Thursday, July 10, 2008

A darling Dutch swap and my wacky laundry

While we were gone I received the BEST swap from Heleen in the Netherlands! It was a Matryoshka doll swap. You were supposed to use the image of one to create a fun present. I wimped out and just did one of my nesting dolls. Heleen on the other hand put the image on a darling bag. She also sent me wonderful Dutch goodies.


This is the whole package. She those fun paper dolls, you will be seeing more of them when I get them put together.





Here is a close up of the bag. She embroidered the face and then trimmed the whole thing in wonderful trims and fabrics that are not so common here in the States. Isn't she just gorgeous. I already used it yesterday when I discovered my purse was invested with ants just before I went out to run errands(yes, ants! gotta love California in the summer!) The only thing is she is so lovely I am kind of afraid to use her, I mean anything could happen to her if she becomes my purse! So she may have to perform some other less dangerous task.





When I read my partner was from the Netherlands I thought how great it would be to receive some little Dutch fabrics in my doll. Not only was she made of the very sort of thing I dreamed of, but Heleen sent me some yummy snippets of my own! This was such a great swap!



And just so you will have further evidence of what a nut I am I had to show you today's laundry. Did your mom dry sheets on the line when you were a kid? Mine did and I still remember how great it was to go to bed after laundry day and smell those wonderful sheets. Well it has been insanely hot around here for the Bay Area, above 105 all week. So I got to thinking that I wished I could dry sheets on the line because they would dry so fast and smell so good. So this was my solution today. I dried all our bed linen this way and my bathroom rugs. I am really looking forward to crawling between these babies!


P.S. I am hoping for a little shop update tomorrow. I finished four new little nesting dolls on the looooong ride home from our vacation.

6 comments:

Janice said...

My mom never did that, but I have a sister-in-law who dries everything outside in the summer. Our HOA covenants won't allow up to hand things up in our yards or I would try it.

Natasha Burns said...

Cute swap goodies!!!
Ok so how else do people dry sheets OTHER than on the line??? please don't tell me people dry sheets in the dryer!!! such a huge waste of energy and they don't dry properly, rolling around getting scrolled up together and creased!!! lol! i can't get over how places in the US don't allow washing lines? it's kinda frowned upon using a dryer here due to the energy waste - imagine if a country as big as the US used the washing line how much of the world's energy would be conserved!! hee hee!!!

Natasha Burns said...

and i forgot to say welcome home sweetie! xo

mysteryhistorymom said...

What a DARLING bag! Lucky you!:-) Lori

Circe said...

I LOVE your Dutch fabric and stuff! Do line-dried linens really smell better than dryer-dried? People swear by it! There's a post for ya! :) Adorable nesting dolls, too, as usual! And, of course, the kids are too!

Tracy Nuskey Dodson said...

OMG! Michelle, I'm going to have to take pictures of my laundry hanging from my kids swing-set. My neighbors all think I'm crazy but it works. I hang my clothes on plastic hangers then hang them from the monkey bars. When they dry, which is usually in less than 30 minutes, I just grab them and hang them in the closet. Plus they smell great!
P.S. My yard is pretty private and I don't hang my undies:)