I had such a lot of lovely people dropping in to see my little craftavan during the Where Bloggers Create visits, I decided to give one of my visitors a little surprise - I held a secret giveaway! I collected bits and pieces from around the craftavan, lace of course, braids, a cabinet card, a button card, MOP buttons and sequins, a scrap of ticking fabric, a tiny key, vintage French seam binding, oh just look at the pics, and you'll see all the things I put together for one visitor -
And then I sat down and picked a winner the good old fashioned way. Whose name came out of the draw?
MAY, from May's Happy Daze blog!
I hope you can use the pretty little things I have put together, May.
Well, that was it really, I just wanted to once again say thank you for all the wonderful comments the visitors left on that post, it was such a delight to read them all.
Toodlepip xxx
The word prompt for this week over at the Our Beautiful World is DETAIL. What a theme! Everywhere I looked, I saw little details, inside the cottage, outside the cottage. What to pick? I don't have a macro lens so I was a little limited in the kind of details I could go for, but here are some details I snapped -
The beautiful original gilding on my favourite vintage Lloyd Loom chair -
Just a couple of tiny sparkles caught on the uneven surface of a granite block in the cottage wall, can you see them? -
One lone silver dollar (at least that is what we call these thingies on this plant)-
Moss growing on the bark of a tree stump in the garden -
Knot in a wooden beam above one of the outer doors in the cottage -
Inside the flower of a trailing begonia in the garden -
The cracks in a log beside the front door -
And last but definitely not least, the most beautiful detail, my Hector's eyes -
If you look closely at the first picture, you can see my reflection in his eye.
And now I have to chose one photo to link to the Our Beautiful World blog, which one, which one, which one??? Please tell me which one you would chose.
Have a wonderful weekend wherever you may be.
Toodlepip xxx
You guessed it, it is that time of the week yet again, I got my Every Inchie Monday and Tag Tuesday challenges ready.
The prompt for our inchies this week was FANTASY, so I took a sneaky photograph of the little fairy girl at the bottom of my garden, while she was perched on a toadstool, watching a beetle race so intently that she didn't notice me....... yeah, right ;-). You believe that, don't you? Psst, dont tell, but what I really did was ink the background with three different greens and cut out a tiny toadstool. Then I cut out a tiny little girl, coloured her by hand, gave her a pair of wings and sat her on the toadstool -
The theme on Tag Tuesday was FISH. I took a small portion of a lovely underwater castle desktop image and used that for my background. I had a multi hued snipped of dyed scrim which I used, together with a few real seashells, a sweet little charm, a bit of lace ( gotta have lace, lol ), and of course lots of lovely fishies. They are, after all, the mermaids' playmates, and thus very important creatures in the mermaid castle hierarchy -
I am melting in mid 30 C temperatures! On the plus side, the veggies are doing great in all this sunshine, but we do have to water a lot. Might have to start going down to the lake and filling up our stash of 5l water bottles soon, as our well is dependent on rain water filtering through, it doesn't have a source. We have been eating freshly picked veggies from the garden almost every day, and they taste sooooooooooooooo good!
I have been busy busy busy photographing, packaging, weighing lots of lovely new brocante finds. If you fancy a look, I have posted pics of them on my vintageland blog. There will be lots more over the next few days, I have a huge backlog of stuff.
For now though, toodlepip, and have a wonderful day, xxx
Over at the Our Beautiful World blog, the word prompt for this week is LACE. Oh my, I could almost see myself posting about a million and one photos. Lace I have, even here at the cottage in France, a bit of lace has got to come with me every time I pack my craftacase in England to come to France. But you have seen so many pics of my laces already, I thought I show something else, a bit of LACE crochet I am working on, a scarf for Vicki's Pink Scarf project. MY WIP is resting on a beautiful antique LACE crochet bespread which I found at a brocante a week or so ago. Incredible workmanship -
And talking of crochet lace, I do have lots of small table cloths with the most amazing crochet lace trims at the cottage. Here are a couple of them -
The indoor photos are pretty crap, these old cottages are so dark inside, but I wanted to show you the gorgeous cloths and I hate flash.
It would be really great if you could join in the fun over at Our Beautiful World and link up a pic or two.
I am also linking this post to the quite wonderful Pink Saturday linky party over at Beverly's How Sweet the Sound blog, perhaps a few more people will join Vicki's Pink Scarf Project if they hear about it.
I just picked veggies from our little veggie patch, oh my, this is soooo satisfying. Potatoes, beetroot, peas, and raspberries, blackcurrants and whitecurrants for a summer pudding. YUM.
