12 Days of Christmas Swap - the results!

 The Twelve Days of Christmas have some to an end and so has the swap, organised by Jo at Through the Keyhole.  I was partnered up with Sally at Crafty Northerner.  We did the usual checking each other's blogs and emailing to find out particular likes and dislikes and then got making, buying, wrapping and posting.  I really enjoyed this swap and received some wonderful gifts.

 A week planner and pencil; snowman socks; Star Baker notebook (perfect for special recipes), hundreds and thousands and a cake fridge magnet; heart ribbon and Christmas baubles ribbon.

 Then there was: a bag of glass beads; some gorgeous red and white Scandi inspired material; The Miniaturist novel; a red bead bracelet.

 The final four gifts were: a bag of assorted pretty buttons and a crocheted star brooch; a felt Christmas tree decoration; magnetic pegs; some luxurious glitter paper.  Didn't I do well?  Sally managed this despite having a house for sale and getting sorted, so a HUGE thank you goes to her!

It's interesting how similar some of the things we sent were. Sally told me she liked flamingos, blue, making cards and baking, so off I went...  I sent her a little pack of papers and card making bits and pieces; some ribbon; some magnets and magnet pegs; a notebook with a flamingo painted on it; a set of Christmas cake cases with some chocs, a blue bracelet; a pair of earrings; a blue keyring; some pens; a felt star decoration; flamingo bunting and a cuddly flamingo (yes, there was a little bit of a theme!)

I was especially pleased to have been able to find the different flamingo material and Chris liked the finished bunting, suggesting that we should have some for us as well!
Many thanks go to Jo for doing all the organising (I really hope she'll run the swap again next year because it was lovely to put together all the gifts and made Christmas last just that little bit longer) and also to Sally for being such a great swap partner.

Happy Christmas

I'd like to wish you all a Happy Christmas and thought I'd share some recent sunrise photos with you.  I'm not often up early enough (or am 'with-it' enough to grab my camera), but I did manage to catch these recently.  

 Living in a city, there are always aerials and the odd roof which creep into the frame, but the sky is still the star.

Finally, here's Scruffy (he isn't chilled or relaxing here, he is waiting for a foolish person (usually Chris) to attempt to tickle his tummy.) To do that is to invite untold scratches from some extremely sharp claws...

I'll be posting in a few days about the Twelve Days of Christmas swap and what I received in my parcels...

May you all have a lovely Christmas.  

Twelve Days of Christmas swap

I signed up to the Twelve Days of Christmas swap, organised by Jo at Through the Keyhole who was inspired by a swap she had with a friend last year.  The ideas was to provide twelve gifts, one to be opened every day after Christmas Day.  When I read about it, I thought it was a lovely idea and signed up. I was partnered with Sally from Crafty Northerner and we did the usual emailing to find out about each other and looked at blogs too.  

Here is the lovely box of goodies I received from Sally.  Needless to say, I am excited about them and it will be a challenge for me to wait (but I will!)

Here is the set of gifts I sent to Sally, which I really hope she likes.  I think it is a really nice way to continue Christmas, right through to New Year.  Thanks to Jo for organising and a HUGE thank you to Sally for being a super swap partner.  I shall post about the gifts over Christmas.