My 'Grow Your Blog' Giveaway Winners ...

Hello my dear friends,

I am sorry I am late with announcing the winners to my 'Grow Your Blog' giveaway but sometimes things come up that are unforeseen.

I hadn't been feeling well after having been doing a lot of snow clearing in very cold weather conditions these past days. The night of February 14th had not only had it been the coldest night of the Winter so far with the windchill at minus 40 but then I was also woken up at 5.37 am yesterday morning by a loud noise, only to discover that something was wrong with our heating system and the house cold. Trying to figure out what was wrong and several hours and phone calls later that day, thankfully nothing seems to be broken or needs to be fixed (as for now). The extreme cold weather is what made our furnace not work properly or actually rather overwork itself. By the afternoon I was worn down that with a headache so that heading back to bed was the only thing I had in mind and unfortunately my giveaway had to be put onto hold until today.

But now ... let's not wait any longer!

Since it just has been Valentine's Day, I used little paper hearts and as always each of you were given a number, ...

... then placed all together and three were then picked the good old fashion way.

And these are the little hearts that were picked ...

... No. 5 ...
Kerrie B. 'Channel Bank Creations'

... No. 8
Carole 'From My Carolina Home'

... No. 28 ...
Sue Kosec 'SuzeQ Creations'

Congratulation to all of you!

Please drop me a line with you e-mail address so I can send you the pattern you wish to have.

Thank you to all of you that have taken part in my giveaway.
I hope you enjoyed visiting Todolwen and it would be so nice if you came back again some time.

Last but not least ...

... whilst some of you lovely bloggers are sharing lovely photographs of Spring flowers blooming, I am sharing a few more photographs that I took a few evenings ago whilst having another snowstorm. (They are the last ones of my Christmas lights until next December.)

Unfortunately blowing snow doesn't make for good pictures.

As much as I love snow and still get excited every single time it starts to fall, I am slowly but surely ready for Spring and much more sunshine.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

I Just Wanted To Say ..

Hello my dear friends,

I just wanted wish all of you lovely bloggers and everyone else in the world ...

... a Happy Valentine's Day!

May your day be filled with love ... 

 ...(and chocolates and roses too)

Many hugs.

My 'Little Posy' Heart~Felt ..

Hello my dear friends,

do you ever get it, when you have too many things you want to do all at once and then in the end you get nothing accomplished at all because of it?! That is what is happening to me right now. There are too many creations I want to make and I am sort of jumping from one to the other and nothing really is coming together or working out, which then in the end results in a little frustration too. I am sure some of you crafters out there know exactly what I am talking about.

Before I wanted to take every craft idea of mine on all at once, I did sit down calmly and created a little something which I am sharing with all you lovely bloggers today. I made a new little 'Heart~Felt'. I used a small remnant of wool felt and dyed it. It was meant to be a luscious red but it turned out to be pink instead. Even after leaving it in the dye a second time the color didn't change but it is still a very nice shade.

I wanted this 'Heart~Felt' to look like a tiny Valentine's Day posy so I used two small crochet violets that were dyed in a dark purple color and which I had left over from another project I am working on. A scrap of lace and a few little silver heart beads and last but not least one of my tiny crochet butterflies were also for this creation and it turned out just right in my eyes.

Take a look at ...

... my  'Little Posy' Heart~ Felt.

 

I hope you have enjoyed my newest little making.

As I already mentioned I am working on a few more creations and hopefully one of them will come together soon and once that has happened, I will share it with you here on Todolwen again.

So don't forget to stop by again some time soon 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.

Who Would Have Thought ..

Hello my dear friends,

I have a little neat story to share with you today.

This past weekend my daughter Ashleigh and I went on a little outing to a few second hand stores and an antique store. I wasn't actually looking for anything in particular but you never know what you might find.

We ended up in one of our local Value Village stores and there my daughter spotted something she knew I would like. 

It was a vintage old black suitcase all lovely, aged and slightly worn ~ a really neat piece.

Unfortunately the left clasp/latch seemed to be stuck so you couldn't open the suitcase properly but that didn't stop me from buying it at all because I knew one way or another I would be able to get it open.

After our stop off there we headed on to an antique store where we hadn't been in a long time. Again just looking out for anything that might catch my eye and I did find something ... a jar of old keys. Not your antique beauties but vintage little ones that were something I could hopefully use in a few of my creations, so that was a done deal.

Back at home I went on to trying to open the suitcase and for a moment or two I thought that I had maybe wasted $ 20 after all because I just could not get this latch loose. I finally realize that it wasn't stuck but actually properly locked and that was worse because the only thing that could fix this now ... was a key.  Hmm, key ... I had just bought a jar full of them but no! ... I am sure that would like be one in a million sort of thing ... would the jar hold a key that could open this lock?!

Out came the jar, the keys were dumped out and the search began. After about 15 minutes and 20 keys later I was sure I was on a lost cause but then my daughter Caylagh said "Try this one!'

