Cassie's Cuddles

The day finally came to open my swap. The swap was organised by http://santasackswap.blogspot.com.au/  I was partnered with Jo of  https://jobutterfield.blogspot.com.au/  Jo is amazing with all the sewing and knitting that she does. She even sews laundry bags for soldiers. Check out her blog.Look a whole box of pressies for me! I was so excited. Alycia and Cassandra helped me to unwrap the gifts. We all got a massive buzz opening all of the items. Jo, you are amazing. The first item is this really cute bear pin cushion. Isnt it adorable?My next favourite items are the jar covers. Wow, they look really time consuming to make. They are beautiful, I just want to look at them.Jo, stacked them on top of a jar that was filled with cardboard blackboard tags with some white chalk. I can see these lining up in my pantry. If you have a pattern for these I would love to make some for my friends. I am too selfish to share these because I like them too much.Here is a lovely pastel coloured bag that folds into a smaller little bag as seen in the following picture. Jo even sewed my initial on the front.You do amazing work, Jo.I love these face cloths. The yellow one even has my initial on it. They are so soft and colourful. Thank you for all of your work.This is one amazing Christmas decoration. It looks very complicated. A lovely and unique addition to our Christmas tree.In this little sack is some hot chocolate, mini m&ms, and mini marshmallows  in little tubes, very cute.A bottle cover that matches the bag. It is insulted too!  A lovely little cross stitch card to work on.Here is a creepy photo of Cassandra smelling the yummy chocolates. They didn’t last long with 6 in the house and two visitors. Saying that we all got a couple each, so thank you.Thank you once again, Jo. I am very thankful for everything that you made for me. It has also been good getting to know you a bit. You are a woman on  a mission.

You can see what I gave to Jo by going here: https://jobutterfield.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/its-christmas-day-and-present-opening.html?showComment=1482830113156#c7221162219054833397

The hippos have bred. I went a bit nutty and made anfew of them. Three I sewed by hand and two I made by machine. The ones made by hand are the better ones, the shape worked better.
Meanwhile the tadpoles are pretty much gone. The pool changed colour overnight. Cassandra got in two days latter and collected some of the leaves down the bottom. The filter is working overtime. We did find a couple of live ones, thankfully I didnt drink it.

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind! Another trip to Bendigo.Everything that the children do has a Christmas event. Gifts go out to all teachers.

We had a family gathering for Christmas. It was nice to see my Dad again. He is a busy man these days, but it is good for him, for us to see him happy with my step mum.
We have had a few visits to Gma. She is in a respite place right now, and it is a lovely place, but as the saying goes ” there is no place like home”.
Cassandras birthday is next week and she asked for the pool to be clean. After scooping out hundreds of tadpoles to be re homed at a local pond, I shocked the rest with a bucket of chlorine. I started praying that the next door kiddies wouldnt come outside because the fumes got pretty bad. Today it is blue, and I have been scooping dead tadpoles out like a njnja.

I have been working on a gift for my inlaws, but I cant put the picture up yet. I hope that they like it, because I do.

Oh, and here are the two monkeys that I was suppose to show you in the last post.
Today while I watched a YouTube video on homesteading I hand sewed a felt hippo. I love him, he is so cute!