Swapping

 Sometimes I wonder why I do swaps.  I get stressed out and often just flop in a heap or have a panic.

Then I get a beautiful parcel like this and I feel really lucky.

 I forgot how much I love matryoshka dolls until I got this box (on the left) the ribbon and the lovely material.

 Aren't these crochet doilies beautiful?  I think I might find some nice frames and put them on the wall of my craft room - or  I might put them on the front of some project bags, I can't decide.

And then this shawlette is just stunning.  In my favourite colour and in cotton too, I love it.

Beautiful Christmas presents.  Maybe I will do one or two more swaps this year, just remind me to do them when I'm on semester break!

A box full of red stuff

A cheap and cheerful swap over in the Swappers Group.
This time the idea was to send a parcel full of your partner's favourite colour.
Mine, of course, is red.
Here is my lovely parcel.


Love the gorgeous little notelets.
In fact, love it all, it's perfectly red. :o)))

Swapped Ya

A lovely lady from Ravelry offered me some crochet magazines (I love to collect crochet magazines) and I offered to make some project bags in exchange.

Here are the results.

This is one of my favourite shaped bags and has a large pocket on the inside.




A drawstring project bag.
And a bag of my design.
I love the material in this one.



I like to put pockets in all my bags, except the drawstring of course.

Another quick bag

This pattern uses 2 fat quarters, pretty much every single scrap of the two fat quarters, but you get this cute little bag out of it.
It's bigger than it looks and very functional.
This bag has gone off in a karma swap.

Happy Valentine's to Me!

My return swap package was from Clare and was lovely and red.
She made me a row counting bracelet and some stitch markers...

... with some lovely yarn from Yarn and Kisses
... and some Cadbury Dream chocolate.
I turned this yarn into a prize winning beret that I'll show you later.

A Valentine's Day Swap

I joined in the Valentine's Day swap over at Australian Swappers on Ravelry.
Red is pretty much my favourite colour, but I am not keen on maroon types of red, which is what my partner liked.

I made a needle wrap, a book mark and got some handmaiden yarn, chockies and a little notebook for her.

I didn't want to use hears on the needle wrap as I felt that might feel a bit 'wimpy' at other times of the year. I found this lovely cake material.
It was a really rich chocolate brown colour with cream cakes and cupcakes all over it. Just what we'd like to be spoiled with on Valentine's Day! I lined the inside with a deep wine red.
As per usual I should have bought enough to make one for myself. :o)

The Bos visits

The travelling tea box arrived this morning, just before we had to leave for swimming lessons.
(School holidays this week so we had Miss Seven along for swimming today.)

Master Three was terribly grumpy this morning. He didn't want to go to swimming - he first mentioned this at 6am and then every five minutes after that until we were in the car heading off. It took a bit of bribery I must admit.
Then I gave him Rooibos - the tea box's travelling security system and all of a sudden he came out of his bad mood.


Here is Rooi guarding Miss (just turned) 7, who is busy playing on the ipod while waiting for the lesson to start.
Rooi was glad it wasn't him swimming.
This was his preferred position.
But he did watch, and Master 3 did really really well today, with Rooi and his big sister watching (ok it was mainly his big sister, he wanted to impress her) but he managed to swim under water by himself for the first time today.
Rooi discovered that Miss 7 is quite a live wire and a bit of a party animal. He knew he'd have to keep an eye on her.
Told you...
Master 3 has a set routine after swimming - a vanilla milkshake + hot cinnamon donut, then a look in all of the two dollar stores in the shopping centre and to top it off going through all the toys in the smallish Target.

So here we are having morning tea.
Rooi with his hand in the donut bag.

The kids love Rooi....
.......Master 3 decided he had a cranky face and must need lots of cuddles. He carried him everywhere in the shops and cuddled him at every opportunity.

Making sure Rooi got some donut.
It's Easter Egg time of the year and up to now Miss 7 hasn't had a chance to look at the eggs in the shops so her eyes popped out today.
She is pretty disappointed that most easter eggs are brown chocolate as she doesn't eat it.
And then onto Target where Master 3 showed The Bos the Toy Story Toys and explained to him that the store had run out of the big Buz Lightyear he wants for his birthday.
He doesn't seem to be phased to be round so many famous toys.
Master 3 explaining that this Buzz isn't quite so good because he says his laser will get you but his laser doesn't actually work.
And then onto the Thomas the Tank Engine section.
Master 3 found some carriages he didn't have and he and Rooi raced off to the scanner to check the price, then they both tried to talk me into buying it, as it was on special. It did get left behind though.
Master 3 explaining it all to the Bos.
Miss 7's turn.
She found some dancing chickens.
Sorry Rooi.
She then gave him a ride on a giant dog toy.
And got him up close and personal with one of the dolls. A bit young for him, but he was humouring Miss 7.
And finally Master 3 called out that he had to show Rooi Chuggington as well.
Rooi was totally exhausted after all this and begged to be put into the bag while we did the groceries. The kids were waaay too much party for him and he slept through the afternoon getting ready for a big day tomorrow.