Karla's Cottage

So nice, I Went there Twice- The Sundance Outlet Store

After getting in to the Salt Lake airport, after a flight delay that left us sitting on a runway in KC for a while, then RUNNING at top speed through the Denver airport to make our connection, we were ready for something fun.

Honestly, though, traveling with these two is always a pleasure.  And Sugarwings was so grown up, she seems to know more about getting around airports than I do.  I don’t think I could’ve made it without her.

(Doesn’t this guy look like a bluebird of happiness, or is that just our point of view?)

While waiting on the plane, not knowing how long it would be, I was told that I should go speak to the agents at the desk.

While leaving the two girls alone on the plane?

At first, I was totally against it, and wondered how I could load both girls and all of our stuff off the plane then reload, but the stewardess looked at the kiddos and said they seemed like they would be fine.  I viewed them through her eyes and realized that they weren’t so little after all, and that she was right.  I left the plane with confidence in them, and even took time to stop at Starbucks to buy the ingredients for a cocoa party.

We had such a good time, the college girls seated around us chimed in on a chorus of “Shake it Off”

Still, after the flight was over, I was ready to leave it behind.

I have been wanting to go to the Sundance store’s outlet, and the girls were kind enough to indulge me.   I figured that the festive weekend would be so kid centric, that I could indulge myself for a quick visit and they would still have plenty of fun.

And yes, they did.  There was so much fun to be had, I don’t know how it was all squeezed into one weekend!

Our stop wasn’t a long one, barely enough to whet my appetite, but about as much as the little sprites could handle, so I scooped up my beautiful deals ($10 lace top, $69 velvet jacket originally $200, a lace skirt, still high for me, but worth it, and a $19 Johnny Was tee)

Plus a $39 silver and moonstone ring.  

I was very satisfied with my binge bargains, and told the Guncles about them.  And mentioned that all men’s wear was 30% off the sale price.  So, the three of us left the grand fairies with cousins at the pool and made another quick trip over.  Kevin found $10 wool slippers and Randy got this great, casual jacket for $70 (originally $198).

And yes, I over indulged again.

 Johnny Was leggings, $39, black velvet and lace top $10, and thought I was happily finished.

Although, it was hard to tear myself away from these bins.

So much treasure hunting!  This is where I found the $10 shirts.  I made some friends there, as we all dug and looked for each other’s sizes.   There were ladies from all over the country, and even a family from Europe who were exploring the boxes.

Not everything in the store was at a huge savings, the Sundance store’s prices are way up there to start with.  But ooooh, so pretty!  And so much to see.   There were new items on Saturday that weren’t out on Thursday, so if you go, try to check back again.  

As the Guncles and I were leaving, Randy pointed out this jacket (and it was cold outside, much chillier than I’d packed for).

it was $249 on sale for $49, and I fell in love with its furry lined coziness.  (Looks like someone else in the crowd buys Johnny Was pants, huh?)

Typically, I’m a tee shirt (usually from Walmart) and jeans person.  But I do love pretty things and am glad I let loose to get these new pieces! 

Even though I don’t seem to have enough sense of style to avoid wearing a J. Was shirt with a kid’s $3 jacket from Kohl’s clearance.

Oh well, works for me! 

 

 

Exciting mail

Recently, I was surprised by a thoughtful gift that came in the mail. Cathy sent me a package full of things I love. Including this hat covered in blooms.

And vintage napkins with sweet pictures on them.

Like this adorable Alice theme.  Thank you, Cathy!

Soon after, this package came from Terry while she was vacationing in Maui.  We have travelled there with her before and she knew what some of my faves were.  Well, at least the ones that can be packaged up and mailed, that is.

Now, as if that wasn't enough, I opened my mailbox to find handmade cards from my pal, Angie and my dear Guncle Randy.  

Getting this fun mail has made me even more excited about the Farewell to Downton art journal swap.  It is going to be like Christmas every day as the artwork starts coming in. I LOVE seeing the boxes arrive, and piling up in the studio.

I do my best to not open each as it arrives, because I have to stay with a system and keep them all boxed up until I'm ready to spread the pages out and sort them into books.  There is a checklist that I need to follow.

