New friends!

So it took a bit longer than I anticipated, but Faith's swappity swap package finally made its way to her mailbox in faraway Washington. It arrived late because my house (and more importantly, my street) looked like this the day it was supposed to be mailed:




I was driving my mom's PT Cruiser that day and it's just not made for driving in that much snow. Here's what had built up in Eric's and Ben's trucks* overnight:




We've actually had about six more inches of snow since these pictures were taken, but these little pretties finally made it to the West Coast as a belated Valentine's present:




Here's Faith's very flattering post on their arrival. They say the best gifts are the ones you would be happy to receive yourself, so I tried to keep that in mind as I was putting it together. Amanda, our bold and intrepid swap organizer, did a good job matching us up, since evidently we're two peas in a pod!

And speaking of other neat new friends, I have been perusing Kersten's blog A Grain A Day since she was my swap partner and made the lovely apron and eye pillow that I have been putting to good use this past week. I'm always interested in learning more about healthy living and eating (although the red velvet whoopie pies** I made last night suggest that I don't necessarily always put what I know into practice. But moving on...), so I'm excited to read up on her blog and learn more about what exactly a macrobiotic diet entails and what the benefits are. If it means giving up cheese I probably could not make it as a macrobiotist***, but I'm always game to learn something. Thanks again, Kersten!


* Eric and Ben are my brother and cousin. They're my current housemates, although once I move into the CB we'll still be neighbors, since the CB is right next door to the house I currently live in. Had I mentioned that? At least it should make moving easy. Or it would if we didn't have 18" of snow on the ground....
** fantastic recipe from littlebrownpen, although I think next time I'll only use about a half a stick of butter in the filling instead of a whole stick. I know - it makes me shudder a little, too, but oh man, are they good.
*** I just made that word up. I'm not sure what one calls a person who eats a macrobiotic diet, but if I learn the answer from Kersten's blog, I'll be sure to share.