Mrs Martin's Mothers Day Swap

Our latest swap with my partner Glenys in the Mrs Martin's Let's Celebrate year long swap was the Mothers Day Swap. Glenys & I seem to be getting pretty good at picking some things that are favourites for each other without being told. Glenys doesn't have a blog so picking the hazelnut chocolate and sewing notion fabrics on my behalf were just good luck but she has also been able to work out a few key things about me that I haven't blogged about.

 

I always have a travel cup of tea, coffee or herbal tea (depends on how tired I am & how virtuous I am trying to be) in the car for going too & from work. I don't drink enough most of the time so this is a way to up my intake especially in the cooler months when I find it harder to drink water. I have two travel cups that I alternate & last Wednesday I dropped one & now it comes apart. That's not a good thing when it contains hot liquids & I pick it up while driving without looking at it. I stuck it back together a bit but it's not long for this world. Thursday the parcel below arrived from Glenys - I think it should be called 'a spoil me' pack!

 

 

A new ceramic travel mug, a knitted mug cosy (see the pink peeking out) and a patchwork mug cosy on top. It came with the matching mug rug in the bright & happy colours I love. As you can see there is a little box of coffees and what ...... well it used to be....... some shortbread and some Ferrero Rocher chocolates. I think maybe I have mice, ........ or Hun-bun has learnt to open packets....... or maybe seeing it is 5 days later I might have eaten them over the weekend while watching footy & be blocking it out of my mind! 

 

Yes but that was not all. Glenys brought me two gorgeous treats from Mrs Martin's shop. The first is an adorable Theodora Cleeve quilt shop button and the second a beautifully crafted card which includes part of a doily, an applique cupcake with beautiful embellishments. It's one of those beautiful cards that can stay on show for a long time. Thank you Glenys, I love all of my parcel!

 

 

 

Here's what I sent to Glenys. A stitchery from The Birdhouse - Happiness is having a Mothers Love. Glenys is now getting the idea that I am a stitchery queen and that by the end of this swap (5 more ocassions) that she will be well & truly totally stitcheried out by my gifts!

 

 

Some gorgeous thimble fabric & matching thread and a block of Lindt Hazelnut chocolate. Now that is missing from the photos, not because I ate it this time but because I brought it on the way to the Post Office. If I brought it earlier, it no doubt wouldn't have made the parcel..... Hun-bun opening packets again maybe.....

 

 

So a big thank you to our swap muma, Karen from Mrs Martins Quilt Shop & to Glenys for her lovely gifts.

 

 

Now I need to go trace a new, tiny stitchery that I have found as a freebie that is perfect for my kitchen. Another one of my secret bad habits will be out once I post a pic of the end result....

 

Happy stitching

Tracee xx

Easter Treats

Firstly a big thank to all of you who voted for Little Brunnie is the Love Cats Spring Competition. He did better than I ever dreamed with 205 votes. It secured him 3rd place in the comp with the 2nd place getter having votes in the 500s & Cleanister the winning cat in the 600s. That so funny, the winner of the last comp had 24 votes, guess it was cat-crazy-muma time world wide! Any way I am very proud of my boy & getting his lovely furry little face out there again. Thank too to Shez & Susan who posted about the comp. Sorry if I missed any others, I haven't been blog reading much.

 

This week I am having a week of 'I can't believes' and they go like this - 

1. I can't believe I have the flu again, virus had all gone away 3 weeks ago & now caught it again worst than ever! 

2. I can't believe it's 8 weeks today since Little Brun went away, most days I can deal with it but not when I am sick. 

3. I can't believe that I am coughing so much that HB hasn't been in the house except for meals for 3 days, no cuddling muma, he is in disgrace, or muma is sulking - one or the other!

4. I can't believe Perth had a cool March & now April we have had up to 35 with low 30 expected for next week again. Coughing, trouble breathing & hot weather does not make for a very happy me.

5. I can't believe I have watched 3 episodes of River Monsters this week, never watched it before, not in to fishing & don't like murky water & big fish but hey not much on late, late at night.

But on the optimistic front, the antibiotics must be working as I finished off 4 stuffies last night & my knitted Christmas bauble tonight, my first crafty thing for two weeks.

More importantly here's my overdue Easter projects. I am doing Mrs Martin's Let's Celebrate Swap & Easter was one of our occasions. This is what I made for Glenys (no blog) but some pictures of previous makes here;

A fabric bunny & some Raffaello chocolates and a stitchery Easter bag for them to sit in.

The bunny is the same pattern that Shez made all her gorgeous bunnies for the grandies out of but I decreased the size. The bag is a Creative Card pattern I won from Rosie Quinlin's blog. I loved the variegated green stitchery to tone down all those pinks & as that is one of Glenys's colour pics too thought it a good choice for a change.

I was lucky enough to get this gorgeous assortment from Glenys -

A beautiful Easter Egg felt candle mat (I am great lover of felt or wool so spot on choice for me!), the bunny fabric with mint green background, fancy choc eggs & the green & gold egg is an ornament so beautiful to keep for any time of year. Thanks Glenys - love my pressies. Easter may be done but my mat & egg are not going away yet!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I made some Easter gift bags. They were to give a little choc surprise to the 5 ladies who work with me in my department at the day job. I started with the green as it's my current favourite colour, turned out cute.

Then tried out the pink & purple

And continued on with the yellow & turquoise. As you can see the turquoise isn't an Easter ribbon but Sharyn is an owl lover so made her a special owl bag.

The yellow felt is much brighter than the photo shows & that ended up being my favourite.


I also made myself or the present box, a pretty bunny - haven't decided yet. It's lovely fabric I brought last November at Spotlight while out of the town with Shez & Melody. Very pretty!

Ok, so just like Arnie - I'll be back with posts to show off my stuffie pressies made & Christmas finish. And to tell you why HB is all dressed up in his tie but won't pose for his muma!

No time to improve the photography yet but nice closeup of HB's nose freckle!


Happy stitching
Tracee xx

ps...  can you believe it! River Monsters - Lair of the Giants is on in 15 minutes, just time for a good cough & brew a cup of tea - had about 16 hours sleep today so back to the big fishes for me...