Saturday 25 February

Since Thursday I've not been sleeping very well. I fall asleep just fine, but wake up early and keep going through the car crash over and over again, trying to change it so it didn't happen. This morning I gave up trying to get back to sleep and got up at 7 to make a cup of tea and potter about on the computer for distraction. Amazing that something that in the grand scheme of things, is really quite insignificant, can have such an impact.

A while ago I signed up to a swap that the magazine Popular Crafts organises every month. To be honest, I'd not heard of the magazine before until they started following me on Twitter, and so far I've yet to find somewhere that stocks it! I am planning to have a look in our WH Smith's this morning as they have quite a large range of craft magazines. Every month the swap has a theme, and you have several weeks to send a handmade item plus a small gift by the end of the following month. For January/February the theme was 'owl' and I swapped with Maxine from Studio 23. Coming up with something to make for Maxine wasn't very hard, as owls are so popular right now. My creation for her was made in Lyme Regis and finished off when we came back:

I had great fun making him, but hoped he wasn't too childish - it is o so easy to fall for a cuddly toy with this sort of theme. Maxine let me know he is living in her studio and she has named him Swoop - which I think really suits him!

And in return this is what I received from Maxine earlier this week:

 As Maxine is a textile artist, I wasn't sure what she'd make for me and this was totally unexpected, but I love it. There is so much to explore, I love the little flowers on one of the pockets. She had sneakily hidden the present in one of the pockets... and even the card was handmade.
Although I intend to keep it for myself, I suspect 12yo might pinch it to use for herself. I had intended to use it as an apron although don't want to get it dirty, but 12yo could get away with wearing it as a garment - her legs are just, well, younger and more suitable for being on show ;-)
Thank you again Maxine, it's been a great swap!