Eloquent Acorns! They speak to you!

I love Acorns – and Pine Cones – and Broken Branches – and Conkers – and Sycamore Seeds (or as Daughters 1 and 2 used to call them:  Helicopters), – and Conkers (seeds of  the horse chestnut tree)  – and … well anything which trees give to us.  They’re all such wonderful gifts from Nature and given to us freely.  So making an Acorn project is an absolute joy!

These particular Acorns aren’t  ‘fallen from a tree’  Acorns.  These are cut and turned pieces of hard wood, shaped into beautiful little Acorns, sanded smooth and ready for me to do something wonderful with.  So I did.  I gave each Acorn a voice of its own and brought forth the positivity which I could feel just from holding the Acorn in my hand.

It was the oddest thing, but with each acorn I could feel a real feeling of uplifting comfort;  encouragement;  calmness;  peaceful and peace filled,   and .. oh … what felt like a hundred different feelings of wonderfulness.  I began to notice that upon holding each acorn in the palm of my hand, I would get a different word pop into my mind.  So I began to write the words down on my note pad.  And, as you can see from the photo’s – now, each acorn travels with its own word emblazoned on its little nut!

Each of the Acorns is meant as symbol of encouragement and positivity. 

Acorns really are little miracles.

I know that people now are too cynical and don’t believe in miracles, or there are some who are of the belief that miracles are the work of a dark force.  Whereas I …  aw,  I see miracles happen every single day.

This summer, I’ve watched the baby squirrels born in the tree tops, in the garden of Cobweb Cottage,  leave their nest,  with mommy in attendance,  and learn to carefully scramble down and back up the tree again.  I watched them day after day, slowly learn to race up and down the huge, tall pine trees, and laugh and cackle and ‘bark’ at each other as they’ve learnt to jump the wide spaces from one tree to another.  All the time they were keeping an eye on Miss Maisie the Cat who cannot understand how these strange, chattering creatures can move so fast!  And there I am,  stood in the garden,  giving thanks for being in the right place, at the right time, to witness the miracle of baby squirrels growing up and learning how to do what they were doing,  and smiling all the time, feeling blessed, because I was watching this miracle of nature.

I’ve sat in my craft room in the garden, and watched a Magpie learn how to play and get a bit of fun by standing on the high ridge of the Cottage and drop a pebble so that it bounces over and over down the roof and then finally hits the conservatory roof and flies off onto the decking where it makes a combined noise of ‘PLOP’ and ‘CRACK’.  And that Magpie LOVES his game.  So much so that he pops off, finds another pebble then comes back and goes through the whole game all over again.  Now … call me daft, but in my mind, him teaching himself this game is a little miracle to me, and I watch him in wonderment, all the time grinning like a fool – so much so that my face begins to ache!

I’ve heard baby birds in our nest boxes, emerging from their eggs and screeching for their food, when they hear the mommy bird land on the nest box with a beak filled with wriggling insects.  The miracle of life.  Nature.  Every day!  FREE!

Nature sends us Postcards all day every day, but unless you look up and see these Postcards then you’ll miss them and not see the Miracles that these Postcards hold.

And likewise …  Acorns are, for me at least, a Postcard.  And these Acorns, are my version of those postcards.  My interpretation, if you like.

Each one has a completely different, uplifting, positive, word of encouragement and meaning.  No two are the same.

They can be popped into your bag or your pocket and taken with you wherever you go.  Or, because they come with a ribbon on them,  they could be hung on a Christmas Tree, or a metal hanger, or maybe one of those crocodile grip/note holders on your desk.  Or simply put somewhere you want them to be, so that you see them now and again and they remind you of their message.

I have to admit that these weren’t a quick make.  I’ve been making these over the past few weeks, doing a bit now and again, then waiting until I can get to the next stage.  I knew how I wanted them to look so had already planned out how to get there.  But …  they did take rather longer than I would have liked.  

What’s that thing Confucius said about going slowly?  …  …  … 

“It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”

Yeah  …. that about sums up life here in Cobweb Cottage.  🙂  Wise man, that Confucius.

Well, that’s me done and dusted.  Now let’s get to the important bit . . .

How the dickens are you?

