Gorgeous Gorgeousness Galore and May FNSI...

Hi lovely, stitchy, bloggy friends,

It is time for my Gifted Gorgeousness SAL update for May.  For those of you who are not sure what I am talking about.....

The Gifted Gorgeousness SAL is run by the wonderful Jo from Serendipitous Stitching.  The idea is that every month we link to Jo's GG blog post to show off whatever we are stitching that is Gift-related.  It can be something we are making for someone special or a chart or threads with which we have been gifted or basically anything else we can shoehorn into the basic premise.

It is such a good idea, as we all have something we are doing in at least one of those categories, don't we?

I have quite a few things to show you, so, here is my May update:

First off, when I got home from work last night, I found a surprise package waiting for me, from my dear SSF, Kim from Wisdom with Needle and Thread. I have been a bit down lately, 2015 has been a very emotional year for me so far, starting on a high with DS1's wedding (which we planned and executed in less than two months), then the unexpected death of my DFIL only six days later after having lived with us for over sixteen years, finishing with all three of our children moving out/interstate within less than a month of the wedding, my dear Dad is going blind (which is a great worry, naturally) and there have been some unsettling and disappointing things happening at work - so, I have not been sleeping well and, overall, I have not been my usual, cheery self. In fact, I feel that I have lost my natural resilience and I do not know how to get it back. (Any ideas, anyone?)

 Well, Kim picked up on all of this and decided to send me a "cheer up" package.

Well, cheer me up, she certainly did!  Sending me gifts that reflect two of my great passions:  Kitty cats and the Tudors!  Do you want to see?

Look, a Henry Viii and his six wives mini cushion kit (love it, love it, love it)

A kitty cat purse (how adorable):

... and inside it a decorated Tudor tin.

.. and inside that a sweet tiny needle minder cushion.

Inside of the tin:

Tudor fabric on the back of the needle minder....

Some Tudor cards....

Kim, I cannot express how special a friend you are to me and how much this surprise gift meant to me!  All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you, my dear SSF.

Now, for some more kindness, this time from some neighbours.  These neighbours live diagonally across from our back fence and we do not see them that often, just out in the street occasionally.  Well, TraderVic ran into Theresa last week after quite a long time, she asked after my DFIL and TraderVic had to tell her that he had passed away in January.  Well, she was quite shocked and saddened to hear this news and last night she dropped by with these gorgeous flowers for us - aren't they lovely? And so thoughtful of our neighbours.

Well, I did create some Gifted Gorgeousness of my own. This is another Ombre Cowl scarf (in quite a different colour way to mine) I knitted for my dear friend Marita's birthday.  She wears a lot of these strong colours, so it will match a lot of her wardrobe.

She was delighted with it, as you can see by the big smile on her face as she models it for you all.

Lastly, here is my FNSI from last night, which also fits into GG as I am stitching it as a baby gift for a friend. The design is called American Baby, I am probably about one-third of way through it now.

Anyway, that is all from me for now, I am off to check out everyone else's FNSI and GG.

Love to you all, 

hugs,