Giving and Receiving

The { Urban } HOME Goods swap is done and dusted for another round.

I must confess to feeling a fair bit of stress in making my project selection, but I was thrilled with the kind things that Alecia had to say about her sewing machine cover and cross stitch. I admire Alecia's style and really wanted to send her something that she would enjoy. No pressure!

I was so preoccupied with my project selection that I didn't give much thought to the idea that somebody out there was working on something specially made for me! As you can see from the images, I lucked out!


Meg made lovely placemats that incorporate so many elements that I love: Linen (check!), Amy Butler Love (check!), hexagons (check!).

Can you believe the beautiful hand stitching in these hexies?? I am so impressed and touched by the amount of work that Meg put into these beauties. Handstitched hexagons and hand stitched binding! I want to assure you that all of this lovely work is very much appreciated (and adored).

Meg also sent this fantastic mug rug that uses some coveted fabrics.

Hello little fella!

Meg included some extra treats in the package...I am thankful that my swap package gives me an opportunity to talk about buttons again on my blog! Do you see the sparkly and polka dot beauties in this package? Love.

In a strange twist of fate (or of organization by our swap Mama), I was placed in a 3-way (perhaps triad would be a better choice of terminology?? Get your mind out of the gutter!).

Meg received a gift from Alecia

Alecia recieved a gift from me

I received my gift from Meg.

I must really be a civil servant. I want to make a graphic representation of this for you. Shameful.

I feel very fortunate to have had the pleasure of exhanging some hand made goodness with these ladies. Somehow makes the world seem a friendlier place when you can share some crafty love.

Close, but no cigar!

I love me some hand stitching. When life gets to be stressful in the slightest I start to crave a little bit of hand stitching to slow life down and put everything into perspective. Yesterday was one of those days where I was itching to get into my pyjamas and hand stitch up a storm! OOooHHHMMmmmmm....

In preparation for my exciting evening plans, I purchased this London embroidery pattern from Comfort Stitching that I have been coveting for quite some time. I feel certain that it will make the perfect gift for my sister to memorialize the trip that she, my mom and I took to London together.

I gathered all of my material and successfully transferred the pattern onto a lovely piece of white linen that I had hanging about the house....and then I realized my problem....NO EMBROIDERY NEEDLE!! Argh. I spent the next 20 minutes pulling out all of my craft supplies because I could not believe that it could be true. Regrettably it was. Any of you out there have similar crafty tragedies befall your happy crafting night??? Any crazy rampages through your crafting supplies? Do you ever contemplate frenzied emergency trips to the supply store late at night?

Fortunately, the evening was not a complete wash. I managed to located my two baggies of vintage buttons that were missing for another project. One vintage white buttons, another vintage shell buttons. (NOTE to self: perhaps a re-org of the crafting shelves is due??? If one spends more time hunting for craft supplies than crafting, it is a problem.)

Images of how the buttons were used to follow! For now, please enjoy the pictures of the lovely roses that my husband purchased.

Gorgeous, non?!

Happy Halloween and a button winner

Congratulations Nicolemiko! I sent you an e-mail and will send on some buttons once I hear back from you...

I let my son pick a number and he selected three. I thought that this might be because he is about to turn three, but when I asked him he told me that he had selected three because it is the best truck number (???!!!). I have no clue what that means, but it made me laugh when I clicked over to Nicolemiko's blog and the most recent post is entitled "Three". Fate, I tell ya!

At any rate...thanks for playing along! Who knew that buttons are so universally loved? (I'm thinking: not by this grumpy jack!)

Oh joy! Oh bliss!

Look what was waiting for me when I got home from work today...A box full of surprises! (weeeell...not reeeeally surprises...more like impulsive Internet purchases).

Shall we take a look at all of the treasures inside?

Sorted and stacked and ready for inspection:

Fabric.com had the Denyse Schmidt "Country Fair" line on sale for $2.99/yard people! I would have jumped on the blog to share the happy find, but I discovered the sale around 11:30 pm and it was over at midnight. If you haven't had the chance to hold this fabric in your hot little hands you might not know that it is a lovely thick weight. I'm not really sure if they would call it decor weight, probably more like a linen weight?

I seem to have developed a fondness for toadstools. I believe that this fabric is from a line called "Shade Garden". It was also on a sale too amazing to pass up.

Finally, we have orange. Not on sale orange. Just orange. The fabric at the bottom is for the quilt that I am making my sister for Christmas. The other orange is going to be used for an iPod cover. There was a special request for orange...and who am I to pass up an opportunity to acquire some lovely cheerful orange for my stash?

Finally, thanks for all of the button comments. Glad to know that there are so many others out there who have such happy memories of sorting through button jars. I'll do a random draw at the end of this week. The lucky winner will get some random selection of buttons. That will be part of the fun...I'll just take a few mitt-fulls to provide some happy button sorting time for a fellow blogger.

Too many buttons and a give away

Finally! The new computer is all ready to go and I can show you far too many pictures of fabric and buttons. Good times. These are the promised pictures of my fabric sale loot.

Fabric scores. On the top of the pile are two pieces of vintage linen (what a find!). In looking at this picture I see that a red/turquoise and cream theme has emerged. Also, I am a bit obsessed with the idea that gingham is the ultimate Christmas print.

Some luscious threads:

Also, too many pictures of buttons. I spent a happy hour picking through to create colour/themed combinations and then taking snapshots of them:

Berry and green:

Creamy whites:

Lovely pinks:

Yellow and golds:

Greys and browns:

In deciding which button pictures to post (oh the agony of tough decisions!), I came to the realization that I may have been greedy with the buttons (gulp...is that even possible??? It's just so fun to sort through buttons!). I think that it might be a good time to try a little give away of button-y goodness. You know - share the joy and all. So if you would like some buttons please leave a comment about how you would use them, or why you love buttons, or prove that you are a bigger button geek than me (NOTE: I did have to edit down from 25 pictures of buttons. I am not healthy!).