Time To Let Go ...

Hello my dear friends,

my Christmas creations are all so very special to me and dear to my heart.

I have not sold many of them over the years but I am now changing that because I can't hold on to everything I make anymore.

In 2014 I made a creation that I have now listed for sale in my Etsy shop. It is a one of a kind creation and just shouts Christmas time in my eyes. It is my pocket watch creation that I named ...

... "Christmas Time" .

Christmas Time

You can see a little more of this creation if you like, just click the link above.

I will be listing more of my past creations hopefully in the near future and possible a few new ones too. So if you would like to see what those will be, why not stop by either here or at my Etsy shop now and then. You will find the link to it on my right side bar.

Thank you for stopping by today and visiting me here at Todolwen, it was so nice of you.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

To Go Bold ...

Hello my dear friends,

the creation I am sharing with all of you today was made earlier this year when it was still gray outside, raining and even snowing a little off and on here in Southern Ontario. We had recently gotten through an ice storm with thankfully no damage to our home or trees. That was over 6 months ago and that this is another one of my late posts. This creation has been sitting in my studio since then, waiting patiently for me to get into gear yet again. (Sigh, I so need to get more "late" posts written!)

Most of you know who much I love the snow and Winter but on that day I was looking forward to bright green grass, bright colored flowers, blue skies and sunshine because the grey outside is giving me the blues. Another thing you all know is that I love, love, love to use subtle colors so much when I create but not that day. That day's theme was "go bold or don't bother!" On one of my weekend outings with my two lovely daughters I found this pretty piece and it was the pansies that just did it for me, so the old sugar bowl just had to come home with me.

The photo of the sugar bowl looks a little blurry but it is the design on the bowl and not my camera that is the reason for this. The design has been applied slightly off but when you look at the actual piece it isn't as noticeable for some reason.

 I knew exactly how I wanted this piece to look once I was done with it.
Again my stash of cotton velvet was the first thing I had a look at and I was so fortunate to find a piece of it in the right shade of green that I needed. When it came to the seam binding that I wanted to use with it, it wasn't that easy. I don't have many colors of seam binding so I hand dye it when I need it. I try to get the right color through trail and error. It doesn't always work but this time I got the right shade of purple first time. Matched up with the green velvet, it was perfect in my eyes. One more thing was needed though ... that final special touch.

I knew that I would have something that would work but I didn't know that I had the perfect piece sitting in a drawer until I opened it and ...

... found this!
It was beyond perfect in my eyes and it was as it had been waiting all the time for that sugar bowl.

My newest pincushion is finished (since months) and I am happy to finally share it with all of you. They do say, better late than never, right?! When it came to naming it, there was only one name I could pick and that was ...

"The Bold And Beautiful".

(Do you think it fits?)

I hope you have enjoyed my newest creation. I have actually enjoyed making using the bolder colors, something I might do more often in the future.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

My One and Only ....

Hello my dear friends,

 Happy Spook Night!

Before I share my newest creation I just wanted to say that it almost didn't happen.
I had started off with a neat idea but whilst working on it I spent quite some time looking at it again and again and every time I looked at it, a little voice in my head said "Nope, not you." Thankfully I didn't give in to that voice and I am buzzed to finally share my one and only Halloween pumpkin for this year with all of you ghosts, ghouls and witches and that on the spookiest night of the year.

Remember that things didn't go well when it came to dying the fabric but I made do with what I had. Together with the purple seam binding, black velvet leaves (sorry, not photos of when I made them), the beautiful old tarnished fork and my little jingle bell spider (which I named Cobweb) this creation has now "come to life" and I am lovin' it!

I called it ...

"Cobweb's Home"

And this is it!

I am happy that I went with everything I thought of using instead of only some of it.

That has made this spooky creation perfect in my eyes.

(I am sorry that some of the pictures are a little blurry.
 It is either my eyes or the camera lens, not sure which one just yet)

I hope that you like my spooktacular creation as much as I, in the end, have enjoyed making it.

