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Sunday, November 30, 2014

It Is The First Advent ...

Hello my dear friends,

today is the first Advent and it is a tradition that I learnt of when I lived in Germany as a child. 

Four weeks before Christmas you make or buy a Advent wreath, which is traditionally a wreath made from fir-tree branches, it has 4 candles standing in it and is beautifully decorated. Unfortunately my plans of making one of these seasonal wreaths this year didn't work out but I found some lovely images to share with you on the Internet.

This is such a lovely tradition and just makes the special time of the year that little more special and something you might want to try. You will see it will give you that sparkle more to Christmas time.

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

 (courtesy of Wohnen und Garten.de)

 A candle would be lit on each of the Sundays before Christmas and it would be like a count down until Christmas Eve until the ' Christkind' would come and bring you gifts.

(The 'Chirstkind' is the traditional gift bringer of Christmas in many European countries including Germany.)


I remember that we learnt a song in school when I was little, that we would sing and if I am right, it went like this ...

'Advent, Advent ein Lichtlein brennt.
Erst eins, dann zweit, dann drei und vier,
dann steht das Christkind vor der Tuer.'


'Advent, Advent, a little light burns,
First one, then two, then three and four,
And then the Christkind stand outside your door.'

So today I would love to wish all of you lovely bloggers a ...

... Happy First Advent!

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

Have a peaceful day.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving ..

Hello my dear friends,

I would like to wish all of you all of you lovely bloggers that live just across the border ...


... a Happy Thanks Giving!

Have a peaceful day.


Monday, November 24, 2014

My Snowflake .. 'People Of The Snow' ~ The Tutorial ..

Hello my dear friends,

the weekend was very busy with helping my daughter and son-in-law getting ready to move into their new house and lots of snow and lots of shoveling of the white and glistening stuff  too.



My little Peter Pan was almost completely covered by a blanket of snow.

I also did something I have never done before and I am not sure if I ever would again ...
... I took a 'selfie'! My first ever!

 This was just after I finished clearing snow off three driveways and some sidewalks too, which I used the snow blower for and I was tired, cold and my hair was frozen in places ...  


... I was a mess with pink cheeks.

Back inside I found some time to be creative whilst I am warming up again and I discovered a neat little thing whilst working on my newest crochet snowflake pattern  'People of the Snow'... which I named after the little town in British Columbia where I was born.

By crocheting either the rounds single or mixed I was able to made four different snowflakes from this one pattern and each snowflake looks different and is a different size too! It is easy really ... the first snowflake is made by crocheting all rounds, the second snowflake was made by crocheting round one, the third one from rounds one and two and last but not least the fourth one from rounds one and three!

This is how they look ...


Can you believe it, they are all from the same pattern!


Above are snowflake no.1 and 4 and below ...


... and these are snowflake two and three. 


All different looking, all so pretty and like I said, all from the same pattern!

And this is what I would love to share with all you lovely bloggers today - my newest crochet snowflakes and how to make them!

As always I have made charts for you to use and again as always I have given you written instructions as well.


And here are the written instructions for you ...

'People of the Snow'
( the original one I made first and which is the largest one of all four)

Form a magic ring and in this ring crochet ...

 Round 1 ...

... 3 chain stitches, 1 double crochet, * 3 chain stitches, 2 double crochet* repeat 4 more times so that you have 6 all together. Finish this round off with a slip stitch into the third chain stitch at the beginning of the round.

 Round 2 ...

... 1 chain stitch and then 1 single crochet in the next double stitch from the previous round.
Then *2 chain stitches and into the loop (3 chain stitches from the previous round) 1 double crochet, 3 chain stitches, 1 double stitch, 2 chain stitches and then 1 single crochet in each double crochet from the previous round, * Repeat until you have done so 6 times all together. Finish the round with a slip stitch into the chain stitch at the beginning of the round.

Round 3 ...

... crochet 1 chain stitch (first single crochet) and then into every double crochet from the previous round a single crochet stitch. Into every little loop (previous round 3 chain stitches) 2 single crochet, 3 chain stitches, 2 single crochet. Finish the round with a slip stitch into the chain stitch from the beginning of the round and there you have another lovely snowflake.

(I must confess that it took me a while to get these instructions right this time, for some reason they just were difficult to write and I hope they make sense to you.)

