~ among wrapping paper... candles... a give away's winner... & a lovely surprise!

So, I'm somewhere in between brown wrapping paper, baker's twine in classic red & white combo and a fresh minty green and white one, my favorite Christmas teapot with a happiest, rolling around himself, flying Santa, candles, canldes and more candles burning all day and night long, my new book (no, no dears....ain't written by me), prints, postcards and more prints and postcards which are prepared for presents, a few more of friends' requests (what would I ever do without them?) and just a tiny little few for the online shop (I have had almost no time to work on it and support it as I had wished, so I'm in a way surprised and grateful for every little sale taking place there!)

Let me tell you a couple of words for the book just mentioned, which among others I love these days...It's called " Love for textiles" and you'll find it at the shelves of your local Ikea for a very, very affordable price.

Amazingly beautiful pictures, printed with care for the environment on recycled paper, 

a sense for reality and real life and sections to read, while falling in love with the pictures,

 like:

~ energy

~ tranquility

~ fantasy

~ joy

~ enjoyment

~ love & 

~ adventure

My version is in German of course (Stoff zum Träumen) which turns reading it  - except from a pleasure -  to a most welcome practice of the language I so much need.

...talking about being lost in wrapping gifts, reading books and candle light, you wouldn't of course think that I have forgotten about the "Make a wish" give away's  winner, would you?...the truth is that I do spend limited time online these days, out of a concious choice to be able to sink into every day life fully and to enjoy this season. 

I've mentioned it quite a few times that I  do so much love this diary and you all who come to spend some time here, still it's mostly a spontaneuous activity. 

One done out of  love for sharing, inspiring and making something out of my free time.

Honestly, I'm so glad to be seeing that you are visiting so very regularly and often here, whether there are new posts or not!

Thank you very much for that.

Now back to the give away...yesterday I prepared the package for the winner having everything ready, except the " To:....." part of the gift tag.

I had to wait until last evening at 00:00, in case there were going to be more entries.

This morning the little elves, who come to keep me company and lay a helping hand whenever they can, found that there were 33 entries alltogether (quite symbolic I might say!).

 If you visit the give away's post here, you'll notice that there were 35 comments. Only that the 10th and the 30th were written by me.

So here is what we pulled together to randomly pick the winner:

~ prepared 33 little pieces of paper

~ wrote the numbers from 1 - 35, excluding #10 & #30,

~ threw the papers in my huge summer hat

~ shuffled & shuffled & shuffled

~ closed the eyes of a darling elf

~ who then picked a paper...

....with the number 24. I then run to the comments section to see to whom does it point to. And among all of the women who enterred, the winner is a the only man, a great photographer living in Canada. Christian, this is you dear! Congratulations!

Your little package is going to be brought to you by Santa hopefully before the 25th.

Just keep your chimney clean and have something sweet for him ; )

................................................................................................

Do you have the strength to come with me a little longer in my narrating journey?

That would be lovely, cause I so much want to share with you how lucky I am to have already begun  receiving Christmas presents! No wish to show off whatsoever, only to share.

Ilaria from IDA Interior Lifestyle  was so sweet and thoughtful into sending me one of the heart  garlands she herself handknits!

And she knows me so well, as she chose an all white one!

Soft, woolen, white, hearts in a garland!

I wish I had taken a picture as soon I took it out of the lovely package, but couldn't resist my urge into finding a place for it, which happened in like...10 seconds!

The huge, bellshaped and ever favorite of our pendant lampshades

 ( Ikea Leran) has just the right perimeter for the length of the garland.

I love how it immediately became playful and am so happy with the natural fibers - white combination :)

Oh, for the record, there are three more little decorations among Ilaria's garland. A heart, a Christmas tree and a little angel made from white porcelain, found at Habitat many years ago.

What do you think my dears?

Perhaps these ain't the best pictures to demostrate it to you, but trust me, photographing it was not quite a piece of cake....mmm, talking about cakes...I'd love one of our usual chocolate soufles for dessert since we had dinner a while ago...

Leaving you with a little touch of magic and lots lots of warm feelings!

Love, 

Ivy ~ xx