....................Secret Santa and Celtic's Christmas Exchanges!

Hi everyone! Whew, it has been a busy last few days. Christmas celebrations with friends and family and after Christmas shopping! I can now reveal my Secret Santa recipient was Karey Solomon. I tatted her a little elf, which she has named Flannan.  I know he will be happy in his new home! Here is a photo I took of him... and you can see what she has written about him on her blog
here .

My Secret Santa was Carol Lawecki and she did spoil me! Look at what she sent!

Here is the kit and kaboodle. A lot, right? Here are the details.

First off, my FAVORITE! When I opened this I burst out laughing I loved it so much!  She had taken Jane E's bride and groom pattern and revamped it into Frankenstein and his Bride. Do you believe that? She made a little dungeon background, added a tatted bat and spider, complete with glittery web, and created a Halloween tatted scene for me. Check out the little bolts in his neck! heehee! And look at all the other beads. Just great.

ok, there is more. As you can see in the very first picture, there is a heart shaped bag. It is to fill with rice and make a little heating pad. How clever and pretty with glittery butterflies. I will have to try this soon, as it has just turned cold here recently. There is also my Avon polar bear stocking which you did see before, but 'bears' repeating. Photo buttons you fill with your own photo, or in my case, I will most likely fill with tatting! Pretty vintage Lily threads in mauve and blue.. nice...

 Here is also a yummy dark chocolate bar, Halloween confetti (little spiders and bits), a Mary Englebreit Christmas notepad and sunflower notecards. If you look closely, you will also see Halloween colored beads by Deb at DS9 Designs

 And check this out. This gorgeous dragonfly pin, which I  had to grapple away from my Mom! I told her she could wear it occasionally, though. Beautiful HDT by Heather The Tarnished Tatter in Halloween colors. I secretly yearned for this, and now I have it! There is also a little tiny shuttle made by Heather. So cute.  And, this pretty flowery tin. Last, but certainly not least, the Christmas card she sent with this lovely tatted snowflake. It is called "Kira's Star" by Birgit Phelps. It is done in a thread with icy blues and purples. I don't know the name of the thread, but it is very pretty! Thank you so much, Carol!!!! I love everything.

Now...

Sherry Townsend and I do Halloween and Christmas exchanges, and yet again, I was so spoiled!  Here is the ornament I sent her. It is Chriselda Christmas Witch! Complete with Halloweeny hair and Christmas colored hat and outfit. I hope she likes her!

Here are all the things she sent to me!

Ta da! This adorable cross stitch which she showed on her blog, and I drooled over!

 I think it is so sweet! I haven't decided yet how I am going to finish it, with a tatted edge or put into a booklet cover or what, but I love it. She also sent these great crochet hooks. So fancy! My sister was a little jealous when she saw these.

 And, since I recently started knitting, which you can see some of my stuff on my knitting blog,  she sent me a ton of knitting supplies.

I love wooden and bamboo needles, and she sent me all of these!

 She also sent more of the Lizbeth threads in colors I adore.

There is also HDT by Sherry Pence in the blue/purple shades. Lovely, my favorite colors. She also sent the cute little Halloween batty sticker cutouts.

And, oh, the yarn. Yummmm, such lovely raspberry ice creamy looking color, enough to make a shawl. Wow! I am estimating there is at least 800 yards or maybe more. So pretty, I will have to find a really great pattern to make with that. I totally love the things you sent, Sherry!!!!!!!!!!

I was truly flabbergasted at the wonderful exchanges I received this year.

 THANKS SO MUCH to Carol and Sherry, you are great DemiSantas!!

.......................Secret Santa and some Christmas tatting

Yippee! I have received my Secret Santa gift! I got it yesterday, but I was gone most of the day and didn't get it until late last night. There isn't much in the way of clues, except it is from Pennsylvania!.There were cute little labels with candlesticks on them and a handwritten Hohoho Secret Santa on the outside!

 When I got it, of course the little leps wanted to open it right away. We opened the packing paper and inside was this big shoe box... and oh ho!...look at what all was inside! There was a Christmas stocking with, one of  my favorite things, a polar bear on it and two envelopes, one saying Merry Christmas and the other, Do not open until December 25! Conor and Rory and I were so excited!! They immediately jumped into the box, and showed me that the stocking was full of wrapped presents, too!! There was also another larger present that wouldn't fit into the stocking. Oh, how they (and me too) wanted to open everything, but, since we only have to wait a few days, we will abide by the Secret Santa's wishes and wait to open them on Christmas!  I can hardly wait... but I will.

It is funny the Secret Santa put candle sticks on the package. That is the ornament I have tatted for friends and family this year. Although it is a different candlestick. I got the image from Claudia's  site, but she didn't remember where the original pattern was from. I just loved it, and made it for my annual tatted Christmas gift.  Here is a photo of 3 of them.

Thanks Secret Santa... I will be talking to you in about 5 days!!!

Oh and as of Monday, I got my Christmas exchange box from Sherry Townsend! Yeah!

Here it is under the tree.. only 4 days to go!!

...................Rory Arrives!!!

The mystery gift has been opened! Conor just couldn't wait and ripped into the package like a monkey on a banana!! And, lo and behold... there was a leprechaun inside bearing a gift! Conor was so excited he didn't know what to do first! (He has been a little sad lately, having gone thru a little upset of his own, but we will blog about that later.)  He grabbed the thread to get a closer look... ooh such lovely colors. He wants me to use it very soon to make something lovely.

Well, then, being mischievious leps, they got into a tug o' war! But, it was all in fun, and soon were hugging it out!

Then, Rory showed us the letter from his Mum, explaining his real name is Ruari, but that we could call him Rory. And how he has come to live with Conor and me to be Conor's BFF!

Well now, Conor is so happy! He got out his new toys he got for Christmas (of course, Mom let him open early because of the special circumstances) and  he and Rory had a great old time playing on the Christmas rubber duckies!

I can see this is going to be a wonderful friendship. Conor and I are also very curious to see who else was on Fergeal's list of leprechaun recipients!

 Conor and I want to thank Pamela and Fergeal for thinking of us, and sending us such a great little friend for Christmas.
                                             

Hurray!

........................Mystery Gift!

Oh my gosh!

I just got back from the post office. I was mailing my Secret Santa, and Exchange and 'stuff' (some of you know what I mean), and guess what was in the mailbox! Oh, a mystery gift from Ireland!  Here is a photo of what I found inside.

I am so excited! The Christmas card has a LOVELY tatted snowflake on the front, (maybe I got a pattern? or the snowflake? just guessing here) and inside it says it is from none other than Pamela, the leprechaun creator/Mom extraordinaire! The little card says "not to be opened until Christmas". Wow... do you know how hard that is for me? Well, I will be a good girl and wait. Unnnnnn, it is so hard, I want to see what is in there!  Well, thank you in advance Pamela! Conor really wants me to open it.. but I keep telling him.. we can wait for 11 days!

...................whooooo

...likes tatting? Well, I do! But, I don't have any photos to show of it now. I just finished one of my Christmas Exchange 'things' and have another to do, plus my own, so, no photo of that yet. BUT, I can show you this little guy! Isn't he adorable!? As far as I can make out, he is an Eastern Screech Owl. My neighbor came over today, and said she had seen me taking photos in the yard this summer, and wondered if I would like to take a photo of the owl in her tree. I JUMPED at the chance! I ran and got my camera, and here is the result. I have more photos of him, too. My neighbor said he lived in the tree, she had just noticed him recently, and I could come over and take pictures whenever I wanted. I told her, oh, yes, you can expect me!