And here are the instructions for the other three snowflakes which you can create using the same pattern.

 The reason for me having taken the time and written the instructions for each one of the snowflakes is to make it easier for beginners to be able to make all these lovely white pretties without getting mixed up, which can happy very easy when you are learning something new. (Been there, so done that!)



'People of the Snow'
Snowflake no.2

Form a magic ring and in this ring crochet the following ...

 Round 1 ...

... 3 chain stitches, 1 double crochet, * 3 chain stitches, 2 double crochet* repeat 4 more times so that you have 6 all together. Finish this round off with a slip stitch into the third chain stitch at the beginning of the round and your snowflake is already done!

~

'People of the Snow'
Snowflake no.3

Form a magic ring and in this ring crochet the following ...

 Round 1 ...

... 3 chain stitches, 1 double crochet, * 3 chain stitches, 2 double crochet* repeat 4 more times so that you have 6 all together. Finish this round off with a slip stitch into the third chain stitch at the beginning of the round.

Round 2 ...

... 1 chain stitch and then 1 single crochet in the next double stitch from the previous round.
Then *2 chain stitches and into the loop (3 chain stitches from the previous round) 1 double crochet, 3 chain stitches, 1 double stitch, 2 chain stitches and then 1 single crochet in each double crochet from the previous round, * Repeat until you have done so 6 times all together. Finish the round with a slip stitch into the chain stitch at the beginning of the round.


~

'People of the Snow'
Snowflake no.4

Form a magic ring and crochet the following ...

Round 1 ...

... 3 chain stitches, 1 double crochet, * 3 chain stitches, 2 double crochet* repeat 4 more times so that you have 6 all together. Finish this round off with a slip stitch into the third chain stitch at the beginning of the round.

Round 2 ...
( round 3 on the large chart)

... crochet 1 chain stitch (first single crochet) and then into every double crochet from the previous round a single crochet stitch. Into every little loop (previous round 3 chain stitches) 2 single crochet, 3 chain stitch, 2 single crochet. Finish the round with a slip stitch into the chain stitch from the beginning of the round and there you have another lovely snowflake.

(I hope that I haven't made any mistakes in my instructions but if I have, just drop me a line so I an fix it.)

~

Now you can make many, many of them and decorate maybe your tree with them or use them if you make your own Christmas cards or where ever you would like.


I had a look at another one of my other snowflake patterns and I have tried this with my 'Let There Be Snow' crochet pattern and it too worked. 



With this one you have to crochet the all the rounds and that would be your first snowflake and then when you crochet the first three round then you will have your second snowflake.

Also please keep in mind that this might not work with other crochet snowflake patterns, it is something you would have to try out with each pattern as you go.

Thank you for stopping by today and visiting me here at Todolwen ~ it is always so nice when you do and I hope you will come back some time again.

I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Tiny Little Things ..

Hello my dear friends,

I am sure most of you know how much I love to create little things and sometimes even tiny things. Remember my little cupboard mice?! I made that tiny one that now lives in a nutshell. It seems to be no different when it comes to Christmas trees by the look of it.

I had an idea for a new creation which called for a Christmas tree ...
... a teeny, tiny Christmas tree and this is the one I made yesterday!


Oh and yes, it is standing on a penny!

 And these are my photo props ...


... an old tin, an antique velvet ring box and of  course my little old penny ...


... and they worked perfectly to capture my teeny little tree!

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I am working on a new Christmas creation in which this tiny tree will be a part of and I am hoping to be able to share it with you soon. 

And last but not least ...

 ... a few photos of our snow that we had yesterday.







Some people call it ''the lake effect" ... I call it beautiful!

Tomorrow morning you will find me outside with our snow blower clearing driveways and smiling whilst doing so.

I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Now Listed .. For The Love Of Poinsettias ~ The Tutorial ..

Hello my dear friends,

I am so happy to share with you today,  that I have created a tutorial on how to make my music sheets poinsettias and it is now listed in my Etsy shop.

I have worked very hard over this past week to get this tutorial together and to complete it sooner that I had originally planned to do.

With this tutorial you will not only be able to make my large poinsettia that can be used in a wreath or in many other Christmas decorations but I have also included the how-to of my newest long stemmed poinsettia with leaves too.


If you are interested in creating some of my poinsettias, just click on my Etsy shop on my right sidebar and take a look!

I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.


