Karla's Cottage

Pink roses and fall leaves?

We  are having amazing weather here. Its been in the 70s and beautiful, good time for raking up some of leaves that are being tracked throughout the house by my dogs.  They are little leaf magnets and must bring in a bushel each every day.

 

We don't bag or burn, instead I push them off into flower beds or into the woods behind the house to naturally decompose.

We'll also scoop up a few trailer loads and throw over the garden fence to enrich the soil there too. But for now, I am still gathering tomatoes from the garden!

We've yet to have a hard enough frost to kill off the flowers and some of the garden plants.  I don't think I've ever had a November when I've had pink roses blooming next to the changing leaves before.

The tomatoes I've brought in aren't all that wonderful, but they are good enough for cooking, so I'm planning home made tomato soup tonight. Maybe with a hand full of wild rice and some spinach thrown in the pot.  

I appreciated all your comments about Aunt Caroline's treasures and want to announce the two winners for the bundles of trim.

Suz Reaney

and

Joanna

 

And since the trims are such a popular thing with so many of you hoping to win some, that I'll offer another bundle for my November Giveaway. These won't be from my Aunt, but are just as nice.  I think you'll like them!

I rarely decorate much for fall, just because my house is not typical fall colors, and because it seems to be so busy around here, I don't get a chance. Here is the total of all the autumn decor, post Halloween flowers on clearance for $1.99 a bunch at the grocery store this week. 

I kind of like the splash of bright color,  and it is reminding me of this November's odd weather.  Fall colors against the pale shades just like in my garden.

Silver Bella Bound

Since returning from our Florida adventure, I've been knee deep in Bella preparations. I've set up 3 tables, as a practice run to see how everything fits and what I need to bring. Since we have a SHORT set up time and I have a LOT of crap, I mean, beautiful and precious things, I needed to do a dry run.

One table is all jewelry and foofy stuff.  One is all Christmas and hand made stuff and the third is supplies.

After setting up the displays, I tagged everything and started packing it all up in a way that would be easy to pull out and set up quickly.  Well, at least that is the plan... I'm crossing my fingers that it works that way!

All lighting, table clothes, tools, tapes, extra tags, calculators and cords go in one container. 

Last year, I made a lot of display mistakes that I think I might have corrected for this year. But who knows.  I'm crossing my toes as well as my fingers that all goes well.

For 2008, I'd stocked too many flower packs in one small area. Now, I have less, and have them divided into two containers, easier to shop through. 

I'm also bringing a lot more supply type things, like the big 4" x 8" shipping tags that I like to use myself. I have cases of them, so might as well put some out. They are a great size to work with.

And do you remember the vintage glitter that my friend gave to me? I reproduced the label of the can and added some of the glitter to jars with the "old" labels.  I had more than I'd ever use.  And they make such a cute display on this spice rack that I got from the Good will and painted white.

So, 2 tables are packed and one to go.  I'm getting close! Now, I'll have a few days to enjoy gathering up supplies for the workshops, and gifts for friends.  I'm meeting a bunch of  people a day early, and then going to    Wallpaper Heaven again!! Can't wait.

But I've got to run now to make it to the PO before it closes. I'll announce the winners of Aunt Caroline's trim bundles next post. Your comments can still count on this one too.

Witching Hour

While we are in Jacksonville, we'll be staying with my brother-in-law, Randy and his husband, Kevin.  They are two of my favorite people in the world, and I wanted to make something special for them, since they are going through some trouble baby proofing their house before we arrive with Sugarwings. These two guys collect valuable pottery, and their house is pure, vintage perfection.  Not exactly a perfect playground for a 3 year old....

Randy loves fairies as much as I do, so I fixed up this antique hankie box for him, using lots of sparkly elements, and his face cut out of a photo and attached to a flower fairy cut out out of a book. I tell you, it was not easy to size the head to fit the body... it took a few trips to the printer to finally get the size copied right.

Since I am going to be away from my computer for a few days, I thought I'd leave you with some spooky pictures for Halloween.  Although, this sweet witch (my niece, JoRenda) is way to pretty to be spooky, huh?

