Sidetracked

There are so many things I should have been doing, but..................... I got sidetracked. It really is my friend Jo's fault, I blame her entirely. She came to visit me on Saturday, and we spent a wonderful day together. And she showed me this beautiful blanket she had made with a new crochet flower pattern.

I really really wanted to try that one as well. You see, I am not very good with patterns, either written or with symbols. I am much better at watching somebody actually doing it and copying them. Thats what we did. Jo showed me how to crochet this sweet flower and also how to join as you go, which I had never been able to get my head round.

So, once she had gone home, I just had to try it out for myself. I had yarns left over from a blanket I had made some time ago, and I spent Saturday evening having a go. And I carried on having a go on Sunday. And Monday morning.

And I am thrilled to bits with the result. It really is nothing special, only a scarf, but I am so pleased I have learned a new pattern and managed to join the flowers as I was crocheting. The colours are pretty pastels, perfect for Spring -


I might just have to get out some of my nice wools and make a lankie..........

Toodlepip xxx

SMILE inchie for last week's challenge

Oh dear, late again. Last week's challenge for Every Inchie Monday was SMILE. I grabbed my smallest scissors, a magazine, and started cutting out smiles for a teeny weeny collage. Tiny smiles. What an earth possessed me to do that? I lost at least half a dozen, which got blown off the desk when I huffed and puffed in frustration, lol. In the end, I resorted to tweezers to hold the tiny bits of paper. That worked. Sort of. Here it is -

And now I had better get started on working on this week's inchie, hadn't I? don't want to be this late again.

Toodlepip xxx

You could call it tagmania, I suppose

Of course I blame it all on Tag Tuesday, lol. I made my tag for this week's challenge, which was lace. As much as I love my antique laces in shades of white and cream, I really needed to get away from them as I had already made 4 tags for the last 4 challenges with those laces. I was in the mood for Spring colours anyway, so I used some coloured 70s laces to make lace flowers with, and covered a brown luggage tag with black lace to simulate the ground they are growing in.

This my LACE tag for this week's challenge over at the Tag Tuesday blog -


And this is where the post gets a bit manic, lol. I am not really known for short posts, am I, so I decided to add a few more customer tag pics. They are not terribly elaborate, but hopefully they will be appreciated nonetheless.


Suffering from tag overload now? Lol, oops. I'll try and spare you for a few days ;-).

Ooh, almost forgot, I also made a couple of these sweet lavender hearts. They are made from this gorgeous cafe au lait coloured really wide lace I have, and they are very simply stitched by hand. They are lined with a soft white cheesecloth, so that the lavender doesn't escape -



Toodlepip xxx

UNIVERSE inchie and some ephemera

The Every Inchie Monday challenge for this week was "UNIVERSE". I could really think of anything outside the box really, so had to go with the obvious.

I had some bits left over from a tag I had made last year for tag tuesday challenge, ( circles ) and they came in quite handy for this inchie. The background is a photograph of a nebula, errmm, I think, can't remember what it was, and I cut a piece of an image I had of our beautiful planet and stuck it on. I used tiny tiny gold and silver micro beads for lots of star systems etc.



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Can't just stop here, lol, thats far too short a post for me. Instead, I'll show you a few pieces of lovely American ephemera I got from a lovely Etsy seller -


A whole bunch of vintage Holden, Plaid and and Top Value stamps-


1940s prescriptions -


and ration slips -


Fascinating.

They came from this lovely shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop/58andGrace.

Maybe tomorow I'll be in the mood for some proper crafting. We'll see, it would be rather nice if my muse decided to come back from her holiday.

Until then, toodlepip xxx

Tag Tuesday "VINTAGE" and a beautiful gift

I did warn you yesterday that you would be shown another tag today. It is Tag Tuesday after all. This week's theme is VINTAGE, and of course for me that meant lace. You know how much I love my vintage lace,lol.

I used a piece of very wide vintage French lace to cover the tag. It is one of my favourite pieces of lace, the colour is so delicious ( cafe au lait ) and it has such a beautiful, intricate pattern. I had some very fine scalloped fabric, which I attached to both edges of the tag. As the sweet little girl in the Edwardian image is wearing a green dress, I used green ric rac, green velvet leaves and a little bit of green bling as well. I added a few coffee stained vintage lace motifs and here is the finished tag -


You may just escape another tag post until next Tag Tuesday, lol, fingers crossed.

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What do you think of when I say SUZIQU??? Beautiful fabric collages, wonderful rich and deep colours, the most precious fabric books, and above all the sweetest person. Right? This beautiful lady gifted me with the most beautiful cards for Christmas. Prepare yourself for a serious drool fest -

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Aren't they absolutely fantastic? Even the inside of the cards have been embellished in typical Suziqu style. Big thank you hugs to you wonderful woman! I think I am going to frame them and hang them up so that I can admire them all the time.

Well, thats it once again. I totally forgot to make my inchie yesterday, so thats on the agenda for tomorrow, along with pics of some more lovely Etsy finds.

Toodlepip xxx

The only things I seem to be making......

...... these days are tags and more tags, lol. They are tags I like to include with the stuff I send out from my Etsy shop. They are not the most elaborate tags, I really don't have that much time, but I try and make them pretty and appropriate to the purchase. As I haven't made anything else, you'll have to put up with a small selection of tags -

This one was fun to make, it went with a 1930s cocktail shaker, to a mixologist/barman -


With a silk wedding handkerchief -


A couple of blue tags to go with blue items -



A pretty little altered box to carry a French blue glass flower brooch safely to the new owner -


For a Japanese customer -


To go with some of the French luggage tags I sent out ( made WITH French luggage tags, so the reverse shows the original printing ) -


No special reason tag -


Mostly, I forget to photograph them, lol. Which is just as well, because otherwise you would be inundated with tags. Ah, tomorrow is Tag Tuesday, so guess what? Yep, you will get another tag, tehehee.

Now I am off to make this week's inchie for the Every Monday inchie challenge.

Toodlepip xxx