Karla's Cottage

My shoes got a floral paint job

I painted my shoes.

Not because I wanted to, but because I blopped a chunk of coconut oil on them and couldn’t scrub it out no matter how hard I tried. I’d only had them a couple weeks, they were warm, cozy and worth saving.  

They needed to stay neutral, so I could still wear them with most things.  So I  kept my palette monochromatic.

I’m not sure yet if they are exactly what I wanted.  The white might be too bright?   I’ll give it some time and see if I enjoy wearing them.  I do know that I’m very happy to get them back on my feet with no oily blotch.

First Friday Weekend at Good Juju in the Old West Bottoms gets an Old West Theme in my Booth

A few weeks back, I found a boxful of these floats. After keeping a bowlful for myself, I tagged the rest to take into our July First Friday Weekend.  That is today!

If you are done with leftover potato salad and your fireworks have all been set off, you should celebrate the remaining part of your holiday weekend by coming in to see us at Juju.

My red, white, and blue is packed away, but I can still wish you a happy 4th.

Well, I need to get to work, I’ll leave you with photos of the space.

Trying to appreciate what I can do, not feel bad about what I can’t

Between being away so much, then coming home with a cold this time, I wonder how I even still have a booth filled with stuff.

Lots of stuff.

I even made new fairy dolls to bring in.

As well as jewelry.  These bracelets are vintage charms I added to the chains.  I made a couple of charm necklaces too.

A couple dozen new paintings on old text.
A bunch of old books, and cute creations.

With a rusty truck.

The upper shelf sometimes gets neglected, but this month, I took every single item down and started over with new merch.

Speaking of new merchandise, I’m trying something different.  Here is a tray full of stone and silver rings.  I hope my guests enjoy oohing and awing through them as much as I did when I picked them out.

The schroomies are restocked.

Mostly just in neutrals.  I don’t know why I have so few spring toned ones.

Actually, the whole, overall feel isn’t quite as springy as I’d like.  Although there are plenty of tokens of the season.

There is also a lot of neutral areas.  More August than April.

While I am thrilled to have filled the space, and to have so many new items to fill it with, I am at the same time disappointed in the overall look of it.

Notice that I’m mostly showing you close up vignettes?  

Because to get everything in there and ready before I went to Georgia and Florida, I had to cram the furniture into place and say “good enough” instead of taking my time and planning it out better.

Kind of a “make it work” situation instead of a creative process.  I seriously need time to empty the whole spot and rethink it, like I did on the upper shelf.  A clean start.  

I don’t know if my customers would notice, or if it’s just me.  Or maybe it’s just my mood?  But I’d love to have a couple of days to switch it up completely, not just rearrange and add to what’s there.

Maybe May? 
In the meantime, I’ll try to just feel proud of myself for pulling it together at all and getting new creations tucked inside.  It’s been a rough, sad few months lately.  I still cannot believe my beloved sister is gone. And so quickly from diagnosis to death.  

Yep, I’ll go easy on myself as much as I can and just be glad I have any display at all.

Continuing

While my sister was ill, I spent as much time by her side as I could each day.  I tried to balance wanting to never leave her with respecting her immediate family’s needs to be with their mom.  So, I’d arrive in the morning, set my painting supplies up by her, find some of her favorite movies to watch, then just hang out together until her kids arrived.  Some nights we gathered with other family too, but if it was just her girls there, I’d leave so they had private time.  

I’d help with meds, drinks, shampooing, etc if needed, but mostly we were just together.  Each day Bobbie slept a little more than the day before, but I’d always tell her not to stay awake for me.  Rest and be strong to see her daughters and those grandkids at night.

When she was gone, I felt rudderless.  I couldn’t be with Bobbie.

How on earth was I going to fill my days?

The world just keeps turning.  And we do fill our days.  Sissy and I went with her daughters for a day out to see a shark movie Bobbie would’ve loved.  We all had craft days together making Bobbie’s favorite bracelets.

We spent time with family.

One afternoon, I painted this chair for Sissy.  She loves the designer, Gudrun Sjodren, and wanted this done in her style.  It was an excellent distraction. Painting chairs is good busywork, with all the spindles that are tedious, but also give your mind a chance to wander.  Then practicing a style that I am not used to kept me focused. It was a project that let me both reminisce yet move forward.

For me, keeping busy, staying creative is helpful.  After I lost Ryan, I filled my closet with hand embroidered shirts and worked in the garden until it was a mass of blooms.  Each activity of creating doesn’t exactly heal, but maybe gives me hope? And a sense on continuing.  

 

 

 

Looking forward to a happy crowd during First Friday Weekend at Good Juju

I’m rather shocked that I have anything to show you for First Fridays.

But here it is, I’m ready for the sale.

I’d driven home with Rich when he came to say good bye to Bobbie, and spent a couple days turning my Valentine display into a springtime set up. Then flew back to Indy to be with Bobbie.

In that short time, I flipped my space and brought in new goods. Complete with a whole wall of Easter goodies.

It’s not nearly as full as I typically do, but it is set up and ready for visitors and I am happy to see it that way. 


And so very glad that I do not have to tackle this now, at the last minute.

