These Past Weeks

Hello my dear friends,

it has been a little while since I have had time to work on my blog. I hope life is slowly calming down for me which would be so very nice since I have been feeling the strain lately. The running around with our outdoor project, my Mom very sick in hospital and my younger daughter's fracture and on top of the all the other normal things in life were getting too much for me at one point. I fell sick over Thanksgiving with being so exhausted that I stayed in bed for almost two full days.  I am better now and I am even getting a bit of creating time in between chores lately.

I have restarted a "old" project which I had been working on and then gave up and my friend the sweet Dawn from the Feathered Nest was the driving point there for me to restart it. I am hoping it will not take too much time to create it and that I will be able to finish it they way I see it in my mind. I am not going to tell you what it is just yet. Actually I have had several new ideas that are now waiting patiently in my little companion (my wee idea booklet) for me to start working on some time soon.

I did have a few hours to myself a few weekends ago so I visited a few of this years last church sales and found many treasures that will help keep me busy once the cold weather starts and the beautiful snow is back. I find there is something very special about sitting at my table looking out the window into my back yard and watching the first glistening snowflakes fall to earth. It's like magic!!

But now I would like to share my new treasures with you ...

 a few vintage doilies ...

 an old strainer/egg cooker (well that's what they told me it was!) and a vintage jelly form ...

 a few vintage pieces of jewellery and sparkling buttons ...

 a wee old tin and cardboard "tin" filled with little bits and pieces ...

 a small vintage globe ...

 a little box filled with these lovely small prints of maps ...

and finally a little silver tray, a silver handle or knife stand and a silver and glass candy dish. I am sure they will all come in handy for a project in the future.

Also a short update for you on our outdoor project ...

our pool is now closed for the year. Unfortunately we never got to use it once this summer but I hope that next summer will be a good one. I did manage to get our new lawn done before it got too wet and cold. Unfortunately I hate to say that there were so many problems with some of the companies that we had hired that I will think twice about any larger projects in the future.

And last but not least ...

... I took my 11 year old daughter Caylagh to see Selena Gomez a few days ago here in London and it was just fantastic!! Selena was sick on the night but she still gave a great performance which I am sure my daughter will never forget!

I hope it won't take me weeks to be able to share something new with you all again but please, do stop by once in a while!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Thank You

Hello my dear friends,

today I can finally sit down, only for a short time though, and take a deep breath and thank all of you for all your kind words, thoughts and prayers. You will never know how much they have meant to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Life right now is still a huge rollercoaster ride and I am hoping some time soon it will slow down for me and my family.

I would also like to update you on the happenings in my life right now.

Unfortunatly my mother was diagnosed with advanced cancer to her tongue last week and we are trying to work on what is the best treatment for her. She has also got dimentia now, so it makes things even harder but hopefully what we decide will be the right thing. Right now she isn't in too much pain and is still in the hospital. She looks very good just very frail and delicate.

Some good news I received from another doctor was that my younger daughter Caylagh doesn't have to have surgery to her left hand even though she has torn her ligament on her little finger. No sports for 6 weeks and no piano or flute for 4 weeks but I am so happy about her not having to have an operation - it's one thing I don'y have to worry or stress over.

And last but not least ...

... the thorn in my side...

... our outdoor project!!

A project that was meant to take about 3 week is now taking over 7 weeks and is causing most of the stress in my life believe it or not. It's crazy really but that's how it is. I am so looking forward when everything is done and I can start my part of the work finally and hopefully with everything else happening I will be able to finish aswell before the first snow falls.

I am so blessed to have people like all of you lovely bloggers in my life.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Beautiful Sage Green

Hello my dear friends,

I took at little bit of time out a few days ago from our backyard and went to visit Fabric Land where I hadn't been in a very long time. Not really looking for anything particular I am wandering through and looking for a bargain which I found in some very pretty sheer ribbon in 2 lovely shades of green and it was buy one get two free!! After grabbing the ribbon I saw the most beautiful velvet in the most beautiful color ~ pale sage green ~ the same color as one of the ribbons I just found! I am not really a green person at all but this fabric just had to be bought and at 75% off it was a steal!!

