Day 105- X'mas Eve

Rosanna's Swap

Part 1

The rules for Rosanna's swap were simple: It's a circle swap ( Sabiha to me, me to Paola). Send out your gift by 8/12/09 in an unusual box and Sabiha did just that. Rather unusual for the reliable Singpost, I did not receive the gift a week after and then I got sick and didn't go to work (my mailing address is my office) the whole of this week.

Christmas eve came crashing early, thanks to my laptop who apparently also wanted a rest and though I had wanted to spend a quiet Xmas doing nothing but read in bed, the thought of not "connecting" was too scary. So I dressed up and drove my conked out laptop to the service center which was just next to my office. Yes, over here, some of us work normal hours on Xmas Eve!

The bad news is I will have to wait 1-2 months for a new graphics card which had died and until then, the laptop is useless. Badly needing some good news, I dropped by the office and true enough, on my in-tray were 2 parcels. One of them was Sabiha's gift.

Sabiha had asked me what I would like which I could use for my project. I told her since the Maharajah's Palace is to be set in late Victorian British India (19th-early 20th century), maybe something which a British family then would have in their house. And so the talented Sabiha deftly put together the most darling little scene in a tin Christmas box with Teddy.

I fiddled a little with the arrangements (which were fixed with blu-tac) and thought eventually when I am making a house for a British family living in India, their baby girl's room will have a little Sabiha-corner, celebrating Christmas 1911.

I already know what the baby's name is and there, you can see it scrawled in one of the Christmas cards.

And for that Christmas, the precocious little Sabiha would be gifted her 1st picture book, made specially readable by her namesake.

Until then, the box will sit in the corner of my craft table, reminding me everyday that I have a million exciting projects in the pipeline.

Thank you, Sabiha, for this wonderful gift in a most unusual box.

Rosanna's Swap Part 2

I must confess I was a little anxious over the gift that I was supposed to make for Paola. She has a food blog, no mini obsession like all of us and speaks no English. You won't believe the number of times I surfed her blog to try and find some inspiration.1 week before the due date to post, I finally sent an SOS email to Rosanna who knew Paola well.

Sweet darling Rosanna came to my rescue and suggested sending her some spices. That has to be one of the top tips for year 2009! Spices from The Maharajah's Palace! Of course! And since I don't cook and won't know the difference between curry powder and saffron, I enlisted the help of my good friend, Treewizard Chris, who once boasted that he makes to- die- for curries.

Off we went to Little India, bought the essential ingredients to make 3 different types of curries and then spent an hour at Chris' workshop repacking the ingredients into colourful chiffon sachets.

My "unusual" box is a mooncake box. The Chinese celebrates the Mooncake Festival or Mid Autumn Festival by having a feast of mooncakes and tea under a full moon with children carrying lanterns. There are many legends attached to this Festival but the one I like is the love story between Chang Er and her husband.

I haven't heard from Paola but I hope Rosanna can translate all the above to her.

Thanking you in advance, Rosanna.

Rosanna's Gift

The 2nd parcel was from Rosanna, thoughtful and sweet as usual, she sent me a beautiful card depicting Genoa during my British India era-1850. She gave me too, the cutest finger puppets and this gorgeous issue of Art & Decoration (how did she know I love ID magazines from Italy?)

with a little bit of India

AND

the mini version...

readable of course.

Thank you again, Rosanna.

I am so , so fortunate because apart from all these wonderful gifts, there were also something from Helene, Mari and Bendik but I want to do a special post on their presents. Then there's a card from Katie with mini pictures of the real ones she took....not to mention presents from family and friends.

I spent the rest of Christmas Eve buying a Macbook (love love love my Mac) with the help from my brother and a dear friend so I can make this post. We then watched two movies in a row, Sherlock Holmes and Avatar (I love both movies so much. In fact, I watched Avatar again on Christmas Day with Andrew, this time, the 3D version ).

I came home in the wee hours, logged onto my new laptop and then sent my Xmas Greetings to my blog friends. Many of you made me smile with your Xmas posts.

T'was a perfect end to an already perfect Xmas Eve.