Karla's Cottage

Lucky finds

You can tell when it’s time for the season to change by the color of my mushrooms.

When I found an extremely tattered, vintage dress in this burnt velvet, all I could think was Halloween Mushrooms! And I might have slightly shrieked that out loud at the estate sale.

There might have been some exclamations of delight when I found this tree too.  I kinda love it.

Another beyond wonderful find?  A box of geodes for a buck.  Sugarwings was in charge of whacking them with a hammer so I could have chunks of sparkly rocks to add to the base of my schroomies.

Ahhhh- just what they needed.

Due to my trip out east, I missed two weekends of garage sales.  We arrived home in the middle of a major heat wave, so there went another weekend of yard sale shopping.  But the few that I’ve managed to get to have provided some fun stuff, like these cloches.  Not old, but just right for my creations.

My pal, Beth, and I always say, “Everything looks better under glass.”  It you are a dealer and having trouble selling something, sit it under a dome.  Well, that might not work for chairs and such, but you know what I mean.

 

A tale of tech troubles and many mushrooms

Remember my quest to make two hundred mushrooms?  I am on my way.  Especially if you count three at a time on one display.

Working on fungi this week has been a wonderful escape from my digital woes.  OMG, my email issues have been a nightmare.  From hours on the phone, re-explaining, waiting to codes, call backs and answers that never come, to finally being able it get into it, but in a round about, not so easy way.

It gave me great joy to chop right into the lacy skirt of a vintage gown to make sweet, lil schroomies!  If I am feeling frustration with some of life’s irritations, a dab of creative time can be just what I need to forget my troubles.

Not only was my email messing with me, we had issues with getting tax forms we needed, and were also dealing with a dead phone and a hard to find replacement, then all of the minor little glitches that can pop up in a new phone once it is set up.

Rich lost his phone deep in the woods.  He’d found two pounds of morels, but realized his iPhone wasn’t in the pocket where he’d last seen it.

Oops!

So he trudged back through swamps and deadfalls with no luck.  Then drove 45 minutes home to get the iPad so he could track the phone.  Then re-trudged through the woods and the swamps and the deadfalls to search again, this time, armed with Find My iPhone.

But once again, Oops.

The ipad didn’t have cellular and wouldn’t work without his phone.   He drove the 45 minutes back to our house, retraced his steps, this time while carrying my iPhone and a working app.  Success!  He found it after a full day of looking, or trying to get to the other side of the swamp to look.

He came home very dirty, washed his clothes right away so I wouldn’t get poison ivy from a laundry basket, which I often do after he has been hiking.  And you do remember me saying that we had been trying to replace a dead phone? Yep.  He was so diligent about getting his woodsy clothes washed that he forgot to check pockets and also washed the phone he had looked for all day that was in the pocket.

It was too funny to be upset about. We invited some friends over to eat fried morels with us, and I spent some time crafting to forget about all of our technology issues.  The day off was certainly needed and helped my frame of mind.  

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Inspiration, ancestors, and leprechauns

Easter isn’t until April, but I have been spending a good chunk of February getting ready for bunny-ing up my booth for the next First Friday at Good Juju.  

And since we are also in the vicinity of St Paddy’s, I’ve added a section of green and good luck snuggled between the bunnies and eggs.

This wall is covered in spring daisies on a soft green background.  It is vintage wall paper, and my plan is to change it up seasonally.  I’ll roll up the used piece from the previous month and have it for sell when I do the change over.  

I offer packets of ironed, cut wallpaper for crafting in my online Boutique but I’ve never sold the stuff this way.  It will be good for bigger projects, and ends up being about 6-7’.

Although, when I stapled this piece up, it was chosen for the pretty green tones, then it dawned on me that around here, daisies were more of a summer flower, not early spring.  Dur. 

 I kinda doubt anyone else will think it through that far.  Ha, can you picture someone critiquing my use of Daisies in March?

