Slowly mutating?

I’ve got this small suspicion haunting me like a mosquito in the night these last months. Impossible to ignore. That thought haunting me was that I should change my name from Fabraholic to Swapaholic. (or HoliFabSwap...?) If you haven’t joined a swap yet – don’t do it! You will be utterly hooked the moment you sign up!

Well, too late for me now! It’s so bad, that as a couple of swaps finished I had to get more, just like any other junkie! And I mean NOW!!!

Then the impossible happened; I was TURNED DOWN in two swaps for the flimsiest of reasons.

 1. The swap was full

 2. Only for residents in the USA

Can you believe it??? Usually swapmamas are single-minded creatures like missionaries chasing erring souls.

The Viking in me awakened and started fighting back. This is how the Texty Charm Swap was born a couple of days ago. A swap for addicts of text prints! Take this you lousy world!!!

All you need is:

1.       A Flickr account

2.       One yard of delicious text prints (high quality of course)

3.       Some stamps

4.       One plastic bag for your goodies

The bad news if you sign up is that you have to part with your text print; the good one is that you get 56 text prints in 5” x 5” in due time and get to know a lot of other addicts. Interested? Then pop over to http://www.flickr.com/groups/2208793@N23/ and sign up! What are you waiting for? I know you cannot resist once you’ve seen the booty. I'll have you drooling in no time!

Oh, and one thing more, I almost forgot; you have to live in Europe

.

Happy swapping!

First impressions of a foreign country - the USA

For ages now my daughters and I have been looking for that rare species, a free slot in our busy schedules. Then Princess (DD2) one sunny day told us she might have some days off the last weeks in February. Beauty (DD1) was immediately roped in and told to hold off any appointments during this time as well and I was on the roll, looking for the perfect place to go to. 

No easy task let me tell you. Europe is not really inviting end of February and tends to pouring ice-cold water down your neck unexpectedly or dump snow on your head. The islands in the Mediterranean are hard to reach for a reasonable price without several stops and North Africa and the Middle East are too unsettled for the time being. So where to go? 

Then I saw it, the perfect place with affordable tickets – New York. I immediately tried to reach both daughters, but alas, they had a busy day and the tickets were sold out before I could book. We sheared a lot of tears over that one!

So, I started planning again and found this marvelous trip to Iceland. I had everything almost booked; starting with a bath in a warm well during the trip from the airport to the hotel, some whale watching, and visits to some geysers…Only that last click remained. My fingers were already hovering over the book now key, but I decided to check my emails first. Then I saw it – very cheap tickets for LA! I made the mistake mention it to my daughters and that immediately had their attention! Ok, so we didn’t go to Iceland *sigh*, but settled on LA instead. 

Princess couldn’t go after all (lousy time management at that university) and her tickets went down the drain. Only two of us left.  Sad, but we decided to go anyway and look for another opportunity for the three of us.
We had to leave for the airport late on a Tuesday night. Beauty took the car to work, because it would otherwise have been difficult for her to get home in time for departure. 

She called me eight o’clock to tell she was on her way. This was the first inkling things were going to be somewhat tight. She had a one and a half hours drive in front of her and hadn’t packed a stitch yet. I decided in my mind she could leave without those stitches. What’s wrong with buying a new toothbrush?

We were to leave at eleven. The next call came at 8:30. ‘There is a traffic jam; the motorway has been closed down’. The next five hours were no fun at all and included a lot of nail biting. She finally came at half past one, half an hour after the last train left for anywhere near the airport. So we had to do some rethinking and decided to take the car to the airport. Usually the parking tickets cost more than the airplane tickets, but…We found a cheap place that charged only just about the same amount as tickets to London. We got our plane after some special orientation for experts from the parking to the airport and finally settled down for a 12 hour flight. 

It was one of those normal flights, clouds all around, boring food, cramped seats…But the clouds had the courtesy to disappear above Scotland and Greenland. Breathtaking places!!

