Dishcloth Swap Stuff

Do you ever feel like you have to be in the mood to blog? I know that I have needed to post these pictures for a couple of days, but I haven't been able to write the words properly. So, here I am finally. First things first.

There is a new topic for the Dishcloth Swap. Now that summer is here, how do I keep cooled off? It gets warm here, but not as hot as other parts of the state. So, most of the houses in our area don't have air conditioning. There are a lot of fans placed around the house. We have a very old air conditioning box in one of our windows. It won't cool an entire room if it's too warm, but it makes the couch the most comfortable seat in the house. This is great for knitting or playing the Wii for an afternoon.

When we sneak outdoors, keeping cool things with you is key. We have a kiddie pool filled with 5 inches of water. Then lots of OtterPops, shaved ice, bottles of cold water. Also, time is spent at my parents or in-laws. Both have air conditioning and swimming pools. This is by far Haley's favorite way to keep cool.

Heidi Jo received her package in the mail. So, here it is to share with the rest of you. I spent a little over the $20, but I had a ton of fun putting it together. It's designed to be more of a bath set then a kitchen set.In it is the Angels cloth that I made up. Heidi is a big Angels Baseball fan, so I figured it would be the perfect design. I also got the yarn, a cotton/silk blend, on sale.

Pattern: Angels Washcloth
From: My own design.
Yarn: Loop D Loop by Teva Durham Birch 90% cotton 10% silk.

This is a scrubby/loofah. It's the Natalie stitch from before. I wanted to make a loofah, but have it be softer. So I blended cotton with Aloo. It's from the nettle family and pretty much like knitting dried grass. There are a lot more of these in the works.

Pattern: Natalie Scrubbycloth/Loofah
From: From the Right Side of My Brain.
Yarns: Sugar n' Cream Cotton and Himalaya Yarns 100% Aloo.

Finally there was a small chocolate recipe book, Bath and Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom products and a ball of Sugar N' Cream. The dark chocolates were the only items not on sale or out of the markdown bin.

Perks

There are a few perks for living in and around our world. For example you can act like this and it is totally acceptable.There are also perks to being friends with my husband. For example, if you are having a baby. My husband will get online and pick out really funny onesies for you little guy. Then I will knit a matching hat for him. I kinda like the boobs shirt, but the gray is my favorite.

Pattern: Rib-Brim Baby Hat

By: The Right-Side of my Brain

Yarn: Some Mystery Alpaca that was given to me because it matches the PUNK shirt.

There are also perks to working in a dental office. A lot of perks actually. I also have a fresh toothbrush every three months, other offices send us food to "Thank us for the referrals," I never worry about getting a toothache because I have the doctor's home phone number, and there is alway floss near by when you need it. The perk I am loving today is the boxes. We get lots of boxes in various sizes and shapes. I think my favorite is the toothbrush box. It is the most perfect sized box and so far anything I have put in it fits just right. Plus the top is a flip lid. This box is perfect for shipping stuff. Just wrap it in some brown packaging paper and let the Sharpies handle the rest. Inside this particular box is my Dishcloth Swap gift. It's off and should be arriving tomorrow, which also happens to be Heidi Jo's birthday. Perks of being my swap pal? Someone is getting a really cool gift!

Big Heap Trouble

So, I just got in trouble, just a little trouble, with the Dishcloth Swap. I was confused and modern technology had a little to play with it. And I did make an effort to get it right.

What did I do? I failed to contact my giftee. I had it in my head that we were suppose to be all secret and stuff.

I got the email telling me that I was gifting to Heidi Jo. She is really cool and fun. In the email there were great big, bold letters saying to contact your giftee. Then it said it again in all caps and bold. Somehow, I just skipped over the whole email and went right to the link to the blog.

I did try to confirm what I was doing. I thought that Heidi and I would be trading with each other, but was confused by the not knowing you gifter thing. I emailed the organizer and she said that I was giving to her and she was giving to someone else. Then she said that Heidi would know who I was when she received the package, so be sure to include a note that said who I was.

The point of the email was to see how much I could put up on the blog. But since Heidi would have no way of figuring me out, then I posted the yarn and prototype for the scrubby.

Now I have contacted Heidi. I had trouble getting an email to her. I had to sign out of one gmail and into the other. Then the first email came back to me as failed delivery. So, I had to sign back in and send it to her other email (provided becaue I hadn't emailed her yet.) But I misspelled the address. When I noticed, I had to sign in AGAIN. I finally decided to just use my regular email that all the others get forwarded to. -Heidi, you're welcomed to read the blog, cause you aren't getting anymore sneak peaks.-

What does technology play in all of this? You are suppose to use a "secert" email so your giftee won't know who you are. My gifter emailed me. Her email shows as coming from "B B." Then on the swap page, everyone is list. There is only one girl with BB initials. That narrows my gifter down to Bridget B. She was kinda bummed that I was able to figure out who she was.

So, in the end, my efforts to stay super secret failed. Next time, I just won't post anything about what I am making. Oh, and make sure I send all the emails I am suppose to send.