Karla's Cottage

Captured fairies

Some of the pictures from our fairy family photo shoot were simply ideal to use in cute ways, like Thia, here in this bottle.  

And the bottle was ideal too!  It’s a plastic bottle that unscrews from the bottom and came filled with candy.  Why oh why didn’t I buy a case of them instead of just one? I’ve not seen another one since. I got the candy at Tuesday Morning a couple years ago, it was a brand I hadn’t seen before.  I can’t remember what flavor it was filled with, but who cares, all candy is good and this bottle was meant to be a unique and wonderful craft supply!

Any container that has a good sized opening on the bottom is much easier to catch a fairy in than trying to use tweezers to slide them into a narrow top.  This is an upside down sauce jar, not a fancy shape, but she went into it nicely.  I should probably add flowers to the top to disguise it more.

The photo of me with Molly is printed a little larger than the girls, so I could layer them in prospective.  I’m glued directly to the glass, a smaller Dewdrop a bit behind me, and slightly smaller Sugarwings a bit higher and to the side behind her. 

Their photos didn’t show feet, so I used moss to hide that.  In all the dioramas, I added pussy willow branches as trees, because I think fairies would really love to hang out under fuzzy, soft trees like that if given a choice.

This pic would’ve worked well in a box too, but is just so lovely, I wanted it framed as is.

And I thought the two of these were cute as a bug next to each other.

Our family has been known to don wings on more than one occasion.  Here are pictures of the Guncles that I thought should be added to the grouping.  I have one of my sissies that needs to go up here too.

This picture is from the grand masquerade we attended.  I cut out the girls and glued them to a little blue mirror and glued it to the rosy tin lid.  I don’t know where the bottom of the tin went, but held onto the lid, knowing I’d find a use for it someday.  

Blue mirrors are significant in the fairy world!  You can spot them in your garden by holding up a blue mirror and peering into it, looking over your shoulder to see them flitting about.

These sisters are glued to an amber glass, beveled “moon” and then onto a painting that Dewdrop made.

She swirled lots of glitter paint onto a paper plate, then smooshed it onto a canvas.  Gorgeous, isn’t it? I think it looks like woodland flowers.

Twinkle lights are strewn throughout the display.  I’ll get a photo of it lit up when I add more fairies to the mantle.  The lights twirl between the frames, then up into my set of wings hung over the mirror.  I didn’t realize while doing it that the lights formed a heart shape!

 

Fairy Family Photo Fun

On Winter Solstice, our Katie Tree brought over wing making supplies that turned into weeks of creativity and craftiness for us all.  Afterwards, we had a fairy fashion show and played dress up with our fabrications.  
I thought I’d hang my pretty, Tinker Bell style wings in the studio, and probably will later on.  But for the beginning of spring, I wanted to display them on the mantle with some of the framed pictures we took.

Looking through my stash, I found some appropriate frames, and a couple of shadow boxes that made me think of doing just a bit more than simply framing the pictures as is.

Most pics were groupings, and it wasn’t possible to cut out individual bodies.  But there were a few that I could make work.

Even without complete bodies, if tilted and used right, I had plenty of fairies to use.  Each one got some embellishing with glitter and metallic inks.

This vintage mirror was ideal for showcasing some flying fairies. 
I’ll have some more close ups in my next post.

 

 

A memorial journal for Judy

A very close, supportive, and caring friend recently lost her mother. 

She had been there for me when my Ryan died, and had a suggestion that helped me tremendously to cope with not having him by my side.

Her suggestion was to write to him.  And I did, repeatedly.
 

Long, tear stained letters.

Quick funny notes about something that had happened and I knew that he’d enjoy laughing at with me.

A jotted down memory.

Stories of what I’d done that day, or how many steps I got, what we had for dinner.

A simple, “I miss you.”

Maybe writing to her mother could help my friend with her own grief.  So I made a book for that holds pockets and envelopes to place writings or mementos, little stacks of note paper, pages to write in or add photos to.

The book is a planner from Michaels that had mostly blank pages, but also some printed ones with prompts for journaling.  On this page, I wrote words about Judy that her daughter used when talking about her in a memorial she had written about her love of family.

I printed the paragraphs out and placed them in the book too.

Then I found Facebook photos to print and added a few to some pages.  Not too many, the book is mostly blank for her to use as she’d like.

My friend is a stained glass artist with a bright, bohemian style, so I tried to make the journal in cheerful colors she would like.

The front cover is one of my pour paintings, cut up and glued on.

After seeing how kind everyone was to me after my son died, I pledged to be a better friend.  Honestly, there is nothing anyone can do to make things better when you lose a loved one.  But showing that they care and reaching out does ease the pain.  So I wanted to do this for my pal, and I hope that writing to her mom helps her get through this.

The life cycle of a pumpkin

Last fall, we took a trip to the pumpkin patch, after an extremely LONG time of no regular outings. The grand fairies and I typically had a schedule of getting out and exploring on a regular basis. In the summer, it was the pool, park, zoo, and more. In the fall, we'd go to the pumpkin patch multiple times and host pumpkin craft parties after. 

2020? not quite the same.  But we masked up, and social distanced our way through the punkin patch, and made the most of a day out.  We were pretty happy to be there, too, even with the restrictions and changes that had to be implemented.

 

We probably bought way too many pumpkins, hoping to have a carving party with Fin and Clover, but the weather didn't cooperate, and we couldn't get together outside, so I made use of the gourds as best as I could. 

When the pups were tiny, I liked to do photo shoots with them for their new families, so these were great to use as props for posing puppies.

