Today’s Fortune: There is a true and sincere friendship between you and your friends.

Never was a fortune more true than this one! We have friends all over the world. Mom has been doing a bunch of Ravelry “swaps”.  Swaps are where you have a special theme, and then you figure out what your swap partner likes, and you send good stuff to them, and they send good stuff to you!    I really like swaps, because everybody always puts good stuff in the packages for me.

The first swap we joined this year was the Warm Up in January swap with our friends in the John Deere Tractor Drivers group.  This was a secret swap, so we made a package for our friend 8ntfrogn.  She is my Auntie Karen, who lives in California where all those happy cows are.  She is also Praline’s mom.

My Mom made her a scarf and some fingerless gloves.  Karen loves frogs and sock monkeys, so we made her a good package that had a sock monkey tote,  a matching sock monkey tea wallet with teas to drink, a cup and saucer, candies and pins, note pads with frogs, and some fun frog chocolates.  She liked it a bunch!

Our secret swappy partner was PixieThief.  She is my Auntie Lindsey.  She is also Guy’s mom, and she lives in Knoxville, TN.  She made Mom a beautiful cowl scarf out of some very soft yarn in her favorite color.  Mom loved it!  So did Dharma.  Auntie Lindsey also sent some hot chocolate and some yummy snacks called “GooGoo Clusters.”  And there were special surprises for me!  I got some banana flavored Lik-M-Aid inside a plastic banana, and she also sent me some gummy army men!!  What a great package!!

The next big swap we joined was the Tea Party Swap with our friends in the Handmade Pincushion Group.  This swap was one where you know who your partner is, and you exchange packages directly with your partner.

Our partner was our new friend MojoClicks.  Her name is Tess, and she lives in North Carolina.  She likes cherries, the color red, lady bugs and Hello Kitty.  This was the first swap for Tess, so we wanted to make her package extra special!  Mom made a tea towel with embroidered cherries, and trimmed it with cherry fabric.  She also made a felted mug cozy and put it on a nice red mug, and made needle-felted cherry coasters to go with it.  Mom found a cute teabag holder and some vintage napkins at an antique shop, and she made a tea wallet and filled it with yummy teas.  I found Tess some ladybug chocolates, a cute notepad and pins, a big candy bar, and some Hello Kitty stickers.  She absolutely loved her package!  Making a swappy package is lots of fun, because you get to make people smile!

And we got a wonderful package from Tess!!  She sent Mom a handmade dishcloth made from really pretty green and yellow yarn.  (Mom said it was too nice to use.  She says that about everything.)  It was tied up with a ribbon, and had a fun turtle magnet tucked into the bow.  The magnet is on our fridge, now.  Mom also got a little tiny spatula that is something called “Pampered Chef”.  It is just my size, so I am excited to cook with it!!  She sent me some yummy recipes, too.  She must know that Mom lets me do most of the cooking around here.  And guess what?  She made an awesome sock monkey notebook, just for me!!  It has a little pocket on the front, where you can put your pencil so you won’t lose it.  It is awesome!

The thing Mom loved the most in this package was an awesome tea towel that Tess embroidered.  It has all of our favorite colors, and it is hanging on our oven now, so everybody can see it!

We also signed up with two partners in the Let’s Get Cozy: Informal Swap. An informal swap is kind of like a mini-version of the big swap.  We made some fun tea wallets filled with yummy teas and Mom sent extras, too.

One of our swappy partners was 2Mayboys.  She is my Auntie Dawn, and she lives in Washington state.  She is the one who made Puglet for me, and she is one of the best Aunties ever!!  Mom sent her a nice mug with a felted mug cozy, and she made four needle-felted coasters with flowers.  I picked out the sock monkey fabric for the tea wallet.

Auntie Dawn sent us a great package, too!  She knitted a mug cozy for Mom, and a little knitted tea wallet, too!  (The tea wallet was filled with chocolates.  They were really good.)  She sent me some awesome stuff!  I got a sock monkey notebook, and a Star Wars clone trooper  for my Pez collection!  Auntie Dawn is the best!

We also swapped with our new friend Dianthusgirl.  Her name is Heather and she lives in New Zealand, on the other side of the world.  We didn’t know if the Post Office would charge a zillion dollars to mail stuff to the other side of the world, so we made a very special package that didn’t weigh a lot.  Mom made a very cute tea wallet filled with teas, and sent two skeins of Claudia HandPainted yarn.  That is very nice sock yarn, and we think Heather will have some awesome socks when she gets it knitted up.

Heather sent us a small package, too, but we were amazed at how much stuff she was able to get inside a little bitty box!  She sent Mom some very pretty fabric that has four panels of different birds.  Mom is saving it until she finds the perfect project to use it on.  She also sent some lip balm, a tea wallet, two whole boxes of teas, a small packet of green tea, and a really pretty orange felted flower for Mom to wear in her hair.  But, as usual, the best stuff was for me!  There was a great big cookie with three kinds of chocolate in it, and a really cool postcard of Yellow-Eyed New Zealand penguins!!

The tea towel folded up was hard to see, so Mom ironed it, and took a picture.  It had an awesome bird on it, and Mom loves it!  She is going to display it in our kitchen, too.

All of our swaps are over for now, but new ones will be starting soon!  I can’t wait to see what we get to do next!

Today’s Vocabulary Words: Swaps, GooGoo Clusters, Pampered Chef