Saturday 15 November 2008

Red and Aqua Swap

After reading about it in Apron Thrift Girl's blog I decided to sign up for her Aqua and Red swap, despite never having taken part in a swap before! I was a little nervous as I wasn't sure what to send, but luckily there was a budget ( $20... around £11ish) and my lovely swap partner, Maria, had a blog so I was able to get an idea of what she would like. I was quite proud of myself as I managed to get my parcel all bought/made and wrapped up in good time and sent it off in the post hoping that it wouldn't go missing.

A couple of days later I came back from a driving lesson to find my PIL and my children all eyeing up the lovely big box that had arrived for me from my swap partner. I agreed with Papaya that she could
help me unwrap it... which of course meant she did most of the unwrapping! We opened up the box to find lots of little parcels inside wrapped up in paper with little shoes all over it.



I just have to do a close up of that paper as anyone who knows me will realise just how perfect it is ;)


I negotiated with Papaya that she could have some of the maltesers if she let me do most of the unwrapping of the little packets. Together we got all the paper off to find this lovely collection of things... how lucky am I?! They're all so beautiful and thoughtful and perfect for me! I told Maria that I like 1950's and retro things and I feel she really captured the 1950's style with it all.


The two pots are a tea light holder and a ramekin containing little cooking supplies.


The little hand-sewn personalised cover on the notebook is just gorgeous!


I think my favourite though was the handbag, which is so detailed and well-made. I haven't really been able to capture how beautiful it is in this photograph.


I love the other little sewn bags too! She made me a drawstring bag, a plastic bag holder and a tissue packet cover, all in suitably retro fabrics.


What Maria didn't know was that the drawstring bag is the same fabric as my ironing board cover! When we move house I plan on using the spare room as a sewing room. I can't wait to have a proper space to sew, it will enable me to do so much more! At the moment I can only sew when the children are in bed, and then I have to get everything like the sewing machine out first. I will use those bags in there and they will all have pride of place. My ironing board will be able to stay set up permanently in there and I plan to use the drawstring bag and the gingham tube to hold some of my sewing supplies!

I'll definitely be doing another swap! Thank you so much Maria, I feel very lucky!

2 comments:

maria said...

Hi, I'm glad you liked the parcel. I had great fun putting it together. I have the spare room as a sewing room with the ironing board up all the time but the sewing is too tempting and when I go in there to iron not much gets done!!
I will do a blog post about your fabulous parcel too.
Maria x

Anonymous said...

Oh I was just complimenting that same bag on Maria's site. It is gorgeous and I love the embroidered card.

 
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