Twelve Days of Christmas Swap

Last year I signed up for the Twelve Days of Christmas swap over at Jo's Through the Keyhole. I was partnered with the lovely Alison of Life at Slyvan House.
It was a bit of a wait for my package, as Jo had posted it off mid-October by surface mail (we only have the option of airmail now for parcels in NZ) but it did not turn up before my school ended for 47 days of summer holidays on December 15. I was quite surprised - usually mail between the UK and NZ is brilliant (for example a parcel from Dunedin in the South Island that I posted to myself up here in Auckland took 10 days to get here 2 weeks back - I posted a parcel to England this week and 4 days later it had arrived! That is incredible!).
So I arrived back at school, on the day I thought I was due to start work except I wasn't..., and there it was in the first mail lot. (we get loads of mail at school).

I opened one at school and then I got home and e-mailed Alison and then I opened all of them..... in one go! The excitement of waiting for weeks was too much!  Hee hee.

These are the gorgeous items which Alison sent me in the cool box -

I love swapping with people from overseas, as you end up with such neat different items! I especially love the cute little tape measure, wool and the wire bracelet. That will be something totally different for me to make. The paperchains will look fab either around the tree or across a room this Christmas. Love the heart too which is now hanging on my fridge door. Thank you so much Alison for such neat gifts. And to Jo for hosting the swap.

Alison blogged about the items I sent to her - you can see that blog post here with the items I sent her.

I'm still hot and bothered - boy does it slow one down and make one very lazy and un-motivated to do much! We did go for a massive walk today around a regional park (at 7pm when I could half tolerate being outside!) and had a lovely picnic tea. Great views and interesting geology.