Karla's Cottage

Mountains of Valentines!

My favorite days of the month are just about here!

First Fridays sales at Good Juju are always such fun.

Laughing with friends, exploring the goodies the other dealers bring in, watching happy shoppers find just the right treasure.

And trying to prevent an avalanche when guests come into my space.  I might go a bit over board on my layers of goods…

When someone asked me recently what I call my style, instead of replying “Romantic Cottage” as  I usually do, I said “Frilly Avalanche”.

There is a lot going on.  (The back is Beth’s and she was still in progress with her area.  She tends to fit just as much in her space, but in a much tidier way, no danger of being buried alive in hers.)

I’m always surprised at how much I squeeze in.  Maybe it’s because I’m still sorta new at this, I am not good at knowing how much to bring in.

Each month, I rearrange it all, taking home items from the last sale that no longer fit, changing up the furniture layout.  I don’t sell much furniture at all, because you can barely see it under the piles of inventory.

Which is funny because in my previous incarnation as an antique dealer, I specialized in hand painted furniture.   Now, I try to concentrate more on mountains of small and hand made pieces.

I still paint most of the tables and cabinets, but also go with natural tones of wood too.

I have discovered that what works best for me is to have a couple of larger tables, and a ton of smaller ones balanced on top, stacked underneath, and lined up.  More than I should, because they look more like wall units of shelving than individual pieces for sale.

Every once in a while one sells and 

oh

my

gosh!

You should see me scramble to unload it, and find somewhere else to stack my crap!  It’s crazy.

Part of my problem is that I looooooove to make things.

And I am prolific about it.  If I create one doll, I’ll just go ahead and make ten.

One little gnome might be lonely, so of course, I need a dozen.

And I probably shouldn’t even talk about my mushroom addiction.  I’ve probably whipped up a couple hundred by now.

I feel very blessed to have such a lively, fun environment to market my excesses in! 

Holiday Decor is My Fave!

Lately, I have been leaving jewelry making supplies out on one studio table.  That way, when I feel the whim, I can quickly make a piece without dragging out boxes.  The room is a wreck anyway from using a chunk of it as storage, so I have kind of given up on keeping my poor studio tidy.

My most recent creations have been Valentine themed.  Either with hearts, or just an air of dress up and romance. 

The last few months at Good Juju have been absolutely delightful for me.  I simply adore decorating for Christmas, Valentine’s, and Halloween. I tend to be into flowery and over the top, romantic, even gaudy stuff that isn’t exactly what the crowd there loves on a regular basis. The venue leans toward rustic or primitive and my corner screams “fussy” to a lot of the shoppers.  

I do throw in lots of neutrals and even natural woods and browns, but they end up buried under my foofiness.  And holidays were a good reason to have the exception.  


I guess I still have Easter to look forward to…. But after that, it will be a long stretch til fall when I have an excuse to make things my way.  Till then, I’ll try to reign myself in a little and focus more on neutrals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Treacherous Journey

Before our January sale at Good Juju, I made some Sweetheart Fairies.

I’d found a boxful of vintage, handmade heads a few years ago and had just been waiting for inspiration to figure out what to do with them.

I had absolutely loved making angels from old dolls at Christmas, but was out of the vintage dolls, so couldn’t make more.  Then I remembered the big glass bowl of doll heads in my studio.

Since I have been vending at an antique mall, I’ve started collecting furniture to fix up.  Which meant I needed storage.  I had to give up a corner of my studio to stack the pieces until needed, and to camouflage the area, I cordoned it off with hinged together doors.

 Well, I hate it. But it was needed. And worked out okay, even though it ruins the natural light from the big window and is an eyesore.  I have covered the doors with gowns, but it kinda feels even bulkier this way.  I should take these down and paint or wallpaper the doors to make the room feel less crowded.

The cluster of tables and dressers behind the barricade also blocks everything back in the corner behind the stacked junk furniture.  

And that is where the heads were.

 Getting to them was quite the scramble, and I could only squeeze through and grab a handful at a time.

