Barry in my bed

Cass and I have had two bets on the footy - fortunately for me, my team has won both times. 

Cass sends parcels wrapped beautifully in old pattern pieces and tied with striped bakers twine.

I ripped the parcel open so quickly that I forgot to take a pic, trust me it looked cute.
You can see it here.

What was inside was a selection of gorgeous fabric, one with cute panels that will look fabulous as appliques, very sweet Red Riding Hood linen (always a winner), the lovely pink patterned cotton fabric on the right and also some laminated Paula Prass for me to play with - lovely - thanks Cass.

But also resting in there was my good friend Big Bad Bustling Barry Hall. He is very kindly passing on a message to the man who lives here.

Just letting him know that the snoring, (which indicentally was at its peak the night before Cass's parcel arrived) will not be tolerated.

(Pic pinched from Cass as one of the girls is asleep in my room, and Barry doesn't want her disturbed!)

He goes perfectly with my other Barry treasures that Sal made for me.

I've said it before, but I feel very blessed to have made some wonderful friends through the blogging/online community.

Women who are not only talented and obviously kind, but witty and take the time to send a funny/cool/clever gift to someone who lives halfway across the country to fulfil a promise made on the basis of the performance of a football team.

Thanks Cass - I'll make sure he's very happy here!

A fruitful swap

I found something growing at my place...

My new pear pincushion!

The postie was very kind to me last week with a lovely parcel from Lauren arriving on Friday.

It was my pin-cushion for the super-swap Kate organised.

Lauren was very kind and also included a packet of yummy chocolate eggs (lucky I photographed them when they came, they didn't survive the weekend!) and very thoughtfully sent some foot fizzies to provide some relief for my dodgy ankle.

Lauren hit the nail on the head perfectly for me as I bookmarked an apple and pear pin-cushion tutorial when I was looking for patterns to make for my swappee.

Now I won't have to make them up because she's done that for me.

Thanks Lauren, I love it.

Also a big shout out to Kate for organising this mammoth task and fitting it in among her own sewing, blogging, parenting, farming, baking and everything else she does - well done to you, and thanks.

Magnificent mail

When you're small there is nothing better than getting the mail, my older two girls race out each day to check if the postie has been.

But as you get older and realise that too often the mail means more bills, the gloss wears off.

Yesterday though - the mail was magnificent.

First up a parcel from Susan which contained, among other goodies my fabulous sparkly-lettered name badge for the Sew It Together blog meet.

It was beautifully packaged but I was in such a hurry to get into it that I pulled it all apart without taking a photo.

You can see it here with the cute swing tag Susan made and attached to the 'brown paper package tied up with string'.

One of my favourite things of course.

Susan also included other goodies (oops, I feel bad - sorry Julie you just got your badge!), some excellent Kikki K number tags (which I have used here to indicate my age of course!) and a book which she rightly thought might be just what I need while off my feet.

Very thoughtful, thanks Susan.

The other parcel was a package of goodies from Toni of Make It Perfect with some patterns, including the lovely Blossom skirt, some ribbon, a sweet embroidered pencil-case/pouch, very sweet little magnets, some made with buttons and a piece of my very most favourite Laura Gunn birdcages fabric.

Thanks ladies for making my day!

Here is the progress on my pin-cushion for the big swap, and since this pic, it has progressed a little further.

It's due to be posted on Friday and so far I am right on track - just one more row of stitching to be completed tonight.

My recipient lives on a farm, so I added a pair of red gumboots to the design.

(I don't think that narrows it down too much - there are lots of country gals in the swap)

Oh and thanks for all the 'ankle love'.

The crutches are gone as of last night (hooray) and I am slowly making my way around the house again.

Miss A asked when I would be 'hooman' and I think I will be human again within another week or so!

I *heart* swaps!

My lovely man and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day so the gift I received today came from someone with a similar love to mine..... sewing!

I was paired up with Fiona and she sent me a fantastic bundle of goodies as part of the EB sewing haberdashery swap.

You know haberdashery - the cute stuff we all love to have in our stash; like ribbons, ric rac, cute buttons and motifs and the practical stuff; like pins, zips and elastic.

Fiona sent me the bunch of loveliness shown below;

Handmade magazine featuring a One Red Robin softie, ric rac in two colours, three different ribbons/trims (look at that lovely cherry one), a retractable tape measure - doesn't that just scream out to be in your handbag for measuring on the run, self-cover buttons, red snaps and pins.

Super-cute Hello Kitty buttons, a pattern with frilly knickers (which I can never resist), some cotton, and gorgeous five funky monkeys fabric which made Miss L's jaw drop as her fave song at the moment is "Five cheeky monkeys jumping on the bed".

It was all wrapped up in a bag that Fiona made from an Oh Fransson pattern which can fold within itself to fit in your glovebox or another bag when you head to the shops.

Thanks so much Fiona, it was a lovely start to my day.

What to include is based on a little list of likes and dislikes, and because I am not sure that my partner has a blog, here's what went Jess's way.

I made her a babushka pin cushion and thankfully she likes them too!

A pack of buttons with lots of blues, purple and aqua which she said were her favourite colours, some pins, iron on tranfers motifs, a cross-stitch, some ric rac and braided ribbon and a pile of small fabric pieces as she said she was trying her hand at softie making.

The hard part with swaps is estimating what to send so you don't send to little or too much - I hope Jess was happy with it all.