Swaps rule!!!

This morning the postman brought me the swap parcel from Diddlinaknits! *^v^*
At first, it looked like this:
(In fact, at first it had a paper around it, with stamps, ect, but I ripped it away, so there was nothing interesting to photograph... ^^). All the goodies were placed in a beautiful box that I'm going to keep and use for my scraps of papers for collages (I'm crazy about all the cute containers!).

Then, I opened the box and found these - some things expected and some - a total surprise!
So, there was IK Fall 07 magazine, that I missed on their website and Myriam was so kind to find for me in her local shop, then the Kool Aids for my wool dyeing experiments (now I understand why you're not so happy to give it to your Little Man, Myriam, the instructions start with: "Place 1 cup of sugar...", brrr....)
and something that apparently you all know from your childhood - the Shrinky Dinks! *^v^* So, lots of experimenting for me!
But then, there was also a perfect size purse notebook in an orange covers (I love orange!), a lip balm in the cutest little cover (I won't be hunting my lipbalms all over the bag from now on! ^^), and the proof that Myriam is a mind reader - a set of Sharpies in funky colours! *^v^* I've heard and read about them from a fellow art journalists, but I didn't think I'll be able to try them out so soon!
I had no idea what to start playing with, so I panicked and opened the lip balm first! *^v^* When I calm down, I'll make myself a cup of tea and read the Shrinky Dinks instructions. *^v^*

BTW, sometimes the smallest things bring you happiness - the Kool Aids were in a ziplock bag, another item unknown here ! *^v^*


To cool our heads down a bit, here are the photos of the current state of my Lucinda cardigan - the fronts has been sewn with the back and waiting for the sleeves, hood and a zipper:

The sleeves keep growing everyday, and as you can see, I substituted the middle bobbles panel with a pearl stitch panel, I didn't like the bobbles at all. Also, the cuffs are quite long here, but I'm going to reverse half of them to get a thick warm pair of cuffs.
One more thing - I can show you now the painting I couldn't show you before, because it was in the swap parcel for Myriam (and this morning she received her parcel). This is called "Knitting Girl".

Have a great Thursday! *^v^*