Send A Little Love Swap Partners

Wow! Thank you to everyone for signing up to the

Send A Little Love Swap

There are 24 of us in the swap which is fantastic, 

below is a list of the swap partners and the links to their blogs/facebook pages/emails

a couple of swappers don't have blogs and I am happy to share photos etc on my blog so that everyone can see what was sent or received.

Hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone and the links all work,

if not give me a nudge and I will sort it out.

Christals Creations and Pat's Patch

Joy and Fat Dormouse

Sarah and Laura

Jayne and Nana Go-Go

Pretty little things in a box and Tracy (me)

Glenda and Amanda

Elaina and Sandra

Ellie and Linny

Karen and Melanie

Joanne and Fishcake_random

Sue C and Helen

Kimberley and Holly

Here's a reminder of the swap details,

 send a minimum of 5 things to include

Something heart shaped or themed

Something deliciously edible

Something handmade

Something red

Please make contact with your swap partners and enjoy getting to know each other,

 swap parcels need to be received by the 14th February.

Any problems just let me know. 

Happy Swapping

Penny Challenge 2015

Thank you to everyone that has signed up so far for the Send A Little Love Swap,


we have lots of new bloggers/swappers for this one which is lovely, welcome to you all, I will be popping over to all your blogs over the next few days. Don't worry if you haven't signed up yet as there is still time to put your name down, the closing date is tomorrow (Friday) with swap partners being announced on Sunday. You can either pop you name of this post or pop over to the send a little love swap post and leave a comment there.

I just thought I would share with you how I'm getting on with my penny challenge, are any of you doing it too?
I have had to change it slightly so that it will work for me/us.


Firstly I printed off the penny challenge sheet and I decided that rather than working through the sheet one day at a time increasing by a penny a day I am going to cross off varying amounts depending on how much change I/we have.

Now I'm not much of a cash person, I have been know to pay on my card for just a measly 63p!
I also don't use weekly or monthly allowance/housekeeping. Paul does our food shopping, paying in cash and we share everything else from bank accounts to bills so setting up an online account wasn't going to work either as it wouldn't really feel like a challenge at all. So we are going to work together on the penny challenge.

I feel I have cheated a little in the first few days as I used the tub of pennies and tuppences that we keep on the side. There wasn't a huge amount in there but enough to see me through the first three days when neither of us had any small change in our pockets.
Paul prefers to use cash so he is going to give me his small change as and when he has some and I'm going to use that, but I have decided not to put all of it into the pot each day. I will have two pots, one for the penny challenge itself and then another smaller where I just add the small change Paul gives me and then I take some of the money out each day for the penny challenge. That way on the days when he hasn't got any change I will still have some money to put in.


Paying in the varying amounts should take the pressure off later in the year when we will have to find more than £2 a day. Paul also came up with the idea of trying to put in the higher amounts as soon as possible so that on the days when we have less change we can still add to the pot.


So far so good I just need to remember to fill out the sheet each day. I would love to know if you are doing this challenge or if you have any ideas for making it easier.

P.S I'm 8 days in to my no fabric purchases for a whole year despite being bombarded with fabric sales from every angle!! Go me!😉

Send A Little Swap 2015

Who's up for their first swap of 2015???

With my plan of more blogging and more swapping for 2015 and the fact that I am a little more organised this year and have already scheduled this post (woohoo, get me!) I thought I would run the Send A Little Love Swap again this year.
The idea of this swap is to send a minimum of 5 things to include

Something heart shaped or themed

Something deliciously edible

Something handmade

Something red

This swap is open to both UK and overseas bloggers and readers of my blog

(you just need to have an email contact)

If you would like to take part then please leave a comment on this post,

letting me know if you wish to post UK or worldwide

Sign up by the Friday 9th January 2014

Swap partners will be posted on my blog on Sunday 11th January 2014

Then it's up to you to make contact with your partner and get to know each other a little better, swap details and arrange a timescale.

Swap parcels need to arrive at their destination no later than Saturday 14th February 2015

I don't like the idea of rules for swaps so here are some handy guidelines ;-)

Swaps are supposed to be fun and a great way to use items/supplies you already have at home, 

Handmade is open to interpretation everyone's skills are different don't ever think that you can't because the chances are you can, as long as something has been made with love then I'm sure it will be appreciated by your partner

I don't like to put a price limit on swaps but with postage costs at an all time high we can all appreciate a bit of thrifty spending

Life sometimes has a habit of getting in the way of things, if for whatever reason (and you don't have to say why) you can't continue or need to delay sending out your swap then just let me or your swap partner know

So that's the boring bit out of the way if I have forgotten anything then please let me know and if you need any inspiration then there's always Pinterest!

As always I've been pinning like crazy, Valentines Ideas, I also have a secret swaps board so that I can keep some of my ideas hidden just in case my swap partner is peeping!

Please feel free to use the Send A Little Love Swap button to share the swap on your blogs  

Hello 2015

Happy New Year to you all, I've just been reading other some of my posts from this time last year and it has reminded my how much I miss blogging (I've written 5 scheduled blog posts in as many days!), photography and swaps. 

My aim for 2014 was to simplify, and whilst I managed to do that in those early months I think I got carried away towards the end of 2014 and they were anything but simple!

So my plan for 2015.....

As my hubby keeps telling me

It seems that I am easily side tracked these days and my multi-tasking skills aren't what they used to be!

Ironically I had to stop writing this post as I was needed elsewhere and Tomas wanted to go on the computer!

Okay, so I'm now back, where was I, oh yes I was going to tell you about our plans for 2015.

We have lots of plans for this year, there are rooms to be decorated, gardens to be tidied and a new sewing room/gym to be designed. EEK!

My biggest challenge for 2015 is not to buy any more fabric or yarn. 

Now for those of you that know me will know that this is going to be a real challenge as I can't resist fabric or yarn at the best of times, but with my stash at an all time high and my workroom in an all time mess something has to give.

I'm hoping to make some things for me/us and our home as well using the fabrics that I already have

for swaps and maybe even a few makes to sell.

There will be a couple of exceptions and these will be for any bespoke orders and any basics that I need like interfacings and threads etc but I will be doing my utmost to use up what I have and making do where I can.

At the same time I am going to set myself the 365 penny saving challenge where you save a penny for each corresponding day, day 1 - 1 penny, day 2 - 2 pennies etc, so that come the end of 2015 I will have £667.95 to spend on -  erm? Fabric!!! Only joking!

There are a couple of ways of achieving this challenge you can either increase your amount each day or you can cross off an amount each day depending on what you have in your purse etc. I'm not a big cash person as I tend to use my card for convenience I'm just deciding whether to use a good old fashioned jar or an online bank account??? 

I will be sharing my achievements (and any downfalls) along the way and showing you some of my makes and my tidier workroom.

What are your aims or challenges for 2015, I'd love to know what they are and your are more than welcome to join in mine, we can keep each going throughout the year.