A finish and some surprises

 I finally put the finishing touches on Night Owl this past week -- hooray! -- another ornie ready to go.  I adore the colors in the cording on this one -- so warm and fall-ish.  Making the cording is my favorite part of finishing.  I love seeing how the different yarns work (or sometimes don't work) together.  It isn't obvious in the picture but one of the rust yarns has some glitter in it, giving this ornie a little bling.

Next up is the latest Stitched with Love Exchange.  The topic for this one was Bees, Butterflies and Birds.  I stitched some birds for Lisa who is a bird watcher.  I'm so glad she liked  it.  The owl is from JMD Designs and the little blue bird is from the BBD booklet With Needle and Thread.

I received a wonderful package from Deb in this exchange.  The pillow she stitched for me is so beautiful, I love it!    I think I'm getting a little goofy about buttons, trim and fabric -- can't seem to get enough, how weird  is that?  So I love that she included some here.  The needles, of course, will be put to good use and I have admired the Hot Cocoa pattern being stitched by other bloggers so I'm looking forward to stitching it.  And check out the Canada tote -- isn't it adorable? I love that moose!  My dad and I got a good chuckle out of it :-) 

Last summer, I trimmed my pussy willow bush/tree/monstrosity to within an inch of it's life (from which it has bounced back wonderfully this year, I'm almost sorry to say -- this thing is out of control!).  I kept some of the straighter branches from this trimming and let them season outside over the winter.  So now I've got myself some really pretty, rustic-looking rods from which to hang stuff.   Deb's gift is the first to benefit from the willow's sacrifice.  Thank you Deb for such a great exchange!

Yesterday I received another package in the mail from MiiStitch (who is also the host of another exchange called the Summer Holiday Exchange).  Check out the lovely stitched pieces I received from her:

Can you believe it?? A beagle with a heart on her arse!!  How cute is that!?  I love it!!!  How do I know it's a she beagle and not a he beagle, you ask?  No winkie ;-)    ROTFLMAO!  This is particularly funny to me right now because my little girl beagle Meadow just came out of season about a week ago.  And my boy beagle Spider (who is also her goofy brother) has been driving me crazy with his amorous advances on his sister (not that she has objected, mind you) -- and he's neutered!  I am so terribly glad that's all over now.  But I digress ....

Back to the exchange.  I love the little sheep pouch.  I can't wait to show it to a friend of mine who adores anything with sheep on it -- she will be so jealous.  But that's not all .... inside the little bag were more little goodies:

How wonderful is that!?!  Thank you Ingrid for this super exchange!

I'm stitching something for Heather in this exchange but it isn't actually finished yet, so no pics.  I've run into some technical difficulties with a new (to me) finishing technique.  I hope to have this ironed out over the weekend -- cross those fingers please and wish me luck. 

And here's wishing a good weekend to you!  After all it's IHSW!!