Karla's Cottage

A year of Sea Shell Fairies

My year has been full.  Trips, family, events, puppies. Wow!

When I looked back over 2017, these sea shell fairy photos stood out to me as examples of just what a good year it has been.

Some represent trips to beautiful shores, others, like this, a walk along the edge of Lake Clinton, right here in Lawrence with the kids, dogs, and my husband. The girls and dogs all ended up soaking wet, splashing in water way too cold to play in, but not able to resist the fun.

This is from my favorite place to visit, Siesta Key.

I made two that week, while playing in the cool, white sand with Sugarwings. She flew her kite, collected shells, and took long walks in the waves with me.

And I was lucky enough to have a second trip to Sarasota in the fall with my sisses. 

While there, I made two more.  

Double gratitude!

Bobbie and Sissy and I have gotten together each fall for the last few years to catch up, shop, giggle like little girls, and watch sunsets together.

No shells were found in Missouri at a creek bed while camping with family, but my grand fairies helped me find some rocks that fit the purpose. 

Rocks at Lake Alcova in Wyoming were gathered to make this angel for Grandma Joan's 80th birthday party, a colossal gathering of the Nathan clan, jam packed with fun, ping pong, food, and love. 

And I snuck in one last trip for the year, a romantic getaway to Mexico with my handsome husband.  The laziest, most delightful trip, ever.  

These little sprites mean more to me than just tokens of beaches.  They represent time with people I love, in beautiful places I feel lucky to be able to visit.  As I make each one, she is a thank you to the universe from me for the life I've been given. 

Yes, this was a full year. 

Full of people I care deeply about, and wonderful times spent with them.

Happiest of New Years to you in 2018, with sincere wishes that you have a much to be grateful for too.

Our Zombie family

Ryan and I are Walking Dead superfans. So, when he wanted a new wallet for Christmas, I decided to special it up by filling the empty photo slots with family pictures.

As zombies of course.

This is my fave.  Dorothy adores Ryan, he could be her favorite human, of course she  had to be included in his wallet.

None of the pictures are monster poses, I just used some previous pics that I had handy and edited them on Picmonkey.

To me, that made them even creepier than if they'd been staged.

 

HIs other gifts were a Walking Dead book and a coffee table, that he caught me working on in the studio. I'd found it at a thrift store, but the inlaid wood top had pink nail polish spilled on it. 

I sanded down the top only, leaving the legs as is.Then painted the trim grey, coated it all with a dark wax and buffed it out.  He loved the table and was telling me how perfect one like it would be for his room, after I told him that I was fixing it up for someone.  Which he believed, because I used to do painted furniture for my job. But those pieces were usually white and hand painted with roses.  Still, my story worked on him and he was surprised when he realized the gift was for him on Christmas Eve.  

Ry was such fun to surprise.  He doesn't' expect much, but appreciates everything. What a sweetheart!

He loved the wallet filled with edited creatures too.

While these photos might not exactly be, uhm, tasteful, they are from the heart and he was thrilled that I refinished a table for him and turned our family into monsters for his wallet.

Aren't those the best kind of gifts? The ones that don't take much money, just some time, creativity, and knowledge of what will make someone you love surprised and smiling?

Some holiday fun

My goal for December is to round up all of the Christmas fun I can find, wrangle, or create.  I do not say no to an invitation, and I try to do a lot of inviting to others too.

Luckily, I have a couple of partners in my quest for holly jolly joy.

We gathered up all the sisses and a buddy for a night out to see Beauty and the Beast at Theatre Lawrence.  

 

And we have non stop craft-a-thons by the Christmas tree or in the cardboard cottage. 

And of course, delicious cocoa parties that come afterwards.

The rule around here is "First one up turns on all of the tree lights", so the house always feels festive.

After the holidays end, and the decor comes down, I think it is the lights that I miss the most of all the decorations.  Sometimes, I leave some white lights over the windows thru January as a transition to help me survive the end the celebrating.

For now, I'm still revelling in the joy of it all.  
And in the cookies.  Maybe the only thing better than white twinkle lights throughout the house is decorating and eating sugar cookies.

Especially in good company!

 

Hi there, Mr. Claus!

We love to visit Santa and have a fabulous brunch at The Nicklaus Club at Lionsgate.  

And not just because the napkins are folded like trees.

It is a fun excuse to get dressed up and spend some time with family and that jolly old elf, himself.

This year, the grand fairies made gifts for him, and he liked them so much, he offered the kiddos jobs at the North Pole as elves.  I told them that I'd miss them a lot, but it sounded like a good opportunity.

 

We've been visiting him for years.

Since Dewdrop was just tiny.

Oh, they grow sooooooo fast, don't they?

And the holiday season is gone in a flash.  

I'm enjoying every single blessed moment of it! And I hope that you are too.

The master bedroom and the hearth room from the holiday home tour, a couple more videos

 

 

These pillows are $5 each at Walmart!  And had a nice sparkle to them.

