The Happy Housewife Gallery!

[krazy4katz]

It HAS been a rough swap period... I had surgery and getting my son in a good place after is IED attack... but my Swap partner certainly cheered me up and it looks like things are in a good place now!

  I'd love to do another swap like this again

[SewFixated]

I know that I've been taking notes with all the swap packages so far for Christmas gifts.  I found an old wooden recipe box at a thrift store and it needs some new cards.  I'm also thinking about making napkins now for Christmas - applique is a great idea!  I've made magnets for my MIL with cartoon drawings of everyone in the family and I LOVE the magnets with the designs on them.  I'm going to have to steal that idea too!

Katz:  You mentioned Laura Ingalls Wilder...Did you know that Little House is my fav?  I am so jealous!

[CraftyMcGluestick]

Prepare to be jealous, all! I received from Pinklrt yesterday and I truly hit the jackpot. I am stunned by her thoughtfulness and creativity and the way she reformed my wayward craft room in one fell swoop. I haven't had enough processing time to get everything up in my craft room, but I will and soon the world will be mine.

Without further ado, photos of my awesome swap package.

First, the entire package (minus coffee cozy and recipe cards, which are pictured later below).


Pinklrt saw my sock monkey ironing board cover that I got from etsy and cleverly based all the swap items on that theme and that of extreme cuteness.

Below: 14" pillow forms, making over my previously icky 14" pillows from heck into snappy craft room jazziness.


Below: sock monkey and red-lined nesting baskets (red is my fave color and I also showed pinklrt a craftster thread of the most awesome craft room in red and aqua--she took it from there). Because my craft room functions also as a guest room, these babies will be great for corraling guest room hospitality items and my craft stuff. I love them! I will build a shelf in their honor.


Below: I told pinklrt I needed some wall art for this currently blank room, but it's gotta be functional, too, so ta-da--these terrific posting boards, two of each design. The blue ones feature a pocket! Whee! She even put mounting hardware on there for me! Yay!




Below: Coordinating marble pushpins for putting items on those boards! Whee!


Below: I am completely bowled over by this piece of amazingness! Pinklrt and I both love cupcakes, so she crocheted me a cupcake pincushion! Are you listening here? A cupcake pincushion! With rainbow "sprinkles" for pins! I am so lucky.


Below: A sock monkey coffee cozy! Whee!


Below: Some recipe cards that pinklrt made in a digital scrapbooking application. I can't wait to try them.


I am so lucky! Thank you pinklrt for the most amazing swap package i have ever received. I love everything.

P.S. Check out my flickr set of this swap to see both the things I sent and received. http://www.flickr.com/photos/themrts/sets/72157607401543555/

[hellobint]

loving the sock monkey pinboard!  such a good idea

[marcusandila]

Cute stuff! I love stuff like that...

[hellobint]

So I received from poornami today!  Unfortunately my stupid camera phone has broken so i can't take any pictures    , and the company are going to take 6 weeks to repair (useless people, what's the point in a warranty!! - sorry rant over).  Poornami, if you have any pictures, please feel free to post!  I shall do my best to describe...

A beautiful hand painted wall hanging - its a black velveteen background, with a desert house scene painted in brown, sand and white.  Its lined with sparkly gold, and i think will really work in our dining room!  Also a jade green table runner for my dining table, two pairs of handmade earrings (one black, one red) and some special indian embroidery thread - i need to shoot now and try out the embroidery thread!  thanks again poornami...

[grunteeistgut]

those recipe cards are so cool looking!

[santacruzsugar]

I received from Ecstatic today! I was amazed at all the stuff she managed to fit in such a little box!

Here's the 'group shot'

which contains: 4 double sided placemats, two sets of 4 cloth napkins (4 in green print, 4 in lavender print), a GIANT knitted shopping bag, 4 knitted scrubbies, 2 knitted mice for my cat, a placemat for my cat's bowls, a tea towel with an embriodered kitty, a kitchen timer and a pack of post-its, a apron from her home state, a mug, and the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert.


here is the placemat, which fits Gale's bowls perfectly. It is made from different cat printed fabrics and is so cute! I LOVE the knitted mice cat toys, which I'm sure Gale will love to play with once she stops sulking from my leaving her with the boyfriend for almost a week.


here are all the linens that my wonderful partner made me! I love the placemats! They will match perfectly in my kitchen. I am really glad she made me some napkins, because I've been meaning to make my own, but was too lazy. And the cat tea towel is also adorable! She was worried that the back wasn't up to par, but why would I look at the back when the front is so cute!


Scrubbies- These are soooo cool! I've been wanting some of these and am really excited to use them! I think these were my favorite part of the package.


My partner is from Louisiana, and she included a souvenir of her state. (Which is really cool- none of my other swaps have ever done this!) Its an apron with a recipe for Alligator Sauce Piquant, which, no offense to any of you alligator eating craftsters, sounds disgusting. The first line of the instructions are "Cut meat into cubes and remove tallow". But than again, my favorite food is raw albacore nagiri, so to each their own. 


This is the knitted shopping bag, which is awesome. I love that the strap is really long, so I can even ware it over my head, which would work great if I ride my bike to the store.

And the extras, which I don't have pictures of- the blue mug not only matches my decor, but was also very needed! I only had one mug and made my boyfriend drink tea out of a pint glass.  I also really wanted to read that book, so thanks for including that! I'm also excited about the timer, because now i can give my crappy Ikea one to the thrift store!


Thanks so much for everything! I am really lucky and got an amazing packaged!

[Ecstatic]

I'm so glad you liked everything, and that the mug made it in one piece! I'm always worried about sending fragile things.

And, no worries, I think the alligator dish sounds pretty inedible as well. Then, again, I'm a vegetarian. Still, it's typical of Louisiana. My mom actually tried it a few times, and claims alligator tastes like chicken. I have my doubts on that, though!

[MommyTheMaid]

I recevied today:

I absolutly love these letters.  I've wanted some for a while now to jazz up my craft room.   I also got a dish soap apron that matches my kitchen, and cute bathroom goodies with very adorable clay turtles.  They didn't fare too well in shipping but I think I can fix them.  I got them propped for pics so I think a little glue will put them right back to new.  They will go perfect in my bathroom.  I love all the fun little extras too.  The coolest rubber gloves I have ever seen, cupcake magnent to match the kitchen, sponges, and a cute little magnetic notepad for all my crazy lists I write.