Karla's Cottage

A couple more mini redos in progress

 

Sugarwings and I are hard at work on making some improvements to the Fairy Berry Trail.  We decided that the fairies needed a home to build nests in.  

 

Since I had some painting to do, I turned Sugarwings loose with paint and a brush to work on her project too.  I am making a nest for my own little fairy.  This is an antique bed that I found at an auction and paid WAY too much for (70 bucks) but when it is done, it will will be the perfect place for my fairy grand baby to wrap her little wings around herself like a blanket and curl up at night.

 

Sugarwings has been climbing out of her baby bed, and I am worried about her falling, so this bed will be lower to the ground, plus I am hoping it will be something she wants to stay in.  She calls it her princess bed and is pretty excited about it.

I'll have more pictures when her room is done.  And when the fairy houses are complete. They are going to need a lot more sparkle and glitz on them if she wants to attract some fairies to them.  But for now, we are off to the Topeka Zoo for the afternoon.  And tomorrow, I'll be hitting garage sales. I need to find item #2 to add to my July Garage Sale Giveaway Prize Pack.

 

A mini Makeover

July 08, 2009

A mini makeover

Thanks for all your kind comments about the Fairy Berry Trail!  I have to admit, it was not my idea, my husband mowed and created it last spring.  He and Sugarwings have been enjoying the walks down the trail for a few months now. I just gaudy-ed it up with a bunch of junk from Hobby Lobby this week.

We are both smitten with our little Sugarwings and can't get enough of seeing the world through her eyes.  Life is magical when you have a fairy grand baby around, whether the fairy trails are filled with real surprises around every corner, or just imaginary ones.

 

Yesterday, I was invited to an early sneek peek of an over the top, wonderful garage sale.  While there,  I decided to get started on my JULY GARAGE SALE GIVEAWAY , and bought a pretty postcard to kick off the package.  So, here you go, item # 1 in the giveaway.  More to come...

 

At the sale, I found a huge stash of not just post cards, but these pretty, Victorian books.  And believe it or not, I actually got them all photographed and listed into the Boutique (lately, I have not been so productive with my shops...)

 

While I was feeling so proud of myself for getting some work done, I added these ephemera packs too.  They are filled with a variety of great old papers, no copies, all originals.

 

Not only did I get a bunch of new goodies listed, I went through the site and did some housekeeping.  Things that had already sold, should now be deleted, so it is easier to shop.

Plus ( I'm patting myself on the back), I even added another ephemera pack to Etsy!  This one is all floral, also all OLD.  It includes one of the gorgeous vintage postcards I got at the sale yesterday.

What else did I get at the sale? Well, something I did NOT need, but couldn't resist. 

 

See why?  Man, these chairs were meant to live here with me.  The person I bought them from has a house jam packed with this kind of thing, and I'd love to have any of it! I felt lucky to get these, they are antique, and newly recovered.  Her things are always top notch.

 

The new chairs inspired a mini makeover.  Just a bit of brightening and sprucing up for summertime. I bought these old curtains years ago at another garage sale, but never had the right place for them. They are different sizes and have pleats at the top.

Well, the pleats are at what used to be the top. I turned them upside down and hung them from the hem. The fact that they are different lengths and  pleated is hidden by the sofa.  And where the hem was too tight for the rod, I ripped the stitching out a bit..

Then, I looked through the closet stash of pillows to find a few bright ones to add a little more color, and picked some fresh flowers from the garden.

 

I added a little fruit themed plate (how summery is that?) for color on the side table and that was it.

Having a neutral colored sofa and walls (and now chairs too!) means that I can redo for each season by just adding a few colorful things here and there.  And by shopping at estate and garage sales and stocking up on things like curtains and plates for cheap, means I can afford to change things out when I want to. 

Lets see, what did I spend?

Chairs $100 (BIG SPLURGE)

Plate - free fromBeth, she brings me stuff she gets in auction lots!

Curtains- $8 about 6 years ago

Pillows- Clearance at Hobby Lobby and Home Goods a few years back- $26

Flower vases- 25 cents at a garage sale

I think I'll need to buy a can of Scotch-guard to protect the new chairs before Sugarwings gets a hold of them, though.

