Freelance Gift Swap!

[SouthernFriedJulie]

It's that time of year again!

The Semi-Annual Freelance Holiday Gift Swap!
(semi-annual because we missed last year-duh me)


Ok, this is how it works:



Comment in THIS thread if you are joining in.
Email me with your email address- my PMs filled up last time and I do NOT want to miss anyone. writingallnight AT gmail DOT com
Be willing to spend $25-no more. Shipping does not count towards the gift amount.
Indicate in your email to me if you can ship only in your country so I can pair you with someone local or if you can ship internationally.
Be aware that you are commiting to send a gift. If you do not, someone will be without a gift from the swap and that isn't cool.


PLEASE understand that all religions are welcome. No religion? join in,too! Religious references of any kind are not acceptable - except in your email to me indicating if you are comfortable with religious gifts. I will pair people with like-minded beliefs if indicated in the email - if you're comfortable with any religion or no religion- let me know, too.

After your initial email, I will send you an email form that has areas for you to list your likes and dislikes to give your Secret Swapper a better idea of how to shop for you.

Please scroll down to the form!!

I am pairing Secret Swappers until November 15th. This will allow ample time for shopping and shipping. Because of holiday shipping times, unless everyone has their gifts in hand before 12/31/2009- Please do not post pictures or thank you's. I will make an official Gift Opening thread as soon as everyone has received their gift!





I added the form here to streamline this. Just fill it out, email it to me and add in your religious preference if you have or do not have one and comfort level to the form.



AW Gift Swap Form
Thank you for participating! You will be sent your Giftee as soon as the join-up period closes. Your participation may be the only holiday cheer some receive this year- thank you for being a bright spot in someone's day this season.

On to the form!


Your AW forum name:

Your real name:

Shipping address:

Your e-mail:

What are you interested in the most?

Anything you love or collect?

Favorite colors:

Favorite scents:

Any books you would like?

Are DIY items okay?: (crafts, food, anything handmade)

Allergies or health conditions that prohibit certain foods or chemicals in popular gifts?:

Anything you DO NOT want to receive:

[stldenise]

Yippee! Thanks for tackling this for us! Sounds like fun.

[jeffo]

oooh, oooh!

:hi:

Pick me, pick me!

(I'm in) :)

[Angie]

Ooh, me too! :D

[plaidearthworm]

Yay, sounds like fun! Count me in, and I'll actually have a reason to be jolly this season!
:)

[backslashbaby]

Sounds fun! I'd like to join, please :)

[FreelanceKen]

I'm in. :)

[tpridgen]

Oooh, me me!

[michellek]

I'm here to join!

Count me in!

I just e-mailed you!

This is so fun!

[SouthernFriedJulie]

Ok, everyone has their email sent to them. If you're just joining up- please read the first post and copy the form to your email to me!

[SouthernFriedJulie]

3 more days to join in!

Backslah, you still haven't sent your info...do you still want to be in?

[wyntermoon]

I'm in!

[plaidearthworm]

Just sent in my form--I thought I had already done it. Yes, I am a moron, albeit a scatterbrained one. Oops, I shouldn't say 'brains' right below wyntermoon;her Nano zombies may invade my message. ;)

[backslashbaby]

Oops, I missed this earlier. I did send it, but I will resend as we speak :) Make sure to check your spam filter if you don't see anything.

ETA: Done :) It's a FW now, from a hotmail.co.uk addy. Let me know if I need to try another way.

[eric11210]

Just noticed this thread and sent mine in today. I hope I'm not too late and I hope someone doesn't mind shipping all the way here. BTW, I indicated what I'd like to send in my e-mail to you, so if you know of someone who would appreciate that kind of thing, let me know.

Eric

[SouthernFriedJulie]

:-) Got it this morning and I am pretty sure I have more than one joinee that can ship international.

[SouthernFriedJulie]

Alrighty, folks. Thank you for joining up. I have everyone sorted and will send info out shortly.

[stldenise]

Hey guys! I'm having a hard time picking out a gift for my swap. My person was a little too vague. By a show of hands, who thinks that a box of nice chocolates would make a good generic gift? Would anyone with kids have a hard time keeping that to herself?

[backslashbaby]

I think a nice box of chocolates always works :) I got one one Valentine's Day that I'd given up candy for Lent so I couldn't even eat it, but it made me really popular among the folks near me :D

[jeffo]

mmMMmm... chocolate...

[eric11210]

Only issue with chocolate is if your person is diabetic (BTW, whoever has me, I'm diabetic, so if you send me chocolate I'll just give it to friends).

Eric

[stldenise]

So are we all opening gifts at the same time, or just when ever?

