The 45 Days of My St. Valentine's

Valentine's actually started around here more than 45 days ago, but I'll just count from here as that is when I received the gorgeous, luscious, delicious, wonderful, enchanting, adjective-laden box (very top 5 photos) from Andrea Hamilton in MN, my partner in Kari Ramstron's "Artsymama's For the Love of Supplies Valentine Swap." http://artsymama.blogspot.com/. I was so eager to sign up for this after the holidays, and lucky to get in, as the waterfall of signer-uppers caused Kari to have to close the swap early. Heck, Heather Simpson-Bluhm's Hippity Hop Easter Swap http://12-days.blogspot.com/was closed the day I saw the announcement, and I was Johnettie-on-the-spot, I thought.

Anyway, I truly think I got the best deal, best swap, best partner! Thank-you, Andrea! This was her first swap- unbelievable!. Look how thoughtful- she sent a sweater for my Blythes, with the coolest bottlecap pin. The lid was so cool, with the nametag and Betty Boop earrings that I could not even open the box until someone, anyone, came home to help me enjoy the process. I should have just invited the mailman in, but we all know what that leads to, and besides, I have a mail lady.

So, back to this box: oodles of embellishments and supplies, two postage stamps I've never seen before of dolls (and I like both stamps and dolls), vintage jewelry, gorgeous lace and ribbons. I don't know how I'll be able to use any of it.

Meanwhile, the bottom three photos are what I sent to Andrea, using a lot of Love, Elsie! products from KI Memories. I also enclosed a lot of similar things, so it is almost eerily funny how we like a lot of the same things. Thank you again! I will definitely be celebrating V-Swap Day from now until February 14.