Monday, December 10, 2007

A Strangely Appealing Day

I'll explain the title of this post in a bit.. first, my goodness what an odd (but strangely appealing) day it was! I started out having a FUN first couple of hours at work -- a success my student experienced, and it put a happy grin on my face for several hours.



Then I stopped at my post office box on my way to the next assignment... I received my Secret Santa gift!! Fun! They did not lose it! It is from Anita in Australia. (Hi, Anita... Thank you! Can you see me waving at you??)

Also at my post office I received a quilt from Darcie of the Mavericks ring! She did the machine quilting for me, and I LOVE it!! She suggested Baptist Fans, and I agreed and am so GLAD that I did, because it's perfect, and I *love* it.

OK. I was feeling rather strange today. I had run out of some meds I take (from forgetting to order and from procrastinating), then started feeling really weird and blecchhy. Today I finally got more meds and took one. I felt better almost right away, but still weirded-out for the rest of the day.

After work I had to haul in my two big packages, some Christmas shopping I had done, the mail, we got a big package at home, too (mail order Christmas stuff), and groceries (yes, we spoil ourselves and have groceries delivered). Uffda, that was a lot of stuff to haul in. And on top of feeling halfway weirded-out, and being eager to tear into my boxes and see the quilt (I picked it up at 11:00 a.m. and didn't get to open the box and gaze at the quilt until nearly 6:00 p.m. - can you imagine??) I was just exhausted from my strange day. After hauling everything in and stumbling into the living room, I opened up the quilt, flopped it on top of me and took a nap! It was so warm and cuddly right away! Some quilts are a bit stiff at first and take a while to break in. Not this one! It's great!







Anyway, here are the photos of the beautiful quilt. This is for our bed that we got ourselves for Christmas a year ago! Isn't the quilting great (although I know it's hard to see much detail)!? I worked on the border HSTs while at our guild retreat, and another member of my guild said about one of the fabrics, "I find this one strangely appealing." She wouldn't have chosen it for herself, but she liked the way it looked. I think I'm going to name this quilt "Strangely Appealing!" Because it is odd, in an appealing sort of way, and I like having strangely appealing names for my quilts. :-)

And my day was strangely appealing by having such a mixture of happy times and feeling weird and rushing around and having lots to do and not being able to open a quilt box until 7 hours after receiving it -- the whole thing was Strangely Appealing!

Now here is another story about my day. I have been very determined not to open my Secret Santa gift until Christmas! I even felt superior when other people expressed temptation when their packages arrived. "I won't," I thought very self-righteously, "because I know I'll want to have an extra surprise at Christmas as I already know most of what I am getting. It'll be fun to have an unknown under the tree, therefore I am far superior to all those others who are tempted and must ask husbands to hide their presents. Harumphfff."

I opened up the mail packaging, because I knew the insides would have Christmas wrapping on them. BUT THEN THE TERRIBLE THING HAPPENED! I saw that the mail handlers along the way had been squeezing and poking this package, wondering what was inside and wishing they could see it. In the process, they ripped the wrapping paper!!! I could see and touch the pinkish fabric! Look at it and tell me you would be able to stick this under the tree and calmly wait 15 days to open it up!!! NO, I DO NOT BELIEVE YOU! You would give in, and just help that little tear go further. I know you would, because that is what I did! Oh, my, it went way farther than I meant it to go! Oh! Ooops, the whole insides of the gift fell out of the wrapping!



Looky here, ladies and gents, I received this fantastic tote bag with the beautiful hand embroidery work on it! Two Aussie FQs, and some Aussie chocolate! WONDERFUL!! Thank you so much, Anita. I just love it and know I will use that bag. It's a good, big size that will be great for hauling Show and Tell to guild meetings, and lots of other uses, too. Hubby and I enjoyed some of the chocolate and might save some to share with our kids (wink wink... hmmm... they no longer live at home -- they won't know if we eat it before they get here ... what do you think are the chances??)



Well, what a day. After all that, it's already time for bed. I am going to put our lovely, new quilt on our bed so we can sleep under it tonight, even though it's not bound. (Hasn't stopped me before. Does it stop you??)

May you decide that a sort of OK but somewhat strange day ends up being Strangely Appealing!

9 comments:

May Britt said...

You opened your christmaspresent!!!! LOL I'm just like you right now......trying to have a lot of will power not to open mine. Perhaps if I lay it on the table my Frida cat will think it is a toy and try to play with it.........and perhaps rip the paper of for me ROFL

Anita said...

carol you are so funny LOL
I am soo glad you liked the bag, was a bit bigger than i expected but I am sure you will find it useful. There is a card coming but hubby forgot to put it in the parcel ( he posted it for me).

Chookyblue...... said...

LOL.........you are so funny.........I am sure that paper riped itself just for you.........lol.........I am pleased you like you present..........thanks for joining in the swap.........

Carol E. said...

I really hadn't intended to open the gift, but because the paper was torn and I could SEE the item... I just couldn't not open it the rest of the way. It's a great bag! I love it!

Tracey in CT said...

I had to have DH hide my swap present so that I wouldn't open it!

Your quilt looks fabulous! I have slept under MANY quilts without binding!! In my house, the tradition is jumping on the quilt. As soon as a quilt is quilted(even before the binding goes on) it gets laid out on the floor and Thing Two jumps on it. If Thing One is around, she does too. Don't ask me why, thats just what they do!

Jeanne said...

Carol, the bag is beautiful! Obviously, the premature opening of your gift was the result of some mishandling and not because you were anxious to know what is was.

Heather said...

So glad you're able to post pictures again! But now... I'm so far behind! lol The new quilt looks just beautiful, and I don't blame you for wanting to use it! Same goes for your Secret Santa bag! lol

Always impressed by how much you get done -- and how often you manage to blog about it all! ;o)

Donna said...

St. Nicholas day came and went earlier in December so how can it be cheating to open a santa gift? (Yes I'm a master at rationalization!) :-)

ForestJane said...

I can't wait to see a picture of the whole strangely appealing quilt, all bound and completely done. :)

I like that tilted squares setting for sampler blocks too... so much more visually exciting than just straight sashing.