Saint Peg Doll Swaps, In Person

I recently organized some swaps of local women to paint and exchange wooden dolls painted as saints.

the giant table filled with hundreds of dolls is such an awesome sight!

I had participated before in a swap via mail, some of the ladies who were close together met and exchanged in person, but most of us just sent them and then had our set of Saint dolls sent back. It was a lot of fun and I loved it, and I wanted to add more saints to my collection, but the high cost of shipping deterred me. Then I found out there were others in my area who wanted to participate so I put out the word and quickly had over 40 people wanting to swap!

Edmonton Group

So we had a group of 20 swap in Edmonton, and the week after 20 more in  ladies were in a Calgary swap, and at the end of May, I had 25  more ladies meet to swap their dolls! It has been so much fun and yes, now my Saint doll collection is way to many, but who cares.

 

Calgary group 1

I was so excited to add the element of actually meeting and socializing with these women. I know so many moms let their girl-friends and social time sink to the bottom of their priority list, which is very understandable and I have done it myself frequently! But then the loneliness and isolation of parenting little kids in our very un-community minded society plays a part and mamas find them very unsupported and craving the support that comes from friendship and solidarity. And this was the perfect excuse to get together for fun but also for something that we had each invested a lot of time and effort and creativity into, I certainly suggest trying to make one happen in your area if you can.

I don’t only make my friends online, and this is a great way to get to know wonderful ladies in my area who have a lot in common with me! Yes for friendship and sharing faith and crafts and girls time… win win win!

My massive Saint doll collection, yes with lots of duplicates

For more on peg saints, check out Catholic Icing for LOTS of ideas, the Facebook group for USA swaps by mail is also a great resource, and other posts I have written about my own saint painting are here.