Could you "like" this bunny?

Rachel from Lovely Clusters challenged us to spread the word and get as many people as possible to visit her beautiful web calatogue.

The goal is to get the most "likes" for a single item and I chose my Bella bunny wristlet to run the race for me. So far I have 21 people on Facebook liking the purse, which, thanks to a lovely Etsy customer, got sold just before Christmas. But my bunny keeps on running and with your help it can get closer to winning (the contest ends this Saturday).

So if you have a Facebook account and a like for bunnies, please click "like" under this listing. Thank you!

Reset!

New Year's inspirations, clockwise from top left: 2011 calender from camillebellet, zippers from zipit, buttons from dizzyizzysupplies and the inspiration jar from thedancingwren.

I'm back from family Christmas holidays in Slovenia;

I brought home some new sewing supplies, some fresh ideas and hopefully enough motivation to start working on some new designs for 2011!

But first I have to sort out the inevitable mess the house gets left in each time we go away for a long time - and then: sewing. The shop needs some more Valentine's day items and after that it's time for spring inspired bags.

Ready - reset - go!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

... says the song.

And on top of that I wish you a relaxing time with your family and friends - so we can all meet back here in ten days, with recharged batteries, tidy creative space and head full of fresh ideas!

I might not have time to post much in the next week so I leave you with some Christmas market images from our town Pontarlier (currently under 25 cm - 10" of fresh snow) with its charming little labyrinth of wooden stalls and rows of Christmas trees and from nearby city of Besançon with its giant wheel that attracts huge crouds every day.

Besançon

Pontarlier

Loddelina shop will be on vacation mode until 28th of December.

See you soon!

A giveaway at Tika's blog

In Tika's garden giveaway deadline: December 18th

I fell in love with Tika's colourful clay jars the moment I saw them and now she is offering to give away one of them to a lucky blog reader. Visit her blog, In Tika's garden and leave a comment for a chance of winning this beautiful multipurpose lidded jar; you can use it to store garlic, candy or light a candle in it.

Hurry up, deadline is December 18th!

Sunday inspirations

New snow on juicy winter berries - a feast for hungry birds...

Happy Sunday!

Love is all around

I came across this lovely natural beige linen canvas and wanted to make some winter inspired zippered pouches out of it - yet it wouldn't talk Christmas to me...

Instead I felt like pairing it with cream lace trim, hearts and some words in cherry red embroidery.

Cheesy? Well, the Moon is made of cheese, right?

Two new Mia purses are now available in my shop.

Christmas tree

Last week my children and I started to decorate our appartment - I pulled a big box, labled "Noël", out of the closet and they happily took out the ornaments one by one.

We wanted to make a Christmas tree but there isn't enough room in our flat so I decided to use a big fir tree branch that I took from my mother in law's garden (thanks, Michou!) and put it in a flower pot on top of our new side table; I wrapped its bottom end in a plastic bag, filled with moist paper so it stays fresh for as long as possible. Since the branch is too heavy to stand on it's own, I tied it's tip to a hook in the wall.

We didn't use many ornaments, soft little branches couldn't take much weight - but we are happy with the result.

Now we have to hang some twinkle lights and put presents under our tree!

My day Monday

Sparkle!

Clockwise from top left: AMIdesign, TheBroochBoutique, bijouxdellostregatto, Jealousydesign.

The last two

First I want to thank Elisa from peskycatdesigns for being my Holiday Boot Camp buddy and congratulate her for completing the goal we set out to achieve together at the end of September - by today, December 1st, she added 60 new items in her shop, so almost one a day - excellent job!

I tried to follow her tempo for a while but lost speed after my 30th item or so. I spent all my free time sewing, even through naps instead of catching up on my sleep just at the time when caughing and sniffling childen started waking me up a few times a night.

I had to reset my mind, tidy up my work space and iron a mountain of laundry - and today I finished the last two zippered pouches, making my finishing line total of 34 items.

So here they are, the two new Mia purses, made from deep chocolate brown upholstery canvas and decorated with raw slik patches and freehand machine embroidered branches.

I hope they still catch some preholiday views and hearts; I set a deadline in my shop for international orders that need to be delivered on time for Christmas - the deadline is December 5th. So far I have had good experience with La Poste regarding shipping times to US, Canada or Australia and New Zealand, but one never knows.

So hurry up! :)

Front Page surprise

Last Thursday evening my shop was unexpectedly featured on Etsy's front page - my first FB feature since April!

This beautiful, calm and romantic treasury was put together by Fira from chomelkidswear, lovely fellow European Street Team shop for children's clothes. It featured my latest Pippa shoulder bag in golden mustard and aqua and the bag caught enough attention to be sold the next day...

Thank you!

Winter is here ...

... and the first snow on the last blossoms of autumn ...

... and warm, wooly slippers on my daughter's feet ...

... and more snow to come.

