Karla's Cottage

Mountains of Valentines!

My favorite days of the month are just about here!

First Fridays sales at Good Juju are always such fun.

Laughing with friends, exploring the goodies the other dealers bring in, watching happy shoppers find just the right treasure.

And trying to prevent an avalanche when guests come into my space.  I might go a bit over board on my layers of goods…

When someone asked me recently what I call my style, instead of replying “Romantic Cottage” as  I usually do, I said “Frilly Avalanche”.

There is a lot going on.  (The back is Beth’s and she was still in progress with her area.  She tends to fit just as much in her space, but in a much tidier way, no danger of being buried alive in hers.)

I’m always surprised at how much I squeeze in.  Maybe it’s because I’m still sorta new at this, I am not good at knowing how much to bring in.

Each month, I rearrange it all, taking home items from the last sale that no longer fit, changing up the furniture layout.  I don’t sell much furniture at all, because you can barely see it under the piles of inventory.

Which is funny because in my previous incarnation as an antique dealer, I specialized in hand painted furniture.   Now, I try to concentrate more on mountains of small and hand made pieces.

I still paint most of the tables and cabinets, but also go with natural tones of wood too.

I have discovered that what works best for me is to have a couple of larger tables, and a ton of smaller ones balanced on top, stacked underneath, and lined up.  More than I should, because they look more like wall units of shelving than individual pieces for sale.

Every once in a while one sells and 

oh

my

gosh!

You should see me scramble to unload it, and find somewhere else to stack my crap!  It’s crazy.

Part of my problem is that I looooooove to make things.

And I am prolific about it.  If I create one doll, I’ll just go ahead and make ten.

One little gnome might be lonely, so of course, I need a dozen.

And I probably shouldn’t even talk about my mushroom addiction.  I’ve probably whipped up a couple hundred by now.

I feel very blessed to have such a lively, fun environment to market my excesses in! 

Holiday Decor is My Fave!

Lately, I have been leaving jewelry making supplies out on one studio table.  That way, when I feel the whim, I can quickly make a piece without dragging out boxes.  The room is a wreck anyway from using a chunk of it as storage, so I have kind of given up on keeping my poor studio tidy.

My most recent creations have been Valentine themed.  Either with hearts, or just an air of dress up and romance. 

The last few months at Good Juju have been absolutely delightful for me.  I simply adore decorating for Christmas, Valentine’s, and Halloween. I tend to be into flowery and over the top, romantic, even gaudy stuff that isn’t exactly what the crowd there loves on a regular basis. The venue leans toward rustic or primitive and my corner screams “fussy” to a lot of the shoppers.  

I do throw in lots of neutrals and even natural woods and browns, but they end up buried under my foofiness.  And holidays were a good reason to have the exception.  


I guess I still have Easter to look forward to…. But after that, it will be a long stretch til fall when I have an excuse to make things my way.  Till then, I’ll try to reign myself in a little and focus more on neutrals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Treacherous Journey

Before our January sale at Good Juju, I made some Sweetheart Fairies.

I’d found a boxful of vintage, handmade heads a few years ago and had just been waiting for inspiration to figure out what to do with them.

I had absolutely loved making angels from old dolls at Christmas, but was out of the vintage dolls, so couldn’t make more.  Then I remembered the big glass bowl of doll heads in my studio.

Since I have been vending at an antique mall, I’ve started collecting furniture to fix up.  Which meant I needed storage.  I had to give up a corner of my studio to stack the pieces until needed, and to camouflage the area, I cordoned it off with hinged together doors.

 Well, I hate it. But it was needed. And worked out okay, even though it ruins the natural light from the big window and is an eyesore.  I have covered the doors with gowns, but it kinda feels even bulkier this way.  I should take these down and paint or wallpaper the doors to make the room feel less crowded.

The cluster of tables and dressers behind the barricade also blocks everything back in the corner behind the stacked junk furniture.  

