Karla's Cottage

A new career in junking for a surprise helper

This week is First Fridays at the West Bottoms and Good Juju will be open for business.

I’m afraid I will be missing it!

But my stuff won’t.  It is all set up for action, I took care of that before I flew off on my multi legged adventure.

First leg is North Carolina to see my grown up, baby boy.

Second is South Carolina to participate in Jenn Hayslip’s fabulous Bridgerton event.

And the third leg (because it’s spooky season and time for three legged monster type critters, and this is a monster of a trip) I’ll be jetting down to Siesta Key to be with my sissies for part of the annual Sister Trip.  They have two weeks, which I just couldn’t do, but I managed to squeeze in a few days at the end of my journey.  

When I get back to Kansas, it will be time to pack up my Halloween leftovers and start setting up the November show.  Which I look forward to being a part of, it’s always such a fun time there.

Who is watching the store while I am away?  Well, I’ll have my buds, Beth and Angie there for most of the time, but Beth has some obligations.  While she is out, I have an all star replacement lined up.

Rich!

Yep, my husband is being extra supportive and covering my shift for me.  He might be a bit overwhelmed and in over his head, but he is willing to go for it.

If you are around, please check on him for me.

He will be feeling like a fish out of water.  But I have faith in his skills.  If he could run dozens of golf courses in his past life, I’m sure he can sell some beat up, old junk and crappy crafts.  

I will miss being there myself, but it will be in good hands.

More mini makeovers

My garage sale days have provided soooo many redos lately.  These mini pumpkins and gourds got a coat of glitter and paint.

They started out gray.  And free.  I’ll take free, ugly gourds any day.  The jewelry stand was $1 and also on the ugly side.
 Or just tacky?

Ta dah!  A quick makeover, because paint is just plain magic, isn’t it?

I thought of adding a layer of decopauged lace onto the torso, but then worried that it could snag any jewelry hung on the piece.  So, I’ll leave it as is and am happy with the look.

Dolly do-overs

The Halloween witches and zombies that I showed you previously started out with a bag of old dolls.  I sorted them into categories-

• beyond repair became zombies
• sorta bad shape, witches (if the skin was messed up, I repainted them green like Elphaba)
• decent shape, but needed work, angels

It is not even Halloween yet, but I zipped through my ghoulish gals in time to take into Good Juju’s September and October sales am now sparkling up some angelic babies for the November First Friday.

This one is actually a tree topper from the 60s.  Her base is a cone to fit on a Christmas tree.  I reused her wings on the smaller girl and made new ones for her from curled feathers.  Both had their hair replaced with wool roving.

My pal Tami invited us over for a craft day and offered styrofoam pumpkins to make over (mine is covered in lace) and tart tin dolls for the projects. I also whipped up my two angels and a few lil schroomies.

She went to a lot of trouble with her sleepy eyed doll.  It required sawing it in half, and gluing in a cork that was also cut in half to the doll could be put back together with the tin in the center.  

The tin makes a cute skirt top, doesn’t it?  Thanks, Tami, for the fun day filled with lovely projects!

My year of embracing orange and a redo-rescue

For the first autumn of my adult life, I’ve been drawn to fall colors.  It kind of coincides with my attraction to the mix of warm woods that I’ve now blended in my house along with the existing whites and creams.

 For decades if was just the whites.  But I sure am enjoying the wood textures we have added.  Also the dark leather chairs by the stone hearth.

Did it start with this dining table?  Maybe.  I’ve added quite a few touches of wood around our house since.

The hutch is painted white, but has a natural top.  This has been my new, go to move.  There are a few pieces with this paint on the bottom, wood stain on the top look in the last few years.

But orange?  That is brand new for me.  And I like the pops of brightness that color brings to the season.

For a while now, I have loved red accents on a white background at Christmas.  Having a neutral background means  that I can switch things up lot lot with just a few changes of color splashed around the room.

This over blown monstrosity was at a garage sale for one dollar, and typically, I’d have walked right by it.  Or paused to wonder how the basket would look spray painted white (probably very nice, filled with roses).

It is actually a very nice shape and looked good with a pot of mums as is.

Instead, I decided to accept the orange and see what I could do with it.

It had a lot of big, velvet pumpkins inside, two I added to the urns in the top pic.  The rest I set aside along with about 50% of the crazy, over the top amount amount of leaves and berries and bows.

The abundance was pared down to a more reasonable amount in the basket, and I still have a lifetime supply of leaf and berry picks to use for something else.  

So that makes three more palatable arrangements and a leftover bag of supplies for $1, plus the 50 cents each I paid for the urns at the same garage sale.  

Plus, plenty of stems leftover to fill this caldron (also from a garage sale).

All filled with my new enjoyment of autumn tones.  I won’t be changing over my entire decor to pumpkin colors, but I am liking the hints and peeks of them I have scattered around.

 

 

Under a magic spell

I really, really, really loved making things for Good Juju for Halloween!

I have collages, dolls, witchy hats, jewelry, mushrooms, ballerina bats (yes, that’s right, ballerina bat skeletons),  signs, painted pumpkins, and my possibly fave- magic potion bottles.

For years, I have been tossing any vintage items I find that seem fitting for this season, into a drawer.  It was quite full of tempting treats to turn into my fun creations.

I found it so inspiring to have an eclectic mix of ephemera and goodies to dig through.

No two came out the same, since I was working with so many originals bits of vintagey goodness.  I had some photos that I’d copied, but the rest is all aged.

While I was at it, I whipped up a few hand made pumpkins too.

Here are some used as bottle toppers.

I went overboard.

A bit.  

As I do.

There is probably enough inventory for next year too.  I should add some to my online shop, but I will be teaching at Jenn’s fantastic event in Charleston mid October, so might not have time to get any listed in time for Halloween. 

Now it is time to halt my spooky endeavors and switch to Christmas.

Which isn’t a problem, I adore creating sparkling pretties for that holiday too.  

It is hard to put away all of the supplies for October, and to stop myself from making way, way, too much of this stuff.  I’ve been on a roll.

Knowing me, I will be every bit as much obsessed with  as happy to  make things for the next holiday. 

I’ve been saving up Christmas ephemera and supplies too.  I have a feeling that crafting with those is  going to be taking over my life soon.

I’m excited just thinking about it!

And it is extra nice to have a reason to make things, after quarantine and Ryan’s death.  I hadn’t had much inclination to create in volume like this.

Hidden Hearts

I have always enjoyed finding shapes in nature.  Especially hearts.  Or fairy wings.  
Typically, I take a photo of the heart and leave it, but some I pocket, like this one from the dog park.  


They have taken on even more meaning since we lost Ry.  He used to be enthusiastic about the ones I’d see when out on our walks together.  I can hear his voice every time I find one now.

 “That’s so cool, Mom!”

So this broken heart really stood out and caught my eye. It shows how I’ve felt since Ryan left.  Still holding it together, but forever broken.

And lookee here at this one!  On Molly’s hip.  She’d had an ouchie and as it healed, the hair grew back as more golden retriever hair than poodle/doodle hair.  And a darker color too. 

“That’s so cool!”