I could kiss the mailman...

..and so I did. Mr. Kotkarankki is my mailman, he brings our home mail from his office on the lunch break. Most days it is just invoices or his professional magazines, but look what he brought me today:

Recently I won Paulette's Give Away, and because I was the first one to contact her back, I got to choose any one I wanted from her gifts. I picked the Primitive Gatherings penny rug table mat pattern, with wool fabrics for the appliqué. I have just made my first wool felt appliqué candle mat, and sewing it was such fun that I wanted to try another pattern. There are sweet lambs in this one, so I think I will try to make it for Easter.

Sweet P Paulette included two cute snowman labels. Thank you, dear blogging friend!

The weather has been cloudy but without rain in any form, and the temperature keeps above the freezing point. I was a spry girl and spent an hour and a half raking on the lawn and taking the heaps of leaves to the compost. That means three points for my activity card!

I took this picture a couple of weeks ao, when the ponds were frozen. There is still some thin ice, but it is covered with water and may melt away if the weather doesn't get colder.