Karla's Cottage

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

For me, Thanksgiving is just a speed bump on the way to Christmas.

It’s my husband’s favorite holiday, though. So over the years, Sugarwings’ and I would say, “We must respect the bird” and not go full on sparkle, tinsel explosion over the house til after the turkey is served.

For various reasons, I’ve had to decorate early any way, like a Snowbird Song event or a Holiday Home Tour and once that floodgate was open, I didn’t even pretend to have any tiny bit of respect for that dang turkey dinner.

I love my decorations and trees and want them up for the whole season, so I start the first week of November and enjoy it for as long as I can.

Our new chant? “We must respect the pumpkin!”

Also, being in retail, it’s smart to get a really early start on making stuff.  This year, I’m way behind due to my studio make over and a few other things going on.  I had big, big plans to fill my Boutique, but, oops.  That didn’t work out.  I made some goodies for Juju though, and am sure there will be things left.  But it might be too late to market them for this December.

 

Another Santa Redo and a possible mink hunt

I rescued another Santa Claus, this one only one foot, instead of four feet high.  So he was a bit easier to redo.  I’d love to restyle more little St Nicks, but I’m nearing the end of my white mink stash.  I’ve been using it for tiny collars on the dolls I remake into angels too.  A little bit goes a long way, and I’ve been tearing up that same tattered stole for years, but now, it’s time to either start hunting minks or find another craft.

For the Santas, I always start with ripping off the ugly patch of white fuzz that passes as a beard and replacing it with curly goat’s hair.  I cut away the hat, reshape it more to my liking (or make a new one) the replace it’s fake fur trim with mink.
 Now, I’m not against fake fur at all.  The problem is that on these dolls, it’s usually the cheapest, ugliest fake fur that the manufacturer could get away with.  There are some types that would be perfectly nice, but this stuff usually is so bad that it couldn’t even be good enough for carnival prize stuffed animals.

The jacket trim needs to go next, as well as the plastic belt.  For this guy, I added a panel of very old lace down his front and cut a strip of creamy suede to wrap around his bowl full of jelly, I mean, belly.  It fastens with a mother of pearl buckle glued into place.

Sometimes I use fur around the cuffs too, but since my supply is low, and also because it was pretty, I made cuffs of tattered velvet.  I was lucky with the jacket he wore, it was white brocade with silver thread and I kinda liked it, so left it as is.  Some stains and bad spots got covered up with the lace then velvet and the coat looked good as new.

He got a bleached tree to hold.  Its base is tied with a velvet ribbon so there was something stable to hold the glue when I put it in his hand.  Plus it’s a nice touch.

Since I am not a sewer, the Santas, like all of my fairies and angels, are glued into place.  I would be kicked off of Project Runway for sure, but it seems to be okay for these dolls, they have no complaints.  And I hate sewing, but love designing clothes for dolls from bits of vintage scraps.  So this is what works for me.

 

Nutcracker Ballet Creations

Over the years, I’ve collected ballet slippers, and this overflowing box of daintiness inspired a theme for one corner of my booth.

So I kept my eyes open to other items to fit in with a Nutcracker Ballet design.

I was thrilled to come across this toy solider outfit!

Then came across wooden nutcracker cut outs, perfect to embellish with vintage, sparkly bits, paint, and even white mink.

My grand fairies have out grown (in size and desire) all of their little pink tutus and dance costumes, so I felt like this display was a fitting farewell to the items.

One garage sale I visited this summer had these ballerina prints.  I added paint, glitter, and gemstones to them for a new life.

I made sweet, candy colored trees and sugarplum fairies, gathered up crowns and crafted some of my own crowns too.

My booth is SMALL. So the ballet goodies are all cozied up in a cabinet together with a little table in front.  Sugary sweetness is pouring out of every inch.

To pull it together, I copied sheet music from the show to use as back drops.

There are hand painted and embellished little nutcrackers too, but I don’t think I got photos.  Here are some ornaments I made with character images, glitter, and vintage paper.

This was such a fun idea to take and run with for the holiday.  I’ll let you know how it goes over at our First Friday weekend (which is still going on today). And I’ll leave you with a few more pics.

November set up for Good Juju

This week is First Fridays in the Old West Bottoms.

I was going for a winter wonderland look.

In front, I have traditional reds and greens with an old fashioned, childlike feeling.

One corner has a nutcracker ballet theme.

Besides the wooden, flat Stanley style, nutcrackers that I painted and embellished, I collected tutus, figurines, and decorated ballet slippers.

There is one cabinet across the booth that is still devoted to fall with some Thanksgiving flair.

This wall is centered on Trees.

And lots of them!

