A gift from the fairies

Yesterday I got to work late.
Not because I woke up late.
And not because I couldn't decide what to wear.
No, i was late because i received a parcel from someone.

Three Kitchen Fairies had a little giveaway, and I won! I never win anything. No really. I never do.

So when I received this parcel, I was very excited.
In my parcel was a lovely bag..and also some lovely extra goodies which was so sweet of her to send.

And so I sat on my bed in my towel and read the magazine (one of the goodies) and ate sweets.
I then realised it was ten to nine and I wasn't dressed and no where near work eeeek! Commence mad panic...and dash to work...

So here is a pic of my lovely new bag (sorry Paloma, i stole the pic from your blog as the poor winter light makes very poor photographs!)

I'm posting off my backtack swap tomorrow (I managed to fix the 'kind of broken' one), then I can post the photos in a few days for you all to see.

I'm off to bed now, nighty night, and I hope you have all enjoyed your thanksgiving for all of you that celebrate.*
*I'm kind of jealous that we don't celebrate this!

Louise's Sunday Ramble

Well, I am finally at the last stage of the swap. Phew!

My final gift to make, I thought would take an hour or so to finish off...oh how wrong i was. It kinda fell apart and now me and dan are all fingers and thumbs putting it back together.
I wish i could show you the photo so you could see what i mean...but i can't!
So i am really hoping it will be okay to post out tomorrow eeek!

Whilst browsing through blogs I realised that I had been tagged by Mimi!

Mimi love paints the loveliest pictures and embroiders on to them. I have one of her postcards of cow which is great, go check her out!
So it was almost a month ago that I was tagged, so it seems i need to update you on 7 facts about myself. Here are the rules.

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write seven little known facts about yourself.

4. Tag seven people at the end of your post and link to them.

5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

1. I am allergic to Lobster. No swollen faces or rashes...oh no, Lobster helps me make friends with the toilet and give it a hug. (U prob didn't want to know that)

2. I bite my nails. Don't think I will ever stop, i've tried everything.

3. I'm majorly scared of fireworks, much to everyones amusement. For two weeks either side of Nov 5th, i constantly have my fingers in my ears and hide myself away in the house.

4. I have 3 sisters (aged 15, 18 and 31) and i'm in the middle. Being a middle child is meant to make you more calm and less prone to arguments. It's kind of true.
I miss them loads as they live 3 hours away.

5. I have a scar on my left eyebrow. I was told recently that scars on eyebrows are really common so maybe i'm not that special. Mine was from playing hide and seek and running in to a toilet seat. ( I would like to point out that I was 4, and not 27!)

6. I am learning Chinese - Mandarin at work. Ni hao, ni hao ma? Wo bu shi hen hao. Wo yao qiao ke li* That's as much as I can muster today.

Hello, how are you? I am not good. I need chocolate.

7. My dream is to have my own business, work at home, grow veg, have babies, and bake cakes...oh and win the lottery. Until then 9-5 calls.

So now to tag some people back.

These are people that I check out nearly every day and enjoy so much. Some are old and some are newbies like me. Please go and check them out!

Three Kitchen Fairies , wonderwoman [not!] , Two Little Banshees , Piccalily & Blossom, lottie ,
sasikirana handmade , a stitch in dye

So that is my Sunday ramble.

Oh and just before i leave. Check out my friends little shop on Folksy.

She has made me couple of necklaces now and they are real little statement pieces.

I have this one...

This is what she makes on our weekly crafts nights, whilst I look at my fabric and wonder what to make...

ciao for now xx

There once was a mouldy cactus...

As I am such a great employee and colleague *cough cough*, my workmate bought me a lovely cactus. (She had previously bought me some kind of plant, but i killed it, because i am rubbish)

I nurtured my cactus, and totally ignored it like you are meant to do.

However, after a few months, it looked a bit ill. I worried and pondered.

"How can i be killing this cactus" I said?

Within a few days, it started to shrivel. Then started to go mouldy. Eeek, seriously, are the gods looking down on me and punishing me? I did not think it was possible for a cactus to go mouldy?!!

One day, I noticed that the cactus was 'swimming' in water. The soil was soaking. The culprit was the office cleaner. She thought she was helping by watering it everyday!

Within a week, the cactus had shrivelled from 6 cm to 1 cm and was officially dead.

I mourned and moaned and cursed the cleaner.

Then today, I came in to work.

Another workmate had had enough of my ranting about this bloomin cactus.

"Here you go" she said "you can not possibly kill this one".

It's so cute. I said thank you, and have my fingers crossed, and pray I can't kill it...

First swap almost finished...

Well, i have been a very busy bee, trying to finish my swap buddies goodies.

I am almost finished, although i keep changing my mind on things.

The theme was Gold, Frankincense and Myrh. I think I have kind of stuck to the theme...although as always, I have gone a bit off track!!

Dan mentioned yesterday "I wonder what you will get in return?"
I had totally forgot that it was a 'swap' and that I would be gettting something back ha ha! I've been too preoccupied in creating!

Anyway, as I will be posting Rebecca's goodies by the end of the week, i thought i would have to join another swap hee hee.

Piccalilly and Blossom are arranging a 'Secret Santa' swap. Closing date is 25th November, so I hope you can all sign up! Otherwise it might be just the two of us swapping and pretending we don't know who it's from hee hee!

P.s. I just can't wait to finally put my swap goodies up on here, so hopefully you will see them next week!

Just a snippet...

Now that I have taken these photos and have loaded them on to the computer, I am dying to showcase some of my swap gifts in progress.

I am in need of a bit of feedback. I am having a bit of a mental block (or lost my crafting mojo as a fellow blogger recently wrote!)

Dan and my dad are not the best of reviewers with "Er what's it for?" and "what do you do with it?"
Pity the poor dears that don't understand art. (That's what i keep telling myself anyway)


So anyway, alas, no, i can not show anyone the start of my creations as I want them to be a surprise for Rebecca, so i'm afraid I can only preview some little thumbnails.

Just so you know...

I'm not dead, or ill, or confined to an armchair from eating too many muffins (I have been making lots of varieties lately).

No no, i am just quietly sewing, whilst catching up on the last series of Lost and preparing for my swap. As well the the mundane 9-5.

Naughty Louise, neglecting her blog.

I promise to give you a snip-it of my wares this week.

Bye for now, i'm off to eat another triple choc muffin x