At Last ~ My Garage Sale And New Findings

Hello my dear friends,

I can't believe I did or rather didn't do this!! At last I had my garage sale on Saturday and ... I was so busy I didn't take a single picture to share with you!!! The only thing I can tell you is that it went very well and it was an interesting experience this time and  I was happy to pack the leftovers back into my garage after sitting in the hot sun for hours. Hopefully the next time I will be doing something like this I will remember to take photos!

But I didn't forget to take pictures of my latest findings from the past 2 weeks that I would like to share with you today.

These pearls are the most beautiful color of  pale tan.

Two more different coffin studs - this time flowers.

A few old spoons, maybe for more new pincushions - I haven't made any in a while!!

An old measuring stick!

 I have been looking for one of these for a while now and the price was great!!

A few old crystals from a vintage chandelier and an old draw knob.

 (this one is for a project I already have in mind)

And last but not least ...

this find is my daughter Caylagh's - lucky girl, she saw it first!

It is an antique miniature book with words from the bible for every single day of the year!!! It is only 2 by 2 1/2 inches in size! It is so beautiful and I have never seen one of these before - what a find!!

And I am ending this post with today's words for you my dear friends.

"I am with thee to save thee."

-Jer. 15.20

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

My Baby Shoe Re-Do ~ Part 2

Hello my dear friends,

I honestly didn't think that I would be writing this post today since after I finished last night I had no idea what I was going to do with my second pair of baby shoes. It is amazing what can happen when you sit and look at something long enough. All the sudden a picture formed in my mind ~ the finished creation for the second pair!!

It really didn't take long to get everything I needed together since most of it was still on my work table from yesterday evening and within an hour I was taking photos to share on Todolwen!!

This is what the second pair of baby shoes look like last night.

Remember my little harvest of rose buds from my old rosebush ~ here they are dried and ready to use.

Another thing I wanted to share with you is this really neat wool I found in a sale bin at Michaels - doesn't it look like moss on a string? I used some of it in both pairs of baby shoes.

I was very happy with what I had done with the first pair of baby shoes so I decided to keep the same general idea but to still do it different ~ if that makes sense?! Take a look and see what I mean.

Here is the result ...

This is what I had pictured in my mind this morning!

Everything is delicate and petite

 ~ like it was meant to be!

As you see the same idea but yet different ~ a standing little shoe nest and a hanging little shoe nest.

They only thing I change was the color and theme.

I stuck to certain things I had used with the first pair of shoes, like the old shoe buckle as a hanger.

The dried little rose buds were perfect for this project ~ not too little and not too much!

I hope you have enjoyed my two part baby shoe re-do. I have certainly enjoyed making and sharing them with all you lovely friends in blogland!

I hope you are all well.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

My Baby Shoe Re-Do ~ Part 1

Hello my dear friends,

a few days ago I went wandering in my craft room with all it's corners and hiding places to search for something to create with and I came upon 2 pairs of little shiny black baby shoes. Looking at them I knew why they were still sitting in my cupboard untouched ~ I didn't like the look of them!

Sweet and neat, but not my thing!

What to do?? Cover and smother them with lovely white clean Gesso!

I decided to paint the plainer pair of shoes in a pale blue ~ robins egg blue ~  and to speckle them with dark brown stain ~ just like robin's eggs!

So far, so good! Now for the rest of the transformation aka re~do. What to do, what to do?? All the sudden I knew what these little shoes were going to look like.

Little nests!!

Spanish moss, some feathers, a little piece of moss green wool ...

a few speckled eggs and an old earring with light blue sparkles and my first baby shoe nest was finished!!

I love it!!

But there was another little blue shoe to be recreated ...

and this is the result of the second little shoe!

A pale brown crinkly seam binding ribbon ...

covers the old brass buckle that I used for a hanger.

I used the same bits and pieces with this nest as I did with the other shoe nest.

The finishing touch on this creation was to use the other little earring.

And last but not least ...

there is still the other pair of little baby shoes waiting for their re-do

 but you will have to wait for my next post:

My Baby Shoe Re-Do ~Part 2.

I have already started to work on them and right now they look like this!

I hope you will drop in to see the result of my next creation!!

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

My Old Rosebush And Odelia

Hello my dear friends,

I have a very old rose bush at the side of my house. I had cut it right down last fall and at first I was worried I might have killed it but this spring it grew right back, even bigger than last year with so many roses.

Always being on the look-out for something  to create with, I took a closer look at the rose bush. I discovered the tiny rose buds and decided to "harvest" some of them to dry.

This is my "harvest".  I am going to wait a week or so and have another one.

These three were my first ones I dried. They are so small, just under an inch. I am planing to use some of these roses in a creation that is somewhere back in my mind and the rest I will save for a cold and grey day this coming winter.

Last but not least ...

Liz, from "Lululizinlalaland" pointed out to me that my little dress form should have a name which I thought was so sweet. No better person for the task but Liz herself to find a name that would be right and she did.

Now my dress form is called....

 Odelia!

What a very pretty name and thank you Liz!

Some of you lovely bloggers have asked me if I would share my pattern for the dress form and I think there was a misunderstanding with what I had said in a previous post. At this moment in time I will not be sharing the pattern but I will share any new dress forms I make. In the future I may either share or sell the dress form pattern and once I have decided I will let you all know! Sorry for any misunderstanding!

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

I Was Inspired!!

Hello my dear friends,

my post today is about me being inspired by a fellow blogger and the result of it. The blogger I am talking about is Dawn from "The Feathered Nest". It is due to Dawn in the first place that I started Todolwen and she still inspires me all the time just like so many of you other lovely bloggers!!

I am sure that many of you out there shop for supplies without knowing exactly what you will do with them. This happened to me with some larger canvases that were on sale at Michaels last week and the baby dress from my recent post. I didn't really have an  idea as to what I was going to do with either of them and then one day I read Dawn's post about her birds nest on the inside of a canvas. I was  taken by her creation and suddenly it just went 'click' in my head and the idea of what to make from a canvas and baby dress was there.

Lovely vintage looking paper roses.

An old vintage book with aged pages.

 Brass hardware from my daughter Ashleigh's old desk.

And some old boot buckles.

The supplies that I needed were waiting upstairs in my craft room, I just had to choose what I was going to use. Once that was decided it didn't take me long to start and finish this creation. I can't believe how sticky your fingers can get when you modge-podge book pages to something, and the worst thing is that if you aren't careful you get stuck to your work and rip pieces back off! (this happened to me more than once with this project and my temper did get the better of me once or twice).

But despite that, here is the result!

For my first attempt I am happy that it turned out nicely, very simple, yet pretty. If you feel like it and have a moment leave me a comment and let me know what you think!!!

And last but not least ...

thank you Dawn, my dear friend, for inspiring me to become a better artist! I hope all of you out there in Blog-Land have someone you can look to for inspiration too, because it makes crafting that much more special.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Happy Canada Day & Happy 4th of July

Hello my dear friends,

I just wanted to wish you all a ...

 Happy Canada Day!!!

and ...

to all you lovely bloggers in the US ...

Happy 4th of July!

I hope you are all well and enjoy your weekend!!

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen  B.