Thanks for all your kind comments about the Fairy Berry Trail!  I have to admit, it was not my idea, my husband mowed and created it last spring.  He and Sugarwings have been enjoying the walks down the trail for a few months now. I just gaudy-ed it up with a bunch of junk from Hobby Lobby this week.

We are both smitten with our little Sugarwings and can't get enough of seeing the world through her eyes.  Life is magical when you have a fairy grand baby around, whether the fairy trails are filled with real surprises around every corner, or just imaginary ones.

 

Yesterday, I was invited to an early sneek peek of an over the top, wonderful garage sale.  While there,  I decided to get started on my JULY GARAGE SALE GIVEAWAY , and bought a pretty postcard to kick off the package.  So, here you go, item # 1 in the giveaway.  More to come...

 

At the sale, I found a huge stash of not just post cards, but these pretty, Victorian books.  And believe it or not, I actually got them all photographed and listed into the Boutique (lately, I have not been so productive with my shops...)

 

While I was feeling so proud of myself for getting some work done, I added these ephemera packs too.  They are filled with a variety of great old papers, no copies, all originals.

 

Not only did I get a bunch of new goodies listed, I went through the site and did some housekeeping.  Things that had already sold, should now be deleted, so it is easier to shop.

Plus ( I'm patting myself on the back), I even added another ephemera pack to Etsy!  This one is all floral, also all OLD.  It includes one of the gorgeous vintage postcards I got at the sale yesterday.

What else did I get at the sale? Well, something I did NOT need, but couldn't resist. 

 

See why?  Man, these chairs were meant to live here with me.  The person I bought them from has a house jam packed with this kind of thing, and I'd love to have any of it! I felt lucky to get these, they are antique, and newly recovered.  Her things are always top notch.

 

The new chairs inspired a mini makeover.  Just a bit of brightening and sprucing up for summertime. I bought these old curtains years ago at another garage sale, but never had the right place for them. They are different sizes and have pleats at the top.

Well, the pleats are at what used to be the top. I turned them upside down and hung them from the hem. The fact that they are different lengths and  pleated is hidden by the sofa.  And where the hem was too tight for the rod, I ripped the stitching out a bit..

Then, I looked through the closet stash of pillows to find a few bright ones to add a little more color, and picked some fresh flowers from the garden.

 

I added a little fruit themed plate (how summery is that?) for color on the side table and that was it.

Having a neutral colored sofa and walls (and now chairs too!) means that I can redo for each season by just adding a few colorful things here and there.  And by shopping at estate and garage sales and stocking up on things like curtains and plates for cheap, means I can afford to change things out when I want to. 

Lets see, what did I spend?

Chairs $100 (BIG SPLURGE)

Plate - free fromBeth, she brings me stuff she gets in auction lots!

Curtains- $8 about 6 years ago

Pillows- Clearance at Hobby Lobby and Home Goods a few years back- $26

Flower vases- 25 cents at a garage sale

I think I'll need to buy a can of Scotch-guard to protect the new chairs before Sugarwings gets a hold of them, though.

A mini makeover

Thanks for all your kind comments about the Fairy Berry Trail!  I have to admit, it was not my idea, my husband mowed and created it last spring.  He and Sugarwings have been enjoying the walks down the trail for a few months now. I just gaudy-ed it up with a bunch of junk from Hobby Lobby this week.

We are both smitten with our little Sugarwings and can't get enough of seeing the world through her eyes.  Life is magical when you have a fairy grand baby around, whether the fairy trails are filled with real surprises around every corner, or just imaginary ones.

 

Yesterday, I was invited to an early sneek peek of an over the top, wonderful garage sale.  While there,  I decided to get started on my JULY GARAGE SALE GIVEAWAY , and bought a pretty postcard to kick off the package.  So, here you go, item # 1 in the giveaway.  More to come...

 

At the sale, I found a huge stash of not just post cards, but these pretty, Victorian books.  And believe it or not, I actually got them all photographed and listed into the Boutique (lately, I have not been so productive with my shops...)

