Swap Treasures

Hello folks! I'm back from my holiday, and had a wonderful time, but I'll do a holiday post tomorrow, as I have far too much to get into one. So my first post is dedicated to the lovely swaps I received whilst away. Luckily my Tilda swap from the Netherlands arrived just before we left, and my fairytale swap from the USA arrived while we were away but luckily my neighbour took the parcel for me. I can't tell you how excited i was to receive this large pink rosy box in the post.

What could be inside?

Look at all these prettily wrapped parcels. And you can't miss that stunning angel.

Inside all that pretty paper, I received some gorgeous fabric, a spotty shopping bag, some lovely essential oils for crafts or my oil burner, some strawberries, strawberry tea, strawberry sweets and a homes mag from the Netherlands. Not to mention the lovely homemade card.

Margriet and myself have been chatting quite a bit through e-mail and thought it would be nice to receive a homes mag from another country. And I did enjoy looking at the lovely eye candy.

I adore the angel, she is beautifully made and the fabrics are so me. A huge big thank you and (((((big hugs))))) to my swap partner Margriet for the wonderful Tilda swap parcel.

And here's what I sent to Margriet.

A Tilda summer garland.

Handmade scented strawberries in a jar.

A CK bag and voucher, CK tissues, CK tin with some buttons inside, a cherry notebook, some cake cases and an English Homes magazine.

The second parcel that arrived was my fairytale swap from Marva, and here's what I received.

look at all these Alice in wonderland goodies.

A lovely vintage tea cup and saucer, a handmade needle case, handmade gift tags, a cute little drink me bottle, some strawberry fabric and lace, some tea bags, biscotti and a little matchbox, curious?

Containing lots of Alice trinkets.

If you click the photo you should be able to read this gift tag.

So a big Thank You to Marva and (((((big hugs)))) to you too. I feel thoroughly spoilt.

TTFN

PS I will pick a winner for my giveaway tomorrow, sorry ladies running a bit late.

Fabric Swap Goodies

Look what Mr Posty bought me this morning! I must say I was very excited. I was feeling in rather a grump today and this cheered me up no end. It's my fabric swap parcel from Olivia at Victoria Plum.

Look at the stunning array of goodies she sent me. three fat quarters of the prettiest fabric. The two spotty ones will come in very handy, I haven't any small spotty fabric left and I'm loving the pastel shades of these two. Also the light blue piece has a very pretty floral design on. These three will be great for making tilda dolls. Olivia also sent me two pieces of felt, some bootiful spotty and gingham ribbon and some pretty stripey buttons. And then more goodies. A lovely smelly vanilla Yankee candle melt, some Cath Kidston Sweet William seeds, and Cath Kidston pin tin and pincushion. I feel totally overwhelmed by Olivia's generosity. I'm so chuffed with my swap goodies. Thank you sooooo much. (((BIG HUGS))).  I just hope my parcel arrives with Olivia (this is the parcel that has gone missing :o(  ) I'm on holiday next week but if it still hasn't turned up by then I will be sending Olivia some more goodies. xxx

Now.....this week has involved major household cleaning. Something I detest, in fact I'd rather put pins in my eyes! lol. Yesterday I started to tackle my kitchen, the first job being the dreaded cupboard under the sink AARRRGGG. I shocked myself with the amount of cleaning products I had under there. (There are more on the floor not pictured too :o{ I had 3 and half bottles of washing up liquid 2 new tins of Mr muscle oven cleaner. which is hilarious as i never clean my oven. (but lovely hubby did it on Sunday with oven pride for me, i owe him big time) Three kitchen sprays, Two cream cleaners and enough cloths for the street, amongst other things. This is a ridiculous amount of stuff and I don't think I'll need to buy any products for a while. I probably only ever use a few basic products the rest of the time I like to use white vinegar, so god only knows why I've got it all.

Anyhow this is how my manky old falling apart kitchen cupboard looked after.

