Thursday 30 July 2015

OMG, FINALLY!!!

Yep, it has finally happened. After years of me ( and many others ) nagging her, Suzy of Suziqu's Threadworks has at long last produced an online class teaching how to create her stunning, exquisite fabric lace books. I am so happy, now I  can dust off my box of fabrics, laces and trims for the long planned mermaid journal, yay! Can you tell I am just a wee bit excited?

All the information you need on how to join this online course are in Suzy's post HERE, or go HERE for the direct link to the class, which is hosted on Gail Schmidt's Creative Workshops site.

Why oh why do I have to wait until September, lol. I so want to start straight away. Patience really isn't my biggest virtue.

Anyhoo, just wanted to tell you all about this class, and I'll leave you with a couple of photographs of the class journal, swooooooon -




I hope you are going to join me in the classroom! Toodlepip xxx

Monday 27 July 2015

The Invasion has begun!

We finally got a little bit of rain yesterday and overnight, not enough to soak the ground, but enough to perk up the veggies a little. And of course, as soon as there was moisture on the (burnt) grass and the veggies, the invasion begun -




Yep, great big fat snails, the ones the French are so famous for! They come out from under the hedges and bushes, or in our case, the blackberry thicket, and head straight for our veggie patch. How the heck do they know where the good stuff is? Do they see it, do they smell it? I have no idea, but they sure find the straightest line directly to my veggies. My DH collected dozens of them, to be released somewhere far far away from our garden, lol.

These are some of the things the little devils were after -

the butternut squash plants -


the cucumber plants -

the sweet dumpling squashes -

fortunately the beans have grown so tall now that the new flowers and little beans are quite safe -

This is what I picked this morning, while the veggies were still perky from the rain -


Patisson, Sweet Dumpling, tomatoes, cucumber, courgettes and chili peppers.

And now for something completely different!

I must show you the fabulous ATCs I received in the recent Postage People swap I took part in -





And here are my ATCs for Kimberly's August ATC swap with the theme DRESS UP -




Until the next time, toodlepip xxx

Sunday 26 July 2015

The Little White Shoebox

It sat on a side table, not on the large stand where all the desirable objects vied for customers. It looked tatty and very ordinary. Just a battered white shoebox. And then I saw the writing on the box, the magic word - DENTELLES -


Thats when my heart started beating faster and when I made a bee line for the stand, hoping for all those long seconds that there really would be some lace inside that little box.

And there was!

It took ages looking through the box to see what was hiding inside, and then negotiating with the stall holder, but in the end it was mine :-)

I found some gorgeous salesman samples in the box, with their original little labels, so special -




My favourite piece,  RESERVED for North America

Fabulous metallic lace -























The first layer in the box was pieces of the finest, daintiest Napoleon III era black lace, so very delicate and somewhat ravaged by time, but beautiful nonetheless -





Amongst the black lace was this beautiful black floral piece, perhaps for millinery -


And then there was the white/ecru/ivory lace ...








And that was not all, there were also many pieces of the most beautifully hand worked broderie anglaise, which I absolutely adore -







I can't imagine how anybody could produce such beautiful, neat, tiny stitches by candlelight. 

I hope you have enjoyed looking through the little white shoebox. Wishing you a beautiful new week wherever you are, toodlepip xxx