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Wednesday, October 31, 2018

My One and Only ....


Hello my dear friends,

 Happy Spook Night!


Before I share my newest creation I just wanted to say that it almost didn't happen.
I had started off with a neat idea but whilst working on it I spent quite some time looking at it again and again and every time I looked at it, a little voice in my head said "Nope, not you." Thankfully I didn't give in to that voice and I am buzzed to finally share my one and only Halloween pumpkin for this year with all of you ghosts, ghouls and witches and that on the spookiest night of the year.

Remember that things didn't go well when it came to dying the fabric but I made do with what I had. Together with the purple seam binding, black velvet leaves (sorry, not photos of when I made them), the beautiful old tarnished fork and my little jingle bell spider (which I named Cobweb) this creation has now "come to life" and I am lovin' it!

I called it ...

"Cobweb's Home"

And this is it!


I am happy that I went with everything I thought of using instead of only some of it.
That has made this spooky creation perfect in my eyes.









(I am sorry that some of the pictures are a little blurry.
 It is either my eyes or the camera lens, not sure which one just yet)

I hope that you like my spooktacular creation as much as I, in the end, have enjoyed making it.

Enjoy the rest of your spook night and Happy Halloween to all of you.

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

Have a frightful night.

Don't Give Up ...


Hello my dear friends,

... when things don't go right the first time.

After finding those neat antique forks at the Aberfoyle Antique Market I was so buzzed to start working on my newest creation ... a black Halloween pumpkin. I found some beautiful fabric in my linen closet that I had since years now and  never used other than as a background for photographs and it was perfect for this project. I also pulled out some of the last of my vintage chenille bedspread with the thought of dying it too the color black.

 But things don't always turn out the way we want them too, do they?!

 I started to get everything ready to dye my fabrics and of course some seam binding as well, only to realize that I didn't have a lot of black dye left. Being a little lazy and not wanting to head out to  Michaels to buy some and since I didn't want to dye yards of fabric, I was sure that the amount of dye I had would be enough for the job. I would just let it sit a little longer than usual. That was my thought and at first it look like it had worked. I dyed some of the seam binding, knowing if I pulled it out early it would be a lovely purple color and that is what I was aiming for, for that particular piece of seam binding. Everything else was left for some time longer, bathing in the black liquid. Once I thought it was dark enough and even my daughters thought everything looked as black as possible, I drained the dye (silly idea) and rinsed my fabrics and seam binding out only to discover that EVERYTHING was very dark purple. A lovely color just not black. Not even a speck of black in sight. (Big sigh)


So with no dye left now all I could do now was hang everything outside to dry and see what it looked like once it was.


A makeshift clothes line in the "fairy bush" was perfect for the job. It was a warm day and the sun was shining and I had to be careful not to stain our new deck. (Something else I will share with you soon.)


A branch of the "fairy bush" turned out to be the best place to dry my seam binding.

When everything was dry, I took stock of what I had and that was a whole lot of purple fabric and seam binding but I was not going to be beat by a color. I was determent to make this Halloween pumpkin, just not in black.  

(Forward several weeks ... life came in between again of being creative ...)

Now I had the fabric, seam binding and pumpkin "stem" but in my eyes more was needed. After thinking a little, I decided to make some leaves from black velvet (the ones from my free tutorial and sorry, I didn't take any photos when I made them) but that still wasn't enough. It was "go all out" or nothing. So I went with "all out" thought but what to do?! Then it came to me ... I needed a spider! I am not keen on cheap plastic things and I couldn't find what I wanted in any store. It was too late to buy something online so I had to make one. I then remembered that years ago when I made a little black velvet pumpkin, I made a spider using two jingle bells. That was it! It took me a little time but I made my little spider and here he is ...


He is so neat but my eight legged critter still needed a little more work. 
He is now done and so is my newest creation but that will be what I am sharing in tonight's post when I will be sharing my one and only Halloween pumpkin for this year's Spook Night.

So if you do have a few spare moments in between feeding ghost, ghouls and witches, why not stop 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.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Pumpkin Stems ...


Hello my dear friends,

several weekends ago I visited the Aberfoyle Antique Market here in Ontario with my two lovely daughters and it was amazing!

We thought it would take us maybe an hour or two to walk around the market but in the end we were there for over 5 hours! Unfortunately I didn't think of taking any photos of the market itself, I was just in awe of all the old and neat bits and pieces that were everywhere. You should have seen everything! There were so many amazing and beautiful treasures there but nothing caught my eye that I wanted to take home for me and myself. In a way a good thing because I really am trying to thin out the clutter in our home. Then again ... I did see one thing, that was that take home piece but it was a wee bit too big. It was a full sizes antique horse sleigh from the 1800's with an $800 price tag. So for those two reasons, too big in size and price, it had to stay there. (Sigh)  I was on the lookout for something to work with and I was fortunate that I did find some neat pieces!

I found some beautiful old silverware and I am sharing four special pieces of it today which are some antique forks.


I am in love with these!
The reason you are only seeing three forks is that as soon as I got home the hacksaw came out. I already had a picture in my mind of what was going to become of that fork.


Just look at all the details!



Now you see why I said they were special, they are just so very beautiful!

Vintage and antique silverware was actually all I took away from the huge antique market apart from the lovely time I spent with my two beautiful daughters that day and that was priceless! The three of us are already looking forward to going back next year again and maybe then I will find that little piece for me and myself to take home.

Thank you for taking the time to visit me today, here at Todolwen. Make sure you come back sometime again 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.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Once A Trinket Box ...


Hello my dear friends,

yes, this is another one of those "late posts" today.
 I should have shared this months ago but it again didn't happen.

