Mail From Milan!

I'd barely got home today from lunch with my dancing buddies Lynda and Deb (none of us actually get to belly dance classes anymore, but that's where we met, so, 'dancing buddies'!) when someone was dinging my doorbell. Oooooohhhh!! A parcel courier!! Well, I'd been expecting a parcel, so you can bet I was pretty excited, and sure enough ... it was the parcel that Cristina from Milan (no blog) had told me to expect!!

Most of you will know that when I took part in Helen's Stitchers' Angel Swap, my parter sent me a stitching giftie on time, but it's currently touring the world courtesy of Hungarian Post (hmmm ... not sure that's what they are really called, but you know what I mean!!) and after Helen posted a list of us who hadn't received a giftie, I had three lovely ladies offer to send me make-up gifties! Joy and Marie-Joze` have already spoilt me with lovely parcels and Cristina was the third generous stitcher to offer a make-up giftie. We've been cyber chatting via email for a while now, getting to know each other (and I've been treated to lovely photos of Cristina's family!!) and last week Cristina said she'd sent my parcel with the courier. She then teased me with an update that it had reached Singapore on the weekend .... ooooooooohhh!! The suspense was nearly killing me!! Tee! Hee! Hee! so now you know why I was so excited to see the courier today! (I did manage to refrain from hugging him, I'm not sure his nerves would have coped with a strange woman launching herself at him! Tee! Hee! Hee!)

I opened up my much-awaited parcel and found ...


WOW!! A wonderful, big stitching folder that has the cutest dolly and teddy bear on the front - and they obviously enjoy stitching too! And there was a sweet little bag for storing buttons, with some wonderful bear-shaped buttons to get me started, a handy little pin cushion and some burgundy rick-rack - all featuring teddy bears somewhere, in the stitcheries or in the buttons on them! How wonderful ... but wait, there's more! Look inside the folder ...


Some very handy pockets to store thread, patterns etc and the felt patches to store needles are also shaped like teddy bears!! Hmmm ... if I pop my needles and pins into these cute shapes, they will look like piercings and I'll have the only punk bears for miles around! Tee! Hee! But wait ... there's MORE!!!


A lovely cross-stitch magazine and a postcard featuring a historic Italian castle. And although I can't READ the magazine (unless I take a crash course in Italian!!) I CAN follow the patterns and there are some super cute patterns in here, too! Uh oh!! There goes my "To Do" list, growing like Pinnocio's nose! Tee! Hee! Hee! Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much, Cristina!! I feel VERY spoilt - AGAIN!! And another thank you to Joy and Marie-Joze` for the wonderful surprise parcels they sent me, too. When these gals contacted me, I said we'd make it a little mini-swap, so guess who now needs to get stitching!! I think that's enough to keep me busy for a little while! Tee! Hee! Hee!

And of course, I'm still working on blocks to send off to Karen at Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop to be made into quilts of hope for the victims of the recent bushfire disaster. There are a number of different bloggers co-ordinating quilts of hope/quilts of comfort, so if you'd like to be involved, there's lots to choose from. In fact, some people were getting a little confused, so Helen has published a blog page listing many of the appeals/block collections etc, so pop over for a peek if you'd like to contribute, but don't quite know which direction to take. Peg's blogging buddy Lorraine (sorry I don't have the link, but pop in to Peg's blog as she does!) is organising a collection of stitching/craft supplies to make up Sanity Saver packs to go to people affected by the fires. So, I've been rummaging through my craft supplies to find some handy bits and bobs to send off. Man oh man! My mate Raymond at the Post office is going to LOOOOOOOVE me this week! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's weekend, whether you got all gooey and sentimental, or like my beloved Geek Boy and I, gave each other a smooch and bought chocolates on special when we did the groceries!! I had a very productive stitching weekend ... but can't show you ANY of it yet, cos they are all Secret Squirrel projects!! Aaaaaarrrghhh!! The Suspense!! :0) So I hope you don't explode before I can show you!! Til next time (provided you don't explode from unsatisfied curiosity! Tee! Hee! Hee!) Bear Hugs!

CHEERS!
KRIS