susie_flo | General slushiness

Oh fiends, what a lovely week I'm having. People are being so nice, I'm feeling all special and pampered, like it's my birthday.

Yesterday I was blessed by a truly amazing massage, courtesy of

rosamicula . I had no idea that she had this hidden talent - but seriously, London-people, get booking her before she is too busy! I was treated to two massages... starting with a divine back massage which did wonders for achey bump-mitigation and then a truly magic foot and ankle massage. I say magic, because I actually witnessed my vile, hobbity, swollen feet and ankles shrink before my eyes! And the skin even paled back from porky pink to its usual colour. She somehow managed to move all of the water back up the pipes, ready to be peed out. Amazing... (I think I might just have to employ her on a retainer).

While I was still all dreamy after the massage I went for a lovely Italian meal with

sara_lou and G, and for some reason, despite the crappy weather, we all felt like we were on holiday and had an extra jolly time. (It helped that the food was absolutely gorgeous and tasted like we were in Italy, even though it was really here in Twickenham).

And this week Mr Postie has brought me some fantastic surprises...

On Wednesday I received a surprise shopping bag, sewn by

ms_siobhan, which is a more stylish version of a bag-for-life, adorned with red lace and fabric flowers. It's just the right size to fold up small in my handbag but will hold quite a lot of stuff - and it has proper, decent shoulder straps. My only challenge is to teach Harriet "Iz Not Your Bag now". It took her less than 30 seconds to do this.

Then today I got another big surprise... which made me gasp when I opened it. It is a beautiful silk lace shawl, which has been hand-crocheted by

tvted and must have taken MONTHS! What did I do to deserve that? I'm sitting draped in it right now and am bowled over... pics to follow. (As is the way of my life, I had to spend the first 90 seconds teaching Harriet, "iz not your shawl now").

I thnk I will do a photo-post very soon, showing off all of the lovely handmade things I've been given for Rup and me. If there is one thing I really do appreciate, it is the generosity of time, effort and talent that goes into handmade gifts (including lovely massages). I'm always very touched when I am on the receiving end of that sort of generosity.