I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday, toodlepip xxx
Welcome and bienvenue! For the very first time I am taking part in the Where Bloggers Create event. Had to, lol, I was being told to in no uncertain terms by so many friends.
For those of you who don't know me, I have to explain a little - we have two homes, one in the UK on the lovely Sussex Channel coast, and one in France, in beautiful Burgundy, where we are at the moment. We tend to spend a couple of months at a time here at the cottage, but I don't have a studio as such here. What I do have is my CRAFTAVAN, a little old two person caravan, which stands in our top field. Every time we come to the cottage, I pack one suitcase with craft supplies for the craftavan. Some things stay there permanently, like fabrics and a few bits and pieces, but most of the stuff has to be packed up again and taken back to England, so that I can use it there.
This is the craftavan -
My sewing room is huuuuuuuuuuge, the whole of the top field, lol, but only on sunny days ;-) -
First look through the doorway -
Quick look back at the sewing room and the beautiful views -
And step inside!
Let me take you on 360 degree tour through the craftavan, all you need to do is stand still and slowly turn....... actually, you can't do much more than stay in one place and turn on the spot, lol.
Look to your left as soon as you step in and this is what you'll see -
A beautiful collage made by Sonya and little notes from bloggy friends-
My cutting table/ computer desk with fabric stored in the cupboards above -
A little wooden box from a brocante filled with dyed scrim and lace in one half and completed challenge tags and inchies in the other-
and of course you will see more beautiful gifts from friends -
On the little shelf, a small collection of wooden cotton reels -
Turn slightly to your right so that you are straight again, and ahead of you is the door to the tiny shower room, which is my store room for the suitcase and various other bits and pieces, like the sewing machine when not in use and the heater for the winter. All sorts of wonderful gifts from bloggy friends are attached to that door -
Next to the shower/storage cubicle is a little wardrobe, which is full of cushions and blankets and socks, lol, yes thick socks for winter creative session. On the side of the shower/storage cubicle you can see ATCs from some of last year's swaps organised by ArtJoyStuff, and on the wardrobe door is the most amazing hanging organiser my dear friend Alexandra made for me, as well as a beautiful angel and collage from my beautiful Dorthe, and the most exquisite heart from my dearest Suzy. It is filled with supplies, little gifts from people and has my two fabric cuffs on it as well -
This gorgeous brooch was sent to me by my dear friend Marie when she heard that I was planning a mermaid journal,
and this leads very nicely to the next stage of the 360 tour, just turn ever so slightly to your right and you will see my mermaid inspiration corner -
Incredible collages and the most divine fabric book from Suzy to inspire, help and get me past my journal anxiety, some gorgeous silk sari ribbons and of course my big box of all the wonderful things I have collected for the mermaid journal, including such lovely gifts from friends like Marie, Alexandra and Julia -
Thats where the seating area starts, and above that bench are more cupboards and little shelves, one of which holds another little box, this one filled with a selection of seam binding, and a jar of embroidery threads-
Turn a little further and you are looking over the seating area to the back of the caravan, lets call that the middle. The original blue seat cushions are covered with pink blankets and cushions, some crocheted by me -
Behind the far bench, on the window sill, I keep beautiful old French pottery bowls, filled with white trims, coloured trims and braid, and pieces of ribbons -
Gotta have a couple of little knicknacks around as well -
The table in the middle of the benches is used for everything, sewing in the winter or on rainy days, all the cutting and gluing for tags and cards, sorting through fabrics, sorting through books, whatever I am working on at the time. I keep a few of those beautiful old bowls on the table as well, for snippets of lace, jewelry and metal bits etc -
Turn a little further to the right, and you are on the return journey to the front door ;-). Above the bench with the handmade granny square blanket are shelves with my stamps, inks, and a basket full of ready printed images -
A bit further is the cupboard with all my paper supplies, like old sheet music, dictionaries etc, with little tubs of all sorts underneath on the little shelf -
The granny square blanketed bench butts up to the fridge ( not in use, sigh ) and right next to the fridge on that bench is a big old wooden box filled with buttons and a few other sewing notions. The fridge itself has all my tooly bits on top, scissors, pens, glues etc -
And there you have it, you are back at the entrance again! Thats my little craftavan studio away from home. And I DO have to keep it tidy all the time, lol, otherwise I couldn't work in it!
I am so glad I could squeeze you into the little space, it was wonderful to have you visit! Thank you so much for stopping by.
If you click on this link, it will take you to Karen Valentine's site where you will find a long list of all the other participants. The studios you will see will have you drooling all over the place!
Toodlepip xxx