Tuesday, November 18, 2014

For The Love Of Poinsettias ~ A New Take ..

Hello my dear friends,

I have told you since days and maybe even weeks now that I am so incredibly busy and today I am sharing a little part of why I am with all you lovely bloggers. 

You all know my music sheet poinsettia that I had created a Winter or so ago. Well, I have now made another one of them but this one is a long stemmed poinsettia with leaves that can stand in a beautiful tall vase.

And this is what it looks like ..!



For this poinsettia I used white glitter instead of clear this time and I kept the leaves plain.



I love that this creatoin has turned out exactly the way I hoped it would and I hope you have enjoyed my sharing it with you.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting me here again at Todolwen  ~ it is always so nice when you do. If you have a little spare time tomorrow, why not pop by and see what I have been up to.

I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Monday, November 17, 2014

This Morning ..

Hello my dear friends,

this morning I woke up to this ...


... our first snow!



Doesn't everything just look so lovely?!

It is the perfect weather for me ... stay inside and be busy, which I really am! 
I am working on so many different things again and all at once ... I don't think I will ever learn.
At least that means I will have plenty to share with all you lovely bloggers.

So, do pop by and visit me at Todolwen very soon again ~ I love it when you do so.

I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day. 

Friday, November 14, 2014

'White Bliss' ..

Hello my dear friends,

can you believe this?! ... I almost forgot to share this creation with you! 
Yup, way to much on my mind for sure.

Today I am sharing my fourth sewing stand with all you lovely bloggers, which is one of my seven newest creations.  Just like the other three, it is lovely and elegant. I again chose white seam binding and linens for this creation with a vintage piece of sparkle as the crowning jewel and ... I just love it!

I named it ..


... 'White Bliss'.








I hope you have again enjoyed my newest creation.

I am planning on listing my sewing stands and pincushions in my Etsy shop for sale soon and I will let you know in a short post once they are.  

Thank you for taking the time to visit me here at Todolwen today ~ I always love it when you do!

I hope you are well and life is treating you kind my dear friends.

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Running Behind ..

Hello my dear friends,

I am so far behind right now and I am not very happy about it.
I had planned to do so much and so far I haven't gotten very far but I am trying to get things done in the next ten days or so.

I am working very hard on a new tutorial that I am going to be listing in my Etsy shop hopefully by November 20th. Which tutorial that is? ... Well, that is something I am not going to share just yet ~ you will just have to wait and see. (Fingers crossed it will work out and be done in time!)


I have also decided to create another tutorial this Christmas time. 
I am working on the how to create my music sheet Poinsettias and I am hoping to list this tutorial too soon in my Etsy shop.

Not only that but I also have one more little tutorial which is my third crochet snowflake, that I will be sharing once I get the last bit of the instructions done.

As you can see, I am crazy busy but unfortunately at times I do have problems making things work the way I want them to and they need more time spent on them as I had first thought.That is a part of the reason why I haven't been able to finish any of my new tutorials yet but also it just takes time to put a tutorial together with all the photographs and instructions. As soon as I have completed any of them, I will let you know.

So whenever you have a spare moment or two and you would like to know what I have been up to, so stop by and visit me here at Todolwen ... I might just have something new to share.

I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Three Little Pincushions ..

Hello my dear friends,

three little pincushions all pretty and fine.

Today  I am sharing my three pocket watch pincushions that I recently had made and they have been eagerly waiting to show themselves to you.


This is ...


... 'Sunday's Best'.

A little white beauty, dressed in her finest.
White linen, white lace, white ribbon and a lovely sparkle.




This one is called ...


... 'Vintage Flair'

Again dressed up in her finest too in shades of subtle pale brown with some tattered lace and a vintage gem. 




And last but not least ...


... 'Tea Time'.

My daughter Caylagh came up with the name for this pincushion.
The colors made her think of tea at 5 o'clock tea in England ~ all posh and proper.






And those are my last three pocket watch pincushions. Well, for the moment anyway or until I find a few more of those old beautiful pocket watch casings.


Again ... photo bombed by one of our cats but that's OK really.
I am slowly getting used to it.


I hope you have enjoyed me newest creations, they were so much joy for me to make.

Right now I am so busy with so many different things and way behind where I wanted to be but I am hoping to be able to share some of them soon with all you lovely bloggers.

I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.