Karla's Cottage

Happy 4th of July!

It was a festive weekend at Good Juju, and every month I am enjoying the venue more and more.  I even got into the spirit of the holiday and put together a mini, red, white, and blue display to fit in with all of the other patriotic arrangements around the mall.

My itsy bitsy wagon with a couple red and blue doodads in it wasn’t much compared to the rest of the mall’s July tones.  There were varieties of these colors used throughout the mall.

And Uncle Sam on stilts even came by to say hello to us.  

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the place, and then I’ll be headed outside to watch the colors in the sky.

We live right by the I70 overpass and every year, I walk up to the bridge to watch all of the neighbor’s fireworks being set off.

It’s a pretty low key way to celebrate, but it’s a tradition I look forward to.  Sugarwings and I have been doing this since she was tiny.

As I get older, holiday traditions mean more and more to me.  

I hope you are enjoying yours this weekend too.

Ready for First Friday at Good Juju

My space at the mall isn’t large, but it can sure hold a lot.

So much so that I was very surprised at how much I packed in.  

The lower shelf on that table might not look very full, but that is because I am bringing in sterling silver jewelry, that needs to be kept packed up so it won’t tarnish.  On Friday morning, that shelf will be as overfilled as the rest of the set up.  

See what I mean?  

Hopefully, it will tempt guests into wanting to treasure hunt and dig through.

This month, I was set up and ready way early, and did it all in one trip.  Previously, I was just getting settled and figuring out my space.  I had painting and construction to do, and wasn’t quite sure how things were going to fit. Between the concussion that was still lingering, and being overwhelmed trying to figure it all out from scratch,  I was, well, like I said - overwhelmed.

But now that my head is better, thanks to PT and time, and possibly the CBD oils gifted to me by Treadwell Farms, I am ready to enjoy the process and have fun being with the creative people around me at the venue.  Man, that concussion made me feel flat.  And like I kinda had tunnel vision.  I could only barely focus on what was just right in front of me.  

I’m feeling more like myself now, but still not quite right.

While getting ready for my first month here, while I was still in pretty bad shape was it pretty tough, it was worth it.  I am very excited to be a part of Juju, and am already looking forward to planning set ups for fall and for the holidays.  

If you are in the area, come by and say hi. I am downstairs and to the right.  

There is so much to see in this big mall, and in the surrounding warehouses, it is quite an event.  

Good Ju Ju

1420 W. 13th Ter

Kansas City, Mo. 64102

816-421-1930

 

Some recent jewelry making

7

Someone special recently had a birthday and I knew she liked Italian micro mosaic and milliefiori glass. 

I had some pretty beads, and a mosaic that was missing some bits.  I did a repair on it by finding tiny quartz stones that fit into the holes and then filling in the rest with a clear coat, hard setting glue.  It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t look like it is missing teeth now.

It hangs from the gold chain by a clasp that can be used to switch it out with other charms.  My friend mentioned losing a lot of single earrings lately and I told her that she could take the earwire off of them and use this clasp to wear them as pendants instead.

I gifted her with some extra earrings too.

I had heard from others that they are also losing earrings, due to taking masks off and on.  I thought I was pretty lucky to have never, ever lost an earring.  Of course 90% of mine are made by me, and are easily replaced, so it was not as big of a deal if I did lose one, since I could usually make another.  Still, I thought it was kind of interesting to realize that I simply do not lose any at all.

So, of course, I lost one.

And not one I made.  The one time in my entire life that I splurged and bought some pricier ones for myself, because, look at that beautiful stone!  It’s layered quartz over mother of pearl.

I spent more than I really should’ve considering I am a jewelry maker, and here I go, losing one of those.

I thought back to where I’d been and realized that my mask had been twisted up in Costco.  People told me that I should call and see if it had been turned in, but I did not, thinking it wouldn’t do any good.

So, I did what I could to salvage my loss, and adding the remaining one to an opal p, pearl, rose quartz, and moonstone necklace I’d made.  

