Karla's Cottage

Happy Halloween!

I hope you have a Spooktacular Day!

 

 

 

Ghoulish Guncle Goofiness, and some bootiful Halloween decor

During our Sister Trip to Florida, we took a jaunt up north to Jax and the Land of Guncles.

Where we were met with the typical Guncle charm and hospitality, and an added dose of creepiness.

We were greeted by this sign.

Their welcoming home was in its full, Fall glory.

With ghouls, goblins, witches, and more.

So, we decided we needed to fit in with our surroundings and got out the face paints.

I went Pink.

Sissy got some purple witchiness going on.

While Guncle Randy embraced his inner warlock and went full on, goblin green.

Lovely Lily didn't need to change colors, she has a pretty, autumn glow year round with her auburn hair.

The guys had the house foofed up to the hilt.

It is always an honor to see my artwork making it into some of their displays.

Randy's art was prominent too.  

Here are pages from a Romantic Gothic Ghost art journal he did.

The house was creepy, cool, and very well done.

Our pal, Regina, made this banner.

 

No detail was neglected.

I'll leave you with a few more pics from our fun night there.  

 

 

A Hocus Pocus Trip and a Sandy Winifred Sanderson with Seashell Teeth

Our sister trip to Florida was Sanderson Sister themed all the way.

So, when I found these "teeth" on the beach, I had to make myself into Winifred with the seashell in my mouth. 

(And looky!! I found SEA GLASS  too!! It was a treasure trove of unique goodies from the sea on Vilano Beach)

When I was done playing with the shell teeth, I used them to make a sandy Winifred Sanderson.

There were also a ton of black shells, which lent themselves well to making a sea witch.  Her broom is a palm frond.  I'm afraid black shells don't photograph well, it really did look cuter in person.

Our whole trip was Hocus Pocus themed, and we started off at Disney to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and watch the Sanderson Sister Villain Spectacular. 

The lighting on the castle was pretty durn spectacular!

To save wear and tear on our backs, we rented a stroller to haul our extras around in (you never know when you'll need a jacket or an umbrella at Disneyworld) and for a name tag, I wrote in 

"Sanderson"

Of course.

And I witchied up our magic bands with Sharpies and glitter nail polish. (Why wear a plain band when you can transform one easily with a waterproof sharpie?)

We needed a Spell book to carry. I painted canvas bags for each of us with the witches' book on one side.

The other side had our name and a witch hat.

All three were a bit different, but all had plenty of glitter. I think we left a trail everywhere we went.

I was thrilled with every second of the Halloween Party and hated to see it end at midnight.  I'd love more than anything else to go back for the upcoming Christmas party and take my grand fairies.

But as my husband says, it is excessive to be flying to Disney every few weeks....

Even though there is a Christmas party that just happens to fall on a day she is out of school for a 3 day weekend, and I have free airline ticket points and enough Disney Credit Card points for the park tickets, and could take the free Disney transportation... we would just have to pay for hotel and food, and heck a person needs to eat wherever you happen to be, right????

Sooooooooo tempting, but- he is right. I think it is bordering on greedy, and spoiled to even contemplate a return so soon.  Still, it is fun to think about.  

(by the way, the Chase Disney credit cards give you a $200 gift card just for signing up.  And a percentage back to spend on anything Disney, including movie tickets at AMC)

 

 

Guncle Randy's Paint Pour Book

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When Guncle Randy was here in August,  We had a paint pour day and he did a "swipe" technique on this cover.   I finished assembling the book to mail to him later.

And of course, I couldn't help myself.... I had to add some vintage papers to the book for him to use as a background for his own work.  He plans on using it for a Halloween/Autumn journal, so I kept with a darker or fall theme.  Including this great horoscope book cover from the 1800s!!!

(I'd been saving it for something really special.)

Grey flowers seemed to be ideal for Halloween.

As were these black and white pages.

The red might be a little bright for the season, but I guess he could consider it gorey... I made a pocket from some paint poured paper, and filled it with tidbits to use in his own work.

The Dream Book page is a scan and copy, but suits the mood.

As well as the Gispy Fortune Teller page.

This lovely lady was cut from an old fairy tale book, and I added green marker to her face to make her witchy.

This boy is scanned from an old photo and printed onto a transparency for a ghostly look.  

Typically, I chose text for shape and style, but sometimes I find some that fits the mood of the page too. While this is simply about Tom Thumb and is a cute fairy tale, I thought the first sentence seemed a little creepy and went well with a Halloween book.

The inside of the back cover gets a paint poured note card to open and fill up, and a cute (but slightly vampire-ish) boy and his dog.  I added a sparkly, rhinestone poodle too, since the guncles have two cute poods of their own.

Have fun filling your book up, Randy! I love you and loved getting this ready for you!!

 I will be away from my desk, enjoying Sister Time in Florida til the 22nd.  All orders from the Boutique will ship on the 24th. Thanks! 

Omaha Zoo

We took Sugarwings to the Omaha Zoo to gather info for a science project.

The subject was cats, and she took the day pretty seriously.  Our mini photographer took photos of all of the large cats, as well as all of the information signs about them.

It is a VERY large and wonderful zoo, I've never seen the entire place in the one day we usually have to spend there.

In the past, I've gone with either a larger group, or two preschoolers who were happy to be watching bugs on the sidewalk instead of conquering the whole park.

This time, we were concentrating on the science project, and getting the photos she needed. But we did stop for rides and lunch.  While she might be getting slightly too big for the carousel (but still loves it), we discovered that she is no longer frightened by the skyride.  We floated above the park a couple of times, and could've done more trips if we'd had time.