Is life treating you kindly?  Is everything fine and groovy in your world, or is something causing you a bit of trouble?  Feel free to unburden yourself and if I can help in any way, or suggest something you might not have thought of then I will.  If I can’t help then I’ll sit with you and just hold your hand.

If someone is bothering you, then you tell me who they are and I’ll put on my boots and come and sort them out!!  I might be little, but when I’m roused I am MIGHTY!  (and I can control a classroom of  noise makers  even when their own teacher can’t – simply by saying  …..  “ERMmmmm  Excuse ME??!!!!!”  In the right way, right tone, and right volume.  And yet … they all still love me afterwards.  LOL! – yes, it’s really true!).  So coming and sorting someone out for you will be a walk in the park!

BUT …  if life is treating you kindly and you’ve won a few pounds on the lottery (or couple of dollars), then do tell because I can then laugh with you as we plan your spending trip!  Maybe you’ve made a new friend?  Got a new job?  New baby?  New House? (Rabbit 🙂 ).  New car?  Old car back from the garage but with a lower bill than you expected?

Whatever it is, if it’s happening or on your mind, then share and/or unburden and we’ll have a coffee together and chew it over.  Oh…  and I have biscuits – so we can chew on those too!

For now, I must thank you so very much for coming, and for spending a coffee moment with me.  I’m so happy to see you here.  Seriously so.  You make the internet such a great place for me to be  . . . and I know that for some folks, it can be a bloomin’ nightmare!  So thank you.  You’re amazing.

Sending much love to you my fabulous blog friend, and wishing you a truly wonderful day.

 

Home under the Dome 3 ~ MEGA DOMES!

What’s that saying  ~  “Go BIGGER or go home!”?   We’ll we’re doing both here!

Although …  not going so big that you could see a ‘Home Under the Dome’ from Space.  I might be calling them ‘Mega Domes’ – but they’re still tiny. Small enough to put in your pocket.

Take a look at the measurements…  (the purple rule is in centimetres, but I’ve done the conversion into inches to help) . . .

The Home Under the Dome in the centre (above) is the regular sized dome that you’ve seen me make before.  (you’ll  find information about this little Dome later).

The Mega Dome on the right hand side of the above photo contains something very special,  because it holds a ‘Fairy Kiss’, and, of course, a Fairy Home[under the Dome] along with some Fairy Mushrooms and a few other tiny fairy things.  The Dome on the left hand side of the above photograph contains a Fairy Wish Tree as well as not one, but TWO Fairy Homes, and a bundle of Fairy Mushrooms.  Let’s take a look at that one first, shall we?

The tree really does have a tree trunk – but try as I might I couldn’t get it to properly show up in photographs.  The trunk is made from a piece of branch which fell from the humongous protected Pine Trees which are in my garden to the rear of Cobweb Cottage.

There are two Fairy Homes, and an assortment of Fairy Mushrooms – all freshly collected from Freckled Mushroom Wood ~ which can be found near to where I live – but is only known and shown to those who truly believe and enter with a pure heart.  If you look very closely towards the top of the tree, you will see the tiniest of Fairy Bluebirds, sitting happily in the tree. Can you also spot the really tiny multi coloured, sparkly butterflies?

What you can’t see in the photos above, is that the Fairy Wishing Tree was collected when there was a low breeze, and so it is held in suspension, or ‘frozen in time’, and bends slightly,  and the foliage still looks exactly as it did when the low breeze blew it – all blown and sort of ‘leaning’ in the same direction.  It looks like there is a gentle wind blowing inside the Dome. Magical!

The other Mega Dome – well that’s a special dome and possibly my favourite.  It contains a Fairy Kiss, which holds a Fairy Home and some Magical Freckled Mushroom.

It has flowers, and some teeny tiny buttons which the Fairies had collected and were using as stepping-stones up to their house.  Knowing that the Fairies wouldn’t mind, I gathered up just two of the minuscule buttons and added them to the base of the silver Thimble Kiss.

… The Fairy Kiss – is the Thimble you see holding the Fairy home and mushrooms.

Do you remember in the story of Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up, (written by Scottish novelist J.M.Barrie), who interacts with Fairies, Mermaids and Pirates (‘think’ Captain Hook!). Wendy Darling and Peter Pan became friends and wants to give Peter a kiss – which Peter thinks is the thimble which Wendy is holding, so holds out his hand to receive it.

