Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather

When I posted my almost last minute contribution to the wonderful OWOH event, I never expected to see over 100 comments on the post! Flipping heck, it really is quite overwhelming to read all the comments. They made my heart sing, my eyes twinkle and put a huge smile on my face. Thank you so much to all you lovely people who said such lovely things about my blog and my giveaway.

I have spent so much time visiting other blogs today, I didn't even think about the inchie and the tag which I haven't yet made for this week's challenges. ARRGHHH. That has got to be on my to-do list for first thing tomorrow morning.

I haven't made anything else today either, but as we can't have a pictureless post, I am posting a few images which I had scanned in from my own collection. I hope you can make use of them.

I found this one in an old hymn book. Aaah, Spring flowers, I cannot wait to see them popping up in the garden -


This one is a very old Easter card, which I like a lot -



Is this Spanish or Portuguese?


Just look at this gorgeous, chubby little darling! His name is Olivier, he was 3 1/2 months old when the photo was taken, and probably lived in Montceau - Les - Mines in France ( thats where the photo was taken ). I love the lace cushion he is sitting on -


I adore this one, a card in the shape of a (chocolate? ) box filled with flowers -


The reverse of the card is just as sweet, it has this delicate little blue satin ribbon with a deep red seal on it -


Now, the next two images will probably mean a bit more to my German friends. I found these two cards here in England at a boot fair, who knows how they got there. I think they are fabulous, Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria und Kaiser Wilhelm II -



Bedtime for me now, so have a lovely day/evening wherever you are, and I'll carry on with my OWOH blog hopping tomorrow. It is sooooooooo much fun. If you haven't done so yet, what are you waiting for? Go hop, hop, hop!

Toodlepip xxx

ONE WORLD ONE HEART 2011

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED AND THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY!
THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYBODY WHO VISITED AND LEFT A COMMENT. XX

I first came across this wonderful event last year, and was totally amazed. Hundreds and hundreds of talented bloggers participated in this event, offering wonderful door prizes to their visitors during the event, who were finding new friends and gorgeous new blogs to read. I found the event way too late last year to actively participate, but I was determined to take part this year. Right from the start of this 5th and final event. Sure. Yep. That was likely to happen, right? Best laid plans and all that, lol. Our last minute decision to go to France ( no internet at the cottage ) for ten days meant that I am very late, but still just in time squeeze in.

Have a look at the right sidebar if you want to find out a little bit more about me, or look through older posts, that will tell you pretty much all you need to know about me.

I am so looking forward to visiting all the blogs on the huge list of participating bloggers, which you can find HERE. Lisa has done such an amazing job once again in organising this massive event. She deserves the biggest thank you hug ever!!!

I really appreciate all the people who regularly pop in to read my blog, and it makes me smile so much when new people start following my blog. I am offering two " door prizes ", and anybody, both old and new visitors, can just leave a comment on this post in order to be in with a chance to win. The only requirement is that you do actually have a blog. Thats it.

One door prize is this little pillow I made from a large oval vintage doily with beautiful whitework embroidery and gorgeous crochet lace. I added a sweet little image printed on fabric, a couple of handmade lace flowers, MOP buttons and some faux pearls from a vintage necklace -

I don't know what's going on with Blogger today, but it is going completely crazy at the moment. I can't post more than this 1 image, if I try and post more, it deletes everything I have written previously, the font size changes constantly, it is driving me nuts. I will have to publish this post as is, and hope that I can edit it properly later on. I have started over 3 times already, arrgghh.
UPDATE - weird, I have managed to post a few more pics with keyboard shortcuts rather than the mouse, but still get the ever changing font sizes, lol. Ah well.

Just to let you know, the second door prize is a big pack of antique and vintage ephemera, a mixture of French and English. I will post a photo as soon as Blogger lets me. And finally, Blogger let me, sort of, lol, just the one though -

I'll probably add a few more things to this pack, some vintage postcards perhaps, and possibly a little bit of French lace...... just don't ask me for photos today, lol.

I'll pick two winners on the 17th February, and email them as soon as the draw is done. So please make sure in your comment that I have a way of contacting you.

Toodlepip xxx.

PS - I have no idea why my writing is now in black, I can't change it back at the moment, arrgghhh!

UPDATE - I have had such a lovely response to my OWOH post, I decided to add three more prizes, so that there is 1 for each year this fabulous event has been hosted by Lisa -

I have added three little baggies with embellishments, one red themed, one blue themed, and one with neutral colours -



Good luck to everyone!

Last Week's Tag Tuesday Challenge - CIRCLES

Phew, I am trying my best to catch up with everything I missed last week, while we were in France. Just about managed to get the Inchie Challenge in yesterday, and today I am squeezing in the Tag Tuesday challenge, before it changes tomorrow.

The theme this time round was CIRCLES. Funny how the brain works sometimes. It went something like this, circles, errmm, round, errmm, love makes the world go round, oooh, earth and planets!!! That was it, couldn't think of anything else after that, lol.

Here it is then, my tag for the CIRCLES challenge -



Whilst I was tidying up the shelves this morning, I came across this old music sheet, and it seemed so perfect for my tag, I had to use it as a background for the tag -


Gosh, I am getting good at keeping things short and sweet, lol. This is it for now. Gotta go and work on putting things together for the OWOH event. Might even be able to post that later on today, and really shock you with two posts in one day, teeheee.

Toodlepip, xxx

Back from France and Every Inchie Monday challenge

Yoohoo, the wanderer returns! We got back from France last night, had a lovely time, of course, but I'll you all about that later. I can't believe how many posts I will have to work my way through over the next few days! Not just the normal posts from the blogs on my reading list, but also around 800 blogs, which are participating in the " One World One Heart " event. 800 SO FAR, that is.