                

In LA things were a bit different from what we’d expected. Naturally we had been speculating on the American in his/hers natural habitat and were not sure what to expect; something between Desperate Housewives and Criminal Minds was the general tenor. You've got to inform yourself, don't you?

The customs were cool and joked with us and Obama’s picture greeted us in the hallway. No hassle at all, only friendly faces. And this was the border crossing we had seen so many films about? We found the bus stop for downtown immediately, no problem. But we were astonished at the buses taking passengers to the next car hire. There were millions of them and only one bus going downtown! Clearly things are handled differently here.

The hotel was ok, with a clear sight of the Hollywood sign from the window and we spent the afternoon looking around and eating junk food. Downtown LA was not the least bit like we expected. Nice houses, but lots of homeless people everywhere. Usually downtown is the place you want to be with easy access to everything you want to see or do, but not in this town.


We took lots of pictures; of hydrants, school buses, and fire stairs…Did you know you can take your bike on regular buses? 

Once we took pictures of a film team in front of a hotel. We expected some VIP or other, but that was not the reason for the presence of the film team. More about the film team later and their reason for making this report.



Then the highlight of the day; the appointment with Newbie Jen! She’d organized a babysitter to be able to meet up with us and came to get us from the hotel. I immediately liked her, but I’m not so sure if this feeling was mutual. We were already 36 hours on our feet and still speaking the way we are used to. That is very direct (the translation for ‘direct’ to American is ‘rude’)! I probably repeated myself about five times and told things she really didn’t want to know, but hey, that’s how I am, just a bit more because of being very tired. She took us to a sports bar for dinner and we had a great time getting to know each other. Then the next surprising thing; there are actually valeted parking spaces everywhere and it costs about the same for a couple of hours as we were prepared to pay for a week in Germany! 

We were sorry to see Jen go after this lovely evening, but the jetlag was heavy on our bones.

                

The next day we spent in Santa Monica and Hollywood. There were was a couple of surprises as well. Only people with immigrant background use the public transports and the bus takes forever for a short distance due to traffic jams. We promptly took the bus in the wrong direction and had to go back again. We got some transfer tickets from the bus driver and were told exactly where to go and what to do. 

Next to the bus stop we saw a drive in bank. I’ve never seen anything like that before.

  So we got on the next bus, this time in the right direction and decided after an hour or so to get off the bus. Of course we were nowhere near Santa Monica. While we were frenetically looking at our map I saw our first bus driver and hailed him. He asked about the transfer tickets, but we’d given those away. He just laughed and told us we were some characters shaking his head…Hey, what do you expect from country bumpkins on tour? He finally dumped us at Santa Monica showing us the right direction and we had a marvelous time there. Shops, hamburgers, ice sundaes…Life sometimes is too cruel for words!

My first juke box

Guess what they sell here :-)

                                               

Hard decisions

Then we went to Rodeo Drive, after using the restroom at Sash’s Fifth Avenue. Now, those sales persons at Sash’s are just like vultures hovering all around you looking for a weak spot! You simply can’t go anywhere without getting doused with some perfume or other. Smelling like the employees in a pleasure house in the Orient we finally managed to escape.
                                                  

Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills didn’t impress us much, so we set out on foot to Hollywood. It was a nice walk, but after an hour or so it got boring. Endless streets and those hills in front of us not getting any nearer; you get the picture. Even less people actually walk from one place to another than the ones using the public transport, but we kept going; it was too difficult to find the right bus and the obvious solution; a taxi never entered our minds.

In Hollywood all the preparations for the Oscars were being made and we didn’t see much of the place. Never mind; our feet were already sore and our beds were calling out for us.

Next morning we left LA with the Coast Starlight train for San Francisco. This was one of the things Jen told us to do and it definitely was one of the highlights! Getting on the train was a bit different from what we know as well.  You cannot just go to the track; no you have to go to a counter in the middle of the train station and get your reservations. Then you wait until your train is called and you get the track number. If you don’t feel like walking you can get on one of these small cars taking you to your train.

