Christmas in July

It was a very good mail day, even if I didn't actually get the package until today--the mail carrier delivered it to a different address and it took a bit of Sherlock Holmes-ing to locate it--but it's here, and I am very, very excited.

I ran across a website for Julia's Broderie a week or so ago, and she was offering a gift box with Summer projects. Only one project was pictured. Everything else was a mystery.

I was not having the best of weeks that week and decided to treat myself to a box of surprises. I liked her design style, so I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained.

It was a delight to open, beautifully packaged:

The floss colors are those muted, faded pastels that I love, so that was a good sign from the very beginning.

As a summer pastime, she suggests writing a letter to a dear friend, and provided stationery for that purpose.

And one of the kits creates a corner bookmark for that beach book waiting to be read (although, since I'm currently re-reading some of the older John Sandford Prey thrillers, I'm not quite sure if delicate flowers fit the subject matter).

There is handmade paper, plus the directions to create a book of your own. As Dearly Beloved and I have been talking about taking a class in bookbinding at John C Campbell Folk School, this looks like the perfect intro.

And here are two lovely little embroidery kits. Neither involves difficult stitches or fragile, persnickety threads--so perfect for a quick project to work on between more difficult, challenging pieces.

I repeat, I am delighted, and plan to dive in after I get home again.

I'm heading to the mountains tomorrow for a week of classes with Jackie at Sassy Jack's. I have plans to blog, but you know how that goes when I go out of town.

And, a little bit of blog business: I love getting comments on the blog, but if you're a no-reply commenter, I can't respond to you. I used to be able to reply on the blog, but that feature changed with the last blogger update and I haven't been able to figure out a work-around. So please know that I appreciate your taking the time to comment, and I read every word.