 
After spending some beach time with Sugarwings, I am going to meet up with my sisses and help our cousin go through some of Great Aunt Caroline's things.  It will be an emotional trip, but there will be lots of fun too.

My little Fairy Grand Baby is going to go to a Halloween party at Sea World on Friday, with my husband while I work on the house.  We are going to get her a mermaid costume to wear, so she'll fit right in there.  She pretends to be a mermaid most of the time, any way.  I have a feeling she is going to love Florida.

Thanks for all your interest in the pastel bottle brush trees and the Grumpy Fairy book. More Christmas trees will get listed when I get back. The shop is open, of course, while I am gone (ya gotta love online shops!!) but the purchases won't be sent out until after I get back, November 2nd.

(these two photos are from my favorite antique mall, Rusty Chandelier- they can sure decorate with style at that place!)

This is a photo I took of a votive holder my Sissy bought on our last trip to Florida when we went to Great Aunt Caroline's funeral the day after she would have turned 101.  The shot is as is, I don't know why the lightning is shooting out of its eyes, but love the effect!

In person, this guy was much cuter. In photos he kind of looks like flaming poo with eyes.  But I did think he fit in very well for my spooky Halloween post.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and that any witches you run into are the sweet kind.

And remember, the most wonderful day of the year comes the day after Halloween- HALF PRICED CANDY DAY!!   I'll be hitting the store before I even unpack my suitcase to snap up some M&Ms and Reece Cups!

Tending to my Christmas tree farm

Progress is being made on the Christmas trees.  All are bleached, dyed, and glittered, and a few are foofed.

This year, I am trying something new with the glitter.  I used a high gloss poly spray to mist each tree, then rolled it in a snowy glitter.  After that, I spritzed it with a spray can of silver glitter/poly, hoping that would seal it.

Now, some of the glitter always flakes off no matter how you put it on, so there will be some molting, but it seems to be working very well.

The cold weather snap is over and yesterday was beautifully fallish.  I had the doors and windows open, and sat outside in the rocks to spray trees.  Is it ironic that I was enjoying the warm weather so much that I started on a Christmas project? 

While I was feeling the holiday spirit, I started on a few putz house remodeling projects too.

It involved repainting some of the more garish colors, adding wallpaper, glitter, fake snow, and some of my teeniest dyed trees. Also, some little vintage characters, snowmen and deer that I glittered up. 

These houses are now ready to display as is, or for me to use on some ephemera covered boxes I want to get started on.

My table is looking like Santa's Workshop!

Of course, I don't have any of that cheap elf labor, its all me doing the glittering and gluing. The only helper I know that would work for candy canes is Sugarwings and she has a bit of a heavy hand with the glue... I've known her to use a half a bottle on one bird house, so I doubt if I'll let that little pixie be my assistant on this.

Beth did help me out, though, she GAVE me a lot of the boxes that I will be covering with ephemera and topping with houses, plus a ton of the old bead garlands!!

Normally, I collect those old mercury bead garlands all year at garage sales, flea markets, etc, but this year was a bit of a dud.  Not much luck on the strings of beads, no matter where I looked. (at a decent price, at least)

There were some left from last year and I did buy 4 strands, but I go through quite a bit of them at the holidays.  So, Beth was a great help, but then, she always is.

By the way, Beth is having a wallpaper giveaway, you should go visit her!

She is owed a lunch for her generosity, at least, huh? I think I need to treat her to our favorite place, Pei Wei, on Friday when we hang out together. She is always giving me the best stuff.

We are planning on estate sailing on Friday in Kansas City, then crafting at her house, but it all depends on how this little guy is doing. This is Bookie, you rarely see photos of him, because he is old and likes to spend his days sitting on the porch all alone, or laying on his pillow.  

The poor little guy has been attacked, by something, I have no idea what, or when.  He is such a loner in his old age, that some days, I hardly see him, he is like a shadow around the house. We have a doggie door and a fenced yard, so he comes and goes as he pleases. So, I'm not sure when he was hurt. I know he was fine on Saturday when I gave him a treat.

But on Monday, I noticed he was covered in blood and was ill!!  I rushed him to the vet, and was told that something had bitten his head and that it was infected pretty bad.  He had a fever, and his head was horribly swollen.  He might have a broken leg too, but was in too bad of shape to be put under for an X-ray.

