Karla's Cottage

A wonderful welcome home!

Happy Halloween!

We are back from our fantastic trip to Florida, in time to send Sugarwings out trick or treating with her mom, and for me to get caught up with my pal, Hope on the blog redo.

Isn't it beautiful????  She has been working away on it while I was gone. What a wonderful "treat" for me to come home to.

I hope you're having a sweet holiday too!

Ghostly gowns, grumpy fairies and a dog two ways

Its done! I have the Grumpy Fairy book hand glittered and ready to sell. I've actually listed it in my Boutique and it is available now, if you would like one.

The story is illustrated with my watercolor and ink paintings, then each picture is layered over vintage flocked wallpaper in coordinating colors.

The pages are printed onto high quality, gloss card stock and it is bound in white. I really like the colorful, but soothing palette of colors and took a lot of joy in pulling it all together.

The fairy on the front cover is hand glittered, and I've added a touch or two inside the books too.

You had to guess when you saw this wreath on the bed in the first photo, that this picture would be coming, didn't you??

Beth came along to keep me company today while I glittered books. She worked on some Christmas ornaments in sepia while we chatted.  But first, I helped her with photos of these glorious gown she is listing on Ebay.  We have had some cold weather, but no hard frost yet, so the flower bed in the center of my drive way is still blooming a bit.  We thought it made a pretty setting for the prom dresses.

YUM!

Isn't the skirt on this one about as frothy as a concoction can be?

After taking the pics, we had some fun with Picnik, and made this one ghostly. It was done in "ghostify". 

This photo was retouched with "vampire scope", but I don't think it is actually spooky, just a cool look. I hope that these applications are available after Halloween, too, I really like this one. I used it on the ruffles above too. 

I'd better get back to glittering. Too bad I can't just photo edit that in....

And remember, if you want to win one of my Grumpy Fairy books, I'll be giving one away next weekend as the gift  for my October Giveaway.

All comments, all month count.  And I also want to thank so many of you for the kind, kind words you sent my way. I needed that.

Piles of Pretties

Thanks to everyone who has signed up for Artist Class using my code!  I hope you enjoy all the tutorials, it looks like a good range of classes and lots of fun.

I've been working away on the Grumpy Fairy book.

The hardest part about glittering the book pages is simply space.  The pages need to be seperated so they don't stick together, so I need to spread them all out.   Funny, that even a large studio isn't big enough.... I have one table filled with jewelry making projects, one with book pages, two with pre-bella set up, and another with an assortment of odds and ends that I am working on.

So, I've moved into the kitchen and am filling all availalbe spaces there too!  My kitchen cabinets are covered with hand dyed bottle brush trees and the dining room table has more book pages.  

 
 
 My little Sugarwings and I had a fun Girl's Night, and I had plenty of opportunites to be the wicked witch.  Luckily I was wearing a hoodie, so I could pull up the hood, cackle and offer her an apple.  She'd take a bite, fall over, and I'd have to quickly switch to a Dwarf's hat (a stocking cap) and cry that Snow White was asleep and wouldn't wake up.  Miss Snow White would then lay still, looking beautiful, and trying not to giggle until her Prince Charming would kiss her face.

And who got to be Prince Charming? Twinkle.  She was happy to lick Sugarwings face every time Snow White would lay down on the floor. 

About 40 times.  I think the movie was  a hit with her.  Usually, we play Wizard of Oz over and over. But now, my flying monkey arms might get a break for a while, maybe we'll play Snow White instead of Dorothy for a bit. 

Back to my tables full of piles, and piles.....

Whisked away

My Handsome Husband whisked me away to Chicago for the night to see our favorite musician, Lucinda Williams in concert!

Typically, I'm not a concert goer. Too bad, my husband loves them, and would really appreciate it if I'd go with him to more shows.  But Lucinda is such a favorite of ours, and the setting was a more intimate club, not a big convention center or stadium.  We had great seats, and she is so real and down to earth,  I'd go to a lot more concerts if they were as nice as this.  Not too loud, not too crowded, just right. Geez, do I sound like an old fuddy duddy? But, I've always been like this even in high school. I'm just not a concert person.

Even though the hall was all black and set up with typical stage lighting and paraphenelia, I had this pretty view above our table. The building used to be an old theater and they were smart enough to save the intricate plaster work on  the ceiling when they remodeled it.

