oh Canada!

So much has happened. So many thoughts have been thought. So many smiles have been smiled and so meny feelings have been felt.

First of all, Mandy's package arrived! We exchanged gifts without having met and this is one of the funniest friendship thingies I've ever done! We're getting to know each other in all the wrong ways (exchanging gifts instead of phone numbers, blogs instead of conversations and have mutual friends instead of each other to begin with) and it's all so... Right! I love this girl already. She wrote many wonderful things about and showed photos of what I sent to her here (click). And this is what I got in return:

First of all: The Shawl!
It's apparently known as The Flower Basket Shawl, but Mandy described it as being "Snowhite in Scary Forest Kind of Beautiful". I like that description. She asked me about colors and I just said "think forest" and she did! Just LOOK at this! I love, love, loooooove it!

And this is how I wear it all the time now:

(No, I haven't tampered with the colors. Having the flash go off less than a metre from my face does that to my eyes. They are that blue. I'm Swedish damnit!)

But that's not all folks! Oh no! The wonderful Mandy does not only know how to use yarn and make it beautiful in all the wonderful shapes and colors of her imagination, but she knows how to sow as well! So there was also this purse included! It's so damn practical she should have a big shiny award for being so inventive!




Did I mention I looooooooooove it? In case I forgot then:
I looooooooooove it!

And did you think the lovely stuff that has come to me from Canada ends there? No. The Wonderful Mandy is married to the Wonderful Zak, and lucky for me (less lucky for Mandy I bet) he's working in Norway for a couple of months. And since Norway, and the little town of Skien where he works, is so much closer to me than Vancouver he took the chance and paid me a visit this past weekend. I had never met him and hardly spoken to him before this, and now I consider him a dear friend. We talked for 18 hours straight Saturday! (Got up at 10am. Went to sleep at 4am) We covered everything from food (He cooked for me! All guests should cook for their hostess!), life, relationships, parents, biology, philosophy and everything else a wise Canadian man visiting and his Swedish hostess could ever discuss. I had a great weekend, and when he left he'd given me so much to think about I felt dizzy most of Sunday and Monday from all I had to process. Thank you Zak. Your gift was as creative, lovely and generous as your wife's.

(Yes, I'm wearing the shawl!)

All of this just because Spencer is who he is. I wish he got how special that is. By being himself and having people loving him he's won me two new lovely friends. Thank you Spencer, for being you.