Spreading a little happiness instead

I don't want to feel angry, scared, despairing of humanity any longer, I decided to spread just a little bit of happiness instead. So I finished a quilt , started many years ago, which my son Nick had been waiting for so patiently -

I sent some money to an animal charity, desperately trying to raise funds -

https://www.facebook.com/Help-Bulgaria-Street-Cats-and-Dogs-find-Forever-Homes-669151113196963/

I started a quilt for a little girl who is suffering from a rare disease ( daughter of one of my son's work mates )

and I am going to have a little GIVEAWAY! No photos, because I would like the giveaway to be something YOU really enjoy. So, if you love laces and fabrics, your pressie will be just that. If you love paper ephemera, your package will have lots of cool French and English ephemera. Like French vintage? Tell me the kind of thing you like, and I'll try and find something to please you amongst my hoarded French treasures -

Just comment on this post to let me know that you would like to win the givewaway, and what makes your heart beat a little faster :-).

I have also finally started on my Christmas cards - 

I prefer being happy.

Toodlepip xxx

Rain, glorious rain! And a Flash Giveaway winner

Woke up at 6am this morning to the sound of distant thunder and RAIN! Omg, rain, real proper rain, not just a light drizzle for a few minutes. How can I get so excited about rain? After 2 months of drought conditions, weeks of hearing the distressed cries of starving cows and having to fetch water every day to try and keep the veggies alive, this is such a blessed relief. Our three rain butts are filling up, the ground is getting a proper soaking, so we won't have to water the veggies for a couple of days, and maybe, just maybe, the fields around us will turn from a burnt yellow/orange to a little bit of green here and there.

This is our view this morning, gorgeous grey, yay -

I hope my painting stands up to the rain, lol -

Hector's favourite outdoor water bowl has filled up and is blowing bubbles -

There are tiny little puddles in the hollows of the large stones outside the door -

So here I sit with a smile on my face, watching the rain dripping down -

Mustn't forget to announce the winner of the little flash giveaway, must I? The name picked out of the hat is -

LESLEY UK

I can't find an email addy for you, Lesley, so please contact me with your addy and I'll get your win on the way to you.

My family is arriving on the weekend, and I am so very happy to have them ALL here at our cottage in France for the very first time. I think I might just have to have another giveaway in a week or two, so stay tuned :-).

Toodlepip xxx

A little surprise for one of you!

I had such a lot of lovely people dropping in to see my little craftavan during the Where Bloggers Create visits, I decided to give one of my visitors a little surprise - I held a secret giveaway! I collected bits and pieces from around the craftavan, lace of course, braids, a cabinet card, a button card, MOP buttons and sequins, a scrap of ticking fabric, a tiny key, vintage French seam binding, oh just look at the pics, and you'll see all the things I put together for one visitor -

And then I sat down and picked a winner the good old fashioned way. Whose name came out of the draw?

MAY, from May's Happy Daze blog!

I hope you can use the pretty little things I have put together, May.

Well, that was it really, I just wanted to once again say thank you for all the wonderful comments the visitors left on that post, it was such a delight to read them all.

Toodlepip xxx

Time to draw the WINNER!

Before I let you know who has won the giveaway for the custom fabric cuff, I just wanted to tell you a bit about the weekend. Its been sunny! Woohoo, warm rays on my skin, blue sky overhead (cold winds, but hey, its sunny!) and...... two bootfairs to go to as well, because it is a long weekend here in the UK, today is another Bank Holiday. I was so very lucky to see one of my favourite stallholders at the bootfair yesterday, a lovely fella who goes over to France quite frequently and buys up old haberdashery stock. You know what that means, don't you? Old lace, gorgeous old trims and braids, lovely wooden spools with fine woollen threads and all sorts of bits and pieces. More lovely things for the shop, of course.

But you want to know the winner of the cuff, don't you? Drawn the old fashioned way, the name out of the heart shaped box was...........

DONI, from the lovely Faith, Grace and Crafts blog! Congratulations, Doni, I will email you to find out the details to make your cuff.

Thats all for the moment, back tomorrow with the weekly challenges and hopefully some photos of the French brocantes finds!

Toodlepip xxx

FABRIC CUFF GIVEAWAY ends tomorrow!

Just a quick reminder that the GIVEAWAY for a fabric cuff made just for you is tomorrow. If you haven't entered yet, you can still do so on THIS post. Once I have drawn a winner, I will get in touch and discuss style, colours, measurements etc. 

We are back in the UK now and I am crazy busy of course. Hopefully normal service will resume soon ;-). Not sure I will be able to get my Nikon sorted out in the near future, so I might have to make do with my little camera for photographing all the lovely things I brought back from France.

Anyhoo, good luck to you gals who have entered the draw for the fabric cuff. I'll post the winner tomorrow.

