Not so Scrooge This Year

So, a couple nights ago I joined this website. For people, like me, who love getting mail and don't feel they get enough of it, this website is AWESOME. There is a large list of current swaps that you can join. You pick one you like the sound of and send something off to a randomly chosen partner and then someone else sends you something too! I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of money on postage in the future. Anyway, I joined a snowflake swap. I was supposed to make 3 snowflakes and send them to someone in Alabama. So, I set up shop on my living room . About 2 minutes in, I started manically searching for Christmas music to listen to. The reason I had to search maniacally, instead of calming looking in a CD case, is because I generally hate holiday music of all kinds. I suppose I'm usually a bit of a scrooge. Anyway, I threw on the holiday music channel on the cable and made these:

I also made and sent a third one, but I didn't realize I didn't have a picture of it until the envelope was already all sealed. Anyway, this was my first swap, and my swap partner was the person running the swap, so I figured I would pull out all the stops and make a homemade envelope (something I've been wanting to do since seeing a nice pattern for them in the Big-ass Book of Crafts that my cousin, Katie, gave me for my birthday.

After many failed attempts and many pieces of paper and card-stock had to be recycled (though all the non-decorative paper I used was upcycled stuff anyway). But eventually I ended up with a cute envelope that still wasn't perfect, but I deemed it acceptable enough to send.

That's also the card I enclosed the snowflakes in (like I said, all stops were pulled!)

THEN I realized that it's possible that the reason this delightful lady started this swap was because she wanted to see some snow for the holidays and they don't get much of it in Alabama. While I believe that neato paper snowflakes are an acceptable (even preferable) alternative to real, live snow, I also thought maybe I could enclose a picture of OUR snow, so she could see what I see out my window every day. Yes, I realize now that at this point I was seriously overdoing this poor little swap and the person receiving my envelope was probably going to think I'm crazy, but I was having fun. So I ran outside with my NEW CAMERA and snapped this picture:

The I wrote a little note in the card (the angel on the front is made from a banana leaf by some poor people somewhere. My mom bought the cards from some sort of charity or fundraiser like 4 years ago), enclosed the snowflakes, slipped in the photo, and sealed up the envelope with my hand-dandy glue stick (this is the point that I realized I didn't take a picture of the third one and kicked myself), glued the address and return address on, affixed a stamp, and sent my homemade envelope of joy on its merry way. I then realized I'd spent approximately 4 hours making a giant mess on my living room floor and listening to Christmas music as well as being sweet-talked into helping my mom put up her Christmas tree tonight. Mistakes are made when I am crafting and, therefore, not thinking. Oh well.