Margo - I live in Sketchers sandals all summer - actually spring - summer and fall - they have a really thick rubber sole and comfortable foot area. Had done the flip flip thing - multiple inexpensive pairs by each door and still keep them about (for repotting, washing outdoor things and short term chores kinda wear). The Sketchers are not a glamorous look, but I live in the mountains so it's not a problem. I love them. Amazon always has a bunch.

I'm updating our sent and received list.

Partners:

Lisa and Erica will send to each other.

(Lisa sent. Erica sent.)

Jeanne and Beth will send to each other

(Jeanne sent. Beth received and sent.)

Amy and Shirley will send to each other.

(Amy sent.)

Emily will send to Margo

(Emily sent. Margo received.)

Margo will send to Heidi

(Margo sent. Heidi received.)

Heidi will send to Emily

(Heidi sent. Emily received.)

Did I miss anybody? I hope not. Shirley, is everything okay with you? Seems like you haven't posted recently.

By the way, I plan to send out all the prizes at once so please be patient. We'll be waiting for someone to win Bingo and then to judge the teacup charms.

Oh, Margo, flip flops, sandals, etc. have not been worn for years and years. I wish I had that simple answer. My feet need support and I even have custom made orthotics. I had to be on my feet for most of the day in dress shoes for many years so I don't know if that contributed to my feet being tender or not. However, the good news is this prescription ointment or rub has really helped my pain level go down. Of course, doing something on my feet for an hour or two still strikes up the pain, but I've only been using this for 2 days now so hopefully after some time it will cure the problem. I worked in the yard for awhile today and planted 5 more winter sowing jugs - I sure came in with lots of pain in my feet and up that right leg.

See everyone tomorrow.

Jeanne

I pulled 2 Bingo words again today. February goes by in a flash!

Today's words: BREAD AND BUTTER

CHAIRS

Called so far: Bread and Butter, Chairs, No Room!, We're All Mad Here, Watch, The Hatter, Crochet/Croquet, Painting the Roses Red, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat; and Dinah, White Rabbit, Mock Turtle, Wonderland, Drink Me, Dormouse, King of Hearts, Alice, Orange Marmalade, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts.

Jeanne

Hi Everyone! I know I've been MIA - sorry, company/granddaughters over the long weekend and too many places to run to, since then!

Margo, how was your weekend in Frankenmuth?

Brianne, I'm saying prayers and sending good thoughts out to your Mom, hope she continues to do well!

Amy, your "Tea Party" went out today, the PO lady said it should arrive Friday, I'm thinking probably Saturday or Monday. I've got the tracking number if we need it. Hope you enjoy the package! I'll be watching for yours.

Well, I'm going to go lay down, and rest a bit, before the next round of "running" starts! I've already told them I have to be home by 7:30, yeah, there's a game on, the first since last Thursday. AGGGGHHH, I'm having withdrawal symptoms!

Annie, are you home yet?

Take care, talk soon,

Shirley!

Received my package from Erica today! It's incredible and thank you!

She included a wonderful assortment of teas (I'm sipping one right now!), a huge lollipop that made my daughter's eyes light up with joy, several tea-related seeds (fennel, nasturtiums, lemon balm, pink rose hips, yarrow, stevia, calendula, and chamomile), and a stunning hanger for my tea pot! You are so talented and generous. Thank you!

Lisa

Glad you are okay, Shirley. I was starting to get worried.

That flower for your teapot is beautiful, Lisa. Wonderful packages being sent as always.

Most of you probably remember I have horses - two of them. We started boarding them last year because keeping up with horse care here was getting to be too much. We try to get out at least once a week to visit them and they get brushed (get a bath in hot weather), etc. Anyway, I hadn't ridden either of them in 3 years. Today I rode my older horse so I'm sharing my happy day with you! Even after all that time not being ridden, he was perfect. I told him he earned his keep.

The other horse is younger and has not had as much training and used to spook easily so I don't know how long it will be before I try riding her again, but hopefully before the end of the year.

If you're a horse lover, it doesn't seem to go away. It's too bad it's an expensive habit. My younger daughter and I are the horse lovers in the family and I think my older granddaughter is falling into that same love. Anyway, I hope my bad back and other ailments don't prevent me from riding again. I know it won't be often and it won't be much more than riding in a small area, but it's nice to be back in the saddle again.

I hope everyone else had a happy day, too.

Jeanne

Emily, I certainly thought the "eat me" and "drink me" cookies were cute and perfect for the swap. Thanks again.

