Birthday Post

Birthday shopping is great, especially on the internet cos then you get post as well! Lots of fun. It's still not yet my birthday but my post yesterday was particularly awesome cos I got all of these wonderful things!
A gorgeous shopping tote from LAMdesigns (perfect for my tea and crockery obsessions!), "Fluke the Mutant Cardinal" postcards from BirdNerd and an awesome special birthday suprise from Jane aka Memake:
How lovely is that? Don't know yet what I will sew it to, but I am sooo pleased with it, it is so nice and it was made just for me! I feel so special :D

In the meantime I got crazy gifts from the boyfriend (who will be in Wales on my actual birthday), and presents from my family when they visited yesterday - my dad bought me a fancy printer! We've been stuck with a doddering old black&white effort so I am delighted to get my hands on an all-singing all-dancing PSC machine.

Typically, I was just as pleased with the paper things came wrapped in as the gifts themselves (I am such a paper addict) - the three on the left are from IKEA, apparently, and the fourth is from wherever my friend Pip buys his wrapping paper :) The pattern on the blue is silver (the picture doesn't show it too clearly), just gorgeous.
Other than opening presents and generally being quite thoroughly spoilt, I have not been doing very much. I did manage to finish my first set of little felt ornaments...
... and I made a start on my first ever beaded brooch:
I don't know yet how the brooch will look when it is finished, but I'm very pleased with how the beading turned out. I have a few more of the beads left so will try and do something with those (and that lovely minty green felt that matches them so well) in the next day or so. I need to get my secret swap item sorted, too... Ah, the housework it is going to be so neglected! :D