I stuck the key into the old lock turn it once ... nothing. My daughter asked me to try again, so I did but I turned the key the other way, twice and then it happened ...

... the latch popped open and so did the suitcase!!

It was the right key!

The chances of us finding the right key in a jar of keys that came from a totally different store, from different seller ... who would have thought?! Now I have a lovely old suitcase which I can now also lock, that will find it's new home in my studio. What will I use it for? ~ I don't know yet but I am sure I will find something that would like to live in it.

And last but not least ...

... if this is your first time visiting me here at Todolwen don't forget to head to my 'Grow Your Blog' post to find out a little more about me and what I do.

'Grow Your Blog'

Just click on the wording above and it will take you there.
That is also the place where you can enter your name for my giveaway too.

Thank you for stopping by here at Todolwen ~ 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 Dear ~ My Soapbox Is Out Again ..

Hello my dear friends,

after a long time my soapbox has found it's way out of the closet again, for me to talk about the same old subject whenever it does come out.

I have recently discovered on Pinterest that another lady has taken one of my tutorials and placed it on her blog. A few of you have actually just discovered this too and e-mailed me to let me know ~ thank you for that. Unfortunately I can't visit this blog, because it is by invite only so I can't really tell what else she has done. It seem she has altered at least one of my photos. That also means I can't get in touch with her to clear this matter up.

 My altered chart ... not something I am happy with at all.

My tutorial is now pinned over 1700 times on Pinterest under this lady's blog name and I am, to say the least not very happy about this at all.  The one little thing that I am a little happier about is, that one lovely lady has been so nice and added Todolwen's link to it when she pinned it ~ Lisa, thank you for that. Unfortunately it is still being pinned under the wrong name.

If any of you lovely bloggers knows  'Passionmerian.blogspot.com' and has access to her blog, could you please let me know.  I would really appreciate it and maybe I can get this sorted after all.

Please , don't get me wrong, I love it when my creations, ideas, free tutorials and photos get shared on the Internet but please ... as mine.

Thank you for 'listening' to my little rant again.
I try and keep them far and very few because visiting me here at Todolwen is meant to be a nice experience and not something unpleasant. Thank you for understanding that I do rant once in a while because it bothers me somewhat when things like this happen.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Memories Is The Power ..

Hello my dear friends,

'Memories is the power to grow roses in Winter'.

I think the title I chose for today's post is not only one of my most favorite quotes but it is also perfect for what I am sharing with you.

A few evenings ago I was trying to work on something new that just didn't want to come together the way I was hoping it would. In the end I put it aside and started to work on something else. The project I started to work on then was one of those projects that I had begun some time ago and then just stopped for what ever reason.  Now it has just come all together and I love it!

Actually my newest creation is made from two separate ones.

The first one was made from a small old knife handle that used to be my grandma's and I have had it since over 40 years now, laying in my jewelry box. Not knowing exactly what to do with it, the one thing I did know was that I wanted to become something very neat. I took this knife handle and an old tarnished little silver tray and  'married' them together to become one piece. It was now a small wall hung vase. Little flowers were going to find a home in it.

The second one I 'grew' from a small piece of fabric, some tulle, a snippet of seam binding, a strip of sari silk ribbon and a piece of wire.

Looking at these two creations, I knew they belonged together as one and this is what they are now ... a lovely new treasure.

That is why I name it simply ...

 ' Treasured Memories '.

This creation is a true treasure of memories.

 The reason behind it is that there is something very special about my lovely rose as well and not just only the knife handle. The rose is not made from just any fabric I bought. I created it from some of the remnants of fabric and tulle of my daughter Ashleigh's wedding dress. The pale violet seam binding was also a part of my daughter's wedding ~ it was used on the invitations. Every single part of this creation is perfect in my eyes. Beautiful, tarnished and delicate and some lovely and treasured memories ... everything I love and wish for in a creation and now you see why the title of this post is so perfect for this creation.

I hope you have enjoyed my newest making today.

And lastly ...

'Grow Your Blog'

If you wish to read my post, just click on the link above. 

It will take you there right away and you can also enter your name to my give away there too.

(Please, enter your name only on that post.) 

Thank you for visiting me again here at Todolwen and I would love for you to stop by soon again.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Winter Is Not Ready To Leave Just Yet ..

Hello my dear friends,

is seems that Olde Man Winter is still wanting to stay around for a little while longer.

Day before yesterday evening we were hit by a Winter storm and it looked like this late that night, at minus 24 C with the windchill factor. And yes, I do still have my Christmas lights on. They are just so lovely and I enjoy them so much too so I will leave them on a little longer.

It snowed and snowed and this is what it was like the next morning.

In places the snow was over 4 feet deep!

Later in the morning the sun came out ...

 ... and made everything covered in the white blanket of cold glisten in it's rays.

Apparently we are still not quite done with snow yet, there is more to come so the weatherman says.
I guess we will just have to wait and see. The nice thing about this weather is that I love staying inside and creating. I have just finished another new creation. So if you have a few spare moments, do pop back tomorrow to see what I have to share with you.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.