Being Creative On A Larger Scale ..

Hello my dear friends,

(I did it again!!! I pressed the wrong button. Instead of save I pressed publish, so you might see the unfinished post on Bloglovin'.)

 I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I did, even though it was a little different than I had thought it would be. I suddenly decided it might be a good idea to finally paint our living after all, quickly and just in time for Christmas. Wrong timing ..  maybe a little for sure but it had been on my to-do list for some time now and I wanted it done. I could already see it in my mind what it would look like once done and I couldn't wait any longer.

Friday morning had started with a few hick-ups, things like the new paint color didn't cover the old one properly so I needed to buy primer. Then in the store the gentleman behind the painter counter was so rude to me that I left the store without buying what I needed and went somewhere else and a few other thing just didn't go right so that by the end of Friday evening I had only primed was just a very a small part of a wall! I was not a happy cookie to say the least. I had even forgotten to take photos before I started the work and then only a few turned out which I am sharing with you today.  (And I mean a few ...!)

I will have to look for more before photos in my files and then share them with you once the room is completely done.

The next morning I was up early and decided to take a little slower pace so things might work out a little better that day and they did!

Before ... you see the repair to our wall after work had been done to the heating ducts ...

... primed and then ...

... painted!

What a difference! Isn't it a lovely color?! It is the same color I am using in the entire house ... 

... 'Grant Beige' from Benjamin Moore.

I moved the furniture, primed and painted all the walls in about 6 hours and I was so happy once it was done and that is all I could do for that day. My back was shouting at me to stop moving, so I did. I spent the rest of the evening with heating pillows comforting me poor back and sipping a lovely cup of tea .. almond and biscotti, it was so good!

Sunday was spent doing a lot less. I slowly started to move some of the furniture back into their place and that is pretty much as far as I have gotten. I am still working on what is going to go on which wall when it comes to pictures and other wall decorations and I think I might need a new piece of furniture or two now to complete this room. I am just glad my husband doesn't really read my blog because he has no idea I am doing this. Let us say it is a little surprise for him when he comes home for Christmas, that is if he notices it this time. He didn't the first two times. I had painted our master bedroom from dark yellow to this color and our family room from a sandstone color to this and he did not notice it right away! It took a day for him to realize the color had changed. Now I am already eyeing my kitchen and dinning room with the thoughts of painting it too before Christmas, it is such a dark barn red and the color just soaks up all the light, but I will have to wait and see.  I will see what else I have to do before Christmas. I just can't seem to stop being creative, either in a large scale or on a smaller one but whatever I do, I will make sure to share it with all you lovely bloggers.

Do visit me soon again here at Todolwen and see what I have been up too.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

And The Winners Are ...

Hello my dear friends,

I am so sorry that I am late announcing the winners of my latest giveaway but some times things come up just like today.

Firstly I would like to say 'thank you' to all of you for your sweet comments, they have all touched my heart. Unfortunately this is the only way I can say 'thank you' to over half of you because that is how many of you lovely bloggers that had left me a comment are 'no-reply' bloggers. 

What is a 'no-reply' blogger? ... It means the following ...

... if you leave a comment here on Todolwen ~ I have no way replying directly to you.
Or if you ask a question ... again I can't reply because I have no e-mail address from you to do so.

I have added a button on my right sidebar that will take you to another site so you can check if you are or are not a no-reply blogger and then fix it. It would be good for you to take a moment and do so.

 So, that is that!

And now I shall get to the real reason for this post ... the winners of my giveaway!

.. my Music Sheet Poinsettia tutorial.

All your names were given a number and placed as a little paper star into a little paper bag and from there three stars were picked.


And these are the winners ...

1. ... No. 20 ... Country girl,

2. ... No. 31 ... Sarah,

... and last but not least ...

3. ... No. 41 ... Brook Bock.

Congratulations to all three of you!

                                                                                 
Please, could you drop me a line with you e-mail address so I can e-mail you the tutorial right away!

Thank you for all again for taking part in my little giveaway and for all your kind words ~ you are so sweet!

And before I forget, I would like to wish you all a Happy 2nd Advent.

Since I don't have my own Advent wreath this year I am sharing a photo I found on the Internet with you of a festive wreath.

(Photo courtesy of  ja-pics.net)

Thank you for stopping by and visiting me here at Todolwen again and it would be nice to see you here again.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

There Is Still Time ..

Hello my dear friends,

just to let you know there is still time to get you name entered for my little giveaway.

Three of you will win my tutorial on how to make my ...

... Music Sheet Poinsettias.

So ... if you would like to take part, just click on my little giveaway button, you will find it on my right sidebar and leave a comment. I will announce the winners tomorrow around noon ET.

I wish you all good luck!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

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.