Making the Sweetheart Fairies has become a slight obsession, so I find myself navigating the maze and reaching my way too short arm through a gap to snag another handful of heads on a regular basis.  I should just move some furniture, get the bowlful of doll parts and keep them in a more convenient place.

But that would be too easy.

The bodies are wire and wool roving, and I dress them up in bits and pieces of vintagey goodness.  Most of these sold at the last sale, but I braved the treacherous trail through mountains of precarious piles and snatched another handful of heads.  

More to come! 

 

 

 

Sweetheart Gnomes

I learned a new cell phone trick!  I’m still not quite sure how to use it, but somehow or another you can cut the background out of a photo while texting.  Why while texting?  That seems odd, why not just in  edit photos?  

I plan on playing with the function a bit more, even though I am not sure I need it.  It’s fun to manipulate pictures, so I guess I do need it? One more toy?

Speaking of toys, these little guys look playful, don’t they?  I’ve been on a gnome kick.

Sweetheart Gnomes, for Valentine’s.  

Although I am not sure about this one’s vintage earring nose.  I go back and forth between thinking it’s cute or that he has a medical condition.

I have always been a gnome fan.  I figure they are probably good friends with fairies, even if they can act a little gruff, they are probably very loving toward the little sprites.  

Any any friend of a fairy is a friend of mine.

 

 

 

Bejeweled Hearts

As much as I loved the jeweled trees at Xmas, I might be loving the hearts just even more!

My only worry is that I will delete my decades of flea market scrounged sparklies and I will have to stop!

So far, all is going okay.  I typically mix in some newer pieces that I have aged too, using a selection of really old, very antique, merely vintage and slightly new all together. 

Running out of frames has been an issue also, but those are more easily replaced.  Goodwill and estate sales have come in handy for that, although  sometimes I have to add a bit of paint or distressing.  
Good jewels aren’t as easy to find.  Luckily, I’ve spent many, many, many years looking out for special pieces!

Hmm, I could possibly be seeing jeweled flower baskets coming this spring.

 

 

 

 

A buddy day

A dear and talented friend has art hanging at the Sabatini Gallery in Topeka, so we planned a day out to go see it.

Between my husband traveling for business, missing our annual RV/dog adventure to the beach, and plain old having a case of the I Hate Januaries, I was ready for fixing up and getting out!  I even polished my nails  - all of them!  Including the ones buried in wool socks inside Ugg boots. (Except they aren’t really Ugg boots, Costco has their own version for a fraction of the cost that I like even better than the high dollar ones)

Our first stop was meeting at Jen’s.  She still had her Christmas goodies up and we hadn’t seen them.  She wanted to show us her friend and family display.

There were handmade ornies from her artist friends, things she or her daughter made, and pieces created at our holiday craft days over the decades.

This is one I’d painted of her dog, Cage, after he passed.

And one from the year I was a featured artist at the Festival of Trees.  It was special to see decorations I’d made so long ago, lots of happy memories were tied up in them.

I should’ve gotten a photo of the whole display.  She has them tied to a lit garland above a window seat.

Our friend, Shan, whose work we were going to Topeka to see, also hosts craft days in her studio.  Every Thursday she invites us to do mosaics with her.  This is a little house Jen made at one of those get togethers.

The gallery show was impressive, and I thought Shanna’s piece was just plain old delightful.  Not only was I proud to see a good friend’s work hanging in a show that was filled with glass artists from all over the country (including Dale Chihuly!) I thought her piece really stood out in its dual design, the glass itself and the wall behind it.

Our day in Topeka included more than just Art.  We went for a drive in the country to see the old farmstead where Jen spent her childhood, went out for lunch, and did some junking.  Even with the bleak, washed out, Kansas in January scenes around us, it was a warm and colorful day. 

I love my friends and the years we have had together!

The Guncles’ Christmas Gift

Guncle Randy has been wanting to make a jewel tree but hasn’t had time to do it. So, I decided to surprise him and Kevin with a special, Pet Butler tree.

In my decades of collecting jewelry from flea markets and estate sales, I have always been drawn to animal pins  and to initials.  