Days of the week

I recently did a friendly swap with Fallon, an Etsy friend who runs the lovely pillow shop Olive and two other shops with vintage treasures and supplies; and today my package arrived!

In exchange for my zippered pouch and a key chain I asked Fallon to make me a special garland to mark the days of the week. My son goes to preschool here in France and the classes are only four days a week with Wednesdays and the weekends off. Sometimes he finds it difficult to understand which day it is and whether we have time in the morning to play a little or if we have to hurry to school. So Fallon made me a banner of little houses in two colours, green for school days and blue for no school days, and she sewed the names of the days on them in French. She added a sweet little bird clip to attach to each house as the days go by.

I love the cheerful garland so much I decided not to hang it in children's room, where they don't play very often anyway, but to pin it on the wall by the entrance to our appartment, where we put our shoes and coats on in the morning. From our breakfast table we can see over the kitchen counter straight onto the wall and from now on the whole family will have our day "synchronized".

Button Wednesday

Wednesday is button day for Petronella, the creative force behind kraplap shop, who posts amazing "buttoned up" ideas on her blog every week. Today I can participate with these yummy wooden buttons that just came by post. I ordered them to spice up my bags - or just to look at them because they are so pretty, does one need more reasons?

If you want to join the Button Wednesday, post your link at Kraplap's blog.

Special announcement to Loddelina friends from outside the EURO zone:

I have changed my Etsy shop currency to euro. You will still be able to see my prices in USD, although not so nicely rounded up anymore, but once you make your purchase the payment will be made in euros to my PayPal account. This step was necessary due to ever-fluctuating dollar euro exchange rate and it will enable me to set more realistic prices for my items. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Thank you :)

Lovely Clusters

I decided to advertise my shop before the holiday season so I listed a few items on Lovely Clusters blog.

This catalogue of handmade creations is run by Rachel, who carefully arranges them by category or by colour into - lovely clusters. It is a real joy to click through the pages of beautiful, perfectly matching items, among which you can easily find a Christmas gift.

A fresh look

I finished another Pippa shoulder bag today and the winter sky was kind enough to let me take some pictures by the natural light.

I set up my photo shoot (using a piece of dark khaki paper for the background) on our beautiful old-new side table, a little DIY project from last weekend.

The IKEA side table with two drawers used to stand in our kitchen but in our new appartment there is no room for it any more. Since the table had a bit of water damage on top (from our tricky expresso machine) and the wood had turned yellow in some places, it needed a thorough sanding after which I repainted it in a brighter, pastel shade of pale aqua.

The picture doesn't show it but the day was very windy and my paint was drying faster than I would have wanted so the table ended with an uneven coat of paint and many little imperfections - it gives it a sort of distressed vintage look so I'm quite pleased with the result.

The table now stands in our living room, next to the children's corner and I hope it remains neat and tidy for as long as it's humanly possible...

Have a nice weekend!

Flashback Friday - tag me!

Tomorrow is my 20th High School graduation class reunion - I couldn't believe it was really that long ago until one of my school friends, the one organizing the reunion, sent us this picture taken in May 1990.

Don't laugh!

Ok, you may laugh, so did I...

But once you are done laughing at funny hairdos, geeky jeans and padded Tshirts, I have a little game for you: can you find me in the picture?

It is not easy so I will give you a hint: my outfit could participate in the recent Etsy European Street Team's challenge that I won - you might have to look a few posts back to find the answer...

The first one who leaves a comment saying which one in the picture am I (top or bottom row, from left to right), gets a handmade Loddelina surprise - and no cheating from those who are in the picture with me! (although I'll be happy to hear from you as well :)

Happy tagging!

Post your own flashback at Christopher & Tia's blog!

Christmas time approaches

The last christmas decorations were being hung over the streets of my town today and lights will soon be switched on - I am looking forward to that because the evenings are now really getting dark and gloomy.

Seeing those snowflakes and other winter decorations made me think of another November four years ago when I was in South Africa - skies over Cape Town streets look quite different, with elephants, giraffes and other savanna animals walking by.

Unfortunatelly we left the country at the end of November, before we could see the festive African look in person, so I found this image on flickr for you...

My day Monday

warm & brown

clockwise from top left: JurgitaMi, afra, BacaCaraJewelery, beliz82

I'm in a brown mood after having finally finished my new design - PIPPA shoulder bag .

Pippa is the younger, smaller sister of Pupa - she doesn't like to carry around a lot of stuff, just enough to go out on a date or meet your girlfriends for coffee and cake.

I find the new bag very practical - it closes securely with a magnetic clasp on the front flap and once opened, it yawns widely to make all the contents quickly accessible. Small interior zippered pocket will keep the smaller items in place.

Happy NOVEMBER special offer

November is usually a cold, rainy and, well, gloomy month - stuck between glamurous golden October and happy & merry December.

But it is also the month in which I was born (hooray for Sagittariuses!) and to share the joy with my amazing readers I decided to offer a 20% discount on all items in my shop until the end of November!