 

While I was feeling so proud of myself for getting some work done, I added these ephemera packs too.  They are filled with a variety of great old papers, no copies, all originals.

 

Not only did I get a bunch of new goodies listed, I went through the site and did some housekeeping.  Things that had already sold, should now be deleted, so it is easier to shop.

Plus ( I'm patting myself on the back), I even added another ephemera pack to Etsy!  This one is all floral, also all OLD.  It includes one of the gorgeous vintage postcards I got at the sale yesterday.

What else did I get at the sale? Well, something I did NOT need, but couldn't resist. 

 

See why?  Man, these chairs were meant to live here with me.  The person I bought them from has a house jam packed with this kind of thing, and I'd love to have any of it! I felt lucky to get these, they are antique, and newly recovered.  Her things are always top notch.

 

The new chairs inspired a mini makeover.  Just a bit of brightening and sprucing up for summertime. I bought these old curtains years ago at another garage sale, but never had the right place for them. They are different sizes and have pleats at the top.

Well, the pleats are at what used to be the top. I turned them upside down and hung them from the hem. The fact that they are different lengths and  pleated is hidden by the sofa.  And where the hem was too tight for the rod, I ripped the stitching out a bit..

Then, I looked through the closet stash of pillows to find a few bright ones to add a little more color, and picked some fresh flowers from the garden.

 

I added a little fruit themed plate (how summery is that?) for color on the side table and that was it.

Having a neutral colored sofa and walls (and now chairs too!) means that I can redo for each season by just adding a few colorful things here and there.  And by shopping at estate and garage sales and stocking up on things like curtains and plates for cheap, means I can afford to change things out when I want to. 

Lets see, what did I spend?

Chairs $100 (BIG SPLURGE)

Plate - free fromBeth, she brings me stuff she gets in auction lots!

Curtains- $8 about 6 years ago

Pillows- Clearance at Hobby Lobby and Home Goods a few years back- $26

Flower vases- 25 cents at a garage sale

I think I'll need to buy a can of Scotch-guard to protect the new chairs before Sugarwings gets a hold of them, though.

The Fairy Berry Trail

This post was accidently deleted, but I was able to recover it.  I'm sorry that I lost all of the 70 some comments that it received, I was sorry to see them get wiped out, but was glad to save the post.  I copied it from Google Reader! Yet another reason to LOVE Google Reader!!

 

Jul 7, 2009 (yesterday)

Along the Fairy Berry Trail

from Karla's Cottage by Karla Nathan

 

My day started with a taste of Florida for breakfast.  While down there last week, Sissy treated me to a jar of Key Lime jelly.  I've been eating it on whole grain toast with light cream cheese, sprinkled with ground pecans (also from Florida) and it makes me think I am indulging with key lime pie to start my day!

  

After the tasty breakfast, we went for a walk on the Fairy Berry Trail.  Our cottage used to be out in the country, but now our 10 acres are surrounded by a housing development and we are a little island of county  land in the center of city property.  Hopefully, we won't be annexed into the city....  But we still have our own little slice of country here, and we've used part of it to make a fairy land trail through the woods for Sugarwings.

A while ago, my husband mowed a path through the field, and down the hill into the trees.  Sugarwings loves going back there,  either walking, or riding the "tractor" ( our riding lawn mower).  She calls it the Fairy Berry Trail because it is lined with mulberry trees, so she can snack on berries while she hunts for fairies.

 

But today the trail was different, and she was surprised to find some new sights along the way.

 

Hobby Lobby had their garden aisle of goods on clearance, and I helped them clean it all out.  I loaded up on all sorts of cheesy, bright plastic flowers and butterflies on stakes to stick in the ground, as well as wind chimes, statuettes, and signs.

 

Some are tucked away, so the fairy grand baby has to carefully look for them, the others are  right in plain sight.

  

At first, she was pretty quiet, and didn't know what to think.  But after finding a few of the surprises, she really enjoyed the hunt. 

 

We set out about 15 little surprises, and its funny how few and far between they seem once I got them out in the woods.  It seemed like a lot, when it was $40 worth of stuff filling my shopping cart!