Toodlepip xxx

Pssst.......... do you want to know who the winner is?

Well, its done. I gave myself writer's cramp this morning, putting all the names, and many of them twice, on little bits of paper, but........ I love the physical act of drawing a winner. All the excitement of filling the heart shaped box, shaking it lots of times, getting my hands in there and turning all the little pieces over and over........ so much more satisfying than an online random number generator.

I was bowled over by the response I had to this giveaway and all the really wonderful comments. New people found my blog, and I found new blogs to read and admire. Thank you all so much for visiting, taking part, commenting, and not just on the giveaway post, but on so many other posts as well.

Look at all these -


And the name which I finally drew out of the box, after much shaking and turning was -


Congratulations, Gerry, you have won the giveaway! I'll email you shortly. The 2 after her name was there because she had put the button on her blog, so she had a second slip of paper put in, and that was the one which won her the giveaway. Gerry is fairly new to blogging, so it would be really nice if some of you popped over there and said hello.

I was so chuffed with the response, and it was such a lovely morning with blue sky and sunshine, and I felt so happy, I decided to have a runner up prize as well. Just a little something to craft with, whatever the winner is into. And the name of that person is -


Yoohooooo, Kim! That would be you residing in the Sheep's Nest! I'll email you shortly as well.

Sorry all you other lovely people didn't win, but it won't be long before I'll get the urge to have another giveaway, I am sure. So stay tuned!

Have a lovely week,
xx

I'll have to disappoint you........ but I do have a surprise!

I didn't manage to make the second pillow today! Our darling Poppie girl had to go in for her operation today, you know, THAT operation, and I was way too nervous to do any decent sewing. We took Hector out to the Firehills twice for long walks just to keep ourselves occupied and from worrying too much. We were told to phone at 1pm to find out about the op, and were really relieved to learn that everything went really well and that she was being a really good girl. We were allowed to take her home at 3.30 and I am so glad to have her back with us. I know its not a huge operation, but you just never know. I'd probably worry about a broken nail, lol. So, the second pillow will have to wait til tomorrow.

BUT.................. its not all disappointing news, because I did say that I had a little surprise for you today, and of course, thats one thing I can't keep from you. I know I'd go nuts if I was waiting to hear about an exciting little surprise and then didn't find out about it for ages. So, here is the story -

A few days ago, I logged on to blogger first thing in the morning and was totally amazed to see that there were 100 followers! ONE HUNDRED! Now for me that was a giant milestone. When I started this blog last year, errmm, in May I think, it was just meant as a joke, because my dear friends JJ and Joy and myself were calling ourselves Lalalanders United, as the three of us were seemingly permanent residents in lalaland, lol. I had soooooooooooo much with the blog though, and somehow it grew, and people kept reading it and beautiful friendships were formed. It has become part of my daily life somehow, to catch up with friends all over the world, to share news and projects, to get inspiration from so many talented people out there.

I was really excited about the 100 followers, and wanted to do something to celebrate straight away, but I couldn't quite believe that the magical number would actually stay that high. After all, people come and go. So I waited, and instead of the numbers going down again, they went up, and now I feel almost safe to have a

100th FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!! Woohooo, yay, hurrah, yippeeeeee!

Now, what am I going to give away to one of you? Well, it seems that people quite like the idea of the lavender pillows I am currently making. How about one of those as a gift? You could email me a photo of someone/something you would like on the pillow, I'd print it onto fabric and make something similar to this


with it. Just for you. It will probably be a similar to this one as well, approx 25cm square-ish.

I also want to include a few other bits and pieces.What? Well, that depends on who wins, because I really want to the winner to be happy. So, if you are into paper collages, I'll include paper bits, ephemera, photos etc. If you like laces and buttons, well, there may be a little lace bundle and a bag of buttons waiting to find a new home. Embroidery? Threads and patterns, perhaps? Vintage fabrics? A little stack could be yours. Is beading/jewellery making your thing? I may have, ahem, a few beads, which I would love to share with you. The winner can tell me what makes their heart beat faster, and I'll try my best to get it right.

If you would like to be in with a chance to win this giveaway, then

LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS POST

If you feel like spreading the word, then you could copy the giveaway button in my sidebar and put it on your blog. Of course, you get a SECOND ENTRY for doing that. Just leave me a second comment telling me that you have done so.

I'll leave this giveaway open until Sunday the 14th, and will announce the winner on the 15th.

Well, that all folks, I gotta go and cuddle my Poppiegirl, she needs lots of love at the moment.

xxx

Who won the giveaway???

I really should have done this last night, but my DS No.2 and my almost-daughter-in-law and granddaughter Grace came over and we had such a lovely evening together. After they left, I didn't have the stamina to write out the names and do the draw.