But... how can I resist?  I have to allow myself some peeks into the wonderful artwork my creative friends have entrusted me with.

 I just cannot wait to see the pages, this is a theme I'm so fond of.  It's going to be a good one, isn't it?

Sadly, it isn't going to work out to do international swapping, I miss those days of feeling like the world was such a small place when mail would arrive from across the globe. Postal rates have skyrocketed for overseas, and when I saw that it would cost over thirty bucks to send the books out of the country, I figured that was way too much. 

Now, if you really, really want to participate from far away and you are fine with the cost, please do sign up.  But I understand if you balk at the price, I sure did.

 ps- I am away right now, but please do send an email to sign up for the swap. I'll catch up with my records when I return.

Beautiful grand fairies and beautiful cloaks

My sister-in-law, Terry is a talented person who is happy to share her skills.  When I was admiring her work on the dozen or so costumes that she had whipped up for the Grand Masked Ball that she hosted on Halloween, she offered to make cloaks for all of my girls.

At the holidays, when you know how swamped everyone is.

So, the big girls and I, plus Sugarwings and Dewdrop spent some time finding just the right fabrics.  That led to nice days out together and good bonding time.  I was slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume and weight of the fabrics (7-1/2 yards each of exterior and lining!!) for the teenager's capes and couldn't imagine trying to make them myself.  But Terry is a pro and spent many happy hours creating costumes for her kids' high school plays (all the parts, not just her own children) and is an expert in this type of sewing.

The cloaks arrived in time for Christmas and were as pretty as can be. 

They were the hit of the night when the boxes were opened on Christmas Eve.

Plus, they are plain old, ideal for swirling and twirling in. 


And when you put one on, you feel mysterious and beautiful.

 

But what could I do as a thank you? I decided to do a Sugarplum Fairy painting of a sprite in a cape, and use Terry's own granddaughter as a model.  That little one has hauntingly beautiful eyes!

Terry is a major art collector, she owns paintings from artists who hang in the National Gallery.  

Yes, intimidating!

So, I kept it simple and turned my whimsical, little piece into an ornament.  I had a vintage picture with a domed glass and thought that would work well to turn into something to hang on a tree.

I did a small painting, cut it out, glued it onto chipboard covered in gold paper with a glittered snowflake added to the background for dimension.  Then, I frosted the "fur" with mica flakes, and the wings with fine, crystal glitter.  With the domed glass, I had space to add a nice, sparkling rhinestone to the magic wand.

The same gold paper is on the back, and the edges are glued shut and sealed with glitter velvet ribbon. The same ribbon is looped as a hanger and secured with a bit of flocked gold paper. (the glue is still wet and showing in this picture, oops!)

Before putting the original painting in the frame, I scanned it to make a few Christmas cards, and this piece for my own tree.

For now, it is tucked into a feather wreath that is hanging on the mirror.

I know that Christmas is over and I should be dismantling all of the decor.... but I'm just not ready to let go yet, are you? 

Fall Home Tour- uhm...I have four pumpkins to see...Oh, and some mums! look at the mums!!

Dear Brenda invited me to be one of her guests on the Fall Home Tour that she curated.

I'm afraid I don't have a lot to see as far as fall goes- I think I might have let her down. It is just a bit early for autumn decor for me, I tend to hang onto summer till the last blast of heat has faded, then go straight into Halloween junk strewn about my house.

 

But it was good to have a reason to do a seasonal transition.  I was happy with the results, minimal as they are.  Usually, I buy a few white and gray pumpkins in October at the Pumpkin Patch, and since the little grand fairies love going there so much, and the events are free, I like to save up all my punkin buying for that venue. It isn't open yet,  I don't want to purchase the gourds from the grocery store, and our home grown ones aren't ready to pick, but luckily, I had a few artificial ones to pull out and get the mood set for fall.  

Brenda is doing this tour in order of the homes, so previous to my house is  House Honeys, So Much Better with Age,  then Chasing Quaintness and the next home ready for a tour is Northern Nesting.  After that is White Tulip Designs and My Thrift Store Addiction.

