gifted!

Yesterday the postman surprised us all – especially Rigby, who looks forward to postal visits the way children do Christmas – and by the time the dust settled, I discovered the package in question was from none other than Tanya. She’d tipped me off that this was on its way, so as I opened the envelope, I told Rowen a story about Tanya going shopping and finding a perfect little girl’s dress and thinking of Rowen way over here in the Netherlands … by the time the envelope was opened, Rowen was wildly excited and quickly shed the clothes she’d been wearing to pop on her new dress. Isn’t she lovely?

And isn’t Tanya thoughtful?! After the dress was out, the envelope wasn’t empty – there was a birthday gift for me, too! I’m now the proud owner of one of Tanya’s most recent designs, Lavender House, and I know exactly what I plan to do with it … but I’m not telling! I stole this picture from The Sampler Girl website, as it’s so much prettier than any photo I could take. Tanya, thank you so much!!

Before I can do a thing with this wonderful design, I have to first complete the teacher’s gifts for the upcoming school celebration on Wednesday. With two teachers per child (not counting student teachers) and three kids in school … I really will have to put my foot down next year and go with gift certificates! I’m making bookmarks on perforated paper (my first time using this). The Play Ball design is a freebie from the Charles Craft website and the Lavender design is a freebie from Maryse (with some modifications).