Karla's Cottage

A little chance to do some painting

A friend posted a back to school photo of her and her mini me.  It was a perfect little snapshot of joy.

 I loved it so much, I just had to do a quick mixed media sketch of it. I will be gifting this to her next time I see her.

While my paints were out, I decided to do a rose painting for a kind soul who had gifted me with boxfuls of treasures during her de-stashing.  I could never express my full gratitude for her generosity enough.  I hope she knows how much it was appreciated.  

I wracked my brain to figure out what to send as a thank you.  Because of her major clean out, I thought she probably wouldn’t want more “stuff”, but a card was not enough.  After perusing her IG, and seeing how much she loved gardening, so I am hoping that this flower will be something she likes.

 

 

 

Painting with grout? Yep

For years, I have been using the grand fairies’ outgrown craft table as a side table in my living room.  Not because I loved it, but because it was the exact size I needed at the holidays to set the Christmas tree up on.  It wasn’t ugly, it was just a simple, round, white table.  But it wasn’t anything I adored, that’s for sure.

Then, I found this table at a garage sale for FREE.  Well, basically free.  The lady sold me an entire car load of stuff for twenty bucks, and the car was stuffed to the brim.  I felt like this table was a bonus thrown in with all the inventory I’d bought.

Here is how it started, perfectly nice, no problems, just a little too traditional for me.

I wanted it to look old.  Well, that’s not exactly right because it already is old.

It needed to look like it had been painted and repainted over time.  More cottagey.

So, first it was primed, then I mixed up grout into gray paint and gave it a thick, gloopy coat of that. Next, white paint, then sanding the clumps away.  There were some ugly spots that didn’t sand well, so I touched up with the white again, then a glaze of umber went over it all and was wiped away.  

To finish, a polycrylic clear coat went over that.

The paint looks properly mistreated now.

My Christmas tree will look great on its new pedestal!  And I think I do adore this one.  Bye-bye to the kiddo’s craft table.

 

 

A flamingo of a different color

 A box of flamingos was gifted to me through a friend who’d had them first given to her.  They seemed to be just what I needed for my summer display at Good Juju.

But first, the flock needed a group makeover.  I sprayed them with a bonding primer, painted them with acrylic craft paints, then wired and glued flowers to their tummies.

Uhm, you might have noticed our grass.  Or lack of it, I should say.  My husband retired from working at the world’s largest country club company, so he knows grass and the principles of growing a perfectly groomed, lush expanse of it, but we just don’t care that much out here in the country.  If I could, I’d have all ground covers, dandelions, and clover without a single blade of grass.  

Anyway, back to my feathered friends- ta dah!  Previously, I’d had some umbrellas with flowers in my booth, then used those for garden party decor.  

After leaving them outside in a storm, they were done for.  And of course, I can’t waste anything, so I pulled the flowers off and reused them on these gals.

I don’t know if anyone else notices the displays I create up high, but I sure get a lot of joy in making them.  

Mushroom paintings

The other day, my husband was building a new raised garden bed for us and was using old fencing around it to keep the hens out.   He left a pile of these trimmed pieces on the ground after adjusting the fence height.  They caught my eye.

The wood was just what I needed for some little mushroom paintings that I’d been thinking about doing.

I scrubbed then sealed the old wood, front and back, before painting on it.  Then added my schroomies.

The paintings are pretty simple, so I was able to keep the cost down.  I’d like to do more, I enjoyed these and I have got a bucket full of wood trimmings to use.  But between my concussion and not knowing if theses will sell well or not, I’m holding back on making more for now. (How mature and unexpected of me)

The garden beds turned out wonderfully! Once we get some dirt and get started, I’ll be sharing those.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new look for old Christmas ornaments

Sometimes an inspiration comes from one simple idea.  Other times things just fall into place as you are going and it all just seems like you planned it out, but you didn’t, it just came together. 

I had been gifted this magnificent buffet, with inlaid MOP, burned wood, and a pure white, marble top.  It is nicer than any piece of furniture I’d have ever bought for myself, and I wanted to highlight it for the holidays

To honor the lovely wood, I thought I’d go more natural with the tree I usually set in that area.

