Yes, I know, I should be packing, not blogging...

Just a quick note then: I want to thank two amazing jewellry artists, Michele from steinschmuckdesign and Karon from WildWomanJewelry for including me in their beautiful treasuries!

Urban beauty

Lichens aren't flowers but they are enough to cheer me up on a cold and gloomy winter day. I found this rather Mediterranean looking wall close to my house and was amazed by the contrast of vivid yellow green lichen against the dark background...

My day Monday - Vive la France!

Loddelina is moving to France!

The shop will be closed from 1st to 7th of February so you might have to hurry up with your Valentine's day shopping - I will be able to ship your orders on time only if they are placed until 30th of January...

Etsy shops, located in France

Clockwise from top left: LaPomme, Pamela Angus, PeculiarForest, tortillagirl.

Fairytale features

My cold wintry Sunday ended with a hot-chocolate-with-whipped-cream heartwarming surprise from fellow Etsyians!

The first collection, looking like a page from a fairytale book, was made by Maria from HeartshapedCreations - her sweet little polymer clay miniatures have a very recognizable look you might have noticed on the front page recently, and the second mosaic was put together by Moonika from Kuutydruk, a charming shop with linen products, decorated with beautiful folk embroidery.

Thank you!

Journal

Yesterday a package arrived for me with this gorgeous leather journal I have purchased from kreativlink - I love Renate's work, her handmade journals are one of a kind and when you see the one you like you should grab it because they might be gone the same day they are listed!

I chose this lovely soft blue cover with hand drawn twigs design - it's a gift for my best friend who is expecting a baby boy any day now. As a creative person she might keep a small notebook at her side to write down quick notes and ideas before they flutter away like butterflies (like thoughts usually do when you have a newborn to concentrate on)...

New fabulous features

This week began with another bouquet of gorgeous features for Loddelina hearts.

First one, bee-oriented and sweet as honey, was made by BigGirlStudio.

The second one is a charming and romantic collection, curated by one of my favourite Etsy artists Elisa from peskycatdesigns,

and the third a sparkling mosaic made by fellow ESTian FebystanDesigns.

And to put the cherry on top, this cool and artistic Treasury, curated by Fluur, made it to the Front Page on Tuesday morning!

Thank you!

Craft Hope for Haiti

picture source: crafthope.com

Mateja, creative soul behind the lovely shop Funchi, blogged today about her participation in a very special project: crafthope. After the devastating earthquaqe in Port au Prince a new Etsy shop opened, selling donated handmade items with the purpose of raising money for Doctors Without Borders in Haiti.

Funchi donated three pairs of her knitted baby booties and two of them got snatched minutes after being listed (the third one didn't last long, either). It inspired me to do the same so I quickly contacted the Crafthope for Haiti - they have been listing new items constantly, more than 460 have already sold!

Since I don't have time to sew at the moment, I removed two items from my shop and sent them to crafthope - a drawstring pouch and a decorative heart.

Click on the crafthope button on the left to find out how to participate!

Other Etsyians have put their creative heads together and started different fundraising projects - like baahar, who has organized this give away to help the organization Architecture for Humanity.

My day Monday

This week it's all about packing - there are boxes starting to pile up in all the rooms, we are officially two weeks away from M(oving)-day.

Clockwise from top left: BHWorld, CampoDiFiore, SimpleTastes, PALEOLOCHICHomeDecor

This week's features

This week went by so fast that I forgot to show you the lovely treasuries my items got featured in.

Here is a collection of four treasuries, three of them featuring my decorative heart (which means I chose my new shop avatar well...).

Thank you so much, filofashion, JarosDesigns, baahar and one9designs!

Spring is coming... but not just yet.

Spring is coming, says this sign in a flower shop near my home. They offer a bouquet of 10 tulips for only 1.95 Euros (how could I resist, I bought one of the pale pink on far left).

But half an hour later, on my way through town, I captured this wintry sight by the water.

Oh, well, it would be a bit too much to expect winter to leave just when it's starting to have fun...

New challenge

OK, yes, I did say I will not sew any more items for the shop before our move but this is not sewing...

It is my entry for this week's EST challenge - Renate from Kreativlink won it last week and she chose the new theme: Make something you never did before (check out other entries HERE).

I never did any professional graphic designing, only for myself, so here is my attempt at designing a blog banner for a fellow Etsyian Kim from viltalakim. Thank you, Kim, for trusting me with this job!

And speaking of European Street Team: I am offering a 15% discount on all Loddelina handbags to members of EST - today only!

Wow, another front page

Early yesterday morning this lovely purple Treasury by creationsbyeve got featured on Etsy Front Page - including my decorative heart that got many new hearts and views!

Thank you, Evelyn, for making me a part of this splendid company of Etsy shops!

