A Vintage White Christmas ATC Swap

I am so pleased that thanks to Kimberly's ATC swap, I finally got a bit of my mojo back and started crafting again. Might have taken me two days to figure out what I wanted to do, get all the bits and pieces together and then make the ATCs, but it felt really good. 

This was the stuff I finally decided to pick from for the ATCs -

And this is what I did with the stuff -

And while I was at it ( and had some orders to get out ) I made some tags for the lovely customers as well -

I am excited!

For the first time in months, I am really excited about crafting again. And I have Kimberly from ArtJoyStuff to thank for that. I used to love her ATC swaps and was so sad when she stopped, but......... the wonderful woman has just announced a new swap!YAY!

I do hope that lots of my blog friends will take part in this swap. You can find all the details here.

In my mind, I am already making a list of all the possible bits and pieces I could use on the ATCs, it will be so much fun to rummage through all my supplies again :-).Toodlepip xxx

A Roman church in a tiny French village

A few days before we came back to the UK, we went out for lunch with our friends Frank and Christine at a little auberge in a nearby village, inhabitants approx. 150 or thereabouts. After the meal at the local auberge, which was delicious, we went for a little walk through the village and I managed a quick visit to the local church. The small roman church apparently was restored in the 16th and 19th Century. It was beautiful, totally unexpected in such a tiny village, and of course I had to take photos of it. They didn't turn out too well, because it was so dark inside, but I just can't bring myself to use flash, it is so harsh. I thoroughly enjoyed the quick visit, so I thought I'd share it with you -

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, but I only had the phone and as I said, it was so dark inside even though it was a beautifully sunny day -

(Christine, Frank and my DH )

We walked past this lovely old house -

admired the colour and fabulous shape of this fire hydrant -

and puzzled over this weird little building -

I miss being in France. Our dogs miss mornings like these as well -

Toodlepip xxx

Oh Blogland, how I have missed you!

Apart from 1 week in June, we spent all Spring and Summer at the cottage in France. The computer gathered a lot of dust there, lol. We got back to the UK a few days ago, and I am just beginning to get back into my normal routine again. Part of that is of course blogging and visiting the beautiful blogs of the many people I follow. I have missed blogging regularly so much, thought about it so many times, but converting thought into action somehow just didn't happen. 

And we had such a wonderful time in France which I could have talked about. The family came to visit again for a week and we did so many wonderful things together, the yearly fete des voisins took place in August and was such a fun evening, we visited lovely places and exciting brocantes, we spent quality time with neighbours and friends and volunteered twice a week at a dog shelter, where we fell in love with so many beautiful furbabies.

I hope to be able to catch up just a little and post at least a few pics of our activities over the next few days, but for right now, I am just saying HELLOOOOO AGAIN with a few photos of our newly planted roses -

This one we planted last year and it really struggled in the drought last year, but I think it is recovering -

And because I thoroughly enjoyed looking through my flower photos just now, here are a few more for you :-) - 

This little flower, which looks so much like a sweetpea, is actually a bean flower. This variety of bean grows almost half a meter long! 

Aahh, the sunflower, you can't help but smile when you see one of these in the garden, they are such cheerful flowers -

I loved my flower trolley by the front door -

The white begonia is just amazing -

The sedum flowers are such a beautiful colour -

And to finish this post, a photo of one of the things I miss the most about being at the cottage, the amazing sunrises I was able to enjoy during my early morning walks with the dogs -

Toodlepip xxx