Mail call!!!

I could wait and save these for individual posts (if I were a patient person, which I certainly am not), but instead I'm just going to show off all the great packages that came in the mail today. The first is the much anticipated ATC from Michelle at Green Kitchen. I mentioned I liked her bird paintings, and she sent prints of four of them, mounted and trimmed with gold string loops, each in a pretty paper wrapping. My favourites are the two in the middle (above), you can see larger photos of them on Flickr. She also sent some cute rick rack, which I love, although I have no idea how I can use it because the vintage packaging is so charming too. She also sent some of her own greeting cards, and this pretty handmade clip:I love the paper card it's mounted on, and it came it the wee brown hat box you can see in the first picture. In case you're wondering what wonderful things I sent her, well I only sent my ATC, and she put together this lovely assortment of goodies for me! But we did do a second swap recently, though, and I made her something nice. Thank you very much, Michelle.

The second package had two beautiful pouches made by Alison!!! I love her sewing so much, she has the best fabrics, and her machine embroidery is so cool and pretty. I offered to swap with her and she agreed. I had already seen the brown star embroidery pouch and wanted that one, and she also made me a custom pink one (look at that great lining!!). I made her some custom mittens in dark brown with pink and cream embroidery:And I threw in the fabric they're photographed on. They're felted a little bit for warmth, and we emailed back and forth about measurements to make sure they would fit. I was so happy she liked them, because I knew I would love her pouches. Her sewing is even greater in person, the brown courdoroy is nice and soft and the linings are so pretty...I could go on and on. Visit her shop at malisonian.etsy.com and you'll see all her great stuff.

And now you may be wondering about all those great patterns in the background? Well I also got this assortment of fabric from Cia's Palette. My favourite is the little dots, it's called Funky Monkey. Believe me, I could have found a lot more!! So I recommend this site, it's easy to choose fabrics, the package came quickly, and they even sent an extra swatch - it worked because now I want to order that fabric too next time!I know what you're thinking. That must be it, right? Well there's more! I finally got some fabric I bought AGES ago on ebay. It didn't arrive the first time and the seller had to send it again. It's the one on the left. The fabric on the right is from a vintage shirt which I found on the weekend at a second hand store on Queen West. I had originally planned to use the ebay fabric to line my oak leaf bag, but now I'm planning to use the shirt fabric on the right. But don't worry I know I can use the one on the left too! Ok I'd better stop...this post is getting excessive - I hope you don't mind.