A Vintage Halloween Swap
I must apologize to my swap partner, for I am a day late in posting my wonderful goodies, but there is one thing I didn’t count on while on vacation – no internet connection! I am very far into corn-and-soybean-field country, and my iPhone has very little signal unless I go into town 8 miles away. We just got my grandparents’ internet connection working today. Oh, and speaking of my grandparents, mine just celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary yesterday. Can you believe it? They celebrated by completely forgetting it was their anniversary until my aunt called and reminded them!
On to the main event, my lovely Halloween goodies for the Very Vintage Halloween Swap from my swap partner Claudia and Mr. Puffy, her adorable beagle. Here’s a picture of all the goodies first, which ranged from fairies to stamps and goodies and candy to my very own hand-knit kitty cloth.
There were two main elements to this, the Mark Roberts pumpkin fairy. These collectible fairies are a favorite of my swap partner’s, and this little guy is really incredible. I’m going to embarrass him by posting a picture of his legs, because I was really quite font of his little shoes and tights. He has lovely glittery wings and is really a perfect fairy. I have begun quite a little collection of pumpkins, and this makes a grand addition. He will get a place of honor. Just look at that hat!
The other main element to my package was this great cat dishcloth. This was hand-knit by my swap partner, and it is lovely and very soft. The cat is rendered in duplicate stitch, and you can read all about it and even get the instructions on Claudia’s blog. It is knit in Kollage Hope Chunky cotton worsted (color is Eclipse) with cat stitching in Noro – Silk Garden (color No. 84). Many of you will remember my earlier summer trauma over losing my kitty, so you know how much I appreciated the inclusion of a cat!!
There were other delightful surprises as well. There was a Halloween pen (which is not pictured because it’s already at my office, in use. I love funky pens), some great decals for windows and other things you might want to turn Halloween-ish, and a great witch to add to my Pez dispenser collection (Pez dispensers are important, people).
Plus there’s that stamp you see of a spoooky haunted house. That is really the cutest stamp. I suppose it would be wrong to take it to work and stamp all my thank-you correspondence to donors with it? Rats.
I tell you, I just love getting fun stuff in the mail. Claudia hit upon some of my favorite things with her items, and so this was one of those really good swaps where you open your package and you feel like Christmas came early.
Claudia’s post (from yesterday, the RIGHT day to post) included her plans for Halloween, including a nice glass of port and a good Halloween movie (Beetlejuice!!). I think she sounds like she has everything worked out pretty well, don’t you?
Well, onto another strenuous vacation day. I will see about more internetting, but it’s a sketchy proposition!
On the road, or rather, tracks
Greetings from the train! I am on vacation this week traveling via Amtrak to visit my grandparents from Iowa. The train is awesome, I don’t get much opportunity down in the southern areas to travel this way.
I find trains very conducive to crafting – I have spent a good 4 hours crocheting and embroidering today and more time reading and sleeping.. I am also lucky to be married to a guy who’s good with tech, so we’re outfitted with movies, TV, portable Internet and video games. Pretty much every massive time-waster invented by modern America.
Wow, the train just did something fairly stomach churning. Next stop is maybe Arkadelphia or something. Happily I don’t have to care where I am because someone else is driving and in a couple of hours after some strenuous Angel-watching and a glass of wine, I will be going to sleep!
Actually, truth is that in addition to the welcome respite traveling this way offers, I find that my most rewarding trips aren’t just about destination. I’d hate to miss all the stuff between point A and point B, which is at least as interesting as the two endpoints. I just like to stop and smell all the flowers.
