Just A Little Reminder Again ..

Hello my dear friends,

I just wanted to remind all of you lovely bloggers again out there that if you wish an e-mail to be answered or you have a request that needs an answer or maybe I would just like to wish you a nice day and say thank you for a comment you left me, you have to please give me an e-mail address to reply to, otherwise you will be waiting and waiting because there is no way for me to get in touch with you!

Please check your settings and get rid of the 'no-reply' option and add an e-mail address so you are reachable and if you would like me to send you my free granny heart tutorial I really need somewhere to send it to ... so don't forget your e-mail address.

Last but not least ...

 

... I would love to wish all you lovely bloggers a great Labor Day weekend.

Relax, have fun and have a great time! I am off to Toronto today with my girls for a day out and it's a first time for me to drive there! So wish me luck that I don't get lost ~ haha!

 

 

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

 

Have a  peaceful and creative day,

 

 

Karen B.

Playing The Same Old Broken Record Again ..

Hello my dear friends,

I can't believe it ... here I am again playing the same old record to you again.

 

It might not look like it to you and I know this happens every year to me but I am stuck in that little hole that won't let me climb out and be creative. I'm not sure if it's the heat again (yesterday it was with Humidex just over 40 c) that is bothering me or that I just seem to have too much on my mind that is stopping me from turning any of my creative ideas into actual creations.

I tend to have little idea lightning bolts shooting down in my mind and then ... nothing! It is like I can't concentrate on it then and it just fades away ... and I so hate this ... crafter's block!

I know this is a normal thing because I read some of your lovely blogs and there you are saying the exact same thing and at least it is not just me. I don't mean this in a bad way but it does make me feel a tiny bit better.

 

Don't get me wrong, I do have a to~do list that is half a mile long with all sorts of chores and projects that need doing for the house so I am not bored ... it's just my little 'me' that wants to come out to play and right now the door won't open.

But enough complaining about that now ...

... I hope today will be a day where I can get myself in order and hopefully I will have something new to share with all you lovely bloggers soon.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,


Karen B.

 

Creative Clutter Is Better Than Idle Neatness ..

Hello my dear friends,

that is a quote I heard for the first time yesterday and I love it because is suits me so well.

 

 Things have been very busy this last week again with so many different things to do and one of them was to find a wedding gift for my daughter Ashleigh and her fiancé Ryan from my daughter Caylagh and we were very lucky because we found it!

For obvious reasons I can't really tell you anything about the item we bought ... my daughter Ashleigh always reads my blog posts ... but I can tell you a little about from whom I bought it.

 

 

This is Meg ...

 

 

... and this is Sarah.

 

I met Meg ~ one of two sisters (the other one is Sarah)  ~ that live very close to me and are the creators behind ... 'Thistle Thatched Designs' ~ a two lady company that loves to reuse and recreate old furniture by painting them beautifully amongst other things like ... making quilts!

 

There are just a few of their pieces ...

 

(Photo courtesy of Thistle Thatch Designs)

(Photo courtesy of Thistle Thatch Designs)

 

(Photo courtesy of Thistle Thatch Designs)

 

 

http://www.thistlethatchdesigns.com/

 

These two ladies are so creative and I just had to tell you about them and what they do and it was just so neat to finally find somebody that loves creating as much as I do and that so close by to home!

 

So ...why not pop over to their website?! You will be able to see many more of their finished pieces and you might just find something you like!

 

After the wedding I will share the piece we had purchased so I don't give anything away just yet but it is lovely and exactly what we were looking for.

 

And last but not least ...

 

Remember the title of this post? ... Well, I liked it so much that I created a blog button from it and this is it! (Thanks for telling me the quote, Meg and Sarah!) I tried to research who came up with this first but to no luck ~ where ever I looked it either said nothing or anonymous. 

 

 

  I think it turned out rather neat!

Otherwise work on the house is still a daily happening here. We managed to lay the flooring in two of the three rooms in our basement and I also got some more work done on my river bed project. Right now I am planning to paint our family room hopefully very soon and maybe a few more things before the wedding.

The rest of my week was spent  having a little family time on Saturday which we spent together in Canada's Wonderland but the heat and huge amount of park visitors were intense at times. I haven't had any creating time at all these two past weeks really which is a bit of a shame but hopefully I will in the next few days.

Last but not least ...

... I had mentioned in my last post that I was going to list my two original wee birds and nest. Well, I won't anymore because they will be on their way to a new home in Australia. Erica from Queensland asked me to hold on to them until I could give her the shipping costs and then decided that she liked them so much that she wanted them to come all the way to Brisbane and tomorrow they will start their journey!

And finally ...

... I do ship my creations to places other than the US or Canada ~ so if you every are interested to purchase something from my shop and you need to know the shipping costs to your country, just drop me a line and I will do my best to answer your question as soon as I can.