And that is where the heads were.

 Getting to them was quite the scramble, and I could only squeeze through and grab a handful at a time.

Making the Sweetheart Fairies has become a slight obsession, so I find myself navigating the maze and reaching my way too short arm through a gap to snag another handful of heads on a regular basis.  I should just move some furniture, get the bowlful of doll parts and keep them in a more convenient place.

But that would be too easy.

The bodies are wire and wool roving, and I dress them up in bits and pieces of vintagey goodness.  Most of these sold at the last sale, but I braved the treacherous trail through mountains of precarious piles and snatched another handful of heads.  

More to come! 

 

 

 

Sweetheart Gnomes

I learned a new cell phone trick!  I’m still not quite sure how to use it, but somehow or another you can cut the background out of a photo while texting.  Why while texting?  That seems odd, why not just in  edit photos?  

I plan on playing with the function a bit more, even though I am not sure I need it.  It’s fun to manipulate pictures, so I guess I do need it? One more toy?

Speaking of toys, these little guys look playful, don’t they?  I’ve been on a gnome kick.

Sweetheart Gnomes, for Valentine’s.  

Although I am not sure about this one’s vintage earring nose.  I go back and forth between thinking it’s cute or that he has a medical condition.

I have always been a gnome fan.  I figure they are probably good friends with fairies, even if they can act a little gruff, they are probably very loving toward the little sprites.  

Any any friend of a fairy is a friend of mine.

 

 

 

Bejeweled Hearts

As much as I loved the jeweled trees at Xmas, I might be loving the hearts just even more!

My only worry is that I will delete my decades of flea market scrounged sparklies and I will have to stop!

So far, all is going okay.  I typically mix in some newer pieces that I have aged too, using a selection of really old, very antique, merely vintage and slightly new all together. 

Running out of frames has been an issue also, but those are more easily replaced.  Goodwill and estate sales have come in handy for that, although  sometimes I have to add a bit of paint or distressing.  
Good jewels aren’t as easy to find.  Luckily, I’ve spent many, many, many years looking out for special pieces!

Hmm, I could possibly be seeing jeweled flower baskets coming this spring.

 

 

 

 

A buddy day

A dear and talented friend has art hanging at the Sabatini Gallery in Topeka, so we planned a day out to go see it.

Between my husband traveling for business, missing our annual RV/dog adventure to the beach, and plain old having a case of the I Hate Januaries, I was ready for fixing up and getting out!  I even polished my nails  - all of them!  Including the ones buried in wool socks inside Ugg boots. (Except they aren’t really Ugg boots, Costco has their own version for a fraction of the cost that I like even better than the high dollar ones)

Our first stop was meeting at Jen’s.  She still had her Christmas goodies up and we hadn’t seen them.  She wanted to show us her friend and family display.

There were handmade ornies from her artist friends, things she or her daughter made, and pieces created at our holiday craft days over the decades.

This is one I’d painted of her dog, Cage, after he passed.

And one from the year I was a featured artist at the Festival of Trees.  It was special to see decorations I’d made so long ago, lots of happy memories were tied up in them.

I should’ve gotten a photo of the whole display.  She has them tied to a lit garland above a window seat.

Our friend, Shan, whose work we were going to Topeka to see, also hosts craft days in her studio.  Every Thursday she invites us to do mosaics with her.  This is a little house Jen made at one of those get togethers.

The gallery show was impressive, and I thought Shanna’s piece was just plain old delightful.  Not only was I proud to see a good friend’s work hanging in a show that was filled with glass artists from all over the country (including Dale Chihuly!) I thought her piece really stood out in its dual design, the glass itself and the wall behind it.

Our day in Topeka included more than just Art.  We went for a drive in the country to see the old farmstead where Jen spent her childhood, went out for lunch, and did some junking.  Even with the bleak, washed out, Kansas in January scenes around us, it was a warm and colorful day. 

I love my friends and the years we have had together!