First, it is no secret by now that I love swapping. If like 90% of my needs could be met by using the barter system, I would be the happiest gal around. As it is, I enjoy what I can get.
I have been spending a lot of time on Ravelry lately and have made some amazing friends. One of them makes some really awesome aromatherapy products and we recently had a little swap!

Take a closer look at the oils and that delicious "Buttermint" body butter. Mmmm. :)

And bath teas! In tea bags!

And my personal fave, a loose bath tea that smells and looks so beautiful I just want to bury my face in it.

I haven't used it yet because a bath is a luxury here due to time constraints, but I am planning a good one for tomorrow. After all, we are supposed to be getting a bit of snow over tonight and tomorrow and we will have little else to do. It came with reusable bags, but I decided that I will be just dumping some in loose so I can feel like a -- what are girls supposed to want to feel like? A fairy princess? -- surrounded by all those beautiful petals and leaves. And of course there will pictures. No! Not those kind. That is not something anybody wants to see and you can all just trust me on that. There will just be pictures of the tea in the tub. But I really have to scrub the tub before I can get any pictures, so that is a job for tonight...
Other things: A while back, Ethan and Noah and I were at Target and Ethan found some electric griddles on sale. By this I mean that they were on an end display and on the bottom shelf and he noticed the fried egg photos on the box. I looked down to see what he was talking about and lo and behold -- electric griddles. On sale. I have wanted one for years, and more so lately when we started making pancakes on a regular basis. One at a time in a pan means grumpy, hungry people and cold food for mom.

I can do four at a time on that thing and they turn out perfectly. The best parts are that the cord detaches so you can wash the top in hot, soapy water without ruining any important electrical parts AND the legs fold under for easy storage. I keep mine in the drawer under the stove. Love it.
And what would a mish-mash blog post be without bread?

I just loved the way the flour looked all pushed toward the edge there.
And look. All golden brown and lovely. All four little loaves. Perfectly round and delightful.

Except for the fact that they were all total crap and I had to throw them away. None of them cooked properly inside. When I pulled them out of the oven after the timer went off and John cut into one, there was still a small area of raw dough in the center. So I stuck the other three back in the oven for a while, but they still came out weird. Just too dense and wet in a bad way. I hate throwing food away, especially when there are major catastrophes happening around the world where I know people are so desperate for anything they would have eaten the partially raw stuff, but I did it anyway. And I still feel horrible about it.
In other news, I will be turning thirty very soon. Yay! I have decided that part of this new phase of my life is that I want to do more self portraits. While I am not usually happy with my general appearance, I must be some sort of closet narcissist because I love to see photos of myself. I like this one the best out of the ones I took last night. :)

And finally, since winter is dragging on and on for many of us, I dug up some pictures from Springs past, as an early little tribute to spring. Let's hope it gets the hint and comes a little early this year. We could all use a little sunshine and warmth.































