Good things come to she who waits...

On Tuesday, I had to stay in, as I was awaiting delivery of my new iron (the previous magnificent beast had let out a loud 'PFFFT!' and an unexpected shot of steam at one point last week and then dribbled its contents all over my newish ironing board cover, and could not be resurrected).  

Needless to say, the delivery I was waiting for didn't turn up till quite late in the day, but it was just as well I was in, as another four (yes -four!) parcels were somewhat unexpectedly delivered during the course of the morning.  One wasn't for me, but the others were!

First to be broken into was this lovely little collection, which I'd only ordered on Sunday.

I'd seen a very tempting advert  for 'Textile Garden' in 'Mollie Makes' and was particularly taken with the cute little dog button, tempted enough to remember to look at the website.

Oh, it's full of lovely things!

Liberty 'Pepper' fabric bird button

Liberty 'Eloise' and Claire-Aude' flower buttons

I could have carried on for ages, adding things to my little shopping basket!  I was delighted with everything I received, each of which will give a special touch to something over the next few months.  And the speed of the service was amazing! If you're looking for some special buttons or trim, I can't think of anywhere better to go for a browse - Textile Garden!

Next was an ebay purchase - all 99p of it!  

I did some smocking years ago, and a friend recently mentioned it and mooted the idea of getting together to do some, over coffee, every week or so.   So when I saw this about to go unsold, I snapped it up.  It has good instructions of the basics and lots of patterns.  But I don't think I'll be attempting the dress on the cover just yet!

Last of my parcels was some Liberty fabric, which I'd pondered over last week.

'Claire-Aude' in quite a zingy colourway...

...and 'Eloise'...

Looking forward to getting going with these, but I may just hold fire and wait till my friend and I are ready to start our smocking get-togethers!

Eventually, the new iron arrived.  It's an even bigger beastie than the old one (luckily Mr U-t-B believes that if want a good job doing, you generally have to have decent tools - and he likes his smalls nicely ironed) (JOKING!)

It powered through two week's worth of ironing in a couple of hours.  But the best thing about it is the 'Auto-Off' function which will save me that sinking feeling when I'm out - 'Did I turn the iron off?'

Now I'm off to dream up some uses for those gorgeous buttons and ribbons!