Karla's Cottage

Home Sweet Home

We had the BEST Thanksgiving ever, in Mexico.  Instead of the typical days shopping and cooking, I ate fresh fish on the beach, while watching the waves.

Although, I have to admit, it was hard to be away from family.   We missed the dogs and the kids a lot.

But when I started to feel sad, I'd sip my cold drink, give the hammock a little swing, and look up at the palm trees.  I might have missed them all, but I'm no idiot.  I knew I'd see them soon, and I was enjoying every minute of the trip!

Still, it is nice to be back with the loved ones.

Some Snowbird decor

I LOVE Christmas decor and I LOVE Birdsong. 

So, it made sense to combine the two and host "A Snowbird's Song".

And it was such a good idea!

I loved every bit of the weekend.

And I loved the week before, as I set up the party and decked the halls.

It is a tad bit early to have the Christmas sparkle going strong in the cottage, but I'm so happy to  have it up and to be ready for the upcoming festivities. 

Of course, the reason for setting it up early was extra special. It was great to hang out with my Peeps and kick off the season.

Normally, we eat in the garden during our Springtime Birdsongs, but it was more than chilly this time of year. I was able to set up three tables inside the cottage by shifting the furniture around in the living room.

Not too crowded for us, at all.

All of the meals were served buffet style, but for our big dinner on Friday night, we semi set the tables instead of having the plates on the buffet, just to make it special.

I'm not a traditional red and green Christmas person, but I do love flowers, and a touch of poinsettia red (with a cardinal!) can be sooo pretty.  The bluebird of happiness place mats are from a shop in St. Armand's Circle in Sarasota. I was thinking of my Peeps when I was on vacation with my sisses in September.

Now, the guest have gone, the extra tables are all packed away, but the rest of the decorations are up and I'll be enjoying them throughout December.  

I'll be savoring the memories of our special get together as I look at the ornaments, trees, and banners, and will be happy to have almost a whole extra month of Holiday Cheer by getting them up November 1st.

Being an Early Bird has been quite nice!

Photos from A Snowbird's Song

I sure had the BEST time ever at our party.  Fun people like Lori and Guncle Randy who were sooooo helpful sure made it easy for me.

Lori and Lesa Dailey were teachers and had great classes.  Lesa showed us how to make this elegant bird.

This necklace was Lori's concoction for us.

One of my classes was this banner. 

My other class was making a couple of ornaments, then having free time with a table full of supplies to play with and create more ornaments.

I think the Peeps liked the pile of playthings, because between classes, they hung out and kept going.  I love seeing a roomful of people in a creative frenzy!

I couldn't have done all of it without the Dream Team, of Guncle Randy, Terry, and Allisa who flew in from Florida, Utah, and Wyoming to make the weekend go by flawlessly with their behind the scenes hard work.  Lori and Beth were here to help run the Holiday Shoppe in the garage.

But it was the Peeps themselves that make it great!

What a good group of ladies we had.

Some regulars...

And some newbies as well. Or should we have called them "fledgelings"? 

Thank you, to all who attended and made this such a special time for me.  I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did!

PS- I'll be in Mexico(!!!!!!!!!!!!!) for a few days over Thanksgiving, but will have a limited number of extra kits to sell when I get back, along with some other holiday foofs.

More new looks for old Santas

When you come across at Christmas cottage with a FLYING SANTA AND SLEIGH, plus it is a music box, can you say no??? 

I almost did, because it was waaayyy too red for me.

And a decapitated Mr Claus isn't very festive.  But I knew glue and paint could solve that.

White chalk paint and glitter can work magic.

Along with fake snow paint, mica flakes and some bottle brush trees.  Oh, and an friendly angel.

Much better! I'm glad I didn't pass it up at the flea market. It was only a quarter and it took very little time to redo. The sleigh flies in circles to the tune when it is wound up, so the grand fairies love it, of course.  

This was in the same quarter pile, and I liked it as is. But while I had the paints out...

It got a redo too.

The Santa is an old, red flocked guy, whose suit got a dose of silver glitter.

I then filled the sleigh with vintage toys and goodies, making sure I'd used plenty of glue.

I think I prefer silver glitter to red for his suit, it is very festive.

This sleigh got a major makeover. This is the after.

And here is how it started out at an estate sale.  How could I say no to those reindeer??? All it needed was love, hope, and lots of glitter.

I pulled everything off, emptied the sleigh and started over, covering the base in white velvet instead of the green feathers. The sleigh is redone in bronze glitter, and the presents were replaced with various vintage pieces spiffed up with white paint, glitter, and mica flakes.

Before...

His suit was covered over in cream velvet taken from a vintage jacket I'd bought for myself at Goodwill and wasn't wearing any more. (No sewing here, I just cut up the jacket and pieced it onto him, then glued them down.)

His belt is brown velvet with a nice, old buckle.  The beard was changed to fluffy, white wool roving.

