Snow drops

As I said in my last post, DS No. 3 and I went geocaching this afternoon, and came across a few patches of snow drops in the woods. They are such delightful little flowers, I just had to pick a few to take home. I put them into a little ventouse, thats a vintage French medical cupping jar. Those little glass things make wonderful little vases or, when turned upside down, little cloches.


I am so ready for some Spring sunshine, soft fresh greens on the trees, and colourful flowers.

Toodlepip xxx

I am linking this post to White Wednesday No. 141 at the rather splendid Faded Charm blog.

Every Inchie Monday - MIRROR

Only one day late, thats not bad for me, lol. This week's theme was MIRROR. I wanted to use an oval cheval mirror, because the narrow width and good height would give me room for a figure on the other side. I have always loved this very vintage ballerina, I thought she would be perfect for this, practicing her poses in front of a mirror.

I used a tiny bit of silver foil for the mirror surface, a teensy gold oval cut from a gold paper doily, a snippet of floral paper with the smallest design I could find in my stash for the wallpaper, and of course the ballerina. I am afraid my hands weren't quite steady enough to do a really neat job of cutting everything out. Still, I like this little inchie -

Whilst out geocaching earlier with Nick, I spotted some delightful snow drops growing in the woods, Couldn't help myself, I had to pick just a few to take home with me, they are such a beautiful harbinger of Spring. I'll take pics later, daylight permitting, and hopefully post some.

Toodlepip xxx

Tag Tuesday Challenge - Poetry and Prose

I knew exactly which poem I wanted to use for this week's challenge. If you have ever taken a closer look at my blog, then you will have seen it on my sidebar. It is by Mervyn Peake and goes as follows -

And I thought you beside me
How rare and how desperate
And your eyes were wet
And your face as still
As the body of a leveret
On a tranced hill
But my thought belied me
And you were not there
But only the trees that shook
Only a storm that broke
Through the dark air

I only used a couple of images on this tag, based on words from the poem, the leveret and trees. I didn't want to take the focus away from the poem.


I really want to say a big thank you to all of my wonderful followers out there, who are still with me despite my somewhat erratic and not exactly exciting blogging of late. THANK YOU! A big welcome hug to those lovely people who are new to my blog and who have left me such sweet comments and emails. And a really HUGE thank you to that core of wonderful people who regularly take time to leave a beautiful comment.

I'll be putting together a little giveaway over the next few days to say thank you in proper blogland style, lol. Details to follow.

Until then, toodlepip xxx

Inchie catch up

I somehow managed to miss 3 Mondays worth of inchies by going to France. But I caught up today, I made all three this morning.

First one up is FLYER. I have no idea why Muttley sprang to mind straight away, but spring he did and I couldn't resist him. I only added a few little wisps of cotton wool to the inchie to make clouds, and "chromed" up the metal bits on his plane -


Last week's inchie was GLOW. Maybe it had something to do with the icy conditions at the cottage last week, lol, but cheeks GLOWing rosy red from walks in the snow was what I thought of straight away -


And this week's theme is DREAM. I couldn't help myself, I had to use an image which I had used once before, because it is so sweet, but this time, the little girl is DREAMing of playing with fairies at the bottom of the garden amongst the beautiful flowers -


Haven't managed to make this week's Tag Tuesday tag yet, I am struggling to find the right background etc for my favourite poem. I just hope that inspiration will strike soon.

Back to the grindstone now, got to edit pics and list some French goodies. Until tomorrow, toodlepip xxx

Back from wintry France

We arrived back from France last night, after, errmm, what should I call it.... an interesting 10 days at the cottage. Well, let me explain -

Winters in our part of France can get pretty cold, thats what we love though, distinctly different seasons. And normally it isn't a problem. We go to the cottage in the winter knowing that for the first day and half, it will be pretty cold in the cottage, while the very thick field stone walls absorb the heat from the central heating radiators and the open fire. After that, once the walls have adjusted, its very cosy, and we can do without either the fire or the central heating.

However, we hadn't realised that our particular area had had a prolonged spell of very cold weather, between minus 15 and minus 20 C, and the cottage was VERY cold when we got there. It was minus 2C inside! Again, not normally problem, except.............. everything had frozen solid because of the long spell of icy cold weather. Bit of a nightmare, lol. Andy spent the first two days with fan heaters and hairdryers trying to defrost pipes, the toilet, taps etc, only to find that two of the copper pipes for the central heating system had burst, and the water cistern for the toilet had split. Oh joy. My hero did get the hot water system ( which is separate from the central heating, fortunately ) going on the second day, so we had hot water for baths, showers, washing up etc. No. 3 son Nick and I spent our time huddled in front of the fireplace, feeding it wood like crazy and doing not much more than crocheting ( me, not Nick, tehehe ) and watching films.

