Stepping Up My Snail Mail Game.

I have a bunch of pen pals + love sending ultra-cute stationary to them [although i've been slacking as of late]. I always handwrite my return address on the envelope, because most return address stickers are cheesy or just bland. My letters were cute, adorned with stickers, but I wanted to make them look even nicer; more polished. 

Thanks to Laura, the gal behind the Etsy shop lauriebreaker, I now have a fancy pants return address stamp to adorn my letters + parcels with! In December, Laura contributed a custom made stamp as a giveaway item + also offered to create one for me as well! I told her to surprise me with the design she would use. I had to proof the design before it was sent + realized she was using her new design, The Elliott! I was super stoked for it to arrive + wanted to show you all how awesome it is!

I used my awesome Kaleidacolor inkpad to test out a variety of fun color schemes shown in the photo +   obviously had way too much fun with it. Laura, being super awesome, is offering a 10% discount to my readers - use the coupon code SHORT10 during checkout. Don't forget to check out the other designs + cards Laura has in the shop. These stamps make really awesome gifts - this would be the perfect addition to a housewarming gift, or to send to one of your pen pals!

Things I'm Loving Lately.

Sometimes its simple things in life that make you smile. Here are a few things (besides my friends + family - because that is a given) that have made my day this week!

Call me a cat lady if you want, but you can't deny that this Cute Cats Jumper from Romwe rules. I just saved 20% on my first order + so can you!

My partner in crafting has recently started Meme for Monday on her blog. I don't know about you, but Monday's are usually the suck over in my neck of the woods. Thank you, Sarina, for making Monday more bearable! 

Floral Halos from That Madonna Girl. I'm obsessed with The Kimmie (shown above), The Lainie + The Marie. 

Danielle over at Sometimes Sweet has a really awesome feature called Literate + Stylish. Yours truly will be featured in the upcoming weeks + I am stoked to be a part of something so awesome. 

My pen pals! I have over a dozen across the country + its so great to connect with them outside of the 'net. Every day, I can't wait to check the mail box to see if I have a letter. If you guys are reading this, you seriously make my day every time I read what you write to me.

Drinking coffee or tea out of cute mugs is the best way to enjoy your beverage, in my humble opinion. I just came across this fun Uglydoll mug + I definitely want to add this to my growing mug collection!

I have been watching this video for weeks + it never. gets. old. Psy is the man + I can't wait to learn the dance. He was recently on Ellen + gave watchers these words of wisdom, "Dress classy + dance cheesy." I'm working on the classy part, but I've got the cheesy part down part, in more than just the dance department. If you love it as much as I do, you can download the track here for under $1.

I hope you are all enjoying your week - I can't wait until the weekend arrives, so I can sit down + get a few hours of schoolwork under my belt. Sounds silly, but I'd rather get it done now, so I can pay more attention to the blog + studying for my state examinations.

Coconut Butter + Chocolate = Candy!

Last week, I got lots of fun stuff in the mail. Postcards and letters from pen pals, fancy postcards to send to said pen pals, and a boatload of nut butters from Artisana. I have purchased their cashew butter and Cacao Bliss in the past and loved it, but had not tried many of their other products. They graciously sent me over lots of goodies to try.

Now, I have had ample time to try all of the nut butters they sent me. I picked up a slew of apples and bananas to snack on at work. Between phone calls, I would squeeze a bit on my fruit and take a bite. Super convenient and not messy whatsoever. I really liked their almond butter, and really dug the macadamia butter - it has teeny tiny bits of macadamia nuts in it, which made the texture awesome. I didn't dislike the pecan or walnut butters, but they weren't my favorite of the bunch. I've never really been a fan of either nut, which probably has to do with this. When I was younger, we would have mixed nuts in a wooden bowl on the table. The pecans and walnuts were always my least favorite. Apparently, not much has changed over the years. So, if you like walnuts and pecans, I have a feeling you will like the pecan and walnut butter. 