On the train we got a lot of attention, unusual for us as well. In Europe you just get on a train and find your seat somewhere on your own. Not so here. The train waits indefinitely until everyone’s settled down. 

Another surprise was the Panorama wagon. I’ve never seen anything like this around anywhere. When we finally got to the right wagon all the tables and seats near the windows were taken, but a friendly guy from Portland invited us to share his table. We made some small talk the American way until he got up to get his wife. We managed our getaway and found some separate seats and glued our noses to the window while he was away. The Portland guy clearly was p***ed off at us; he’d settled down to talking travel for the next 12 hours or so! Very rude behavior of us once again, but he found some nicer people to talk to instead. Actually it was someone from Finland, so some Finnish people do know how to behave abroad. Now FYI, the thing is; in Finland you simply cannot talk with people without being introduced. This lady had her seat in front of us, but we could not talk with each other because of the before mentioned behavior rule. Please don’t get me wrong; we like socializing, but we cherish our privacy a bit more. 

This non talking rule doesn’t apply to foreigners, because we don’t expect them to know the proper way to behave. So it ok for you to address us, everyone will be friendly and answer the best they can.

The view between LA and San Francisco is simply gorgeous. The Pacific is to one side and mountains and small cities to the other side all the way.  Should you ever go here, do take this train trip! It’s worth every minute of the twelve hours it takes.

Late at night we arrived in San Francisco and found our hotel without a problem. Once again we’d chosen downtown as the place to be and this time were spot on right. We loved everything about San Francisco! It was everything we’d expected, only a bit more so! Lots of lovely shops, wonderful parks, cable cars, Fisherman’s Wharf and Golden Gate…

Street artist counting their money

Cable car

Hard work climbing those hills!

Then back again to Los Angeles. We spent a wonderful day in Venice Beach and Hollywood and were quite happy with our stay in LA. 

Venice beach

One happy daughter

We’d considered meeting with Jen again for some happy fabric shopping, but she was otherwise engaged. That is the reason why I was a bit surprised as I checked my messages in the evening to find many from Jen. She was rather desperate to make us change our hotel and told us it was not safe where we were staying. We just pooh-poohed and told her we felt quite safe going early back to our hotel, thank you very much! We thought she was concerned about the vagrants in Downtown, but that was not the case. Next morning she told us a Canadian woman had been abducted in the lift in our hotel three weeks ago and found murdered in the fresh water tank on the roof of the hotel just a couple of days before we came there. She was found because the water had turned black and the guests were complaining about the quality! Now we understood why the film team was taking pictures of this hotel!

Afterwards we saw on Internet there used to be Ghoul tours to this hotel, because some serial killers and other murderers used to stay here. So Criminal Minds wasn’t so far off after all!

Never mind; we didn’t know it and didn’t drink any black water. We had a lovely time in the USA and are planning on going back again as soon as possible. Perhaps NY is next? 

Pelicans, never seen those before IRL

Redondo beach

Our thanks goes to Jen for taking so good care of us and making this visit something special and really enjoyable. Hope to see you next time in Germany! We count on it!

The tale of the quilted corncob

Did you know Germans go to the basement to laugh? You always suspected this, didn't you? Well, it's perfectly true; most of them have party rooms in the basement.

But this is not the only place you might see them laughing; should you be lucky enough to travel to Cologne around this time of the year you see them making party practically everywhere. And let me tell you one thing more - they are really good at it!

Of course I'm talking carneval here; very serious business! Five days of unending party! We even get 1 1/2 days off from work, that should show how serious it is.

I'm not the party type, but carneval I do like. Everything begins on Woman's Carnival day, a Thursday. At 11.11 o'clock practically no one is working anymore. In the offices there are spontanous meetings with jelly filled donuts and sparkling wine on the table. Two hours later most people go home to prepare for the next party, with costumes of course.

