On The Tenth & Eleventh Day of Christmas

Sorry I didn't get around to posting yesterday, but I had something disturbing happen to me Saturday night while out having dinner with friends. My wallet was stolen out of my purse at a crowded popular restaurant. I found out it was missing when I got home and there were already two calls on my answering machine about suspicious charges on my credit cards. Anyway, someone had a fun little shopping spree at my expense with charges and debit card purchases totaling over $7000, with attempts to charge another $6200, which were fortunately denied. So I have spent the past day and a half on the phone with credit card companies, credit bureaus, the police, and bank trying to get all of this reported. All while I am trying to get things together around here to have family get-togethers at our house both tonight and tomorrow night. I figure if I can survive this mess, then I can survive anything.

The bright spot to all of this cruddy stuff is my 12 Days of Christmas Swap gifts. They have really kept me focused on the good part of Christmas as opposed to the ugly part. So without further adieu, I bring you Day 10's present:

Isn't the packaging lovely? This is from Marilyn over at Outside the Lines. She used a page from a vintage (German?) book to wrap her little box. I was ever so careful when opening it hoping I would not tear the paper so I could reuse it. And these beautiful handmade earrings were inside! I knew that Marilyn was having fun making earrings for her etsy shop, so what better gift for her to give us! They are very pretty ~ but of course everything Marilyn creates is pretty. Thank you Marilyn!

Day Eleven brings us a gift from Martha of Destination Unknown. And again, the packaging is a creation all its own! She made this beautiful fabric pouch to hold her gift.
And can you guess what's inside?
A bookmark perhaps?
No, it is a fabric wrist cuff! Please excuse the model's hand though. I am posing at a weird angle for some reason. I guess any hopes for moonlighting as one of those hand models is out of the question! But isn't Martha's workmanship beautiful? It's so lovely and the colors are great for me too. Thanks Martha!Well, I've got to get going on some last minute preparations now. I'm sure everyone is way too busy to read all of this anyway! Have fun tonight!