Bakers' GREYS

The GREY DEY THURSDEYS party is in full swing again over at Petite Michelle Louise's blog, and I picked some Bakers' GREYS for this week's post. I have a bit of a soft spot for old kitchen things and always pick up old baking forms when I am in France.

Randomly picked from my stash -

How did this little fella get here ;-)? - 

Happy Grey Thursdey! Check out lots more beautiful GREYS over on Petite Michelle Louise's blog!

Toodlepip xxx

Flawed Beauty

In my stash of white linens and laces there are some pieces which I call my Flawed Beauties. They are really lovely pieces, table runners, dainty handkerchiefs, pieces of antique lace, which have suffered somewhat over the years. The fabric has thinned and developed holes, threads in the lace have broken. But all those little flaws just mean that I don't feel so bad about cutting and repurposing these gorgeous old pieces. Here are just few pieces which I pulled out yesterday to work with -

These tiny little gloves just need a little bit of tender loving care. All that is needed for them is a needle and thread and a steady hand to fold back and sew up the little hem again -

I am linking this post to Becky's fabulous BLISSFUL WHITES WEDNESDAY party over at her TIMEWASHED blog.

The tiniest chapel? - St. Sulpice

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, until I get my camera back in action properly again, I'll post some old pics of France.

A couple of years ago we spent some time in the winter geocaching in our area of Burgundy, France. Caches are few and far between in the countryside! One cache took us close to what turned out to be the tiniest chapel I had ever come across -

Even from afar it looked somewhat neglected, there was no door! But the roof with the roof tiles laid in the shape of a cross, looked in good shape.

The only decoration on the outside was between the two simple stained glass windows -

The interior was so plain, a small Holy Water font -

and a partially tiled floor, half covered in dead leaves -

Maybe somebody was going to carry on with a restoration in the Spring, there was a small pile of tiles in a corner.

A small wooden cross was leaning against the wall, and on a little ledge at the back of the tiny room, there was this bust -

It was a strange little place, but somehow peaceful and serene. 

I think I will go back to this place this summer and see whether it has been restored at all. I will let you know.

Toodlepip xxx

Our Beautiful World - Shadows

I finally got my new camera lens today, woohoo!  I felt so lost without my camera, but now I am smiling again :-). However, I didn't get it in time to catch the few minutes of sunlight we had today, so for this week's prompt over at the Our Beautiful World blog, SHADOWS, I picked a photo a took quite a while ago for an inchie - the shadow thrown by a vintage crochet doily in the window -

Now that I can use my camera again, I will be posting more often and also filling up the shelves in my Etsy shop again!

Toodlepip xxx

I am excited

Oh yes, I am! Because my darling friend Suzy from the sublime Suziq's Threadworks blog has finally put some exquisite creations in her Etsy shop and I bought one of them! I adore her creations, I am so lucky to have some of them already, but when she created some stunning wearable art, I just had to have one of the pieces. Most of you will have seen her new wearable collages on her blog already, but I am so excited, I just have to show you the one I picked -

It wasn't easy choosing one, because all three are incredibly beautiful. If you are quick, you might still be able to find the other two in her Etsy shop HERE, but hurry, they won't be there for long.

My very own one is on the way to me now, yay! AND............. I have also ordered a new lens for my camera, nothing special but a little bit better than the one which broke. So, hopefully I will have the camera working again for when my gorgeous new Suziq Original arrives, and I'll be able to show you all the wonderful details.

I think until I can take photographs again with my proper camera, I will sort through my pics from France and find some which I haven't shown you gals yet. I am sure there are some which I took of some interesting buildings etc which haven't made it onto the blog yet.

Until tomorrow, toodlepip xxx

A Tag Tuesday/Grey Dey Thursdey post

I was going to take some lovely GREY pics today after picking up my repaired Nikon lens. My lens isn't repaired. It is not going to get repaired either. Geez, I just hate this society where it costs more to have something repaired than it does buying the same thing new. So I picked my broken lens up and took it home and would love to send it to Nikon with my compliments. What a crappy lens - 5 repairs under warranty, none of which solved the problem permanently and now a £70+ repair, which in all likelihood will have the same results, going wrong again in no time. So all I can offer as my contribution to the wonderful GREY DEY THURSDEY party is a couple of photos of this week's TAG TUESDAY tag, taken with my little old FinePix camera.

