Alexandra Day Part 1 !!!

I may have mentioned once or twice before that the really lovely Alexandra and I did a swap a little while ago. She chose the theme " French ", which suited me very well of course, because we spend a lot of time in France at our little cottage.

I showed you the bits and pieces I sent her a while ago in this post. And finally, finally I can also show you the most beautiful gifts Alexandra sent me. I was totally overwhelmed with her generosity, her thoughfulness, and above all the friendship which shone from everything she sent. I couldn't believe how well she knows me and what I love. Every single thing she has gifted me with is something I would have chosen for myself and snapped up in a split second, had I seen it in a shop or at a boot fair. And the items she made for me, you can tell that they have been made with love.

I have split this into two posts, because there is just too much to show you, and I don't want you to miss anything by rushing through to the end because I have overdone it, lol. So, here goes, part 1 of my beautiful swap from Alexandra -

The first thing which greeted me when I opened the parcel was this great tag -


Perfect, isn't it? And then, gasp, I uncovered this -


We had agreed to make a bag and fill it with goodies. And this is the bag she made for me, have you ever seen anything prettier than this? It is so beautifully stitched and the embellishments are just fantastic, just have a look at a couple of close ups -


This beautiful bag was carefully wrapped in two vintage pillow cases.They are continental size, so spot on for our cottage in France, as I have continental size pillows on the beds there -


Then, I started carefully taking all the little treasures out of the bag -


Now you have to remember that this is only part 1, and this is only half of the HUGE mountain of treasures she sent me! Everything is so beautifully wrapped and presented -



Beautifully made tags with ribbons and laces-

Can you see why I was grinning like crazy? I was probably making some rather weird noises as well, lolol, thankfully nobody else was around at the time. I have to admit that my hands were shaking just a wee bit when I started unwrapping. You can understand that, can't you? And you can also imagine the oohs and aaahs when I saw all these things -

Three vintage keys-

Margarine flowers, I had never seen these before, apparently they used to be freebies in tubs of margarine!

Beautiful mother-of-pearl buttons-Lace, aahhh -

And what could possibly be in this? So very carefully protected..........

.................... a frozen charlotte!!! I have hankered after one of these tiny dolls for such a long time
An antique lady's cap -
The sweetest little pendant made from an old typewriter key with my initial -
Numbers, woohoo -

and a bunch of ephemera-

I love this hanger, isn't it fantastic?

A piece of beautiful deep blue lace-

And whats this, so beautifully wrapped in a sweet little doily and lace?

It is an excercise book from the late 1800s -

with the most exquisite handwriting -
And last but not least, candles, so beautifully presented -

You would think that this is MORE than enough to receive in a swap, but as I said, unbelievably, there is more!!! But for today, this is quite enough. You can see part 2 tomorrow. I'll now go and drool over my beautiful treasures again, lol, I do that a lot!!

Toodlepip xxx

Nothing for days, and then way too much for one post!

All of a sudden I have lots of things to post about. There was the jumble sale on Saturday, the boot fair on Sunday, and my package from Alexandra today, wooohoooooooooo!!! And, I have also finished my tree topper from the Romantic White Christmas workshop!

Well, lets see now. I haven't photographed the weekend finds yet, so I don't need to worry about that right now, that will be ok for later in the week. And my beautiful, gorgeous, amazingly generous swap gifts from Alexandra, well, they deserve a whole post to themselves. Actually, I need TWO posts for those, and you are so going to love the pics. Well, not the pics so much as the amazing gifts shown in the pics. The pics are pretty poor, the weather is so appalling at the mo, there is not much light and I was way too excited to arrange those lovely gifts properly.

So, I'll show you my latest project from the Romantic White Christmas workshop today, and you will have to wait for Alexandra's parcel until tomorrow. It will be so worth it though.

I loved the idea of the tree topper, I was really excited about using lots of glitter on the gorgeous snowflake, folding lots of music paper etc, so here it is, without further ado -


I used proper sheet music so that it would look nice from the back as well, and I used that fabulous silver ink pen on the darling little cherub. I am pleased with the way it turned out, and I am almost tempted now to put the drawing room Christmas tree up.

Tomorrow is Alexandra Day, lol, so stay tuned!

Toodlepip xxx

Romantic White Christmas WIP

I am way way way behind with my projects from the fabulous Romantic White Christmas workshop, sigh. At the moment, my doggies are demanding most of my time. They have become so used to being with my husband all day long, since he retired almost a year ago. My poor DH is on jury duty for a couple of weeks, and away all day, and my doggies are feeling all lonely and neglected, so I am spending lots of time with them, playing with them, cuddling them. Not that I mind that at all, but I want to make things!!!

