Karla's Cottage

May baskets, that may be a bit late

 
It might be closer to June than May, but little peat pot baskets are nice any time of year, right?

I didn’t get them delivered by May Day either. 

My buddies and I met up for a socially distant walk on a trail, and I brought each a baggie of home made body scrub/bath salts (it can be used either way). I made it with Epsom salts, sugar, coconut oil, and a drop or two essential oil for scent.  No measuring, I simply stir with my hands til it feels good, then try it out in the sink to see if it needs a little more of something or another.  

The peat pots have pipe cleaner handles inserted into a hole punched on each side of the pot with the ends twisted into place.  Flowers were twisted onto the wires.

I glued a bit of ephemera to the front each pot.  Then crumpled up some dyed coffee filters and used those as a liner for the bags of salts.  

Don’t the filters look like roses blooming in the pots? And, seriously, it is simply three coffee filters rumpled and stuffed into a peat pot.  The prettiness just happens on its own, no skill needed.  

I keep dyed filters on hand because of their many uses.  And the fact that they come in packs of 100, so when I dye them, I do a lot!  I have used Rit dye, Fiber reactive dye, watercolor, or just plain old food coloring, whatever is handy.  I dip them in and hang them to dry, then stack them up and store in the studio.  I love to have different colors on hand to ruffle up and use in craft projects or like this, to line gift packages, instead of tissue paper.  

 

Birthday Party Decor Without a Trip to the Store

There are many things that social distancing has made more complicated.  And hosting a birthday party was one of them.  Sugarwings spends time between our household and her mom’s, so our two groups have been able to mingle, but sadly, we could not have other family members over to celebrate with us.

We also couldn’t pop into a store for last minute items, like the balloons that Sugarwings wanted for the table.  She loves planning our family parties, and is the one who set this up.

We did have one last package of water balloons leftover from last summer, the kind that come in a big bunch, that you hook up directly to a faucet to fill up.

She could have taken each off its stem and blown it up, but we decided balloons filled with water could be extra fun.  We floated them in clear glass bowls and used them as a centerpiece.  

There were some banner pieces packed away, but not anything personal, so the Grand Fairy printed some dragons to hang onto the banners.  And we agreed that the colorful dragons tied in the color of the balloons to the banners.

But the best part of the meal was the dolce de leche cheesecake that our Hippy Chick spent all afternoon working on.  She came over to our house to bake it, and that added to the festive feel of putting a party together.

We missed the rest of our big family, but know that staying away, and staying healthy now means we will be celebrating with them later when all of this ends.

A Decorated Loaf of Flatbread

Lately, I have been seeing some lovely loaves online and thought I would give it a try myself.  

I made a batch of dough, same way I usually do, then pressed half of it flat onto a cookie sheet.  
I used basil, rosemary, and thyme for the stems and leaves.  Grape tomatoes, zucchini,  and slices of peppers were the flowers.After putting it together, I thought it needed more, and added slices of black olives to the center of the zucchini flowers.

I probably should have taken more time to cut the peppers into better petal shapes, but these were fine, if not exactly right.

It got sprayed it with olive oil cooking spray, sprinkled Italian seasoning over that, and let it rise before baking.

 

The bread baked up nicely, and we sliced it with a pizza cutter. The full branches of thyme made nice stems, but were a bit much.  Although easily picked off before eating. The sticks came away, with the leaves still mostly on the dough.

Sugarwings wasn’t a fan of most of the toppings.  She turned the other half of the loaf into twisted breadsticks and a single piece of flatbread with just basil, which she does like.

It turned out better than our Easter Bunny Bread, which was cute as a dough rabbit. (Before rising)

After it rose, it looked like Burl Ives in Rudolf. 
After baking, he looked like Burl had been beaten up.

I might stick to floral scenes....

My Favorite Tree

When I planted this tree as a little baby, I had no idea it was two trees in one.

Half pink, half white in the spring, and in the fall, it produces two tones of berries.  The leaves are even different shades of green.

At this point, I can’t remember if I thought I was buying white or pink.  But I am happy to get a bonus color that I didn’t expect.

 

A springtime walk with a surprise heart

Ryan and I walk along this pond as often as we can.  For the first time, we noticed that the fountain forms a heart shaped splatter.  Is it new, or had we never paid attention?  

It isn’t from the wind, as I first thought, because it has been like this all week.

