I love how you worked sweets into the paisley designs!

I totally didn't notice this until you mentioned it and I took a closer look.  So cute!

NinaMarie- SO AWESOME!  Oh man, I love honey!  That's a great score!  And those Lazer Blazer stickers are the bomb!  The rainbow rehair is my favorite pony, congrats on all your goodies! 

MNN - I loove your little sheepy!  So cute!  I wish I wore bun pins, 'cause those are adorable.  Awesome box!

Sumire - What awesome stationary, I adore stuff like that!  And I love Fun Fairy!

Saja - Icecreamgirl did am amazing wrapping job!  I may be biased because I love the sparkle paper.  Huge fan of your unicorn socks.    

Amazing boxes, girls!  Everyone has done such a great job wrapping and picking the cutest gifts!

Holy cow, she looks amazing after a nice trip to the spa!  What a great find!! 

This is a tough call.  I think you always run the risk of getting cruddy boxes when you're swapping with someone new, or someone who is unfamiliar with swaps.  I guess it would depend on the situation - Was the person new to the arena or have little/no experience swapping?  I know I always tend to overspend on my swap boxes so my partner gets the maximum amount of joy, but, if someone watches every penny and spends too much on this or that, they may end up sending you a box that seems 'skimpy' but to them is totally justified in the amount of money they spent.  I think it just depends on the person...  I would be rather upset if they sent me a box that had NOTHING on my wishlist, though.  I would probably bring it up politely as possible (" Oh, I wasn't expecting any of these... did I have these on my wishlist?  I hope I didn't accidentally have them on there.  I actually already own these, so I hope you don't mind if I sell them for ponies off my want list.").  Who knows?  Maybe they sent you the wrong set or something.  It could have been a total misunderstanding, so I would check in with them on what's  up.

As for the custom swap... that's a crap shoot!  Anyone is capable of making a poorly made, thrown together pony, no matter how good of work they've done in the past.  I think the best thing you can do is avoid swaps with them in the future if they're unwilling to invest time to make a quality pony for you.  There is no polite way to ask for your pony back or to call someone's work cruddy, but certainly don't lie and say you love it.  I think you just need to write this one off and call it a hard lesson learned, unfortunately.

Sorry to hear you didn't get the job, but having more interviews is always great experience to be even better for the next one.  It's not the end of the road!  See it as an opportunity to develop yourself in the areas they felt you were lacking.  Then you'll be an even stronger candidate for the next job you want!

Last night, I received my box from the AMAZING Akemi-Chan! 

One of my favorite things is to come home and find a box waiting on the porch for me.   This one was from HAWAII!  Have I ever had mail from Hawaii before?!  It was unexpected, so I knew it had to be from my special swap partner.  I had no idea who it could be!  Opening the box was like an iridescent dream - I already loved the wrapping teaser Akemi posted in the Girly Thread, and it was ME who got it!  So much fun to open!  I never would have thought to wrap this way, but I'm totally using her idea for my next wrappening (yeah, that's a Pridethism)!

Opening it was pure joy.  I got a little Alpacasso!  For some reason, he smelled amazing.  I kept snorting him and wondering if all the night-night Alpacassos smelled this way.  I wouldn't discover the true source of the wonderful scent until later.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


I pulled everything out of the box and laid it out in all its shining glory.  I had to keep shooing my cat, who super appreciated that Akemi used lots of curling ribbon and iridescent grass in the packaging.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


The first thing I opened was KITTIES!  I love Little Pretty Kitties!  And these ones were in amazing shape!  I adore them!   
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Next I got into the ponies - SO MANY off my wishlist!  The twin babies are even more adorable than I imagined they would be!  Up Up and Away!  Sweetheart sisters!  I couldn't believe my luck, she picked me out the most amazing ponies!
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


The next gift was very neat and I've never seen anything like it before.  It was jar of stars that Akemi made herself!  I can't even imagine the time that went into making all these tiny stars - each is individually folded for maximum cuteness.  She even included some papers so I can fold more!  This will be a great activity for me and my little niece to do together (she loves paper crafts, as do I!).
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


And then I unwrapped it.  The smell!  I found the smell!  It was absolutely divine!  Akemi made me these home made bath bombs with an amazing lavender and rosemary scent.  They might as well have been cocaine, because I couldn't stop shoving them up to my nose and taking big whiffs.  They're even Hello Kitty shaped!  I used one already in the shower, and I plan on harassing Akemi for the recipe.  Guys - they even have glitter in them.  I literally can't even.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


And then there was this.  The pièce de résistance.  A hand made ornament of Prideth!  I just couldn't believe it.  She lovingly, thoughtfully, made this just for me.  I can't say how touched I am that she took so much time and care to make this for me.  And it's so truly beautiful.  She even got the little sunglasses right!  My husband even says "You know the best pony people."  It's true - it really doesn't get better than this.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Here is everything all together!  She included lots of great extras for crafting - gems, glitter buttons (must find a use for these NOW), ribbons, bows!  The cutest Alpaca mirror (she knows how much I love fat fluffy Alpacas, I guess!).  Even a little G1 Firefly book!  And the most wonderful Lindt Chocolate - I ate some before it even got into a picture. 
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Akemi, you're the bomb.  Thank you so much for everything.  You've made yourself a new pony friend in me. 

So cute!  I have the "Electric Lime" Fiesta that's similar in color to your car!  I've found it's a "love it" or "hate it" color for people.     It's in the shop at the moment...    But I have three decals on my car, one for each dog (a husky, a Pom, and a Corgi!).  I've had someone beep on their horn behind me and hold up their Corgi on their dash board and point to my sticker and then point to their dog and it cracked me up.  It really made that person excited that we had a shared interest in our short legged dogs.     I'll take pics when I get it back!

I'm just so lucky to have a great pony pal like Ariana.    All of our swaps have been amazing, I'm so glad this one turned out great too! 

The popcorn came from a local place called "What's Popp'n?" - They have the most bizarre (and awesome) flavors of popcorn and cotton candy!