand babies who I can giggle and be silly with.

My sweet boys, who  I love so much and who were lucky to have such a great dad come into their lives.

My girls who are loving mothers to those sweet fairies I adore.

My gal friends who keep me sane, friends I can share both woes and laughter with.

My blog buddies who have given me a place to blather and babble, for 5 years now and who have visited me over a million and a half times.  I tell ya, when I wrote that first little, dark post without much to say, I had no idea I'd be talking online years later to bunches and gobs of people, and to actually get to make great friends online and in person with so many of them.

Yep.  My heart is full.

Thanks everyone, for five fun filled years of blathering!

Oh, and the winner of my chalk board topped heart shaped box is:

Judi Storm

New skills

Congratulations to Agnes Rosebud for catching her first mouse!  She might end up being as talented as her mom, who has a voracious appetite for chasing varmits.

Agnes Rosebud isn't the only one learning new skills.  Dewdrop got a painting lesson from her big sis this week.

Sugarwings is a bit of an unconventional artist. She is always ready to set the paper aside and try something new.  She likes to paint all of her small toys, and anything else that she can get a hold of.  I figure, as long as its just watercolors and she is painting her own belongings, that is fine. I'll wash them down and she can paint them again later.  She;d rather paint her toys than play with them.

She knows to ask before she starts painting any of  my stuff that is within her reach.

  Well, most of the time.  Every once in a while she needs a reminder.  I've not had anything too important turned pink yet, just a few tidbits and supplies. 

We bought some markers for window panes, and she has this big window by my garden door that she likes to work on. I can see why she enjoys this canvas, I like to draw on the window with her.

Their father is a bit worried that Dewdrop will take this idea and redecorate the world with it.  My thoughts are to teach them when they are little where they can paint and where they can't, but give them some interesting options.  He's afraid that she is way too little to know the difference and might just color all of the walls she sees now.

But as a person who used to paint murals for a living, and who painted that faux brick floor that the girls are pictured on, its hard for me to limit them to just paper.  Its good to see them coloring outside of the lines and being individuals.

When I teach a class, its hard for me to limit the kits to just exactly what is needed. I like to have a pile of extras for the students to pick through, so they can create a one of a kind piece, and do their own version of "coloring outside of the lines".

So, I'm gathering up a nice selection of goodies for the Paper Cowgirl class I'll be teaching in March, down in Texas.  The class isn't full yet, if you'd like to dig through the pile of pretties and make a wreath with me.