My beautiful necklace

While I'm blogging about other people's projects, here is a very classy looking package I received from a friend yesterday. My first thought was, 'hey, this looks nice, how come I've never heard of poppy street before'. And then I opened it and found a beautiful grey (not purple as shown above) necklace. I knew that Leanne had been doing some clever crocheting, but I never realised one could actually crochet something this fine and beautiful. Well, I can't, but Leanne can. And the reason I hadn't hear of poppy street yet was that I was being deliberately kept in the dark. Secret's out now, though!
I love it, Leanne, and can't wait to wear it.

Gifts from Holland

We were very excited to receive these in a package from my very special uncle and aunty in the Netherlands this week! They were wrapped individually wrapped in beautiful papers, with a 'frog' card on top, and Hannah and I had to wait VERY patiently for Phil and Aaron to come home so that we could open them.Hannah was very excited about another 'Frog' book, while Aaron likes Sinterklaas best (a wordless story with lots of little details to enjoy on each page). I can't decide which one I like best. I had just been contemplating reading Jip and Janneke to the kids from my Dutch version, translating as I go, but that was going to be a bit of a challenge, so I was very excited to see an English version. The kids have enjoyed many Jip and Janneke bits and pieces from Hema, so now they get to enjoy the story as well!

My aunty knows I love children's books and when we got married we received a beautiful calendar from a Dutch publisher with images from kids books. Aaron and Hannah have four of these framed in their bedroom and I still love them very much!
Meanwhile, behind the sewing machine...

Rembrandt and the Bible

A special gift from special friends! I feel very spoilt and can't wait to sit down at leisure with a cuppa to read these. I think they were a limited edition print, and they have beautiful cloth covers.