Advent Swap 2009 - Days 1-6

I signed up several months back for an Advent Swap, where you send your partner 24 small gifts and 1 large handmade gift to countdown the days leading up to Christmas. My partner Illene, who is in Australia, and I have been enjoying getting to know one another--she is a wife, mother, grandmother, and an amazing quilter and seamstress. My hands have been itching for the last 3 weeks, ever since her packages arrived in the mail. Finally, the week was here and I got to open gifts 1-6!

I love all of my gifts which included a cute pair of earrings, a cookbook, handmade pin cushion, and key chain. But my 2 favorites for the week were a personalized set of stationary featuring my blog header and a beautiful embroidered bookmark. When your Mom gives your name a spelling that no one ever gets right on the first try and that isn't all that common, you can never buy all that cutesy personalized stuff in the stores, because they don't have your name spelled correctly. So when you get something made just for you with your name, you get a little giddy!

Thanks, Illene, can't wait to see what next week brings!