A Part Of Us ...

Hello my dear friends,

I had planned on making a neat Christmas blog button with a grab box for last Christmas already and for some reason I just couldn't make it work at all and in the end I just gave up (sad I know), saved the image I had worked on and left it as that. But ...

... I returned to it this year and low and behold ... it worked this time!

 (I hope?!)

This was the image I had decided to use. 

It was an old Victorian Christmas card image I had fallen in love with and when looking at it the words just were suddenly there and made it perfect or so I thought.

Last year Google had this neat thing going, where they would add falling snow to some of your pictures and then send them to you again and that is what they did to the image I had chosen for my blog button.

And now it is perfect!

Just take a look at it!

Isn't it just magical?!

And you know what ... a part of us will always believe!

Thank you Google for making my button the neatest one ever and ...

... I wish you a Merry Christmas!

If you like my Christmas button and wish to place it onto your blog you can! 

You will find the code under the image on my right sidebar. 

Thank you for taking the time and visit me here at Todolwen again ~ it is always so nice when you do.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Oh Come Let Us Adore Him ..

Hello my dear friends,

a few weeks ago I was gifted a little something by a very lovely lady I know.
What was I gifted? ...  Take a look at the picture below!

 This little very special piece from a nativity scene was found on the floor in the craft store where this lovely lady works and no one knew where it belonged, so it was stuck to a pillar at her work station until I visited her a few weeks ago and commented more than once on it. I liked it so much and she just suddenly pulled it off the pillar and said .."Here, you can have it! Make something with it." Such a sweet thing of her to do!  I just love him so much.

 The poor little piece had some damage and whilst working on this creation, slowly memories started returning to me of when I was a little girl maybe about 3 or 4 years old. My Dad and I went shopping for a Christmas gift for my Mom and there in the store were some nativity scenes standing on the shelves and that is when I saw him. All I wanted was the baby Jesus in his little crib filled with hay. That day that little girl went home very, very happy carrying in her hands her little baby Jesus.

Unfortunately over the years and our big move overseas, my baby Jesus was lost ...

 ... but now I have a new one and my 'little girl' heart is once again filled with joy!

I hope you have enjoyed my newest creation ~ it was such a lovely and peaceful project for me to work on.

Please, don't forget to enter my giveaway for the chance to win my 'Music Sheet Poinsettia' tutorial. Just go to my right side bar, right at the top and click on it. It will take you to the post where you can leave a comment to enter your name.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting me today, here at Todolwen.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

The Very Busy Time Before Christmas ..

Hello my dear friends,

 I don't think I am going to ever learn!

This happens to me every single year for sure. I either leave things way too late or I just take too much on and this year is no different from others past really.

My plans were to create an Advent wreath for this Christmas and more projects that needed to be done some time for December and it just didn't happen.

Another one of my goals was that I had designed a Christmas Advent calender which I was hoping get done in time to share it here on Todolwen before December 1st, also that didn't work out. I am annoyed with myself about this because I should have planned the use of my time better. You see, I am the one that always says to my daughters ... 'Make sure you have enough time because some things take far longer than you might think!' I should have taken my own advice and started earlier this year. but I am determent to finish my Advent calender. What I am going to share with you today, is a little sneak peek of  some of it.

I love that I made this more about texture and not so much about color and I can't wait for it to be completed. I have a picture in my mind and I so hope it will look like it in reality.

One of the reasons that my bigger projects did not get done on time like they should have is, I got caught up working on smaller creations and not just one but several again. I am currently writing the posts for those creations and taking photos too. So in the next days I am  hoping be able to share them with all of you lovely bloggers.

One thing I did complete is that I wrapped all my little gifts ...

.. for some I am using old dictionary pages ...

... for others tissue paper, all both of them all tied up neatly with bright red thread ...

... and I wrote all my cards to go with my little gifts too.
I finally decided to use my lovely little vintage Christmas cards I had found at a church sale a few years ago.

It would be such a shame just to leave them in a box and not use them.

I gave my envelopes a Christmassy touch ...

... filled them with goodies ...