The scroll on the side is from a broken chandelier. My studio is filled with odd bits and pieces like that, thinking I'll use them someday for something.  And usually I do.

The best and final touch? I sat it on the dining table and surrounded it with good friends!!

 

PS- I'll be in Mexico(!!!!!!!!!!!!!) for a few days over Thanksgiving, but will have a limited number of extra Snowbird Song kits to sell when I get back, along with some other holiday foofies.

An Elf on the Shelf makeover

 

I fell in love with these two guys' shiny suits when I came across them in the bottom of an estate sale box. 

But I thought that they deserved to have that red felt upgraded to something that was as glam as their golden garb.

A little bit of tinsel, rhinestones, buttons, and lace was all it took to get them all gussied up.  Now, I'm tempted to play the creepy, but creative, sneaky spy game with them.   Or at least, have them on some overnight adventures to surprise grand fairies in the mornings. We'll see.  I sure enjoy the pics on FB and Pinterest of what other elves get into.

 

PS- I'll be in Mexico(!!!!!!!!!!!!!) for a few days over Thanksgiving, but will have a limited number of extra Snowbird Song kits to sell when I get back, along with some other holiday foofs.

Santa and Mrs. Claus from vintage photos

Sometimes I wonder if I have too much time on my hands and I should just go and get a real job. Because I find myself obsessed with odd crafting ideas and get carried away.  

What on earth made me think this old picture should be the Clauses?

Who knows, but once I did, I started Clausing up other pictures of elderly couples from the past.

And gaudy-ing up the frames for them. This one is in a shadow box made from the lid of an old jewelry box.

This grandpa and his lil cutey got a redo too.

They even got a new little sister.

This one is my fave, though. I love those old, oval frames with rounded glass. This one had an eagle on it that had broken over time.

I tried to chip off as much as I could and keep the wings to make an angel from the leftover bits.

I  backed her with heavy chipboard covered in vintage wallpaper and added some glitter, plus leaves from an old Christmas corsage and a mini bottle brush wreath.

Santa got a twinkle in his eye with white, opaque ink, and I highlighted his beard with it too. 

I was soooo happy with the way it turned out, and hung it up right away.

Then, it crashed down and the lovely, old curved glass shattered.   That glass was the whole reason I started on this instead of tossing the frame in the trash.  Oh well.  I'm still displaying it as is.

And I'm embellishing more sepia pictures.  It is good to find a use for the old couples and grandpops I come across in my stash of pictures. I usually go for just the pretty girls and babies, unless I need a wicked witch.  Now, I can add Santa to the uses of old photos.

 

A mini deer do over

When I saw these vintage, chipboard fawns, I knew I wanted to give one to each of my ladies at A Snowbird's Song, but I wasn't quite happy with the red bell.

So, I snipped off the bell and added silver tinsel glitter over the collars.  An easy fix to pretty up the raindeer for my friends!

Cameo nametags for A Snowbird's Song

The nametags for my Birdsongs are always handmade.  I try to do something different each year and hope that the nametags are "collectables" that can be added to art journals or scrapbooks.

This year, I wanted to do something even more elaborate and searched for cameos with birds on them.  

The ones I found were a nice variety.  But I thought they were too white, so I used a dark oak stain over them and wiped it off for an antiqued effect.

The backs have the name, date, and of course some glitter.

Guncle Randy and Terry got a steam punk version since they aren't into the foof like I am.

I've used lace to trim the name tag itself and to hang it like a necklace.  But in case the Peeps would prefer pins, I have a package of pinbacks ready to add if the dangling piece bothers them.

I think they look much nicer with the antiquing.  I plan on wearing mine as a necklace on a silver chain after the party is over.

 

Welcome Peeps!

Do you have any idea how lucky I feel to have so many ladies (and a Guncle) join me in Kansas for our gathering???

It means so much to me that we have a great turn out, and that guests fly in from all over to come and play with paper, glue, and beads with us.  I've got family and friends who come to help, talented and fun loving teachers, and the best bunch of students I could ever ask for.

I know that there are many art and craft events to chose from, and I appreciate that my guests keep coming back to the cottage for our Birdsong traditions.  Thanks, Peeps!

A s'mores pie Pinterest Fail that was actually a Success

The grandfairies spent the weekend with me before Halloween, and decided to do some treat making.  We'd seen a pie that had spooky ghost faces on it, made with marshmallows and chocolate.

For a short cut, I used a premade graham cracker crust, and we whipped up a chocolate pudding to fill it.  Then, gathered up some different size choc bits to use on top.

The girls made ghost faces on the marshmallows, then we popped it in the oven to melt them together.

I might have let them get a little too brown to look ghostly.  

Suntanned ghosts?

But even though the look wasn't exactly what we were going for, we didn't care, we'd gotten plenty of giggling fun from making it. 

I'm already planning a redo with snowmen. 

Because I'm always happy to have a reason to eat a s'mores pie!