do you mind if i knit

Egging myself on.

Hello! D'you have a good Easter? I hope the bunny made a deposite of choccy goodness, and that you haven't gobbled it all up already!

Like I have.

Mostly.

Chocolate doesn't seem to last long around me these days.

It's those little praline eggs that are my downfall. Wrapped in that pretty foil, which needs to be peeled off very delicately, because I like to keep it and hoard it, quite why, I don't know.

Hugo made sure that I got a bright and colourful bunch of flowers to accompany my praline eggs, and they are sitting on my desk looking very jolly.

I've been spending most of my time at my desk, for what seems like forever.

Hugo has been helping me enormously, because he's been working on framing my pictures for me, the one's I'm doing for the gallery and florist. I don't know what I'd do without his angel help.

It's been work, work, work, work, work, for a long time, and you know that saying "too much work and no play, makes for a dull boy/girl" (or something like that)?

I think that saying could probably be directed at me at the moment, but you know what? Needs must.

I have been able to fit some knitting in, and for me, that's playing. I'm on to the striped top section of my dress, see the pattern here:

There's a couple of people on ravelry knitting this dress too, one of the ladies wasn't happy with how the finished piece looked on her, which makes you think, doesn't it? All that knitting, and then not happy with it. Of course, this hasn't put me off, because in my optimistic manner, I'm hoping that I'll be able to wear my dress when I've finished it. I've already started making some tweaks to mine, because I think this pattern is for a tall person, and I'm a small person.

My tweaking involves less knitting.

I'll take some photos of my progress for my Friday post.

So, there's been lots of work going on here, and a fair bit of chocolate guzzling, which I don't feel at all remorseful about.

And now I have to go, because my Mother-in-Law, Susan, has just arrived, and we're off to our Wednesday night knitting group. See you Friday! Love Vanessa xxx

Elspeth Thompson.

Hello dear readers, this will just be a short post, because I feel the very sad passing of Elspeth Thompson should be marked, and the tragedy of her passing dwelt on.

I only knew her through her blog and her book, and regarded her as a lady of gentle insight, great elegance and imagination, and I was in awe of her.

Her obituary can be found here. I feel tremendously sad for her family. Life can be very cruel. Her last post on her blog was on the 7th March, and she talked of Spring and hope and her new blog, and now that has been swept away.

Her poor family, my heart aches for them.

I shall see you on Wednesday my dear readers. Love and take care. Vanessa xxx

Pencil to paper.

Hello! You o.k? Yes? No? Just trying to keep the conversation away from myself, because I'm all bleary eyed from struggling to fulfill a very tight deadline, and I'd rather listen to you, than listen to myself today.

I wish my little sugar mice above, could come to life and miraculously finish all my drawings for me!

Then I wouldn't have to work all this weekend, which is the only thing I can think of at this moment in time.

I have to send off a complete set of second roughs for the book I'm working on, by Tuesday, so that it reaches Walker Books on Wednesday. And then it can be scanned and put in a presentable state to show at Bologna book fair, at the end of March. Bologna book fair is the most important fair of the year for publishers to sell their books to distributors.

It's always good to take a finished book to these book fairs, but if the distributors know an illustrators work, then they will understand how roughs will be developed into a finished book, so roughs are reasonably acceptable. And as my roughs are for the fifth mole book in the series, they're familiar with my art work.

Still, I want to do my best to show the buyers something as close as possible to the finished product.

Sorry, I'm actually feeling a bit drained, and I can't concentrate at all, I have to admit, I'm panicking.

So please forgive me for breaking off, and also, I think I shall have to work on Monday night too, so I'm going to have to forego my Monday night post. I hope to be back on Wednesday, full of beans and all happy for having sent off my pencil drawings on time! I just have to get through the next few days, head down, pencil to paper, concentrate, and deliver the goods. I'm just sorry I'm not able to spend longer with you, or give you more photos.

Well, have a good weekend, enjoy and relax, and raise a glass to quality of life! Love Vanessa xxx

Mist - - eerie -- ous.

Hello! Would you like to know what Ellie's favourite word is? (That's Ellie above, who will be familiar to many of you). Her brother, Douglas, will be on the floor somewhere.

You'd like to know what Ellie's favourite word is?! Actually I should say phrase really.

