Thank You!!!
The theme for this month's special swap was "In the Garden." I was paired with the lovely and talented Margene, which was a real pleasure. I was a pretty absent partner at the beginning of our pairing because I was dealing with Fiona, but Margene was very patient with me and over the course of the last two months we've had great fun getting to know each other and putting together gardeny goodies. Since she posts daily, she's an easy one to get to know a bit and put a package together. I'm not quite as prolific, but she figured out what I like as well as Sherlock Holmes would do and sent me an AWESOME package. If you're diabetic, you may need to look away, because there are so many cute things about to be shown it may get a bit sugary around here.
First, the package itself was just gorgeous:
She wrapped many of the goodies up in those beautiful dishtowels - I love those colors! I got the package at my office, so I was tempted to wait until I got home so I could take a picture of the pretty box, but I was too impatient. I sort of re-wrapped everything to take that picture, but it all looked even better originally. We all know it's what's inside that counts, though, right :-) I don't even know where to start.
There were some yummy goodies. From the left, a nice granola, some cute buggy-shaped chocolates, some gorgeous floral decorated mints (made in SLC and DELICIOUS BTW), some fancy Belgian chocolates with black currants and lavender and in the back, some buggy window gems. I can't remember if I shared my window gems story on the blog before, so if I did, sorry to be repetitive. I love window gems and my desk is up against a long, narrow window, so I got some window gems to decorate it. And it was cute! So I got some more, but this time they were more like cheap knock offs of window gems. Still, very cute. In the summer, the sun can blast through the window into my eyes, so I close the vertical blinds and didn't really open them again until the fall. When I discovered that the sun had melted the cheap window gems. It was so sad, but also funny. Melted window gems are hard to remove!! The nice ones (like these from Margene) didn't melt at all, so don't worry if you have some. It was just the cheap ones from the dollar store. If you have those, put them on windows that don't get a lot of sun. So, I needed some new window gems!
Anyway, back to the goodies!
Again from the left, in the back there's a super cute notebook, some lavender and rosemary cuticle bar (which I need - my cuticles are in bad shape right now!), some Soak wash (if you haven't tried Soak out, do so immediately - it works wonderfully and smells great) and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds. In the front from the left, some cute flip flop candles, an amazing post-it note holder from Lantern Moon and a pretty little "pillbox" with a rhinestone flower on top. Inside the box are some cute little floral mints. The post-it note holder is embroidered with a ball of yarn and knitting needles. I was going to slip it in my knitting bag, but I decided to put it in my purse, so I can have a little piece of knitting with me all the time (i.e. at work when I'd rather be knitting :-) ).
OK, that's a lot already, isn't it? And I'm still not even close to done.
An adorable mug (I just love the design!) with some nice coffee and some flower seeds tucked inside.
A bar of Juno Soap called "sunshine" which smells heavenly. It was wrapped up in a beautiful face cloth that I'm sure Margene knit herself. It's so soft and pretty I'm almost too afraid to use it. But I hate when people do that, so I'm going to force myself to use it!
Some stitch markers and a nice tape measure (and one that I don't have in my collection yet!). If you can't see those adorable stitch markers, there's a girl knitting, an "I heart knitting" and yarn and needles. TOO CUTE!!!
I LOVE this bag. As I mentioned to Margene, I'm just obsessed with blue this summer. Last summer it was pink and lime green, this summer it's blue in all its many shades. And this beautiful turquoise floral bag is awesome!!!
And of course, saving the best for last, what would a knitter's swap be without yarn? Margene outdid herself.
Elann Baby Silk in "Gentle Violet". This is the yarn I made my Lucky Clover wrap sweater with and I LOVE it. If you're going to knit a lacy sweater on size 3 needles with parts that overlap each other for a big girl like me, this is the yarn to use! It took me 11 months to knit and I enjoyed every minute of it because this yarn is so wonderful to work with. This time I'm making something that'll be right next to my bare skin!
And the piece de resistance, some Scout's Swag sock yarn dyed just for me in "Glorious Morning Glory". I've never seen Scout's Swag in person and it's gorgeous!! A very nice, soft merino yarn and the blues are killing me! Really, I absolutely love it!
