Rudolph weekend for May!

(From my collection of vintage cards)

 Yes, I had a sort of Rudolph Weekend rather that just a Rudolph Day on Friday, May 25.  Over at my favorite Christmas craft forum, when my friend Fuchsia set up the weekly crafting challenge on Saturday morning, she made a suggestion that if we hadn't had time to do much on Rudy Day, we might make it a Rudy Weekend (it happened to be a long weekend here in the US, too!).  I decided to take her suggestion, since the only Christmasy thing I did on Friday was to sip some cranberry pomegranate green tea.  This at least had a festive flavor and color!

So between Saturday and Sunday, mostly on Saturday, I managed a few Christmasy tasks.  One was to go over my Christmas list and add in a few items I've thought of for various people.  That felt good and showed me who I still need to find ideas for.  I also worked on crafting some felt strawberries -- in bright red with green hulls and white seeds, they had a festive look and -- although these particular berries are for someone else -- I plan to make some for my grandkids for Christmas, so this can be a sort of trial run for that.  Lastly, as I looked through my Christmas notebook, I found a note to myself about a particular cross-stitched item I wanted to make for someone.  It requires buying a back issue of a magazine and also purchasing a specialty item for finishing.  I've wanted to make this gift for several years now, but just haven't gotten around to sending away for those important components (mostly because of high shipping costs).  I decided to just bite the bullet and order those things and have it done.  Now I'm excited about beginning the project!

So that was my Rudy Weekend.  Not highly productive, but I'm pleased with what I did accomplish!

A fun surprise in the mail!

Last month I barely got to post here in my Christmas kitchen at all.  I never even got in here for Rudolph Day on the 25th!  (We had just returned from a getaway the day before and so the 25th was a day to catch up with unpacking and laundry, not to mention it was a Wednesday which is always a busy day for me.

But I did get a fun surprise in the mail during April ... one day a manila envelope arrived, bearing the return address of a sweet blog friend.  And in it were some pieces of lovely Christmas fabric and a sweet note. 
 
There were three pieces of fabric -- one a poinsettia print from Nature's Gift by Deb Strain for Moda, and the other two -- one small and one larger -- from Holly Jolly by Mary Lake-Thompson for Robert Kaufman.  These are high-quality fabrics which I might tend not to buy for myself.  My friend would not be using these fabrics and thought surely I could find a use for them. 

Of course I will!