Swaps and thoughts

I joined two swaps this holiday season, one was a supply swap, the other a stocking swap.
I received my supply swap on December 11th, I was overjoyed it came so early.
In our packages we were to include:
1. 20 6" x 6" sheets of patterned paper
2. 5 charms or metal embellishments
3. an alphabet
4. 10 diecuts or punched shapes
5. 10 stamped images in black ink on white cardstock
6. a bling
7. 10 fibers/trims/ribbons
8. 5 small (1" or smaller) or 3 medium (1'" - 2") or a large (over 2") flower(s)
9. 3 journaling spots
10. a pocket or small envelope
11. A surprise.
I thought it was a great swap to join, it always seems other people's stuff is better than your own.
So, here's what I got from my partner:
You can see the pile or metal charms, and the flowers (way more than 5), there's a distress ink pad there, and a cupcake stamp, also 4 journaling spots, a rub-on alphabet, and the bling (self-adhesive crystals in the shape of a bird in a tree.

Here's a close-up of the metal embellishments (way more than 5), there's a key, some metal charms with words, the black things are roses, a butterfly, some photo corners, wings, a heart, a crown, and a blingy thing.

Here's a close-up of the flowers.

In this picture you can see some bottlecaps, the envelope (or more than one), some manila tags, the fibers, the diecuts, some chipboard (in, I believe, ATC size). I'm extremely giddy about using the chipboard, awhile ago, I ordered ATC sized chipboard through Etsy and decided it's great to use as a backing for my ATCs.

Here you can see a bunch of lunch bags, a chipboard book in the shape of a crown, a set of patterned paper (way more than 20), and the stamped images.

Here is some more chipboard, the card she gave me and a Christmas tag she made (also one of the requirements.

We were supposed to make a Christmas tag with a rubon on it, I love her tag, especially the jingle bell at the top, and whatever set of rub-on's she used.

And the last thing in my package was a set of white things. Each of these groups were in their own little container.

Also, if you noticed there's pink tissue paper as the background in each of these photos, that was included as well, and I'm also very tickled about it.

My other swap, the stocking swap, we were supposed to read each other's blogs and spend $10-$15 before shipping with a stocking on stuff our partner would like. These were supposed to be mailed by December 11th. I haven't seen mine yet. I waited a week before contacting the hostess about it. I tried emailing my partner during the swap with a question and never got an email back. I'm starting to believe I'm never getting a package back.

That annoys me and makes me wonder if I should bother getting in to swaps where we send directly to our partner. I'm also out the money I spent on her, her gifts and the over $10.00 in shipping. I'm not naming names, but I did just read one of her blogs that she posted yesterday, so she's still somewhere in the world.

On a positive note today, I got a mini Stampin' Up catalog in my mail, sent to me by Alicia, who is a Stampin' Up demonstrator in CA. I follow her blog and I'm sure I'm now in her Stampin' Up website database, but that meant a ton to me. Thank you Alicia.

Hope everyone's having a good holiday and Merry Christmas