An Amazing RAK

I was flabbergasted today to receive the most wonderful gift from Staci! She sent me a beautiful floss ring tag that looks just like the one she made for her tutorial, in fact it's the same one. I can't tell you how surprised and moved I was when I opened the package (which also contained a whole bunch of great freebie charts). Never had I imagined that I would be privileged to be the recipient of another stitcher's work. My stitching is so slow and basic that I've never been able to envision myself participating in exchanges; it's all I can do to finish something for myself, let alone anyone else, though it's a someday far-off goal to try. Today has been a very gloomy and cold day here and I've been working on our taxes, so to find this in my mailbox just made the sun shine all over me! Staci I can't tell you how much your random act of kindness means to me. I am honored to have become your friend.

Here's the gorgeous floss ring tag she sent me:

Front

Back

In use

Staci has also been encouraging me about my current projects. I haven't gotten very far with Gingerbread Cottage since I finished the house; I've just managed to do one tree. I decided to use DMC Light Effects for the snow on the tree; somehow all the white in the chart didn't look right and I thought some sparkle might liven it up. Now I'm trying to figure out where else to use Light Effects and where to stick to the white floss. But I've found that right now the project isn't holding my interest the way I'd hoped. Maybe the end of winter just isn't the best time to be doing such a project when I am yearning for spring.

So when Staci suggested I do something with a bit more chance of quick gratification, I decided to try my first scissor fob. I saw a post on the Christmas Ornaments SAL blog and fell in love with this wee bird. He seemed like the perfect motif for a fob. I stitched him mostly while watching American Idol last night. I'm about to start the backstitching, something that's not my forte, but I'm determined to get this thing done. I want to put my initials on the back; does anyone have any links for alphabets that they like?

Thank you to everyone who commiserated with me on my eBay fiasco. I haven't left negative feedback for the seller because she hasn't left me any yet, and I'm afraid she will post something critical if I do so (eBay's policy of not allowing sellers to post negative comments doesn't become active for a few months yet). I contacted eBay to ask how I could avoid negative feedback if I asked for a refund, and they were less than helpful, saying that even if I got such feedback I could do a reply and people would see my response. I am very leery of wrecking my 100% feedback score, so I'm going to wait awhile and see if she leaves feedback (though I bet she won't). Sally, your idea of contacting Mirabilia is a good one. I'll bet they would be very interested in knowing that this kind of thing is going on.

Now I'm off to tackle the backstitching - another round of American Idol is coming up!