A Christmasy surprise in August!

How much fun is this?  A few days ago I picked up the mail and was intrigued to see a large manila envelope from my blog friend Arlene.  Arlene blogs at Nanaland.  Among other subjects, Arlene writes about cross stitching, decorating, books, grandchildren, and her little getaway place in Georgia.  She is one of those bloggers I hope to meet in real life one of these days.

What had Arlene sent me?  It was a project-filled magazine called Annie's Christmas, the 2015 edition.  It seems that Arlene had won this magazine at a cross stitchers' group she attends.  Kindly, she thought of me and my Christmas blog and decided to send it on to me.  She enclosed a note:

What a nice surprise!  This thick magazine contains many projects to knit, crochet, sew, cross stitch, quilt, or paper craft.  Although obviously I will not make every project, I do already see a few that I would like to try.  My eye is drawn especially to the sewing projects like the kitchen set pictured below.  It's a set of place mats and hot pads with a sweet vintage look.  I think that I would make the hot pads and use them as mug rugs.  This project would be perfect for using up narrow scraps of Christmas fabric.  I'm not much of a quilter at all, but I think I could manage this beginner-level project.

Thanks for your thoughtfulness, Arlene!  It was like Christmas in August!