Enjoy the rest of your spook night and Happy Halloween to all of you.

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

Have a frightful night.

Don't Give Up ...

Hello my dear friends,

... when things don't go right the first time.

After finding those neat antique forks at the Aberfoyle Antique Market I was so buzzed to start working on my newest creation ... a black Halloween pumpkin. I found some beautiful fabric in my linen closet that I had since years now and  never used other than as a background for photographs and it was perfect for this project. I also pulled out some of the last of my vintage chenille bedspread with the thought of dying it too the color black.

 But things don't always turn out the way we want them too, do they?!

 I started to get everything ready to dye my fabrics and of course some seam binding as well, only to realize that I didn't have a lot of black dye left. Being a little lazy and not wanting to head out to  Michaels to buy some and since I didn't want to dye yards of fabric, I was sure that the amount of dye I had would be enough for the job. I would just let it sit a little longer than usual. That was my thought and at first it look like it had worked. I dyed some of the seam binding, knowing if I pulled it out early it would be a lovely purple color and that is what I was aiming for, for that particular piece of seam binding. Everything else was left for some time longer, bathing in the black liquid. Once I thought it was dark enough and even my daughters thought everything looked as black as possible, I drained the dye (silly idea) and rinsed my fabrics and seam binding out only to discover that EVERYTHING was very dark purple. A lovely color just not black. Not even a speck of black in sight. (Big sigh)

So with no dye left now all I could do now was hang everything outside to dry and see what it looked like once it was.

A makeshift clothes line in the "fairy bush" was perfect for the job. It was a warm day and the sun was shining and I had to be careful not to stain our new deck. (Something else I will share with you soon.)

A branch of the "fairy bush" turned out to be the best place to dry my seam binding.

When everything was dry, I took stock of what I had and that was a whole lot of purple fabric and seam binding but I was not going to be beat by a color. I was determent to make this Halloween pumpkin, just not in black.  

(Forward several weeks ... life came in between again of being creative ...)

Now I had the fabric, seam binding and pumpkin "stem" but in my eyes more was needed. After thinking a little, I decided to make some leaves from black velvet (the ones from my free tutorial and sorry, I didn't take any photos when I made them) but that still wasn't enough. It was "go all out" or nothing. So I went with "all out" thought but what to do?! Then it came to me ... I needed a spider! I am not keen on cheap plastic things and I couldn't find what I wanted in any store. It was too late to buy something online so I had to make one. I then remembered that years ago when I made a little black velvet pumpkin, I made a spider using two jingle bells. That was it! It took me a little time but I made my little spider and here he is ...

He is so neat but my eight legged critter still needed a little more work. 

He is now done and so is my newest creation but that will be what I am sharing in tonight's post when I will be sharing my one and only Halloween pumpkin for this year's Spook Night.

So if you do have a few spare moments in between feeding ghost, ghouls and witches, why not stop by and visit me again, here at Todolwen.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Pumpkin Stems ...

Hello my dear friends,

several weekends ago I visited the Aberfoyle Antique Market here in Ontario with my two lovely daughters and it was amazing!

We thought it would take us maybe an hour or two to walk around the market but in the end we were there for over 5 hours! Unfortunately I didn't think of taking any photos of the market itself, I was just in awe of all the old and neat bits and pieces that were everywhere. You should have seen everything! There were so many amazing and beautiful treasures there but nothing caught my eye that I wanted to take home for me and myself. In a way a good thing because I really am trying to thin out the clutter in our home. Then again ... I did see one thing, that was that take home piece but it was a wee bit too big. It was a full sizes antique horse sleigh from the 1800's with an $800 price tag. So for those two reasons, too big in size and price, it had to stay there. (Sigh)  I was on the lookout for something to work with and I was fortunate that I did find some neat pieces!

