Helping A Little In The Hot Weather ..

Hello my dear friends,

you all know how much I love all of the critters (furry and feathered) that live and visit our backyard.

These past weeks have been quite hot and we actually got to 46C with humidex last week. Not only can it be too warm for us humans but also for the critters outside. Since about 3 months now I have placed some smaller Rubbermaid containers with water outside on our deck. I still have my old copper frying pan as a bird bath as well but in the heat the metal can get quite hot where the plastic doesn't.

Yesterday as I was doing my dishes, I saw several birds taking a bath in one of my Rubbermaid 'tubs' on our deck. I was very fortunate being able to caputure this in a few photos. These days I have my camera close by so if it is 'needed', it is handy which was the case yesterday.

And these are those photos, unfortunately some of the photos are a bit blurry. (I had taken them through the kitchen window.)

At first a little sparrow decided to have a drink.

The next time I looked out ...

... a bright red cardinal was enjoying a bath in the little tub of water.

He actually spent a good few minutes in it ...

... that a little sparrow had to stand at wait for it's turn.

At last it was this little ones time to freshen up ...

... and it sure did enjoy it. 

The little sparrow looked quite messy after it's bath but soon afterwards it was dry again and flew away.

It is important to help the creatures that visit your garden when it is hot outside. A little cool water will go a long way, just make sure you refresh it every day or every other day so mosquitos don't get a change to breed in it.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

My Mail Fairy And New Treasures ...

Hello my dear friends,

I have my very own little mail fairy and she is the sweetest ever.

At times I find the most lovely pieces on Etsy or Ebay and am so wanting to buy them but the seller won't ship to Canada which is a little sad for me. That is where my little mail fairy helps out. My dear and sweet friend Dawn from 'The Feathered Nest' is my little mail fairy. She is so kind and helpful when I have problems having something shipped to me which thankfully isn't too often. 

This post is about one of those times I found some pieces that I just had to have. I found them on Ebay and I was the lucky winning bidder in the end and now my newest treasures are here.

I could hardly wait to open the box when it arrived.
Dawn had been so kind and re-wrapped everything because the person that sold them didn't do a good job of it.

 As I opened the box, under the first layer of old pattern pages, there was a lovely little gift waiting for me. It was one of Dawn's beautiful embroidered lavender sachets. I was so touched by this kind and thoughtful gesture.

'Thank you so much Dawn, you are so kind and I love your gift so much!'

This is the lavender sachet ...

... it is so pretty and smells so lovely!

Underneath another layer of vintage pattern sheets ...

... there they were ...

... my newest treasures just waiting for me to unwrap them.

I did so but I am not going to let you know what they were just yet. You will have to wait until they have become my newest creations, which knowing me, will be very soon. 

So whenever you have a spare moment, do stop by again here at Todolwen and see what I have been up too.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

The Winner Of My 'Christmas To Come' Giveaway 2016 ..

Hello my dear friends,

it is July 25th and that means that it was time to pick the 'winner' for my 'Christmas To Come' 2016 giveaway! I am so excited!

Just to explain how my Christmas giveaway works again ...

... I pick a name from all of those who have entered my giveaway. What happens next is ... nothing! Yes, you read right, nothing. If you are the winner all you have to do is send  me your mailing address. Then you sit back and forget all about it until Christmas.
 I will mail you your gift so that it will hopefully arrive before the most magical day of the year. Once it arrives, it is up to you really. I would hope that you would put it under your tree and wait until Christmas morning before you open it because that is the thought behind this giveaway. I would love you to feel the way you did as a child, waiting for the time when you are finally allowed to open your presents and then the surprise of what it is!

What will the 'winner' be gifted?! ... That will stay a secret until after Christmas morning. This way it will be a true surprise for the recipient of the gift. And now you know how it works and why I do it.

As before, I gave each name a number ...

... and each number became a little white butterfly.

Over 100 butterflies ended up in here ...

... and then I closed my eyes and picked one of them.

It was butterfly No. 23 and that is ...

... Olivia Villaronga!

Congratulations Olivia! You are the winner of my 'Christmas To Come' Giveaway 2016!

Please, drop me a line with you mailing address.

I would like to say 'Thank you' to all that took part in this years giveaway and making it so special to me. Don't forget that I am planning to do this again next year, so keep an eye out for that special post.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

So Grateful ...

Hello my dear friends,

unfortunately things don't always go as planned. I never got around to taking those photos of my newest pincushion after all but thankfully there is always tomorrow/today.

