Such A Good Weekend ..

Hello my dear friends,

I was actually very busy this past weekend. Not only did I go to one church sale with my two sweet daughters, no ... I visited three and I found new treasures as well which I will share with all you lovely bloggers later in this post.

I still am working on new creations, which I would love to share with you but I can't ... well, not right now. The only thing I can say is that they are Christmas themed. Well, I could just give you another teeny weeny sneak peak if that's OK with you ~ also later in this post.

I was actually able to put a 'normal' shoe on my sore foot today and I went into the garden/yard and I managed to cut my lawn!! I was so happy!! I am getting better and better every day. I only just noticed a big bump on my left shoulder a few days ago from where I hit the floor and I am hoping that it too will be gone soon. I have set myself a deadline for my outdoor project and that is my birthday ~ June 2nd. I can't believe that I am going to be ... half a century old! But no more talk of that for now! My daughter Ashleigh tells me not to look at my age but to celebrate the day I was born, so that is what I am going to do!!

One nice thing I discovered on the internet today was a post about me and my creations. The person that wrote the post about me was Corey Amaro from France. Every Saturday she talks about an artist that she admires and I was blessed to be the one she wrote about. She wrote so many nice things about me and my art. Thank you, dear Corey ~ you are so very kind and have made my heart jump today! Here is a link to Corey's blog and to the article she wrote about me if you might be interested in what she wrote or just pop over and take a look at her blog!

http://willows95988.typepad.com/tongue_cheek/2012/04/saturday-art-saves-karen-bailey.html

This weekend has been a very kind to me  .. because I was also so very lucky to be one of the two extra giveaway winners that sweet Tina in Denmark from 'TinyBear Studio' decided to pick ~ it is a surprise and I am so excited about it!!! Of course as soon as I know what it is so will you!

And now a few photos of my newest findings ...

... lovely vintage doillies ...

... old knitted lace or trim ... 

... some beautiful white on white embroidery ...

...some more crochet ...

... bits and pieces ...

... including delightful pansies!

And last but not least ...

... my teeny weeny sneak  peak.

This is one of my Christmas creations I have been working on! I am sorry but right now thats all I can share with you at this moment in time.

It was so nice that you have dropped by again here at Todolwen and I would love for you to visit me  soon again.

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

A Tarnished 'Get~Together'

Hello my dear friends,

so nice that you are visiting me here at Todolwen. I had mentioned a few days ago that I was working on something and now I can share my newest creation with you.

I have been wanting to make a little sewing stand for some time now ~ I just hadn't found the right tarnished pieces for it until now. I had started this creation a few days ago and finally finished it last night. It took me a bit longer than I thought because of the drying time for the glue. Looking at the individual pieces ~ there are four ~ I didn't think that they would compliment each other so well as they do. (Unfortunately I forgot to take a before picture of this creation) I must say that I actually like this little tarnished creation so much I might collect a few new pieces to make another one. As you all know I love sharing many pictures so you won't miss a thing!

And this is my little tarnished 'get~together' ...

Here you can see all four tattered and tarnished pieces of the sewing stand.

Just like with other creations of mine ...

... less is more in this case!

I hope you have enjoyed my lastest little making!

It would be nice if you stopped by here at Todolwen some time again and until then ...

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

I'm Still Here...

Hello my dear friends,

it has been a full week since my last post already. I haven't been up and about too much since my foot is still very swollen but I did go out on Saturday to one church sale but then straight back home to rest and I was really lucky to find a new treasure on my outing. Otherwise I spent most of the last week either resting or trying to make some new creations.

You won't believe it but I am already in Christmas mode! I know so early but there is a reason for it which I will share with you soon I hope but I will give you a tiny sneak peak on what I have been working on today. As well as that I am working on another new creation that I am hoping to have completed soon and then I will share it with you lovely bloggers.

And these are my newest findings from the weekend before my accident ...

Lots of lovely ...

... vintage lace ...

... hand crochet trim ...

... a beautiful tattered old hanky ...

... two pairs of vintage sewing scissors and this ...

... the most precious rosary!

 I found this treasure at the church sale last Saturday ~ isn't it beautiful?!

 

And last but not least ...

 

... my little red feathered friend that visits our garden every day now ~ I love to watch him whilst I am writing on my blog. He brings me so much joy!

Can you see the ground all covered up and ready for the next step? ~ sigh ~ I can't wait to get back into working on my outdoor project which will hopefully be sooner than later!!

And finally my sneak peak for you ...

This is all I am going to let you see at this moment in time.

I am so happy that you have visited Todolwen today ~ it means so much to me! I hope to see you here soon again!

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,


Karen B.

