Oh good grief, I couldn't subject anybody to such a performance, doesn't bear thinking about, lol. Cringe. But there you have it, it is silly title day again today, trying to get the Every Inchie Monday challenge and the Tag Tuesday challenge into one blog title.
MELODY was the challenge word over at Every Inchie Monday. Whilst looking through my old sheet music books, I came across this wonderful song title, Ghost Melody, and of course I had to go with that one -
And over at the Tag Tuesday blog we are up to the letter U. I really wanted to do Unicorn, but could I find an antique or vintage image which I liked? No, I couldn't. But, while I was unpacking bits and pieces which I had brought back from France, I came across a couple of pieces of beautiful 19th Century undergarments, and that was it, I had to go with UNDIES! -
The background is an advertisement for corsets, and the Victorian young lady is wearing just such a contraption. My goodness, can you imagine being tortured like that? And still smile? The embellies are the sort of pinky/peach/flesh colours so often used for these female UNDIES.
I have started taking pics of some of the things I have brought back from France, and will carry on editing them tonight IF my camera behaves. Hopefully, I will be able to post the pics tomorrow ( probably on the vintageland blog, as I don't want this blog turning into a shop promoter ).
Until then, toodlepip xxx
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
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
And I am so delighted with them. Every single one of them is a little work of art and a thing of beauty. I took some quick photos of them with my little Fuji camera, as my Nikon has let me down :(, but they really don't do them justice. A huge thank you to Kimberly for hosting this fabulous swap and to all the participants for putting so much work into their beautiful ATCs -
From our swap hostess, Kimberly -
Marsha -
Amy -
Marlene -
Jewels -
Carolyn -
Maggie -
Karla -
Terri -
Becky -
And moi -
Gotta rush, its dry out there at the moment, time to get the veggie seedlings in. We have decided to go back to England for a few weeks as the weather is just so horrid here and has been for most of the six weeks we have been here, the veggies aren't growing anyway, and we spend all our time inside, sigh. And the forecast for the next 7 days isn't any better. So we think it is better to come back in 4 weeks' time when everything is growing properly, and stay for three months rather than two. I am frantically packing, so probably won't post or email or comment until the weekend, when we are back in the UK.
Toodlepip xxx
All this rain is making sure that I complete my challenges on time, or even ahead of time, would you believe it, when normally I am late with everything.
The challenge over at the Every Inchie Monday blog was FLOWERS. Well, a little bit of sparkle goes a long way towards cheering me up, so I coloured the background of the inchie with blue, green and brown chalk inks and cut some vintage Swarovski trim apart to make the flowers with -
Very happy with this one, it makes me smile.
On the Tag Tuesday blog, we are now up to the letter T. So few letters left!!! I think I must have been watching a romantic movie before I made this tag last week, because I felt in the mood for a romantic tag featuring the tenderness of a loving young couple -
There you have it, T for Tenderness.
On the French breakfast news this morning we saw pictures of the unbelievable devastation those tornadoes have caused. This is so desperately sad, and my heart goes out to all the people who have lost so much. I have bloggy friends who live in those areas and I crave the news that they are safe.
Love and hugs to you all, you are precious friends. xxx
Too much excitement on a Sunday afternoon, lol. I was just checking my Etsy store to see whether anything needed doing, and noticed that within an hour or so 40odd people had favourited things in my shop. HUH? So many people within an hour? What was going on? And then it dawned on me that only one thing could have happened............. one of my little treasures had made the ETSY HOME PAGE! Yep, there it was, my gorgeous vintage French Crinamine tin -
I know, I am totally doolally getting all excited about that, but gosh, how often does it happen that one of your treasures makes the front page?
But enough of that, girls, here is a quick update on the GIVEAWAY for the fabric cuff. Just leave a comment on the original post, and you will be entered. I will make the cuff to fit the winner and also discuss with them colours etc. And to see whether I have some brocante finds which might suit them. You could put this button on your sidebar -
This is the link to the post - http://lululizinlalaland.blogspot.fr/2013/05/fabric-cuff-no-2-oh-and-as-afterthought.html,
if you would like to link the giveaway button to the proper post.
I will draw a winner the traditional way ( bits of paper in a bowl ) on Monday, 27th May.
Toodlepip for now, xxx
I had so much fun making the crazy quilt fabric cuff following Sandy Babb's excellent tutorial, that I decided to make another cuff. Different to the first one, of course, I didn't want it to be a copy of the first one.
I used a small doily for the focal point of the cuff, and embellished the cuff with beads, freshwater pearls, Swarovski AB crystals and other bits and pieces -
Like the first one, it is lined with a very soft vintage French flannel fabric. I could get quite used to wearing these cuffs, I think they look gorgeous on your wrist. Perhaps not when I am grubbing around in the garden, planting my tomatoes, lol. Ah well, there is no chance of that at the moment anyway. Yes you guessed it, it is chucking it down again. We had a couple of hours of no rain this morning, which was very fortuitous, as there was a little brocante near us. Found a few things, but minutes after we got back home, it started raining again. And hasn't stopped since.
Do you know what? Just to cheer myself up, I think I will have a little giveaway. Fancy a fabric wrist cuff for yourself? Leave a comment on THIS post, and in a week or so I will draw a winner. I'll make a custom wrist cuff for you, and might just include a brocante find or two....... Hmm. As I have only just thought of the giveaway, I will have to have a think about the details, dates etc. I'll let you know in my next post, but start leaving your comment HERE right now.
Have a lovely weekend wherever you are, toodlepip xxx
Sounds a bit silly? Of course it does, lol, you are right, time for this week's two challenges again. Over at Every Inchie Monday it was TRACKS, and on the Tag Tuesday blog we are up to the Letter S this week.
I chose SMILE for the letter S and made this tag -
I thought her smile was a little teasing, a little coquettish, but also very sweet.
My Railway TRACKS inchie this week turned out to be a bit of a railway disaster, lol. Made the track with bits of metal coloured wood for the rails and black coloured straw for the sleepers. Just looks messy to me.
Oh well, I'll try and do better next week.
It has been raining for days again here, so I have spent a little more time in the craftavan. I made another fabric cuff today! If the light is good enough tomorrow, I'll take pics and show you :-). And if the light is good enough for long enough, I might even be able to take pics of my brocantes finds.
Thats because I promised you after last week's Blissful Whites Wednesday post that I would show you more of my antique and vintage lace finds. Becky is taking a well deserved break from BWWs until June 4th, so there will be no linky party on her blog, but I will continue with the Whites on Wednesday because I love it. So there.
It is getting more and more difficult to find old lace at the brocantes these days, but every now and then I get lucky and find a few pieces. This gorgeous, very fine lace piece was part of a sleeve, I think. Soooo fine, so pretty -
Some pieces, like this one, need a jolly good soak -
others have rust marks, wich are very difficult to remove, but can be worked around sometimes -
Hand embroidered broderie anglaise is always so beautiful -
And then there are the very fine net laces, bobbin laces etc -
A pair of beautiful inserts -
And some pieces of thicker cotton laces, always great for using in collages etc -
Also found this tiny little treen needle holder and the tiniest little cotton reels at a stand where I bought some of the lace -
For next week's Whites I'll probably take pics of the beautiful monogrammed table cloth and matching 12 serviettes. I love love love damask table linen, especially when it is monogrammed, so very Downton Abbey!
