Wow, what a great Saturday!

Wow, what a great Saturday I've had!

First good thing to happen to me today:
The postman delivered these gorgeous yarns to me this morning. I ordered them late on Thursday night from Wharfedale Woolworks on Folksy and they arrived in the post today. Great service!

The yarns are both lovely soft merino double knit, hand dyed in glorious colourways. The top skein is 'Ilkla Moor' and the bottom is 'Goldenacre'. Aren't they gorgeous? I don't know what to make with them yet, but I can't wait to get my hands/needles on them.

Second good thing to happen to me today:
I took part in the latest Folksy Destash Swap this week. For those of you who don't know, this involves looking through your stash of crafty stuff for things that you can part with, but you think someone else will be able to use. I think most crafters horde stuff, thinking 'that will be useful one day' but never getting round to actually doing anything with it! Destash swaps are great for this - you can pass on your stuff to someone else and hopefully receive other stuff in return that you can do something with.

This is the destash bundle that I put together for Annabella Designs. A shoebox full of fabric, ribbon, yarn, ribbon roses, sequins, beads and a little fabric heart that I made, and a couple of packs of seeds as I read on her blog that Annabella likes propagating plants. This is the first swap that I've done, so I wasn't sure how much, or what, to send.


Anyway, I was relieved to read Annabella's post on the Folksy Forum, she seems to be pleased with her destash swap selection:

Just to say a big thank you to BlissKnits for my swap which arrived this morning, delighted with my goodies will be blogging about them on the weekend..Thank you again to BlissKnits…Annabella xx

And this is the lovely bundle that I got today from Donna-Marie of D'z Jewells.


It's hard to see from the photo, but there was a really interesting selection of goodies: lots of beads of all shapes and sizes, buttons, drilled pieces of shell, mother of pearl discs and metallic charms that I can use for jewellery, or for embellishing bags and brooches; jewellery findings that are always useful; novelty bottle tops; 2 necklaces; metallic double pointed needles (must learn how to use them one day!); and an unusual gold coloured belt of fruit shapes (hard to visual, but I think a row of these will look great as a bag embellishment). There was also a fabric photo frame which I've given to my niece Sarah as she loves purple. My 3-year-old great niece Ellie took an instant shine to a little pink fabric teddy, so she was promised all the fabric teddies, rabbits and butterflies that were also in the box if she was good when we went out for lunch. She was very good!

Thanks Donna-Marie - you've certainly fired up my imagination!

Third good thing to happen to me today:
My mam took us out for a pub lunch today. The four of us (mam, niece, great niece and me) had a nice walk up to the pub; it was lovely and sunny, but REALLY windy. Sarah and Ellie had a play in the little park at the pub, and we all had a lovely lunch and chat; and then a nice walk back to mam's house for more reading (why to kids latch onto ONE book?) and playing with the destash goodies.

Fourth good thing to happen to me today:
My wonderful mam gave me TWO bunches of flowers for helping with the greenhouse erection. She couldn't decide whether to go for the pink/white colourway, or the autumnal shades, so she got both! Isn't she great?

Thanks mam! They look absolutely gorgeous!

So all in all, a VERY good day.