I finally opened my packages on Christmas night. I had so much work to do with the entertaining my family...you know food, sharing, and just being together which for me is wonderful. I wanted to wait until my work was done...dishes washed and put away and so on.

I want to thank so much my Secret Santa Wendy from the UK. I don't know you Wendy and I can't remember you posting. But...obviously you know of me.

First of all...my packages were all individually wrapped. I was so surprise to see that after I opened my package so I had to go and get my camera out again after I had put it away so I can get a picture of all my packages before I opened all of them. Wait until you all see all the little packages. Hehe!

So one by one while sitting next to my husband (and he was watching me) I opened them. This is what I recieved.Two tatted ornaments. One is a very pretty Christmas tree with gold beads and a pretty tatted star on top. The other ornament is Jack Frost I think or Icicle Man. I have not seen this pattern before. Wendy...where did you get it? It is so cool!! Did you make the pattern up?

It is funny that I said something on the list about liking the tiny Christmas stickers that were on the outside of my package and if I could get more...well ...this is kinda funny..but she also included three sheets of stickers in the package.

Then for the Halloween Spirit in me...she sent me fake nails that have spiders on them. Hehe. She also sent me a beautiful varigated spool of Guttermann Sulky thread. Shade of pink and purples together. Something will get made with that.

I also got an assortment of tiny delica beads in purple, green and salmon color.

I got two Milkybars made by Nestle'. I have never seen this kind of candy bar and since I am all sweet out for a bit...I will save these for a few days...but Wendy...are these white chocolate. I love white chocolate. I have a story to tell here. I was in the UK years ago. I found a big pound size bar of white chocolate in one of your stores over there. I nursed that bar for along time on my tour...but though I think it was made either by Nestle's or Hersheys which I can't remember which right now...I found it odd that I have never seen the white chocolate bar here in the states where the chocolate is from originally. If anybody in the UK find that white chocolate bar again....send one over here...LOL

Then I got a strip of material that has in squares aSnowman, and Reindeer on it... that could be used to make...well I will let my imagination run wild...But it is again funny seeing this material for it reminds me of the Santa Material that Gina raffled off.

I also get a little kit to make a pair of angel earrings. I haven't made them yet...but I will. I love angels and all things Celtic and Medieval like castles, knights and so on.

I also got two sparkly black bangles. I can use these to make some Halloween ornaments with. Now wouldn't that be so cool.

I also get another kit that has a tatted gold butterfly with an enamel Santa Face, stars and an angel charm. Wendy...O Wendy...what am I suppose to make with the kit. Whisper in my ear of what it is to be...LOL

I also got this beautiful huge card with a beautiful print of The Cathedral at Canterbury from an oringinal watercolour by David Birtwhistle. This such a beautiful work of art. When I was in the UK I didn't get to see Canterbury. Maybe someday if I ever get lucky enough to go back to the UK and Ireland I will be able to see Canterbury Cathedral.

Can you believe this!!!!!!! There is more..... I also got a package of hankies with snowman on them. A scissor sheve... and...I got a pretty skein of pale pink thread. I am not sure if it is silk or rayon. Do you know Wendy?

I also got a pink and purple plastic Christmas stocking with my name on it. I think it is meant to be a minature Christmas ornament for I can put a ornament hanger through it.

I also got a scoop that I guess I would use to scoop up beads with.

And like I said...Wendy knows of me for she also knows I do bobbinlace.. .and I found a very nicely turned pair of lace bobbins for my bobbinlacing pleasure. The spangle is so pretty and festive looking. I don't know what kind of wood the bobbins are made of. Maybe you know Wendy.

I also got a small beautiful glittery Christmas Card that I thin is small enough to use as an Christmas ornament for the tree. Thank you..... thank you....thank you...thank you.....thank you....Wendy. Please send me an email so I can write to you personally. Thank you Gina too...I loved everything that was in my exchange with Wendy. I will get some pictures taken and post them on my blog.

