Another job for Santa???

In 2014 my Secret Santa in the Chookyblue SSCS was Isabel from Portugal. And what a lovely lot of gifts I received; as they say I 'was really spoiled'! 

This lovely Christmas ornament was made from cork...

Isabel stitched a lavender sachet but after checking customs regulations turned it into the sweetest little pillow. There was also a ball of yarn, a gorgeous Zauberball in predominantly purple shades. And there was also a Portuguese chocolate flavoured with passion fruit...it was delicious btw!!  

The main gift was this magnificent circular needle holder which Isabel made for me...it has been such a wonderful gift...made with Kaffe fabrics too!!! 

Well, I noticed as 2015 went on that Isabel had 'become very quiet' with almost no activity on her blog or Facebook. So finally in October I sent her an email asking how she was and once more saying how much I had loved her gifts. I found out that 2015 had not been a good year for her and that she had not signed up for the SSCS as she felt she wouldn't be able to keep to the deadlines. Isabel commented that she loved the fun of being a Secret Santa with the stalking etc and might I add that she is a very effective stalker! My circular needles were kept in a ziplock bag for years before Isabel made the special holder for them! 

So...even though life was a bit crazy here for me with DH's health issues, I decided then and there that I would make up a SS gift for Isabel. Time constraints meant that I didn't sew anything myself, but I 'gathered' some gifts together ready to post in the first few days of December. The parcel only arrived late last week in Isabel's town so just didn't make it before Christmas. 

A Christmas ornament complete with a little hanging bag; a stocking in Australiana fabric and a face washer with a cross stitched kookaburra. All these items were stitched by friends who sell at markets.  

And I bought some charm squares of Australian Aboriginal designs from Tuppy's....

And an iron on fabric label...

And a fabric patch from Nature's Face...the wallaby can be easily seen in my poor quality photo but there are lots of other fauna ( and Aussie flora) hidden in the fabric patch. 

My goal was simply to give Isabel a nice surprise and let her know that others are thinking of her. And I achieved that! 

Now it would be a wonderful surprise for Isabel if some fellow bloggers could visit her blog and wish her a Happy New Year...??? Here is the link http://kraftier.blogspot.com.au/.   

Secret Santa...

In my previous post I wrote about my swap buddy Denice, to whom I posted gifts in the Chooky Blue's Secret Santa Swap. 

Today I am posting photos of the gifts I have received from Isabel in this swap. ( Isabel's blog is at this link...http://www.kraftier.blogspot.com.au/

 Isabel lives in Portugal! 

One of Isabel's parcels ( the one with the ribbon bow) will go under the Christmas tree and will be opened on Christmas Day. Isabel not only sent me a parcel with a decoration in it, but she also sent 3 other parcels that I could open straight away...talk about being made to feel special! 

So what was in those parcels that I could open now...

A very special Gingerbread man, made of cork! The tiny stitched details are so sweet...

The other parcels revealed a ball of beautiful yarn...gorgeous colour! Isabel wrote that she had enjoyed checking out my blog to find out the things I like...so this lovely yarn is just wonderful! 

The sweetest little lavender cushion to put in a drawer; the cushion has a lovely stitched design and very pretty fabric on the back. Another parcel contained some chocolate that looks very yummy! 

Thank you so much Isabel; I love all my gifts. Thank also to Chooky for organising this wonderful swap. It is so special being matched up in the swap with someone from overseas.