Adventures In Swapping (No, Not That Kind Of Swapping)

I love taking part in gift swaps: the challenge of picking gifts for someone I only know online, the thrill when I find something perfect, and - of course - the excitement when my own parcel arrives.

This Christmas I did three swaps: Char's Blogger Secret Santa, and my own Thrifty Gift Swap, which I ended up doing twice due to a late sign-up. And I have to say, this year's swappers really knew their stuff because I was thrilled with everything I received.

Donna's was the first swap parcel I opened, on the Saturday before Christmas, and I was blown away with how thoughtful and how very 'me' her choices were. I mean, look at that little collection: a vintage bicycle notebook with pencil, a collar necklace, a cute cross-stitch, and very best of all, a typewriter brooch that perfectly matches my blog logo (also included in the parcel was a packet of sweets from Donna's recent trip to Poland and a tin of loose-leaf tea, but I've long since scoffed the sweets and drunk the tea).

I was super chuffed that someone who'd only 'met' me online was so spot-on with their choices, as I don't think even Thomas could have picked a better selection of presents.

I saved my Blogger Secret Santa gifts to open on Christmas Day, although it wasn't so secret in the end. By funny coincidence, I had sent to Emma in last year's BSS swap and as soon as I saw the return address on my parcel, I knew it must have come from her.

Emma had obviously done her research as my gifts were perfect. An amazing glitzy statement necklace, a lovely Paperchase writing set, polka dot gel pens, a yummy smelling Christmas candle, and my favourite treat - sweets - were teamed with a very cute goat Beanie Baby (who my niece quickly took possession of and hence doesn't feature here!)

My final swap parcel was sent to me by Jennifer, and contained a cotton tote bag (I love totes!), a beautiful (I think vintage?) glass jewellery tray, a tiny Christmas tree ornament and a handmade needle case. Unfortunately, I managed to leave the box of gifts up at my mum's, so wasn't able to photograph them, but they were all spot on too.

Despite being so busy in the run-up to Christmas, I'm so glad I decided to take part in (and indeed run) swaps. If you took part in a gift swap this Christmas, did you enjoy it?

What I wore: Old clothes, new tricks

You know those days when everything in your wardrobe sucks and you hate each and every item of clothing you own? Well, I'm having one of those days but it's been going on for weeks. I think it's the fact that we're coming to the end of winter and I'm just so bored of wearing all my winter clothes (also, the fact I've spent the entire winter on a spending ban means I haven't had much in the way of new clothes coming into my life recently).

Anyway, while throwing the entire contents of my wardrobe around the bedroom in a strop the other morning, I chanced upon this combination: as the floral dress flew threw the air and landed on the collared blouse, my eyes lit up. And so this outfit - which I'd categorise as a sort of preppy cosplay meets cute indie pop - was born. There's something deeply satisfying about taking items I've had in my wardrobe for ages and building a whole new look from them. This, combined with a recent post by Hazel, has prompted me to look more closely at the clothes I own and try to think of new ways of styling them.

The floral dress is an ancient A-Wear one which I hardly ever wear due to its weird puffy sleeves and strange neckline, but layering it with the Peter Pan collar blouse and the cardigan creates a whole new silhouette. The amazing Scrabble tile J brooch that Kezzie gave me stops the cardigan from being one massive expanse of navy blue boob. Finally, cosplaying at being preppy would be no good without the addition of a satchel. It made the perfect outfit for a cinema date last week (we saw Wild, which is ace).

* Blouse: Primark * Cardigan: H&M Basics * Dress (worn as skirt): A-Wear * 

* Shoes: Office * Satchel: H&M * Brooch: Gift (homemade) *

Scenes from half term

I'd spent the weeks leading up to the holiday battling with work stress, some low-level illness and general exhaustion, so I am very glad to have had some time to relax and regroup. Whenever I know I'll be spending a lot of time at home, like this week, I hit the discount flowers buckets in Aldi or Tesco and fill the house with blooms. Irises, tulips, daffodils: this week, every room had a jar or vase stuffed with flowers, and it's worked a treat to combat the end-of-winter blues.

On Sunday we drove to Cromford, in Derbyshire, for a day out. A walk along the canal, a stroll around the town and finally a visit to the beautiful Scarthin Books to hear an author talk. It was a lovely way to spend a misty and cold day, with vegan cake in the cafe at the bookshop and a really interesting talk by author and anarchist academic Matthew Wilson. I don't often mention Thomas's work here, so for those who don't know, he's a PhD student researching how social media and online networks provide opportunities for radical protest groups to organise themselves in a non-hierarchical way. Anyway, Thomas knows Matt through work and even I, as someone who is quite disconnected from organised forms of activism now, found his talk and the discussion it provoked fascinating. 

This week was also a week of parcels: I sent two clothes swap parcels, a craft swap package, a couple of gifts for my Pay It Forward people and quite a few ASOS returns. But I also received exciting post in return, in the shape of these amazing hand-crocheted collars from Elise! How cute is the little vintage button on the pink one? I can't wait to wear them. Later in the week, I received my #DICraft Swap parcel from Gemma, which was weird because she was me gift-giver for Char's Christmas blogger swap, too. Luckily, she always chooses gifts wisely so I was happy to see she'd sent to me again.

