Karla's Cottage

Overflowing

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

More hearts

We all need someone to lean on sometime, don’t we?  Ryan was my rock, and I used to lean on him a lot.  These hugging, rock hearts made me think of how he used to be that for me.

I mentioned in my last post that the puppy sitting job was good for my soul.  Besides the wreck and worries about the horrendous hurricane, I have been missing my boy so much lately.  

I always do.

 He is there in my heart at all times.  Some weeks, grief is just a low key, background noise.  Other times, it’s an all encompassing heartache, and others, a sweet little smile to myself over a memory or a moment I know he would have enjoyed.  

Lately, his loss has been heavy.  I try to pick out reasons why this happens, like waking up in the morning and piecing together what that weird dream I’d just had was about.

The stirred up grief can be from so many elements.  I think they are now called triggers, but I dislike that term.  It sounds harsh and scary.  



After feeling extra bereft, I decided to take a walk on his favorite trail, which I had been avoiding for months. As I turned the corner around the pond, I remembered why I never go that way.  There is a wet area that never dries, even in a drought, that section of the path remains slimy and slippery.  Ryan always took my elbow as we crossed there.  Now, I know I am getting older, but I’m not a frail little old lady and I used to tell him I didn’t need any help.  He responded the same way each time- “You are my mom, and I love you.”

As I stepped across the mossy slime this day, without Ryan by my side, (and sobbing because he wasn’t) Sugar spotted a goose and lunged for it, pulling the leash and pulling me behind her as I hydroplaned through the gucky spot.

It was surprising that I didn’t fall and get yet another concussion.  And as I was thinking how lucky I was I looked out at the pond and saw many floating hearts made of clumps of algae.

Maybe Ryan had still been protecting me after all.  And left a sign that said he loved me.

 

 

 

 

Hidden Hearts

I have always enjoyed finding shapes in nature.  Especially hearts.  Or fairy wings.  
Typically, I take a photo of the heart and leave it, but some I pocket, like this one from the dog park.  


They have taken on even more meaning since we lost Ry.  He used to be enthusiastic about the ones I’d see when out on our walks together.  I can hear his voice every time I find one now.

 “That’s so cool, Mom!”

So this broken heart really stood out and caught my eye. It shows how I’ve felt since Ryan left.  Still holding it together, but forever broken.

And lookee here at this one!  On Molly’s hip.  She’d had an ouchie and as it healed, the hair grew back as more golden retriever hair than poodle/doodle hair.  And a darker color too. 

“That’s so cool!”

The rest of the ice resin

While in Florida, I found a never ending treasure trove of hearts on Walton Rocks beach near Ft Pierce.  Some rocks, some shells, all eliciting squeals of joy from me.  These were found in three trips.

 I had big plans for a beachy toned display, but then decided I wanted to fill this black tray and use it in Ryan’s apartment.  I pressed the hearts into tile adhesive which was a sandy gray tone.

Sorry, no pics of that stage.  But- the hearts all sorta disappeared into the background and the adhesive was blah.  So, I tried some gemstone flakes in aqua shades, still not enough contrast.

I decided to use fluorite chips for more distinction.  I’m not a person who has much purple in their life, but I have nothing against the color.  And Ry’s room has pops of bright colors in it to brighten up the grays, so in theory it should work.

But overall, it was just kinda messy.  I should’ve done something else with my treasures.  Plus, the hearts were all different thicknesses and it wasn’t functional as a tray, and too heavy to be a wall hanging.

That is when I decided to use ice resin.  Which was a good idea, but maybe I should’ve used more?  There are still some high points.  But, overall, it did make the tray more functional.

Many of the rocks had holes, and I tucked heart shaped garnets (Ryan’s birthstone) into them before pouring on the resin.

Ryan would’ve liked it, and I am enjoying using some colors in his room that I don’t typically use in my cottage.  And I think I will probably try out more resin projects in the future.

A framed stained glass mosaic by Shanna- Thanks, Shan!

This lovely surprise was created by my good friend and Artist, Shanna Wagner.  I love everything she makes, but this one is even more wonderful because it is jam packed with meaning.

