ho ho jingle jangle

Thanks for your comments and thoughts about my hair-dorama's. I decided to delete those 2 posts, because I really don't want negative posts here, and I really really didn't want to see myself each time I looked at my blog! (I don't post very often, so I forget what I've done...)

I am finished with swapping this year! YAY! This is what I sent to Silvia for the Christmas Kaleido-swap. Silvia has 4 cats and is a huge cat fan!



Yesterday I received the mini christmas card swap from Anne. Anne made me a sweet little stationery set. The swing tags are great! So are the envelopes!! I have never been so successful making my own, but Anne has the technique down pat. Can you tell from this photo?


My lovely friend Annette surprised me the other day with these 2 little embroidered ornaments. Aren't they fantastic! I love the colours and the beading.


I've been spending the last couple of days cooking and getting ready for Christmas. Here's this years rocky road - I put silver balls on top to make it look more festive. This is wrapped and ready to take to my sister's tonight. I posted the recipe last year.


I've also made my normal Christmas cake too. Not photos this time - they look remarkably similar to last year!

I've tried a new recipe today. It's spiced biscuits or gingerbread, I suppose. The recipe is from this months (i.e. Dec 07/Jan 08) Delicious magazine. I may be inspired to share the recipe soon - but not today.

I can vouch that they're very tasty indeed.

doing something crafty

WOW - first day of holidays for me and the house is a pigsty with buttons all over the loungeroom floor; the glue gun is out in the kitchen; the dining room table is covered in paper, stamps, xacto knife, and WIP's waiting for the sewing machine to make an entrance and crochet cotton and hooks dumped at every comfy seat around the house.

Sheesh - I have to tidy it all up tonight because we have a cleaner coming through the house tomorrow! It does, of course, take longer to tidy the house than to clean it. Well, once I've been having fun it does. I DO believe it's worth it - hubby isn't convinced. (Hubby doesn't have a very high rating care factor either).

I've been busy making sets of 4 crocheted coasters in christmas colours. They'll be on their way to new homes tomorrow. (This has been my work in progress over the last week - not just today BTW. I've made 3 sets so far.)



Today I have been making cute little vintage button and buckle brooches. I can't decide which one/s to keep for myself. hmmm. They are also for gifts. The colours didn't come out too good in the photo. Maybe because of the dull stormy weather that's happening here in Sydney.


Oh. My. Goodness. Kajsa sent me this bundle of goodies in a little ornament swap I was doing. It was supposed to be only an ornament! But heck - take a look at the fantastic ornament!!! I LOVE Kajsa's things, and this really blew me away.


I'm hoping to finish off lots of projects over the next 2 weeks, which should mean actually posting on this blog - something I've been pretty bad at this year.

Oh yeah, and I really want a bundle of colours of this. I can feel a blanket coming on next winter....

tough love and swaps

Wow - swaps are happening all over the place and the number of people joining in seems to be increasing. I love my swaps - that's for sure. It's quite a commitment for me usually (just in terms of postage, not to mention finding the perfect stuff according to my partners likes and dislikes) as there aren't that many Aussie swappers. I actually prefer receiving a parcel from somewhere else in the world. The coolest things arrive that you'd never find here.

It's also quite a commitment for anyone partnered up with me too - they'll also be landed with a potentially expensive parcel to send. Sometimes you just don't realise how heavy something is until you get to the counter at the post office and the damage is done.... (goodbye $45 on the last box I sent - $35 is pretty standard these days). I find that all up, I'm looking at spending around $50 to $70.

What I'm leading up to, is that there's been a bit of discussion about swap etiquette and ethics, that I have found really interesting and important. Ellia (green bean baby) wrote a post about the dark side of swapping, and Mary Ann (follow your bliss) has also let go and vented her frustrations on her latest swap issues.

They both describe some pretty terrible swap scenarios - some of which I can relate to, some which seem almost funny. I gave up swaps on swapbot a long time ago because of the frequency with which I didn't receive from partners (and got verbally abused when I posted a poor rating to one such swapper after waiting more than a month after the swap date and never got anything - there was nothing on the way - give me a break).

I now join in swaps organised in Flickr and sometimes swaps organised directly through blogs.

I only join swaps organised by people I trust - through their blogs, their flickr and previous swap experiences.

I prefer direct swaps - that way at least you can create a dialogue and relationship with the person you're swapping with. Also, if you don't hear from them it's probably easier to re-match you with another person.

I don't like being partnered with people who don't have a thorough flickr profile or many photos available to view. I get a bit cautious when I can't see much of a swap history (everyone starts somewhere, but if they claim to have participated in many swaps, where are the photos?)

I agree that if you are agreeing to participate in a swap, you are basically signing a contract to deliver certain things. Here's my understanding of 'the rules'.

Read and follow the guidelines carefully and consider this before signing up.

Make contact with your partner as quickly as possible. Exchange addresses and read their blog/view their flickr etc and find out as much as you can about them to get a good idea about what they would like to receive. Sometimes I find this tricky as they have different interests and likes, but that's also what makes it a challenge!

Keep in touch with your partner, so they know you are interested and let them know if your situation changes or you'll be late etc.

Take photos of the parcel you are sending before you package it all up. Should anything happen to it, you'll at least have a record for your own history (or swap CV as MaryAnn has called it).

(sent to Jo last year)

Wrap the items like presents so it's more fun for your partner to open everything bit by bit.

(on it's way to Silvia right NOW!)


Include a little note to your partner (sometimes I forget this - oops).

Email your partner when the parcel is on it's way. It's really fun to come home each day knowing something may have arrived!

Email your partner as soon as the box they sent has arrived! Even if you're not able to take photos straight away (I always seem to open boxes in the evening and don't have time to take photos until the weekend).

Take photos of everything you received and post them onto Flickr and your blog - the sooner the better. Again, time is so important in this situation and also a killer for me sometimes.

(received from Sara last year)

Also post to the swap forum etc as required by the swap organiser to acknowledge you have sent/received/posted photos, etc.

That's it! So simple - and yet so difficult to achieve sometimes. It's true - things happen, but if it's likely you're going to be too stretched to follow through - don't join in! There's always other swaps going when things aren't so busy. I wish I could have joined more swaps this year, but I wanted to do a good job, so I limited myself to the ones I knew I could do.

I don't think I've ranted much before on here. The girls have obviously got me worked up! Anyway, this is just what I think. It would be nice to know if anyone agrees or disagrees, or can throw anything new into the pot! I've almost finished swapping for 2007 and am looking forward to more in 2008.