It had been such a busy day again. The drywalling is now all done and the mudding and taping of the garage walls has started and that means that it is almost done!

I was very busy helping our contractors with the interior doors. I took the old ones down and then removed all the hardware so I could donate it to Habitat for Humanity.

The first three new doors are now hung and it is nice to see them finally where they belong. Today the rest of them are going to be hung and I am excited about it. The only problem I have, is that I am just not sure how we are going to finish them yet ... stain or paint?! That is going to be a tough one to decide.

Not only did I help with the renovations somehwhat but I also was able to have a little creating time as well. I am behind in creating a few pincushions. I am making them using pewter tulip candle holders. Just before dinner as I was tidying the table to set it, I drop one of them on one of my toes. The candle holder isn't that big but somewhat heavy and especially when dropped from waist hight, it hurts.

That was the only bad part of my day and now to the part I am so grateful for ...

... I was standing at our kitchen window, when I looked outside and saw something moving in our pool. It didn't take long for me to realize that is was a young blackbird. It was in the water trying to get out somehow but it just couldn't make it. It must have mistaken the bright blue of  the water for the solar blanket that sits on our pool when it isn't being used. The bird's wings were weighed down from the water and it was going to drown. I ran outside, grabbed our pool brush and carefully dunked it into the water underneath the bird. It took three attempts until the little fellow held tight properly so I could lift it to safety. I placed it onto the grass where the young bird slowly hopped away and then hid under an evergreen where it stayed, trying to recover from it's wet and frightning ordeal. Shortly later on I checked on it and it was gone. I am hoping it was alright.

I can't tell you how happy I am that I looked out of the window when I did. Helping and saving that little feathered critter just made my day!

I wish you all something that will make your day special!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

So Much Going On Right Now ...

Hello my dear friends,

it might now seem so but so much has been going on here and I have been quite busy with all sorts of things, I just haven't been posting about them lately. 

Right now we are having some work done on our house again. We had torn the inside of our garage out, right down to the stud walls and have put new insulation in the walls and have had all the wiring redone too.

We have just had a new garage door installed ...

... and it looks great.

The garage is so bright inside now with the windows in the new

door and it makes working in it with the door down so much better. I was hoping that Habitat for Humanity would want the old door but they can't take them anymore due to their size. I still didn't want the door to be resold by the company that was installing the new one and then I had an even better thought. I have some lovely neighbors Chris and Lise, who's garage door wasn't that good anymore, so I gifted them with it instead. I was so happy when they said 'yes' to taking it, it just made my day.

Right now the drywalling is happening in the garage  ...

.... and the side of our house has already been repaired too.

 We had a few leaks that needed fixing under the siding and there are a few holes in the roof that still need fixing which will happen at the end of this week. Our new internal doors will be all hung in the next few days and following all that we are having new windows put in the upstairs in almost all of the rooms. Once all that is done, I am hoping that I will be able to paint our hallway and landing sometime after August. I am glad the work has started but I am already looking forward to when it is all done. I don't really like renovations that much ~ I just find them quite stressful at times.

Fortunately I have also been able to be a little creative though too. I have made a few more new creations and of course they are all pincushions again. I am also working on a few new ideas and some of them are already for Christmas but today I will be sharing one of my newest creations.

It is a delightful little pincushion that I made from a little tarnished and golden colored chalice. I went a little out of my comfort zone and did things a little different and I actually like the way it turned out very much. I named it ... 'Little Gem' because that is what it is, a lovely little gem for any sewing table. So ... that is all I am going to tell you about it today. I haven't had time to take any photographs of it just yet but I am hoping later on today I will have 5 minutes spare to do so and maybe tomorrow I will be able to share it with all of you Lovelies.

 So save a few minutes for me tomorrow and pop by and visit me again, here at Todolwen.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

It is Almost Time ~ My 'Christmas To Come' Giveaway 2016 ..

Hello my dear friends,

 it is now July and it is almost time to for me to pick one of you to win my 'Christmas To Come' giveaway 2016.

So if you haven't done so yet, then hurry, hurry and enter you name by clicking on the link below the picture. It will take you to where you need to be to leave a comment and your name to be entered. If you haven't heard about my Christmas giveaway before, I will explain the thought of mine behind it to you real quick now.

 I remember as a child being so very excited about Christmas Day when Santa Clause had been and had left me gifts under the Christmas tree. The unwrapping was such a joy and to discover what Santa had gifted me even more. That is the feeling I want to give one of you at Christmas time.

This is my third year of my 'Christmas To Come' giveaway and I am loving it more each year.

