Karla's Cottage

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!)

 

 

 

My favorite planter

Quite a few years back, we took out a couple of trees.  Being thrifty, we left the stumps, because if you’ve ever paid to have two trees removed, you’d understand why we were feeling the need for thrift.

At first, I used the stumps as platforms to set planters on, but after decaying over time, they started to sink inward. 

So I filled the hole that was developing with dirt and plants.

Over time, it kept sinking and rotting til it evolved into losing the entire front part of the stump.  I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, so I stacked rocks to build a wall and prolonged its use a while longer.

It was honestly much prettier this spring before the baby pups learned how to climb the rocks like a ladder to dig in the dirt.  I’m surprised that any of the begonias survived at all.  As fall approaches, I’m thinking about switching to mums in this, but I cannot kill the flowers that are still hanging on.  Maybe I can transplant them to a new pot.

Because this would look great filled up and blooming bigger.

And this might be my last year to enjoy this particular stump, there might not be much left of it after this winter.

 

 

Pretty stones

When Twinkle passed, I brought her home from the vet’s office to show her to the other dogs.  I knew they would look for her if I didn’t.  You might think it’s odd, but we showed Ryan’s body to our pets too. They were overly excited about a room filled with paramedics and other professionals during a pandemic when they hadn’t been around many people, so it wasn’t exactly a moving moment. 

But at least they knew why Uncle Ryan wasn’t around for ear scratches and walks any more.

It would’ve been easier to have Twinkle cremated, my husband was out of town and it was 100 degrees that day.  But I hated to think of the other dogs always looking for her and not knowing where she was.

I buried her next to Ryan’s memorial tree.  

A dear friend and her daughter had engraved and painted rocks for me and I’d been planning on placing them by this oak.  I am glad I hadn’t done it yet, they were just what I needed to top Twinkle’s grave.

I used some of the rocks in planters too.  

Ryan is never out of my thoughts, but I still like to have little trinkets and mementos of him around me.

 

 

 

 

April Showers Bring May Flowers

My birthday is in May and Mom used to say “April showers bring May flowers” to me when I was little.  I loved it, and thought she made it up just for me.  

This year, May will be hard, but I am focusing on why I have always loved this month and will try to get outside and enjoy those flowers and everything else springtime brings.

While visiting Indiana, my sister gave me her curtains since she switched to new ones.  I thought the lovely, rosy pattern on my favorite blue would be just the splash of spring that I needed, so I turned the curtains into slipcovers for my sofa.

Maybe calling them slipcovers is too generous of a term.... they are just pillow cases, no closures, darts, or anything that takes skill.  Simply rectangles sewn together on three sides with couch pillows in them.

But cheerful, right?  Thanks for the curtains and inspiration, Sissy!

 

 

There is more to Florida than beaches, seafood, and amusement parks?

Usually, when I go to Florida, it’s either beaches, Harry Potterworld, or Disney.  And I go to lots of seafood restaurants.  On this visit, I saw more of the inner parts of the state, but I did make drives to the beaches on most days, and still ate more than my fair share of seafood.

Our plans changed and our trip was delayed because we got our Covid vaccines, a happy reason to reschedule.  But because of that, I couldn’t book the best camp spots we wanted and had to make the best of it since the reservations were last minute.

We accidentally stayed AN HOUR from the beach in Bradenton.  It was a great KOA, but much further away from the water than I wanted to be.

We were in the heartland, and the campground felt almost like we were back home in Kansas.  I guess I didn’t realize just how large Bradenton was, and only thought of it as a gulf town.  (Maybe I should’ve looked at the map, huh?)

Hunsader Farms had a lot to offer, even if it wasn’t what I had thought I was getting.  

I have to admit, that I was a tad bit cranky when I realized exactly how isolated the place was when we arrived.  But after hanging out, it grew on me.

There was a U Pick Em zinnia field and strawberry patch, and I not only got to eat juicy berries to my hearts content, and fill the camper with fresh flowers, I was able to walk the dogs to the colorful field and get some portraits of them.

It really was pretty there.  Once I let myself enjoy it and stop being resentful about my booking mistake, I was glad to be there.

We even found a seafood tiki bar nearby on the water.

It was a lake, not my beloved ocean, but the place was delicious and fun.

Plus an hour to get to Point of Rocks at Siesta Key is much better than 20 hours from Kansas.

And we weren’t any further from one of the best off leash dog beaches I’d ever been to.

We all loved that leg of our journey.

 

I ❤️ these people

The wing project the Miss Tree gifted the family with at Winter Solstice is a gift that never ends.  Not only did we have day after day of fun with creating the wings, I made captured and framed fairies for the mantel from one of our two adventures in fairy dress up parties.

She has become a master wingmaker (Katie, you need an Etsy shop!) and crafted these for my son, to look like oak leaves.

He and Dewdrop were here for a much too quick visit, and while at the cottage, he took the time to remake my garden entryway.  The vines put up years ago had started to fall, and most of the twinkle lights had given up their glow.

More native grape vines were gathered in the woods and he came up with the idea of forming a heart instead of just a random design.

See how he incorporated the scrolls of the fence to complete the point of the heart?

I’ll have more pictures of our dress up night, and of the projects I make with the photos later on.  Because like I said, the wing party from Katie just keeps on giving.  I can’t wait to add more fairies to my fireplace mantel.

Plus pics of the fabulous heart with blooming vines growing around it this summer!  Won’t that be lovely?

Thank you, Katie and Adam, for the beauty you bring to my world.