Once upon a time in blogland

Once upon a time there was a very clever lady called Sian. She lived High in the Sky where she spent her days sitting in her craft room creating masterpieces and thinking up rather brilliant ideas. One day, she looked up from her workspace and as she glanced out the window over her kingdom she had a most brilliant thought. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could get people all over the world to put together a few lovely things in a small envelope and swap them with someone else?" And so it came to pass that a large group of blog friends looked through their collections of craftiness and sent things around the globe, spreading happiness wherever they arrived. And they all lived happily ever after.

I did have a very large smile on my face when I saw this waiting for me when I got home from work today:

Quite apart from the fact that I guessed what it contained, it reminded me of another story. You see, I work in the office of a secondary school and in our school we used to have a lovely old gentleman who would come in and teach our girls life saving in the swimming pool and give judo lessons. Now, Derek was in his late 80s and quite a character. Oh the tales he told. How he had signed up to join the army and lied about his age when he was only 15. How he didn't tell his parents until he was in uniform and about to be stationed abroad. How he knew his mum would worry about him so he told her that as he was young, they were just giving him a desk job in an office. How he was really a rear gunner in an aircraft and ended up in the midst of the greatest air battles. He would go on school trips to the Belgian Battlefields with the history department and be the one up front of the coach leading the girls in sing alongs, long after the younger,fitter teachers were fast asleep in their seats. The girls loved him, he was like a Grandfather to them and even the most cantankerous girls weakened in his presence. Every year he would go back overseas to visit places that he lost friends and help take guided tours. And every year he would remember the secretaries at the school who he would chat to, and who made him tea and coffee and made sure he had a sit down at lunchtime because trust me, he had more energy than we did. He would always send us a postcard from his travels - just addressed to 'The Lovely Ladies in the Office, Warwick Road, BS.' And every year, that postcard would reach us safely as clearly the Post Office knew where to find the lovely ladies in town! So I loved the way that Ifa had addressed my package as it made me smile and remember those postcards.

But that smile became a huge grin when I opened up the package and saw all this loveliness ...

And how thoughtful of Ifa to put in some cycling related pieces that I can use in the mini book I'm planning when I get the photos from my husband's forthcoming cycling trip in Germany. She's even sent a little button with a map showing where his trip begins - perfect! I love it all and can't wait to put some of the other pieces onto a new layout.

So two big thank yous. One to Ifa for all my goodies and one to Sian. The Queen of great ideas!