NNC Valentine Exchange 2011

We recently concluded our Valentine Exchange for this year, and this time around, my partner was Jo.

The mailing out date was set for the 1st of February if your partner is local, or 25th January if your partner is overseas, so that our partners would receive their VE in time for Valentine’s Day.

Since Jo was my partner, and we lived not far from each other, we decided that we would meet up in person to pass on our Exchange.

My original plan was to meet up with Jo maybe at Sunway Pyramid so that we can chat up over tea or something, but, alas that did not happen.

I ended up just dropping off the VE at Jo’s house with just a quick ‘Hello’ as my son’s toilet was still not done yet at that time and we needed to do a lot of things to finish off the toilet ourselves. My hubby wanted to get some things at a DIY shop, and I needed to run some errands which I had to put off when the ‘Kontraktor Penyiap’ (supposedly the contractor who is to complete the unfinished job left by the previous contractor) would suddenly come unannounced at a time when I had planned on running errands. *sigh*

Anyway, when I got the VE from Jo, I got embarassed by what I had made for her because of the size and packaging of the box she gave me. Jo’s VE to me came in a lovely cylindrical box nicely tied up with ribbons;

My VE to Jo, however, was just simply packed up in a box and wrapped up in wrapping paper. So simple was the packaging that I did not even bother to take a photo of the packaging. *blush*

What was inside the box got me feeling embarrassed even further because, when I opened up the box and out spilled out a trove of lovely treasured items.

There was a ball of pink crochet yarn, a hand towel in red, a dark red zipper, 2 rolls of ribbons, gadget to make buttons, a pack of buttons, a lovely handmade towel holder and a piece of fabric!

I felt like I was celebrating my birthday early!

I especially love the handmade towel holder. It’s a lovely idea from Jo using round plastics which I am unsure what the round plastic is original meant for, but, I just love it!

Thanks so much, Jo, for all the lovely things!

As for the Valentine Exchange from me, I made up this Needle book and pincushion to match.

Jo had said at one of the Stitching Bee last year how much she likes the Needle Book I made for the draw in conjunction with NNC’s mini birthday celebration in October 2010. That gave me the idea to make her one when she was partnered with me for the VE.

I made it in blue, because, if I remember clearly, her favourite colour is blue. And, to match the Needle Book as a set, I decided to also make a pincushion with the word ‘LOVE’as it is after all, a Valentine Exchange.

Together with the VE, I also included a sticker with hearts and a card in line with the Valentine’s Day theme.

I hope Jo likes the pincushion and needlebook as much as I had enjoyed doing it for her.

BTW, I also made Janet a set of coasters, with the help from Em, my faithful embroidery machine friend.

This set of coasters were actually meant for the Coaster Exchange organised last year by Usha. Janet was not my partner, Alynn was, which I had long ago sent to Alynn.

However, Janet's partner had failed to send Janet her coasters despite my several attempts to get in touch with her to remind her of her commitment to the exchange *sad*, and so, when Margaret asked for volunteers to be Janet's Replacement Exchange Angel (did I get the term right?) to replace the one Janet never got, I volunteered.

I could not find time to do it earlier, and so only managed to sent it out when I sent out some other exchanges at the same time, which was only early this year.

Sorry, Janet, that this coasters only got to you spanning over two years! LOL! But, I hope you liked it and was worth the wait. *grin*