Jeanne, it sure sucks when things start hurting and disrupting the things you love to do. I'm still having trouble with my knee. I can walk but so far, afraid to try running which I miss so much.

Maggie, thanks for the tip on sketchers. I will certainly check into them. Comfort over looks for sure when it comes to your feet.

Shirley, had a great time with my friend. We hit the outlets for hours and picked up some really good deals. Actually some Christmas presents too. Lol The hotel was great too.

We had another beautiful day here. We even had the doors open at work. Windows are open here at the house too. Love it although it's going to be colder this weekend.

Margo

I have a MAD TEA PARTY story. I got ready to start my tomato and pepper seeds inside. It's snowing today so this is a great activity. After weeks of pestering my wonderful husband he dug out some Christmas lights for me. I got out the old seed trays, got the seeds planted, spaced out on a plastic tray and ready! I pull out the Christmas lights (which I thread around the seed trays which keep it warm and seeds germinate much better. I've done it for a couple years.) I thread the blue Christmas lights around, plug them in and shazam!!! Only the first half of the string works even though they're new. So hubby comes home and we have a 3 Stooges Moment looking for an extra bulb and he stomps out to the garage to get another string of lights. He carefully replaces the broken bulb and suddenly he's LAUGHING! The second half of the string is now blinking. If you count 1-2-3 they are off and suddenly on the count of 4 they blink on, then off. They are off more than they're on! He replaced it again and now my germinating table is "on". Gardening takes so much work!!! LOL Heidi

Haha! That sounds just like something that would happen at my house! :P

Lisa -- I received your pack today. Thank you for all you sent.

Lisa sent a bow cup charm with rabbit and chocolate, a "tea light" candle, 2 bags of tea and 3 types of seeds.

Lisa, you sent such a cute package!

I'm updating our sent and received list.

Lisa and Erica will send to each other.

(Lisa and Erica sent and received.)

Jeanne and Beth will send to each other

(Jeanne sent. Beth received and sent.)

Amy and Shirley will send to each other.

(Amy and Shirley sent.)

Emily will send to Margo

(Emily sent. Margo received.)

Margo will send to Heidi

(Margo sent. Heidi received.)

Heidi will send to Emily

(Heidi sent. Emily received.)

I hope I got all of that straight. Correct me if not.

2 Bingo words again today: TARTS

CLEAN CUP

Called so far: Tarts, Clean Cup, Bread and Butter, Chairs, No Room!, We're All Mad Here, Watch, The Hatter, Crochet/Croquet, Painting the Roses Red, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat; and Dinah, White Rabbit, Mock Turtle, Wonderland, Drink Me, Dormouse, King of Hearts, Alice, Orange Marmalade, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts.

See everyone tomorrow.

Jeanne

Hi Everyone, hope you are all having a great day!

I received my Tea Party from Amy today, Amy, this was just great!

The Charm is a blue Lucite leaf attached to gold ribbon, very pretty!

Amy also sent a package of Valentine napkins, 3 Folgers coffee crystals (great for when I'm out scouting cemeteries), a pack of Krispy Kreme Caramel Macchiato coffee thins (one gone already, very yummy!), and a pack of Fringed Pinks seeds - love these! And the Tea? Oh my! Pomegranate Raspberry green tea, Spiced Dragon Red Chai, Raspberry Leaf, Bedtime and Hibiscus, which is an organic tea from Now/Real Tea, I think! All new to me, how great is that!?

Amy, I will definitely enjoy all the teas, great job and Thank You!

Shirley!

What fun Tea Parties! It's always fun to see everyone's gift envies!!

What a great tea party that arrived at your house, Shirley! I haven't seen those Coffee Thins. I'll have to look to see if they have them around here.

Lisa and Erica will send to each other. COMPLETED

Jeanne and Beth will send to each other

(Jeanne sent. Beth received and sent.)

Amy and Shirley will send to each other.

(Amy sent. Shirley sent and received.)

Emily will send to Margo COMPLETED

Margo will send to Heidi COMPLETED

Heidi will send to Emily COMPLETED

And here are 2 more words for Bingo. FLAMINGO and COOK

Called so far: Flamingo, Cook, Tarts, Clean Cup, Bread and Butter, Chairs, No Room!, We're All Mad Here, Watch, The Hatter, Crochet/Croquet, Painting the Roses Red, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat; and Dinah, White Rabbit, Mock Turtle, Wonderland, Drink Me, Dormouse, King of Hearts, Alice, Orange Marmalade, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts.

Margo, thanks for an update about your knee. I wondered how you were doing.