I used the coconut oil as a moisturizer on my arms and legs after my shower, and it worked wonders. No, this isn't the first time I've done this. If you haven't tried this, I suggest you do (unless you're allergic, then stay away). Next trip I take, I will definitely grab a few of these packets for travel - I wouldn't dare take my jar of coconut oil with me. With my luck, I wouldn't close the jar completely, and it would be a disaster, to say the least. I ate the Cacao Bliss straight out of the package, because its just that delicious. 

 Now, I needed to do something awesome with the coconut butter. I was craving candy when I was mixing the jar, so I decided to chop up little bits of chocolate, mix it with the coconut butter, then freeze it for about then minutes. This took all of fifteen minutes to do, including mixing the settled coconut butter. 

Chocolate Coconut Butter Candies

3 ounces Artisana coconut butter, mixed thoroughly

1/4 ounce chocolate of your choice, roughly chopped (I used Raaka's Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt)

Ice cube mold (or a candy mold, whatever floats your boat)

Step one: mix your coconut butter - make sure its not separated. Like natural peanut butter, this will also have naturally occurring separation of oil and solids.

Step two: chop your chocolate. I chose this chocolate because I figured the sea salt would be a nice touch to the sweetness, and I was so right. Its not strong, but it adds a nice depth to the flavors. You can use whatever chocolate you have on hand. I'm sure it will be delicious any way you make it!

 Step three: put a few bits of chocolate into the bottom of your mold. Scoop a bit of coconut butter into your ice cube tray or candy mold. Make sure to tap the tray or mold lightly (I stress lightly, because you don't want to make a mess - can you tell I've been down this road before?), so remove air bubbles. Place a few pieces of chocolate on the coconut butter. Finish filling the mold with coconut butter, and sprinkle a bit more chocolate on the top. You don't have to put a lot of chocolate, unless you want to. I just put a pinch each time, because I wanted to incorporate it, without mixing it in with a spoon.

Step four: place your tray/mold in the freezer for about ten minutes. Remove and toss in the fridge until you're ready to pop the candies out. I left mine in for about thirty minutes, then transferred them into a wooden bowl. They've been in there for a couple days, and they still taste delicious. I used one of my awesome dinosaur ice cube trays to make these fun, but as I mentioned before, use whatever you have lying around.

My first experience with coconut butter was yummy. If any of you have ways to use your coconut butter in the kitchen, let me know! I'd love to experiment with the rest of the jar!

One Lovely Blog!

A few days ago, I found out that my childhood friend, The One With The Red Stethoscope, had nominated me for a "One Lovely Blog" award. Its a great way to find new blogs, and to tell your friends in the blogosphere that you think they're swell.

Courtesy of Red Stethoscope

The rule is that once you have been nominated, you are to nominate three other people for the award. Pretty sweet, right? Now for the three bloggers I have chosen, they are not only some of my favorite bloggers, but they are also my favorite Instagrammers and my pen pals as well! I am an awfully lucky lady. Now, I present my three nominees:

The Blogture - Nicole is always posting something wonderful about fashion. I can't always make it over to the blog, but I get all of her blog posts in my emails, so I am always up to date on what she is up to. Like myself, Nicole loves to interview people, and her latest blog is an interview with fashion blogger, Rachel Schwartzmann.

brilliant nature - Corinne is a fellow Long Islander who just made the move to Nashville with her boyfriend, Andrew. Back in the day, we both used to sling lattes at Starbucks, wishing we were somewhere else instead. Corinne takes beautiful pictures, has a killer wardrobe and tells the best stories. She recently blogged about last week on instagram - if you take a close look, you can see the sleepy little postcard I sent her in the bottom right picture!

forwardfromtheheart - Sally is the ringleader behind our pen pal club! She is the proud mama of two adorable little dudes, posts the best recipes/food pictures involving avocado (mmmmm!), and is a Pilates instructor. Pilates is something I really want to try - I've only done mat Pilates, but I will be calling a local studio next week to inquire about classes. Recently, Sally raised the question about Pilates as an Olympic sport, which is really awesome.


Go discover some new reads, folks! Are there any blogs you think are great and you would like to share with us? Feel free to comment below and share some of your favorite reads.