Well, natural for me at least.  They’re  still sparkly silver!  But the decor is centered around nature and family.  Birds from my Mom’s house, hand made bird ornaments from friends, deer, fairies, stars, and  lots of pinecones, from the day Ryan and I gathered them together.

Every time I think of that day, I have to laugh, it had been so funny for us, freezing, while stuffing pinecones in pockets and inside jackets while the big doodle dog pulled on the leash and I slid down the sidewalk, with Ryan trying to hold me back.  
We laughed so hard and joked about it for months, every time we walked by there.  
Of course, it was also the day the dog jerked the leash and messed up my shoulder, but we were still laughing and I remember rolling on the wet ice, laugh crying at one point.

I have only been brave enough to walk on the trail where we found those pinecones a couple of times this year.  And one time resulted in the same laugh/crying on the ground again.  This time, all alone.  And the pain from the loss of Ryan is much worse than a torn rotator cuff.

The Christmas after Ryan died, I returned to our spot and gathered up every pinecone I could find.  Almost as if I could NOT leave any behind, they were all symbols of Ryan and I and where we used to spend so much time together.  So now, I have a lifetime supply of pinecones and they will always be a part of my winter decorating.

This Christmas, I filled the bowl of this garden planter (free at a a garage sale!) with lights and my precious memory pinecones and added a tree filled with hand painted ornaments I’d made for my boy over the years.

When my boys were little, I was a single mom working as a waitress and depending upon my own mom for help.  At the holidays, I would paint dozens of glass balls to sell to anyone I could to raise money to buy gifts for my kids. I never left the house in December without a boxful and was even known to approach strangers in parking lots to sell these. 

And every season, I painted and dated one for each family member.  

The ones I did for my boys were very 80s themed!

Ha, Gremlins and ET!

He loved Frosty and Rudolf.  Ryan loved shows all of his life and it’s fun for me to look back through these and realize just how many were based upon his favorite movies that year.

And as he got older, his first car, the horrid, orange, “Punkin”.

I haven’t unboxed the family ornaments in years, they haven’t been my style or fit in with my current trees.  And I was saddened to see so many were missing. And I wondered why I quit this tradition.  But I am lucky to have these.

Even this heart breaker.

How to make zombie dolls

Recently, I asked around for dolls to turn into witches, and got a number of vintage ones from a friend, as well as finding some while junking.  Some were ideal to turn into witches, some were just too nice.  The ones in excellent condition with perfect hair will be Christmas angels, and the ones that were a little scruffy became my Halloween witches.  

But the beat up beyond repair gals?

ZOMBIES!

Witches can be cute, but zombies need to be creepy.  So anyone missing limbs, or with big cracks was ideal to use.

Adorablely cute dolls made sweet witches.

But a crack like this is hard to get past.

I discovered that the cracked face on these old dolls could peel off like the shell of a boiled egg.

Underneath was a rough, porous material that needed just a little sanding to make sure the glue was off before painting.

With appendages, I cracked off some of the “shell” and painted those like wounds.

Same with the torso.  I left most of the hard layer on and painted the edges to look like cuts.

After painting the doll, I use old, tattered doll clothes along with some vintage elements to dress her.  The clothing gets some tears and cuts plus dirty and bloody paint splotches.

I glued her legs on at odd angles so she would look stiff, like a zombie shuffling around.  

All of the dolls were fun to recreate into new looks, but I have to admit, I really got into the zombies!

The Witchie girls were a similar process, but I made sure to use smooth skinned dolls without cracks.  If the skin tone was discolored or stained, I painted them green.

They were hard to stop working on, I could’ve made dozens.  I can’t wait til it’s time to make the angels too.  But for now, I’ll just make a pile of witch hats to sell, the ones I took to the mall were gone quickly. I sold a couple dolls, but mostly, they just got photographed a lot.  I think that means people were going to try to create their own? Well, if so, here are the steps to follow.