Then, during a lull at Good Juju while sitting with friends, I dropped my phone from my pocket and had to reach under a cabinet to fetch it.  There, by my hand was the missing earring!  Weeks later, and after multiple sweepings of the space.

So I guess my record is safe.  But I won’t be bragging about not losing earrings, or not ever breaking a phone.  Oops, I hope I didn’t jinx myself on that one!

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes a short cut repair is better than nothing

Our chicken coop/storage shed/cat dwelling sure was (and actually, still is) in bad shape.

Very

Bad

Shape

But with a few sheets of siding and less than two cans of paint, at least it isn’t an eyesore like it was.

Here it is as we got started. My husband had already began adding the siding to the bottom on the left before I remembered to get a photo.  He also emptied it out.

Yep, he did a clean up on the inside too!  That man is a keeper. (Unlike some of the spider webby piles of hoarded junk we found inside)

We know that the correct way to repair this structure would have been to pull all the siding off. It’s rotting.  But- so is the rest of the building and we aren’t ready to tear it all down and rebuild.  It’s still functional for what we needed.

What we did instead was cover up the worst part and paint the rest.  

Paint is magic.

After adding a slice of siding over the bottom, we thought a strip of trim would help it look more intentional instead of just bandaged.

Rich also trimmed off the most ragged of the ends of the roof boards and I painted over them too.  

See how bad they were to start with?  Also, years ago when I used this shed as an antique store, I’d painted vines around the entry, added cute aqua shutters, and a barn door as a canopy over the entry.  Well most of it rotted away with time, but those vines were still hanging in.  I’d used oil based paint, which is why I think it held up so well.  

To paint over them, I’d need to prime, but I still kind of liked them and the history of adding them, so instead, I got a small brush and painted around the leaves.

Same with the metal peacocks.  They had hung on that building for 30 years, from way back when we used to raise peafowl.  I had to leave those, they were history.

It isn’t done right, but it’s done good enough.  Sometimes you gotta just slap some lipstick on a pig and get on with things, right?  It’s better than it was. And at under $250 for the clean up, as opposed to the cost of demolition and rebuilding? 

I’m pretty happy with the cosmetic improvements.  This pig is much cuter with make up.

 

 

 

I’m proud of my boy

What a cool old barn!  It’s an event center and my talented boy has been doing the carpentry there on the remodel.

But should it just be called carpentry?  How about wood artistry?

Especially this pedestal sink!

It started as a stump, and he burnt out the center.

So that there was a hollow for the plumbing.  And isn’t the trim on the bottom cool!?

And look at how he incorporated the twisty vines on this shelving.

This is such a creative space, and I’d love to walk through and admire the details.  

I’m sure he doesn’t send me photos of all of it, but I really appreciate the ones I get.

It’s hard having part of my heart living so far away, but seeing what he is doing and knowing that he has found a place where he can use both his creative and wood working skill talents eases the pain.  I’m so proud of him.

 

 

 

 

 

A special celebration in the country

Isn’t this deliciousness just beautiful?  Well, EVERYTHING at Julie’s house was.  Don’t ask me why I didn’t take more pictures, because I just don’t know. 

I am kicking myself that I can’t share it all, every detail was more special than the one before.

From the moment we pulled into the drive.

The food, the displays, the home tour, the company, the gifts, well, on and on.  What a delightful day. We gathered to celebrate Tami’s birthday and her buddies, Nora and Julie hosted this delectable day of friendship.

Julie not only has a perfectly edited and designed farmhouse filled with vintage treasures, she has a she shed.  

And an event barn.  

And a pond.

And well thought collections.

And gorgeous landscaping.

Do you know what I had?  A camera that I barely used.

Here is a little bit of the event barn.

They host weddings and other parties there.  

We sat in the barn for our bird nest craft. Nora provided silver vessels to choose from and moss to form a nest.

That’s it on the photos for the day.  Take my word for it, absolutely everything was wonderful.