My day Monday

Clockwise from top left: ArtMind, Yoola, afra and Baghy.

Phew,

it has been snowing all day and even short errands like buying groceries or fetching my son from kindergarten have stretched into hours.

So my mood this Monday is pretty much snowed in...

BEA the boyfriendly tote

My latest listing (and the last for some time - at least until I set up my work space again in the new home) is this large city tote made from black denim and cheerful striped canvas.

It is a Valentine's day handbag with a bit of humour, inspired by this week's European Street Team's challenge. The theme is "Bring your inner child out to play" and HERE are all the entries, in a blog post by enchantedhue, who won last week's challenge.

The boyfriendly tote has a reinforced, zippered "boyfriendly" pocket in the back to store your date's wallet - so he never has to fish it out of the depths of your handbag, trying to avoid the lipstick and the tampax during his search...

The tote has two comfortable shoulder straps, a cotton lining with flowery pattern, an interior pocket and it closes with a magnetic clasp.

Ghost of a bicycle

Inspite of the frosty weather there are still some keen cyclists braving the cold every day (my husband included).

This picture was taken a few days ago in front of our house. The bicycle of our neighbour (the house has nine appartments) had left a print in the morning frost - it has been since erased by some fresh snow but the true cyclists don't realy notice it. The only problem, according to my husband, is unfreezing the lock every morning with a cigarette lighter...

And here is a charming treasury from brownbagvintage that warmed up my day - thank you, Michelle, for the feature!

Go west...

On the Etsy European Street Team forum thread there is always a big buzz of excitement when they count down the minutes to new spots opening on Etsy Treasury lists. The lists have a limited life time of 2-3 days and every day either a main list or so called test list of Treasuries West makes room for new curators.

This afternoon it was the "westies" opening and thanks to the lovely ESTsians Loddelina got featured in four of them. Thank you so much, FebystanDesigns, Kreativlink, HeliS and enchantedhue, for these amazing collections!

Treasury lists are like pretty shop window displays where everything fits together with perfectly matching colours and textures. I like to print/screen the most memorable sellections and keep them in an "inspirations" file - sometimes it even helps me track down a shop I have forgotten to mark as a favourite...

And this main Treasury feature came as a lovely surprise from mythunderstood, a funky jewelry and accessories shop. Thank you, Lisa!

It is almost 23h and I just checked the Treasury countdown clock on craftopolis - it looks like the main Treasury list is minutes away from opening - here comes the buzz...

Tulips

Picture: leapinggazelle

Yesterday, while grocery shopping before yet another bank holiday (you have to love Bavaria, from all the German regions they probably have the most public holidays), I bought myself my first bouquet of flowers in the new year.

As soon as I walked in the shop, I noticed that Christmas chocolates and glittering holiday decorations have disappeared from the most prominent shelves at the entrance - instead there were big buckets on the floor, filled with delicious bouquets of tulips in all colours of the rainbow! I love tulips and I don't remember seeing them in shops this early in winter. They were like a ray of sunshine on a cold and icy Tuesday so I came home with a bunch of 10 mauve tulips (costing less than 3 euros).

Double treasury feature

Icy january cold brought two new treasury features for Loddelina: the first one was made by Jetty from JKphotography and features my Winter romance heart. I love her cool and frosty sellection, but you have to check out her shop for some amazingly romantic photographs!

The second treasury is by seasides, a lovely place for sea glass and other ocean treasures. It suits the shop's name very well - gorgeous collection of blue hues. Thank you!

My day Monday

Sunny winter morning

clockwise from top left: madebysam, AuthenticFiction, MuddyRiverPhotos,

poppycat

A lot of European Street team members have a regular Monday post called Monday mood board, where ther feature items from fellow EST members that inspire them at the start of a new week.

I have long been admiring those little 2x2 miniature "moods" and one of my New Year's resolutions was to also start making regular Monday posts, featuring shops from all over the Etsy world - it seems a fun way to start each week and it gives poor Monday, a day with a bad reputation, something to look forward to...

A giveaway reminder

"Bee happy" decorative heart by Loddelina

Don't forget, this Thursday, January 6th is the last day to enter Dionne's holiday giveaway at City Of Dionne's blog!

And you do not want to miss it, there are tons of handmade goodies, spilling over the edges of your monitor, waiting for three lucky winners. No fancy rules, all you have to do is write what handmade presents you gave your loved ones this Christmas.

A new start

I wish a happy Etsy new year to the fellow shop owners and, as this lovely treasury says, happy shopping to us all - I love shopping on Etsy, it is such a special experience!

New year brought a very nice surprise from Kallia from KalliasWonderland, who included my heart in this romantic collection of pasteles.

I couldn't resist also adding a few pictures from Kallia's shop, these ornaments are just so cute!