Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons. -Ruth Ann Schabacker

Hello all! So I'm right in the middle of finishing up my final assignments (one due tomorrow, and one due next Monday) and I completely forgot to send in my email for Sew, Mama, Sew's semi-annual giveaway day! Darn, I know! I do have a giveaway for you all but I'm not going to do it in this post...I'll save it for a bit later once you're all through with entering all of the lovely giveaways from other people! I do however have some knitting and fabric loveliness to share with you all!

I just started knitting up Diorama from Berroco which is the vesty-type thing that you can see on the front of the pattern booklet (Vintage #290); here's the link to it on the Berroco site so that you can enlarge the stitch pattern. I'm actually doing it in the exact same colour as shown on the cover (Douglas Fir) because I bought the yarn without having any idea what I was going to do with it - I just really liked this colour! I ended up having to rip the whole thing off the needles when I realized that I had cast on for a girls size XL instead of a womens XS (all of the patterns in this booklet include instructions for girls sizes as well as womens), but luckily I was only on the third row at the time so it wasn't a big deal!

I finished knitting up a present for my Mum for Christmas but I can't show pictures until after because she sometimes stops by my blog to check out the pictures (hi Mum!). I will say that it is green though and very squishy and soft ;) By the way, did you know that I'm on Ravelry? If you'd like to be friends, I can be found here.

I caved and bought the entire line of Parisville by Tula Pink in fat quarters a few weeks back! I haven't had the time to start sewing anything yet, but I can't wait until I can! I bought the FQ bundle from Randi's shop Fresh Squeezed Fabrics - not only does Randi have wonderful prices to begin with and a great selection of fabric, she is also a sponsor of Fat Quarterly and had a discount code in the most recent issue (issue 3) - woot! You can also find Randi at her blog, I Have to Say...

I also received a super-awesome little box of gifties from Amanda yesterday.

I bought the 1974 jelly roll off of Amanda when she destashed but the rest are belated birthday presents! She included a Moda Bella Basics jelly roll, two colourways of Heather Ross' riding clothes, four FQs from the Dream On line by Urban Chiks, and a half yard of Anna Maria Horner voile. She also included three skeins of Cosmo embroidery floss in various shades of green but I forgot to include them in the photo! Isn't Amanda just the sweetest? I love that girl sooooo much and am so lucky to have her in my life!

And last, but not least, a photo that I took "on accident" when taking the others in this post. I took this when I accidentally hit the button while putting the camera down. I think I like it! In the front you can see my Diorama and in the background is the Christmas ornament that Alex made me at our friend's Thanksgiving dinner - our friend is American so she throws dinner each year on the (November) holiday and we have a potluck; every year she also picks a craft for us to do after dinner is over (she is very Martha-y). Unfortunately I couldn't go this year because I was pretty sick - I had a fever and actually ended up eating no dinner, just laid in bed and moaned ;) - but Alex made me this ornament (it is a plastic ball with bits of paper inside to look like snow) and he painted the little curlicues and candles on it all by himself!

Alrighty everybody, I need to get back to paper writing! Don't forget to check out all the awesome Sew, Mama, Sew giveaways - I would just love to see one (or many) of you lucky ducks win something!