Brilliant Blogland

We had the most fantastic day on Thursday when the Locket tribe invaded the lovely Quilty's home and stayed for NINE WHOLE HOURS!!!!!

Not one or two hours but NINE!

And we had the most fantastic time! Youngest Quilty and Daisy Locket are the same age and get on so well - you'd think they had known each other forever. They spent practically the whole day outside rollerblading (Daisy's first attempt) and were found towards the end of the day rolling up and down with umbrellas hoping for rain?!!

Dorothy Locket and Quilty 3 are the same age and have so much in common - I don't think they stopped talking all day and swapped books, sewed ladybirds and went off for a walk to the Quilty Allotment and had fun there too.


Meanwhile Fred was spoilt rotten by Clare's two eldest daughters - they were so kind and spent ages with him showing him how to play on a nintendo, helping him with puzzles, and playing cars and all sorts. I really appreciated how much time they gave him when they could just have gone off and done their own things and Fred absolutely loved it and tried to attach himself to the table leg so he wouldn't have to leave! When we eventually prized him off he ran and hid behind the curtains instead!

I didn't get many photos but Clare has written a lovely post about our visit so pop over to see the motley crew!

When we eventually dragged ourselves away and got home the children just fell into bed and then at 9.30pm there was a knock on the door...................

my Russian Doll swap parcel from Emma at Silverpebble had arrived!!!!!!

The postie wasn't working overtime - he'd just left it with one of my neighbours who had obviously seen our car and realised we were home.

Now this was a parcel that I was seriously excited about getting - Emma and I have been chatting on the phone lately so she has become an almost real imaginary friend now and she had hinted that the parcel was on the large side - especially for a necklace!


And there were so many lovely goodies in the parcel for me


my gorgeous necklace that I can't seem to get a good photograph of - sorry Emma it really doesn't show it off well enough.

And she had also included all these amazing goodies


beautiful old buttons, fabrics and lace, amazing beads, a really pretty handmade Russian Doll card and a lovely old smocking book

and then there was my birthday present - "for whenever it is" - along with instructions to have a glass of dry white wine - no problem there Emma!


The necklace is made of Chinese lampwork beads - they are so beautiful and make a lovely cluster.

But that's not all! Emma also included presents for the Little Lockets


and it is amazing, Emma couldn't have chosen more perfect presents for each of them


a fantastic science kit for brainbox Dot - she was so impressed!


a beautiful ring that Daisy has turned into a necklace by pinching the lovely turquoise ribbon from my birthday necklace

and a pair of ammonite fossils with a lovely handwritten description of them and web-sites to visit to find more for Fred - he absolutely loves them and no-one else is allowed to touch them!

Thank you so much Emma - everything is absolutely gorgeous and you have been so generous. I've worn my beautiful russian doll necklace every day since it arrived - I love it!

So this brings me to the reason for the title of this post - Brilliant Blogland. I could never have imagined a year and a half ago that I would start a blog and "meet" the most amazing friends - some of you I've never actually met in real life and may never have the chance to, others I talk to on the phone and get the chance to meet every now and then and others live near me so I can meet them more regularly - but you are all wonderful! An outsider hearing about blogland and bloggy meet-ups, swaps and giveaways, would no-doubt be very sceptical about "cyber friendships" (and I'm sure I would have been a few years ago too) but it's the most fantastic way to make friends with fabulous people with such similar interests, tastes and obsessions! I can't think of any other way to find such like-minded friends!

So a HUGE THANK YOU to good old Blogland - you're the best!

P.S. another parcel arrived yesterday.......................... my mini quilt from Trashy! But I'm afraid you are going to have to wait until the next post to see it as it definitely needs a post of its very own!!!