I just love it, when I see something and right away an idea pops into my mind and then a little while later, I am looking at the actual finished item. That is what happened when I saw an the old tarnished trinket box that I had posted back in March.

You can read about it here if you like ...



Today I am finally sharing what I did to said trinket box.What once was once a old metal trinket/jewelry box has now become something "new" and useful  again.

I started by replacing that ugly "plastic velvet" lining which made such a huge difference. I used a high quality muslin fabric that was natural and not bleached for the new lining. Not having done this before, it was a bit of a challenge for me at first but once I sat back and thought a little, things worked out just fine.


(Thankfully I had enough clothes pegs to assist me doing so.)

Slowly but surely the picture in my mind started to appear on my worktable just the way I wanted it too. It has become one of my newest creations. I turned that plain and outdated trinket box into a lovely and neat sewing caddy.

 I named it ...


... "Simply Sew Pretty".

And I think it is the perfect name for this creation!



The lid is now embellished with a bow made from crinkled seam binding joined by a piece from a vintage doily and some sparkle but that is not all.


The inside of the lid has become a pincushion, made from the same muslin fabric and  also embellished with seam binding and a bit of vintage sparkle.

 Gone is the tacky red plastic velvet.


 Now the inside looks like this!
So much better but there is more!


Since it is a sewing caddy, it needs certain things to live in it.

And those little things are  ...


... a pair of vintage scissors and an old thimble.

A little fabric strawberry filled with crushed walnut shells ...


...to sharpen those needles and pins.

And last but not least ...



... a little needle book ...





... to hold those needle safe.

This unwanted piece has now become a lovely treasure and on top of it, a useful one too.
Perfect again in each and every way.


I hope you have enjoyed my newest creation that I have shared with you today. I had so much joy making it and I am looking forward to making something like this in the future again. Actually ... I have already found a few pieces to work with!

As of right now, this creation is reserved. I will post if this should change.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Cabbage Roses ...


Hello my dear friends,

this is another one of those "late" posts I told you about a little while ago.

The creations I am sharing with all of you today were made at least 6 months ago. They have been sitting in my studio on a shelf, just waiting for me to get my camera out and capture them in a few pictures to finally share with all of you.

Some of the things I love to work with are old pocket watch casings and sari silk ribbon. They are both just so beautiful. In the past I have made some neat and lovely things with both of them on their own but I haven't done anything with them together like this as far as I can remember. I came up with this idea/design after seeing photographs of the most beautiful cabbage roses. I was so inspired that I just had to make something and today I am sharing that something.

I am sharing my two newest pincushions ... my cabbage roses!

The first rose I named "Rosa"...
(... it is German for pink.)









... and the second rose is called "Flieder".
( ... it is German for lilac ... (flee-der).)




 


I just love making these roses and I am buzzed with my newest creations.

 They turned out exactly the way I hoped they would. You will be able to find them for sale in my Etsy shop tomorrow morning, if any of you might be interested. I am already working on something new again which I will hopefully share soon here on Todolwen, so why not visit me again some time and see what I have been up too.

Thank you for taking the time and stopping by today. 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.

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Loving The "Simple" ...


Hello my dear friends,

it's been a little while again since I have shared anything with all of you here on Todolwen. 
Life just seems to be busy with all sorts one way or the other for me these days.

More and more I am leaning to simpler things. Less clutter, less fussiness when it comes to our home. I am not saying that I am becoming any type of minimalist or something like that. Nope, not at all, just not so much stuff anymore. I used to have things stored in our basement but now most of it is either gone or finally displayed in our home and not stuffed in a cupboard. I still have some of my treasures, again just not as many as I used to have. I have kept my most favorite pieces and now I can enjoy them even more. 

My liking to do a little more decorating for the seasons hasn't changed at all and is still very much there but that also in a simpler way. A year or two ago I had added a wreath to our living room and I had also introduced fake flowers and greenery but that also in limits. 

My "newest" piece is a 34 inch grapevine wreath. Well, it is new hanging but not new having it, if that makes sense. I had bought it over a year ago and put it into the basement because I was painting a part of our house and I had not thought about it too much anymore until recently when I decided to finally do something with it or give it away.

Now it is hanging in our dining room and I love it! I didn't do too much to it and there is nothing very special about it really. It is just nice and nice is so good in my eyes. 


And this what my "nice" for the Autumn looks like!

Just like with the wreath in our living room, I don't like to permanently attach things to the new one either. Only a few small pieces of wire were used to attach my cotton branches and nothing else and the bow has a wooden clothes peg on the back of it. That again means that I can change everything for the seasons so easily without damaging the wreath or the pieces I am using to decorate it with ... again a win!

Talking about my frayed grapevine wreath ...  



... it started looking like this at the beginning of Autumn.

A bunch of fake grass in a deep rust color and my burlap bow from last year worked perfect together. But I did need that bow for my big wreath and I didn't really want to make another one so I decided to exchange it for something else. At another visit to Michaels, I was fortunate to find a "pick" on sale and it was just right for the job of replacing the burlap bow.



Isn't this "pick" so lovely?!

 A few pumpkins and leaves and now my wreath has that little more color, even though somewhat subtle. It couldn't be more Fall themed in my eyes ... simple but to the point and just right for me!

You don't have to use and spend a lot when it comes to decorating your home.
 I paid under $ 6 for the decor for my living room wreath and under $ 5 for my dining room wreath. Both of my wreaths were also bought with a 50 % off coupon. Take advantage of sales which I do when it comes to shopping for anything really and pick a few good pieces that you can use in different rooms of your home. One year in the living room and the next maybe in the hall or dining room. I love the way this works for me and it might just be the way for a few of you too, so why not maybe try it?!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit me today here at Todolwen. It is 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.