[Still Seaking]

This sucks! I've been out of the realm for quite a while, I get back in and find out I've missed this and it would've been so much fun! Julie, I'm in for next year and any other social activities done. I think it'd be nice if we could have some get togethers over the country for Absolute Write, not like conventions just like whoever wants to meet at a restaurant or some one's house. I'd love to have something at my house, maybe I'll be in a big enough place next year and if there are any fellow AWers out there near me, we can all get together and open our gifts, take pictures and what not....

Can you tell I haven't socialized in a while! The one drawback to working for yourself, at least in my case I see only my family and me.

[plaidearthworm]

OK, sending off my gift tomorrow! Whew, I hope the giftee likes it! :)

[jeffo]

Okay, now I know something's up.

I haven't received my person yet...

[backslashbaby]

I'm going to post here when I get mine. I'll probably wait till Xmas to open it :D Mine that I'm giving has a long way to go... wish it luck, lol :)

[eric11210]

This sucks! I've been out of the realm for quite a while, I get back in and find out I've missed this and it would've been so much fun! Julie, I'm in for next year and any other social activities done. I think it'd be nice if we could have some get togethers over the country for Absolute Write, not like conventions just like whoever wants to meet at a restaurant or some one's house. I'd love to have something at my house, maybe I'll be in a big enough place next year and if there are any fellow AWers out there near me, we can all get together and open our gifts, take pictures and what not....

Can you tell I haven't socialized in a while! The one drawback to working for yourself, at least in my case I see only my family and me.

In that spirit, if any of you are ever visiting in Israel, feel free to be in touch.

And my giftee's gift will be going out tomorrow. Sorry if it gets there late. I've just been obscenely busy.

Eric

[upsidedowngrl]

Is there still an option for me to join. I just discovered this post and would love to join in.

[stldenise]

Has everyone finished their shopping yet? I know I was waiting for my Tues. DS payment to get some Christmas stuff...including my gifty for this swap. I just checked the website I plan to shop at and it said they could guarentee Christmas delivery with standard shipping up to the 18th.

So if you haven't gotten something yet, don't panic. Your gift exchange person might be like me and trying to get you something closer to the big 25.

I hope we don't have to post photos on the gift opening thread...my husband notice my gift sitting on the kitchen counter and tore into it. And then we ate most of it during movie night. I have no will power, none at all.

[plaidearthworm]

Yay, my giftee received the package yesterday! Thank you, delivery confirmation, LOL. I just hope everything was intact!

[michellek]

There is no gift in my box :(

I think someone forgot about me :(

[SouthernFriedJulie]

There is no gift in my box :(

I think someone forgot about me :(

I hope not. Going to go check who had you, but be patient, mail is slow this time of year.


I do want to address something- if you do not get your gift, it may not be your Gifter's fault. There have been packages stolen in the FedEx, UPS, and USPS system. Anyone that has been doing reviews this season may know about this.

[wyntermoon]

MichelleK, I haven't gotten mine either. Not worried a bit about it though, 'tis the season for last minute shipping! :)

[eric11210]

Just for the record, I have not received my gift and Hanukkah is now over. Not that I'm worried either. I figured it would take a while to get here. Similarly, my giftee unfortunately should not expect to get his gift in time (sorry) since it was only mailed a few days ago. However, I hope you'll still like it even after Christmas.

Eric

[stldenise]

I sent my gift out on Friday, should get there in time!

[backslashbaby]

I think it's fun having something to open later :) I used to save one present to stretch things out, lol.

[tpridgen]

I *just* mailed mine today. I wanted to mail it as close to the actual holiday as possible. So...hopefully it'll get cross-country by Thursday. USPS says 2 days, so hopefully that'll be the case.

[stldenise]

Well my package arrived today. It made good time, mailed it Friday, got there on Monday. Not bad!

[stldenise]

I just wanted to say thank you to Julie for setting this up! And Merry Christmas to all! :TheWave:

I'm one of those people who doesn't get a lot of gifts under the tree anymore. It's really no surprise: I'm an only, so there's no siblings for me; my grandparents aren't around anymore (it's ok, 2 of them made it into their 80's); and my husband's family are all out of state. We get together at Thanksgiving and pass out some gifts just for the kids. So at Christmas it's just my little family and my parents. My kids are too young to shop (though I think I'm getting some interesting bit of woodcraft from my Cub Scout) and my hubby and I came to an agreement to not exchange gifts years ago. My friends don't exchange gifts because there's too many of us who know each other through Scouts and PTA. I don't work out of the house anymore, so there's no office party here either. (And hubby doesn't work for a company that splurges on office parties with spouses.)

So this gift exchange through my writer friends was fun. I hope everybody got something interesting and we should definitely put this in our calendars to do again next year.