I always feel like it's so inadequate to say thank you and to say how much I liked a package, because of course I'm going to say thank you and that I enjoyed the package no matter what, just to be polite. But seriously, no politeness involved, I really did just love everything and I'm so bowled over by Margene's generosity! Once again I also have to thank Lynne for creating and maintaining the special swap. She comes up with super fun themes to swap and I've never been disappointed in the people I've met through the swaps or the experience swapping. I'm thrilled!
First, the package itself was just gorgeous:
She wrapped many of the goodies up in those beautiful dishtowels - I love those colors! I got the package at my office, so I was tempted to wait until I got home so I could take a picture of the pretty box, but I was too impatient. I sort of re-wrapped everything to take that picture, but it all looked even better originally. We all know it's what's inside that counts, though, right :-) I don't even know where to start.
There were some yummy goodies. From the left, a nice granola, some cute buggy-shaped chocolates, some gorgeous floral decorated mints (made in SLC and DELICIOUS BTW), some fancy Belgian chocolates with black currants and lavender and in the back, some buggy window gems. I can't remember if I shared my window gems story on the blog before, so if I did, sorry to be repetitive. I love window gems and my desk is up against a long, narrow window, so I got some window gems to decorate it. And it was cute! So I got some more, but this time they were more like cheap knock offs of window gems. Still, very cute. In the summer, the sun can blast through the window into my eyes, so I close the vertical blinds and didn't really open them again until the fall. When I discovered that the sun had melted the cheap window gems. It was so sad, but also funny. Melted window gems are hard to remove!! The nice ones (like these from Margene) didn't melt at all, so don't worry if you have some. It was just the cheap ones from the dollar store. If you have those, put them on windows that don't get a lot of sun. So, I needed some new window gems!
Anyway, back to the goodies!
Again from the left, in the back there's a super cute notebook, some lavender and rosemary cuticle bar (which I need - my cuticles are in bad shape right now!), some Soak wash (if you haven't tried Soak out, do so immediately - it works wonderfully and smells great) and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds. In the front from the left, some cute flip flop candles, an amazing post-it note holder from Lantern Moon and a pretty little "pillbox" with a rhinestone flower on top. Inside the box are some cute little floral mints. The post-it note holder is embroidered with a ball of yarn and knitting needles. I was going to slip it in my knitting bag, but I decided to put it in my purse, so I can have a little piece of knitting with me all the time (i.e. at work when I'd rather be knitting :-) ).
OK, that's a lot already, isn't it? And I'm still not even close to done.
An adorable mug (I just love the design!) with some nice coffee and some flower seeds tucked inside.
A bar of Juno Soap called "sunshine" which smells heavenly. It was wrapped up in a beautiful face cloth that I'm sure Margene knit herself. It's so soft and pretty I'm almost too afraid to use it. But I hate when people do that, so I'm going to force myself to use it!
Some stitch markers and a nice tape measure (and one that I don't have in my collection yet!). If you can't see those adorable stitch markers, there's a girl knitting, an "I heart knitting" and yarn and needles. TOO CUTE!!!
I LOVE this bag. As I mentioned to Margene, I'm just obsessed with blue this summer. Last summer it was pink and lime green, this summer it's blue in all its many shades. And this beautiful turquoise floral bag is awesome!!!
And of course, saving the best for last, what would a knitter's swap be without yarn? Margene outdid herself.
Elann Baby Silk in "Gentle Violet". This is the yarn I made my Lucky Clover wrap sweater with and I LOVE it. If you're going to knit a lacy sweater on size 3 needles with parts that overlap each other for a big girl like me, this is the yarn to use! It took me 11 months to knit and I enjoyed every minute of it because this yarn is so wonderful to work with. This time I'm making something that'll be right next to my bare skin!
And the piece de resistance, some Scout's Swag sock yarn dyed just for me in "Glorious Morning Glory". I've never seen Scout's Swag in person and it's gorgeous!! A very nice, soft merino yarn and the blues are killing me! Really, I absolutely love it!
I always feel like it's so inadequate to say thank you and to say how much I liked a package, because of course I'm going to say thank you and that I enjoyed the package no matter what, just to be polite. But seriously, no politeness involved, I really did just love everything and I'm so bowled over by Margene's generosity! Once again I also have to thank Lynne for creating and maintaining the special swap. She comes up with super fun themes to swap and I've never been disappointed in the people I've met through the swaps or the experience swapping. I'm thrilled!
rdladd@arnan.com