I don't know if I should write it on my ever so clean and unblemished blog, it's pretty rude.

I'll tell you at the end, so I don't put you off reading the rest of this post.

There's Douglas, my beloved small boy, waiting patiently for his Auntie Anne. Auntie Anne is my dog nanny. You never heard of a dog nanny?! Oh, and her nannying services are entirely free of charge.

I know, I'm a very, very , very fortunate dog/child owner.

Anne takes the doggies for walks in the morning, on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is her day off, but she takes them out on Friday. It makes the most enormous difference to the amount of time I have to get on with work. Huge.

Anne adores our dogs, and they love her to bits.

I do the walking when she can't, and recently, she's been away, so I've done all the dog walking, and it's something I've enjoyed, even though it seems to be very time consuming.

So, the mornings Anne walks them, they wait, tense and excited, sitting like they are, in the above photo, while I'm at the computer, reading all your lovely comments, from my blog post the evening before. Then the doorbell rings, and there is much squealing and barking, and Douglas tries to rugby tackle Ellie, and she barks frenziedly, and there is generally much excitement, while I open the door to greet Anne with a big thankful smile. 

Anyway, as I mentioned, I've been doing the dog walking recently, because Anne has been away. And the other day, I was very glad to be doing the walking, because outside, the weather was 'ghostly'. I took my camera with me on the walk, so I could share the atmosphere with you, and here are the photos I took.

Here we are, on our lane, at the start of the walk. Don't the trees look bare?

The mist makes everything look exquisite. Corners are softened, perspective enhanced.

It's the church yard, but we're not going into the church yard.

We're walking past the church yard, and on a bit, till we reach this lane. 

A grumpy man with his frail looking Greyhound mutters as he whisks past me, (strange behaviour, because the other day I got chatting to him, as we walked our dogs, and he was very friendly).

His wife, lagging behind with a little Jack Russell, apologises for her husband, and his stepping into my camera shot. "Isn't it horrible weather," she remarks. I couldn't help thinking the mist was atmospheric, and quite exciting.

I linger on the spot, till the man and his wife, and their doggies, disappear into the mist in the distance. 

Walking on, the doggies snuffling around behind me, we arrive at this circle of trees. Within the circle of trees there are a few benches dotted around. I've never seen anyone sitting on them.  

Oooohh, what's beyond the Beech hedge?

Nothing? 

This is the 'nothing' beyond the Beech hedge.

I do love a bit of mysterious!

I've always wanted to be able to believe in ghosts, by bumping into one. Sadly, I've never met a ghost, though I've heard other people talk of their terrifying ghostly experiences. When I was a college student, many years ago, I went on a trip to Wales, and we stayed in an old stately pile. The girls were all put in one enormous room, and we each had an old bed to sleep in, that looked like it had been used in the First World War. We were told that a ghost had been seen in our dormitory, which seemed to unsettle everyone.

Well, everyone, except for me. I wanted to meet the ghost.

So later on in the evening, while everyone was carousing like students do, I slipped away for an early night.

I got into bed, feeling like some brave explorer, wondering what my reaction would be, when the ghost appeared.

I waited.

And waited.

And nothing happened, so disappointing. Then some of the other girls came into the room, to go to bed, which was extremely annoying, as I hadn't seen the ghost yet. And of course, the ghost never turned up.

So, it's not that I don't believe in ghosts, no, that's not it all. What I believe is this. Ghosts sense I'm not frightened of them, so they deliberately don't appear for me.

Just kidding!

No, I'll believe in ghosts, the moment I see one, but till then, well, I'm healthily unfrightened by the thought of them, which probably means I don't believe in them, doesn't it?

It's getting dark, so time to turn back, head home.

Back down the lane. I've always loved this lane, lined with trees.

When we get to the church, we go back around it in a different direction.

There's the church, LOOMING darkly. 

And there's the church yard, with all the old grave stones.

You may think I'm morbid when I say this, but I find graveyards fascinating. Sad, but fascinating  never-the-less. As I read and mull over the loving inscriptions carved into the headstones marking each grave, I feel very sad when I see a baby is buried there, or think, how amazing, that grave dates back to 1782, I also get a sense of relief, that I'm very much alive, and how much I enjoy life.

