I Found Klompjes

Hello my dear friends,

as most of you are aware I there is a certain Dutch poem/lullaby that I love which involves a wooden shoe or to say it in dutch 'een klompje'.  I went out to our local farmers market on the weekend. A Dutch family has a bakery there that sells the most delicious pastries and other yummy things and to my delight they had a pair of small wooden shoes standing on the edge of a shelf. Well, what can I say ... a short little chat with the very nice Dutch lady later and they were mine!!!! Yay!!! I will have to hold myself back not to start making another Wynken, Blyen and Nod creation right now ~ but it will happen! I am addicted to making little boats with beautiful printed sails and fisher nets filled with shiny stars. I am so happy that I found them!

And here they are ...

... my klompjes!!

After my great find I headed to the upstairs section of the market where there are all sorts of vendors ~ from primitives to paintings and from vintage to new, basically something for every one. I actually sell my leftover primitive creations at a stand there. I normally don't take a lot of time to look around properly but I did on that day and I am so glad I did because I found these ...

... the most beautiful pendants!!

 That's all I can really say about these ~ beautiful!!

You can imagine that I left that market very happy that morning. Even as I write this post my fingers are ready to grab one of the little wooden shoes and start making a new wee floating vessel but I am trying to wait out a bit longer. I have other projects on the go right now and I really have a bad habit of not finishing things when I should and starting something new instead. I bet that sounds familiar to some of you ~ am I right? So .. must dash and do a bit of work now.

Oh and don't forget to take part in my giveaway if you haven't already done so!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

One Year Later ... Time For A Giveaway

Hello my dear friends,

looking back just one year ago I truly didn't see myself sitting here today writing this post. It is hard to believe that I have been blogging since a year now. Todolwen has become a big part of my life and I am so happy it is that way. Time did go by fast and with everything that has happened and being so busy creating to keep my mind off of things I actually forgot about my first anniversary which was on January 24th and as I just saw I have now 400 followers ~ that is just fantastic!!! The past year here in blogland has been a good year. So many of you lovely bloggers have made my day over and over again by visiting my blog and leaving your kind words for me before leaving. I would like to say thank you to all of you lovely bloggers out there for doing so. You have touched my heart in so many ways.


So ... that means it is time for a giveaway!!!

And this is what my gift to one of you will be ...

... this!

I have gotten a few bits and pieces together which I hope you will like.

I have gathered some old lace and some new ...

 

... a bit of hardware and some fancy things ...

 

... some of my neat pins ...

... some pages from an old book from Germany ...

 

...  I made a few tags as well ...

... and for a splash of color I added ...

 

... a bright red strawberry pincushion I made too!

I didn't just want to give you something I had made but also something you can create with!

So speak up and leave a comment! If you like you may tell a friend but there is one rule ... you must be a follower of my blog to enter this giveaway.

Oh, I almost forgot ... I will share the winner of my giveaway with you on February 13th! Why the 13th you ask because I love the 13th ~ both of my girls were born on a 13th so it's the luckiest date in the world for me!!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,


Karen B.

Neat Pins

Hello my dear friends,


today's post is only a tiny wee short one because I am very busy.  I just wanted to share my latest little thing. You know my love of making pincushions ... well, pincushions need pins and because it's hard to find something nice at times I just made them myself now  ...

 

...neat pins!
This is the easiest thing to make ~ really!

 

 

Find some some nice beads, vintage pearls or tiny trinkets and glue them to your pins and ready!!

They will look so pretty on your pincushions or you could use them in other creations too.

I am very busy working on all sorts of things for next weeks posts so don't forget to drop by and take a peak to find out what I have been up to.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

My Last Strawberry Creation

Hello my dear friends,

today I would like to share my final strawberry pincushion with you. This one is a bit special because for the first time I have sewn beads onto one of my creations. I had never done this before and I am surprised how easy it was really. See, always try something new ~ you will be surprised what you can accomplish.


I used the same vintage tan velvet which I used in a previous strawberry and also pieces of vintage doilies to embellish this pincushion and I decided not to use my last 'brass thing' from the antique store for this creation which has worked out very well. The final touch came in the form of a vintage looking earring ~ creation complete! I took many pictures again so you can see everything properly!

I just love this creation!

What am I working on now?  ~ Well more than one thing again. I will have to see which one of them will be finished first so I can share it soon with you again.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B. 

