Secret Santa & UKS Stocking Swap

Ho, Ho, Ho! I hope you had a lovely Christmas. I took part in two swaps over Christmas - the Secret Santa that I host on the blog and the UKScrappers stocking swap. Both have become a traditional part of my Christmas now - I enjoy compiling the gifts for my recipients as much as I enjoy seeing what people have put together for me.

First up, my Stocking Fairy on UKS was Chrissie. Our budget over there is a minimum £15. Blimey but I was spoilt. A massive box arrived and everything was beautifully wrapped (I forgot to take a picture of that bit!) She knows me so well...

Soooo many happies!

Mmmmmalteser goodies, 

Canvasses of varying sizes, 

Brushes, 

Inka Gold - I so wanted to try that,

 Gilding flakes *happy clapping* Love gilding flakes... Craig, might have cried a little when he saw them *g* 

Shrinkies, 

Washi tapes, 

Beautiful pins... 

The doll is to alter. I may feed her to the zombie doll I'm making. 

Stazon - does anyone else think that smells like marzipan? Mmm. Yes - I might have a black tipped nose now.

Steeeeeeencils! I had none of them - I can't wait to try them. 

Beautiful, beautiful papers; DCWV Once Upon a Time and my very first G45's! 

Watercolour postcards - I love watercolour postcards!

And this beautiful wooden tag calendar - made by Chrissie. My favourite thing in the stocking. 

Next up is the Secret Santa swap which I host on the blog each year. Our budget is a minimum £10 spend. K was my Santa this year...

Oh my goodness!

More Malteser goodies (nom!)
A beautiful Alice in Wonderland book - gorgeously illustrated,
Skully beads and embellies,

Gorgeous washi tapes,
Project life type cards,
More gorgeous DCWV papers,
Some Project Life style scrapbook pocket pages...

And my very favourite thing in the parcel... this Nevermore cut out. Isn't it glorious? I'm framing that.

Thank you so much to Chrissie and K - I couldn't believe my eyes. I really loved absolutely everything you so carefully put together. I can't believe how well thought out both presents were and I just loved everything about them both.  I'm a lucky girl!

Now - people have started blogging their Secret Santa's so I will update the list below as and when I see people doing it. Have a click if you'd like to see what everyone else did for each other. These are really making me smile...

I posted to Ally - Blogged here. 

Virginia posted to Laura - Blogged here.

K posted to me. (Blogged above.)
Ally - posted to Carol - Blogged here.
Carol  posted to Virginia - blogged here.
Laura posted to K - Blogged here.

And finally - this has nothing to do with the swaps - I just like to share the bookish goodness that Father Christmas brings...

We Make Dolls by Jenny Doh (Thanks Lesley x)
1000 Artist Journal Pages by Dawn DeVries Sokol (Thanks Susie x)

The Last Temptation compilation. I know I'll love this - I used to own it in comic form. (Thanks Melsie x)
The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell - this one is so gorgeous. Even just to hold - my picture does it no justice. (Thanks Cas x)

Not strictly a book. It's a deck of cards , each card has a painting on one side and fun facts on the reverse. Love them! Famous Paintings Art Cards by Sarah Courtauld (Thanks Ky x)

And not forgetting the beautiful Alice in Wonderland book from K :) happy bunny much? Yes indeedy. So all in all I have no excuse now not to kick-start scrapbooking again in 2015 and to dust off my sewing machine too!

Thanks for stopping by today - back later with my yearly Rocking post :)

Wishing You...

Image source

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas - thank you so much for your visits throughout the year :)

Mwah x

Rocking My World Friday... On Monday

Well, I seem to be losing days! Last Friday completely slipped past without my realising so I'll do a two week catch up. What's made me look back and smile then? Well...

The Bear had his very first hair cut at the hairdressers. He was so excited - he loves pretending his toy drill is a hairdryer and always wants to do the girls hair. I was a bit worried that when it actually came to it he wouldn't let her do it... but he did. He sat so still and serious...

And afterwards kept walking around, flicking his hair and admiring himself in the mirror. He still has all his curls though ;)

Cheeky Bear!

We put our decs up. Well, partly. We've had to pack away all the glass ones so it looks a bit bare - we may have to stock up on some unbreakables.

Alice Cooper Angel being ceremoniously placed on the tree.

Ruby has had her school play, it was Peter Pan and she was a fairy. All the kids did so well, some of them had such a lot of dialogue, I'm surprised they remembered it all. They had obviously done so much rehearsing - I know that we knew all the songs off by heart - never mind the kids. Ruby had been singing them every night!

 

She has a busy week this week, the school is taking them to a pantomime and she is most excited because it sounds like it's the one that Mister Maker is going to be in. She has her Christmas dinner this week too.

We had a nice visit to Hastings this past weekend and the Bear had great fun drawing with Nanna. 

Let's see - what else?

• I'm now 12lbs away from my target 
• The hydraulic struts on our car boot gave up the ghost but we ordered the parts in and fixed it ourselves.
• I've almost finished my application form for the UCA
• After realising how close it is to Christmas... I am nearly finished my handmade pressies. Panicking and it will be close but am nearly there.
• My Secret Santa stocking from the UKS swap has arrived. Oooh, exciting. I have been banned from any more feeling, shaking and sniffing.
• All the Santa gifts from the swap on here have arrived without a hitch this year - just waiting on mine which is en route. Hurrah for glitch free sleigh deliveries.
• I nearly never went into my maths class this week, scared I was the only one not 'getting' it. Craig made me go. Turns out we were all in the same boat and teacher went over a few bits for us. I should stop being such a fraidy cat!

And that will do me this week. I have lost my voice and feel like poo so I apologise for any typos or anything that doesn't make sense. Needless to say I have a lot to smile about and be thankful for. The small stuff can just booger off.

I am going to link up with Virginia now, She who without fail, looks back on her week and picks out something that made her smile. You should try it - doesn't half change the way you view things.

Thanks for stopping by today - how has your week been?