There is also a hand made pumpkin from my friend, Tami.  (on the left)  

While I love bringing natural elements into my home, and am looking forward to picking pumpkins straight from the patch, the artificial gourds can be a lot more versatile, I doubt if I could balance a real life, heavy pumpkin on a stack of teacups. And if you put a fresh one under glass, that can cause it to get moldy faster.  

Even though Halloween is still a bit away, I had to pull out my white witch picture.  I found it at a garage sale for a quarter, and it is one of my all time favorite pictures. She isn't necessarily a witch, but I think she makes a good one. She is a traditional part of my fall decor.

Sometimes the things I spend a quarter on can turn out to be quite nice. Not just the white witch picture, but this floral/pumpkin ring that the larger pumpkin rests on. I got it at a garage sale, and spray painted it white, then dusted it with glitter.  I purposely did a haphazard spray job on it, so that the colors underneath still show in a muted way.

The new clock is from Michaels.  I rarely buy things that aren't old or second hand, but this clock spoke to me when I passed it in the aisle and I knew I had just the right spot for it. (plus, while it might not BE second hand, it does HAVE a second hand..... oh, I crack myself up sometimes)

Few things say fall to me more than mums do. I can't resist buying a few more plants every year to set out in the beds once they have finished blooming.

Under the pots of mums, I've used my favorite scarf from a Victoria Trading Co. giveaway as a runner.  I'm not big on traditional fall tones, but the soft faded colors in this scarf are an exception to my ban on orange.

 
This time of September, the summer flowers are starting to perk back up again after the heat of August fades, and the herbs are bolting with blooms. I love picking fresh herbs to bring in to fill the kitchen with their scent.

Speaking of scents, it is time to switch from lighter candle fragrances to cidery/appley/cinnamony yumminess.   One of the very first things I do every morning is light a candle that sits on my wood stove.  Unless it is winter and we are burning wood, of course, that is a whole other olfactory sensation of its own.

 I keep a tablecloth on on the stove when it is not in use, and once again, these are not my typical colors, but I do indulge a little bit in fall tones, if there is a good deal of white still involved.

After saying a couple of times that I don't do orange or the traditional shades of fall, here yet again, I make myself out to be a liar.   In the grand fairies' play area, they get a bright colored vintage table cloth with turning leaves on it.

I probably shouldn't do orange because this really doesn't fit in with that corner of the room. But, if I think about it, neither does the stack of coloring books or the box of art supplies.  When there are kids around, you just kind of have to live with the things they love and use, don't you? And a bright colored table cloth to mark the turning of the leaves makes the little ones happy.  

Recently, when I painted and stained the cabinets, and used Venetian plaster on the walls, I hung this drawing by my great grandma, Nelly, in the kitchen. 

And it crashed to the floor in a pile of glass and crunched framing, due to a careless job of hanging it.  

The drawing wasn't harmed one bit!  I'd never really cared for the way it had been framed, and while it was a pinch in the ole wallet, I was glad to have an excuse to reframe it in a way that I preferred.   I chose a more antiquey looking frame, and one much smaller than the previous one.

I'm very happy with the results. And I think Great Grandma Nelly would be too.  She did a total of 6 pictures in her time at Southern Indiana art school at the turn of the century (not this one, the one BEFORE). Then, she retired to farm life to raise kids. I feel so blessed to own one of her works.  And soooo glad it wasn't torn up in the crash landing.

For summer, I'd covered my chairs in white ruffled slipcovers.  To warm up the room for fall (not to mention that they needed a good bleaching due to messy fingered fairies), I slipped them off.  

I'll probably leave them off til Christmas. And maybe tie them on with golden bows? By the way, They washed up perfectly.  

Last week, I also replaced the two chandeliers.  One that had hung here had a wiring issue, and one in the studio got hit with a heavy picnic basket that spun around so hard the fuse blew. But that is a whole different story, isn't it?

Anyway, a light in the kitchen and one in my studio both needed replaced. I decided to buy two matching ones for the kitchen and move the one that still worked into the studio.

After painting the kitchen white, I almost thought that white chandeliers were too much, that I needed some contrast.  So, I bought a pair of dark, rust colored lights.  

They seemed too dark.

Seems like I had a slight case of Goldilocks syndrome going on, and needed to find the solution to make them Just Right.