These branches in the photo above, are like a curtain.

This walk, in the mysterious and eerie atmosphere of the mist, makes me feel like I've been transported onto the set of a film, a film set in North Yorkshire, the script adapted from a wild and passionate book by one of the Bronte sisters. It's very exciting, that feeling!

Must get on home before it gets dark and the vampires emerge.

Noone else is out and about, noone relaxing on these benches. 

Not even a ghost, on this lone bench.

That would have made a great photo opportunity, a ghost sitting on this single bench, all alone, don't you think?

Righty-ho, we're going home, back to the warmth. Back to a steaming hot cuppa and a fire blazing in the wood burning stove. (You'll have to imagine the cuppa and the fire, because I don't have photos of those).

Now, at the beginning of this post, I promised I'd reveal Ellie's favourite phrase didn't I?

"Bugga off".

Yes, that is Ellie's most used phrase. She's an independent little girl. Likes her own space. Doesn't always take kindly to affection, or being picked up, or being told what to do.

Ellie sighs A LOT.

So, my dear readers, this post today was a little out of character for me, wasn't it? Very little bright colour content, I know. I just had to share my misty walk with you, and mist isn't really very colourful, is it? Infact, it has a way of softening things, and making them disappear. But tomorrow, I have a post in mind for you, and that's all colour, colour, COLOUR! So sweet dreams tonight. Cheerio. Love Vanessa xxx

It's now seventeen family members.

Hello! Welcome to another week, another bright day (we'll just pretend it's bright), another Monday. Did you have a good weekend? You did? So very glad to hear you had a good weekend too, so did I thank you.

Are you wondering who the well-covered (furry, four-legged) chap is in the photo above? His name is George, and he belongs to my Sister-in-Law, Tamsin, and her family. He has a brother called Michael, who was not keen on having his photo taken. Both George and Michael have recently added their off-spring to an already quite large family. George has had two babies with his girl friend, and Michael has had one baby with his girl friend.

On Saturday we went to visit.

We visited Tamsin, Nick, their four children, their two dogs, their goldfish (I think there's two), and their seven Guinea Pigs. That's seventeen family members we visited.

This teeny-tiny day old Guinea Pig sat very comfortably in my hands, surveying the sea of little arms below him, all desperate to hold the new baby. Guinea pig babies are born as miniature versions of their Mummy and Daddy. Everything is in place, fur, teeth, claws, running ability, it's just on a very small scale.

They are unbearably cute.

Even though they are teeny weeny, their squeak's are VERY loud, just like their Mummy's. There was some squeaking going on between Mothers and babies.

Here's another day old Guinea Pig. Those paws!

The very glamorous hands belong to my Sister-in-Law, Tamsin. Yep, she has four small children, and she still has glamorous hands. She always looks glamorous.  I imagine that part of the reason her nails are so beautifully painted, is that she was acting in the same play as Hugo, 'Spring and Port Wine', by Bill Naughton.  She was playing a well turned out school teacher. After seeing the Guinea Pigs, I went to the matinee performance of the play, and I'm thrilled to be able to say, with total honesty, it was superb. All the acting was faultless, everyone was well cast, and there was not a moment of cringeing, as there sometimes can be in amateur productions. It was so enjoyable, and it's a joy to be able to say that! The whole cast was excellent. Tamsin was excellent, and I can say without bias, Hugo was also excellent, very funny, totally convincing. I'm not one to heap praise on amateur theatre normally, I've seen too many productions that have been terrible, so this was a refreshing surprise, and seemed more like a professional production to me. I'm looking forward to their next production, which is a first for me to say. It's also a very enjoyable thing to be able to say.

This little boy, or girl, just sat and sat, a little furball, ever so little, ever so small, extremely precious, just sat and sat in my hands.

Ever so sweet.

I loved that their bowl had a mountain of carrots in it. Well, this one in this hutch especially. The Mummies are with their pip-squeaks, the Daddies are being kept seperately, in other hutches,(there are four hutches!) at present.
I've been knitting away all weekend, no crochet at all, very strange for me. I suppose I just want to get my jumper finished, so I can wear it. I don't have any cold weather striped jumpers, and I'm obsessed with wearing stripes at the moment. (Can't belive I'm allowing the word 'cold' into my blog).

