She’s Here!!!!!!

I got my birthday pressie a day early!!! I’ve been dreaming of this (not so) little darling for a while now :o). ‘Rosie’ - as she shall be known, has now taken up residence in my sewing cave :o). YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

But it was not without hiccups …………………… of course lol!!!

I had plenty of re-arranging to do … goodness, it’s been years since I moved the old Horn cabinet!! I wish I had a bigger cave!! Had to put the table together ….

Got it all done – it took me ages because all the instructions were in Japanese LOL. and then I spotted a problem ………………

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There was absolutely no way Rosie was going to fit in there!!!! I had put together the wrong table!!!!!!!

So back I went to change it for the right one, thankfully Peter put that one together for me at the shop (MUCH quicker than I did mine he he he) so all I had to do was bring it home :o).

And this is how she looks now…

*****sigh***** Isn’t she pretty?!?!!! All threaded and ready to go :o). I won’t show you the rest of my cave …. let’s just say I’ve got a bit lot of tidying up to do he he.

Thank you my darling Husband … I think turning 50 isn’t going to be half as bad as I thought it might be ;o).

I’ve hung my beautiful bunting that Maria made for me above Rosie… – Maria and Trash both gave me some lovely gifts when I met up with them in Bath and now that I’m all unpacked I can show you them ;o). Here’s the snuggly soft scarf Maria knitted for me too… And the beautiful linen hankie that Trash hand embroidered with a “BATH”tub– how wonderfully appropriate!! And the delicious hand made soap that I can’t wait to use…Thank you again my dear bloggy friends :o)!!!

Now that we’re over the jetlag, and the unpacking and washing is all caught up with, life is pretty much back to normal around here ……. and that’s not such a bad thing :o).

I love Bath!!!

That’s Bath the city … in the UK!!! Not necessarily the bath TUB … although I must admit I don’t mind a nice luxurious soak from time to time too :o). I think Bath must be one of the prettiest towns … we really enjoyed it :o).

We’re back in the UK after an idyllic week in South of France … oh how beautiful it is there!!! We’ve just spent the weekend in Surrey with Luke and Tahlia then we hired a car and went to Bath, where I finally got to meet Maria and Trash and we had an absolutely FABULOUS day together – Darryl, Jess and I had our very own tour guides too ;o)!! We saw the wonderful historical sites … and of course, the favourite shops too!!! Got me some delish Cath Kidston goodies as you’ll see if you visit either Trash or Maria’s blogs lol, and Maria also showed me where to find her local patchwork store which sadly was closed cos it was Sunday, but - I did manage to get back there on Monday and buy me some Tilda goodies – among other things :o). Here’s a piccy of the store … “Country Threads”, I had a lovely time browsing/shopping in there :o)!! Did you notice the people there on the right of the piccie??That’s Maria and Trash pressing their noses against the window of a shop they hadn’t noticed before … a new wool store :o)!!!! There were even a couple of lolly (candy/sweety) stores to be found too, yummm!!! Thanks so much Maria and Trash for such a fabulous day!!! I felt like I had known these two gawjus ladies forever and the time we had together ended much too soon ;o).

After a super time in Bath we drove on to the town where I was born. It was a weird feeling being there again after more than 30 years!!

We’re up in the Lake District now …. visiting Beatrix Potter’s ‘Hill Top’ cottage is high on the agenda ;o)!!! I’ll be back when I can, til then …….

SSCS and other Chrissy goodies!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!! Ours was terrific, spending time with family and sharing lots of laughs, creating tomorrow's memories :o). I missed having the older kids here, but I know they had a lovely time with each other in London, so that makes me happy :o)!! I got totally spoilt, I show you some of my goodies in the next post, for now I want to show the SSCS goodies!!!

What a treat it was when I got to open all my gorgeous pressies from Trashie ~ my SSCS swap partner all the way from UK, the absolute other side of the world!!!! I've been reading Trashies blog for a long time now so it was really nice to find out my swap partner was someone I was so familiar with :o)! Here's what she sent me ................... how spoilt am I!!!!??! Do you see those adorable yellow buttons?? They're "Dorset Buttons" and they're little hand crocheted darlings, just exquisite!!! I love this table mat that Trashie made .... my Mum and I were fighting over this one, I won of course LOL!!!.....

This gorgeous reindeer had a candle in his back on Boxing day and he was centre-stage on our lunch table :o)! Don't you love the snuffer??!! I've always wanted one of those!!!!!

Poor Santa sustained some pretty drastic internal injuries on his journey down under .... rest assured though, it didn't affect his deliciousness!!! All good :o)!!! Thank you SO much Trashie, I really love all of my fabulous gifts!! And also huge big thanks to Chookyblue for arranging such a fun swap!!!

Trashie wasn't the only one from UK who was kind enough to send me lovely Pressies!!! Look at this incredibly beautiful scarf that Maria knit(ted??) for me!!! Oh if only you could feel how soft it is, it's to die for!! And I love the colours too!!! Perfect!!! Maria was my Stitcher's Angel partner in 2008!! Maria and I have become great friends and I can't wait to meet up with her when I visit Tahlia in UK next year ... what fun that will be :o)!!And that's not all, Maria also made me this fabulous coffee pot cover, and popped in some delish choccies, a cute coaster for my coffee cup and some pretty tape!! Thank you so much Maria, bless your heart!!!!

I can't believe I forgot to take a piccy of the goodies I sent over to Maria .... but she's emailed me to let me know she liked them, so that's good :o)! If you hurry, you still might be able to enter Maria's 100 post giveaway so pop on over and visit Maria's Blog!!!!

Here's what I sent to my SSCS partner Missy in USA ..... Missy emailed me when she opened the decoration, and the Tim Tams were in with that .... according to her email they went down pretty well LOL ;o). Mmmmmmmm ...... Who can resist Tim Tams??? This is the bag I made for Missy ...........Hope you all have a happy healthy and wonderful New Year that is filled with good times!!!

Thank you so much to all the lovely bloggers who've been buying my patterns, I'll leave them up for just a little longer ....... just until the end of 2009 at that price.