We have a winner!

Okay! I drew for July's extra door prize and the winner is.......COURTNEY!

Congrats girlie! You'll get the goodies and this apron shortly

An Elegant Enchanted Snail Package

Michele was my partner for the snail swap and she has an elegance about her and she is very generous! Every month in these swaps I feel so spoiled! Everyone is so generous and so creative in their packages.

Here is the package Michele sent. The cutest little basket and lots of pretty things, including a pretty handmade card from Michele.

the snail that Michele made is so pretty with the lace going down the back and little flowers. The picture doesn't show how pretty the snail really is.

The pretty paper flower, vintage "S", a gorgeous necklace, a snail pill box and a little vintage pill holder. The necklace has a beautiful shell on it.

and a pretty jar filled with odds and ends of lace and pretty edgings.

Thank you Michele for a wonderful swap!
Okay, I just have to include this little bit of coincidental info about me and Michele.

We both have 8 kids and 11 grandkids.

I thought it was kinda neat!

August's Theme!

When I was in my late teen's, I used to go scalloping with friends in Port St. Joe, Florida.
One time, I found a small octopus inside a shell I had picked up. I slid it out onto the palm of my hand. It sat there a moment and then slithered across my hand back into the water. It was so amazing. Ever since that time, I've been captivated by these intelligent, beautiful, and sometimes deadly, creatures.
I'm not alone...from fairy tales to scary classics, in books and movies, octopus have played a big part in many legends.....

August ornament: octopus

August challenges:
1. give it suckers!!!
2. use future girl's Sigmund pattern. Alice of Future girl is SO excited about this and plans to follow along and do a peep show post with them! Just check the box and enter your email addy, then the down-loadable pattern pops up at the top of her page.

August activities:
Say goodbye to your gnome or another hand made softie and drop it off for a child to find for the Toy Society!

Email me photos/info once done and I'll post it to the Toy Society blog for you!
Please include:
dropped(location)
number of toys
made and dropped by(your name and blog)
date
and (you) say:(how you felt, the weather, etc.)

"Oh! I love hugging! I wish I was an octopus so I could hug 10 people at a time!"
Drew Barrymore

August's partners!

Val & Kerry
Robin & Michele
Nikki & Melinda
Shawnee & Jenny
Sandy & Courtney
Natalie & Kim
Sherry & Gin
Ramie & Missy B.

My cuties arrived yesterday! Natalie made me a cute blue snail.

All nestled in a pretty pink little fabric bag.

And some tea,  a little snail magnet, and a pretty glass snail.

Thank you Natalie. I love my snails.

Cuteness from Jenny!

I received my package from Jenny!! She sent some tea that is perfect for Hubby and I. Hubby has a hard time falling asleep and I always have tummy troubles. We make such a "fun" couple lol. I was recently thinking that I need a new journal to jot down the different ideas that keep clogging up my head. I guess Jenny is a mind reader. Everyone in the house got a kick out of the title Jenny put on the journal cover. I love how she used a swirlie sticker to make a snail. Adorable.

Here is the snail she made for my tree. I just love googlie eyes :)

AUGUST!

Hello all you loverly swappers!

Last week I sent out an email letting everyone know that beginning in AUGUST there will be some changes to our swapping procedures. Instead of rehashing the email I sent out I just wanted to post something here in case someone hasn't seen it!
The only person I know of who is out and about is Kerry (having a wonderful time in England, no fair!)

If you HaveN't seen the email, touch base with me so I can fill you in......if not, stay tuned....our next theme will be "bubbling up from the depths" soon........

July:So Fun!

I got my package in the mail and received my July Goodie from Kerry (she was also the June door prize winner *woot woot*) How great is this??!! She made the coolest birdhouse and its really functional. I also received a crocheted snail pincushion magnet :o) an adorable felt ornie, a couple fo adorable rubber stamps and an a hand emrboidered t-towel customized for YOE! Seriously, we're all gonna have the cutest trees!

Tickled pink, green and purple

Are these not the cutest little snail friends ever. The creativity and detail are wonderful. I recieved my July box from Sherry W. She made these adorable snail print drawstring bags that I am in love with and all that she sent.

She also made a wonderful smelling candle in a seashell with shell pedastel legs, a patchwork heart, a wonderful refrigerator magnet from colorbok, stationary and some beautiful hand crocheted medallions

and a little drawstring bag full of buttons seashells and charms. I couldn't be happier with my little swap box. Thanks so much Sherry!
I love love It!

My sweet Snail

Isn't it just adorable!  Gin made this for me, I just love how she made it, and the colours are so bright, I can just see it will look beautiful on my Christmas Tree!

She also kindly sent me these other goodies as well, thank you so much Gin, love it all! x

I got snail mail too!

