Good Mail Days

Our household has been quite busy this last few days as it's DH hunting week. DH started to cook a big pot chili for his friends on Friday afternoon prior to attending SIL's birthday party. Once the chili's gone, we're just serving sandwiches, chips and crackers. As of Sunday afternoon, they shot 7 dears already, and in need of 4 more. Yesterday weather was horrible, -20 windchill, so they decided not to hunt but they're back in the field this morning.

It has been a couple years in a row now that SIL chose to have pizza (plus cake and ice cream of course... lol) for her birthday, and both occasions have been hosted by our dear aunt (MIL's sister) in town. Being busy as I can be, I only managed to wrap our birthday presents on Friday morning, thank goodness the party didn't start till 5:30PM. It was of course, another great family gathering and I'm sure everybody had a share of fun, particularly our niece. After opening gifts, we managed to finalize our appetizer menus for our upcoming Christmas party. I will be in-charge on bacon-wrapped lil' smokies, pastry-wrapped lil smokies and ham pinwheels. I still have a bunch of cheese left-over from Thanksgiving so I'll gonna make cheese & summer sausage on sticks, and dipping sauce out of it. I also miss spring rolls, so I might make those too... with matching escabeche sauce (Philippines sweet & sour sauce). Dessert will be our dear aunt's responsibility. She makes the best pies ever!

Ok, as proof for the title of this post, pictures below are only some of what I got in the mail lately. My dear friend Jodi from WI surprised me again with another set of walnut lil ruler and thread organizer handmade by his Dad, Max. I've been making sewing sets that incorporates these little treasures, for stitchers to enjoy. Please do check their business website for more masterpieces of Max. She even included a lovely cotton fabric, which would definitely be used as backing/lining materials for my sewing sets. Thank you so much for your generosity Jodi.

Recieved on December 13th

Fabric, Walnut Lil Ruler & Thread Organizer from Jodi

Handcrafted by Max Bloom of Bloom Woodworks

My partner for the CVCEGA 2008 Ornament Exchange is Berniece and she stitched a redwork snowman. Thank you so much Berniece!

Recieved on December 15th

Redwork Snowman Ornament from Berniece

CVCEGA 2008 Ornament Exchange

Sally is also a fellow CVCEGA member, the web admin, and is in-charge on keeping members from out-of-town/state like me up-to-date on the chapter's activities. Our communication is merely through emails. Along with Berniece's ornie, she also sent me this cutie little tree ornament made of felt, blue beads and gold trimmings. Thank you so much Sally! Your tree gave me an idea what to do with my scrap felts.

Recieved December 15th

Little Felt Tree Ornament from Sally of CVCEGA

My model for this month's issue of Embroidery & Cross Stitch magazine made it home yesterday as well... all the way from Australia. Don't forget to get your copy of the said magazine. It is a very quick design and a must have to stitchers who loves to do exchanges, stitch-ins, and SALs. The inside part is quite interesting. Should you decide to stitch the set, please send me a photo of your completed works.

Recieved December 15th
My Favorite Things Sewing Set

Published at Embroidery & Cross Stitch Magazine December 2008 Issue

These jewelry findings below came all the way from Hong Kong and will be used mostly for my sewing accessories. Majority are bead caps and spacers... as in thousands of them.

Recieved December 2008
Jewelry Findings from Hong Kong

Magazine back issues... I'm trying to complete my collection of The Needleworker magazines and found some back issues from ebay the other week. They're kinda hard to find, really, so whenever I get the chance to find them, I bid right away... $7+ plus $5.00 shipping cost. I also managed to win other back issues of JCS from the same seller. Another seller has a bunch of cross stitch magazines listed in lots and I won 2 sets of The Cross Stitcher... mixed with them were single copies of Embroidery & Cross Stitch, and New Stitches by Mary Hickmott magazines. I do have some back issues of TCS but this is the first time I owned ECS & New Stitches.

The Needleworker & JCS magazines back issues

The Cross Stitcher, New Stitches, and ECS magazines back issues

BOOKS, BOOKS and more BOOKS... My shopping online is not complete without browsing for craft books. I had been eyeing this Mary Thomas's Embroidery Book and I finally gave in last week. I also bought a couple of bead books from the same seller... I just recieved these books this morning and I've been mesmerized by the bead weaving techniques. I prefer to buy bead books that involves weaving instead of stringing, as I love working peyote and brick stitches. I bought the last book, Frame Your Memories, out of curiousity. I'm glad I did though coz it has great projects on it... where everything is handmade using different media.

Beading and Embroidery Books

Hand-framing Book

Aside from the above, some of the gifts I purchased online for DH were also delivered yesterday. I actually let him open the box and he used them right away without hesitation... lol They are screwdown thick card holders for his ever-growing baseball and football cards collection. I purchased 150 pieces and 50 pieces were delivered so far. It was a lot better to buy by the box to save, instead of paying $2 to $3.00 each piece when buying individually. I had a great deal on this... Now off to go find a good deal of Star Trek "The Next Generation" Complete Set... if I won't find a good deal on this set, chances are, they'll become birthday gifts next year... I gave him the Original Series (William Shatner) this year. lol

Weather here is still awful but I'm hoping it will warm up in the days ahead. I hope everybody's having a great stitching day!