A Nice Finding ...

Hello my dear friends,

I would like to share my very first treasure of the new year which will be a part of my home. I knew that shopping shouldn't be the thing to make you feel better but sometimes it just does. I was out doing my chores and I wandered off to our local Value Village store just to take a look. Who would know I would find this treasure? Again I had to fight with myself and ask myself the question ~ "to buy or not to buy?" ~ well, you already know the outcome otherwise there would be no post today!

I found this beauty and it was a steal for the price! An antique singer sewing machine table! Yes, table only but I am perfectly fine with that because I have several antique children's sewing machines and one hand cranking one from the late 1800's already and that is enough ~ well, at the moment at least.

(sorry about the picture not being too good)

Right now I just cleaned the table up and set it up in my living room. In the spring I will start taking it apart and I am thinking of finding a new top for it maybe. I am going to try and use most of the parts like the drawers and hardware to create something new although I am not too sure what that will be just yet but hopefully something will pop into my mind sooner than later. The lamp needs replacing as well and I am wanting to buy new ones I am just not too sure which style I am going to go for ...stained glass lamps maybe?

Something else I would like to share with you today is a sneak peek for my Valentine's day creation. I am not going to give away too much yet even though I can't wait until I get to share it with you all! My creation is also going to be gifts for my daughters for Valentine's and if I show them to you now, my daughters will see them as well! So in the meantime I will have to patiently wait until February 14th to post about it ... it's only 21 days away, but who's counting right?

Are you curious right now?? If you are don't forget to come back on Valentine's Day! And in the meantime please keep stopping by to see what other neat things I have come up with here at Todolwen.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Velvet Strawberries ~ My Second Harvest

Hello my dear friends,

as I told you in my last post here are more of my velvet strawberry pincushions! It seems once I started it I was drawn into a spell ~ well I basically just wanted to make more! So I did!!


And here are my newest creations. I made three more so far, each one in a different way but yet just as pretty as the previous ones.

My first strawberry of this post ...

 This one was made from a vintage tan velvet and embellished with lace and a little bumblebee charm to give it the right touch. I decided not to use french knots with my smaller strawberries.

My second strawberry ...

If I were to give this pincushion a  name I would call it "Black Beauty".

The crystal you see on the pincushion was not something I had originally thought of but it was  something I had to do after I had a tiny accident with my glue. A tiny droplet of glue had gotten onto the velvet where it wasn't meant to be and I couldn't not fix it ~ so now this strawberry has a gem! I thought it was better than throwing the entire piece into the trash. What do you think? I think it suits the look of this pincushion.

 My third strawberry ...

 

I used a few old tiny glistening earrings and a flower charm to embellish this pincushion as well as some old lace.

 

I hope you have liked my latest creations. I am currently working on my last and final strawberry pincushion right now (well for the time being) and I am so in love with it already and I can't wait to share it with all you lovely bloggers ... in my next post!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Velvet Strawberries

Hello my dear friends,

remember a few days ago I shared some beautiful velvet with you and also some 'brass things' I had found in an antique store? ... Well, I took both and turned them into a new creation ...

... velvet strawberries

... to be precise ~ velvet strawberry pincushions!

I made many of these pincushions a few years ago but in a primitive style which was from cotton, baked and grundged with coffee.

 

These are some of my 'leftovers' from primitive days of crafting.

My primitive strawberries.

 

Looking at my velvet I remembered seeing the most beautiful Victorian strawberry pincushions somewhere that were just breath taking. They were so lovely ~ made from the gorgeous velvet and either embroidered with details in gold thread or embellished with little silver or gold trinkets and charms. I loved the look of them so much I decided to try and make my own. My daughter Caylagh thinks 'they are not my thing' ~ I think it's because of the colors but I do like the look of them. Maybe not breath taking but nice, and nice it good enough for me! Again I took many pictures for you so you don't miss a thing.

This is my first velvet strawberry ...

 

... made from rose colored velvet ~ so delicate!

 

And this is my second velvet strawberry ...

... this one is made from the salmon colored velvet ~ so vibrant!

 

After making my first two I got a bit carried away. After searching through my fabric chest I found some more velvet in different colors and made a few more of this lovely berries. Each one is different from the other and I even ventured out of my color comfort zone for these .... but that is for my next post ~ I hope to see you there.

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

 

Have a peaceful and creative day,

 

Karen B.