One of the projects was a little bejewelled Christmas tree ornament. I liked it so much that I decided to make a garland with those dear little trees for the drawing room fireplace. I still have 3 more trees to get ready, but at least you can sort of see, with a bit of imagination, lol, what the garland will look like. I used old music scores for the trees, painted a couple of coats of a metallic paint over them, which makes them shine like silver when the light catches them, and then decorated them with narrow laces and pearls from a vintage necklace, vintage French sparklies and German glass glitter . I also altered the Noel piece slightly, made it a lot lighter, and traced the letters with the most fabulous silver ink pen Karla had recommended. It is quite a subtle effect in normal light, but under artificial light, wow, it sparkles beautifully.



Sparkle is so difficult to photograph, especially when the days are as grey and horrid as they have been here lately. If you click on the pics and enlarge them, you might just see the daylight shimmer, and the artificial light sparkle ( last one ) -

Eventually, when I finish the other trees and Noels, they should make a lovely garland, strung onto a narrow lace probably, or perhaps a silk ribbon, not sure yet. Can you kinda picture it in your imagination?


Fingers crossed, perhaps I'll get some peace and quiet tomorrow to finish it off.

On a more serious note. I turned my word verification off a little while ago, after reading something Anne said on her blog. Since then, I have had a few very annoying Anonymous posts. So I will have to go back to word verification again, sorry, friends, and if that won't stop it, then I'll have to go the "approval" route.

Toodlepip, xxx

Two things - Michelle Palmer and Sunday's boot fair

I am sure most of you know Michelle Palmer, she creates THE sweetest, most gorgeous drawings on fabric, and I have admired them for a very long time. When she started her Christmas drawings, I couldn't resist any longer, I had a real good excuse for going ahead and ordering some of her delightful drawings. I wanted to use them on little stockings for my two granddaughters and one other little darling girl dear to my heart. So I emailed Michelle and asked her whether she would create 3 little drawings for me, all similar but with little differences to they could tell them apart.

They arrived yesterday, and I am absolutely thrilled to bits with them. They are whimsical, delightful, the sweetest little drawings and I am so looking forward to making three stockings with them. I am going to use some of my antique French hand loomed linen to make the stockings with. Have a look for yourselves, aren't they the cutest?



They arrived with a lovely letter from Michelle ( you have no idea how I envy her handwriting, it is beautiful ) and three of the sweetest smelling little tags -


And now to Sunday's Indoor boot fair, the one and only winter boot fair in our area. As I said in the last post, it wasn't a complete waste of time, I did find a few pretty little treasures amongst the 99.9% modern tat, baby toys, clothes, cds and books. Where is all the lovely old junk gone?


The glass flowers I really do like an awful lot, I think they are charming -

Poils, well, a girl can never go wrong with poils, can she? Especially when they are beautifully shiny shimmery faultless poils -

Tin, I really needed another tin like I needed a hole in the head, but when it is this pretty, how can one resist?

This brooch with millions of dangly bits took my fancy, mostly because of the lovely crystals at the ends of the danglies

Little jugs/pitchers are irresistible, this one is dainty and so sweetly decorated

And I found another piece of Carnival glass. I am not normally I big fan of orange, but the orange Carnival glass shimmers so beautifully with those oil slick colours, and that I adore

And then there was that box. A smallish box, barely open, by the side of a table. I cannot pass closed boxes without having a look inside, lol. Ever. When I folded the top back properly, I saw linens, what looked like doilies, table runners etc. I asked her to give me a price for the whole box, as I really didn't feel like taking everything out, and having vultures ( other lovely ladies wanting a piece of the action ) trying to get at the best bits, lol, while I was still rooting through the box. That does happen, you know! They pull the bits out of your hands if you aren't careful. Anyways, I got the box full of stuff, took it home and then started taking out the bits one by one.
There were damask serviettes, doilies, table runners, odd bits and pieces, and some stunning tablecloths. Yep, beautiful whitework embroidery, gorgeous deep crochet lace trims, it was such a pleasure unpacking this little box. Here goes, have a look -


Two dinky little pillow cases, probably for a child's bed, so so pretty-


Some colourful 1950s embroideries on tablecloths, tea cosies ( outers only )


and this darling nightdress case. Know anybody with those initials? What a pretty Christmas present that would make for a vintage lover

Another tablecloth with beautiful whitework embroidery

And look at these gorgeous crochet borders, aren't they fabulous?


And now I am off to make something else from the Romantic White Christmas workshop.

Toodlepip xxx