My Autumn Coffee Swap package arrived yesterday. I knew ahead of time that my pal was Nichole, because honestly, we’d asked to spoil each other. (I’m not a big coffee drinker, so it helps that the two coffee swaps I’ve done, dear friends have spoiled me.)
That’s the group shot. There’s some of everything in there! Thank you Nic, for being a most awesome spoiler. There are also treats for the fur-girls (pupcorn and mints, which for the record, BOTH girlies crave now), and the Knight is sure the hot cocoa Kisses are his…
While the whole package is spectacular, a few things require a closer look. This is the darling tea tray is something she’d wanted to find for me for a while, and I love that its coloring is similar to that of my fur-girls. It’s already been put to use in the kitchen. Clearly, it’s the cutest tea tray I have now.
The tea she sent is also a favorite. It’s great iced. I toss four bags into the Iced Tea Maker (by Mr Coffee, I think?) and have a nice pitcher of tea in no time, no sweetner needed. It’s nice hot too, but I do need a packet of Splenda with it hot.
There was a handmade item required in the swap, and Nic sent along three items, a felted cup cozy and two coasters, just in case a fur-girl has a close encounter with one coaster. I’m dropping the cozy in my purse this evening, and hoping the Knight stops by Starbucks!
Since this is a knitting blog, that’s the yarn. I’ve wanted some Sereknitty yarn for a while. The colorway is Black Pearl, in a superwash and bamboo blend. Soft, so very soft, so I’m thinking it might become a cowl for me…
Technically, there was another handmade item in the box, although not made by Nic’s hands. It’s a cool little project bag in a coffee print! I like it a lot, and with my startitis, it will be put to use almost immediately. A knitter can’t have too many bags, can she? (Hey! I could cast on my cowl with the Sereknitty and drop it in this bag, right? No, I don’t want to talk about all the other projects I want/need to finish in the next few days, but thanks for asking.)
Last, but hardly least is the massive mug (that is a regular-sized bag of coffee, and I do have small hands) and the holiday blend coffee I can’t wait to brew! And yes, you do see the fur-girls peering out from their crates. They were eating while I was opening. It was a great plan, because for a change I got to open a package without help.
Thanks again, Nic. It was an awesome package with more goodies than I can do justice in a post. Thanks too to Anne for hosting, and if y’all don’t mind, pop over and tell her you’re thinking of her, her mom and the whole family. Sweet Ingrid is still in the hospital, and that’s really hard on everyone.
So, what do your weekend plans offer? I’m going to head out and hopefully wrap up my holiday shopping efforts tomorrow morning. I have a few online purchases to make, but since MJ is steady ordering stuff for the Knight that I was going to, I’ll wait. Other than that, I’ll be hoping the clipper drops more than just a dusting of snow, knitting, baking and serving as the primary attendant for the fur-girls.
Please also pray, cross fingers or otherwise send good vibes to Chief Pissy. Genetics are catching up with him and he is scheduled for what should be a rather routine (but scary just the same) procedure early next week. It’s just a rotten time of the year to be in the hospital for any reason.
Some of you have checked on the Knight’s Uncle. Uncle is having some complications from being IN surgery so long. The weight of his body put his arm to sleep, and it’s just not returning to normal as quickly as he’d like. (The doctors aren’t alarmed, but then their arms/hands are working fine.)
I missed a couple of birthdays yesterday in blogland. Nic’s SO celebrated (and I’m glad he liked the coffee and chocolates I sent), and Barb did too! Better late than never, right?
Have a great weekend. I’ll try to blog (if for no other reason than to humor dear Pissy), but Gretchen seems to be a little confused about HOW to surf with a computer…
Surfer Girl!
You’d best grab a cuppa’ (or if you’re in the already hot and humid Southeast, a tumbler with ice and…) and a snack, because this is going to take a while. There’s just too much here that I don’t want you to miss! This box was packed FULL of goodies, just for me, the Knight and the world’s two most rotten pooches. Good thing Holly treated the pups, because I must confess that I got carried away with opening my package, and I left them outside and their supper was more than 30 minutes late, because it took me that long to open everything! 
The pupster sticky buns. Don’t they look good enough to plate up and serve with tea? Tsk, tsk… No, I’m not going to let the Knight bite into one before I tell him they’re for the dogs. Besides, the dogs have already earned them by waiting patiently for their kibbles. (We’re going to ration them out though. One, per dog, per night. Mugsy’s watching his figure, and we’re trying to teach Sissy the concept of moderation.)
Then, there’s this incredible roving from 
Then, there’s the 
Holly had some help with several items in this package. 
Then, there was a pair of Anita’s special needle toppers. She’d also told me that she wasn’t doing these anymore, except for swap pals or personal gifts. I’d hoped that I might one day get a pair just the same, again, never sensing that the pair she just struggled through was indeed for me! I had difficulty photographing these beauties, but you get the idea. 
There was even a pair of tip protectors too, which conveniently enough match a lone stitch marker Anita sent me with the last order I placed. Ha! The joke’s on me, evidently. 
Anita was a busy bee, filling Holly’s special order for me. Aren’t these guys cute?! In case you’re wondering, there was a bee theme to this package. Holly had sent me the Lantern Moon bee tape measure in a Valentine package too. I don’t remember when I shared with Holly that I like bumblebees. It’s kind of weird to like a creature that my father was deathly allergic to, and Mugsy has his own allergies, which thankfully, he hasn’t tested in many years. However, there’s story about the bees that inspires me. I heard it not long after coming to grips with my own, new and permanent physical limitations, about ten years ago. Evidently, 
Now, if I allow my frame of mind to stay right here in Red Clay and Rocks, VA, where the deer eat all the tender little blooms…
It came with instructions and a couple of sample fibers. It should have come with its own parachute. See that? That’s the floor of the dog pen, below our back deck. I was out there on the deck, spinning away, so proud of how it was going. I stopped to wind on a bit, and next thing I knew, the tail end of what I was spinning was feeding into what I’d already spun. I was working on untangling that mess and trying to get going again, and I suppose I overspun a bit… Next thing I knew, my new treasure very literally took flight from my leg (I was giving it a good spin to get started), flew through the rails on the deck, and landed below. (Couldn’t just have thudded against the rail and landed on the deck. Not with my luck.)
Luckily, it was none the worse for wear. I managed to get to my spindle before Sissy did, since she wasn’t quite sure what we were doing in the pen. It’s a very pretty little spindle, but I’m going to have to get the Knight to notch it for me, at 4:00, 
If you look closely in the upper left corner, you can see my little helper. I was surprised that she wasn’t curious about the spinning thingee, dangling in the air. I think it’s neat that it’s signed and dated. Perhaps if I do take to this 
Chan Knits 