Pennies from Heaven

I have been truly blessed by the wonderful stitching friends I have made since I started this blog three years ago. The generosity of stitchers is amazing.
My birthday is tomorrow and I have received some lovely gifts.

From Melissa  the most astonishingly beautiful gift you could imagine.

Look at this box.

The finishing is impeccable. Melissa has stitched the lighthouse from Shores of  Hawk Run Hollow for me and used it to top this wonderful box. She has lined and covered the outside and inside of the box perfectly. It even has a drawer. I wish you could see it. It is just so gorgeous..

Inside she included a pair of lighthouse scissors (she said they called my name LOL). She made the lighthouse needleminder herself.  She included some of the fabrics in case I wanted to add smalls to the case. She added some wonderful button pins and some sticky notes with my initial K. I had to pick up the phone and call her personally to say thank you. Melissa is indeed one of my pennies from heaven. My birthday card was a photo of a lighthouse from my birth province of Nova Scotia. Melissa put her heart and her thoughts into such a wonderful gift. Thank you my friend!

From Bonnie who knew I had been searching for this - a wonderful milk glass scissor frog. And here it is Bonnie -  full of scissors. Thank you so very much.

From my dear 94 year old friend Adriana this wonderful bookmark. I am so blessed to have her in my life. It is because of her that I stitch.

Just before I left for my vacation this gorgeous little packet arrived in my mailbox from Michele W. This is her personal exchange to me. Love the wrapping. I may have to borrow this idea for a future exchange.  The needlebook - just too cute - and the other goodies were greatly appreciated and quickly distributed to their new homes. You can see the scissors in the afore mentioned frog. Thank you Michele for a wonderful experience.

When you go away for two weeks you have a full mailbox when you return.

I won this wonderful handmade Q-snap cover from Sadie and she included these beautiful threads as she did not want the cover to be lonely on it's long trip LOL. Of course, the Q snaps are packed when I went to find them to put the cover on.

From Margaret came this wonderful lighthouse pattern that she offered to pass on once she was done. She included a JBW design from my wishlist with a wonderful skein of thread.

I won a draw on Carolyn's blog for Mirablia's Valentine Fairy. Carolyn says she is glad it went to me as I moderate a Mirablia blog. She sent the fabric, threads, Kreinik and beads. And she added a little extra. The sunflowers will be a really cute stitch. Generous indeed!

And so, my mailbox was full of "Pennies from Heaven". Thank you everyone for your generosity. It is greatly appreciated.

Before I left on vacation I sent Mare her blogaversary package.She was this year's winner and I asked her for suggestions.  She asked for a Christmas ornament and so I stitched "A Christmas Song" from the 2008 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Magazine and included a few other little goodies. She assures me she likes it.

My clicky finger found this pattern I had been searching for and it was in my mailbox when I returned - Dragon Quaker by Stickadeen van den Wiehenburg.

I did not shop much while away but I did run across these. Now, you can't be surprised that they ended up in my cart ROFL.

My google reader has 592 posts. As our cottage is many miles in the bush with no internet access I only checked emails twice. Cell phones do not work and we don't have a landline there. There is no way I can catch up with that many posts. So, I will read as many as I can but commenting won't be happening until I clear my reader. Please know that I am looking at, admiring and oohing over all your stitching and other assorted projects. You all amaze and inspire me. You too, are my pennies from heaven.
Edited to add: Phew, I made it through all your posts. WOW!!!! Will be back to reading and commenting now!
I did stitch and stitch and stitch but that will have to wait till my next post for pictures along with some photos from my holiday.

and keep those needles smokin'

If you made it to the end of this post - thank you for letting me share with you.