Shades Of Blue ~ 'Forget-Me-Not' ...

Hello my dear friends,

I have been buzzing when it comes to being creative these past days.

I have fallen in love with the shades of blue fabric dye that I have been using for some of my seam binding and vintage linen. I just couldn't wait to start working with them and that is exactly what I have been doing over the past weekend. I had an idea and a picture in my mind of what I wanted to make.

Creating is almost a little like cooking ... you gather all your ingredients together and bit by bit things come together. It's a pinch of this and a little bit of that, now stir and then it is almost done.

That's how this creation started.
 I took one of the old and lovely pocket watch casings I had recently bought.

I wanted to add some little flowers.

I used white crochet thread to make them ...

... and then dyed them.

They were dyed the same shade of  blue, as I did some of the seam binding and linen.
 It's called 'China blue' and it is such a pretty color. To finished my little blossoms off, I gave them each a dot of rich gold paint to make their centers, which proved to be perfect.

Just a few more "ingredients" ...
... some old lace, seam binding, sari silk ribbon, a tiny crochet butterfly, a little more 'stirring' and it was done. My creation turned out just the way I hoped it would and I am so very pleased with my newest and very neat pocket watch!

Like many times before, I took lots of photos and just couldn't decide which ones to share or not, so I am sharing all of them and here it is, my first 'Shades Of Blue' creation ...

 'Forget Me Not'.

I love this little old pocket watch creation! It just looks so sweet!

 I am already thinking of what I could do next. I have a feeling that it won't take me too long to come up with something since I am enjoying being creative so much right now. So don't stay away too long and visit me sometime soon again. I am sure, I will have a new creation just waiting for you to see.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day. 

How Much Is Too Many? ...

Hello my dear friends,

have you ever bought something and then asked yourself ... "Is this too much or are those too many?" ~ " Should I have not bought this after all ?!" ... That is where I was a few days ago for short period of time.

The mailman was here again with my second parcel of treasures and I then questioned my actions a tiny bit.  Did something take hold of me when I hit that button to confirm my bid on eBay? It is now done and my treasures are here and one prettier than the other!

I am now the happy owner of quite a few old and very beautiful pocket watch casings.
 So many to work with ... oh joy! I am pretty sure I won't have to buy any for a while now but I am also sure that not a single one will go to waste. Time to get creative!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Another Attempt At Painting The Beach ...

Hello my dear friends,

as you can see I really am holding myself to practicing watercolor painting these days.

I have again chosen a photo I took on the same day as my first one. I am working on my line work, trying to draw more precise and more detailed too and when it comes to the actual painting, I am working on my colors as well. Overall trying to better myself bit by bit or rather painting by painting.

Today I am sharing my newest attempt on painting the beach that we visit at Lake Huron.
I really like this photo that I took, again bright skies with a few clouds and the water a little rough and lots of waves which is why I chose it.

I am working more on the details of my line work and I think it does look a bit better than my other painting of the beach.

And here is the finished painting!  

So ... what do you think? Do you like it? I do!

I am already thinking of what I could paint next. I am really enjoying this so much right now.

Have any of you tried something new yet? 

Thank you for stopping by today here at Todolwen.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

It's Being A Good Day So Far ...

Hello my dear friends,

so far today is a good day and I hope it will last all day.
Why, is it a good day. Well even though it is yet again raining, things are good!

My fabric dyeing attempts have turned out to be successful!

The colors of the old linen and seam binding match very nicely, better than I had hoped really.

I have a little picture in my head of what I am going to do with them.

My lily of the valley is blooming so beautifully this year in our garden and there are so much more of it this time which makes me very happy. I do love nature so much!

I took this photograph just after it had stopped raining earlier.

And last but not least ...

... the mailman was here!

He brought me the the first one of two parcels I was waiting for ...

... and I am so buzzed with what it inside it! ~ Just take a look! ...

... Lovely old pocket watch casings!

Oh, how I love old pieces like this ~ I just can't seem to get enough of them!

Some of them are going to become one of my favorite things that I just love to create. 

That is the reason why I needed the seam binding and linen in shades of blue. I am sure that a few of you already know what I am going to be making in the next few days.

 So whenever you have a few spare moments, stop by and visit me here at Todolwen 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.

Cuteness Alert! ~ Baby Cottontail ...

Hello my dear friends,

 this post is going to be full of cuteness, so be aware that you will be doing a lot of  'awing'! 

