12 days of Christmas MINI swap gallery

[TAOJ]

No need to reserve a spot. Simply post your pictures as you open your pressies 

[varandra]

Hooray! It's Sunday morning and I get to deal with the big pile of gifts sheepblue sent me! 



Well, at least one of them :



It's wrapped in some really pretty red and gold fabrics. I love it when gifts come wrapped in gifts!  I'm thinking this fabric would make a nice bag, or a pair
of slippers, or a pretty pouch, or...

Anyway, inside I found this:



An instruction booklet on how to plant dye textile material, a collection of 5 sweet recipes and a nice personal card.

Inside the plant dyeing booklet:



I'm planning to try the plant dying technique on a plain white silk scarf I've had lying around forever without wearing. I'm thinking deep beetroot red...mmm

Recipe collection:



The recipes sound very interesting, how about pumpkin fudge? There's something I would've never thought of on my own, but if it's anything like the pies usually are I think I'm going to have a new favourite sweet! I love the illustrations you made sheepblue, that sweet tooth is hilarious!

Thanks for this awesome 12th day gift! I can barely wait until tomorrow and the following days to see what else you have made!

[Dolly Mixx]

ooh was I supposed to open number 12? I started with 1, and that's how I wrapped the ones I sent too..oh dear, I just read the swap thread, and I am wrong! Indigo roses, if you haven't already opened it, start with number 1!!

anyway..

Ooh what could it be??


Yummy candy corn! Thank you so much Indigo_Roses! Just what I wanted! Already munched my way through some-it tastes like really sweet fudge!

[Sansa]

 Finally, after battling my camera, a storm which lost our power for several hours and my dh, who was hogging the 'puter, I have the pics uploaded.



Lovely pile of goodies.



Todays present. Two gorgeous pairs of earrings. I love them both, with a slight preference for the green ones.

[sheepBlue]

varandra - I forgot to mention in the letter, that if you wanted you could attach some string or something to the top of the envelop holder that the recipes came in to make a cool little note organizer. 

Since everyone is posting pictures of all their presents under the tree I thought I'd post...well, mine.



It's a sad little tree but it's mine (we haven't even put up the xmas tree  )

So, ♫on the 12th day of Christmas varandra gave to me♪ *hums to self*...

Candy breakfast! 



Actually, it was more like a late late late candy snack. I didn't purposely stay up past midnight but I was working on some last minute xmas treats for my coworkers and had to of course open present #1 after the stroke of midnight.

There is sooooooo much loot to be had. Tons of chocolate and fruity Swedish candies. A couple different kinds of licorice, two of which intimidated me, for good reason. Here are the highlights:



This was some fruity candy that I thought was so tiny and cute. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the candy is in the shape of little monkeys. 



This is a marzipan pig covered in chocolate. I think it looked very cute, though now it's head is missing... varandra said that this is a traditional swedish xmas treat. In my family, its kind of a tradition to get each other marzipan in the shape of fruits and vegetables. But the chocolate just adds a whole 'nother level. It's still reallllllly rich though.



Ok, so I'm totally up for trying new things even if it may sound a little strange. Pictured above are two types of licorice: pepper and salt flavored...out of everything in the package this made me pause. But I totally gave them both an honest try. The pepper licorice definitely wasn't as bad as I feared...though I will say that there were times when it actually tasted good and then there were moments when I cringed because a particularly spicy/peppery sensation was a bit overwhelming. The salt licorice on the other hand....well, I did try it...I just couldn't keep it in my mouth for very long >.< I don't think I got past the initial layer of salt that coated the whole thing. I've never eaten a salt lick before but if I had to guess that's probably similar to what it would taste like lol. I still have a whole bag left though, so I'll probably give it another shot to see if I can get past the salt to get the real flavor. 

Oh, and I must say that Geisha chocolate is soooooooooooooo good. I love hazelnut and the mixture is just heavenly. The chocolate nip bar was really good too; very strong and rich but definitely a treat.

Thanks so much varandra! My taste buds thank you  I can't wait for tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that....

 

[fusbdgt]

Woo hoo, ok I'm squeezing this in b4 i have to head to work all day and deal with the football crazies! (no offense if any of you fall in that category ... hehe)
Here it is.... and i'm just gonna preface with I LOVE IT!

Isn't it cute? What is it you ask? It's for my USB port that is my life line in school, and I've forgotten it with assignments on it multiple times this semester, but if it's on my keys how can I forget it? I'm in nursing school at the moment and it's soooo perfect.

here's one more shot, see it peeking out?? hehe, yay!
On another note I had to leave the others in the closet, I thought the temptation wouldn't be as great b/c I got to open one but they hastily made their way back into the closet shortly after that!
We're off to a great start in the gallery. Everyone's loot looks great.

[Kiwi-Chickie]

Super cool sticky notes. WOot!  lol, sorry bout the crappy picture. 

[unjugetito]

oooooooooooooo  sparklys!
These are so pretty. Must hide from daughter, MIL, sister...

[RubyRain]

I got some yummy homemade caramels from ellen-j My DH is already scoping them out...
I'll take pics with tomorrow's gift since my camera is no where to be found at the moment.

[indigo_roses]

I unwrapped a pair of earrings today! I'll post a picture tomorrow with day 2, my camera batteries decided that they wanted to die, so they're charging at the moment.