Well, been lovely chatting to you my dears. Toodle-pip and all that. Take care.
Love Vanessa xxx

Like being in a movie!

Oh! Really? You don't get helicopters dropping into your local high street? Yeah............ we get them all the time, you know how it is.

Hello there! Yes, we had an air ambulance land in our high street this afternoon, so I'm abandoning my unfinished scarf reveal to bring you these photos hot off the press.

I'm thinking that exciting helicopter photos will make up for not having colourful photos, which is generally my preference these days.

I was in my studio, having just finished lunch, when suddenly I felt like I had stepped onto the set of an action movie. There was a helicopter hovering over our house, and would you believe, I did have a moment of madness and think  "have I done something wrong?" Which is ludicrous, but they say the innocent always think they're guilty (just made that up actually). Anyway, after that bizarre guilty moment passed, and I could see the helicopter had inched away from our house, but not much, it dawned on me that the helicopter was landing nearby. Now that was strange, because there's not really any free space for a helicopter to land around here. I raced out of the house, and tried not to run full pelt, in the direction of the helicopter. By the time I had turned the corner, there it was, parked in the middle of the street.
Just sitting there. And crowds of people were thronging the pavements, being kept at a short distance by the police.
Sadly, an old gentleman had had some sort of accident, and it was serious enough to get the air ambulance to land in the street. Poor old man, he was alive, and moving, but I don't know how serious it was.
For that helicopter to land in the street, the pilot must have been extraordinarily good at his job.

The pilot would have had to lower the helicopter down very precisely, between buildings, without touching anything with its huge spinning blades.

We all wanted to see something we could hardly believe possible. Noone amongst the huge crowds was lingering to ogle the poor man being carried to the ambulance, that wasn't it at all, and although we were all concerned for him, we lingered because we wanted to see the helicopter take off, in the narrow space.

And you too can watch this feat of take-off, in the next photographs.

 

 
 
 
 
 

And off the old gentleman went, to a hospital near Newcastle. I hope he makes a full recovery.

As the helicopter took off, it bagan to suck the air in around it, and I was close enough to be pulled towards it, which was an unnerving sensation. I found myself inching closer to the wall on my left, snapping away with my camera, mesmerised by the helicopter inching itself upwards.

Then it was gone, and as I finished snapping, I looked around, and everything was back to normal, people hurrying on, traffic moving, as though nothing out-of-the-ordinary had ever happened. That was strange.

Who would believe it, if you said you were stopped in traffic, because a helicopter had landed in your high street. As excuses for being late go, that could be one of the more unusual one's don't you think?

Well, our town will be talking about it for years to come no doubt. That may well be the closest we'll come to having an alien aircraft land in our midst.

Hopefully I'll have my Little Scarf reveal all sorted for you tomorrow. Fingers and toes crossed. See you tomorrow! Love Vanessa xxx

My Niece likes to talk.

Hello! Well, it is LOVELY to be back! GLORIOUS infact. I don't know how chatty I'll be today, because I'm drooping slightly over the keyboard, trying not to fall asleep.

This morning I waved off my sister, her husband, and their little girl, Millie, and baby boy George. And now I'm feeling a bit worn out. That's after three days of having a house full of family. Which was extremely enjoyable, but hard on my delicate stamina.

Hugo and I live a tranquil life, but this weekend the house was filled with noise, laughter, tantrums, sleeping babies, weary adults enjoying a glass of wine (or two), sleep deprived adults, bouncing children, shouting children, t.v. on loud during the day, t.v. stuck on children's channel, nappies being changed, children's meals, one very happy doggy (Ellie loves children), one terrified and traumatized doggy (Douglas does not much like children), the drama of preparing picnics, the baffling time it takes to load children into a car, and unload them the other end, shrieks of baby laughter during children's bathtime, being woken at an ungodly hour in the morning by Millie, ready to charge through the day (and expecting us to charge with her), toys covering floors and creating a very childreny house (most unlike our house normally).
And plenty more chaos which I'm too tired to remember.
It was a lovely weekend, just chaotic!

The force of nature, which is my Niece's five-and-a-half-year-old personality, entirely dominated the weekend.

