yummy mail love

i. i was resolute in baking cookies as christmas presents to send out this year. i decided to bake russian tea cookies and chocolate crack ups or crackles or what my sister and i used to call them when we were younger, crinkles.
they are both very easy to make. the only time consuming part is melting the chocolate, and it's only time consuming to me because i have no patience.

i went to michael's (you can easily spend money at michael's. rubber stamps and patterned paper all of a sudden become a need) and picked up some boxes, twine, clear bags and avery labels. basically the entire sheet is a label and you can just cut it any shape or form you want. being inspired by danni's blog i headed over to martha's site where she had doily templates. i covered the bottom with burlap and placed two bags of cookies and then strung twine around the box.
i sent them out today and it's my first time mailing out food gifts this christmas!

ii. this year i am being very careful with shopping for christmas presents. it's happened before where i bought presents out of obligation...i won't let that happen again. it just takes away the spirit of things. people forget that it's not about the shopping and the presents, but thoughtfulness and of course, a very important person's birthday!

iii. i am dying to tell you what i got john as a christmas present, but cannot as he reads my blog. but i am so very excited. the best part when giving someone a present is their reaction!

v. need ideas? reading karyn's blog post makes me want to sew up presents for this year! i haven't touched my sewing machine in ages.