My rose and bluebird paintings get covered up with foam core board and burlap, then I add angel wings for the holidays. The foam core is held in place with a couple of small nails into the frames.

Everything looks better under glass!  I added a couple of cloches to this display, and used books for different levels.

This is a pre-lit garland from Kohls that I ended up getting free with good ole Kohls' Cash.  I added dried hydrangeas then rounded up all of my angels.

The stained glass piece that my friend made fits this lace heart so well that I might leave it up all year. Heck, I've already got a start on holiday mishmash by leaving out the Valentine heart.  I should slap an Easter egg on it and go for it.

 

Scenes from the Holiday Home Tour (a ton of photos)

I'd been a little worried about having enough volunteers for the tour, but my friends dropped by to help out.  We also ended up with some Americore kids that needed some public service hours (the tour benefitted the non-profit, Healthcare Access).  So, all bases were covered and there were plenty of helpers.  Instead of them helping an hour then leaving, they stayed all day and we turned it into a party! There was crafting, visiting, and just hanging out going on.

Having my pals there sure made the day extra special for me.

Any day that you get to laugh with your friends is the best kind of day.

Twinkle decided to be the greeter. She is always a good helper too.

Having my entire house clean at the same time was the hardest part of the event.

Especially with a husband and kids around. I had the kids' rooms cleaned and ready ahead of time, then the girls asked to come over to stay.  I told Sugarwings she could sleep overnight before the tour if she promised to be invisible like a fairy and not leave a trace behind. She took that as a challenge and slept on top of her bed with a blanket so I didn't have to remake the bed.  She took a lot of pride in being an invisible fairy and keeping  her room perfect.

Both girls were pretty cute about helping with their rooms. They fixed up their doll house and decorated a bottle brush tree to put in it and added a Santa and sleigh to the rooftop.

My whole family went through some displacement and discomfort getting ready and I appreciate their efforts. None of us could find anything, since I'd hidden every day objects in cabinets and closets.

Usually, a cup of pens, a notepad, and reading glasses sit on this piece of furniture, but things like that were tucked out of sight for a couple of days.

And I had the table set for a pretend dinner party, which made morning coffee time not quite as comfy as usual. The grand fairies had breakfast at their craft table, my husband and I shoved plates out of the way at the dining table.  And we went out for dinner on Saturday night!!

It was the perfect excuse not to cook.

But this was only for two days, and while it might not have been as convenient as normal to live in the cottage, that wasn't a big deal and was worth the effort. My family deserves a big thank you for putting up with all of the hoo-ha.

As do my friends for spending the day with me and helping with the guests.

A friend came by to take photos to shop around to magazines while everything was cleaned up, and I hope that they turned out okay, because home tour set up is different than a magazine shoot.  Having a bare floor and no coffee table is ideal with 400 people walking through the home, but for a magazine article, I'd have cluttered it up a bit. But I'm sure that the photographer understood angles and got shots that made it feel less bare.  I wasn't able to help her, and she was grabbing shots when the light was good and between rushes of guests.

I might have already posted some of these pics, but thought I'd just throw them all in here. So, I'll leave you with the rest of the shots I got that day-

(ps-  A $5 poinsettia plant and some evergreens picked from the yard make great cut flower arrangements! I was able to make quite a few for that $5  investment)

 

Pink Powder Room with roses and Master Bath at the holidays- another couple of videos and some photos too

 

 

 

This tin box is covered in old wallpaper and a postcard, then filled with shiny brites.

I snipped a branch off of an evergreen and added some to two vases with a couple of roses in them for a budget minded floral display.   

A snowman soap dispenser gets used all winter, then packed away til the next Christmas season.

A visit from one of the doodle babies

A few weeks ago, we had a visit from Pip.

He has changed a bit since he lived here with us!

This was our first litter of doodles and we weren't sure what to expect. 

Honey is about 63lbs, and the father was about the same size.

Sugar was the runt, and I figured she would be smaller than her mom, but already is taller.  Pip is edging up onto EIGHTY POUNDS, and is 7 months old.  

Ooops!

Where did that come from???  He is 77lbs now.

And every single ounce is filled with happy, joyful love. 

What a great dog.

New Christmas goodies in the Boutique

I've had quite a few samples of holiday decor made up for A Snowbird's Song and some extra decorations for the Holiday Home Tour.  

Now that both have passed, I'm trying to get photos of the pretties to add to the Boutique.

Here are some Sugar Plum fairies as individual ornaments (the banners have sold, there might  be a kit left, please contact me if you'd like one, [email protected]).

And a few more festive pieces too.

And some of the "Pretty Packages" ornaments that I made as examples for A Snowbird's Song.

There are quite a few of the decorated and filled boxes (I realluy had fun making those!) and a couple of kits left too.

I've also added some of the hand painted rose eggs.

They are decoupaged in vintage text, glazed, painted, glittered, then tied up in a silver, vintage ribbon.

 Thanks for looking!

The Grand Fairies' bedrooms at Christmas- more videos from the holiday home tour (and some photos)