So!
This is bound to run long.
I am the lucky recipient of a swap box from Jupiter. She did an amazing job and I got so many gifts in the swap box that I've found it impossible to photograph them all together! But I have *dozens* of photographs from my swap and that seems like it might break the thread here if I include every one of them. So, I'll do my best!
This is my first swap with the Arena. I'm hugely grateful for Hathorcat for arranging the swap itself and for bending the rules a bit to allow me, a relative unknown in the community, to participate. Everyone in the swap was supportive and gracious and awesome to me, too, so really--THANKS! You made my first swap a memorable one. Now on to the *gigantic* box of gifts I got from Jupiter!
(As an astrology buff, you know that Jupiter is known as the expansive planet. It is the planet of big acts of generosity and kindness and just--big blessings--so I think it was rather a perfect embodiment of her ponysona that I got so spoiled.
)
I got home from a weekend trip out of town and found the box waiting for me. It was decorated, adorably, with G1 symbols.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginThe tissue paper resting on the top was similarly decorated and then, underneath that sheet, a holy huge pile of presents!
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginNo, I mean
practically neverending. There wasn't any packing material or peanuts or anything--that entire giant box was filled with gifts. The gifts were cushioned in shipping with *even more* gifts. It was kinda crazy--in the most fabulous, not sure whether to laugh or cry or shriek with glee, kinda way.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginI do not even know where to start in telling you about it all. How about with the 'extras'?
For non-pony extras, I got:
*a box of decadent Tazo Chai tea
*a panoramic postcard, bookmark, and squished penny from Yosemite National Park
*two books I've heard a lot about but never read:
Polgara the Sorceress by David and Leigh Eddings and
The Color of Magic, the first book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
*Four little seashell themed glass tealight holders
*a butterfly and heart-themed spiral notebook
*pink WallPops! (dry-erase wall sticker decal circles)
*a sequined, black and rainbow decorated folding fan
*a table-purse-hook
*a pencil set with eight decorated pencils, two erasers shaped like adorable foods, and a cute sharpener
*a postcard from the San Diego Zoo
*a smiling sunflower sticker/pencil/eraser set
*a cherries (jubilee!) reusable shopping bag
*a mini Ty beanie unicorn
*a rainbow handwoven keychain
*are you still reading? How can this list be possible?
*a sheet of puffy floral stickers
*a sheet of prismatic butterfly stickers
*a rainbow owls pocket
AND *a sheet of rainbow pony stickers
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginI never managed to get a photograph of everything together. It was just--too much!
~*~
So then, as if that wasn't enough, she also included two things she'd found in thrift stores and hoped I'd like. As I'm a huge fan of She-Ra and cartoon bed linens, it was a given! I LOVED THEM!
I got a Sweet Bee figure from She-Ra and a beautiful Smurfs flat sheet.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginOh! And, and, and!
She also included some stones and crystals. Two of the crystals are from giant amethyst geodes, I can tell, but I'm not sure what the third is. It is a cluster of kinda ambery-brown growths.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginSo then, at long last, three hours of gift opening later, we've come to the ponies. ;D
I'm extraordinarily happy with them, too.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginSnowcatcher in the box! I missed her when she was released and am *super* happy to have her to add to my MIB G4s.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginMy first G2 babies!! Dart and Dash. I don't know anything about them but they are ridiculously cute.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginLovely, lovely Windy.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginLi'l Pocket (She's a bit embarrassed that she spent that spare change of hers. Probably on ponies like me.)
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginThere are no ponies ON EARTH I enjoy spa days with more than Perfume Puffs. Jupiter sent me two! Lavender Lace *and*.....
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginDarling Sweet Suds!
And then, because this box was huge and I'm not kidding when I say that Jupiter packed it to the brim, there was EVEN MORE...
Safely tucked away in the owl folder was a Dutch My Little Pony Advertisement! It is in pristine condition and came from a magazine somewhere. It is so, so, so thrilling to have.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginAnd there was a bag of
accessories, too, which to an accessories junkie like me is like having a bag of diamonds floating around in your swap box.
visitors can't see pics , please
register or
loginThree scrumptious pieces of birthday cake along with the cake platter, some party plates and mugs, noise makers and party hats, even the pin the tail on the pony game and two of the paper invitations. A box of pony diapers and a pink saddle and a G3 brush, too. I was in heaven.
But see that rainbow awning in the middle of the picture? Imagine it bathed in light and accompanied by a heavenly choir singing because that is
the last piece of Paradise Estate I needed to complete my personal PE. SHE FOUND ME THE LAST PIECE I NEEDED!!!!!
Let me put that, the phenomenal treasure of my swap box, into perspective.
I've been a longtime collector but I only joined the Arena about a year and a half ago in the hopes that, somehow, I'd find a rainbow awning (along with a few other small items I needed) to complete a Paradise Estate I'd found and restored. I found everything else *but* that awning. It was my signature line, that awning request, for well over a year and finally I kinda gave up on it and decided to take my mind off of my PE for awhile. And here, in the ultimate of Wishlist swap fulfillment, I got that single piece I've been *dying* to find from my partner. It was incredible. She could have sent me a box of shredded recycling paper and that awning and I would have been on the floor in shock and delight and happiness and gratitude and instead, it was just one tiny piece of an AMAZING giant swap box.
I'm on Cloud Nine. Cloud Pony, anyways.
Jupiter, you're the best. <3 I owe you--big time.