I'd gone to all of that effort to have an all white room, and that was just too much darkness to add.  So, I did some painting and brightened up the new, dark chandies, while still leaving some contrast.

This might show what I mean better.  

I also added 3, large peachy-amber crystals (for fall) and a few vintage ones here and there to customize it a bit.

On the tube thingies that fit over the socket areas, I glued some vintage flocked and glittered wallpaper from France.  Oooh La La !!

In the spring, I think I'll pull it off and change it to something rosy.

Another thing I'd been wanting to do since repainting the cabinets, was to change the skirt under the sink. I'm not much of a sewer, but I can do a hem to fit over a curtain rod without too much cussing.

I used the vintage fabric I had left over from another project, but it was there wasn't quite enough, so I added some vintage eyelet trim to lengthen it.

Sorry I didn't wipe down the front of the dishwasher or put away my watermelon before taking pictures.

If you are wondering why all of my fall decorating pictures have been of my kitchen only, it is because that is mostly where we live.

This room is where we gather, and spend the majority of our time.

The living room did get a little bit of a nod to fall.  I sat out a crazy quilt that my mom made, in case anyone needed a snuggle when the temps drop enough to open the windows and we get a cool breeze at night.  Mostly, Dorothy Rosebud thinks it is for her to cuddle up on.

Normally, this time of year, I take down my spring floral curtains and replace them with the white velvet ones. Not this year.

I might have discovered a wonderful trick- I didn't have time to switch them out last spring, and no one even cared or noticed but me.  And look how much time it saves me this season!! Although, living in an old house with a wood stove, I do feel like curtains could use a good washing every six months.

I'm past due for changing the slipcovers on the sofa.  Some how I've ended up with a few pillows that don't match. 

But hey, look- I set out a festive, fall mum on the table.  That is the sum of my decor for the season for this room.  

 Autumn is also when I have an excuse to pull out the carnival glass plates and serve something baked fresh with apples.  The scent of cinnamon and apples for me is right up there with the smell of pumpkin and nutmeg to bring the feel of fall into my home. 

Brenda, thanks for inviting me to be a part of your tour. I don't know that I had enough fall decor to qualify for it after all, but if you want to see a major transformation, try me at Christmas! That is when I go all out. 

To everyone else, have fun looking at the other homes. I know I'm looking forward to seeing the creativity Brenda has rounded up for us to enjoy.  If you are new to my blog, nice to meet you.  And thank you all for coming by.

Here are the addresses of all the blogs on the tour:

September 15th…

Thoughts From Alice

Exquisitely Unremarkable

D.D.’s Cottage

Chatfield Court

Itsy Bits & Pieces

Cozy Little House

 

September 16th…

Town & Country Living

The Sweetest Digs
House Of Hipsters

Kate’s Place

Little Farmstead

Sunny Simple Life

Dwellings

 

September 17th…

Faded Charm

Shabby Fu Fu

At Home With Jemma

Love Of Home

Common Ground

House Of Hawthornes

Priscillas

 

September 18th…

House Honeys

So Much Better With Age

Chasing Quaintness

Karla’s Cottage

Northern Nesting

White Tulip Designs

My Thrift Store Addiction

 

ps- The kits for "Book of Mysteries" are now available!!   The little witchy girls will be coming soon.

(here is the book with a different witch on the cover, and without the Hocus Pocus eye.)

And another ps- Since my house is all cleaned up and I've already linked to a gathering, I thought I'd link to Feathered Nest Friday too. I rarely am prepared for linky parties, might as well take advantage while I am, huh?

 

A belated Christmas party. WAAAAY late!! (but worth waiting for)

My friend, Angie, and I had been trying to get together to exchange Christmas gifts, and finally got around to it in February.

Since we were so late, I added a Valentine and a Shamrock to her gift box, then wrapped it up in an old editorial cartoon featuring Grover Cleveland (for President's Day)  I was a bit surprised how easy it was for me to come up with the old president picture. My studio has about anything I might need, no matter how obscure.

Beth was coming in town for craft day, what good timing, for her to meet us for lunch.  (I'm not really a foot taller than these two, it's the angle)

I'm still dribbling drool over the pretty gift Angie made for me. She foofed up this great, old celluloid box, with some of my favorite things.

