My Very Own Winter Wonderland

Hello my dear friends,

I got such a buzz from my last creation I just had to make another. Still have being very busy with wrapping gifts, cooking Christmas dinner, visiting my poor Mom who is still in hospital, I took a little time out for myself again to create my second little cigar box 'something' before Christmas and today I would like to finally share it with you.

Since we had almost no snow at all here this Christmas time I decided to create my own little snowy Winter Wonderland.

 I am really happy with the way this creation worked out ~ exactly the way I had imagined it!

Just as I did with the first box I covered this one too - inside and outside with music sheets.

I decided to give the tiny tree a wee star so it would be the Christmas tree of the woods.

All around my little Winter Wonderland it is snowing the most pretty little snowflakes.

I just love, love, love my snowflake punches!

I found this wee bunny at a flea market. It came as a set of four animals ~ squirrel, weasel and of course the bunny.

I hope you have enjoyed my newest wintery creation.

Since I have one more of these little cigar boxes left right now and it would be a shame not to use it really and I already have a new idea waiting to be brought to life, well ... I am working on my third winter creation right now and hopefully it will be ready in a day or two so I can share it will you again.

So I hope to see you here soon again!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Oh My Little Christmas Tree

Hello my dear friends,

I can't believe it but I actually sat down a some nights ago and took the time to create something before Christmas and it felt so good too but I didn't have time until today to share it with you.


I tried bleaching little bottle brush trees for the first time and after a total disaster the second batch turned out OK. Taking my trusty little notebook to hand I found an idea that I had a few months ago but didn't have the time nor did I feel well enough to bring it together ~ but now I did!!


Searching my studio ~ aka craft room ~ I found the perfect piece that I needed to bring my Christmas creation to life in the shape of a little wooden cigar box ~ I have several of them just waiting to be used.


 When I make something new, I find the best part of a new creation is the before and then the after part! I just love how things come together and  become something beautiful!


So, this is the before ...

These cigar boxes are so versatile and I am hoping to come up with more ideas to use them in the future.

And now for the after ... this is the part I just LOVE!!!

This is my little Christmas tree ...

... with a shiny tree topper and shiny garlands ...

... and toys underneath waiting for the children to wake up to on Christmas morning!

What do you think of all the lovely little toys? Arent' they just so neat?!

I decided not only to cover the inside but also the outside of the cigar box with music sheets.

 I am thrilled with the way this little Christmas creation has turned out.

And yes, if you were guessing where these tiny toys came from ~ they came from an old Monopoly game I had.

 

I hope you have enjoyed my little Christmas tree. Having so much fun making this creation I couldn't stop there and I have already made a second cigar box transformation. But that will be for my next post, so please come back and keep checking Todolwen. One thing I will tell you about it in this post is the name of it ...

... it is called:

'My very own Winter Wonderland'.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

I Have Been Very Spoilt!

Hello my dear friends,

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas with your families and I hope Santa treated you well too. The only thing I really wanted this Christmas was for my dinner to work out without anything going wrong, my family to be happy and a quiet time at home. So my dinner worked out great, my family was happy and we had a great time at home ~ not quiet as quiet as I would have liked, but at least there was plenty of laughter.

I had no idea as to what gifts I would receive this year and was hit with a wave a pretty wrapped boxes and bags filled with some beautiful things and all for me! I would love to share a few of my gifts with you today.

I still can't believe the gift I received from my husband. He gave me this amazing laptop!!!!! (yes I am writing this post on it currently) and the colour is 'romantic purple'. Now I can even write on my blog where ever I am . . . YAY!!!!!!

I am so over the moon to have my very own laptop now!!

My older daughter Ashleigh gave me many beautiful gifts including vintage little treasures. The thing from her I liked the most was that she had business cards made for me. She believes that I should do more with Todolwen because she thinks that my creations are really good and it would be a shame if  I didn't try. She even has a business card holder engraved with my initials ~ how great is that!!

So many different treasures!!

 

I feel so professional having my own business cards now!