We have a little baby cottontail that visits our garden since a few weeks now and  yesterday morning it was back again. I hadn't seen it in several days and I was a little worried but the little furry baby it is safe and well and thriving by the look of things. I was able to take some photos of the little critter and that is what I am sharing with all of you today.

And here is the cute little thing. Awe, it makes my heart melt!

  

Isn't it just so adorable?! 

I love it when I am able to watch the critters in our garden. There is just something so special about it, it is peaceful and just puts a smile in my heart.

I didn't just do bunny watching yesterday. 

Remember a few days ago I dyed some seam binding in lovely shades of blue? ... 

... I have now also dyed some small pieces of vintage linen fabric to match the seam binding.

 I have a few ideas of what I want to do with the fabric and seam binding and hopefully I will be able to work on them very soon. There are actually so many different things I would like to work on right now. Home and garden stuff and creating stuff too. Oh, the days just hasn't got enough hours for me but there is no time like the present as they say, so I am going to wish you all a lovely day and head to my studio and see if I can be a little creative.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

My Second Try, A Little Better Than The First ...

Hello my dear friends,

I am so determent to get better at watercolor painting and like I said in my last post ...'practice makes perfect' and if not perfect, at least a little better! And that is what I am doing ... I am practicing and hopefully getting a little better. 

This time I decided not to watch another video but try it on my own.

 I chose a  picture I recently had taken at Lake Huron (Sorry, I haven't shared them yet with all of you, once again I am behind in posting.) I found a photograph that I liked very much and set to work on it. I also changed another thing this time round. This time I drew very fine pencil lines to mark the areas out on my paper and then went over them with an almost empty Micron marker. Once that was done, I erased all of the pencil lines completely. Now it was time to put paint to paper. Just going by what and how I saw it, I mixed the colors I needed and bit by bit my colorless paper turned into a little painting and this time, I am quite happy with it!

This is the photograph I chose ...

... the beach at Grand Bend, Lake Huron.

My line drawing followed ...

... and then the colors.

And this is my little painting completed.

It's called ... 'A Morning At The Beach'.

My colors aren't quite there yet as they are in the photograph but it is a little step in the right direction I think.

I know, it's not perfect again but it is a little better than my first painting and that already is a huge success to me and that has put a tiny smile in my heart.

Seriously ... everyone of you! ... Try something new!
 Challenge yourself  to do something you haven't done before. It doesn't have to be this huge thing, it can be something little, just like I did. You might just find 'your thing'!

Thank you for stopping by and visiting me here at Todolwen today, it is always so nice when you do.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

A Rainy Sunday Well Spent ...

Hello my dear friends,

yesterday was a dull and rainy day and I didn't have to go anywhere which was so nice!

I had cut my lawn, front and back and tidied the front of our property up the day before and now it was time to relax. But what to do? I have been playing with the thought of trying myself at watercolor painting since a little while now and today was the day. I found an artist on YouTube that I really liked. His name is Peter Sheeler and he is actually from Ontario! I took to watching several of his tutorials and then it got serious ... time to try it out myself. 

My painting didn't turn out as amazing as his in the tutorial but that was obvious to me from my first brush stroke. Mine suddenly had land in the distance where his had storm clouds but for the first time I don't think it turned out too terrible.

It's meant to be a scene of a approaching storm.

Mine just turned out the be a seascape instead. I don't need it to be perfect just a little better than it is. How does that old saying go ...'practice makes perfect?!' I so need to practice much more.

 Once that was done, I just had to do something else and this time I knew exactly what that something was going to be right away. 

I had bought some vintage rhinestone earrings in a beautiful shade of blue ...

... and I now needed seam binding to go with them so out came the white ribbon and fabric dye. Fifteen minutes later and I had two new colors in my seam binding collection.

The top one is a light ocean blue and the bottom seam binding is China blue. I only made approx  2 to 3 yards each and for now that is all I need. What do I need it for?! Unfortunately you will have to wait and see for now. I am waiting for a parcel in the mail or rather two parcels to arrive with some very neat treasures to work with in it. I was the winning bidder on eBay a few weeks ago and I am so excited about it but also so impatient too. I am hoping the mailman will ring my door bell this week some time and until then I will need to find something else to keep me busy but I am not sure what that is going to be just yet. What ever it might end up being, I will make sure to share it with all of you here on Todolwen.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.