Here is a view of the fall section.  And my empty boxes and tubs next to it, oops.

These lanterns are filled with mini trees, deer, and snow.  I should get some close ups of my favorite creations.

Wait a minute, who am I kidding?  They are all my faves!  I love decorating for Christmas!

Return to the night of the Living Dead, the Downtown Lawrence Zombie Parade!

Over the last decade or so, October has come to be the month when I take a trip.

So, I often miss the downtown Lawrence Zombie parade.

I’ve gotten to go here and there, when the timing is right.  And the weather too. Typically, KS can be at its best on a late, October evening.  But could also be an onslaught of freezing rain, so you never know.

This year?  Perfection! And half the town agreed. The streets were as full of living people as they were of the dead.  

We were lucky to find not only a parking spot, but at seat outside at a favorite restaurant so we could eat dinner while enjoying the invasion of corpses.

That’s where our lucky streak stopped dead in it’s tracks.

The line was so long to get a bowl of ramen that we were given a number to be called out when it was our turn to wait to order.

Just about then, the lunch ladies stumbled by, but we stuck with our plan to wait and eat later.

It was too bad we didn’t get to slurp noodles and pretend they were guts, but hey, you can’t win them all.

And it was such a gory, good time. We didn’t mind waiting for dinner.  

We sat back in our perfect seats, guessed the back stories of the ghouls as they strolled by, and critiqued the acting.

Some of even the littlest kids were quite committed to their part.

But to me, it seemed like the people who were into it the most were grown men.  

Many walkers chatted away with others in their group.  Some played the part well, though  And this gal was on her phone.  Or was she purposely doing that because teenage girls are teenage girls weather zombified or not.

And teens do love their phones.  I can imagine that even turning  wouldn’t separate a young girl from her device.

When the walk was winding down, we tried to do a call in take out order for food just in case, but the wait was still quite long. And when we spied that the line was dwindling, we checked inside to find out they were out of noodles.

I don’t know how many zombies paraded through Lawrence, but we watched them lurch by for about an hour and a half.

They start at the south end of town, about 11th street, walk up one sidewalk to 6th, then down the other sidewalk back to their crypts, or cars, or wherever they end up.  

We noticed that many of them trickled into the downtown bars and restaurants after their hungry march, so the options for takeout just got smaller for us.

As we looked into the windows of restaurants we passed on the way to our car, we saw them full of hungry zombies.

We figured we’d be cooking at home, then noticed there was a lull in the line at Chipotle.

 I mentioned that I’d only eaten there once since Ryan died, it had been a favorite of his and held too many memories for me.  Back in January, Sugarwings had the idea to eat burritos and watch zombies on tv on Ryan’s birthday, and it had been emotional, but satisfying.

So we thought it was fitting to pick up a bag of food there to take home with us and watch something scary at home while eating in honor of him.  We walked right up to the counter, just to see the line immediately fill up behind us as the horde poured in to feed.  One more lucky stroke for us, and Sugarwings said Ryan was with us and had guided us that way.  He loved zombies and burritos, we would celebrate him with a dinner of Chipotle and more walking dead.

I was so glad that everything about the evening worked out like it did.  We almost didn’t go because someone, not naming names here, was late with a bit of schoolwork.

I told them that I really, really wanted to be there on time to get a seat, and reminded the kid of just how much I loved this event.  I said, “You know how much you love sea turtles?  I feel that way about zombies.  They are my favorite animal.  I’m sorry there isn’t a sea turtle parade to take you to, but you could finish your homework and take me to the zombie parade .”

Homework was completed, we got seats, parking, and even dinner.  (By the way, Sugarwings has some pretty good grades that need to be mentioned, I’m proud of that and they way the homework got finished in time).  

It was my idea of a lovely, fall evening.

 

Fall at the Cottage

With this week’s trip to a Florida, I’ll be missing some Halloween time, so I figured that I’d take advantage of friends visiting to spook up my house a bit.


The black and white violins that Guncle Randy and I made on his visit are still on the table, so I used them as part of the decor, added pumpkins, ravens, and then hung the ballerina bats above it all on the chandelier.

And anything looks better under glass. I love to fill my cloches with seasonal things.

The mushrooms have been renamed “poison toadstools” for October.

And OMG, look at the gourd shaped like a swan!  It’s a dark, almost black green that I’ll keep for now.  Next month, I’ll paint her pearl white and add a crown for winter.

My decorations were pretty easy.  I have one drawer that holds my autumn stuff, plus a few pumpkins I also use to give my Good Juju booth some fall flair.

Just enough to give the house a little pick me up.  That helps on these days that are getting a little chilly and shorter so that I’m inside more.  