For the first few days, the temp outside dropped to around minus 12C at night, and didn't get much higher during the day, but then things got a little warmer, only minus 3 or thereabouts, and it snowed! And after a few days, we actually managed to get the temp in the cottage up to a summery 12C, woohoo. And towards the end of our stay, we managed a positively tropical 20C, even without the central heating working, lol. Those French fireplaces are darned efficient. Warm enough to finally invite some of our neighbours round for the essential French apero ( drinkies and nibbles before dinner, which is very late in France ) on Saturday night. We are so very lucky to have such wonderful neighbours. We spent a fabulous evening with them, laughing so much that my jaw was still aching on Sunday morning.

But thats enough waffling from me, I'll show you a few pics. Firstly, meet ......... THE SLUG! Tehehehe, Nick had been wise enough to bring his sleeping bag -


DS thought it was a little unkind calling him a slug, lol. But come on, it does rather look like a giant green slug!

Things were definitely looking up when it started snowing -


And once the cottage was nice and warm, the doggies didn't need to snuggle under a blanket, they just curled up on top -


Sunday evening we spent with our dearest friends Frank and Christine, who had very kindly invited us all ( yep, including the doggies ) to dinner. Monday morning we packed up and made our way back to the UK. Despite the little disasters, we thoroughly enjoyed our time at the cottage. Next time we go, it will be a lot warmer and my hero DH will fix the central heating system.

I did miss out on making my Tag Tuesday tag and my inchies for Every Inchie Monday though, so I have some catching up to do. I managed to make last week's TT tag this morning and post it on the TT blog. The theme was Valentine's day, and this is my somewhat hastily made tag -


I made one of the inchies as well, but haven't taken photos yet. Hopefully I will be able to get the rest of the inchies, as well as this week's tag, done tomorrow.

I did bring a few bits and pieces back from France, which I will photograph tomorrow as well and list. Fingers crossed that the weather will play nice and give me plenty of nice light.

Until then, toodlepip xxx

You know what they say........

.....about the best laid plans, lol. When I tried to book our crossing for Saturday morning, I found out that its school half term holiday time again, sigh, and everything is booked up. Arrghh, I guess when the kids are grown up, one just doesn't pay attention to school schedules. So, we are going tonight instead, and have to come back Monday week. Terrible, isn't lol. WOOHOO, an extra couple of days in France!Just means its a bit of a rush to get everything packed up.

I am going to leave you with a few previous winter image of our little bit of Heaven in France -


Early mornings -

Evening



I'll try and check in when we visit our friends in the village who do have internet access.
Back on the 21st! Until then, toodlepip xxx

She's done it again!

Yep, she most certainly has. Surprised me, that is. I received a totally unexpected envelope today, from.......... Dorthe! She really is the most thoughtful friend anybody could ever have. She gifted me with the most beautiful Valentine's Day fabric collage. It is dreamy, and romantic, and so perfectly personalised, right down to a tiny little L. But see for yourself, and be prepared to drool -



See the tiny little L on the left? Isn't that just too cute -



Exquisite, isn't it? HUGE thank you to you, Dorthe.

And what have I been up to? Not an awful lot, it seems, well not a lot in the way of crafting. I needed to pretty up some bags for the Little Bags of Lace Happiness etc on Etsy, and this is what I came up with -




I had fun making these. Perhaps I ought to make a few more. But for now, thats it. Almost bedtime for me.

Toodlepip xxx

Tag Tuesday - HEARTS

This will surprise you, it sure surprised me! This week's theme over at the Tag Tuesday blog is HEARTS, and I was all set to do my usual vintage photograph, lace etc., you know the sort of thing I like to use. And of course all nice and symmetrical. Somehow my HEARTS tag turned out totally differently. I used little bits of fabric cut from some lovely old damask curtains, a morceau of gorgeous antique French lace, and an asymmetrical heart cut from very old sheet music. Yep, asymmetrical! Me, doing stuff like that, lol.

And this is it -






See, told ya, bit of a departure from my normal style.

Toodlepip xxx

PS - Just had a thought. I am off to France Friday night for a week or so, and will be putting the vacation sign up in my Etsy shop. So, just because I am happy to be going to France, you can get a 15% discount on everything in the shop until Friday lunchtime ( my lunchtime, because I need to have time to post your purchase in the afternoon before we leave). Quote FRANCE15 at checkout.