My small rant about swaps ...

My magazine swap arrived. Thank you Amy. Love the magazines and the girls love the CD. Am I the last person on earth to know that "They Might Be Giants" released a kid's CD? Very cool.

There seems to be some discussions going on, in and around blog world at the moment regarding swaps. Auntie Cookie had a great post about swapping etiquette. I think the rule of thumb is do what you can do, when you can do it. Or that is my rule of thumb anyway. Otherwise, the swaps become like school homework. A chore that you are forced to do and really cannot enjoy. And I tend to get a bit passionate about my swaps.

My other rule of thumb is that I really like to post pictures of what I have received. Not to gloat, but to thank the person who has made or sent the swap. Fellow bloggers/lurkers go to so much trouble to wrap and parcel up these gifts. Not to mention the time taken to thoughtfully create something. And I am really grateful. There are no ulterior motives, or none that I am aware of. Sure, I get a buzz out of seeing something I have made on someone else's site. I would be lying if I said otherwise. As for it being my sole motive for swapping? No. I'm possibly to simple and naive. I love sending parcels. I love making things for other people and imagining them using them. I love wrapping things and I love finding gorgeous cards to write notes on.

I am currently on a mission to find some funky notecards that are "me". I am sending out Margaret Preston postcards at the moment, because she is just my favourite artist. And she is/was a woman and she is Australian. But they aren't really personal. Don't know really what I want, but I'm sure I will find/make it, eventually.

So, on that note, Julie at Handmaid, take a bow. All the way from Israel to Australia.
I could not in a million years do the things with paper that Julie does. We met via Whip-up's Whiplash challenges. She commented on my yarn flower and we have remained in blogging contact ever since. This gorgeous flower is her version of the yarn flower, so I guess it's the paper flower. Amazingly, she used no paint when making this flower, it's all coloured paper.

And how beautiful are these? All little girls should have one in their rooms!

Beth loves butterflies and her room is blue. Two facts Julie didn't know. Must be some kind of telepathic thing. And god knows, Alice needs an angel to watch over her. She insists on calling it a fairy and wants to play with it. Beth wanted to take her's to school for "show and tell". Although this shows the level of appreciation they have for their gifts, I stepped in and did the big mean Mummy thing. They are now safely hanging on their bedroom walls.

Thank you Julie. The time and effort you have taken with these gorgeous gifts is appreciated to no end.