Making my day...

Unfortunately this is currently my best friend.

Feeling cold and miserable yesterday I was delighted to recieve my Valentine's swap gift from Briggie. I got a lovely parcel full of peppermint pattie hearts, mint chocolate, soap (mint and gingerbread flavour which I though was pretty canny), an angel and a book. Thank you so much Briggie for making my day and thank you to Kailani who organised the swap.

Valentine's Day Swap.

I've decided to join in the Valentine's Day Goody swap hosted by An Island Life. It's not too late to sign up if you fancy sending and receiving some valentine themed goodies. Part of the swap is to answer the following questions.

What is your idea of a romantic Valentine’s Day?

Sometimes I make Joules heart shaped sandwiches or cake. Just spending time together is good.

In reality, what is your Valentine’s Day really like?

The last five years he's been at college or studying, this year should be a good one.

If you could have a lifetime supply of your favorite sweet indulgence, what would it be?

Fry's Peppermint Cream.

Is there any sweet treat you absolutely do not like?

Nuts.

If you fell into a pool of chocolate, how would you get out?

Did you say fell? I thought I jumped!

A Christmas Gift...

Before my computer went died on me I took part in the Christmas gift exchange and received the most beautiful angel to hang on my tree. Many thanks to Sarah who sent me this delightful decoration (unfortunately my photography is too bad to do it justice) but I really do love it. Also many thanks to Julie who arranged this swap.

Following my experiences this Christmas I thought I'd offer the following bits of advice:

1) Do not leave the inside car light on the night before you travel as the battery will be flat.

2) Remember to bring the camera cradle with you if you plan to download photographs.

3)Do not concur to your mother and shove the 1.1kg bottle of Daddies brown sauce into your suitcase which is already at its maximum weight. This will only result in you having to throw said bottle away at the airport.

4) Make sure you pre-book a taxi to take you home, at midnight on new years day the queue for taxis will be out the door and down the road.

5) Ensure that all the tools needed to recharge the car battery are in the house (when you know for a fact that the battery dies if the car is not used for 10 days). It is not fun having to go and search for the tool box in the back of the shed at 1am nor will your wife appreciate the mucky floor as your walk all over it in wet, muddy shoes.

Only one of these bits of advice did we follow, which one do you think it was?

Summer Secret Swap Revealed

I was lucky enough to receive my secret summer swap parcel organised by CPA Mom. Beth over at ice cream mama sent me the most wonderful summer package full of lots of lovely goodies:


Silly face candles. I don't what the weather is in Ireland but here in New Jersey it can be pretty bad. Citronella candles help a bit. (It's been a long wet summer so far but I'm hoping for an improvement if not I'll save them for next year. We used these candles in France and they were great).


Uv protection for your lips. I sent you a few because if your kids are like mine you'll be lucky to get one. (Or I could keep one in different bags then I'd always have one to hand)!


Marble mix ins. Great ice cream topping-well I am the ice cream mama.(Looks delicious).


Mints, junior mints. Not much to do with summer but you love them and I can get them. (A huge box as well).


Even more mints. Enough for the whole family. Yeah, a lame stretch I know-I blame pregnancy brain. (Even more big boxes, lucky me! OK so I may share one box with my family...if they're good...very good).


Receptacle's for ice cream. I would have sent the ice cream too but I'm afraid you'll have to provide that. (Glad you didn't because it would have melted over all my other gifts).

Beth, thank you so much for my parcel, I love it.

If you want a peek at the parcel I sent it arrived last week.

A Summer Swap.

CPAmom is hosting a swap with a theme. The theme is Summer and you send a parcel with gifts inspired by the letters in the word summer. I bought four of my gifts today and had great fun choosing gifts to fit around the theme. The deadline for signing up is tomorrow (Wednesday 18th July), so if you feel like signing up, pop over to her site if you know her password. If you don't know her password send her an email at cpamomva {at} gmail {dot} com and she'll respond...that's what I did.