Valentine's Swap

A Thrifty Mrs. hosted a Valentine's Swap and paired me up with Rosey from Agapanthus and Goldsworthy. Rosey lives in Australia and makes the cutest softies which she blogs about at I Cant Sew and sells in her Etsy Store I Cant Sew Creations.

Look at these lovelies Rosey sent me!


- Penelope the softie bird (bigger picture below)...look at the beautiful pattern and colors of that fabric (um, yes she can sew)
- Softie heart (more evidence of ability to sew)
- Sweet cherub
- Dressed up chickie
- Candy and vegemite! The hearts (there were more...that have been consumed already) were made in Melbourne, Australia, and the other chocolates have been made since Rosey was little. She said they used to be wrapped in foil, and the kids would try to collect all the designs. And vegemite! I was so excited to see this as I've heard of it before ("Land Down Under" by Men at Work, anyone??) but never tried it. Rosey recommended a very thin layer spread on buttered toast, so that is what we did for part of our breakfast this morning.

Verdict: It reminded me of a beef buillon cube: salty and meaty (yes, I have eaten one of those before...in middle school I was curious and went through my mother's spice cabinet trying all manner of things; she was gone at the time as I'm sure she would not have condoned the wanton eating of random spice cabinet items. Yummy = packet of Equal poured into a spoon with a chocolate syrup layer on top. And Fruit Fresh crystals are yummy all on their own. I bet she wondered where stuff was disappearing to). Hubs sampled the Vegemite and said, "Very salty" and "If I didn't have any meat to put on my sandwich...".

Look at cutie Penelope! She came with a little card telling her story. You can get a wee softie like Penelope in Rosey's Etsy shop, I Cant Sew Creations. You can't see it, but Penelope has a ribbon attached to her back for hanging in some cute little nook.

This little bird makes me laugh...I pecked at hub's cheek with it when I took it out of the box. So CUTE!

Click here to read Rosey's post about the swap. What a sweet box of lovely items; thank you so much, Rosey!

I sent Rosie:

- Softie kit: Sewing tin, fabric, thread, ribbon, buttons, crochet hearts (from Etsy seller Annie Design)
- Edible love notes: edible paper and edible ink...how fun is that!
- Stained glass hearts from Etsy seller LdyIsis
- "Love" banner I made: Rosey's favorite color is yellow and for Valentine's she chose pastel pinks.

I have to share my adventure with this package. When I took the package to the post office it weighed 4 pounds 3 ounces and the lady said, "Postage will be $45." It was like one of those cartoon moments where your head whips around and your eyes bug out...

"$45...seriously?!?"

"Seriously!" she said all cheerful like.

"I-I-I can't DO that...", so I found out how much postage would be at 2 pounds and 3 pounds and I went home and ripped open my snug little box and took out a big ole vanilla candle that weighed over 2 POUNDS! I know this because my repackaged goodies weighed 2 pounds 0.7 ounce and postage was under $20: I can DO that. Learn from me: research international postage rates before you get all attached to everything you've packaged up...it hurt me to take that candle out of that box. Rosey likes flowery scents anyway, so I think it was all for the best.

Thanks to Thrifty Mrs. for hosting this swap and thank you, Rosey, for my lovely Valentine's treats! They are so sweet!