I have been SPOILED

I'm back to some normalness (ok, ok... so what's that?) after a long weekend and will be playing catch up on blog posts for a couple of days. I spent a beautiful Saturday with Joanne & blogless Kathy on the Wool Arts Tour and will have lots of pictures later, but today I wanted to give props and big thank yous to a couple of my swap spoilees.

First up is the terrific 2nd package I received from my Secret Pal 11 spoilee. Her packages come wrapped & packaged up so beautifully! Look at the beautiful fall leaves she "wrapped" my package in (they are now adorning shelves in my kitchen)... and the pretty fall bags everything was packaged in....such beautiful & thoughtful presentation! Oh and do you see the 2 noses taking a peek?? Inside I found a really cute birthday card and lots of goodies. There's a skein of Opal Rain Forest sock yarn in the very fallish Butterfly colorway. I've been wanting to scoop up one of these hard to find rainforest skeins, so this was a great treat! Speaking of treats, she sent me some yummy rock candy pops, limited edition pop rocks flavors and chocolate covered cranberries! I also got a "Just Apples" cookbook - so perfect for this time of year! And... drum roll... I saved the best for last, a set of Grafton Fibers "Darn Pretty Needles" DPNs! OMG, check these out... can you say gor-geous??!! They are hand crafted in Vermont and just so beautifully made (click on the picture which should enlarge for a better view)! I can't wait to use them! Thank you secret pal - these are absolutely stunning!

The spoiling kept coming as the next day I received a wonderful box from my Knit 1, Tea 2 Swap spoiler, Jeanne! Just look at all the goodies she crammed in to the box! Teas... lots of deliciousness that I can't wait to try, including Acai Green Tea from Republic of Tea, Chai Spice Red Bush Tea (I had wanted to try some reds and I do love chai, so this sounds really interesting), Pure Assam breakfast tea from jolly 'ole England and Yogai Chai Green Tea (ok, so I didn't even know that Chai came in varieties such as green & red... yummy!). Tea accessories... some cool tea filters that are sized for a 4 cup tea pot (and possibly making me change my mind about wanting a cute little tea pot) and a Tea Bea, the cutest little tea infuser I've ever seen! Chocolate... yummy Lindt truffles and a Scharffen Berger milk chocolate bar (the truffles are just about gone, but I haven't chowed down the bar just yet). There is also a cute doggy notepad and some wonderful all natural treats for my kids, which they absolutely loved (and Mommy now needs to find a local retailer who carries). Once again, I saved the best for last... part of the swap requirements were to knit your pal a tea related item. However, Jeanne decided instead of knitting something, she would commission her friend to make me a custom doggy shaped shawl pin. LOOK! How cool is this??!! Even more so because I've got about 4 shawls in the midst of casting on and I was eyeing some shawl pins over the weekend on the Wool Arts Tour, but didn't find anything I really loved (or wanted to drop $30 - 50 on at the time). So this was an extra special treat - thank you Jeanne, I absolutely love it all! Now to find those Treat-Umms for the dogs... lol! Oh yea, and Tofutsies yarn in a most beautious colorway which I can't wait to finally try this stuff!!!!!!

Thank you so much to both of my pals... its so nice to get swap packages that actually reflect my personality and likes ... and its extra special to get swap pals who go the distance to find out what you like!

I will bring you more updates later this week... Wool Arts Tour, birthday goodies and more!