 

Over time, I can hunt for things at garage sales and add to the collection.

 

It will be fun for Sugarwings to find new things as I buy them and hide them in the woods.

 

The area is down in a valley and kind of secluded, so I don't know if the wind chimes will make much music.  We are starting a tradition of shaking the branches as we pass underneath the trees that have the chimes in the branches.

 

At the end of the trail, where the path loops around a tree to turn back, she found her very favorite creature, a frog prince.

I had a feeling she'd like this one.  Every time she plays with her magic wands, the rest of the family gets turned into toads.

 

But  being a toad isn't so bad, if it means you get lots of Sugarwing kisses!

 

I think we'll be spending even more time along the trail now than before.  I might move the pieces around every week so she'll keep on having fun finding them all.

And I will also find something for you, that I can have as a giveaway this month.  My plan is to share my garage sailing goodness, and add something to the prize pack each week, like I am adding to the fairy trail. All comments, all month are entered, and I'll have some photos of the goodies, as soon as I buy them!

 

My day started with a taste of Florida for breakfast.  While down there last week, Sissy treated me to a jar of Key Lime jelly.  I've been eating it on whole grain toast with light cream cheese, sprinkled with ground pecans (also from Florida) and it makes me think I am indulging with key lime pie to start my day!

  

After the tasty breakfast, we went for a walk on the Fairy Berry Trail.  Our cottage used to be out in the country, but now our 10 acres are surrounded by a housing development and we are a little island of county  land in the center of city property.  Hopefully, we won't be annexed into the city....  But we still have our own little slice of country here, and we've used part of it to make a fairy land trail through the woods for Sugarwings.

A while ago, my husband mowed a path through the field, and down the hill into the trees.  Sugarwings loves going back there,  either walking, or riding the "tractor" ( our riding lawn mower).  She calls it the Fairy Berry Trail because it is lined with mulberry trees, so she can snack on berries while she hunts for fairies.

 

But today the trail was different, and she was surprised to find some new sights along the way.

 

Hobby Lobby had their garden aisle of goods on clearance, and I helped them clean it all out.  I loaded up on all sorts of cheesy, bright plastic flowers and butterflies on stakes to stick in the ground, as well as wind chimes, statuettes, and signs.

 

Some are tucked away, so the fairy grand baby has to carefully look for them, the others are  right in plain sight.

  

At first, she was pretty quiet, and didn't know what to think.  But after finding a few of the surprises, she really enjoyed the hunt. 

 

We set out about 15 little surprises, and its funny how few and far between they seem once I got them out in the woods.  It seemed like a lot, when it was $40 worth of stuff filling my shopping cart!

 

Over time, I can hunt for things at garage sales and add to the collection.

 

It will be fun for Sugarwings to find new things as I buy them and hide them in the woods.

 

The area is down in a valley and kind of secluded, so I don't know if the wind chimes will make much music.  We are starting a tradition of shaking the branches as we pass underneath the trees that have the chimes in the branches.

 

At the end of the trail, where the path loops around a tree to turn back, she found her very favorite creature, a frog prince.

I had a feeling she'd like this one.  Every time she plays with her magic wands, the rest of the family gets turned into toads.

 

But  being a toad isn't so bad, if it means you get lots of Sugarwing kisses!

 

I think we'll be spending even more time along the trail now than before.  I might move the pieces around every week so she'll keep on having fun finding them all.

And I will also find something for you, that I can have as a giveaway this month.  My plan is to share my garage sailing goodness, and add something to the prize pack each week, like I am adding to the fairy trail. All comments, all month are entered, and I'll have some photos of the goodies, as soon as I buy them!

 

My day started with a taste of Florida for breakfast.  While down there last week, Sissy treated me to a jar of Key Lime jelly.  I've been eating it on whole grain toast with light cream cheese, sprinkled with ground pecans (also from Florida) and it makes me think I am indulging with key lime pie to start my day!