The theme over at Tag Tuesday was SHELTERS/HOMES, and it immediately made me think of the saying - Home is where the Heart is. And my heart is firmly attached to our cottage in France. So of course the tag had to have a photo of the cottage on it!

You can visit GREY DEY THURSDEY here, and TAG TUESDAY here.

Toodlepip xxx

First swap of the year

I do love Kimberly's ATC swaps, she is such a lovely hostess, and she is starting 2014 off with a VALENTINE'S ATC swap!

I had to get my skates on with this one, as the deadline is 18th January, and I can never be sure how quickly or slowly a letter/package will get to the States. So I started as soon as I saw her post yesterday, and here they are, in sweet pink and gold -

I started with scrunched up pink tissue paper glued to the tag and very lightly rubbed with gold to highlight the raised bits. I didn't have any Dresden trims ( why the heck are they so difficult to get in the UK? ), so I used a gold paper doily for the tops of the ATCs. I ran a gold coloured Christmas envelope through my Bigshot to get the golden butterflies and flowery scrolls. Needle felted some little pink hearts. Found some pretty vintage ladies and voila, Valentine's ATCs completed!

I had to use my little old Fujifilm Finepix camera for the photos, because my Nikon camera has finally self destructed. Well, not the whole camera, just the standard lens it came with, but I have had nothing but trouble with that lens ever since I bought the camera. It has been in for repairs 4 or 5 times, thankfully under the extended warranty I had splashed out on, but that is now out of date, and the lens is bust. Well and truly. The insides have collapsed and are rattling around in there. Very frustrating. Sigh. Not sure what I am going to do now.

Now I have get started on the first Tag Tuesday tag of 2014, due tomorrow. Hmmm, perhaps a little Belgian chocolate will help to get the creativity flowing.....

Toodlepip xxx

2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

I have started the year as I mean to go on, with a little bit of crafting every day. I am hand stitching some very simple lavender hearts made with delicious vintage French lace at the moment.

Toodlepip xxx

AWOL

I have been such a bad blogger this last month of the year. One reason was that my Etsy shop was busy, which was really nice. Another reason was that I hadn't created anything worthwhile, and therefore had nothing to show. Two years ago, just before Christmas, my mother died and was buried the day before Christmas Eve, and I get rather quiet and maudlin in the weeks before Christmas. I sit and plan all kinds of things to make and do, but they stay in my head and my hands stay still in my lap. I get frustrated with the mess around me, my craft stuff and the many many things I have bought in France for the shop, and the more I try and organise and clear up, the worse it seems to get. So I leave it and just get more and more frustrated. I hope I haven't shocked you too much by writing such personal things, I realise thats not what you expect or what I usually do. I just felt that I owed my wonderful bloggy friends an explanation for my long absence. 

Having said all that, Christmas was wonderful and uplifting and filled with much laughter and joy, and I am feeling so much better within myself again. So I am giving myself one more week to get my act together and get on with organising my stuff, and then I will be back to normal blogging, yay!

For now I just want to thank you for being such loyal friends and followers, and I wish you all a very happy, healthy, peaceful and successful 2014! May all your wishes for the new year come true and may you ( and ME!! ) stick with your New Year's resolution for longer than a week, tehehehe!

Here are some fun 19th Century Happy New Year cards from my collection -

Toodlepip xxx

Keeping the postman busy

Oh, I do love it when my bloggy friends keep our postman busy. Look what he brought me yesterday afternoon, a package from Denmark, and that could only mean one thing........ it was a package from my friend Dorthe, yay! The first thing I saw when I opened the package was this -

Beautifully packaged blingy embellishments. The bag was tied up with roses, a religious medal and the letters of my name. How sweet is that?!?

Dorthe's packaging is always beautiful, so beautiful that I didn't really want to disturb anything -

Inside the package was...........

 this exquisite angel!

The details are superb, from the lovely bead embroidery -

and her wonderful halo/crown -

to her dainty wings -

Next to her in the package was a sweet little heart -

And finally, there was this stunning Christmas card -

So lovingly and beautifully made. I can't help feeling Christmassy when I am surrounded by so much Christmas cheer from my friends. Hugs and kisses to you, Dorthe!

Toodlepip xxx