Before the concert, we went out to dinner at Art Smith's cozy little restaurant, Table 52.  I'd seen him on Top Chef Masters, and if you've ever read my blog, you know what a tv junkie I am, so I was excited to go to a place I'd heard of on one of my regular programs.  I was as excited as Sugarwings would have been if she'd gone to Arial's grotto for dinner.

And not only was it a lovely place to eat, the food was amazing.  And I do like good food. 

The next day, I flew home just in time to make it over to my friend, Angie's house to be a part of a surprise party for her.  She had NO idea that we were all in her home  waiting for her,  it was so cute to see her reaction and to see all the love and caring that her family put into the planning.

See the painting behind us?  She got it at an estate sale, and took it to Antiques Roadshow.  She was told it is worth $8,000, not bad for a $30 estate sale piece, huh?

Why do I show bad photos of myself? Yes, I was pretty tired, (and look it, too) after two days of travel and being stuck in Chicago traffic, and waiting at the airport for hours on standby, trying to get back a bit early so I could be home for the surprise.

But honestly, NO ONE would look good next to Angie, she is such a beauty.

I guess you could say she is the fairest of them all.

Tonight, Sugarwings and I are having a girl's night. Its just the two of us and we are going to spend it watching Snow White and making caramel apples.  She loves to act out her favorite parts of movies, so I bought her this gown to wear and I am prepared to be the wicked witch. I am always assigned the scary parts, the wicked witch, a flying monkey, or the big, bad wolf. 

In the meantime, I have a few hours before she gets here for our Snow White Festival  and will start assembling the Grumpy Fairy books.  I'm extremely happy with the paper quality, and color.  But am not so happy with the mountain of work ahead of me, binding them all myself.

Especially since I decided to hand glitter highlights on the pages.  Stickles is a wonder product, and the sparkles won't rub or flake off like gluing down regular glitter, so I think this is the answer to getting Sugarwing's wings to look sugary and not having glitter all over the reader's hands.

I'll let you know if I ever get any ready to sell... I hope to have them in the Boutique in time for holiday shopping, and also have some to take to Silver Bella.  But I will for sure have one ready to give away for the October Giveaway. 

All comments all month count for the prize.  (I do appreciate your comments!)

In the Sunflower Fairy House

Thanks for your interest in Mary's

Artist Class, I'm looking forward to not only my part in the class, but doing the projects that others will be teaching too.  Not all the projects are listed yet, but she is planning 12, plus daily tips, tricks, and techniques.

Here is the $10 discount code that you can use to sign up for ALL TWELVE of the offered classes, plus be included in all of the prize drawings I will have to offer. 

karlascottage

Thanks for using my code for if you sign up!  

Personally, I am way beyond swamped right now, getting ready for Silver Bella, but I plan on catching up with all the Artist Class projects after the holidays. That is the joy of having an online class, I can look through them all in my jammies, late at night, whenever I get a chance to, not on someone else's schedule. 

Of course, knowing me, I won't wait.  I spend way too much time on the computer and will be too curious and excited about it all to wait "until I have time". Because "until I have time" is kind of like saying "once upon a time, in a land far, far away".

It is FICTIONAL.  I never have time!!  And never will have time to do what I want, but heck, I just do it anyway and it all works out somehow.

 Of course, there is always time for Sugarwings! But then, she might be the reason why I don't seem to have as much time for other things...

When I drive her out to school, I love to linger and look around. The gardens and the play yard are so creative and fun!  They grow food and flowers for the local farmers market and the huge (organic) garden is the first thing you see when you get out of your car. 

As the looming sunflowers died out for the year, they were bundled up into a tee pee for the kids to play in, and Sugarwings calls it her fairy house.

And this thatched roof play house makes me feel like I am on Gilligan's Island.  Or Survivor. Which is on tonight, and I have my fingers crossed that the evil troll man goes home. 

How is that for a jungle gym?  It makes me want to climb and play on it!  I love that this school is against big plastic junk toys. They focus on all natural materials and lots of imagination.

She loves her school, and as much as I miss her during the day, I know this is a good place for her. Plus, I'm enjoying the short drive out to the countryside to get her there and back, its a reminder to me to stop and appreciate my surroundings and realize how lucky I am to live in such a pretty area.

And of course, I always know how lucky I am to have this pretty baby in my life.

