Karla's Cottage

A friend’s garden and thoughts on house colors

Diane’s home was on the garden tour last year, and all of their hard work still shows, it looks like it permanently belongs on the list.  

Before the event, some friends gathered to make mosaic stepping stones for it as a birthday gift for her.

The stones are interspersed with natural rock in the pathways.

The yard is laid out in such a welcoming design, it intrigues you to want see around the next corner.  As all great landscaping should.

There is just the right amount of sculpture and yard art to add to the ambiance and not be cluttered.  I tend to over do that and junk things up, but this yard has an understated elegance that I could probably never pull off.

The stained glass artwork hanging inside the window adds to the overall feeling of curated beauty too.

Sitting on the upper deck, drinking wine, and listening to the frogs in the pond is an ideal way to spend an evening.  Adding a tour on top of it? Perfection!

They are remodeling the decks soon and making them larger, then painting the house.  The cedar planks have always been stained in this natural look, but they are ready for a change.  My suggestion of color was a grayed blue.  Diane’s interior is filled with shades of blue, some more sky and aqua, but enough different varieties of blue that I can tell it’s her favorite.  And at our regular mosaic parties, she tends to go for the blue pieces of glass. 

That said, blue can be tricky on an exterior of this style of house.  You don’t want to be too cute with it. There are some terra cotta bricks in the trim and chimney, natural stone around the house, with a roof similar to the stone color.  

The closest neighbor’s home to the right is a medium gray, the next is a sage gray, I think.  I can’t remember the color to the left, but there is an empty lot between, if that matters. 

In my opinion, the right shade of blue would be a good companion to the terra cotta bricks, and also compliment Diane’s airy personality, while fitting nicely with this neighborhood.  

While dark blue could also be a good choice, it seems to me like she needs a lighter, cheerier shade to reflect her more.  Now, I like the house in it’s dark, natural stain, and I’m sure a navy would look good too, but I’m still leaning more towards a light, softer shade.  Not true blue, but grayed and warmed a bit.

She has used blue accents throughout the the inside and outside of the home, so there is the thought that a color pulled from the landscaping stones would also give the house the lightness it deserves, while complimenting her blue touches and looking nice next to the terra cotta bricks.  

And the brick color could be a fine choice, but to me, not enough of a change.  Although, I’d pick that over a gray or a dark shade.

Of course, I love thinking about colors and this puzzle has kept me entertained.  I can’t wait to see what she picks.  What do you think?

I wish I’d gotten more photos of the yard and veggie garden, it was really a magical place to be on a pretty evening.  

Repainted roses

I recently repainted the flowers on the shutters by my kitchen door.

The “shutters” are actually parts of a byfold door, found at a garage sale that I took apart and painted to look old.

Years ago, I added roses to them and they were fine.

But I decided the flowers were too simple and I wanted more.

So, here they are, touched up.

And I like them soooooooo much better!

It was a quick project, since it was sort of an overlay on top of a previous design.  I just added to what was already there.

Now, I can’t wait to tackle the matching shutters on my studio doors.

More fun from St Augustine and the Guncles

Our five week, meandering trip included 2 single and one four day visit to Guncleland, where the family pitched in and rebuilt some of the fencing.  While guys were busy sawing and hammering, I took some time to clean up the pathways, reset stepping stones, and spread mulch.

They replaced two gates and one length of fence, then added a privacy fence for trash cans and storage.

After a dozen years or so, the garden stones had all sunken down under the earth.  So I un-earthed them and reset the pathways along one side of the house and the garbage can storage area too.

 Which is where I found these!  I felt like an archeologist, digging up ancient ruins.  Apparently, they had been on the ground there, and like the stones, had worked their way deep down under the dirt.

But I preferred to think of them as from an earlier inhabitant of the land.

Our evenings were spent relaxing in the Guncles’ unique home with all eight of our combine canine family having some cousin time.

Oh and eating! There was lots of eating!  That’s what you do when you go to Jax and visit the Gunks.  They feed you endless, yummy, seafood.  I thanked them with a pie.

But it wasn’t all manual labor and big meals.  Randy and I took a mini road trip down to St Augustine to meet up with my sister, Bobbie who was visiting elsewhere in the state.

Where we met some interesting new friends.

In some cool places.

See what I mean? This steam punk  store is a cool addition to George Street.

My favorite thing I saw downtown was this wallpaper in a shop.

Or was it this wallpaper?

No, my FAVORITE thing from the day was this.  I love those two so much!

 

Gideon’s Bakeshop and a Jam Packed Disney day

We had a whirlwind trip through Orlando.  No, more than that, it was like a Kansas tornado going through!

