Secret Santa from Estonia

For those who do not know, I am a proud member of THE EUROPEAN STREET TEAM - a team of 300+ Etsy sellers who's skills range from metal work, jewellry making, sewing, sculpture... and this is just the start.

Every year one of our members, ARTMIND organizes a Secret Santa project and sends out a huge list of questions to all want-to-be participants. Then she receives the questionaires and does her best to put two and two together, finding the best matches for the year.

I'm not sure I was a great questionaire-filler-upper. I tend to try to live my life as a 'minimalistic' type of person. I don't collect things other than books and ideas (and at the moment I am considering to get rid of most of my books.... but think maybe, just maybe one day my kids might want to browse through them - tough decisions), and if there are any changes in my life that I'm working on it's getting out more, meeting people more, experiencing new things more.

I am also allergic to most perfumes and animals.

So I'm not an easy person to shop for if you don't know me well.

But - Mitsy from ARTMIND did a great job and matched me with a great woman from Estonia.





I got the package about a week before Christmas. And boy was I looking forward to it. Many other of my team members had been receiving theirs, some opening the packages right away, some waiting patiently until Christmas. I myself opened the package right away - I live by the rule that if the present does not come from a blood relative, and there's no one around to stop you (hubby was at work) then it's fair game.

The parcel came fromJelena, who runs the Etsy shop: LARIATA. I had seen her now and then when chatting with team members in our own private forums, but had not had the chance to actually get to know her very well. She works with beads, and does some amazing cluster bead work. Her shop is one that should be checked out, definitely!

Here's the goodies peeking out...... oh.... what can it be?

Some local chocolate! Good call! Chocolate and coffee are definitely my drugs of choice and I always enjoy tasting these treats from other areas of the world.

And some really cool, antique styled bookmarks with some stunning clustered bead decorations. These are already in use (I tend to read 3 - 7 books at the same time, in a pile on the floor beside my bed....) and work really well.

And the chocolate was gone before Christmas arrived, though I did manage to spread it out over a few days. :)

Much appreciation to Jelena! And much appreication to MITSY - another good job done with the SECRET SANTA. I very much like the idea that I am thinking of a new friend off in the distance, over the horizon every night before I go to sleep. A very good way of bringing people together.