... and mailed them yesterday and I am so happy that that is now done and off my to~do list!
This also means my 'Christmas To Come' giveaway gift that is now on it's way to the lovely Pat who won it. What that was I will share after Christmas.

But I still have so much more to do ... my list is very long and can you believe it, one of the things on it is ... paint the living room within the next week! Will I do it? ... I am not sure yet but I will let you know. I do have many other things to share with you for sure ... an old ball jar creation, a antique Christmas tree candle clip that is true to it's name, a little matchbox that now has a new life and more, so do stop by again some time and visit me here at Todolwen.


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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Time For A Little Giveaway ..

Hello my dear friends,

I thought with Christmas on the way it would be so nice to have a little giveaway again.

I just actually finished wrapping my last giveaway gifts from my "Christmas To Come" giveaway and they will be in the mail to the lucky winner Pat in the next day or so.

But like I said, it is time for a little new giveaway right now and all you have to do is just enter your name to this post.

Next Sunday I will be picking three names and each one will receive my newest tutorial ...

... 'Music Sheet Poinsettias'.

So if you would like to find out how to make my poinsettias, just leave me a comment and come back next Sunday, Dec. 7th ~ lets say some time around noon ET and find out if you were one of the three winners.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

It Is The First Advent ...

Hello my dear friends,

today is the first Advent and it is a tradition that I learnt of when I lived in Germany as a child. 

Four weeks before Christmas you make or buy a Advent wreath, which is traditionally a wreath made from fir-tree branches, it has 4 candles standing in it and is beautifully decorated. Unfortunately my plans of making one of these seasonal wreaths this year didn't work out but I found some lovely images to share with you on the Internet.

This is such a lovely tradition and just makes the special time of the year that little more special and something you might want to try. You will see it will give you that sparkle more to Christmas time.

(courtesy of Wikipedia)

 (courtesy of Wohnen und Garten.de)

 A candle would be lit on each of the Sundays before Christmas and it would be like a count down until Christmas Eve until the ' Christkind' would come and bring you gifts.

(The 'Chirstkind' is the traditional gift bringer of Christmas in many European countries including Germany.)

I remember that we learnt a song in school when I was little, that we would sing and if I am right, it went like this ...

'Advent, Advent ein Lichtlein brennt.

Erst eins, dann zweit, dann drei und vier,

dann steht das Christkind vor der Tuer.'

'Advent, Advent, a little light burns,

First one, then two, then three and four,

And then the Christkind stand outside your door.'

So today I would love to wish all of you lovely bloggers a ...

... Happy First Advent!

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

Have a peaceful day.

Happy Thanksgiving ..

Hello my dear friends,

I would like to wish all of you all of you lovely bloggers that live just across the border ...

... a Happy Thanks Giving!

Have a peaceful day.

My Snowflake .. 'People Of The Snow' ~ The Tutorial ..

Hello my dear friends,

the weekend was very busy with helping my daughter and son-in-law getting ready to move into their new house and lots of snow and lots of shoveling of the white and glistening stuff  too.

My little Peter Pan was almost completely covered by a blanket of snow.

I also did something I have never done before and I am not sure if I ever would again ...

... I took a 'selfie'! My first ever!

 This was just after I finished clearing snow off three driveways and some sidewalks too, which I used the snow blower for and I was tired, cold and my hair was frozen in places ...  

... I was a mess with pink cheeks.

Back inside I found some time to be creative whilst I am warming up again and I discovered a neat little thing whilst working on my newest crochet snowflake pattern  'People of the Snow'... which I named after the little town in British Columbia where I was born.

By crocheting either the rounds single or mixed I was able to made four different snowflakes from this one pattern and each snowflake looks different and is a different size too! It is easy really ... the first snowflake is made by crocheting all rounds, the second snowflake was made by crocheting round one, the third one from rounds one and two and last but not least the fourth one from rounds one and three!

This is how they look ...

Can you believe it, they are all from the same pattern!

Above are snowflake no.1 and 4 and below ...

... and these are snowflake two and three. 

All different looking, all so pretty and like I said, all from the same pattern!

And this is what I would love to share with all you lovely bloggers today - my newest crochet snowflakes and how to make them!

