Send a Little Love Swap 2016

I recently took part in the Send a Little Love Swap organised by  Tracy at Mad about Bags .  I have taken part in this swap for a few years now and 'met' some lovely people. This year, I was partnered up with Lyn from Australia, who, serendipitously, I had been partnered up with for this same swap last year.  I emailed her to find out whether she was happy to swap with me again, and luckily, she said she was.  This gave us a challenge - to find some different things to send each other.  We did our shopping and making and sent off our parcels on the same day.  Her parcel arrived with me last Tuesday but mine didn't get to her until today!  (I managed not to open my parcels until I knew she had received hers). A lovely scent came from the parcels - tea tree? eucalyptus? All would be revealed...

 Well, goodness gracious, Lyn had been so generous again.  There was: (take a deep breath!) a lovely hand made bag with the loveliest happiest sheep embroidery on it, some wool for felting, a Felting magazine, a Welcome sign with hanging hearts, a wildflower calendar, some flower seeds, some ginger teddy bear sweets, an embroidered heart, a seedpod perfumed oil container (more about this in a minute) a teabag/tea strainer stand, a heart cutter and a card with a heart brooch on it.

 The teabag/tea strainer stand is already in use.

I shall have a go with the seeds this summer - that will be an interesting experiment.

 The perfume container is actually made from a Banksia seed pod, and had been hand turned by a local craftsman.  It has some eucalyptus essential oil in it and smells lovely.

You can see a hairy texture on some parts of this fascinating container.

 The little embroidered heart is beautifully made - just stunning!

 As is the sheep bag.

 I love the happy sheep and again, the embroidery is superb.  A HUGE thank you to Lyn, who has again been so generous and has sent me the most wonderful gifts.

 And what did I send her, you may be thinking?  Some ribbon and material (as she does lots of sewing), a mug and some lovely English Breakfast tea from a very nice tea shop in the city, a Lincolnshire Plum Bread tea towel, a little ceramic 'L' tile made by a local ceramicist, and a black and white stripy felt heart, some earrings, and two bracelets made by me.

 The mug says I 'heart' Lincoln.

There were also some magnets, a hanging heart decoration with little bells and some heart pegs.

 There's a closeup of the memory wire bracelet, with pearls and black and white gemstone chips...

 And the macrame bracelet.

Here are my parcels ready to be put in the box.  I have put a few more photos of what I sent as Lyn doesn't have a blog, so this is for both of us.  Thanks to Tracy for organising the swap and to Lyn for being the most amazing swap partner for the second time!