Karla's Cottage

$1 garage sale tree makeover

Here is an after close up of a tree I found this summer at a garage sale.  I started with the after, because the before was so ugly, I might have lost your attention.  

It was definitely in the “walk on by” category of garage sale finds.

Here it is in all of its glory.  But if you look closely, there is potential.

Those are little vintage shiny brites that were used on the original creation.  And the tiny, wooden train isn’t that bad. There was a salvage pile, a toss pile, and a package up and sell at the mall pile.  
I also cut off all the non working lights.

The next step in this glow up was white spray paint for a flocked look.  I painted the board it sits on too.  After the paint dried, I carefully spritzed it with spray adhesive and generously sprinkled mica on it.  After it dried, I shook it upside down to get out the loose flakes.

Then, it was time for the fun stuff.  Batting was wrapped around the tree to create snow as well as something to glue deer hooves into.  I cut some sticks from my yard and made trees from them, plus added some bottle brush trees.  

The wood itself wouldn’t have been easy to attach anything to.  By using the batting, I was able to give the skinny legs of the deer and the twigs a better base for glue.  I also tried to cluster them, so I could glue everything to each other for even more stability.

Keep in mind, for any glue project, the surface you attach something to is only as good as what you attach that to.  For instance, if I hadn’t really, really, really glued the batting to the wooden circle really, really good, it wouldn’t matter how much glue I used on the deer and trees.  If the batting came up, they’d fall off.  

So, there was plenty of glue underneath it all too.  And lots oozing about here and there.  I gave it a coat of mica flakes to hide that mess.

The gold and silver packages got reused, and tied up with brown string with little, vintage bells.

There are birds and pinecones in the branches.

And a star on top.  

I like it so much better now.

This tree will probably be at the Good Juju sale today, I still haven’t decided if I’m selling or keeping.

There is an extra sale date for this weekend!  A party on Thursday night.

Then our regular dates of First Friday and Saturday.

Dollar Store Santa Hat Redo

This hat is from Dollar Tree, and while I am a huge Disney Fan, it isn’t exactly the look I wanted for the holidays.  Typically, I’ll glue a couple flowers onto a red, furry hat or some antler headbands, because you know, Christmas fashion is important, right?

But this year I was inspired by a falling apart, vintage, white mink stole I came across.  And of course, the first thing I thought was- “This must go on my Santa Hat!” (I have also been using bits of it on some Sugarplum Fairies that I made)

The fabric on this pink hat is pretty thin, so I snipped off the white band instead of adding to it.  I was worried that the weight of the fur would make the existing trim droop.

Since I detest sewing, and how do you sew through a pelt anyways,  I used Fabric Tac to add my fur trim.  First, I put a piece of cardboard covered in plastic inside the cap so the glue didn’t adhere the front to the back.  

 I trimmed the fur into pieces to fit around the hat and glued them down, using clothespins to hold them in place.

The adhesive made it just a little stiffer than I might have liked.  The Ultimate glue dries nicer, but I didn’t know if that would hold.  I wish I’d tried that first.  But this is okay, just not great.

 I added  velvet petals from an old rose I pulled off a vintage hat and centered an Angel in them.

Before attaching the fur, I buffed the edges really good with my fingers to get off any bits of fluff that might have come loose while cutting into it.  I sure don’t want tickley pieces landing on my nose while wearing it.  It doesn’t seem to be shedding, so I think it’s good.

The original pom pom got cut off and I half assed made one from folded fur, glued together and adhered to the tip of the hat by wrapping gluey ribbon around it tightly.

I might add some bling or more flowers after I try out wearing it, first I want to make sure it isn’t heavy or uncomfortable.  I wish I could find a velvet hat to redo, I’d prefer that, but since I do not want to sew, or to spend much, this on is just fine.  I’ll enjoy it!

Two bonus shopping dates for Good Juju

This season, we have TWO bonus shopping dates at Juju in the West Bottoms.

One is for Small Business Saturday (this weekend).

The next is a little party with drinks and prizes on the night before our regular First Friday and Saturday event in December.

I’m not sure if I’ll need to do a whole turn around of my booth between them, but I will be restocking. 

Which is what I have done since the November sale.

Rich took a consulting job in Ohio and took the truck with him, so I had him bring in enough bigger pieces of furniture to last me a while before he left.

So, I did a little bit of rearranging, then added boxes and tubs of more items.

Included were lots and lots and lots of trees.

Bleached trees…

dyed trees…

trees in cups…

trees hidden inside bottles…

trees on bottles…

Trees with deer…

On candlesticks…

On boxes…

And even more. I have bags of trees too, so you can pop your own onto what ever display you’d like.

Oh, did I forget to mention the old school, jewelry trees on velvet?

 

Have a Lovely Thanksgiving!

Sugarwings and I jumped ahead into Christmas celebrations before Turkey Time.