My neighbours and I usually go to a village nearby and participate in a six hours session with an ambitious programm with dancing, songs and jokes. You have to imagagine 12 groups making their performances and since this is Germany, no spare time in between. One group goes out while the next one is marching in. This year the autobahn to Cologne was closed down, but still the groups manage to get there in time. Most cities and villages offer this kind of programm. That means the groups are usually exhausted by the end of the day, but still the show goes on.

In the mornings there are carnival processions with decorated waggons and so called foot groups. Everyone dressed in a costume with a central theme. Usually something political. This year I'm sorry to say my English friends, the jokes were on you.

For these street processions you need a warm costume, preferably one you can move well in. They throw tons and tons of sweets at the spectators and you have to be really fast to catch the best things. In the evenings you can go to a private party or a public carneval session.

You go from one place to another, only going home to get a bite to eat, to get a new costume or to sleep a couple of hours.

Of course you cannot use the same costume everywhere. I usually end up making 7-8 different costumes. This year was easy; I only made two. Our theme was vegetables or fruit and I decided I wanted to be a corn cob. Beauty (DD1) wanted to be a grape. The grape costume was easy piecy, but the corn cob! I made a lot of corn kernels, each one individually and was busy for a whole week. This golden stuffe did its best to annoy me, the sides rolled up, the fabrics moved in its own way...and then there was the golden fluff everywhere! I don't want to know how my lungs look like afterwards, of worse still, my sewing machine.



This is how my cutting board looked like. I needed hours and hours to scrub everything away.

This is what my costume looked like shortly before departure to the first carnival session. The leaves seems to have mooved with the wind, so this is not a good picture.

And Beauty? This is what she looked like.

The blessings of grey hair

Are you worrying about grey hair, wrinkles, about your backside giving in to the force of gravity?

Well, I don’t! Sure, it’s a beast that my eyesight isn’t what it used to be and I forget things and worry about getting Alzheimer’s. Still; I’m not unhappy with things as they are. You can have lots of fun with grey hair and I see the colour as a blessing!

Where to begin? For instance this time Beauty (DD1) and I rented a car in Mallorca and went to see the lighthouse at the Cap Formentor. It’s a lovely spot, but you have to drive a long way to get there. On the way back it got dark so I had to use full beam. The lights were not very well adjusted on our rental car so all cars meeting us gave us light signals to turn the lights down. After half an hour or so I got tired and turned the light permanently down (I’ve got very good night sight, so it didn’t bother me overly. With the lights maladjusted I couldn’t see much with them anyway.). We were still out somewhere in the woods, miles away from everywhere so I hit the gas pedal. Suddenly there was a police control in the middle of nowhere and they gave me signs to stop. I did and this gorgeous Spanish police officer came our way, why can’t they look like this everywhere?

I was pretty nervous, because I’d been driving way too fast and was afraid of loosing my driver’s licence and paying some heavy penalty fees. But nothing like that happened. He glanced at my hair, bent over me and showed me how to turn the full beam on! Then we were allowed to continue on our way. No, I usually don’t drive recklessly, but I’ve been driving on bad roads through the woods in Finland almost all my life, so it was no big deal for me.

Picture by courtesy of Carla/Grace and favour

Then we have all these seats being offered to me on the underground, buses, trains…My kids used to laugh about this, but they are the ones still standing on their feet after long days of sightseeing or shopping, so I just say thank you and ignore the snickering. This is definitely a blessing!

What also comes to mind are all these vendors trying to take advantage of my assumed feeblemindedness. You know, jumping around and telling the price in different currencies to distract you. Well now, I’m rather good at calculating several currencies in my head so I usually turn the table around and get really good deals before they are realizing what’s happening. This is perhaps not a blessing, but I hate it when people try to trick you!

