Giveaway prizes, swaps, and thank yous just a little late

 I have been out of town and have not posted in a few days.  We had a wonderful quick road trip to PA for my mom's family Christmas.  She has five brothers and sisters and many of my cousins were there.   They had snow too so it was a second white Christmas.

Marlene, Fred, Sylvia(mom), Emily, Deanna, Mike

 I had not seen them in more than a year so is was great to be there.  The drive up we rode through a blizzard of snow in VA. 



Don't you love this old barn in PA?



Right now we have snow in NC, not as much as at Christmas but enough to miss school yesterday and today. 

So I am finally taking down my tree, and as I take off the ornaments

I realized that I had not blogged about the wonderful ornaments I had received from the ornament swap.  First I received this lovely cardinal from Sherry at Blessings from our Nest 

 

Next I received this amazing patchwork ball from Rhonda at Cobblestone Quilting

 

In the mail from Beth at Beas Knees found this glittery and amazing spiderweb and spider in a wool egg sack along with the legend of the Christmas spider, a different version then the one I knew.

 

Our wonderful organizer Tonya and her family made this complex geometrical ball which I love!  I loved the tag she made too, so I attached it to the ornament.

 

And last was sent this amazing hand painted snowman from

The exchange was really a lot of fun !  Thanks Tonya and everyone who sent me an ornament!

 

I was also privileged to win this perfect for me Santa Believe wall hanging from Mary at mequilter. 

This was actually my second quilt I had won. I was the lucky winner of this Christmas mix tape quilt back in November from FeistyEily

I really had a great time with all of the swaps this past year

.  I wish I could show you the candle mat I received in my Candle mat swap. 

This is the one I made with Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas.   We didn't swap with a partner, everyone was assigned a person.  My person loved it however the person who had my name for some reason did not send out or even contact me.  Some people might be upset but I have realized over the years that people are either unable to finish a swap commitment, some forget(I did once in a block exchange but I made it up), or for some reason just want to get and not give.  I always hope in those cases that the person finds some happiness somewhere because the guilt associated with not giving will always be there.

Oh I did a little crafting on the long trip up and back to PA.  I made three felt  flowers.  These large ones will be pins.  I made a small one on a hair clip to match the scarf I wore Sat.

Well I'm going to take the lights of the tree and drag it through the snow for the birds to have some winter shelter. 

Keep dreaming…Colleen