Happy New Year comin' UP!!!!!

Hi all! I'm so excited to be back home safe and sound after our long car trip to and from California (14 1/2 hours each way)! Absolute ick! My butt kept falling asleep on me! Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and are all looking forward to New Years!
So after thinking long and hard about the whole thing and losing some players (we're down to 10 - that I know of)I decided to not use the rotation schedule because I think it will cause more stress for everyone. That way if you don't want to play that month you won't feel obligated to. So what I'm going to do is post links to Swap-Bot here and on the flickr site and if any of you want to play - come on and join us there! January's theme is Fairytales! Please remember these swaps aren't meant to be huge or extravagant - think small and sweet!
Thanks for all who join! Too add a bit more time for getting things together I've extended the send date to Feb 5th. Please sign up on or before January 5th! One handmade item is very much appreciated!

Happy Birthday Lethalblonde (Cyndle)

Happy Birthday!!! Here's a Hansel & Gretel Gingerbread House for you!!!!
Gosh I haven't talked to you forever! I hope all is well with you and your man! May all your dreams come true today and have a fab birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Drewzel!

chickens
Originally uploaded by distopiandreamgirl

I love this trio of Chicken cakes by distopiandreamgirl and Steph adores chickens...so I wanted to say Happy Birthday to my girlfriend way over yonder in Australia!!! I hope you're having a great birthday!!! Save a piece of cake for me : )

Happy Thanksgiving Girls!

Hi everyone! I hope you all are spending quality time with your family and friends for Thanksgiving!
I am still without my personal computer so I'm using my hubby's ~ which is really nice and everything......but it's not my computer with all my fun programs! So here I sit this evening pondering my plan of attack for tomorrow's menu! A non-traditional feast we are having~ no real turkey for us ~ we're doing a tofu~rkey instead. I'm making an Apple Bourbon Cake (recipe from Paula Niziolek) and White on White cupcakes (Pasta & Co. recipe)for dessert....yep forgoing the pumpkin pie! Even though we're going non traditional for the main course, we're still having Green Bean Casserole with French fried onions, mashed potatoes, my Gramma Merles Orange Cranberry Sauce and my favorite....Golden Layer Bisquits!
I know all of you are having a great day off (hopfully) and are gearing up for the sales Friday!!! Looks like JoAnn's is having a great sale from 6am ~ noon! Ah...scary just saw an ad for Kohl's ~ 4am ladies! Am I the only one that doesn't get out of bed to take advantage of these insane sale time slots!?
Safe travels for all too.
P.S. My husband picked the graphic for this featurette! Isn't it cute?

New Swap Themes and a Few Changes!

Well hello to all!!! We've had a few in unexpected bumps in the road which has changed things a wee bit. Please refer to this new visual for our 2008 swap themes! Jaina will not be playing with us so I made up a theme for her swap month in April! I hope you all like Vintage/Retro!!!! I know there are a few of you who will be MORE than thrilled about it!! So since Jaina won't be playing it really only changes a couple minor details one being we now only have 11 players! So we will proceed with the following for a Rotation Guide:

Here is our list of players

1. Lethalblonde
2. Debbi
3. Craftsty
4. Gigi
5. Lola
6. Jennifer
7. Zhulia
8. Ichigo
9. Shan
10. Purr
11. Drewzel

Use this a guide to determine who you will be swapping with in chronilogical order. Very simple indeed! Start with your name for the month of January and go down the list to the next person (this is who you will be swapping with first. Lethal has the easiest list to follow : )
For example I find my name (Gigi) so the person I swap with in January is Lola!!! Then I swap with Jennifer in February and so on and so on! Keep going until you have swapped with each gal one time. This will take us all the way through the month of October. We will draw names for the month of November for who we will swap with and then we will do a Secret/Mystery Swap partner for December!
Please contact me if you have any questions regarding this New and Improved swap rotation schedule!!!

Happy Birthday Debbi E !

All of wishing you a Happy Birthday! Many blessings on your special day!

Swap Rotation Schedule for 2008!

Ok ladies this is the visual I've come up with for our swap rotation schedule! Please see side bar. Blogger was having techinical difficulties so I couldn't post a large view here. See Flickr link below if you want to see it BIGGER! Should be pretty straight forward. As you will see all of our names are listed along with what month we each are representing. I'll use my name as an example. So January is our first swap month so I look at my name and whoever's name is the next month (Lola) that's who I swap with first. Then in February I look at who's name is after Lola's (Jennifer) so I swap with her and so on. Basically you just use your name as a starting point and work your way around the clock for the entire year. I wanted to have the schedule out early so we can all plan ahead if you want to be organized. What's nice about this is that you'll know what the theme is for every month along with who your swapping with so if you're out and about and see something ~ grab it! For example I love to do my Christmas shopping throughout the year so I figure I might as well shop/handmake throughout the year so it doesn't become overwhelming!

PS I should mention that since there are only 12 of us instead of 13 when we all reach December at the end of the year we won't have a new partner (per say). I figure for December we will drawn names for our swap partner so that will be the only person we swap with twice for 2008. We can do the drawing in January so we are prepared! Hope this is easy to follow. Once again it's early and my brain 't made friends yet with my typing fingers!!!
I posted a Larger view on flickr too: Come See!

Well ladies it might just be the 12 of us!

