Memories of an elf

A couple of months ago, on a November afternoon and while browsing my favorite blogs, i stumbled upon a challenge, on InMyCloset.

Anna (aka Ntoulapaki), the lady behind this blog, had launched a secret gift exchange, and as it seemed extremely interesting and fun, i immediately joined it.

In the following days, Anna would send us all the necessary instructions, in a neat manner, she's quite amazing.

Somehow she managed to sort all of the participants (around 120 i think) according to our interests, hobbies and other personal info that we had previously submitted and eventually she matched all of us in pairs; and again I say, not randomly but according to each and everyone's interests (thumbs up for Anna, yay!). I repeat, the girl's amazing!

Three or four mails later, in the beginning of December, we had our own elf out there, curating a package full of handicraft goodies, especially for us! Our very own kind and caring elf, out of the blue!

Is this electricity or what?

In the same way, we were nominated as Kornilia’s elves! We’d like to believe that the items we selected for her were proper and useful!

Here is what our package looked like just before being delivered to the post office:

We haven’t heard of Kornilia since then, and a couple of days ago, after many weeks of eagerness, we were so glad watching our package getting transformed in her beautiful creations!

Kornilia really out-shined! The items she created just doubled the joy of offering a gift! 

This is what Kornilia crafted, using the yarns and felt sheets and beeds that we've sent to her:

The cutest crochet purse and a case for her crochet needles (you can tell blue is her favorite color)!

Thank you Kornilia, you’ve made our day and really you went beyond our expectations!

 
And after all this enthusiasm, it's time to check on our own little perky elf!

Her name is Elina, she lives in Athens and she really could not have done better when packing our secret Christmas gift!

Warm and fluffy yarns, knitting needles, pompoms, Christmas embellishments and a lovely wish card!
A truly gorgeous craft treasure in a box!

While digesting the golden “Derby” candy bars that Elina included in our gift box – nom nom – we came up with the idea of creating a nice and warm winter door knob ornament that could be used as a lucky charm as well, combining crochet and handmade tassels.

We really wanted to make our elf feel proud of us and happy for her selection and we must say it was a suspenseful task, in a sweet way though!

Here is a photo of the final result:

What do you think of it? Would Elina approve it? We hope so!

The exchange may have come to an end, but yet we can’t help visiting InMyCloset's facebook page on a daily basis in order to admire other elves' creations and all the cheerful comments posted there.

The whole exchange procedure, from the initial participation, the endless queues in the post office, the brainstorming, until the final craft, was really a bliss and gave a different touch to our Christmas.

For a change, this year we exchanged gifts with people we did not know at all (these "people" are now our "friends"), gifts on which we were not supposed to spend money, gifts made with extra care and generosity, and it was really worthwhile!

A big thank you to Kornilia for availing herself of the little things we sent to her!

A big thank you to Elina who prepared our package, apparently with lots of love and imagination.

A huge thank you the the mighty Hyper-Elf who made this super Xmas exchange come true, offering joy to all of us: Thank you Anna, we hope to meet you in person, sometime soon!

Being still in festive mood, I’d like to repeat our wishes for the new year: 
health, love, luck, joy and big smiles!

Cheers!

Kat