It is hard to tell you now that the past weeks have been difficult. Like many of our friends and family members, the downturn in the economy has left its imprint upon the House of Glee. We are grappling with financial challenges that we hadn't anticipated. However, I am thankful for all of the warmth and support of my friends in the blogosphere.
Coincidentally, the past weeks have brought presents! I have thanked everyone individually, but I thought it might be nice to have a little Show-and-Tell.
Tanita S. Davis of Finding Wonderland sent me a lovely package from Scotland delivered by a hedgehog (who, after recovering from jetlag, now acts in Lucia's puppet-shows) that included a signed copy of Mare's War and a beautiful handmade brass ring. I also just found out today that I won the signed copy of Beth Kephart's brand new book Nothing But Ghosts in the contest she posted weeks ago. The contest results were posted just after I returned from vacation, and I'm guessing that I opted for "Mark All as Read" on my RSS Reader and continued to read on from there. The contest question was "How would you paint regret?" My answer wasn't the most in-depth one, but it was the answer Beth's son pulled out of a hat, so how lucky am I? Pretty lucky! I've taken a photo of the two books (Tanita's is the signed copy and Beth's is my library copy, as I just found out today I'd won the contest):
Schelle of Brand New Ending stitched for me a number of lovely things. The star of the show is the stunning blue-footed booby created in exchange for a Seven Ravens doll:
Wow! I knew Schelle was a gifted needle-worker, but pictures don't do justice to the actual work. I've kept all of these photos in large resolution sizes so that you can admire the handiwork. Schelle also made a set of animals for storytelling: koala, platypus, wombat, mouse (with accompanying bag) and a cloth book with lanolin-infused pages to keep my needles from rusting:
I realized after I took the photo that I had the lanolin-book upside down.
Last but not least, I recently received a surprise email from Acorngirl of Silver Acorn whose shop I had blogged about a few months ago. I featured her "purple girl" doll as a favorite. The purple girl doll didn't sell in its initial four month listing time, and Acorngirl decided to send me the little doll as a gift! So, here she is. I cannot help but name her Violet:
Many, many thanks! I realized I have used far more exclamation points than usual, but I'm keeping them in. They are appropriate for this particular post.
7 comments:
Oh, what a gorgeous booby!
You have the most talented needling friends. That's stuff is really neat.
I hope things are continuing to trend toward better, and that Mrs. T-W is teaching Lucia to make tea.
I am SO glad you liked Mr Blue-foot. He was really a lot of fun to make - I've never had the confidence to start with some photos, make sketches and a pattern and go all the way to the finished product before, so thanks for being the inspiration!!! I hope that he and the others bring you lots of luck & blessings in all areas of your life, because every stitch was made with love :D
My sister is wonderfully talented - I am lucky to have so many of her treasured items...though i must admit i had to google blue footed boobie to see what one looked like. Your post box must be feeling very loved this month
I was standing in line at the PO a few weeks ago, and two ladies ahead of me were having a most irritating discussion about how they didn't think there should be a PO anymore. I suppose instead of being irritated with them, I should have been sad for them since clearly no one sends them anything wonderful in the mail.
What a beautiful bird! And Violet! And kind gift from Tanita! See? I'm addding to the "!"s. Warranted, indeed.
Just lovely.
Jules, who promises to answer your email after I finish practicing for my story time...
It was a secret I discovered early on that if I wanted to get wonderful things in the mail, I had to send wonderful things in the mail. In the beginning, I ended up sending 3 letters to other people's 1 letter (if at that) until I discovered pen pals.
It occured to me a few years ago that all this blogging was pen-palling on a grander scale.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by and left a comment. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and didn't leave a comment, but read the post and comments anyway.
awwww Farida you are so awesome. We feel you! No job offers yet in almost eight months. sigh. But it WILL happen. Things do get better. And we grow stronger.
Big hugs and love to you!
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