May's theme and a reminder!

May's ornament: Mermaid

May's challenge: paper

May's activity: create a birdbath or water feature and put in your yard for the wee folk and birds to enjoy.

"Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither."
~William Wordsworth

Now for the reminder: Please send your packages out by the 3RD Saturday of the month and email me letting me know you've sent them. If anyone needs a refresher of what YOE is all about, just click here for the original post!

Now...on to the big reveal:

May's partners!!!

Val & Ramie
Robin & Natalie
Sherry & Courtney
Anna & Missy B.
Sandy & Melinda
Gin & Jenny
Kerry & Missy H.

I hope you all love this theme as much as I do!

LUCKY ANNA!

ANNA is the winner of our 'extra' door prize this quarter! I'll be mailing her little goody to her this week!



Congratulations to you Anna!

Check THIS Out!!

Pop over to my blog and check out one of the most exciting swaps of the year!

I know you'll all be so excited!

Seriously.....

it is exciting news!

Great minds think alike!

Well, apparently Gin and I were thinking along the same lines...we both created the same birds for each other just embellished them differently!! She creatively added tail feathers to my birdies using silk flower petals. I even considered that!! Great minds really do think alike!! :)

She also included some DELISH dark chocolate truffles (mmm-MM!), a spool of ribbon, a skein of Fun Fur (YAY! YARN!) and a dish towel that she appliqued a cardinal on...how cool is that?!?!

What an awesome way to make dishtowels!! So creative, it opens up a whole new world of crafting possibilities for me. I like it when my mind is stimulated with new craft ideas. Thank you Gin for such WONDERFUL goodies!! I can't wait to use the yarn. :D

Here's a pic of my birdie ornaments I made for her. I know she already blogged about them using her pics...HOWEVER...I wanted to let you all know that I did a Bird Swing Tutorial on my blog. (You can find it here). You can create little bird swings for all our little songbirds we received, or if you're a bird owner, well, maybe your little birdie wants a new swing too. Enjoy!

Jenny's pkge went in the mail today.....

just a sneak peek....The address's are blurred out...Melinda

Talk About Being Spoiled!!

I received this wonderful package from Jeanne the other day. She not only sent one birdie ornament, but 3 pretty little birds.

Jeanne also sent me another bird that she made and a ton of goodies. Check out those little wooden cherries. They look so real!

and then the cute bag that was FILLED with lace.

Thank you Jeanne!!!!

Another swapper spoiled by Kerry

My package from Kerry arrived today! Boy was I spoiled! I thought I would take you on a little tour.

The box felt very heavy for an ornament swap. My son (11) was so excited to open it to see if there was any chocolates in there that I made him wait until I opened up all the other mail first. When I opened it all I saw was PURPLE! WooHoo! My favorite color!

I gently took off the top layer of shredded paper and found this. I saved the shredded paper to recycle to use another month.

Inside I found these two adorable birdie jars with Mike n Ikes and jelly beans. Of course we had to stop right here and try the candies. Just to make sure they made the trip safely of course. These jars are so cute they will be staying on my sewing table with buttons once they are empty.

Four wonderful coasters. I have one at my table by the couch, Hubby has one on his side, Robbie (11) has another on my table and the last one went to my daughter's (19) room.  See how Kerry carried the birdie theme throughout so far?

Such a pretty birdie with jingle bells. I love jingle bells! There is something about the sound of jingle bells and wind chimes that make me smile.

Another sweet birdie. Robbie thought this one was made of chocolate. I think he has been craving chocolate a bit too much lately lol.

Was that it?......

Nope! This is one of those iron on embroidery patterns that I love so much. This is perfect timing too. I have a swap coming up that involves birdhouses and these will be perfect!

My Kerry made scrapbook. I tried to explain what a scrapbook is used for pertaining to this swap but he just didn't get it. I'm obviously not a scrapbooker so it isn't something he is used to.

Last but not least...some gorgeous fabric. If you look closely you can see a little butterfly charm. I love butterflies and dragonflies so this was fun to see.

Thank you Kerry for everything! You have gone above and beyond.

Thank you so much Robin.....

My lovely April swap package arrived yesterday from Robin.......... the cutest little birdies. I love them - thank you so much Robin!!!!
My absolute favorite is the beautiful cushion she made me.........it's nestled amongst the other scatter cushions that I've collected, made or been given over the years.
Robins embroidery talents are fantastic and the embroidered ornament and the cushion are testament to that:-)

Thank you so much again Robin:-)

Migration from Australia

'Tweet Tweet'
Up in the air I fly, some thousand of kilometres away to Niki in Texas.
Hope I don't get exhausted and lose my way - fly wings fly!

A sneak peek:

I put my bag of nesting materials next to our Passionfruit vine in our backyard - only bit of greenery as planting out our ornamental pear trees this Autumn.  Hope the birdies find all the materials there, perfect timing as they will be nesting coming into winter here in Australia!

Giveaway Winner!

Oooooops!!

Hehehe! I guess I should have announced a winner right?? HAHAHA!

I have been a little sidetracked since my son turns 6 on the 21st and we have had a party and he learned to ride his bike without training wheels this weekend, and, and, and ...

without further ado (or excuses!)

