snail mail

Does anyone else get super excited when they get mail? I love getting letters...In high school my best friends and I used to send each other mail just for fun even though we lived minutes away from each other. I like having something physical that I can hold and put away to read down the road.  The other day I got a letter in the mail from a friend I went to summer camp with years ago, and it motivated me to send out a few letters of my own...I used this as an excuse to break out my Martha Stewart glitter and some new washi tape.  Thought I might share a couple of the cards I made!

I got these pretty semi see through envelopes a while back at a paper store sale...I cut magazine clippings/fun papers to twice the size of the cards then folded them in half around the cards and slipped them into the envelopes to hide my letters and customize the envelopes.  Super easy and pretty!

Do you send letters to friends or just stick to email/facebook? I'm going to make it a goal to send one letter to a list of friends/family I don't see much before the beginning of summer...we'll see how that goes!  If you have any questions about how I did the cards pictured here just post in the comments!

(belated) easter carrot cake

This year I had grand plans to make cute carrot cake cupcakes dressed up like rabbits for Easter for everyone in my house...Lucky thing no one really pays much attention to such holidays around my house because my plans got delayed by a few days.  This weekend was beautiful, and since I had workshops both days I wanted to soak up the sun when I got out, not stay inside and bake.  The sun has since left to hide behind the clouds again, so I finally made some time to make this cake.  This is a recipe from my all time favorite cookbook, Vegan With a Vengeance.  I'm not vegan (I'm just a very undisciplined pescetarian) and I used to stay away from vegan food--especially baked goods (love me some cheese/butter/eggs/etc)...BUT, every recipe I have tried from this book has been amazing.  Also, the recipes are super easy to un-veganize if you want to do that, but that really isn't necessary.  Anyways, this is the best carrot cake I've ever had. So. Good. Click here for the recipe (or go buy the book). The only note I would make is that if you use sweetened shredded coconut (I've found it's near impossible to find unsweetened here) use a tiny bit less sugar than the recipe calls for.

Enjoy!