Valentine's Swap (2008)

I think it was in January that Mrs Locket posted a blog tentatively suggesting she might organise a 'Valentine's Swap' and did anyone fancy joining in? I had seen these craft swaps occurring round the blogosphere but had never taken part before. This time I decided I'd have a go (though had worries about whether my swapee would like whatever I made) - and what a splendid bit of fun it's been. Each of us filled in a questionnaire which gave information on what crafts we liked, what sort of colours and medium we favoured, and then names were drawn from the hat to determine pairs of partners.

My swap partner was the lovely and funny WMK. We exchanged some emails and got to know one another a little bit. On finding out she has a 3 yr old I asked if I might make something for him and she kindly said that would be great. So I did. I posted off my parcel and had fingers, legs, arms and eyes all crossed that she'd like the contents (and that her tiddler would too).

Yesterday I received my parcel from her ... such excitement as my smalls and I quickly got some scissors to cut open the box, and what treasures we found within:

There was a card which said 'There might be girls who think they're as hot as we are, but they're wrong' ... which made me chuckle. There was plenty of chocolate (white ... as is my preference), and some 'Sweethearts' - they look the same as the sweets we have here called 'Love Hearts', and were immediately shared with visiting children. Whether or not MY chocolate gets shared with children is a moot point. There was a really sweet Valentines decoration comprising white paper 'globes' decorated with large red hearts. I shall either save that for next Valentine's Day, or we might use it at Christmas.

There was this wonderfully soft, pretty blue hand-knitted bag (made of a fabulous marl yarn) - which seems to have only one seam (at the bottom) ... OK WMK, tell me, how did you do that? It has a cord of the same yarn, and I love it!

And look at this ... a gorgeous glass bottle with a waxed top, which contains 4 ounces of pure golden honey. The smell is delicious and I can't wait to try the honey. I don't know whether I've ever said on the blog that I love honey, but I do - I have some every day - so it's a very appropriate gift:

And then ... blimey ... as if all that weren't enough, there was fabric ... I might have drooled in a most unattractive manner on finding it. OK, I did drool on finding it. Thank God I didn't have the webcam on, so nobody could witness it; and that I had some tissues at hand with which to wipe down the table. For a fabric junkie like me, these fat quarters were such a fantastic gift ... Look at them:

Didn't I do well? Let's be honest, I did more than well, I am one very, very lucky blogger. Thank you so much WMK - you brought cheer to the Wrinkle household. And thank you Lucy - for organising the whole thing - it was very good fun: not only did I get a wonderful parcel, I've had a great time viewing and reading about the contents of other parcels which have been received. There are some very talented crafty bloggers out there.

And now Mrs Locket has posted that she's organising an Easter Bunny craft swap ... it took me about 2.596 nano-seconds to decide that I was in!

© Author

PS. Now I know my parcel has arrived, I can post pictures of the bits I sent to WMK: It was just a little appliqué picture for her son, and a felt covered book for her: