A Gorgeous Exchange and a few other goodies

What a joy it was to open my mail box when I returned to my Arizona home.

There were wonderful gifts and some purchases I had made waiting for me.

First off, from my wonderful friend Sandra who lives in Portugal. We had agreed on a private exchange and this is the lovely package that arrived in my mailbox.

This is the lovely project bag, pincushion and scissor case she made for me. Isn't it gorgeous. Her stitching is absolutely perfect and the finishing is just as beautiful.

Included in the package were some lovely gifts - thread winders, rings, skeins of floss, two designs and a pair of scissors from a Paris needlework shop, a pattern for some stuffed pincushion birds, some lovely fridge magnets, an angel heart and a lovely Swarovski necklace that I wore out to dinner that night.







 Thanks to the wonderful Melissa I had to have this latest pattern to add to my evergrowing stash of lighthouse patterns. How cool is that! - a lighthouse biscornu.

Browsing Ebay one evening I found several copies of very old Just Cross Stitch magazine and before you knew it, my finger had clicked on bid. They are now in my possession. And the cool part - one magazine has the very earliest Prairie Schooler patterns in it!
 

From my friend Deb (no blog) in Virginia came this amazing collection of Oriental fabrics. They have now joined my pile of quilting stash!

And finally, my rather sad progress on my Desert Mandala. I completed one of the flower sections on the right top and started on the next one. I have done a little secret stitching but I cannot share it as yet.

I do have a little more to share with you but this post has gone on long enough.
I find loading photos on blogger so stressful any more. They move everywhere but where I want them to go and I end up deleting them several times till they land where they are supposed to be. Am I the only one with these issues?

And Harmien, those frogs are still partying!!! Photos to come in next post.

My son is recovering amazingly well and will be back to work next week. I don't think further updates are needed unless something changes. Thank you so much everyone for all your caring and kind words. All of your prayers helped ensure my son's successful surgery and rapid recovery and are greatly appreciated by my family and I. Sending big hugs of thanks to you all.