Karla's Cottage

I Heart Succulents

This is my first year to attempt succulents. I don't know much about them, but so far they have done well.  There is a chance that some of the plants aren't as winter hardy, as I had hoped they were.  But I'll see what happens next spring.

The planter is an old water heater tank, I think. It came with the farmhouse when we bought it.

The tank is shallow and dries out fast. Over the years, I've tried growing different plants in it, but all have required daily watering.  This season's choice has been much easier to take care of.  It hasn't taken any care at all, actually.

I've added some fairy garden elements, and some tumbled glass as mulch.

There are lots of odds and ends tucked in among the plants. Here is some more glass, these are hand blown orbs that a friend made.

There are a few more fairies, some stone eggs, cool rocks, and sea shells too.

Since rosemary doesn't need much water, I included some of that, because, can you ever have enough rosemary??? We can't. I've been hooked on that for the last few years and add it to a lot of dishes.

My favorite part is the heart blooms on this little guy.  Oh my! I didn't expect that!

 

Van Go

Our town is lucky to have an organization like Van Go.  Here is a snippet from their website that will explain them better than I can:

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE KIDS.

Our Mission

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Our Mission: To improve the lives of high-needs youth using art as the vehicle for self-expression, self-confidence, and hope for the future.

Van Go is an arts-based, social service agency that employs at-risk youth ages 14-24, to make public works of art that are sold in the community. It’s holistic, year-round programming uses the ARTS to deliver in-depth mental health support, job training, health nutrition education, and life skills lessons. Van Go’s nationally recognized programming gives troubled teens a job, real world skills and opportunity to succeed.

Our KiKi is a talented artist and she was one of the kids hired for the summer to paint a bench.  The unveiling was last week, and it was a moving ceremony with heart felt speeches that showed just how much a program like this can mean for people.

There were 20 benches debuted that day, to the sound of drum rolls and lots of oohs and ahhs.

Her client/sponsor was the Lawrence Buskerfest, which was right up her alley, since she is a participant in that event too.  She did a beautiful job encorporating portraits of some of the performers with Kansas sunflowers and the skyline of downtown Lawrence. I thought it was well planned and had a dynamic design.  

 

I'm very proud of this little grandfairy!

Once Upon An Easter and some free images for you

Jenn Hayslip will be working her magic again, at another glittery art event!  And I am honored to be a part of it.  When she announced the party, I was ready to sign up and attend, because her gatherings are so dreamy and beautiful.  

I didn't even know who might be leading the projects or what they would be. I just knew that it had been too long since I'd attended one of her confections of perfection.

Then, when she contacted me and asked me if I wanted to be a teacher, I was thrilled and surprised! And excited to come up with a frothy, pastel, bit of prettiness to fit in with her aesthetic. 

Lately, I've been doing a lot of the acrylic flow painting, and doodley stuff, so I was missing my days of working on delicate, sweet goodies.  I tend to jump from idea to idea, and style to style, medium to medium, but I will always adore playing with vintage wallpaper and millinery blossoms in soft, dainty tones. 

So, yep, I was in, and excited to delve into my stashes of vintage goodness.

At first, I scanned all of these images from Victorian Easter postcards to use. Then, decided I had something else in mind after all. 

If you'd like them, please do save them from your screen and print. (I prefer printing onto matt photo paper, myself.)

For my own project, I've found some other images that I wanted to add.  I scanned some old photos of little girls, bunnies, and baskets.  Each kit will come with a collage sheet to chose the pictures the artist wants to use for their creation.  

You know me, I like to offer extras and choices! And of course, we will be using the Good Stuff.  

The only bad thing about this upcoming event is that it is soooo far away! I have to wait until next spring for it.  I'm ready for some girlie fun RIGHT NOW. 

Oh well, anticipation is part of the excitement right? 

I hope I will see you there!

 

Once Upon An Easter

 Jenn Hayslip is having another of her wonderful events!  And guess what? I've been invited to teach a class!  

