Squishy mail & lovely visits

Well, tonight I ended up having a reprieve from work … we had a wonderful visit out today, but driving home it took us over 1 1/2 hrs to get home from Eltham, and by the time I got home I was feeling decidedly squiffy again, so I called in work and said I’d be staying home for the night 😦  We even had to stop off at a local Dairy (stop giggling my fellow Aussies, that’s our Kiwi equivalent of your Milk Bar … I still can’t get used to calling it a Milk Bar – for you Brits out there, it’s the equivalent of the ‘corner shop’) so I could buy some ginger drink to try to quell the queasiness.  Anyway, that’s enough of me moaning … on to the brighter moments of the day 🙂

Before I do that, though, I just realised I haven’t written anything about our weekend social night out with Sharon and Pete … We went round there for dinner on Saturday night, and had the most wonderful time – dinner was divine and the company excellent.  I took my stitching with me but we were enjoying ourselves so much it came out briefly for a show-and-tell, but not a single stitch was done.  I also received a wonderful birthday gift voucher for Bustle & Bows from Sharon, and very touched with that generous gift … unfortunately the gift I gave Sharon wasn’t quite as good … unfortunately I’d chosen a chart I knew she loved, but she’d just bought it for herself as a kit … oops 😦  I already know what I’m doing next time, and think I’ll be safe with that choice 😉  Before we knew it it was almost midnight, and I felt like we’d just arrived – as always a definite pleasure and both Mum and I enjoyed ourselves immensely 😀

Back to today – we caught up with another fellow blogger and Melbournian for a beautiful lunch and stash drooling.  We drove over to visit Gina today, albeit half an hour later than we planned due to a visit from the real estate agent (which I’ll talk about soon), and then because I took a wrong turn and had to consult the Melways … because of supposedly going to work for 6pm we had to cut short the visit, as we knew the drive would take a while to get home – we would have loved to have stayed longer … next time we definitely have to choose a non-working day so we can have more time 🙂 Thank you again Gina for a lovely day out – it was great to finally visit and see that infamous collection of linens … and see your Indian first-hand 😀  Mind you, if I’d known I’d start feeling sick again on the way home, we wouldn’t have had to hurry off 😉

The other highlight of the day was the wonderful mail I received – firstly Becky’s piece for the Quaker Friendship RR … it looks gorgeous in real life, and I’m looking forward to adding my little bits to it in round 2 of this RR 🙂

Next up was my order from One Star’s Light – my Cat’s Whiskers charts and 17″ Q-snaps … and I have to agree with everyone else that Jenna’s extra attention to detail is lovely with everything individually wrapped in beautiful tissue paper and wax seals … even Mum’s drooling over the Alyssum scissor keeper, and I can see her extra birthday gift being something stitched this year (she already has the main part of her gift in some Gingher scissors etc).

Last, but certainly not least, is a wonderful RAK from Linda … she very generously sent me her copy of Just Nan’s Dragonfly Scissor Purse, and I’m just over the moon about that – I was seriously drooling over Linda’s blog every time she put a progress piccie up, and I’m thrilled that I now get chance to stitch one of these beauties!  That was enough on it’s own to have me grinning from ear to ear, but she also sent another chart from my wishlist, M Designs’ Snow Wonderful – I fell in love with this after seeing this on another blog, and yet again Mum’s eyeing it up too because of the snowmen and snowflake!  Linda also sent another chart which I hadn’t seen before – Winter Getaway, and I just love the little cabin scene, so it will definitely be stitched up as well.  Thanks again, Linda, I truly adore everything 😀

On a different note, we had a visit from the new real estate Property Manager, and she was dumb-founded by the cracks … I’m really impressed by her attitude – she took loads of photos and said she was calling the landlord immediately as the cracks were very serious.  As I said to her, I’m happy someone from the agency is finally taking me seriously, as my previous chasing phone calls were doing nothing at all.  Within an hour we had a phone call from her saying the landlord wants to visit tomorrow morning, and she’s trying to get someone from the Body Corporate out here immediately as well, because it’s that serious!  Hallelujah!!!  It will be interesting to hear what they have to say tomorrow! 😀

And to finish this very lengthy post, here’s the progress to date of my CA Wells’ Peacock Needlecase … not too much to show, but I’m not touching any other stitching until this one is finished in its entirety.  I’m feeling a bit brighter than when I first got home, so I just might be able to get a thread or two into this tonight … fingers crossed 🙂  Which is exactly where I’m heading now … off to watch House and Medium with Mum … aside from the squiffy tummy, it doesn’t get much better than this 😉