Being spoiled...

Kez Haziran 27, 2022

The girls came by for our fortnightly sewing day today, and they came bearing gifts.

I was pretty much gobsmacked at the time and thought they each put into a birthday gift for me.

To say "I felt their love" is an understatment.

Michelle (no blog - yet!) used to paint, which is something she has never revealed to the rest of us, but for my birthday gift she picked up her paints and brushes again for the first time in 19 years! She knows I love having a little garden and painted four of the sweetest herb signs you have ever seen - all peering brightly from a pot of basil and thyme. She also hand embellished my card with pretty pencil drawings and a message that went deep into my thankful heart. And isn't that snail the cutest little guy?

Heather knows I have an insatiable delight for tea cups and birds, and her precious gift had both!

The tea cup and saucer are by Ashdene, a company who make my all time favourite tea things, so now I can officially say I have a small Ashdene 'collection'. Heather is also an amazing paper crafter so I was blessed with a sparkly jewelled card too. I love what was written on the front, "delight in simple things" - so very me.

Wendy's gift was a double gift of nourishment.

One gift for my spirit - because writing is in my blood, I can't not write. This Footprints writing pad will be put to work immediately. You see, not to write is to shut off my air.

She also ministered to my soul. Self care isn't high on my agenda very often, but she made sure that for one day very soon I can leave work behind and enjoy a jolly good pampering.

My oh my, she knows me well...

We stitched and laughed all day, watching the heavy rain and listening to it's serenade through the large front windows...

Michelle is making an appliqued bag from a Leeanne Pitman design (Country Threads Issue 13.4) to carry her stitching in...

Wendy started work on a block in her Smee Designs quilt, "The Street"...

...and Heather is continuing with her "Best Friends Forever" stitched hexies.

I can't show you my project yet, at least not from the front...

Remember my fly stitch tutorial a couple of weeks ago?

You can find it HERE.

Heather made a little pin book and pin cushion the same as mine, but I love hers more!

In fact I almost made off with it when she wasn't looking...I'll try harder to distract her next time. ;-)

Mr E and I both have Hashimoto's Disease. He was diagnosed in 2009, and I was diagnosed a few weeks ago. It's an auto-immune disease, and one of the things that helps the body cope is to go gluten free, so I've been playing around with our family's 'normal' favourite recipes and making them GF.

So far so good, with minimal failures.

Today for morning tea I made a GF version of "Matrimonial Slice", and the girls loved it as much as Mr E did...

For lunch I made a quick and delicious chicken and mushroom risotto which also went down with a smile all around...

I think we may have licked our bowls clean because they didn't even look as though they needed washing!

If you want to try these recipes I made today, leave a comment and I'll make up a pdf to share later in the week.

Such a special day, made extra lovely because the friendship we four share is genuine, heartfelt, crazy, and exciting.

Tomorrow...

I will share the remaining photos of home that I was going to show today, and it's also the release of the next double block set from Shabby Roses Home!