A big improvement I think. I also cleaned all the kitchen, including the cutlery drawer and today I'm finishing off, run out of steam yesterday. I've taken my fridges apart today and have given them a major clean, done loads of washing, including the lounge curtains taken out the rubbish, been up the shop, walked the dogs, taken hubby his lunch and I'm about to clear out the lounge for a deep clean. I'm really gonna need that holiday next week.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway. Your chance to own some domestic goddess-ness. (DON'T WORRY IT'S NOT THE CONTENTS OF MY CUPBOARD)

Well off to clean some more folks. I hope to be done so I can watch Britain's got talent tonight. I loved Tina and Chandi last night, that dog is amazing.

TTFN

aaaaarrrrrggggg!!!!

Having one of those days today? I sure am. Remember these goodies, which are my fabric swap goodies for Victoria Plum. Well it would seem the good old Royal Mail have lost the parcel :o(. I must say I'm completely gutted. There are some handmade goodies in there for Olivia which I spent a lot of time creating. I just hope somehow the parcel turns up and is re-delivered to Olivia or is sent back to me. Otherwise I will have to start again. I'm so cross.

I also finished my International Tilda swap parcel today and took to the post office. All prettily wrapped and carefully packaged up, and handed over to the lady behind the counter who told me it would cost £30 to send. *********how much!!!! I nearly hyperventilated. She told me it would be cheaper to split the parcel and send more than one package. So off home I went undid all my brown paper and parcel tape handiwork and started again. I actually removed something from the parcel. Re-packaged and took back to the post office. This time it cost a little over £10, a lot better than £30.

I'm consoling myself with a bar of galaxy cookie crumble choccy at the moment, and listening to the rain. Sorry this is such a moany post, but I needed to let of steam.

TTFN

Goodies!

Morning folks! Want to see what goodies the posty bought me yesterday? ......OK, you've twisted my arm, I'll show you lol. I recently took part in Mollycupcakes Spring Swap and was partnered with Vintage Girl, here are the lovely goodies she sent me........

Firstly, I lurve the wrapping, lots of pretty CK paper.

Inside the paper this gorgeous Union Jack tin contained all this!

Two booti-full Cath Kidston egg cups

A very pretty handmade note book, vintage looking floral bangle and CK tissues.

Four brilliant hand knitted egg cosies which smell wonderful and a gorgeous flower brooch. Thanks Lisa you've really spoiled me, I love it all. xxxx

Here's the goodies I sent Vintage Girl.

And Now I thought I'd show you some goodies I purchased yesterday. This pack of tea towels and mug from Tesco. (Matches my lovely swap tin)

A very cute folder and notebooks, also from Tesco.

And some pretty storage boxes from Veals. I thought the doll ones were really unusual.

Well off to do some cleaning now folks.

TTFN

My Makes for the Tilda Swap

Hello lovely bloggers. I received a lovely e-mail from my American swap partner (Mama Bug) today, to say that the Tilda swap I made for her had arrived safely, and I'm pleased to say she liked it. I'm sure Kate would have received her swap parcel by now too, so I thought I'd should you all what I sent.  

As the Tilda swap was Springtime related, I decided on a gardening theme for my parcels. So I made these two garden angels from the Sew Pretty Homestyle book by Tone Finnanger.

The blue angel is for Mama Bug and the green for Kate.

Here's a couple of pics of the other goodies I sent. The top pic is Kate's and the pic below is Mama Bugs. You can see what Mama Bug sent me by clicking here.

I put in Sally Snail for Mama Bug too as she's wanted one for ages.

I have really enjoyed sewing these, and enjoying the fact the sewing bug has hit me big style, my sewing mojo has definitely been found. I'm now in the process of making the bag from  Sew! by Cath Kidston. Not sure how it will turn out, but I won't know until I try.

I hope everyone who took part in the Tilda Spring Swap enjoyed it, and you've all received some lovely goodies in the post. I hope to do another swap in the not too distant future, I'll keep you posted.

I'd  like to say a big thank you to Emma from Mimi and Tilly for letting me know how to do the signature thing at the bottom of my posts :o)

Well, my bed is calling so I'll say nighty Night Peeps.