Swap Goodies

Well, today started out quite blustery. We're having about 50 mph gusts of wind. We'll probably get a lot of drifting snow; then again, we might not due to some crusting that's been going on the past couple days. We've actually had a tropical heat wave and reached 40 degrees. Whoot! Of course, we still have about 2 feet of snow still on the ground, but it was nice to get the foot and a half of snow off the awning on my side window. Still about 2 feet of snow on my porch roof. We'll be plunging down to below zero for the highs this weekend, and who knows what the wind chill will be.

So my son and I made the trek to the post office. I stopped by my friends' house to water their plants, then away we trekked to the post office. It is quite a trek since they don't believe in plowing anything around here in this town. I guess the mayor's grandson just didn't feel like it...though he's quick to pick his paycheck up - lol!

Yes, going out in this town can put me in a cranky mood. Having to see the inbreds and telltale signs of their presence is enough to make a sane person cranky - lol! But I keep on with my attitude of gratitude. Yes, it's still sticking with me, though there are days...

Anyhoo, having to brave sightings of these inbreds that make you want to throw up a little bit in your mouth was tempered by a lovely package I received today from my swap partner, Debbie, at the Prim Pals forum. First of all, we had to do the usual greeting of the dogs once we got home, especially that overly exuberant puppy Tessa. She's a scrappy little thing, but she can sure jump high. She jumps up, licks our faces on her way up, then she lands, and springs back up for more kisses. She's a silly sweetie. Of course, she thought the package was for her and wanted to explore everything in it. Nuh uh uh...

So I eagerly tore open the package and the first thing I saw was this adorable sheep:

(Excuse the paint from projects in the background).

It's actually a bar of soap with that lovely artwork on it. I've developed quite a fondness for folksy sheep lately (and not in the way North Dakota males are fond of sheep - lol)! So my heart smiled...though I wanted to get the packaging off and see it up close. Unfortunately, the raffia bow was just too cute to cut, and I'm so bad at undoing knots, I was fit to be tied (pun intended)! My son is good at undoing knots and he wanted to try. Voila, he got it untied:

Now that's a bow to keep! And here's the delightful little bar of soap out of its confines:

Too cute! As my son was undoing the knot, I was taking a look at all the other amazing goodies: heart salt dough ornies painted so delightfully; one of Debbie's pretty felt candle mats; and a cute heart ornie with some sweet annie (I think) in it;

some sunflowers tied with green homespun and with the most amazing looking petals;

gingerbread hot maple syrup candle (mmmmm);

and a hand painted mug

initialed by the artist herself!

The sunflowers actually look pretty good in that tin can I painted for another project that's in the works. I think, when it's completed, I might stick those sunflowers in there to see how it looks.

Oh, and Debbie also sent me some yummy chocolates, but they were gone before I could take pictures - lol!

This truly brightened my day, Debbie. Now I'm all snuggly warm inside with these goodies while the wind howls outside. Geez, even the screen door is rattling up a storm (ha!) and it's securely latched and locked. I think we're in for a doozy of a storm...yet the sun is shining brightly. But that's NoDak for ya!