If you ever have any questions at all about anything that has to do with Todolwen ~ please drop me a line!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and visit me here at Todolwen again. It would be nice for you to do so sometime soon again.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,


Karen B.

 

New Items Now Listed ..

Hello my dear friends,

I have just hit the publish button for my newest listings in my Etsy shop ... so grab your cup of coffee or tea and if you have a few minutes why not stop by and take a look!

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,


Karen B.

As My 'Decluttering' Continues ..

Hello my dear friends,

as my need to 'declutter' my studio continues I have spent some time finding creations to let go of. I really need to think twice at times to see if I am OK with the items I have selected. Today I have chosen some new pieces that I will soon be listing in my Etsy shop but I will give you a wee preview of what they will be now.

I will be listing...

 

 



... 3 of my original millinery heads I made when I was creating the tutorial for them and ...
 

... several more of my pincushion creations, ...

 ... including the original one from another tutorial I created.

And last but not least ...

 

... I am also listing my two wee birds that I created for the tutorial on how to make them and I am including a little nest with this listing.

 

I will be listing all these creations in the next few days and I will let you know when I do so.

 

Last but not least ...

 

... soon I will be sharing my 'Christmas Book' that I received from Jillayne.

 Jillayne is an amazing quilt artist from Salmon Arm in the beautiful British Columbia and has taken it upon herself to create Christmas books for bloggers that have taken part in her project. But like I said ... more about that soon!

 

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

 

Have a peaceful and creative day.

 

 

Karen B.

 

An Extremely Busy Weekend ..

Hello my dear friends,

it has been another very busy weekend for me. I had taken to my river bed again which was so needed. I hadn't worked on it in weeks (shame on me) and I am really hoping to get it completed some time soon but I must say that working on it is truly back-breaking and knee-hurting work!

Friday and Saturday were my outdoor working days and day 5 and 6 of my project. I normally am good when I give myself a limit and when the aching starts I stop, but not yesterday. I was determined to do double my set limit and it was such a strain in the end but I did it and now I have almost completed half of my project!

 

I started where I left off last time I worked outside ...

 

... and I am so glad that I mostly use a trowel when I dig otherwise I am sure the main

pipe from our underground sprinkler system would have been damaged when I unexpectedly unearthed it, but at least I know where it is now.

 

I can't believe how bad things have gotten ... apart from weeds I had to even dig up a few small trees that had started to grow between the rocks. This one made it really difficult for me to get it out but in the end it had to go.

 

I actually moved the bridge back into it's place on my own (never tell a girl she can't do something!) and was so happy with myself that I was able to do so because it has quite some weight to it.

After putting my gloves and garden tools down for the day ...

... I then went on to learn how to lay laminate flooring which my husband showed me the how to do, so my poor knees were not able to rest until later that evening.

Am I paying for it?... Yes, my back and knees were so sore that night. Sunday, the next day should have been a day of rest for me .... (remember I said should!) ... but it wasn't. I went on to helping my husband with laying more flooring in the basement and the first room is all done now by one piece of flooring which will be done tomorrow.

Then came a little me time ...

 

 I found half an hour or so to work on my Wynken, Blynken and Nod nest. It is still in the very early stages and I still haven't thought the complete design of it through yet. I just hope that these plain black 'bowls' will end up looking the way I see it in my mind. There are so many different ways I could do things ... gold speckled or guilded eggs, ... paper or fabric leaves, ... how many shades of blue to use? ... like I said so many decisions to make.

Today things are going to be a bit slower ... well, I think they might be. I will work more on my nest design, the basement will have to wait for a day and so will the backyard. There will be a visit to Michaels later on with my daughter Ashleigh to find some ribbon for her wedding favours and maybe a short stop at our Tim's for a coffee. After that my house chores are awaiting my attendance so I am sure I won't be bored.

It is so nice when you stop by here at Todolwen and visit me and I hope you do so soon again and until then ...

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,


Karen B. 

Hopefully Almost There ..

Hello my dear friends,

work on our basement has started again and hopefully the end is in sight soon.

It has been a few months now that we haven't had any progress happening in our basement. Repairs were made over and over again and if you ask me I would say there were too many of them but at least our contractor was always willing to fix anything that was wrong. Would I hire him and his company again? ... no, for sure not. His heart was in the right place but I hate to say that his workers weren't the best and the finished work wasn't the best neither. Such a shame! (You do not want to know how much money we paid this company.)

Right now we are having the floors leveled out by a new company so we can finally get our flooring down soon. I am one to try almost anything DIY but I didn't know how difficult it would be to try and make a floor level. Mixing the concrete and moving it around that it becomes a smooth finished floor ~ never again! I think I am getting to old for this kind of stuff ... maybe not too old I think I just had enough  of trying some things out and not succeeding. This way it will hopefully be done properly and much quicker than my husband and I could do it.

