Swap ~ Part II

I left this bundle on the living room floor, ready to be boxed and taken to the post office in the morning.  It proved to be far too tempting for My Monster.  I was awakened early the next morning by Scotty, shyly standing at my bedside, holding up a small book and a...what is that?  A pencil?  Does he want me to write him a story?  I was still half asleep, coming up slowly, until I realized what he was really holding...then I woke up right away!

"Scotty," I started, "Please put those back, and please don't open any more presents!  Those presents are not for you, they are for mommy's friend."  (the scrapbook glitter pack, 'create' stickers, and the shawl pin!)

The problem was, of course, that no four year old on the planet understands the words "presents" and "not for you" when juxtaposed in this fashion.

By the time I made it out to the living room, My Poor Monster was frantically trying to rewrap the presents he had already opened.  What a cutie pie!  "Thank you, Monster, for helping Mommy!  You are such a good wrapper!"

I made Carmen these for her classroom.  One is a banner with her name on it for her classroom (I edited out the letters that spell her last name, for privacy).  The other is an apron with cupcakes all over it, and the accent fabric there is brown with tiny white polka dots.  I've actually got plans to make a banner for my own classroom now!  I'll put my name on it of course (haha!) but I won't need to make such an apron for myself because Carmen took care of that for me!  For the banner I followed the instructions from Stitched in Time and I used the apron instructions from Bend the Rules Sewing. 

I need to let you know, should you and I ever participate in a swap together in the future, that I am, apparently, the kind of person who sends you an item that requires ironing.  Ugh!  Sorry, Carmen!  Every time I folded this thing, I had to iron it!  There's no way it came out of that box without needing a steam.  Hopefully once it's hanging up it will stay wrinkle free...

I made these for her.  She likes owls so I made this little clutch using the instructions, again, from Bend the Rules Sewing.  What can I say?  I have limited sewing chops!

I had made Carmen this shawl....and when I was done, I of course had to make one for myself!  Hmmmm.... are you sensing a theme here at all?!?  I keep making things for her that I end up wanting for myself! 

I'm not sure what happened to the orientation on this picture!  But I made these for her home.  They are actually placemats, which I made using my fancy method for crocheting with strips for fabric.  They could also be used as chair pads at the kitchen table, which I think would be super cute.  In fact....I think I may need to make some chair pads for my kitchen table!  ;)

And that's that!  Carmen wrote me the sweetest thank you note, and you can see Big Bunny actually fashioning some of these items over at her blog.  This was so fun to do, but especially because I was doing it for Carmen.  I think if you tallied the number of items I plan to and/or have already made for myself based on the items I made for her swap, I think you can begin to understand how much we have in common!   Including...a deadline for a swap that turns out to be plus/minus 30 days!  lol   Thanks again, Carmencita!