On Friday morning, after taking the doggies out for a walk, (Millie had Ellie on the lead, and running almost the entire time), Millie was very keen to "go into that room with the pink walls and all the things in it", (my studio), and cut up paper and do other exciting crafty things. I was prepared for this. Almost. I'd planned that Millie would like to create necklaces out of plastic straws, (which I'd been wanting to do myself for a long time). It turned out Millie wanted to paint. I only had my expensive watercolours I use for work to hand, having mislaid the poster paints from her last visit. So rather than allowing her to make a brown mess of all my colours, I allowed her to use just the one colour of her choice, she chose the blue palette. There were multi-coloured pencils and pens to hand, every colour of the rainbow, but no, Millie wanted to use the paints I use. (Well, after some gentle negotiating, I won that battle). 

I made my plastic straw necklace, which Millie was entirely disinterested in doing, and Millie  slopped paint around.
It's funny, I had all our crafting activities planned out in my mind, but obviously Millie equally had it all planned out in her mind too.

We went for a walk on the beach one afternoon, and I picked up some sea glass, flippantly calling it 'Mermaid's tears'. I didn't realise it would lead to a discussion about Mermaid's tears that would challenge my imagination. I'm pleased to say that each question, and there were many, was answered by me, so plausibly, Millie accepted them. The magic word "MAGIC" came to my rescue a few times I should say. And "you just have to guess which are human tears and which are mermaid tears", was apparently perfectly acceptable as answers go.

We went on excursions on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was to Beamish. Which is fabulous, and a fun-packed event. It's my third visit there, and I've loved it each time. Sunday was a ride on a tiny steam train, which I think of as the 'dinky train'. You can get an idea of its dinkyness from the pictures above. I loved the way we were at eye level with the grasses and flowers along the sides of the tracks, and everything seemed magical while we were riding on the train. It even did a little toot-toot, and billowed small puffs of steam.

I don't know if I've really conveyed the dazzle of our weekend. I feel I've been dazzled, like a rabbit caught in the headlights. The headlights being my Niece, Millie! I'm so tired, I feel slightly hysterical, and like a good weep might help, but I'm too tired to summon the energy to weep! Still, despite feeling demented by my exhaustion, I feel happy I've had this weekend with my sister and her family, glad we've had our get-together, and very happy to have had some time with the chatty Millie (never actually stops chatting), and the gorgeous, placid, giggly and very cuddly George.

Tomorrow I fully expect to not feel like I'm sleepwalking, I expect to feel wide awake and totally chipper!

Thank you so much for your feedback on the name of my blog, I was pleased as punch to get all those responses, and for you to be unanimously 'for' me keeping my blog name. I feel like I'm not doing your responses justice with my response, because I feel like I'm running out of steam, like the little train. So toot-toot! See you tomorrow, when I'm much more full of steam. Love Vanessa xxx

Splendido!

Hello, welcome to a lovely new week, all bright and sparkling new!  Monday, the day I get to tell you about my fab weekend, which got off to the most splendid start, and didn't stop being splendid on Saturday or  Sunday. Very unexpected. But that's the way good things often happen isn't it?

Friday evening, we were invited to a small party to celebrate the Birthday of a friend, Jim, who is the father of Miles, a long time friend. It was all top secret, and we were to arrive half an hour early, to be there when Jim arrived back from his excursion (to get him out of the house).  We'd been told the party was to be held in their courtyard, and that Miles was hiring a Jazz band!  Splendid, we were looking forward to this! Well, after a beautiful day of sun, the heavens decided to cloud over and open up, just as we were walking down  to the party.  We arrived to find Miles and Barbara frantically tying up an old red curtain, to act as a tarpaulin.

Barbara's last-minute handmade bunting added a lovely party touch.

The food appeared, the Birthday boy appeared, and the party started.

What fun we had! The curtain kept the rain off us. The band played wonderfully. And the wine flowed.

Hugo and I made the mistake of taking the dogs with us ( Jim likes our dogs, and we thought he'd be pleased to see them). The dogs got soaked and sat looking miserable and cold. Ellie was shivering, so Hugo took pity on her, and she was ensconced on his lap most of the evening. Douglas ended up on my lap after much pleading with me. So when the dancing started, we ended up enjoying it from the side lines! The things we do for our dogs. Still, there did need to be an audience for the band, and others!

