Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas surrounded

by loved ones!

~Linnea~

Secret Santa Gifts and Tag Swap

I participated in the Secret Santa Soiree this year!

First time I had ever done that!

Always a first time for something and I am glad too.

It was fun!

Our host was Suzanne over at Colorado Lady.

Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into it.

When you click on the link it will take you to the original post 

and the links with 3 *** in front of the name have posted

about the gifts they received.

 My package arrived while my kids were visiting for Thanksgiving.

We had gotten home from wine tasting and taking all of them to

Train Town and I found the package waiting for me.

It was fun to open it with them here.

I opened the first gift then I remembered I needed to get a picture of the wrapped gifts!

The trinket box with a bear on it was the first one I opened.

 Here are all of them opened up. Such a wonderful variety!

 I had indicated I was starting to collect pincushions and 

look! I got a pincushion. Love love love it!!!

And a yellow fat quarter too.

Except in New Zealand I guess they are called Flat Fats!

LOL!

I have been seeing how others store their Fat Quarters.

I think I need to change how I do mine, by color!

 Even though this postcard tells me where my Secret Santa lives,

it still took me awhile to figure out who she is. 

I finally came across her blog and now I know.

The pincushion design helped too.

I am not going to say who it is yet.

Maybe you will figure it out too!
(update: well I go and say I figured out who my SS is and now I have
forgotten which blog is hers. Guess I need to play detective again. :) )

 Aren't these buttons adorable?!?

I love them!

 And embellishments  for card making or scrapbooking.

What fun! I love those too!

 And look at this cool bookmark!

I am using it on the book I am currently reading!

Thank you, thank you to my Secret Santa.

You sent me such wonderful fun items!

Love them all!

********************************************

Sue over at It's A Very Cherry World! was the host

for the Christmas Tag Swap
. The link takes you to the post where she writes about the Tags she received.

This is only the second time I have participated in a swap and 

what fun that is too. 

 This the front and the back of the card I sent Sue.

She happened to be my swap partner as well as the host!

How cool is that!?!

The tree design on the front is from an old Christmas card. 

I have saved Christmas cards and cut the interesting parts from cards and got rid of the rest.

Finally I have a use for them!

Actually I have used them as tags on gifts too.

This is the tag Sue sent me. Isn't it gorgeous! 

This is giving me ideas for future tags.

I hope to participate in tag swaps more often.

I just have to find out about them when they happen.

I almost missed this Christmas one.

And I am more prepared now.

I am saving cereal boxes and cutting my tags in the shape I want them in

and tossing the rest of the box. 

Now I will be more ready for the next swap I hear about.

~Linnea~

Alphabe-Thursday-D is for /Vintage Thingie Thursday

 Jenny is our host for Alphabe-Thursday.

Click here to see others who are participating.

This is my first year to participate.

The first three posts are on my other blog,

but this time I am featuring things I made so this I will post over here!

D is for Dolls. And for Doll-bed.

I made the dolls when my Daughter was a young girl.

I made them from preprinted fabric and they were played with often.

 The Doll-bed I painted back in 1986.

 A closer view of the Dolls I made.

 The Dolls on the bottom are old ones.

Perhaps they used to be my mom's.

I don't remember for sure.

Here I am with my Daughter-in-law and my two precious

grand-Daughters!

They just recently visited us for Thanksgiving and here we are

at the San Francisco Zoo.

My grand Daughters played with my Dolls while they were here.

It was fun to have them here. First time they had been to our home!

I am also linking with Vintage Thingie Thursday since my dolls are older than 25 years and so is the Doll-bed.

In addition behind the Doll-bed is the spinning wheel that used to belong to my aunt/godmother.

Visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday posts.

Thanks for visiting!

~Linnea~