And not only does it involve so many of my favorite things, like vintage, eye candy, sweetness... a gathering of creative friends... and a getaway filled with art...

ITS AT THE BEACH!!!  

I don't know if I've mentioned it...... but I'm slightly obsessed with beaches.

Which is why I've been painting them so much this year.  Jenn is hostessing this party on Jekyll Island, a place I've always wanted to go. I hear it is just gorgeous there. Of course, when Jennifer plans something, every tiny detail is pure gorgeousness even without the back drop of something like this.   

I hope I'll see you there?  I can promise you that it will be quite special. Everything she does is.  My talented buddies, Andrea Singarella and Karen Hillman are also teaching. This will be a confection of pastel prettiness!

 

What did I find in the paint?

In my last post, I asked if anyone saw anything in this paint pour.  I didn't at that point.

But then, I flipped it over. Do you see her?

There was another fairy lurking in the paint!  All I needed was some black and white ink pens to find her.

She has quite the head of hair, doesn't she?

Mixed media mashups, Acrylic Flow Painting Pours with doodles

Honestly, I haven't been doing much but watching Netflix for over a week, since I had a case of the dizzies. (Vertigo)

But before that, I was obsessed with doodling over some of the "losers" in my giant stack of poured paint canvases. The paintings don't always turn out as you'd hope, and can be poured over and redone, but man, I was sure going through a lot of paint to produce a bunch of paintings that just looked like backgrounds.

Then, I thought, well hey, lets use them as backgrounds!

This one was the biggest inspiration, I clearly saw a lady's form in the paint.

See what I mean?

I'm sorta embarrassed to show you that I even did this one.  Its hideousness was certainly destined for the re-pour pile.  But then, I thought I saw a dragon eye peeking out at me....

So I painted the eye and got the pens out to draw some scales

Ryan loves it, it is for his apartment.  Which is why I was using reds and blacks in the first place.

I'd experimented with swirls as I poured this one, and liked it, but it wasn't quite what I wanted.

I think it came out kind of Beetle-juicy after drawing on it.

This one will be next, I think.  I'd added some veins with a toothpick while pouring it, but I think it needs more. So far, I don't see a specific shape in it, do you?

 

A new camera!!!

Before my head decided to spin for a week, I bought a new camera.  Well, actually, it is a phone, but who cares about that part, it is a great camera!!!!!!! I'd been wanting an iPhone 8 plus for a while, but my current phone didn't need replacing.  

It was just too hard to justify that expense when it was just for an upgrade that I didn't really need.

Then, my husband was having issues with his phone, and it was no longer being furnished by his company, we were responsible for getting a new one.  (hmm, that was causing a slight, bitter taste in the back of my mouth, he could care less about cameras and didn't even want a new one. I'd been day dreaming about getting one for a year or so, now we needed to pay for one for him). 

I found out that my youngest boy and Katie Tree had trouble with service at their place. Plus, his phone had broken.

Since they'd moved to the country, they had no coverage and had to drive to town to make a call. 

So, when I saw that AT&T had a sale where you get one iPhone free if you buy one and add a line... BINGO!

We added a line for the country mice, bought my husband the new phone he needed, and I got the totally FREE camera (I mean phone) that I'd been drooling over for months.

No guilt about replacing my old one, it got shuffled down to Miss Tree, hers went to her hubby, and with the change to AT&T instead of Verizon, they no longer have to head down the gravel road to make a call.  Service is available from the comfort of their home.

And I'm thrilled with the portrait setting, all of these pics except the one of the house were taken with the new iPhone 8 plus.  Nice, huh? 

A dizzying week

I've spent most of the week spinning around. 

No, not another trip to Disney, durn it.  I've had some vertigo.  

Which, while being unpleasant and makes me very unproductive, is not serious. Very, very, very unpleasant, but could've been worse. With my history of AFib, I had lot of tests and was admitted to the hospital overnight. But after all the expensive equipment was used on me, a simple tuning fork was held to my head (the next day) and when I reported that half of my head was totally silent, the Dr. figured out that I had vestibular neuritis. 

