A while ago, a swapper contacted me with a request to do a private goodies swap. She'd seen my Spoil Us, (Local) Goodies swaps and really liked them, but she didn't want to join because she didn't want to risk getting a non-European swap partner and consequently high shipping costs. I agreed, and together we came up with a list of things to send:
- 1 book
- 3 food products
- 5 drinks
- an ATC or altered matchbox
- 1 bath & body product
- 1 wishlist gift
- 1 random gift from a local store, like a souvenir
- 1 surprise
- 3 recipes
- 1 craft item or letter writing item
I had so much fun putting this parcel together that I ended up sending more than I had to.
That's the inside of the box.
She wanted a children's book because she has a daughter of less than a year, so I sent her a new edition of one of the books I used to read when I was little.
The food goodies I got her were a "party mix" of candy, honey flavored liquorice since the Dutch are crazy about liquorice and have them in all shapes, sizes, and flavors (I prefer extra salty but the last time I sent that to an overseas friend he said the liquorice had almost killed him, so I decided to go easy on this swapper, pink "mice" (they're actually called "mice"), which is something we eat on a buttered rusk, traditionally to celebrate the birth of a little girl (we have blue mice for boys), and two bags of vanilla sugar as extras.
The drinks were supposed to be tea, coffee, or hot chocolate, but she doesn't like coffee and neither does anyone else in her house, so I sent her 4 different flavors of tea, 8 sachets total.
At first I wanted to do an altered matchbox, but it would have been my first time and I wanted to send something good, so I decided to do an ATC since I have experience with those. I have to say this is the best vintage ATC I've made so far. I really like how it worked out. I used background paper, Paris ink stamps, distress ink, a sticker, a small flower, and a brown stick-on pearl. It's amazing what decent ink stamps can do.
There were a million bath & body products I could have chosen, but I decided to go for simple soap bars. Palmolive is one of my favorite brands because my mother used to wash my hair with Palmolive shampoo, and I've been using this brand all my life. Of course I also use other brands, but I suppose I could say this is the one I'm most loyal to. Coincidentally, my swap partner's profile said she preferred soap bars.
The wishlist gift I picked for her were the white gift tags. As extras I included matching, white roses and a stretchable book cover, which may come in handy for lots of crafts!
The souvenir or random surprise from a local store was the necklace. At first I wanted to send a small doll but her profile said she didn't like items that served no purpose, hence the necklace. The stone is made of Delftware. The DVD is just an extra. Gooische Vrouwen is a TV show about four women from 't Gooi, which is an area like Beverly Hills, only Dutch. The show is a little like Sex & the City (but different, of course), and because it was so successful a movie was made of it. This DVD has the movie on it. It also has English subtitles.
The surprise item was a set of hair clips for her daughter. I also included some adhesive bandages with cartoons on them, because, well, I have them at home and I have no children - so why not send them over to a little person who'd be cheered up by them after unlucky accidents?
The recipes I chose to send were all recipes from my kitchen. Well, not originally, but I've adopted them. The raspberry brownies (they're so good, everyone must try them), broccoli from the oven, and mash pot (even though the mash pot photo could've been better - but hey, when I took it I was only just starting with the cooking challenge and the food photography that came with it).
And finally a letter set, because she seemed to prefer a letter set over a craft item, even though she did not explicitly say so. Afterwards she told me she thought this set was beautiful, which I'm happy about. I agree with her; I really like it as well.
In the end I put it all in a box...
...covered the goodies with foam flakes...
...and sent it off to Finland:
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