  

After the tasty breakfast, we went for a walk on the Fairy Berry Trail.  Our cottage used to be out in the country, but now our 10 acres are surrounded by a housing development and we are a little island of county  land in the center of city property.  Hopefully, we won't be annexed into the city....  But we still have our own little slice of country here, and we've used part of it to make a fairy land trail through the woods for Sugarwings.

A while ago, my husband mowed a path through the field, and down the hill into the trees.  Sugarwings loves going back there,  either walking, or riding the "tractor" ( our riding lawn mower).  She calls it the Fairy Berry Trail because it is lined with mulberry trees, so she can snack on berries while she hunts for fairies.

 

But today the trail was different, and she was surprised to find some new sights along the way.

 

Hobby Lobby had their garden aisle of goods on clearance, and I helped them clean it all out.  I loaded up on all sorts of cheesy, bright plastic flowers and butterflies on stakes to stick in the ground, as well as wind chimes, statuettes, and signs.

 

Some are tucked away, so the fairy grand baby has to carefully look for them, the others are  right in plain sight.

  

At first, she was pretty quiet, and didn't know what to think.  But after finding a few of the surprises, she really enjoyed the hunt. 

 

We set out about 15 little surprises, and its funny how few and far between they seem once I got them out in the woods.  It seemed like a lot, when it was $40 worth of stuff filling my shopping cart!

 

Over time, I can hunt for things at garage sales and add to the collection.

 

It will be fun for Sugarwings to find new things as I buy them and hide them in the woods.

 

The area is down in a valley and kind of secluded, so I don't know if the wind chimes will make much music.  We are starting a tradition of shaking the branches as we pass underneath the trees that have the chimes in the branches.

 

At the end of the trail, where the path loops around a tree to turn back, she found her very favorite creature, a frog prince.

I had a feeling she'd like this one.  Every time she plays with her magic wands, the rest of the family gets turned into toads.

 

But  being a toad isn't so bad, if it means you get lots of Sugarwing kisses!

 

I think we'll be spending even more time along the trail now than before.  I might move the pieces around every week so she'll keep on having fun finding them all.

And I will also find something for you, that I can have as a giveaway this month.  My plan is to share my garage sailing goodness, and add something to the prize pack each week, like I am adding to the fairy trail. All comments, all month are entered, and I'll have some photos of the goodies, as soon as I buy them!

Won't you be my neighbor?

 

Before my trip, I started building this little housing development.  Then, when I got home, Beth came over for a craft day, and brought a similar project to work on! 

 

Funny, how we both had the same idea at the same time without knowing what each other was doing!  Yet, we both took a different route with our cottages.   We took the same idea and each "made it our own", as they'd say on American Idol.

  

My houses started as cheapo, chip board books from the Michael's dollar bins.  But all the building materials that went into the renovations of these cottages were top notch!  I like to think of them as those run down neighborhoods where an artist moves in, fixes up a place and then makes the block trendy. So that everyone wants to live there after that.

  

Adding all the little details was the best part of redoing these plain houses into artist's cottages.  Lots of vintagey goodness went into the renovations.  The chip board was covered in old wallpaper, back and front, then I hand drew some welcome banners, butterflies and vines. 

The curtains are old lace, the door knobs are vintage buttons, and the window boxes are blooming with teensy flowers I transplanted from my hats.

 

You might have noticed, I have become infatuated with mosaics..... I'm really enjoying the Picassa editing tools.

If you like Mosaics too, check out http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/ for Mosaic Monday!

While making up houses (some are books, some are just wall hangings)  I made another butterfly book too.  Its not pictured with the houses because it is the same size, and would look like Mothra devouring the houses in the Godzilla movies if it was next to my dainty cottages.

 

I'll be adding this butterfly to the website this morning, the homes are already there.  And please wander through Beth's open houses too, she has some beauties inherEtsy shop right now.

 

All of the books, hers and mine, are ready for your own embellishments over the base of old papers we have used.

 

When Beth comes over, she always has some tid bit of cool stuff to bring to me.  If you read her blog, you know that her life is one great find after another.  Recently she found this box and when she saw that it said "Nathan" (my last name) on it, she brought it as a gift. Along with some new (old) wallpaper too.  She and I have a Wallpaper Pact. Whenever one of us finds more paper, the other gets a hunk of it.