My younger daughter Caylagh wrote a story for me with the help of her big sister Ashleigh about a bunny called Cotton-Tail and his little friend Drag-Along. She actually made a book for the story, did all the drawings to go with it and with this already beautiful gift came ... the character Drag-Along herself!

Love, love, love this!

 

This is one of the drawings of Cotton-Tail (the big gray bunny) and his stuffed animal friend Drag-Along (the smaller peach bunny).

 

And this is Drag-Along in all her cuteness.

The book and the story and pictures inside are beautiful. It took both of my daughters many, many hours to create this gift! One day I will share the whole story with you lovely bloggers.

I hope you have been spoilt this Christmas - not only with gifts but with friends, family, laughter, happiness and love - Tis' the season!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

My Wishes For You This Christmas

Hello my dear friends,

today I would like to share my wishes for you this Christmas ...

I wish that you and your families will be well ...

I wish that you will find joy in the smallest of things in life ...

I wish you no worries or heartbreak ...

I wish you to give and receive as much love as possible ...

I wish that all your dreams may come true ...

and last but not least ...

I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

From my home to yours,

 from my heart to yours I wish you all this!

many hugs and have a peaceful day,

Karen B.

At Last ...My Christmas Tree

Hello my dear friends,

today I would love to share my Christmas tree with you. Ever since I have had my first Christmas tree when I moved out from home ~ which seems such a long time ago ~ I have always only had glass ornaments on my trees. Colored lights and lots and lots and lots of ornaments especially when I had children. Every year I would just add more and more ornaments but this year for the first time I have a "themed" tree and I used white lights instead of coloured. I based the theme on a ornament that was my gift from my daughter Caylagh last year. It is a beautiful small hand painted glass owl. That's when I had the idea of a 'nature' tree.  All glass and white lights only, no garlands or tinsel. Pine cones, birds and leaves ~ nothing else. ( I'm sorry if the pictures aren't very good this time, my camera isn't doing what I would like it to do right now.)

There are all sorts of birds, leaves and many, many pine cones.

Unfortunately my light chains are more visible this year than I would like them to  be.

Maybe I will get a new tree for next year, a tree that already has the lights on it would be nice I think.

And this is what the tree looks like in daylight.

I like to use my antique wooden hat box to stand the tree in and it does suit the theme.

I can't believe it's Christmas in only 7 days. I am so far behind after being sick. I haven't even finished my gift shopping yet and don't even talk about wrapping everything up! Well, I better get my skates on and roll my sleeves up so things will get done in time.

And last but not least ...

...something little about me. I am hoping we will have a white Christmas this year. Right now we have a dusting of snow on the ground but it sure would be nice to actually snow on Christmas Eve and Day. I do love the white glistening fairies that fall from the sky ~ it makes everything look enchanted. The neat thing about me and my love for snow is ~ I was born in a small town way up in British Columbia, Canada. The town is called Kitimat, which is Native American for ~ People Of The Snow! Maybe that is why I love to sit and watch it snow ~ it's like it's just for me from home!

This is the welcome sign you see just before you arrive at Kitimat.

I hope you are all almost ready for Christmas, you are well and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

An Old Creation With A Wintry Twist

Hello my dear friends,

I am slowly starting to feel a bit better. My cold/flu isn't gone just yet but it's not too bad anymore and I am so happy because I just hate feeling unwell, but then who doesn't? Thank you all for your well wishes, they really helped me feel better!

These past few days I have been crafting a little and I would like to share my 'newest' creation with you today. It is actually one of my older creations with a wintry twist ~ my little felted nests!

I really love my little nests ~ which is a free tutorial for all you lovely bloggers ~ so I decided to make a few new ones but gave them a wintry glisten for the season. I am really pleased with the way they have turned out especially because it gave me a chance to use my newest yarn/wool I purchased from Martha Stewart amongst a lot of other very beautiful yarns that I had bought in Europe years ago but never used.

So, why not scroll down and take a look and I hope you like what you see!

I love the different textures of the beautiful yarns and the effect they give!

And these are my wintry little nests ...

They are all a little bit different from each other.

To paint the eggs I used Martha's newest paints with a pearl effect ...

and a tiny touch of sparkly glitter.