Again. 

We have a Thanksgiving celebration planned with most of the  family, after some twists and turns to accommodate my husband’s schedule (he took a consulting job) and travel plans for part of our North Carolina group.

Before all of that, the Grandfairy and I had our first cocoa party of the season and did some crafting too. This is Sugarwings’ clever take on a gingerbread house storage box.  We will keep our Nutty Buddies in it.

And why on earth do we consider Nutty Buddies a Christmas treat?  Well, they are named after Buddy the Elf, of course.

At least in our minds.

Red and Green aren’t my typical colors, but when it comes to cocoa parties, I’m all for the shades of a traditional Xmas.  The teapot was my mom’s, the tray was one my boys set out with cookies for Santa on it, and the tablecloth has been around since I splurged on it at Kmart in the 1980s. Back when we were on a tight budget and most things I decorated with were handmade.

 I remember the turmoil of the purchase.  This was back when I’d put toys on layaway at Kmart and pay on them for months before Santa swung by to pick them up.  Buying a tablecloth was not in the budget.  

Sometimes you gotta do something special for yourself, and this bit of floral fabric was a major indulgence that I treasured.  And still do. 

(By the way, Spray N’ Wash is great at getting cocoa stains out of so called “family heirlooms.”)

 

 

 

 

Sugarplum Fairies

I have been a busy little elf.

Not just making more Sugarplum Fairies, but also making some tiny, itty bitty, snow globes for some of them to hold.

Seriously, I cannot get enough of them!

Well, I just love fairies and angels of all kinds.  Anyone with wings is special to me.

Throw in vintage bits of fabric, lace, and baubles, and I never want to stop crafting.

Slowly but surely, I am restocking my Boutique.  But there are issues with changes in the programs that I use that have made it more slowly than surely.

I’m a big girl, I’ll figure it out.  It’s just annoying and takes more time than it used to.  A few steps have been added to my process, but it works fine.  At my age learning new steps slows me down more than it should.

If you’ve seen my Sugarplum Fairies or Witchy girls before, you might recognize some faces.  I do reuse the old photos that I have scanned and printed, but I can promise that no two ever turn out exactly  the same.

Because, what fun would that be?  

 

A new look for old Christmas ornaments

Sometimes an inspiration comes from one simple idea.  Other times things just fall into place as you are going and it all just seems like you planned it out, but you didn’t, it just came together. 

I had been gifted this magnificent buffet, with inlaid MOP, burned wood, and a pure white, marble top.  It is nicer than any piece of furniture I’d have ever bought for myself, and I wanted to highlight it for the holidays

To honor the lovely wood, I thought I’d go more natural with the tree I usually set in that area.

Well, natural for me at least.  They’re  still sparkly silver!  But the decor is centered around nature and family.  Birds from my Mom’s house, hand made bird ornaments from friends, deer, fairies, stars, and  lots of pinecones, from the day Ryan and I gathered them together.

Every time I think of that day, I have to laugh, it had been so funny for us, freezing, while stuffing pinecones in pockets and inside jackets while the big doodle dog pulled on the leash and I slid down the sidewalk, with Ryan trying to hold me back.  
We laughed so hard and joked about it for months, every time we walked by there.  
Of course, it was also the day the dog jerked the leash and messed up my shoulder, but we were still laughing and I remember rolling on the wet ice, laugh crying at one point.

I have only been brave enough to walk on the trail where we found those pinecones a couple of times this year.  And one time resulted in the same laugh/crying on the ground again.  This time, all alone.  And the pain from the loss of Ryan is much worse than a torn rotator cuff.

The Christmas after Ryan died, I returned to our spot and gathered up every pinecone I could find.  Almost as if I could NOT leave any behind, they were all symbols of Ryan and I and where we used to spend so much time together.  So now, I have a lifetime supply of pinecones and they will always be a part of my winter decorating.

This Christmas, I filled the bowl of this garden planter (free at a a garage sale!) with lights and my precious memory pinecones and added a tree filled with hand painted ornaments I’d made for my boy over the years.

When my boys were little, I was a single mom working as a waitress and depending upon my own mom for help.  At the holidays, I would paint dozens of glass balls to sell to anyone I could to raise money to buy gifts for my kids. I never left the house in December without a boxful and was even known to approach strangers in parking lots to sell these. 

And every season, I painted and dated one for each family member.  

The ones I did for my boys were very 80s themed!

Ha, Gremlins and ET!

He loved Frosty and Rudolf.  Ryan loved shows all of his life and it’s fun for me to look back through these and realize just how many were based upon his favorite movies that year.

And as he got older, his first car, the horrid, orange, “Punkin”.

I haven’t unboxed the family ornaments in years, they haven’t been my style or fit in with my current trees.  And I was saddened to see so many were missing. And I wondered why I quit this tradition.  But I am lucky to have these.

Even this heart breaker.