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I want to tell you what may happen to elderly women in the field of typical male occupations. I’m in charge of the media technique at a big research institute. There are a lot of conference rooms and an auditorium with a multitude of things happening every day.

I’m the one getting the emergency calls, keeping the systems in working order and buying new stuff. I’ve got a hard hat and steel-toed shoes in my locker; I climb ladders and lie a lot on my back under some table or other (now, you should be ashamed of your thoughts!); you get the picture.

So my work means to take care of a lot of hassle, but it has it moments. Like that time I dropped the pager into the toilet. (that was a blessing while it lasted!) Or this typical situation; it happened once again yesterday. I got an emergency call and walked into a conference room filled to the brim with male engineers, just rub this image into your mind; I really, really enjoy situations like this and they are not in any way unusual.

This group didn’t like being disturbed and told me they’d already got coffee, thank you very much, wanting me to leave because they had more important things on their minds, like this breakdown…! Ok, so I fixed it in about 30 seconds and left them open-mouthed and redfaced. My colleague stood there hollering “What did you do? What did you do?” and I told him you need magical, female hands for some things and held my hands up. (Actually he did all the right things, but the system had a hiccup; I saw no need to tell him that)

Afterwards I told my colleagues from the domestic engineering what happened and they started hooting with laughter, not believing their ears! No one has ever asked them to get the coffee! The sweeties immediately began thinking about getting me an uniform. But perhaps I shouldn’t have told them after all, because now they are asking about coffee every time they see me…

And at home? For a very long time I just didn’t push myself forward when something happened with our own media gadgets and things were taken care of without my help. Then one day one of my daughters happened to read what’s written on my door at the office and the happy days were over!

By the way; do you know what male nurses are called in Sweden? Sister! Isn't it wonderful?

Mouthy Stitches II

Little did I know that I landed in a shark tank as I signed up for the Mouthy Stitches II. It looked like lots of fun and I admire the three mamas Cindy (Fluffy Sheepquilting), Hadley (Flying Blind On A Rocket Cycle) and Susan (Canadian Abroad) a lot, so why not join?

The first omen was the street fights that broke out after the trio sneakily pronounced the sign ups. I've never seen anything like this. The 75 slots were gone in a couple of hours! Just signing up wasn't enough, you had to pass a background check as well. I duly handed in my certificate for good conduct, the details of my banking account and the pin for my credit card and was admitted.

A quick glance at the pattern required for the swap had me haughtily sneering at this simple task and I relaxed again. Easy piecy and quite obviously for beginners...

I congratulated myself and did my share of happy bouncing and backslapping and stayed glued to the laptop to see who else was in. Then one quilting goddess after another popped up and I though "oh oh" to myself, this time I’ve truly landed in the soup with both feet first.

However, we did the usual things, introduced ourselves, had a good time mouthing away, insulting each other and did an inspiration mosaic for our secrets partners. Very educational procedure I must say. I added quite a few new words to my vocabulary, like dunce and ding bat. You never know when it might come in handy.
The mamas did their thing and paired people off according to their tastes. (and a great job they did!)

I was nervous about this part, but without cause, because I got someone I really like, Nicky from Mrs Sew and Sow. I immediately had an idea for the tote and was seeing forward to making it.

Next came some head scratching and stalking. We had to decide on our fabrics and were given the chance to show our fabric choices in the hope of getting an ok from our partner.  

There were a lot of the really mouth-watering kind of  fabrics being offered, but frankly my fabrics weren't among them. I didn't get any oh and ahs. It was a bit of a damper, but on the other hand I had definite plans for my tote and chose the fabrics for a reason. Of course my partner didn't speak up, but I did a bit of sneaky cajoling and finally had her ok. (Confess you didn't see that one coming, Nicky!)

From then on I just had to sew the darned thing. Four weeks seemed a long time, but oh boy how the time just runs away...Of course a couple of resets were needed, but it was ok. I enjoyed my theme and enjoyed sewing the tote. 

