Inspired By My Little Old Rose Bush ...

 Hello my dear friends,

there is an old tin that lives on shelf in my creative space which holds all of my old pocket watch casings and every once in a while I will open it, pick one or two of them to work with and a few weeks ago I did so again. 

As you all know, I love making pincushions and my favorite thing to make from old pocket watch casing is of course pincushions. I had this of vision on how I wanted my newest ones to look like, so off I went to work. These days I would love to only work with drop cloth, cotton or linen but for what I had in mind, it just wouldn't work. Instead I pulled my box that is filled with all of my polyester lining fabrics out. There were so many pretty colors to choose from and I picked two of them to work with. Some tiny glass beads were also needed. Slowly but surely my vision started to appear on my worktable and since they are done, I am happy to share new newest pincushions with you. If you follow me on Instagram you would have already seen them. They have turned out so pretty in my eyes, exactly the way I hoped they would and this is the first one.

 A pale pink blooming rose covers the entire top of the pincushion that is made from my favorite drop cloth, not that you can see very much of it. Tiny glass beads happily live in it's center and hand dyed seam binding in a lovely shade of a darker green give this piece it's final touch.

 Take a look .... 

And my second one is just a lovely as my first rose pincushion.

This one is a rich cream colored rose with again tiny glass beads and hand dyed seam binding that complete this pretty piece.

And here it is ...

 I think it was my little old rosebush, that lives at the side of our house that inspired me to make my newest pincushions. It always has the prettiest little roses all Summer long. 

I am so happy with my newest creations and I hope you have enjoyed them too.

Oh, before I forget! 

I will be listing my rose pincushions in my Etsy shop tomorrow morning at 9AM ET if you are interested and ...

... I will also be listing this pincushion at the same time.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting me here at Todolwen, 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.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

Another Old Tarnished Lid ...

 Hello my dear friends,

so it's been a while again hasn't it. 

(I actually think this will become my opening sentence for many future blog posts hahaha.)

As you know, I am trying to be more creative these days and so far it's going well. I have shared the piece that I am sharing here today already on my Instagram page, so you might have already seen it possibly. It is one of my newest pincushions that I have recently made. It is made from an old tarnished dish with a very pretty lid. I love working with old tarnished lids with or without their plates because then make some of the best bases for pincushions because the handle is perfect in make it stand nicely and this lid is particular lovely. 

And here it is, take a look ... 

I think it turned out very nice and I enjoyed making it so much but then again I almost always do and I can't wait to make the next one. There is this large tarnished lid in my stash and I might just decided to use it next, I will see how I feel and when I have time to work on things. There are a few piece that are still sitting and waiting to be finished on my worktable but that is nothing new.

And now a little update on how things are here ...

Our basement issue ... even more water was found in the office under the flooring in our basement. This floor needs to now be ripped out as well. Oh and have you noticed how long things take to get sorted?! The insurance takes it's time, the companies I have hired to try and find out what is going wrong take time to come out especially during COVID restrictions. (I also don't feel too comfortable with too many people in our house right now.) Days turn into weeks and even months now but slowly but I am chasing after people and slowly but surely I am getting everything sorted. The stress is a thing though that I could really do without but it is what it is. Fingers crossed it will get done soon.

Our willow tree ... this also turns out to be a thing that takes months and months to sort out instead of weeks. She is still standing strong so far. She just went through a storm with high winds and is still OK but that can change. 

And that is right now how things are going here, so here is to better times. A fixed basement without any water, a new willow tree growing and the world recovered from COVID. My thoughts are with all you, hoping you are safe and healthy. Until next time ...

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

A Beautiful Dragonfly ...

Hello my dear friends,

A few years ago when my daughters and I were on one of our visits to Michigan, we of course made a stop at Hobby Lobby whilst there. There I found the most beautiful broach in the shape of a dragonfly. Glistening in many shades of green and blue, it was just stunning! Back home said broach then ended up hiding away one of the drawers in my craft room but it was time to let this piece show off all it's beauty once again.

A frill made from hand dyed seam binding in a rich shade of deep blue that harmonized with some cotton velvet were perfect in my eyes to make this pretty "insect" stand out. Together with a vintage tarnished drinking vessel, my newest pincushion was created and I am so happy with it. 

Take a look! ...

A lovely piece with the 'less is more' thing but with so much prettiness for sure. 

It has already found a new home and will be on it's way there in a few days and my next thing to do it is, to think of what I am going to create next.

Thank you for taking the time to visit me 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.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

A Little Old Copper Piece ...

 Hello my dear friends,

I am so happy to finally share something new I recently made.

My craft room has boxes, baskets and tins filled with all sort of neat bits and piece and the piece I am sharing with you today I one of the neater ones. I think it used to be possibly an ashtray or something like that. I saw something different of course and that is what I turned it into. 

What is "that"? ... a new pincushion (of course what else!)