Pet Parade Party

Oh My Gosh! I'm late linking to Keylee Katillac's fund raiser for animal welfare.  And then, when I get started, I see that Twinkle has won first place!!

Since the scarf we were to design for the fund raiser was a Lance Armstrong, LIVE STRONG theme, Twinkle posed with a bike for her photo.  Plus, the scarf is so big on her, doesn't she look like  a super hero?  (I even cut it in half for her, she only weighs about 7 lbs).

For her Live Strong scarf, I simply cut it in half, and laid out some velvet flower petals on it, then sewed part of an old apron over that to make a see through pocket to hold the petals.  Its held on with a vintage ribbon tie, and vintage millinery is pinned to the bow. 

Since the apron is made of tulle, you can peek through it and see the Lance Armstrong motto printed on the yellow scarf.

Go and check out the other dogs at the party, and make sure you leave a comment, because each comment means a $1 donation to the shelter.  Also, you are entered to win a gift certificate for ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS to Hobby Lobby!

Please help Keylee help the dogs! She has already raised $2,000 through this campaign, lets get those pups some more money!

(Notice Twink's new tags, I feel safer for her now)

And while Sugarwings loves to play hide and seek, she was so heartbroken when she couldn't find her Toto.  If Twinkle hadn't lost her tags, we wouldn't have lost her!

Also, please remember, today is the last day to leave a comment here for a chance to win the September giveaway. Wow, that month sure flew by fast! 

My little Pretty

Guess where we went?

For the 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz, our local theater had a special screening of the restored movie.  I bought tickets a week ago, luckily, because it was completely sold out.  We must not be the only Oz fans around, huh?

We just happened to be the only two in the whole city who dressed up for the occasion.  My husband is such a good sport to go out with me dressed like this, isn't he?

(I didn't wear the hat to the theater, it was too big, and since the show was sold out, I knew I couldn't just sit the hat in the next chair)

Sugarwings couldn't wait for the show to start.  We went early to get good seats, and still had to sit way down front.  Then, there was a documentary about the making of the movie that I really enjoyed, but it wasn't really geared to a 3 year old.  Then, the movie screen went black for about 20 minutes till they could get it fixed.  But the crowd was in a good mood and there was even a crowd wide sing along in the dark while waiting. 

Our littlest Dorothy sat patiently waiting for the show.  Which was worth waiting for. I know I'd never seen the movie on the big screen before. Its really quite beautiful, even with the old fashioned special effects.   Movies weren't quite as smooth in those days.  We could see the strings on the flying monkeys, and the gaps in the lion's costume. (disturbingly near his crotch, which made me keep my eye in that area way too much, wondering if the gaps would show again.  Not that I wanted to see the lion's  loins, but it was kind of like when you try to not think about a pink elephant, your mind just stays right where you don't want it to. )

But the very best part of the movie?  Snuggling with Sugarwings, oops, I mean Dorothy.  That was officially her name for the night and she wouldn't answer to anything else.

It was also pretty cute at the end of the movie, when she stood clicking her heels together in the lobby saying "there's no place like home" as the crowd veered around her on their own way home.

Bubbling over with buttons

Yesterday, I met Beth at an auction to just hang out and visit. I couldn't stay long, and had no plans to buy anything.

But how could I pass up this marble lamp for $20?

Actually, I was pretty proud of myself for only buying a lamp. I love auctions as much as Sugarwings loves ice cream. Or as much as I love ice cream, too.

Just the thought of ice cream makes us both jump with joy. 

Usually at auctions, I go home with buyer's remorse, because I lose control and bid on things I
shouldn't, or even worse, had not inspected very well.  My advice on auctions, is to get there early enough to take a really good look at whats for sale.  If you don't see it up close, you might miss out on a flaw that could make it worth much less than you thought.

Yep, speaking from experience there.

Luckily, I kept my bidding under control, well except for the one time when I was telling a story to Beth and gesturing widely, almost bidding $35 on feed sacks that I didn't want.

I'm so glad I didn't over-buy. Because just the day before, I was struck with button maddness at an antique mall and bought 3 big jars of buttons (did I mention that I have a few buttons already?  Well, only a few buckets full, I guess).  So today, I am sorting, cleaning and bagging buttons.

I made up three cauldrons full of Halloween colored buttons for craft packs, and adding vintage flowers to the pots.  They are in the Boutique now if you need any.

These are the same as the cauldron I glittered and filled with brooches for the September Giveaway.