Well, off to get some things done around here.

Jeanne

Jeanne, the Coffee Thins are from Krispy Kreme, I've never seen them, maybe Amy can tell us where to get them, mine are all gone, so I hope she can tell us!

Cold, gloomy day here today. It's been trying to snow all day long with no success. Good day to stay in and stay cozy!

Shirley!

Jeanne, sorry to see your package took the scenic route to the east coast VIA California. The USPS works in mysterious ways.

No problem, Beth. It will be a nice surprise as I wrap up the month!

Jeanne

Bingo words for today:

TEA PARTY

RIDDLE

Called so far: Tea Party, Riddle, Flamingo, Cook, Tarts, Clean Cup, Bread and Butter, Chairs, No Room!, We're All Mad Here, Watch, The Hatter, Crochet/Croquet, Painting the Roses Red, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat; and Dinah, White Rabbit, Mock Turtle, Wonderland, Drink Me, Dormouse, King of Hearts, Alice, Orange Marmalade, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts.

I don't think anyone has Bingo yet, but check your lists in case I'm wrong. Continuing tomorrow ...

Jeanne

I have 3 to go...

I need one more.

Jeanne, I found the Krispy Kreme bar at Ingles grocery store. I am not sure if that is just a southern grocery store or not?

It's a bit after midnight here so I am going to post Bingo before I head up to bed. I wonder if these 2 will do it?

Selected: DUCHESS

KNAVE OF HEARTS

Called so far: Duchess, Knave of Hearts, Tea Party, Riddle, Flamingo, Cook, Tarts, Clean Cup, Bread and Butter, Chairs, No Room!, We're All Mad Here, Watch, The Hatter, Crochet/Croquet, Painting the Roses Red, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat; and Dinah, White Rabbit, Mock Turtle, Wonderland, Drink Me, Dormouse, King of Hearts, Alice, Orange Marmalade, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts.

Amy, that's interesting about Ingles because we are the next state over and I've never seen an Ingles in South Carolina. II'll bet some other store will carry them.

Once Beth and Shirley's packages have been received and the pictures posted, we will vote on the teacup handle decoration. The one I sent is not eligible. Stay tuned...

Okay - off to bed.

Jeanne

Bingo!

Oh Shoot, I only had two more words to go.

But Congrats, Emily, good job!

Shirley, I didn't do anything but get lucky. Jeanne did all the work!

Congratulations, Emily! That was a long Bingo game. I think there were only 2 words left to be selected, one of which was "garden" and nearly everyone had that on her list. Makes sense!

Will check in again later.

Jeanne

Shirley, Thank you for such a sweet package! I love all the handmade gift wrappings! Inside the largest one was my tea party which included a beautiful handmade card with gilene regia and cardinal lobellia to attract the hummers

Shirley, I love the beautiful tea hanger with beautiful butterflies and buttons. The handmade envelopes are so pretty with cute button and ribbon embellishments. Two lovely butterfly and flower napkins that I will use for special occasions. I will be sipping on some yummy cider, peppermint and vanilla chai tea. What a great package! You are so creative and I appreciate your gift so much! Thank you again, Amy

I'm glad you liked the Tea Party, Amy. I got the idea for the envelopes from Faye - she sent me two with seeds inside. They are really easy to make and you can use any kind of paper for them.

Hope everyone is having a great day. I only need 4 more words for Bingo!

Shirley!

Hey Everyone!

I wonder if Jeanne is having computer problems again? Hope everything is okay.

We're in the middle of a pretty good T-storm, the Pistons are winning and I have to go for groceries tomorrow. Not a happy thought.

I'll be posting the March swap sometime this week, as soon as Feb.'s swap is wrapped up. Hope to see lots of you all joining in.

Have a great day tomorrow,

Shirley!

I'm here. Just had a day with quite a bit of pain so I've been resting quite a bit.

Amy, you received a wonderful package from Shirley.

I thought that Beth's package would find its way to my house today and we would be ready to vote on our favorite charm. It's really taking its time. Shirley, if you don't mind I will post a reminder to vote for one of the charms and the results on your March heading. I'm afraid people won't continue to look back at this one. I hope that's okay.

I mailed the game prizes to Emily today. Emily, you had a bit of Irish luck this month, I think!

That's all for now.

Jeanne

Jeanne, go ahead and post the Charm Contest on this swap - I'm not going to start the March swap until this one is done.