But I did it this morning!!! I made sure that I put in double entries for all the lovely girls who put the button on their blogs. Almost got writer's cramp, lol ( well, that might be a bit of a fib, but hey, this is a dramatic moment ). I used my lovely big rosy heart box again


All those little folded up bits of paper filled my big heart box very nicely, see?


I shook it, turned it upside down, shook it some more, and got quite excited myself, lol. Who was going to win??? I had so many lovely comments about the giveaway, and I so want to see what the winner is going to make with those bits and pieces. I took off the lid
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stirred all the bits of paper up a bit more

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closed my eyes

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and picked out a paper.

And on that piece of paper was written a name
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Congratulations!!!

Oh, I forgot to tell you who won, silly me, lolol.

Enough teasing, the winner is - - - -

SADIE from the very gorgeous Cotton Rose blog.

Please email me with your address Sadie, and these will be on the way to you -


She has been making an extraordinary amount of lovely things lately, just go and have a look at her blog. I hope she will be able to squeeze in a project which uses the bits and pieces from the giveaway.

Thank you to all you lovely people who entered the giveaway. I really enjoy them so much.

xx

20 Minutes Update and a GIVE.......

AWAY!

I think I am allowed to use the time spent on the giveaway for my 20 minutes crafting session, right? I mean, I tea- and coffee-dyed paper, I spent ages printing, I sorted bits of lace and trims and probably used up two weeks worth of crafting time, lol.

Anyhoo, you may have noticed from a couple of posts that I have taken a bit of an interest in messing around with old papers, bits and pieces, altered art sort of thing ( very basic, hardly art in my case, lolol ). Remember this altered tin?


It seemed that lots of people were quite interested in that sort of thing, so I thought I put together a few bits and pieces to encourage you all to give it a go. It really is immensely satisfying to transform, for example, a naff old Hulahoop tin like this one into something pretty.

So here goes, first of all the paper kind of stuff -
What have we got here? Ermm,
- three pages from a very old book of sheet music, which was falling to pieces, otherwise I wouldn't have had the heart to take pages out
- two pages from an old dictionary, again falling to bits
- a fab old waxed paperbag from a French Epicerie with the shop name and logo
- old French bingo cards, one very old one and a few somewhat newer ones
- copies of - a vintage French postcard with a very pretty lady sending you kisses, two postcards with the prettiest writing, and two pages from a very old Vere Foster's Copy Book, Lettering.
- 4 pages of aged paper ( not shown, because they are still drying! )

Then we have bits and pieces. mostly fabricy -


Right, lets see what I have found

- a small piece of lovely lace fabric
- antique metal thread French braid
- a couple of length of fine old French cotton lace
- a couple of pieces of white vintage lace
- the prettiest little peachy pink lace trim
- gold wire edged ribbon
- vintage French woven initials
- small selection of old buttons, including MOP
- 3 teeny little roses
- a simple beaded flower
- 3 clock hands
- odd old French crocheted cotton, errmm, flower???thingy
- piece of purple netting
- piece of vintage French braid, deep deep red

Thats it, fancy having a go at altering something you have in the house and making it into a fab new thing? All you need to do is leave a comment on here, and I'll draw a winner next Sunday, 24th Jan, before we go to France. You could also stick this button-

in your sidebar with a link, and I'll put your name into the hat twice, just let me know on this post.

Have fun! xx

And the winner is........

not gonna tell you yet, lolol.

First, I want to thank all you lovely girls who entered into the spirit of things and put their names on the follower gadget. It made me smile to see so many new names on there as well as loyal longtime followers. In a way you have to thank Elizabethd for the nature of this giveaway, lol, because it was she who suggested that I really ought to have one of those follower thingies on my sidebar.

I had so much fun finding little bits and pieces, everytime somebody else joined. I know its only little things, but I hope that the winner will enjoy them nevertheless. They all have nice memories attached to them, for example the little bits of fabrics had all been carefully salvaged from dresses bought at jumble sales many many years ago. Because I am an oldfashioned patchworker, lol, I prefer recycling to buying new fabrics ( unless is CK of course, lol ), and I recall many happy hours spent carefully undoing seams with the boys playing under the fabrics, lol. The bloomers, oh boy, I remember vividly haggling for them at a French Vide Greniers, I may not speak perfect French, far from it, but I can haggle with the best of them! Buttons and laces, well, they carry memories of charity shops and jumble sale outings, such pleasure!

Anyway, I had better stop rambling on and on, you all want to know who the winner is, don't you? I was up nice and early and sitting at my desk before 7am (!!!) writing out the names of all the followers and putting in double entries for the gals who had the buttons in their sidebar.