Isn't this just so pretty?

I already have an idea for the velvet which I am hoping to work on soon I will be able to share it with all you lovely bloggers out there in blogland.

Last but not least ...

...the latest on our outdoor project ...

... I hate to complain but I am a very unhappy cookie these days with our outdoor project. From the last 9 working days only on 2 of them did my contractors come and work and yesterday I was so angry if I could have I would have stopped everything and ripped the contract up and be done with it ... but I couldn't do that at this stage anymore. So far we are over 2 full weeks behind with everything and I am not sure when things will be finished at this moment. 

It is now day 32 and this is how bad my yard still looks!

I hope your weekend was without any hassle or stress or worry.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Not Quite There Yet

Hello my dear friends,

it has been so long again since I have been able to get some time to sit down and have a moment to spend on Todolwen and share things with you because I have been very busy with our outdoor project. I haven't even had time to read any of your lovely blogs again since I have spent most of the past 10 days either in the yard working or making sure things were getting done right without anything going wrong. Fortunately I did get a chance to get out on one day for a wee while some time last week and I of course I went to one of my favourite stores to go treasure hunting ...

and I found this!

 This is going to make a great base for a bird cage!!

It is so beautiful!

It is perfect and it doesn't even need gluing!! (Oh by the way I use E6000 when I need to glue anything like this.)

One little thing I did manage to do is to try and make paper clay birds in one of my coffee breaks.

I only got as far as making the plain birds but haven't had the time to do anything else with them so far. I'm still not too sure if they are the way I want them to be and I am still in two minds as to how I should finish them ~ maybe cover them with scraps of music sheets or dictionary pages? I will just wait and see I guess.

Our outdoor project is coming along but we are not quite there yet. So much work has been done by the company and my husband and I are working on the landscaping. We decided to change our riverbed and the bridge so it wouldn't be lost behind the pool which meant we had to move our "rocks" around the yards and we are talking very heavy rocks ~ 120 to170 pounds a piece!! So far we have done a lot but a few days ago our work had to stop when the tornado watch for our city turned into a tornado warning and it was safer inside. We were very lucky that it didn't turn nasty and we just had to put up with a very heavy thunderstorm with a lot of rain but I must admit that I was really glad in a way because the last stone I moved made an old injury to my back return which made it hard to breath and a rest was really needed. My hopes of being OK the next day didn't come so I spent most of my day laying down, not moving too much and resting.

The only time I did go outside to take a look ended with me sinking in to the mud about 10 inches deep and loosing my flip-flop which had to be dug out again (yuck) but it did make me laugh so much!

Our pool is almost done now and I must say I am really happy when this is all over. I was told by a friend that putting a pool in is like major heart surgery to your backyard and they were right!!

The biggest transformation is when the liner is put into the pool.

Add water and presto ~ one pool!!

Today the company is coming to set everything up so hopefully tomorrow we can take our first swim. As you can see all the new topsoil waiting to be spread out. My hubby moved more than 70 wheelbarrows from the front of the house to the backyard on his own ~ WOW!! I think we will still be needing about 3 or 4 weeks to finish everything off since we are doing a lot of the work ourselves.

Last but not least ...

...my last roses of the year.

I thought my little rose bush had decided that it was time to rest for this year but to my surprise I was wrong. Once more tiny buds are growing - only a few, not many but they are so pretty that I had to show you lovely bloggers.

I am hoping that soon everything will be back to normal and I will be able to spend a bit more time in blogland but until then please keep popping by from time to time.

I hope you are all well.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Always Creating ... Mother Nature

Hello my dear friends,

it seems like forever! I have been so busy these past weeks doing all sorts except creating. But somebody else has been busy at it ... Mother Nature. I found these huge mushrooms in my backyard a few mornings ago close to an old tree stump. I was taken in by their beauty so out came the camera so I could share them with you.

I didn't think of putting my foot into the picture to show you how big this is ~ it is almost a big as a dinner plate!!

