THIS BOTTLE'S FOR YOU MOM

I had a dream. I did. I was so excited about this swap I just couldn't wait until tomorrow!


A few nights ago I dreamed about my Mother. True story here: We had been foolishly estranged for a couple of years and were in the process of mending our fragile relationship and she had been ill but was on her way in 1988 via Amtrak to visit me for Thanksgiving in northern California. She became sicker along the way and had to be taken to a hospital in Tucson. I made it down there but only spent about an hour with her and never got to make my amends before she died. I have tortured myself for years over this but I got the idea of a Mother's Day swap while dreaming of her last night and don't have any REAL sister so just couldn't wait to tell all you bloggy sisters about it and I just hope lots of you will want to be a part of it with me. I think it will be a sweet way for all of us to pay homage and tribute to our Mother with our blogger friends. We will be honoring each other's Mother whether she is with us here on earth or just with us in our hearts.

Well girls I recently participated in a Bottle Swap and had so much fun hosting the Bunny Swap that I decided to do another swap but one using bottles! If you've never sent a bottle through the US Mail you're in for some fun. We'll be using regular clear plastic 2-litre bottles with the labels off. Your goodies go in the bottle and you attach your mailing label and your return address label and send it directly like that. No box to put it in. Just send the bottle. Keep in mind as with all packages the weight. The more it weighs the more it costs. So try to not fill it with heavy objects. Who wants metal when you can have lace anyway! teehee

So before I show you how to cut your bottles for inserting the stuff, let me tell you about the theme I have in mind:

What I would like to do is for us to fill our bottles with whatever we think our OWN Mother would like. Things that describe her personality whether she is here or in heaven. Little things such as puzzles if she like working puzzles, knitting if she was a knitter, jewelry if she was a bling-bling type gal and you get the drift? Also we can put a little story about her in the bottle and maybe a photo and our partners can get to know who our mother is/was. Then when we do our Mother's Day post about our real Mother we can also honor our "other mother" (the Mom of our partner). Sound like fun? I just really miss being able to do something for my mother and I'd love to share with my swap partner things about my Mama and what made her unique.

Soooooooooooo are you in? Good. Now here is a little picture of the four bottles I recently sent out in another swap before Easter just to give you ideas (they look like they were all shreds but really had lots of tiny elements in them) but these were smaller than a 2-litre and you're really challenged to find things to put in the smaller bottles so let's all stick with the big ones.

Now this is how you cut your bottles and get them ready for the mail.
STEP 1: Wash your bottle and remove the label and let it dry inside. Put the lid on tightly after it dries.


STEP 2:with a Sharpie marker make your cutting lines about 3" down on both sides and all across the bottom (which makes a flap shape)and with your exacto knife cut down both vertical lines


STEP 3: the trickiest part here is to cut a long piece of clear, wide packing tape and lay it down the center of the bottle so when you cut the horizontal line you will have a "handle" to hold onto while filling the bottle, because without this piece of tape the flap once cut will want to snap inside the bottle!


STEP 4:Now you can lift up on the bottom end of the tape and carefully hold it up while you're cutting across the bottom line. NOTE: If you are totally confused there are U-Tube videos showing bottle swaps by Yoliebean.


STEP 5:You can hold onto the tape while you insert your goodies


STEP 6: If you want to add tissue paper or shreds to make it prettier or to protect something, now is the time to do it. Then you will want to have everything assembled and at your fingertips and start to add your treasures and when the bottle is filled you simple start taping the clear tape over all your cut lines. The tighter the bottle is filled the better it will ship. And when the bottle is secure you tape down a large "label" of plain or decorative paper to cover all the messiness of the tape and to that you attach the to and from labels. Be sure to mark bold on your labels TO and FROM because the post office has been known to send the bottle back to you (after all they do not know who is who) because the labels are fairly close together. And that is that.
Take it to the post office and they weigh it like everything else and put your postage sticker on and off it goes. Watch them put the postage sticker on so you know they have it above the recipient and not to the sender! When your partner receives her bottle she will remove the label and cut the tape off and retrieve her surprises the same way you put them in.

OK so if everyone is clear on how to stuff your bottle and mail it and what the theme is then you can get to work on yours. But wait a minute....First we have to have a partner, so today is Saturday April the 10th and we will begin signing up and this swap will have equal partner to partner so if Mary has Jane as a partner then Jane has Mary as a partner. As I list the partners it will be up to you to each get in touch with your partner and get their addresses for mailing.

You have one week to sign up and Partners will be assigned here next Sun.Apr.18. I will send out one email reminder on Wednesday April the 28th. You will have two weeks to work on your bottle and Bottles should go out in the mail no later than Saturday May the 1st. Mother's Day is Sunday May 9 and we can post our bottles that day as we pay tribute to our own Mother.

I am going to TRY to have Mister MckLinky working properly for this swap but in case we have problems; he and I, then I ask that you leave me comments and list your NAME, your E-MAIL ADDRESS and your BLOG URL. No more confusing swaps in mizmollye's world! Thank you.

If anyone has questions please email me at dixiegardenself@yahoo.com

Thanks and Happy Bottle Swapping, mizmollye