Two very late inchies and whats been keeping me busy

Oh dear, I have been neglecting my inchies with all this thinking about and planning for Christmas. But I did make last week's LIFE inchie and this week's DARING inchie this afternoon. Of course it was pitch black dark by the time I got round to photographing it, so I had to use flash and that really doesn't do anything for photographs. I'll take some pics of the inchies in daylight tomorrow morning and replace them. In the meantime, here is the LIFE inchie for the Every Inchie Monday challenge from last week -


This photo was taken by one of my tree surgeon son's friends, and shows the tiniest little shoot, a sycamore just sprouting into LIFE.

The next inchie, DARING, for this week's challenge, is another photograph. Tree surgeons really are daredevils, the way they climb and swing and work on those huge trees. This is a photo I took of Paul, Nick's work colleague as he was working on one of our 200+ year old sweet chestnut trees -


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And this is whats been keeping me so busy over the last couple days - a tag book!

You all know how much I love my tags, and since the Tag Tuesday challenge finished, I've been a bit lost. I needed to make more tags to satisfy my muse, lol. So, one of my friends is going to get a little tag book as a Christmas pressie ( thats one off the list, lol, phew ). I can't mass produce, it takes me ages to select just the right image, the embellishments, the ribbons, so it has just 8 tags, more or less covering the 4 seasons of the year -


The first tag is a friendship tag -

Christmas -

Valentine's Day -

Spring -

Easter -

Summer -

Halloween -

Winter -

The end, lol


I probably end up making a few more of these, once you are a tagoholic its difficult to quit.

Back to more thinking and planning, and a nice cup of tea. Toodlepip xxx

A little pink box

Ask me what I have been doing since my last post, and I would have to say, heck, I really don't know, what HAVE I done? It seems not an awful lot. I reckon its the Christmas thing, you know, browsing for presents online, planning presents to make, making endless lists about all sorts of things. Somehow actual doing has taken second place to thinking, dreaming, planning.

At least I managed to make a sweet little box to hold a tiny little something for a lovely kind bloggy friend. It was good to get the glue and papers and sparklies out again, I have to say.

Here it is -


I totally forgot my inchie last week as well, bad bad me, and this week's Every Inchie Monday inchie is overdue as well, sigh. I shall sit down this evening and make them, this afternoon will be spent with my two gorgeous granddaughters!

Toodlepip xxx

What a great way to start a new week,

... with the biggest blog candy giveaway I have seen. The fabulous folk over at the The Craft Barn are celebrating 600+ followers, well, over 700 now, lol, by giving away blog candy worth in excess of £200. OMG, what fantastic early Christmas pressie that would be. Can you blame me for trying to win this? Of course not, lol, and I expect you wouldn't mind winning all these gorgeous goodies either. Just click on the pic below and it will take you straight to the post where you can enter this giveaway as well -

Not entirely sure I should wish you all good luck, lol, ah but then you are such dear friends, it would be very unkind if I didn't. So good luck to you if you enter as well.

Back later today with some catch up posts.

Toodlepip xxx

More Christmas Tags

I can't help it, I love making tags. I love the whole process of choosing the images, then finding the right paper for the backgrounds, laces and ribbons which are not too wide and not too narrow, and sweet little embellishments, usually bling, lol. Thats why I never get much done, sigh, I spend so much time fondling lace, and picking through embellishments.

But here are four more, and again, I'd love to hear which one is your favourite.


I used some lovely vintage metallic lace fabric on these.





Toodlepip xxx

White Wednesday

Earlier this afternoon, we were sitting in our drawing room, when all of a sudden the room was bathed in beautiful soft sunlight. After yesterday's very grey and dismal weather, this was such a beautiful moment, and I managed to capture those few minutes in a few photographs.

This gorgeous German vase was a wedding present to us 30 years ago, and I love its timeless look and elegance. The sunshine which burst through the half drawn curtain lit the vase up and threw a sharp shadow on the wall behind it. I loved that moment so much, that I picked this vase for this week's White Wednesday over at the Faded Charm blog -


The strong light produced some intense contrasts, the room is normally very light, with very light pink walls, nothing like these pics might suggest.

Have a look at the Faded Charm blog for fabulous Whiteness. Make sure you have a cup of tea of coffee, lol, there is so much to see.

I was going to post pics of more completed Christmas tags on here as well, but I think I will do a separate post for those after all.

So, toodlepip for just a little while, I'll be back in a jiffy with the Christmas tags!

I have started!

Yep, I did kinda surprise myself as well, but I have started on Christmas stuff. In a fairly gentle way, lol, nothing too big, complicated or time consuming yet. Just some Christmas Tags. But before I show you the tags I made yesterday, I want to show you something which arrived in the post on Saturday.

I was thrilled to bits when I found out that I had won one of Laura's absolutely stunning ATCs during her month long October Trick or Treat event on her blog Artfully Musing. She really is the most incredible artist, have a look at her blog, and you will be absolutely gobsmacked by her creations, and not just ATCs.

This is the fab Halloween ATC I received -





Even the back is so beautifully done -


Pretty darned good ATC, don't you think?

And here are some of the tags I made yesterday. Three in fairly neutral, muted colours -





And a couple with bright colour accents, Christmas colours, of course, ruby reds and forest greens -


The green one -

The red one -

I'd love to hear which one is your favourite.

Thats all, folks, gotta get back to making more tags :-). Toodlepip xxx

PINK SATURDAY

I haven't been to any vide greniers or boot fairs in ages, so I had no new pink acquisitions to show you. But........ I had a look through my collection of mostly Victorian cards and found some beautiful pink roses to show you! They are 19th Century Christmas and New Year cards, and it does seem strange to me today that they used summer flowers etc for their cards and not Santas or Angels or nativity scenes.

Here they are -

And while I was in a pink frame of mind, I made a little tag as well. This one is special to me for reason - almost two years ago, my wonderful bloggy friend and gifted artist Diane from Diane Knott's Musings sent me a little pressie. I had just started making very basic tags and had great admiration for her tags, so she sent me one along with a tag making kit. I had kept this kit all this time, not wanting to use it all up, but I finally decided that sooner or later I would make a display with all my own tags, and I very much wanted a tag made from her kit to be part of that display.

Do you remember some of the bits on this tag, Diane? -

I had to scan the tag in, because it was too dark to take photographs.

If you want to immerse yourself in more pinkness, hop over to How Sweet The Sound!

Happy Pink Saturday! Toodlepip xxx