Buttons, Ribbons, and a Beautiful Book

As some of you know, I am celebrating a birthday this month...yep, another year older...and happily another year wiser. Yesterday I received a fun package from my mother and I had to share the contents with you....

If you follow my blog on a regular basis, then you know I am very interested in the Shaker culture, style, and gift drawings. I have a good selection of inspiring Shaker books in my possession...and a large list of books I would like to add to my collection. My mother, who works at her local public library, found a lovely book on Shaker Villages at a library book sale and picked it up for me (at an AMAZING price) - little did she know this book was one at the top of my wish list! It is called "Shaker Village Views" by Robert P. Emlen, and it focuses on all known Shaker village drawings...revealing their historical and artistic significance. This book focuses on maps and landscape drawings created by the Shakers to record their progress and to inform the spread-out communities about each other...they range from simplistic sketches to elaborate and colorful visual documents. This is a very well researched book and I found myself mesmerized as I took my first look through it last night - for those of you interested on the subject, this is a wonderful book to add to your collection.

She also included several fun little packages for me to open, as she knows how much I love pretty little presents. For those of you creative souls, I had to share this gift idea with you:
She found several cards of beautiful novelty buttons (cupcakes, sheep, flowers) - took them off their cards and put them in a clear Dritz Bobbin Box - each little button was in a bobbin compartment - I thought this was super cute and ingenious - a very fun way to combine and wrap a couple gifts for the sewing enthusiast! She also included several fun cards of ribbons - and an adorable roll of owl trim. I really liked all these embellishments and will be looking for creative ways to put them to good use...

I am still working on getting all my new design charts bagged...and still plugging away on a framed Halloween design for Just CrossStitch and the Halloween class piece for the New England Stitcher's Retreat. I going to do my best to find a little sewing time tomorrow (after all, it is the weekend) - a recent trip to the quilt shop found me purchasing a fun little collapsible box pattern and I really want to try it out. As usual, so many creative endeavors to explore and not enough hours in the day...