Painted and glittered nutcrackers

 This weekend is the First Fridays shopping event in the Old West Bottoms.

While my spot is full on, Halloween/Thanksgiving/ Fall themed, I have to be ready to go for next month’s set up for the sale on 11/3-4 right after this sale.

November will be my winter wonderland and I’ve been so excited about it, I just can’t wait!  I get to play with all of my favorite things!

Glitter, trees, Santas, reindeer, sugarplum fairies!

There is a plan I’ve been impatiently waiting to implement that involves a whole Nutcracker/Sugarplum Fairy corner.  I had thought about doing a canvas backdrop of nutcrackers, then I saw these wooden cut out guys, and bought three to paint and embellish.

I even splurged and used some of my very, very best vintage trim on this guy.

 All of them are painted with metallics, sprinkled with glitter, and trimmed with vintage rhinestones and white mink, but no two are the same.

I will be headed to Florida mid October for a Guncle visit, time with Terry and her baby girl at Disney, then beach time with my sissies and their baby girls, all jammed into one, way too short week.

Speaking of “way too short”, my time for set up at Juju and creating gets shortened by this week away.  So I’ll be spinning my wheels to get it all pulled together before the vacation. This is going to be a hectic week, trying to de-black my Halloween booth and transform it into glittering whites. 

Yum! My type of challenge!  I am going to love every minute of it.

 

Good Juju October Preview and and acting like a grownup

Isn’t this dress to die for? (Ha, see what I did there, a Halloween turn of phrase).

I wish I’d gotten a close up of the lace.  It is hauntingly gorgeous, but also delicate.  This gown is a display only piece, it would be in shreds if even tried on.  

Which is exactly what happened to this satin dress.  And it was actually in good shape, but someone in my booth was twisting herself into it over some bulky clothes without trying to be careful.  It was torn up under the arms.  Well durn.

This probably would’ve made a lovely witchy dress for the right person at Halloween.  Now it is also a “display only” a little before it’s time.  Oh well.  Vintage dresses are always just one tug over the head away from doom.

Plus, there is always breakage in retail.  And now it is marked down to reflect its new status.  Hopefully someone besides me will appreciate both black beauties for their qualities as is.

For September’s sale, my spot was over the top, nonstop, Spooky Season.  I planned on two months of Halloween/fall goods, and that seems to have worked out well.  

About half of my inventory that sold was the scary stuff.  Since I was in the middle of a remodel in my studio at home, I thought I’d simply plop some fall merchandise in to fill holes and not do a flip like I try to make happen each month.

Because my talented boy got my floor redone in record time, I was able to replace everything in the studio much quicker than I could’ve dreamed of.  So that gave me time to give my booth a shake up after all, instead of the refill I’d thought I’d be doing.

And since I am insane     I enjoy the redos, packing everything in tubs, setting it aside, moving furniture, puzzle piecing it back together, adding in more.  As soon as I am done, I get impatient for this month’s sale to be over so I can move onto my next planned design.

I was able to do half of the booth black with elements of October and the other side of my space in Autumn.

There was even enough time to add a delicious, fruity, fall, vintage wallpaper.

Then to fill that wall with what seems like a few hundred thousand knicky-knacky things.  I might have done too much here…

This cabinet is stuffed with a Thanksgiving theme (I did it again, get it? Stuffing!)

I have jewelry at the front on my space.  I didn’t get a photo of that.

And owls! More owls.  I’d been collecting them all year just for this season.  I know owls are popular and sell all year long, but for me, they seemed fitting for this time of year. Plus, I like saving up until I have a collection to display, groupings look good.

I was in the process of redoing this door on the end of the wall when my new neighbor came in and asked whose space it was meant to be.  Well, since it had been there the whole time I was renting this spot, I figured it was mine.

It jutted out 10” or so onto her side, and she had hung items on that slice of the back of it, and my things were on the front.  It was on a walkway between our two spots.  I always used the tiny hallway to hang miscellaneous bits and pieces that didn’t match the themes I had going on, which was handy for me because they were often items that would’ve stood out too much if displayed with my other things.  It had been a place for my hodgepodge stuff.

One of the owners was in, and told me that I should move it fully into my area to make it fair, and of course, she was right.

But it would’ve impeded walk space a smidge and that required moving furniture a couples inches and since I was set up, that was a step too much at the point, so I took it down.  I have a more narrow shutter to bring in later, a better fit, half the size of the door.  That door had been added by the previous occupant, and actually wasn’t my space after all, I just thought it was.  

Apparently it was never mine to use, I just assumed it was.  Although, after adding the shutter, I’ll still have half of it. And it will be legit this time.

