Every Inchie Monday - FANCY

Didn't quite manage to post my inchie on Monday, but at least I made it on Monday, lol. It was too late in the evening though to take photographs ( I don't like flash ). FANCY conjured up all sorts of images, but all involved bling somehow. I ended up making making a tiny little flower with a piece of antique French lace, and added some little crystals to the centre. I covered the inchie with a piece of gold foil from a chocolate bar ( sadly the chocolate is all gone now, sigh ), added a few more crystals to the corners and edged the whole lot in golden German glass glitter.

This is my FANCY inchie -


Do check out all the other FANCY inchies here as well.

Toodlepip, xxx

She swam across the big North Sea........

despite the cold, just to be with me.
Her hair a-trailing in the waves,
occasionally resting in little caves.
Finally coming to Hastings beach,
she was almost within my reach.
A spell allowed her to walk on land,
and so she came to be in my hand.
A beautiful creature of the sea,
finally coming to live with me.

Last week I saw on one of Dorthe's posts that she had made some new mermaids and listed them in her Ebay shop. I couldn't help myself, I had to get one of the beautiful little mermaids and she arrived a couple of days ago. She is even prettier than the photos showed her to be, and she will look just fantastic in the bathroom in the French cottage, where she can keep Dorthe's sea fairy company.

Here she is -


Aren't the details amazing?

Dorthe's mermaid came with this sweet little tag -


and my wonderful friend also included these pretty little fabric pieces, wrapped around pieces of her drift wood -


I am so delighted with my little mermaid, If you haven't visited Dorthe's blog or her Etsy shop yet, do go and have a look, you are going to love it.

Have a lovely Sunday, enjoy yourselves!

Toodlepip xxx

Treasure Hunt Thursday - Victorian Photo Album

Just this once I was ready to post almost on time, and then Blogger went and ruined it all by being unavailable, lol. So here, without further ado, is my contribution to the Treasure Hunt Thursday, a gorgeous 19th Century photoalbum.

It doesn't look like much, does it? The leather cover is rather tatty, but it still has that gorgeous tooling round the edges -

But as soon as I opened it and saw the first page, I knew I had to have it -


The next page was an index of all the floral pages -


I can't tell you how thrilled I was, I had never ever held such a beautiful album, with loads of fabulous Victorian photos as well as those gorgeous illustrations. This is how desperate I was to own it - I didn't have enough money left on me, as this stall was in the last row of the boot fair, and I had already spent money at other stalls. So I asked the stallholder to hold it for me, we exchanged addresses and telephone numbers and as they were local to me, I arranged to pick the album up in the afternoon, after the the boot sale. I had horrible visions of getting there only to find that they had sold it at the boot fair anyway, but I needn't have worried, they kept their promise and I collected my wonderful treasure from them.

You can see why I loved it so much, can't you? -






I love the backs of these old photographs as well, they have such gorgeous graphics -


Just look at the gorgeous little angels in the one bottom left -


No idea how a Russian (?) one got amongst this lot, interesting though -


This album is going to stay exactly as it is, I am not going to remove any photos or do anything else with it, I love it just the way it is.

I wish you all a really lovely weekend,

toodlepip xxx

Re-posted - Every Inchie Monday PINK

It was only after reading other blogs which mentioned having lost a post and/or comments that I realised I had lost a post as well. My PINK inchie challenge post has disappeared and I lost all but 2 comments on the White Wednesday post. That I can't do anything about, but at least I can re-post my little pink inchie -


I was going to post a Treasure Hunt Thursday post today, but as Blogger has been unavailable most of the day, I will have to leave that til tomorrow, can't do 3 posts in one day, lol.

Toodlepip xxx

Woah, that was scary!

Yesterday morning I logged on to Blogger, only to find that I had no blogs. They weren't just not showing up, apparently according to Blogger, I just didn't have any. PANIC! It was only a couple of hours later that my blogs were back again, I can't tell you what a relief that was.

So, when I turned on the pc this morning and logged on to Blogger, I wasn't really that surprised to see that Blogger was unavailable. I don't know how long it had been gone, but it has taken all day for me to be able to access it again. Just now. For the first time since last night. THAT REALLY WAS SCARY! I happen to like my blogs, they are my diary of sorts, and it lets my friends know what I am up to.

I just hope this sort of thing won't happen too often, I can't cope with scares like that, lol!

Hopefully I will be back to normal posting a bit later on, gotta go cook dinner right now.

Toodlepip, xxx

Oh, I had better put some pics on here, I don't like picless posts on my blog! Feel free to use these in your work.

White Wednesday - memories of last summer in France

I was looking through some photographs of our cottage in France earlier today. I miss being there, so I often sit here and reminisce. I was looking at photographs I took last summer, and I noticed a lot of pics which sort of featured white. And when my reading list showed lots of White Wednesday posts today, I thought, hey why not, show a bit of French summer whites, lol. They are just photos of the bits and pieces in the garden ( field really, can't call it a garden yet, lol ), nothing special, but they remind me of fun days spent there.

The chippy white paint on the little door to the wine cellar -


A sweet enamel teal ight holder -


One of the quintessential French garden chairs -


Washing line under the old false acacia trees -



My doggies' most favourite garden toy -


Gorgeous big white snail shell -


These grow everywhere along the hedgerows of course -


White courgette -


A stem on a very old rose -


A wasp nest, removed from my little caravan ( which will become my little craftavan this summer, woohoo ) -


Old white granite stone steps to a friend's house -


and the white mist filling the valley on so many mornings -


I think we will be off to France again soon, probably next week sometime. Can't wait.

I am linking this post to the fabulous White Wednesday over at Faded Charm. Drool, there are soooo many fantastic White posts to drool over, go have a look!

Toodlepip xxx

PS - I just finished my inchie for the Every Inchie Monday challenge as well, but THREE posts in one day is just too much for me, lol, so that will have to wait til tomorrow. xx

Tag Tuesday Challenge - The Deep

I really laughed out loud when I saw what the challenge was for this week - The Deep. You see, last week's challenge was Blue and Green, and I promptly went for an underwater scene. Perfect for this week, lol. I was sorely tempted to put the same tag up again, just for a laugh especially as I had only just managed to put my tag up on Monday, but in the end I thought that was too silly even for me, so I decided to make a companion piece instead.

Again, I knew exactly which graphics I wanted to use, although it took me a while to find it again. I combined the two gorgeous Art Nouveau images, filled the shell one mermaid was carrying with sea jewels, added shells to the bottom of the sea, and a few other embellishments.


I found a few of these thick abelone disks in a bag of mixed costume jewellery a couple of weeks ago, and I think combined with the pearls, they make a very nice dangly -


I loved working with the colour scheme last week and the brief for this week. Here are both sea themed tags side by side -


Thats all for now, but I might be back later on with a second post to tell you about a little experiment...........

Toodlepip xxx