Nicky likes the Moomins, so I chose them as my theme for the bag. The Moomins live in a blue house with a red roof in the Moominvalley in Finland. I did a bit of reverse appliqué for Moomin and "normal" appliqué for Little My with a spot of embroidery. Embroidery isn’t my forte, but I did my best. 

For the backside I did some raw appliqué for the Moomin house. It was a first for me, but I think I'll do some more in the future. Actually I had some Hattifatteners planned for the backside of the tote as well, but there simply wasn't enough space for them. 
For the lining I chose a Moomin fabric made by Finlayson and made the first zipper pocket of my life.
Perhaps not the best result in the world, but I hadn’t enough fabrics for a new try, so it had to do.

In the heat of the moment I made a Plan B tote as well. 20 granny squares on white fabric.

The lining is made of Italian linen.

Of course I didn't know who my secret partner was, but couldn't resist a bit of sleuthing. As the partners were announced I went to my blog to find out who was stalking me. As it happened I only had visitors from the USA.

Back to the Flickr group and a quick check who was in my group. Bingo! Only one from the USA, Sarah aka Arbonnegirl :-)

I couldn't resist putting the fear of God into her and signed up as a new follower immediately. hehe 

Of course I didn’t really know if Sarah was my secret partner, but she made this really gorgeous tote with the cutest owl ever. It was mouth-watering and made my heart sing “Mine, mine, mine!” like the seagulls in Finding Nemo. Don’t get me wrong, there were an amazing lot of really fabulous totes and quite a few I wouldn’t mind saying hello to, but only one had this special effect on me. 

Duty duly done I began stalking the post woman for my tote. But noooo, no tote. I asked my chums about 5 times a day if they knew who my partner was and generally was a PITA. Should you ever have the misfortune to be in the same swap with me, just spill the beans, will you? It will save both of us a lot of time and trouble.

This waiting got so bad that I didn’t want to check with Flickr who had got which tote, because I was so afraid someone else would get “my” tote.

Then one day there was this package waiting for me and a quick glance reassured me – it was from the USA. And there it was; the greatest tote in the world!!! 

Did you notice that keyfob? Now two owls and me are happily hooting away in my home and then they all lived happily ever after. Thanks Sarah for this wonderful gift!

The End

This is it

I should be ashamed of myself, I really should. Not that I've been slouching around, doing nothing, noooo! I've done tons of things. Just look!

Oh no, I didn't make the pincushion. That was Beauty (DD1), I pushed the pins. Looks great, doesn't it? Now I'm meditating on another arrangement...

See; I've been busy! So busy that I've forgotten my manners. (Wasn't it me preaching about manners just a while ago?)

The pincushion above isn't my only one; no I have another one. This one. Cute isn't it? This one is for my handquilting needles.




And no, I didn't make this one either. Rachel made it. It came in a surprise parcel with tons of other fun things. Just look!



I regret not taking pictures of the package. There was a  parcel packed in giftpaper and there was some licorice and the cutest selfmade card I've ever seen. I once mentioned that I've never tried Australian licorice and Rachel noted it like the sweetie she is and sent some for me to try. It's good! Tastes a bit like Bassetts and Fazers combined in one, if you know what I mean.

In the parcel I found a zipper pouch with an elephant with wiggly ears. Too cute for words!. But wait. In the pouch there was another parcel and some chocolate. Another elephant pouch with elephant with wiggly ears and chocolate. And then there was a third one. Once again a elephant pouch and chocolate. And in this one - no, not a fourth pouch, but a tiny, tiny pincushion.

I love everything and cannot thank you enough for this extremely generous gift Rachel! I so happy I've found you and I'm looking forward to seeing you IRL in London next summer :-)

Is this all? No, of course not. I've got a "normal" pincushion for my everyday pins. I found it in the duty free shop in Shanghai and was sorry not to have enough money to buy another one. Of course I found the money in my pocket once I got home again and wanted to wash everything. Thats life.

