A winner, an inchie and a dilemma

Gosh, you girls are a patient lot. Remember a few weeks ago the wonderful Vicki hosted a Grow Your Blog party I took part in as well, as I was looking forward to finding some gorgeous new blogs to follow. I did say at the time that in the middle of February I would have a little giveaway for one visitor who posted a comment on that particular post, because at the time I was in France and totally without craft supplies. Anyhoo, I finally picked a winner, and her name is ........

Wendy, from Apple and Apricot!

I'll be getting in touch with you, Wendy, to have a little chat about the giveaway :-).

And so on to the inchie for this week. HAPPINESS was the theme. Now before I show the inchie, I just have to explain that I was in a bit of a silly frame of mind today, lol, after traipsing through puddles and ankle deep mud when we were walking the dogs this morning. I quite enjoyed the squelching and splashing, took me back to walks with my brothers when we were kids. You won't be surprised by this inchie then, will ya -

Ahem, swiftly on to the dilemma bit of the title. I haven't been to an English bootfair since last summer, and I really really needed to get out and look at stuff. Old stuff. There was a jumble sale advertised on Saturday and I relished the thought of being able to rummage through lots and lots of stuff. The only slightly worrying thing was, it was advertised as a POSH jumble sale. Ohoh. Posh kind of equals expensive in my mind. And thats what it turned out to be. Expensive. Individual stallholders, not a jumble sale but more like a mini indoor antiques fair. Needless to say, I didn't buy very much, but I did come home with a few little bits of jewellery because the beads were so gorgeous, colourful and heavy, and three scarves. And thats where the dilemma comes into it. The scarves are just lovely, beautifully embroidered, and I bought them to cut up for collages and fabric books. And now I am sitting here with them on my lap and I can't do it. I keep thinking, ooh, they would be so lovely to wear. But how often would I actually wear them? See my dilemma? Here they are -

 

Cut or wear, cut or wear, cut or wear??? Do let me know what you think!

Oh, and these are the bits of jewellery I bought for the beads -

Toodlepip xxx

Free Images and new Blogshop Listings

I haven't really created anything in the last week or so. I've just been mulling over a few things, planning things ( great at planning, I am, not so good at actually doing ), and buying a few bits and pieces for the mulled over projects, lol. I so want to make a couple of the things the lovely Karla and Beth have come up with so far in the Romantic White Christmas workshop, especially a really gorgeous and dead simple Christmas Tree ornament, which I want to make into a garland for the fireplace. If you haven't heard about this online workshop yet, have a look HERE. You can still join in.

Well, the long and short of it is, I haven't really got much to show, so I have scanned in a few more images for you. The first three images are late Victorian Christmas cards, they came out of a Victorian scrap book. Rather unusual in that they don't show Nativity scenes, Santas, snowy scenes, angels, or Christmas trees with heaps of presents, but I love them -


This gorgeous writing is from a very old German postcard -


And two beautiful young French ladies -


When I took the last one out of the scanner, I realised how very pretty the writing on the back of the card was. So I scanned that in as well. I think it will make a great background -


There you go. I hope you can use some of the images in your projects.

I have also listed some more antique French ticking fabric packs in the blogshop, as well as some nice fat ephemera packs -

I have 4 packs of the fabulous 'neutrals', shades of creams, white and grey -


and these vintage ephemera packs, a mixture of French and English pieces -


If you fancy a look, you can find the blogshop HERE.

I am off to print out the template for the Christmas Tree garland which I determined to make over the weekend and get everything ready for an early start tomorrow. Thats hopeful thinking, lol. Ah well, we'll see how it goes.

Until the next time, toodlepip xxx

Fiddling and fardledardling

I wanted to make a little fabric collage wallhanging, but of course the usual thing happened, I fardledardled about with lace and fabrics, and fondled and dreamed........ I did get some supplies together, look -

Haven't made any progress beyond that though, lol, but I have the bestest intentions for tomorrow. But, whilst I was looking for some small pieces of ticking fabric and bits, it occurred to me that I could list some of the ticking fabrics in the blogshop. So I did! A couple of my most beautiful antique French ticking fabric packs and a few sets of this fabulous old French parcel carry handles from big French stores -


I know I haven't made much lately, I have been crocheting again, but I did make a couple of tags


I'll crack on with the fabric collage hanging tomorrow, hopefully, and take some pics of the crochet WIP as well.