[SouthernFriedJulie]

Awwww, shucks. :e2grouphu

[plaidearthworm]

I received my gift on Sat., just in time for the Solstice! It was wonderful!

[tpridgen]

Shall we share?

I made out pretty good. stldenise picked out a flameless candle and some chocolate for me. The candle is going to work out great because I have cats and a small child who seem to be drawn to flames. At least this way I won't have to worry about them burning the house down. (And yes, it really does scent the house when you turn it on.) The chocolates, well, I've already started tearing into those. I've had to hide, though, because every time I rustle a wrapper a three-year-old comes running.

Thanks, Denise!

[michellek]

I just wanted to say thank you to Tiffany in North Carolina. I really appreciate my gift. You are a sweetie! I love it! Thank you so much!

You rock!

- Michelle
www.visitmichelleonline.com (http://www.visitmichelleonline.com)

[stldenise]

Shall we share?

I made out pretty good. stldenise picked out a flameless candle and some chocolate for me. The candle is going to work out great because I have cats and a small child who seem to be drawn to flames. At least this way I won't have to worry about them burning the house down. (And yes, it really does scent the house when you turn it on.) The chocolates, well, I've already started tearing into those. I've had to hide, though, because every time I rustle a wrapper a three-year-old comes running.

Thanks, Denise!

Glad you like it! I've got a toddler myself, so I thought a flameless candle might be fun. I got this one at Target if anyone is looking for one!

I opened my gift early -- I got a collection of Dove chocolate from MichelleK. Thanks!

[wyntermoon]

I received my gifts today, thank you so much! :D They're perfect!

[Angie]

Are we revealing? I received mine a few days ago but was waiting for the "official" reveal thread to give my public thanks. ;)

[eric11210]

I finally got mine today. Thanks Chris. It's lovely. I hope you got yours or do get yours shortly. If it doesn't come, let me know and I'll hunt down the receipt with the tracking number.

It turns out BTW that Chris and I both sent each other glass. . .and just in case she didn't get hers yet, I'll leave it at that.

Eric

[backslashbaby]

Oooh! That's me :) I'm so glad you got yours fine. I was afraid of breakage. I'll let you know as soon as I get mine. Half the time with overseas packages, they forget to leave a slip and I have to chase them down. I'll let the Post Office know to re-check.

I'm sorry I couldn't add any info about yours. It's from an estate sale and just caught my eye for you :)

[eric11210]

Oooh! That's me :) I'm so glad you got yours fine. I was afraid of breakage. I'll let you know as soon as I get mine. Half the time with overseas packages, they forget to leave a slip and I have to chase them down. I'll let the Post Office know to re-check.

I'm sorry I couldn't add any info about yours. It's from an estate sale and just caught my eye for you :)

Well it may be delayed also because for some odd reason the Israeli post office told me not to put a customs declaration on the package. It should still go through, but it would mean that customs is more likely to open it for inspection.

Like I said, if it doesn't show up in another week or two, I'm pretty sure I kept the receipt and I know I paid extra for tracking, so hopefully I can find it.

Eric

[Angie]

Are we revealing? I received mine a few days ago but was waiting for the "official" reveal thread to give my public thanks. ;)

Well, I reckon I'll just post my thanks here. Thanks, plaidearthworm!! I got a really nifty box with notebooks, pens, calendars with tropical island pictures so I can pretend there's not a twenty-inch layer of snow on the ground with more coming down, and a very cool caffeine containment device (also known as a coffee mug). You're a great Santa! :D

[backslashbaby]

:D :D I got mine today!! Eric sent me a gorgeous glass art piece, hand-done in Israel. Thank you so much!! I love it :D

[wyntermoon]

And I'll give a heartfelt thank you to Angie who shares my love of the Undead! The Zen of Zombie is perfect and a copy of the Working Writer's Planner is already busy with use. Thank you, sweetie!!

[Angie]

And I'll give a heartfelt thank you to Angie who shares my love of the Undead! The Zen of Zombie is perfect and a copy of the Working Writer's Planner is already busy with use. Thank you, sweetie!!

Hehe, I had to order my own copy of the writer's planner after sending one to you - it looked just too cool. And I might have to get my own copy of Zen too - this is why shopping is dangerous for me, lol.

Glad you liked them! :D

[SouthernFriedJulie]

Hey guys, sorry for not starting a reveal thread. It's been crazy here. My house is literally crumbling under our feet and over our heads. Found a new place, just working my tail off to raise the cash for the move.

I'm glad everyone got their gifts (or will be soon)

[Angie]

No problem, Julie. Take care of what you need to take care of. We've got this handled. ;)