Exchange

No, no, not the kind you do after you get something and wonder what in the world the gift giver was thinking. Really, who wears garters with bells on them? Wait ... I got distracted.

This exchange was a trade of generosity. The Christmas Exchange over at the Tatting Forums was a lot of fun, and I was lucky enough to have LaceRN as my "Secret Santa". Wow, does she know how to pack a sleigh -- well, okay, a nice tin. Isn't this a great tin? I love snowmen -- they all look so happy. I got a really magnificent hand-made card, too.

That's not all though -- the inside was packed! It contained a whole skein of Christmas HDT, an entire ball of Lizbeth size 20 Christmas green mix, and a ball of Coats & Clarks blue size 70 thread. Nice variety and colors, right? Then, to go with the thread she tucked in two shuttles. Ah, but not just ordinary shuttles -- look closer. I've got decorated, blinged, fancy-dancy shuttles. One little pink clover with sparkles and gems and one substantial, holiday-appropriate Tatsy. For garnish on the thread she packed in a whole tube of red Czech glass beads. Now these aren't wimpy little seed beads -- these are "notice me!" accent beads.
The two little glass charms certainly charmed me -- they're frogs! Frogs! Have you got that? FROGS! I collect frogs! I've got a whole shelf in my room full of frog figurines; I have frog ornaments for the tree, I've got stuffed frogs; I have a variety of frog earrings. Frogs -- I love 'em!
(I've saved the best for the last -- but it's rather like not noticing the elephant in the room, eh?)
Tatting from another tatter is especially valued -- we all know how much work goes into it. See my butterfly? It's bright, cheery and very SCMR. :) Okay, the other two elephants are obvious. Two (yeah, TWO) beautiful ornaments. These are made in size 10 thread and fastened to the ornaments with large pearl-headed pins. Only the size 10 thread would do for those pins and only those pins would work with the size 10 thread. Now, that's something I've got to try. I don't know why size 10 never occurred to me before. These ornaments are really miniature showcases for tatting. The knots are visible and the construction stands out proud. These ornaments are ones you can show a non-tatter and say, "See? THIS is tatting." Thanks, LaceRN!

Happy, Happy...

New Year!
I was going to go all philosophical about new beginnings and whatnot -- but my feet are too cold. So, I'm going to tell you this instead:

I'm a winner, a happy, happy winner!
Or at least I was a winner -- now I'm an owner. :)

Way back at the end of November Lace-lovin' Librarian had a drawing for some very pretty little bags. The random number generator generated my number, randomly. As my niece would say, "Like, Random!" The postman finally got around to delivering my little package and I'm finally getting around to showing you what I got.

It's soooooo cool, yeah, really!

It's a really pretty yellow-satin fold-over bag with a zipper. That's not all though. It was stuffed with tatting things! There's a sample of Sulky thread (a very pretty blue -- which is my favorite color), a ball of Coats size 70 white tatting thread (I see tiny little snowflakes!), a lobster claw hook and charm (that's going on my down coat -- I lost the zipper tab last year and never found anything to replace it -- but I'm going to add some tatting), and a most beautiful decorated Clover shuttle. Just look at that shuttle! The pattern looks vaguely oriental and I love it!

Thank you so much, Diane. It's good to be Random!