What could have done this to him?? A possum? A raccoon? Our mean farm cat? That cat hates Bookie, it could be.  It has to be something that could get over the fence. It terrifies me to think that there is a creature out there on my property that is attacking my mild mannered, sweet, little, guy.

Back to normal

Its so nice to have everything back to normal, with Twinkle home.  Sugarwings is no longer telling everyone "Toto has wunned away" and the two of them are happy to be reunited.  Since she is convinced that she is Dorothy, she has also decided that Twinks must be Toto.  Which works out fine, because she can't say "Twinkle", she always says "Ankle" instead.

Yes, Toto sounds like a cuter name than Ankle. And that dog will answer to anything.

Thank you for all of your kind words about my little dorkie taking off.  I really don't deserve them, it was ALL MY FAULT.  Poor dog. But, she is home now and I am making sure she stays this time.

Over the weekend, I finally broke my losing streak in hat gathering. Lately, I've not done well at all, and Beth reminded me that I had created my own shortage by buying all the hats up in the surrounding area.  But I did manage to find a few this weekend and might be able to reclaim my hat whisperer title. I thought I'd have to retire it, I'd been on such a long dry spell of hatlessness.

Most are already stripped naked and packed up, ready to fly out of here.  I love this little bouquet of about a dozen white flowers with a scattering of purple velvet posies. When I saw the hat with those next to the ugly green and orange hat, I knew that together, they'd be great for Halloween decor or crafting.

It was an estate sale blast this weekend!  One here in my town was amazing, a beautiful, newer home on the golf course isn't usually the place to find old things, but it was jammed with a lifetime of great stuff. I was so surprised to see all of it. I was glad I didn't blow it off, like I normally would a house in that neighborhood.  I bought boxes and boxes of sheet music and a big stack of these spooky old napkins. So, I made up little craft kits with some of these things and have them listed here.

On Friday, I explored the unexpected treasures at the country club house, and made a big haul.  Then, Beth invited me to Kansas City to shop with her on Saturday. And how could I turn that down? She is an estate sale master and knows where to go, what to avoid, and how to find the best deals.  Plus, I was still an emotional wreck from the Twinkle-less week and wasn't feeling too creative. I thought some more shopping therapy could help.

And of course, it did!  Isn't a bit of junking is good for the creative soul?  Sometimes, buying some new, old crap is just what I need to get me wanting to hunker down in the studio and work away.

I'll be getting out the jewelry making supplies and playing with all the rhinestones that I've been lucky enough to find lately. 

Don't you think that this picture is just trying too hard?  Its a great example of Photo Styling Gone Bad.  Too much loot, too much trying make it look cute in a picture. Just because I found pink Christmas lights, does it mean you really need to see them?

 Sometimes I wonder about how I spend my time....  I'd better go do something productive, I'm off to the jewelery making tools and getting to work!

And don't forget, if you want to win some vintage jewels, you still have till the 30th to enter by leaving a comment on any post.

I'll stick to glue

Today is craft day, some friends are coming over for a day of cutting and gluing.  I can't imagine a prettier day, the weather is ideal. But most of this summer has been that way.  I guess it isn't summer any more, but typically, September in Kansas is still muggy and hot, I guess that is called the "Dog Days" of summer.  But not today, it is a glorious fall day. So, we are lunching out doors and taking advantage of the sunshine.

My garden is bursting with tomatoes, and they are the heavy, meaty kind, the ones that are just right for slicing into a salad, so I chopped up 3 kinds of basil and layered them with an olive oil, garlic, sea salt and balsamic vinegar dressing.  Since all that was sounding so fresh and wonderful, I thought I'd go all out and make fresh mozzarella to go with it.

I read up about it online and it seemed pretty easy. The tips I gleaned were to use un-chlorinated water (and I have well water, so that was no problem) and to use local milk, as fresh as possible.

Sugarwing's Daddy and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen together, and he was excited about trying to make some cheese too.  He's one of those all organic, all the time type of hippy guys and won't even eat anything that goes into the microwave or gets stored in plastic.  So homemade cheese was right up his alley.  He's hard to cook for, but since he loves cooking so much and is so great at it, he can be as quirky as he wants. Because that means he does most of the cooking and it is always fantastic. 