Its a good way to keep jealousy from coming between friends while shopping! Plus, isn't it more fun to share the joy when you find something great?

While she was here last week, we were joined by Mary, Queen of the Logomachy cards.  She just got a new flip camera and wanted to play with it.  We made up a couple "how to" videos and I thought I'd show you one.

Now remember, its off the cuff, not planned.  Not professional at all, on my part!  And while Mary does a good job with editing, and has learned a lot about the camera, there are still moments when the angles are a bit odd and we decided that the title of the movie should be "Karla's Cleavage" instead of "Karla's Cottage".

Also, I might not be very good at loading the video onto the blog. If you can't see it here, you can click on this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZYx1iIyid8

Happy 4th!

 

We're having a "sweet" weekend with our Sugarwings.  Cupcakes, cook outs, boating and swimming.  I hope yours is a fun one too.

Damsels in Distress

 

The trip to Florida wasn't all sad stuff.  My Aunt's funeral was uplifting, so many people had such good things to say about her.  She was gracious and kind and a wonderful role model to live up to. 

While down in the Sunshine State (where we were just about guaranteed a big blast of heavy rain every afternoon), my Sissy and I road tripped it from coast to coast and saw family (and antique shops) all the way.

We stayed with baby bro, Randy, and his family in Jacksonville.  This mosaic is of my furry little niece and nephews. (Yep, that represents more Picassa fun time there, I learned a few more editing tricks!)

 

Randy and Kevin's garden is set up as an open invitation for fairies to come and play in the flowers.

 

Butterflies too!  The yard is pesticide free, so the soon to be butterflies will be safe. 

The place was so inviting, all I wanted to do was explore all the nooks and crannies, because there were such delightful surprises tucked in under the blooms!

 

And what did I buy on the trip?  Well, I have to say that my hat whispering skills were top notch! 

 

It was heart breaking to see that Mt. Dora is no longer chocked full of antique shops.  Even so, we did manage to keep busy and I over filled my suitcase.  To the point that it was over the weight limits, and I thought I'd have to stuff my carry on bag full of the heaviest stuff (5 rolls of gorgeous old wallpaper for $2.99!!!) But the Southwest Airlines agent let me leave it as is and didn't charge me for the overweight bag.  SW is always the BEST.

 

These girls were so wrong, they were right.  They caught my eye right away, well, with those garishly bright colors how could I miss them?  But I saw potential in them, even if they are so unattractive they are too embarrassed to look at the camera as is.

 

First thing I did was cut those extra long, monkey styled arms in half!  Then, on this one, I pulled off the brightest of the trims, and added some pretty pastels.  Old crocheted lace, millinery flowers, a new hat (made from velvet flower petals), and of course, some fairy wings!

Now she is feeling self confident in her appearance and is saucily looking right into the eye of the camera.

 

Her formally red, white, and blue sister (who looked a bit too much like Wonder Woman to start with) really had a beautiful design of sequins, I just couldn't live with the colors.  So, a little bit of spray paint with glitter sprinkled on while the paint was still wet gave her a makeover.

She also got a flower petal hat, more flowers on her gown, jewelry and a magic wand made from a hat pin.  And of course, no more monkey arms.  She has dainty little fairy wings, that don't show in this photo.

Sometimes I wonder about what I spend my time on.  I am so far behind from being gone on one trip after another and I know I need to get caught up, get things listed on line and clean up my Etsy and Boutique, but I couldn't help myself. I saw these poor ugly ducklings and had to be their fairy godmother and turn them into swans!

 

I'm also finishing up the books I promised to list and will add all the new items to the shop at once and have a much needed makeover there too.

For now, it is back to my job as a fairy godmother, there are a few of those girls still waiting for my help!

Oh, and the winner of the June giveaway is:

 Becca of Bluebirds and Roses. She was one of my very first blog friends, how nice!

Don't forget, a new contest starts today! All comments, all month are in the drawing for whatever the heck that prize will be.