candy for breakfast

this morning, i arrived at work with some tea, a slice of banana bread, some clementines, and a splitting headache. holy god, my head hurt! and then my computer crashed almost immediately upon booting up. fortunately, i also arrived to find a box with my name on it! this always makes monday easiery to swallow. when i did the first knitter's tea swap, i ended up in a little triumverate of swapping with allegra and laura, which worked out beautifully for all 3 of us! so, when the second swap rolled around, the three of us decided to do our own thing rather than join up. we came up with or own version of a hot chocolate and book swap that included some yarn, a mug, and various other little things. we reversed our giving order, and had at it--today i got my box from laura, and it was filled with delight! it contained some high quality cocoa, some hot chocolate mixes, a mug and saucer, some feltable yarn in a yummy pink color, some homemade pear ginger jam (YUM!), a copy of interweave knit's scarf style (which i just added to my amazon wish list the other day), scone mix, and some other little treats i know i am forgetting. (there's a picture of the whole haul here.) oh, and there's this:

these two caramel-colored beauties are the best part of the whole package! i loved everything, but these two pieces are just over the top. the antique amber dessert plate is just lovely. and more amazing still is the skein of handspun yarn that laura made. for me. the color is called maple sugar candy, and it SO IS! the richness of it is not clear in this picture, but it was the best i could do with office lighting. it's just beautiful. i am going to have to do some serious thinking about what this, my first handspun yarn ever, will become.

thank-you so much laura, for making my day! i still can't believe you managed to put anything together with so much going on at your house, but i am sure glad you did! :)