Melinda's package came today and I was seriously squealing!

Just look at these 2 cute snails!





and she put other goodies in the package too...all packed into a pretty cigar box with altered tag, love it!

Thank you Melinda!

July Door prize winner!!!!

Hubby loves to pick winners so I let him choose this month's winner. The lucky name he chose is Kerry. Kerry if you could please send me your address to rsisland at hotmail dot com I will get your Fairy wall hanging out to you.

OK Val reminded me that Kerry won in June so we redrew and our new winner is Ruhammie :)

I got Snail Mail!!!!

Really! Snails from Val and this package is so much fun....I had two pairs of little boys hands helping me open it and we all were excited....
I just love handmade things and you can really tell when someone puts heart into it and I sure appreciate the love.....








(you can click on the picture to make it bigger)

Mardi gras beads, M&M's in pill bottles with a cute little tag labeled "in case of an emergency.", Two snail ornaments that are so cute and one is a cowboy snail for our trailer! An adorable head scarf in cowgirl fabric, The most incredible snail pincushion, a snail teabag holder and bath salts....I sure appreciate the time and thought Val.....you are a wonderful friend and a wonderful swapper!

Enchanted Wishes to the Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday Val!

I Hope You Have an Enchanting Day!

Snail-y goodness

Look at all the snail goodies I got from Little Messy Missy!! I love it all !! from the felt snail to the ones from polymer clay.. and the bookmark is my new favorite.. I already started using the embroidery thread :-) Thanks Missy!!!

My July came!!!!!

I was so excited to see what was inside my July package!!! 

I was given the sweetest little handbag, which I will use as my library card holder and list of books I must read inside, a very beautiful embroidered snail ornament and, yes and.... little tiny snail shell earrings and a matching necklace and last but not least a fabulous pair of reddish-orangish dangle earrings!!! Beautiful. Thank you  Courtney!

July's extra doorprize!

As you know, we have more swappers than months...so I am putting up another little 'extra' door prize for our participants!

I've not pulled everything together yet but wanted to get this post up...July is moving WAY too fast for me!

For starters, I found a sweet book called "A Walk in Monet's Garden" which is befitting our YOE theme...I find gardens quite enchanting, don't you?

I've also got some garden themed FQ's and card stock and will be adding a few more bits and bobs to it (who wants an apron???) before drawing on July 31st!


and here is the apron!!!

What will become of the broken hearted..... Gnome?

4th Of July was very quiet around our house - no parties or fireworks displays. This meant that Todd didn't have the chance to be naughty (I'm quite relieved after hearing all about Gunter, Mel and Gaylord and their antics!!!).

We, however, will be leaving on Tuesday for a 6 week trip to England to visit family. So this morning I walked into our bedroom and came upon this sight....

Todd was paging through the book and making his list of "must see's"!!! Oh I just knew this wasn't going to be pretty......So I took him aside and explained to him that he wouldn't be joining us on this trip.... oh, the tantrum .... the tears ... It was truly pathetic!!!I left him alone to let him get over it - a couple of hours later I went to check on him, and this is what I found......

A VERY heartbroken Todd!!!

He'll get over it ............ his revenge may not be so sweet!!!!

Gunter!

Meet Gunter.



Gunter is a Black Forest gnome from the toadstool clan. Black Forest gnomes are happy, helpful creatures who like beer.

Here's the problem: Gunter can't HANDLE beer.

So I sat Gunter down and we had a little talk about the get together we were having over the 4th. We talked about how much beer he could have.....which is NONE. We talked about the bad gnomes here and here and how he had better not behave that way.
Gunter gladly agreed and told me that if I just made sure to have some good music, sparkling conversation and yummy snacks, he would be on his best behavior.

Gunter is a liar.

Shortly after our guests arrived, I saw him doing THIS!



And THIS! I didn't even KNOW he liked margaritas!



Then he started hitting on the ladies







Then the complaining started....

He did not like the music because we didn't have any good drinking songs.

He did not like the spinach dip because he doesn't like the color green.

He did not like the sparkling conversation because no other gnomes were present. Now in his defense, he did request I bring Gretchen gnome because he had the hots for her.
When invited, she politely declined saying she had a 'headache....'
(When pressed after the party, she admitted that she KNEW Gunter was a liar. I asked why she didn't warn me and she said "ALL gnomes are liars." She was REALLY adamant about it. I got the feeling she'd been hurt in a bad gnome relationship so I just let it go.....yikes.)

I decided he had gone too far and shoved him into my birdcage for a much needed time out.

After much begging and pleading, I let him out...only to catch him later looking for leftovers!


The next morning I found Gunter snuggling up to Ginger. He apologized profusely and said he would never, ever, ever do it again.


But I think Gunter is a liar. What do you think?