One thing she does pretty frequently is to participate in swaps organized by various bloggers she follows, most of them artists. For example, a few months ago she participated in a vintage sheet swap, wherein each participant collected a few vintage sheets and then cut them into quilt-sized squares. They all sent them to the organizers, who split them up such that each participant received, in return, a large variety of quilt squares to use in quilting (duh) or whatever else their agile, artistic minds could dream up.
A lot of times the swaps involve paper goods, which is perfect since Nicole does a lot of art journaling and papercrafting. A swap she mentioned a couple of months ago intrigued me and made me want to try it out for the first time, too. So I e-mailed the organizer of this swap to get in on the action. The theme was International ephemera. You were to gather various pamphlets, ads, newspapers, etc, from your home town and swap them with somebody in another country. Nevermind the why...artsy people think of things to do with this stuff. I just thought it would be cool to receive a package from another country full of stuff printed in another language. The woman I was matched with, Michelle, is from Poland (check out her blog, full of a variety of cool projects!). We agreed on a time to swap the goods, and two weeks ago I sent off a package full of everything I could collect that seemed cool enough to send overseas.
Today's New Activity: Swap Circle Complete
Today, I received Michelle's package in the mail.
I wish I could read the newspapers included, because I would love to know what the man on the front page of this one has been accused of, but no matter...it's still interesting to look at. And I especially like the vintage-looking country map she included.
We also agreed to swap one homemade thing, so I sent along a pendant I made and she sent me this little fabric doll who came in her own little sleeping bag-type pouch.
I'll probably end up giving all the paper goods to Nicole since I know she can make good use of it, but I definitely would like to participate in another swap in the future. It was fun to spend the month thinking about this unknown person in another country and collecting things to send her, all the while wondering what would come my way from her. Thanks for letting me in on this, Nika!!
how cool! i'm still waiting for my loot from austrailia. ;) i'd love to see your goodies (and, um, use them of course, if you don't mind) that was another thing we were going to do on the trip and ran out of time. ;0 i swear, we must've planned a month-full of activities to do on our trip! thassokaay. just means we have more fun things to do on more future trips. ok, i'm going to start researching a trip up the 5 to oregon. we've gotta stop in a town called ashland, ore. SOOOO cute and fun for kids and families. not to mention the CA coast along the way. omg. when can we go? ;)
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