It's Snowing In My Lounge Room!!

Well... SORT OF!! My SSCS parcel arrived late yesterday (while I was in the middle of end of month OPAM blog-hopping!) all the way from Finland, sent to me by Satu. See ... I said last week when my surprise 'just because' gifts arrived that I had a feeling my SSCS partner was more organised than me and posted pretty early! :0) This is what I found in my parcel ...

Pretty silver and white wrapping and a bright red envelope with my ornaments in. How exciting!!! I quickly put the main parcel away so I wouldn't be tempted to open it early, because I'm HOPELESS at keeping things wrapped until Christmas ... I'm like the kids who want to open parcels NOW! Tee! Hee! Hee! Inside the envelope was ...

A beautifully made card (Satu must be VERY patient to weave all those strips to make the pretty heart!!), a cute tin ornament and two GORGEOUS crocheted snowflakes! THANK YOU SATU! I love them!! I don't crochet much myself, so I really love to see other people's work.

There was just one problem ... we don't usually put up a Christmas Tree because our lounge room is quite small and by the time we get all of my collectibles and my Beloved Geek Boy's big TV in there ... there's no room for a tree. However ... Satu's snowflakes were so pretty that I REALLY wanted to be able to display them, so I went on a quest to find just the right tree. SUCCESS!! I found one that's about 25" high and a bit country/primitive looking - perfect for our green and red lounge room. So now in a corner of our lounge room, visitors will see ...

... A little bit of country Christmas! :0) There's my new snowflakes on the tree ... see ... it's snowing in my lounge room, just as my title says! :0) There's my country Santa I made quite a few years ago who never did get his beard cos I liked him so much clean-shaven, plus because he's not OVERLY Christmassy, he can sit in the lounge room all year round, so he KNOWS whether we've been NAUGHTY or NICE! Hmmm ... I have a feeling I know which one he would point to for me! Tee! Hee! Hee! And one of my other fave Christmas decorations ... my Christmas count-down Santa made for me by a clever painting friend from one of the lovely Kerryanne's patterns. EEK! Only 23 days until Christmas!! Actually, it will be funny to see how my friend Lynda reacts when she comes to visit. You see ... I'm not very good at remembering to change the countdown on Santa's blackboard, which brings out Lynda's OCD tendencies and she HAS to fix it if she visits! It's really funny to watch her TRY to restrain herself ... before she finally gives in! Tee! Hee! Hee! My theory is ... if I don't change it, I'll still have 23 days until Christmas for as LONG as I like ... until I change the number, so I might actually get everything done that I need to! :0)

Thank you, again, Satu for the lovely ornaments you've sent me from Finland ... where it probably is snowing for REAL! :0) And a big THANK YOU to the ultimate Christmas Elf, Miss Chookyblue, for hosting this fun festive swap!

OPAM'ers ... Peg and I have just about finished our blog-hopping to collect finishes, so stay tuned in the next day or so for Peg to announce the November winners. Just a little note ... we've been coming up against a few blogs that have been deleted, changed names, or made 'private' and they are now 'invitation only'. I understand that some of you may have reasons to do this, but if you do ... can you please let Peg or I know, or make sure you send us your monthly finishes, cos otherwise, we can't record your finishes and you miss out on a chance to win a prize in the end of month draws.

And last but not least ... if you haven't already popped across to Kerryanne's blog to take a peek at her "Simply Christmas" fun, you won't know what tutorial I've posted over there and you won't know how to enter the give-away, so take a blog-hop over and say "G'Day!" Lots of Christmas inspiration there to help you get ready for the Big Day. Now ... I'm off to make some Christmas lists ... I'll be checkin' them twice, gotta find out who's naughty and nice cos ... the jolly chubby fellow in the bright red suit will soon be coming to visit! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS