Swappity Swap Swap

I am such a sporadic blogger. I just have too many pots in the fire to do this consistently! One thing that I have been involved in lately is a SecretPal Swap organized by Crochetville. I send goodies to someone and hopefully make their day brighter and someone else sends me goodies and spoils me rotten!

Here are some photos of what my pal sent me for her big REVEAL package. Thanks a million, Aunty M. You are a doll!







Aunty M sent me:
~~ One solid chocolate bunny, not the hollow kind! My kids swooped down on him immediately!
~~ A lovely crocheted angel made with a clothespin and pink thread.
~~ Some bayberry potpourri that made the whole package smell nice!
~~ My very first ever thread cutter pendant. That will definitely come in handy with my sewing and finer needlework projects...I am always loosing my scissors!
~~ A small cross-stitch kit that makes a little miniature quilt and another one that is like little pumpkin seed packet.
~~ A "Little Pot Pals" kit in which you decorate a miniature flower pot. I am thinking that will be something I can do with one of my daughters.
~~ Some relaxing bath salts and a blue body puff.
~~ A skein of lovely deep purple Lion Brand Homespun.
~~ A ball of 100% cotton chenille.
~~ Some salad "hands" for tossing and serving salads. (How did she know that we have managed to break every set of salad tongs that have ever entered our house?)
~~ A pattern for making a colorful striped knit bag. (I love to knit too!)
~~ A vintage Old Time Needlework Patterns and Designs magazine.
~~ A sweet little crocheted purse that my 10-year old immediately claimed.
~~ A beautiful, carved rosewood crochet hook in size "O" This is my first wooden hook and I have been drooling and longing for one.
~~ Another wooden crochet hook...this one is bamboo and size "P" I love my bamboo knitting needles and so I am sure I will like this too!
~~ Aunty M sewed up a crochet hook case for me too! I have been needing one of these...however I am struggling. You see, the pockets are nice and long, so it is perfect for my double pointed needles too! Right now it is holding all my hooks, but if I want, I can switch it out and use it for my DPN's instead!
~~ She also made me the most exquisite, gorgeous red shawl. It is soooo pretty! The photos do not do it justice at all! I was so thrilled that I wore it for two days straight!

Like I said, she spoiled me rotten!

I sent my secret pal, Kimbo, a package full of goodies at the beginning and another package at the end of the swap. Here are a few photos of some of the things I made to put in the last package. Her favorite colors to wear are brown and green, so I crocheted her a humongous tote bag out of variegated wool in those colors and then felted it. This was my first felting project.

Here is is being held up by my 5 year old before felting:


And after felting:


I also made an amigurumi bunny for her.


See the cute little cotton tail?


I know, you think it looks just like the one I previously blogged about, but my 5 year old promply adopted that bunny and I had to make another. This time I used an "F" hook rather than and "H." Isn't it amazing how big of a difference a fraction of a milimeter in hook diameter can make in the overall size of a finished project. See the latest bunny hanging out with its bigger sibling for some quality time before they were parted:



I also took some incredibly bright and colorful thread and made my first ever thread crocheted bookmark for my SP:




I also included some sterling and Swarovski crystal earrings I made for her as well as a pound of Starbucks coffee beans, so hopefully, she felt pampered a bit.

Swaps are great fun.