Chookyblue's Secret Santa Swap 2017

I've previously written about the lovely decorations that Denice sent me in this Swap, and yesterday I could open the larger gift.
Denice made me a beautiful wallhanging and also a lovely big bag which had a tag attached suggesting that I could perhaps find some yarn to fill the bag...oh yes!!! Lol

And here is the bag made from some very pretty fabric...love those daisies!

And the wall hanging is just stunning! I put it on a hanger for the photo but I need to get a slightly larger hanger out I think. The birds are so beautiful and the stitching is exquisite. All my favourite colours are in this...and I love it so much.

Now the background fabric is pretty special too...here is a close up.

How perfect is that 'music fabric'!
Thank you so much Denice; your gifts have given me so much joy! And now I must sample that maple sugar you popped in the ornament parcel. I put it away until Christmas so it's more than time to open it up! 😉
And thank you to Chooky for once again organising this Swap and also an extra thank you to Denice for giving Chooky a hand this time when it was needed.
PS Earlier this year I was complaining about the fact that the (free) Blogger App I'd been using for years ever since I got an iPad, was crashing every time I typed a few words. And I discovered that Google was no longer providing updates and things looked a bit grim. Well I 'bit the bullet' ( slang for after a lot of procrastination I did something) and purchased a blogging app that would allow me to transfer my blog seamlessly to it. And it worked...until a fortnight ago when it wouldn't even open. I paid just under $3 for it but it only worked for half a year 😕. So I've bought another one and paid $4.49 for it. Fingers crossed it works for a reasonable amount of time. 🤞🤞🤞

Hmmm...Blogger what's going on?

This morning I checked back over the post I wrote yesterday to see if there were comments which hadn't been sent to my email inbox. For some reason, comments from Una, Carol, Sharmayne ( and maybe others too!) don't get sent as an email. (Sharmayne did comment yesterday and I will send you a reply)
But something else I noticed was that a big chunk of the post didn't publish...the photo of me with the koala had quite a bit of text attached, including links to explain about these tourist attractions in the Port Macquarie district. I was photographed standing next to Komorebi...this link will take you to a Gallery page with all these wonderful sculptures that are dotted through the Port Macquarie district. And this link and this one, will explain a little more of the story behind this project.

 And the post also contained a bit about our stop at Fabricland  Fantazia in Tweed Heads South...and it's not there in the published post!

The reason for the stop at Fantazia was to buy some seersucker tablecloth fabric by the metre ( a request from DD1), stock up on more of the pretty ribbons that I tie around knitted throws if they are gifts, and to buy some more Christmas buttons in the shape of a camel. Kitty, who runs Fantazia, assured me that she still had the camel buttons, but do you think we/she could find them? Nope! But if you saw just how many buttons are there, you would understand how some could be hard to find.

DD1's new tablecloth for her new table

Recently I've had to be a bit inventive with writing blog posts and this 'state of affairs' all started when I decided that maybe I would install IOS 10.2 on my iPad as the blurb said there were lots of new emoji...I had rather liked the Santas I'd seen friends using and reasoned that they were in the new 10.2. So I installed it didn't I?...on what was basically a frivolous whim.

As it finished installing a message flashed up on the iPad screen suggesting that the developer of Blogger should update the application as it would become unstable on IOS 10.2. The message was just for a split second...and then it was gone!

You know where this is going don't you???? When I tried to use the Blogger app to write a post, it kept crashing...eventually I wrote that post about Nikki's graduation, over a number of hours. I found by trial and error that if I typed 5 words, then tapped 'done' and then quickly tapped  'save', I wouldn't lose text. I also found by trial and error that it would let me insert a number of photos without crashing???
So with some experimenting, I started working between the PC and the IPad; sometimes the work done on a post does transfer to the other device but often it does not. I could use the web version of blogger on the iPad but by previous experience, you have to write the whole post in one go. If you stop and then save, the next time you go back to edit/ add more to the post, the web version being used on an iPad will only allow you to scroll down a short way, so you cant complete the post. And that is why, a few years ago, I installed the Blogger app.

So after all these troubles I googled my problems with the Blogger app and I discovered I'm not alone. I found out that last year both Googleplay and Apple withdrew the app without warning, so that explained why, when I changed to a iPhone in July, I couldn't find Blogger in the app store.

Always loath to admit defeat easily in any situation, I thought I might purchase one of the Blogger type apps in the App store. So I sent an enquiry about a possible 'seamless transition' of the old form of my blog with a new one. Never got an answer, so I'm still persevering with my 'ad hoc' experimental methods! lol  I'm trying to avoid having to use a new blogging platform such as WordPress.