Have ya missed me? Have ya missed me? Well, have you??? lol

Where to start......as I was waiting for blogger to open up the editor I happened to glance at the date of my last post....28th November.....just where did that month and a bit go? I'm sure you must've all liked the peace and quiet....but just like the proverbial bad smell...I'm ba-ack! I have heaps and heaps of goodies to share with you.

I haven't been totally idle in my absence though.....I did actually make some things, swap gifts for instance, and a pressie or two.....talking of which, the following is a pic of a tablerunner I made for one of our neighbours.

She seemed to like it, and had it on the table straight away, so she must've. I did plan on making her sister a table runner too, but my get up and go seemed to have gone on vacation the last month or so, hopefully I've got it back now though!

Backtracking slightly, a short while ago, I participated in a 'Mystery' swap in Vicki's forum. Check out what my lovely partner sent me.....*Shouting with glee at this end* my very own PURPLE dilly bag.....with owl appliques on each of the pockets......then inside she'd popped some extra owl appliques for me to adorn a project of my own making, some purple embroidery thread, some purple bling and a purple fq (I have a sneaky suspicion there were actually 2, but I used one already - yes bad me)....how lucky was I?

Back at the beginning of December, my friend Khristina flew the coop and has moved back to Qld, I was lucky enough to get to go back to Adelaide in November and spend a few days with her before she went. Whilst there, we had a Farewell/Christmas Luncheon and Khristina, bless her, made all us girls a Tablerunner and Coaster sets....spoilt brats aren't we? At least we have something practical that can be a reminder of all the fun times we spent with Khristina. Click here to view the post about the tablerunners on her blog. Thank you so much Khris for all our wacky and crafty times. Love ya girl.

In the pic, I'm the third from the left that looks like an upside down tomato on the vine....ie red face and green clothing! You can't really tell from that pic, as it was tied back somewhat, but the day after this pic was taken, Khristina and Amanda (far right of the tablerunner pic) took me for my hairdresser appointment in Adelaide City. They went off shopping (walked their feet off too!) whilst my hair was scalped and here's what I looked like in mid-December when I went to my quilting groups' Christmas break up dinner at Renmark Golf & Country Club.

Alas it doesn't look like this every day, as I missed out on the 'straighten your own hair' lessons when I was growing up, so have to rely on my new friend (she lives next door to us) Sharina to straighten it for me....Thanks Sharina xxx P.S. In the above pic, I'm not quite so red in the face...and I even had some war paint on!

Moving along, for the last couple of years, Khristina has run a swap in her Yahoo Group, C-R-A-F-T that is similar to her F-R-I-E-N-D-S swap, but being this time of year, it's a C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S swap, so you send your partner 9 gifts, starting with each letter of the word Christmas. I was partnered with Marion (From Western Australia) and here's all the goodies she sent me:

In case it's hard to tell from the pics, here's a cheats' guide to my goodies.

C = Calendar & Cream
H = Hoot Hoot fabric
R = Ribbon & Relaxation
I = Inspiration - Craft book
S = Sewing Tool
T = Tea Towels
M = My (her) favourite Christmas Chocolates - I've never seen them before!
A = Alphabet Fabric
S = Sleepwear - a Hooty nightie


Thanks so much Marion, I love it all, and now I've finally gotten the energy to take pics, I can wear the nightie, fondle the fabric, play with my new tool and eat the choccies! How cute is the nightie and the ribbons? Gosh, I'm going to have so much fun playing with the ribbon!

Next I'd like to share with you a private swap that my net friend, Jackie Stoltz and I arranged via a sew-a-long challenge at one of the chat groups we're in, which you can read about here. The challenge bag was the Mill House Inn tote bag from Moda Bakeshop, which you can go grab the tutorial here. My lovely friend Jackie sent me a box filled with goodies....not just the bag. Being that I'm a purple girl.....Jackie did a wonderful job working outside of her normal colour pallette, and came up with the following beauty for me.

Just in front of the owl calendar she made for me, is an exquisite bauble cover, but alas the bauble she had in it, got broken in transit, but that's ok, I can get another one to put in it. As they are a little hard to see in the above pic, I took close ups of the cute little name dangles she made for both Raelene and me.

Aren't they gorgeous? In fact, isn't the whole package she sent me lovely? I even have my own purse organiser now too....and it's purple! Thanks heaps J, I love it all.

Sorry to not write for ages and then hit you all with such a long post, but I really want to get up to date before I have a wee break whilst I'm in having some surgery in a week or so. Mind you, I'm thinking most of my followers will have given up on my by now, I sure hope not though. I have lots floating around my head that I want to share with you all this year.....such as more giveaways, and would like to do some tutorials and maybe a sew a long later in the year.

Now, getting back to all my goodies that I stockpiled until Christmas Day to open, was the Santa Sack Swap where you make a Sack and send it to your partner, and each month, you send two or more gifts to your partner that you aren't allowed to open until the official opening day, but I waited until Dec 25th. My partner was the lovely Anne of Annie's Dreaming blog fame. Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooo much for all my pressies hun, you spoilt me rotten.

There was also a huge box of Maltesers which, because of the heat here the last week or so, they were in the fridge and I forgot to take a pic of them....but let me just say, it's a BIG box!

So, without any further waffling from me, let me share with you pics of all my haul from Annie
Some close ups of individual items:
Annie has hazarded a guess as to which pressies would be my favourite (s) and after pawing at everything, several times over hee hee, the above two were the two things I kept going for the most. It's not that I don't love all my other goodies, but these are the ones that I put at top of the list......that sounds so ungrateful, but honestly, I am still overwhelmed/excited about it all.

The folding shopping bag not only has an owl on it, but it's in my favourite colour too....how special is that? The kilt pin rates up at the top of the list because it has an owl on it, a Tasmanian emblem (it's known as the Apple Isle and is where Annie lives) and a Babushka charm (I don't think I ever told her I like them too!) and whenever I look at it, I will think of her. So all in all......Spoilt brat lives again!

Lastly, a good friend of ours lives on her own and would be celebrating Christmas on her own (Her family all live over the ditch in N.Z) so instead of her doing that, she comes to stay with us....she also spoilt us....not only did she get us a $25 gift card each, she got us the following food basket/hamper. Thanks Shazza xxx

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and would like to wish you all a safe and prosperous New Year.