More Gifted Gorgeousness!

The gifts have been coming in thick and fast this week so I thought I'd dedicate a post to them.

First of all - a huge THANK YOU to everyone who posted for the Big Birthday Blog Hop on the 17th.  It was incredible to hop around all the blogs reading everyone's anecdotes and seeing what stitching they had chosen.  Not surprisingly there were a lot of spooky Hallowe'en designs, some dragons and some samplers.  People had obviously taken the time and trouble to look through my blog and see what I liked.

The first gift to arrive was from Margaret in New Zealand, she was worried about the international post so sent it early and it arrived very quickly!
Margaret does gorgeous hardanger work and this is just exquisite!

Cheryl made me a lovely card inspired by an alphabet design she's been stitching.  You can get the chart from her if you'd like to stitch me a card for next year.  Or for the Jo in your life!

Mini also made me a card, aren't the strips of fabric beautiful?  She also made a little stitched pouch which is so pretty.

Mouse sent some threads for my Chatelaine and a lovely piece of Polstitches fabric.  I haven't started my Chatelaine yet, I need to order the fabric for it using my Birthday money.  There's also a "friendship" needleminder hiding in the bag!

Julie sent me these lovely satin threads, they are perfect for adding a little bit of luxury when you're stitching fabrics.

Tiff also sent some threads for my Chatelaine and some Nora Corbett charts she scored in a  thrift store for extremely cheap bargain prices!

The extremely creative Jocondine excelled herself this year.  She sent me this beautiful vintage embroidery pamphlet, some dragon bookplates and a stitched gift-tag:

Look at the date on the pamphlet!

The piece de resistance is my board game!  Click on this photo and admire the details!

Close-up:

Jocondine has included all my blog hops (go forward 3 squares) and penalties if you miss them!  There are stitchy pictures, free charts and some of Jocondine's favourite characters from her blog.  When we were children my sister and I were always making games like this so it fitted into the theme of the blog hop perfectly!

And then there was this little wooden spool with a stitched message:

I unwound the fabric to read the message:

And then when I held it up to show hubby, I saw the reverse!

How adorable is that?

Nicola sent me a beautiful card featuring one of the samplers she has charted for Hands Across The Sea Samplers and this lovely kit to make a beaded scissor case and fob:

Preeti sent me an awesome hanging featuring the Superhero Unstoppable Jo!  She also included a gorgeous silk zipper bag with some buttons and charms and some pretty fabric which I thought was just the small plain turquoise flowers until I opened it out for the photo. Isn't it lovely?

Close-up of the hanger:

Bea sent me these three spooky needleminders from No More Lost Needles, I really need a metal board to display them when not in use:

Phew!  And Leonore sent me a Crafty Kitten voucher!

That's enough of the goodies from other people, what did I get for myself?

It was well-packaged!

There's approximately 20 feet of bubblewrap there!

A lockable display case for all the goodies I have been sent!

Kim's beautiful porcelain pencil tray inspired me to finally sort out some display space for the many lovely things I have been sent.  I needed something secure and with a glass top to protect things from prying fingers and dust.  This case is made by a company who make cases for antiques and collectors fairs and is lovely, very good quality and quick, safe delivery too.

We spent the day of my Birthday in Norwich which is our closest city.  I wanted to go to a craft fayre where my friend had a stall.  Unfortunately she was ill!  So I had to spend some pennies on other people instead.  

I bought a "cactus-you-cannot-kill".  Apparently crocheted cacti are a "thing", two stalls were selling them but this was the nicest.

I also bought some cards, a notebook, some wire ornie hooks and a lucky dip parcel.

Close-up of the lucky dip (chosen by my son)

How appropriate was that?

I had to tell the stall holder all about my Blog Hop!

The charms are all Alice in Wonderland themed which is perfect too.

Finally, one of the requests made to participants of the Big Birthday Blog Hop was to include a photo pof something stitched I would like.  Here they all are!

ps my Birthday Blog Hop post also saw my 12,000th comment!  From the lovely Rhona.  What great timing.  How serendipitous!