Inside and outside!

Plus filled it up with even more faves.

And as much as I loved the gifts, the company was even better. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants, and took our time, catching up, telling stories, and laughing.

 

By the way, Angie is a new dealer at Bottom's Up, as well as at Mission Road Antique Mall, near Beth's booth there.

Angie is just getting hers going, she has this one plus a case.

This one is Beth's. We recently had a play date to redo and rearrange. I miss doing that, it was my favorite part of having my own spot. So, I'm always happy when I get to mess with her booth.

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PS- I've got 50% off the Boutique right now. But you MUST use this link: 

 http://www.karlascottage.com/?code=Fling

 to get to the sale site.  If you go through the regular link, the 50% off won't register. If you can't click on it to get to the page, you might want to try cutting and pasting it to your browser. Thanks for helping me spring clean!

Seriously, you painted your shoes?

I love pretty shoes, I long for and dream of pretty shoes.  But my feet don't cooperate.  I have what is known as "Freds".  Something more suited for stopping a prehistoric car than slipping into high heels.

Buying shoes is traumatic for me. I can shop for 6-12 months, try on hundreds, and not find a pair that fits.  Or I think maybe a pair will do, bring them home and only be able to wear them once or twice before giving up.  Not only are these feet hard to fit, I'm a bit picky on comfort.

Actually a LOT picky.

My feet have to feel good if I plan on feeling good myself.

My closet is full of brand new shoes only worn once. Goodwill loves me for all the new shoes I donate after purchasing them with a heart full of hope, thinking that THIS will be the pair that not only fits, but looks pretty too!

So, when these extremely comfy, 6 year old Danskos started looking too ratty to wear, I was sad.  They weren't torn up, or stretched out, just stained and scuffed.  I'd worn a vintage shoe clip on them that tarnished the leather and wouldn't clean off.  The shoe clips kept sliding around and not staying in place, and had to go.

Plus, the sides were kind of discolored. Overall, not a good look.  But they were shoes that I could walk around an amusement park for hours and still felt good! 

That is a shoe worth trying to salvage.

 I got out some acrylic craft paints.

The shoes were not a glossy finish, so I figured it would hold well. They are a brushed suede, which took the paint nicely.  The trick was to go with colors that would blend with the original leather if scraped.  Also, to go lightly, not to use a thick glob that might peel.

First step, was to clean them with an old toothbrush, including the suede sole. 

After that, I painted a slightly heavy coat over the black marks with a color to match the leather. But only heavy there, not on the rest of the shoes. Then, I left it to dry.

Next, I used the same base color in a light, watered down wash, on all the leather, making sure to get around the buckle and under the straps. This was done with a small, rough, brush to work the paint down into the leather. 

Over that, I did a metallic faux finish with copper and pearl.

I've been wearing them, and so far so good. 

Not a pretty picture, huh?  See why I call them Freds?  Mr. Flintstone and I have a lot in common.

If I were to buy perfectly fitting shoes, I'd need to go to the little boys department and try on size 3 triple wides. If you've ever done that, you know there aren't many pretty choices.  When I was a kid, Mom bought me "corrective" shoes. Which is a code word for Butt Ugly.

 As close as I can find to corrective shoes in the adult world is Easy Spirit. Sometimes an extra wide, pretty one turns up.  And some  European (code word, expensive) shoes fit pretty good, like the Danskos I redid.  They are often wide, always well made and hold up for years.

But I have never, ever, found a lovely pair of delicate heels that my feet would enjoy. I guess that I'll be treasuring whatever fits and keeping them as good as I can for as long as I can.

Faerie Pages flying in!

Kim

Fairies are winging their way into my studio daily now!

Lisa

The very, very best part of a swap is the packages piling up around the room.  Of course, it doesn't take long for them to take over the room....

Briar Rose

This particular swap certainly will take over.  Close to 1,000 pages including my front and back covers will be spread out around the room.

Laurie

I wish I could take photos of all the artwork for you. I'd get nothing else done if I did though.  I will promise to get random photos here and there as I can.

But I will have a Pinterest board for them.  And I think there is a way for people to add photos to my board, isn't there? Any tips?  I think you just have to send me a request, but I could be wrong.  I don't know if you do that through Pinterest, or if you just email me with your user name and I add you to the board. 

