An amazing thing...

...arrived for me in the post today, from Australia. A mystery package - with the customs label saying it was a "book" - and although I am expecting a book from Australia (I ordered Dijanne Cevaal's "72 ways not to stipple or meander" back before Christmas), this was the wrong size, and anyway, the return address was someone different - a vaguely familiar name I couldn't place. I (rightly) assumed it was something to do with blogging, and after opening it to the stage above and reading the card, I realised that this was my Pay It Forward goodie from Julie H. Yippee, I thought! And that was before I opened it. After I opened it, I was a little lost for words, because, well, have a look at how totally wonderful it is:


That's the front on the left, and the back on the right - it's a little notebook with plain paper inside - about 3 inches high (you can tell by the handy wooden ruler she's used on the spine!) and maybe six wide, and it's just so wonderful I'm still a bit lost for words. You can read a bit about it on her blog, and I've put some more photos below to show the inside front and back covers, which are also lovely, even though a little plainer.


(funny how the light is completely different in the two photos, given they were taken at the same time on the same surface - the left is the more accurate one).

I really just love this little notebook (no kidding!) - it's fabulous. And it reminds me of one of the things I like about swapping and pay it forwards and all those sorts of things - not just that you often get really lovely pieces of work from great people, but that you can end up with things which are so different from what you yourself make - I doubt I'd ever make anything like this, so to be given it is perfect. Can you tell it really made my day?

This reminds me that I still have some places going on my own Pay it Forward offer - 4 spaces available (I've signed up for more than one!) and one taken by Karina, who left a comment but is not contactable - if you are out there Karina, please email me with your details or I won't be able to send you anything! Those of you who are sitting on the fence on this, it's really not hard - here's how it works:

"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people [4 in my case] who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

And to tempt you further, if you sign up soon, you are most likely to receive an arch page or something like that, as I am itching to make a few more of them, even before the next one for my swap!

As for me, I didn't do much work today as I had yoga in the morning and then had my hair done. I did set up another 4 M is for Monster cards after realising that I signed up for 2 groups in that swap but only made cards enough for one - I will do the FME on them tomorrow. They are like the others, slightly different shaped monsters, so not really worth showing today - will share when finished.