The Little Knittin' Kitten

Nothing brightens your day like pressies!

Nyron and I got back from Nova Scotia late Sunday night, absolutely exhausted from such a long drive (14 hours on the road!). It was wonderful to get to see my family and show Nyron around my city. I've never been a tourist in my home town before. I even discovered parts of Halifax that I did know were there. We found a little yarn shop in a shopping centre on Barrington that I didn't know about. It's hard to find yarn anywhere but a Lewiscraft in Halifax, so it's nice to know about this place. Unfortunately, it doesn't carry a very wide variety of yarns and hardly any standard brand names. The shopping centre is very touristy and the yarn shop seems to just be there to look quaint. No matter, tomorrow I'll go to Romni and pick up the yarn for Nyron's Christmas sweater, the Argyle sweater in this month's Knitting. Mmmmm, cotton cashmere! Since coming home, however, things haven't been as relaxing.

My first day back at work was the registration day for new students so I had to be in at 8am. Since I was staying the night at Nyron's in Brampton I had to get up at 5:30 am in order to take the Go train into town. By the end of the day I could barely stand but I had to walk half an hour to the residence hotel where I'll be living until my townhouse becomes available. The residence is in the middle of the hospital district and caters to students and long-term care patients who don't need to stay in the hospital but would like to live nearby. My room, for lack of a more polite term, is spartan and roughly the size of a shoe box. If it were ever to enter an "Enough Room to Swing a Cat Contest" it would most likely lose. The ambulances going past my window at all hours made me start to wonder if I'd every get any sleep.

When Nyron came to spend some time with me and go out for dinner (I live dangerously close to one of my favourite sushi restaurants!) he brought my Secret Pal parcel! I'd been having mail problems when I first got back from England so I had her send it to Nyron's house. Thank you so much for everything Martina! It's all lovely! I can't post a picture right now because I don't have internet at the residence (I'm being very bad and writing this at work), but here's a list of all she gave me:

- a large black Barbie shoulder bag, easily large enough for a sweater project. Instead of the silly Barbie symbol it has a cute little pink kitty on it!
- a pack of Studio18 note cards featuring a pink sweater still attached to the balls of yarn. A pair of needles is stuck into one of the balls. It's a really sweet, simple design.
- a mini photo album with bees on it (I love bees!)
- a zipper charm of a sweater on the needles
- a pair of tapestry needles
- a yarn cutter pendant; I was just saying the other day how I wanted one of those
- a plastic drinking cup which I'm very grateful to have right now as all my cutlery and dishes are packed away
- a Craft Council of Canada guide to the professional art and craft studios of Newfoundland and Labrador (which I promise to make use of when I visit Newfoundland someday)
- a light green candle holder
- a hand made bookmark and a small bag of hand made stitch markers which I absolutely love! The beads are beautiful!
- a pair of needle holders
- and everything came in a tartan photo box which will be great for keeping things in order when I start scrapbooking

Is that everything? I hope I haven't forgotten to mention anything. Basically, thanks Martina my darling by brightening my day in a way only gifts from a complete stranger can!

=^_^=

posted @ 12:06 p.m.