Shirley!

sorry about the delay. Why the package has taken a scenic tour of California on it's way to the east coast is a mystery. Most likely reason is that I transposed a number in the zip code. Checked my address book and the zip there is the same one as the address list. Again, sorry for the delay

Bethb

Okay, Shirley. That's fine with me.

Beth, no problem. Hopefully it will arrive today.

I need to take some flower pictures to post. I'm really enjoying my sunny daffodils! I planted some new bulbs for this year - some of the older ones still come through for me, but only some of them.

Jeanne

I had a relative who worked in a company. they tried to sort one box per second. one of my packages went to NV Nevada instead of NE Nebraska. I can see.how easy it would be to mess that up. Heidi

I hoped Beth's package would show up today, but no luck. Wouldn't it be interesting to know the stops it has made?

I photographed this article on the front page of today's paper to share with you. It sure calls your attention to it when you see the huge mosquito! The article points out that there were 2 years when there were no freezing or below temperatures in February. That was in 1927 and 1938. The temperature dropped below freezing 4 times this year.

I'm sharing a flower picture, too. They're so pretty this year - this one is an azaelea planted near the house. When you look out the window, you wonder if snow has fallen on the bushes.

I took a few more pictures so I'll post a few more flowers tomorrow.

Jeanne

Tracking shows that is went from here in Kirkland to Calif. Normal is to Phoenix. Then to two other spots in CA and has been in San Diego for two or three days now. What are they doing????? I worry about it arriving safely as they longer they shuffle it around the less chance I see for a safe arrival. '

Jeanne your azalea is beautiful. In MD my white ones were first to bloom and usually were the start of Humming Bird season. I still miss my yard/garden back there but hope someday the one in MO will be as pretty.

Beth, I hadn't looked at the tracking on the package before - oh, my! I thought it was likely here in Lexington, SC, by now. I wonder how many more days it will take?

Posting a picture of one of my camellia bushes as long as I am logged in again. Enjoy!

Jeanne

Hopefully today....fingers crossed

Surely it will arrive today, Good Lord!

Ladies, I'll be posting the March Swap tomorrow, you're gonna love it!

Have a great day, All!

I needed some bloom therapy. Thank you so much. Having a rough spot in the day. I have tomato seeds germinating at home. It's just so fun to watch something grow! I planted a package of marigold seeds and one sprouted. I've never seen only 1 marigold sprout! Really surprised me. Heidi

It's here! It's here! It's here!

I know Beth is probably just about as excited as I am. It's a stress when you wonder what happened to a package you sent.

First pictures:

And the whole package:

Thanks so much, Beth. The light isn't that great in my kitchen so the photos don't do this justice. The teacup charm is adorable - Bird in a nest, another tiny bird, charms and flowers dangling on the ribbons, and the green and yellow are the perfect look for Spring. In my swap I had gummy worms, a note card and another card, cosmos cupcake seeds, paper napkins with a great party look, and my teas are Sweet & Spicy and Earl Grey. Well worth the wait!

(By the way, Beth, that hummus container that you packed the charm in did the trick. It got here in perfect condition even after all that traveling.)

Jeanne

Okay, everyone, now we can vote on a favorite charm. Mine is not eligible, but look through the others and send me your favorite by message or email by the end of the day Sunday. I'll post the winner on Monday. (In case of a tie, I'll draw a name from the top votes for the winner.)

And now another picture of Spring flowers. My forsythia is past it's peak bloom here as you can see from the leaves, but it has gotten huge and those cheery yellow flowers sure do look like Spring --- although not quite as much as my daffodils. You know I am partial to those!

And a few daffodils:

Jeanne

Thanks so much Jeanne. I am relieved that it arrived safely and that you enjoyed it. This has been a fun swap and I have enjoyed the photos of the spring flowers. I had a few crocus and iris reticulata here but I sure miss forsythia and pussy willow. They say spring to me like nothing else can do. Nights here are still in the 20's.

Thanks for hostessing another fun swap.

I needed to post a closer picture of my beautiful tea decor from Shirley. I love it and the picture did not do it justice.

Just wanted to remind everyone to Vote! We have until the end of the day, Sunday, to cast our votes for the Best Charm! Send an Email or Houzz message to Jeanne, who will announce the winner on Monday!

Thanks for voting ... and we did have a tie which I solved by writing the names on folded slips of paper and my husband drew one. The winner is SHIRLEY! All the the teacup charms were fabulous. Great job, ladies! Thanks for joining in on the swap.

Jeanne

Congratulations, Shirley. Great handiwork!

I won!! that doesn't happen very often!

Jeanne, thanks for another great swap!