Random long weekend post (Mail 1.3)

A couple weeks ago my mom and I went on a total baking extravaganza. I kept meaning to post some pics of the products of our labor, but I never got around to it. Until now.

My first attempt at cinnamon buns and they turned out great. Delicious!!

Donuts... so good with a sticky glaze on them.

Lemon-raspberry loaf, ala Starbucks. It tastes pretty danged close!! (Only I made the icing too thin, but at least I know for next time)

My world famous chocolate chip cookies. This one flipped over as I took them off the pan, and it looks happy!!

My very first attempt at cheesecake, and it turned out pretty good! I think I baked it a few minutes too long but it still tasted pretty good. (That crack in the middle bothered me though...)

We also made some buns (white and brown), perishky (rolls filled with sausage), and fudge. Our kitchen smelled so good, and there was no room on the counters by the time we were done making stuff. Usually I'm not motivated to make so many things in one shot but sometimes I just get the urge.


Mail the past few weeks has been pretty few and far between. But I got a lovely letter inside this card from my friend Steph, who is living in Ontario for the summer.

A couple of postcrossing cards that I got this week. I didn't take any pictures of my outgoing, because it was only a couple of letters and a postcrossing card.

I also received my first Etsy purchase this week!!

Swirly ivy stationery

Pretty butterfly stationery. These were ordered from wevegotpaper, who has some fantastic stuff!

Check out all the extras she threw in! How great! I was seriously so excited to open it.

My cat had kittens a few weeks ago. They are sooo cute!! This is my baby Charley. I don't know if it's a girl or a boy yet, so I figure Charley works for both haha.

I got my hair cut on Friday, and my hairdresser always has fun styling it after. I don't think you can see the braid on the top of my head, but it was super cute! Sigh, I love getting my hair done.

Happy May long, everyone!

Why does this have to be the rotten branch?

I had a sad day yesterday. I'll probably be sad for a few more weeks to come.

Last night my church had a prayer meeting since Pentecost is the International Day of Prayer. Since it was also the long weekend, it wasn't very packed, but I think that was okay.

I was with my cell group. What a wonderful group of ladies, whom I love ever so dearly.

We prayed about a lot of different things throughout the evening. The Holy Spirit was clearly present and speaking, because everything I prayed about and received proved itself a mere half hour after I left the church.

My friend got a picture for me at one point. It was a picture of a tree that was growing lots of fruit. It was healthy and alive, with lots of branches growing on it. There was a branch that just started growing out of the tree, and before it got very big I just cut it off, even though it looked fine. When I did, it turned rotten. As soon as she told me this, I knew what it meant but I didn't want to believe it. So I kept telling myself otherwise.

Another thing we prayed about was to receive gifts of the Spirit. I asked for the gift of discernment. As soon as I did, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to deny my instincts anymore.

The past few weeks my instincts (or the Holy Spirit) have been telling me something. I kept denying it. I thought it was my own fear speaking. A half hour after I left the church, I realized that it wasn't fear. It was truth.

And now I am sad. And I didn't want things to turn out this way. And I cried while I was brushing my teeth because it sucks.

Mail-Time "Monday" 1.2

Yes, apparently I fail at doing this on Mondays. At least I'm doing it on Tuesday this time!

Incoming: 

 
Postcard from Deana. I hooked up with her on the postcrossing forum, where she had this great idea - we all get blank postcards every so often, but they're always more fun when there's something to read, too. So we sent each other 10 blank cards, and now we're getting our own cards back in the mail, but with fun added. I think it's great - I don't even have to stock up on cards for this! I can be very greedy with awesome cards that I have, so I like getting them back :D

Happy birthday to me! My birthday is in a couple of weeks, and I got this lovely card from Starbucks, entitling me to a free drink! That is why I like Starbucks.

(Yes, it was a rather sad mail week. Only one real piece of mail. *sniffle*)

Outgoing:

A letter to my lovely friend Callie. What do you think of my envelope from Timmy's? It's kind of thin, but I think it'll hold up.

(For you American readers, Canadians live on Tim Hortons. Apparently your version is Dunkin' Donuts, but I think Timmy's is a bigger deal for us. The top 3 most Canadian things are hockey, poutine, and Tim Horton's. It's not the best, but I like it is because: a) we don't have a Starbucks in my town, and b) it's open 24 hours, which is great for late night coffee runs with friends.)

Reply to Deana. She had some really cool cards to exchange.

Reply to Marta. She sent me a lovely postcrossing card last week.


That's all folks. I hope to get some more letters written this week. I have the week off of work, so it seems pretty possible.

I started my summer job last week. I'm working at a printers, and my job is coiling school agendas. It's very exciting (not). They hire a bunch of students to work specifically for that job, so that the full time staff can keep doing regular work. Apparently they are usually doing agendas full swing by now, but this year their orders were late, and the inventory isn't in yet. So last week my group started production on other jobs. I did maps for a couple days, and one day I did French educational booklets. Thursday we did French agendas, and then we got to stuff them with those divider tabs and bookmarks. When we finished that job, we had officially run out of work. So I get the week off, or until the inventory comes in and they're ready to go. They're expecting to be going by Monday, and I really hope that's the case. It's really boring, sitting and coiling books all day, but I'm pretty good at it already. Plus I get to listen to my iPod all day - my poor, 3 year old, 4GB iPod Nano that has had water dumped on it and still serves me faithfully. Actually, the sucky thing is that I have over 20GB of music on my computer. It's very hard to pick and chose what I want on it. It takes me about 2 hours to get a good mix of my favorites and new stuff to sync. Hopefully within a month I'll be able to purchase a new iPod with more memory - 32 or 64GB, even? Anyway, I'm sure that a stream of new music will keep me going! So I appreciate any music recommendations!

I finally have my final grades for the winter semester of school! An A+, A, B+, and a B! Haha, I just realized that they go in order when I typed it! Go me! :D Anyway, I thought I was totally going to bomb my classes, but apparently I did really good!

My cousin is getting married this weekend, and they are doing the coolest thing (that I'm not even going to pretend I won't use for my own wedding). Instead of spending a lot of money on catered food, they asked a bunch of their aunts and friends to bring cheesecakes for a dessert reception! I am extremely a little bit nervous because I told my mom I would try to bake one, so she wouldn't have to go out and buy one. But I have never baked a cheesecake before. I'll be doing my research before I attempt it tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Mail-Time Monday? 1.1

Yes, it's Saturday. Which is almost Monday again. I had the post half finished on Monday but I had to leave the computer. I haven't sat down with time to write again until today. Soooo here is my mail from last week.

Incoming:

 
Is this Laurel & Hardy postcard not the greatest? I absolutely love them!! This card is from my pen pal Gerlinda, who lives in Norway.

Postcrossing card from Turkey.

Postcrossing card from Poland.

A lovely letter from Margarita, who lives in the Netherlands. Check out these awesome stamps!!

Back of the envelope, and a couple postcards she included.



Outgoing:

A first letter to Belen. I put some scrapbook paper on one side of the picture, which was an ad I got from a magazine.

The envelope. Made from scrapbook paper. Definitely my new favorite thing.

Outgoing postcrossing cards.

Last weekend my boyfriend and I went to comic books shops, and we got some free comics. I decided to make envelopes from mine, and he said he wouldn't be upset with me for doing so if he got one. So I made one for him.

The contents of the awesome package. I made him some mix cds, and I made the cases out of some empty cardboard boxes. Super easy and super cool, in my opinion.


That's it for my mail this week. I'm going to sit down and get some more ready for mail-time Monday, and I'll actually do it one Monday next week!!