As always I have made charts for you to use and again as always I have given you written instructions as well.

And here are the written instructions for you ...

'People of the Snow'
( the original one I made first and which is the largest one of all four)

Form a magic ring and in this ring crochet ...

 Round 1 ...

... 3 chain stitches, 1 double crochet, * 3 chain stitches, 2 double crochet* repeat 4 more times so that you have 6 all together. Finish this round off with a slip stitch into the third chain stitch at the beginning of the round.

 Round 2 ...

... 1 chain stitch and then 1 single crochet in the next double stitch from the previous round.
Then *2 chain stitches and into the loop (3 chain stitches from the previous round) 1 double crochet, 3 chain stitches, 1 double stitch, 2 chain stitches and then 1 single crochet in each double crochet from the previous round, * Repeat until you have done so 6 times all together. Finish the round with a slip stitch into the chain stitch at the beginning of the round.

Round 3 ...

... crochet 1 chain stitch (first single crochet) and then into every double crochet from the previous round a single crochet stitch. Into every little loop (previous round 3 chain stitches) 2 single crochet, 3 chain stitches, 2 single crochet. Finish the round with a slip stitch into the chain stitch from the beginning of the round and there you have another lovely snowflake.

(I must confess that it took me a while to get these instructions right this time, for some reason they just were difficult to write and I hope they make sense to you.)

And here are the instructions for the other three snowflakes which you can create using the same pattern.

 The reason for me having taken the time and written the instructions for each one of the snowflakes is to make it easier for beginners to be able to make all these lovely white pretties without getting mixed up, which can happy very easy when you are learning something new. (Been there, so done that!)

'People of the Snow'

Snowflake no.2

Form a magic ring and in this ring crochet the following ...

 Round 1 ...

... 3 chain stitches, 1 double crochet, * 3 chain stitches, 2 double crochet* repeat 4 more times so that you have 6 all together. Finish this round off with a slip stitch into the third chain stitch at the beginning of the round and your snowflake is already done!

~

'People of the Snow'

Snowflake no.3

Form a magic ring and in this ring crochet the following ...

 Round 1 ...

... 3 chain stitches, 1 double crochet, * 3 chain stitches, 2 double crochet* repeat 4 more times so that you have 6 all together. Finish this round off with a slip stitch into the third chain stitch at the beginning of the round.

Round 2 ...

... 1 chain stitch and then 1 single crochet in the next double stitch from the previous round.
Then *2 chain stitches and into the loop (3 chain stitches from the previous round) 1 double crochet, 3 chain stitches, 1 double stitch, 2 chain stitches and then 1 single crochet in each double crochet from the previous round, * Repeat until you have done so 6 times all together. Finish the round with a slip stitch into the chain stitch at the beginning of the round.

~

'People of the Snow'

Snowflake no.4

Form a magic ring and crochet the following ...

Round 1 ...

... 3 chain stitches, 1 double crochet, * 3 chain stitches, 2 double crochet* repeat 4 more times so that you have 6 all together. Finish this round off with a slip stitch into the third chain stitch at the beginning of the round.

Round 2 ...

( round 3 on the large chart)

... crochet 1 chain stitch (first single crochet) and then into every double crochet from the previous round a single crochet stitch. Into every little loop (previous round 3 chain stitches) 2 single crochet, 3 chain stitch, 2 single crochet. Finish the round with a slip stitch into the chain stitch from the beginning of the round and there you have another lovely snowflake.

(I hope that I haven't made any mistakes in my instructions but if I have, just drop me a line so I an fix it.)

~

Now you can make many, many of them and decorate maybe your tree with them or use them if you make your own Christmas cards or where ever you would like.

I had a look at another one of my other snowflake patterns and I have tried this with my 'Let There Be Snow' crochet pattern and it too worked. 

With this one you have to crochet the all the rounds and that would be your first snowflake and then when you crochet the first three round then you will have your second snowflake.

Also please keep in mind that this might not work with other crochet snowflake patterns, it is something you would have to try out with each pattern as you go.

Thank you for stopping by today and visiting me here at Todolwen ~ it is always so nice when you do and I hope you will come back some time again.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.