I found some beautiful old silverware and I am sharing four special pieces of it today which are some antique forks.

I am in love with these!

The reason you are only seeing three forks is that as soon as I got home the hacksaw came out. I already had a picture in my mind of what was going to become of that fork.

Just look at all the details!

Now you see why I said they were special, they are just so very beautiful!

Vintage and antique silverware was actually all I took away from the huge antique market apart from the lovely time I spent with my two beautiful daughters that day and that was priceless! The three of us are already looking forward to going back next year again and maybe then I will find that little piece for me and myself to take home.

Thank you for taking the time to visit me today, here at Todolwen. Make sure you come back sometime again 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.

Once A Trinket Box ...

Hello my dear friends,

yes, this is another one of those "late posts" today.

 I should have shared this months ago but it again didn't happen.

I just love it, when I see something and right away an idea pops into my mind and then a little while later, I am looking at the actual finished item. That is what happened when I saw an the old tarnished trinket box that I had posted back in March.

You can read about it here if you like ...

Tarnished Trinket Box

Today I am finally sharing what I did to said trinket box.What once was once a old metal trinket/jewelry box has now become something "new" and useful  again.

I started by replacing that ugly "plastic velvet" lining which made such a huge difference. I used a high quality muslin fabric that was natural and not bleached for the new lining. Not having done this before, it was a bit of a challenge for me at first but once I sat back and thought a little, things worked out just fine.

(Thankfully I had enough clothes pegs to assist me doing so.)

Slowly but surely the picture in my mind started to appear on my worktable just the way I wanted it too. It has become one of my newest creations. I turned that plain and outdated trinket box into a lovely and neat sewing caddy.

 I named it ...

... "Simply Sew Pretty".

And I think it is the perfect name for this creation!

The lid is now embellished with a bow made from crinkled seam binding joined by a piece from a vintage doily and some sparkle but that is not all.

The inside of the lid has become a pincushion, made from the same muslin fabric and  also embellished with seam binding and a bit of vintage sparkle.

 Gone is the tacky red plastic velvet.

 Now the inside looks like this!
So much better but there is more!

Since it is a sewing caddy, it needs certain things to live in it.

And those little things are  ...

... a pair of vintage scissors and an old thimble.

A little fabric strawberry filled with crushed walnut shells ...

...to sharpen those needles and pins.

And last but not least ...

... a little needle book ...

... to hold those needle safe.

This unwanted piece has now become a lovely treasure and on top of it, a useful one too.
Perfect again in each and every way.

I hope you have enjoyed my newest creation that I have shared with you today. I had so much joy making it and I am looking forward to making something like this in the future again. Actually ... I have already found a few pieces to work with!

As of right now, this creation is reserved. I will post if this should change.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Cabbage Roses ...

Hello my dear friends,

this is another one of those "late" posts I told you about a little while ago.

The creations I am sharing with all of you today were made at least 6 months ago. They have been sitting in my studio on a shelf, just waiting for me to get my camera out and capture them in a few pictures to finally share with all of you.

Some of the things I love to work with are old pocket watch casings and sari silk ribbon. They are both just so beautiful. In the past I have made some neat and lovely things with both of them on their own but I haven't done anything with them together like this as far as I can remember. I came up with this idea/design after seeing photographs of the most beautiful cabbage roses. I was so inspired that I just had to make something and today I am sharing that something.

I am sharing my two newest pincushions ... my cabbage roses!

The first rose I named "Rosa"...
(... it is German for pink.)

... and the second rose is called "Flieder".
( ... it is German for lilac ... (flee-der).)

 

I just love making these roses and I am buzzed with my newest creations.

 They turned out exactly the way I hoped they would. You will be able to find them for sale in my Etsy shop tomorrow morning, if any of you might be interested. I am already working on something new again which I will hopefully share soon here on Todolwen, so why not visit me again some time and see what I have been up too.

Thank you for taking the time and stopping by 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.