Then there was a letter from the USA. Inside it I found this block. It is Jen's block for the Star of Africa bee.
It's magnicifent! Washington in springtime with cherrytrees in flower.

This bee is so much fun; sure you don't want to join us?

A couple of days later the postwoman brought another parcel. Inside was a birthday present from my schoolday chum Åsa. As you see she knows me really well, lots of licorice, some very tasty tea and these gorgeous gloves. She is a very talented knitter, as I've already told you.

Tack Åsa för allting! Lakritsen är försvunnen för länge sedan, men vantarna kommer jag att behöva nu. Förra veckan var det 20° varmt, men nu har vintern kommit. Brrr....

I'm a spoiled brat

I just  love swaps and bees! It's so exciting to see who is signing up, getting new aquintances and chatting all night long...Inspiration to leave your comfort zone behind you isn't bad either. 

In June the Star of Africa bee kicked off with Patti from Canada as our first queen bee. Star of Africa is an international bee with participants from all five continents. The idea is to make one block a month  with a motive from your own country according to the specifics of the queen bee.

Patti was very modest and happy with anything we came up with. So she said. We had to push her a lot to make her say anything at all about her likes and dislikes. She's a dear!

I thought I was even more modest as I didn't wish for a specific size, only a pastel colour line and as theme something you would take a picture of. Not everyone shared my view of my modesty :-)

I wanted to make a scrapbook quilt with lots of blocks of my own from my travels. Time to show my treasures. 

These are the European ones:

Art nouveau from Riga by compliment of
Celtic Thistle Stitches

Very British bling by compliment of Benta at the  Slik Stitches

Greetings from the new German capital to the old one
by compliment of  Sana Saroti

Best invitation ever to visit the British inlands...
by Janine The Rainbow Hare Quilts

Nessie for ever by compliment of Nicky Mrs Sew and Sow

The North and Central American ones:

A very impressive longhorn from Cindy at
the Tops to Treasures

These boots are made for walking...
from Kim at the Quilty Doo Dads

Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, the most beautiful lake in the world
made by Irene Patches of my Life

A happy Canadian hog by Patti at the Retired to Quilt

And last, but not least the Asian ones, both come from India.

Tah Mahal made by Veena from Arts Crafts and More

View out the window of a Jaipuri Jali, the pink city
made Tina from the Holy Scrap

Are they not cute! I couldn't say which one I like most of all to save my life! The four last blocks haven't arrived yet, but I'll keep you posted.

It's so exciting when the letters start to roll in and you can see in IRL what the blocks are like. Then there are the small greetings

and sometimes some extras. I don't want anyone to feel compelled to send gifts, so I've been very silent about what I've received. But its such a lot that I cannot hide it from you. It doesn't feel right just to say thank you and not to show the world your appreciation. I will not say from whom the gifts came and I've taken some group photos of my loot. I hope this solution is ok with everyone.

Am I being silly? I really, really don't want anyone to send gifts out of group pressure. Your friendship, encouragement and willingnes to share a part of my road is the biggest gift of all!

 

Overwhelming, isn't it! And what did I make?

This is my block for Patti. Canadinans and Finns have icehockey in common. 

Jen, our newest bee wished for some animals. She's making a book for her kids to keep them occupied during long rides. I suppose they'd love to spot this one along the road...

This months bee mum, Nicky Mrs. Sew and Sow wished for fictional characters from fairy tales, myths, legends, childrens books...

Have I got you interested in the group? We have two free slots if you want to join us. I can promise a very interesting time and lots of fun. You will learn a lot and I mean really a lot during this ride! Just pop over to Flickr and look for the Star of Africa group, or send me an email. Should you leave a comment here, please make sure you aren't a no reply blogger as I will not be able to contact you.