I WILL RESIST!!!

I won't join any more swaps. I won't! But they are organizing Harry Potter Sock Kit Swap again, and I WAAAAAANT!!!
I am going to get myself a package. :-)
It will be packaged in a big box - I think I'm going to buy me one of those nice boxes from IKEA.
The box will be filled with tissue paper in my house colors (blue and bronze - I'm a Ravenclaw girl :-)) and then I'll make dozens of those cute paper strip stars instead of styrofoam. I loved it when one of my swap pals had sprinkled a handful of tiny sparkly stars in the package :-)
There will be a couple of magic sock yarn balls filled with surprises, ebony needles tucked in the balls. I think I'll put some rosewood needles in the other ball.
One of the yarns will be hand-painted in Orion nebula colors - as that fits the Ravenclaw :-)


The other will be koigu, so that I too can get my Ziggys :-) I think I need two balls of Koigu...
(You know, I joined a magic yarn ball swap several years ago, and never got my yarn ball... Or an explanation then either >:-> And, yes, I'm still sad about that.)
I think I'll make some potpurri pillows to be used as the "heart" of the yarn ball.

There will be knitting tools, like stitch markers with matching scissor chain and row counter bracelet; tape measure with nice cover, clover yarn cutter medallion, if I can find one somewhere, and the lovely sheep needle sizer/gauge measure I have been drooling over for years now... And a stitch saver.
Needle case - or wand case :-D - of chinese brokade.
There will be nail file, an everlasting glass file or a stone file. Or a handy pocket case for emery boards. A small tube of quickly drying hand cream. I'll see if I can find a jar of bond's butter.
In the yarn balls will be hair accessories, like sticks and combs... I really love hair accessories :-)
There will be a pretty medieval-looking notepad and marker, bookmarks and magnets. I don't like stickers, but I think I'd like some fake tattoos :-D
There will be Harry Potter candy, a big bag of jellybeans, Lindts chocolate and a box of the new toffee I saw in the store last week. I think I'll make some chocolate chip cookies... toffee chip cookies?
I think there could be a raven too, for example a pin cushion... with self-decorated pins... for example shrinky-dink pins or polymer clay pins... (I think this is absolutely adorable... and the silver charm is great!)
There definitely will be a pair of earrings.


Then there will be a "book" of sock patterns. I have copied hundreds (yes!) of free patterns from the net for Summer of Socks, and I think it would be nice to finally get them on paper and in plastic pockets in a binder. I think I will also give me a knitting magazine... I was really happy to get the Interweave Knits in one swap :-)
Perhaps I'll also buy a sock pattern. I love Lucy Neatby's patterns, and Cookie's socks are wonderful too :-)

And then there will be a cigar box decorated with decoupage collage, and filled with magic stuff... I might even buy me a new tarot deck :-D
There will be a pocket book which might not have anything to do with HP, and bookmark.
There will be socks, tam and house scarf in Ravenclaw colors.
Then there will be dog toys and candy for Boris the Springer Spaniel.
There will be some good tea and a teapot cosy, and perhaps some other tea related stuff, like tea ball or sugar sticks.
There will be a soap sweater made from stone colored yarn with inscripture, with vanilla soap inside, and a HP washcloth...
Then there will be something with fox... a mixed CD with my favorite songs... Maybe I'll buy myself Nickleback's or Staind's CD. Maybe some coasters... a real quill, dragon's blood ink and paper... some hundred pretty beads for knitting... I think it would be fun to find something like a zen garden in your pocket or braingames or so... a knitting calendar with quotes about knitting, life and other important things. It would be nice if I'd find a raven cookie cutter. It really is nice with some recipe cards too... perhaps some spices and such to make something nice for dinner. I'd love a gargoyle. And a tiny owl...

These will be packed in their own totebags. Or perhaps I'll wrap them in shawls and scarfs and pretty pieces of fabrique ;-)

I'd like to add some funnies too... I love the idea of sending a little bottle of syrup or liquor with self-made "magic potion" lable, or "a sample of transformation magic" - elephant poo paper :-D Subversive cross stitch. "Grow your own enchanted castle" (sunflower seeds) or "magic" beans :-D Perhaps some seeds of witchy plants like mandragora.
Or a bumber sticker... "Save the Broom - Ride a Quiddich Player"... SO NASTY!!! ROTFLMAO

Something self-made:
Themed list: Harry Potter Patterns

Here are some of the best freebie patterns I have seen outside Knitty and Ulla :-D

I am very disappointed...

