Rrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! Major RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! I just accidentally deleted a long post... and I just don't feel like retyping it all.... aaaaargh, computers!
So I'll leave you for today with a photo of a last year's PS finish I never posted, I think... just found it again in my files. A favorite of mine :) I adore embroidered/stitched dollies, tableclothes etc. and collect them.
Now here's a true gem I am delighted to show. I've always wanted to try my hands on making one of these tea pochettes, but I delayed it in time thinking they're not easy at all. And I always thought how wonderful it would be to have my own, and have it with me in my new favorite bag (big smile to Tracy!), filled with a couple of my favorite teas... So imagine my surprise when I opened the package from Ela! Oh how I love it.... I love it!! The tag says Herbata on one side and Wiosenna on the other, which in Polish means Spring Tea. How suitable :)
Ela is one of the most talended ladies I know... and a person I'd love to learn a lot from. Her projects are so creative, so neat, so everything... I feel lucky to be the regular recipient of her work pieces.
And knowing my sweet tooth, Ela sent me not one, but two very special treats... I still remember the ones she sent me for Christmas, green marzipan with chocolate ends... it certainly was one of the best chocolate specialties I ever ate. Now, for the disclaimer - I seldom buy chocolate here in Poland. I just don't find it very good. There are a few Belgium chocolate boutiques in town but with their outrageous prices, I stay clear most of the time. But fancy French, Swiss or Belgian chocolate, I just don't resist. I so miss French pâtisseries... Along with good olives bought by kg, they must be what I miss most from a previous life... Heh.
I can be annoying at times... I don't miss one opportunity in France and Switzerland to have a cup of coffee somewhere with a lemon tartelette... H. follows but he just doesn't get it... Well, it's something I am totally fond of and which I can't buy here. Over the years I learned to make various French lemon cakes, much to H.'s grief because while I love lemon taste, he prefers chocolate :)
Don't get me started on Moroccan pastries... Oh, I miss them so.
But to go back to the main topic of this post.... I also received a piece of awesome sampler Moda fabric Ela knew I loved and couldn't find...
... and a cute chart!
... and another package was hiding this superb bird... with a belly stuffed with yummy chocolate figurines as well!
Donna made me a tin! I love the little girl on it and its colors, they look so subtle and sweet :) It's my first altoid tin and I love it, thanks so much, Donna!
Donna wouldn't be Donna if she didn't include lots of nice goodies... The self-stick notes are so lovely, and the Milky Way bunny was.... way too yummy!! The little flower-like thing is a little pack of golden ribbon.
The goodies included a pack of cute pink flower buttons, 3 pieces of R&R and hand-dyed fabrics, the new Blackbird Designs, 3 specialty threads, and a charm pack of 37 pieces of Moda fabrics.... I love to make good friends smile ;-)
Okay, I have to get it off my chest. I am sooooo in love with that set. And I understand that it contains 10 designs - but let's be honest, lots of small ones also. And I understand that the basket must be nice. But one hundred and eighteen dollars just for the basket and the charts? Is that fair... isn't that overpriced.... Tell me what you think. From what I read, the design is not sold without the basket. Not that I think that finding a basket with an oval/round top like this, of the correct size, would be an easy task. BUT. Or am I being cheap... I'd really welcome your thoughts on that. Drema has a special price for the set with the silks and linen, but 199 usd... Okay, kill me, but that was my rant of the day.
Maybe it's triggered by seing recently so many lovely kits - but I mean *very small* kits containing a couple of skeins of silk, a small design, a chart, all that for 50-60 usd. Some of them are really lovely. But I'm thinking more and more often if the market is not going in a wrong direction... sort of like computer manufacturers (won't mention the name) creating equipment that requires more and more ressources.
Oh, I don't know. Bear with me today :) I've lived the weirdest compact 10 minutes in my life. Minute 1: I meet a lady whose husband I loved and knew since I moved in here in 1993, who had one doggie, then another, we often walked a bit in the park and chatted, he was somehow a famous person in his specialty and a government expert, well, I learned he died within 2 hours three weeks ago, and he was in good health, and he took care of himself... anyway. I will dearly miss his presence during my doggie walks... he was a very special person. Minute 5: a man sneaks into the building right behind me, tries to push me in the lift - I resist, he barks something, his eyes are dangerous, I go out, he takes the lift, I hear noone opens the door for him so he might be waiting at one of the floors, I wait till someone else arrives and take the lift with that person. Minute 10: I meet someone at my floor who tells me that the plumber who took care of our building, a man that helped and repaired a bit of everything in the apartments, and who did lots of works in my own apartment over the years, and whom I knew well, died of a heart attack on Monday. That was a bit too much for this afternoon ;-)
That tops three other persons of a certain age from my building that died in the past few weeks but I wasn't close to them.
I wish I could learn coping with the unexpected death of someone I knew and cared for. Life.
Have you seen THEM? Frederick is a must-have no-matter-what, even if I have to sell my last shirt! LOL
Here is the fob I made for Milly. This is the first fob I ever made, partly because I don't own more than two pairs or small scissors and partly because I was never sure how to make one with a metal closing and beads. I am ashamed to say it was extremely easy! :)
Finally a good week :)
I got the cells result after the surgery and all is super fine, no c... word danger!
I had a CT scan this week as well and there too, all is super fine.
Which puts and end to 4 months of anxiety and visits at various docs and checks and tests and analyses and and and... I am in heaven!
I can honestly live with the underactive thyroid and PCO, I can learn tricks and ways to fight some nasty symptoms. The other two problems were much more serious.
I have some some other non-medical issues to work on but honestly, these good news put me in a state where I can't worry on anything else till at least Monday, and next Monday is also a good day to start solving problems.
Oh happy days! :)
To top it all, I finally received my biiiig order from the US, the one I put back in November 2007, that got returned to the US in March 2008, to which I added some items... yesterday I got it and I still have a huge smile looking thru it! Many small hand-dyed and R&R pieces of fabric, perfect for small samplers and ornaments, some kitted designs, some charts. Now I don't know what to start first! :) I have a small idea though, there is a biscornu and one Blackbird Designs that I might start tomorrow. Today, I still need to put the last finishing touch to one birthday giftie and the last stitches on Quaker Alphabet.
But that's not all. I also received my PS exchange from Cheryl and Milly received her PS group fob exchange from me. See next posts!
What a joy today to receive my PS spring exchange from Nath! You might remember it got returned to her because my apartment number was missing. Oh what a joy... I'll let you discover this beautiful project bag (is that the name in English?)... Nath put so much work into creating it for me!
We start with the front....
The back....
And once it's opened.... take time to see all the little details: the two skeins of threads, the small PS bunny pillow, the round pin keep, the miniature wooden pegs, the tiny buttons....
But that wasn't all... see the thread sorter.... it's Nath's husband who made it, and she told me it takes a lot of time to male!! It has so much value for me... I tend to be terribly nostalgic about such things :)