That thimble from the story made a huge impression on me as a child and I grew up knowing that in reality, a thimble to humans, was a ‘kiss’ to a Fairy.

When my daughters were old enough to understand and treasure things – one Christmas I gave each of them a special gift from me of a silver bracelet (one each), which I’d had one tiny, real silver thimble hung on each of the bracelets, and when they’d opened their bracelets I shook my arm and showed them that I too had a silver bracelet with a silver thimble on it, and told them that wherever they might be in the world, and if I was ever a long way away from them, they only had to look at their bracelets and would see that they would always have a kiss from me.  They loved their bracelets, and the knowledge that they would always have a kiss.

Now lets deal with that tiny little Home Under the Dome which is in the middle of the two Mega Domes, shall we ?  . . .

 This regular sized, tiny Home Under the Dome (in the centre of the above photo) is quite a special dome, and it’s up for grabs!

Edit: 22nd July 2018:

The ‘GIVEAWAY’ is now closed to new names being entered into the ‘hat’.  Anyone adding their name from this moment forward is, I’m afraid, too late to be included in the ‘draw’.

  The Winner of the Home Under the Dome will be announced later today; Sunday 22nd July 2018.

This tiny little dome is packed to over-flowing with charm and has some very special features.  There are two tiny homes under this dome, both of which speak of the quirkiness and fun of the Fairies who once inhabited the homes – for both are slightly different in that they are wiggly wobbly.  Bending and curving just slightly.   They’re …. different in a special way.

It was difficult to show you what I mean in photographs, but you can just about see in the photo above that the tallest of the two houses begins at ground level and then curves backwards and, had it been taller, you would have seen that it’s on it’s way back to curve the other way.  BUT .. if you then look at the smaller of the Fairy homes – that home also curves and in fact matches the curve of the taller house!  How do the Fairies know how to do that?!!!  [gasp!]

There are blue freckled Fairy mushrooms, and also one teeny tiny red freckled mushroom, all growing in the grass.  But … there is something very special that I haven’t included in any Dome before . . . 

. . . there – in a ‘held in a moment of time’, is a tiny blue butterfly, which landed on a freckled mushroom, and is captured forever under the Dome.  This special Dome is now the subject of a Giveaway for followers of my blog.

Edit: 22nd July 2018:

The ‘GIVEAWAY’ is now closed to new names being entered into the ‘hat’.  Anyone adding their name from this moment forward is, I’m afraid, too late to be included in the ‘draw’.

  The Winner of the Home Under the Dome will be announced later today; Sunday 22nd July 2018.

If you would like to be the custodian for this Home Under the Dome, and you are a follower, all you need to do is:-

• In a comment on this blog post, put the word  ‘GIVEAWAY’ right at the beginning of your comment.  Put it before you type any other word – this helps me to find those folk who would like to be included in the chance to be the new Home Under the Dome, guardian.

And that’s it.  That’s all you need to do.

If you can’t find the comments box, then you need to scroll all the way to the top and click on the title of this post (‘A Home under the Dome 3 ~ MEGA DOMES!’) – and that will load the blog page this time with the comments box – which will show up at the bottom of the post.  (You can also read any comments other people have put too!)

Please remember that the Giveaway is only open to followers of The Cobweborium Emporium Blog.

Edit: 22nd July 2018:

The ‘GIVEAWAY’ is now closed to new names being entered into the ‘hat’.  Anyone adding their name from this moment forward is, I’m afraid, too late to be included in the ‘draw’.

  The Winner of the Home Under the Dome will be announced later today; Sunday 22nd July 2018.

Well, crafty wise,  that’s me done and dusted.

However . . . I’ve learned some things this week that I’d like to share  . . .

1. Don’t trust that the new receptionist at your doctors has actually booked you in to see the doctor you told her you wanted to see, but instead might (accidentally) book you in to see some doctor in the practise you’ve never seen before in your life.  [sigh]
2. That although your husband/partner normally has the worst memory in the Universe, sometimes they will surprise the heck out of you and know exactly where to find a particular thing, that you know you have, but WHERE THE DICKENS IS IT?!!!
3. I’ve learned that I haven’t lost my power to bargain with stores and get a better deal than they first offer you.  SOOOO happy, and Mr.C is in awe!  (But I don’t go in for hero-worship so … ahh, no … a little hero-worship is great for the soul – so long as it’s only for a moment).
4. I’ve finally admitted that my big boy cat, [read ‘small Panther’], Alf Capone, is, quite frankly,  the nosiest cat in the world.  He likes to sit or ‘lounge’  anywhere at the front of our cottage where he can observe every single thing which goes on in the area where we live.  Any neighbour who comes or goes, doesn’t do so without being counted out and counted in again.  Any car which drives past is registered – both in colour, make and model, for future reference by him.  He’s the laziest, nosiest, most beautiful cat with the biggest personality, and he makes everyone laugh.  He’s also the biggest eater.  We’ll go bankrupt with this cat.  He can really put it away!  (But then, he is a huuuge cat – so I guess it’s understandable).
5. Finally …  I’ve learnt that ‘accidentally’ being booked in to see the wrong doctor actually might be beneficial – so don’t discount seeing someone different when the need arises, for a fresh set of eyes looking at things differently and can sometimes come up with what possibly might be the answer.

I’m sure I’ve learned more than these things, but my one brain cell can only hold so much information, and when there’s too much going in it forces the brain cell to ‘evacuate’  some older things in order to make way for the new stuff.  (But I wish that it would hang onto passwords or at the very least be organised enough to stick post it notes to the inside of my skull!)

All that’s left for me to do now is to wish you a truly wonderful week.  May reality be better than your dreams!

Have a blessed day all.  Sending you heaps of squidges and lots of love ~

Edit: 22nd July 2018:

The ‘GIVEAWAY’ is now closed to new names being entered into the ‘hat’.  Anyone adding their name from this moment forward is, I’m afraid, too late to be included in the ‘draw’.

  The Winner of the Home Under the Dome will be announced later today; Sunday 22nd July 2018.

Christmas Wishes, Ho Ho Ho, and a Snowman ~ all handmade cards!

Like the proverbial bad penny, I’m back again, this time showing you some more of the cards I made for neighbours.  I’d got to a point this week where time was of the essence and I needed to find quick, simple cards which contained a smile – so these are a tiny selection.

I made quite a few of these Ho Ho Ho cards, on different shaped and sizes of card – some of which went into the post – but the ones going through the mail system: I lined one side of the envelope with some good gsm cardstock, so that the buttons wouldn’t split the envelope, or get damaged.  So if you make some of these which are going through the mail system, just line your envelopes with something which will take the brunt of any machinery or bad handling.

I made these with different coloured buttons and really mixed it up, depending on who I was sending them to.  But have to admit that my favourites were red buttons.

Another red button Ho Ho Ho,  ↑  but this time made with a square card as a base.

This Snowman card is destined for a neighbour with two children.  I thought it would raise a smile with them.  (And you can never go wrong when you add googly eyes.  Doesn’t matter what you add them to…  letter box…  CCTV camera warning signs …  wrapped sandwiches in lunch boxes.  Nope, you can never go wrong with googly eyes).  👀

Finally … the one that I think is my favourite …  more buttons again, but used as hanging baubles.  There’s something so friendly about these that they just make me smile.

Items used for these cards are:  an assortment of buttons, a black fine nib pen, Dovecraft Ribbon, Kuretake Clean Colour Brush Pens in 2 different colours of orange – for the snowmans nose;  Googly eyes; and the letter  ‘h’  from a set of alphabet stamps which I got free with a magazine about 12/14 months ago.

You may have noticed a Tree on one card, in the feature photo at the top of this post ….  (I repost this picture, to save you scrolling up again). . .

….  the tree card is in the middle at the back.  I forgot to take an individual photo of that particular card, but it’s made using a Christmas Tree made from Bark, which I bought from Anna Marie (in the UK), and I added a glass star to the top then used Stickles to add red baubles and Stickles in Christmas Green (a mix of green and red) to add ‘tinsel’.

And that …. as they say … is all there was to it.

