Round Robins and, er, Round Robins

A couple of times a year I participate in a decorating swap on the Cottage Living forums. The ladies there are super-nice and even though our tastes range from streamlined utilitarian to country to cabin-rustic to Shabby Chic, we all have a lot in common-- we all like a house to look and feel like a home.

So this spring "round robin" swap was a fun challenge. We were supposed to think "fresh" in our choice of items. "Fresh" as in clean air, cut flowers and newly budding trees-- and not in something designed to make the other person blush, in case you were wondering. We were also supposed to include one textile for the kitchen, one handmade item and something to help enable old-timey correspondence.

My swap partner, however, had indicated that she didn't have very good handwriting, (I know how that is myself!) and that she already had a lot of notecards she didn't use. She shared that her kitchen was in country blue and yellow, and she had a teacup border on a wall.

So this is what I went to work with.

The textile part was easy. Blue and yellow being abundant in choice, I selected a crisp new oven mit, a pretty apron in blue with yellow sunflowers, a nice hand-done tablerunner, and even thrifted a set of curtains (new in the package) with blue and white dishes on them. (I thought it might go with her teacup border, or could be used for the fabric.)


To further her teacup theme, I added four pretty yellow sandwich plates and a yellow printed cup and saucer...


You'll also see in the pic above a small blue and gold item... This is a cute little vintage address book -- perfect for a purse-- that I found and freshened up with a bit of paint. The book was a bit scratched to start with-- a bit too shabby and less chic. You can see before and afters here.



The final touch was two color-coordinated notecards, one bearing this cheerful bird friend... Yup, he's a round robin, all right.

Now because the swap itself WAS a "round robin" this meant my swap package would go to one person, but a wholly different person would be sending to me. I think the person sending to me has gotten tied up with other things this season-- it's been a really busy time of year for us all. So should anything arrive to round out this swap, I'll be sure to post.

But amusingly the swap almost didn't stop here. You see, in spite of the fact I sent my package just one state away, I waited two days... three days... four days... Still the package didn't arrive in the hands on my online friend. I was starting to think it had been rerouted to the Bermuda Triangle. Worse, I had been stupid enough to not have tracking on the package-- because again, it seemed to be such a simple transaction. Who could have known?

So because it certainly wasn't my swap partner's fault the postal service had a serious oopsy along the way, I'd started trying to pull together a second package. I thought you might enjoy seeing the cute Pyrex bowl and teacup I found for it...



I'd had no luck finding textiles to go along with them, but it turned out just as well. As when I returned home from shopping and checked my email, I had a joyous message saying the package had arrived. That was day five from when I'd mailed the thing, if you can believe it.

At least my swap partner didn't think I was some kind of fibber! :)

Well, anyway, that's the scoop on the latest swap. So like the red, red robin, it's time for me to go bob-bob-bobbin' along.

I hope you'll join me again this week for Treasure Box Wednesday. And if you missed last Wednesday, that post can be found by clicking here.

Hope spring is treating you well so far!