Christmas Ornament Swap

Back at the beginning of October Ali at Very Berry Handmade decided to organise a scrappy ornament swap.  At the time I thought that as Christmas was such a long way off there would really be no harm in joining in (bet you can’t guess where this is going!).  Why on earth she thought to put a last posting date of 18th December I don’t know (other than the fact that it’s a Sunday) I mean that was ages away I’d have mine posted by the end of November surely?

Anyway I was partnered with Charlotte who blogs here, we exchanged quite a few emails, mostly saying don’t do too much, I’m too busy to sew etc (that was both of us!).  Well last week I received a large parcel…I immediately had a panic, we had agreed not to go overboard it was more about the sharing of a little something not a competition…

So inside the postal wrappings was this lovingly wrapped parcel:

And I remembered reading on her blog that she had written a book about gift wrapping and I felt better!

So what was inside the package?  First of all Charlotte had found this sheet in a charity shop and bought it for me, to then discover some on my blog!

But hurrah because I only had a few scraps left and it is such a memory jerking print for lots of people.  At the fairs I’ve done over the last few weeks I had so many comments from people who remember it from their childhood.  One woman stopped mid phone conversation and then had to go off and get her mum to come and look.  Later she came back and bought a reusable grocery bag in that print so she could keep the memory going!

Next up a beautiful envelope Charlotte made I’m guessing from a vintage barkcloth (but I could be so wrong on that!)

It is so lovely, I’ve hidden it from the girls and will be keeping it for myself, not sure what will go in it but it will be safe!

Inside the envelope were the decorations:

Really gorgeous little stockings made from the all important scraps – if you browse Charlottes blog and find the quilt she recently finished you will see some of these fabrics there too!  Inside the stockings are chocolates – hurrah, I hung them on high cupboard door handles in the dining room as we’d not yet got the tree.  The tree is now in place but the stockings have stayed on the doors as they brighten them up and are safe from little fingers!

Also included were some paper dove decorations that need stringing up somewhere although Bethan has asked if she can colour them in first!

Last but by no means least was this:

Not only is Charlotte a writer but her husband Joe is an illustrator, Charlotte sent this book as an apology for her failing to carry out the grand plans she had back in October (her and me both).  Joe had written my children’s names in the front which impressed them no end!  AND it’s a great story which I’ve already read to them countless times!  (Do check out his website for links to animations he has worked on, Bird especially made my children laugh a lot and they had to watch it 3 times in a row).

So thank you so much to Charlotte and Joe for the lovely parcel it has brought much joy to this house and I think each gift will be a reminder to me not to leave things to the last minute (I hadn’t finished her decorations when I received the parcel), I may well be starting on a Christmas list in January!

I posted off my parcel to Charlotte on Friday and hope she gets it before Christmas, I won’t spoil the surprise by sharing what is in it!