A Lovely Surprise Package! One of my Yahoo! groups has an exchange four times a year, called a "Bottle Swap." Anyone in the group can sign up, then the BottleSwapMom mixes up the names and assigns each person a partner. There are five databases in the group files for our personal information, likes, dislikes, and desires. When we receive our partners, we consult the databases and begin gathering goodies to send to them. We pack up the stuff in a bottle or box or plastic storage tote, label it, and ship it off to the lucky recipient.

This is the wonderful loot I got in the Labor Day Bottle Swap from my partner, Tina, in Raleigh, NC. This was Tina's first Swap, and she did a wonderful job! She sent me two sock patterns, including Sockie and Bob and Friends, which I've been coveting, two hand-knit facecloths, one with a dolphin and one with the state of Michigan knitted in (!), two skeins of Cascade Fixation yarn, a skein of KnitPicks Dye-Your-Own yarn, two stitch gauges, a set of dpns, a cute little felted cellphone cozy, some wonderful stuff for my dry, icky hands, and a handful of pens (and who can't use more pens?).

I feel very pampered! Thank you, Tina!