Thursday 18 December 2008

Surprise Post Week

It has been a really good post week with some very nice festive surprises arriving. First to arrive was a package from Julie. She said it was OK to open it early so I was quite happy to oblige. ;0) Inside was a cute Christmas card and this gorgeous ornie:


My photography skills leave alot to be desired but I hope this close up pic will do it a bit better justice:


This is the back, which has a cute Santa and sleigh fabric:

It's so beautifully stitched and finished. Thank you again Julie for such a lovely keepsake - every time I look at it I remember the friendship it was sent with and am grateful for that Blessing. :0)

There were two more surprise packages later in the week. Here's what was in them:


The very cute snowman card and gold gift was from Karen and the lovely Wise Men and silver gift was from Helen. Thank you so much for your kindness. :0) I love both cards and the gifts have gone into hiding, to keep temptation away. LOL

I also received my card for the Stitched Christmas Card Exchange on JA/S&S Forum but I shall leave that and the card I sent for another time - stitching has been somewhat sparse lately, so I need to keep something back to post on. ;0)

I also had another surprise when Barb (no blog), a fellow JA/S&S Forum member and friend who very kindly RAK'd me with the Sea Stars chart, phoned me yesterday. A total surprise but a very welcome one - it was so good to put a voice to the name. I'm not sure how long we chatted but it must have been a while...... we certainly laughed a lot. If you're reading this Barb: did the christening go OK? Hope you were wearing thermals...... and so hope the babies didn't get dunked in the duck pond! Oh, and I did finally make myself eat that unnamed fish and salad. LOL

The Tesco delivery came last night. DH had forgotten it was coming and only beat it home by about ten minutes, so hadn't had time to eat his tea. So DH and DS helped unload everything into the house then DS shot off to his friends house (arranged before he knew this was coming), which left DH and I to put all of the frozen and fridge goodies away. DH then went to have his tea (as a diabetic he was pushing it eating that late as it was) so that left just me to carry on putting things away. It took a while - there was a lot of it. Then there was some laundry to sort and put in the tumble dryer after that. Outcome: one very tired short person because my stamina is shot to pieces at the minute. So no stitching done, even though it was Sea Stars SAL night. Bummer!

Today has seen waaay more happening than what usually does in this one horse neighbourhood. First up was a delivery of wood for the carport, followed a little while later by a delivery of guttering and UPVc panelling - former for the workshop and latter for the bit up the side of the sun lounge that still needs to be clad. Just as I'd taken my third mouthful of dinner a chap knocked, asking if I knew where the two Pete's lived, so I sent him next door - not easy when you're trying not to spit food all over and swallow without choking. LOL. Some time in the afternoon a delivery of our first organic vegetable box from Woodlands Farm was delivered - we'd been threatening to sign up for a while but the change to healthier eating prompted us to extract our digits........ anyone know what on earth you do with bulbs of fennel? Then Rick called round to check everything had been delivered OK and hefted the timber down the side of the house for me (delivery chap hadn't knocked, had just left it on the front drive where it could easily have been stolen!), so it's now safe behind the locked sidegates - Rick's fetching the roof panels and starting the jobs on Monday. In between I fielded several phone calls, made a few cards and scanned them, sorted laundry out of the tumble dryer and put it away, washed the pots, answered emails, checked the Forum and am now sat blogging. I so hope that little lot has burnt off a few excess calories! LMAO. I still need to write a letter to my PenPal, make a birthday card, sort out a package for posting tomorrow and cook/eat tea, so it's not looking very hopeful for a stitching session tonight. Oh well, DH is working again this Sunday so I guess I can have a catch up on Sea Stars then. :0)

Thank you for visiting and for all the lovely comments and if you're a newbie please say Hi - I don't bite. LOL :0)

9 comments:

Jane said...

Karan, I'll have to look a recipie out for you, I did something I really enjoyed and can't remember what I did! Too much going on. I'll try and find it and send it to you, but I am sure it was sliced and done in a cheese sauce. I put it into individual dishes to bake in the oven and serve.

Anonymous said...

Oh a lovely ornie,
what a lovely deer and is it a table,I do love the detail!!
Wowsers you have had a busy time with lots of deliveries!!
Hope you and your family have a lovely Christmas Karan!

Karen said...

http://www.cookitsimply.com/groups/recipes-using-fennel-0040-033f.html there you go a few fennel recipes.
lovely orni from Julie, how nice to chat to Barb sounds like you had a nice time on the phone

Angela said...

Lucky you with everything the postman brought you. i do love the ornie. I've seen several versions of it now and I love it every time I see it.

I will be using a bulb of fennel on Monday in my pork in fennel sauce recipe that I'm doing when my mum comes. It's a Jamie Oliver recipe which I can send you if you give me your email address. I have also used one in a salad before now, another Jamie Oliver recipe from a magazine which I think I still have somewhere.

Christine said...

Lovely ornament from Julie.
Thats the thing with veg boxes, you do sometimes get stuff you don't quite know what to do with. Fennel has quite a strong aniseedy taste so you don't need a lot of it, but you pretty much treat it like celery, so raw in salads, braised as a veggie etc (guess who else first found it through a veg box). Does their website have recipes on it, our vegbox site does.

Andrea said...

Lovely gifts.

Sally said...

Lovely ornament from Julie. Her stitched pieces are so nicely done.

Sea Stars is looking so pretty. I love seeing your updates.

Hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas:)

Julie said...

Wonder whats in the other gifts? nosey person here .. did you sniff, fondle and feel LOL

Mylene said...

Beautiful gifts!!