We missed Dewdrop, but I will make myself feel better about that by using it as an excuse to go back again when she can tag along. She went with us to the Topeka Zoo a few times over the summer, but we never made it up to Nebraska to go to this zoo with her before she left to spend the year with her mom in North Carolina.  

By the way, I've discovered that my Topeka Zoo membership, which is only $50 annually for a family of four, gets us into other zoos at a discount.  In Omaha, it was 50% off, which helped a great deal. In Sarasota, the Mote aquarium was free with a Topeka membership.  

Also, it is sure nice to have the card to drop by the Topeka zoo whenever we feel like it, even if we only have an hour.  If we were paying full price to get in each time, I'd make sure I had enough hours to "get my money's worth" out of the trip.  With a membership, that isn't an issue, and there were quite a few short trips that we enjoyed, but wouldn't have made if didn't have that card.  

I will be away from my desk, enjoying Sister Time in Florida til the 22nd.  All orders from the Boutique will ship on the 24th. Thanks!  

Karen's (Daisy) Book

Back in August, Karen gathered a group of us together for a getaway and shopping, then the group came to my house to try their hands at pour painting. This book cover is Karen's creation from the day.

My painting friends were visiting from Florida, and the paint takes 3 weeks to cure completely, since it is so heavily applied and has conditioners in it.  So, I kept the pieces here to dry, and mailed them later. 

But before I did, I put this book together for her, and another for Guncle Randy. Both were empty covers that they'd painted.

And since I LOOOOOOVE making books, I couldn't help giving her a head start on her pages.

About half are blank, and I added some vintage wallpaper, lace and embellishments to the rest.  Now, she has some backgrounds ready to add her own art, or poetry to.

My Special K, as I call her, loves Gatsby.  And identifies with Daisy.  So, I made sure there were plenty of daisies in the book for her.

She has a lovely poodle, Queen Satine, so when I saw these rhinestone poodles, I knew they had to be a part of the book too.

It is a joy to use these papers, I hope Karen loves working with them too.

Her cover turned out so sweetly, I wanted to honor it with an equally sweet interior.

Thank you for hosting our group for the flea market getaway and for coming to play with paint with me, Karen!!

And if any of you want to make a book with the two of us, I'll be teaching a class at her studio in Deland, Florida in February.  Details to come...

I will be away from my desk, enjoying Sister Time in Florida til the 22nd.  All orders from the Boutique will ship on the 24th. Thanks! 

Why fit in when you can fly instead?

This photo simply IS Sugarwings.  Happy, joyous, exuberant, effervescent, out of the ordinary, fearless, and adorable.  

I don't know what it is from, she had the snapshot on her "about me" collage from Social Studies, and told me that the class was told to make silly faces. 

I will be away from my desk, enjoying Sister Time in Florida til the 22nd.  All orders from the Boutique will ship on the 24th. Thanks! 

Crown Crafting with the Crew

Besides junking, sipping wine, sitting by a bonfire, playing with piglets, and eating too much like I was a piglet myself (thanks for the great food, Tracy!!), we did some crafting on Labor Day weekend when i was with my buddies at the hunting cabin.

Royal Style!

Tami brought enough supplies to top off the entire British monarchy.

And we loved every bit and bauble she brought.

Here is a Gatsby-esque one that she gifted to Karen.

And here is a heart shaped, nature inspired, Fairy Crown that I made for Sugarwings.

She placed it on our lamp when she took it off, I kind of like it there.

This is the woodland example that Tami brought.

Angie is modelling the Ice Queen crown.

I made one similar to it.

I'm also creating a Raven crown, from a beaded flapper dress I found at a flea market. It is still in progress, I'm thinking it will require some black feathers and maybe even a feathery bird. I'll be wearing it with my raven dress to a fairyland ball that my sis, Terry, is throwing next summer. It is never too early to plan ahead, is it? This will be a big occasion, so Guncle Randy and I both worked on our headpieces.

Here is the beginning of the base of his. He ringed it with more stones, and we aged it with two colors of Rub-n-buff when we got home. 

He will also add vines and sprigs to fairy it up.

They all looked great together.

Thanks for the beautiful project, Tami!  

(I only wish we'd thought of posing some of these onto the mounted deer and turkeys around the house!)

I will be away from my desk, enjoying Sister Time in Florida til the 22nd.  All orders from the Boutique will ship on the 24th. Thanks! 

Pretty girls

The girls were headed downtown for a performance, and had some pictures taken before going.

Cute, huh?

I will be away from my desk, enjoying Sister Time in Florida til the 22nd.  All orders from the Boutique will ship on the 24th. Thanks! 

Our Annual Sister Trip is Starting with Some Disney Magic!

This morning, I'll be meeting my sisses in Orlando for the beginning of our annual Sister Trip to Florida. This year, we are doing something different, instead of visiting Sarasota, (home of our late grandmother).  

We are going to Disney World!

Bobbie and I are thrilled. Sissy is being open to the idea and I hope we win her over and she enjoys it as much as we do.

And yes, I do Love, Love, Love going to the amusement parks.  If you are counting, this is my 3rd trip this year...  And I am definitely an adult (sorta).  This is the second sister trip this year, I went with Terry for my birthday, and then with the grandfairies after our Disney cruise, also, uhm, for my birthday.  

60 is shaping up to be a good year for indulging in trips and visiting the Mouse. 

ps- I'll be away for a good, long time, this is a ten day trip (only a couple to the parks) Anything ordered from my Bootique or Etsy shop will be mailed on the 24th. Thank you for your patience.