no place like home

waiting for me when i got home yesterday were my beautiful wobblies from atelierBB. i was ordering a wedding present for my sister-in-law and couldn't resist a little something for us as well. i ordered these sweet little orange, yellow and red dessert plates.

and the green was a little surprise that brigitte included. how awesome is that? thank you brigitte!! and if you haven't yet checked out her work, do it here.

also waiting for me were the latest additions to my fast-growing collection of resurrection fern crocheted stones and merfish. the teal merfish was so lovely "swimming" in its packaging that i hated to take it out:

but take it out i did and it posed for several pictures with its old friends:

and how exquisite is the "missing pieces" covered stone? it's even prettier in person than i had imagined.

i you haven't visited margie's blog to see what she's working on next, you really must. it's a most inspiring place.  here's my entire collection of her beautiful stones:

and just now, the mailman brought me this beautiful little felted bowl that i ordered from artemis artemis in new zealand (on etsy of course). it's my very favorite colors and the perfect size to keep my rings in (even the big one):

also waiting for me was a wonderful REAL letter from my aunt mary. she wrote four pages, sending birthday greetings and telling me how she's getting along after my uncle jim died last fall. she's surrounded by her children, grandchildren and soon to be 18 great-grandchildren, all of whom live in south dakota except one of the grandchildren and his two(?) kids, so although it's hard to lose her best friend of nearly 70 years, she's getting along well. she sent along a really neat picture from 1946 of my dad and his brothers and the first of many nieces that they eventually had (i have 29 cousins!). that's dad on the left (he was the youngest of 9):

i love so much about this picture. the car behind them. the fact that they're all dressed up. that the baby is crying and clearly wanting to be handed back to her mama. such a lovely thing to get in the mail.

and speaking of  mailboxes, i'd better go work on those 50-follower prezzies i've promised and do a bit of work work since i'm now gainfully employed. happy weekend everyone.