Finally, we ended the week with a couple of days away at Walton Hall in Warwickshire, after I found a super-cheap online deal. The hotel was extremely swish, so much so that I was worried we were lowering the tone somewhat. A 3am fire alarm wasn't the ideal addition to our mini-break, but luckily we were able to go back to bed pretty quickly. I'd really recommend The Hotel Collection chain: they often have amazing deals and their hotels, while not all quite as fancy as Walton Hall, are reliably nice and friendly (and no, this isn't sponsored, I just like recognising good service when I see it).

Now I'm heading into the weekend with a stack of sewing to do, a Ryan Adams gig to look forward to tomorrow, a book to bury my head in, and a determination not to think about work until Sunday night.

Made: Cloud cushion

Every time I eye up The Liberty Book Of Simple Sewing in The Works (basically every time I go in there - it's so lovely, but I just don't need another sewing book!) this is the tutorial I head for first. So when I signed up for the #DICraft swap with the theme of 'Dreams', I decided it was the perfect excuse to give it a go. Or is it just me for whom clouds remind them of dreams?

As a special treat, I bought myself some Liberty Tana Lawn cotton in Kaylie Sunshine from eBay, which turned out to be a bit of a bugger to sew (my machine isn't great with delicate fabrics, it likes to chew them) but makes the finished cushion feel so soft. I won't patronise you by giving a step-by-step as it's literally the easiest make in the world - cut out two cloud shapes, pin and sew right sides together, turn inside out, stuff, stitch up the gap. If you do feel the need for more detailed instructions, there's a tutorial on the Liberty blog.

So, what do you think? One thing's for sure, parceling it up to send is going to break my heart just a little bit!

Adventures in swapping

Ah, I love a good swap. And January is a particularly great time for swapping, extending the excitement of Christmas - with gifts to wrap and parcels arriving - well into the New Year. I'm still working on my box of goodies for the #DICraftswap so that'll have to wait for another post, but in the meantime I also took part in Gemma's Bloggers Snail Mail project and Emma's Fuck Off January Thrifty Swap. 

For the Snail Mail swap I was paired with Kerenza, who I sort of knew from her ocassional commenting here and from reading her blog. Kerenza turned out to be a teacher, too, and we had a good time getting to know each other via email before sending our parcels. I didn't take any snaps of her gifts before I sent them, but you can take a peek here. I knew she was a Dr Who fan so I ordered a print from Etsy, and then made a small zipped coin purse, into which I popped a Burt's Bees lip balm, and found a secondhand copy of a book I'd loved last year, Burial Rites, and thought she'd enjoy.

For my parcel, Kerenza did an incredible job of working out what I'd like. Firstly, each gift was wrapped in amazing paper made from the opening page of I Capture The Castle (one of my favourite books) overlaid with my blog logo. I squealed when I saw it! And the gifts inside were perfect: a crime novel, a gorgeous lace collar, a mustard-coloured bangle (I'm obsessed with mustard yellow at the moment), handmade map envelopes, a book coaster, a bookmark and, I think my favourite item, a homemade Scrabble tile brooch.

The thing I particularly liked about participating in the Blogger Snail Mail was being able to get to know the person a bit first, and I hope to stay in touch with Kerenza in future.

When I'd almost finished putting together Kerenza's parcel, I saw Emma promoting her Thrifty Swap on Twitter and thought I'd get involved. The rule for this swap was simple: a spending limit of £5, including postage. Well... challenge accepted.

I was given Sarah-Beth and told a little about her: that she preferred geometric patterns to florals, that she was a vegan who loved indiepop, receiving mix CDs and stationary. I had so many ideas of things to make but sadly time (and money) got the better of me and in the end what I sent was:

- A 'Feminist As Fuck' embroidery hoop, using fabric, hoop and buttons from my stash (total cost: 80p for thread, of which I used a tiny fraction, so maybe 5p?)

- A mix CD of some of my favourite songs

- A novel I thought she might enjoy (from charity shop, 99p)

- A homemade pencil case (fabric from my stash, zip cost 60p) containing a roll of washi tape, two pencils (both from my craft stash) and some speech bubble post-it notes (from a pack of 3, which cost 99p, so individual cost 33p)

The total cost of the gifts was £1.97 and postage was £2.80, so the under-£5 challenge was successful! I loved putting this parcel together, it was fun to see how much I could make and do for very little money.

The Fuck Off January swap wasn't a straight swap, so while I sent to Sarah-Beth, Lori sent to me. I opened my parcel yesterday and loved it! A cool zine, a book cover greetings card, two tiny soaps, the cutest pocket mirror covered in amazing retro fabric (and just the colours I love, too!), some vegan gummy sweets, which I'm having to jealously guard from The Boy, and a book I'd never heard of but that looks great. 

I love the process of making, thrifting and finding awesome gifts to send to people. Not to mention, receiving a parcel full of well-considered goodies is brilliant fun. There's something especially powerful about swapping with people you've never met, to think that someone has taken the time to put together such lovely things for a stranger is a nice feeling.