swaps! and, anyone interested in a swap?

i love swaps. can you tell? ;) i just shipped off my black-and-white petite inspiration matchboxes to my partners amy and stevie.

it is my first swap of this kind. i've been wanting to join in on a swap hosted by heather of speckled egg for a long time. they always look so fun! take a look on flickr to see what i mean.

there's something so satisfying about collecting a group of gorgeous supplies and things that all coordinate. i loved the black and white theme.

it was a challenge for me because i LOVE color so much. but this was calming. i forget how much an absence of color can be so inspiring too.

i also participated in a one-on-one swap with christina and boy was i in for a treat! :) it felt like my birthday!

i was so excited to receive such a nice, big envelope stuffed with goodies in my mailbox on friday. just what i needed to end a somewhat stressful week!

i found vintage paper, a vintage map, a leather-bound fabric sample book (i have never seen anything like it and i can't wait to use them in my quilting and journaling projects!!),

beautiful pink buttons, lace, scrapbooking goodies, metal bits and bobs, vintage office supplies (love!)...i could go on and on but i'll let the photos speak for themselves! :)

which brings me to a question: would anyone be interesting in doing a group swap? i've never hosted a swap before, but i thought it would be fun. i'm not sure of the theme. for some reason, i was thinking of rainbows (i know, it's fall! but i'm stuck on spring for some reason. or maybe it's just my love of all things colorful!) i'm not talkin' rainbows with pots of gold at the end (although that would be fun, too!) but more like, a swap where you collect items and group them by color and send them off to your swap partner. like, fill a sandwich-sized bag of wonderful goodies for each color of the rainbow. i'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. i will post an "official" swap announcement later in the week for the sign ups, so stay tuned! :)

1. Glossy Rainbow IV, 2. For A Rainy Day..., 3. Rainbow Fake, 4. Rainbow, 5. Rainbow Stars, 6. Rainbow Beads, 7. Colourful letters, 8. - paint! - , 9. Rainbow beads, 10. Mucho Color, 11. Glitter Glitter Glitter Glitter Glitter, 12. 100_2202.JPG, 13. Button size 15mm, 14. Rainbow matchboxes filling, 15. 26/365 (Explore~), 16. Alphabet Rainbow

maybe i'm stuck on rainbows because i'm wishing it were spring...cool weather, cloudy days, rain. we are supposedly in the fall season right now, but with 100 degree weather, it's hard to think about pumpkins and cool, smoky nights! we are boiling here, folks! :( hope you are enjoying cool, fall weather wherever you are. and if you're stuck in this early fall heatwave, i can sympathize with you!

hope you're having some creative, quite moments to yourself this week!