I got the idea for almost all of these cards from Pinterest last year – but didn’t use the idea.  However, with time running out fast I looked around my craft room for things that could make plenty of cards in a short time …. the buttons yelled and waved at me from the shelf, so I took them up on their offer.   If you get yourself a little production line going, you can get plenty of these done in the blink of an eye.  I highly recommend them to those of you who are attempting to stretch the remaining hours before the day.

Thank you so much for coming, I love knowing that you’re here, so do stop and say hello in a comment, if you have time.

Sending Christmas squidges to all ~

 

The Fairy Wish Tree ~ a handmade card with a difference.

What would you wish for if you were stood under the boughs of a Fairy Tree?  Only one wish.  That’s the question I asked myself as I was in the middle of making this card.  I still haven’t actually come up with an answer that I’m happy with.

The Fairy Wish Tree. ~ the tiny white dots, aren’t white dots at all …. it’s very fine glitter.

I have to admit, that this card was one of those cards where I liked the idea of what I’d planned … then began to make it, and found that I fell out of love with it. So I put it on one side and began something else.  Then, a few days later I told myself that I’d ‘made it that far, so you might as well get on with it’ … so I picked up where I’d left off and continued with the plan.

Three times I fell out of love and three times I tried again, and again, and again … until I’d finished it.  And I’m SO glad that I did because now … I love it.

Where the front is more ‘quiet’ in colour, the inside is a riot and has colourful flowers, bird houses and dragonflies with multi coloured wings.

The little Fairy sat under the tree, is a very lightweight material – almost like a paper/wood mix.  I was making an order, on-line, and added her into my basket simply because I liked her.  I had no plans about what I’d do with her at the time.

The tree is a Tattered Lace die (I don’t own too many of that range of dies as I find them a little too fussy).  Cut out of white card and coloured by me.   Once I’d had the idea of putting her beneath a Fairy Wishing Tree, my next decision was that I wanted the card to have two ‘looks’.  One for day, and one for evening …. so I ‘built’ the card with a window, then put a little piece of shimmery stuff – I think it may be a plastic type of thing – which I bought years ago from Hobbycraft, in one of their sales.  I’ve used bits of it every now and again until I now only have a teeny piece of it left.  But it worked so well for the magical shimmery look I wanted to the opening  (see photograph above) and for hiding a battery operated T-light inside the card.

The T-light makes the glitter inside the card twinkle merrily too.

The card is a 6″ x 6″ plain white card,  which I die-cut to the size of the Fairy sat in the oval.

I’ve left the front without any sentiment so that I can be creative with the card and use it for any occasion what-so-ever.  Birthday, Anniversary, Thank you, Cheer you up,  Hello, ….  all sorts of things.  The design is such that it will ‘fit’ many occasion.

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee moment with me.  I love to see you and chat with you.

I make a wish that your day goes well – or went well for those of you who live on the opposite side of the world,  and will go well for those of you who are just waking up and about to go out into the world.

What ever you’re going to do today, do it with joy.  Even if you’re not really enjoying it,  find the joy  –  and then the task will be much sweeter …  and will be over with a lot sooner than it would if you did it in a grump.

Go bravely into the world and smile.  For the World becomes so much easier to deal with if you’re in a smiley mood.  May your God go with you.

Save

may I introduce Noel, ~ The ‘Merry Christmas’ Shaker Tree

Hello, and Happy Thursday!  I have another mainly white, with a dash of colour from the ribbon, and also from the sprinkles inside the shaker tree  –  card to share with you, direct from my craft desk.

Made on a 7″x7″ square white, scored card, and with a sheet of 7″x 7″ white card which the tree was cut from.

I love shaker cards – but the one thing I don’t love about them is how boring they can look when they’re stood up on the mantel shelf, and all the fabulous sprinkles fall to the bottom of the tree.  It leaves a card looking slightly sad and a bit miserable, because the receiver can only enjoy the card if they sit like a saddo, shaking the card.  (Which is fine if they’re a child, but a tad boring if in their 30’s and above).  So I devised a way of keeping some interest in the cut of part of a shaker card, and it’s really simple to do.  Just add a few ‘stops’ or streamers along the way, which the sprinkles get caught on, and will hold there, so that the shape you’ve cut out stays looking more interesting.