(Our local hospital is the BEST, but I wish there had been a tuning fork in the ER, and I didn't have to pay for two CT scans, an MRI, along with a day and night in the hospital)

I've never been a fan of being on roller coasters or merry go rounds, or of not staying busy, so recovery has not been easy. There has been a lot of Netflix, since I've been too dizzy to read or do art.  But there has been a lot of blessing counting too.  I'll take a dizzy spell from an ear problem any day over one from a stroke.  This will soon be in the past, so I'll roll with it and be grateful that it isn't any worse than a virus.

Okay, I'm going back to Netflix now, this screen is getting a little twisty.

Going for a stroll

The other day I had some waiting to do. My husband was having an MRI on both sore shoulders, two separate procedures.  I sat in the waiting room a while, read a bit, flipped through magazines, and of course, visited the candy machine. 

But I got cold. And bored.  Although, I’m not really allowed to use that word.  I tell the grand fairies that only boring people get bored. 

So I took the advice I offer to them, and found something to do.  Even though temps were hovering near 100, I went for a walk.  To avoid the worst of the heat, I traipsed through a neighborhood where there was some shade. 

I passed a buiseness with a pretty, AQUA, stone wall.  I’d driven by it for years, but had never walked up to see just how magical that color of stone looked up close. 

This isn’t something you see very often.  Not only does this home have a spiderweb fence made out of twine, the fence posts are skulls.  ALL THE WAY AROUND THE YARD.  That is either commitment to their design aesthetic, or over exuberant Halloween decorators who ran out of juice after all of the festivities were over and decided just to leave it up for next year. 

Either way, I admired the look.  Especially since this fence seems to be holding in a lion.  See it roaring in the bushes?

This iron fence is more mainstream.  

Along the block, I saw an gateway to nowhere. Not only does a pile of rock block the entrance, a fence stops you from walking through. 

At that point, the heat was starting to get to me, so I staggered back to the boring waiting room to cool off.  It was a nice, much needed break.  But I was ready for an air conditioned space and letting myself be bored. Please do not tell Sugarwings or Dewdrop that I said that.

A good start to summer fun

The grand fairies and I have a summer plan that includes daily regular crafting (well dur)  as well as a special craft project, like pour painting, when they are with me plus a weekly outing.

Last week, we chose Crown Center in KC for our day out.

It has been a favorite of ours for years, there is always a lot going on, and we never have quite enough time there.  They have asked to go back for another trip later on this summer too, so we can see Legoland and Sealife.

We spent some time enjoying the fountains, then saw a play, "Goosebumps."

Afterwards they explored the kid area with the changing theme. In the past there has been fairy tales, Wizard of Oz, recycling, science, etc.  Right now, it is Trivial Pursuit, with facts about each state.

It is always interesting, and always free.

You are never too old to try out the exhibits, huh?

Actually, I found a dark corner that was set up with two adirondack chairs for star gazing, and I spent most of my time back there reading a book while the kiddos checked out the other 49 states.  I'm not sure which state I was parked in, but it was nice and homey.  

Afterwards, we spent time crafting at Kaleidoscope.  (Free also, sponsored by Hallmark)

You can paint, melt crayons in a black light room and paint with the wax, create a crown, or a puzzle.  There is so much to do there, one session never seems long enough. But the place is downtown KC, and I'm leery about staying too long and running into bad traffic at 5 going home. The girls understand that sometimes I can act like a little, old lady and are fine with moving on to something else to fit in what we can.

They always like to eat at the Crayola Cafe, which is seriously aimed at kids.  The adult side of the menu seems like a kid menu too, but I make up for a not so great lunch by having a decadent cupcake at Small Cakes afterward.

We toured the Hallmark visitors center where you can make a bow. (free)

And we met a children's book author who talked to the girlies about his stories.

Yep, we will probably go back again this summer.  It might have to become a regular thing for us if this heat doesn't break.  Zoos and other outings don't sound like as much fun on 100 degree days.  And that adirondack chair is tempting me and my book to return....