On the 12th day of Christmas my beautiful friend gave to me...............

if you have been following these 12 days of Christmas, you will have seen the beautiful carved dining chair with the Pheasant seat cover and cushion.....well here is the Dining room sideboard tray, and place mat to match.....all I need now is to source some classic wallpaper to do these lovely items justice.......

my camera has not quite captured the beautiful colour of the male pheasant ...he is magnificent.

the mat will be used to stop the crockery on the sideboard from leaving scratch marks....

thank you for the last 12 days Gill.........it has been a wonderful and very rewarding experience, I am so fortunate to have found a friend like you to share with xxxxx

Happy Blogging

hugs Virginia xx 

On the eleventh day of Christmas my delightful friend gave to me.............

It`s MONDAY again...............

its baking day and of course that means its Monday.......

the tiny mixing bowl with the pastry already to work into pie crusts

a very smart wooden rolling pin

I think these are going to be biscuits....cookies

just wonderful............

a little post script...........I have a wooden rolling pin, I have had it about 30 years now.........it was given to me by a dear and sweet elderly lady who lived close by, she would come over once a week and leave a bag of fresh oranges for our daughter when our daughter was small.....and one day she brought a rolling pin and a well used bread board, used to slice uncut loaves, saving kitchen work surfaces from scratches and cut marks, saying she no longer baked but would I like them as she knew I baked a lot.....after I thanked her very much, she told me that both the rolling pin and the bread board had belonged to her Mother, and she herself had been using them since her Mother passed away over 40 years earlier.......I then discovered these everyday items were each over 100 years old, her Mother had been using them for the whole of her married life and had been married 58 years........and have you guessed???? YES!!! I am still using them today!!!!!!!!!! so they are approx 130 years old and still doing their job ever so well.......

Look in tomorrow for the last of our Christmas swap....

Happy Blogging

hugs Virginia xx

On the 10th day of Christmas my thoughtful friend gave to me.............

Oh My!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have wanted one of these for so long, I have tried sourcing the findings to make one to no avail, I cannot believe this is mine!!!!!!

if this one thing was THE ONLY gift I had received this swap my Christmas would have been awesome!!!!!!!!!!! 

Gill I really, really, really love this, I was only talking today with my dear friend Sue about one of these!!!!!

O.K. I hear you....here are the photos.......

a wonderful Chatelaine

my miniature chatelaine.....with a crucifix, a set of house keepers keys, a pair of scissors and a note book and pen, there are real paper pages to the note book too..........

Happy Blogging

I could not be happier

hugs Virginia xx 

On the 9th day of Christmas my talented friend sent to me..............

A wonderful and clever handmade inkwell............the quill is made from a real feather, delicately trimmed to size and shape, beautiful......

you can see the "gold" tip to my quill pen in this close up...........

a couple of shots to give you a better look.....

 

how tiny is this........

 

I love my quill and ink well Gill xxx

 well we are almost at the end of our 12 day swap.........and aIthough I am still eager to see the last 3 items I am a little sad it is coming to an end...............STILL ROLL ON NEXT YEAR, maybe you would like to join us..........if we could get enough and an even number it might be an idea to extend our swap to others...............what do you think Gill......?

Happy Blogging
hugs Virginia xx 

On the 8th day of Christmas my awesome friend gave to me..............

not going to put the wrappers on today, got to get straight to the gifts.......

a wonderful hand made shopping basket with a tray of eggs, free range, and two lovely posters for my kitchen.....

here are some close ups of my new gifts

you can see they truly are free range eggs.....

 the tiny egg box has a chicken on the side......lovely detail...

just like the real thing!

and the second poster......

 

 thank you Gill, this has been the best of Christmas`s with all my new treasures xxxx

wishing you all a very Happy New Year xx

On the 7th day of Christmas my special friend gave to me.............

Well if you have been following you will know that I received a scrumptious crusty loaf from my friend Gill...........and what did I wish for...........a jar of Auntie Dot`s home made lemon curd...........well just look what I got today, the dolls house faeries must have been listening and granted my wish!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as usual there was double wrapping but in my excitement I opened the entire thing before taking my photos so hence the second photo shows my second layer already opened...

with lovely lemon paper too!!

a sweet little metal carry case for a jar of strawberry jam and a jar of lemon curd......

each with its own teeny traditional cap....

yummy yummy for my tummy......my favourite preserve

so sweet.........and every pun intended!!!!!

Now to get that loaf and pretend I am 4 years old and its MONDAY!!.........mmmmmmmmm!!!!!

Happy New Year 2014 everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!

hugs Virginia xxx