This month's presen theme is....

Floral!!

What could be nicer to cheer us all up in the cold weather, and make us excited about the start of Spring? I've made a little montage to give you all some ideas and inspiration:

Hope you have fun swapping presents! xx

New Present Swap!

Hi guys!! Since it has been so very miserable and cold (well, in London anyway), I thought it would be a lovely idea to organise another blogger present swap to cheer everybody up! Since it's been so long since the last one, I thought it would probably be easier to start from scratch, and have anyone who wants to join in sign up all over again (sorry if that's a bit inconvenient!). Here are the rules, for anyone who feels like brightening someone's day, and having their day brightened in return, by means of presents!

How does it work?
Each present swap has a theme (eg. Summer, vintage, etc.), which acts as a guideline for what to send. The theme, along with all other information, is announced on this blog, so make sure you check it! Each member is assigned a partner, and they send each other a gift based on the theme. You should also send some information about yourself and your blog (if you have one)-the idea is to get to know people from all around the world, and re-inforce friendships in the blogging community, so the information about yourself is very important! Each time the partners change around, so you can get to know as many people as possible. It will hopefully be a lovely way to make friends, be inspired, and inspire others with your lovely gifts.

Who can join?
The more, the merrier! All you need to do is send your name, email adress, blog adress (if you have one) and actual address to thesnailandthepigeon@googlemail.com, so that your partner will be able to contact you and send your present

The majority of people are bloggers, but it is by no means a requirement. The bloggers involved will be listed on The Snail and The Pigeon, and there is a button which you can display in your sidebar to show that you are participating. The idea is to create a community, but by no means an exclusive one; everyone is welcome.

We had people from all over the world participating the first couple of times we tried it, the idea is to have as many people from as many different places as possible! This map Amelia made shows all the different places around the world people joined in from before:
What should I send?

Since it should be an individual, creative project, we try to impose as few restrictions as possible. The theme is set simply to inspire you, and is usually very broad, you can interpret it in whatever way you wish. The best gifts are those with a personal touch-perhaps something homemade or customized, but of course store-bought is allowed too. Whatever your talent is-photography, sewing, crafts, anything!-I am sure it will make a lovely gift.

It is often very difficult to monitor what is sent-the mailing service is based very much on trust, and relies on people genuinely wanting to make new friends and do something creative, rather than people just hoping to get something for free. We don't want to impose any sort of arbitrary restrictions which would get in the way of creativity, so there is no price limit or anything like that. You just have to use your better judgement, and only send something you would be delighted to receive. And remember, the more creative, the better!

What should I do in case of problems?
If there are any problems (ie. you have not received a gift, you will be delayed in sending yours, etc.), it is important to communicate with your partner about it. I will try to monitor it all as much as possible, but this can sometimes be quite difficult to do. If the problem cannot be solved between partners, if you let me know the issue (just send an an email to thesnailandthepigeon@googlemail.com), I will do my best to sort it out. But please try as much as possible to sort it out between yourselves first.

Anything else?
If your gift will be late, for whatever reason, this is not a problem as long as you let your partner know. However, please sign up only if you are committed to sending a gift, so that people won't be dissapointed. If for any reason you can't participate any more, or you are too busy for one specific swap, just let me know and I'll take your name out.Let me know by email if you would like to be involved, I'll be anouncing the theme on the 1st of February!!

Love from Carys xx

VERY IMPORTANT: Sorry to be totally annoying, but I have to start membership from scratch, so even if you applied before, if you want to join in this time could you please email again? Sorry, but otherwise it would be too difficult to trace who signed up with Amelia before, and some people might end up getting left out, etc.

Images: We Heart It

Hello!!! Thanks so much to everyone who has participated-since Amelia, the organiser of The Snail And The Pigeon, is busy with schoolwork and university applications, she has been unable to continue organising the mailing service.

However, I still think it's a really lovely idea, so I have decided to start it back up again. Sorry to everyone who signed up about the rather long absence!

The whole point of the service is, however, very much based on trust: whilst I will do what I can to monitor everything, the idea relies on everyone involved to be honest, communicating with one another, and most importantly, to actually send a gift-we did have a few incidents of people sending presents, and not receiving them in return. We did a couple of trial runs back in the summer, and these made it clear that it is necessary to monitor the system a little more.

So basically, I think I will keep Amelia's lovely idea running, which sadly she was unable to continue with, but the easiest way would be to start it all over again. So that is what I shall do! I have had a number of people expressing interest, so I'll be re-vamping the blog and entire system, and I'll do another introductory post.