Feast your eyes

Yesterday I promised to show you some more sweet treats. You are so going to drool over these, I sure did!

My very lovely German friend Alexandra surprised me with a gobsmackingly gorgeous collage. A lot of you will already know her and her beautiful blogs, but just in case you haven't been there yet, go check them out HERE and HERE. And this is the totally exquisite collage she sent me -

All those beautiful layers, all those amazing embellishments, it really is an exquisite piece. KNUDDEL, liebe Alexandra, ich hab dich auch ganz lieb!

And as if that wasn't enough eye candy, I am also going to show you a couple of things I treated myself to from the amazing Parisgal, Rhonda! I just can't resist her beautiful things, everything is so beautifully presented, so imaginative, just sheer pleasure to receive. I had ordered a couple of packs of cardstock scraps from her, and this is what I received -


Isn't that just absolutely delightful? The wonderful girl also sent me these adorable pouches and tags -


You are a very generous girl, Rhonda, thank you so much, I'll be back in your beautiful shop soon. I am sure you all know her, but for those few of you who don't, here blog is HERE
and her irresistible shop is HERE.

More treats tomorrow, my friends, until then, toodlepip xxx

Alexandra Day Part Deux

Judging by your comments yesterday, you quite liked the goodies Alexandra sent me, yes? Alright, so that is somewhat of an understatement, lol, just kidding. You LOVED it all! You can imagine how I felt. But, as I said that was only part of it. Because she couldn't fit everything she wanted to send into the bag, there was also the treasure outside the bag! I am just going to shut up now, and let you see the photos. You'll be gobsmacked. Promise.

Look at it, all this !!!


Of course you want to see everything properly, don't you? Here goes. A gorgeous Eiffel tower heart with a proper Eiffel tower charm -
It just so happens that one of the guest bedrooms in the cottage is done in blue, so guess where this is going to live? Yep, you got it.

A piece of THE most beautiful sea green embroidered silk. I wish I could capture the colour and sheen properly, but its so difficult -
Then there was this intriguing little package -

and inside? This -

Isn't that just exquisite?

What about this beautifully wrapped little something?


A sweet little tag with some original ephemera and the sweetest little trim, and inside -
I think I might frame these, because they are so pretty.

And yes, there is still more, unbelievable, I know. This little package felt as light as a feather and I was so intrigued as to what could possibly be in it. Well, feathers was a possibility, lol. But instead of feathers there were these -

Tiny sparkly diamante jewels. I didn't dare breathe in case I huffed some off the table. I found an old pill box of mine, stashed away since my student days in the early 70s, and put the beautiful diamante in there for the time being.

A sweet little music sheet envelope filled with religious medals-


The prettiest pink lace -


Another fab envelope -


With -


A PARIS bag, woohoo -


with -


This one is soooooooo beautiful, so delicate -


And another pile of amazing ephemera -


They all seem to be church records, like birth/baptism records, wedding bans etc. Marvellous.

THE END!!!

I am planning on making a wall hanging for the French cottage with some of the beautiful pieces Alexandra has gifted me with. But that will take a lot of planning, because I want to do those beautiful things justice. So don't expect anything in the very near future, lol.

Now I am off to try and find ribbons for my tag for the Tag Tuesday challenge over at Kard Krazy .

Toodlepip xxx

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