Swapsies and the Month of Purple

Today I received two packages in the post. One was from Marie in Brussels and the other was from an eBay seller. The contents of both parcels are pictured below.


The two Maybelline eyeliners are my part of the "Gimme Your Stuff" swap with Marie as she's been frantically searching for this eyeliner in a specific shade (iced chestnut) for some time and it appears to have been discontinued or at the very least extremely scarce on the ground! I tried all of the usual places to no avail and then found not one, but two, on eBay!

Marie's part of the swap was to send me the lovely crocheted spring flowers bracelet that she made with the finest crochet cotton. The coloured parts of the petals on the crocheted flowers are actually composed of tiny little beads so, as you can imagine, it's very intricate. Marie also sent me the cute card picturing the cat playing with a ball of yarn. Thanks, Marie! The eyeliners will be packed and sent to Brussels first thing in the morning.

July is Project Spectrum's violet and purple month and so, being as these are among my favourite colours anyway, I thought it was a good enough excuse to make a necklace in purples.


Nathalie at the Pink Palace is getting new beads in all of the time and I noticed these very attractive new glass ones last time I visited and couldn't resist. The photo below probably shows the beads off better.


Knitting-wise, I'm still plugging away at the Beaded Lace Scarf and am almost finished another hat for the charity craft fair (the Beehive hat) in some of the donated yarn. The new Knitty is up and I've decided to make these for my One Skein Secret Pal and I rather like the look of this, too.

Now I have a question for you. Well, on Tuesday I had my teeth cleaned and polished by the dentist and I'm now the proud owner of sparkling white gnashers. I've decided to stop drinking tea, coffee and red wine (all beverages that stain the teeth) and haven't had any since Tuesday. It was quite funny because, after leaving the dentist, I went into the village deli to waste some time whilst waiting for the bus and automatically ordered a coffee which I then had to ask if they'd mind changing to a herbal tea! Since then, I've been drinking herbal teas, mostly chamomile and peppermint, and lots of water and the odd Bacardi Breezer. I do have some fruit teas in the cupboard but, to be honest, I can see that I'm very quickly going to get bored with fruit and herbal teas! I'm not keen on drinking too much squash and fruit juice is apparently over acidic for the teeth unless diluted. Fizzy drinks can also often contain acids that eat into the enamel of the teeth so what am I to drink?