Saturday, February 14, 2009

It’s time to open up the gifts!

The day is finally here for those of us who participated in the NNC Valentine Exchange 2009, organized by Margaret, to open up their much awaited gifts.

It was agreed, or, rather, a request by the organizer, that we can only open up our Valentine Gift Exchange on 14th February 2009. So, those of us who received their gifts early had to try very hard to resist the temptations to open it up earlier. There were some suggestions that even if we did open it up earlier, who would have known about it anyway, right? Yup, but, our conscience would! LOL! So, all those who participated in the exchange waited eagerly for the 14th of February, and it finally came today……

Some got excited and wanted to wait for 12.01am on 14th February to open it up, but, eventually, many fell asleep waiting *grin*, or, like me, I was so into making something for the Flower Pincushion Exchange that I lost track of time, and slept at 1.30am last night, not the least remembering about opening the gift. LOL!

This morning, I had to wake up early to get ready for Aiman’s 3-way conference which starts at 8.30am. Not wanting to spend the next few hours in suspense any longer, I actually took a peak inside the box this morning *grin* before going off for the conference, but I did not have enough time to actually go through all the lovely things that Anna, my valentine partner, had packed for me.

So, when I finally got home late in the afternoon, and after getting up from a short nap to recoup the lack of sleep I had earlier, I took out everything from the box to admire.

Boy! Anna really packed so many things in the box that I feel embarrassed of the simple things that I had packed for her in return.


From her, I received, not one handmade item, but 5! I received FIVE crocheted items! Two are in the shape of a heart – one small, one big, which is tied up with ribbons. The other is square shaped with a rose in the middle, as is required in the guidelines that one item must be a rose, no matter in what form. I received two other rose shape items in the form of a crocheted rose brooch. Really lovely!

The guidelines also stated that you must include one stash item, and Anna had provided a ball of yarn in PINK and a box of beads! Oohh! I feel really spoilt!


Anna also included in the box a lovely card which I believe is handmade. A talent I did not know Anna has – card making!

Thank you so very much, Anna! I know that what you got from me in return is nothing compared to what I got from you, but, I hope that you will still like what’s in the box, never the less.

I had packed for Anna a handmade heart shaped pincushion, 2 mini rolls of ribbons, 2 balls of yarns in pink and fuchsia (though it looks red in the photo), a flower rose corsage/brooch and a Christmas ornament.


Here's just a close-up of the heart shaped pincushion.


I had also included a handmade card which I had placed on top of the box.


I hope that Anna will find use for the pincushion and I am confident that Anna will churn out something lovely from the two balls of yarns as Anna is a very talented lady.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Anna! I hope you have had a great day today with your loved ones. Hugs!

On another note on gifts, I thought I’d post photos of the Anniversary Gift Exchange, which, coincidentally, Anna also picked up my number.

I had made, for the Anniversary Gift; a fabric covered padded box, and a matching flower shaped pincushion. To fulfill the requirement that at least one item of stash is to be included in the gift, I had packed a mini cross stitch chart, 10 pieces of mini clothes pegs, a fat quarter in green, 2 mini rolls of ribbons, and a pack of multicoloured pins.


I topped off the box with a card tied up with ribbons.


By the way, the padded box is reversible, and in the photo is also shown the other side of the pincushion.


Hmm…I hope Anna will find a use for the cross stitch chart because I am uncertain if Anna is into cross stitch. Are you, Anna?

Guess what? I just realized that you got two pincushions from me in a similar fabric! Looks like you just got a pair of pincushions from me! LOL! *wink* I am just glad that I did not make them in the same shape! LOL!

Anyway, I hope that you will find a good use for the padded box and pincushion.

Still on the subject of gifts, on Thursday I mailed out to Paul, Tini and Margaret, gifts in return for the Hostess Gift they gave to me, and to say THANK YOU for helping out in organizing the Anniversary Meet last week.

Tini and Paul received theirs on Friday, but, Margaret was not home on Friday, and so, only received a card informing her that a registered mail is waiting to be delivered to her. I hope she gets the package on Monday.

Since I am already posting about gifts, I thought that I might as well post photos of what I had sent them.

For Paul, I had made a flower shaped pincushion in what Paul calls a guyish colour as I made it in grey. But, as Paul’s favourite colour is pink, I had interjected some pink in the pincushion by sewing a pink teddy bear and making up the petals using pink crochet threads.


For Tini and Margaret, I made a small pouch. The pink and green one on the left is for Tini, and the one in maroon and pink is for Margaret.


If I may, I would like to ‘show off’ *wink* the lovely but simple embroidery that I had made on both pouches using the Janome 6500, though the one for Tini is not that obvious as I had embroidered it using the same coloured thread as the fabric.


It was an experiment (the embroidery), but now that I know how to do it, I am sure this will not be the first and last time that I will be doing embroidery on my work in the future. *wink*

I also included a fat quarter in every pack that I sent out. I hope Paul, Margaret and Tini will find all items useful to them.

Thanks once again, Paul, Margaret and Tini, for helping to organize the Anniversary Meet!

1 comment:

The Heart of Paul said...

But really I didn't do a thing! lol