My only other new listing is this hand made, painted and glittered pumpkin topped bottle.

This is probably it for me and Halloween. I've got to move along to Christmas and getting ready for Silver Bella.  Right now, I have little Putz houses spread out on my table ready to create sparkling villages.  I'd better get to them. The halls don't just deck themselves you know.

French Ephemera is a handy thing to have around.

Craft day was not only fun, but productive, that is just the best.  We had a nice lunch (aren't pitch in meals the most fun?  I enjoy the variety of what everyone brings) then a walk on the Fairy Berry Trail before getting to work.

When I went to Savannah during Jenn's retreat
I found a French magazine from 1901 that I fell in love with, but felt like it was way to expensive to buy. My pal, Tiffany, got one and reminded me that the price averaged out to only $2.50 per page, so I splurged and bought one.  Now that I am doing a swap with these friends from our trip to Georgia, I am so glad I bought the magazine, the cafe au' lait cover was perfect for the center of these medallions I am making with all of their initials.

This side of the swap page is all vintagey goodness.  Old crepe paper, and ribbon, wallpaper, and millinery. And of course, the cool, French ephemera.  The only new thing on this, is the initial.  I cut diamond shapes (thanks for the shape idea, Marilyn!) out of parchment card stock and drew the initials in metallic inks and markers.

I was so enthralled by my new trick of making these, that I used one as a label on this package wrapped up for another Silver Bella swap. (the glue is still wet in this photo)

These medals, or medallions might be cute made into pins too...

Like I don't have anything else to do.  Today, I am mudding the new dry wall for a mini remodeling project and tonight I'll be painting the walls as they dry.   Tomorrow, I am having a group of friends over for breakfast and we are making a few charms.

And of course, it is the hey day of the garden season.  Last night, we picked a couple sinks full of tomatoes, so I made up a LOT of sauce to freeze. 

Its Sugarwing's job to pick the littlest tomatoes and put them in her bucket.  They seem to get dumped in and out a lot, but if a few get stepped on here and there, it doesn't really matter. I'm being over run with tomatoes anyway, I kind of feel like stepping on a few myself. It would be that many less to clean, cook, and freeze.

One of our plans was to make and can salsa.  Somehow, it just is not happening. We have the ingredients, just not the time to learn how to can.

Ah, aren't gardens wonderful? I might complain about how much work it is, but I am loving the results! 

But now, I have something to really complain about, I have to go and do dry wall mud. ugh.

Flights of Fancy

We all loved the Kansas City Renfest
on Labor Day weekend during the camp-o-rama family reunion.  Sugarwings, especially.  Although, my husband and I were pretty happy, just following her around and smiling at her happiness. (which just about sums up what our life around here is on a daily basis anyway.. her smiles mean the world to us  we.  We spend most of our time just watching her with goofy, indulgent grins on our faces  She'll either grow up to be secure and filled with well being and love, or an insufferable brat.)

Sugarwings wasn't the only fairy, my nephew's baby, Kaydence, wore her "toot toot" (tutu) and wings too.

(It brings tears to my eyes to look at her picture, knowing that her daddy is leaving to serve in Iraq, and that he won't be with her for an entire YEAR!)

My Sissy made these hair garlands for everyone to wear, aren't they lovely? And so is my niece, Shelli.

When Sugarwings saw the bag of garlands, she immediately asked, "Who made these?"  She is so used to everything being hand made around here, it doesn't even occur to her that some people buy such things from stores.  She just assumed that if there was something pretty at our cottage, then someone must have made it.  

Kansas City has a scenic location for their annual event, its in a shady valley, with lots of permanent structures that lend the place an air of authenticity. 

And magic.

Even more magical, seeing it through my fairy grand baby's eyes.

To her the baby dragon that hatches from this egg, is as real as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

Of course, I'm every bit as enchanted by the dragon as she is.  And yes, I am one of THOSE people who wear a costume to the festival.  I don't consider myself a Renny or a weirdo, I just think it is fun to wear fairy wings.

Or maybe I am a weirdo?  Who cares?! Life is short, wear fairy wings and be silly and have fun!!

 

We all work too hard, we should take some advice from the fairies, and be light-hearted, do some dancing, and be in the moment.  Because those moments go by too fast to waste them.

I'll leave you with a few more  fairy photos.  I hope you get to kick up your heels and have some fun too!