New Look Christmas Apples And Pears ...

 Hello my dear friends,

I know it's mid summer, mid July to be exact but I am trying to be of ahead of things a little this year when it comes to thinking about ideas for Christmas.

I have been making and selling my Christmas/Winter crab apples and pears since two years now and because I love making them so much, I am not thinking of stopping yet, but it is time for a little change. This year my little apples and pears are going to have a more natural, softer and delicate look. I am using unbleached cotton batting with small singed edge leaves and no glitter. Like I said very natural, a bit simpler but still very lovely looking in my eyes. They are perfect for a nature themed Christmas tree or a farmhouse look too.

So this then my "Christmas In July" post today and here are my Christmas 2021 mini crab apples and pears. I love there new look so much!

 My little crab apples and pears are now listed for sale in my Etsy shop and for the first time, I will be giving my customers options to choose from.

There will be two colors to choose from for the leaves and then three options on what you can order. It will be either 6 apples, 6 pears or a mixed set of 3 apples and 3 pears. I am so buzzed to try this and see how it goes. All orders will be custom made and will take me about a week to get them done and in the mail. 

I am hoping to come up a few new idea for the most wonderful time of the year and once I do, I will make sure to share the with you.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting me 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.  

Following By Email ...

 Hello my dear friends,

this is information for those of you that have signed up to the "follow by email" option.

I just wanted to let you know that the widget "follow by email" that some of you are signed up to, to receive an email letting you know that I have posted something here on Todolwen, will be gone August of this year, so you won't being getting that email anymore. I am not sure if there will be anything like this in the future to replace it or not, so if you are one of my followers that have signed up to it, please, sign up to my blog if you wish to continue to see what I am up to. You can also follow me on Instagram. There is a link to it on the right hand side of my blog (it's the little camera), just click on it and it will take you to my page. I am also going to finally work on getting a new Facebook page set up, so that will be an option soon too.

Thank you for taking an interest in what I do.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

When It Rains, It Sometimes Pours ...

 Hello my dear friends, 

in my last post I mentioned that things have been crazy here so I thought I would tell you a little more about it.

So, where do I start? ... 

... A few months ago we suddenly had water come into our basement through an old and not well repaired crack in our foundation wall. We ended up having 1/4 inch of water under the laminate flooring in three room. The flooring started to swell with the moisture and the furniture had to be taken out of those rooms very quickly and is now sitting over the house. The entire flooring had to be ripped out including the floor leveling concrete which is still an on going job for me. Drywall that had gotten wet had to be cut out. We thought that we had found the problem, but we were wrong! We then discovered then that we also had a sewage pipe that had a crack and had been slowly leaking in the basement powder room. Repairs were needed and thankfully have now been done. The powder room was a quicker fix. Because of the crack in the wall and the way it would need to be repaired (digging up 14 feet of the wall all the way down to the foundation floor) we had to remove our air conditioner which was the original one and very old. Because of that a new one was required and because of that we then also needed a new furnace (it was older too) so they could work together properly. Thinking that was it, we were yet again wrong! Out of the blue our water heater decided to join in and stop working properly. The hot water would come out of the taps steaming hot and after an inspection we were told it needed to be replace too. After weeks of waiting and days of work, all the all of the new equipment is installed and pipe and wall are fixed but our basement and parts of our backyard are a total mess. I feel somewhat overwhelmed on where to start with the tidying up of things. The basement reno will wait until next Summer to make sure all the repairs are doing their job and I am going to work on the garden bit by bit this year. In the end, I know I will get there and everything will be OK and I can't wait for that day right now.

 And we still weren't not done yet with because to me the thing that happened is a real heartbreaker.

Most of you know of our beautiful willow tree Salisbury.

This Spring our arborist had informed us that we would have to have our beautiful tree cut down! She had become unstable and dangerous due to her size and the rot at the bottom of her trunk which was caused by being hit by lightning 9 years ago. It took over 3 months to get everything organized and I was already under so much stress after the other things that were happening here. Then the day came. The street had to be closed off and we had to hire a 250 ton crane to lift her huge 2.5 ton pieces over our house because she was too big to take out of the yard through either of the side gates.

 It was a sad day for me but it had to be done.

She is now gone and there is a huge emptiness where she used to be. 

I miss seeing her every time I look into our backyard and it is going to take some time for me to get used to it. I am sad because my critters are without a safe place to hide and live in our garden. I made sure that we saved several larger branches because we are going to try and regrow a new willow tree again. Fingers crossed it will work.

And now you know what has been happening here these past few months. Here is to better times  heading this way I hope.

It was so nice that you stopped by today and visited me here at Todolwen.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day.

New Needle Books ...

 Hello my dear friends,

it's been a while again hasn't it ? There has been all sorts going on here these past months but I have still managed to keep my mind and hands busy at times which is so needed.

As many of you know, I LOVE to sew by hand! Hand sewing is so calming and very rewarding to me. You also know that I just love to work with drop cloth and I love to crochet. With that in mind I recently used my favorite drop cloths as the base for my newest needle books... all 8 of them. Together with old lace and tatting, my crocheted little flowers that I hand dye, hand dyed cotton batting and seam binding, I created some lovely pieces and that is what I am sharing with you today. I had planned to post them earlier today but not everything always works out as we want it too, does it!

 But here they are!

Firstly my "Butter Cups" needle books.

I have always had a thing for butter cups, even as a kid. I thought the were the prettiest things that could grow and when thinking of using them in my newest creations, I was so happy and excited about it.

Onto the next needle books... these are my "Hues Of Blue" needle books.

I couldn't resist dying some of my little flowers in subtle shades of blue and I am happy I did, and I love the way they have turned out.

I am beyond happy with all of my little drop cloth needle books and I hope you have enjoyed them too. Most of them are now listed for sale in my Etsy shop because one or two have been already spoken for so why not head over and see what is still available.

Thank you for stopping by and seeing what I have been up to lately.

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

.

Have a peaceful and creative day.

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.