I love the look of these nests, it's almost like they are built from frost and ice!

Why not try and make one of these yourself? They would be a beautiful decoration for your Christmas tree, or Christmas display and they are great little gifts!

Last but not least ...

this was my backyard on Thursday ~ very green and warm.

We almost had a record temperature for December here!

And this is my backyard this morning ...

hopefully this won't be the last of the white beautiful flakes!

I hope you are all well, looking after yourselves and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Sweet Lady To My Rescue

Hello my dear friends,

I am sure you have noticed the new look of Todolwen!!!! And I hope you love it as much as I do! I have to thank the amazing Karen Valentine for this great look. She is my saviour!!

 My blog had run into a major problem which would not allow you to view it properly anymore it just came up in squares. I was so worried! I am not a computer/blog person really. I can do the basics and that's about it. My dear friend Dawn  from 'The Feathered Nest' told me to contact Karen and I must say ~ this lady is AMAZING!!! She not only fixed my problem but she gave my blog a makeover that has made me love it even more. Thank you so much Karen, I don't know what I would have done without you.

Karen at 'My Desert Cottage' makes beautiful creations and she is also a blog designer and "fixer" so if you ever run into any problems with your blog, she is the one to contact! If you don't know her wonderful blog already, you should really go and visit!

http://www.mydesertcottage.blogspot.com/

And here are her websites ...

http://www.karenvalentinedesign.com/

http://www.buildingbeautifulblog.com/

And last but not least ...

I am still sick in bed with a very nasty cold/flu, resting as good as I can. Unfortunately my creating is on hold right now and I am hoping to feel better very soon since I would love to do a tiny bit of Christmas creating  before Christmas is over.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Just Can't Seem To Get Into The Mood

Hello my dear friends,

I can't believe it's been some time since my last post again! I have been so terribly busy that I haven't had much time to spend on blogging. I only just got half an hour a few nights ago to sit down and read some of your blogs which I haven't done in, what it seems, the longest time. You have all been so very busy creating the most beautiful things, making tutorials and having great giveaways and so much more. Right now I am sitting with a cup of tea with honey trying to get this post together feeling quite unwell ~ I am sick with a bad cold and/or flu (sigh) ... and I really don't need this right now.

I have so many projects in my mind that I would love to do but time isn't on my side these days and I can't seem to get into the mood of the season. I am not sure what it is. I know I feel worn out most of these days and my mind is with my Mom constantly. She is not going to get any better. Right now she is being kept as comfortable as possible so she has no pain. We are continuing to take everything day by day. I try and keep smiling and busy because that is all I can really do and I pray every night for her.

I was meant to be working on my "old/new" creation but sometimes things don't work out as fast as you would like them to (I recall my wee bird tutorial). I start designing it one way and then once I start the actual work, a different way of creating pops into my head and I start all over again! I am making myself crazy right now with this and I just can't seem to get it right just yet so I am going to put this one on the back shelf until I can make my mind up how I am going to finally do it. The little time that I have for creating I have used to start knitting again. It is what I need right now, something where I can sit down to an old movie, relax and do something creative. 

When I am not knitting I am still working on another project right now also with wool. It is something old of mine but with a new twist to it. I will share it with you as soon as I am finished with it.

And last but not least ...

...I would also like to share more new treasures that I have found a little while ago. I had gone out several weeks ago heading to the lake and on the way I always stop at all the little neat stores where I found these findings. Arriving home I took the bag and for an unknown reason I put them where I hide my Christmas gifts and then forgot all about them until the other day when I hid another gift and there they were.

Some vintage pearls ...

 ... an old spool with some even older very pretty ribbon...

... it is so neat!

And this ...

... was my great find!

A reel of vintage velvet ribbon. There are about 9 yards of it in a wonderful tan color and it only cost ...

wait for it ... 4 cents for the reel! I couldn't believe it!!

With this piece, I just fell in love. The simplicity of it was what caught my eye. I might hang this neat piece in the window of my craft room but I'm not sure yet.

That's all for today my dear friends. Make sure you keep stopping by to visit Todolwen.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.