Alexandra Day Part 1 !!!

I may have mentioned once or twice before that the really lovely Alexandra and I did a swap a little while ago. She chose the theme " French ", which suited me very well of course, because we spend a lot of time in France at our little cottage.

I showed you the bits and pieces I sent her a while ago in this post. And finally, finally I can also show you the most beautiful gifts Alexandra sent me. I was totally overwhelmed with her generosity, her thoughfulness, and above all the friendship which shone from everything she sent. I couldn't believe how well she knows me and what I love. Every single thing she has gifted me with is something I would have chosen for myself and snapped up in a split second, had I seen it in a shop or at a boot fair. And the items she made for me, you can tell that they have been made with love.

I have split this into two posts, because there is just too much to show you, and I don't want you to miss anything by rushing through to the end because I have overdone it, lol. So, here goes, part 1 of my beautiful swap from Alexandra -

The first thing which greeted me when I opened the parcel was this great tag -


Perfect, isn't it? And then, gasp, I uncovered this -


We had agreed to make a bag and fill it with goodies. And this is the bag she made for me, have you ever seen anything prettier than this? It is so beautifully stitched and the embellishments are just fantastic, just have a look at a couple of close ups -


This beautiful bag was carefully wrapped in two vintage pillow cases.They are continental size, so spot on for our cottage in France, as I have continental size pillows on the beds there -


Then, I started carefully taking all the little treasures out of the bag -


Now you have to remember that this is only part 1, and this is only half of the HUGE mountain of treasures she sent me! Everything is so beautifully wrapped and presented -



Beautifully made tags with ribbons and laces-

Can you see why I was grinning like crazy? I was probably making some rather weird noises as well, lolol, thankfully nobody else was around at the time. I have to admit that my hands were shaking just a wee bit when I started unwrapping. You can understand that, can't you? And you can also imagine the oohs and aaahs when I saw all these things -

Three vintage keys-

Margarine flowers, I had never seen these before, apparently they used to be freebies in tubs of margarine!

Beautiful mother-of-pearl buttons-Lace, aahhh -

And what could possibly be in this? So very carefully protected..........

.................... a frozen charlotte!!! I have hankered after one of these tiny dolls for such a long time
An antique lady's cap -
The sweetest little pendant made from an old typewriter key with my initial -
Numbers, woohoo -

and a bunch of ephemera-

I love this hanger, isn't it fantastic?

A piece of beautiful deep blue lace-

And whats this, so beautifully wrapped in a sweet little doily and lace?

It is an excercise book from the late 1800s -

with the most exquisite handwriting -
And last but not least, candles, so beautifully presented -

You would think that this is MORE than enough to receive in a swap, but as I said, unbelievably, there is more!!! But for today, this is quite enough. You can see part 2 tomorrow. I'll now go and drool over my beautiful treasures again, lol, I do that a lot!!

Toodlepip xxx