The trouble is, he and I are both the type that cook without recipes.  We throw it all together and guesstimate amounts.  But for cheese, you have to pretend to care about temperatures and timing and measurements.

So I bought a digital thermometer (which brought my total for expenses up to almost 40 bucks).  After studying and printing off lots of recipes, we saw that 55 degrees and 105 degrees were both very important numbers in the art of cheese.

Well, we aren't chemists or scientists or even semi good at following recipes.   This is the mass that I salvaged from the batch.  It was supposed to be kneaded like bread dough, and I thought I did, but I guess, not so much.

Adam is a massage therapist, so he worked his healing magic on the lump I couldn't repair and actually turned it into a series of little cheese balls.

4 hours into making what was called a 30 minute recipe we had a very small series of very little, very rubbery, cheese balls.

 $40 worth?

Well, the olive oil with fresh herbs they are marinating in is tasty at least. I poured some over pasta last night.  But I've not been brave enough to eat the cheese yet.  They were so expensive to make I feel like keeping the little lumps of gold in a lock box. 

But I'd probably be better off using them as toys and bouncing them around with Sugarwings.

Somehow, I don't think that I'll be serving today with the tomatoes and basil....  

Well, my pot of cheese didn't do so well, but this little witch's cooking pot filled with pretties is much better. Its the giveaway for September and I added a fall colored enameled butterfly pin to go along with the leaf and rhinestone brooches.

Why am I feeling so fallish? I'm a warm weather person and hate the thought of winter approaching.  I also love soft, sweet colors, and am not usually so attracted to the fall tones. Maybe its that perfect weather that is winning me over. Any way, I whipped up this  Raven's Wreath and enjoyed working with the old millinery in the rich, Halloween colors.

Well, dur, it was still old millinery! I love that stuff in any color!

(the wreath is available in my Boutique)

I kept on using the deep, rich, colors on these book covers from Mary.  Each is filled with water color and other art or journal pages, cut to fit.  And they are tied up with hand dyed silk ribbons that I tinted to match each cover.

On some, I used inks and markers to embellish the existing pattern on the covers.  I'm always happy when I get to play with markers.

Now, I'd better go shove the crap off my craft tables and make room for guests to join me today. But first, I need to run to the grocery store for some fresh mozzarella...

Happy 4th!

 

We're having a "sweet" weekend with our Sugarwings.  Cupcakes, cook outs, boating and swimming.  I hope yours is a fun one too.

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter! We've had a fun one so far, lots of egg hunting excitement, and we've decided that instead of Sugarwings, the fairy grand baby's new name is "Sugar Rush".

 

She might have had one too many jelly beans today!  Although, her Daddy did buy organic ones and only hid one treat in each egg, she was insistant on opening them up and devouring the treat the moment she found it.

  

After all the eggscitement, she has been tucked in for a nap (well, we HOPE she'll take a nap- tucking in Miss Sugar Rush was like trying to convince a Tasmanian Devil to get some rest).

 

We are having a small dinner tonight, only about 9 of us, so we'll fit in  the dining room. I didn't have to clean the studio after all!

My Handsome Husband is smoking  a pork tenderloin, stuffed with apples and brown sugar plus a turkey breast, I am making baked mac and cheese, and Sugarwing's Daddy has whipped up vegetarian beans in the crock pot. My sister-in-law is bringing some other dishes. Aren't pitch ins the best meals ever?

Sugarwings did her part of preparing dinner by helping to decorate this cake. And it has taken over her mind, even with all the jelly beans she has consumed, all she can think about is this cake she created.  Every other sentence she speaks includes something about Easter  Bunny Birthday Cake.

And I don't blame her! This cake is a candy lover's dream! Sprinkles in the batter, as well as 3 kinds of sprinkles on top, 4 colors of sprinkled sugar, edible glitter, peeps, and little coconut nests filled with Cadbury eggs. I can't wait either!

Here is a tip for making coconut nests, I had never done it before, but figured out how to do it. 

