Mail Call!

This is what was waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday.  So unexpected!  None of my swaps are REALLY due yet.  There are several due dates in May, but not so early, so I was quite surprised.  WH often calls me to tell me I have "fabric" in the mail, but he didn't call today.  (Funny how he can pick right up on that!)   So anyway, I was surprised and excited.  SOoooO much better than bills in the mail, right?

So what did these intriguing packages contain?

The domestic one was from my friend Stephanie from Spontaneous Threads.  She is a member of the Christmas Fabric Bee and several other Flickr groups I belong to, but when we did the CF Bee, she asked everyone to make a 5-inch block in addition to their 2 blocks for the swap.  Look what she did with my little 5-inch block!  I have my very own mug rug.  I've been wanting one, and have even joined 2 mug rug swaps this month in an attempt to satisfy my mug rug deprivation. Isn't this cute!  I love it!

I also received this STUFFED envelope from New Zealand.  I don't know about you, but it is always somehow so exotic to receive packages from far away places.  The package is from Catherine, and I think it's from Stitch Duchess's Pin Cushion Swap, but I don't yet have any way to thank Catherine for her lovely gift.  Hopefully, my swap mama will help me out with this.  In any event, who wouldn't love a package all tied up with doilies and string?  Pay special attention to the candy bar, because...

 it didn't make it into THIS picture.  It was the coolest candy, and we don't have anything like it in the States.  It was chocolate on the outside and some kind of green mint crunchiness in the middle.  Yummy.  (In my defense, I will say that I had just gotten home from work and I was starving...)

Anyway, in addition to the delicious candy bar, look at the rest of this swappy goodness.  It was a pinnie swap, and Catherine sent not one but TWO adorable pinnies.  And the bigger pinnie has some cute beaded pins in it.  Wish I knew how to do that.  Then there is a knitted dish cloth all tied up with a bow.  I think it must have soap inside it, since it smells so good, but I'm not ready to unwrap it yet.  And a fat quarter of some lovely summery fabric.  And a pinnie jar filled with sewing notions, embroidery floss, buttons, and ribbon.  So fun!

So thank you Stephanie and Catherine - you made my day!