I’ve blown the tree part up in some photos – one with flash, one without, so that you can hopefully actually see the ‘streamers’ I built into this card.  This first photograph is with the flash on . . .

can you see how I’ve added some cut and shaped ‘streamers’ to the layer between the acetate and the back of the cut out – which I devised so that the sprinkles would get caught up in the shapes and wouldn’t all fall to the base of the tree, so keeping the shape (in this case a tree) more interesting to look at.

This next photo was taken with the flash off, so that it might show the ‘streamers’ better …

Can you see the ‘streamers’?

If you decide to have a go at this and do it yourself – don’t make your ‘streamers’ straight lines.  Give them some curves, so that you don’t end up with lines across your image – which could end up looking worse than nothing being there at all.  Oh … and don’t use glitter – because that can totally ruin a shaker card, as it’s a little divil and sticks to the acetate in such a way that it almost ‘fogs out’ anything else you may have in your shaker.

The greeting:  NOEL, was stamped using silver embossing ink,  teamed up with Tonic Embossing Crystals.  The stamp used was from a set of 6 greetings, made by Crafty Individuals.   I can recommend this company, both for their service and their products.  You can find this particular stamp set HERE  <— clickable link.  (I ordered these stamps and they were in my hands 3 days later.  I can’t say that you’ll get that ‘quickness’ right now, because we’re all living in the silly season right now, but I’ve found them, each time I’ve used them, to be very quick and efficient.)

To make the colours chosen for the sprinkles ‘pop’,  I added two lengths of Merry Christmas ribbon, in a lovely rich teal colour.  This ribbon was from the DoCrafts selection, and is a really fabulous weight of grosgrain.  Finally, I added a pearl star to the top of the tree, and voila …  Noel the Christmas Shaker Tree came to life.

I was aiming to get this card posted yesterday (Wednesday) …  but you know what they say about ‘plans’:-   If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.  He must be having a right old riot of a time up there in Heaven right now, as he reads down my list of ‘plans’.

Mr. Cobs and I went to see Little Cobs in his Christmas Concert with the other young members of his school year, at the Church near his home.  Ohhhhh…  I was wriggling in my seat and beside myself with joy.  I wanted to sprinkle rainbows from my eyes with happy and love.  Little Cobs was so over-joyed to see his Grammy and Grandad at the concert that he could be heard over and above any other noise, telling his teacher:  “That’s my Grammy!  It’s MY Grammy!  Look.  LOOK.  She’s there ”  <points finger>.  He’s such a darling, and it was such a privilege to be there.  (Not really well enough to go, but down right determined that I was going to be there, pain or no pain).

We came home,  and Mr. Cobs fed me lunch and then sent me straight to bed, where I spent the rest of the afternoon worn out from trying to escape the awful pain in my back.  He (my GP) has given me pain killers – and they do kind of work (they make the pain easier to live with) but they don’t last long enough, and even the smallest bit of doing ‘something’ causes whatever this is to flare up.  It’s become one step forward and two steps back.

OK.. moan and grizzle over with.  tsk tsk.

Well it’s Thursday ...  and I cannot believe how fast this week is flying past.  We have ten days until  YOU KNOW WHAT DAY!  But .. actually, I suppose I should say NINE days – because you can’t count the day itself – so  IT’S NINE DAYS TILL YOU KNOW WHAT DAY.  (and I still haven’t found a gift for Mr.C!  eek!)

Wishing you a truly lovely Thursday.  Make someone happy today.  Do something to make someones day a little brighter.  Buy them one of those big chocolate cookies?  Or maybe a magazine to read?  Perhaps a cupcake?  Something funny to put on their desk?  Some Christmas Socks? (men might find those a bit of a laugh).  Or just write down your most favourite joke, pop it into an envelope and deliver it to them with a wink.  That might get their heart racing, before they open it and fall about laughing.

Or maybe just tell someone how much you like them.  That’s bound to have a great affect upon someone.

Sending you love … oh … and do you know why I like YOU so much?  It’s because you have that special ‘spark’ about you which makes you fun to be around.  I really love seeing you here, and love knowing that you’re on the other side of my computer screen, having a bit of a smile with me.  So thank you for that.

Have a great day.  ~

Save