Letters from Europe - travel projects for the Summer of 2023

 Celebrating NicolaParkman of Hands Across the Sea Sampler’s very special birthday 

It’s a delight to be celebrating a birthday even when it’s not my own (although in a way this does form part of my birthday too). So it was a very exciting moment when I was lucky enough to be one of only 600 stitchers who were able to have one of Nicola’s limited edition boxes full of needlework treats.

The beautiful red box

Nicola released the boxes on her website Hands Across the Sea on 14 February 2023, St Valentine’s Day (midnight on 13 here in the UK). My birthday is not until May but my lovely husband suggested I might like to make it an early present and, of course, I was more than happy to do that.

I was prepared for a very congested system on the website and a long night of getting through to secure a purchase, and I wasn’t wrong. At one stage I was really flagging having stayed up on the Sunday morning to watch the Superbowl match and decided to go to sleep. Of course, having the item in my basket, sleep was going to evade my poor tired mind because it was super excited. So after a break I popped back to her website and was able to get my payment through. 

That was just the start of a few days of nervous excitement spent tracking my package from Post Office to depot to Post Office. It didn’t help that a cross stitch kit from another business had been lost by DPD and I had been refunded the cost as they had no more stock of that item. Not good for my HS personality. 

However, all looked as it ought and on Monday 20 February (Nicola’s birthday) our Postman arrived early in his little red van and I rushed to the postbox and hardly dared lift the lid. I needn’t have worried though as the promised brown paper wrapped package was neatly snuggled inside.

I had watched Nicola’s YouTube video talking about the box and had taken on board her advice to not damage the special box inside by cutting through the parcel tape and accidentally scoring the box top inside. 

There is nothing more delightful than a box full of surprises and as it was a gloriously sunny day I wanted to sit outside with a cup of coffee and explore the contents.

Isn’t that the perfect way to enjoy a morning coffee 

I had so much fun opening everything inside and was absolutely thrilled with all I discovered. But I won’t be sharing until we are clear to do that and not to spoil the surprise for others. Although some are talking about opening each item over the months to come, I am not someone who can wait that long and, besides, I just know there will be so many posts online showing what’s inside and I would rather enjoy finding out by myself first. 

There is a private Facebook group and I have already been kindly invited to join and have been very warmly welcomed there. It’s going to be great getting to know everyone and share our stories there too.

I sent Nicola an electronic card wishing her a very happy birthday and I do so here too. Here is a screenshot of the card and I will be back soon with some more stitchy notes to keep a record of the letters from Europe.

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