So I really wanted to have our group be the Bakers Dozen but the 13th member just isn't working out like I planned~ which is fine really!!!! Many of you have offered up names of other gals that you think would work perfectly! I appreciate the help and did contemplate the ideas but I feel more comfortable having it just be 12 girls! That way we can all pick a theme for our month and have fun with it!!! Here's a couple of things I wanted to put out on the table and please comment as you see fit.
#1...monitary value of swap? Is this important if so what is a fair swap amount per month? It's a tough one because I personally would much rather have a handmade item that costs 2 bucks in materials than a $15 dollar items from a store! I would like to see quality items, ideas etc. vs. the all mighty dollar as ruler. What's your opinion?
#2...since we have all 12 players now I can do the drawing for who gets what month as their swap theme!!! Are we all excited about that? I will have that info and a list of who will be swapping with who for the entire year by the end of the day today Wed. Oct 24th!!!!
#3....once we know what month we are all responsible for it might help with what theme we will choose! I know we have all swapped basic themes before like Mushrooms, Birdies, Cupcakes etc ~ but what I'd like to do is once you pick your theme I will put a twist on it!!!! For instance.....say Shan got February and her theme is "Love"...the twist I might think of would be "Romantic Couples in History"!!! That way we can really get creative and it leaves enough room for all of us to come up with fun exciting swaps!!!

Where Do You Call Home?

Wish this was my front entrance!!!
Wouldn't it be nice if we could all meet somewhere? Does anyone live near Candyland? Ha! Just kidding, but kind of not...Jennifer and I were discussing the idea of all getting together for a bit of R & R and Crafting too.
Please comment where you live and then maybe we can figure something out!

Update First Week of October!

Hi All! I just wanted to let everyone know where we are at right now on things! My original plan was to have 13 players ~ so far we've got 10 so we're doing pretty good! I have put in emails and messages to other hopful potentials but it's been over a week since I've contacted most and I haven't heard back : ( so I might be on the hunt again. I figure if I haven't heard by this weekend I will scout out a few more.
Thanks to all that have left their comments and suggestions! I think it's great that we will all have the chance to get to know eachother before our first swap! Keep your thinking caps on for your Swap idea, like I said before: "One per person". Perhaps more of a "generic theme"(with endless possiblities) is best (such as Debbi's idea "Party in a Box") because then the actual items are left up to the person "giving" based on their partners profile.
Welcome cooler weather for me! It was a long Hot Summer here in the desert and I eagerly await chilly nights! On the other side of the world~ welcome Spring/Summer to Drewzel! I know she's very excited about it!
If anyone needs to get a hold of me don't hesitate to message me on flickr, Swap-bot or my email is Gigi.Minor@Gmail.com
I will Update at least once a week here so check back and see what's new!

How Important is Receiving a Heart to You?

So I've been thinking long and hard about this question! I can tell you that one of the reasons I wanted to start my own swap group is because I think the quality of a small swap by a trusted group of swappers will yield greater Joy and Satisfaction than just a random group of people like you see a lot of the time on Swap-bot! I realize that I do get excited when I receive a 5 plus a heart, but maybe it's just not satisfying enough for me! I think we can come up with a better way of praising eachother! I'd love to hear some feedback on this little diddy! Tell me what's on your mind!
P.S. I do have to say that if it weren't for Swap~Bot I wouldn't have been able to pluck my favorite gals out of the bunch to join forces! I'm not putting it down ~ I just get frustrated sometimes!

The Core Idea is....

My dream swap group is truly coming to fruition! So this is what I'd like to see happen: just a quick overview here!Since there will be 13 of us total and there's 12 months in a year (yes I realize the 13th person is odd girl out...keep reading :), what I'd like to see happen is each person will have the chance throughout the year to come up with "one" swap theme! And that way we'll all get to know eachothers likes! ~ We will each swap once a month with eachother and never have the same partner twice. Think of it as a rotation swap (hence the clock face image :). Once everyone has joined I will assign a month to you. Please leave a comment below and tell me your birthday month (and of course the actual day too so we will all know when everybodies' birthdays are). So now for the math problem of 13 girls to fit into 12 months. After all have joined and we know what our themes are: I will pick a name from a hat and whomever I pick: "WE" will join forces to make it an Extra Special Swap Month. For instance instead of sending to one partner that month you will send to two! I hope I explained this okay ~ it is early and I'm not totally awake yet! It makes sense in my head maybe just not in type :)

Scouts Honor

Ok, so here it is straight from the horses mouth! We are all here for a reason! It's very important for me to tell you, as individuals you stand out to me in a huge crowd! Let's face it there are millions of people online everyday and out of all of them I chose you to share my heart and soul with!I don't want to get too sentimental, but just know that you mean something to me. Wether it's the late night messaging, the fun swaps, the picture you post whatever it is, it's made an impression on me and I just want to keep the friendship "flame" burning!
Cheers!

The Deals~ an Inside Scoop!

I know it's a little early to start thinking about the New Year, but I want to be nice and organized come 2008 so that's why the early invitation! First off: Hi to all my friends who have been personally invited to join this PRIVATE swapping group! Since I love to bake I thought it only appropriate to invite one Dozen Deliciously Sweet Ladies! We as a whole are "The BAKERS Dozen" ~ 13 is a very LUCKY number to me! I'd like to keep this Small and Intimate due to the Overwhelming problems of Flaky Swappers out there. If you were invited that means in my opinion...YOU ROCK for so many reasons like: you're Friendly, Creative, Artistic, Talented and Awesome!! If you would like to be part of this once a month Swapping group, please comment below! I will always due my darndest to stay in communication with all of you! Please, when you leave your comment tell me ONE theme you'd love to swap! More details to follow...
Thanks for Joining~ I'm so excited to kick the NEW YEAR off right!
P.S. Please leave me your email address at Gigi.Minor@gmail.com
I'd like to send group emails to keep everyone updated!

Gigi Minor