There wasn’t a lot of stopping to enjoy the flowers during our one day at the parks, but our evening before and morning after were pretty mellow.

The visit was a later add on to our trip, we had planned on being home about then.  But, Sugarwings was starting spring break, and her dad offered to meet us in Florida, so we flew the grand fairy on their very first solo flight and met the brave kid (who did just fine) in Orlando.

And if you know me, you might have noticed there is something about Orlando that I just love.  Yep, I indulged myself with a Disney visit.  We camped at Ft Wilderness, on an off and on rainy couple of days.  The temps were warm, and we had ponchos, plus the rain thins out crowds so we were just fine.  The pool was practically empty, and not a single other person was in line at the food truck we went to.

Terry met us at Epcot and the frenzy began the next morning with an early entry for resort guests.  And man, did we ever hit the ground running. We “rope dropped” (going to the most popular rides early before lines got to be hours long) then between Terry’s and my booking skills and Disney knowledge, we became power mad. Scheduling and layering ride reservations faster than a bluebird can find a Princess who just broke into song.

Seriously, we over did it.  Our prowess in maneuvering ourselves out of standing in lines had us pushing ourselves to the limit to ride every single thing we could at Epcot then buy a park hopper pass over to Magic Kingdom.

Now, I am not saying I didn’t enjoy our adventure, it was amazing!  But in retrospect, it might have been slightly crazy to start at 8 am and go to midnight, non stop.

We had a blast.

And we stopped when the kiddo wanted to, Terry and I enjoyed sitting while Sugarwings explored some areas.  It wasn’t complete competition to set a record for most rides rode in one day.  Terry hung in with us til evening, and I was skeptical about staying ourselves, we had a few moments of exhausted irritation, but we rallied, snacked, and kept rolling. I’m glad we did.  Late nights at Magic Kingdom, when the crowds thin after the fireworks are pretty, well, magical.

There was very little shopping til the rides closed at 11pm, and stores stayed open til midnight.  But we aren’t there for souvenirs.

(By the way, the two little buildings on each side of the castle, make for ideal photo ops)

Here is our breakdown:

Over 25 rides

Over 33,000 steps

16 hours

2 parks

And yes, I woke up slightly tired the next morning. But we had some time to spend between when we had to leave the campground, drive to St Augustine and check into our rental house.  

Disney Springs has RV parking around back, and seemed like a good place to while away an hour or so.

It was still early, and Gideon’s Bakeshop was just opening, already with a 30 minute wait.  Later it becomes so long that they take your name and call you back, sometimes hours later. Really?  Hours to wait for a cookie?!

Oh, but it is quite wonderful inside.

Quite.

Since we avoided lines all day at the parks, I figured 30 minutes for a cookie wasn’t bad.

I would show you the cookies, but they were so good, they disappeared before I got a photo.

If you get a chance, you should get one.  And one to share is probably plenty because they are 1lb each.  

Genuine gemstone mosaic

This mosaic backsplash felt like a huge job, but actually was completed in bits and spurts over the course of a week.

The boards were set out on my table like a jigsaw puzzle that I pieced together whenever I had a spare hour of time.  

First, I measured the spot, then I had Masonite cut to fit the area.  I drilled holes where I wanted to screw it into the wall, and left those spots blank while adding stones.

Then, I used a sharpie to draw a design that I promptly ignored and started placing stones in posy shapes.

I started with the largest flowers, working out from the center of the board, where the faucet of the sink would be.  Then spaced large flowers throughout the Masonite.  

Next came medium flowers, then small ones, and finally the darker pearls, petals, and leaves.

The stones are glued down with silicone.  After the adhesive dried I brought the mosaic in to see how it was going to look and decide on grout color.  I had been proud of myself for having a continuous design in the corner from piece to piece, but didn’t allow for the thickness of the beads.

oops

When I first measured the materials, the boards butted up against each other, now with grout and beads, they don’t.  Oh well, caulking fixed the crack, and it doesn’t really bother me too much that the backsplash is about a 1/2” longer than the vanity top. 

Grouting was HARD.  Really hard, because of the different heights of the stones.

 I worked on 6” sections at a time so I could get each bit polished up nice before it dried too hard.

The grout is Bone, and I used a matching caulk to seal the Masonite, trim out the edges, and cover the screw holes.  Honestly, I think the flowers would’ve stood out better with a darker grout, more like the color of the board they were on, but I needed it lighter to flow with the rest of the room.  And that was important.