Not only was there dancing, but Miles, Barbara and Jim joined the band. I can't play an instrument, being 'musically challenged', but I can appreciate other people's musicality. Hugo and I concentrated on being the audience, and enjoyed ourselves enormously.

 As the evening progressed, the light faded, and though my camera is wonderful, it did start to struggle. So most of the photos are slightly blurry. You could say it adds to the atmosphere of the evening................... ! We left the party with one of Barbara's wonderful cakes, you can see them in the first photo of this post. Are they not wonderful? Love the writing on them, and the Nasturtium flower and Blackberries looked gorgeous.
What a ball we had that evening. Something to remember with great fondness, an evening full of love and happiness, fun and joy, and loveable eccentric character. Miles and Barbara do things with such flair!
I'm going to have to show you the rest of our wonderful weekend tomorrow. But maybe the party should have a post all to itself anyway, it was a very special evening.
So I shall return tomorrow, Tuesday (already)! looking forward to seeing you!
Love Vanessa xxx

I'm so excited. I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it!

Cha-cha-chah! Cha-cha-cha! Hello! I'm a happy, happy, skippy, dancy, very excited girl at this moment in time! May I present to you, new family member number five. Panasonic Lumix G1. Long awaited, long wished for new baby Lumix G1. This baby was bought for a lot of money, and I can't quite believe it's arrived. Actually I didn't have to wait long, delivery only took a day and a half. My knowledge of its workings is still very rudimentary, I'm still a bit clumsy, but practise will make perfect, hopefully.

Here's another baby photo. Isn't it beautiful? It's a  new camera from Panasonic, like a miniture SLR. Lighter in weight than an SLR. Cheaper than an SLR. But still very expensive!

I've actually been taking a few photos for you, on my new camera, but when I started to upload them to my blog, I discovered I'd taken them in the highest possible resolution, so they were taking way too long to upload. I thought that would have a knock-on effect with the blog, and that it would take ages for my blog post to appear on your screens, which might drive you all a bit bonkers, so I abandoned those photos. It's a shame, because the colours were AMAZING! Well, I thought they were amazing compared to what I'm used to with my old camera. I took photos of yarn, and of some of my crochet squares that have been crocheted together...................... what a shame it was a waste of time! So I have no photos to show you, I'm so sorry. I'm going to spend the weekend practising, (and no doubt gritting my teeth with frustration), taking photos on my new camera.

Just while I have your attention, and whilst the subject of my crochet squares came up, I have an admission to make. Now please, please don't freak out, because it will have had no adverse effects on your crochet squares you have made following my pattern! There's just one tiny thing that was pointed out to me, that I was doing  wrong. (Honestly, it absolutely won't effect your squares). It's my treble, and the explanation of my treble to you. The treble I've been doing has one small extra movement in it, that official English trebles don't have in them. With my treble, the extra movement just makes the treble bulkier, that is all. But in the interests of being honest, I have to admit that my treble is not the official, widely accepted treble in books. I've not changed anything in my pattern, but I just wanted beginners starting out to know that the treble in this pattern is slightly different to the official treble. Anyone using the quick pattern will have been using the official treble that you find in the books, and that will produce the same results as my squares, the trebles will just be slightly less bulky! I've made a note in my instructions, in the "basic stitches" tutorial, to explain this. All my instructions show you exactly what I do to produce my crochet square, so if you're following them, you'll be getting exactly the same as my square! So I'm very sorry about this mistake in my instructions, I'm just so relieved it was pointed out to me, and that above all, it won't have a detrimental effect on your crochet squares. If I do another pattern for you, I promise I will go through it all with a fine tooth comb to check everything is spot on, and no surprises!

Phew, I've been absolutely dreading having to admit to my mistake, but I've done it now, and I hope you're not too annoyed with me?

Now I'm going to go and have a Shandy, to recover from my embarrassment. And I'm going to do some crochet to relax! I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and that the weather man's prediction of nice weather for the U.K. turns out to be spot on!
See you on Monday! Lots of love, Vanessa xxx

Swapping rosy gifts!

