Having Fun, But Just A Bit Red!

Wow, what a nice ... yet embarrassing ... evening!
Tonight I met up with my friends Tim, Carolyn, and Karla at the monthly Ceilidh (pronounced "Kay-Lee") event that the local SCA hosts for several months each year. Tonight was to be a feasting, White Elephant Gift Exchange (WEGE) party. I learned that they define WEGE much differently then I do!
As I understand it: a WEGE is a "recycled" gift under $5.00. I was extra excited because I was able to locate everything in my own home (which means I spent no money ~ which is great right now because I'm sans a job at the moment). I had the opportunity to come up with three gifts total since two of the people I was going with did not have anything. In the first gift I put together two mixes (fudge brownies and German chocolate cake mixes from a box) with a square aluminum cake pan, the second gift I placed into a large Jones Soda Co. box ... it contained a soda pop holder - the kind that fits in the fridge - and 6 diet soda's (2 were Diet Rite, and the other 4 were Diet Jones Cola ... all with Splenda and no aspartame). The third gift (and one I thought was rather spiffy) was a clean folgers plastic coffee can with a nice Christmas card and a two-sided brochure both with detailed instructions for a 4' x 4' square foot garden plus 10 seed packets all to create a small Salad Garden. I was thrilled ... i thought I had done quite well!
Um .... guess again!
So I was the second to have my name drawn and I went up, found a goldish draw string bag and brought that back to my seat. Inside were four hand cut gold napkins (matching the HAND SEWN bag) and an almost full set of wooden feasting gear! A long plate with two bowls that fit inside and a huge wooden spoon.
A few names later Tim was called and he came back with a leather pouch (which I figure was probably also hand sewn) and two fist fulls of glass beads, home made! Shortly thereafter Carolyn was called and her choice was a very nicely knitted drawstring bag that contained what looked to be at least two yards of gorgeously embroidered ribbon!
The positive note (in my mind) from all this was I had been looking at some of this feasting gear about a month ago and decided that it wasn't something I could afford just now.
The not so positive feeling that came from this is that I felt like a total schmuck!!

Oh, it gets better!
The wonderfully nice couple: Stephanie and Jeff (who had picked the soda pop and cake-mix-in-a-box gifts) were the ones teaching Karla and I to make these incredibly cool metal necklace/bracelets .... which included the sharing of their metal "thread" both copper and gold coated copper wire.

The collage above shows the outfit I wore (good news: I see a waist! less than good news: I REALLY need to get back to practicing how to smile without resulting in a double chin, lol), the pretty gold bag/napkins and feasting gear I received, and a few views of the metal jewelry I've started making.
I need to pick up a 3/8's or 3/4th inch dowel to work on, some gold/copper wire, and a small board so 9 different sized holes could be drilled through it (the metal is pulled through the holes to "finalize" the shape/length of the piece). After I get the wood, I will ask one of the people from church if they could drill the holes for me as I do not have my own drill.

So, I had a wonderfully (embarrassing) night that clearly showed all in attendance just who the Newbies are!
I've been praying that there were no hard feelings from the others!