I joined an Easter basket swap. Sounded like a great thing.

I decided to make it up to two previous swap pals I had failed, so I made three Easter packages.

I sent them on 10th of March, so that they will be sure to arrive before Good Friday.
On 14th I got the first "It has arrived" message.
The second package arrived to New Zealand perfectly straight before Easter.
I don't know what has happened to the third package - the "real" Easter basket swap package. I don't know if it has arrived, or got lost in mail or what. I haven't heard anything from my swap pal.

In fact, my swap pal hasn't "said" one word to me since the end of February, after she gave me her preferences list and address...
I don't know if she has received my list and addy. She hasn't responded to any of my mails.
They haven't bounced, so they went somewhere.
I posted them as replies to her mails, so I assume the email addy was correct and she has got them.
But I can only assume.

The worst thing here is that my swap pal is the organizer of the swap...
She thanks a lot of people in her blog for sending her a hostess gift. I'm not mentioned.

I asked in that blog entry if she has received my package. She hasn't answered.

She has announced another swap.

I am bitter, angry, seriously p'd off... I feel like I was being used, and this person is a person I used to look up upon, as a role model in the Internet crafting community.

I would have full understanding if she lost my mail address, but the thing is that I have left comments on her blog, and those comments have a link to my blog. All she would need to do to get in contact with me was to leave a comment in my blog.

And, frankly, the swap organizer shouldn't loose the swap participants' addies. Sure, accidents happen, but she has organized swaps before and will organize swaps in the future as well.

I would have full understanding if she was late with the package, because I think she's moving right now... Only if she told me what is happening. It's the least one can do, communicate with one's swap pal...

And how will I get any... compensation, sympathy, apologies or something? I was let down by the organizer herself! If she doesn't think it's important enough to communicate with me during the swap, why would she care about finding out if people have been let down and organize swap fairies?
I was the fairy in the swap I arranged.

I am not only bitter and angry. I'm also sad and disappointed... I was really looking forward an Easter surprise...

I'm also confused and worried, because I know "things" happen and I don't know what has happened here.

But this will be the last swap I'll ever participate in my life. It's fun to get packages, but this is not fun at all.

P.S. After I had written this post and left a message in her blog telling her that I don't find the absence of communication and swap amusing, and that if she is so stressed she says she is, maybe she shouldn't be organizing swaps, she suddenly found my email address and managed to get through not only one (9th of April) but two mails - something she said she hadn't been able to do previously >:-> - telling me that I am "extremely pushy and demanding", "unhappy person" and drama queen, that I have no business in telling her how to manage her life, that it's my own fault that I haven't got anything (not even other mails but these "oh-poor-me-bad-you" mails), that her life is so horrrrrrribly difficult right now and how she doesn't "need this negativity" - as if I do - and how mean I am, spoiling her blogging and swapping experience with my nasty comments and unlikable behavior...
Not one word of apology for my hurt feelings and bad experience, only demands to understand and forgive hers...

She also said "If you would have given me the chance I would have posted what you sent as well". It's 12th of May now, and she still hasn't posted "what I sent as well"... What kind of "chance" does she expect to get? A year or two, perhaps?

She also said that she had sent my package "over three weeks ago" - she said this on April 9th, 3 weeks after Easter... I wonder how long she calculated a package from USA takes time to travel to Sweden... it's usually 2-4 weeks. It's quite possible that the package was still traveling from USA to Sweden. Considering that it has been all silent from the post office, I doubt it is coming...

She said she's going to send me another, and I told her not to. I hope she respected that wish of mine, even though I got the impression from the mails that she might just send me a package just to spite my wish... I really don't want to have anything to do with the person.

Do you think I painted her as a monster in this blog entry, like she says? Or as a bad swapper, like I say?

Added 23/3-20 - 12 years later and still, every year, when I see an Easter basket, I remember her and I hate her.