If anyone has done this let me know if I'm close on how to do it. 

Isn't this cute as a bug?  It was sent to me by Elaine at Briar Rose

She actually creates the porcelaine pieces herself and used one on each page she made.

My front covers are DONE!!!!!!!!!!!  Now onto the back ones, which are not nearly as entertaining to do.  Which is why I have so few done. I need to force myself to do a few a day, and I'll be fine by the end of the month.

Then the fun begins, the first couple weeks of September will be assembly time.  There will definately be more photos coming then. I love seeing the books come together, and try hard to match up pages so they look attractive with each other.

For now, I will try not to open all the packages till the due date. I love to see what comes in the mail, but I have to be very, very organized, with marking items off lists and double checking contents, and not getting anything mixed up.

So, its smarter to not open very many till they are all here and ready for me to dive into.  Its hard to resist and I do peek a bit, especially at first.  But once I start getting a lot of them, I pile all of the packages into tubs and slide them under tables until its time to open them up. If I open them all as they come in, I'd have total chaos, things might slide out of boxes, stacks would get knocked over.

I'll be using my self control and waiting to do it right.

Its almost impossible for me to let you know if your package is here or not.  I check them off as I open them, not as they come in. As they come in, they will be stored away till later.  Yours could be buried under 50 other packages, so its very hard to check.   Thank you for understanding.

 

You can still join, if you'd like. They are due Sept. 1st.

Are you gathering up the good stuff?

Are you ready to show off your creations?  I'll have the link party ready Sunday morning and you can add your blog to it anytime through Monday evening. 

 

Your project can be ANYTHING at all, where you have broken free of the instinct to hang on to your best supplies and actually used them.

Sewing, collage, a decorative item for your home.  Anything at all that includes bits of your favorite things.

Please make sure you link to the POST that features the item, not just to your blog.

  And please do mention the challenge and my blog address so that others can find the list of participants and visit us all.

Your post can be from the past, or a new one.  If its an older post, please edit it to add the link back to the party.

As hard as it is to part with the besties, they sure elevate anything you make. I turned these little vintage postal bags into something I really love by adding my favorite things to them.

I'm hoping to make something special tonight just for the party too. There are some supplies I have been eyeing....  its time to delve in and enjoy them!

  The postal bags, and some ephemera books (all dripping with the good stuff!) have been added to my Boutique.

And don't forget, you can win a bundle of my besties by leaving a comment. 

Mrs. Staggs will be having a giveaway on her blog too.  The challenge was her idea.  Thanks, Lena!!

A few thoughts on Good Stuff

In honor of our challenge coming up, I delved deeply into the Good Stuff yesterday. I had a stack of chipboard rectangles covered in fantastic old wallpaper, that had been on the shelf above my desk for about a year, and I'd never used them.

Now, I have tons of wallpaper, and plenty to chose from. In my mind its all great stuff. But weirdly, there was something just a little special about these covered boards, all set and ready to go that held me up. I kept thinking that they were too "nice" to just use for nothing special.

So, I decided that if they were all that nice, it just meant that they deserved to have other great supplies added to them!  Each little book that I made was done with only the best stuff in my stash.

There are different ways to attack the Good Stuff pile of accumulated supplies you are afraid to touch.

You can ease into it, just using one nice thing to elevate your creation.  Or you could sprinkle them throughout, for  a nice mix. (my typical plan)  Or you can just go for it and use all Good Stuff.  I chose the latter when  I made these and went whole hog. 

Every bit that went into these journals was from my Besties pile.

Including inside the books.  Why have a boxful of French post cards if I am just saving them?  I never see them inside the box on the shelf (although it does feel really good to know that they are there, near by and sooooo pretty). 

But you know what? It feels just as good to know that there is a beautiful French postcard inside this ephemera book!

Once you get going, its a very liberating feeling. 

Of course, there are limits, and you don't want to waste your best things on projects that aren't good enough. Well, maybe that isn't how I meant to say it. I believe that everything I make needs to be good enough, everything should be done to my best abilities.  When I make something I picture someone picking it up, looking at the details, turning it over.