And I got my darling Hector to pick the winner


And the winner ( stuck on Hector's tongue, tehehehee, getting a doggiekiss as well ) is...............
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Marigold Jam! Congratulations! Please email me with your addy so that I can post the goodies to you . Hopefully. If we have a postal service this week. Grrr.

Sigh, I feel a bit deflated now that the giveaway is over, feels as if something is missing in my day now, lol. But...... woohoo, I got a couple of Christmassy secret santas and swaps to get ready for, so all is well.

Have fun, xx

The 100th Post Giveaway is closing

So, before I go on to more mundane things, let me update you on the Giveaway. After the last Giveaway post, 4 more people joined, so I need to add 4 more items. Right. Well, Mrs Can't-Keep-Her-Mouth-Shut here rashly mentioned to a couple of people that if we got to 35 followers, she would add a special something, very French and very OOH-LA-LA. And here I am, with 36 followers now, and having to part with my Ooh-la-la item, lol! Although I have now closed the giveaway, I will keep you in suspense as to THAT item a wee bit longer, mainly because its chucking it down and its so dark that taking photos without a flash is impossible, and I don't like flash very much. Might have to use it though, I really can't see this weather improving today.

Anyway, the three teeny little items I have added are -

3 more of the lovely chunky off white vintage buttons ( at least whoever wins now has a decent set for a cardi or something ) -

a small piece of antique French red striped ticking ( came from a bolster which couldn't be rescued ), enough though to make two lavender heart fronts -

and 6 white lacy flowers, perhaps to decorate little white linen lav sacks or boudoir cushions with -

I suppose I really ought to try and take a photograph of the very last giveaway item, you gals want to know, dontcha? I hope you are all broadminded, lol, and don't blush too easily.......... and thats as much as I am going to say about that item, lol. Oh alrighty then, forget about me blogging about mundane stuff, I'll do that tomorrow, I shall now go and try and get some pics of THAT thingy. I'll update this post later on, in the meantime, why not put a few guesses forward, what could it possibly be?

UPDATE

Well, there have been a few guesses about the nature of the item, so I thought I'd give another little clue...... it may have lace attached to it -


Does that help at all?

No? Alright, then I'll UPDATE THE UPDATE! Here is another pic for you. As you can see, everything is completely hand stitched.......


No. 2 son and his family are coming round for dinner, so I probably won't be able to post anymore pics until gone 9pm or thereabouts. but I will try to not keep you in suspenders, oops, Freudian slip, in suspense for too long. Teheheheee. xx

UPDATE TO THE UPDATED UPDATE !!!

Alright then, I have made you all wait long enough. Some of you have already guessed, it is indeed
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A PAIR OF 19TH CENTURY FRENCH CROTCHLESS KNICKERS OR BLOOMERS!
I love love love antique French nighties, bloomers, all sorts of lovely boudoir things. I think they look adorable on a pretty hanger on your wardrobe door, or casually draped over a bedroom chair.

These ones are completely handstitched, the cotton fabric is lovely and soft, and of course there is no reason why you couldn't/shouldn't wear them............... dare you, lololol!

Thats it, no more goodies to go into the stash, and the winner will be drawn tomorrow morning. I'll make sure that everybody who had put the giveaway button onto their blog gets entered twice.

Night night now, and sleep well. xx

What have I gotten myself into?

Ooher, girls, what on earth have I gone and done, lol? After yesterday's update, more people joined as Followers. When I logged on this morning, we were up to 31, so I chose and photographed six more items, went back to the blog, and realised that yet another person had just joined! Back I went to the stash possibles and took some more photographs.

So this morning, I am adding 7 more items to the GIVEAWAY STASH. Is that enough info? Do I really have to upload photos and tell you in detail what the bits and pieces are? I suppose I had better if I don't want to get myself into trouble, lol.

Lets start with this little baggie. Hundreds, possibly thousands of tiny, sparkly, gorgeously twinkly beads to embellish your creations with. They came from a professional embroiderer ( embroidered dresses for some rather big stars ), so they are good quality beads -

Next, one of my handmade soaps on a gorgeous little vintage plate decorated with roses -
Just in case any of you are concerned, my soaps are all made with pure vegetable oils and butters and are fully safety assessed by a qualified cosmetic chemist ( they have to be in order for me to sell them, the regulations are very strict ).

Two little scraps of vintage rose fabrics, big enough to make little hearts with -

A big vintage button, two tone olive green, fab for a handmade bag, for example -

I also added this sweet little traycloth, embroidered with a crinoline lady and flowers-

Two more scrap pieces of vintage rose fabrics -

and 3 lovely chunky off white vintage buttons -
I really don't want to get the whole stash out again in order to photograph everything together, so if you want to check whats already in the stash box, go here.

Thats it for today. And I am not going to look again until much much later, lol. Any adding on which might have to be done will be done tomorrow.

Cheerio, Liz xx