'For You ~ With Love'

Hello my dear friends,

I was feeling really sore and not being allowed to walk a lot I took the opportunity to create something new. Remember I have all these little tiny dried roses from last year? ... well, I got a chance to use a few of them again to create a little something.

I have called my latest creation ... "For you ... with love". It would be a perfect little gift and not just for Mothers day. I love the look of this little making because it is so delicate, small and vintage looking but see for yourselves ...

"For you ... with love"

I dry brushed the little dried roses with gold paint to give them a special vintage feel...

I hope you have enjoyed my latest little creation.

 I find that there is something about matchboxes ~ there can be a whole little world inside it and you would have never thought of! This could be something on your to~do list ... a matchbox creation! Why not try it out ... and if you do ... let me know how it turns out!

It was so nice of you to stop by here at Todolwen again and I hope to see you soon!

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

My Outdoor Project ... On Standby Now

Hello  my dear friends,

I have been so busy this past week with my outdoor project aka garden/back yard that I only found very little time to create and I must say I was also too drained in the evenings to sit down and try to create but I am really happy so far with how much I have gotten done and I thought I would share my success.

Our backyard has been a mess since about 3 years now ~ first due to us having to have the foundation work done to our house and then because we had a pool put in last year. It was pretty much pointless to do anything until we were finished with the 'big' stuff.

And here is a before picture of the side of our house ...

... a right mess!!

... and this is what it looks like now after a very intense day of digging, deweeding and leveling ...

... ready for the next step.

I did get more done but I will share other pictures with you soon again. Right now my outdoor project is unfortunately on standby due a little accident I had yesterday early lunch time which ended with me  being in the ER for almost 6 hours and then leaving on crutches with a very badly sprained ankle. What happened was was that I walked down our stairs and tripped on the last step which made me twist my left foot intensely as I fell to the floor banging the left side of my body as well! So now I can't do anything outside at all for at least a week or two but hopefully on the other hand I will be able to use some of my newly found time to create a little more  ~ I will see how much I hurt tomorrow first. Otherwise everything is OK here at Todolwen.

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

I wish you a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

One Person's Trash ...

Hello my dear friends,

I just had to share this with you! You all know that I love going to church rummage sales because there are so many treasures there and always something neat to find. Last year I went to many of them and I did find some lovely things.

I was going to use one of my found treasures in my tutorial 'lace and ribbon tassle' but in the end I decided not to. The item was a old looking brooch that I had bought but I thought I would find a different creation for this little gem but it was still shown in the tutorial in a few of my pictures.

This is one of the photographs that was part of my tutorial ~ the brooch is the purplish one in the teacup and ...

... this is how I was planning to use it at first.

 I received an e-mail several months ago from a lovely German lady that lives in France named Christine who had read my tutorial and saw the pictures and then told me that my brooch may be an antique and could be worth something. I thought it was great but I didn't think of having the brooch looked at by a jeweler at that time but yesterday I really got wondering so I did and ...... Christine was right!

The brooch is an antique and the stone is an Amethyst ~ the birthstone of February and I was told it was worth $100! I was so happy! The jeweler actually said that if you were to recreate the piece today it would cost you almost $600!!

Isn't this a beautiful vintage piece? It will now find a permanent home with me and would you like to know one of the neatest things about it?...

... it only cost me 25 cents!!

Remember the saying 'one person's 'trash' is the other person's treasure', well in this case it is really is! Guess where I'm off to in two weeks ~ yes ... 3 church sales!

Thank you for stopping by here at Todolwen. I love it when you visit my little blog.

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Up, Up And Away ...

Hello my dear friends,

so nice that you are visiting Todolwen again!

Today I would like to finally share my newest creation with you. I had already given you a clue by showing you the three main 'ingredients' I have used. I wonder if any one of you lovely bloggers have been able to maybe guess what I was up too ... ?

So, this was the clue I gave you ...

... and before I share my newest making with you, here is another clue to make it really interesting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5akEgsZSfhg

As a little girl I used to love listening to a song called 'Up, up and Away' by the Fifth Dimension. If you don't know which song it is, I have added a link under the picture above. It will take you to YouTube so you can listen to it.

And now ...

... this is my latest creation! (I can't wait to share this with you and by the way I had totally forgotten how messy papermache can be!!)

Yet again many photos ~ I would hate for you miss anything!

My creation ...

'Up, Up And Away'

So ... there is still a seat left over in my balloon ...

would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon?

I hope you have enjoyed my latest making. It was fun and a challenge at times for me, especially when it came to attaching the wire to the basket and balloon (I almost gave up at one stage) but thankfully in the end all was well.

My final thought for the day ...

... altered art is perfect ... no patterns needed ... no instructions ... use what you have and just let your imagination run wild and create!!

 

Please, come back and visit me here at Todolwen sometime soon again and until the next time ...

 

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.