I want it to be well constructed and properly finished as well as pretty.

But- I also figure price.  Would I make a tag with a $5 piece of jewelry on it? No, but I'd make a tag with the best supplies I could afford to put into it and still make it at a reasonable cost.

Also, knowing what the piece is going to be used for plays into the supply decision. A special gift deserves an upgrade, right?  But the label or tag on the gift itself should be looked at as possibly thrown away later on by the recipient.

Another thought, for artists who sell their work, is "Can anyone afford to buy this piece???"

Its tempting to layer on the Besties, but there comes a point when the cost factor comes into play.  Luckily, I find good bargains on my pretties, and also the things that I often consider my best stuff aren't exactly high priced items.

Its not always the price that makes something wonderful, of course. Like the ruffle on this tag.  I trimmed the fabric off a very old pair of curtains that were falling apart. The curtains weren't worth a fortune, that isn't what makes it special to me.  Its the perfectly faded old pink color, and the softness of the old fabric. And the fact that I can't just run to Hobby Lobby to buy more if I run out.

Sometimes it seems like we artists tend to work for the cost of materials.  Our time isn't always covered in the price of what we sell.  But when the creations are from the heart, it just feels so good to have someone care enough to buy them, that we just keep on cranking the stuff out.

Beth and I like to quote Jenny Doh's speech from Kim's mermaid event last summer, when she spoke of why we make art. 

"It's the process"

She meant that as artists, it's often not what we get out of selling the piece we've created, it's just the process itself of making it that counts.  So, why not treat ourselves to making our art with the best possible stuff we can?

I take a lot of joy in using beautiful and special materials. It elevates not only my artwork, but the process itself.  It makes me happy to play with pretties. What a great  job I have!

I may never be rich, but I sure do like what I do for a living!!!

If you'd like a chance to win a packet of my Good Stuff supplies, please leave a comment on any post (or all of them for more chances) between now and our challenge link party on March 6-7.

And if you'd like to do a little show and tell of creations you've made using your Besties, please come to our link party on Sunday March 6 and Monday March 7.

That gives you two weeks to get up the nerve to dig in to the Good Stuff.  Believe me, you'll be glad you did!

 

A giveaway, a challenge, and "the good stuff"

There were a few plain bags left over after Beth and I made up all of the goodie bags for Bird Song.  So, I foofed them up with trims and flowers and pretties that I had stashed in the studio, to use for another event I have coming up soon.  This rose image is printed on canvas and it is one of those things that has been  waiting for the right project.

Now, I'm a BIG believer in "using the good stuff" as I've mentioned before. But also, I believe in not wasting it and using it willy nilly either!

I hang on to things till the right project comes along.  Its not hoarding, no way. Its establishing a catelog of supplies so I'll have what I need when I need it.

There is a fine line between accumulating too much and having plenty to chose from when you are ready to work on something, though.  I don't think I can define that line...

But when my pal, Kim, asked me to be a sponsor for her Moulin Rouge event in March (which I can't wait to go to!)- I was at a loss for a moment when she said she needed SEVENTY items for the goodie bags. 

That sounded like a lot.  But once I glanced around the studio, I quickly came up with plenty of pretties that I had plenty of.  What I settled on, was a few tidbits in a glam color palette tucked into little pouches that I made with metallic flocked wallpaper.

While I was at it, I made an extra one up too, and over stuffed it with some fun "good stuff".  I realized that I had missed out on my 4 year blog-o-versary and needed a gift to draw a name for.

  Then, my blog friend, Mrs. Staggs, commented on my previous statement about always using the "good stuff".  She said that like many artists, she struggles to actually use her best supplies.

We decided that what we need is a challenge!  Want to join us? Everyone should delve into their best supplies and cut, chop, glue, and enjoy them, then show us what you've created.

I'll host a Linky party so you can share your post about your best supplies.

How about in two weeks?  That should give us time to make something good. Of course, a week of that might be spent staring at that great paper and getting up the courage to cut into it....

I'll draw a name for my package of good stuff that day.(Leave a comment on any post between now and then, as often as you'd like, to enter)

You can use this button on your blog so that everyone knows you'll be participating.

Make anything you'd like. Just use some of your treasures to make it!