Just type this special discount code under Shop Coupon Code when you make the order and 20% will be automatically substracted from your order total.

NOV20LODD

the discount code is valid in www.loddelina.etsy.com shop until November 30th 2010

(valid for all items except those already on HOLIDAY SALE)

I will include a handmade blank Christmas card with each item so it's ready for gift giving - just add your personal message!

::: Happy November! :::

My day Monday

November chill

All items: EuropeForCharity on Etsy

Greeting cards

I like to shop for gifts on Etsy and it is always nice when the seller includes a little something extra for me in the package, knowing that I will be giving the purchased item away.

My recent customer bought three zippered pouches she intends to give as Christmas gifts - it made me think it would be a nice idea to include a little blank card with each item so buyers could add a personal message to the handmade present they give.

That little extra something for the customer who ends up giving all the goodies away will remain a secret ;) but here is how my little cards look like: I bought small lavender and aqua envelopes and put a piece of cream cardstock in each, drawing little winter birds and flowers on them.

At the moment I am trying out a new design, a small shoulder bag to add to the Loddelina family - so far the only fresh thing in my shop is a cheerful Mia pencil case, a perfect companion to this messenger bag.

What's new?

After a weekend break (with a visit to local DinoZOO with my children), it is time to go back to work!

I just finished a custom work, some decorative hearts, and added three new items to my shop: two house brooches and a zippered pouch.

Yes, I know, I'm "cheating" my way into reaching Etsy holiday camp goal by making only smaller items... But these days it is hard to sew bigger items fast enought with daylight gone by teatime... Still, more larger bags will be added in my shop in the next couple of weeks.

And to add some percpective regarding my work, I decided to join tumblr - you may find matwww.loddelina.tumblr.com! So far, after an hour of clicking around the site a bit, I have to say I like this mix of blog and social network, short and without all the unnecessary apps. Within minutes of joining and posting a few pictures I received some comments and one post got reblogged, a very friendly way to get known around the tumblr community and beyond. Keep tuned to see how this thing evolves...

*And for those of you who are wondering about DinoZOO; it is a theme parc with, well, dinosaurs and with everything you want to know about the prehistoric times - a very nice place to visit, even on a rainy Sunday.

My workspace

To reassure my Etsy Holiday Camp buddy Elisa that I am still pursuing our goal to add 60 new items in our shops by December 1st - here is a photo of my current work space:

A bit messy, with empty chocolate wrappers quickly put in the bin and bits of thread swept away...

Yesterday I listed the other wooly wristlet, a pale winter version, inspired by the latest EST challenge theme - snowflakes (you may see other entries so far HERE).

This morning we went to farmers' market with the children. I love chrysanthemum - and apparently, so does Lily.

In the afternoon I worked on some more house brooches. I was "sew" close to finishing two of them but then nap time was over and since it was another beautiful sunny afternoon I just had to take the children out again. The best choice was nearby cycling park, a place with nicely kept grass (thanks to more conscious variety of French dog owners) and paved, meandering cycling path where older children can safely burn their calories while mothers chat and keep an eye on toddlers.

More sewing tomorrow, I promise, Elisa!

And now - to bed.

Good night!

A view from my window

Last week we saw season's first snowflakes, mixed with rain...

But my suncatcher charmed the clouds away and the new week started with crisp, hardly-above-freezing cold, yet sunny weather!

I finished another wristlet today, made from charcoal grey wool cloth - cold weather makes me want to work with wooly fabrics again, but the colours are a bit too sad so I try to cheer them up with some hand embroidery.

One more wristlet is waiting by the sewing machine - I hope I can list it tomorrow, so far it doesn't feel quite finished, I have to take another look at it tomorrow by daylight to make up my mind...

Homemade play dough

Today is the first day of autumn school holidays, a week and a haf of hopefully not too cold and rainy days spent with my children. Some children workshops have been planned for next week and visits to Grandma as well, but I started preparing some crafting ideas, in case we get stuck at home with freeizing cold weather outside.

My children love to draw, unfortunatelly my youngest prefers to express herself on all other surfaces except the paper so she can never be left alone with a box of crayons. Her older brother loves to cut out things with scissors but that again becomes a dangerous tool in the hands of his sister.

So the safest occupation for both seemed the play dough, better still, play dough that they can eat (if only by accident). I first thought of salt dough - cheap to make but unfortunatelly doesn't stay fresh very long, according to some only a couple of weeks in the fridge. But yesterday I came across this wonderful post from The Mama Dramalogues blog, a source of inspiration, laughter and support...

image: The Mama Dramalogues

... - the recipe for homemade play dough. It requires some cooking but once made it will last for years and you can add food colourants and even some vanilla or peppermint extract to make it smell nice (and even more attractive for the children to eat...).

I will try it out in the next couple of days - I wonder if food colourants can be washed out of carpets, curtains and clothes...