After Halloween, I spray painted some of them white and added a touch of glitter to the tops, and placed them into flower pots in front of the house.  Others got turned into pies.

(The white pumpkins make the best pies, uhm, not the painted white ones, the REAL white ones.)

Now, it is time to clean up the front porch and get rid of the pumpkins who have seen better days. They are squishy and wrinkled, but instead of tossing them out, they went to the hens.  The birds don't eat the rind, so didn't even bother with the painted exterior. They went right for the tasty seeds inside.

I guess I didn't have too many pumpkins after all! At least the chickens didn't think so. We have been giving them a couple a week and they are pretty happy with the treats.

A little cabin in the woods

It has been a long, cold week here in Kansas, as it has been in a large part of the country.  We were only without power for a few hours, and our pipes froze up until we (meaning Rich) tucked a tarp around the bushes in front of where the pump goes into the basement. 

My heart goes out to the Texans who went through much worse.  

We built a big fire, piled our dogs and blankets on our laps and were just fine.  When we heard the weather forecast of bone chilling cold and about the possibility of rolling black outs to protect the grid, we did what we could to protect ourselves and pets.

I charged all of our devices and extra power packs, filled the bath tubs with water to use for flushing, and Rich brought some five gallon water bottles in from the garage. We had plans in place if things got worse, but never needed to start hanging tarps up in the hearth room or lighting candles in terra cotta pots for extra warmth.

Our dogs were very excited to see that the hens came to live in the basement for about a week or so during the coldest stretch.   And the cats were happy to be tucked into the hen house with all of the warmers and heated water out there, plus a cozy, insulated little box full of cushions to snuggle up in. While I was not quite as happy about chickens as house pets with hay tracked all over the kitchen from Rich’s boots and the dog’s feet, I was glad to know they were safe.

And that they didn’t really smell that bad.  Just a tad of a whiff now and then.  

But I did enjoy hearing their chatter and singing coming up through the vents.  

We did just fine, and I hope you are okay too?  Days like that can sure make you appreciate what you have, huh?  And remind me that I am blessed.

That we have a cute long cabin just for fun, and not as our actual shelter.  

Well, it is fun to have it now.  It was not an easy thing to build.  Maybe emotionally as much as physically for Rich.  

Chopping, hauling, and stacking the logs, coming up with the design and crafting the building throughout a long, hot summer was his way of working through the pain of losing our son.  I think a lot of tears mixed with the sweat of the hard work.

The project was mostly completed before winter came.  He still needs to gather fieldstone to enclose the chimney and is waiting for the logs to settle before chinking between them.  
The fireplace is functional, but not usable yet because of all the gaps between logs, the draft pulls too much smoke through the interior.

See what I mean about drafts?

For now, it is a little garage for our mower.  Later on, he will build a table from some wood leftover out of our grandfather tree (a special oak that he used to tell stories to the grandfairies beneath.  It fell over and was used to make our dining room table and dog crate) and add a hammock too.  

 

I froze my watch off

The dogs are so happy with their new, furry, chair protecting, throw that they do not seem to notice the cold.  This weather is scary cold, and the rolling blackouts make it a crap shoot for keeping warm. We woke up to no power on Tuesday, with minus 16 degrees outside.

It was only three hours for us, and we have a good fireplace with a heat blower on it, indoors, the temp only dropped to 56.  Other parts of our land aren’t doing as well, I hope that these temporary blackouts stop the problem from getting even worse!

Last week, I volunteered a second time at the Covid vaccine drive through and it was only 14 degrees at the highest point of the day.  This weather has gone beyond “cold snap” to “frozen smashed and broken”.  Or something like that.

I hate cold with a passion and my family knows that I am a cowering mess of fear when I think the swimming pool water might be a tiny bit more chilly than I like.  

Yes, quite the wimp.

I really didn’t think I could take being outdoors in that weather for six hours, but it is a cause that means a lot to me and I was so proud of myself for doing it.

It took:

• 3 pair of Cuddleduds leggings
• 2 Cuddleduds shirts
• a fleece vet
• a jersey lined, long lace skirt (because I could’t fit another pair of pants on)
• wool socks
• Ugg boots
• a fleece gaitor/hood
• fur lined hat
• fleece scarf
• lots of Toasty Toe warmers
• fleece gloves (I had mittens to wear over them, but was handling paperwork and couldn’t use the mits, dang)
• puffy jacket
• Pretty mask

Did I mention, LOTS of warmers?  I stuck them all over me.

I knew that all would show was my eyes, so I wore a ton of eye makeup.  But didn’t realize that the fleece gaitor would cause my mask to steam up and I’d have a wet, red, icy nose all day.   And that it would cause my mascara to melt into puddles that not only ran down my cheeks, but smeared in ragged half circles and froze above my eyes.  

As if I had drunkenly drawn on weird eyebrows with a black sharpie.

And no one told me that I looked demented, as I greeted hundreds of drivers.

The cold was so bad, that my poor Apple Watch couldn’t take it.  I had it buckled to my vest, because I couldn’t get to my wrist through all of my layers.  The frigid air shut the watch down.

After dealing with freezing my watch off outdoors as a volunteer, a few hours in front of a fireplace, under a blanket with the power off didn’t seem so bad.

My next volunteer date is supposed to have temperatures way up to a balmy 21, so I am looking forward to the heat wave!  

Hopefully you are warm, safe, and healthy.  If you are, please turn down your heat a tad, turn off extra appliances and lights, and conserve what you can so that the grid doesn’t crash and the power stays off a while.  Take care out there!