Some of my favorite drop cloth, old tattered lace, seam binding and some old buttons were all together just perfect for it and I added something unusual to it too. I added some magnets. Yes, I did say magnets. I glued them to the underside of the copper top, inside the copper piece, so there is a little more space for needles and pins and the best thing, they won't fall off.

I am very happy how the piece has turned out, exactly the way I wanted it too! With everything going on here right now being creative is just so good. I am already thinking about the next pincushion I am going to create. 

It is so nice that you visited me today and I hope you do come back some time again.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

A Belated Happy Easter ...

 Hello  my dear friends,

first of all I would like to wish you a belated Happy Easter ...

... and I hope that you had a wonderful weekend.

My weekend was very lovely but also very busy.

 I spent Easter with both of my daughters and we had such a nice time together. I also had a little time to be creative but I spent quite some time in our basement working. I had found a little damp in our basement media room which then turned out to be a lot and then after a huge rain downpour I discovered that the entire media room floor was literally on top of 

a huge puddle. I am now working on trying to find out where it is coming from. I have already pulled out the floating laminate flooring, cut a wall open and I am still working on chiseling the leveling concrete floor out.  

This is what it looks, a mess!

 It sure is a lot of hard work but I am hopefully done soon with what I can do myself. Oh, when life gives you lemons ... I just hope there will be a little lemonade at the end of this, ha ha.

But I am happy because I made a few new pieces and I will share what I made with you in my next post. So do visit me some time again when you have a few minutes spare.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Stay safe, stay healthy.

Spring Is Here ...

 Hello my dear friends,

Spring is here for sure!

 How do I know that? Well a few days ago the ducks that visit our pool and garden every year made their first visit and I can't tell you how happy that made me. 

Unfortunately it is not all good that this Spring will bring. This Spring will also bring the loss of our beloved willow tree Salisbury. 

Since she was hit by lightning 9 years ago we have been keeping a close eye on her. 6 weeks ago our arborist informed us that she was becoming a risk because of the damage to her trunk and that she would have be cut down and that soon. Needless to say I cried for days but it is the safest and the right thing to do. She is such a BIG girl at over 60 feet tall she could cause a lot of damage to our property or  someone else's if she were to break and fall.

But thankfully Spring does bring so much joy! 

The first flowers growing and blooming, singing birds and bunnies in the garden and so many more blue skies and sunny days, each one so nice! It also make me want to be more creative and I honestly think it's the sunshine thing. I have already made a new piece or two.

 I designed a new cottontail bunny and made it from drop cloth that I embellished with lavender made from pretty purple beads. It will be soon available in my Etsy shop.

Right now I am working on bunches of carrots because I just love making these knobby root vegetables.

I made some of them are made from a white fabric that has a thick woven linen look and the greenery is made from a beautiful pale mint green sari silk ribbon. The other ones I am working on are made from drop cloth with different styles of sari silk ribbon for the greenery and I will make sure to share them soon with you too. I am also planning on working on a new pincushion or two in the next few days since I haven't made any in what seems such a long time. These too will be for sale in my Etsy shop in the next few days and I will let you know when I have listed them here on Todolwen.

And that is all for today my dear friends. It is so nice that you stopped by and visit me here and I hope you will do sometime again.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

Here's To Better Times ...

 Hello my dear friends,

What can I say, but it has been forever once again.

Firstly, I would like to say that I hope you are well and healthy and that your Christmas was filed with joy and peace. Secondly, that I hope the new year will be a great one for you and your loved ones and last but not least I also wanted to say thank you for being so sweet for sticking around.

2020 was quite a year with everything going on in the world and how it has affected our lives. I spent most of 2020 at home with my younger daughter which was priceless. Whenever it was possible my older daughter would visit us and the time together was just so lovely. Because of this we have all stayed safe and healthy so far and I am so beyond grateful for this.

Unfortunately other things were neglected during this time, one of them was Todolwen - this blog. Things hadn't been as they used to be for a while but 2020 really took all the wind out of my sails when it came to blogging. I didn't even do my "Christmas To Come" giveaway which makes me sad when I think about it now.

 My Todolwen facebook page has been messed up too as I have mentioned before and still hasn't been fixed so that I can sign into it and use it properly. The one thing I did continue though was my Instagram page because my phone was almost always at hand or close by and it is so easy to use.

 But here's to better times I hope!

 I am going to work on blogging more often again. I don't think it will go back to daily posts but more likely there will be weekly or bi-weekly posts, I am not quite sure just yet but I am looking forward to sharing what I have been up to when it comes to being creative and other little bits of my life. I am also going to create a new page for Todolwen in the next few days for my followers on Facebook. And I am hoping to create more again and therefore will have more goodies for m Etsy shop for you. Like I said, better than things were in the past. 

So, please stick with me a little longer whilst I work on things here.

Thank you for taking the time and stopping by here at Todolwen. It really means a lot to me when you visit me 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 and stay healthy.

Hugs.