I can't believe it but the biggest one has even a frill ~ how neat!!

Do you think little fairies might gather here after dark? 

Unfortunately the mushrooms don't last very long after two days they turn brown and fade away.

We also have a new outdoor critter.

This is our newest little friend ~ a chipmunk!

He or she runs back and forth in front of my dining room window gathering food for the hard winter months here in Ontario. What a cute little creature. Our cat Iris really loves this wee one. She sits for hours at the window waiting so she can try and pounce on the chipmunk when it appears. I am only too happy that there is a large piece of glass there to stop her.

And last but not least ...

... update on our outdoor project.

What once looked like this ...

... now looks like this!!!

What a mess!! ... but I was told it would only get better from here. Unfortunately we had something go wrong  ~ our underground sprinkler system was ripped out (hubby wasn't too happy about that) but were are hoping we can repair it ourselves.

One thing is certain for sure, there is always beauty where ever you look.

This pretty butterfly decided to have a little rest in the deepest part of our "hole" and I was lucky enough to be able to catch this picture of it.

I hope I will find some time to create over the weekend! Did it happen ~ find out in my next post.

 I wonder what all of you lovely bloggers have been up to this weekend? I can't wait until Monday to read all about it. (I am sorry for posting this so late but again I was very busy)

I hope you are all well.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

A Huge Outdoor Project ...Yard Work Is Hard Work!!

Hello me dear friends,

a few day ago I mentioned that we had big plans for our backyard and that is where I am spending a lot of my time these days ~ preparing the yard for it's transformation. I spent many hours these past days digging up plants and pulling up our stone paths and moving everything to one side of the yard. I can tell you it is hard work. The plants are older plants so they are really well in the ground so it took a lot of tugging and heaving to get them out and the stones for the paths were so heavy that I had to use a cart to get them over to one side without injuring my back.

Our backyard hasnt' been looking well for some time now because of last years work we had done. We used to have two huge Ash trees which both had the "beetle" and were dying and had to be taken out. That was really something!! Our lawn didn't really recover after that and since most of the shade was gone weeds started to go wild ~ so much actually that it was a challenge to keep up with them.

This is only the beginning of everything to come in our backyard.

Does this picture give you an idea of what is going to happen??

I must be crazy!!! We have thought long and decided to have a pool put in our backyard. I have been working since weeks and weeks on this now getting all my "ducks in a row" (organized) so everything will hopefully go OK without any hicoughs. I am so glad that my husband will be home from work when all this will take place. I am sure I will end up needing more than one box of hair dye to cover all the grey that will be a result of this project. I will take pictures along the way and share so any of you thinking of doing this will get an idea of what you are letting yourself in for.

Unfortunately creating will have to take a back seat for the time which I find a bit sad because when I feel stressed or down creating is the thing to take my mind off things. I am hoping to escape in between for a wee while and maybe get a chance to use one of my ideas that are tucked away in my little book and if I do I will try and share them with you but if I don't get a chance to I hope you won't forget me and take a peek to see when I am back and blogging.

I have added two images to share with you today ~ I thought you might like them.

I wonder if you might know who this is. She was born on August 4th 1900 and her name is Elizabeth. She was a very special lady and she was the mother of a very special lady (if that makes any sense to you).

I will let you know ~ this is the Queen Mother Elizabeth when she was approx. 3 years old.

I found this picture of her one day on the internet and thought it was just so precious.

This is a negative from the Victorian days. It was proof that fairies were real.

 (Well we bloggers all knew that one!!)

Can you see the tiny fairy clothes hanging on the wash line inside the flower?

This is way over 100 years old but hasn't lost any of its magic.

And last but not least ...

... I now have a fairy of my very own!!! Take a look!!

This is my wee tiny fairy. 

My daughter Ashleigh loves photography and used a new software she found to create this image of herself as a fairy standing on a daisy. She has her own blog http://everything-is-better-with-sprinkles.blogspot.com/ and if you ever feel like it why not fly over and take a peek!

I hope you are all well.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.