 It’s a relief to have the hard part behind me so I can simply look forward to all of the nice people who will be coming in to shop.

And of course the fun fellow vendors I work with.

Hanging with my buds and chatting with shoppers will be good for my soul.

The atmosphere at Juju is always cheerful.

And I could use some of that.

It will be good for me.

If you are coming by, please visit me to say hi.  I will be happy to see some friendly faces.

Art therapy for myself

While my sister was ill, I wanted to be with her as much as I could.

Living in Kansas made that hard to do.  But my sweet husband covered the home base while I was away.  Even through a tiny dog’s lingering illness, multiple emergency vet trips, then nursing Sugarwings through a round of Covid before catching it himself.

I made as many trips to Indiana as I could, just to sit by Bobbie’s side and be there if she needed me.  

My Good Juju buddies covered for me during February’s first Friday weekend since I was in Pendleton with family.

My other sister took me in as a semi permanent houseguest and we had a lovely time spending evenings together eating dinner in front of the tv while watching horror movies and then playing with piles of beads and making jewelry.  She made tasty meals for us and we worried about Bobbie together.

Each morning, I’d gather up my lamp, folding table and supplies to take to Bobbie’s house and set up a work station near her.

At first she would sleep most of the morning, then welcome the endless parade of people who loved her and wanted to visit in the afternoons and evenings.

As days passed, she’d sleep more but was always so happy to see the many people who wanted to spend time with her.

Bobbie was one of those special beings who just made you feel good to be around.

And she’d always been there for everyone else.  So they wanted to be there for her.

You could tell how beloved she was by the driveway full of vehicles, tables full of flowers, phone calls and FaceTimes, meals dropped off, and packages from a lifetime of friends and family who needed to be near.

At first, I was painting these quick, little nature studies to fill my booth and also keep myself grounded.  Then I started sharing them with visitors and family as they came to see my sister.

I enjoyed gifting them as mementos and must’ve given away dozens.

They are sketched onto old book pages with a sharpie, then roughly colored in with water solvable markers, washed with clear water on a brush.

After they dry, I touch up the lines with the sharpie again and add highlights with a white pen.

The backgrounds of some are iridescent watercolor that Bobbie gave to me.

Every little sketch I gave away was an appreciation to everyone who showed love to my sister, helped her or her family,  fed us, and wanted to be near.   Thank you, to you all for your kindnesses to the Valentines. 

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.

 

 

 

Distractions

While putting away my endless forest of Christmas trees, I decided to clear space in an upstairs closet to stash a tree that just did not want to go into the under stairs storage. I came across some old paintings.  This drawing was done about fifty years ago from a family photo I found at my mom’s.  But I have no idea who the people are and the piece was in the back of the closet for decades.  So I’m taking it into Good Juju to try to sell.

It can honestly be categorized as vintage!

There was an ugly painting lurking in the closet too.  It was flowers with a hummingbird and butterflies. I looked at it and thought, decent frame, pretty colors, just needs work.  So I thought I’d “touch it up”.  Haha, so much for that!  A few hours later, it was entirely covered with a landscape.

There is not an inch of the original painting left.  It did not get a makeover or touch up, it got a cover up.  It’s still not done, the flowers in the foreground are just roughed in.

But I had a fun day - much more fun than cleaning out closets.  The distraction of painting means that there is still a half cleared storage area that needs attention.  Maybe next January when I need to find a space to cram a tree into.

 

A buddy day

A dear and talented friend has art hanging at the Sabatini Gallery in Topeka, so we planned a day out to go see it.

Between my husband traveling for business, missing our annual RV/dog adventure to the beach, and plain old having a case of the I Hate Januaries, I was ready for fixing up and getting out!  I even polished my nails  - all of them!  Including the ones buried in wool socks inside Ugg boots. (Except they aren’t really Ugg boots, Costco has their own version for a fraction of the cost that I like even better than the high dollar ones)

Our first stop was meeting at Jen’s.  She still had her Christmas goodies up and we hadn’t seen them.  She wanted to show us her friend and family display.

There were handmade ornies from her artist friends, things she or her daughter made, and pieces created at our holiday craft days over the decades.

This is one I’d painted of her dog, Cage, after he passed.

And one from the year I was a featured artist at the Festival of Trees.  It was special to see decorations I’d made so long ago, lots of happy memories were tied up in them.

I should’ve gotten a photo of the whole display.  She has them tied to a lit garland above a window seat.

Our friend, Shan, whose work we were going to Topeka to see, also hosts craft days in her studio.  Every Thursday she invites us to do mosaics with her.  This is a little house Jen made at one of those get togethers.

The gallery show was impressive, and I thought Shanna’s piece was just plain old delightful.  Not only was I proud to see a good friend’s work hanging in a show that was filled with glass artists from all over the country (including Dale Chihuly!) I thought her piece really stood out in its dual design, the glass itself and the wall behind it.

Our day in Topeka included more than just Art.  We went for a drive in the country to see the old farmstead where Jen spent her childhood, went out for lunch, and did some junking.  Even with the bleak, washed out, Kansas in January scenes around us, it was a warm and colorful day. 

I love my friends and the years we have had together!

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.