Oh, there is one little thing though I would like to ask you and that is to please, leave your comment on the original post only!

My Christmas To Come Giveaway 2016

What will I be gifting this year's winner?

I am working on that one still. I have a few idea but no matter what it will be, is will stay a secret until after Christmas. So enter your name because I will be anouncing who the lucky person is on ...

... Monday, July 25th!

Please, don't forget to include your email address, so I can contact you if you are the chosen one.

Thank you for making my festive season giveaway such a special thing for me.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Please Meet 'Sampson' ..

Hello my dear friends,

have you ever done anything you could or would class as 'crazy' in your life?!

You know, something like a dare or something that you would only do once, like bungee jumping or jumping out of a plane? Or maybe you bought something very expensive? Until last year, I thought I had done my all my 'crazy' things when I was in my early 20s.

They do say, the older you get ~ the wiser you get. Well, apparently not in my case, my dear friends. I have now really done a 'crazy thing'.

I am so happy with the little things in life, I truly am but sometimes I really take to something. Normally I would have just said no but this time I thought and thought and thought some more about it. I wasn't going to buy it at first but my husband almost insisted I should 'go for it' and I can't believe I actually did. (It might have had something to do with our 25th wedding anniversary that was approaching a few days later.)

 The last time I bought something 'expensive' was over ten years ago when we were retiring from army after 22 years and moving back to Canada. Back then I bought my 45 drawer cupboard. I had saved a part of my wages every month so I could buy and take something special with me and my cupboard was that something.

Long story short now ... last August my newest treasure arrived at our front door.
(Yes, I have kept this to myself all this time.)

At first I was a little taken back a little by the way it arrived. 

Looking at the packaging you wouldn't believe what was inside of the envelope.

Packed up carefully ...

... in a somewhat unusual container ...

...  and all wrapped up tightly in bubble wrap and packed well with poly chips, ...

... here it was, hopefully undamaged and in one piece ... my newest treasure.

 It took me about five minutes to actually unwrap it, I was a little nervous and therefor was very, very careful but then it was done!

And this is the 'crazy thing' I did. I bought a beautiful and rare piece which I am now the extremely happy and so very grateful owner of.

A lovely velvet egg, almost a hundred years old,

a little tatty but oh so beautiful ...

... holds a tiny and rare treasure safe inside it's 'shell'.

Once opened this is what you will see ...

... a tiny chick pincushion that lives inside the egg.

Do you remember me telling you about it sometime last year?

A true piece of beautful art!

So you can get an idea of it's true size, here it is next to a penny. 

 Isn't it the tiniest and prettiest little thing?!

And because I am me, I also gave this little 'critter' a name. 

I named him 'Sampson' after the founder of the company where he was made. 

This is where my little egg and Sampson lives for now, in one of the nests I made from the grass that washed up on the shore of Lake Huron at Grand Bend.

Didn't I tell you I did a crazy thing?! 

I still can't believe I actuall own this rare stunning antique. I actually feel a little dizzy thinking about it but it is now one of my very special treasures. Every other day I pick it up and look at the little silver critter inside and then return it to it's nest. Honestly I think that I am good with doing crazy things for a very, very long time.

Please don't think for a second that I am trying to show off or that I am boasting. I am just 'oh so excited' about this new treasure of mine and just had to finally share it with all of you.

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

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

A Goose Filled Morning ..

Hello my dear friends,

have I ever told you that Canadian geese are one of my most favorite creatures?

A few months ago, one morning after I took my younger daughter to high school, I was standing at a traffic junction when I heard some geese honking. You would normally think that you would then see them flying by but not this time. I turned to see where the 'noise' was coming from and there they were, standing high up on the peak of a church roof. No need to say that I was quite suprised since I have never seen these large birds land on a building before and I just had to capture this in a few photos to share.

 Of course I had to share what I saw with some of my neighbours when I got back home.Whilst standing and chatting about this, we noticed two Canadian geese flying down the our street and that quite low. Of course I was buzzed, like I said I just love these beautiful birds! I actually shouted out to them, inviting them to land in our garden and to use our pool. My neighbors thought that I was very funny but they didn't laugh for too long when all of the sudden these two geese actually landed on our roof top! I was beyond thrilled!

The two geese stayed there for a good twenty minutes or so, honking loudly and walking back and forth.

At one point this one stood right at the front of the roof, so proud and beautiful.

Then all of the sudden they just started to flap their wings and flew away, leaving us behind with memories of this neat happening. 

I just love it when simple things like this make my day and I wish you all simple things that put a smile on your face and in your heart.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.