Antique Store Findings

Hello my dear friends,

today I would like to share my newest findings from my latest outing to an antique store. It is always fun to find something new and then trying to create something with it.

An old pair of earrings in a beautiful shade of pink,

another little coin purse and six brass 'things' - I am not too sure what they are.

These are the brass 'things' closer up, which I am already working with on a new creation.

A bag of crochet bits and pieces ...

... and a tiny wee hand mirror (not from the antique store but from a store that was closing down -never the less still very neat).

And last but not least ...

... small vintage flags some made from silk and some made of cotton.

I am hoping to have my newest creation finished and ready to share very soon so why not pop by and take a look! It would be nice to see you here at Todolwen again!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Some New Goodies To Work With

Hello my dear friends,

I found this small wool shop in our town whilst being out and about a few days ago that I hadn't noticed before and I am glad that I stopped and took a look. It was a very nice store and I found some really neat new things to use in some of my future creations. I am not sure what all of these creations are going to be just yet, but I am hoping to come up with a few ideas.

Isn't this lovely? It is feathers spun in a string of wool ...

... and since I liked the white so much I also took some of it in these colors as well.

Raw wool in it's natural beauty ~ I already have a few ideas where I am going to use this for. 

Also some new wool to work with ~ this is such a lovely color eyelash wool ~ I just love this stuff!

After leaving the little wool store I was done with shopping so I headed to a big fabric store that I visit maybe twice a year to stock up on things I can't find in other stores, like ...

 

...  pieces of leather.

I have already thought of a project I am going to use some of this in.

And then I found this ...

 

 

... beautiful vintage velvet in two very pretty shades. I am already working on a new creation with these fabrics and I am hoping that I will be able to share the result with you soon if it works out.

I have thrown myself into work these past days to make myself a tiny bit happy and to share with all you lovely bloggers and I hope you enjoy what you see. I am always so happy to hear from all of you so never stop leaving comments!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

In A Nutshell ~ Part 3

Hello my dear friends,

today I would like to share the third part of my 'in a nutshell' creations. It is a wee boat. I made many of these little things as a child but not as detailed of course. It was my daughter Ashleigh's idea to use my favourite poem for this creation and as you know of my love for the poem/lullaby of 'Wynken, Blynken and Nod' it seemed the perfect theme to use. I am 'over the moon' with the way this creation turned out because it is more than I would have wished for. When I look at it I find there is something special about this wee boat ... almost enchanting.

Again I took many pictures to share with you ~ I just wanted to make sure you don't miss a thing!

I hope you have enjoyed my latest creation today ~ I had so much joy in making it.

Last but not least ...

... there is another part, part 4, to my 'in a nutshell' creations but unfortunately I can not share this one with you until Valentines Day because I made this creation for my daughters Ashleigh and Caylagh.

 

So don't forget to pop back from time to time. This doesn't mean that there won't be anything new to see here at Todolwen in the mean time. I am trying to work on something every day or every other day. It helps me right now with everything that has happened and ...

... I am making Mum smile!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

In A Nutshell ~ Part 2

Hello my dear friends,

how nice of you to drop by to see my second 'in a nutshell' creation. I did tell you already that it is a pincushion. I just made it a different style and a bit more elegant than the first one. I really like the way it turned out ~ but take a look for yourself!!

 Who would have thought that a little nutshell could look so beautiful?! I took alot of pictures again so you could see my wee pincushion from all angles and so you can see all the little details up close!

And last but not least ...

I remember my school days as a young child when we lived in Germany and in the autumn we would go out into the woods and collect pine cones, nutshells and other bits and pieces of nature which we would then take back to school for art class and we would create all sorts of little things. One of them was a little boat made from a walnut shell and I plan on using that childhood memory to create something for my next post to share with you. I hope to see you here at Todowen soon again!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

In A Nutshell ...

Hello my dear friends,

as I was out doing my grocery shopping a few days ago I watched a lady bag some walnuts. I suddenly remembered things I used to do with my younger daughter Caylagh a few years ago. I also remembered how hard it was to crack the walnuts so they would break perfectly in half so I aimed for the empty shells in the bottom of the bin and went home with a little smile on my face and ready to start recreating 'old' ideas.

 

 

 I love the look of the shell, it's color and texture is perfect in every way. When I arrived home I sat down and stared to think of more than one way to use these shells and with  my trusty little book to hand I took down  notes and sketched what I was hoping to create. The first two projects are just old ideas made new. They are very, very simple but yet so neat. I seem to have a thing with the number three these days. I came up with three ideas just like I did with my cigar box creations. Well, they do say things ~ good or bad ~ come in threes, right?!

And now for my first 'in a nutshell' creation ... a pincushion! (I bet you knew that was going to come).

 

I made this one a few years ago with my daughter Caylagh when she was bored one day. It is such a neat and simple little thing and so cute!!

This is my pincushion ...

 

 

 

I love this because it is so small and just so pretty! I took alot of photo's because I wanted to make sure you could see it from every angle.

I am sure many of you have made these already but it is always nice to recreate an old idea from time to time. All you need is a little bit of time and a few small 'ingredients' and in no time you can have a little creation for yourself or a lovely gift.

 

And last but not least ...

... come back tomorrow for my next 'in a nutshell' creation. All I can say right now is that it is a pincushion as well. So, hope to see you there!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Making Mum Smile

Hello my dear friends,

after thinking about my life and the things that have happened these previous weeks and thinking a lot about my Mum and how upset she would have been to see me cry all the time and be devastated, I have decided to throw myself into working on a lot of new projects. I know my Mum would have been happy about this because she loved everything I did. She was so worried about me and my well being and not herself in the hospital that I know that I can't let her down now. And this isn't easy ~ I still tend to suddenly start crying many times in a day when I think of her and how sad I am that she isn't here anymore. I hope I will make her smile with every new creation I work on.

My newest creation  of course is a pincushion. I haven't made pincushions in what it seems like a very long time so the choice was perfect. The items I used for this creation are mostly new pieces ~ some  I already had or I found on sale at Michaels.

I truly hope you enjoy this creation ~ it is made with many loving thoughts of my Mum.

 

 

I actually have named this pincushion. It is the first one ever that I have done this with.

I named it  'Remembering Elsie'.

 

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

 

Karen B.

Fairylights And Snow

Hello my dear friends,

in England Christmas lights and light chains overall are called fairy lights and I really do think that is such a neat name to call them because at times they really do have something fairy like about them.

I particularly love the way snow can make  almost any place look magical and enchanted. Add lights to that and perfect. It seems that we had winter for only just about one week so far. It didn't snow at Christmas at all and then suddenly about a week ago we were hit by a winter storm which finally brought us the beautiful whiteness. Unfortunately it didn't last very long. I just managed to get a few pictures and it was already gone again.

 Snow and colorful lights are like cookies and cream, apple pie and ice cream ~ they just go together.

These are my two deer that stood on my deck in the backyard this Christmas.  The right deer was may Christmas present from my daughters last year but unfortunately his lights decided not to work after a while but he still looks lovely in the snow.

This was on the evening when it had started to snow ...

... and this is how beautiful it looked in the morning!

                                  My side gate before I had to clear all the white beauty.

Just love, love, love snow!

Right now everything is back to green and brown here but we might still get a bit of winter weather the end of the month ~ we will just have to wait and see. My snow blower is ready and waiting so I am not too worried.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.