How Does My Garden Grow? ..

Hello my dear friends,

it has been some time now since I have shared anything from our yard/garden.
 I have taken many photographs of all the beautiful flowers, of our 'gentle giant' (our willow tree)  and of some of the critters that come to visit. Today I am sharing these photos and I hope you enjoy them.

I was surprised by how many flowers bloomed this year and I didn't know that some of them were even there for a little while because they were hiding so well.

This lovely blossom popped up under one of our lillies that lives in the back of the yard. Isn't it so pretty?!

My little rosebush took a long time to start to bloom this year ...

... but once it did, the roses were as always so pretty. That was until a beetle got hold of it. It was almost destroyed by this bug but a little soapy water that I sprayed all over it helped get rid of the pest and saved my little old rosebush!

Spring and summer brought critters to visit and as always it was such a joy to see and watch them.

These are actually two little young cardinals ...

... that would patiently wait on the ground for their bright red colored parent to come and feed them. It was so neat to watch but unfortunately I wasn't able get any photos of it happening.

We also have a little skunk this year. I have only seen it late at night but I decided that I wasn't going to try and get a photo and maybe a little more of it.

Most of you know our willow tree. 

We named her 'Salisbury' after a willow tree in the UK close to where we used to live.

Right now it is about 90 feet tall which has become too tall.

 Our arborist recommended we have her cut back by over half, so she will no longer be a giant but still a beauty. This is going to happen in the next few months and I am a bit worried of how bad the tree is going to look afterwards but also a little relieved. Every time we would have a storm or strong winds I worry about this tree and that it might fall. Once it is smaller, I hopefully won't worry so much anymore.

Fall is now here and it's time to slowly get our yard/garden ready for the soon coming winter and that will be another time to take more pictures of it and for me to share them with you Lovelies again.

Thank you for taking the time to visit me here at Todolwen. It is always so nice when you do.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Something New This Year ..

Hello my dear friends,

this year I am going to try something new to me and Todolwen.

Do you remember my poinsettia Christmas stocking that I made from a felted woolen blanked last year? 

 I am working on a tutorial for it right now and once completed you will be able to find it in my Etsy shop but that isn't the new thing though.

The new thing is, that I am also going to put a kit together for this stocking. In this kit you will find almost everything that you will need to create my poinsettia Christmas stocking.

 It will have enough of the felted wool blanket to make the stocking and the poinsettia for it. You will also receive the embroidery floss, sewing thread, pearls, embroidery and sewing needle, crochet hook, seam binding and of course the tutorial which will be e-mailed to you.

All you would need to supply would be a glue stick, scissors, a pencil or quilter's marker and some cardboard for the templates and your time of course. I am hoping to have a few different subtle colors available like the one above if everything works out right.

So what do you think?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Cattail Pond ..

Hello my dear friends,

I have shared many pictures before of a little pond that lives in the park down the road from our house. In the past we had Canadian geese bringing up their babies there but now the cattails have taken over the pond and that in the most beautiful way and that is why I have now given the pond the name ... Cattail Pond.

A few days ago my daughters and I went for a walk and visited the pond for the first time in a while and we were taken by how lovely it looked. This year there the ducks have taken a liking to the pond. Swimming in between the cattail stalks, hiding in them when something spooked them.

This is such a lovely place and I am planning on coming back soon. This time I will bring some wheat and corn so I feed the ducks which I haven't done in some time.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Your Lovely Comments ..

Hello my dear friends,

I don't know if any of you Lovelies are having any problems receiving emails that contain comments that have been left for you because I am unfortunately.

I have noticed something lately that has to do with all the lovely comments you leave for me here on Todolwen.

 Normally these would also appear in my e-mail inbox and it wouldn't matter if it was a comment for a new post of an older one but these days almost none of them do. They show up on the post you have commented on but if it is an older post I unfortunately don't see them at all if I don't check my comments page on blogger. There is no way I would know about them otherwise.

I am so sorry, that I have missed many of your comments due to this problem. I am not being rude or anything like that at all and unfortunately I don't always have time to get back to all of  you and I hate to say that I am forgetful on top of the problem of not being notified ~ I hope you understand.

In the future I will try and keep an eye out for your comments and also work on getting back to all of you.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

My Little Haul From Michaels ...

Hello my dear friends,

last week I felt like doing a little shopping with creating for Christmas in my mind. I headed out to our local Michaels and there I found some very neat bits and pieces that I knew would come in very handy in a few of the ideas I already have.

This is what I found ...

I am already excited to create with all of this!

Some lovely tiny Swarovski butterflies and ...

... some little crystal hearts.

I also found these large 'pearls' apart from other normal sized strings of pearls.

Just look at the biggest one ~ I hope the penny next to it lets you imagine how big it actually is. Looking at them, can you maybe see what I see? What do I see? ... Well, I am not going to share that just yet. All I will say is that I am planning to turn them into something lovely that you only see in the Winter. Once finished I will of course share it with all you Lovelies here on Todolwen, I am not quite sure when that will be just yet, so do stop by sometime again.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

My Newest Harvest ..

Hello my dear friends,

as I have mentioned I am still 'havesting' pumpkins.

As with other things I have created, sometimes I just get so 'stuck' having so much pleasure making whatever it is and that is why I make several of these creations then. I am just enjoying myself so much and this time it is no different.

My newest pumpkins were again so much fun to make. These ones though, I wanted to be a little bit more traditional when it came to the color and that is a sort of big thing for me. Colors at times are just not my thing as most of you already know.

 I remembered the stack of cotton velvet I had bought, I think it was last year. There were several pieces in different shades of orange which were perfect for what I wanted to create ... namely pumpkin pincushions. One thing that was a little difficult was the decision of what shape I wanted to do. Was it the more traditional shaped pumpkin or the new thing, the heart shaped pumpkin. In the end I decided that the more traditional look was for me.

 The easier decision was, that I was going to use old silverware again as the stems.
Old tarnished spoons were waiting patiently for me and my hacksaw was handy as well.

I filled my little pincushion pumpkins with crushed walnut shells which made them nice and plump and this ensures that needles and pins will stay nice and sharp.

I harvested four of them in total and one is just as pretty as the other ... take a look!

Pumpkin pincushion No. 1

Pumpkin pincushion No.2

Pumpkin pincushion No.3

And last but not least ...

Pumpkin pincushion No. 4 

 They all have turned out so neat and I like them very much.

Pumpkins No. 1 and 2 have already sold but if any of you are interested, pumpkinsNo. 3 and 4 are now listed for sale in my Etsy shop. Why not head over and take a peek?

 I think that the harvest in now going to slow down a little now but that doesn't mean that I am not working on something new which I will share here with all you Lovelies soon.

  Thank you for stopping by today and visiting me here at Todolwen ~ it is always so nice when you do.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.