“Why, I’ve never seen such a disrespectful display of unseasonal flowers in my life! No way am  I shopping in that uninformed booth!”

Another nitpick?  I’m not totally satisfied with the hairstyle on my shamrock doll.  She has a 1960’s Barbie bubble cut from the front. From behind, it’s a nice updo.  This girl should dump her hairdresser (me).  I might bring scissors and snip in some bangs before she meets our guests.

While one whole corner is set to celebrate the luck of the Irish on their special day, most of my decor consists of green stuff and green Easter eggs.  I have a couple vintage clover brooches, the doll, and two mushrooms made from the same tattered, old material as the doll dress.  

This one has a tiny leprechaun grabbing some shade underneath.

There are also silver pendants with an Irish theme.  I have Celtic knots, green stones, moons, and dragons.  Kinda Irishy.  I not a beer drinker, so have never considered drinking green beer, and really am not at all into the typical St Patrick’s Day type of celebrating.  But I like to remember that I am part Irish and pretend it is my holiday too, like many of us do.

(Also part English and German according to 23 and Me DNA testing. Sounds like there could’ve been some disagreements and a bit of bombing between my ancestors, huh?)

There will be more Easter to show you from the other side.

 And then the last wall is all neutrals, inspired by Yellowstone- which I think starts up again soon.  I do enjoy that show, but I seriously LOVE  the two prequels.  OMG, the romance!  The scenery!  How Gorgeous.  Well, I’ll show that wall later, I have a feeling no one will interpret as Yellowstone, but hey, inspiration isn’t exact because then it’s called copying, right?

 

More mushies

Well, as I mentioned with my last post, and as you might have noticed if you have ever read my blog over the last 16 years- I tend to get obsessions.

I have been making these fabric, no sew fungi since Guncle Randy and I came up with the simple design last summer.  

And I love making them so much, I just don’t burn out.

See what I mean?  I sat down and whipped up 75 in a couple days.  I just get too excited about trying different fabrics and want to keep making more!

If you’d like to go schroomie crazy too, the tutorial is only $9 and the materials are cheap to get.  You can find it here:

http://www.karlascottage.com/category_59/Online-Tutorials.htm

ps- new tips have been added to the instructions if you already purchased it, make sure you check back!

 

 

Tutorials in the Boutique

It had been a while since I cleaned things up.  Both my Etsy shop and the Boutique were sadly neglected.  When I made my Velvet mushroom tutorial, I did a little rearranging.  I also marked some of my previous tutorials down. 

So if you’d like to learn how to assemble an art journal, craft a mini dress form, create a cuff bracelet (all no sew, by the way) plus a few more- all classes are available at their new, lower prices.  

And you can find them all here: http://www.karlascottage.com/category_15/All-items.htm

And thank you to those who have purchased my mushroom tutorial!  I love those little cuties and hope you do too.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to get the tutorial to make velvet mushrooms

In the last month I have been swept away in a mushie love fest!

I sincerely ADORE making these!

At last count, I'd assembled... well, let's not go there. I might have gotten a tad carried away.

Luckily they were also popular at the last Good Juju sale, so I am not up to my neck in them like I could've been.

Maybe I am just to my waist now.

If you think you'd fall for crafting them as much as I did, I've whipped up a tutorial with directions.  It is available in my boutique, you can find it HERE.  

It is also on Etsy.

The class is in blog form, with written instructions that you could copy, print and keep on your desk plus the same instructions written out with step by step photos and tips.

 I offer ideas on materials to experiment with as well as pictures on how different items look when transformed into a mushroom stem. The photo above show how I have used four different items to get a collection of schroomie styles.

The tutorial is only $9 and will be available as long as I have a blog on this Typepad platform. I'm at 16 years or so at this point and don't see any reason to quit, so that tutorial will be around a while.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

There are tips and tricks for experimenting with various supplies in the class too.

You know me, I like changing things up and having variety!