Spring Gift Swap

Ah Springtime! A wonderful time of the year, where the days are longer, the nights are lighter, and the colours are brighter. When we all suddenly have a bit more energy, and life seems so much better somehow.  Is there a better season? Well yeah Summer (if you get one, unlike us here in Aberdeen) has its moments but Spring brings with it a feeling of wakening up from a long sleep, so in my book it's the winner.

This spring brought us even more interesting things, from the partial solar eclipse, which for me evoked memories of the total eclipse back in 1997, to such jokes as "Spring forward? We didn't mean all the way back to winter!!" and then there was the Spring Gift Swap organised by the lovely Adele Smith!

The Spring Gift Swap is a wonderful concept, much like Secret Santa but without the dodgy last minute gift chosen to elicit the most embarrassment from the recipient. A few of us signed up and were then paired with each other to buy a lovely gift to ring in the new season. To read all about the concept in more depth just click on Adele's name up there ^^^ to be taken to her wonderful blog.

In a nutshell: You were given a partner and a budget of around £15 and sent out into the world to buy the perfect gift.

I will admit that I was slightly disappointed when me and my best friend Fiona from Wishes, Hopes and Dreams were paired together. Now I know that sounds horrible but my reasoning is that Fiona and I are always just buying each other little gifts and sending them to each other (we live in two different cities so it's a nice way to stay close, and show the other we are thinking of them). But then I realised that this pairing created more of a fun challenge, to get Fiona something unexpected, something she would love, and something that wouldn't usually pop up on our random gift buying radar.

So off I went, and you can see what she got by clicking on her blog title and having a read of her Spring Gift Swap post.

Now, who wants to see what Fiona got me? Because she totally nailed it!!

How cute is that little lot? And so Spring-like, check her nailing the theme! Read on for the breakdown.

I met up with Fiona, and her husband Vaughan, before I headed over to the Hillary's Crafternoon and she gave me my gift in person which was a lovely touch. I really love it when you get to see someone's face when they open a gift, just watch them try to hide their disappointment if they don't like it *evil laugh*.

First things first the gift box contained wine, in all honesty she could have stopped there! I love wine, but I am very fussy with what type of grape I like, and Fiona has heard me moan about this so often that she couldn't really fail here.

So yeah gift one: A mini bottle of CALIFORNIAN White Zinfandel. The Californian part is very important just for future reference.

Gift two: A box of 12 Yankee candle tealights in Fresh Cut Roses. If you read this blog, or follow me on any of my social media pages, you will know that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE candles, so these are perfect. And they smell so real, like proper roses but not too strong, which is always a bonus in a candle. I think I have about 8 of these left.

Gift 3: Emma Bridgewater Toast & Marmalade Card Set. I am a little obsessed with Emma Bridgewater, she combines two of my great loves (style and stationery) and her products are always on point. I really think we as a generation have lost the art of letter writing, and that is such a shame. Myself and Fiona both appreciate the thought that goes into a lovingly written Thank You note, so that's another point for this gift giving maestro.

Gift 4: Four gifts, for under £15 is amazing. But Fiona did cheat a bit with this last one- for which I freaking love her- because that, ladies & gentlemen, is a BYTerry Khol in Bronze Generation, also known as my new favourite eyeliner pencil. This came in the February edition of My Little Box and I fell in love at first use, and because Fiona loves me more than she loves eyeliner she gave her pencil to me. How lovely is that?!

So what do you think of my lovely gifts? How cool is this concept? Do you think we can encourage Adele to run an Autumn Gift Swap to brighten up the blustery pre-winter months? Oh and remember you can have a snoop at what the other participants gave and received by searching #springgiftswap on Twitter.

Please leave a comment if you have ever taken part in something like this, and how you found the experience. Or just to say hi, you know I love hearing from you all and will reply to each and every one of you.

Much Love
AJ xx