Saturday quickie...

Well it was a day of shopping, cleaning and sewing - one of those unfussy Saturdays.

I will show you part of what I was up to in tomorrow's post, although you may have seen already on Instagram, but for tonight's quick one, a postal smile that I got yesterday, which I forgot to show in the FAL hubbub.

When you get a parcel with a warning on, you know you won't be disappointed...

I totally hadn't felt the need to avail myself of any mirror ball dots until I started thinking a bit more about Christmas, and then I had to have some!  Plush Addict, (new to me, but likely to be on first name terms soon enough), had a great selection and decent postage, so I had to!

... and they are gorgeous!!

And like many others, I got my first subscription copy of Love Quilting & Patchwork in the mail...

It looks wonderful; I only hope after the last modern quilting magazine debacle that this will run and run!

So for once I am hoping the weatherman is right with his forecast of stay-at-home, don't-venture-out rain for tomorrow, I am feeling all kind of creative!

Knock knock...

Who's there?
Some tiny little old lady courier, (that's what she was, not what she was delivering), and Daniel the postman.  Why, who else were you expecting?

I got all this today...

... containing all this...

... more Oakshott HSTs, and Stitch Tease blocks from Valerie and Ange, mwah!

And this huge parcel from The Book People....

... containing a load of birthday and Christmas pressies for the kids.  I am doing my best to be prepared; online shopping I do very well, ahem.

So it was a good day to be home, and also the builders next door knocked off at a record-breaking midday, and I then got to sew in peace and quiet...

... I attached the HSTs, and now that's 3/4 of the beautiful mystery Oakshott quilt top all sewn together. 

All looking mighty fine.

Perky mail...

One of the only perks of returning home after the best couple of weeks of the year, is the bundle of held mail, especially when you know there should be a couple of goodies in amongst the junk and bills.

Before we went, I took advantage of the M is for Make sale under the premise of needing some Essex yarn dyed linen, not too much of a splurge, but lovely to receive none-the-less...

And at last, a parcel that I had all but given up hope on.  A long time ago, in the time before Retreat, I liaised with Di so that she could pop a couple of t-shirts in her suitcase and hand deliver them to me in person.  Printing was delayed, plans changed, Retreat came and went, delivery direct from the US promised, but nada. 

I was very restrained, in the blowing my top department, because said t-shirts were from Heather Ross as part of the fundraiser for her twin sister's breast cancer treatment.  I had sent a couple of unanswered chase up e-mails, and the night before we left, Heather (oh yeah) emailed me to apologise and that she would get her assistant onto it.

So they're here...

I bought 2, and am going to send one to my sister.

I may also have made an order from Justine since returning, availing myself of the Simply Solids Saturday 20% discount, so Daniel the postman can rest assured that his job is safe, I am nice like that. xxx

The Good, the Bad and the Snuggly...

The Good... in the form of great mail days.  I have had a couple recently, but haven't yet shown you.

Benta went into production-line-mode on her lipbalm holders, and I was a lucky recipient... 

How brilliant that i. it has MY name on it, so the girls know it is not theirs for the taking, and ii. that it will clip onto the key fob in my handbag, so no more rummaging, and even better, no more searching the footwell following those sudden breaking episodes!

More Good from Alyce - Blossom Heart Quilts.  I was so lucky to have won her brilliant SMS Giveaway Day prize of some lovely Japanese Christmas fabrics, and also one month of her splendid Etsy shop's Japanese Bundle Club; so I am able to extend the joy, and have another parcel of lovelies to look forward to next year.

Thank you again ladies, I really appreciate The Good in my world right now.

The Bad... the central heating, or rather, the lack thereof.  We woke up cold, and I managed to finally trick the system into action at about 2pm, the engineer arrived at about 4.30pm, but because it was working, he was none the wiser; but they will return tomorrow, with their electrical testing gear, and hopefully we will be sorted this side of Christmas.  The lurgy is slowly beating a retreat, so hopefully we can put the Calpol/Night Nurse back in the cupboard soon.

The Snuggly... where I am planning on being as early as possible this evening. I will hopefully get the chance to catch up with a few blogs too, have I missed anything huge in the last couple of days? 

First though, I need to cut the pieces for the last 3 Christmas gifts that I have to make, and who knows, I may even get the chance to move onto the optional extras!