XERXES I

We are rapidly approaching the end of the alphabet over on the Tag Tuesday blog, can you believe it? We are up to the letter X! My choice for this week's tag was XERXES I, King of Persia ( 519 - 465 BC ). I found a little engraving of Xerxes taking the Jewess Esther for his wife and hand coloured the two main figures. The background is a piece of Old Persian writing called XPa, which is  inscribed in the walls of the Gate of all nations, the main gate to the terrace on which the Persepolis palaces have been built. Because I imagined such a ceremony to be colourful and the clothes to be richly decorated with jewels and metallic threads, I used a couple of tiny pieces from an Indian sari fabric to hint at that -

Tonight's the night, girls! We are off to France for the summer. Wish I could take you with me. Well, in a way I do, of course, because we blog and email and skype. Still, you know..... wish you were there........

Toodlepip xxx

Giveaway Fabric Cuff is finally finished

Poor Doni, honestly, she is still waiting for the fabric cuff, which she won in my giveaway a little while ago. Long while ago, actually. But with all the health issues etc which had cropped up in the last few weeks, my muse had decided to abandon me, and has only just returned. The last couple of days have been a flurry of creativity, which I am really pleased about, and Doni's cuff is one of the things I have managed to finish. IF YOU ARE READING THIS, DONI, AND DON'T WANT TO SPOIL THE SURPRISE, DON'T GO ANY FURTHER!

So, not for Doni, but for the rest of you, here are the pics I took of the cuff I custom made for her. She had asked for creams and pinks, and lace of course, and I hope I got it right. I have also included a religious medal, because I am sure religion is important to her. I have used Swarovski crystals, mother-of-pearl pearls, beads, a big fat pink freshwater pearl, vintage French and English lace, velvet ribbon, all on 100 year old hand loomed French linen, French brocade and another snippet of French fabric, and of course some lace motifs-

My wrists are too skinny for this cuff, but it gives you an idea of what it will look like when worn -

Starting my packing now for next week's trip back to France. Thank you so much for stopping by, a big warm welcome to my lovely new followers, and a hug and a toodlepip to all of you ;-) xxx

WIP - Fabric of Nature ATC Swap project

Earlier this year I took part in a fabulous swap organised by Kimberly at ArtJoyStuff. Not only did we have to make a dozen FABRIC ATCs, but we were also asked to make something with the ATCs once we received our swaps back. Trust me to wait til the very last minute to get that project under way. Sigh. Too many things going on since we got back from France, and now we are packing again to go back in a few days for the whole of summer, hopefully. 

But back to the project. I have been wanting to make a fabric book for ever and ever, and I had the most beautiful gifts from people to help make my Mermaid journal. Still scared though, lol, so I thought perhaps I ought to take this opportunity to make a little fabric book to store the really beautiful fabric ATCs in. So, for the last couple of days I have been thinking about that, getting laces etc together, and finally sat down at the sewing machine yesterday to start the fabric ATC holder. Oh man! What a performance, lololol.
It is not finished yet, I have just done the basics for now, because I am holding Kimberly up, so please be kind and just imagine the ATC holder decorated with lots of lovely embellishments. At the moment it looks rather bare, but at least that way, the ATCS really take centre stage! I'll probably have to take it to France with me to finish it off.

I'll show you proper pics after I've finished it.

For now, toodlepip xxx

Wonderful White Wednesday, tagalicious Tag Tuesday and marvellous Every Inchie Monday

Geez, until I went onto my blog to do a post just now, I had no idea that it has been two weeks or so since I put up my last post. Really? Two weeks? Only seemed like a couple of days to me.  Guess I have been kinda busy, lol.

Anyhoo, on to the wonderful Blissful Whites Wednesday linky party. While I was making tags the other day, I thought why not do something a little more exciting and alter a little box? So I did, and here it is -

It was very satisfying turning a humble little box into something a little bit more appealing.

Tag Tuesday, and we are up to the letter W. I almost picked WHITE, then decided on WINGS, and  had a beautiful Victorian angel with the prettiest wings in mind. And then I ended up with...... Her! WANDA! Wanda, the WINGED messenger. Yes,  you read it right, lol, not Hermes the winged messenger, but Wanda. She, errmmm, is his apprentice. Sort of..........

Feisty young lady she is.

Did I show you last week's tag? Nope, didn't, did I? Letter V, and I picked the Merchant of VENICE for that tag -

Last week's inchie theme was TABLE -

A matchstick for the legs, a scrap of Le Rustique cheese paper for the tablecloth and a badly drawn cup of tea and vase of flowers was all I could get onto the inchie. I was going to draw a cat curled up under the table, but decided that my drawing skills really weren't up to that ;-).

This week's inchie challenge is bed, and boohoo, I haven't made it yet, bad me. Will do so today though.

Almost time to take the doggies for their walk in the Firehills, so toodlepip for now xxx

Love Whites? Then check out all the other wonderful Bissful Whites Wednesday post over at the TIMEWASHED blog. Thank you, Becky, for hosting this much loved party.