This summer between the preparations for Ellie’s birthday party (this Saturday) and the numerous other orders I’ve been working on for my store, I was able to squeeze in two blogger swaps too. The first swap was really me, begging another blogger to let me buy one of her beautiful hand carved stamps after seeing her make several on her blog. (I met Jenny through a previous blogger swap. Ellie and I sent goodies to her youngest daughter for a children’s swap) She was wonderfully sweet and offered up a trade. A couple of her incredible stamps for some of my peg dolls. A family of six peg dolls to be exact. I was so excited for this swap and painting her adorable family was so much fun!

Unfortunately, I never got some great photos of the peg family, but hop on over to Jenny’s blog for plenty of great action shots.

I received Jenny’s beautiful stamps soon after I sent these guys off. They are so well made and lovely and now I’ll have something very special to stamp on my Etsy store purchase bags and cards. Thank you so much Jenny. These stamps will be treasured dearly!

The other swap I was in was Amanda’s summer blogger swap. I had participated previously and sent a package to a lovely blogger and received the most amazing package from this wonderful blogger (I still use most of her swap goodies on a daily basis). This time around, I got a very inspirational blogger who I had been following here and there prior to the swap. I was a little intimidated about making things for her because her blog is just so full of beauty and inspiration. I wasn’t sure my skills could measure up. But, I tried to make a few things I thought she would enjoy.
I stuck with a  light purpley color scheme because I noticed she mentioned the color purple a lot. I knew she enjoyed being in the kitchen so I made her some lemon salt from lemons in our garden. Homemade granola and a hot pad too. I also made a matching fabric coaster too for those cups of tea.
Tracey uses beautiful quotes a lot on her blog and I really wanted to incorporate one of them into something special for her. I took one of my favorites and painted her a picture with watercolor and pen of some of (what I perceived) were her favorite things; knitting and a fig tree (she mentions both many times on her blog).

And last but not least, I wanted to make a little something for her grand-daughter Emerson. It seemed like Emerson was a big part of Tracey’s life and I wanted to recognize that. (I also absolutely loved when Christina sent Ellie some handmade things in the last blogger swap). I thought it was only right to paint Emerson in the horse t-shirt Tracey bought from Cory,since I’ve met Cory in person a few times (blogger world go round). 🙂
I’ve already heard from Tracey and I’m so thankful she likes everything. It was certainly a joy to make all of these things for her and to get to know her a little better through her blog. I think that is really the best part of these swaps, getting to know people all over the country. It’s a strange sort of pen pal kind of thing and it really is wonderful making things and receiving things from new friends. I’m excited to receive my gift, hopefully soon.