Not only that, but I also only just managed to get back in time to take part in the Every Inchie Monday challenge for this week, as well as the Tag Tuesday challenge. Gulp. As the inchie challenge week finishes today, I thought I had better get cracking on that one first. The theme for this week was "mirthful". That immediately made me think of jolly old garden gnomes with their red apple cheeks and their twinkly eyes and their ever present mirthful laugh. The gnome image came from a book I have had for 30 years, and which I adore, simply titled "Gnomes", by Rien Poortvliet and Wil Huygen.

Here it is then, my "mirthful" inchie -

It turned into a bit of a 3-dimensional inchie, because of his rather big cap. I scrunched it and pulled it straight up, and I quite like the effect.

Thats it for now, got sooooooooo much reading to do and Tag Tuesday challenge tag to make.

Toodlepip xxx

Tag Tuesday Challenge and a quick au revoir

Yikes! We made a last minute decision this afternoon to go to our cottage in France tonight. The weather here in our part of the UK is so crappy at the moment, we can't work on the outside of the house like we had planned, so we might as well go to the cottage now rather than in a couple of weeks' time. This meant, however, that I have been rushing around like a loony, getting everything ready. You know, packing, last minute shopping, emails to be sent, letters to be written, people to be informed, etc etc.

I didn't want to go without completing the Tag Tuesday challenge though, so I made the tag with the "Valentines" theme this evening. I had to photograph it with a flash, and I really dislike that so much, the camera flash is so harsh. So the photos are pretty rubbish. Couldn't even decide what sort of background to use, so I am giving you 3 to look at, lol. And that is about it. I still have to get a little bit of info together for some geocaching in France, lolol. Purely because we have some trackables which need moving on. Not because we are a wee bit keen, lol.

As you know, we don't have internet access at the cottage, so I will be out of touch for a week and a bit ( back next Sunday ). I'll try and catch up with your blogs as soon as I get back to England.

Anyhoo, here is the Tag Tuesday Challenge tag, theme " Valentines " -




Au revoir, toodlepip, and have a lovely time, doing whatever you like doing best xxx

Every Inchie Monday on Tuesday, late again, lol

This week's inchie challenge on Every Inchie Monday really was quite a challenge, the word we had to interprete was "maudlin". Hmmm. Ok, I knew the meaning of the word, but I just couldn't think of how to combine that with my usual vintage/victorian style.

I knew the kind of image I wanted. I knew the words I wanted to use. I also knew that I didn't have anything remotely like the image I needed on my computer. Enter one loudly complaining son, a beer mug and a trigger happy, camera toting mum, lol. It took ages to get the kind of photo I needed, because we both burst out laughing every couple of seconds. In the end it was the very last photo I took which turned out to be THE one. Because by then he was thoroughly fed up. I messed about with it a bit in Photoshop, and there you have it, completely different to my usual style,

My Maudlin Inchie -


I ought to be doing my Tag Tuesday challenge as well, but, guess what? We have been geocaching again today. It was a beautiful morning for a change. DH always takes the dogs for a walk in the Firehills, and as there were a few caches listed in the Firehills, DS3 and I decided to accompany him on his walk.

The first cache we looked for was right in the woods. The dogs were no help at all, but were very intrigued when they saw DS3 and myself hunting around through leaf mould and digging under fallen ivy covered trees, lol.


Ahem, there were so many fallen trees close to the co-ordinates, we tried quite a few before we found the right one. This was the cache with little swaps, hidden under the fallen tree -


See that Guinness beer mat in the middle? I swapped that one out. I thought it was a nice image and could well be used in a collage...... Crafting is always on my mind, lol.

Cache found, we then caught up with DH and the doggies, and did the usual round with them -



Two nicely tired out doggies were then taken home by DH, and DS3 and I then started looking for another cache. It was a thoroughly lovely womble -


Sitting on one of the clues to lead us to the cache -


The sun was so bright, it created really interesting silhouettes -


Lovely way to spend a few hours with mother nature.

My DS3 had worked up such an appetite, we decided to have a proper English Fry Up when we got home. He demolished all this -


Don't worry, we only have this once in a blue moon, maybe once or twice a year. But we really fancied it today. Must have been due to the bracing sea winds.

And my Tag Tuesday challenge tag? Well, that will be a Wednesday one, again, lol.

Toodlepip xxx

Etsy Cottage Style Colour Party! BLUE

A brand new blogging get-together for 2011! If you would like to find out a little bit more about it, you can check it out HERE or click on the pic in my sidebar.

This month's colour is blue. Hmmm. I don't have a lot of blue in our Victorian house here in England, but in our cottage in France, I have a few things! In the little blue bedroom, for example -

A lovely old dark blue trunk, with a little display of blue glass, the sweetest little blue and white teddy, and a matching photo album, and two framed prints -


A gorgeous antique Durham quilt on the bed -


A blue Lloyd Loom chair, which I love -


and a vintage granny square blanket, which goes ever so well with the Lloyd loom chair. Bought years and countries apart, lol, but they are a happy marriage -


A very vintage French game -


Vintage French tin -


A fabulous old wash basin, which I fill with pink or red geraniums in the summer -


A blue and grey felted bead necklage -


Vintage French house numbers, such a gorgeous rich blue and soooo collectable, I had a hard time haggling for these at a vide greniers -


And last but not least, another gorgeous blue glass vase, I adore that colour -


Bit of an eclectic mix, lol. I didn't have time to search through our house here in England for the few blue things I might have, so I chose to show pictures of blues in the cottage in France.

Toodlepip xxx