So, I just happened to have the perfect ingredients to make this animal lovers’ tree, adding in KS for Kev and RN for Randy.

Besides pets, there is a snowflake for Xmas…

A starfish for Florida…

A fairy, and lots of flowers, butterflies and dragonflies to represent their garden.

 And a goldendoodle for the trunk of the tree for my grand puppy, Olivia Ryan.

 

 

 

 

 

Paper bag snowflakes

For a cheap winter display at my booth, I made some snowflakes.  I seriously had doubts that it would look cheesy, or like a kindergarten class project.  


But I liked the effect even though I could not quite do what I wanted unless I moved things already set up, and since the building has very little heat turned on between sales, I wasn’t going to linger any longer than I had to.

I’d like them on both sides of the stained glass window, but just could not reach.  While I had the heavy duty, sky high ladder out, I hung fishing line in as many spots as I could stretch out to reach.  Now, I can reuse those dangling lines to hang other seasonal decorations throughout the year.

The snowflakes are made from two colors and three sizes of paper bags.  I’d give you steps, but there are so many out there already that are easy to follow, it would just be redundant.  

Another thing I wish I’d done differently is to make all of the cut outs heart shaped.  I thought of that part way through, and really like it.  Plus, I saved the cut out hearts, glued them together on more fishing line and made streamers to hang with the snowflakes.

 

 

 

 

Hearts

I'll be having lots of hearts and wings in my booth at Good JuJu.  This canvas has plaster texture in a heart shape with the roses painted inside. I have a few more, not sure if I got pictures. All are unique.

And remember the jewelry trees I did for Xmas? 

I loved doing that so much, I could not stop!

So, I turned my shape from a tree to a heart.

This one is a combo of the textured canvas with a button collage.  And in front you can see some of my wings.  They are made from a 1800s ledger and I swear, that book was one of my best ever purchases. I have sold rolled up pages from it, used it to line shelves, decopauged it onto table tops, backed collages with it, and now have made wings and hearts. 

And there is still some left!

I almost didn't buy it because it was not cheap. But man, that handwriting! Wow, so pretty. I am glad I went against my cheapskate instincts and bought it anyway.

I also beat out my cheap side and decided to keep these wings that my son helped form instead of selling them.

Since my booth is chocked full of wings and hearts I doubt if one set will be missed.  Heck, I’d be thrilled to have even half of the ones there sell out.

And I sure do love making them.

 

 

My January Set Up for Good Juju

My booth this month is all about winter, and a bright spot in the cold months, Valentine's Day.

One wall is all hearts, roses, with pink mushrooms and wings. I'd hoped to put up cabbage rose wallpaper, but ran into a snag. Oh well, next month. 

But honestly, you don't really see much of the wall anyway, huh?

Another areas are neutral and white.

Which is always a favorite of mine to do. 

Well, the roses make me happy too, but I think that the neutral tones are more popular at this venue.

But I can't always just stick to neutrals, there are other cool items that I find that I know there is a market for. Luckily, my space can be chopped up into chunks where I can do different themes. 

And my new, tiny, wing wall is a great place to highlight a grouping. Here are examples of the ruffled wings (also for sale) and kits to make your own.

Over the holiday, I did some kitchen table crafting. We had supplies out for decorating gingerbread houses, cookies, Sugarwings had polymer clay, Dewdrop had bracelet, and I made dozens of wings and hearts from wire and lace.  The family was coming and going, but mostly staying put because of the bone chilling cold.  I wasn't caring about clutter or mess, I just enjoyed the big group and spent time crafting away in the middle of them. 

I had the best of both worlds. Time with family and time to make things!

I don't even know how many I churned out.  After wings, I started on pink and red mushrooms.  As a person who typically spends a lot of time alone in the studio, I sure was happy to have so much company while working.  My son even joined in and bent wire for me.  It has been sad to go from a bustling houseful of loved ones to me in my studio alone again. Sugarwings is still on winter break, so I am not totally alone, I've got my buddy.