Wow, short post, lol, great, uh? Lets hope we all have great weekends! Toodlepip, Liz xxx

Piccies, at long last!

Its been ages, hasn't it, I know. Somehow I just haven't had enough time to even get the photos off the camera, let alone upload them to the blog. I think I might just about be back to normal though. Almost. Well, by Monday hopefully.

My dear friend and (very occasional ) co-author JJ came to visit me on Tuesday, and we had a great time wombling through a few charity shops, oohing and ahhing in vintage shops, drooling over buttons and various assorted other stuff from previous bootfairs etc. We saw the cutest button necklaces in one of the many shops we trawled through, and that really made me think. I had all these millions of buttons at home, well, quite a few anyway, and I really can't just sit there sorting them into jars by colour, and fondling them, and just playing with them, when I could me making a couple of pretty necklaces as well.

So I tried, spent a fair amount of time rummaging through my vintage buttons to find the ones I thought would look good, arranged them, picked them off the floor after the dogs' tails had swiped them off, arranged them, picked them off the floor........... . Got wise in the end and used a tray which I took with me every time I left the room. I didn't have the right sort of wire, so I tried with a kind of twisted soft metallic beading wire. Dead loss, the buttons were just spinning around like crazy, and it drove me nuts. Then I thought I give fishing line a go, same thing, spinning, going all over the place and I was losing it, lol. So the next morning I went to our lovely jewellery making shop, Stone Corner, and got myself proper thick stiff jewellery wire. YES!!! Success! At least I think it was successful, I really like the necklace. And yes, I know its browns and creams and whites, but I do happen to like browns and creams and whites! So there.

Well, what do you think? I reckon it will look really pretty with a white top, or a brown top, or even a BEIGE top, lolol. Its difficult to see in the photos, but some of the buttons shimmer so beautifully in the right light -


I like the idea of using vintage buttons that way, so I might make a few more, in somewhat brigher colours though.

D'ya know, its been so long, I can't even remember which things I have bought lately at boot fairs or charity shops and actually shown you. So here is just a random selection of stuff which I have acquired lately, and which I think you haven't seen yet.

Found this really pretty pretty crochet lanky -


Two fabricy bits, two of many that is, I'll photograph the others tomorrow -

Six very pretty rosy cups and saucers and two tea plates, they match some other bits and pieces which I have in France, including the teapot I showed you in an earlier post -

Some beady bits, no treasure hunt would be complete without a few beads. It included two massively big beaded rings, the bead fringeing from a lampshade I think, and some lovely heavy glass drops from two candlesticks-

A dinky little Sadler teapot -

Oh, and just look at these gorgeous deep pink rose curtains. Aren't they just scrumptious, delicious, fabulous? Going by the fabric I would say they are from the 1950s, and they are glorious. Beautiful roses, carnations and errrmmm, whatever those other flowers are, in sumptious pinks and greens and in fabulous condition. I bought them for the cottage in France, but then thought that the kitchen windows are so small, the curtains would be much too big, and I could never bring myself to cut them. Nope, definitely not. I may fondle them for a while, lol, and then perhaps take them to one of my fairs with me and sell them

And how about this 1950s/60s bar cocktail set from Germany? I love all that sort of stuff-

Oh, and then there is this pretty little nightdress case -

Now, lets see what else we've got. Ah yes, I bought a few bags, this is one of them. I intend to make some nice crocheted/felted embellishments for them-

Oh oh, and I found the perfect set of place mats for France as well, 6 of them with different rose designs -

I couldn't resist this very beautiful Edwardian book, the cover was just irresistible. And just look at some of the lovely illustrations inside-

Now, if you are feeling hungry, you had better not look at the next pics. Somebody seems to have taken a gorgeous old cook book apart an I have ended up with some of the plates of very yummy looking French dishes. Sigh, those were the days, just look at the fab presentation -

There, thats it for today, I need a cup of lovely Chai now, and maybe a little choccie or two.
Toodlepip xxx