Perching Owls and Little Aussie Cottage Tea Cosies

I have spent the last couple of months getting to know my swap partner while working on our projects for the Tea Cosy swap over at the 'Ville. We found out that we have a lot of things in common during our regular email novels and I can not thank our swap hostess enough for bringing my new friend into my life.

A couple of weeks ago we exchanged emails saying our packages had been sent and so the waiting began.  We made a deal to wait until we both had our packages in our hands to open together over Facebook messages. That way we could get the instant gratification of a reaction we all need when a swap partner opens our packages.

My partners package reached her yesterday and I had no idea how she could hold out with that temptation until mine reached me as well. Well I got a taste of it today.

After I got my kids off to school this morning I had a friend come over for a quick cuppa. An hour later my package turned up and my friend was still here. I knew when we opened the packages I would be chatting with my swap partner for a long while so I held off messaging her so I wouldn't be rude to my friend. Four hours later my friend left to pick up her little man from Pre-School to take him to a Transition Day at our school around the corner as he starts Kindy next year. Just as she was leaving my sister-in-law came to leave her things at my place, she was also going to the transition day. After she left I knew I would have about ten minutes before both gals and another friend would come back for a cuppa while waiting for their Pre-schoolers to finish at the school. So I messaged my partner but she wasn't online. My friends came back and another turned up. What followed was a weird dance of comings and goings and for the next couple of hours I was not alone for five minutes to check my messages. I am thinking it was an impromptu lesson in patience. Well finally just after 4pm I only had one friend left and she was just as impatient as me to see what was inside. My poor swap partner had been sitting around  for about thirty minutes by now waiting for me to get back online. So the unveiling began.

 My partner brought the same tea pot as me so we could be sure they fit and it was a little different as it doesn't have a spout. So what resulted was perfectly fitting tea cosies. I love owls and my partner based my cosy around it. A gorgeous flowering tree with cute owl pendants hanging around in them!


One side



...and the other side

 It was late in the afternoon and we had a storm brewing so the cottage was very dark and the colours do not show up very well.
 I received a whole box full of goodies to go with my tea cosy. Everything as great as the last.

I was thrilled with everything. Bernat Satin yarn, sharp crochet hook, tape measure, highlighter tape, craft buttons,cute owl stitch markers, lotion bar, cute cards and a gorgeous applique owl to add to my Special Art Project!

I received a gorgeous square made out of Caron Simply Soft for my Friendship 'ghan. The colours of which I had admired while my partner was working on her Shawl Swap and she was using.
 Even my kids were not forgotten.

Here are my girls colouring in their posters. The boys also made a start on theirs after dinner but I did not manage to get a photo.

I also got some Biscotti. I have never tried it before and can't wait to try it when the kids go to bed. Of course I couldn't escape sharing the delicious tootsie rolls. My eldest boy was hanging over the box while I was opening it and he spotted the tootsie rolls before I did. I managed to stash one for myself for later though.
 Thank you Maria. I feel totally spoilt!

In our earlier conversations I found out my partner loved cottages. That's when my my brain went into overdrive planning a unique tea cosy. My original idea was for a cosy based on a very popular Aussie song called "Give me a home among the gum trees".

When I got to scribbling ideas I realised there was no way I could fit in as much as I wanted. So I made it on a much smaller scale. Even then it was hard to not add to many details and and overcrowd it. This is my finished cosy.

I am happy to say Maria seems to love it as much as I do hers. I hope she gets as much pleasure from all the goodies in her box as I am sure to get from mine!