Pincushion +

When I went to the post office yesterday to collect my mail, all that was in my box was a card indicating that I must go into the office to claim a parcel.  There was a new gal working behind the counter as our regular Post Mistress retired last Friday, so I handed her the card and she went into the back to retrieve the item.

It took only a few moments and upon her return, she handed me a large brown envelope and said, “So you’re the lady who gets and sends things all over the world.  This one is from England.”  In a small town, it doesn’t take long for ‘news’ to get around.

I knew it was my pincushion swap gift because it said ‘Pincushion’ on the custom declaration form.  I just couldn’t wait to get home to see what was inside!

When I got home, I immediately went into the kitchen, grabbed a pair of scissors and sliced the envelope open being as careful as I could.  There were a gazillion wrapped items inside, so naturally I reached for the largest one and tore off the wrapping.

A rooster pincushion with a tool caddy on it’s back to hold all kinds of sewing implements!  Isn’t he soooo cool?

After seeing Mr. Rooster, I just couldn’t wait to get at all the other goodies.

And then it happened…the battery in my camera died!!!  Just after I took this shot is when it happened and that’s probably why the photo is so dark because there wasn’t enough juice left to set the flash off.  Drat!

It takes a full six hours for the battery in my camera to charge so you know what that meant?  I had to wait until this morning before opening the other gifts in order to be able to take photos of them!  I felt like a child who had been handed their Christmas gifts and told to wait til the next morning before opening them.

You can be sure that the first thing I did this morning was go into the kitchen to see if the battery had charged overnight.  Yep, the red light was out so that meant it was charged and ready to go.

One by one I opened all the wee packages and oohed and aahed over each one.

Melanie  sent me all these wonderful goodies.  In keeping with the red, white and blue theme that I had written about in my profile…as well as liking vintage things…Melanie certainly outdid herself.  She included a balance between old and new…buttons, snaps, ribbon, rick rack and a postcard of Southport, England where she lives with a lovely note to me.

Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity, Melanie.  You certainly made my day…actually days…seeing that I had to spread my enjoyment over two days.

Another pincushion to add to my ever-growing collection.  And just in case you didn’t know, you can N-E-V-E-R have too many pincushions! 

Isn’t swapping grand?

Kaaren