One bobbin lace ornament and one tatted Christmas ornament. The bobbinlace one is a pattern of Janice Blair of Illinois. And is alot of fun to make. The Tatted ornament was a gift to the Tatting community. I thank you Jon for the pattern. Here is her url to her blog where you can find the pattern too. http://tatsaway-patterns.blogspot.com/ Enjoy the pictures, front and back of Jon's ornament.

Okay it is picture time again. In the one picture is a scan of some of the Celtic Snowflake from designer Ruth Perry. They are made with the HH Lisbeth thread. Talking about that Barb Foster went to China because she didn't like the inconstitency in the thread. Barb has put alot of time and money into the new thread line adventure. Now she will be dealing with a different company in China...but the thread color line will remain the same with a few added colors.

In the other picture is my Knitting Rules needlegauge and an experiment thread winder made by Karen Smyders http://www.etsy.com/search_results_seller.php?search_type=seller_usernames&search_query=karatstix+

She even personalized my needle gauge with Celtic Dream Weaver. How cool is that??? I love the thread winder. She made the slit small which is what I told her would be best. I gave her this idea to make the thread winder like a snowflake to match the Snowflake needle gauge. On the outside spokes of the snowflake is open at the tips. If you look closely you can see that so if you wanted to...you could thread your thread through one of those diamonds. I have the proto type lucky me...and I think it is really pretty. I gave you Karen's Blog url for you can contact her if you would like any of the three things you see pictured. Her work is quality work. Just Beautiful.

Couple pictures to show you. One is a necklace designed by Nina Libin that I made. I used HDT size 20"Royality" by Sherry Pence. I really like the dark purple to black in this colorway. It looks very close to one of my favorite Valdani colorway that I used for the ground in my Celtic Fan that I made years ago. There is a picture of my fan somewhere on this blog in the earlier entries. This fan was also on the front cover of IOLI bullentin once shown in color. Anyhow...I just got this finished. I started it a while ago....it has been picked up and put down a few times.

I have belonged to the Lace List "Arachne" for a long time. This was the first year I decided to join in on the Lace Christmas Card exchange. My partner was Alice Howell of Oregon. What I recieved from her is in the other picture here. It is a bobbin laced ornament. What I sent to her was in an earlier post which was the bobbinlace Christmas tree. I don't know but I might do it again next year.....now to go back to working on things...and listing some more stuff on ebay. I have lots of crochet books..hard covers and out of print...also cross stitch, Handanger which I love and a whole bunch of stuff to have money for Christmas shopping this year.

I love reading everybody else's blogs by the way. I read them every night before hitting the hay.

Here is a little tatted bag that I made for Carol Amich. Nope she hasn't gotten the bag yet. This bag is not the only thing that I will be sending to her. There are some things inside of this bag.

Yup some of your stuff is in the picture but unless you have x-ray vision...I guess you can't see yet.... I also....got this neat button of a haunted house.....but Carol....I am keeping that....I am thinking of making one of these bags myself and I will put it on mine.

Now everybody knows that Christmas is coming around the Mountain...and that the Goddess list has a SS Exchange this year. Well...O Janey...O Janey I know who you secret Santa is...and what is more...I know some of what is in that there package you got....hehehe....nana...na..na..na.. na...hey, hey....I can't say....na...na na...na na hey, hey I can't say.....hehe

Since Laura Blanton showed her tat test of "Royal Diadem"

http://laurasmuse.blogspot.com/2008/11/royal-diadem-by-sherry-pence.html

I will show you mine since I got my very own book in the mail from the designer Sherry Pence.

http://ladyshuttlemaker.blogspot.com/

You can get the book from her. It is a very nice design and it wasn't hard to do. I also tat tested this doily for Sherry. I thought I would share mine with you all. I made mine in size 80 HDT of Sherry's Marina and Pensacola Beach colorway. Love the blues in both of these colorways.