 

This is what my basement looked like again ...

... and now it's like this.  

 

Apart from dirt, noise and dust there are some little beautiful things in my life too ~ like the roses that I received from my lovely neighbour Katherine. She is an amazing gardener and yesterday she shared her roses with me. I wish here was something like 'smell internet' because her roses smell so beautifully.
 

 

 

The red one especially smells stunning, almost like an expensive perfume and the peachy rose is an English rose and smells so lovely too.

I have also trying to be busy with things as well ...

 ... I have just completed a little custom order for my crochet flutter~bys.

They are now all wrapped up neatly and on on their way to Christina in beautiful British Columbia.

I have also slowly started to work on a new nest that I have been wanting to make since a while now. ( I think I have already told you about this before?) It is my Wynken, Blynken and Nod nest that I am going to give a try out. Will it work? ... I have no idea if what I can see in my head will actually look the same in reality. I will just have to wait and see. It took me a while to find all the bits and pieces that I am hoping to use in the creation and I am still working on the fine details too. ... To glitter or not to glitter?... That is the question!? I will keep you lovely bloggers up to date on how things are going with my newest project.

Talking about nests ...

http://vicki-2bagsfull.blogspot.ca/2013/08/pink-scarf-project-updates-new.html

... have you seen Vicki's little preview of her 'Breast Cancer Awareness' nest?! If not ... you are missing something and you should take a look! It looks so stunning and it is only a little part of the nest she is sharing right now. That girl has so much heart and soul and is so caring! ... Love you for that, dear Vicki!

So ... if you knit or crochet and have a little spare time and want to be a little part of a great cause, why not start today and make a scarf and if you are not one of the needle working kind that's OK too because you could always find a little pink scarf and send it to Vicki. I would love to be able to made just one more scarf before the deadline ... you never know.

All in all things are crazy in our house once again ... with the work on our basement on again and a wedding in now 41 days and trying to spend time together as a family and I don't think it will calm down for a while, so if I don't blog very much in the coming weeks you all will know why. One thing I will do is take photos and when I can, I will share them with you lovely bloggers.

Thank you for visiting me here at Todolwen ... it is always nice when you stop by.

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,


Karen B.
 

My Daughter's Baby Shoes ..

Hello my dear friends,

it has now been a few weeks now since I have painted our master bedroom but unfortunately it still is missing some of the final touches that I would like it to have but I am working on it. That's why I haven't shared any photo of it yet.

One of the things I always have on my bedside table are my daughter's first baby shoes. Years ago I didn't like the look of them as they were ( they were white made from some sort of man made leather lookalike material) and that's when I changed them the first time.  At that time I was into the vintage look of metal like pewter, so I took to my paints and brushes and gave them a tarnished metal look by dry brushing them and I have loved them for years like that ... until now!

I was on the search for a new look and I found one!

 I love the look of ceramic where the glaze has crackled so I decided to try and give the little shoes that look. I am still not sure if I should apply a coat of stain that will make these little shoes look older and a little more distressed. Even thought they might not be quite done just yet I would like to show you the before and after photos of my daughters baby shoes today.

These are they little shoes before I worked on them a few days ago ...

 

 

  

... and this is what they looked like now!

 

 

Doesn't the new finish really looked like the glaze of ceramic that has crackled?!
 I so love their new look!

Now they can return to their rightful place ... on my bedside table, next to where I sleep so when ever I open my eyes I can see them and think of my babies.

And last but not least ...

... whilst I was writing this post, early in the yesterday morning there were three little feathered critters that caught my eye and also my camera lens.

The first one was a woodpecker, who decided that our house siding and especially the foam under it was a perfect place to start pecking holes into.

I was sitting at my dining room window and heard this somewhat weird noise and headed outside with my camera  (always prepared) and there the little critter was making a racket against the siding.

 

 

This photo might look a bit unclear especially where the critters beak is but that isn't the photo or camera ... it is the pecker pecking away on my wall!  He was so busy, that he didn't even notice me and that's how I got so close to him. ... I was only 5 feet away from him!

The second little feathered creature was a little sparrow that landed in our maple tree and sat there and started schimpfing loudly (complaining) about something that he didn't like at all ~ you should have heard him carry on.

 

By this time I was back inside at my dining room window and he was so busy telling the world he wasn't happy that I again got some lovely photos of him and this is the little guy here ... so neat!

And finally ...

... the third little feathered friend was a bright red cardinal on the search for a little something to eat.

It would be nice if you were to stop by and visit me here at Todolwen soon again and until then ...

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

Have a peaceful and creative day,


Karen B.