I HEART PACKAGES!!!

I know, all caps is really obnoxious, but I really, really love getting packages in the mail. It's amazing to me that I don't shop online more. I remember the first time that I "mail ordered" something. It was my first year of college and I ordered clothes from Au Coton. (If you know what that is, it dates us both, so I'm ok with it.) I was so excited then and I was still just as exited yesterday when this arrived in the mail.

Yay! the package that I ordered from www.PrairieBirdBoutique.etsy.com arrived! 

First, obviously, I ordered this so I know what's in it. (see previous post) Second, I'm addicted to ribbon, so I'm super excited. Finally, another blogger (sorry I forgot who, someone I followed a link from Tip Junkie to) posted about how cute her package was when it arrived. So I see the package on the counter and am amazed that David didn't open it since it's addressed to him (because the paypal account is in his name). When I open the package, I see this...

So cute! Notice the tiny little flower in the middle of the bow. Who wouldn't want to open this package? So, of course, I do...

and I pull out this. All that ribbon on top... I didn't order that. She just put it in to pretty it up, and entice me back. Good job, probably successful. I actually ordered the crinkled dyed seam binding ribbon underneath.

Look at all these gorgeous colors. There are lots more, these are just the ones I couldn't resist. The price ends up being about .35 a yard, fabulous! The variegated was a little more, but so worth it, so pretty. Also inside was this precious post card...

with this nice little note...

Very sweet. Would be great marketing, if I knew what her other etsy shop was?! I'll probably hunt for it.

So, showing all this fun stuff to my Mom and talking about what to do with it, I suddenly remeber that I have some wool balls from Anthro that have been sitting all the shelf since Christmas waiting for me to decide what to do with them. Yarn balls, meet Wrinkled seam binding...

and form a sweet little family for me to wear to church.

So, yay for packages in the mail, yay for pretty ribbon, yay for great presentation plus free stuff, because , of course, looks are everything. Great day!

Etsy

It's hard for me to go on Etsy, because I want to buy everything. The other day I followed a thread from the Tip Junkie, who is great. I ended up here...

And I bought this... 

along with this...

and a couple others as well. I'm sure that I could make these myself, and maybe I will in the future, but these are so pretty and a great idea. I love them and am waiting expectantly for the package to arrive.

An aside, we had breakfast for dinner last night in honor of Nat'l Pancake Day (which I'm pretty sure IHOP just made up). Well, we showed them! We ate pancakes at home. I'm not in love with this plan. I sat at the stove cooking pancakes for what felt like hours. This was even with a griddle, so I could cook 8 at a time. They were yummy though, with whipped cream, strawberries, and blueberries, and a little syrup for the bacon to touch. The kids loved it.

Also, going to the livestock auction with my Bro today to get a couple calves to raise for some home-grown beef. (if you want in on this, let me know. About $50 buys you a share with about 14 lbs of prime beef. You can't beat $3.50 a lb for knowing where your meat comes from.)

Burnt Limpa bread

So, I kind of wish this is what my bread looked like. Mine was a little, um, darker on top. I forgot to take a picture. After a month of not wanting to do anything (see previous post), I decided that I needed to be more productive. My nephew Brecken really wanted Potato and Pea soup for dinner co-op tonight, so I thought homemade bread would go well with it. David's mom is Swedish and she introduced me to a delicious bread called Limpa bread. She gets it at a little bakery near Sugarhouse in SLC. She usually goes once a year and buys about 20 loaves and freezes them. They maybe last the summer. David loves it as a pb&j. I just like it with a thin layer of butter. It is a beautiful dark bread with rye, caraway, and anise.
I've tried to make Limpa bread before with disastrous results. No one would eat it, not even me. So I looked on the web for a recipe with some good reviews. I found a tip that suggested boiling the caraway and anise in liquid for a milder flavor. That sounded good, since the last time the bread tasted like black licorice. I found a recipe for a no-knead artisan loaf that sounded pretty easy and went to the store for yeast, spices, and rye flour. (This is when Lauren called to come home from school sick.)
Well, I started the dough a little bit later than I had planned. It tasted good though, so I was encouraged. Down a kitchen helper, and left with the little one (she's 12) who's afraid of knives and potato peelers, I was still a little slow in the kitchen. I really love potato soup when the onions, celery, and potatoes are sauteed in olive oil first and cooking for 15 takes a few potatoes. So, the bread went in the oven about 5:10, probably not to be ready by the usual 5:30. At 5:45, the top of the bread was still not brown. The oven has been heating a little low lately and the button won't go above 350*. (probably time to fix it, but then we'd have fewer adventures) I decided that a minute or 2 on broil would do the trick. I decide this a lot. I also burn bread a lot. Anyway, the top was just a wee bit darker than it should have been, but it was still yummy with the soup. It wasn't really anything like the bread from that SLC bakery, but still tasty. btw, how do they get dark brown bread? I don't get it.

Peeuwwmonia

Wow, apparently having pneumonia takes away all kinds of energy for anything, even typing on a blog. I'm coming back though.