Mix one cup of sweetened, flaked coconut with a few drops of green food coloring

Add a splash of milk

Stir in a 1/4 cup of powdered sugar

The trick to make it work, was the powdered sugar, that and the milk make the coconut easy to form into nests. Kind of like play dough.

My home is now covered in pink Easter grass, but I think I kind of like it. I was going to clean it up before dinner, but its festive, so I'll probably leave it all over the floor.  But I do need to go and put together my mac and cheese casserole and set the table.  I hope you are having a wonderful holiday too!

Deep thoughts and chicks partying

 

Its been NICE around here! 80s yesterday, 70s today. So, spring fever had me opening all the windows and setting out a  springy table display.

 

Easter is about a month away, I might have jumped the gun a bit by setting out all of the bunnies and eggs.

 

But it was fun to do and Sugarwings seems to appreciate it all.  I try to provide a little something she is allowed to touch and play with to apease her and keep her out of the rest of my stuff.  A typical conversation around here starts with me saying, "Now, is that Grammy's stuff or your stuff?" and often there is a little bit of bickering over the fine points of just what she can touch and what she can't.  But we hug it out and make it work. ( I really watch too much TV, those were Entourage and Runway catch phrases)

 

Our family says just pack up all the junk till the baby is older.  Oh no, I just can't. I love my stuff, it is what makes my home, MY home.  Plus, don't you think that toddlers need to learn? And really, none of it is exactly priceless. I decorate with garage sale goods and have pennies invested, not thousands of dollars.

 

If a kid can't learn to enjoy her home without messing it up and breaking things, how can you expect to take her out in public, anyway? And I do believe that a child's soul is nurtured by living in a home that is lovely and that people love living in.

Which might be a little bit of a self important sentence after showing you pictures of bunnies and of chicks in party hats!

 

Hip Hip Hooray!

 

 "I did it, I did it!! Yippee, Hip- Hip- Hooray!"

 I am quoting Sugarwings there, that is what she says when she is proud of something she did. I was telling Beth today while we were working, that its too bad we don't cheer ourselves on more as adults the way a 2 year old does. You can learn a lot from a toddler.  They take so much joy in small accomplishments.  Sugarwings gives herself a good old, hop-hip-hooray quite a few times a day.  I've adopted her habit and have taken on that chant, it really makes the day more exciting.

So, here is a hip-hip-hooray to myself for hitting 500! And a thanks to all of you who take the time out of your day to visit.  As a thank you, I drew a name from comments on post #499 to send out a pair of earrings to:

Gail Horowitz

I was looking through a list of things I'd been giving away over the last couple of years, and believe it or not, I've passed out more than 50 prizes. Which averages one every ten posts.  Geez, I had no idea I was able to get rid of so much crap and clutter around the studio, I mean, gift things to so many of my friends.

 

Twinks took time to chase bunnies today, that was a good sign she is getting over her pups leaving.  Its good to have hobbies.

Beth and I SEWED  today. We decided we wanted our tables for Miss Frenchie's saleon April 17th to look professional, so we made table skirts.  I had some ticking that I had dyed to look old and she had a tub of ivory table clothes.  As soon as we saw each other's stuff, we traded!  I made a "collaged" skirt, as she was calling it, from a hodge podge of whites and creams and lace and pillow cases, and doilies and curtains.

  

This picture is of the skirt, in progress.  A far cry from the ticking stripe I started with, huh?

   

Yesterday, I spent about 12 hours in the studio all alone with my papers, glitter, and glue.

     

Do you ever have one of those days where you just slide into your zone?  Well, today's sewing project sure wasn't one of them, but yesterday's glue fest was. 

 

My favorite part of the day was sugaring the little lambs and bunnies and chicks.  My fingers were all goobered up and stuck together with glitter and glue, but in a fun way. It had been too long since I'd had the glitter out.  I'd been missing it, and didn't even realize.

I'm going to have to raise the glitter quotient in my life back up to a respectable level.  Some sparkle and that self cheering I learned from my fairy grand baby are a couple of things that can take a blah day and turn it into something a little more special. 

 

Or is it just weird that I sit for a dozen hours in my studio with my fingers all glommed together, yelling out "Hip- Hip- Hooray, I did it, I did it!!"?

 PS- Beth is having a good  Giveaway , you should check it out.