Hi everyone. I've been trying to make progress on Max's sailing ship, but for such a simple pattern it is going very slow. I'll work some more on it tonight - it's just Gilbert and me, so it should be a nice quiet night for cross stitching. (Who's Gilbert? My big, noisy, messy green bird. I've let him out of his cage and he's loving it.)

This afternoon a special delivery post arrived: my holiday mailart from Malaysia. I was thrilled with it! Margaret took the time to make a beautiful envelope with lovely details and she mailed it in plenty of time to avoid the holiday rush. As an added bonus, she enclosed a charming card and two skeins of a gorgeous overdyed cotton floss from Needle Odyssey. It is a very rich multi-hued red with burgundy and mulberry in it. I can't wait to use it! I was relieved that this MA exchange went so smoothly in comparison to the more informal one I'd participated in for Halloween. My MA envelope can be viewed here under the posting for November 23rd.

Totally irrelevent to stitching, I had the weirdest dream about an old (boy)friend last night that has been so hard to shake all day. Do any of you ever have such a vivid, detailed dream that it almost confuses you as to which is real? Usually my dreams don't make much sense out of Dreamland, but this one actually followed the rules for reality. Also on a side note, but I feel like rambling while Gilbert preens his tail feathers (he is so conceited!), I got my Christmas cards out today, right on time. I bought all the kids Santa hats today and they've been cracking me up wearing them around the house (and making me wish my d**n camera worked). Rowen likes to pull hers over her eyes, tilt her head up so she can see, and run full tilt across the room while laughing like a lunatic. She's a hoot.