 A month ago, the front border of my booth was moved back 18” on one side and if you see how tightly I pack every inch, you know how much that hurt too.  I’d always been extremely careful to never, ever go one tiny smidge over the marked line that I had been told was my border when I started. There had been tape on the floor which left a ghostly mark, so I could check myself.  I was a bit shocked to find that the whole time, the taped off line had not been as straight as it should’ve been and when measured, it was incorrect.

I am trying to be a big girl (at 65 this shouldn’t be an issue) and telling myself, “Wow, wasn’t I lucky to have some bonus space for over a year?”  But my inner, whiny little bitch says,  “MINE!”

Working on acting like a grownup at any age isn’t easy, even after all of these years of making the effort. (Atthough, I almost wonder, is it even harder as a senior?)

I need to let go that I’ve lost some of my beloved space and act my age, making the 8-1/2’ I have look as good as I can, not complain about what I don’t have.  I took myself for a walk around the block, calmly removed the door, vented to my bestie who always listens and gives a good prospective, then went on with my day.

Oh, but then I vented to you too.  I guess I’m still a little whiny.  I’ll get over it and hush up about it.  

Nobody wants to hear an old lady sounding like a spoiled child.

 

Good Juju First Fridays in September is looking spooky!

Good Juju is this weekend, First Friday is here.

I am going full on fall/ Halloween.

And I love, love, love a holiday theme!

I’ve been gathering black and white, or fall colored items all year.

And I have enjoyed every minute of putting it all together even with the extreme heat wave we have been in.  The warehouse Juju occupies isn’t cooled between sales.

Dealers are given keys and can go in any time to work on their space.

So I am not complaining.  I love the freedom of taking my time, and being able to do what I want.

Plus, I’ve always been a summer person, I typically don’t mind the heat.  

When winter comes and I’m toiling away in a freezing warehouse, now that is a different story.

No space heaters are allowed in the winter, so I wear layer upon layer, and go in for short periods of time.  Which makes it harder since I have a forty minute drive.

Oh well, I’m a tough old broad.  I can take it. Only because I love decorating my booth so much.

Although, there has been a new development this summer with the heat.

Since my concussion, I do not seem to handle temperature changes like I used to.  On hot days, a walk from the car to a store can give me a headache.

Oh well, probably just temporary.  Or is it possibly age related? I did hit 65 this spring.

Anyway, back to the booth- personally, I don’t find clowns scary, but some do, so I have a Scary Clown section.

It includes a pig clown.  Which would be scary if it wasn’t so cute.

 There are dolls, doll heads, and headless dolls…

Potions…

Spiders and Witches…

Bats…

Poison toadstools…

Skeleton brides…

Books to write your spells in…

And some pretties too.  Cause a witch has got to look her best in her special season.

Hand Crafted Witchy Brooms and some instructions on how to

My husband makes walking sticks from grapevine growing in our woods.  It needs to age and dry a year or so, then can be used.  He said I could use a few, and after finding dried, curly and glittered straw flower arrangements at a garage sale, I knew I wanted to make witch brooms.

Each one was decorated with velvet and crinkled ribbons, a genuine stone charm, some vintage bling, and feathers.

This one had a knothole that I placed a vintage eyeball button on, with a bit torn from a tattered, sequined gown underneath.

The old jewels I used weren’t in perfect condition, but that is why I chose them.  They look like they’ve been flying through the air on a broom for decades, right?

My set up for Good Juju’s First Friday weekend was already complete (and Halloween themed).  But I made these work, by hanging one up high, one on the top shelf, and one nestled into a corner. Not the best for showing them off, but I wanted to get them in there  case I could sell them this week.

I can show people photos on my phone if they want to see more about the brooms that are up high.  And I’m happy to get them down if needed.  I know it’s not the best situation, but I only have 8-1/2’ and I fill it up over the brim.

This one is made from the base of the straw arrangement and stands on its own, so it is the one on the ground.

I really would enjoy making more, and in a half size so I could sell them online.  But for one thing, I’m starting a major studio redo and have no time.  For another, these guys are HARD to make!

Here is the process:

Trim the straw to the length you need

Divide up the straw into small bundles

Add strong glue to the tiny bundle of straw about 4” from the top, then tightly wrap that area in wire

Keep wrapping bundles until you have more than enough to cover the stick

I had the end of my straw at the base of the stick for stability 

Wire and glue each bundle together to the stick until the broom is full

Glue and tightly wrap twine around your wired areas

Put screws through large washers and screw them into the wood through the twine area, so the weight of the stick doesn’t make the straw pull away when you stand it up

And now the fun part- cover up the twine/wire/screw area with something pretty and start decorating.