The Secret can be shared!

Yay, I received an email from the secret recipient of my gift piece to say it has finally arrived safely, so I can now reveal all! This little piece was meant as a cheer-up gift for our beloved BeckySC months ago - unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way, as I was trying to do it while I was really sick, and had a number of mishaps with it ... when I 'melted' the blending filament on the wings, it was the final straw, and I couldn't face it again for ages due to feeling so disappointed about it - but it finally got resurrected and fixed up, and got sent on its merry way to its intended recipient ... I'm so so happy that it finally managed to reach Becky - better late than never ;) Anyway, here is the piccie from the scanner - try as hard as I might, I couldn't get a clear photo on the camera ... perhaps Becky will manage a better one :) It's the first time I've ever sent a stitched gift to another stitcher, so I was a bit nervous - but pleased with the overall result :)



Lana, good luck with stitching Dolphins Domain - I have to admit, it's lovely when it's stitched, but it can be pretty hard going with all those greys ... I'm finding the best way to stitch it is to mix it in as a rotation with other smaller/brighter/more fun pieces. Looking forward to seeing it totally finished, though - it will be hard to part with it once it's done, I think, but hopefully Vicki and John will love it seeing as they chose it as their wedding present years ago :)

Sharon, if you want it, you're more than welcome to my copy of Dolphins Domain when I've finished with it ... hope you're not in a huge hurry LOL. Seriously, though, I'm unlikely to ever stitch these critters again in this lifetime, even if I do think they're lovely stitched.

For Cathy and Christine - "champers and panettone" is something new for us at Christmas this year ... "champers" is just sparkling wine/champagne, and "panettone" is a traditional Italian Christmas cake - considering we have not a single ounce of Italian heritage in us, that was something new to try this year - it's like the consistency of bread, with the fruit and peel in it, and is just lovely. We have a large Italian population in Melbourne, and I work with quite a few of them, and one of the guys at work said I had to try Panettone with Champagne, as that's the best way to eat it ... who was I to go against orders from an expert? LOL. I have to admit to disliking traditional fruit cake intensely, so I love the panettone!

Thanks everyone for your lovely and kind comments about my first ornaments. I have to admit, Bine, I did follow some instructions - I bought the Judy Odell/Just A Thought book, but didn't find it as helpful without pictures (I'm a very visual person), so I backed her notes up with a trip to a website by CameoRoze as she has a step-by-step tutorial. It was pretty simple once I started the process. And I had so many wonderful examples that others had stitched for inspiration. At least next year I won't be quite as phased by it all, and I'm going to try to stitch at least one ornament a month, so I'm ready for Christmas early in 2006 ... well, that's the plan anyway haha.

Mum's hounding me to do the flat-fold finish of the Stars are Brightly Shining ... we made some carrot noses out of Fimo before Christmas and she's dying to see it made up! I decided I was too impatient to wait for ordering more buttons, and thought we'd give it a try in Fimo - looks pretty good, even if I say so myself ... now I'm starting to think about trying other shapes with it too hmmm. Maybe on my next days off we'll have another finishing session - but I need to buy some different batting first :)

Kali, I can't wait to see your outfit when you're all dressed up as Cindy Lou Who ... that sounds like a real hoot and a half!!

Rightio, off to do a bit of stitching before I have to go to work - I didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm up early ... the bonus is that I have more play time before work yippee :)