Making their way home...

In past entries I talked a little about the different kinds of booklets and bags passed between pen pals and swappers. I also wrote about one such booklet (a deco) that I'd received back. It seems January has been my lucky month. I received not 1 but 2 items back!

The first was a small stamp bag I'd made, for a swap via Swap-bot. I sent it to Skron11 about a year ago (Jan 2011) along with some other stamp bags. Last week I received it back from Joyce in Texas. Who knows how many hands it's passed through before it came back to me... There are 5 signers, but a number of others could have passed. Well, I'm happy it's back home :-D



A couple weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Martin, in Germany. He said he had a full deco that belonged to me, and needed my address. I've sent out many decos since I started a making them a couple years ago. But I had a feeling it was probably one of the first decos I made. Because I didn't put my address in them, when I made them. Today, I received Martin's package. And sure enough, here is my "Dark" deco. Originally sent out in July 2010, to Dee in Australia.



Here are all the pages signed by different participants

Christmas goodies

It's been awhile since my last post. I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas and New Year! The Christmas decorations have been put away. Only our tree stands. All its ornaments are gone and packed away. We put out the tree tomorrow, for the trash collectors on Friday. I feel a bit sad that the Christmas season is over. It came and went so quickly. But there's always the memories. On Christmas I opened up some swaps that I had been saving.

Such as the Vintage Christmas stocking I received from Michele at Nook and Cranny. I love all the goodies she included!



Here are undies I received from AmaranthSpirit for the "Lacies, Frillies, Stingies" swap. The girl I was to send to, Pinkfootballs, ended up being a FLAKE. So I sent to her partner instead.


Here are some Christmas presents from my family. I'm generally not a picture frame kinda gal, but I do like this one. It was a Secret Santa gift from my dad. Came complete with my little ones' picture.


Here are a couple tags I received last week.

Postcards from Onyx, for a Creative Correspondence group tag



A Yule spirit doll from MichelleK. I wanted it for Maddy, since her birthday is this month. So it's perfect for Winter!


Here she is, in her new home, on Maddy's shelf. The frame in the background is actually a mispelling of Maddy's name. It seems the traditional spelling "Medeleiene" is no longer in style :-p

New Years Day

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!

Another Christmas swap

This is the lovely swap I received from countrys at SB. I just love the wooden ornaments, the Hansel and Gretel card, and paper dresden! She also sent Stroopwafels, which are so yummy! Unfortunately the licorice she sent, did not make it (either fell out of the package, or she forgot to send). This is still a very wonderful swap though! Thank you Isabell!

Stupid mistakes

Have you ever done something so stupid (and easily preventable), that you've regretted? I guess we all have. About a month ago, I bought a bunch of great craft stuff at Tuesday Morning. I was especially thrilled to find the Prima Flowers and Tim Holtz tape. I don't own anything Tim Holtz, and the only Prima flowers I have are ones I've received in swaps. I see them all the time at Michaels, but they are just too expensive (upwards of $4.99). For a 1.99 each I thought I struck gold!



Anyways, when I got home I didn't unload my bag and put the stuff away. I just took out what I needed: the baby outfit and toy for my friend's son, and the Christmas note cards. On Monday this week, I was writing a pen pal letter. I had reached the last page in my memo pad, so I went to grab one of the new letter pads I'd bought at T.M.

I looked for the bag in my craft room (which is a big mess and disorganized). But I couldn't find it. After searching all the places it could be (which aren't a lot). I came to the realization I must have thrown the bag out! I went out to the trash can, tipped it on it's side, and started rummaging through it. Couldn't find the bag! I went back inside and started looking around again. After many futile attempts to try and locate the darned bag. I never did find it! My only guess is I must have thrown the damn thing out. But I don't remember throwing it out.

I remember last seeing it Wed or Thurs last week. I remember picking it up (the bottles had clanked around), and putting it to the side of the bookshelf (because my husband needed me to make room for his stuff). I guess I must have mistaken it for another plastic bag of trash and thrown it out. Unfortunately the trash was collected that Friday. So it's long gone :-(

It upsets me to think about (especially in the beginning). But I'm slowly getting over it. The lesson to be learned here, is always double check what you are throwing away. AND remember to put your items away when you bring them home.

Oh BTW, I did go back to the store to TRY and recover what I lost. Sadly majority of the items were gone. I did manage to buy a couple of the notepads and they key ornament (last one!).

More Christmas fun

I forgot in my previous post to show the very beautiful stocking I received from my partner, Michele at Nook and Cranny for the Vintage stocking swap. I actually haven't opened it yet, because I really want to wait till Christmas. It just gives me something special to look forward to!




We bought our Christmas tree this weekend. It was so cold when we went to pick it up! It rained all weekend long - freezing cold rain! Don't get me wrong, I loved it! Any time it's cold or raining, I'm in heaven. The Christmas trees were housed inside a big tent. It smelled wonderful in there! We were surrounded by a big forest of Christmas trees.


This little reindeer I received from Sproet, for the handmade felt ornament swap.

Here is the ornament I received from Toni2weeks for the Day of the Dead ornament swap

My husband's co-worker gave us an Advent calendar. Tony told her how we were wanting to buy the littles an Advent Calendar for awhile now (but all the wooden ones are so overpriced). Nicole said that her mom used make them like this when she was little. She made this one from decorated gift bags, there are 25 bags. Inside are chocolates and toys. We have the girls take turns each day opening a bag. Rhiannon of course doesn't understand what's going on (she just likes eating the candy ;-)).



Nicole also brought us back an adorable smoking man and beautiful wooden pyramid from her trip to Germany a couple months ago. Tony told her I loved mushrooms, so I was tickled when I saw him!



Lastly, I bought a lot of vintage ornaments on Ebay recently. The little reindeer won me over! <3

Christmas swaps

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Last week I received a couple packages in the mail. One was a small swap I did with my pen pal in Denmark. We were to send each other Christmas themed packages valued around $15.00/83 DKK. I sent my friend chocolates, cookies, and a handmade ornament. This was her package to me:

Handmade paper Julehjerter

Cute kravlenisser

Yummy tea, cookies (klejner), and an Advent candle

Last month I participated in a Vintage Christmas stocking swap on Cerri's 'Little Pink Studio' blog. It was the first time I'd swapped on a site outside of Flickr, LJ, or swap-bot. We were to send our partner a vintage themed Christmas stocking filled with all kinds of goodies. I really wanted to make my stocking. I had some pretty fabric with roses on it, that I'd found at a thrift store. I thought the dark green would go nicely with the Christmas theme. I used a Christmas stocking I already had, for the template, and lined the inside of the stocking with vintage upcycled fabric.



vintage fabric lining

Contents of the stocking (little letter box not shown). I sent sparkly vintage lace, apron sewing pattern, postcards, a piece of embroidered linen and handkerchief, and vintage circus ornaments

Close up of the lovely hand embroidered fabric. The little dog won my heart!

Vintage popcorn bag I had for awhile. I saw the circus ornaments at the antique shop, and thought they'd be perfect as fillers for the popcorn bag

Letter box filled with notions


Contents of box: vintage lace, millinery flowers, ribbons, cameos, buttons, and altered stickpins