Grout can be such a mystery to me.  I don’t do enough mosaics to know exactly how the added background color will affect the piece.  No matter what color though, it sure makes it look finished and professional.  Adding grout to a mosaic is the equivalent of adding mulch to a flower bed.  It just makes it look more pulled together. 

My sis, Terry, has recently moved and cleared out her craft supplies before going.  She gifted me with an amazing stack of jewel filled boxes, that inspired this creation.  I had many of the beads myself, but getting her largesse gave me the idea to make a project with it instead of necklaces. 

I thought I’d feature a few flowers and use mosaic glass as a background. But once I got going, I loved the gemstones so much, that I made the entire piece with just those.  I found bags of real pearls and some other extras at an antique store nearby, and that was just what I needed to complete it.  I would hate to know what these gems would cost retail!  Terry and I had both shopped wholesale markets and catalogs for the ones we had.  Still, this would’ve cost me a pretty penny if I hadn’t been gifted with such pretty beads.  Thanks, Terry!

Here is a list of what I used:

• labradorite
• opal
• moonstone
• mother of pearl
• pearl
• larimar
• herkimer diamond
• quartz
• agate
• amazonite
• topaz
• aquamarine
• shell
• flourite
• abilone

In praise of gallery walls

As an artist, I seem to have a proliferation of stuff to go on my walls. As a person who enjoys taking pictures, and has very cute grandfairies, I also want their photos up there too.  

So, groupings are how I usually handle that.  The trouble is, I hate to get rid of old pictures that I love, but new ones keep coming along.   On this wall, I added a few of our family fairy pictures to the existing  collection.

We are in the process of redoing Rich’s office.  My talented son put this floor in over the holiday, and it has been a huge improvement over the old carpet.  
Previously, Rich had a gallery wall of barn wood framed family photos that he wants back up again.  While they are down, I’m sprucing them up and switching a few out.  (Photos to come when the room is done.)

Then, he had another request.

He wants our parents and grandparents on display too.

It is sweet of him to want this, so I have been working on a display that complements the other family wall but doesn’t match it.

I’d had big plans for painting some large landscapes to hang up there (we are out of room everywhere else) but like I said, this is sweet of him to want.  He also wants to hang work mementos that I thought would be leaving, so I guess I won’t be painting landscapes for the room.

Looks like I’ll be sticking to roses to hang elsewhere.  He deserves a space that is just as he wants it, since he deals with my stuff running rampant through the rest of the house.

And I have learned that he has some good ideas, too.  I hated the thought of getting this dining table, to replace my all white one, and now am happy to have it.

Rich had a favorite tree fall down, and wanted to keep a piece of it forever, so we had this made.

See what I mean?  He is very sweet.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you are having a day full of gratitude and blessings.

And a tummy full of pie!

 

 

 

 

I did get a photo

On an earlier post I showed this shirt in progress and said I didn’t have a finish of it completed.  But then, I saw this one and realized I was sorta wrong.  There is more to the design, with leaves and embellishments on the other side of the shirt too.   But at least I did have a picture of this flower finished.

Pink Roses Galore

I’ve been on a pink roses kick. This one was done this week.  
(The rose on the left side, second row down needs work, huh?  A bit wonky)

Here is a close up.  I like the layers and depth in this one.  It’s a little different than the others I painted before my trip.

This shirt got an embroidered rose.  But not pink!

 I didn’t get a final picture before giving it away, this is a “during” photo.  You can see the drawing, done in water washable marker, but as I work on these things, I don’t always follow my sketches, so it turned out a bit different.

I can’t remember if I showed you some of the other paintings.

As you can tell, they all kinda look alike. I showed one to Kia and she said, “Didn’t you just paint that one last week?”

The WRONG Way to Dry Hydrangeas, oops

This season, my hydrangeas did poorly.

Not just poorly- they sucked.  Most didn’t survive the winter, even though I brought pots into the breezeway, and the newer plants hardly produced blooms.

But look at what my sister let me picked from her bushes!

I harvested them, smashed the stems and put them into water for a few days.  It should’ve gone well, and the color would’ve held since they were picked at just the right time.

But…

While trying to protect the delicate flowers, I ruined them.

Wouldn’t you think that a hard sided cooler would keep them safe on a long drive?  Uhm, no.

Apparently the moisture content along with being in a closed space in a hot car, was the wrong way to go.  They were a soggy, dripping mass of brown when I freed them from the humid box.

Dang it.

But they did dry and keep their shape, they just lost that beautiful, fall toned glow over night.  Still pretty, but not gorgeous like they were.  

Dang it.

(The two larger China pieces were found on my trip, $10 each!)