I can just picture his reaction, if he’d seen this.  He had an appreciation for artwork.  And for kind people.

The heart in the center is a fused piece she made in her kiln.

It is surrounded by roses, iris,  hydrangeas,

and two bluebirds of happiness!

It was made to fit this antique frame, that is just perfectly wonderful itself.

And it is created to hang either in a window to let the sunlight through, or on a wall, with lights behind it.

Ryan loved red roses and purple iris.  Funny, I’d known him forty years before I knew how much he enjoyed flowers.  We’d stop to look at them along our walks.  There were iris growing by the pond we liked to circle, over and over, and he commented every time when the purple iris were in bloom.

There was so much I learned about my boy in his last few years, I wonder what else I’d have discovered if I had more time with him?

Shan isn’t just generous with her art, she is with her time, home, and materials too.  She invites friends into her studio weekly to have a mosaic day.  Here is my piece in progress.

I saved the vases that flowers were delivered to us in after Ry Guy died.  I hope to cover them all in mosaic glass to use throughout our home and his apartment.  And I know that he would have said, “Wow, Mom, that is cool!”

While there is much I will never get to discover about him, I love it that I know enough to hear his voice in my head, picturing what I know he would say to me about something like these mosaics.

 

The prettiest rock, ever

My last post was about this lazy Susan crafted from sliced geodes, that I felt was an extravagant, but happy purchase.  Well, my husband topped that gift that I gave to myself, with a beautiful surprise for our anniversary.

It is the ultimate in heart shaped rocks!  A blue crystal geode that seems to have a natural shape that has been enhanced with polishing.

That makes my own heart pitter.

I promptly displayed it with some other special rocks and think it is an ideal addition to my lazy Susan.

This is a quartz crystal heart that I have had for years, but had never noticed the shape until the puppies flipped it over in a flower pot.  When they showed me that it was a heart, I brought it in the house where it belongs.

One edge is a little sharp, not softly rounded as it should be, but since it was pointed out to me by dogs, you have to give it some leeway, right?  It might not be perfect, but I thanked them for it and forgave them for decimating my flower pot.

And do you see the broken heart outlined with a dark vein in the tall geode?  Top right. That one is from an estate sale earlier this summer.

I only gave Rich an Apple Watch for our anniversary and he gave me the prettiest rock I have ever seen.  Poor guy, he didn’t get nearly the personal gift that I did. 

Catabwa Falls, Asheville

We took both dogs up the trail to Catawba Falls to see the waterfall.

Along the way, my son watched for edible treats the woods had to offer.

While my eyes scan for heart shaped rocks or stones to craft a riverbank fairy, he is on the lookout for mushrooms and berries.

While he found very few on this walk, he marks the spots where they were to check back later.

Molly was a perfect trail dog.  Dorothy needed a lift for a great deal of the way.

Although she did enjoy the trip, even if her tiny legs needed a break.  I am going to get a sling/carrier for her for future trips.  Since her littermate and mama died, she can’t be left behind, the poor girl needs to have us around.

I see more hiking in her future.

 While we found the scenery scrumptious, we were far from the only viewers.  This place was packed as you got up toward the higher spots.  The trails that led upward weren’t bad, but once you hit the start of the falls, it gets crowded as everyone stops to enjoy them.

Because of the Covid upticks, we wanted to avoid being in a mass of humanity, so we settled into a little rocky pool, not too high up where we had a private place to enjoy the river and still see the falls up in the distance.

I applaud people for wanting to be in outdoor locations now, but man.  That was a lot of them!  Still, we had many peaceful moments.  You can skirt crowds if you make an effort.

And if there are going to be multitudes of hikers passing by, I probably should consider wearing makeup. Oh well.

Downtown Asheville is equally busy, but we managed a scenic hike through it while keeping mostly distant, and masking.

It’s been years since I had time to check out the area, and it’s not just vibrant and bust, it’s funky and fun too.

My favorite building?

My son did the carpentry trim on this one, of course it gets my vote!

He also made rock fairies with me while we relaxed at the falls.  What a sweet son.