From Australia with love

A few days ago Canada, yesterday Denmark, today Australia, I am blessed with dear friends all over the world. Post from Australia can only mean one thing - a package from Suzy! Again, no words necessary, the photos speak for themselves -

Biggest thank-you-hugs, Suzy!

Tomorrow, I'll have one more Christmas pressie to show you, a really amazing and totally unusual one.......

As we see in the New Year tonight, I'll be thinking of you all, my dear bloggy friends, and wishing you the very best for 2015.

Toodlepip xxx

From Denmark with love

You know that when something from Denmark lands on your door step, it is bound to be something gorgeous, made with love by our oh so talented friend Dorthe. This is what arrived a little while ago, no words needed -

THANK YOU, my dear dear friend!

Tomorrow, I must show you a very splendid gift received from another much loved bloggy friend....

Until then, toodlepip xxx

Yes, still here!

My goodness, the last few weeks have just flown by in a whirl of Christmas preparations, shopping both on line and in town, filling lots and lots of shop orders, and then at long last celebrating Christmas with our family. I hope that you all had a wonderful time, just as stress free and filled with fun and laughter as we did. Apart from processing orders, I managed to stay away from the computer for a few days, which was quite lovely really, but I did miss blogging and reading all your posts. So here I am again, (almost) back to normal, getting used to sitting at my desk again.

A little while before Christmas, I received some beautiful mail from blogging friends, and I just have to share these precious gifts with you. You all know Karen from Todolwen, don't you? We have all admired her gorgeous little crochet decorations, her absolutely delightful pincushions and all her other charming little creations, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to receive a package from her -

and this is what I found when I unwrapped them -

the most gorgeous Christmas red silk scarf and this wonderful, elegant grey Christmas stocking decorated with Karen's sweet little flowers and snowflakes. Inside the stocking were tiny little packages sweetly wrapped -

Love love love!

I have to show you a close up of those darling little crochet embellishments -

and a photo of the beautiful red silk scarf on its own, because it is so amazing -

Thank you again, Karen, for this gorgeous surprise gift from you, I adore it, and the Christmas stocking will be part of our Christmas decor every year in future :-).

I wish you all a lovely Sunday evening ( or even Monday morning, lol ). Toodlepip xxx

Christmas Cards

I don't know how you guys do it, you are all so organised and already beautifully decorated and probably done with all your Christmas crafting. Me, I am way behind with everything, lol, just like every year, despite my best efforts.

I made what felt like millions of wintery/Christmassy/Frenchy tags though over the last few weeks for the many orders which I have sent all over the world, but didn't take any pics. It was only today when I got round to making some Christmas cards and took pics of them, that I remembered to take a pic of the last tag before sticking it into the 7th parcel to go out today. Oh, and there is the Tag Tuesday tag for this week as well, of course.

This is the Tag Tuesday tag with the theme Christmas Greenery -

Next, one of the customer tags I send out with orders -

And a couple of the Christmas cards I made today -

Enjoy your day, toodlepip xxx

A very eclectic mix

I finally found some time to do something with the red wire wrapped fabric beads which I made a while ago. In the summer, I bought this really gorgeous vintage necklace with deep red sparkly aurora borealis crystal beads, quite possibly Swarovski beads. And when I had finished the fabric beads, I realised that they would go very well with those crystal beads. I didn't want to take the necklace apart though, so instead I decided to add to it. Fabric beads, ceramic beads, vintage shimmery glass beads, a religious medal. A very eclectic mix, I know, weird and wonderful but quite pleasing to my eyes. The wire wrapped fabric beads were a given of course, and the ceramic organic looking beads I added because they kind of represented nature. The flat white glass oval beads I added just because I like them, how the white coating has flaked off in places, how they shimmer so delicately. And the solid silver medal of the Madonna I added because it is such a beautiful piece and I didn't want it lingering in the drawer any longer -

All this is thanks to Sandy Babb's totally awesome Embellished Fabric Bead tutorial, which you can find HERE.

Wishing you all a lovely afternoon/evening/morning, wherever you are. Toodlepip xxx

A little time spent crafting

At the moment, I find it really difficult to get any crafting done. There is so much on my to-do craft list, but..... lol, time just flies and I seem to lose days all the time. Hah, make that weeks. How can it possible be December already?
Anyhoo, I had not taken part in the Tag Tuesday challenge for a couple of weeks, so this week I was really determined to make a tag. The theme was Let's Dance! and ballet sprang to mind straight away. I adore classical ballet, and one of the most beautiful and memorable performances I have watched was Nureyev dancing in Romeo and Juliet. Gosh, that must have been in the 70s. So thats what I went with for this week's tag -

I also spent some time making something else. Something not involving paper or tags, lol. 

You see, a little while ago, I was looking through all the wonderful things which were popping up on my Etsy homepage, and amongst other lovely stuff there were some really interesting looking ceramic beads. Unusual free shapes and glorious colours, and I thought they would match the fabric beads,which I made a while ago, perfectly. Couldn't resist them, I ordered them, and a few days ago they arrived. And yes, when I put them together with my fabric beads, I thought they were a match made in heaven, lol. 

I gathered a whole lot of beads and chains and bits and pieces together to make myself a necklace. Such fun! In the end though, I changed course, discarded most of the stash, and went for a much lighter and airier look -

I want to make more! :-)

Well, I had better get on with my chores, otherwise I will never find the time to do more crafting.

Toodlepip xxx

Did you?

Did you brave the masses and venture forth to find yourself some Black Friday bargains? Good grief, Black Friday fever has also taken hold here in the UK, and I was somewhat bemused when I saw the news this afternoon - you'd think there was a riot and looting going on in so many supermarkets and departments tores, the way people fought each other to tear stuff off the shelves, not even looking what they were taking, just anything! Fights, arrests..... lol, I am not one to risk life and limb to get a few ££ off something I don't even really need.
Enough said.

Those of you who also look at my Vintageland blog might have noticed that although I promised to show something new in the shop every day, I failed miserably yesterday. I had orders to get out, customer requests to deal with, needed more tags, needed more business cards, return address labels, etc etc, I just had too much to do. Also, the weather was so horrid and dark and grey, I couldn't take any photos. I did make some new tags and also some boxes for the rosaries I have listed in the shop -

I did take more photos for the shop today though. I was having a real LADIES DAY, lol. Pretty little things. Femine fabricy things, darling little silver bits, litte paper mache boxes..... they looked so pretty, I decided to show them to you on here as well -

I might be able to list some of them tonight, the rest tomorrow, and I'll try put whatever gets listed onto the Vintageland blog tonight as well.

So I had better get on with it, right? Lol, Have a great weekend, toodlepip