Our property has a couple of fields that border I70. My husband keeps bees out there, and while walking up the hill to walk across the bridge, we had a nice view of his set up through the blooming redbuds.

He has a chair nearby and likes to spend time watching them at work.

Only one chair, I’m afraid that I am not a bee watcher.

This view was less pleasant.

We reached the top of the overpass bridge, and were disturbed by the lack of traffic. It was a reminder that our country is not itself right now.  

Strangely quiet.

My walk was emotionally charged, with a flow of feelings from the sad reminder of the empty roads to the hopeful heart in the pond.  

Of course, these days, our emotions are on high alert.  I am trying to stay balanced, while acknowledging the difficulties and fears, still enjoying all of the happy moments of hope that I find.

 

January Decorating

After all of the glorious, gaudiness of the Christmas decor at my house, I kind of like my Januaries to be low key. It is a good time to dust, and shuffle things around, and to leave some things simply put away, not even used.

And to add some natural elements to remind me that spring and growing things will have to return someday, and that winter won't last forever.

Even if the icy cold feels like it is a life sentence...

Last fall, I bought some succulents at a garden center clearance for 99 cents a pot. After stashing them in my husband's office for the holidays, I was happy to see the cheerful greenery and bring it back into the house to brighten up a cold winter day.

This is where we spend way too much time since my husband retired and it has gotten so cold out.  He builds a fire, we pile dogs on our laps and drink coffee every morning in front of the fire before we get on with our days.  

Part of my move for simplicity, is leaving this table bare and functional for books and newspapers.

The mantle is kinda halfway simple, well for me at least.  It seems full, but usually is has a lot more going on.  I leave the angel wings up through Valentine's Day and keep the colors mostly muted. But I did add one little, oval painting that reminds me that springtime is real, and that I will get through this freezing season.

Winter is just not my deal. I make up all sorts of excuses to not leave the house and keep errands to a minimum.  Now that I have a house husband, it is even more tempting to sit by a fire and ignore the rest of the world.  I might even be growing to like winter.

Well, maybe just this cozy aspect of winter. Not the howling Kansas winds and ice.  I will never, ever be able to enjoy that.

Hope you are staying warm and coping too!

Taking a break to paint

Do you ever just make something for the pure joy of making it? In the past, I’ve operated that way, made what I wanted, then found a purpose for it, or not.    
But it seems like my life as an artist had mostly dissolved into taking care of the house, the family, the dogs, upcoming classes, or gathering things to sell.  

Then, the other day, I decided to paint some flowers.

For no reason, and I had other things to do, too.

It was a nice reminder to stay in contact with my inner artist.  So I framed and hung it where it would keep reminding me to take breaks from too much to do, and just create for the plain, old love of creating.

Sometimes it’s the little things

Our local grocery store sells marked down bundles of flowers every Monday.  They are $1.99, no matter the size.

This time the bunch of blooms was extra large.

I spread them out into four vases and they brought me so much more than $2 worth of pleasure!

 

 

 

And another redone mural

While I was redoing a canvas for the Guncles, I thought I would touch this one up too.  I don’t have a before, because I hadn’t planned on painting it, I just kinda started in on it while working on the other one (previous post).

It didn’t get a big overhaul.   I changed the sign to my blog name, brightened and sharpened up some details.

Added a rosemary plant and some roses.

This hangs over the fuse box in my garage, because, well, what else do you do with giant 6’ paintings?

Updates to repurpose a canvas

Years ago, I had painted a canvas with a French market scene to use as a backdrop/divider for a booth at a show.  It was a quickie, and not meant to be too detailed.

Here is the original.  I have had it hanging in my garage, but have never really liked it.  When Guncle Randy needed a French themed mural, I offered to give it to him.

But of course, that meant that I wouldn’t like it any better when I saw it at his house.

So, I spent an afternoon brightening it and adding details.

Including his Bichon, Bella, peeking out of the window.

And his address in French, on the wall.

(the sign isn’t really crooked, the canvas has a few billows, here and there that throw off the perspective in photos)

I like it better now.  I think he will use it in his patio tent for a French themed dinner party  or maybe to hang on the garden fence?  

It is canvas and acrylic, so would be fine outdoors.  But over time, could cause moisture to be trapped behind it and the fence would rot, so that couldn’t be permanent.