Swaps and Gifts – Knitting Box

Made my day

It was my birthday on the 6th. I had a lovely day, despite Annette having a flu at the time and us not being able to go anywhere. I did have a cake. No photos of that I’m afraid, we pretty much tucked into it as soon as it came out of the box. We didn’t even bother with candles. Teehee.

And yesterday the loveliest package turned up. When I saw this on Belinda‘s blog last week, little greedy me was secretly hoping it would be for me…. And still I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got it. Just look at it! The wrapping paper and notecard were totally inspired gocco work.

And inside, a handmade soap with the most divine scent, handknitted washcloth made of organic cotton (sooo soft!), and a stack of personalised notecards (gocco’ed) with my name on them!

Such a thoughtful gift, I can’t tell you how much I love these. Thank you so much Belinda! You made my day!

Speaking of making my day, I must thank Sue, Terri, and Donyale for giving me a “You made my day” award. I’m still chuffed! And right back at you three for making my day too! And not just because you gave me an award 🙂

I’m supposed to list blogs that inspired me now, so here goes…

– Mochimochi land with her stackable cats and multitude of other cute toys to knit.
– Rose Red with her SHOESdays and this brilliant post on International Women’s Day.
– Bells knits and her breathtaking steeked jacket.
– Random Knits and all that gorgeous lace. Plus she’s like Australia’s Yarn Harlot in my opinion 🙂 (Hope she takes that as a compliment 🙂 )
– Speaking of which, Yarn Harlot, who makes me laugh, in books and blog.
– Ysolda with her gorgeous designs, like this and this.
– what’s new, pussycat and The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl — not craft-related, but good reads and she cracks me up.

… just to name a few. If you’ve ever commented on my blog here, you’ve made my day too!

I’ve got quite a lot of knitting done too. Sadly still no FOs, but quite a few new projects. Will have to do a WIP parade or something next post.

BTW as an aside, just before I hit ‘Publish’ on this post, I did a preview first, you know, just to see how the whole thing would look like on the actual blog. And when I opened the preview page, I had to do a double take, thinking, “Whose blog is this??” Ha! That’s how long I had been away from my poor neglected blog, I didn’t even recognise it anymore. LOL!

20 March 2008

I love parcels

You might remember that a while back I joined the Scrap Swap that TuttiFruiti and RedHeaded Snip It organised. Well look what I got!

A big thank you to my swap partner Kristine. These arrived early last week, apologies for my lateness in posting about them! The fabrics are so lovely, lots of gorgeous florals, and in generous cuts too. I don’t have many florals in my stash, so I’m very excited to get these! She also included some japanese print and linen which she knows I love. Thank you so much Kristine! If you haven’t come across her already, Kristine designs a children clothing line under her label Townmouse, which is just to die for. She also makes these gorgeous creche bags!

And these gorgeous cards arrived from blogless Shireen. A lovely surprise. I love them! I love the way she put those pretty paper into such lovely designs. Thank you so much, Shireen!

25 September 2007

Giving and receiving

Back in May, I won a copy of the Silly Bunny pattern by Melly & Me, just by commenting on their blog. I was gobsmacked, as I had never won anything before. So thank you, Melly and Rosie! I thought the bunnies look cute, and I love how you can use small amounts of various fabrics (great way to use scraps!), as with many of Melly & Me’s other patterns. And now I have my own silly bunny 🙂

Then I won some yarn and DPNs from Yarn magazine‘s Winter Warm-up Competition! Thanks, Barbara! I feel very lucky indeed. The yarn is Rare Yarns ‘Rare Fire’ yarn (alpaca/mohair/merino combo). I’ll probably make these bed socks with them.

And earlier this month I had another meetup with Belinda and Corrie, and I also got to meet Danni from Pyglet Whispers. As usual we had a lucky dip, and I was the recipient of Belinda’s package, which contained a skein of sock yarn and the lovely birdie fabric. And Danni gave us some of her lovely handmade cards. Thanks, girls!

For the lucky dip I made this tote bag, which went to Corrie. I think she likes it 🙂

I love that skipping girl print from Sprout Designs, and the Mollybirds print by Kristen Doran. Close up of the detail here.

Also, I made these coasters for a friend’s housewarming.

It’s nothing original though, I’ve seen quite a few of these lovely patchwork coasters around the blogs and I just love the little patchwork. (There’s also a tutorial here.)

16 July 2007