The winner is # 7

MISSY!

Email me your addy so I can get this notebook and earring singing your way!

Tweet, Tweet

These songbirds from Ramie are awesome!! They are so cute all perched on their little swings. Their little feet are ribbons. And the colors are so pretty.

There are beads on the edge of their tails. How creative she is. I can just see them coming alive swinging and singing. Yes, I'm excited over these. I love these birds.

And she added 2 spools of lace, we both think they must be vintage; some teas and herbal medicinal teas that will go to good use; and some quilting magazines that have some very pretty qult patterns of which I have already chosen one that I am ready to start. And that's not all folks, a McDonald's gift card, how sweet is that!!

(I tried over and over and over to upload the other pictures, but something's not working), but believe me everything is fabulous.


Thank you Ramie! This is a great package, I love it...

fluff n stuff n

Here is the bag of nesting materials I put together for the birds.



I flung it as high as I could up in a tree....where it got hooked up by a branch.




I haven't actually SEEN any birds pulling from it, but the bag is getting smaller and the shiny bits are hanging out like they've been pulled on....so one can hope :-)

Thank you Niki

My March mushroom YOE arrived today. My package was filled with beads, lace, cute heart buttons, more beads, little duck, elephant rubber stamp, tassels, and some other goodies.

And, these were my mushroom ornies. I love the prints,. Real cute.  Thanks Niki.

This is the ornie I sent Niki.

And I included some rubber stamps, a huge Easter egg filled with candy, and some colorful pony tail holders for her lovely daughters.

And, just a little fairy flashback. This is the fairy I sent my partner in February -- full of ribbon and beads.

My April ornie package goes in the mail this week, and ready for May....

Extra doorprize!

Since I have more swappers than there are months in the year, I needed to add some 'extra' door prizes in.

After all, I want EVERYONE to win a "lil sumphin!"

So, here is my first 'quarterly' door prize of the year!

There is a small set of seeds and fat quarters...along with some cute leaf pins. Everything will arrive bundled neatly in the pretty pixie pouch.

If you've not won anything yet, throw your name in the hat and I'll draw the winners name the last week of April....Good luck ladies!

April Doorprize Giveaway!!

Hi ya'll! This is Jenny from The Red Bulletin Board For this months giveaway I am offering a hand embellished notebook

and some beautiful (if I do say so myself) handmade birdy earrings perfect for spring!
If you are not in the south, I will also include all the pretty yellow pollen I can fit in the box!! hehehe!!!

Leave a comment on this post and if you have not already won a giveaway, you will be in the running!

My Feb Fairy Swap Package

My partner for the Febuary Fairy Swap was Sandy. I received this beautiful angelic fairy in my favorite color. Sandy also sent me some tea, recipe cards with a fairy on them, pretty ribbon and stamps. Thank you Sandy!!! I love everything and I'm glad your feeling better!

Here is a close up picture. She's so pretty!

Here is a picute of the fairy/brownie I made for Sandy. Thank you Missy for the inspiration and the instructions to make this little guy!!

Have a great day everyone!

I'm looking forward to the Song Bird Swap and Spring!!!!

February's Fairy

Missy sent me this AMAZING fairy! She is truly exquisite.


she came with these lovely dried orange flower blossoms which made the box smell lovely...


and a mushroom bookmark, pixie dust with a toadstool stopper, fairy glitter, owl ribbon, and lovely ornate Easter egg...

Missy, I love everything. Thank you so much!

Fa La La La. La.......... Mushroom Cuteness

My swap package arrived from Natalie today....................hence the reason I was singing in my title (be happy you read it, and didn't have to hear the vocal rendition..........my singing is not pretty!!!).

It was a lovely package, I felt very spoilt:-)

Here is a picture....

Look at those adorable mushrooms - their little faces made me have an ahhh moment!!! They are so darn cute!!!

I bet you all wish you had my fluffy socks.....they've been hidden from my daughter, who'd snuffle them in an instant if she finds them!!! The same fate may await the chocolate eggs, but at the hands of my hubby, so I guess I have some eating to do before he gets home from work:->

I also got some pretty green and blue ribbons, which will be put to good use, as well as some teas which I will enjoy while I visit all of your blogs.

I'll leave you now with 3 happy little faces.....

Natalie, a million thank you's for spoiling me, you really made my day.

Have a blessed Easter girls:-)

Mushroom love........

I got my package from Robin and look at all these great mushrooms!















There are ornaments, an embroidered mushroom house and the one with the button held candy...yummmm...I cant show the candy because it got eaten right away...She also made two fabric balls and the babies latched right onto them. In fact, only one ball is shown because Trace (my grandson) has the other one.....

















This is him saying "Thank you Miss Robin..." if he could talk and didnt have a pacifier in his mouth.....
She also sent some "gator eggs" from Florida...vanilla jelly beans...I have been dipping into them today, they are good.....Thanks so much Robin for the great package...I love it all......

Robin also got my package....here is what I sent her....







My favorite part of putting this together was making the little clay mushrooms....I sure appreciate the tutorial Val.......I might make some for myself too, they are quick and easy......I am really enjoying this little bit of Enchantment every month!