I was very lucky to receive these two lots of goodies in some Christmas Exchanges which I participated in.....
First, I received these lovely gifts from Lisa V in the Xmas Stitched with Love Exchange:
A LHN design, some Christmas cutlery and Christmas stickers and gift tags.
This gorgeous stitched Santa:
...some fat quarters and a fabric "frame" for my own stitching.
Some laser cut felt Christmas ornines and some Christmas ribbon.
Thank you, Lisa.
Then, I had this bulging sack to open from Jeanette from the Santa Sack swap run by Cheryll of Gone Stitchin' fame.
This beautiful runner matches my pine chest perfectly!
The Peanut cushion matches my sewing chair also perfectly and is so comfortable!
Cute ornies!
A sweet black and white pincushion with different fabric on each side.
A couple of tea towels - really handy as we had a tea towel crisis on Christmas Day!
Some manicure items - very pretty.
A needle book and matching scissor fob.
Some vanillas bath salts.
What a handy bag!
Some useful fabric sqaures.
Cute pink scissors to add to my collection.
They look really good with my new scissor fob.
A lovely notebook and pink pen.
.... and here are all of my goodies on display! Thank you so much Jeanette.
TraderVic and I are going away for a few days tomorrow - up to Mulwala on the Murray - with my DF Marie and her DH. I won't be back until mid next week. So, I won't be around in blogland for a few days!
Well, lucky me - I have had a four day long weekend for Melbourne Cup Day - the horse race that stops a nation! (I took a day of Annual Leave on the Monday) - what bliss to have four free days!
So, what did I do?
1. I, and my DYS, took my DD (93) and DM (90) shopping for some necessities at a local shopping mall and we had a nice lunch out, too.
2. I visited my DF, Marita, in hospital - she had fallen off her bike and broken her left wrist very badly, poor thing!
3. I won a special giveaway from Myra of Gr8dame's Place - she decided to have a 2nd winner to her giveaway where she is going to make a little gift for someone! What a lovely surprise - thank you, Myra!
4. I made my Xmas puddings - pic below - so now I am all ready for Xmas (well, not quite!)
Yes, that is right - they are boiled in oven bags! It is a really cool way to do it! They are boiled for four hours like a normal pudding and then, once cooled, they keep in the refrigerator until Christmas. On the day, each one reheats in the microwave for ten minutes! Easy Peasy!
5. TraderVic and I went to see the film, "Argo" - if you haven't seen it yet, I can really recommend it. It is the story of how six Americans are rescued from Iran in 1979/1980 when the American embassy is overrun by Iranians.
6. I did a little bit of shopping for me, too. I bought some nice navy blue shorts and a blue and white striped sleeveless top with big red flowers all over it. Do you like it?
7. I went for a swim - did my usual laps - I thought that I better get some exercise in!
8. I did lots of reading. I finished reading Justin Cronin's "The Twelve", another light romance and "The Hangman's Daughter" by Oliver Potzsch.
9. I was chosen by Parsley of Seasons of my mind to be her Autumn/Fall partner in an exchange for next year - how much fun will that be? Thank you, Parsley.
10. I received two lovely parcels from Jeanette of Jeanette's Place as part of our Santa Sack Exchange:
Isn't my Santa Sack looking really full - lots of lovely parcels inside. Thank you to Cheryll of Gone Stitchin' for organising the swap!
11. TraderVic and I had some of our lovely friends over for a BBQ for Cup Day - I made some homemade bread and homemade hummus: Yum!
12. ... and, of course, I stitched, but that will have to wait for the next post (this one has got long enough and my laptop is about to run out of battery!)