Hello! Lovely to see you all! Great to be back! And I hope you've all had a good break? The long weekend has felt like a holiday. I've got a bit of that "I've returned from my  holiday, and I'm all at sixes and sevens as to what I should be doing" feeling. If every weekend was three days long, rather than two, we'd all feel properly rested, I think!

I mentioned last week that I'd entered a swap, organised by Melanie at a country dream. I sent off my goodies to Sarah at little house by the sea, and I know she'll have received them by now, so I can show you what I sent. I thought I'd show you, because I'm very nosy myself, and love looking at what packages contain. So I'm thinking there might be a few like me who will be curious to know what's in the parcel!

So, first things first. The rules of the swap were that each person would include in their parcel, four or more gifts, and that we had to send them off within a week of receiving our swap partner's name and address. Oh, and the theme of the swap was roses. I love roses, so this is what attracted me to join this swap. Plus the fact that I'd never  been part of a swap before, and thought it sounded fun, and a little exciting!

Shall we do it like this............. You pretend you're Sarah, and that you've just opened the door to the postman bearing a parcel. I personally think, although I never put this into practise myself, that parcels should be opened whilst sitting down, with a cup of tea and a biscuit. My style of opening packages, is to just get the thing open and see what's inside. But for the purposes of doing as I say, and not what I do, I'm going to try and give off the laid back vibe for opening this parcel.

So Sarah, (remember, you're Sarah whilst opening this package), you've got your cuppa and biscuit, and you've opened up the box the gift arrived in.

Lift out the box, the box with roses all over it................... Oh look a tag! That'll be one of my tags I painted, for dear Sarah..................

Ooohh! Lots of things, wrapped in spotty paper and tied with stripy string. And another tag, made by me, especially for Sarah. I know I've said it before, but I love painting these tags!

Lets get them out of the box shall we?
I know there's more than four gifts here, but the brief did say "four or more", and anyway, some of the gifts are just very little things. I was going to put in one of my paintings as one of the gifts, but I thought that maybe I would embarrass the real Sarah, by giving too much, so I didn't include that in the end.

I love rose scented things, so a bar of soap, a pack of tissues, soap rose petal leaves, a scented drawer sachet, and rose flavoured chocolate, (which is unusual and delicious), all had the rose theme going on somewhere.

But there's more.........................

This jug.
This gift was a hard one to give, I have to admit! I love this little jug, it's so pretty. After a lot of dithering, I included it, thinking that if I would like to keep it, Sarah might like to receive it!

I couldn't resist this delicate rose. It was the first thing I bought. Choosing gifts for this swap was harder than I thought. When I was buying them, I didn't know who my swap partner was going to be, so I hadn't a clue whether she would like my gifts. To a certain extent I had to go on some vague, invented personality. I decided that my Sarah image was of someone not too whacky. A very nice person. I decided not to impose my tastes on my Sarah image, to keep the gifts fairly neutral and inoffensive.

I did wonder if it was risky, making a necklace. Jewellery is so personal isn't it? But I loved these glass beads with their rose decoration, so I thought I'd risk Sarah not liking this!

You see the roses in the glass? I thought, perfect for the rose swap, even if it is risky giving jewellery!

So there you have it! A few little gifts for Sarah.................. But don't go yet! The parcel opening hasn't finished yet! Don't you want to see what Sarah gave me? No?! ......YES?!  O.k. here we go...............

The doorbell rings! I open the door................. there's the postman with a box! So exciting! Tea and biscuits and sitting down can wait, I want to see what's inside!

Pink tissue paper! Love pink tissue paper! Quick, quick, open it, open it, caaaarrreful now, don't rip the lovely pink tissue paper!

Lots of lovely thoughtful gifts! Lucky me! I'm going to enjoy my hot chocolate from the pretty rose mug. I'm going to love having rosy lips! And my paperwork is going to look splendid being weighted down with a beautiful white rose. And lastly, I'm going to think of roses, every time I dry my face with this soft, Egyptian cotton, dusky rose coloured face towel.

I'm a very happy recipient. I've enjoyed this swap thing, it's been great fun putting my gift together, and I've loved receiving Sarah's thoughtful parcel of goodies.

I hope you've enjoyed opening these parcels?! I've had great fun! I'm going to make a cuppa, and drink it out of my new mug! See you tomorrow my dear readers. Love Vanessa xxx