I love my online quilty friends. They are about the kindest, funniest, and most fantastic group of gals I know.
Last week was about the worst week I've ever had in my adult life. Aside from the neck issues & sewing hiatus, there's just been a whole host of utter crap going on in my life (don't worry - me and the hubs are cool...we're an unstoppable team that competes against other teams...sorry, totally stole that line from an episode of The Office), and last week was the apex of it all. So after all was said and done, I put on my pj's Friday night, settled in on the sofa, and prepared to spend my 4-day Mardi Gras weekend wallowing in a fresh batch of eBooks and self-pity (Jacey was sweet enough to have sent me a hilarious Salt & Pepper themed Amazon giftcard). But come Saturday morning, there was a knock at my door and my mailman handed me what would turn out to be a complete ray of sunshine. My good friend (and ringleader) Kelly had secretly organized a "Cripple Surprise Group" for me on Flickr, and a big group of my crafty friends banded together to send a giant box of happiness.
I can't tell you how completely happy it makes me to have such an amazing group of friends in my life, and I feel blessed to know every single one of them. It gives me such a wonderful feeling of contentment to have caring friends like Angela, Jacey, Michelle, Kelly, Cherie, Elena and Kristie in my life. I'd had such a rotten week, and was so blown away by my coordinated box of crafty fun that I honestly burst into tears while I was opening it. Ray thought I was a complete lunatic because he walked in the living room and found me sitting on the sofa covered in tissue paper and crafts, crying my eyes out, and then I looked up at him and said in my snotty, puffy-faced cry voice (while gripping my new goods in my hands and gesturing wildly) "they made a cripple package Ray! my friends sent me a cripple package! they all wrote me notes and sewed things! look it's a handicapped quilter!"...therein commencing a new batch of crying...and he had that terrified husband look like oh god...i'm cornered and this could go either way....so then after a few seconds he cautiously asked me "sooooo....is that a good or a bad thing???" LOL. I'm sure it wasn't a pretty picture to behold, because I'm a hideously ugly crier...my face gets all red and blotchy and I look like Mad Madam Mim in Sword in the Stone after she catches germy Merlin.
My package contained all manner of beautiful things, and they even coordinated the colors to match my newest obsession - pink & navy. You ladies didn't miss a trick! :)
Let's take a tour of my new get-well goodies, shall we?
First there's a 20" Granny Square Pillow from Elena (which has already been claimed by Sir Whiskers - see above), and she was even sweet enough to include some money and a coupon to Joann's in my card so I could buy a pillow form. I also found a super cute sewing necklace from Forever 21 tucked in her package, which I proudly wore to our MQG meeting today :) Stylin' and profilin'...
Angela made me this adorable Scottie pincushion/voodoo doll. I'm leaning more toward voodoo doll, because Whiskers managed to snatch it out of the box and attempt to eat it within the hour *sigh*
Jacey - my movie-quoting partner in crime - made me about the darned cutest wall quilt on the planet. Her quilting is fabulous and gives it really a cool texture - wish you could feel it for yourselves because words don't do it justice :)
And Kelly - ohhhhh Kelly - she made me a coaster that nearly made me wet myself. I texted a picture of it to most of my family, and then took it in to work and showed nearly everyone in my office, lol!
And here's a picture of the rest of my haul. Jacey sent the pink & navy scraps, Kelly the nail polish, and Cherie and Michelle coordinated on embroidery items! Cherie got me a book that I absolutely love! I'd never seen it before, but it's filled with the sweetest patterns for all manner of critters, holidays, and day-to-day items. Michelle rounded out the fun by sending me tons of new needles and thread, which I desperately needed because my local store has a crappy selection of colors, plus all my needles are older than dirt and getting blunt.
And what are those other mystery items, you ask? Well my crazy other half in Canada, Kristie, put together a hilarious gag box filled with candy and irreverent humor. That journal is a scream (I censored it lest innocent eyes be offended), but I doubt Ray will let me out in public with it, because knowing me I'll make some kind of accidental scene by dropping it in church right in front of our pastor or some sweet white-haired grandma. But jealous journals aside, wanna hear something else that's hilarious? After I opened up that journal, moose pencil, and umbrella hat (which, according to Kristie, is to help shade my face from the scorching New Orleans sun), I found the pouch pictured below. After reading the note, feeling the shape of the contents, and taking into account the nature of the package (and Kristie)...hand to God...I thought she'd stuffed a bunch of condoms in there. I laughed for a good 2-3 minutes before I was even able to open the darn thing.
...only to shake out the contents and realize I was the pervy one who thought a bunch of innocent square needle holders were condoms. My bad...guess I've been living in New Orleans for too long, lol ;)
I heart you my dear, dear friends. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and friendship :) And a big friendly squeeze as well to all my lovely readers - thanks for caring, and for checking in on me each week...it means a lot and makes the crappy days easier to bear whenever they come along :)