Juju Preview

In my last post I mentioned that I got my booth set up at Good Juju before my trip to Indy.  I have more to add, and hopefully will get it there before the sale this Friday and Saturday. 

My Halloween theme is in full force, with pumpkins and witches everywhere.

I especially love these old sign letters that I found on a junking morning with the Guncles.  I’ve made BAT, EEK, BOO, and CROW with them.

And of course, more mushies in fall and Halloween colors.   Thank you to everyone who bought my tutorial to make their own.  Please send pics when you do!  

If you’d like to make one, you can find them here.

There are handmade witchy hats too.

Plus vintage things, of course.

With a spooky turn to them.

As you can tell, I have embraced fall colors.  Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate their beauty and have e corporates them into my style.

I hope you’ll be in to visit for the show!  Please drop by my booth to say hello if you do.

There are still all sorts of things I need to tag and bring in yet, so this isn’t all of it.

 

 

Sometimes a short cut repair is better than nothing

Our chicken coop/storage shed/cat dwelling sure was (and actually, still is) in bad shape.

Very

Bad

Shape

But with a few sheets of siding and less than two cans of paint, at least it isn’t an eyesore like it was.

Here it is as we got started. My husband had already began adding the siding to the bottom on the left before I remembered to get a photo.  He also emptied it out.

Yep, he did a clean up on the inside too!  That man is a keeper. (Unlike some of the spider webby piles of hoarded junk we found inside)

We know that the correct way to repair this structure would have been to pull all the siding off. It’s rotting.  But- so is the rest of the building and we aren’t ready to tear it all down and rebuild.  It’s still functional for what we needed.

What we did instead was cover up the worst part and paint the rest.  

Paint is magic.

After adding a slice of siding over the bottom, we thought a strip of trim would help it look more intentional instead of just bandaged.

Rich also trimmed off the most ragged of the ends of the roof boards and I painted over them too.  

See how bad they were to start with?  Also, years ago when I used this shed as an antique store, I’d painted vines around the entry, added cute aqua shutters, and a barn door as a canopy over the entry.  Well most of it rotted away with time, but those vines were still hanging in.  I’d used oil based paint, which is why I think it held up so well.  

To paint over them, I’d need to prime, but I still kind of liked them and the history of adding them, so instead, I got a small brush and painted around the leaves.

Same with the metal peacocks.  They had hung on that building for 30 years, from way back when we used to raise peafowl.  I had to leave those, they were history.

It isn’t done right, but it’s done good enough.  Sometimes you gotta just slap some lipstick on a pig and get on with things, right?  It’s better than it was. And at under $250 for the clean up, as opposed to the cost of demolition and rebuilding? 

I’m pretty happy with the cosmetic improvements.  This pig is much cuter with make up.

 

 

 

A new venture

I’m so excited to announce that I’ll be setting up my pretties at Good Juju, starting next Friday! It was a rather quick decision, and pretty bad timing because I’m dealing with the after effects of my doodle running joyfully at full speed across a field, straight into my head.

Yep, concussion time again.

I have not felt my best.  But because of this head injury, I had to cancel a trip, knowing that I couldn’t do the long drive.  Joining the Juju family has been on my mind, so when Pam welcomed me in, I thought I might as well go for starting right away in time for the next sale since I wasn’t going to be traveling after all.

So, I have been combing through my stash, sorting my jewels, stringing banners, and tying up papers to prepare.  I’ve had to take a lot of breaks, then stop by 4-5pm because of my eye strain and headache, but I have managed to pull together even more than I expected to.

I will have a small spot, so it wasn’t too hard to fill, even with a headache.   And as I feel better throughout this week, I hope to craft more items to bring in.

I’m also doing something new, a sort of “Charm Bar”.  I’ve made some sweet charms/pendants with a mix of vintage, crystals, and pretty bits and pieces.  Each is ready for a chain, or to be clipped onto a leather or silk cord that I have ready to go, clips added.  I love them, and think they will be excellent Mother’s Day or graduation gifts.

Since I am a bit confused now and then, I will not be working at the desk for the sale.  But I will be there to visit, please stop to say hi.

https://www.goodjujukc.com