Valentine's Swap!

I joined Fabulous but Evil's Valentine's Day Swap and it was so much fun! I love Valentine's day for the simple reason that I love HEARTS!

I was paired with Annahita and told her that I love hearts and she complied!

 She sent me fuzzy socks (LOVE socks!) with hearts, little heart ornaments and heart stickers! I will probably use the hearts for my scrapbook and letters!

And in case you were wondering what Geoff got me for Valentine's Day (we celebrated with Chinese food and gifts on Friday because he has class on Tuesday night) he followed my suggestion and got me the heart apron at Target I've been admiring!

Adorable. I'm especially pleased with this gift because it's not just "stuff", but something I'll definitely use. Plus, Geoff has an apron and I was tired of borrowing his!

Winter swaps!

I got a little ambitious and decided to sign up for 3 different blog swaps! I guess I just got excited. They may not be the most frugal thing I've done, but they're so fun that I don't really mind. Plus, it's once a year!

Luckily for me the respective blogs are doing a link-up today, so I'm posting about all three swaps I was in!
The first is a nail polish swap hosted by Fabulous but Evil and Celia's Way. I loved this swap because I don't normally wear nail polish, but I decided that I wanted to get back into it. My partner was Kasey from Domesticated Hygienist.
Along with a sweet note, Kasey sent me these polishes!

I've already used several of them and I love all the colors! You can see what I got Kasey here.

I also participated in a Secret Santa, thanks to Serendipity! My partner, Beth, sent me a lovely package!

She definitely had read my blog, and I loved that! The three frames are repurposed, which is great because I always love used things! The socks are super soft and I can't wait to wear them, and the cookies haven't been broken into yet, but it's only a matter of time. Beth also included a lovely letter which talked about some things I mention on my blog, so I know she took the time to read it, which made me happy.

The last swap I was in was an ornament swap hosted by Laura! My poor recipient hasn't received her gift yet because it went out today...but her package for me arrived on Saturday! Stephanie sent me a lovely package with way more than I ever thought I'd receive! It made my day.

First, the package included hot chocolate mix, a Christmas pad and Christmas sticky notes and a pen.

Next, she sent me an ornament with a fleur-de-lis, the symbol of her city, Louisville. In the note Stephanie said she hoped that I'd think of Louisville whenever I saw it, and I will!

Next, and possibly my favorite, was an ornament she made!

It's the last page of the last Harry Potter book, all in an ornament! I absolutely love it, not just because we all know how much I love Harry Potter, but because she looked at my blog, saw that, and made something personal for me. It's definitely the nicest thing anyone I don't know has ever done for me, and I was very touched. Thank you Stephanie!

Nail polish swap!

While I don't use nail polish a lot, I do love a good swap, and the occasional painted toes! Fabulous but Evil is doing a nail polish swap that I signed up for, and I can't wait to go shopping for my partner!

So what are you waiting for? Go check it out!!

Holiday swaps

I may be working hard to do Christmas on a budget this year, but that doesn't mean I don't want to get my furry little friends a gift, too! They may or may not (most likely do not) understand what the heck Christmas is, but I do like to spoil my fur babies sometimes!

(This is one of the few pictures I have of them together! Though I know they like each other, they are more often seen rolling around and playing than cuddling together.)

That is why, when I saw that there was a pet blog swap going on, I decided I needed to jump on board! The directions are here, and it's super simple and inexpensive (max $10!) and I can't wait to see what type of animal I get to shop for!

So how about it? Are there some furry friends in your life that need a little holiday loving? Don't forget that they need some love too!