Every day, since the 27th of February, I have been skipping out to our little rusty mailbox with giant hopes of opening the wobbly little hinged door and finding a package in there just for me. The New Year Secret Scarf Exchange (Round 1) ended on the 27th, and I could hardly contain my excitement while waiting for my surprise to arrive!

It pretty much broke The Hubster's heart every day, when I would come back into the house with hands full of sale papers, coupon papers, bills, newspapers, and magazines and sit down to the kitchen table and quietly open everything with the un-excitedness of an every-day mailbox visit. Leave the house hopeful and excited that a package may have arrived, and come back inside with nothing but bills! How could this not be depressing?!?

So, tonight The Hubs got home before I did. He left work a few minutes early with a headache, and I left the quilt shop a few minutes late because of a couple of lingering customers. I came inside, loved on little Vespa pup, and tended to Hubster's sore forehead. When, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a hot pink package in the seat of the Barcalounger and my heart jumped! I looked at The Hub and he just nodded at me with a smile on his face. Yup, IT WAS HERE!!!!!!!!

"Looks like you got Royal Mail," he said to me as I bounced and squealed for joy. I didn't even touch the package for a couple of minutes... like it was sacred or something, haha. I just looked at it and folded my fingers together, resting my face on the back of one of my hands like I was dreaming or something. Then I picked it up, squeezed it, jumped for joy and squealed with excitement for a few more minutes. It was like Christmas morning!

Then I looked at the mailing label. Sure enough, the parcel was actually stamped "Royal Mail" like the Queen sent it herself! Then I contemplated saving the package until later tonight to open.

Wait. What was that last thought? Craziness?!? I thought so. And so the package was ripped.

Here's what I found inside:

Ca-UUUUUTE little lamb letter from my "Secret Scarfer"

And this was the main event... BEAUTIFUL!!!

Here's a close-up of my Scarfer's beautiful handiwork. Please forgive the evening lamp light effects: it's a beautiful eggplant color, exactly perfect for me!

Here I am, happy-as-can-be, wearing my new cowl. Be jealous.

Husband's request #1: "Be sure to get a traditional MySpace photo shot!"

Husband's request #2: "You look like a ninja ready to strike at any moment. Show the camera a little bit'a judo chop action!" And so I did. Looks like you got the stink eye, too. (Please-please-please ignore the naked wall to the right, as it's the space above our sofa... we're newly-ish-weds who have just-ish moved into our first home and I don't have anything to hang there yet!)

So, there you have it. I got a cowl via Royal Mail and it's the most perfect shade of eggplant purp. And, what's that? What did you get in the mail? Coupons and junk mail and bills? Yeah, I judo chop in your general direction. Heh.

(But really, I value my blog readers, so I don't "literally" judo chop in your general direction. I'm just ensuring my superiority in this case, since I got a kick-ass cowl and you didn't. Love ya!)